The Bear's Reluctant Wolf (9 page)

“Okay.” That lone word was soft,
hesitant, but accepting. He turned around, and she waited for whatever it was
he was going to tell her, because she knew it would change how she felt for
him. Hell, she was already feeling the weakening of her resolve to keep her
distance from the male that was destined to be her mate, because she had sensed
his true and agonizingly real emotions. This was going to be one hell of a ride.

Chapter Six

“I have a son, obviously as Karla had
thrust it in your face.” Trace looked at the ground and rubbed the back of his
neck with his hand. “I was going to tell you everything because I have nothing
to hide, but then that shit had gone down…” Breathing out roughly he still felt
his blood boiling with rage from when he had seen Karla stop right behind
Candace. Not only had she fucked up their almost kiss, she had also been a
bitch, put his mate down, and insulted him. Trace could handle a lot of
bullshit, but his ex-wife was insane in more ways than one, and had showed a
very small sample of that to Candace today. He glanced up at his mate, and even
if she fought him, showed her strength and willpower, she was sweet and gentle,
and a true submissive in every sense of the word. “I certainly didn’t plan on
airing everything out like this, but it is what it is.” She nodded once, and so
he continued. “I had no intentions of marrying Karla, because I knew the two of
us were just too toxic together. We were oil and water, gasoline and fire, and
the violence that came from her when things didn’t go her way rivaled some of
the meanest shifters I have met, me included.” No way was he going to sugarcoat
any of this for Candace.

“You included?” She stood still, not
showing her emotions on her face, but she couldn’t hide the scent of her
uncertainty from him.

“I like to fight, Candace, to release
all this anger I have inside of me. I have always been this way, but when I
found Karla in our bed with Dale, the male I considered a very close friend,
something inside of me snapped, and I know I will always be like this. I may
not have loved her, and may have only stayed with her, married her even because
she was pregnant with my kid, but I was loyal to her, and expected the same
fucking thing in return.” He started pacing and could feel rage climb higher
inside of him like a tornado getting ready to touch down.

“I’m sorry.” Her voice was soft, and it
broke his fucking heart. He didn’t want her feeling those things for him. He
had done a lot of bad shit in his lifetime: hurt a lot of fucking people, slept
with random and faceless women, and had a total disregard for everything and
everyone. He was a fucker in the worst kind of way. But Trace prided himself on
his loyalty, on the fact he had never screwed a friend over, and that he
protected what was his.

“You have nothing to apologize for,
Candace. You got stuck with an asshole for a mate.” He swallowed roughly and
took a step closer to her. The scent of peaches filled his nose, and he inhaled
deeply, wanting to have it seep into his very cells.

“Maybe.”
She licked her lips, but he forced himself to stare into her eyes. “But you’re
a pretty protective and honest mate at that.” His heart was pounding fast and
hard in his chest. And her words played over and over again in his head.
“Besides, I kind of like this prickly side of you.
It makes
fighting you more fun.” She was good at calming the situation and bringing his
bear down a few notches, but that didn’t mean her words were true. Trace knew
what he was, and this was the first time in his life where he wished he wasn’t
so hard, wasn’t so rage-filled, and was able to be the softly spoken mate she
deserved.

He wanted to kiss her like no other, but
he needed to finish telling her everything. “I went ballistic over it, Candace,
tore my best friend out of the bed and beat him until he was within an inch of
his life. And the only reason I didn’t finish him off was because Karla called
Maverick, and he got there in time to drag me off the motherfucker.” She didn’t
flinch at the way he spoke about Dale, about the way he growled the last word,
letting it be absolutely clear that he wished Maverick hadn’t pulled him off of
the human male he had once been close with. “Do you understand what I’m saying,
Candace?” He didn’t give her a chance to answer, just took another step toward
her until their chests brushed together. “If it wasn’t for Maverick stopping
me, I’d be in jail because I would have ripped Dale’s fucking throat out.” He
lowered his eyes to her mouth, saw her lips part, and knew that what he was
about to do, after he had just told her, was fucked up. “And I wouldn’t have
fucking cared that I took his life. In fact, I would have felt pretty damn good
about it.” He lifted his eyes to look into hers, saw the bone-searing need
reflected back at him, and knew she wouldn’t stop what he was about to do. He
reached out, gripped a chunk of her hair, and tilted her head back. The bear in
him rose up, growled and bared its teeth as he took in the long, graceful arch
of her neck. His canines lengthened, and he moved closer, running the tip of
his nose up her throat. His mark would look really fucking good on her. He
inhaled again and again, and knew he would never get enough. She smelled sweet
and clean, and all fucking his.

