ROMANCE: SHIFTER: Shifter to the Max Collection (Dragon, Bear, Wolf and Panther Shifter Romances) (Paranormal Fantasy Romance Collection) (9 page)

“Bear?”

She already knew the answer, she wasn’t stupid and the signs were obvious. She simply needed him to confirm it. If they were to have a future together, there could be no more secrets.

Ryder released a sharp breath and ran his fingers nervously through his hair. He stared into her eyes for a long moment and then simply nodded his answer.

Amber smacked his lips with a quick hard kiss and smiled smugly, “I knew it!” She seemed supremely proud of herself.

She snuggled back against Ryder. He ran his hands up and down her arms and squeezed her into his embrace. Amber marveled at the way she was feeling. She felt as though a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders; it had been years since she’d felt so content and…. happy.

“Amber?” Ryder deep voice reverberated through his chest adding a new dimension to her name.

“Hmmm?” she replied languidly.

“Marry me.”

She suddenly froze; her breath caught in her lungs. She knew what she’d heard because she’d also felt the words as they’d come through his chest. She turned her face to look directly at him. His gold-flecked eyes were serious and gazing at her intently.

“You mean it?”

“I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.”

She knew that was true. Ryder had never said anything he didn’t mean one hundred percent.

“Stay with me. Marry me. Make a home with me. Make a family with me.”

Amber thought of all the running she had done. It hadn’t done her any good. She’d ended up right back where she’d started, older and more experienced maybe, knowing the dangers and loneliness of the world outside of The Ridge, definitely. She returned Ryder’s gaze.

Ryder understood the look in her eyes and expression on her face. She needed him as much as he needed her.

She mouthed the word, “Yes.”

He stood, lifting her up in the air as though she weighed nothing, his arms cupping her ass, encouraging her to wrap her legs around him.

He could smell her arousal. He walked with her the few steps to the bed as their tongues intertwined passionately. The bulge of his erection rubbed between her thighs, teasing her.

Ryder laid her on the bed in one smooth movement, and dropped his jeans and boxer briefs releasing his enormous hard length. Before he could step out of pants crumpled at his ankles, Amber rolled on her side, grasped him and took a slow, leisurely lick from the base of his cock to the tip, suckling on the delicate underside, enticing the groan that escaped his lips.

Her eyes bore into him. She gently kissed the tip of his swollen cock, never breaking eye contact. His body jolted as her lips opened slipping over his dick and sliding all the way down, taking it all in her mouth, constricting her throat around the delicate muscle as she nuzzled the fuzz at its base with her nose.

Ryder let out a ragged sound- a mix of a growl and moan. His hips and pelvis ground against her face. After a few seconds, she slid her mouth slowly back up. His eyes were riveted to the sight of her saliva along his dick, a string of it dangling from her lips to the tip. Amber smiled at that look in his eyes, her hand gently stroked his shaft while the other fondled his balls. His head tilted back in bliss. She knew how to both torture and pleasure him, it seemed. Finally, he couldn't take anymore.

He rolled her over spreading her legs and positioning himself on top of her with his shaft at her entrance. Ryder clamped his mouth over her devouring hers penetrating her with his tongue as he thrust his hips forward, burying his length deep inside her. A choked whimper came from her throat as she felt his girth filling her. His hips pulled back slowly before thrusting forward again. He nibbled love marks along the flesh of her neck and down her collarbone. He allowed her whimpers and moans to control the shifting and grinding of his thrusts and guide him in pleasuring her. When her nails dug into his back, he brought his hand to her breast, cradling it, cupping it and teasing her nipple gently. He flicked his tongue over her nipples, before sucking and then raking his teeth over them. She felt a tingling, like an electric current run from her nipples down to her pussy.

He knew she was getting close to her climax, and her whimpers became cries of ecstasy as the tip of his cock hit the deepest part of her channel. Amber felt the beginnings of a warm tingle in her core, and as her cries and moans became a bit higher-pitched, his thrusts quickened. She cried out urgently before she fell apart, screaming out Ryder’s name in pure blissful pleasure as her orgasm rocked through her.

