Protecting a Mate (5 page)

*

Foster couldn’t fight both his curvy little mate and his own instincts. The rumble in the back of his throat was all the warning he gave her before he flipped her over and pinned her under him. Her little gasp and the widening of her eyes fed the male animal within (the purely human one rather than his bear), but that was nothing compared to the bolt of lust that hit when the scent of her arousal wrapped around him.

“Mine.”

Awesome. He was reduced to one-word sentences. He couldn’t contain the growl as he caught her wrists in his hands to pull them up over her head. The feeling as her body stretched out beneath him and the soft brush of her skin against his almost drove him over the edge, but he kept it together.

Just.

“Yes, Foster. Yours, all yours.” Her soft words were a balm to his soul. He had his mate, in his den, naked under him. All that remained was to claim her.

But not like an animal. He would claim his mate, finally, with his human mind in full control.

Keeping eye contact, he held her wrists with one hand and slowly, oh so slowly, ran the other down her curves. Curves that were his to explore and caress from now on. Her breathing shortened as his hand stroked down her body, found the curve of her waist and smoothed over the cello curve of her hips. He didn’t rush, seducing and claiming her with soft touches to calm the raging beast inside.

When he reached her thigh, he paid homage with the tips of his fingers until her breath came in short pants and she parted her legs for him. Still he didn’t rush in.

“Foster…” Her soft plea was a whisper in the silence of the room, but he didn’t give in. Claws partially formed, he slid them gently up the inside of her thigh. Touching, scraping but not hard enough to break the skin. Just hard enough to tease.

She whimpered, and her hips rocked in the tiniest movement as he made his way toward her pussy.

Shifting his position, he kept her legs parted with his spread knees. Thankfully, he was bigger—

much bigger—than his little mate, so keeping her pinned beneath him was easy. More than that, sheltering her smaller form beneath his felt right, even if the only person she needed protecting from right now was him.

“Foster!” Her pleas got more urgent and he smiled. A slow sweep of his fingertips between her pussy lips found the slickness of her need. Lifting his hand, he held her gaze as he licked his fingers clean.

“You taste so good. Sweet. Addictive.”

Her eyes darkened and he couldn’t hold off any longer. Stretching out over her, he pushed her luscious thighs farther apart so he could settle between them. Her breathing hitched in a sexy little catch he decided he was going to do his damnedest to hear at every opportunity.

He reached between them, his big hand shaking as he wrapped his fingers around his cock and rubbed the broad head over the seam of her lower lips.

“
Foster…”
She was near begging now, arching her back and pulling against his hold on her wrists.

Taking pity on her (and himself), he lowered his hips to fit the head of his cock against the slick entrance to her pussy.

He pushed a little and she caught her lower lip between her teeth, mangling the full curve. He pushed a little more and they both gasped as he breeched her, slipping within her silken depths half an inch.

She groaned, eyes rolling back in her head, then opened them to look directly at him. “Foster, if you don’t get with it and claim me properly right
now,
I’ll find a bear that will!”

He knew she wouldn’t, couldn’t. Just like for him, there would be no other in her life from now on, but damned if the threat didn’t have an effect.

His bear surged forward, his nails back to claws and with a snarl, and he shoved all the way inside her. A bolt shot through him at the feeling and he bowed his head, fighting for breath.

She was tight. Fuck was she tight.

She was wet.

Hot.

Slick.

She was heaven.

“You okay, doll?” he whispered, his voice a harsh rasp. Crap. What if he’d hurt her? Her next demand allayed his concerns.

“Claim me, Foster, now!”

She wrapped her arms around him when he released her wrists, and there was nothing he could do to resist. Pulling back, he slid all the way into her again. It felt so good, her curves pressed cozy-like against him that he did it again, then again. His ass moved like a piston, driving his cock deep inside her in a rhythm as old as time and as primal as nature.

Growls slipped from his throat unbidden as she gasped and clung to him, both fuel to the masculine drive that urged him to claim her. Her scent thickened, body tight like a clamp around his cock and he knew she didn’t have long.

