Page 37

Kieran

The female elders of the bear community spent some time explaining how to keep our mates happy, how to please them.

The ladies seemed very determined that we would all know where the clitoris was and be able to find it with ease, but in the end, it turned out that wasn’t the most important thing.

Any guy with a cursory understanding of feminine anatomy could find Harper’s clit, but only we could find our way into her heart.

“I…” Her breath was coming in hard and fast, her eyes wide. The air was filled with the slightly acrid perfume of her scent. “I’ve never done this before. Like…” She wrinkled her nose. “Made love before.”

“Of course you haven’t.” My lips peeled back from my fangs, ready to snarl at Tor, but his usual cocky bullshit was offset by the softness of his smile. “You were waiting for us.”

“Fuck’s sake, Tor…” I muttered before focussing back on Harper. “That’s OK. We’ve got you. Eyes here, pretty girl. Just keep your eyes on me.”

It felt completely different as my hand slid over her stomach, as if I was touching my mate for the first time.

The soft curve of her stomach, the way she squirmed when my thumb brushed over her belly button, then the resulting smile.

I sucked in every detail, my focus just as intent as her gaze as she stared right back.

My lips wanted to curve into a smile when my hand slid up her ribcage, her expression turning to one of disappointment when it skated across the other side of her body and back down again, though that was quickly smothered.

I turned and glanced at Tor, the two of us nodding before moving as one.

She blinked when I pulled back, placing her foot in my lap.

“Is this a kink you’ve been holding back, Bear Boy?” she asked, that sassy armour ready to be picked up and put back on. “You’re into… oh.”

“Oh?” Tor looked at me, then at my thumb as it pressed hard into the arch of Harper’s foot. “I want some oh.” Her other foot was picked up and dumped in his lap and he watched me massage Harper’s sole, then started doing the exact same thing.

“So you’re going to compete…” Pretty sure Harper didn’t mean that to come out as a sigh, but it did anyway. “OK, yeah, I can get behind this.”

My thumb moved of its own accord, feeling the sinews and tendons of her foot and finding tension easily.

Over and over I stroked the muscles, encouraging them to release everything they were carrying, giving the pain to me.

My reward came when she went limp against the cushions, her eyes rolling closed as her breathing evened out.

I shot Tor a look, cocking my eyebrow as if to say ‘see?’ He nodded in agreement, our hands moving faster, stroking harder until finally her scent bloomed, making clear it was time to move on.

This is the way it should’ve been that first night we slept together, I realised.

It was what my dads had been trying to tell me, but I wasn’t ready to listen.

At the time, I’d have taken whatever crumbs Harper was willing to give me, but now?

I wouldn’t be satisfied until she surrendered completely.

Her ankle was elegant, dainty almost, and I spent an inordinate amount of time getting to know the shape of it before letting my hand slide higher.

I loved how responsive Harper was, even though that could be a liability of sorts.

It was obvious that she’d learned that sex was easy, emotions were hard, so when her thighs fell open, revealing just a little of that perfect pink cunt between them, I had to hold myself back.

Lunge forward, that’s what my instincts told me.

Taste her before Tor could get near. Claim her pleasure for your own.

Be the one who makes her gasp, not Tor, not Mack, but that’s not how sleuths worked.

Male bears kept well clear of each other in the wild, but shifters had very different instincts.

Bonded to our mates completely, we knew we needed a strong group of us to keep her safe.

And to satisfy her.

I glanced over at Tor and he nodded as we both moved up.

Kissing her legs helped assuage the need in me to taste her.

Instead of the sweetness of her slick, there was just the salt of her skin.

That and her soft moans had me moving higher and higher.

I was skimming over her thighs as I felt them spread wider, the invitation plain.

But if we weren’t careful, we’d end up right back where we were.

It was easy to get Harper off, and the first time I’d been caught up in the shock, the pleasure of that.

Now I knew better. Orgasms rolled off her armour, enjoyed for the moment, but never getting under her skin, and I knew that’s what I needed.

As I pulled back, hanging over her, Tor at my side, I forced the issues.

“Eyes on me, Harper.” They flicked open, staring wide in alarm. I smiled, trying to counter that automatic response. “I need you to watch me?—”

“Watch us,” Tor insisted.

“Watch us,” I amended, “as we please you.”

Did she know how quickly her walls crept up? I saw it in the way her eyes hardened, right before she smiled.

“So this is some kind of voyeurism kink thing?”

“This is you, me, Tor.” His growl made clear he was glad I remembered to include him. “Connecting. All you have to do is keep your eyes on us.”

The nervous bob of her throat, her eyes flicking from one to the other of us, made me think she was going to say no, but finally she nodded.

“Good girl,” I said, and then something interesting happened.

She frowned slightly, making me think we’d misstepped, but her scent?

Tor sucked in a breath, dragging more of that heady perfume into his lungs.

Looked like our mate liked a bit of praise.

“You’re so damn beautiful, Harper. Need to see your every reaction, every response, right as we… ”

Her choked off response, the feel of her slippery folds between my fingers, nearly destroyed my control.

What would it be like to throw her legs over my shoulders and just buck forward, sinking myself into her?

Losing myself in the sensation of being connected to my mate, right before my baculum jutted out, joining us forever.

Not yet, I bargained with the bear. We lock down inside her right now, it’ll shut Harper down forever. Just stay here.

“Stay with me, Harper.”

Her eyes met mine after going hazy and heavily lidded.

“I am.”

Her tone was just a little cranky.

“No, stay here.”

As my free hand slid upwards, over the tempting swells of her breasts and to her heart, Tor’s hand moved. I could feel it brush mine as he sought the core of her. She gasped at the intrusion, the response so beautiful to me, but then her eyes locked with mine.

