I brought the axe down harder than necessary on the next swing, splitting the wide log with a crack that echoed through the trees.
Should’ve been exhausted by now. I’d already bucked the fallen tree into rounds and split half of them into fire logs nobody needed right now with June around the corner. Not to mention frantically jerking off in the shower. Twice.
The fresh bite on my right forearm that connected me to Boone meant I’d felt everything that happened in Bell’s bed this morning. Every roll of her hips. Every desperate grind. The way her arousal had spiked sharp and sweet right before she came apart against Boone’s length.
My third maul’s orgasm had hit me like it was my own. Lying alone in bed, I’d spilled a back-caving load into my pajama pants. Calling out Bell’s name.
With Boone’s emotions dialed back down, I could no longer see, scent, hear, and feel every single thing he did after he woke to our mate’s pussy hugging his erection. But even after a cold shower, her scent remained embedded in my nose. Sugar-cookie arousal making my bear growl:Go over there…. Put her on her hands and knees…. Claim her, claim her, CLAIM HER.
My bear was losing its damn mind.
It had never been like this. Not with Niska. Not even in those early days when I’d been young and naive enough to think my late wife might come to love me instead of tolerating me because her father’s word was literally law.
Niska had never made my bear rage. Never made it claw at my insides, demanding I claim and mark a female who wasn’t remotely ready for what I had planned at the end of Operation Sugar Cookie.
She was so small. Too thin. Fragile.
Which made the things I wanted to do to her feel especially depraved.
I wanted to cage her against my chest, my arms wrapped around her while I took her from behind. Slow and deep. Wanted to feelher stretch around my cock as I came inside her, teeth sinking into her shoulder, finally marking her as mine. Wanted to hear my name on her lips—not Boone’s, not Zion’s,mine—as she came apart beneath me.
Then I wanted to glory in her complete and utter surrender when she stopped fighting what I’d known from the moment her scent hit my nose: that she was ours from the start.
And that there was no running away from what had already been written in the stars.
The horns of the “Royal Canadian Mounted Police Regimental March” interrupted the dirty fantasy.
I set down the axe and pulled my phone from my back pocket.
TAKODA: Hey, Dad. Know you’ve been busy lately, but reminder that Holly’s and Noelle’s double baby shower is tomorrow night at the Grill. You coming? Also, I know I said that you wouldn’t have to go to Minnesota, but we might actually need you to apply for a passport. Uncle Walker’s stopped returning our calls.
Guilt made the hot images of what I wanted to do to Bell fade.
Takoda had no idea that his future mother-in-law was less than a few kilometers away.
But Bell wasn’t ready to see her daughters yet, and right now, what she wanted was my number-one priority. Also, tomorrow night was my day to watch over her.
I thumbed out a response.
Can’t tomorrow. Will get back to you about the passport.
I was about to push send when Boone’s voice suddenly boomed inside my head.
“INCOMING!”
I winced. Even if he’d exchanged bites with Zion nearly thirty years ago, Boone was new to actually using the maul bond and hadn’t learned to regulate his mental volume yet. I hadn’t bothered contacting him on my phone since we’d exchanged bites ourselves, but I had the distinct feeling he was one of those guys who texted in all caps.
“SORRY. I WAS PLANNING ON LETTING ZION EXPLAIN YOUR NEW PROTOCOL TO HER, BUT...”
A flurry of Boone’s most recent memories flooded into my mind. Bell scrunching her forehead in that cute way of hers, demanding to know what “sentry duty” meant. Boone’s hand going to the back of his neck—right before he blurted out the truth we’d all agreed Zion would break to her tonight.
Ursa dammit.
I barely had time to process the footage before a voice called out from the direction of the structurally unsound two-story cabin I’d only claimed to stay close to her.
“Ravik! Ravik! Where are you?”
Bell. And she sounded pissed.
