Big Bear Mountain - The Complete Series (9 page)

T
he aching need that
had been clawing within her, ever since Jarrad had pleasured her with his
talented tongue, began to stir once again the moment they were alone in the small
room at the B&B Rosie had kindly let them have, now that Jarrad was,
technically, homeless.

When Elle emerged
from the shower, Jarrad stood before her, framed by the large window with the
spectacular mountain views. The views were the big drawcard for this cozy
mountain town, but right now, they weren’t the views Elle was interested in.

Backlit by the
window, Elle had a clear view of Jarrad’s broad shoulders and powerful chest
tapering down to his trim, sexy waist. That was the only view she needed and
she began to realize that she wanted to wake up to that view every day. For the
rest of her life.

“I’m ready,” she
said, towel drying her hair.

Jarrad looked at
her. She wore nothing but a towel wrapped around her. Every one of her
delightful curves on display for him and begging to be enjoyed to the fullest.
With her arms upstretched as she dried her hair, she looked like a hair product
model in a commercial. She took his breath away.

“Are you sure you
want this? The choice is totally yours, you know. Just because the bear and I
choose you, doesn’t mean you’re obliged if you don’t feel the same way.”

With her fingers
she beckoned him closer. He crossed the room in two easy strides and stopped
before his mate. Mouthing a
shooshing
sound, she placed her fingers
gently across his lips, silencing him.

She was sure.

Wrapping one arm
around her waist, he effortlessly picked Elle up and placed her on the bed
where he leaned into her and kissed her hard and possessively, parting her lips
with his tongue and exploring her fully and deeply. Claiming her with the very passion
she ignited within him.

Opening her mouth
fully to receive him, she allowed his tongue to dominate hers before responding
in kind, enjoying the way their tongues danced as one, suggestive of the way in
which they both desired their bodies to entwine passionately.

His hand found its
way to her breast and tugged impatiently at the towel covering his prize. She
arched her back so he could rid her of that barrier, exposing them for his
enjoyment. And hers. Flinging the towel to the floor Jarrad stood, towering
above her and admired her beauty. Her pretty face and silky hair all the way to
her shapely ankles and cute feet. And every single smooth, luscious curve in
between.

The hardening in
his pants drew her gaze to his crotch and she reached to unbutton him and have
her first real look at his equipment. From the outline it formed down his leg,
she knew she wasn’t going to be disappointed. Like everything about Jarrad, she
knew it was going to be gigantic.

“You going to run
away, if I do this?” she asked mockingly, with her hands poised on his
waistband.

Jarrad shook his
head. He didn’t dare speak. Sometimes the smartest comments are the ones you
don’t
make.

“Good answer,”
Elle acknowledged.

Unzipping his
pants, she pulled them and his boxers down in one deft motion, leaving his rigid
and positively magnificent cock jutting out like a towel rail. She ran her
fingertips gently up and down the length of the vein entwined shaft, pausing at
the swollen crown to feel its velvety smoothness.

The size of it
made her a little apprehensive. “You’ll have to be gentle with me,” she suggested,
looking again at the huge weapon before her and encircling her hand around its
girth. There was a disturbing gap between the tips of her fingers and her
thumb, thanks to his generous proportions.

“I’ll be as gentle
as I need to be,” was all he said in reply.

“I need to take
you just like this. Right now. Is that what you want?” he growled, his tone brimming
with primal passion as he unbuttoned and removed his shirt, hurling it across
the room.

S
uddenly, Elle found
herself across the bed, her butt balanced on the edge and Jarrad standing
between her spread thighs, guiding the head of his cock between her slick, hot
folds. The heat that engulfed his swollen crown and the scent of desire his
bear was inhaling told him she wanted him and was ready for him. That she wanted
him to claim her and take her to become his true mate.

Elle raised her
legs and wrapped them greedily around his waist, tightening her grip as she looked
up at him.

“Yes!” She looked
into his sparkling eyes. “Yes!” she snarled more forcefully, sensing his
hesitation.

Unable to hold
himself back any longer, Jarrad plunged his full length deep into Elle’s
waiting, moist passage. He buried himself to the hilt and felt the heat and
tightness of her down every inch of his shaft.

She made a sound
he interpreted as pain and started to withdraw, but the look on her face told
him another story and he smiled as they looked at each other with lust and
desire burning in each other’s eyes. No, the sound that caught in her throat
was one of supreme pleasure, not pain; although she wasn’t sure she even knew
the difference between them as his cock throbbed within her, stretching her to
accommodate him.

Reaching down, Jarrad
grabbed her breasts firmly and held her in place as he began to piston his
eager cock in and out of her pussy. Each time he withdraw, she ached for him to
fill her again. Over and Over.

“Tell me!” he
commanded as his pumping became more and more frantic.

Elle hooked her
feet behind the small of his back and rested them on the tight muscles of his
ass. Words failed her as the heat began to erupt from her sex to the pit of her
stomach, threatening to overwhelm her entire body.

“Tell me!” Jarrad
screamed, his eyes blazing with primitive carnality.

“Yes! I want …”

“Say it!” he
demanded again.

