A Lamb for the Bear's Appetite (4 page)

Damn the man for hitting him in the soft spot. But Liam would have gone and seen his dad regardless, because he had no idea what to do with these feelings moving through him. He was going to get his mate no matter what, but once he had her he didn’t know what in the hell to do.

“Listen, can we maybe get together in the next couple of days?”

“Really?”
He sensed the change in his dad even through the phone. Or maybe it was because Liam never asked to see his father? Yeah, that was probably the shifting emotions coming through the receiver.

“You in some kind of trouble, Liam?”
Of course that was the first thing Trace Dakota thought. Hell, aside from some speeding tickets, a small stint in the county jail for some drunken bar brawls, and possibly one arrest for public intoxication, Liam was a good guy. Shit, he even had an engineering degree under his belt. But what was he doing with his life?
Working for a lion shifter that hardly talked and was ready to bitch slap a dude for even looking at his female in a nonsexual way.
Yeah, he made good money, had a nice place, but he was not good relationship material. He’d fucked far too many chicks, didn’t remember the majority of their names, and frankly didn’t give a fuck. How was he supposed to be a mate to a female that clearly didn’t want him? Dammit, he had never wanted a female that didn’t reciprocate his desires. He was at a total loss.

“No, I’m not in any trouble. I just—”
Shit.
He ran a hand through his hair, wishing he hadn’t eaten that sandwich since his stomach twisted uncomfortably. No, he’d wait until he could figure everything out with his mate, and then he could talk to his dad about it. Yeah, that sounded a lot better than going over there and trying to talk about shit he had no idea where to even start. Besides, Trace already had enough to deal with, what with the bar and Alivia. And what in the hell was he supposed to do for Liam anyway, hold his fucking hand and walk up to Olive? No, he’d do this shit on his own. “
Nothin
’, it’s
nothin
’. Listen, I have to go. Just text
me
the date and time of this thing Candace is throwing, and I’ll be there.” There was a moment of silence, and he knew his dad wanted to say more, because hell, Liam knew he didn’t sound convincing.

But Trace didn’t pry, and right now Liam was pretty fucking glad about that. They hung up, and he tossed his phone on the coffee table and leaned back on the couch. He should have just gone to Sticky’s right now and parked his ass there, waiting for his mate to show up. But he didn’t want to seem like some obsessed asshole, even if these emotions going through him were fucking crazy.

“
Fuck
.” Yeah, he was losing it. He needed to get back in control and quit analyzing this so much. She was his mate, plain and simple. Biology, chemistry, fucking fate, and all that shit came into play and made it impossible for her to deny him. So, yeah, she might say no, but her body had been saying yes, and he had smelled as much when she touched him for that first time. His dad might be able to break it down for him, go over how it happened for him and Candace, but it wasn’t like the two of them had the most affectionate relationship, and they sure as hell didn’t share their feelings. But once Liam had realized what was happening with him Trace had been the first male he thought of to go to and talk about all this mating crap. But no, he could figure this out on his own, because this was the one thing in his life he wasn’t about to fuck up.

Chapter Three

Olive spread the thin brush of lip-gloss of her bottom lip and stared at herself in the mirror. Sticky’s was a shitty fucking place, but then again it was owned by Trent, along with many other shady businesses around the state. Damn Holden for getting involved in drugs and gambling, and putting them both in this position. She would have killed her brother herself if she didn’t love him so much, and although they were only a year apart in age and physically he was bigger than she was, he was still her little brother, and it was her job to take care of him. Even now she could picture him standing in front of her, Trent and his men surrounding them, and Holden looking so rundown. He had been high on coke and booze, and hadn’t even been lucid enough to realize the shit storm he had been in.

The strippers behind her laughed and talked, clearly oblivious to the nightmare she was in, and all having to do with the male they worked for. Olive closed her eyes and tried to center herself.

Dammit, Holden.

She had to have said those two words more times in a day than she could even count. She had lost everything—the place where she lived so she could move in to Trent’s home, and of her dreams of getting out of Kashton and going to the beach—to make sure they stayed alive, but that would change in just one more week. Opening her eyes and staring at reflection, all she wanted was to be somewhere else. Her eyes were big and blue, but she looked sickly with the dark circles under them, the ones she couldn’t get rid of no matter how much foundation she lathered on. Tonight she had her hair piled high on her head, and that had a sadistic smile on her face. Trent liked her hair down, and even though this was but a small act of rebellion, it was one she reveled in. She stood and adjusted the blue sequin top that barely covered her boobs. She was fat compared to these other females, and although at first she had been humiliated and self-conscious when she first started doing this, now she just didn’t give care. This was the beginning of the end.

“Come on, honey, shake a leg and get your ass out there. Trent is in an especially foul mood tonight.”

