Bear in the Rough: Bear Shifter Romance (Broken Hill Bears Book 1) (14 page)

“You’re so sexy,” he murmured, lightheaded with lust. She had a beautiful ass, so round and full, and he loved that she wasn’t shy about showing it to him. He began to fuck her, gently at first, and she climaxed again, the little clenches of her pussy threatening to tip him right over the edge. But he didn’t want to come too soon.
Mate her; claim her,
his bear kept urging him. He arched right over her, his hands coming down on either side of hers and entered her shallowly, fucking her gently while she moaned and groaned in ecstasy.

At last, when he couldn’t hold back any longer, he let go and gave his bear its head, and he pounded into her over and over again until she drew an incredible orgasm out of him, and he roared as his seed shot deep inside her.

He was trembling all over, and so was she. He turned onto his side and drew her with him, until he was spooning her, idly caressing her breasts.
I had no idea mating could be like this
, he thought. He was no stranger to rough shifter mating, but this had been so sensual too, and he loved the way that she had taken so much pleasure from him. It was like the ultimate compliment.

“Did you like that?” he whispered, close to her ear.

“Maybe,” she replied in a coquettish tone.

“Does that mean you need some more?” he placed his hand between her legs and stroked her clit. She gasped and pulled away from him.

“Too sensitive,” she protested. He smiled sleepily.
This feels so natural. I wish things could always be like this
, he thought. He hugged her tighter, wanting her to stay protected in his arms.

When he next opened his eyes, she was gone, and the sun was already past its highest point.

Freya had stayed wrapped in Xander’s arms for a while as he slept.
He might be the enemy, but I’m going to allow myself this, just for a few minutes,
she told herself, drowsily replaying the incredible sex they’d just had. She’d never come from a man going down on her before, never known that someone’s tongue could be so skilful. The sex had been rough, just the way she liked it, but now she was melting in his embrace. It was the perfect combination. The feeling of being protected was blissful and something entirely new to her. And this powerful, big, rough man being so gentle with her was so flattering and arousing. She knew, instinctively, that he’d take care of his bear mate like this.
If I was his mate, I’d never feel unsafe or lonely
, she thought. Then her heart jolted in her chest.
Wait – what the hell am I thinking?
She had to go.
This isn’t healthy
. Carefully extricating herself from his warm, snuggly body, she crept out of the bedroom and gathered up her clothes.

On her way back home, she was almost skipping from happiness.
Don’t question it, just enjoy it
, she told herself. As she neared the cabin, her thoughts turned to Xander’s plight. She couldn’t help but be sympathetic to him. He was caught up in a terrible situation. She had surprised herself at the advice she’d given him, but she didn’t regret it. He was a good man, enduring pressure from every angle.

Freya was so deep in thought that she didn’t notice a dark shape stepping out from behind a tree to the left of the path. But when Maximus revealed himself in his full bulk, she jumped.

“Hey there, little human. Where have you been?” he drawled in an unpleasant tone.

“To ask the Alpha if we can start building our own cabin,” she said, not missing a beat.

“Why don’t you stay in Deacon’s place? He’s been kicked out of the clan now, along with the other shifters who had the misfortune of being seen by you while they were out, minding their own business in their natural habitat.”

“We barely saw them until they came to attack us,” she said. “It’s not our fault that they’ve been banished.”

“Humans are always meddling in shifter affairs,” he said, ignoring her comment. “They don’t understand that our rules are different.” He took a step closer to her and his expression softened. “You’ve been seeing a lot of my brother.” It was a statement, not a question, and one that sent chills down her spine. She lifted her chin in the briefest of nods. “You were mating just now. I can smell it on you.” Her cheeks warmed, and she was glad that, unlike Marin and Eloise, a blush wasn’t so obvious on her olive complexion. “For, example, one of our laws is that brothers always share the same female.” He lifted a hand and ran it along her jaw, down her throat, and let it rest on her chest, just below her collarbones. She gulped, her throat suddenly feeling very tight. Every nerve in her body told her to run, but she forced herself to stay still, somehow understanding that having him chase her would be the worst thing that could happen. He bent his head and planted a kiss on her cheekbone. She shuddered. As alike as the two brothers were in terms of their height and musculature, Maximus was as repulsive to her as Xander was sexy.