Neither did he for that matter. A line of fire shot down his spine to lodge behind his balls, drawing them up high and tight as his release threatened. With a feral snarl, he pulled her upright, sitting back on his haunches to impale her on his cock. She shuddered, her pussy clenching around him. Almost there…

His fangs dropped into his mouth and he swept his hand up her back to cup her neck. Automatically she tilted her head to the side, an unspoken invite.

“Come for me, little mate,” he rumbled and struck.

His fangs slid through the silk of her skin like sharp shears, the intense, copper ambrosia of her blood filling his mouth. Just the taste tipped him over the edge. His climax ripped through him like a supernova at the same moment she keened hers to the air.

His hips pumped as he drank, unable to get enough of her body or the taste of her blood. Not in an icky way, but just the tiny taste from the small nip he’d given her was enough to make him come longer and harder than he ever had before.

When the waves died to ripples, he disengaged his fangs gently and swept his tongue over the small marks. There were four, two together then a space before the other two, like decorations on her pale skin.

His bear rumbled in approval. No one would be able to mistake them for anything other than mating marks.

She was his. She wore his marks. No one would ever take her from him.

For the millionth time, Melanie turned over, smiling when Foster grumbled and yanked her close once more. She’d grown so used to Harvey’s preferences—him on one side of the bed and her on the other—that she had trouble sleeping almost beneath her new mate.

Mate.

Mel wiggled and sighed, letting his heat sink into her body. Even if it was foreign, she wouldn’t give it up for the world. She could deal with the lack of sleep for a while. She let sleep lure her once more, exhaustion dragging her down as sex-filled dreams crept in…

The sound was almost too low to hear, but she caught it nonetheless. Just a soft whoosh with a tiny squeak at the end. She should ignore it—every house had their own sounds as they settled—but for some reason, her ferret wouldn’t let her. No, it chittered and chirped, telling her she needed to go investigate. It was… worried.

About what, she had no clue, but now that it’d gotten the idea in its little mind, waking her up further, she realized she had to pee. Ugh. Stupid thing. She was keeping her ferret on lockdown if she didn’t find a damn thing other than some stupid squirrel who decided to crawl all over the window screens.

God help her little beastie then.

Carefully, she wiggled and waggled, easing from beneath Foster’s firm grip. She slipped toward the edge of the bed and snaked her way to the ground. The second her knees hit the carpet, she popped her head back up and darted her gaze through the room like a… ferret. Stupid animal had her hunting for danger like a ferret.

Ugh.

Foster didn’t wake, so she eased to her feet and quietly moved to the bedroom door. She bent and snatched his discarded t-shirt from the ground and breathed deeply. His scent imbued the fabric and she slipped it on, her inner beastie loving that they smelled like their mate.

Another whoosh. Another squeak.

She should really wake Foster, right? She should. But then the scent of the intruder—and it was a familiar intruder—hit her nose.

Seriously? Like, seriously? She still kept her movements quiet but increased her pace, quickly making her way down the hallway and toward the center of the home.

That’s where she found exactly what she’d anticipated.

Harvey Percival Prendergast.

Dear God, he had a death wish. There was no other explanation. He’d already received one warning from her mate and now he’d broken into Foster’s—their—home.

Death. Wish.

Part of her wanted to do the job herself. Especially when she thought about the pain he’d caused her. Then again, she should probably send him a fruit basket. If he hadn’t screwed up, she’d still be with him and would have never found Foster.

Yes, a fruit basket. Perhaps a—

Harvey still hadn’t noticed her. At least, not until he ran right into one of the end tables and nearly sent a half dozen empty beer bottles to the ground. Mel rushed forward, hands outstretched as she caught two of them as Harvey kept the other four from crashing to the ground and instead dropped them soundlessly onto the couch.

That’s
when her ex noticed her, as she lay sprawled half-naked on the ground, Foster’s shirt high on her thighs and stretched to reveal the mating mark on her shoulder.

“Got you.” His eyes glowed in the dimness.

