Page 16 of Her Beary Spicy Valentine (Welcome to Bear Mountain #2)

16 /

the message

less than an hour earlier

takoda

B lack eyes, as it turned out, hurt like a frozen lake smashing against your face in February—no give, no mercy, and sharp as hell.

Up until today, I wouldn’t have known that. But a few hours locked in my own station's holding cell had given me plenty of time to learn. The throbbing ache behind my swollen right eye was worse than any headache I’d ever had. But I gritted my teeth, refusing to bear out.

Today’s events had proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I could no longer trust the beast inside of me.

I wasn’t sure what was harder to believe: that Hawk and Bjorn had exchanged maul bites while I was chasing Holly. Or that when I returned to let them out—following tribal protocol, mind you—Hawk attacked me, Bjorn, my own subordinate, locked me in this damn cell.

“This is what you get for leaving us trapped in here while you had your way with our mate.”

That was all the warning Hawk had given before hitting me with a vicious left that sent me stumbling back into the cage.

And now, while they were with Holly, attending to her in estrus, I was stuck behind bars with a black eye and an even blacker mood.

Mate… my bear whined. His ache for her throbbed along with my swollen eye.

“I don’t want to hear it,” I snapped out loud, leaning my head against the cool metal bars. “You’re the one who chose a criminal and a Vancouver outsider for a maul I didn’t want. Now look at us...”

“Uh... Constable Takoda?”

Dammit . Someone had heard me. One of the Outsider Red Twins had wandered into the station—this time in human form.

“ Sergeant Takoda,” I corrected. The only good thing that had come out of Bjorn’s appointment to my detachment was the rise in title.

Straightening up, I forced myself into the rigid posture I always maintained on duty, folding my hands behind my back to project as much authority as I could muster—despite wearing jeans and a button-up thermal I’d snagged from my quarters instead of my usual Red Serge uniform.

And being on the wrong side of these bars.

Frigging Hawk ...

“What are you doing in there?” The Red Twin scrunched his forehead, stopping a few feet outside the holding cell.

“What are you doing in my station?” I countered, my tone sharp. “Come to follow up on this morning’s conversation about last night’s bar fight?”

“That must’ve been my brother,” he said, taking a cautious step forward. “I’m on duty at the bar tonight, but I wanted to check in with you about something that happened an hour ago. I was at the Barrington Super Center, picking up groceries, when two Iron Claws came right up to me. One of them shoved my shoulder and said we needed to talk.”

My jaw tightened. Iron Claw sightings at Barrington’s weren’t uncommon—their clubhouse sat just a few miles away, strategically positioned at the base of the mountain in the abandoned mining works. Usually, though, they left my people alone. It was an unspoken rule—especially during hibernation season. The few of us who stayed awake didn’t bother them, and they didn’t bother us while the rest of the town’s bears were at their most vulnerable.

“What did he say?”

The Other Red Twin winced. “He said he wanted me to give Horse a message. That’s you, right?”

The nickname made my bear growl low inside me. I’d worried there might be fallout after killing one of theirs, and now it seemed my suspicions were right.

“Spit it out,” I snapped.

“They said, ‘Tell Horse he doesn’t own the mountain—we do.’” The Other Red Twin’s eyes flared as he relayed the message. “Then he made a sign like this.…”

He held up one hand, palm forward, spreading his fingers wide.

Dammit.

It had been a while since any of the Iron Claw had put a red handprint on a Bear Mountain home—basically, marking whoever was inside for deletion. Still, recognized the message for what it was: a direct threat. A promise of violence.

They needed to be dealt with before someone got hurt. Specifically, Holly. Holly.

But my bear reared at just the thought of her name, letting me know there would be no traveling to the bottom of the mountain. Much less doing anything that would delay us going to the bear he’d bonded behind my back.

“Get into the station computer,” I ordered the Other Red Twin. “You need to get me out of here.”

The grizzly hesitated, his brow furrowing. “Uh, I’m not exactly trained on?—”

“Now,” I snapped, glaring at him with my one good eye.

That command got him moving. He scurried over to the desk, and I gritted my teeth as I walked him through accessing the cell’s keypad log.

A few excruciating minutes later, the lock clicked open, and my bear tore out of the cage the second the cell door swung wide. Without so much as a thank you, I charged through the station, past the confused red grizzly, and into the freezing night.

Holly was out there, and nothing—not even the Iron Claws—could keep my bear from her.

No, the beast inside me wasn’t going to let me do anything useful until this estrus business with Holly was done.

I set my jaw. Alright, new plan.…

First order of business: take charge of the chaos this unsanctioned maul had undoubtedly descended into without me at the helm.

Second order of business: handle Holly’s estrus per protocol—ensure no one loses control again while we each take efficient, orderly turns with her until her cycle concludes.

Then, finally, I could get to the third order of business: take back my head from my bear so that I can deal with those damn Iron Claws.

Last time, I vowed, even as my bear pushed me to run faster. Last time I let this beast run the show.

With that new three-part plan in mind, I calmly opened the door to the den less than a minute later.

Only to be hit by the overwhelming scent of chocolates filled with cognac liquor and maple fudge.

