Kodiak's Claim (21 page)

With the adrenaline of battle still warming his blood, there were other things Reid would have preferred to do than speak with his cousin. However, now wasn’t the time or place to indulge in selfish desires. Tammy had fared well to this point, but she was human. She’d gone through a traumatic experience. He needed to get her out of here and somewhere safe, with a shower—and a bed.

Holding back a sigh and with only a slight wince, Reid got to his feet. He held out a hand to Tammy, whose cheeks flushed red, noticeable even under the layer of soot. How cute that nudity still embarrassed her. Shifters never suffered from that minor quirk. “What can you report?” Reid asked his cousin as he draped an arm around her.

“We’ve got a bunch of the rogue shifters on the run. Those that got ditched at any rate. Did you know they had a fucking helicopter stashed under a tarp outside?”

“I heard it. Could you tell who was aboard?”

“A couple of guys, one of them some white-haired dude, who waved. Cocky fellow. I take it he was the one who set this trap and took your girl?”

“Yes.” Reid kept his answer short. While Travis had heard of Gene, he’d never met him. How could he? Dead men usually didn’t visit. Until now.

It still blew Reid away once he’d realized who he faced. They’d exchanged a few words, mostly incredulous ones.

“Holy fuck, Gene, you’re alive.”

“Surprise. Bet you never expected to see me again.”

No, because the last time Reid saw him, the rebel soldiers were dragging Gene away to their special place. The place all of them were taken for special attention as the enemy sought to get them to spill their secrets. Gene never returned, and when Reid and the others escaped, they’d assumed him dead. Wrong.

“It was real nice of you to make an effort to free me,” Gene said as he lay on the ground bleeding from the gash in his side.

“If we’d have known—”

“You’d have what? Risked your life and chance to escape on me?” Gene chuckled, a rattly sound. “Liar.”

The gunshot took him by surprise. Why did his old military friend try to kill him? Did he honestly blame Reid for not coming to his rescue? Then again, Gene wouldn’t be the first soldier to survive a trauma and blame others for his ordeal.

Question was, what was Gene’s ultimate plan?

Reid wasn’t stupid. Gene could have killed him well before the fight. He had the men and the manpower. But instead, he’d fought Reid. It was almost as if he wanted to … play?

Surely not, and yet, Reid couldn’t shake the sense that Gene wasn’t after Reid’s death so much as he wanted him to suffer. If he looked at the series of events leading to this confrontation, it all added up to annoyances and nips at Reid’s power. Jabs at him. A vengeful torture for an imagined slight?

Yet it wasn’t my fault he got caught that day. We were all so unprepared for what happened.
Facts on his side or not, Reid couldn’t deny this bore the marks of a plan from a deranged mind. Not his fault entirely, and yet while he felt sorry for Gene, he wouldn’t allow it to stop him from doing what he had to in order to protect his clan.

And keep my city girl safe.

By no means would Tammy consider herself a prude, and she definitely had a healthy appreciation for the male body—especially well-built naked ones. That didn’t stop her, though, from blushing beet red as a very bare-assed Reid held a conversation with a very bare-assed Travis. Not just Travis though. Reid seemed determined to conduct a “hey, what’s going on?” dialogue with every naked, bare-assed man he came across.

At one point, with so many appendages waving around, it was hard to find something to stare at, not because the sight of so much equipment aroused her. Only Reid himself could make her heart race faster. It was just, dammit—

“Could you all put some clothes on?” she finally shouted. “Like really, I understand you’re shapeshifters and all, but I mean come on, it is freaking minus a zillion outside, and I’m really concerned that certain parts of you will freeze and fall off.”

She probably deserved the laughter, but the kiss Reid planted on her lips, in full sight, and not of the chaste variety, stole her wits and any retort.

When he finally allowed her to breathe again, he murmured against her lips, “With remarks like that, is it any wonder I want you? All of you, fearless comments and all.”

“There’s a lot of me to want, and I don’t just mean my attitude.” Fishing for a compliment and reassurance? Given her past history, damned straight.

“I’m a man who likes curves,” he growled against her ear before nipping the lobe with his teeth. Mmm, she felt that jolt right down to her toes. Where were a bed and some privacy when you needed them?