“I want … I want
to be your mate!” she finally managed to say just before the orgasm that had
been building within her exploded and left her without the ability to speak.
Only guttural sounds she didn’t recognize as words emerged from her mouth as
she was pushed to new heights as Jarrad erupted within her, filling her with
his hot seed.

They locked eyes
as they each came and the bond she had formed earlier was forged into something
else. Something permanent.

S
weating and
breathless, Jarrad collapsed alongside Elle and spooned her from behind,
tracing his fingers along her spine, caressing the nape of her neck and the
sensitive area he found at the base of her spine,  just above her ass.

“Mmmmmm” The power
of speech hadn’t returned to her as yet.

“Bonded and mated.
It’s done. You’re not a bear shifter, so you can leave any time and I’ll never
try to stop you, if that’s what you want to do. But I can never leave you. I’ll
protect you and care for you until my dying breath. That’s what a true mate
does. I hope you understand that.”

Elle rolled over
to face her mate. With the back of her hand she traced her knuckles down his
beautiful cheekbone, over his shoulders and eventually to his scar. She touched
it with her fingertips and thought of all he’d been through and all he had done
to save her. This was the man she wanted to wake up to every morning. Forever.

“I’m not going
anywhere. Ever. This is where my heart belongs, now and we can build a new
home, for the two of us and our family.”

“Cubs,” Jarrad
added.

“What?” Elle’s
nose wrinkled in that cute way only Jarrad seemed to notice.

“That’s what bear
shifter children are called — cubs.”

“OK, for us and
our
cubs
then.”

He hugged her
tight and let every one of her curves fit into the outline of his muscles, like
they were made to be together.

Then a thought
popped into her head and she just had to ask. “You said I wasn’t a bear shifter
… can human mates ever become bear shifters?”

S
pring in the
mountains was breathtaking. Nothing Elle had experienced in her life prepared
her for the natural beauty that now surrounded her.  She sat on the
half-finished roof, her roofing hammer in one hand and a handful of nails in the
other, admiring the surrounding landscape as she took a short break from
nailing the cedar shingles into place.

None of the beauty
that surrounded her, though, compared to the beauty of her man running through
the forest, chasing raccoons and jackrabbits. No matter how hard he worked
building their home, he always needed to let his bear have a good run each day
and burn off some energy. Those had become her favorite time of the day. Well,
her second favorite.

 As one cheeky
jackrabbit scurried down its burrow, to the bear’s very vocal frustration, a
news report on her portable radio caught Elle’s attention. She cranked up the
volume and wished that Jarrad was there to hear the news.

It seemed that a
number of veteran’s foundations across the country had received anonymous
donations from sources that couldn’t be identified. Hundreds of millions of
dollars had been electronically transferred to the bank accounts of the
foundations, all of which are tasked with providing veterans with housing,
career training and medical assistance and various other support services.

When the
registered account holders were contacted by the various foundation’s lawyers,
they all declined to comment. Some even denied knowing anything about the
donations.

Elle smiled to
herself.

Jarrad had shifted
back into his human form and was making his way to the cabin, curious as to the
reason behind Elle’s happy face.

“Something you
want to share?” he called up at her from below.

“Not really. You
go and enjoy chasing little jackrabbits through the woods, Mr. Brawn. I’m still
the brains in this outfit, right?”

THE
END

T
he horse snorted and whinnied in a shrill protest as
it fought to free itself from the mud that threatened to suck it into a cold,
wet grave. The colt’s eyes were white with fear as it strained to free itself,
each attempt causing it to sink further into the mud pool. Breathing
erratically, it began to throw its head from side to side and thrash wildly in
sheer desperation, as flight and fight responses fought for dominance.

Baring its teeth, it lashed out as Jack Raven tried to
calm the frightened animal before it sunk too deep to be saved.

“I don’t remember this being in the damn induction
manual,” he said to nobody in particular. If he’d know animal rescue was part
of the job, he’d have reconsidered. No wonder he was the only applicant for the
job. Apparently, nobody else wanted it. Now he could see why. He missed the
action. The rush of an all or nothing firefight one day and a covert,
undercover mission the next. Never a dull moment in the service, that’s for
sure. But, he had to remind himself that he’d been forced to give it all up and
settle for a job that nobody seemed to want, in the middle of nowhere. And like
the good soldier he was, he adapted.

Or at least he tried to. “Easy boy,” he said in a
grating tone that seemed to unsettle the horse even more. “Come on now, work
with me. This is just as hard for me, you know.”

With ears pinned back and teeth bared, the colt shook
its head, disagreeing vehemently as Jack tried to throw a makeshift lasso over
the horses head.

Jack didn’t know much about horses, which was quite
clear, but he knew that they were prey animals and the fearful behavior was to
be expected of an animal that spent every waking moment being a potential meal
for any hungry mountain lion or even the occasional bear.

Of course …

Suddenly, Jack realized that the horse could sense the
bear that lurked within him, even though he was shifted to his human form.
Obviously, that left him in a bit of a pickle. How was he going to get the
horse to trust him enough to rescue him if the horse went crazy each time he
got close?

