Break This! (A 300 Moons Book) (11 page)

T
hea had never believed
in storybook romances.

So when the bear dropped her on her feet in a meadow below a giant castle she’d never known was in the middle of Glacier City’s park, she figured she might as well learn to expect unexpected.

She studied the castle, which was reflected in the pond that separated the meadow from the hillside.

When she turned back, the bear was gone.

In its place Chance stood naked before her.

He was achingly beautiful. The moonlight shone in his dark hair, which was nearly as glossy as when he was a bear.

Thea gorged herself on the sight of his muscular frame - the wide planes of his chest narrowing to draw her attention to chiseled abs better than any she’d seen on the male models she’d worked with.

Her eyes lingered hungrily for a second at his penis, which was jaunting out enthusiastically. Had she really fit that giant thing inside her last night?

She tore her gaze away and met his eyes instead, her cheeks getting hot.

The way he looked at her. It was too much.

She looked away quickly.

“Don’t look away,” he commanded, and she felt her eyes go back to his of their own accord. “I’m glad if my body gives you pleasure. Enjoy it, my love. Giving you pleasure is the purpose of my life from this moment on. ”

What a sappy load of
—

—But no. His eyes.

He
meant
it. Every word.

There was no answer for a statement like that. At least none that Thea could think of. So instead of speaking she acted.

Without breaking eye contact, she slid the end of her gown out of the golden ring at her chest.

Chance watched her, his lips parted slightly, hypnotized.

Enjoying the power she had over him, Thea allowed her hips to sway slightly as she slowly unwound the fabric from her body.

When she was finished, she stood before him wearing nothing but a wisp of a thong.

“Your neck,” he whispered.

Her hand went immediately to the place where he had bitten her the night before. It had been hidden by the winding fabric of the gown.

“Does it hurt?” he asked, as if in pain himself.

She shook her head.

“It aches, but it feels… good.”

“Do you know what it means?” he asked her.

Thea realized she knew, though she hadn’t given it conscious thought until that moment.

“Does it… bond us somehow?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Are you mad that I did it without asking?”

“No. Are you disappointed?” she heard herself ask the words she had been afraid to voice.

“What do you mean?” he asked, his eyes fiery.

“I mean, I know you didn’t do it on purpose. Do you wish you had done it to someone else?”

“Why would I want to do it to someone else?” he demanded.

“You hardly know me. You don’t even know why I was helping Sharp. You don’t know about my family, you don’t know about my past, you don’t know—”

“I know that you’re brave and smart and good in a crisis. I know I can trust you and that you make me smile like I’m a kid again. You’ll fill me in on all that other stuff later. Or not. I don’t really care, because as far as I’m concerned, my life before you was meaningless and I don’t need to know about yours before me unless you want me to. You. Are. Mine. Are we going to have a problem with that?”

Thea smiled the big goofy grin that was exactly wrong for this very serious moment, but that he kept drawing out of her, and shook her head.

“God, I love that smile,” Chance murmured as he pulled her close.

C
hance tried
to slow himself down, but it was impossible with Thea in his arms, her body so soft and pliant against his, her smile so sweet against his lips.

He kissed her, losing himself in her fragrance, grasping helplessly at her hips, rocking her against his pounding erection.

She sighed into his mouth, and he had to fight every instinct not to throw her to the grass and fuck her until she screamed.

This was special, this was real.

He kissed his way along her jawline and nuzzled her neck, licking at the place where his bite was already healing.

Mine
, the bear thought, and Chance echoed him,
mine.

He went down on one knee to kiss his way between her breasts. The tiny nipples were taut and round, begging for his mouth.

He nuzzled and teased until Thea whimpered.

Then he licked one into his mouth and rolled the other between his finger and thumb.

Her breasts were so sweet, so sensitive. He could have stayed there forever, but the bear was pushing him to move lower, where her heat pulsed and beckoned.

Thea ran her fingers through his hair, tugging lightly as if to beg for more,

He left a trail of kisses down her belly and then lightly nipped her right thigh.

She angled her hips toward him, involuntarily demanding the pleasure he wanted to give.

He wasted no time, parting her curls with a finger, then burying his tongue in her heavenly warmth.

Thea cried out and the street lamps that lined the path behind them lit up one after another.

“Please, Chance, please,” she begged.

“Please what?” he asked, moving his mouth against her and bringing her closer.

“I want you inside me, I need you inside me,” she pleaded.

Chance growled, all resolve to go slowly lost to the note of raw need in her voice.

As soon as his hold on her hips loosened, she lowered herself to the ground beside him and smiled up at him where he knelt.

Her body was a paradise of lush curves and hollow valleys, but it was her eyes that did him in. It was her eyes that showed him the future.

Chance lowered himself to cover her body with his own.

“I love you, Thea,” he told her. The words were too small, to clichéd to explain his true feelings but they were all he had.

“I love you too,” she told him, tears shining in her eyes.

When he pressed himself inside her, he swore he saw fireworks reflecting in her eyes.

