“Exactly, was from Wolf Valley. Now she lives in Bear Creek and can’t move back.” She turned onto her back, looking directly as him while she spoke. “And I don’t know whether I will be welcome in Bear Creek. It was my brother who chased Fiona; she is my cousin.”
He let the breath out between his teeth with a whistle. “Small world. So that’s why you paused as you came up the pass. I had no idea.”
“Yeah, well I wondered for a minute there, if you knew and this was some sick joke.”
“No. No joke at all.” No wonder she had acted oddly. “He ride with your guys? Was he in the motorcycle club?”
“He ran it.” She stared at the ceiling, and then continued, as though knowing she could trust him, which he found gratifying. Mia was beginning to open up to him. “That’s how come I am in charge. When he came back, he had been a wolf too long. We had to get a special nurse to come and coax him back to being human. But the wolf lingered.”
“I know they had trouble with him. Never knew it was that bad.”
“The cold and everything got to him. He spent two days out in the snow, no food, freezing. By the time he came back he didn’t have enough energy to complete the change.” She put her hands over her face, and he wondered if she was trying to hide her tears. “Anyway, I had to take over the gang or else they would have run us out of town. We have no alpha, so there is no one to oversee these things. It’s mob rule.”
“That was the only way to save your family.”
“Yes. Now there seems to be no way out.”
“There’s always a way, Mia;
there is always a way
. Together we can find it. We can make this right. Because I am sure as hell not going to sneak around with you.” He leaned over and kissed her. “I want you in my bed, every night. And I do not intend to be beaten in that.”
He certainly showed her his intentions. They made love through the night, and when she woke up it was late morning.
“Damn it. I have to go. I’m supposed to be somewhere.” She got out of bed quickly, but he pulled her back to him.
“You’re right; there is somewhere you are supposed to be.” He moved to lie on top of her, her hands above her head as he held her down. “Right here.”
“Not funny, Joel. I have to go.” She struggled under him, writhing around, but he held her down and leaned over to kiss her neck. Thrills coursed through her body. Why couldn’t she just let go and stay here with him, have some fun, some time to herself?
Because her mom would be worried. Mia struggled again, but he moved his head down and latched on to her breast, sending shockwaves through her body.
“I … really … have to go,” she said, her breathing ragged.
“That’s not what your body is telling me, Mia.” He licked her nipple with the flat of his tongue. He looked up and smiled when he said, “Your body is telling me how much it would like to be impaled on my cock right now.”
“Nice,” she said, but her brain kind of agreed with that assessment too. “But I need to go.”
Reluctantly. He moved off her, rolling over to lie next to her. Damn it, this was hard. Well, he was hard anyway. Shame for it to go to waste.
Mia sat up, pleased he had let her go, but deciding that she was so late, a couple more minutes wouldn’t make too much difference. “We need to get back down the mountain.”
She wrapped her hand around his cock, pumping her hand up and down, and then moved to straddle him. “Promise me you’ll get that big bear of yours moving at breakneck speed back down that trail.”
“As fast as I can, if you would just … ahh, oh, yeah. That … is … it.”
She lowered herself down onto him, letting her sex stretch around him as she took every inch of him inside her. Closing her eyes, she gave herself a moment to adjust to him, feeling the ache of her inner muscles as she began to move.
His hands went to her hips, helping to guide her as she struggled to gain a rhythm. Circling her hips, moving up and down, she soon found exactly what she liked and rode him, racing them both towards that inevitable climax.
When she looked down at him, he was biting his lip, and then opening his mouth to take in a big breath of air as his orgasm approached. He smiled, and her heart ached for him, to be with him like this forever. When this was over, she had to go back to her other life, the life without him that she no longer wanted.
Joel’s hands left her hips and wound their way up towards her breasts, stroking her soft skin as they trailed higher. And then they reached their objective, his palms rubbing over her nipples, her hard taut buds pressing into his work-hardened hands. Exquisite sensations flooded her body and her hips bucked, sending her body into the throes of her orgasm.
