Authors: Elle Thorne
Lance (8 page)
M
ac stretched
. Her fingers gripped thick fur. She opened her eyes slowly, still half-asleep basking in that state of not quite awake.
She was staring into a large bear’s dark brown eyes. Mac blinked slowly. The bear’s eyes glowed with a golden depth.
Mac felt no fear. That was Lance’s bear.
“You’re better,” she whispered.
The bear made a low growly sound, then the creaking and the crunching sounds she knew.
She closed her eyes. She couldn’t watch it. She’d seen it before, and it weirded her out to see his features stretching and morphing. The fur slipped from beneath her fingertips.
“Hey.”
Lance.
Her eyes flew open.
“Glad you’re here,” Lance ran his fingertips from the corner of her eye, over her cheekbone, down her jawline.
“I couldn’t imagine anywhere else I’d be.”
And that was the god’s honest truth. She couldn’t imagine being anywhere else but by his side.
“I thought…” he began.
She put a fingertip on his lips. “I can’t even begin to know what it’s like to have a bear inside, to have another being that acts and thinks independently of you.”
He tilted his head, watching her.
Mac chewed on her lip. “But you stood by me during my mistrust and the darkest hours, when my own chamber of demons was threatening to bury me.”
Lance nodded. “Then…”
“I’m not going to Griz’s cousin.” She studied his face. “You’re covered in blood.”
He licked his thumb, then brushed it across her other cheek. The finger he pulled back had a crimson tinge. “You got some on you.”
“I still have your clothes in the cottage.”
“You didn’t get rid of them?”
“No.” I could never. “You can use the shower in the cottage.”
L
ance let
the water run down his body, washing the scarlet remnants of the scuffle between him and Griz and Cross away. He still hadn’t fully absorbed the information Griz had laid on him. He wasn’t sure how much he would ever comprehend it.
The only thing he knew was when push came to shove, he couldn’t let Griz hurt his brother. And given the chance, Cross ultimately didn’t kill him.
He’d sort the rest out while he was at Bear Canyon Mountain Range for the next year.
He’d also have to talk to MacKenzie. He wasn’t going to make another move in his life, not even the smallest one, without her.
If she’d have him.
She seemed to have accepted him, at least as a friend…
But what about the rest?
She was the woman for him. She was the only one. If she wouldn’t have him…
God.
He didn’t even want to think of that.
The air cooled. He’d been so caught up in his thoughts, he hadn’t noticed.
The shower curtain was pulled aside. With only a pair of panties on, she stood before him, topless. Creamy, rose-tipped breasts, her hard nipples issued an invitation. Her hands rose, cupping, offering.
Fuck. Damn.
Lance’s cock jerked to attention. His breathing turned into panting as blood coursed through his body, followed by electric surges of desire.
Her hands lowered, tracing lips covered by the filmy white fabric of her panties.
He stepped forward, put his finger on hers, and let her trail both their fingers over her sex. The heat contained within made his desire peak. She traveled her hand, taking his with hers, up to the top of her panties and slipped her fingers inside, just barely passing the barrier of her waistband.
Lance’s fingers separated from hers and traveled down to her lips, to her core, then down to her entrance.
He tugged, pulling MacKenzie under the running water with him. Her panties, soaked, clung to her skin, tantalizing, and at the same time, hiding what he wanted so damned badly. What he’d been without for so many years.
Lance pushed gently on the fabric with a fingertip, watching it enter her body, watching his finger and the fabric making an indentation as it breached her entrance.
MacKenzie put her free hand on his cock, wrapping firm fingers around it.
His fucking body went weak and rigid with desire, at the same time.
His other hand crept to his dick, joining hers. He poked his finger in deeper, wondering how much give her panties had, how far in he’d be able to push while the fabric was creating a barricade.
MacKenzie moaned. A low sound that pulled at Lance and his bear.
Her moan broke him.
Fuck the panties.
He shoved them aside, marveling at her dark pink skin, her sleekness. MacKenzie spread her legs and placed a hand on each side of her sex, pushing her flesh apart, giving him a better view of the area he wanted to sink into, to plunge into the depths of.
Aching to be deep within her, he took her hand and pulled her closer, slipped a thumb into each side of her panties and pulled them down. He turned MacKenzie around, and pressed her against the shower wall. Taking her hands, he placed them on the tile, held them in place with his.
She pushed her ass backward, her body like a siren’s beckon. Lance reached around, tweaked and rolled each nipple, fueled by her whimpers of pleasure, he positioned himself perfectly behind her, dropped his hand against her mound and ran it toward her clit. Mackenzie wriggled with pleasure at the pressure of his fingers on her core. She pushed backward, tempting his cock, almost taking him in, but he backed up.
“Not yet, luscious,” he whispered close to her ear.
“Lance. Now.” Her voice was desperate. “Please.”
Grabbing her hips, he drove into her with the fierceness of his emotions, his fears, his need. He drove into her channel, savoring the tautness of her body. The way it made a tight sheath that pulled him deeper, threatening to drain him prematurely.
Lance pushed and pumped, taking, giving, driving, lost in the grip of her channel, unable to function or think of pleasing or pleasure, driven by the need to burst.
