Love to Bear: A Werebear Shifter Romance (14 page)

I saw a naked, bleeding, and dazed Don leaning on
another fallen trunk just a few feet away. Several long gashes
shimmered on his chest, releasing dark blood in thin rivulets.

“
Don!” I didn't think about the recent past.
I just ran to him, and pressed my hands tight to his wounds.

Pain twisted his beautiful face. “It's worse than
it looks. I've taken bigger beatings than this.”

“
We have to get you to the cabin! If we're out
here too long, there's no way those won't get infected. Do you know
how we'll get back from here?” He straightened up, leaning
gently on my shoulder to get his bearings.

“
This way,” he said raggedly.

My nerves were still humming like recently plucked viola
strings. I slid my hand into his, forgetting about our recent
breakdown. No way was I getting lost out here again, and I certainly
wasn't leaving myself a meal for some bear, grizzly shifter, or
whatever else lurked between these trees.

Squeezing my fingers through his seemed to help steady
him. We were on the path for more than twenty minutes when I finally
spoke.

“
Are you still doing alright? I'd say we should
stop and rest, but...” I didn't need to say more. He knew damn
well what might happen out here.

“
No. We have to keep going. I just want you to be
safe.”

Drop the hero act. It isn't always about me. Hell, I
was letting Emmerick lead me to safety just a few minutes ago.
There's nothing safe about living with the Grizzly Bone Clan.

His hand burned strangely warm in mine. Maybe it was the
blood, the rage, the cocktail of warrior hormones coursing through
his body.

The fire beneath his skin should've been comforting.
Instead, it burned painfully, knowing I might never feel his luscious
heat again.

“
I think you saved me from making a stupid
mistake,” I whispered softly, blotting away the last of his
blood from the cut above his breast.

The cold air during our long walk back to the cabin had
sealed up his wounds. I ushered him into the bathroom and started
tending the tears in his gorgeous flesh. It was a relief to discover
they weren't nearly as deep as I'd feared.

“
I know you wanted to leave, Sam. And I don't
blame you one bit.” Don looked up at me, the sparks in his eyes
glowing like lonely stars.

“
I was a fool,” I admitted. “I was
scared, didn't know how to take the news. I didn't appreciate what
you were trying to do...I was ready to let Emmerick lead me away from
here.”

Don growled underneath his breath. The thin hair on his
arms bristled beneath my touch, bigger than the goosebumps on any
man, rippling the way only a shifter's flesh can.

“
Don't worry. I'm done taking any help from him.
Ever. Not after the way he attacked you.”

God, how had I been so stupid?
I sniffed away the tears prodding to the surface.

If it wasn't for my hissy fit and flight through the
woods, he wouldn't have come after me. He wouldn't have had to chase
away the Elder. Wouldn't have received these cuts and put his life in
peril.

“
Ah, fuck!” Don snorted, grabbing my arm
tight when I brought the cotton swab to a long cut on his stomach.
I'd marinated it in alcohol to clean out any germs.

“
Hold still. We're almost done.” Helping him
made me feel a little better.

Not that using my best bedside manner on such a
beautiful man was a chore. I rubbed the wound and then applied
another strip of gauze. I was lucky he had anything here. It had
certainly been years since he'd gotten any modern medical supplies
from Kalispell.

“
Is this really necessary?” He asked,
wafting warm breath against my face as I lined up the last of the
bandages. “Shifters have better immune systems, you know.”

“
Why take any chances? You're a tough guy. Don't
tell me you can't take a little antiseptic sting after having a crazy
bear rip into you?”

“
He really is a crazy asshole.” Don paused,
drawing in a deep breath as I dressed one last cut. “What was
he doing out there with you? So close to our borders?”

I shrugged. His guess was as good as mine.

The run in with Emmerick was nothing short of strange.
Before, I hadn't had time to ruminate on the Elder's sudden
appearance in the foggy darkness. But when I finally did, I
shuddered.

Only a few possibilities. Shit, if I'd followed him,
would I have gotten back to Kalispell at all?

He could've easily killed me out there. Maybe he
intended to. Don saved my life.

New opalescent liquid splashed his chest, this time not
water or rubbing alcohol. My tears – helpless, damnable,
uncontrollable tears rained from my eyes.

“
Come here,” Don whispered, wrapping his
hands around my back.

He sat on the edge of the bathtub, and before I knew it
I was on his lap, bawling my eyes out. “This is my fault. You
still love me and I should just accept that, even if we can't have
all our desires. I can deal with that.”

“
No, you were right before,” Don said
softly. He waited until my sad spasms stopped and I looked up. “We
don't know where Franklin got this information. He said Clara –
my mother – died because she mated with a shifter. Claimed some
kind of fever sweeps away every human woman who has a shifter's
baby.”

“
That doesn't make any sense,” I said. “And
even if it's true...isn't it too late for me?”

“
It's never too late!” He snapped. Don
tugged me closer, his hands gliding down my back, comforting and hard
as twin slabs. “You're not pregnant. I won't be responsible for
hurting you, Sam. I'd kill myself before that happened.”

“
But Franklin didn't tell you, didn't explain how
baby making alone could do this? Just having sex is probably enough
to pass on whatever it is – if there's a whatever at all.”

I watched his jaw clench and pop beneath his stubble. He
knew I had a certain logic, and he hated it. I hated it too.

“
I won't try to run away again. Not unless the
Elders tell me I can go home and you come with me. Can't we forget
this craziness and just go back to the way things were?”

He looked at me in silence. More than a dozen seconds
ticked by, feeding a pregnant pause swollen with a thousand enticing
possibilities. I saw several futures unfolding for us in his eyes.