“Then it’s lucky I’m not a shifter!” she said, as forcefully as she could.

“I would agree,” he said in a crooning tone, and his fingertips began to dip into the valley between her breasts. “But if that brother of mine thinks you’re good enough to be his mate, then maybe I should try you out as well.” He took hold of her hips, and spun her around so she was facing the tree, forcing her to press her hands against the trunk for balance. As his hands slid under the waistband of her shorts, he said, “I’ll take you from behind. You won’t even know the difference.” His breath was hot on her neck and she felt that he was hard, pressing against the small of her back. Letting off a long purr, he dipped his head and nipped at the soft flesh at the side of her neck. This was what she’d been waiting for. Keeping one hand on the tree for leverage, she pushed off and brought her other elbow up as high as she could. It connected with Maximus’ nose with a resounding crack.
Self defense 101
, she thought with a flicker of satisfaction.

Maximus stumbled back with a groan of pain. She flipped around and stared at him, her heart pounding as she wondered what he was going to do in retaliation. He rubbed his nose hard, then his lip curled, which she was beginning to understand was a signal that a cruel thought was bubbling up in his brain.

“You either mate me right now, or I tell Xander that you let me seduce you,” he snarled. She stared at him, almost impressed. It was a perfect dilemma. “Come on, it’ll be over fast. I’ll take you from behind. You won’t know the difference.” She shook her head.

“I could never mistake you for him. Xander is ten times the man you’ll ever be!” she yelled. The smile dropped form his face and he paled. She’d wounded him. There was no doubt about that. She watched the range of emotions playing across his face like a movie reel, and realized that someone drawing that opinion about him was his greatest fear. And when it was someone who knew the two brothers as little as she did, it was ten times worse.

“You’ll be sorry for this, little girl,” he spat. And then he left, just like that, retreating into the trees.

She started to run, and didn’t stop until she was safely indoors.

“Freya!” Eloise exclaimed. “Is something wrong?”

“No, I was just getting some exercise, making sure that I stay agile,” she said in a deliberately breezy tone, trying to hide the fact that she was out of breath. She couldn’t share any of the things that had just happened with the girls. She had to protect them from what was going on.

“What did Xander say about us building our own cabin?” Eloise said. Freya stared at her and Marin in horror.

“You didn’t ask him, did you?” Marin demanded. Freya stuttered something incomprehensible. “You were too busy having sex with him.” Freya gaped.

“How did you know?”

“His brother just came by,” Marin said. “I have to admit, I thought he was a bit of an a-hole yesterday, but he’s actually a really nice guy.” Freya pressed her lips together as a wave of fury threatened to overwhelm her. “And he happened to mention that you and Xander seemed to be getting very close.”

“Very convenient,” Freya said drily.

“Freya, he was worried about you,” Eloise cut in. “He said he was worried that you didn’t understand the implications of mating with a shifter. Did you really have sex with him?”

“Yes I did,” Freya said, tilting her jaw in defiance. Of all the things in her life that she regretted, the amazing sex she’d just had with Xander wasn’t going to be one of them. Now it was Eloise and Marin’s turns to gape.

“Maximus says that you have to be Xander’s mate now, and you can never leave,” Eloise said, eyes huge.

“That’s bullshit, and we can never leave here anyway, you moron!” Freya yelled, regretting the words the moment they were out of her mouth. Eloise’s face crumpled.

“I’m sorry if I upset you, Freya. We were just worried about what you were getting yourself into,” she murmured.

“I know. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to call you that. Listen –” She sat down on the couch and Eloise sat beside her, while Marin stayed standing, scowling down at them. “Yes, I’ve had sex with Xander. I’m attracted to him, he’s a hot guy. And it just happened. But it doesn’t mean anything. I’m not about to become anyone’s mate. My focus is on getting the hell out of here, and if having sex with the clan’s Alpha, and getting him to trust me, helps to achieve that goal, then that’s no bad thing.” Eloise giggled.