As clothing got tossed around, and the amount of bare skin—and animals wearing fur—disappeared, she caught more than one murmur mentioning the same name over and over again.

But given the commotion, she held her tongue. Some of the men got dressed, straddled their sleds and headed back for town, while others stayed behind to comb for clues and to keep an eye open for Boris, who searched for Jan. Reid was in the group who headed back home, Tammy clinging to his waist. Questions brimmed on the tip of her tongue, however a conversation at break-neck speed in the dark on the back of a snowmobile just wasn’t feasible.

Her silence lasted only until they tumbled in from the cold into his kitchen. Of course, wouldn’t it figure the chubby girl’s first words would be, “I’m starved. Got anything we can eat in that giant fridge of yours?”

Her ex-boyfriend would have totally made her pay for her honest remark, something along the lines of “Geez, Tammy, can’t you ever think of anything but food?”

Not when her tummy was grumbling.

Reid, though, was a whole different breed of man. Bear. Whatever. He grinned. “Have I told you I love the way you think? I’m sure we can find something. I can’t have you fainting from hunger, not with what I have planned.”

A plan to do what? It wasn’t hard to guess by the wink he shot her and his sensual smile. As heat suffused her, she couldn’t peel her winter layers fast enough. It didn’t help the simmering fire within her but would make dessert a lot easier.

Reid made them both one of his massive sandwiches, which she inhaled, barely chewing. She could have eaten two. Who would have thought getting kidnapped and tortured would make a girl so hungry?

One need appeased, she addressed another one. Curiosity. “Who’s Gene?”

In the process of placing their dirty dishes in the washer, Reid froze. “I don’t suppose we could skip this conversation and leave it at ‘someone from my past’.”

“I kind of figured you knew each other. From where?”

“We served in the military and we used to be friends.”

“What happened? Why does he have such a hate on for you?”

As he slammed the dishwasher door shut, Reid sighed. “My best guess? He thinks we intentionally abandoned him. We served in the same platoon together overseas. He was with me and a few others who were caught by rebel forces and held prisoner.”

“Were you tortured?”

She didn’t need his nod to read the bleak expression that crossed his face.

“But you escaped.”

“We did, but Gene apparently didn’t. We were separated, and when our chance came months later to get out, we didn’t search for him because we thought he was dead. We guessed wrong.”

“That’s not your fault.”

Reid rolled his shoulders. “Depends on your perspective, I guess. If I’d known Gene was still there, I would have turned the place upside down looking for him. But, given what he must have suffered, that’s of little consolation. Apparently, now he’s determined to make me pay.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“What I have to,” was Reid’s grim reply.

Somehow Tammy didn’t see a joyful reunion in the future. Not for a man who so callously toyed with other people’s lives. “So he’ll be back?”

“Probably. But now, at least we know who the enemy is. We can better prepare and erect defenses until he’s caught.”

“What does that mean for me?” Not an entirely selfish question given recent events. Tammy was all for women’s lib and standing on her own two feet, but when it came to dealing with psychos, she wasn’t too proud to lean on a man for help. If he was serious about wanting her.

“It means you’ll have to be cautious, not go places by yourself for the moment and always carry a weapon.”

“You talk as if I’m staying.”

He arched a brow. “You are. I thought we clarified that back at the hangar.”

“What if I’m not keen on living in a place where I’m constantly looking over my shoulder? What if I want to go home? Or—”

“And once again, you talk too much. I said you’re staying, and that’s final.”

Another day or time, she might protest his heavy-handed attitude, but right now… The woman who’d always craved a man who could take control melted at his alpha declaration.

“You’re bossy, Reid Carver.”

“Yes.”

“Overbearing.”

“With good reason,” he said with a grin.

“Really too cocky and sure of himself.”

“I have to be.”

“And sexy.”

“Finally, she gives the bear a bone.”

“I thought bears liked honey.”

“This one prefers steak, and brown sugar. Not necessarily together, though.”

“Now who’s talking too much?” she grumbled.

He laughed as he reeled her into his arms. “I think I can fix that.”

