Bear with Me (Half-breed Shifter Series) (5 page)

“Whoa,” Riley whimpered
again, looking a little freaked out by his brute show of strength.

Still needing something to
do, Brick said, “I’m going to make sure the front door’s still secure.”

But no sooner did he speak
than they heard the sound of splintering wood and breaking glass from the front
of the house. “Oh, no,” Riley gasped. “I didn’t lock the door to Rhea’s room.”

Brick didn’t bother to head
toward the front, he dashed to the entrance of the stairwell. The wet-hair
smell of dog told him a wolf had already gotten down there. Roaring out his
bear’s battle cry, he flew down the steps.

The wolf was at the door to
the room where Rhea was being kept when Brick reached the bottom landing.
Instead of trying to rush into Rhea’s room, the mangy shifter turned and faced
off with Brick. Big mistake. Brick turned bear, the other guy turned into a
four-legged mutt, and the fight was on.

Thirty seconds later, it was
off. Dog dead, bear still needing something to rip apart.

“Damn it! You’re going to
have to stop killing people,” Shaw shouted from behind him.

“Then keep them from coming
inside,” Brick muttered as he turned human again. He panted hard, not because
of the fight the wolf had just tried to give him but because the smell of Rhea
only one room away nearly sent him to his knees. He whimpered and swayed toward
it.

“Upstairs,” Shaw ordered,
“Now.” But Brick only glanced at him.

Oh, he wouldn’t be going
upstairs. Not any time soon.

In a far, distant place
inside him, he screamed at himself, begging his bear not to go near her. Not
like this. Not right now. He wanted Rhea to want him of her own free will. But
his animal side had taken over. He was working on pure instinct.

“Brick,” Shaw growled as
Brick turned to stare hard at the closed door keeping him from his woman. His
breathing was completely unsteady now.

“She needs me.”

“Fuck,
we
need you.
Upstairs. Fighting off intruders. Remember?”

But Brick shook his head. She
was too close, the draw too strong. A shout from Riley at the top of the
stairwell was the only thing to warn them of two more shifter wolves who
tumbled down the steps, eager and crazed for pussy.

Brick roared, wanting to rip
out their throats, but Shaw was right. They were normal, average males, just
like him, caught up in the frenzy, just as he was. Except he had one thing they
didn’t: a love so fierce for Rhea Griffin nothing would stop him from securing
her safety.

Instead of turning to the
invading shifters, he dashed to the door of her room. She was still chained to
the wall and panting on the bed, but she’d ripped her clothes off into shreds,
and she was no longer coherent enough to know what was happening around her.

Rage tore through him for
letting her get this bad. With a strangled cry, he rushed to the bed, crawled
onto the mattress with her, and pulled her into his arms.

The two shifters must’ve
gotten past Shaw because they filled the doorway, panting and rubbing their
crotches.

“You planning on sharing that
snack, bear?” one of them asked.

“No,” Brick answered, right
before he sank his teeth into Rhea’s neck.

A bloodied Shaw shoved the
two wolf shifters aside and stumbled into the room. When he saw what Brick was
doing, his eyes went wide and he screamed out his denial.

But it was too late; Brick
had tagged her as his, marked her and branded her...mated himself to her.
Somewhere inside, he felt the guilt, he knew he’d done wrong. Mating with
someone against their will was like the most sacred of no-no’s in the shifter
world. But he hadn’t known what else to do.

The males would’ve kept
coming, they would’ve torn Rhea apart, all of them trying to get a piece of ass
without caring a thing for her safety. If she was bonded to someone, she was
safe. Only her mate could experience her mating heat with her.

Realizing they were too late,
the males in the room cursed and kicked the wall. The fiery lust must’ve
drained from their loins because they no longer cared to reach the naked Rhea
on the bed.

Holding her limp body
protectively close, Brick watched as the two filed out of the room, leaving a
pissed off Shaw to glare at him.

“How could you?” her father
hissed.

“What was I supposed to do?
You know what they would’ve done.”

