Bear Necessities (30 page)

Mostly.

“Like
Chloe. She’s half Fox, half Bear.”

“No shit.”
He took a deep breath, mentally reciting a mantra to calm down. “Have they gone
after children?”

Silence.
Fuck.
“Good question. If they have, they’ve managed to make it look like
accidents.”

“Why?”
Alex wanted to punch something badly. It had been six weeks since Chloe’s attack.
The annual Halle Halloween masquerade was in two days, and they were going. He
and Tabby were closing on a house just three blocks from Simon and Becky Holt’s
place the day after. She’d taken one look at the For Sale sign on the little
red brick house and squealed in glee. How could he not buy it for her?

And
this morning Tabby had told him she thought she was pregnant. Julian had met
them for breakfast, taken one look at Tabby and ordered her a large glass of
milk and a doctor’s appointment. She hadn’t been amused, but she’d drunk the
milk and made the appointment with the doctor Julian recommended. She’d been
saving the pregnancy for a surprise, not knowing Alex would more than likely
have noticed within a day or two anyway. There was nothing about her body he
didn’t keep an eye on. The thought of his cub growing under her heart made his
nearly skip a beat. The fear that someone was going after half-breeds,
endangering his child and his mate, made him see red.

“No
clue, but I’m going to find out, starting with the anonymous phone call to 9-1-1.
Someone saw something that night and called it in or Chloe would have been dead
before the ambulance got there. I’m going to find out who and what they know if
I have to shake this whole damn town loose to do it.” And as a Hunter, Gabe was
more than capable of doing just that.

“My
family is moving into the area. We’re at your disposal.” Once his father knew
the family was in danger, they’d be more than at the Hunter’s disposal. They’d
be his fucking shadows. “Is Chloe still in danger?”

“I’d
say so. She survived and, as time goes on, she might remember more about her
attackers.”

“Then
we’re
definitely
moving to Halle.
All
of us.” His father had been
formalizing plans to open a Pennsylvania branch of Bunsun Exteriors. This would
give him the perfect excuse to get the family here and keep them together, all
under circumstances no one would call suspicious.

“Shit.
Let me know when so I can prepare Max and Emma, okay?”

Alex
grinned. “Hey, this is what family does, right? We take care of our own.”

Gabe
groaned. He’d made the comment more than once that he considered Chloe a little
sister. His Aunt Laura had decided that was enough to declare him de facto
family.

“I
think you should know Tabby’s pregnant.” And if anyone went after her or his
cubs, he’d do what he needed to do. If he’d learned nothing else since coming
to Halle, Tabby was the only real necessity in his life. He’d do anything to
keep her safe. Even let the beast he struggled so hard to contain go.

Gabe
blew out a breath. “Got it.” And he knew the Hunter did. Gabe understood what
it was to protect and serve those he loved. “Keep an eye on your mate. Do what
you have to.”

“And
what will you be doing?” He watched Julian enter the tattoo parlor and wondered
what the Kermode was up to. Cyn was still giving him a hard time, but she
wasn’t nearly as bad as she had been. He hoped his friend would be able to
claim his mate soon. The Bear deserved some happiness.

“What
I have to.” The phone clicked, disconnecting him from Gabe.

“Goodbye
to you too.” Bunny pocketed the cell and crossed the street, following Julian
into Living Art. “Tabby?”

Her
green hair appeared before she did. A big smile graced those full, pouty lips.
“Hey, sugar.”

Cyn
poked her finger into Julian’s chest with a growl. “Goddamn it, Julian! For the
last time, I am
not
going to tattoo “Property of Cyn” on your ass!”

Tabby
began to laugh, and just like that his day was looking a whole lot brighter. He
would protect this, what he’d found here, with every fiber of his being. God
have mercy on anyone who tried to take this away from him. Because this?

This
was
home
.

About
the Author

Dana
Marie Bell wrote her first short story when she was thirteen-years-old. She
attended the High School for Creative and Performing Arts for creative writing,
where freedom of expression was the order of the day. When her parents moved
out of the city and placed her in a Catholic high school for her senior year,
she tried desperately to get away, but the nuns held fast, and she graduated
with honors despite herself.

Dana
has lived primarily in the Northeast (Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, to
be precise), with a brief stint on the US Virgin Island of St. Croix. She lives
with her soul mate and husband Dusty, their two maniacal children, an evil,
ice-cream stealing cat and a bull terrier that thinks it’s a Pekinese.

