Bruins Peak Bears- Complete Series, page 148
part #1 of Bruins Peak Bears Series
“We can’t stay here. It’s complicated, and I don’t want to worry you with the details. Ash just went to tell her to come and meet me. Then we’ll leave here. I just want you to know I’m safe. That’s all I care about.”
Noah squeezed his hand. “That’s all right, son. As long as you’re happy, we can all live with it.”
Abel spent the rest of the day hanging out at home. He helped his mother with the laundry. He worked with his father to patch up the roof. He did all the jobs he used to do when he lived here, but he kept glancing down the path toward the Starks’ cabin. When would Ash get back? What if he couldn’t find Onyx? What if something happened to her, and Abel got left alone? Losing his mate before he even got her would be worse than death.
His mother tried to ask him about his mate and his plans. He answered as well as he could, but he couldn’t tell her about plans he didn’t have. He hated to admit even to himself how shoddy his plans really were. Azer promised him the moon if he came to Hadison. He promised Abel and Onyx an apartment to stay in and a good job. He said Hadison always needed good, keen men like Abel.
Maybe Azer just blew a bunch of sunshine up Abel’s skirt, but why would he do that? Why would he lie, just to get Abel to bring Onyx to Hadison? None of it made sense. Either way, Abel couldn’t get with Onyx any other way. It was Hadison or nothing for a couple like them.
Abel didn’t return until almost dusk, and he barely looked Abel in the eye. “She’s gone, man. No one knows where she went. No one has seen her since Jordan told her you were gone. She ran off and didn’t return.”
Abel jumped up. “Gone! How can she be?”
“She must have left right after I talked to her. I told her to go home and wait for me to find you, but she never went home. She could be anywhere.”
Abel spun away. “I have to find her.”
“Hey, wait!” Ash called out.
Abel didn’t listen. He bolted into the woods and barreled down the mountain. He had to find Onyx. He had to. He couldn’t come all this way, only to miss her by a whisker. He traced his way back to the spot Ash told him Onyx got in a fight with June. He would track her scent from there. She couldn’t give him the slip now.
He found the spot and shifted. He put his nose to the ground and let that scent push every other thought out of his mind. Where was she? Where could she go? He couldn’t face a world without her in it. He came all the way back here to find her. He build up all his hopes on the chance of getting together with her. Now all his hopes crashed around his feet.
He ran faster. He had to leave all this hopelessness behind before he lost his mind. He closed his eyes and let that scent lead him. It would take him to her or it would take him to death. He ran so fast he collided with something soft before he knew what happened. He stumbled and fell. His eyes flew open in time to see a panther tumbling the other way.
Both Abel and the panther leaped to their feet at the same moment. The next thing he knew, he was standing face to face with Onyx, talking, laughing, crying, kissing, and touching her all at once. Abel started to tell her about Hadison, but she couldn’t hear him over her own frantic explanation. Abel paused to hear what she said. She paused at the same moment, and they stared at each other in stunned silence. Then they both burst out talking again.
Abel couldn't keep his hands off her. He touched her face and stroked her hair while he talked. He was never so happy to see anyone in his life. He thought he’d lost her, and here he was, talking to her and laughing and kissing her between exclamations.
She talked so fast he couldn’t get a word in edgewise. “And there’s this really nice guy who told me all about it…”
“Azer Mackenzie…” he stammered. “Apartment for rent…”
Onyx jumped up and planted her lips on his mouth to silence him. Then they both exploded in excited kissing, holding, and touching. No more talking. No more explanations. They were together. They would be together always. Nothing could stop that now.
They were in the woods somewhere between Midnight Moraine and Renegade Ridge. No one could tell them to hate each other. No one would dare drag them apart. He could kiss her as much as he wanted. He tasted her sweet lips, and his arms compressed around her ribs. He lifted her off her feet to clutch her against him.
She felt even better than he imagined on the bus ride home. He never let himself believe it could be this good to embrace her and kiss her and to hold nothing back. Her tongue touched every nerve down his chest and stomach. Her hair smelled flowery and delicious. Her soft flesh set his blood on fire.
All the doubt and pain and fear vaporized out of his mind. Her dark eyes hovered there in front of his face. He took a second to realize he was looking at her so close, so alive and present. He didn’t have to look away. He could enjoy this moment. He never had to leave her again.
Then he remembered. He broke away from her kiss and set her on the ground. He started to say, “I found a place for us,” but she started talking at the moment. They talked at once, paused again, and started up. Then they both burst out laughing.
He bit back a grin. “You go first.”
“I found a place for us,” she began. “It’s called Hadison. It’s a haven for hybrids and their families.”
He nodded. “I know all about it. I was coming to get you to take you there.”
“Really?” She laughed. “I was coming to get you, too.”
They both laughed until they cried. Abel bent down to kiss her again. “Never mind. We’re together now.”
Onyx caught her breath. She stared up at him in wide-eyed wonder.
He froze. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“I never thought I’d hear you say those words. I never thought we would ever be together.”
He folded his arms around her. “Me, neither.”