Shaw just shook his head.
“But
this
—mating yourself to her—wasn’t what I wanted. It’s not what
she
would want, either.”

That got through to Brick
just enough to make him feel like shit. He clenched his teeth and bowed his
head even as he kept Rhea clamped firmly in his arms. What was done was done,
though, and she was his now. He was not letting her go.

“We’ll deal with that later,”
he muttered just before she let out an ear-splitting scream and started to
convulse.

Shaw leapt forward, but Brick
held up a hand, shouting, “Get out already! And shut the damn door. You can’t
do anything now. Only I can.”

Murder lay in Shaw’s
expression as he glared at Brick. But he knew the bear was right.

“Later,” he promised with a
sneer as he backed from the room and slammed the door.

As soon as they were alone,
Brick finally focused his attention on his new mate. Panicking, he hoped to God
it wasn’t too late. Then he set about trying to save her life.

Chapter Four

Rhea had always best loved
those fairytales where the handsome prince swooped in to the prone princess and
gave her soft, delicate kiss on the lips to bring her back to life. The force
of that kind of love—that a simple kiss could have so much power—was probably
one of the reasons she’d never settled down with anyone. Because she expected a
fairytale come true.

As a pair of lips on hers
drew her from the depths and she drifted toward it—toward
him
—she
wondered if maybe her fairytale could come true after all.

Except this was no soft,
delicate closed-mouthed kiss. A tongued spiked between her lips and glided
against hers, making her back arch and her legs spread, desperate for more. Her
core tightened, needing attention.

“That’s it, baby,” A deep
baritone coaxed, sucking her closer to consciousness. “Come back to me now. Or
you know...just
come
, nice and hard.”

A thick finger entered her,
pressing deep. She moaned and bit her lip, surging her hips forward to meet
each plunge.

“Jesus Christ. Yes. Take it.
Take my finger. You want me there, don’t you? You want my dick so deep inside
you.”

“Please,” she tried to beg.
“Please...fuck me.” But it only sounded like garbled mush to her ears.

“Rhea.” His voice was
familiar. It soothed her. “Open your eyes. Look at me.”

Her lashes felt heavy, but
ignoring his demand didn’t seem possible. She tried twice before managing to
open up and look into a pair of brown eyes that gazed at her with love and
warmth.

“Brick,” she slurred, lifting
a limp hand to cup his cheek. “I’m so...” Tired, weak, turned on. “I need...”

His fingers slipped out of
her. “No,” she pleaded. That’s exactly what she didn’t need. She needed him
there most of all. More. Deeper. Faster.

“It’s okay,” he soothed. “I’m
just going to take these chains off your wrists, kitten. I don’t want you tied
down...not for our first time, anyway.”

She nodded sloppily. No, she
didn’t want to be tied down either. She wanted to be able to touch him, stroke
him, and dig her fingers into his ass as pumped into her.

Her wrists popped free and
she attacked, suddenly alive and raring to go. Tackling him onto his back, she
crawled over him and grabbed his dick hard as she straddled herself over his
lap.

“Christ, Rhea. Wait.” He
grasped her hip. But there was no waiting. She needed this.

Now.

She sank down on him hard, craving
that first thrust to be everything and so much more. And it was. Oh, God. He
spiked up into her, big and long, filling her channel all the way up to her
core. Hot and so fucking hard, he speared her pussy, stretching her until she
almost hurt because it felt so good.

She screamed out her pleasure
and her muscles contracted as she came in one long agonizingly amazing wave
after another.

Under her, Brick shouted out
his surprise. He arched up his hips, spiking deeper as his hot seed jetted into
her womb. Rhea sank her fingers into his hairy chest and rode the orgasm until
it settled. Then she collapsed on top of him, so satiated, she started to purr.
Literally, her jaguar began to purr.

“Holy fuck.” Brick sounded
utterly stunned as he began to laugh, the sound rippling through his chest and
vibrating through her ear. “That was...that was...”

“Unreal,” Rhea answered with
a hum of pleasure. Then she sat up so she could kiss him. “You are...amazing.”