Sharp, animalistic sounds left Ryder's throat, grunts and growls, before Amber felt the warm pulsing jets of his seed shooting deep within her. She writhed in abandon, as pulse after pulse of his cum filled her until it was overflowing onto her thighs.

He remained inside her as her breathing slowed and continued to pepper her face and forehead with soft gentle kisses.

This man was her heart and soul. She needed to be with him. She belonged with him.

“My bear.” She whispered.

He rolled to his side keeping his strong arms wrapped around her holding her close to his body in a naked, post-love making embrace.

“You've made me the happiest Bear in the world, Amber.”

THE END

BILLIONAIRE
ALPHA TAKES HIS MATE

STORY DESCRIPTION

Everyone in the city knows 
Jakob Moore
, the billionaire playboy whose face graces the covers of multi- national newspapers and magazines. Referred to as one of the world’s richest eligible bachelors, as well as a cutthroat businessman and CEO, Jakob is well aware of his reputation. He’s proud of it! 
After all, he’s the CEO of a highly successful corporation, Alpha of his wolf shifter pack, has a different girl on his arm every night… what man in his right mind wouldn’t envy him? His life is damn near perfect… until the fateful afternoon he runs into sweet, curvy Sabrina Reynolds. Literally. 
Suddenly, Jakob’s fabulous high-powered world becomes hollow and superficial. In fact, nothing in his life means anything to him unless he can claim Sabrina as his mate. 
Sabrina Reynold’s
 parents are pressuring her to marry, but not to just any man. They want her to find a husband whose financial and social status will rival their own. But, there's not a man alive who can pin Sabrina down. If her parents' horrendous marriage wasn't enough to convince her that love is a sham, then her last few years working as a marriage counselor certainly was. Sabrina has been surrounded by awful relationships and painful, troublesome marriages. 
When Jakob Moore enters her life, he's already got two strikes against him. He's rich, and he thinks he loves her. He’s quick to learn that the only thing Sabrina hates more than the phony concept of love, is money. 
Surrounded by yes men, Jakob is used to getting what he wants, but with stubborn, headstrong Sabrina, he certainly has his work cut out for him. Sabrina’s mind is made up, and no man will convince her otherwise. Not even Jakob Moore, the sexy CEO who makes her pulse race and her knees weak. 
When Sabrina gets dragged into danger because of him, Jakob has had enough and now he will stop at nothing to save her and mate her. But, will Sabrina accept this Shifter into her life before it's too late, or will her stubbornness be the end of her?

Sabrina Reynolds sat in her office listening to Mary and Peter Ableman discuss their sex life—or lack thereof—for the third time this month. When she'd ditched law school to go into marriage counseling, she'd thought she'd be saving marriages. Since graduating and getting her job at Oasis Counseling Services, she hadn't seen one couple successfully redesign their marriage into a happy one. Oh, plenty of couples stayed married after coming to see her, but those marriages consisted mostly of women who'd decided to accept their husband's infidelities, or men who'd decided to stay with their nagging, ball crushing wives for the kids' sake.

That was a big one: for the sake of the kids. She heard it all the time from couples. She knew she should just stop asking, but inevitably she'd put the question to them:
Do you still love each other? Think about each other during the day? Miss each other when you're not together?
The inevitable answer was always:
Well, no, but for the sake of the kids...

Her phone vibrated and she looked down to see a text from her mother.

Are you coming to our anniversary dinner? I haven't received your RSVP. You're father's not well, you know. It could kill him if he doesn't see you.

Talk about passionless marriages. Sabrina's parents had decided that making money was their top priority, and everything else was a distant second. They were richer than Sabrina would ever be, but they hadn't loved each other since she was five. She was twenty-six now. That's a lot of years to spend with someone you can't stand. Sabrina rolled her eyes and looked up to see Mary and Peter staring at her.

"Sorry," she said, "did you say something?" Sabrina caught her reflection in the mirror and smiled at her new haircut. The hairdresser had been right. It complemented her round face and the curves of her body. Somehow her bright green eyes looked that much brighter with a cute bob and red highlights.