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” a voice
scolded from behind him.

Jack turned and looked up the slope toward the road.
The sun was in his eyes but he made out the silhouette of a tall, curvaceous
woman with her hands on her hips. Her body language reprimanded him just as
much as the admonishment in her tone.

“I’m trying to get this stupid horse out of the mud,
as you can obviously see for yourself.” Jack wasn’t going to be spoken to like
a naughty schoolboy.

The woman made a disdainful snorting sound. “You’re
trying to kill it, that’s what you’re trying to do. You couldn’t make it thrash
around any more if you tried. That poor colt isn’t the stupid one.”

Jack didn’t know what to say to
that
. Not even
his old drill sergeant ever dared called him stupid. He called him a lot of
things but
never
stupid. His fist tightened around the coil of rope he
had been vainly trying to use to pull the horse to safety. He watched the woman
hesitate on the edge of the road before beginning a determined ascent down the
treacherously steep slope.

“Watch your …” He thought better of it and clammed up.
She wasn’t his problem, after all.

 Within seconds, her careless stomping over the loose
soil had started a small landslide and her feet flew out from under her. She
landed on her butt with a soft thud and began to slide on a bumpy carpet of
dirt and rocks, all the way to the edge of the mud pool. Right at Jack’s feet.

Trying his best not to laugh aloud, Jack wiped his
palm on his uniform and held his hand out to help the interfering stranger to
her feet. Although he didn’t make a sound, his laughter reached his storm blue
eyes. She took one look at his face, then his offered hand and blew out a sharp
breath before struggling to her feet, unaided. Without even looking at Jack,
she dusted herself off, pushed past him and began to talk to the trapped colt in
a calm, soothing tone.

“Whoa. Whoa. There … there,” she soothed, showing the
frightened horse her hand before stroking it gently on the neck. “Let’s see if
I
can’t get you out of this mess, shall we.”

Brusquely snapping her fingers, like she was ordering
a servant, the woman pointed impatiently to the rope Jack still gripped firmly
in his large, calloused hand. “Don’t just stand there like a fool. Hand me the
rope, dammit.”

Two tours in hellish places he was forbidden to even
talk about and this was the respect he’d earned for his trouble? The hardened
combat veteran made ready to stand his ground but his hand betrayed him. As if
guided by the steely glare from the stranger he silently handed her the rope.

“We need to get him out of here before he starts cramping
up. There’s no telling how much damage you’ve done leaving him in the freezing
mud.” Carefully, she slipped the rope around the heaving chest of the panicked
horse, tying it off so that the end of the rope passed between the front legs
and up onto the bank.

Then she made her way to the edge of the mud pool,
picked up the rope and began to wrap it around her hand several times.

“OK, I’ll pull. You push,” she commanded.

Jack’s gaze ran down to the military creases in his
pristine uniform pants and his highly polished, spotless boots, then across to
the foul bog that had ensnared the young, unsuspecting horse. He started to
make eye contact with the woman but his eyes were drawn to the terrified animal
with the huge, pleading eyes. He felt his bear stir deep within. He wasn’t sure
if it was his close proximity to an easy lunch or if the low rumble was one of
sympathy for a kindred spirit.

A determined expression crossed his face as he rolled
up his sleeves, revealing his well-muscled and tanned forearms and stepped into
the putrid mud and placed his hands on the flank of the shivering colt. The
muscles and tendons in his arms rippled like steel cables as he readied himself
to push the horse’s rear.

“OK, on three,” he ordered, determined to regain some
of the male that been savagely eroded by the strange woman during their brief
but bizarre encounter. He wasn’t going to be ordered around by
Herr
Kommandant
one second longer.

“One … two …”

Then it all happened at once.

She started pulling the rope like a crazy woman. The
horse started to buck and thrash its way toward the bank. Jack tried to push
but lost his footing in the slippery ooze.

Before he knew it, the horse was no longer there to
support him and he belly flopped into the stinking, festering mud pond while
the horse scampered to safety and the waiting embrace of the female horse
whisperer.

Struggling to
stand upright, Jack fumed at himself for letting some bossy woman get the
better of him and landing him face first in a
goddamn mud hole
!

Sloshing his way
to the bank, Jack shook with barely contained anger. Something he had worked
hard at from the time he started basic training. He’d always been a hot headed
young man and his temper got him into a lot of trouble as a new recruit.
You
act first and think last
, his training officer would yell at him. Time and
time again. Jack was a very reactive kind of guy and more often than not, there
wasn’t much time for ‘thinking’. Not when lives were at stake.

“I thought I
said
on three
,” he yelled as he reached dry land, water sloshing from
the cuffs of his trousers and over his mud encrusted boots.

“Who died and
made you the boss of everybody?” she countered, clearly not intimidated by his
sheriff’s uniform nor the once gleaming metal star pinned above his shirt pocket.

Deep down, he
screamed with rage at the audacity of the stupid, arrogant woman, but the words
caught in his throat. He looked at her properly for the first time and his bear
caught her scent.

His mouth fell
open. His eyes grew wide. His inner bear growled and stirred in a way it hadn’t
done since … well, ever.