Big Bear Mountain - The Complete Series (25 page)

C
assie saw them
first. Her heart nearly burst.

“Rosie, they’re here,”
she called out.

“All of them?”
Rosie asked hesitantly as she emerged from the diner’s kitchen, wiping her
hands on her apron.

“Well . . .  yeah,
you could kind of say that. They seemed to have picked up an extra, by the
looks of things.” Cassie scurried to the door, hurling it open and ran toward
Jack. Jack had come back to her. Like he promised.

Cassie hated being
kept from the action, from her man. She was determined that this would be the
last time. From now on, they were a team and whatever Jack had to deal with,
she’d be at his side.

“Who’s that?” she
asked, nodding her head toward Erin, who was walking closer to Spider than
Cassie thought she really needed to.

Jack laughed.
“You’re going to love her. She’s another city girl who knows how to shoot and
look after herself and . . .”

Cassie gestured
for him to continue.

“Promise you won’t
get mad?” Jack winced at the thought of that.

Cassie planted her
hands firmly on her curvy hips and fixed him with a harsh
you better get on
with it
stare.

“She saved my
life,” Jack said it quickly, as if that might lessen the impact.

It didn’t.

“You were in that
much danger and you wouldn’t let
me
help? But it’s alright for
her
to save your ass?” Cassie pointed right at Erin, her eyes blazing with fury.

Jack recognized
that look. Nothing good ever came after that. He was about to man up and come
to Erin’s defense when Erin squeezed Spider’s fingers briefly then broke away
toward Cassie.

“Hi, I’m Erin.”
She offered her hand to Cassie who had little choice but to shake it. “I’ve
heard so much about you, Jack hasn’t stopped talking about you the whole way
back.”

Jack had no clue
what she was talking about. He’d hardly said a word the entire walk back to the
town.

“I’ve been dying
to meet you,” Erin added as she threw her arms around Cassie, giving her a
solid hug and a peck on the cheek.

Jack stared in
amazement. The fire in Cassie’s eyes dulled and she returned Erin’s peck.

“So what’s this I
hear about you saving my man’s life?”

“Oh, that . . . he
does exaggerate, doesn’t he? You should be proud of him. All of them,” she
looked around at her new friends, “they did an awesome job saving Elle and
running those pricks off the mountain for good.”

“That’ll cost you
a quarter in the swear jar,” Rosie called out from the steps of the diner.
“This is no place for that kind of language, young lady.”

Erin looked to
Spider for guidance. She had no idea who this woman was or if she was serious.

“She’s with me,
Rosie. Don’t be giving her a hard time.”

“Maybe that’s why
I’m giving her a hard time.” Rosie winked at Erin. The old lady’s eyes gleamed
with mischief, despite her age and stooped stature.

“Ya’ll look like
you could use some good cooking and coffee. Maybe something a little stronger,
too.” She held the door open for them and waved them through.

H
ot coffee cups
warmed the cold hands that cradled them. Eggs and bacon were piled onto plates
to feed the famished army. Tales of bravado and war stories threw back and
forth across the table as they interrupted, adding their own version of events
to each other’s stories. They were just like any other family. But they weren’t
any
family. They were a crew of bear shifters and their fated mates and
they weren’t related by blood.

But they may as
well have been. They had chosen to be together and stand together when one of
their own was threatened. Their friendship had been forged in battle and there
is no closer relationship than that.

Even Erin felt it.
She felt at home with her new friends and when Spider nudged her under the
table with his knee, she noticed that he left it pressed against hers long
enough for the meaning to be clear. He felt it, too.

Suddenly Minion
Kevin and her sneering co-workers seemed a world away. So far, in fact, that
she felt no affinity with them whatsoever. This was her home, now. She’d found
her family.

If they’d have
her.

S
pider took his
hands away from Erin’s eyes. “Okay, you can look now.”

“What is this
place?” she asked. She was in awe looking in every direction trying to take it
all in.

“This is my
special place,” Spider confided with her. “Where I can shift when I want to be
alone and enjoy my own piece of forest. Here I can run wild and free.”

