“Chief, I brought those clothes you wanted shipped over.”

Rich forced himself not to turn around when Sarah, the local clan member who worked at the airport to greet shifters, spoke to Deni. But Deni, the bastard, saw the way his muscles tensed, and he sucked in a breath. Deni held his gaze as he spoke to Sarah.

“Thank you. Leave them on the porch,” Deni told her.

“Can I meet her?” Sarah asked. Soft and sweet, Sarah, at one time, had angled to mate with Rich. They’d all grown up together, and most of the clan assumed the two bears would link up eventually, but Rich never felt the heat for her he needed to take her for mate. They’d shared a few moments, but there wasn’t more than that. However, it irked him now that she wanted to meet Ally.

“She’s not receiving guests right now, Sarah, but I can arrange a clan meet later. We are still getting used to things,” Deni answered.

“I’m happy that you’ve found a mate, Chief.”

Sarah’s floral scent filled the room as she lugged Ally’s things in. Rich instantly hated the feminine scent, so near to his mate’s, one that he hadn’t claimed yet. Ally had gone upstairs the moment the doorbell rang to hide her naked form, because Deni hadn’t allowed her to get dressed. Now he wished they’d never answered the door. The only woman Rich wanted to smell in this house was his woman. A loud rumble broke through his chest.

Sarah froze, her eyes flickering to gold, before she gave him a seductive smile. He’d taught her that, in the wee hours of the night, how to take pride in her looks, and the way her body could tempt a man. But the same look angered him now.

“Chief,” she mouthed, and his blood boiled. She’d done the same, at the airport, he realized. She gave Deni respect, but she looked to Rich for leadership, and he wondered if he’d missed something. Wondered if she’d played them all with her sweet act. She swung her hips and came closer to him, ignoring his rumble.

“We can leave, and I can…handle your need,” Sarah told him.

“Rich,” Deni said in warning, but Rich couldn’t hear him. Not over the roaring in his head. This bear, this liar had challenged his mate. A mate they hadn’t claimed, but that changed nothing.

“My need?” Rich asked. He captured Sarah’s gaze with his, and stood tall.

“Rich.”

Rich froze, that voice soothing the fire boiling in his gut. He settled back in his seat as a, now clothed in the flannel and t-shirt again, Ally came to stand in between his open thighs and wrapped her arms around his neck. He breathed her in, worried that his bear’s need to take control of the clan, to punish slights, no matter how small, was part of his bid for becoming chief.

“What’s wrong?” she asked him in his ear.

Fuck, he wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her neck. She didn’t understand, and he couldn’t explain it to her. They were so close to making her see, and they couldn’t risk her running away. Rich had no doubt of that. For now, he’d take comfort in her presence, and hope that mating with her, when she finally allowed them too, would ease the burning in his chest.

“I was disturbed, for a bit. I’m better now,” Rich said against her skin.

“Sarah, it’s time for you to leave,” Deni told her.

“But—”

“Leave!” Rich roared, clutching Ally to his chest. She jumped in his arms, but to her credit she didn’t let him go.

“Chief,” Sarah whispered, bowing, and scrambled out of the room.

“Which one of us do you think she was calling that?” Deni asked.

“We both know,” Rich answered.

Deni paused for a moment, and then let it go. “You’re back in your clothes,” he said to Ally.

“I could feel Rich’s anger, and hurt. I wanted to check on him, but heard voices,” Ally said. “Is everything alright?”

“It is. Remember how we told you our bears are sort of chafing against each other? Well, the clan see it too. It sends some mixed signals sometimes,” Rich explained, glossing over the finer points.

“And I’m the glue for that?” Ally asked.

“Yes, but it doesn’t matter. You will always have a choice. But first, you still have way too many clothes on,” Deni told her.

“You with the clothes.” Ally rolled her eyes at him.

“Always with the clothes, Ally. Always.”

“You’re weird,” Ally tossed back with a laugh.