"I asked," Mary said, her voice barely audible over Peter's heavy breathing. "If you thought it was worth it for us to stay together?" She burst into tears then and Peter automatically stuck out his hand and patted her knee. It would have been sweet if Sabrina didn't know the main reason for Mary's tears was because of the twenty year old secretary she'd caught Peter screwing not long ago.

Sabrina replied with her much rehearsed answer to such questions. "There's still a lot of work to do, but if you love each other, that work can be done. Marriage is tough for everyone."

Which is exactly why I'm never getting married.
No marriage plus no kids equals a happy life.

She looked out the window and wished she could be outside and away from this constant reminder that all the movies and songs got it wrong. There was no such thing as happily ever after.

***

Jakob Moore sat behind his mahogany desk and looked at his watch. The overhead lights flickered on the gold, creating a rich tapestry of yellows and creams that made his watch look shiny and expensive. Considering the fact that it was expesive- very, Jakob appreciated the opulence of it as it gleamed against the tan of his skin.

Blake scanned Jakob's face, uncertain if he should speak. He hated feeling inferior to anyone, especially Jakob. But that's what being second in command meant—you were always inferior to the alpha above you.

"Well?" Jakob asked. His hand went to the scruff growing out on his chin. He'd have to shave before the meeting. He wished he could say that growing extra hair close to the full moon was a stupid old wives' tale, but it happened every time. Sometimes that meant shaving twice a day in the days preceding the wide, round moon he'd come to both love and loathe. Not that it mattered as much these days, he'd been able to shift at will since a teenager; now at thirty, it was almost as easy as chewing gum. But still... there was something about the moon that drew him and his pack a little closer to the edge every month. A little further from control.

With this new deal coming up, there was nothing to be left to chance. Jakob had planned this takeover for too long. Putting his competition out of business was the only thing he'd thought of for the last several months, carefully plotting each move before taking action. That was what any good leader did—thought of a solution, then implemented it. The takeover wasn't about getting rich—Jakob already had billions more than he could count—it was about protecting his pack from their rival company.

If one rival was able to make a dent in his production, reduce his income by even one percent, the whole pack would suffer. The pack depended on him not just for money, but for their lives. It was Jakob's company—he was the alpha after all—but it was run by his clan, and they depended on him to make sure it continued.

"Well?" Jakob demanded, baring his teeth a little more. He did not like waiting for answers.

"If I gave anyone the impression I was displeased with you in any way," Blake said, hiding the snarl that tried to rise in his throat, "I apologize. You know that's not true. My only intention when speaking with Mark was to emphasize how important this deal is. When we crush Remy Riders, it will make our own product that much stronger, and our pack that much more powerful."

Jakob nodded. He knew Blake wasn't being entirely honest, as pack leader he could sense even the hint of a lie, but he also knew Blake was loyal. If he'd sensed any semblance of disloyalty, he'd have banished him from the pack right there. As the alpha, it was sometimes important to distinguish between disloyalty and someone blowing off steam.

"Now leave me," Jakob said, running his hand over his scruff again. "I need to get ready."

"No, Mom." Sabrina stepped out of her office building. It was five o'clock and she needed a latte. The phone burned against her ear as she hurried down the street. "
No,
Mom."

"But Sabrina," her mom persisted, "you're almost thirty. You need
a man
. Why don't you just meet Walter? He's cute."

Sabrina scoffed. Cute to her mom usually meant someone either way too old or way too young for Sabrina. "He's probably rich too, right?"

"Well..." her mother said. "He could support you. Then you could quit that God awful job you have. I still don't know what you were thinking when you quit law school. It was probably the worst thing you could have done. Other than letting yourself get fat, of course."

"I'm not fat Mom. And I
like
my job." Both things were true. The curves of Sabrina's body were not made of fat, they were fashioned from a certain type of sex appeal her mom wished she had herself, instead of the stick figure and bird's legs she'd been cursed with. Sabrina was voluptuous and although she resisted any advances men made towards her, that didn't stop her from appreciating the way most men's eyes followed her as she moved across a room.

