"Damn it, Bear," Nessa yelled, throwing up her hands.
He turned on her.
She took a step back.
"Too late, baby," he snapped. "Now explain yourself."
Fury rippled red across her high cheekbones to match her pink nose. "I have to go." Desperation lit her words and gave him pause.
"Why?" he thundered.
She looked down the very empty main road, and her shoulders slumped. "George has my uncle. He'll kill Boon if I don't show up in LA by tomorrow night."
Bear's temper cooled. Slightly. "You're being blackmailed?"
"Aye."
"Why didn't you tell me?" He gestured toward the snowy road. "Why just leave?"
"I didn't think you'd let me go," she mumbled, her face pale in the snowy day.
He sighed. "Does this kind of thing happen often?" Damn witches.
She shrugged. "Often enough."
His leg tingled. So she was throwing herself into danger to save her uncle-and she still lacked the ability to create fire. Oh, she could fight, but size mattered, and she didn't have it. At some point, some asshole with a dart was going to hit her, and she'd be gone. He couldn't let that happen. "Is it possible that your healing attempts are temporary? I mean, on me?"
"I donna' know," she said. "It's possible. You really harmed yourself."
He looked down the now vacant road to the city. His mind spun. His only chance for survival might hinge on actually mating her-which was what she'd wanted from the beginning. "You want the ability to throw fire so you can defend yourself."
"So I can fight." She nodded, looking incredibly delicate standing in the angry snowstorm. "I could really use it."
His chest heaved. Oh, this was crazy. "If you're mated to me, then George Flanders has no reason to keep your uncle." That didn't mean Flanders wouldn't harm Boondock, but the bounty for Nessa's kidnapping would cease to exist. This was beyond insane. Nothing in Bear wanted Nessa to mate his brother. He didn't want to examine why, but he wasn't that clueless. He wanted her for himself. At least for now. "Do you still want to mate me?"
Snow fell on her pert nose, but she ignored it. "Aye." She faltered, sticking her hands in her jacket pockets. "With conditions."
The animal in him rose up, quickly pushing logic aside. "No conditions." The blood pounded through his veins. She needed fire, and he needed to heal completely. Matings for convenience had been part of their cultures for centuries. But this was more. Her scent. Her mind. Her spirit. She called to him, and he was tired of denying it. "The only thing I agree to is a mating. Right now." The rest he'd figure out later.
His body tensed in anticipation, and the bear inside him roared awake.
Like a doe who's caught a predator's scent, she stilled. Completely. "All right."
His vision narrowed to her-only her. "Do you understand what's entailed in a shifter mating? We're not like witches."
Arrogance firmed her chin. "You have the same working parts, Bear. Come on."
"I'm a fuckin' animal, baby." She had to know what she was agreeing to. "We don't nip your skin and soften it with a kiss. We bite. Really bite." He'd seen a shifter lose a shoulder after a mating. Sure, it had eventually grown back, but still.
"I understand." She faltered. "So. Well. All right. The cabin?"
"No." His voice dropped to a hoarse rasp. It was decided then. "Run."
It took her a second to catch his meaning, and then her instincts kicked in. She bunched her legs and sprang toward the road.
He caught her around the waist and whipped her around to face a trail through two pine trees that led into Grizzly territory. "That way," he growled, setting her down and smacking her on the ass.
Hard.
She yelped and then launched into a run.
The beast inside him broke its shackles.
Chapter 16
Nessa careened through the trees, snow falling all around her, her breath panting out. The thrill of the chase rippled through her, making her faster. She dodged to the left and between barren huckleberry bushes.
Silence came from behind her.
She didn't relax. A hunter never made sounds.
But she had hunted plenty in her youth. Her limbs tingled with life-with energy. Every mating was primal, but mating an alpha, an alpha shifter, took it to another level. She wanted this.
For now, for today, she became lost in it.
Instead of running away, she circled around. There he was.
Tall and strong, he strode through the trees, his head up, scenting the air. He stilled.