Ella and the Beast (More Than Human Book 1) (13 page)

“Ty,” Ella whispered with a soft ache in her voice, as she leaned into him.

“Geez, Ella, you’re killing me,” Ty whispered, running his thumbs over her taut nipples. “I want you. It’s crazy, I should be more concerned with taking care of you and all I can think about is burying myself as deeply as I can inside you.”

He bowed his head and closed his eyes when he felt her slowly pull down the zipper on his jacket. Once it was free, her hands slid down his chest to the hem of his sweater. He felt his stomach muscles tighten and his breath caught when her fingers touched his bare flesh.

He cursed softly and opened his eyes to stare down at her. He released her breasts and shrugged out of his jacket, tossing it on the growing pile of clothes on the bench. Her hands were already working his sweater up and he grabbed the end and pulled it off the rest of the way.

Their hands began moving more frantically. His fingers on the button and zipper of her borrowed jeans, and her fingers on the button and zipper of his. They both kicked off the last of their clothing, stopping long enough to hastily remove their boots. He heard her heated curses when she couldn’t figure out how to undo the buckles on the boots Tracy loaned her. He knelt and quickly undid them.

Reaching over, he turned off the water before rising to his feet. His hands slid over her body when he stood up. Her hands tangled in his hair, pulling him closer, as she hungrily captured his lips.

His hands slid around her, cupping her ass and pulling her up against him. Her legs automatically opened when he pulled her up. Stepping over the edge of the tub, he sank down into the deep, pool of warm water.

Ella straddled him, their lips locked together in an urgent, desperate kiss. Ty rocked his hips, his cock throbbing with need as he tried to align it with her channel. If he had any doubts to her readiness, they were quickly swept away when the tip of his bulbous head touched her slick moisture. His arms tightened around her as she sank down on him, slowly impaling herself on his long length.

As he filled her, they both released a heated moan that echoed throughout the bathroom. His hands splayed around the top of her buttocks, pressing her down as he pushed upward. He could feel every silky inch of her as his cock slid deep into her, connecting them again.

His lips teased her, encouraging her to take all of him. She nibbled on his lower lip, running her tongue over it before sucking it into her mouth. The motion made him think of what it would feel like if she were to do the same to his cock. His breathing increased at the thought and he began moving his hips, driving into her. The added stimulation to her already sensitive nipples as they rubbed against him drove her over the edge, plunging her into an orgasm that took her breath away.

“Ty!” Ella cried out, her body stiffening as she suddenly came. “Oh, yes!!!!”

Ty held Ella’s hips tightly between his hands. She was arched backwards in his arms, her hands curled in the bed covers next to his shoulders, her eyes tightly closed and her lips parted in ecstasy. He leaned forward and closed his lips around one rosy nipple, suckling on it and prolonging the intensifying her orgasm.

The ripples from her orgasm made him shudder and he explode, filling her womb with his hot seed. He forced his eyes to remain open, gazing up at her flushed face as she came, he continued suckling hard on first one nipple then the other until they stood up swollen and round. He ran his rough tongue across the tips, knowing that they would be sensitive. He was rewarded when her vaginal channel clenched and pulsed around his cock.

“Oh, Ella,” he groaned, pulling her tight against his body as they both shuddered. “You make me cum like an inexperienced cub.”

Ella’s soft laughter warmed him. She wrapped her arms around him and held him just as tightly as he was holding her. Her forehead pressed against his left cheek. He could feel the warmth of her breath against his neck when she released a long, satisfied sigh.

“Everything will be alright, won’t it, Ty?” She whispered. “The others of your kind won’t take me from you, will they?”

“Never,” Ty replied in a thick voice, lifting his hand to run it over her hair. “You are my mate, Ella. I would never let anyone take you from me.”

Ella leaned back and stared into his eyes. His throat tightened when he saw the tears clinging to her eyelashes. Her face was set into that stubborn line he was beginning to recognize and to love.

