~

 

“Tank?”

Dane had almost choked on his beer when he’d heard the name, but he’d managed to swallow it down with a good portion of his tongue in order to question his mate’s sanity. He knew Tank by reputation, might have even run into the guy once, and he was not someone that he wanted his mate sharing space with.

“Ah, crap,” Roland muttered to himself as he winced at the thought of going head-to-head with a psycho bear, and pushed up from the log that he’d been perched on.

Up until that moment, he’d been enjoying the meal at the fire pit. He shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans and stared at the flames as his mind explored all avenues of just how badly things could go.

“You know what that guy is, right?” Dane demanded, as he cocked his head to one side and looked at his mate as if she’d just announced she was leaving him and joining another clan.

“I’ve seen his rap sheet – Bute was uncharacteristically kind enough to send it over via email.”

Rayner was convinced that her boss had only done that to rub salt in the wounds of her agreeing to go after the meanest SOB on his books – Bute’s idea of payback – the man could be so damn childish sometimes.

“Does it say in there what his species is?” Dane asked with a whole big dollop of acidity to his tone, and Rayner took to nibbling the inside of her cheek. She cursed Bute.

“Not in so many words…” She shrugged, cursing Bute again. If Dane was asking, then there was a good chance the answer wasn’t going to be human. Shocker.

“How many words?”

“None.” She admitted with another shrug and an innocence about her that just didn’t wash with her mate.

“Shifter … bear shifter,” Dane informed her, looking both slightly deranged and slightly miffed at the same time and boy, could he pull that look off.

“He’s a mean one, Rayner,” Roland said, eyeing Bowie, who still refused to look any one of them in the eye since he’d bitten Rayner, but the man sure was fidgety, and he was scowling as he stared at the ground. Roland turned his attention back to his new sister.

“And I have … Bowie,” Rayner said, lifting her hand and motioning to the man as if she was introducing him to new friends.

“Whoopty-doopty,” Roland growled.

“It’s not happening…” Dane said with a shake of his head.

“Oh, it’s happening,” Rayner shot back.

She dug her heels in as she assumed the position that was becoming familiar to her mate – hands on her hips, legs braced, craning her head forward, and eyeing Dane with just the right amount of annoyance so as not to throw up a challenge to his bear but still getting her point across anyway.

“Who’s the alpha?” Dane reminded her.

“Let’s not be so rash to play the alpha card when there’s a lumpy sofa for you to sleep on,” Rayner offered back, and Dane noted and ignored the fact that both of his brothers chuckled.

“Forget it, Rayner.” Dane pushed up to his full height and eyed her right back.

Dane wasn’t going to be swayed by blackmail, especially when her body couldn’t back it up. They were hot for each other every chance they got – sofa? Ha! If he was on the sofa, then she’d be right there with him, and they definitely wouldn’t be sleeping.

He didn’t hold off looking at her as if he was about to challenge her bear, but then, she’d noticed that when her mate was in that kind of a mood, his alpha bear always shone through.

“I gave my word…”

“Don’t care,” Dane said with another shake if his head.

“About honor?”

“About your protests…”

“Dane…” she started, unsure where she was going with her protest, but now that he’d mentioned it.

“No.” Dane turned on his heels and started away from the group.

There was no way in hell that he was going to let his mate get anywhere near some screwed up, mean-ass, bear shifter. Hell, the last time that he’d let that happen, Bowie had bitten her, and that wasn’t going to happen again on his watch.

No damn way.

She was his mate. His to protect.

Like it or not, and he knew that by her very nature she wouldn’t, he wasn’t going to let her go chase down a bat-shit crazy bear.

 

~

~

~

 

“You are being unreasonable,” Rayner said as she slammed the cabin door behind her and stormed across the room. Then she assumed the position once more, just a different one, folding her arms just under her breasts and pushing them up to distract him.

It worked. The hungry rumble that went through Dane’s chest told her that her mate was well and truly interested in her.

She didn’t need to see the giveaway signs of his eyes darkening, or the drool that was practically running down his chin, or the bulge in his jeans where his length was hardening to know that much.

“That’s not going to work on me, Rayner.” Dane couldn’t help but growl anyway.

Who was he kidding? Of course, it was going to work on him.

Every time that his mate so much as flashed a smile in his direction his cock hardened and he was ready for more of her. That was the nature of man and beast. She was irresistible.

His Goddess.

His temptress.

His everything.

“What’s not?” Rayner played innocent. That didn’t work either, Dane already knew her too well for that.

He stalked towards her like a predator on the hunt. Rayner felt every inch of her body come to life, and all that she was doing was just watching him walk across a damn room.

She liked the fact that his shirt was tailored to his body because then she got to see those muscles moving beneath the thin material. She’d like it a hell of a lot better if he took his shirt off.

Dane must have read her mind, he reached up and yanked his shirt over his head, tossing it away from that hard, muscled body, and her eyes feasted on him. Yes, there was a rumble in her chest, a hunger for him that she couldn’t have buried even if she wanted to.

She didn’t want to.

If Dane had meant to close the distance between them any faster, then he could have. Those long legs of his would have eaten up that relatively short space in no time at all.

He might have been hungry for her — but, he was also teasing, playful. He was as sexy as hell when he got playful. His hand went to the button on his jeans, and he flicked it open.

Rayner dropped her hands to her sides, tilted her head to one side, and regarded her mate like the predator that sat inside of her. When her hand went to the button on her jeans — he stopped.

Dane’s eyes narrowed as he watched her. She took a long moment before clicking the button open, then she slowly pulled down the zip, and she pushed her hand into the opening and ran two fingers over her panties along her sex.

“As your mate — that’s my job,” Dane growled.

Rayner slowly pulled back her lips into a wicked smile, and he growled some more. There was mischief, hunger, need within her eyes, and it mirrored his own.

“But, honey — you’re so slow that I…”

She got no further. Dane rushed toward her, and a moment later she was wrapped around his body like a vine. Her back slammed against the wall of the cabin, and she matched his hungry kisses as they devoured each other like long lost lovers.

On a hearty growl, Dane reached around and unhooked her legs from around his hips, placing her feet on the floor, and not giving her time to protest as he started to strip her naked. His lips replaced her bra. He nipped with blunt teeth at her hard nipples, first one, then the other, as if he was unsure which one he liked better.

Rayner yanked his jeans down over his hips to his meaty, muscled thighs, lifted her leg, hooked her foot in the back of the material, and wrenched it down around his ankles. His hard cock was pressed against her stomach for all of two seconds before he pulled back, grabbed a handful of her panties in each of his large hands, and tore them away.