What the hell was she thinking? What the hell was he thinking? He knew better than to approach a human when he was in bear form, but he saw her there and he was drawn to her like a fish to bait, and he’d be damned if she didn’t hook him—with her tagging gun. His damn head pounded and his ear ached from where he ripped the tracker free.

Blood ran down his face, but he would heal quickly. It was one of the best things about being a shifter. Although his body couldn’t tolerate a foreign object, he did heal in record time.

When he got up that morning, rather than get dressed and wait for her, he walked outside bare assed naked and shifted.

Now he was making his way through the woods with nothing covering him but embarrassment. To add insult to injury, she was just pulling in front of the station when he cleared the forest.

He knew the look on his face could curdle milk. He was furious, but when he saw her take in his body from head to toe, something softened and it wasn’t his cock.

He raged inside and out from different emotions. Inside he was pissed at himself and pissed at her. Outside he was harder than a rock and wanted to show her what an animal he could be.

When he reached her truck door, her eyes were as big as baseballs. He flung it open and yanked her from the cab. “Get in the house.” His voice was rough, deep, and filled with demand. “Now.”

“You can’t—” She tried to pull away, but he had his hand wrapped around her wrist as she ran to keep up with his long stride. Every few steps her eyes would drop to his now raging hard on.

“Mackenzie, I’m warning you.” He didn’t let up until he had her in the middle of his living room.

She looked around the room for an escape, but he knew the minute she resigned herself to stay. It was when her eyes landed on the bloody trail that ran down from his ear to his chest. She ran to him and pressed her fingertips to his skin and a measure of his anger dissipated. Her touch was what got him bleeding in the first place.

The scratch of the space behind his ear was like a stroke of her tongue across his skin. He shouldn’t have allowed it, but it was like he couldn’t stop himself.

“You’re hurt.” Concern for him was written all over her face. “Let me help you.”

“You’ve done enough. I’m fine.” Finn wasn’t sure what hurt worse, the injury that was now almost healed, or his pride, which continued to sting.

He stepped back before he lost all control and took her right there on the floor of his cabin. It was a real possibility at this point. When his anger reared this strong, there were only two things that calmed it—sex and fighting. Since his brother wasn’t there to wrestle with him, and he didn’t want to have sex with Mack until she understood what she was getting herself into, he spun around and did the only thing a man with a stiff as steel hard-on could. He headed for a cold shower.

Even the icy water couldn’t ease the tension he felt. He leaned against the tile wall and closed his eyes. With his hand gripped around his girth, he stroked himself to the vision of her sitting on the rock. He heard her words and felt her touch as if she was right there in the frigid water with him. He pictured her naked with her breasts against his cheek and his tongue swirling around a hard nipple. What color would they be? Would she taste like the honey she loved? Something told him she’d be sweeter, and when he thought of her in her bear form, he tensed and a rush of passion pushed his climax forward.

Finally, he was calm, but he knew it wouldn’t last. One look at Mack and he’d be building toward that rush again. Anger and passion together were a volatile mix.

Fifteen minutes later, he was dressed and in the kitchen. Mack was sitting on the couch in silence.

“Do you want to tell me what you were doing this morning?” She lifted her head from a magazine she pretended to read.

“No. Do you want to tell me why you were bloody and naked coming out of the woods?”

He poured two mugs of coffee and joined her in the living room. What could he tell her? That his bear sought her out, and she tagged him? Hardly. “I sometimes go for runs in the morning.” It was as lame as it sounded, but it was all he could come up with on the fly.

“And the neighbors are okay with that?” She pulled her mug of sweetened coffee to her lips. Looking over the rim she glanced down at his crotch. “In all honesty it was… shocking.”

Finn leaned back and watched her. It was time to put a bit of pressure on Mack. “Was it a big shock?” He tempered his expression so she didn’t see how much he was going to love this.

She pulled in her upper lip and gnawed across the entire surface. It was red and plump when it popped from between her teeth. “Yes, it was a big… shock.”

He scooted closer to her. Her eyes grew bigger and bigger, and the space grew smaller and smaller. “What shocked you the most?” He knew he shouldn’t be pressing her like this but he had to know for sure if what she felt was the same as what he felt. It pulled at his insides to be connected with her.

“You were bleeding.” She reached up and traced the healed lobe of his ear. “There’s nothing there.”

“It was a scratch.” A scratch his ass, the damn puncture wound was the circumference of a pencil, and the tear left his ear hanging like an elephant’s. “So the blood shocked you?”

“Yes. No. Yes.”

Finn moved a little closer. Their thighs touched, and the heat from both their bodies lifted and swirled around them. There was no doubt she was aroused. He’d recognize her scent anywhere. It flowed through him like warm honey in his veins.

His mother once told him that a fated mate would be as clear as a perfect day. And Finn knew that Mackenzie Smith was his. He knew it the minute she stood in front of him at the diner. “What is it? Yes, or no?” He took a chance and cupped her cheek, and like he expected, she leaned into the touch.