“It’s . . .
beautiful.” Erin was almost lost for words.

“Rosie brought me
here when I was first discharged from the Navy. All I’d ever known was flying
and navy life. I was totally lost, like the structure of my entire existence
had been pulled out from under me.”

Erin let the
silence hang a beat before placing her hand on his elbow, motioning him to
continue his story.

“I drifted. Did
odd jobs along the way to pay for food and board, but I never stayed anywhere
long enough to put down roots. Then I came here.

“I don’t know how,
but I think Rosie knew what I was, but she didn’t seem to care. I boarded with
her above the diner for a time, then next thing I knew, she’d loaned me a cabin
in the mountains. Winked at me and told me she knew I needed my own space. But
she never mentioned it again.

“Next thing I
knew, the rescue service decided we needed a rescue helicopter up here and they
asked me to fly it. I’m pretty sure Rosie had something to do with that, too.
She’s got some political muscle or something going on. Not sure I even want to
know.” He smiled when he recalled how he felt being offered the opportunity to
fly rescue missions in this pristine mountain wilderness. Like a dream that had
finally come true.

But that wasn’t
Spider’s only dream.

He wanted a mate.
Just like Jarrad and Jack had found their fated mates here on the mountain. He
wanted a family of his own and someone to come home to every day. Until now,
that had eluded him, although he’d always been happy for Jack and Jarrad. There
had been no envy, but a sense of longing when he saw what they had.

“What do Jarrad
and Jack mean when they talk about their
mates
? Is that like their wife
or girlfriend or something?”

Spider paused
before answering. It was as if she had read his thoughts.

“Mates are nearly
always fated. For every bear shifter, there’s a special mate, just for him and
fate brings them together. They can usually tell their fated mate as first
glance or first scent. They just
know
, even if the bear’s human
doesn’t.”

“Men can be stupid
sometimes,” Erin agreed.

Spider nodded, and
then he started taking great interest in his shoes as he kicked at some rocks
on the ground.

“Is it coincidence
that both Elle and Cassie are . . . well . . . rather . . .”

“Robust?” Spider
helped her out.

Erin nodded
thankfully. “Yeah, like me.”

“It’s no
coincidence. Even in human form, bear shifters, when they mate, can be very,
how can I say it delicately . . .”

Erin returned the
favor. “Rough?”

“I was going for
something like enthusiastic, but rough works, too. Anyway, we can only mate
with women who can handle us. Shifters aren’t attracted to the skinny catwalk
models and their lettuce leaf and tofu diets. We like our women strong on the
inside and just as strong physically.” He looked at her sideways worried how
she’d react to his revelation.

He needn’t have
bothered. Before he knew what was happening, she’d jostled in front of him and
reached up on her toes to crush her lips to his, hoping to carry on from where
they’d left off previously.

“Show me,” she
breathed in his ear before probing it cheekily with her tongue. “Show me how
enthusiastic
you can be.”

Spider
effortlessly scooped Erin up in his arms, forcing a nervous squeak from her as
she settled into his cradling arms. She was surprised at both his strength and
his immediate response to her wanton proposal. He wasn’t the kind of man who
needed to be told what to do twice.

T
railing kisses from
her ankles to the soft, sensitive skin behind her knees, Spider hoisted her
skirt as he worked his way up. Her skin was soft to his lips and her scent was
pleasing his bear, which growled openly as he showered her with kisses and
nibbles. There were no secrets. Not any more.

“What if someone
sees us?” she giggled. She was ticklish behind the knees.

“They won’t. Bears
are territorial. Nobody will come here. This is my ‘alone time’ space.” His
words were muffled as he spoke with his lips parted against her thigh.

“Like a man cave,
but without the actual cave . . . Oh, yeah. Right there,” she keened as he took
a mouthful of her butt cheek and gently bit it.

His thumbs hooked
inside her panty elastic and with deliberate, leisurely pace, he began to work
them down her hips and over her thighs until that were a tangle mess at her
ankles. She kicked them away, no longer caring if anyone should see them or
not.

The scent of her
arousal, freed from her panties, inflamed Spiders desire to take her. Right
then and there. Out in the open, like a wild animal.

