Page 48

Kieran

I needed to look after Harper. That’s what sent me to the bathroom, searching through the drawers to find a face washer.

It’s what had me dampening it slightly, the water warm, so I could clean her up.

I didn’t want my mate waking up all sticky.

I didn’t want… As I blinked, I saw it, Harper picking up that damn rifle, a shout building in my throat.

I’d leapt forward, ready to protect her.

But she shot Dax, killing him instantly.

My fingers sank into the washcloth, claws threatening to puncture the fabric.

I should’ve been the one to protect her. I should’ve killed Dax. She made that clear, right before she lunged for the gun. The fact she did hit me hard, because it cemented the feeling I’d been struggling with since the moment she called me.

That I’d failed her.

I stared into the bathroom mirror, seeing the bear push forward.

He stared right back, making clear how he felt about things.

Leaving the house this morning was a mistake.

He was dimly aware that family was important to me, but that knowledge paled into insignificance when it came to Harper.

We left the den and that meant our mate was defenceless.

She’d been forced to work around Mack, because he was so inflexible.

If we were here, she’d at least have us by her side when she raced towards the quarry, if we couldn’t talk her out of such a mad plan. That way when we arrived, she wouldn’t…

She wouldn’t have been dragged into the depths of the tunnels under the quarry.

When we’d leapt out of the car and rushed towards it, the bear was incensed that he couldn’t ride to Harper’s rescue.

The tunnels were too small and it’d taken everything I had to stop him from burrowing through them.

When I explained what a cave in was and that dying crushed under dirt and rock was not what we wanted for our mate, he’d stopped.

To do what?

Taking fur and chasing down Dax’s minions was a relief, but not for long.

The wolf shifters provided little challenge, other than forcing ourselves not to tear them in two, especially when I detected the stink of Harper on them.

But then what? When she was safe, when she was with us, our mate had raised a valid concern.

Not that Dax didn’t deserve to die, but how.

I shook my head, forcing myself away from the mirror and out into the bedroom.

I’d care for Harper now, I vowed, make sure she was comfortable and…

The faint sounds of her whistling breaths let me know she’d fallen asleep.

All the tension seemed to leach out of me at the sight of her. Curled up in Tor’s arms, he purred for her over and over again.

“You got a cloth?” Mack looked exhausted, but he held out a hand for it. “Good. I’ll clean her up and then we’ll get some sleep.”

“I’ll…” I felt like a dick, insisting on this and yet I had to. “I’ll do it. You’re beat. Get some sleep, brother.”

He nodded, his lips twitching, making clear he knew this was more than just an act of altruism on my part.

Instead, he crawled up the bed, his eyes closing the moment his head hit the pillows.

That left me to deal with Harper. Tor nodded, pulling free with a wince, and I was pretty sure what that was about.

A desire to keep her exactly where she was, clasped tight, lest she get away.

We both moved so slowly, quietly, hoping to deal with this without waking her, but as soon as I rolled her onto her back, her head popped up off the mattress.

She blinked wildly, then stared at me. Her focus shifted from my face, the rag, then to my naked body.

“Oh, hey… Mating. We need to finish the mating?—”

“You need rest,” I replied. “I was going to clean you up first.”

“Clean?” That seemed to rouse her further, her hands raking across her torso as she rolled up into a seated position.

“I’m not sure if that rag is gonna cut it.

Got Dax germs all over me.” My hands covered hers, hating that she was leaving red welts all over her.

“There’s no way I got his brains on me, right? Like that’s not possible.”

“Harper—”

“I mean I shot him at a distance, but…” Her eyes met mine and I saw some deep discomfort there, one I needed to erase.

“I feel dirty? Why the hell would I feel dirty?” Finally, something I could fix.

I scooped her up into my arms and carried her towards the bathroom.

“Where we going, Bear Boy? Somewhere saucy…?” Her eyes went everywhere, taking in the bathroom.

Probably because it was bigger than most people’s bedrooms. “Oh.”

I set her down and then walked over to the bath, running the water.

When it was warm enough, I started filling the bath, adding some lavender scented bath salts.

Mum always said they were relaxing. At this point, I was pretty sure I needed them more than Harper did.

But once the bath was full, Harper drew closer, lured perhaps by the scent.

I picked her up and then placed her into the water, intending to sit outside and wash her.

“So do I get princess treatment only when I defeat the bad guy?” she asked as I grabbed the soap, and it was then I heard the slight waver in her voice. “Like are you guys gonna go around and put up all the toilet seats tomorrow?”

“Every day we will treat you like a princess.”

The bear added his rumble to that, grateful for a new goal we could actually achieve.

“Well, you better get in here then.” My eyes flicked up. I’d been focussed on washing her arm, so I missed her lips quirking into a smile. “I mean being washed by a big, strong bear shifter is all the princess treatment I need.”

“Big?” I nodded. “Strong?” One thing Mum had taught me was apologising and making amends was the only thing that took the sting from fucking up, so that’s what I needed to do. It’d ease the ache in my chest, but more than that, Harper deserved it. “Not where it matters. I’m sorry, Harper.”

“For what?” She leaned over on the rim of the bathtub, staring at me with a frown.

“I wasn’t here when you got the news about Daria. I should’ve been there, by your side, when you went to rescue her.”

“Not trying to talk me out of my crazy scheme?” One eyebrow raised. “Not asking me to let the authorities take care of it, or Mack.”

