RANCHER BEAR’S BABY(70)

I was done. Some might say my hormones were driving me, but I knew better. I just wanted my mate. I thought I could outwait Michael, but I couldn’t. He won that game. I surrender.

I didn’t care about him being a bear. I didn’t care that he thought he was some monster. I just wanted him back. We could sort out all the details later. We could play four hundred questions and he could read my journal from my teenage years, but right then, I just needed him back.

I’d driven to the ranch, expecting a fight, but the one I witnessed was not what I’d been expecting. I drove up just as Michael and another man turned into bears and started fighting. What looked rough at first quickly turned into something fun and lighthearted. I parked and watched as more bears joined into the party and they all wrestled each other to the ground multiple times.

Michael seemed to actually be having fun. If anything, his bear looked gentler than the rest of them. I easily tracked his movements until he was flat on his back, just like the rest of his brothers.

For someone who hadn’t known shifters existed until very recently, I took it all in easily enough. I was fascinated by it, but mainly I just wanted to run and comb my fingers through Michael’s fur while he was still a bear.

I got out of my car and walked around the front end of it. I’d barely gotten ten feet closer when Michael’s bear sat straight up and turned its golden gaze on me. He roared and ran at me. I knew the gig, though. I didn’t run. I just stayed where I was and smiled.

I noticed that his brothers remained calm. “Michael. I came here to yell at you, but look at how cute you are like this. I can’t get over it.”

His brothers snickered, but Michael slowed down and then eagerly bent to rub his head into my stomach. The massive creature was easy with me, delicate almost. Then, he was man again, naked and kneeling in front of me. “Daisy.”

I put my hand on the center of his forehead and pushed him backwards. “You are in trouble. I’m tired of you running away from me. I have been waiting on you to come to your senses for too damn long, Michael. You’re making me eat my pride and come out here to get you, and that’s just so… annoying!

“I don’t care that you think you’re a monster. I don’t. I want my mate. I don’t know everything about you, but I know that you are mine. You said it yourself. So, stop being a butthead and act like my mate. I mean it. I have a lot of pent-up stress right now and I’m willing to release it on you.”

He stood up and grinned at me. “Butthead? I thought you were supposed to be sweet?”

I opened my mouth to yell at him but he his lips descended over mine before I could get words out. His kiss tasted wild and then dark, like whiskey. His tongue swept into my mouth and I moaned as all of my tension seemed to seep right out of me.

When he pulled back, Michael was still grinning. He looked like all of his tension had faded, too. “Come with me.”

I tried to keep up with him, but he was too excited. His naked steps were twice as long as mine and eventually, he just turned around and picked me up. “Where are we going?”

“To my favorite spot. I need to be alone with you.”

My body reacted immediately. My nipples pebbled, my panties soaked a wet spot right through, and I was suddenly panting against him. “Don’t leave me again. I can’t do it.”

He broke into a run and then finally stopped beside an overgrown lake. “This is going to be cold for a second.”

I shrieked as he waded with me into the water. The water was chilly, but his body was steaming hot against mine. “What are you doing?”

He adjusted me in his arms until I was pressed against him like a second skin. His big hands reached inside of my skirt and effortlessly ripped my panties apart so he could dig his fingers into my bare ass cheeks. “I’m trying to make it right.”

“How?” I moaned as he pushed my skirt up farther, and discarded the scrap of panties. His shaft brushed against my bare core. “By freezing me to death?”

He easily pulled my shirt off and then leaned forward and nipped at my chest when he saw that I was wearing a lacy bra. It’d been a matching set until he ruined the bottoms. “By warming you up.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my chest into his. “We have to talk.”

He wrapped his arm around the back of my thighs and expertly slid a work-roughened finger into me. When I released a moan, he inserted another finger. “After.”

I grabbed onto his hair and let my head fall back. “After, it is.”

“I want this to last longer, but we’ve got forever to do that. Right now, I just need to be in you.”