Page 10 of Wooded Bliss (Mated to the Monster: Season 3)

THATCHER

I watch Birdie’s face carefully, but I don’t see any stress there. She looks at me with so much openness and acceptance. Part of me believes I don’t deserve her or what she’s offering me so freely.

“Don’t,” my bear warns me. “Don’t second guess this.”

“I’m still pissed at you,” I murmur back. “I told you not to shift right then, but you did it anyway.”

“She took the whole shifting from bear to human thing very well,” he chuffs.

“But you didn’t know she was going to take it well. She could have run from us screaming and refusing to see us ever again,” I remind him, as if we didn’t argue about it from the moment he scented our mate on our way back from our run in the woods.

“I had faith in our mate,” he growls.

“Thatcher,” Birdie’s sweet voice has me focusing on the woman in my arms just as I shoulder check the door to my bedroom.

Hopefully soon it’ll be the room we share. I want to get her out here, into my den. It’s something I need, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to convince her to move out here with me. There’s not a lot out here to entice her.

But then again, she already lives on the outskirts of Whispering Pines. Maybe she’ll prefer it out here.

“Are you okay?”

Fuck. I love her voice. It’s soft with a hint of a rasp. There’s no doubt in my mind that I could listen to her talk all day long about anything.

“I’m good, little one,” I tell her honestly. “I was just talking to my bear.”

Her eyes widen and I realize I’ve done a shit job of explaining everything to her. Instead of laying her on the bed and covering her body with mine, I sit on the edge and maneuver her until she’s straddling my lap. Would I rather have her naked and writhing underneath me? Yes, but this is enough for now.

“You can talk to your bear?” There’s awe in her voice and I can’t help but smile.

“I can. When we turn 18 and can shift, our bear appears then. They are part of us, but they aren’t us, if that makes sense.” Her eyebrows pull together and I chuckle because she’s fucking adorable. “We share a body, and we share a mate, but we aren’t the same. My bear is driven by his instincts, more so than I am. They can help us when we get off track because we’re not being true to our shifter side. We can help them to not be ruled by their primal needs all the time. We’re balanced, but without our mate we aren’t complete.”

“Wow,” she whispers, her blue eyes wide and round. “It’s not strange having another voice in your head? Someone that isn’t you, but is you?”

I shrug my shoulders, unsure how to answer her. “Yes and no. We live for the first 18 years without our bear, but at the same time growing up surrounded by shifters, we’re taught about what to expect from an early age. Because of that, before you get your bear it can feel kind of lonely because there’s an expectation of having them with you after your 18 th birthday.”

She nods, her eyes thoughtful as she bites her lower lip. “Not being lonely must be nice,” there’s a hint of pain in her voice and I hate it.

My heart clenches and regret hits me hard. I shouldn’t have fought finding my mate for so long. Even though I’m not sure I want to hear her answer, I still ask, “You’ve been lonely?”

She shrugs and doesn’t meet my eyes. “Yes. I’ve always been an outsider. I didn’t have a lot of friends when I was growing up because I was quiet and wasn’t always comfortable in social situations. I feel more comfortable now because of the shop, but I think my chance to make friends has kind of passed.”

My arms tighten around my woman, and I bury my face in her neck, wishing I could take away the sadness coming off her in waves. “I’ll be your friend,” my voice is muffled, but I know she hears me when she giggles.

“I thought you were going to be my mate,” she teases.

I’m so surprised by her words that I pull back and look at her in awe. “You’re going to accept me?”

Her eyebrows pull together in confusion, “Why wouldn’t I?” I watch as a light bulb seems to go off over her head before she looks at me shyly. “Being your mate, is it why I always had a crush on you growing up?”

I blink a few times, staring at my mate and unable to look away. Knowing she had a crush on me while I never noticed her pains me. In my defense, though it’s thin, I didn’t notice anyone. She would have been too young for the mate bond to snap into place when I was still in school and then I retreated into the forest.

I nod slowly and she giggles as I shake my head at my cute as hell little mate. My bear rumbles, “Love her.”

I can’t help but agree. Now I just need to ensure she falls in love with me.

“I can be your mate and your friend,” I tell her. “And then there are my brothers. They might give you shit from time to time,” I warn her, “but they’ll have your back.”

She gently prompts, “None of them have mates?”

I growl, my bear lending me some of his possessiveness, “You’re mine.”

The giggle that comes out of my mate goes a long way to soothe the thought of her having any interest in my brothers. She reaches up and cups my jaw. “I’m yours,” she murmurs. “I was just curious.”

“They’re unmated and they’ll treat you like a sister,” I promise.

A dreamy look takes over her face, her voice soft and filled with something like yearning, “I think I’ll like that.”

The need to feel close to her, to taste her, overwhelms me. I slam my mouth down on hers and when she gasps, I take full advantage of the opportunity and plunge my tongue between her lips to taste her. I groan the moment her tongue starts to play with mine.

Her nails dig into my shoulders and her hips start to rock and grind down against my cock which has gone from a semi to rock fucking hard so fast I get a little lightheaded. The way I want this woman is heady, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Shame fills me when I realize I almost gave all of this up. What was I thinking? There’s no way I could be happy in the future without Birdie at my side.

“I’m sorry I was such an idiot and thought I didn’t want my mate,” I whisper against her lips.