But he wanted his
first time with her to be special. Memorable, for all the right reasons. If his
bear was right and if she was his fated mate, then he wanted everything to be
perfect. For both of them.

“Why are you
stopping?” She was worried she’d done something wrong.

“Are you sure you
want this?”

Her eyes met his.
There was a heady dose of desire and primal hunger burning in his bottomless
hazel eyes. Desires that mirrored her own, she suspected. The raw lust she felt
at this moment was like nothing else she’d ever felt and she had never been
more sure of anything. She felt drawn to him physically and emotionally. But
right now, it was all about the physical pull she felt toward him.

She nodded firmly.
Hell yeah
.

H
e was teasing her
and he knew it. She’d make him pay for this. But not right now. Definitely not
right now. Not until after he’d satisfied her with his dexterous tongue. Maybe
not even then. He kept teasing her with light flickers, brushing the tip of it
across her swollen nub. Even when she arched her back, he withdrew slightly,
leaving her aching for more and just a little frustrated. More than a little,
it seemed.

Reaching down, she
clamped her hands around the back of his head and pulled him into her. Hard.
She arched her back at the same time, crushing her desperate and needy clit
against his lips and tongue. She’d had enough of his play. He’d stoked her
fires and now it was time for him to make good on that promise.

With a rhythmic
thrust of her hips, she set the pace and he obeyed.

Good boy
.

He began to work
his mouth over her pink bud to the same rhythm and her moans were a sure sign
he had got it right. No more teasing. He wanted to pleasure her now and show
her what a true mate could do for his fated ‘one’.

“Yes! Please!
Yes!” she keened and moaned to his rhythm. Steadily, she increased the pace of
her thrusts, matched by his increasingly frantic licking and sucking of her
juicy morsel.

“Oh my . . .” The
words refused to come, like they were no longer needed. Her body had taken over
and she willingly surrendered to the pleasure that welled deep within her
belly, sending liquid fire to the mound of her sex.

With a final push
of her hips, she held Spider’s head still and let the waves burst from within
her, pulses of orgasmic relief surging through every muscle fiber and nerve
ending in her body. Her eye lids fluttered and she bit her bottom lip in an
effort not to scream obscenities.

“Fuck me! That
feels fucking amazing! Oh, fuck!”

It didn’t work.

She no longer
cared what she said. The words came from her mouth, but they weren’t hers. It
was as if some inner beast, some shameless, brazen minx had been unleashed
within her.

She collapsed and
started to breathe again. She hadn’t even realized that she’d stopped. Her
breathing was ragged and shallow, like she’d just run a marathon.

“So that was alright
then?” Spider asked with a cocky grin across his gorgeous cupid’s bow lips.

B
y the time Erin had
regained her composure and her heart rate had returned to something approaching
normal, she became aware of the hardness that threatened to burst from Spider’s
pants. It pressed against her leg and it was with some difficulty that she
actually managed to move her legs once more as she sat up.

“I haven’t
forgotten about you.” She squeezed his hardened shaft in acknowledgment, taking
a moment to admire and enjoy the length and girth he appeared to have tucked
away down there.

Wow!

She could see the
outline of his enormous crown through his pants and she could only imagine at
what it might look like totally unrestrained. Not wanting to wonder any longer,
she unbuttoned his pants and unzipped them before plunging her hand inside and
caressing his responsive member through his satin boxers. It twitched and
flexed at her touch. That was a promising start.

“You want me to
get him out?”

Spider swallowed
and bobbed his head vigorously. He didn’t dare speak for fear his voice would
crackle like a horny teenager.

Sitting on her
haunches, Erin reached under her dress and removed her bra, casting it to where
her panties had ended up previously. Then, she started to pull the sundress
she’d worn for their stroll in the forest over her head. Slowly. Partly because
she was anxious about Spider seeing her soft curves and partly to tease him
before the big reveal.

As soon as the
dress was over her head, her magnificent breasts bounced free. Spider looked at
them wide eyed and lustful. He immediately took them in his strong hands and
began to knead them, enjoying how they felt and how her nipples responded to
being grazed by his calloused palms.