You
can learn more about Dana at:
www.danamariebell.com

Love has a trick up its sleeve.

Foxes’ Den

© 2010 Teresa Noelle
Roberts

Duals and Donovans: The Different, Book 2

Some guys just don’t take rejection well. Sure, Akane’s
affair with an uptight sorcerer’s boy toy backfired, but two hundred years
locked in a mortal body is cruel and unusual punishment for a Trickster avatar.
To free her fox form, she needs sex magic with a male of her own kind. Except
none exist.

Adorable Trickster-touched fox dual Taggart Ross-Donovan is
the closest she’s found. Even better, he’s married to Paul Donovan, whose red
magic sizzles the air around him. One night with them will generate the
extraordinary power needed to set her free.

The last thing Tag and Paul expect to find under a
sorcerer’s curse is a kitsune, a beautiful one who gets under their skin
without even trying. Tag is more than ready to take the risk she needs. Paul
has reservations, but it’s nothing Tag can’t overcome with a little sensual
persuasion.

No one goes into the ritual with more hope than Akane…or
more fear. Failure will leave her forever entrapped. Worse, she’s falling for
two mortals. And there’s only one thing that can kill a kitsune—unrequited
love.

Warning: Contains sly fox men (with tails), foxy fox
women (with multiple tails), sexy witches chasing tail, Trickster magic, cranky
sorcerers, and enough gay, het and MMF sex to torch your Kindle.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Foxes’ Den:

For a moment, overwhelmed by the wealth of gorgeous man
around her, Akane almost forget the curse, forgot why she was able to be with
them at all, forgot everything except that she hadn’t dared to have sex
for…well, she didn’t want to think about how long, but it was longer than these
two men had been alive.

She was pulled back to the reality of her circumstances when
Paul intoned, “I honor your body as I honor the Goddess, the female principle
in all life.” Tag followed along a few beats behind. Paul’s tone was solemn,
Tag’s predictably less so.

The Donovan tradition was alien to her, their names for the
divine Powers not the ones she knew, but the principles were familiar and she
could figure out what she needed to say. “I honor your bodies as I honor the
God, the male principle in all life.”

“As we honor each others’,” Paul and Tag said, this time in
perfect unison.

They weren’t here simply to share pleasure. Her future rode
on the magic they could work together.

But the way she saw it, the more they enjoyed working the
magic, the more likely it was to succeed. And how could a kitsune, even a
cursed one, not enjoy herself with two such magnificent men?

Between them, Akane sank to her knees with a grace she had
forgotten she possessed. She reached out, taking one cock in each hand, and
began to stroke.

Even in this human form, locked away from most of her magic,
she sensed silver cords of love binding the two men, sensed the energy passing
along that cord between them. If only she’d looked for that kind of connection
between Hiro and Masao…but no, she’d been too sure of herself. And since they’d
been in denial about their true feelings, she might not have seen anything
anyway.

Energy streamed from both men into her, streaming into the
foul black weight she’d been carrying around in her spirit for two hundred
years.

She didn’t want to hope too much, but it already seemed a
little lighter.

Not surprisingly, Paul’s energy was the more directed of the
two, a focused ray of scarlet passion and white healing that might be aimed by
his cock, but seemed to come out of his soul and cut into the curse like a
katana. What she felt from Tag was a wild river of positive energy: lust,
caring, love and support for Paul, protectiveness like a wild animal might feel
toward its mate.

And mixed in with it all, a degree of affection that humbled
her.

Tag genuinely liked her.

Many men had desired her; some had fancied they loved her
and a few perhaps had. But Tag knew her for what she was and understood her
terrible mistakes and liked her anyway.

It touched and troubled her in equal measure. A fox dual
like Tag was the closest thing to a potential true mate a kitsune would likely
find. But he already had a husband, and she knew better than to disturb that
bonding. Not to mention that pesky mortality.

This was why kitsune rarely found a true, lasting love,
unless they were of a disposition to love another female.

No. Negative thinking would affect the magic. She must take
what they offered and no more, and think positive to let the magic flow. Once
her curse was broken and she wasn’t trapped in the physical realm, she wouldn’t
worry about foolishness such as a permanent partner. Life, after all, was
mutable, and so was she.