Then the pleasure was so exquisite he could think of nothing but following it, filling Thea with the rhythm her body was craving, and giving them both the release they so desperately needed.

She whined beneath him and he gave her long slow strokes, trying to pace himself.

But then her nails were sinking into his biceps and her hips were lifting to meet his, and he was racing, slamming into her at a frantic pace, sliding his hand between them to fondle her clit, teasing her until she screamed his name.

When he felt his own climax charging at him implacably, he shimmied his fingers on her and felt her whole body go taut, then she crushed his bursting cock with spasm after spasm of ecstasy as he howled with pleasure and released his seed deep inside her.

As soon as her tremors had ceased, he rolled her on top of him and slid his fingers up and down between her shoulder blades.

“Mmm,” she hummed appreciatively.

He smiled, kissed the top of her head, and looked out over the park.

He saw now that it hadn’t been fireworks in her eyes before. It had actually been the fountains with all the colored holiday lights turning on in the pond. The twinkling lights danced in the water now, filling the night with soft color.

Chance wondered absently where he could take this woman to make love to her without disrupting the power grid.

C
hance woke with a start
, his breath pluming in the frigid air as the first rays of dawn crept between the trees.

For a moment he couldn’t remember where he was.

Then it all came back, and he couldn’t keep the smile from his face.

He turned to Thea. She looked like a sleeping angel, dark hair spread across the green grass, a slight smile on her face like she was dreaming of something wonderful.

Well, she might not smile when she woke up and realized they had fallen asleep out here after having sex in a public place. Chance didn’t find that kind of thing hot. He was generally a pretty private person. But this woman had him out of his mind.

He grabbed her dress and spread the fabric over her before he and the bear could get any more brilliant ideas.

The bear snorted in his head.

Chance caught a hint of movement in the trees.

Shit.

It was probably an early morning jogger. Chance hoped they didn’t have a cell phone on them. Or a working knowledge of B-level celebrities.

His tattoo exploded with pain.

Not a jogger, then.

Chance jumped to his feet and wheeled around.

There was no scent in the air aside from the ordinary smells of the park at dawn, damp grass, squirrels, pigeons. But he knew it was waiting.

When Chance’s chest felt like it would split open with the pain, he saw it at last.

A shadow between two rhododendrons oozed forward, pouring itself into a shape with sinister ease.

A smoky snout emerged into the meadow, followed by a wolf-shaped body. It stepped lightly into the grass, its movements not quite canine.

Mesmerizing.

“Chance?”

Thea’s soft voice roused him from his trance.

“Stay down,” he murmured to her, moving his body between Thea and the shadow-wolf.

But he could hear her scrambling up, despite his warning.

Before he had time to argue, the wolf leapt.

He closed his eyes, ready to die if he must to protect her. She might have had luck with the one in the hotel, but this one wasn’t running away.

Cold bit into him like a blade.

He felt the shadow thing inside him. It was eating him, drinking him, taking his strength.

He wouldn’t be able to hold it back for long.

“Run,” he cried hoarsely to Thea.

Chance fell to his knees as he felt it sucking him dry.

But he could still sense his mate’s presence.

He tried to call to her again, to tell her to run. His mouth opened but nothing came out.

He spotted her. Not running away, but coming closer.

Time seemed to slow down as she approached him, her dark hair flying behind her, brown eyes blazing, extending her perfect hand to him.

But this wasn’t some quicksand she could pull him out of. If she touched him, she would only die too.

T
hea was having a wonderful dream
. In the dream, she and Chance were wandering an apple orchard on a warm fall day. He leaned down to kiss her and snow began to fall, first tiny flakes, then bigger ones. Then the wind was blowing down on them, covering the orchard in a blanket of snow, turning the air white with snow so that she couldn’t see Chance, she was losing him, losing him…

She woke shivering to the sight of a shadowy wolf attacking Chance.

“Chance?” she asked, still confused between the dream and the even stranger reality.

“Stay down,” he warned her.

But she was scrambling up before she could process his words.

“Run,” he cried.

Terrified, Thea thought about running for help, for someone to save him.

But there was no one who could help, no one she knew of who could save him from something that wasn’t of this world.

In despair, she tried to comfort herself. Chance was strong, so strong.

But how could he fight something he couldn’t touch?

The shadowy thing seemed to be pure, evil energy.

It was going to suck the life right out of him.

The idea of losing him was unbearable.

Panic sent her mind into overdrive and she finally made the connection.

Energy.

The demon was made of energy.

A feeling of calm washed over her. Thea knew now what she needed to do.

Chance fell to his knees, his big body taut with pain. She didn’t have much time.

Thea stepped toward him, extending her hand.

She touched the shadow.

When she was a child, Thea had fallen through the ice while skating. It was one of the most frightening experiences of her life. She remembered the cold - so intense it seemed to pierce her, she’d been convinced it would stop her heart.

The cold from the demon was a thousand times more intense.

Death was a certainty this time.

Thea pushed the knowledge aside and called on her power, pulling more of its numbing energy into herself.

