Bitten (Black Mountain Bears Book 2)
Read Bitten (Black Mountain Bears Book 2) Online
Authors: Ophelia Bell,Amelie Hunt
Amelie Hunt Presents
Bitten
Black Mountain Bears: Book 2
Ophelia Bell
Copyright 2015 Ophelia Bell
May not be replicated or reproduced in any manner without express and written permission from the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to author and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Excerpt
Jasper’s world had been black before it tilted, jostling him awake. He cracked his eyes to a smear of light and color and a steady, disconcerting undulation of the earth beneath him. He closed his eyes again, hoping it would pass, but it didn’t.
In a moment, more of his senses returned, enough for him to put the full picture together—including the bound state of his wrists and ankles and the pungent fur his cheek rested against.
He opened his eyes again, saw a swath of white fur, determined he was tied to the back of a tauntaun and closed them tight. It
was
midwinter—he must still be hallucinating from hypothermia, or else he’d really been transported to the Rebels’ base planet from his favorite movie.
As much as he liked the latter, he would go with the hypothermia. If only the body beneath him wasn’t so damn warm.
Jasper let out a groan and shifted, trying to access more of that warmth. The massive, loping form beneath him slowed and stopped. Abruptly his world shifted, and he found himself dumped unceremoniously to the ground in the middle of a sunlit forest, the loose bindings falling from his wrists and ankles.
Before his eyes, a bear with a pelt as black as night paused and growled. Jasper’s gaze shot to her and shifted over her shoulders to see his sister’s unconscious and disturbingly inert body draped over the bear’s back, bound to it with leather straps.
“What the fuck are you doing with my sister?!” He lurched forward, his eyesight immediately clouding with something that felt like ice crystallizing over his eyelids.
A pair of hands gripped his shoulders. Jasper lashed out, turning to punch blindly into the space where the figure he couldn’t see stood. He blinked as he scrambled back, staring up into the striking face of a white-haired young man with red irises. In that first split second, he wondered how a man could be so beautiful, but the need to get away, to save his sister from whatever captivity they’d found themselves in, took over.
“We’re not the enemy, Jasper!” another voice called.
He had too much trouble seeing through the frost. It crackled at the corners of his vision, growing worse in spite of how much he blinked. He glanced down at Jade’s prone form, now at the feet of a beautiful, very naked, red-haired woman.
“I don’t know you,” he murmured, unable to find the strength to speak louder. He had to get himself and Jade away. He knew the woods well enough. Once he found his bearings, he could go find help, then lead them back here. But he barely had the strength to stand.
Jasper launched himself into the woods and attempted to run, struggling with the lethargy of hypothermia that gripped him, struggling to even see the trees through the icy crystals threatening at the edge of his vision. His legs moved, yet he seemed to go nowhere.
Someone grabbed his ankle out from under him and a warm body fell on top of his. He tried to wrestle it off, but it was too fast, too strong, easily pinning him his wrists above his head as he thrashed his legs. Another pair of hands soon held those down, too.
“Gaia forgive me, Stonetree, but you are a pain in the ass.”
Jasper blinked up into the red-haired woman’s face, his vision finally clearing of the frost, thanks to the warmth of her breath on his face. She was pale as snow, but with vivid blue eyes and sun-bleached red hair.
Beautiful like the winter sunrise
, was all he could think. And just as naked.
His cock had a less profound opinion, much to his embarrassment. All it wanted was to be inside her. He tried to pull his hips back into the hard, leaf-strewn dirt beneath him, but the movement only gave her more leverage.
“You fucking idiot. We’re trying to save your life, if you’d let us!” she yelled down at him.
“What, by fucking me against my will?”
She looked shocked for a second, then her lips twisted in a grin and she lowered her face to his. Her breath gusted over his lips, her smooth lips caressing his own as she spoke.
“Honey, if I wanted to fuck you, you would be begging for it before I started.”
Join The Hunt
Moonlight caresses your skin. Your bare feet crush leaves and grass as you run. Your heart hammers in your chest and your breath burns, but you can’t stop. He’s so close now.
A flash in the corner of your vision! The chase is drawing to a close. For a moment, you feel a prickle of fear. But the feeling is fleeting. After all, you’re not the prey.
You’re the hunter.