And he did by slanting his mouth over hers, an electric press of lips that made all her nerve endings come to life. Plus a few extra she’d never noted before.

Hunger, need, desire, they swirled within her making her frantic to have him.

“Impatient?” he growled against her ear as her hands tugged at the annoying fabric separating them.

“Sorry, I can’t seem to stop myself,” she replied, not sorry in the least as he obliged her by shedding his shirt and baring his chest. She ran her fingers over the hair dusting it. Tugged it. Let out a low growl when he grabbed at her hand and stopped her exploration.

“Let’s move somewhere a little more comfortable and less likely to have an audience,” he suggested.

A reasonable request, and yet a part of her, a primal corner she’d never noticed before, wanted to growl again at the delay.
Doesn’t he understand I need him now?

Her impatience must have shown because he tossed her over his shoulder, his big, brawny shoulder. As he jogged up the stairs, she had a lovely view of his taut backside flexing within his track pants. She grabbed at it and squeezed.

What I wouldn’t give to bite it.

Another strange and stray thought, especially given Tammy wasn’t the biting sort.

He bypassed the massive waiting bed and entered his large bathroom. “I think we could both use a shower,” he explained.

Hot shower and a naked Reid? As if she’d argue. He set her on her feet then proceeded to strip her of her remaining clothes. Once she was naked, he stayed on his knees, nuzzling her round belly.

In the past, she might have found herself self-conscious. But with Reid so obviously enjoying her plentiful curves, who was she to ruin his fun? When he stood and palmed both her full cheeks with his hands, palpating them, she closed her eyes and couldn’t help a smile when he said in a husky voice, “I love your ass. It is so fucking perfect.”

“And fat.”

“Yup, which is what I love most about it. Although I’ll love it more when it’s bent over for me and I get to slap up against it.”

A crude compliment that meant more to her than any flowers. “So you really don’t mind my extra pounds?” Again, she could have slapped herself for asking. But she’d been hurt so many times her ego could use the reassurance. And Reid gave it in spades.

“City girl, let me put this in words you might understand. I fucking love your body. Every curve. Every pound. Every silky inch. And before this night is through, I’m going to have licked, touched, and claimed all of it. More than once.”

“Promise?” she asked with a smile as she draped her arms around his neck.

“Fucking right that’s a promise,” he growled as he walked them both into the piping hot shower.

The hot spray hit her back, and she angled her head to allow it to rinse her hair. She could almost feel the grime sluicing off her, a grime she’d barely noted when distracted by other events. She wasn’t too distracted, though, to ignore Reid’s hand. He’d grabbed some soap and ran it over her body, following her curves. Once again, he orated his liking of what he saw and felt.

“Mine.” The possessive word wrapped her in a tingling vibration.

As he cupped her soapy breasts, his fingers rolled her nipples until they hardened into points. She couldn’t help the moan that slipped from her. It was only the first of many sounds as he tortured her breasts, teasing and pinching then turning her for a rinse so he could then latch onto her pert nubs with a hot mouth and grazing teeth.

Tammy squirmed and undulated with each sensuous touch, the heat suffusing her having nothing to do with the water of the shower. Reid was the one setting her on fire. Reid was the one making her pant. Moan. Tug at his hair. Beg.

“I need you,” she said.

“Not yet,” he replied.

She pouted. He laughed at her before spinning her to face the rear wall of his shower. Hands spread her cheeks, and hopeful he was done teasing, she arched her buttocks outward in open invitation.

He noticed, but instead of sliding his thick cock between her damp folds, his tongue swiped her.

Oh.

It lapped again. And again. He bathed her with his tongue then jabbed at her core with it. Hands braced against the wall, she keened her pleasure, loudly when his soft caresses moved from her sex to her clit. Her weak spot.

He flicked his tongue rapidly against her throbbing nub. Pleasure coiled within her, and her body tensed, tightened as it approached the edge of bliss. He didn’t let up, but she tried to hold off coming. She wanted him inside her when she came. She wanted—

She screamed as he spoiled her plan with the thrust of his fingers into her clenching channel. That combined with his tongue was too much. She orgasmed, big time.