She rose on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around his neck. She pressed her perfect body against his rock-hard frame. He buried his eyes in her shoulder and sent up a silent prayer of thanks to God for this moment. He would die rather than give this up. He would never turn away from her again, no matter the consequences.
Some forgotten instinct hidden in his heart nagged at his thoughts, though. Even now, when all his dreams came true, it told him to take her away, to lead her away from the Ridge. Above all else, he had to protect Arion. Not even loving her could get in the way of that.
He stood back and took her hand. “Come on. We’re going.”
She looked around. “To Hadison?”
“Not yet. There’s something we need to do first.”
Chapter 14
The sun fell behind Midnight Moraine, but Abel showed no sign of turning toward town. He wandered deeper into the woods, into territory Onyx never saw before. The sunbeams angled between the trees and eventually disappeared. The forest fell into dusk, but she let him lead her by the hand.
Nothing made so much sense as walking through the woods with this straight, strong man. She never wanted anything else. Whatever he had in mind, she would accept it. As long as she faced it holding his hand, she could face anything.
He walked a long way until darkness shadowed the mountains. The stars came out, and still he walked. He wound his way around the south side of Renegade Ridge until he stopped under a heavy overhang of solid granite. He ducked all the way back underneath where no light penetrated. He bent over to avoid banging his head.
Onyx whispered low. “Where are we going?”
“There’s a den in here,” he whispered back. “We can spend the night here.”
He went down on his knees and crawled into the rock. She followed the sound of his knees scuffling on the floor until Abel stood up in a small chamber. A hole in the ceiling showed the stars overhead. The place smelled of dust and bear and burned wood.
He pulled her over to one corner and tugged her down to the floor. She sat down next to him on a springy bed. A soft feather coverlet cushioned her from the firm woolen mat underneath. What would this place look like in daylight?
He drew close to her. He didn’t speak above a whisper. “Are you okay with this?”
Her face glowed in the pitch dark night. “Oh, yes! More than anything.”
He cradled her face in one massive palm. “I never thought I’d be sitting here with you. I thought I was done for.”
Her eyes stung from happy tears. “Don’t ever disappear like that again. Whatever happens, don’t ever leave me behind like that again.”
His lips landed on her mouth. “I won’t. I’ll never let you go You’re mine. Do you hear me? You’re mine forever.”
She raised her arms to embrace him. He lifted his arms to hold her at the same time. They both floundered to get their bodies together. He had to bat her arms away to get hold of her. “Come here. I need you so bad right now.”
She gave herself over into him. She never wanted to be anywhere else. She drank in deep breaths of his scent. She tasted his skin wherever she could find it. She petted his hair and rubbed his neck. She could never get enough of him.
He picked her up off the bed and hauled her toward him. He kissed her deeper than anyone ever her. He didn’t have to touch her. He already owned her and occupied her and engulfed her into himself. Would it never end? She hoped not.
Nothing existed outside this den. They were one body and one mind. Neither of them was Midnight or NightShade or anything else. They were mates. They would never be anything else as long as they lived.
Onyx saw them from Hadison’s point of view. No one in Hadison knew about the conflict between Midnight and NightShade. No one knew and no one cared, so why should Abel and Onyx care? In a few hours or days or whatever, all of that would cease to exist. Nothing would exist but the two of them together and the bright future opening before them.
He lifted her off the bed and set her down on his lap. She folded her legs around his waist, but the old sizzling passion she used to feel with Hunter didn’t rear its ugly head. She experienced only peaceful togetherness with this man. He wouldn’t pound her into the mattress. He wouldn’t send her over the moon on torrents of raging lust.
Those ideas no longer bothered her. Abel dwelt in a different corner of her heart and her life. She rocked on his lap. Not even his growing hardon disturbed the perfect unity between them. She met him with all her heart and soul. Her love for him made her so happy it boiled up from somewhere far under the surface of the Earth. It bubbled out of her to erupt into reality.
His mouth devoured hers harder. He bit her lips and crushed her onto his lap. She didn’t care what he did. Everything he did was good and right and proper. They were mated for life. They would come together in this den and never come apart.
He leaned forward to bend her over backward. The longer she rocked on that rising bulge between his legs, the more her joy and contentment translated into sexual desire. She wanted him. She wanted him all over. She wanted him more than she ever wanted Hunter. She wanted him with her heart and her love. She wanted to kiss him with every part of herself.
He laid her out on the bed. The feathers surrounded her, and his bulk blanketed her over the top. She kept her legs around him, and he stretched out between them. That’s where he belonged. He kissed her as no one ever kissed her before. That kiss joined them in cosmic oneness. It sealed the fate written for them long ago. It wiped out every injury and every lover Onyx ever had before.
He rolled his hips back and forth against her. He kneaded her under his body. She rose to meet him in rising undulations. She hugged him between her thighs. Quivery shivers rippled down her chest against his tightening muscles. His tongue probed deeper into her mouth. It tickled her secret desires and set them alight.
He split off from kissing her to pillow his head on her chest. He hugged her closer than ever and covered his eyes in her shoulder. He gasped for breath and hid from the overpowering intensity of their reunion.