“You’re . . .
you’re stunning. Absolutely gorgeous.” Was all he could manage to whisper. It
sounded inadequate, but those were the only words he could find.

“Let me look at
your sexy, hard body again. God I’ve missed seeing it,” she growled. The
unabashed voice sounded like hers, but she dared believe the words could be
coming from her lips.

She grabbed his
shirt tails and pulled them free of his pants and began to unbutton his shirt,
spreading it wide as she went. Her mouth fell wide open as her eyes drank in
the expanse of tanned, muscled flesh that sat on offer before her. As he
breathed, his massive chest heaved making his powerful pecs even more
pronounced. And the term ‘washboard abs’ didn’t do him justice. She was going
to think up a new term to describe his abs which looked like they’d been
chiseled from a slab of granite by a renaissance master.

With her
fingertips she traced the lines of definition between his abdominal muscles,
marveling at how hard they were. She imagined him taking her from behind like a
wild beast and feeling that hardness against her ass while the hardness of his
cock plunged her depths.

But that was for
another time. Now she wanted to look at him and see his face while he took her.
She wanted to enjoy his deep, soulful eyes looking at her like she was the most
beautiful thing he’d ever seen at the same time as she felt his cock buried
deep inside her as he unleashed his primal need to fuck her like there was no
tomorrow.

Using all her
strength, she flipped herself over onto her back, taking him with her, so that
he ended up on top. Frantically, she clawed at his pants and boxers with her
feet and toes until they pooled at his feet and he could kick them off. Now
they were flesh on flesh with no barrier to their intimacy. She loved how he
felt against her. His hard muscled body seemed to complement her soft curves
and they fitted together like they were meant to be.

“You want this?”
he asked as he brushed the tip of his crown between her wet folds.

Erin nodded and
bucked her hips, taking the head of his cock as far as her tight entrance. She
wanted him to do the rest while she enjoyed being stretched to accommodate the
swollen head. As much as she wanted to feel him inside her, she feared she
might not be the able to handle him. He’d made her anxious with his talk of
some girls not being able to mate with bear shifters.

As if to allay her
fears, he gently but firmly embedded himself inside her. All the way. Burying
his generously proportioned cock to the hilt.

The sensation was
too much for her. There was no pain, just an overwhelming feeling of being
stretched to the limit and on the delicate cusp between pain and pleasure.

“Just breathe.
Deep and slow. You’ll get used to it in a minute. The more you relax, the more
you’ll enjoy it. Trust me.”

She did and he was
right. As soon as she started to relax, her body felt as if something that had
been missing all her life had found its way into her. As he started to
withdraw, ready to plunge into her again, a sense of loss and longing welled
between her legs. Then he pounded it into her again, grunting like a . . . well
. . .  like a wild bear as he did.

“Grrrrr,” she
mocked and bit his neck as she wrapped her legs around his, her ankles locked
inside his knees. That gave her enough leverage to meet his thrusts with her
hips each time he pounded her.

Clawing at the
muscles in his back which undulated beneath his skin her needs escalated,
meeting his. It was as if he was making love to her with every muscle in his
magnificent body. Every thrust brought his granite abs in contact with her
belly, stirring her passion with vision of how they must look, coupling in the
forest like a pair of sweaty wild animals.

Erin looked into
Spider’s eyes. They shone with a blend of deep desire and something else she
couldn’t put a name to. Love? She felt the same for him but hadn’t been brave
enough to say the word. Perhaps she didn’t need to right now. Maybe this look
that passed between them was enough. For now.

And with that, she
arched her back, clawed his tight butt with her nails and screamed as she came
again. Her vision narrowed  and all she could see was her man’s eyes as he,
too, allowed himself to join her, his hot seed filling her deep. As her tunnel
clamped down on his shaft, it began to convulse in time with her orgasmic
waves, clenching his cock and milking it of every last drop. She didn’t want it
to end, like she’d waited her entire life to feel like this.

Then they both
collapsed in a sweaty heap, unable to communicate other than to hold hands
reassuringly as they gazed into each other’s eyes.