He slid his fingers into her
hair and cupped her face as her mouth met his. His lips were soft, and she
swore he must’ve been made for her because they molded together as if this was
how they were always meant to be.

Their tongues fucked, sliding
deeper and rubbing against each other until his dick grew hard inside her.
Moaning in ecstasy, she began to move on him, riding up and down on his cock
and squeezing him tight within her aching, hungry muscles.

“I knew it,” he panted as he
dug his fingers into her hipbones and urged her on, his rough palms molding her
soft, giving flesh. “I fucking knew it. We are so hot together. So fucking
explosive.”

“Brick.” She couldn’t slow
down. Couldn’t stop to catch her breath. Her body was building again, reaching
for that prize high in the sky. She felt drunk off him; she needed it all. And
so much more.

“God...damn.” He groaned and
then surged up, flipping her onto her back until he was the one on top. Bending
up her knees, he spread her open and held her down on the bed so she pinned in
place and couldn’t move, and could only feel
him
as he surged forward,
thrusting so deep her cervix couldn’t take the pressure. She came on a low
keen, her fingernails biting into his tense ass cheeks and holding him all the
way inside her while she milked the cum right out of his body.

Once he was drained, he
collapsed on top of her, his large body heavy, but a warm, secure weight she
welcomed.

A moment of clarity hit her,
stealing her into her sex-fogged brain. She’d just had sex with Brick. Twice.
Fast, hot, sweaty sex that had been better than any sex she’d ever had before.
That might’ve been just because she was in the middle of her mating heat, but
still...it had been with Brick. Her Brick. Her loyal best friend who’d always
harmlessly flirted with her but had never stepped over the line into...
this
territory.

But strangely enough, she
didn’t think he minded. In fact, he seemed to rather enjoy it. She smiled and
stroked his face. “I’m so glad it was you.”

He lifted up onto his elbow
just enough to look her in the eyes. For once, his brown gaze didn’t tease. “It
was always going to be me,” he said with a certainly that thrilled her. “From
the first moment you pulled me into your arms and hugged me, I’ve been yours,
Rhea. I’ve just been waiting for you to realize it. I’m just...I’m so fucking sorry
it happened this way.”

The joy of his confession
dimmed with his last sentence. Happened this way? What was he talking abou—

He softly slid his finger
over the pulse on her neck, and a soreness there made her frown. She lifted her
fingers to the spot and gasped when she realized they were puncture wounds.

“You...you marked me? Oh, my
God, you
bastard
.”

She started to panic. She was
mated. She hadn’t planned on getting mated. She didn’t even remember him doing
it. How could this possible happen? She hadn’t even been conscious. Didn’t she
have to at least be conscious?

Rhea shoved at his chest, but
he only held her more firmly in his arms. Then the fucking prick grew hard
inside her. What was worse, her body responded. He pulled out and pushed back
in, and she panted, aching for his next plunge, craving the fullness he put in
her, needing him to stretch her wider and brand his body into hers.

Tears slipped down her cheeks
as her body warred with her brain. She wanted to hate him and rail at her, but
if he stopped fucking her, she’d probably kill him. “I hate you,” she sobbed as
her hips lifted to greet his eager thrust and her legs wound around his waist
to make sure he couldn’t leave.

“No.” He shook his head and
cased her face between his hands. “Damn it, Rhea. Don’t do this. You know I
would never...not unless I absolutely had to. I did it to save you.”

And that was the problem. He
hadn’t done it because he loved her. He’d been forced to bite her because it
was the only way to save her.

“But I wasn’t even awake to
agree to it,” she sobbed. She would’ve stopped him if she’d been awake. She
never would’ve let him sacrifice himself for her like that.

“Fuck.” He pressed his
forehead to hers and thrust into her heavily, unrelenting in his fucking. But
agony filled his gaze as he watched her cry. His thumbs swiped them away but
she just kept crying.

“I love you,” he whispered,
the pressure of his cock seeming to drive that point home...repeatedly. “I love
you so much. Please don’t hate me. Anything but that.”