“In that case, I don’t blame you. He is insanely hot.”

“Whatever. I can’t believe you’re having sex with him when he’s the one who gets to decide whether we get to leave, or have to spend the rest of our lives here,” Marin said, and stalked over to the kitchen.

“I’m sorry I forgot to ask about the cabin. I got a little carried away, and he was telling me some things that might prove useful later,” Freya said to her remaining audience.

“Like what?”

“I feel like I shouldn’t say until I fully understand what’s going on,” Freya replied, sensing that she needed to keep her cards close to her chest. “But he’s told me to be careful around Maximus, and from what I’ve seen of him, I feel like that’s the right thing to do.”

When she felt like Eloise had forgiven her for her outburst, she got up and went outside, needing to be alone. She was furious with Maximus, and his shameful deceit.
How could two brothers be so different?
she wondered. And she was as annoyed at Eloise for her naivety as she was with Marin for not trusting her. As much as thoughts of Xander and his strong, decent ways were beginning to intrude into her mind, she knew that when the time came, she’d put every ounce of her strength into helping the three of them escape Broken Hill. 

Aside from having a brief chat about the cabin that the humans wanted to build, Xander didn’t see Freya for several days. He knew he had to put her out of his mind if he was going to focus on remaining the Alpha of the clan. But it was so hard. She seemed to be constantly at the edges of his thoughts, like a flicker of sunlight that just catches your eye when you’re driving in the last afternoon. He missed her. As incredible as that seemed. They’d only known each other for days, yet he yearned to be naked in bed with her again, to go walking in the hillside together, to spend hours listening to her wise views and advice.

For three days, he spoke to the clan, every last one of them, trying to ascertain where their loyalties lay. It was close, but he was dismayed to see that Maximus had the lead. People trusted him. He was a known quantity, who’d been learning everything from their father while Xander was away in the military. People couldn’t seem to see past his impetuousness. Xander tried to think about the advice Freya had given him, but it was slipping through his fingers and he was starting to panic.
But how can I be so anxious about this thing when my father, the wisest and smartest person I’ve ever known, has always believed that I was right for the role?
he thought from time to time with a wry smile.

And then some bad news came, in the shape of a triumphant message from the Black Paw Ridge Clan: they’d picked up Deacon, Gunner and Mikal, who they found wandering aimlessly between the two clan’s territories, and they’d made them members of their own clan. This was disastrous. The three shifters knew all the pack secrets, their weaknesses, their plans for the future. It was Mihaila who told Xander about it. She’d bumped into her arch enemy from the Black Paws, who was gloating about it.

“Does anyone else in the clan know?” he asked when she relayed the news.

“Yeah. I’m afraid so.” She curled herself into one of his armchairs like the feline she was. “I did some quiet digging right away, because I don’t trust that bitch as far as I can throw her, and everyone’s gossiping about it. Seems like the Black Paws were pretty eager to disseminate the news,” she finished with a snarl, and her claws shot out of her finger tips, stopping short of tearing his chair up.

“Shit.” He laced his hands behind his head. “This is terrible news. I never should’ve cast them out like that.” Mihaila looked at him, a flicker of tension showing in her huge cat eyes.

“I wasn’t sure whether to say anything –” she broke off, her pupils dilating as she assessed him.

“Tell me,” Xander said.

“Your brother has been mouthing off about it, telling everyone that you made a bad decision.” Xander got to his feet and let off a roar.

“That lowdown, dirty –” He stopped himself, he realizing that Mihaila looked terrified.

“Did I do the wrong thing?” she murmured. He forced his bear back inside himself with an effort.

“No, of course you didn’t. You did a great job finding out what people were saying. Thank you, Mihaila.”

“Sure thing,” she said, and then she scooted out of the cabin. He watched her go, knowing that she needed to run away from trouble when she felt threatened.

For an hour, he paced around his cabin, muttering to himself in a paroxysm of frustration.  But it didn’t yield any answers. This event seemed to have made his grip on leadership even more tenuous.
Go and see Freya
, his bear told him.
She might have the answers.
He rubbed at the back of his head.
Right. It probably couldn’t make things any worse.