At first, the creature reacted greedily, consuming the fresh host with gusto.

But when it had taken its fill and tried to move back to Chance, Thea refused to let it go, pulling it back into herself.

For a second, she could feel all the way through it, to its connection with Chance. The ugliness of the sinister thing sapping the last of her mate’s strength repulsed her, and she sucked at the creature again with everything she had.

The tie to Chance severed with a pop, and he slumped to the ground.

He was safe. But he wouldn’t stay that way if she let this thing go.

Desperately, she tried to think of options.

But she already knew there was only one.

Thea took a breath and said a silent goodbye to the man she loved, to the sky and the trees and the house where she had grown up, the beauty and the ugliness of the world

And then she pulled with all she had.

The thing struggled with her, it knew what she was now, and it was afraid. But Thea held fast.

She felt it filling her. She was consuming it, and as she did, its darkness was extinguishing the spark at the center of her being. Soon, the shadow thing would be gone, and so would she.

But Chance would be free.

For once in her life, Thea would be the hero she had always dreamt of being.

Tears ran down her face, turning to ice before they drifted onto the grass below.

C
hance watched helplessly
as Thea collapsed to the ground. And just like that, his world was shattered.

Her face was peaceful, his sleeping angel.

Finding strength from someplace deep within, he dragged his battered body to her.

A lock of dark hair had fallen in front of her eyes. He slid it tenderly behind her ear. Her skin was so cold.

He could see her eyes now. They were glazed and unfamiliar. She stared up into the sky, at nothing.

The warmth in her, the light, was gone.

“Thea,” he moaned, wrapping her in his arms, as if his own heat could warm her, jostling her as if to rouse her.

She was limp as a rag doll.

He felt her icy wrist for a pulse, but there was nothing. Tenderly, he closed her eyes.

The demon had extinguished the last of her energy, consuming her even as she swallowed it in.

If only he could refill her somehow, recharge her. But Chance had no power to give.

Unless…

Frantically, he clasped her cold hand and placed it against his tattoo.

There was magic in it, he knew it. That was what had drawn the shadow to him in the first place. Would it be enough save her? How would it even work?

He pressed her hand harder against the swirling pattern on his chest, praying it wasn’t already too late.

Nothing.

Inside him the bear moaned his frustration.

He couldn’t lose her. She loved him. She had sacrificed herself to save him.

No.
He would not allow it.

He closed his eyes. In his mind, she was still alive and vibrant. He heard her laugh, like a song, saw the mischievous twinkle in her brown eyes. Felt her warmth, smelled her sweet scent.

Come back to me,
he demanded.

He felt something stretch and ache in his chest.

Then he felt something
against
it.

Had he imagined that?

No. There it was again, the tiniest ripple from where her hand was pressed to him.

He closed his eyes and called for her and he felt it again, and again. Building.

Notes of a familiar song floated on the air.

The spell.

This was the magic of Mrs. Cortez’s spell, the magic he had carried with him for three hundred moons.

Chance felt the magical energy flow from him, into Thea.

The fight wasn’t over yet. He could save her. He was
destined
to save her.

He opened his heart. Dared to hope. And the magic stopped flowing.

It was gone, used up. There had been almost nothing left.

He searched her face.

Please, nod your head, flutter your eyelashes. Anything. Just come back to me.

But it wasn’t enough to save her.

And Chance had nothing left.

The bear roared with fury.

She’s gone, lost to us,
Chance tried to tell the anguished creature.

The bear roared again, and Chance felt him crash against his consciousness for control.

He must be going mad with grief over his mate. Chance was broken inside for both of them.

But still the bear raged on, and Chance was stunned to realize that he could hear him, understand his feelings.

My mate,
he told Chance in a language without words.
I will do whatever it takes.

But my magic is gone,
Chance tried to tell him.

Not mine,
the bear told him.

Chance felt the nudge of the bear again and he relinquished control.

He was surprised to find that he wasn’t shifting.

The bear was pulling, drawing away from him.

It was as if a blanket had been pulled over his senses.

Gone were the whispers of the ants in the grass, gone was the scent of the coffee vendor a mile away. His own heartbeat disappeared.

And with it went some of his sense of self. It was as if someone were uprooting the ivy that had always grown around the tree of his soul. One minute it was there, ready to run, to fight, to protect the ones he loved.

The next it was gone.

He opened his eyes and stared at Thea, still unmoving, her features peaceful in the predawn glow.

He had done all he could, given her everything he had. That would be his only consolation in the lonely lifetime ahead of him.

Then there was a horrible gasping sound, and Thea was sitting up, fighting for breath like a drowning woman breaking the surface.

Color came back to her cheeks and she studied him in wonder, her eyes sparkling with tears. It must have been the dawn light that made their warm brown turn a burnished gold.

Chance’s heart filled to bursting.

She moved as if to embrace him, and he let go of her hand.

When she pulled it away, the tattoo was gone from his chest.

Instead, it was wrapped around Thea’s forearm.

The bear was hers now.