With every one of Lance’s thrusts, MacKenzie grunted and pushed against him, her backward thrusts wild, matching his, her cries and moans loud.
“I want you to bond me.” The words were ripped from her lungs at the same moment an orgasm catapulted her body into a spasm.
He wanted to more than anything. And the last time felt like it was more his idea than hers. “You sure?”
“Yes. God. Yes. Now.”
He didn’t need to be told twice, nor did his bear.
Lance bit into her neck, in the exact same spot as their first couple bond, but on the opposite side. He tasted her blood, the way he did the first time, but this time the surge of energy that flowed through him was like a fireball, traveling from one part of his body to another with a speed that made his head spin.
Fuck.
This bond. Their togetherness was double-sealed.
He’d never let anyone or anything get between them. Especially not himself.
She squirmed, let out a cry as she climaxed again.
Out of control, Lance yanked her hips close and buried himself deep. He tried to stop the flow, but when she screamed and tightened in an orgasm, he fully lost the battle, matching her outcry, shuddering, filling her completely.
M
ac stirred
. Something woke her up. What was it?
She heard it again.
A phone, vibrating.
Lance’s phone.
Lance lunged for the nightstand. “Sorry, I was hoping to keep from waking you.”
“It’s okay.”
Lance’s expression changed. She couldn’t pin it. He swiped across the screen and put the phone to his ear. “Judge.”
He paused, then, “What the hell do you mean, AWOL?”
“Judge? Judge.” He set the phone down. “Connection lost. I should call Cross.”
W
hat’s next
?
J
udge
Judge del Cruz followed in his older brothers’ footsteps, serving in the Shifter Compliance Unit. He never thought much about returning to the mountain range where he spent so much of his teen years. Those were the happiest days of his life, but being an Enforcer allows him to stay too busy to dwell on any of his past.
But the call to return to Bear Canyon Mountain Range is too powerful. So he packs up, ready to see his own cabin at the top of the range.
W
hat he didn’t plan
on, seeing, the curvy bootilicious Alanna—Lani—who pushes his buttons, in all the wrong ways—and yet by damn, in all the right ones too!
P
lease refer
to the website for newest releases as we spend time with our Shifters Forever and all the wonderful spin off series!
Thank you for reading!
S
HIFTERS FOREVER SERIES
Are you ready for it?
I
have
a whole world full of shifters to share with you. I’m listing them here, in the suggested reading order, though I’ve tried to make it so that you can pick up anywhere in the series as we all have probably done that at one point or another.
W
here’s
the best place to start? Well, probably with
Shifters Forever
.
Shifters Forever
starts the series off with grizzly bear shifters and their mates that steam up the pages in these swoon-worthy paranormal romances. From trespassers with hidden agendas to curvaceous women who are ready to take a chance, the stories in this collection will capture your heart.
•
Protection
• Seduction
• Persuasion
• Invitation
• Temptation
• Attraction
A
lways After Dark
is a spinoff with the white tiger from Shifters Forever: Vax, born Vittorio Tiero. He’s the one that helped Kane out during a shifter battle.
Follow the Tiero family, a group of white tiger shifters, as they head to America to find love... and heart-stopping danger. Full of romance, suspense, and gritty drama, this red-hot collection is sure to entertain!
• Controversy
• Territory
• Adversary
• Sanctuary
N
ever After Dark
is another spinoff that takes place in Europe. Here we visit cities along the Mediterranean and meet the old school Tiero white tiger shifters who are resistant to change.
Enter a world of sex, secrets, and forbidden love. Shifters who can turn into tigers, leopards, and panthers must decide who they can trust — and who they can’t live without.
• Forbidden
• Forsaken
• Forgotten
• Foreplay
O
nly After Dark
takes place in New Orleans. The Arceneaux shifters, led by Lézare, Vax’s white tiger cousin—on his mother’s side. The Arceneaux are the black sheep of the family. Lézare doesn’t cave to public opinion. He dictates policy in the area he rules and he shuns old school European rules and regimes.
• Desirable
• Insatiable
• Combustible
• Undeniable
• Inevitable
S
hifters
Forever After
follows a group of polar bears in New York. Russian and rumored to be mobbed up, they are a powerhouse of shifters, determining the fate of many on the East Coast. Mikhail Romanoff, Layla’s father, runs this outfit with an iron fist. Layla’s sexy cousin Malachi features prominently in this series.
• Complication
• Fascination
• Motivation
u
nbound
features Mae Forester’s nephew Dane Forester
, a freewheeling, sexy, successful, movie star who uses every role and every woman to escape and forget the heartbreak he left in Woodland Creek.
• Unbound
b
arely after dark
More of Mae Forester’s nephews! Grizzly bear shifters steam up the pages in these swoon-worthy paranormal romances. From trespassers with hidden agendas to curvaceous women who are ready to take a chance, the stories in this collection will capture your heart.
• Cross
• Lance
• Judge
I
do hope
you’ll be able to join me on this wonderful journey with our Shifters Forever Shifters and their mates!
Hugs, Elle!
T
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y personal guarantee
:
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