“Be here, in the moment, right here with us. Feel both of us working to please you, Harper, because that’s the way it will always be.”

“Doesn’t that work both ways?” I had a plan.

Treat Harper like a queen, make her feel the bond between us, so why was she rolling up and towards me?

The bear understood before I did as her hand caressed the side of my face before turning to face Tor.

“Isn’t that how this whole pack-sleuth-ambush thing is supposed to work? ”

“She has a point…” Tor wheezed, but I saw the way his eyes rolled back into his head.

“You’re just saying that because Harper is playing with your spines,” I growled.

“I’m saying that because if we’re going to ask Harper to take a leap of faith and let us in.” He pressed a kiss to her shoulder as he stared into her eyes. “Maybe we have to make the jump with her.”

This was the moment when the idea of a sleuth made sense to me. I saw evidence of it every day growing up with my parents, but seeing isn’t the same as experiencing.

“Pretty sure if jumping out of a tree felt like this,” I groaned as I felt her fingers curl around me, “I’d be throwing myself out of every one in my front garden.”

“Eyes on me, pretty boy.”

Harper throwing my words back at me had the desired effect. My eyes snapped open, locking with hers. That smile, the challenge in it, softened the longer we stared, because now was the moment we let it all come to the fore.

I wanted to tell her there was nothing to be scared off.

Bears were nothing if not reliable, and soon she’d get sick of me rushing to make her coffee just right, scrubbing her back in the shower.

I wanted to tell her that it wasn’t the cum in my balls that I needed, but all the little moments.

Sitting together over breakfast, bickering over who was going to do what chores, going out and wandering around the city together on our days off.

Connection, over and over, and in a myriad of ways, that’s what I needed more than anything.

So I did.

Each hoarsely articulated word had her smile faltering, replaced by something naked, real. She couldn’t add in her own parts yet, I could see that, but for the first time I felt like she wanted to. Not to be outdone, Tor gasped out his own declarations.

“Listening to your little snores at night.”

“What?”

His hand wrapped around hers, stopping her from pulling away, his hips moving to prolong the caress.

“Farting in bed and then blaming it on the dog.”

“Oh my god…” She perked up. “We’re getting a dog?’

“Anything you want…” He pressed his forehead to her shoulder. “If you just keep doing that. Fuck, I need to come.”

“Already?” I tried for bravado and failed utterly. I felt like she held my heart and my dick in her hand right now, both straining for more. “Tigers have no stamina. Don’t worry, I won’t blow too quickly.”

“Why?” Harper stared into my eyes, some of that mischief returning. “It’s kinda hot knowing I’m driving a guy nuts.”

“That what you want?” I shoved myself harder, faster, into her grip, right as my fingers began to dance in earnest. The smile was wiped from her face, replaced by an open-mouthed sigh. “Then we all go together. Ready to jump, pretty girl?”

“After you…” she hissed. “Show me how it's done.”

My mouth found her neck, my teeth scoring the skin there, dying to clamp down. I satisfied myself with just a little nip that wouldn’t break the skin.

“Think about how it's gonna be when you accept the bond,” I growled. “Think about how it’ll feel when you’re full of me.

When my baculum juts out and locks inside you, forcing us to stay together until the pleasure finally washes away.

Come for me, Harper, because fuck me if I’m not dying to do the same. Come for me now!”

Her body bucked in response to my words, and I strummed my way through one peak, then another, my seed spraying helplessly across her palm.

My pleasure, hers, even Tor’s, it was like they were all separate strands, woven together to form something far brighter, far better, than anything I’d ever felt.

I couldn’t have been more in this moment.

Her heartbeat raced with mine, pumping blood through our bodies, letting every cell know that this was exactly where we needed to be.

That I loved her.

And that’s when I understood Mack.

As we all collapsed down onto the bed in a messy tangle, a vicious thought pushed itself between us.

I would tear Dax’s fucking head from his shoulders and shit down his neck for even daring to look at Harper.

My arms went around her, holding her tightly, as Tor did the same.

We shared a small look over the top of her head and I knew we were of the same mind.

“So that’s a prelude of things to come…?” Harper sounded impossibly tired. “Maybe this whole fated mate thing won’t be so bad.”

“So bad?” Tor spluttered, rolling her onto her back and peppering her with kisses. “I’ll show you so bad. How about round two, or three, or four?”

“Calm down, Kitty Cat.” He made a sound of disgust, right before she tugged him back down. “How about a little marinating in the afterglow first?”

And this is the demarcation point between Mack and me. The world could be on fire and still I wouldn’t have left this bed to put it out. As my eyes closed and I snuggled down into the pillow, I knew nothing could get better than this.

But of course, it could always get worse.

I woke to the sound of my phone going off, and by a look at the window, it was early morning. A glance at the screen made clear it was my dads. I hustled out of the room, trying not to wake Harper as I answered it.

“What the hell is going on with that bloody idiot sleuthmate of yours?” Dad snapped as soon as I tapped on the screen.

“Tor?”

“Not the damn tiger,” he said. “The wolf. Did we or did we not tell you not to bond with him?”

“Are you seriously telling me you rang me at…” I glanced at my watch. “Six-thirty in the morning to lecture me about Mack?”

“No, I’m ringing you up at sparrow’s fart to tell you that the site we’ve been working on got hit last night. The builder rang me even earlier, asking me to explain why the hell a bunch of wolf shifters were caught on CCTV, trashing the place. Care to explain?”

Mack came out of his room looking both wired and tired.

“What?”

“I’ll be right there,” I told my dad before ending the call.