The muscles low in her
abdomen coiled taut. She tried to fight it, but her body took control. She
came, and came, and came.

Brick watched her, the light
in his eyes relishing her body’s reaction until his eyes went unfocused and he
groaned, losing himself in her. God, she loved him too, and she hated that he’d
been forced into binding himself to her for all eternity. Because what if it
all faded away once her heat was over? Would he still say he loved her after he
was clear-headed? What if he regretted being her mate?

Having his hatred would be so
much worse than simply being his platonic friend.

As soon as she was done, she
shoved at his chest, crushed because now everything between them was ruined.

“Rhea,” he started, his voice
hoarse, but he let her have her way. He slid out of her—for the first time
since they’d started their marathon sex together—and she rolled away putting
her back to him as she hugged herself.

“Please.” He touched her
back, but she shrugged him off. What if that was only the mating heat talking?
It had to be because he’d never been like this with her before.

“Don’t. Touch. Me,” she
whispered shakily.

He removed his hand with a
sigh and collapsed on his back beside her. They lay like that for minutes,
hours...well, maybe not hours. She was still too fresh into her heat to go that
long without needing more sex. It was probably more like forty-five seconds.

But she went for as long as
she could last. Next to her, Brick growled, “Damn it, Rhea. You’re going to
hurt yourself if we don’t do something...soon.”

She hated how he could feel
how much she needed it, how he needed it as much as she did...because they were
fucking mated now. She’d wanted him to come to her of his own free will.

But he was probably suffering
right now, because she sure as hell was. She needed his cock, deep... so deep,
moving and rubbing against her. Which meant he needed it too.

Not wanting him to hurt as
much as she was, she rolled from her side to her belly and hiked up her ass, so
he wouldn’t have to look her in the eyes. She just couldn’t look in his eyes
right now. What if she saw regret? “Just...do it.”

“Rhea...” he started, his
voice hesitant but strained. See, he didn’t want to want her.

She reached down her hand and
rubbed her clit, her body growing more and more aroused by the second. It hurt
because she needed a penis during her mating heat to truly appease any aches,
but she knew it’d put him over the edge.

“Damn it,” he muttered. “Stop
hurting
yourself.” He grabbed her hips and yanked her ass backward,
impaling her with his hard, hot length.

Oh, God, yes! She moaned out
her pleasure and surged back against him, relishing each and every plunge.
“More. Brick,
more
...”

He buried his fingers in her
hair and tugged her head back as he fucked her from behind. It made her chest
arch out and her breasts ache, wanting to be squeezed and pinched.

“Say you want me,” he ordered
in her ear.

“I want you,” she complied,
wanting his cock deep, deep, even deeper but also wanting his true affections.

“Now tell me you’re mine.”

She bit her lip, refusing.

His fingers bit down more
firmly on her hair. “God damn it, Rhea. I swear, I will stop fucking you right
now if you don’t say it. If you have ever felt
anything
for me, you will
tell me you’re
mine
.”

Rhea pulled in a sharp
breath, her eyes flying open wide. Ever since his mother had shoved him so
harshly out of her life, Brick’s biggest fear had always been rejection from
the ones he loved the most. He’d confided that to Rhea years ago.

Remembering the scared, lost
boy her father had brought into town one quiet night, she bowed her eyes and
said, “I’m yours, Brick. I’m all yours.” She could never hurt him with any kind
of rejection. And besides, it was the complete truth.

He let out a whimper and bit
her on the neck, remarking her all over again. And not because he had
to—because the itching need to mark a mate only came over a shifter once in
their life—but because he wanted to. Joy swelled in her breasts. He wanted her,
he truly wanted her.

The re-sealing of their bond
triggered an orgasm, and as her body shuddered, her own canines elongated. The
first part of him she saw was his arm where he had his hand braced in the
mattress by her face, so she leaned toward him and bit his wrist, tasting his
essence and coming even harder as he shouted out his triumph and filled her
with his seed.