Joel lifted his hips, meeting each downward thrust with an upward thrust of his own so she impaled herself on his cock deep and hard. Mia had to rest her hands on his chest to steady herself, and he rose to meet her, kissing her lips, holding her close as he came, his seed spurting deep inside her.
Throwing her head back, she cried out, her world spiralling out of control while strong sensations of pleasure swept over her. Joel nestled his face between her breasts, kissing her skin as they tried to come back down to earth. She cradled his head, wanting to stay like this, in this very moment, for as long as they could. Once they moved, the spell would be broken and they would have to leave. Each to their own separate lives.
“When are we going to meet again,” she asked.
He chuckled. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to get enough of me.”
“I just want you to give me the phones back so that I can sell them,” she said archly, but one look at his face told her he didn’t believe her. “So I might want to see you for other reasons too.”
“Like my sense of humour?”
“Hadn’t noticed that part of your character.” She kissed his face and he shifted, his cock still inside her. She used her internal muscles to grip him and felt him harden again. “Now, that part of your anatomy is what interests me the most. It doesn’t talk.”
“Mia, my mouth is good for a lot more than talking,” he said, licking her nipple and grazing it with his teeth.
“I won’t be forgetting that for some time,” she said, remembering his mouth on her clit and his tongue inside her sex. “You have a gift.”
“And it’s all for you now,” he said. “But you are right. I don’t want you getting into any more fights, so let’s get you back home. And I will get those phones back to you.”
She had gone to retrieve her clothes. Standing up, she said, “You will? Won’t that get you in trouble?”
“I’ll figure it out. They belong to you. Like I told you, we thought you were dealing drugs on Bear Creek territory. That is something we would not have been able to turn a blind eye to. Phones, though, I guess that’s your business. Although I need to ask, are they stolen?”
“Maybe. But I don’t think so. A friend of Traff’s sold them to us.”
“Traff—is he the one who did that to you?” Joel pointed up to his eye, and nodded.
“No. Not him. He knows better than to take me on.”
“So who was it?”
“Not telling. It’s between me and my gang. Isn’t that how your crew works? Or would you appreciate me wading in if one of your boys gave you a black eye. Ahh, don’t give me the
‘but you’re a woman’
routine. Please.”
Joel closed his mouth and simply said, “You’re right. But still, it’s not right.”
She went to him, kissing him and wrapping her arms round his neck, needing him to understand. “This is who I am. It’s who I have to be for now, for my family.”
“Is it also the way it’s always going to be?”
“I don’t know. My brother is not on the scene. If I leave, then what happens to my family? To my mom?”
“Where is your brother? It seems like this is his mess. Why isn’t he here sorting it out?”
“Still in the hospital. Or at least, somewhere where they look after him.”
“You don’t know?”
“Haven’t seen him. My mom goes, but I’m just too mad at him.”
“Don’t you think he needs your support?”
“Joel,” she said, pulling away from him. “What he did was wrong. What he left behind was a whole pile of crap. He made me into what I am. It wasn’t a choice. I mean, yeah, I was never going to be a stay at home kind of woman. I always wanted to make my own way.” She pulled on her catsuit, zipping it up. “But this. This is not me.”
“Then let it go. Change.” He came to her and rubbed her back, soothing away the sorrow he could feel emanating from her.
“It’s too late now. This is who I am.”
“People change, Mia. Your brother might have changed.”
“That I will never know.”
“Listen, if you do one thing for me, go and see him.”
“And what’s in it for you?” Her eyes narrowed, and she looked at him, trying to see why he cared about her seeing her brother.
“Absolutely nothing, other than seeing my mate happy, or at least at peace.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “I am never going to be at peace. Too much has happened for that to ever be possible. So you are wasting your time.”
“I don’t think so. Listen, go see him, just once, for me. If no other reason than because it would make me happy.”
She sat on the bed and pulled her boots on, then stood up. “Damn you, Joel. Damn this fated mates thing.”
“So you’ll do it?”