As for her job, despite feeling like the couples she counseled were all doomed, she also felt that she could help them get through the encroaching darkness a little easier. She thought there were times she at least made the failure of marriage a little easier to take.

"Sabrina, are you listening to me?" her mom screeched into her ear. "What about our anniversary party. You need to—"

Sabrina slammed into something hard and bounced off it like a rubber band. She fell back on the sidewalk and felt her hands scrape cement, her phone flying from her hand. Her mother's voice still screeched through the air from five feet away. She shook her head, dazed. "What the hell." She felt like she'd just crashed into a semi-truck.

"Are you alright?" A voice, deep and dark and irresistible, spoke to her through a fog. She shook her head again and looked up into the eyes of a man who couldn't be real. He was too perfect. His eyes were layered with shades of blue and he looked at her like he was trying to cast a spell.

"Are you alright?" he asked again, extending a hand. It was larger than most men's hands, and although her common sense told her she was seeing things, she could have sworn the muscles of his hand pulsed under his skin like a heartbeat.

"I... I'm fine," she said, finally finding her voice. She took his hand without even thinking. It felt natural to place her hand in his. His skin was hot—a few degrees warmer and he might've burned her. She wondered if he had a fever, but his tanned skin was too flawless. No infection could have survived in the body that helped her up now. Muscles bulged under his shirt, and blonde hair fell into a slight shag over his eyes. For the first time in her life, Sabrina forgot how to breathe.

***

Jakob stared at the woman in front of him. He felt something stir deep inside him, slow at first, then quickly building to a towering monolith. His muscles contracted under his skin, and he felt a flicker of that familiar defiance as the wolf in him tried to escape. He took several deep breaths.

What the hell is happening to me?

When he opened his eyes again he looked more closely at the woman who'd run into him. Her body was not the type he would have normally gone for, but there was something seductive about the curve of her waist and the pout of her lips. Her scent filled him and it was like tasting air for the first time in his life. Jakob could have any woman he wanted—and had—but the second he laid eyes on Sabrina he knew she was the only woman he would want ever again. He had found his mate.

She took the hand he offered and when he clasped his palm, so much bigger than hers, around her delicate fingers, there was an undeniable spark. Sabrina felt it too, only instead of being thrilled as Jakob had been, it scared her. Alarm bells screamed inside her head.
Warning! Warning! Get Away From This Man!

It wasn't that she thought he was dangerous. The sweet, soft look in his eyes as he helped her up told her otherwise, but the pull she felt towards him was unnatural. She'd never met a man she'd wanted before—not like this. Her insides twisted as she retracted her hand from his, it didn't want to move.

"Are you alright?" Jakob asked again. "Did I hurt you?"

Sabrina giggled. She couldn't help it. The school girl in her rushed to get out. "Shouldn't I be asking you that? I mean, I bumped into you, right?"

Jakob smiled. Sabrina's heart flamed inside her chest as the corners of his lips twitched up. He looked like a model. Her breath quickened along with her pulse.

Jakob's own mind was spiraling out of control. He needed this woman, and he'd
never
needed anything before. The meeting he'd been headed to—the one he'd planned for months—flew from his head and sailed to the clouds. It no longer mattered.

"Where are you going?" he blurted.

The words struck a distant memory of an overbearing mother demanding to know every detail of Sabrina's whereabouts, afraid she was hanging out with "the wrong crowd." Of course, to Sabrina's mother, the wrong crowd meant anyone who made less than a million dollars a year.

Sabrina looked at this man's suit and tie. They looked expensive. His shoes shined under the rays of the sun. The gold watch wrapped around his wrist—which was so large the band could barely fit—looked like a Rolex.

"Nowhere," she replied. Her voice was harsh, but she didn't care. This was exactly the type of man her parents would love. The type she needed to stay away from. "Excuse me, I have to go."

She turned and left the man standing there, unaware of his hardened jaw and the unnatural white glow that burned behind his eyes.