The hint of light in the room glinted off something in his hand, his fingers curled around the handle of his… gun.

“Harvey, what are you doing here?” she hissed in a low whisper.

“I have you now.” He reached for her, fingers curled and she realized the tips were decorated with his claws. “It’s time to go.”

Mel let the two bottles go and scrambled away from him. There was no way she’d let him touch her.

Her animal was adamant about that fact. She didn’t want any other male’s hands on her. None.

She shook her head as she crawled over the ground, grunting when her back collided with one of the leather couches. “You need to leave. Now.”

“You have to go with me.” Harvey dove toward her and she rolled away, fighting to her feet.

“No. That’s not happening. I have a mate now.” Melanie put the other couch between her and her ex. “You met him.”

“You’re
mine
.”

“I was never yours.”

“You are,” he countered. “I’ll marry you and get—”

“Nothing,” she snapped.

Harvey waved the gun at her. “I’ll get a hell of a lot more than nothing. I courted your stupid ass. I didn’t waste all this time not to get my payday at the end. We’ll get married. Keep your mate. I need your signature.”

“Are you kidding me? This is about money?” She sneered and glared. “You stupid ass—”

“Doll,” her mate drawled and she immediately sought him out. “Don’t antagonize the man with the gun.” His eyes glowed in the half-dark and then he smiled. “That’s my job.”

She recognized his expression—the need to kill and maim she witnessed at the construction site.

The only difference was now she’d let him do whatever he wanted. She’d tried to protect Harvey before, but he’d broken into their home and was intent on taking her from Foster. Now… she didn’t care.

Melanie turned her attention to her ex. “Hey, Harvey?” She waited until she had his attention. When his wide eyes met hers, she smiled. “You’re fucked.”

*

“Don’t you come near us,” Harvey screamed, his nose twitching in a very suspicious way as he waved the gun wildly. If he knew what to do with the thing, Foster was a monkey’s uncle. And he had absolutely no primate in his bloodlines whatsoever. Just mean-ass bears all the way back to fucking creation.

“We’re leaving. Now.” Harvey grabbed for Melanie again but she skittered out of his reach, putting a heavy side table between them. With another glare at her ex, she lifted the lamp and waved it threateningly.

“We are so not. Get lost, Harvey. You’re not wanted here. Ev-ah. Get it?”

Harvey’s face contorted in a snarl of rage and…
pop, pop, pop…
Yeah, he broke out in whiskers.

“Bitch! I am not throwing away all the time I’ve spent training you to be the perfect wife.” He looked her up and down. “Because…really, you think
I
would waste time with
you
unless there was something in it for me?”

Foster felt his bear settle and go very still, their combined attention on the idiot in the middle of the room. The dumb fuck had all his attention on Melanie and he lifted the gun to aim at her.

At the threat to his mate, Foster’s roar tore the air in a bellow of ear-splitting proportions. He was barely aware of launching himself across the space between them. Of batting the big couch out of the way so hard it slammed into the window frame, smashing the glass and taking one of the shutters off its hinges. All he saw was the useless piece of shit in front of him and how many ways he was going to kill him. The bear favored ripping his arms and legs off.

He was on his prey before Harvey could react, one massive arm wrapped around the guy’s throat in a headlock. His other arm wrapped around the ferret, his claws snagging under the skin to slide between Harvey’s ribs. Not deep enough to kill, so long as he stayed in human form. Pull a shift though, and Foster’s claws would shred his internal organs, and even for a were, there wasn’t any coming back from that.

“Never. Threaten. My. Mate.” Each word was punctuated by a snarl and Foster shook the smaller man like a rag doll.

Harvey gasped and flailed, scrabbling ineffectually at the bulging muscles in Foster’s arms as his face turned purple. The scent of blood perfumed the air, fueling Foster’s blood lust. He wanted to maim and tear, to slice and kill. This…creature had dared to lay hands on his mate and they were going to have vengeance…no,
blood
, for that.

He lifted his head to catch Melanie’s eye. Caught her gaze with his own as he let his bear leech into his eyes.