“You must not let anyone else know about the rest of my people or where you found me,” she said in a voice filled with emotion. “You have to protect them, Ty. For me, for the few of us that remain. Please, you must ask Tracy, Van, and Peterson to not say anything. Please! I… I could not live with myself if something were to happen to the others because of me.”

Ty sat up and pulled Ella back against him. He could feel her shuddering breath. Tenderly stroking her until he felt her body relax, he turned his head and pressed a kiss to her temple.

“I promise we will do everything that we can to protect them, Ella. None of the others will say a word,” he swore. He closed his eyes as he gently lifted her off of him. “Let’s get cleaned up. Ben will be here soon.”

“Who is he?” Ella asked, turning in his arms so that her back was now to him.

“A friend. He is a doctor and is sworn to protect his patients,” Ty said, reaching for the soap.

Ella groaned when he started moving his soapy hands over her. She drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them as he ran his hands over her back. His fingers trailed over her skin, pausing when he saw a scar. There was a particularly long and jagged one that ran down along her left shoulder.

“What happened here?” He asked, tracing the almost four inch line.

“A small group of us were hunting,” she said, resting her chin on her knees and staring at Ty’s reflection in the mirrored surface of the wall surrounding the large pool of water. This was the first time she had ever seen her true reflection and she studied her features. “We were trying to gather eggs along the cliff. The rock gave out under my feet and I fell. I was lucky that I landed on a small ledge. Unfortunately, not before I hit a very sharp rock. I have never seen myself like this before.”

Ty’s gaze locked with hers in the mirror. Her hair hung in wet ropes down over her shoulders where he had carefully pushed it forward so he could wash her back. She straightened her legs and twisted around so that she could kneel in the water between his legs.

He watched in fascination as she slowly reached up and touched her face. Her fingers traced her features, sliding over her eyebrows and across her cheeks before pausing on her slightly parted lips. Her gaze followed her hands as they moved down her body.

Ty sat up and scooted until he could kneel behind her. His hands rose and he covered the back of her hands. Together, they traced her body as she saw it for the first time. The moment was so powerful, so emotional, that Ty swore he could see the slender threads of their bond weaving around them, connecting them.

“Ty! I’m leaving some clothes at the end of the bed for Ella,” his mother called from the other room. “Ben is here.”

Ty closed his eyes and cursed. “We’ll be right out,” he called, opening his eyes to stare back at Ella. “You are an amazing woman, Ella.”

Her lips parted and a small, shy smile curved them. “You are not so bad for a beast,” she whispered.

“I swear, one of these days I’m going to have you all to myself, no interruptions. When I do, you are going to be so thoroughly loved, you’ll think I’m a pretty amazing beast.”

Ella laughed in delight and rose to her feet in the pool of water. She watched in surprise when he pulled a small silver knob, and all the water began to disappear. She shook her head.

“I have so much to learn,” she replied with a sigh and grabbed his shoulders to steady herself when he lifted her out of the large tub. “What you take for granted is so strange to me.”

“I’ll be there for you and so will my parents and Tracy,” Ty promised, grabbing a towel and rubbing her down. “I swear I could take you again right here.”

Ella blushed when she heard the sound of a man’s throat clearing in the other room. She giggled and looked at Ty with a grin. He rose to his feet and grabbed a pair of jogging pants off the shelf. He quickly pulled them on before he grabbed one of his T-shirts and pulled it over her head.

“It is as long as my tunic,” she laughed.

“It will have to do. Since when did my bedroom become Grand Central Station?” Ty growled loudly, reaching for Ella’s hand as they exited the bathroom.

“Since I got an emergency call from your mom saying… Oh, shit!” Ben started to say before his voice died when he saw Ella. “Where in the hell…? Oh, boy.”

Ty’s fingers tightened on Ella when he felt her reaction to Ben. A lion shifter never quite lost all of his primitive form. While Ty wore the markings of a Silverback grizzly at his temple and in his thick bone structure and muscles, Ben’s was more prominent in his thick mane of hair and his eyes.