Every one of them made me smile. Oh, I wanted them –
needed them! I didn't care if they were the riskiest thing in the
world.

“
It's not that simple,” he rasped sadly,
bringing his lips to mine. His kiss lingered, its fury returning,
warming the chill inside him. “Or is it?”

Yes! We can take our love by the minute. I'm ready
for the danger, the beauty. Everything.

I swallowed his heat, letting it roll down my throat and
explode in my belly like a shot of warm bourbon. Except this was much
better. No bourbon had love's fire brewed into its makeup.

Our lips kissed furiously, hungry and lapping. They were
starved, and now our flesh intended to make up its loneliness, the
fearful near loss of our love.

He grunted against me. His hands slid to my jeans and
stopped, then spread into thick, meandering meshes for my buttocks.
His fingers pressed hard along my round surface and squeezed.

“
Ahhh! I'm glad you missed me as much as I missed
you.” I purred, breaking the exhausting kiss and moving my lips
beneath his ear, tasting the outline of his rugged, electric stubble.

“
Yes. And we're going to forget all this now,”
he said, hooking one hand beneath my knees and lifting me up with
him. I snuggled in his arms.

“
Just two conditions.” Don's voice simmered
lower as he carried me out of the bathroom, heading for the only
place that made sense. “We don't give up on our research. We
have to get rid of Emmerick and we need to find out if the baby
problem is true. If it is, then I won't rest until I find some way to
help you.”

“
Of course. There's got to be some medicine.
Science has changed since the seventies when your mom died.” I
smiled, inhaling his heavenly musk as he carried me into the bedroom.
“And what's the other thing?”

“
I get to spank that beautiful ass. You've been a
naughty, disobedient girl, and I don't care how lovely you are. I'm
going to punish you, Sam.”

Oh. My. God!

Blood rushed into my face, swelling my skin. It boiled,
rolling a hundred other places in my body, making the tissue tingle
with forbidden excitement.

No man had ever given me such a sudden, shocking demand.
But it was just the hundredth reminder that I wasn't dealing with an
ordinary man, but a creature who was part beast, part man, and likely
part god.

Don threw me onto the bed. I kicked my legs and yipped,
feeling the stark current zipping through my system, electricity that
wouldn't stop building until I felt his touch on my bare flesh.

Hard, soft, sharp, slick...any way you want to touch
me is fine, dear sir. Pleasure and punishment are both gifts when
they're coming from you.

Don fell upon me, flipped me on my stomach, and began
tearing at my clothes. I already felt his bulge pressing between my
buttocks before he took down my jeans.

He rolled away my shirt, popped my bra. His hands moved
swiftly beneath me, stopping to cup, squeeze, and roll my bare
breasts.

I arched my back into him and moaned. I feared I'd never
feel those fingers on my nipples again, pinching and plucking,
guiding them to plush, rosy softness.

“
Do you believe in fate, Sam?” Another firm
roll of his thumbs and fingertips against my nipples underscored the
fiery question. “Because I do.”

“
I – ah! – think so.”

Do you really? In his elegant touch, it's hard to
think about much of anything!

“
You came to me once as a pure fluke. And yet you
keep coming back. Again and again. Sure, I've got a superior sense of
smell, but what were the odds of finding you when I needed to in that
misty forest?”

I hissed through my teeth as his hands dropped. Don
spread both hands and curled them across my sides, fusing them back
together at my belt.

“
I don't know about that.” I twisted my hips
impatiently.

I wasn't in the mood for a gentle interrogation. I
wanted him on me and in me, all over me, running his rough hands
across my body.

“
I think you know
more than you let on.” Suddenly, one hand darted up to my hair.
He grabbed my locks and pulled, shuttling my ear to his lips. “We're
meant to be together, Sam. In my world, we have a thing called fated
mates. And I knew from the moment I saw you that you were
mine.
”

I was too shocked to answer. Doubly senseless when he
lowered his lips to my neck, kissed me deep, and then broke the kiss
in a harsh sucking love bite.

Heat flooded me. My
knees trembled. It wasn't enough to say I was wet. I was
drenched
with decadent anticipation, every square inch of my depths famished
for his flesh to fill me again.

Fated mates? Maybe. Just as long as you never stop
fucking me.

Don growled as he finished unclasping my jeans. He tore
them to my legs, and took my panties with them. His hand moved away
from my hair, went to the small of my back, pushed me forward onto
the bed.

“
Now, about that spanking...” Don's growl
faded to a low roil, dark and sexy as hell.

I laid waiting there for less than a second.

His hand sizzled through the air and connected with my
little ass. I jerked forward, screaming with surprise. New flames
exploded inside me at the grim spark his impact sent through my
system.

And he was just getting started too. Don raised his flat
palm and brought it to my waiting ass again and again, stopping just
long enough for me to feel each blow.

What the hell is this? It doesn't hurt like I
expected.

On the contrary, my toes curled and my sex heated
another ten degrees whenever his hand met my ass. I'd never been much
into kink, but I was beginning to see very fast why a lot of women
were into this.

Shit. And now I'm one of them!

His tenth spank confirmed that. I thrashed beneath him
as his huge body pinned me down, rubbing my delicate thighs together.

Slickness dribbled down the center. My wetness betrayed
me, a thin chain of honey escaping its swollen cup, pouring like rich
oil warmed in a foundry.

“
Your heart's sorry,” Don said, pausing to
bring his hard face next to mine. “But what about your body? Is
your flesh going to repent too? Repent and submit?”

A wicked rhyme – but not half as mad as his
touch.

“
I don't know what that means!” I lifted my
head, eyes still rolling. “You can hit me again, if you like.
Or just fuck me.”