Shifters on Fire: A BBW Shifter Romance Boxed Set (21 page)

“Is that what I was doing?” The adrenalin running through her ebbed, leaving her shaking. Through the haze, the enormity of what had happened sank in. She reached up to touch her teeth, surprised to find them exactly as they had been when she had awoken that morning. “I grew fangs. What the hell?”

“I forget there are things you still don’t understand. Yes, all females, or omega males if the couple is of the same gender, brand their alphas to let others know they are taken.” He took a step toward her then groaned, adjusted his pants, and moved to the doorway. “The teeth are necessary. It happens to all our mates but only when branding.”

“So it’s like a wedding band,” she said between chattering teeth. “Am I turning into a bear?”

“No.” He wrapped a blanket around her. “You are becoming one with your animal spirit, but you will always be human.”

Shivers racked her body until she could no longer focus on anything but trying to control her body’s reaction to what had happened.

He walked out of the room and a second later Shauna returned with him. “Let’s get you undressed and comfortable.” She sent a glare at Brutus. “Alpha, you may leave now.”

“I will see you in the morning.” Brutus kissed her forehead but made no other move to touch her.

When the door clicked behind him, Shauna smiled so big it lit up the room. “You are doing well, my girl.”

“I tried to bite him,” she said, trying to wrap her brain around that, but her body shook so hard she couldn’t think. She allowed Shauna to help her undress and into bed. The soft sheets and the warmth of the blankets enveloped her.

“We all mark our territory, eventually, if we are lucky.”

“You are mated?”

Shauna walked over to the open French doors and closed them, shutting out the roar of the water. “I am. My Hans is a guardian, and he and a few others, including my sons, are out on a diplomatic mission of sorts. Brutus had more pressing issues here at home and sent them in his stead.”

“What issues?”

“You.”

~~*~~

Her hand moved down his chest as Quinn climbed up his body; her touch burned and healed as she straddled his hips, her heat bringing his cock to aching attention.

“Alpha.” A man’s voice invaded his sleep.

He growled, angry to have his dream disrupted. “Get out.”

“We have a problem.”

He sat up. If one of the guardians was at his bedroom door before the sunrise, they brought more than a simple concern. He grabbed the jeans he had discarded on the floor but left the shirt and his shoes where they lay. He cracked the door, making sure Quinn still slept. “Post someone on the balcony but be careful not to wake her.”

“Yes, sir.”

He followed Daryl out of the cave and wrinkled his nose at the scent of another grizzly. “Have you seen him?”

“No, but according to the moose, there are more unmated males heading our way. This one is from the Grand Teton area. Meaning word has reached outside our park.” Daryl paused for a second, whether for effect or to think Brutus didn’t know. “It isn’t for me to say, but you have given her enough time to decide. You must bear her mark by sunset or we will have a serious situation on our hands. If they fight over her and she gets in the middle, she cannot survive.”

Fifty yards outside the cave, he came across the first unfamiliar track. “Show yourself.”

He could smell the other grizzly up the hill, but if he moved to attack, he would have the disadvantage. Shifting, he postured in the open where anyone within the area could see and hear him. Without warning, the other bear attacked. Lunging for Brutus’s throat, the younger bear left himself open to the alpha’s counterattack, which in turn landed the other bear on his back. He roared loud enough to make the other bear’s clan in Grand Teton know he meant business. Another attack at his neck had Brutus showing him he couldn’t fight against the Yellowstone bear. Brutus bit into the neck and the other bear yelped, pulling back. Brutus followed the bear down to the lake and every time the bear stopped, Brutus took another step, urging him farther away from his mate.

“Brutus!” Quinn’s panicked voice cut through his anger. He turned, running full out until he saw her standing at the cave entrance wearing only one of his shirts, Asha holding her back, and a scout looking uncertain as to whether to touch her or allow her to run after him. He paused long enough to shift. She broke from Asha’s grasp and threw herself at him. He lifted her into his arms and allowed her to check him over for injuries. When she found the bite, she cursed, demanding he put her down so she could give the idiot a piece of her mind.

“How dare he mark what is mine.”

He couldn’t breathe. She had made her decision right there before his people now standing in the predawn light. She must have realized it, too, as she paused, stared around her then she kissed him, kissed him hard and long. Her heart pounded through her breast, but she could be a mile away and he would know her pulse. She pulled his head back, a wild look in her eyes. “Not here. You can brand me in the privacy of our chambers.”

His people parted as he approached, but his focus was the woman in his arms. He passed his chamber door and moved into hers, kicking the door behind them. As soon as the door closed, his mate sank her incisors into the soft skin at his collarbone. He hissed, ripping off her underwear and fighting to remove his jeans. As soon as they were at his ankles, he kicked them to the side, lifted her high, and placed her against the wall. He entered her in one movement. Her softness was everything he wasn’t and everything he needed. He ripped at the top of his flannel shirt and the buttons popped.

Quinn released her bite and squeezed him tight. Meeting every thrust with one of her own, she forced him deeper with her heels. “Mine.” He growled, placing his hand on the warm skin over her heart.

“Always.” She mimicked his action and, in doing so, cemented their bond. He drove into her, holding off his orgasm until she pushed him hard, clenching his cock deep within. When her body shook around him and she screamed out her passion, he allowed himself his release, roaring loud enough for everyone in the cave to know the mating had taken place.

As she lay limp in the protection of his arms, he carried her to the bed. “Do you want to bathe before sleeping?”