She pulls back from me, but only far enough to look into my eyes. The way she looks at me, with understanding, has my heart pounding in my chest. “You’re going to let it go, Thatcher,” her words might be gentle, but there’s a command underneath them. “Living in the past won’t do you any favors. It’s time to move forward and one way we’re going to do that is let the past go.”

My entire being fucking melts. If I weren’t deeply in love with this woman already, that would have done me in. My bear grumbles his approval.

I don’t even try to keep the need out of my voice, “Do you have any more questions?”

She bites her lip and shrugs, but I can see the wheels in her head turning. “Just one,” she finally says, “you said something about mating, which I’m pretty sure I understand, but what is marking?”

My dick throbs and I’m sure she can feel exactly what she does to me since I didn’t bother putting on clothes. Instead of answering, I lean forward and press my lips against her marking spot.

“When we’re mating,” I rumble against her skin, “I’ll bite down right here. It will cement our bond, deepen it, and give you the ability to mind link me and we’ll be able to feel each other’s emotions. The mind link is kind of like what I have with my bear. You’ll be able to talk to me. Everyone in the same pack can mind link, like I can link with my brothers at any time even though we’re the only ones in the Bosch pack now.”

I know I should explain more, but I can’t concentrate as Birdie’s scent fills the room I hope to share with her for the rest of my life. When I turn and lay her out on the bed, she’s grinning at me with a sweet innocence shining in her eyes.

“I’m not sure I can answer any more of your questions right now, little one,” I grit out. “The need to be buried inside of your sweet pussy is too much to ignore.”

She makes a humming sound as her fingers run through my hair. Even though it might not be her intention, I take it as an invitation. As much as my bear wants to shred her clothes, I hold him back.

“You don’t want to be the one to get on her bad side and I don’t think she’ll like that very much,” I tell him, and he chuffs with annoyance.

My hands are gentle as I remove her clothes, reveling in how sexy my mate is spread out on our bed. Her tits are the perfect size, just enough to fill up my hands, and her pretty pink nipples are hard points begging for my mouth. I didn’t get to spend nearly enough time with my lips wrapped around them the other night.

I’m going to make up for it right now.

When I practically dive toward her chest, the giggle coming from my mate has me grinning right before I suck one of her nipples into my mouth. Her laughter dies and a loud moan fills the room. I’m damn glad I didn’t put any clothes on now.

The way her skin feels against mine is almost more than I can handle.

I was an idiot, but I’ll spend the rest of my life making my mate forget there was ever a time when I had convinced myself I didn’t want a mate. Even though I can’t go back in time and pull my head out of my ass so I could have found her earlier, I’ll fill every day with so many memories it’ll feel like we’ve been with each other forever.

And then we will have the rest of forever together.

“You taste so good,” I groan around her nipple before popping off and moving to the other one and giving it equal treatment. “I don’t think we’ll be able to leave our bed for days.”

As she moans her legs wrap around my waist and my cock slides between my mate’s soaked pussy lips. It feels so damn good, and I have to stop myself from lining up and thrusting into my woman until she forgets everything but how good we feel coming together.

“Please,” she gasps, her back arching and pushing more of her breast into my mouth.

I greedily open wider and take more of her flesh into my mouth loving the way her body shudders at the sensation. When I used to think about having my mate underneath me, my imagination would run wild, but I was also nervous about whether or not I could give her pleasure. It wasn’t enough of a worry to decide not to wait for my mate, but it still existed there in the back of my mind.

Getting to explore all of these firsts with Birdie, and having them be hers as well, is something I could never have anticipated. It’s exhilarating and makes me feel on the verge of feral.

“Need to feel you inside me,” she pleads.

I’ll never deny my mate anything even though I know I should make sure she’s ready for me. Not wanting to hurt her, I roll us until she’s straddling my hips, her blond hair falling around her and making her look otherworldly.

“Take me,” I groan and grip her hips.

I help her position herself and almost lose my load when her delicate fingers wrap around my shaft. Then she’s placing me at her entrance and slowly sliding down my length. My eyes roll back in my head, but when she lets out a sexy as fuck moan, my gaze snaps back to her.

There’s no way I’m going to miss a moment of this.

“Oh, Thatcher,” she hisses while experimentally moving her hips forward, back and then in a circular motion.

The walls of her pussy squeeze my dick, and I have to clench my jaw to stop myself from coming first. It’ll never fucking happen; her pleasure will always come first. I let go of one of her hips and use my thumb on her clit as my other hand helps her move up and down.

When she gets the hang of it, I want to lay back and watch the fucking show, but the need to touch her, the need to watch pleasure wash over her features, is too much. I start to thrust upward, meeting her every time she comes down. Soon she’s grunting and I’m growling while she slams down on me.

Her thighs start to shake and I’m almost grateful she’s so close. I won’t be able to hold off for much longer. My eyes take in my woman’s body and get lost in how her tits bounce with every movement.

As my gaze stops on her belly, all I can do is picture it big and round with my cubs. My balls draw up and I’m seconds away from flooding her with my cum, but not without her. Never without her.

I pinch her clit, and her head falls back between her shoulders as she screams out my name while she’s taken over the edge. The feeling of her tight pussy squeezing me, milking me, is too much. My bear roars right along with me as we hold our woman down and come as deep inside of her as we can.

She collapses on my chest, and I hold her against me, my hands running up and down her back. The whole time I never once pull out. It won’t be long before I roll her over and make love to my mate. She deserves to be worshiped, and I’m determined to do it.