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To Jess, Kat, Nate, and Kate. Without you guys I’d never have said, “What the hell, let’s do this crazy thing!” You never know what you can accomplish if you don’t take a risk now and then, and you guys are worth the risk. And to Tina and Nora, who have had my back for the whole project. You guys mean more than words.
Amelie Hunt Collection
Ophelia Bell’s Black Mountain Bears
Vivian Wood’s Winter Pass Wolves
Sennah Tate’s Sunset Glade Panthers
Maeve Morrick’s Arctic Station Bears
Cass Reynold’s Emerald Isle Tigers
Contents
Chapter One
T
o be a worthy male in this world—in any world—you must revere your female above everything else.
Jasper sat on the leafy forest floor, staring up at the giant boulder with the tree splitting it. The symbol of their clan, apparently. The stone was still as impervious to the elements as any stone, yet over the years, it had been split by the tree’s roots. Now the two were melded together, inexorably entwined, bound to the earth.
If the tree died, the stone would fall to pieces. And if the stone disintegrated, the tree would fall.
His father’s words echoed in his head, a lesson given long ago when Jasper had had a crush on a girl in Junior High and was at a loss as to how to woo her.
“Am I supposed to
worship
her, Papa?” he had asked.
His father shook his head. “There’s a difference between blind worship and simple reverence. Just make sure she knows you think she’s the most amazing woman in your life. That you would do anything for her.”
That had made him think. The girl in question was cute, but would he do
anything
for her? Would he . . . He swallowed hard, remembering what his cousin Emma had done to prove herself to some boys. Would he
eat worms
for her? He’d decided absolutely not and proceeded to change his entire outlook on the worthiness of girls. Because, the girls Jasper wanted to impress were the ones who would eat worms.
Jasper chuckled at the old memory of Emma eating worms. To the boys she was trying to impress, she’d said they tasted like ambrosia, but none would take the bait.
Later on, when Jasper was alone with Emma, she confessed that worms were kind of bland and gritty. Jasper’s twin sister, Jade, had made a beeline to the bathroom and lost her lunch, but Jasper had remained impressed with Emma ever since, the adoration evolving into an unconditional reverence he wasn’t sure he’d feel for any other woman.
His reverence for his cousin might have been his own downfall, and his sister’s. If he hadn’t been so insistent about following her on her trek into the midwinter night a few weeks ago—hadn’t convinced Jade to go with them—Emma would have found this amazing Sanctuary, would have been safe, and found her lovers. And wouldn’t have had to sacrifice so much to save the lives of her foolish cousins, who weren’t even ready to follow her.
It wasn’t until Jasper awoke that he’d learned everything that had happened while he and Jade were practically comatose.
They’d been near death for almost two days, and only Emma’s burgeoning power as the ursa princess could have saved them. And only if she mated an ursa male right away and got pregnant. The magic she needed to save him and Jade could only be accessed by a fully fertile, pregnant female.
Jasper scrubbed his hands over his face. God, that could have gone so badly. But it hadn’t. Emma had come through for them, like always.
He stared up at the sky, thanking whatever beings existed for at least letting his cousin find mates she loved and working it out so that they could be together— soon, anyway.
The wind picked up and the trees rustled around him. Nearby in the rushing creek, rocks tumbled over each other, creating a sweet harmony that complemented the natural symphony around him. As idyllic as it was in this spot, there was still a wildness that made him feel more in his element than he’d ever felt growing up outside, in a world he’d only recently discovered he wasn’t born to. The fluctuations of light and sound that animated the forest around him somehow seemed perfectly in tune with the surges of emotion he was gripped by ever since awakening from that icy coma.
There were few females in Jasper’s life he truly revered, and their numbers had doubled over the last few days. At first, the only women he’d cared about were his cousin, Emma, and his twin sister, Jade. The only men, his dad and uncle. At least at first, but he refused to think about the one painful exception just now.
No other women ever quite measured up, no matter how much he fielded offers in high school, and even accepted a few out of need to fit in. Then one of the young women he’d rejected had started a rumor that he was gay. Jasper didn’t waste effort deflecting it. He didn’t honestly know what he was. He didn’t want any of them.