“Ben, this is Ella. She is my mate,” Ty introduced.

Ben glanced back and forth between Ty and Ella before he swallowed. He opened his mouth and closed it, scratched his chin, opened his mouth again before snapping it shut. He took a step closer, carefully examining her.

“She’s…,” Ben mumbled, glancing at Ty in confusion.

Ty nodded. “She’s human,” he replied quietly.

“Shit,” Ben exclaimed with a grin. “I thought they were extinct!”

“You need to take it easy for the next few weeks,” Ben said, rising to his feet. “I’d like to do a complete physical exam if you don’t mind. I’ll need to do further research on some of the diseases we have on whether they are contagious to humans. This is going to be complicated due to the fact that we don’t have any case studies. I don’t want to give her any kind of medication that might have an adverse effect.”

“I am healthy,” Ella stated, lifting her leg to rub her ankle. “You are as bad as Thomas.”

“Who is Thomas?” Ben asked.

Ella shook her head and lowered her eyes. She rubbed at her throbbing ankle. Ben had been gentle enough, but he had poked, prodded, and manipulated it to see if he could feel anything. He suggested that she soak her ankle twice a day and do something called physical therapy. He had also listened to her heart and her lungs, checked her eyes, her nose, her throat, her ears, and pressed on her stomach. She had snapped at him when he tried to check her teeth.

“What else do you need to do?” Ty asked, folding his arms across his chest.

“I’d like to take a blood sample. It would be good to know her blood type. I can also run some tests on it. There may be enough similarities between us that I can use as a baseline. I’m assuming from earlier that you two are sexually active. I’m also going to assume that she is not on any type of birth control. Have you been using protection?” Ben asked with a raised eyebrow.

Ty flushed and dropped his arms to his side. He groaned softly and ran his hand down over his face. Ella looked at him in confusion. The women of the clan used a method of calculating the days of their blood cycle to determine when they would be more or less likely to conceive a child. Her own mother had explained the method to Ella.

Ella quickly calculated the days since her last cycle and breathed a sigh of relief. She should be safe. The thought of conceiving a child did not even occur to her. Her hand moved from her ankle to her stomach when she felt a sudden pang of longing. She quickly pushed the feeling away as she remembered the horror stories of what had happened to a human woman who is pregnant with a shifter child.

“I should be safe,” she said, looking up at both men. “My mother explained how to prevent having a child. I am within my cycle period and I should not be able to conceive.”

“Yes, well, that isn’t always dependable among shifters,” Ben muttered, giving Ty a stern look. “I would recommend protection. You don’t know if she might be….”

“She’s not,” Ty growled, scowling at Ben. “I was her first.”

“Oh, okay,” Ben muttered before drawing in a deep breath. “Listen, you can bring her down to the clinic late one night this week. I can open up and we can run all the tests after hours.”

“Give us a few days,” Ty reluctantly agreed. “She needs time to settle in.”

“She is sitting here listening to the two of you,” Ella snapped, sliding off the bed. “I’m going to get dressed.”

Ella was tired of all the double talk. She was smart enough to figure out what Ben was implying. She grabbed the clothing that Ty’s mother brought in and hurried back to the room with the large pool. She shut the door.

Focusing on dressing in the unfamiliar clothes, she pulled on the undergarment before sliding on the thick socks and soft, blue trousers. She held up another device that looked funny. It appeared to be used to confine a woman’s breasts from the two cups. Ella didn’t have the patience to deal with it and tossed it aside. Instead, she pulled on the soft, thin shirt with no sleeves and, then the thick, red sweater. It was so soft that she couldn’t help but run her hands along it in appreciation.

Turning, she grabbed the boots she wore earlier and sat down on the side of the empty tub. This time, she didn’t have any problems pulling them on and fastening them. Standing once again, she walked over to a long vanity with two bowls was set along the wall. She studied her reflection again. Her hair had dried and was now a tangled mess.