“If it makes you happy,” she said, in such a condescending way he burst out laughing once more. His laughter was contagious, but still, she fought it. If she wasn’t careful, he might actually make her feel all light and fluffy, like some airhead who had no problems. But she had problems, and Joel was making her face them head on, whilst she would rather get on her bike and ride off in the opposite direction.
Reluctantly he dressed, and then checked the cabin was secure before they headed back down the mountain. Neither of them changed into their animal, although he could feel his bear trying to escape the confines of his mind. He wanted to run with his little wolf and frolic in the streams that ran down through the trees further down the mountain.
In fact, there was this lovely little waterfall with a deep pool that they could swim in.
“Are you aright?” she asked. “You look slightly preoccupied.”
“I’m OK.” He reached out for her hand, silencing his bear. “Does your wolf sometimes put ideas into your head?”
She laughed, the first time he had heard her sound carefree. “Tell me about it. Right now, it wants to run headlong down this track and out over the meadow. Then she would probably find something disgusting to roll in.”
“Sounds like we have more in common than I thought.”
“Your bear like that too?”
“He has some ideas that I find hard to stomach sometimes. But you’ve got to let them have some fun too, right?”
“You know, I’m not sure when the last time was that I let my wolf, or myself, have any real fun.”
“Then we’ll do it. Tomorrow, can you get away?”
“That would depend on how today goes.” She sighed heavily and then took in a deep breath of mountain air. “You know. I think I’ll make time, I had forgotten how good it is to be up here.”
Joel stopped, pulling her into his arms and then kissing her fiercely. When he finally let her come up for air, he said, “There, sealed with a kiss. Now you can’t back out of it.”
“I thought bears were the spit-on-your-hand type of guys.”
“Might be. But with you, I feel I should be more civilised.”
She laughed again. “That is the first time anyone has ever decided to be more civilised around me. I grew up in the company of boys. I am used to being one of the guys.”
“Not around me, Mia. You are my lady.”
“Like your old lady?”
“No,” he said, taking her hand and kissing the back of it. “You are definitely a real lady to me.”
With that, he released her and turned into his bear to run down the mountain as if he had not a care in the world. Behind him, he felt the air shift and knew she had gone wolf and was now after him, and would surely catch him.
When he turned, he couldn’t see her, and paused, slowing down in case something had happened to her. Then he saw her above him, jumping nimbly from boulder to boulder and then racing ahead of him, dust spraying up in his face.
His bear grinned. Life was never going to be dull with a wolf as his mate.
Exhausting
, he thought as his legs began to ache and his breath came in short, sharp gasps. Speed was not his thing; he was more of an endurance bear. However, he didn’t want to lose her. Not now on this mountain and not ever in his life.
Joel promised himself there and then he would somehow make her life easier. He would never make her give up being the president of Wolf Valley Motorcycle Club, but he sure as hell would make sure no man ever raised his fists to her again. Not for any reason.
Her bike hummed beneath her. She should have been rushing back to pick up the pieces of her life. Yet she wanted to delay her return to Wolf Valley for as long as possible. Here, cruising along the back roads, the sun out, leaving dapples on the ground as it found its way through the leaves of the trees which swayed lazily in the breeze, she could pretend her life was different.
Only one thing stopped her from believing that dream. She wasn’t with her mate; instead, the bond between them was being stretched out as Joel disappeared in the other direction, back to Bear Creek. He was right; they couldn’t spend the rest of their lives apart. What would happen when she got pregnant? Another uncertainty: bear cubs or wolf pups?
Family. Her thoughts turned to her brother. Maybe Joel was right. It might be time to try to make some connection with him. Kurt would be her children’s uncle. Mia thought back to their childhood; he had always fought her corner, well, fought alongside her anyway. Back to back, side by side, they had been a good team. Until the lure of the biker gang had taken hold of him.
Speeding along, Mia opened the throttle some more. Wolf Valley hooked its desperate claws into her and almost seemed to beg her to free it from the pit it had become. Once, the town had been thriving, full of fun, mates meeting and falling in love. Now when a couple mated, they tended to move away. This was no place to raise a family. Corruption breathed corruption here now.