“No I like to smell your scent on me.” She yawned, easing the pieces of the shirt off. As soon as he slid into the large bed, she cuddled up to his side in the protective embrace of his arm. He left a kiss on the top of her head.

“There is nothing sweeter than your scent on my skin, my mate.”

~~*~~

She hurt in places she never knew existed. The sun reflected off the water through the open doors. Doors which were closed when she went to sleep. In a flash of images, the memories of the early morning events flooded through her. She rolled over to see the empty side of the bed where Brutus had been. She cuddled under the covers, the bed too warm and cozy to leave, despite her desire to get up and find Brutus, her mate. Throwing her legs over the side of the bed she made a mental note to ask if the very large, very tall bed had a stepstool she could use to get down without breaking an ankle. Although having Brutus help her into bed wasn’t an issue in her book.

His voice wafted into the room through the crack in the door. Drawn as if pulling her by a leash, she picked up his discarded flannel shirt and pulled it around her like a robe as there were no buttons left on it to use. She pushed the door open and froze to discover her man and four others sitting around a coffee table looking over a map of the lake region. All five heads snapped up at her presence.

Brutus got to his feet and crossed the room. He wore jeans and boots but remained shirtless. As he leaned in to kiss her in greeting, she gasped raising shaking fingers to touch the two raised, red puncture wounds on his clavicle surrounded by a purplish bruise. “Did I do these?”

He glanced at his shoulder with a sense of pride. “You branded me good.”

“Do they hurt?”

“They are—tender but act as a reminder of what we share.”

“Could you put a shirt on then?”

“Why?” A look a genuine confusion crossed his face.

“I don’t want everyone thinking I hurt their alpha.”

He threw back his head and roared with laughter. “This is my badge of honor. This says my woman has accepted me as her mate and wants the world to know I am hers.”

“Those marks bring great joy to the clan,” one of the men said as casually as if they were discussing washing a window.

“So, what, you will walk around shirtless until they fade?”

“You wish for your brand to fade from me?”

She looked at the mark and an animal instinct fought the thought of the mark fading so much she thought about biting him again. “No, but will it fade?”

“In time, but you will bite me again and the mark will return.”

“You want me to bite you?”

“If telling the world you have claimed me as your mate required you sinking your teeth into me every night, I would gladly lie still.” He brushed his lips against hers. “This mark is something every male in the clan hopes to be graced with one day.”

“Oh.”

“Are you hungry? It’s lunchtime.”

“Starving.” She never slept in, but then she had never bitten a man before either.

“Do you want me to call the kitchen and have them deliver…”

“What do you usually do?”

“Join everyone in the dining hall.”

“Would my presence there make people nervous?”

“Dressed like that, yes.”

“Crap, I forgot. Let me get showered and dressed.”

“I would join you, but we would never make it to eat.” He followed her back into their chamber. “In answer to your question, my people would feel honored to have you eat with them. They are all anxious to meet you. And are thrilled we have mated.”

“Alpha, I don’t mean to interrupt.”

“Business calls. I will wait for you in the other room. Take your time.”

How could just being in the same room with him make her knees weak? She entered the well-stocked bathroom full of every toiletry known to man. Not knowing what she would want, they’d bought one of everything. A knot formed in her belly, and she bit her lip trying to prevent tearing up. No one had ever tried so hard to make her feel at home. Fifteen minutes later, showered and dressed in clothes brought back from her place, she pulled her wet hair into a ponytail and walked into the other room.

“Ready?” Brutus asked, a glint in his eye.

She nodded, thinking she should have asked to eat in the room because all she wanted was to climb back into bed and make love to the man before her again. “As I will ever be.”

They walked through a series of halls and rooms so complex, she would never figure out how to get back. He showed her where two other exits were in case she needed them.

“How many live here,” she asked.

“Ninety-seven, with your arrival.”

“Wow.”

“The numbers ebb and flow as cubs are born and some leave, some stay on, some come back.”

“Where do they go?”

“Some go to the big city, some go looking for their mates and are lucky to find them. It’s the same no matter where you are. Every child talks about what they are going to do when they get out of here.”

“Did you leave?”

“I did. I left for over a decade. Moved all over the country until I realized what I was looking for was right here. And it took a while, but you must have realized it, too, as you got the prized job as a ranger in Yellowstone.”

She paused and he paused next to her. “I love my job.”

“And you are good at it.”

“I don’t want to give it up.”

He cupped her cheek. “I would never ask you to.”

“You wouldn’t, but I thought that…”

“You are my mate, now, but that doesn’t t mean you lose who you are. You might find it easier if we arrange to have you moved from Mammoth to assignments closer to our home. But you wouldn’t be the first to travel over an hour for work.”

No, she wouldn’t. “Would the other packs be nervous about having your beta working their lands?”

“Since we are mated, it shouldn’t prove an issue, but if you choose to be on our lands you might find the wildlife works with you as opposed to against.”

“I would also be closer to you.”

“There is that.”

“Can you see what you can do?”

“After lunch, we will see what we can do. It might take a few weeks to get the transfer. I suggest we explain we are getting married. That will expedite things.”

“How do you explain your presence in the park?”

“Many of us pass as maintenance, but most of the alphas are firemen. The position allows us access to the park and the ability to protect our own. In the winter months, we spend our time outside the cave shifted. The long secluded winters are something we will need to deal with for you. This can be very isolated and leaving can take some real planning.”

Her fingers itched to run through the chest hair and then she remembered he was hers and she had every right to touch him so she did. He closed his eyes and sighed. “I think you can find something to keep the boredom at bay.”