Olive looked at
Blue
, one of the human strippers that she had come to know. Yeah, she knew Trent was in a bad mood, and it had to do with her. He wanted her, and he made that clear every damn day, but especially so when they were in the limo. There wasn’t anywhere that she could hide, though. He hadn’t forced himself on her and taken what she clearly refused to give him. But she knew he was biding his time, for whatever reason. Olive knew that she was damn lucky that he hadn’t come to her in the middle of the night, tied her hands to the headboard, and indulged in the power, vileness, and pain she knew he craved.

Maybe he was just too damn egotistical to take a female against her will, thinking that they should just flock to him? No, even she knew that was just wishful thinking. She had to escape whole, and that also meant without Trent touching her. Oh, she had seen enough women come and go from the house over the last few weeks, had heard their screams of pain that no amount of distance could block out. But still he wanted her, and she knew it was because she wouldn’t give in to him.

Why hadn’t he made sex was part of deal as well
? But even as she asked herself that question she knew it was a simple answer. He was a predator and enjoyed the hunt as much as the catch. The women may come to his home willingly, but they never came back. He wooed them, charmed them, liking the fact he was going to turn into Mr. Hyde, scare the shit out of them, and have them crying as they left him.

She made her way out of the dressing room and waited for her turn on the stage. Her heart started to pound as she waited behind the curtain, but she couldn’t understand her reaction. She had stripped more times than she could count over the last month. Nerves were not a part of her anymore, yet her hands started to shake and beads of perspiration lined the area between her breasts. The song ended for the dancer on stage, and when it was Olive’s turn she got into position with her back to the crowd just as the curtain opened. In all honesty she had no idea how stripping at Sticky’s for a month would pay back the amount of money owed to Trent. Not even the numerous personal VIP dances she had done—per Trent’s orders—which ended earning her quite a bit of money made a dent in her brother’s debt, but she stopped questioning that as well.

Then she closed her eyes and lost herself to the music, picturing herself somewhere else, as she did each and every time.

****

“Boss, it looks like Track and Steal are here for the deal.” Trent didn’t take his eyes off of Olive as she moved against the pole. Her eyes weren’t open, and he could see she had closed herself off from everything else. She wasn’t dancing for a bunch of fuckers right now, but lost in her own world. He was uncomfortably hard, but no amount of pussy killed the ache that he had for Olive. There was something about her, something that grabbed at him like no other female had as soon as she had walked into his office, and he knew until he had her in every way he envisioned,
he
wouldn’t be able to ease this dark need boiling inside of him. But playing with her, teasing
her,
was what he enjoyed most. Giving her hope and then taking it away made him harder and that darkness inside of him more prominent. Seeing her fall to her knees before him when she finally realized she had no escape would be just as pleasurable and satisfying as actually breaking her.

And now that her mate had come into the picture, Trent felt his leopard rise up to the challenge. He should take her far away where the bear couldn’t find her, but Trent would be lying if he didn’t admit that getting into that scuffle over Olive had made him hungry for blood. He wanted to go at it again with the polar bear, wanted to have the male watch as he took what was his, and what was his was Olive. He knew this wasn’t the end of the bear, no matter how much Olive tried to reassure him that there wasn’t an issue. In fact, Trent was hoping for more, a hell of a lot more.

He had a lot of vile things he wanted to do to her, ones that included her restrained to his bed with her screams of pain and pleas for mercy filling his ears. He wanted to fuck her until she was broken, fuck her until there was nothing but a shell of a female that only wanted to do what he said because she feared the discipline he would exact if she disobeyed. He had wanted that from the moment he saw her. Soon, though. Trent would have her in every beautifully painful way. She thought she was leaving at the end of the week, but he had other things planned for his gorgeous little sheep shifter.

“Send them to the back office, and I’ll be there momentarily.” He watched her ass sway, and imagined a lot of things he could do to make her skin bleed for him. He could have just killed her brother and been done with it, taken her against her will until she didn’t have a choice in the matter, but there was a sick satisfaction in letting her think that she had a way out of this, that he would actually let her go. Olive would be his possession in every way imaginable. Her brother would die, and she would be his for however long he wanted to keep her. There was no amount of stripping that could earn her the kind of money her dumbass brother owed him, but the leopard in him liked playing the cat and mouse game. Once this was all said and done and he killed her brother in front of her, and then fucked her until she was a ruined female, the look on her face and emotions that came from her would be well worth it. It was a power trip for him.

He watched her for another minute and forced his cock to go down by sheer will alone. Dammit, he wanted her, and before this was all said and done he would have her.