Now, he had his mother for the first time since being separated from her as an infant. He wiped his eyes, remembering their reunion. Or should he consider it a meeting, since he had no memory of her? If that was it, he’d never loved meeting a woman so much as his own mother. He’d cried in her arms for a moment until realizing what he was doing. When he’d pulled back and clenched his jaw, struggling to stanch his tears, she’d simply kissed his cheek and whispered, “Tears often show the strength of a man’s love. Never be shy about showing a woman that, my son.”
Then there was his aunt, the queen. His reverence for her seemed more instinctual. Besides, if she’d made Emma, what wasn’t to be revered? He’d had a secret crush on his cousin almost his entire life. Ever since he’d witnessed her eat worms.
But there was a new focus for his reverence. Two, in fact. Two, both of whom he had no idea how to reconcile in a million years. The pair had found him near death a little more than a week ago.
* * *
Jasper’s world had been black before it tilted, jostling him awake and into a state of panic he’d never felt before. He’d forced himself to breathe and find his bearings before doing anything else.
He cracked his eyes to a smear of light and color and a steady, disconcerting undulation of the earth beneath him. He closed his eyes again, hoping it would pass, but it didn’t.
In a moment, more of his senses returned, enough for him to put the full picture together—including the bound state of his wrists and ankles and the pungent fur his cheek rested against.
He opened his eyes again, saw a swath of white fur, determined he was tied to the back of a tauntaun and closed them tight. It
was
midwinter—he must still be hallucinating from hypothermia, or else he’d really been transported to the Rebels’ base planet from his favorite movie.
As much as he liked the latter, he would go with the hypothermia. If only the body beneath him wasn’t so damn warm.
Jasper let out a groan and shifted, trying to access more of that warmth. The massive, loping form beneath him slowed and stopped. Abruptly his world shifted, and he found himself dumped unceremoniously to the ground in the middle of a sunlit forest, the loose bindings falling from his wrists and ankles.
Before his eyes, a bear with a pelt as black as night paused and growled. Jasper’s gaze shot to the animal and shifted over its shoulders to see his sister’s unconscious and disturbingly inert body draped over the bear’s back, bound to it with leather straps.
“What the fuck are you doing with my sister?!” He lurched forward, his eyesight immediately clouding with something that felt like ice crystallizing over his eyelids.
A pair of hands gripped his shoulders. Jasper lashed out, turning to punch blindly into the space where the figure he couldn’t see stood. He blinked as he scrambled back, staring up into the striking face of a white-haired young man with red irises. In that first split second, he wondered how a man could be so beautiful, but the need to get away, to save his sister from whatever captivity they’d found themselves in, took over.
“We’re not the enemy, Jasper!” another voice called.
He had too much trouble seeing through the frost. It crackled at the corners of his vision, growing worse in spite of how much he blinked. He glanced down at Jade’s prone form, now at the feet of a beautiful, very naked, red-haired woman.
“I don’t know you,” he said, his voice sounding rough and brittle. His throat ached just from speaking. He had to get himself and Jade away. He knew the woods well enough. Once he found his bearings, he could go find help, then lead them back here. But he barely had the strength to stand.
Jasper launched himself into the woods and attempted to run, struggling with the lethargy of hypothermia that gripped him, struggling to even see the trees through the icy crystals threatening at the edge of his vision. His legs moved, yet he seemed to go nowhere.
Someone grabbed his ankle out from under him and a warm body fell on top of his. He tried to wrestle it off, but it was too fast, too strong, easily pinning him his wrists above his head as he thrashed his legs. Another pair of hands soon held those down, too.
“Gaia forgive me, Stonetree, but you are a pain in the ass.”
Jasper blinked up into the red-haired woman’s face, his vision finally clearing of the frost, thanks to the warmth of her breath on his face. She was pale as snow, but with vivid blue eyes and sun-bleached red hair.
Beautiful like the winter sunrise
, was all he could think. And just as naked.
His cock had a less profound opinion, much to his embarrassment. All it wanted was to be inside her. He tried to pull his hips back into the hard, leaf-strewn dirt beneath him, but the movement only gave her more leverage.
“You fucking idiot. We’re trying to save your life, if you’d let us!” she yelled down at him.
“What? By fucking me against my will?”
She looked shocked for a second, then her lips twisted in a grin and she lowered her face to his. Her breath gusted over his lips, her smooth lips caressing his own as she spoke.