To distract from the pull of Tag, she turned her attentions
to Paul.

She took Paul’s long, slender cock, throbbing with heat and
human magic, into her mouth, working up and down until he made a strangled noise
and she tasted a hint of tangy pre-come.

She would have continued, with pleasure, if Paul hadn’t
pulled back and said, “No. Tag’s turn. Got to keep it balanced.”

He was the witch, the one who knew how to set her free.

It was playing with fire, but she’d always liked dangerous
games. Sure, it was how she’d ended up in this fix, but there had been many
other bits of fun, risky business in her immortal life, and most of them had
worked out fine—in the long run, at least.

And what female could resist a gorgeous man telling her to
do exactly what she wanted to do anyway?

Better yet two men, because while Tag wasn’t saying a word,
his body language and even his scent told her he was in need.

Tag’s cock was redolent with a lighter version of a fox’s
musk, and it tasted like home in a way no male ever had. What was the witch
phrase—
hearth, home, heart?
A kitsune had no hearth, no fixed home.

But they had hearts, hearts that they normally kept closely
guarded.

Akane was perilously close to losing hers to this fox and to
the long, lean witch who loved him.

No. That couldn’t be. She couldn’t be falling in love so
easily after more than a thousand years of resisting it. Must be a heady
combination of gratitude, hope and raw lust. She focused on the moment, on the
taste and texture of his cock and the weight of Paul’s in her hands, on the
heat in her belly as her own arousal grew. She swore the curse was already
melting, and the outline of her human form wavered and softened.

Or maybe she was drunk on lust. Moisture dripped down her
thighs, and she ached for fucking, but at the same time, she didn’t want to
stop what she was doing.

Paul moved closer to his lover, offering up his cock along
with Tag’s. Akane’s eyes widened, but she took the hint.

It made sense. She needed both the fox’s wild energy and the
witch’s power to see the curse broken. The two men were bonded, practically one
soul, magically speaking.

And besides, if she worked both of them into her mouth at
once, it would be a new experience. As an immortal with over a thousand lusty
years under her obi, it wasn’t often she managed to have those.

Akane rearranged the men a little so they were at what
looked like a better angle, then wrapped a hand around the base of each cock.

She swirled her tongue over the head of Paul’s cock first,
welcoming him back, then did the same for Tag. Amazing how they tasted so
different and yet were both so delicious.

Then she stretched her mouth open wide and took in as much
of both cocks as she could.

This wasn’t going to be the best blowjob she’d ever given.
It was hard to get too artistic when she couldn’t do much in the way of licking
or swirling or even moving her head because her mouth was so full, and her jaw
was going to be sore before long, and because of the odd angle, she could
barely get the heads into her mouth. For the moment, though, it felt amazingly
powerful to feel herself so filled.

And to know that they were getting additional pleasure from
their cocks touching.

The flavors of their pre-come mingled on her tongue. The
flavors of their energies mingled as well and jolted through her. Something
unclenched inside her.

For the first time in two centuries, she felt her tails.
They weren’t there in any sense someone not well-versed in magic would
recognize. She doubted even Paul could feel them, though she tried to flick one
of them against him. But the base of her spine didn’t feel truncated and naked,
and the merest hint of soft fur swept against her legs.

Something prickled against her scalp as her proper ears made
themselves known. The shushing of the surf grew louder. She heard a wood mouse
scurrying around under the pavilion, even over the surf and the rain. Tag’s
musk and Paul’s smell of cloves and Ivory soap were sharper, but so were all
the other smells—rainy Oregon fall, ocean at high tide, a touch of mustiness
and mouse in the cabin, lingering hints of Tag and Paul making love here
several days before and the scent of fresh linens they’d put on afterward, a
lingering trace of the coffee someone had enjoyed there earlier in the day, the
candles and even the flame itself.

She pulled back long enough to say “It’s working. Paul, Tag,
it’s working.”

Then she threw herself into sucking with renewed lust,
turning her sharper senses to the wonderful panoply of tastes, smells, sights
and sounds the two men offered.

As she sucked, they kissed. She felt their tongues meeting
hers, dancing in her soul.

This time, Paul was the one to pull away. “Time for the
bed,” he said, his voice hoarse with desire and his control obviously strained.
“Now.”