Then he started burrowing deeper in. Not just her soft belly, but he wanted to feel her breasts against his cheeks. He wanted to lick the underside of those sweet mounds and taste her essence. He had a large tongue and there were so many tastes that she would give him from all over her body.
“Hold on! You’re going to pop the buttons!”
She unbuttoned the lab coat, relieving the pressure against the back of his nose. Good because that gave him the ability to draw higher on her body, rubbing his cheek against her clothing and licking the underside of her jaw.
“God, you’re just like a dog. Do you want me to scratch behind your ears?”
He should be insulted by that. Hewasinsulted, except the feel of her fingers digging into his fur was heaven itself. He couldn’t remember any human ever touching him in bear form. Not like this. Not curling underneath his ears to tug upward. Not pressing her face against his as she rubbed her forehead against his fur. Not laughing as she hugged him to her while he licked along her jawline and up to her ear.
“I’ve never had a dog,” she said as she moved to scratch deeper on his neck. “But I imagine this is much better, right? You’re much better.”
Much.
And what the hell was he doing? He was letting her pet him and play with his ears. She was tugging on them, teasing the shape of them. Did she know how sensitive his ears were? And that what she did was sending bolts of pleasure throughout his body? It was one of the playful rituals of bears before they mated. And he was getting hard. Good God, he’d never had an erection as a bear before.
He licked her again, this time on her face. She squirmed away, laughing as she went. His face dropped lower as he tried to get a handle on his body and mind, but he was still leaning against her, his nose and his ears pressed against her hip and belly.
He inhaled deeply, his nose twitching and his body warming with her scent.
She was in heat, he realized. Ripe and ready for mating. He rumbled deep in his throat, a purr of happiness. He’d never made a sound like that before and part of him was startled. The shrinking human part of his mind. What was he doing?
He took a step backward as he tried to regroup. And in that moment, her head jerked sideways in reaction to a sound. An annoying human sound.
“Hank, your phone is ringing.”
He heard, and he didn’t want to. He inhaled and was pleased with her scent all over his nose and muzzle. But there was another scent as well. Something sour and—
Hybrid.
He straightened and bristled. He would defend her and the others. The young and the old. The scent wasn’t strong. The hybrid wasn’t close yet, but it was definitely in Hank’s territory.
“Hello?”
It took him a moment to realize what had happened. While his senses were focused outside on catching the hybrid’s location according to the wind, she had answered his phone and was now talking to whoever had called.
“Um, no. This is Dr. Lu. He’s…um…indisposed right now.” Silence. “Yes, I’m a believer. Can’t wait to get my hands on the data you…” Another moment. “No, I can’t access my phone right now. It’s outside where the werewolves are and Hank won’t let me go get it.”
Hank took another deep breath, his mind clearing as his nostrils sorted through the Detroit smells. What the hell had he been doing? He was protecting Mother and Sammy, for God’s sake. There were hybrids out there who could attack at any moment. And he’d been…what? Nuzzling Cecilia?
The enormity of his loss of control was staggering. Anything could have attacked while she was scratching his ears. Anything. And he would have been ass to the room completely exposed. The mental breakdown shook him to his core. Never before had Hank lost himself so completely in the bear. Not even when he’d been a randy teen.
He had to return to human. Forget the fact that he was a stronger fighter as a bear. He wasn’t fighting anything while he lost to the animal. It might not even want to hang around but choose to wander off to the River Rouge. That was dangerous for the women he protected and suicidal for him.
So he changed. He made the mental shift to human, the conscious reshaping of his body to the image he saw in his mind’s eye, but the bear didn’t want to leave. The instincts were running hot, and it didn’t care what the man wanted.
Meanwhile, she was talking, her voice calm and professional. Probably giving the sit rep to Simon. That’s the only person who would call now. But instead of the thought pushing him back into human form so he could make the report, his bear was sniffing the air inside, drawing Cecilia’s scent deep into his lungs.
He stilled, his mind at war. Her scent was intoxicating, but it was also tainted with another smell. No, not her. Outside.
The hybrid. It was closer now. He needed to find it and scare it away. If he couldn’t reform himself into a human just then, he’d damn well make himself useful and go frighten off the danger.
He leapt through the window. It wasn’t a hard jump, but he heard Cecilia gasp in surprise.
“He just…he jumped out the window.” Her voice dropped a note. “That’s a pretty impressive leap for something his size.”
Good. She was impressed with his prowess. She would be even more impressed when he chased the monster away.