“No.” She always managed to surprise him with her strength and candor. Mack didn’t come across as the type of woman who backed down from much. In fact she had disobeyed him outright when he told her to stay out of the forest. “The blood was a surprise, but you…”

“Me?” That lip went back between her teeth. “Do you feel this thing between us?” He dropped his hand to her neck and threaded his fingers through the back of her hair. He’d never force the kiss even though he needed it more than anything else in his life. “Do you?”

She said nothing, but her head started a tentative nod and then that damn plump lip broke free. He covered her mouth with his. It didn’t take long for Finn to lift her onto his lap. She straddled him fully clothed. His inner animal liked being between her thighs, but he craved something more. He probed at her lips until she let him in. The taste of her was everything he had imagined.

He explored her mouth like a hiker explored a trail—thoroughly and with vigor. Her low growl of approval made his bear push for more, but his human side knew it was time to pull away before it was too late. He couldn’t make her his mate without her knowing what that would mean. She was his and would always remain so. It frightened the hell out of him, and he imagined if he told her, and then shifted, she’d turn and run.

When he pulled away her fingers came to her lips. “Wow.”

“Did you like that?” He cupped her ass cheeks and yanked her close until their chests touched. He heard her breath hitch and felt the pounding of her heart against his. They were in perfect rhythm together.

“You kissed me.” She laid her head on his shoulder like it was a natural thing to do.

“Yes, and I’m going to kiss you again, but not before you tell me why you blatantly disobeyed my rule. You crossed the lake.” Finn tried to infuse his voice with danger, but it only managed to sound throaty and full of arousal.

Her head popped up like a groundhog looking for sun. “I didn’t enter private property. I made sure.” Then it dawned on her that somehow he knew, and she narrowed her eyes in question. “How did you know?”

“I have resources.”

Her body tensed. “You have people spying for you?” Fisted hands pounded on his chest. She was strong, but he was stronger. Gritting his teeth, he took the powerful wallops.

“Are you finished hitting me?” With her hands now enveloped in his, he pulled them to his mouth for a feather of a kiss across both sets of knuckles. “I didn’t have anyone follow you. Let’s just say that I had a feeling you would go in search of that bear and you confirmed it.”

What little fire that she had built inside was now only a smolder. “He was there, Finn. He came to me and…”

“You tranquilized and tagged him.” He could feel her pulse spike. He pressed her hands to his chest and let his heart beat for her. His mother had told him that true mates could mimic one another. That the strong connection could pass from one animal to the other. That communication didn’t need words. A minute passed and her heart danced to the same beat as his. Once her heartbeat calmed he continued. “Why?”

Her pretty forehead wrinkled with lines of confusion. “He’s mine.” She looked shocked when the words came out. “I mean… oh I don’t know… I can’t explain it, but he’s mine, and I know it right here.” She tugged her hands from his chest and pressed them to her heart. “Maybe I’m crazy.”

“You’re not crazy. I know that feeling of possessiveness.” There was nothing crazy about her, and he let her know it with his next kiss. As his tongue explored her mouth, his hands explored her body. In minutes he had her stripped from the waist up. Her, on his lap, with a view of the forest as her backdrop. God, she was stunning.

Her breasts spilled over his large palms. Calloused fingertips plucked at the hardened nubs of her nipples until she rocked her body against him. He suckled on one pert nipple causing a moan that hardened his cock to painful levels. He moved to the other until he pulled that sexy sound from her again. Back and forth he divided his time until she was begging for more.

“Finn, more.” Two words that could have made a lesser man come undone, but not Finn Marks. He had his eyes set on something bigger and better. This was one moment in time, but he wanted forever.

In spite of the aching in his dick and the internal growling of his bear. He held on to his thread of humanity. He would not claim her today, but he would give her pleasure like none she’d ever known.

One swift move and she was on her back, her face flushed and her body shaking from desire. “You want more?” He didn’t wait for the confirmation he knew would come. He stripped off her boots and pulled down her olive green khakis to expose the slick honey of her heat.

He ground his jaws together willing his beast to back off. Silently, he promised his bear a lifetime of her in exchange for this moment. His jaw twitched and his mouth watered as his teeth began to elongate. ‘One taste,’ he told his beast as he pushed him back from the surface.

“Finn…”

His name on her lips said in a breath of passion was all he needed to move forward. He eased between her legs and drew across her honey-coated lips. Creamy sweetness covered his tongue. There was no turning back now. He’d tasted her. Her essence flowed through him like his life’s blood and when he spilled himself inside her, and marked her, the mating would be complete.

Grateful that his inner animal backed off, he settled in to sample her. Light licks and soft sucks made her hips rise to reach for his mouth.

Whimpers of need and moans of pleasure had him pressing his tongue deep inside of her until she quivered. He teased her body without mercy. He brought her to the edge and pulled her back so many times the poor woman never stopped quaking beneath him.

“Finn,” she screamed in something that was a mix of frustration and passion.

He gripped her hips and lifted her bottom from the couch bringing her to his mouth like a feast. He buried his face in her slickness and latched on the tightly bound bundle of nerves. A low carnal rumbling started in his chest and when he sucked her between his lips it burst free, but Finn knew that Mack didn’t hear him because she had let loose a growl of her own. It raced up his spine and twisted around his heart.