“No way.” I dared a small smile then. “You want to go off and be a vigilante? I’m your guy. Wherever you want to go, whoever you want to take down, I’ll be there with you.”

Harper seemed to perk up at that.

“So we’ll be like Catwoman and Batman?” Her shoulders slumped. “Nope, I’m way too uncoordinated for that, though Mack is totally Batman.”

“Dead parents, dark and broody? Yeah, that fits.” She leaned forward to let me slot in behind her in the bath. “So what does that make Tor?”

“The Flash?” I barely heard what she was saying as she settled back against my chest. “No, Spiderman!”

“Because he likes climbing tall buildings?” I asked. “Or because he won’t shut up?”

“Little from column A, little from column B,” she said, waving a hand through the air.

“And…” I didn’t want to ask this, but I had to. “What am I?”

She turned around, staring up at me, eyes dancing.

That was enough to lighten my mood, make me feel like all was not lost. “Superman!” I blinked at that, feeling like it was completely inaccurate.

“No, he’s too much of a goody goody.” Harper settled back into the bath.

“Thor.” Her head nodded firmly. “Big, strong, capable of wiping out all my enemies, then going to have a beer afterwards.”

Thor. I couldn’t hold back how much I loved that idea, but rather than grabbing Mjolnir, I picked up the soap, working it into her skin again.

“So what about you?” I asked as she leaned forward, letting me scrub her back. “If you’re not Catwoman, then who?” For a moment, there was just silence punctuated by the sound of the water lapping in the bath. “How about Harley Quinn?”

“The crazy one?” Her reply was somewhat muffled as her face was pressed against her legs. “The one that causes all that trouble?” My hand slowed, sure I’d offended her, but she turned around with a grin. “The one that fucks the bad guys up with her girl gang? Yeah, I’m into that idea.”

I dropped the soap back into the dish inset into the wall.

“Would Harley like Thor if they did a crossover movie?” I wasn’t asking about superheroes and she knew it. “They are pretty different.”

“She would if he was patient with her.” Harper rose out of the bath and I couldn’t help but watch the water slide over her breasts.

“If he supported her rather than make her crazy, like the Joker did. If he realised that she had a pretty unusual way of doing things, but that’s just part of who she is. ”

“He would.” I pulled her close as she straddled my hips. The bear, me, we were never letting her go, not unless we were forced to. “He’s a Norse war god. Pretty sure he’d be down for whatever adventure she could come up with.”

“And what about you?” Her hand trailed down the side of my face and I turned, pressing a kiss into the palm. “What about Harper and Kieran?”

“Whatever you want.” That reply sounded pat, so I was forced to explain. “I mean it, Harper. I choose us…”

I had a whole speech ready to deliver, but she had to reach down between our legs and then grip my cock by the base.

It was hard. Of course it was, the damn thing standing to attention every time she got near, which made her touch so much more.

That pressure, the way she held me, made me hungry for more.

My fangs snapped down, my body ready for this. To make Harper mine, finally, but…

“Harper.” I ground that out as she moved, situating her body over mine, ready to bare down. “Bath, Harper.”

“I know,” she breathed. “Never done it in a bath before.”

“Because it’s not a good idea.” I picked her up and both of us stepped free of the bath. “Water makes for really shitty lubricant.”

“You know that how?” she asked, leaning forward with a smile, because she was still straddling my hips. My butt was now perched on the edge of the bath, the cold porcelain barely registering.

“Elders…” She went right back to work, brushing the head of my cock along her seam. That hot, velvety sensation had my eyes rolling back into my head. “They gave us…”

“Gave you what?”

Harper stopped, moving her hips in small circles, the head of my cock slowly slipping in. My hands slapped down on her hips, trying to stop her. Our eyes locked together, the feeling so much more intimate now and that forced me to be honest.

“Gave me the knowledge, if not the experience, to know a woman needs to be aroused to enjoy sex.”

She grinned, her head tilting to one side.

“Got that covered, Kieran.”

“No, I need…”

All that teaching went flying out the window the moment she bore down. Nothing any of the elders had taught us prepared me for this. It was like I was being engulfed by the most intense pleasure, hotter than the bath, but just as liquid.

“You need to see what’s right here in front of you.”

Harper picked up my hand, placing it against her heart, for long enough to feel the frantic beat.

Then it slid lower. I learned the geography of the swell of her breast in real time, settling over her nipple.

That crinkled skin, the hard bead, that had my hand dropped away so my mouth could take over.

Fangs grazed her skin, making her gasp, right as I sucked her in.

“Oh fuck…”

She said what was on my mind, her gasp everything. Every muscle locked down tight, not from fear this time, but to stop me from slamming myself deeper. With long, hard pulls, I tortured her breast, right up until the point she reached her limits.

Now it was my time to push past them.

I was up and walking towards the wall in seconds. Her yelp forced me to grip her hips, making clear I had her, right up until her back pressed against the wall. Harper’s eyes flicked open and she smiled up at me.

“Oh, this is definitely a Thor move. I totally see him doing this with Jane?—”

“Not Thor,” I growled. “Just Harper. Just me.”

She nodded quickly, her smile fading, but something far more raw followed it.

“You got it, Bear… Kieran. You got me.” Her fingers traced the line of my lips. “You got me, so now it’s time to claim me.”

“Whatever my mate wants,” I ground out, thrusting deep. “She gets.”