Xander found Freya at the site of the new cabin she was building with the girls. He’d told her that she didn’t need to lift a finger and that the guys would build it for her, but he could tell that she was someone who needed to stay busy. He’d given the women money to go shopping in the Broken Hill stores, and she was wearing a white tanktop and cut-off blue denim shorts. He paused before approaching her, wanting to preserve that image of her in his mind. Her long hair was tied back loosely, and her shorts rode high on her thighs as she stretched up to hammer some nails in. She looked so strong and wild and beautiful. If she was a bear, she’d be his perfect match, he thought wistfully.

“Hi,” she said, catching sight of him, before continuing right on with her work.

“Hi.” He used his hand to shade his eyes from the sun as he came close. “Are you busy today?”

“Kinda.” She raised her hand in a sweeping gesture toward the cabin.

“I was just hoping I could speak to you about something.” She turned her head and looked at him properly. He marveled that she could be so unconcerned at the sight of him, when seeing her was doing all kind of things to his body. Not least that he was rapidly developing a boner.

“Sure,” she said immediately. “Now?”

“If that’s okay?” She jumped down from the ladder, called something to the guys and headed off toward the wood.

“You want to be someplace private, right?”

“Yup,” he said, with the ghost of a grin, knowing he’d done the right thing in talking to her. Her intuition was amazing. “There’s a place over here about five minutes’ walk away.”

He led her to a clearing in the wood. It was another place where he used to go to be alone when the weather wasn’t right for climbing up to the top of Broken Hill.

“How’s the leadership battle going?” she asked as soon as they were sitting down on adjacent rocks.

“Not good. There was some bad news today – I found out that the three bears who took you and who I banished from the clan have joined the Black Paw Ridge clan – our arch rivals.”

“Shit. I’m guessing that means a lot of your clan secrets are now being revealed to them?”

“Exactly,” he said. “And, since I banished them, it looks like I’m responsible. Maximus is really gloating and telling everybody I’m a bad leader.”

She stared at him for a long moment, her dark eyes glittering as her brain worked away.

“After we had sex the other day, Maximus found me and tried to blackmail me into having sex with him too. He said that if I refused, he’d tell you we’d had sex anyway,” she said.

Xander bellowed with rage and his bones crunched and skin burned as his bear began to force its way out.

“That fucking lowlife!” he bellowed. “That’s so beneath him. And he’s a liar. I’d know if you’d mated him too. I would’ve smelled it on you.” To Freya’s credit, she held her ground, looking at him levelly. Then she slipped off her seat, bent toward him and gripped his upper arms with her small, yet strong hands.

“I told you because I wanted you to get angry,” she said, fixing him with a fierce stare. “You need to remember that some of the things your brother does are underhand and not good.”
She’s formidable
, Xander thought, looking at her in awe. “You banished those three because Maximus was pressuring you to, yes?”

“Yes,” he said with a frown. He’d been so preoccupied by how awful the situation was that he’d forgotten it hadn’t been his choice in the first place.

“Do you think it’s possible he knew that things might escalate in this way?” Xander frowned even more, then he pounded his right fist into his left hand.

“I’m sure he did! It was a trap.” She nodded.

“Yes. Then go and prove it to everybody else. He’s caused this, not by accident, but very deliberately. And it has endangered the pack more than Deacon and Co’s stupidity ever did.”

Xander reached out for her and drew her into his arms, planting kisses all over her face.

“You’re so smart, Freya,” he said. She laughed.

“I have my moments. Now, what do I get for advising you?” she said, a hint of wickedness in her voice. His eyes widened.

“As much pleasure as you can take,” he said with a growl in his voice, and reached for her white tanktop, eager to pull it over her head. She sucked in a breath, her sweet, pink lips parting. His bear purred. He loved the way that arousal made her soft and malleable. He stripped her shorts off too, and laid her down on a soft bed of leaves, and the he licked and caressed every part of her body, until she begged him to enter her.

“So we’ve christened all of your old hangouts, huh?” she said, a lot later, as they lay in each other’s arms, totally exhausted from all the sex they’d had.