She clutched his head against her breast. She understood his tremulous shudders. Convulsive energy ran through her to answer him. She didn’t have to hurry him. She didn’t have to throw herself at him. They would be mated, one way or the other. They already were. Tonight was a formality. Tonight was just the first of many they would spend together.
She wanted him so much. She wanted to fulfill him and make his dreams come true. Her desire burst out of her and threw her off the bed. She flipped him over on his back and mounted over him. She straddled his hips and pushed his hands over his head.
He reared up once, but when he saw her towering over him, he relaxed back on the bed. The air rasped through his nose, and his midsection contracted to push his hips between her legs. She rode those bouncing tremors. She plowed her sensitive tissues apart on his crotch to urge him onward.
She dragged her fingernails down his chest to his stomach. She watched the intoxicating contractions racing through him. The tortured breath rose and fell in his chest. His ribs expanded under her hands. He was so good. Why did she ever give herself to anybody else? Why didn’t she understand how good it would be if she waited for him?
She slipped her hands under the lower seam of his shirt. She tickled his smooth skin to the curly hairs tucked under his waistband. He was in there somewhere. He was waiting for her down there.
She couldn’t go there now, though. She wasn’t ready for all that—not yet. She glided back up to his broad chest. She eased his shirt up and kissed along his sternum to his nipples and armpits. She licked his stomach and nibbled his ribs.
He threw back his head and hummed. He hugged her head against his chest. His breath caught in his throat every time he exhaled. That sound delighted her beyond comprehension. She loved every noise he made, every twitch of his skin and every thrilling goosebump standing down his sides.
He pulled her off by the shirt and slid it over her head. He unhooked her bra behind her back, and her clothes dropped to the floor. He touched her with such expert care no one would ever guess he was a virgin.
He scooped one breast into his mouth. His hands drifted down her sides and into her shorts. He massaged her ass to grind against his cock. Now all that peaceful contentment ignited into unstoppable passion. Her insides ached for him. Her lips sobbed their wetness to invite him in.
She kicked her shorts away and sat down on his pants. She rotated her hips in wild circles to stimulate herself to whimpering ecstasy. He rose off the bed to grapple her against him. He plunged his face in her cleavage and bucked his hard-on into her engorged tissues.
She couldn’t hold back any longer. She knew too well what heavenly bliss awaited her down there. She tore his pants open and slithered her hand inside. She closed her fingers around the wicked shaft buried there. Abel cried out in surprise, but the moment she started moving her hand, he joined her rhythm with his own beating pulse.
She scooted off him just long enough to peel off his pants. She had to get him naked. She had to seal her skin against him in sweat-fueled mania. She had to satisfy this insatiable hunger for his blood and bodily essence.
He helped her get his clothes off. He never once fumbled until he stripped off every stitch. She attacked him in all her untamed fury. She jumped back on his lap, and his stiff cock touched her flaming slit.
God, that felt so good! When did she ever feel anything as good as that? No wonder she had to keep doing it with Hunter, so many times every day. No matter how many times he did it to her, he never satisfied her. He never could. No one could satisfy her like this.
Is that what being fluid really meant—jumping from one man to the next in an endless search for something only her true mate could give her? When would the Midnight ever learn?
Abel heaved up under her. He spread her spattered juices all over her while his mouth searched her soul for every last morsel of her love. He rocked her back and forth until he pushed her over onto her back. He crawled on top of her and wormed his cock between her petals.
Every cell of her being cried out, Yes! for him. She licked his saliva inside his cheeks and mauled him in desperate hunger. She needed him in her deepest recesses. She needed him in every day of her life.
All of a sudden, he was there. His taut head pressed against her opening, and he froze. He stared into her eyes and held his breath. Was he really going to do this? Was he really going to cross that line and make her into something she never imagined before?
How could she live her whole life having sex with dozens of guys, only to find herself raw and clean and new tonight? None of those guys ever touched her. They couldn’t change her like this.
Abel’s iron bulk rocked. He gasped once, and he punched through the barrier holding them apart. Onyx arched back and screamed to heaven. In one blast, he destroyed everything she ever was before. He wiped the slate of her past clean and wrote himself across her future. He blew her apart and filled her with only himself.
She strapped her arms and legs around him in desperate completion. She shrieked into his ears against the terrible onslaught ripping through her. How could it ever be like this? How could she ever survive without this?
In one instant, she catapulted skyward on a fiery burst of ecstasy. She lifted her voice to the clouds, to the frosty stars outside that window up there. She stretched out her arms and welcomed the dawn breaking all around her.
She hung onto that exploding rocket to carry her away. His muscles tensed all around her, and his thick member drove to her limit. She hugged all around that throbbing cock. Her spasming muscles stroked down its length until he panted and groaned in her ear. His sweat trickled down his back, and his arms squashed her under him.
Every thrust boggled her mind. Overpowering intensity blasted her into space. She became one with the stars and unstoppable pleasure. Where would it end? Would it ever end? Would it be like this forever?
She flung her hips upward to meet him driving down on her. Her engorged flesh attacked his rock-hard bones. His blows worked hand in hand with the deep penetrations touching every delicate spot along her channel. She couldn’t get enough of him. Not all his devastating strokes would ever be enough.