“
Mine
.”
He tightened his hold, knowing that there was a flash of pain in his grip, but
also scenting that she was growing wetter by the minute. “Do you hear me,
Candace?” She gasped, and he said, “You’re fucking mine, baby.
All.
Mine.” He ran his canines over her flesh, loved that
she reached out and held onto his arms, and pulled her closer. “You feel how
hard I am for you?” She nodded, and he fucking loved that she closed her eyes,
as if they were too heavy for her to keep open. “You see what kind of bastard I
am, to be hard for you after I told you I almost killed a man that betrayed my
trust?” The sound of her heart beating fast, like a frightened little rabbit,
shouldn’t have turned him on, but it did. “I would scare the fuck out of you if
I told you all the things I want to do to your body.” She slowly opened her
eyes, piercing him with the crystalline color.

“What do you want to do to me?” Her
voice was so low that he had to strain to hear, but he understood her well
enough. His bear rose up violently. Trace’s nails grew into claws, his body got
bigger, and his muscles expanded as the animal inside of him fought for
ultimate supremacy. He would have shifted right then if his human self wasn’t
just as strong as the alpha bastard inside of him.

“I’d rip every single piece of clothing
that covers your body, bend you over my bike, and fuck you until you couldn’t
walk straight for a damn week.” Her chest rose and fell frantically, and he
dipped his gaze down to see her large breasts press against her shirt. The
material was snug against her body, and even though he could see the outline of
her bra, the constraint did nothing to hide her hard nipples just aching for
his mouth. “And when you couldn’t take anymore—” He wrapped his other hand
around her hip and moved them backward until she was forced to sit on the seat
of his Harley. Letting go of her hair and taking a small step back allowed
Trace to get a grip on himself. Her thighs were slightly spread, and although her
jeans made it impossible to see her pussy, he scented her arousal and the fact
she was wet for him. His dick punched out, hard and already wet at the tip.
Fuck, he wanted her right now. Would she let him kiss her, touch her, do all
the filthy things he wanted to do, but hadn’t uttered? “When you begged me to
stop, I’d give you more, little wolf.” He reached down and rubbed himself
through his pants, loving that she had to look down and watch the act. “
Mmm
, I can think of so many things I’d like to do to you,
and I’m pretty sure that they would leave marks. Beautiful, red and raised
marks that belonged to me.” He really wasn’t trying to scare her, but dammit,
he had never felt this excited, this aroused, or this fucking feral before. And
it was all because of her.

“Trace, you should hear the things
you’re saying.”

Oh, he fucking knew what he was saying,
and wasn’t about to stop. “I’d take every part of you, baby, claim it all until
there would be no mistake that you are mine, irrevocably.” Bracing his hands on
the seat on either side of her body, he leaned in until only an inch separated
their mouths. “And you’d let me do whatever I wanted, wouldn’t you?” Small
mewling noise left her, and Trace knew Candace was putty in his hands. “Go on,
say it. Just say it.”

Her eyes fluttered, and she said, “I do,
but I shouldn’t.” He bared his teeth, wanting to nip at her, break her flesh,
draw blood, and lick the wound. He needed his scent in her, needed his mark on
her, and wanted to prove that she was his.

The need to be with his mate, and the
fact that with every passing day that desire to succumb to each other only
grew, told him that she wouldn’t be able resist him for much longer. She was
strong and had willpower to rival any grown shifter male, but he was her mate,
and chemistry, biology, and fate dictated that they were made for each other in
every way possible. There was no denying, no backtracking, and no running when
it came to them coming together eventually. It was inevitable.