“It looks that way,” he replied with a laugh.

*

It was surprisingly easy to convince the clan of Maximus’ deceit. Xander just explained it real simply, until he saw a light bulb go on in each of his clan member’s heads, followed by a burst of fury. By sunset, they were calling for Maximus’ expulsion from the clan.

“It’s like a lynch mob,” Freya said to Eloise and Marin, watching from the safety of their old cabin. They shivered, glad to be far enough away from a whole angry clan, as their roars, growls and screams filled the air. Some of the clan had shifted, and several full-grown grizzly bears were charging around, snorting and spoiling for a fight. Others had lit torches and were carrying them around, for no particular reason, but it added to the highly wrought atmosphere.

“Do you think we’re safe here?” Marin said, from her position behind a curtain.

“Oh, yes. There’s only one person they’re interested in tonight, and he’s not a human,” Freya said, unable to keep the satisfaction out of her voice.

*

Xander was observing from a distance, standing by the window of his cabin, letting the anger work itself out. As a breeze picked up, blowing in from Broken Hill, he scented his brother, far back in the woods. He went to the fridge, took out a beer, opened it, and waited.

At last, the kitchen window opened and Maximus clambered through, landing heavily on the tiled floor. Xander turned his head, prepared for anything and everything.

Maximus came up to him slowly. His skin had an ashen tone, and his eyes were dull.

“You beat me. You used my own game against me. Congratulations, brother.” He held out his hand and Xander gripped it very firmly, suspecting that it could be a trick. But Maximus merely shook his hand, with less power than he’d ever known from him. Xander looked deep into his eyes, trying to see his soul, trying to know what lay beneath. He saw only defeat. Maximus smirked.

“I should have known better than to have pitted my brains against yours. You’re stronger than me, little brother. And smarter than me too. I have nothing left.”

Xander finally knew that he was speaking the truth and a wave of guilt welled up inside him. He had taken everything from his older brother, it was true. Knowing that Maximus hadn’t helped himself didn’t make him feel much better. He clamped his arms around Maximus and hugged him hard, his eyes becoming glassy.

“You’re going to expel me now, aren’t you?” Maximus said flatly. There was no challenge left in him.

“I think it’ll be better if you leave for a while,” Xander said, glancing at the glow from the flaming torches showing in the windows. “You’re my brother. I’d never banish you, but I can’t guarantee your safety right now. And for the time to come, our main priority is going to be mitigating the damage done by losing our three to the Black Paws.”

“It’s okay. I’m with you. I need some time to think anyway and reassess my priorities,” Maximus said. “So long, little brother. I’ll be in touch.”

He left via the kitchen window. Five minutes later, Xander heard the roar of his motorbike, and he knew he was gone.

He allowed himself 15 minutes to grieve, and then he went to speak to the clan.

All night, Xander lay awake in his lonely bed, his heart aching for his broken relationship with his brother. He looked at the empty side of the bed and wished so badly that Freya was there with him, lying in his arms so soft and vulnerable, but comforting him, knowing exactly the right things to say to him. He was a very smart and self-sufficient person and he knew himself very well, but she made him even more complete than he thought was possible.

When he stepped outside the following morning, after having slept for no more than a couple of hours, he was overjoyed to catch sight of her, jogging in the early morning sun. He bounded over to her, desperate to speak to her, then checked himself. Was he being ridiculous? He was still her captor and maybe she didn’t want to celebrate with him.

But when she saw him, she turned her head and grinned, her features so soft and lovely in the pinkish dawn light.

“You’re still Alpha, then?” she called.

“Looks that way,” he replied, catching up to her.

“Well done. I was proud of you last night.” His heart beat fast beneath his ribs.

“You were?”

“Yes. You showed you have what it takes to be a leader.” She stopped speaking while she accelerated down a small slope. “So how does it feel?”

“It feels like I need a couple of hours off after the craziness of the past two weeks. I was wondering if you would maybe go on a date with me today? I need to speak to someone who understands me, and I feel like you’re the only one I can relax with.” She did a double take.

“A date? For real?”