Her gaze swept the counter, stopping on a large brush. Picking it up, she quickly brushed out her hair and braided it. She was looking for a way to hold the braid in place when the door to the room opened. Ty stood in the doorway, staring at her with a small, crooked smile.

“Do not smile at me like that,” Ella snapped, pulling a piece of white string from a tiny box. It was very strong. She used it to hold her braid in place before she turned to glare at him. “I do not like being talked about as if I am not present. I may not know your world, but I am not some… some… stupid creature who cannot understand things!”

“We never meant to imply that you were, Ella,” Ty said, straightening when she moved to walk by him. His arm shot out and he stopped her. “The learning is going to go both ways, you know. I have a lot to learn myself. I’ve never had a mate before.”

Ella could feel her anger beginning to melt at the pleading expression in his eyes. Her lips tightened and she turned to grab her lance. Turning back, she pointed it at him in warning.

“You had better learn quickly, Ty Bearclaw,” Ella said while showing him the point of her lance to emphasize her words. “I came to your world and I will do what I can to fit in, but I will not be treated like a pet or a curiosity. I am one of the fiercest hunters in my clan and I will not be disrespected.”

Ella pushed past him, striding out the door. She had learned early on to show that she would not be pushed around. If this was going to work, Ty needed to understand that.

*.*.*

“Wow! What a woman!” Ty muttered under his breath as he watched Ella disappear out into the hall.

Ty knew he had a silly grin on his face, but seeing Ella angry was something to behold. His bear was practically doing a jig inside him. Watching her stomp out of the room incited a primitive urge to chase her down and see just how good a fighter she was.

I like!
His bear chuckled.
She good mate. We make strong cubs with her.

You’re damn right we will
, Ty replied as he grabbed a shirt and pulled it on before turning to follow her.

Ty hurried out of the room and down the hall. He could hear his mother’s voice before he even reached her. Slowing, he paused in the entrance to the living room. Ella and his mom were standing near the windows that overlooked the interior courtyard. They both turned when he stepped into the room.

“I was just asking Ella how things went with Ben,” Lena said with a smile. “Martha has lunch ready. I’m so glad that your father and I returned. He was concerned when the Board of Directors couldn’t get in touch with you. Now I understand why. I think once your father has a chance to meet Ella, that wolverine rancher is going to wish he had kept his mouth shut.”

“Yeah, well, he’s lucky I didn’t issue an order to confiscate his ranch lands for the little stunt that he pulled. I do have the authority and will recommend seizure of the land if he tries anything. After all, he did admit to setting a trap on federally protected land. He’s lucky Ella wasn’t killed. If she had been, I’d have ripped his head off,” Ty growled.

“Yes, well, your father has been on the phone with some of the legal staff. I believe the man was just trying to see if he could get compensated for the items that were taken,” Lena chuckled.

Ella scowled. “Jayden took one metal pot, and it had a dent in it!” She retorted, wrapping her arms around her waist. “The only thing taking it did was endanger my people,” she added, turning to look back out at the courtyard. “All for a simple piece of metal that no one was using. You have so much compared to us. Why would he be upset when someone who needed the items took them instead of letting them rot?”

“Oh, Ella,” Lena whispered, looking over at Ty. “Things will be better. We’ll do everything that we can to help you and your clan.”

Ella turned back and stared at Lena. She shook her head. Ty’s jaw tightened when he saw the glitter in her eyes. He stepped forward and opened his arms. Ella hesitated for just an instant before she moved into them and buried her face against his chest.

“You cannot say anything about them,” Ella finally insisted, pulling back to stare at Lena. “Please, it is best if they remain hidden.”

Ty saw his mother’s worried frown before her expression cleared. His mother was the ultimate poster mother when it came to a grizzly bear. She would fight – and maim or kill – anyone who tried to harm someone under her protection. He could tell from the way she hovered near Ella that she had already taken to his mate. She would do the same for the rest of Ella’s clan.