“Honey, if I wanted to fuck you, you would be begging for it before I started.”
Jasper nearly groaned and begged outright before she clamped her lips over his. His hips shot up against her naked core, grinding against her while she kissed him. God, he’d never wished so much to be naked.
Abruptly she tore herself away and stood, staring down at him. She was so fierce, so breathtaking, with her glorious mane and pissed-off expression. “I wish I had time to fuck some sense into you, Stonetree. We’re not your enemies. If you run again, you and your sister will both die.”
“It’s Jasper,” he said. “My sister is Jade. Edward’s our father. Is he here?”
Her expression softened. “I’m Autumn. My white-haired friend is Gunnar Windchaser. I know who you are—you told me when we found you. You are very protective of your sister and your cousin, aren’t you?”
“Where is Emma?” Jasper said, sitting up. “Is she all right?”
“Emma’s safe,” Autumn answered. “She’s with the Queen. We’re taking you to them and your parents. You came through the portal prematurely, so you’re weak. There isn’t much time. Will you stop fighting us and let us take you home?”
Their parents were there. Jasper let slip a breath of relief. He nodded. “Take us home.”
“You take the girl,” he heard Autumn tell Gunnar. “I’ve got the idiot.”
Jasper nearly objected, tried to force himself to rise and walk on his own, but found he had no strength for it. The harsh cold returned to his limbs when she stood up and her warmth disappeared.
* * *
That had been two long weeks ago. After Emma revived them, he and Jade had both struggled to find their bearings. Where they’d normally have sought out each other for comfort, something had changed. He didn’t know if it was with him, or with his sister.
But all Jasper could think about was Autumn and that kiss, and Gunnar’s soft, white fur, the scent of it a regular feature in his dreams the last two nights.
The worst part was that they’d be leaving before he even got to know them. They’d both just given up their place in the Sanctuary to make sure Emma’s mates could return.
The two guardians she’d secretly mated had left the sanctuary at New Year’s. Autumn and Gunnar had made a promise to take their place before the Equinox, so that they could come back to be with Emma. They would be leaving soon, and Jasper wouldn’t be able to follow. If he left now, it might kill him to try to return again. And after the Equinox, only Windchasers would be allowed in and out of the Sanctuary. Not a young Stonetree male like himself.
That was the part Jasper had issues with. He’d finally found the rest of his family. His unknown mother and his missing father. His aunt and uncle. And now that he believed he’d met the love of his life—
loves
of his life, who was he kidding?—they had just given up everything for his family.
After waking up, he’d seen them for the first time without the charmed frost obscuring his vision. The exchange had seemed to last an eternity. He was sure his heart had stopped again when he looked into Gunnar’s dark red eyes and then Autumn’s vibrant blue ones. They were mesmerizing, and it took every ounce of power in him to pull his gaze away to the woman who had just introduced herself as his mother.
“I don’t even know if we have a god or goddess here,” he said, staring up at the stone-bound tree before him. “But if you exist, whoever you are, please . . . give me a sign so I know what to do.”
The tree only rustled in the same breeze that had been blowing through all day. A small pebble tumbled off the boulder and hit the leaf-strewn ground with a soft crunch.
Jasper stared at it, his heart pounding. He’d dealt with bullshit all his life. Being an athletic guy who attracted others with romantic, or even merely sexual, inclinations wasn’t a blessing, by his standards. He’d felt lost for years.
Sitting in the shadow of this tree, begging for answers, he felt more at home than he had in his entire life.
He may not have found any real answers, but he knew Emma and Jade were still the center of his life. As long as he did right by them, he’d do right by himself.
But on his way back down the path to the lodge, his center shifted. The lilt of Autumn’s laughter carried like the peal of a bell over the sound of the waterfall spilling into the clan’s favorite swimming spot. Deeper laughter and splashing sounds followed.
Jasper stopped and listened, stomach churning as he resisted the urge to go find them. As much as he craved their company, it was difficult to see them together knowing they would be leaving. He’d spent time with them over the last two weeks, gotten to know them, but in spite of that first moment seeing them both and tumbling through an entire galaxy of emotions, he refused to let himself get any more attached. If he admitted to his feelings, he’d be betraying his love for his family.