He didn’t deny himself any longer.
Taking the back of her head again, twisting the strands in his hand, he pulled
her head and claimed her mouth for the first time. A grunt of pleasure left him
at the first touch of his lips to hers. She gasped, which had her mouth opening
further and allowing him to delve his tongue inside. Sweet and saltiness
invaded his tastes buds, filling his mouth, and having him crave more. Over and
over he fucked her with his lips and tongue, stroking every part that made her
up, and loved that she rubbed against him, as if she needed to get even closer.
Trace kept kissing her, unable to stop. He moved his hands down her back, over
the nice, big and round curve of her ass, and slipped a palm under each cheek.
In one move Trace lifted her off the bike and turned. He sat in the seat and
brought her over his lap.

“It’s good, baby.” She made a humming
noise against his mouth, and tilted her head to deepen the kiss. For several
long drugging moments all they did was explore and memorize each other with
their hands and mouth. He was hard, needed to be inside of her, but despite the
fact she was willingly kissing him back, holding him so tight her nails dug
into his skin, there was a part of her she was keeping reserved. He couldn’t
blame her though, and he was a bastard for kissing her after he dropped a bomb
like that.

Trace gripped her arms and gently pushed
her away so their bodies no longer touched. He looked at her lips, ones that
were red, swollen, and glossy from his kiss. A surge of adrenalin pumped
through him at that thought and sight.

“We should probably stop.” She was the
one to speak.

“Yeah.”
He didn’t want to, of course, but if they kept this up he wouldn’t be able to
stop himself or his bear from claiming her right in the middle of the woods. As
sexy and tempting as that sounded, and as much as he liked the image of her
pressed naked against a tree while he took her from behind, that wasn’t how he
wanted to be with his mate for the first time.

“Trace?”
He could tell what she was about to ask because her attention was on his scar.

“You want to know how I got the scar,
Candace?
” Their eyes clashed, and then she nodded.

He hated when people asked about it,
loathed when they stared at it, and wanted to fuck shit up when he saw them
murmuring to each other because of it. But he felt none of that with Candace,
and instead wanted to tell her everything about himself, and hoped she did the
same, but only when the time was right for her. Of course he didn’t expect her
to instantly accept him, but how she was reacting to him now was a pleasant
start. “Karla came after me with a kitchen knife after Maverick pulled me off
Dale.” He turned around and looked back at the view of the mountains and lake
below. Her shock was clear, even if he hadn’t been looking at her face. He hadn’t
even told her everything, just taken advantage of her lust for him. Turning his
back to her and looking back at the lake, he inhaled deeply and finished
telling her everything. “I should have gone to jail for a long time, for what I
did to that human.” He turned around to see her watching him with only
acceptance. There was no judgment in her eyes, and he found that a big fucking
relief. “When I say I fucked him up, I mean just that. He couldn’t walk,
couldn’t even talk because of what I did to his body. And to this day he is
still walking with a limp. Karla went crazy when she saw what I did, and that’s
when she attacked me.” He stayed silent for a moment, let her really absorb all
of that, but then needed to finish this. “You’re mated to a monster, Candace.”

“Oh God.”
She covered her mouth and stared at him like he really was a monster, but then
he deserved all of it. But then she spoke, and it had nothing to do with what a
piece of shit he was, or how scared he made her. “Was your son okay? He wasn’t
there, I hope.” Her eyes looked glossy, and the fact he sensed that she felt
sorry for him would have knocked him on his ass if he hadn’t forced himself to
stand upright.

He shook his head, not having the voice
to speak. After everything he had said his mate was focused on if Liam had been
okay? His heart cracked in his chest. “No, he was away at college when this
happened.” His voice was hoarse, and when she moved closer to him, he couldn’t
find the strength to keep her away. The truth was he wanted her to comfort him,
because there had never been a person in his life who had given him that. But
here was this small, yet curvy female, and she was letting off all kinds of
emotions for
him
.
Empathy,
sorrow, pain, and comfort.
All of those things came from her, wrapped
around his body as if she were the one to physically come over to him and do
it.