“Let’s go get something to eat,” Lena suggested. “Ty’s father, Art, is probably gnawing on the table about now. He missed breakfast and that man needs his breakfast if you want to live with him. He’s a bear with a sore tooth if he misses his morning ritual.”

Ty saw the haunted look clouding Ella’s eyes fade and a flash of amusement gleamed at his mother’s creative descriptions. She wasn’t really exaggerating too much either. His dad
was
a grouchy bear if he didn’t get his breakfast.

“Does he really chew on the furniture?” Ella whispered as they stepped out of his rooms.

“No, but he threatens to a lot,” Ty murmured with a laugh.

Ella glanced up at him and shook her head. “You have a very strange family. I am beginning to understand why you all are so different,” she replied with a sigh. “I forgot my lance in your living quarters.”

“Our living quarters and you won’t need it. Dad much prefers his food prepared by a chef,” Ty teased.

“Strange. You are just plain strange, Ty Bearclaw,” Ella muttered with another shake of her head.

*.*.*

Ella fought another giggle while she listened to Ty and his father. The two men were much alike. They were serious when they were talking about the Observatory, but amusing when they spoke of some of the things that happened there. Ella was slowly piecing together a mental image of what they were discussing.

“Ella, if you don’t mind me asking, how have the humans been able to remain hidden for so long? It just seems incredible that none have been seen until now,” Lena commented, leaning forward.

Ella carefully placed the spoon in the empty bowl. She stared at her clean plate, letting her thoughts return to Jayden and the others of her clan. A wave of guilt swept through her when she realized that. Here she was in Ty’s home, warm and well fed, while her clan was out living in the frigid mountains. The clan was surviving on what they could hunt and gather, in addition to the stored food they had brought from their previous home.

“I think it best to keep such things to myself,” Ella finally responded, looking up at Lena. She hadn’t missed how everyone at the table had grown very quiet. “It is not my place to share our lives, especially since it could further endanger my people. Our ways have kept us alive for centuries. It is important to preserve that knowledge and guard it with our lives.”

“I understand,” Lena replied with a disappointed look.

“They didn’t care about keeping you safe,” Ty bit out, his face dark.

Ella’s chin lifted and she stared back at Ty. “They did what was right,” she replied in a calm voice. “I betrayed the trust of the clan. The punishment could have been worse.”

“They sentenced you to death,” Ty retorted.

Ella shook her head. “No, they banished me. The elders knew I was capable of surviving on my own. I could have chosen to stay if…,” her voice faded and she looked away.

“They turned you away without food or shelter in the middle of a winter storm. How could you have survived that?” Ty demanded.

Ella shot him a heated glare. “Jayden brought me food,” she said.

“You said you could have chosen to stay if? If what, Ella?” Tracy asked, curious.

Ella’s lips tightened. Her gaze locked on Ty’s furious expression. She knew he wasn’t angry with her, but with Mitchell and the others of her clan.

“The elders wanted to kill Ty and banish me. I refused to let them. Mitchell and Jayden supported me,” Ella explained, speaking more to Ty than to Tracy. “Mitchell offered to take me as his wife and accept punishment on my behalf. I refused. They could have sentenced both of us to death. Instead, Mitchell ordered that you be returned to your camp. I was to stay with you until I knew you were safe. After that, I was to rejoin the others on the new moon. You have to understand, Ty. Because of me, because of you, my people have had to move not once, but twice in a very short time. We lost a lot when we had to leave our first home. We were just beginning to store enough food for the winter. It is harsher the higher we go. They are now forced to move even further into unknown territory at the beginning of the first snowfall. It is very difficult, especially for the elders and the children. Banishment is a small price to pay for what I did.”

“All you did was try to build a bridge between our two species,” he replied, ignoring everyone else who was listening in fascination to their conversation. “That is hardly worth being sentenced so harshly.”

“It is to some,” Ella whispered, her face tight with resignation. “What if it had been your family? Would you be so willing to risk their lives for someone who was known for killing people like them?”

“That was centuries ago,” Ty insisted.