Sex. The entire den reeked of sex and satisfaction.

“Holly!”

Suddenly, instead of walking in to calmly relay the first two points of my three-point plan, I was roaring her name at the top of my lungs and storming down the stairs.

To find her…

To find her…

My brain stuttered, threatening to shut down entirely when I saw Holly naked in the nest, her thighs and sex glistening—not just with estrus. Hawk grinned at me, then gleefully sent a mental replay of what had happened during my absence through his maul bite. I got to see—and feel —the two loads of cum he and Bjorn had shot into her just minutes before I arrived…

My dick hardened with an aching jolt, twitching behind my jeans.

Right before the air perfumed with chocolate and caramel. Another wave of estrus. For me.

The scent hit like Hawk’s punch, drowning out every rational thought I’d carried in with me.

My vision tunneled, the rest of the world fading away until she was all I could see.

Mate!

My bear propelled me forward, snarling with need.

Before I could stop myself, she was on her back, and I was ripping down the fly of my jeans, pushing into her with one raw stroke. That I could feel as both me and her. The fullness, the stretch of her pussy, struggling to accommodate my longer and thicker length.

I groaned, and her scent wrapped around me, pulling me under. It was intoxicating, primal, and utterly maddening. Mate!

“Koda, oh, Koda!” She moaned my name, and the air perfumed with the smell of chocolate and hazelnuts as I thrust into her with heavy grunts. A feral animal, completely unhinged. “Oh God, why does this feel so good?”

“How’s all that noble helping with her condition going for ya, Koda?” Hawk asked somewhere in the background of our raw, animalistic sex.

I could feel him laughing at me over the maul bite. Judging me for so easily coming undone.

I wanted to punch him until he had no teeth left to grin with.

But even that violent urge couldn’t make me stop fucking her.

Holly gasped, then moaned when I pulled her even tighter against me, ramming between her soft thighs. The need to claim her—to mark her as mine—was overwhelming, a fire roaring through my veins.

Tell me to stop , my human begged her from somewhere inside my body. Make me regain some measure of control.

But Holly hadn’t bitten me back. She couldn’t hear me like I could hear her, feel her, both taking and giving pleasure.

Instead of heeding my command, she wrapped those chubby thighs even tighter around me, her heels pushing down the jeans I hadn’t even bothered to take off.

Her heat surrounded me like a vice, and her nails scraped down my arms. Mate!

Her bear moaned inside of her, echoing mine as her chocolate-and-caramel scent grew stronger. She was close, her bear was telling me, spurring me on to push in deeper. To hit that spot Hawk had shown her. To fuck her until she?—

Holly suddenly cried out underneath me, her back arching as her climax catapulted her over the cliff we’d been galloping toward.

And the next thing I knew I was following her over the ledge, releasing with a guttural shout, hips jerking as I came and came. Filling up her chocolate and caramel with my hazelnuts.

Mate… Mate…. Mate….

I couldn’t even tell whose out-of-control beast was chanting anymore. Hers or mine?

Either way, Holly’s bear was already pulling her under. Her lashes fluttered shut, and her plump lips parted with a tired sigh as sleep came to claim her. So fast, I couldn’t say for certain it wasn’t passing out.

Her bear finally disappeared from my mind, releasing me from its siren grip. The moment her body went lax beneath me, I pulled away, and harsh reality replaced the frantic mating chant in my head.

What had I done?

Cold air rushed in between us, but it wasn’t enough to clear the heat or the shame crawling under my skin.

My chest heaved, my heart pounding like I’d run a marathon. This wasn’t control. This wasn’t the man I’d spent my life becoming.

I’d let my bear take over—again.

I reared to my feet, staring down at the female sleeping so peacefully above the mess I’d made between her soft thighs. The weight of my failure pressed against my chest, a bear threatening to crush me.

“Welcome to the maul, Koda.” Hawk’s voice cut through my silence like a knife.

I wasn’t looking at him. But I didn’t have to. His smirk was audible.

I zipped up my jeans, clenching my teeth so hard I wondered if my jaw wouldn’t shatter.

It didn’t. Somehow, everything threatening to come apart inside me held as I left the den I never wanted without another word.

The cool night air cleared my nose of her chocolate and caramel scent. But it didn’t help. Shame clung to me as I blindly walked, trying to put some distance between me and the female who drove me out of my mind with the wanting of her. But, of course, not too much distance.

My bear stopped me less than a kilometer from the cave. I didn’t even make it out of the village.

I couldn’t think straight. Couldn’t breathe.

I swiveled my head around, searching for something, anything, to anchor me, to distract me. That’s when I saw it—the sign for Mak’s construction business, weathered but sturdy, standing tall above an industrial pre-build I’d help him erect back when we both thought that would be his only job and I’d eventually be taking over as Tuk’mara.

For once, the sight of it didn’t fill me with bitterness. I peered at it through my one good eye, while thinking about that death trap of a den, and a new idea took hold.

A project. That’s what I needed. Something physical to keep me busy. Something to keep my bear occupied, to stop the ache clawing at me from the inside out.

I just need to stay busy. Limit my time with her.

If I couldn’t outrun my bear, maybe I could outwork it.