****

Liam stepped into Sticky’s right as the first song ended and the next began. Olive was on stage, and the clean scent of cotton, which he had figured for her unique aroma, filled his nose and had a low rumble leaving him. A few people in nearby tables heard him over the music and glanced his way, but he didn’t may them any attention. He moved closer, didn’t bother if he ran into anyone in the process, because his sole purpose was getting closer to his mate. Waiting until the club opened had been fucking hell, and he had nearly shifted just from sheer impatience alone. But Liam had a lot of time to think since he had seen her last, and he was going to do this right. Bodhe had been right when he said he couldn’t very well drag her back to his place like some kind of barbarian, but the truth was Liam didn’t know how to woo a female, let alone win the heart of his mate. Her eyes were closed, and she moved like she was one with the music. It was the most erotic thing he had ever seen. The sway of her hips as she ground against the pole, the way she bent down, popped her ass out, and all the other little things that he noticed that others might not have.

Others
.
That had his fucking hackles rising, his bear moving swiftly toward the surface, and a low growl leaving him. There was no doubt Olive heard him because she stumbled forward and snapped her head in his direction. Despite the bright light spotlighting her and obstructing her view of the audience, she zeroed in on him. It took her a moment to clearly focus her vision, but when she finally stared right at him, Liam had to curl his hands into fists and stand his ground. What he really wanted to do was pull her off of that stage, and spank her ass until it turned a pretty shade of red. That was just a small mark he wanted to put on her body. Most importantly, he wanted his canines breaking the tender skin at her neck, wanted his scent to go right into her bloodstream, and wanted the smell that was all wild and uninhibited polar bear to surround her. Liam had never felt this unstable, this reckless with his emotions before.

At first her eyes widened in surprise, but then he saw her nostrils flare and her anger break through, and he knew she was a strong female, and one that wasn’t about to submit to a man solely because he was her mate. That had him grinning and her scowling even further. The song ended only seconds later, and she held his gaze for a moment longer than she probably should have. The hushed murmurs of the males in the audience filled his ears, and he growled low and deep once more. She stomped off the stage, and maybe he shouldn’t have thought the sight of her pissed at him funny, but hell, his little mate was a feisty thing. But before he could follow, which was what he had just been about to do, and fuck anyone that tried to stop him, she was coming out from the back, moving swiftly down the hallway, and heading right in his direction.

“That dance was especially nice, but not when it was in front of a bunch of assholes.
If you want to strip and take your clothes off, how about doing it for your mate?”
Maybe he shouldn’t have said anything like that, or made sure that was the first thing out of his mouth, because clearly this wasn’t a docile little mate. He scowled when he thought of all the douche-bags watching her, but when she stopped in front of him and crossed her arms under her full breasts, popping those babies out and up, his annoyance that his mate was showing off her goods to other males vanished. Now all he felt was that bone deep need to throw her over his shoulder and take her back to his home, into his room, and claim her so damn hard neither could walk straight for the rest of the day. In a quick move he had his button-down shirt off, leaving him in only his white undershirt. Before she could object, because he knew she would have if he gave her the chance, Liam had the button-down wrapped around her body. She was so surprised that she stood there with wide eyes and a parted mouth.

“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” Her voice was low, but there was no masking the irritation in it. “I told you I didn’t want anything to do with you.” He didn’t miss how she kept glancing around, no doubt for that motherfucking leopard.

“Aren’t you even going to ask?”

She blinked, her annoyance over his presence becoming confusion instead. “What? Ask what?”

He grinned. “What your mate’s name
is.
” She stared at him, and when he saw her jaw clench he knew she was far too stubborn for her own good. “Liam Dakota, baby.
From Sweet Water.”
He inhaled deeply, took in Olive’s unique cotton scent, and let his bear flash to the surface. Her eyes widened again momentarily at the sight of his polar bear making its presence known. “Is there something going on between you and that asshole leopard shifter?” He really didn’t know why he asked, because he only sensed disgust from her in terms of the other male, but he still needed to know.

She shook her head and straightened her shoulders. “I didn’t ask what your name is because I don’t care.” That’s what she said, but he scented her curiosity about him, and the sweet scent of the arousal she was trying really hard to push away. “And to answer your question, don’t act like you haven’t been sniffing around and already know the answer to that.” She closed her eyes and exhaled, but he also noticed she didn’t take his shirt off, but pulled it closer to her body. That had male pride filling him. The thing was overly large on her, with the hem falling mid-thigh and the cuffs hanging past her hands. She looked around once more and then gestured for him to follow. “Come on.” She started walking toward a side entrance, and after Olive talked to a human bouncer that was blocking the way, the human moved away from the door and Liam stepped outside with her. They were in a back alley, and aside from a few dumpsters the place was barren. When the door shut behind them she turned on her killer heels and glared at him. “You have to stop coming here.”