“Horny, infatuated, falling.” Deni returned.

And there went a second woman scrambling out of their living room. Great.

 

*

“Which movie do you want to see?” Rich asked Ally. She put her things away, once again sans clothes with no guests in the house, and looked at him over her shoulder as she worried her lip with her teeth.

The things he wanted to do with that mouth.

The more he watched her walking around the house, infusing the space with her scent, and ignoring her unclothed state, the more he wanted to take her down on the nearest surface and show her how much he wanted her. She couldn’t imagine how happy he was, his cock hard in his jeans, his mate within reach, and the normal actions of day-to-day living.

“Anything I want?” she asked.

“Sure,” he told her.

It had been the first time they had the house to themselves. Deni had stepped out on Clan business, and Rich, considering their new mate would be left unguarded without him, had been relieved of enforcer duties for the rest day.

“How about we get into some Ip Man?” she asked.

Rich gawked at her. “Did you just pick a martial arts flick?”

“Is that so odd?” she asked. She twirled one curl around her fingers, and he wondered how it would feel to have it wrapped around his cock. Cool your shit, man. We’re supposed to be showing her she’s desirable, and not just for sex. Easier said than done, of course, when all he wanted to do was see the imprint of his bite on her flesh. He shook his head to clear his wayward thoughts.

“I’m game for that. Popcorn?” he asked.

“Extra butter,” she called.

He smiled at her and went to get the popcorn popping as she put the movie in. After a few minutes, he carried the buttery popcorn back into the room in a big bowl and sat it down on the coffee table.

“Anything else we need?” he asked.

“Some drinks, maybe. I’ll get them.”

He let her, marveling at the effortless way she found the cups and filled them with some soda before coming back. Without realizing it, she took command of the house, and didn’t seem to notice how naked she was. When she curled into his side and pressed play on the film, he forced his gaze to the TV screen. He’d much rather be watching her, but that didn’t keep his libido in check. Instead he contented himself with tracing little circles on her shoulder as he pulled her in closer. Her breath puffed across his chest, and he swore mating must of have made him hyperaware. He shifted, uncomfortable, and tried to relieve the ache of his cock pressing against the ribs of his zipper.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

He looked down and realized she was watching him, and not the movie, her hand just inches from his hard dick on his thigh. He swallowed before he answered. “Fine.”

“Are you sure?”

Was it him, or did her hand move? He was going to lose his shit. Sarah’s scent still filtered through the house, and he wanted to replace it, to erase its existence, but that’s not what Deni had promised Ally. Fuck, this was harder than it seemed. Ally licked butter of her lips, and Rich groaned.

“I’m fine,” he gritted out.

“That woman earlier, she seemed to know you.”

Rich nodded. “We grew up together.”

“But she wants more.”

“She was never meant to be my mate, and she knows that.”

“Did you share her?” she asked, her nails biting into his thigh.

He sucked in a breath. “No, not her.”

“But others?”

“Yes. Deni and I always thought we’d end up mated to the same woman one day, and we tried it out. We enjoyed sharing a woman between us, much more than being alone, but the women were never right. It just…was empty.”

“You’re telling me the truth.”

“I would never lie to you, Ally. Never.”

She peered into his eyes and smiled. For sure her hand moved this time, right over his cock and he let his head fall back on the cushion.

“Let me help you with that.”

He’d never heard better words in his fucking life. Her deft fingers popped open his jeans and she pulled the zipper out before she palmed his dick in her hot little hands.

“You’ve been like this all day,” she commented.

“Sort of hard not to when my dream is walking around teasing me,” he told her.

“You mean that. You and Deni, every time you say things like that.”

“Of course we do.”

She got up from the couch, leaving his cock a weeping bystander, as she stood in front of him. His hot gaze traveled over her lush curves, and he bit his lip. Jesus, her body was perfection. Big tits, heavy with dusky nipples just waiting for him to taste. The soft swell of her stomach. The way her hips flared wide. And her thighs, her fucking thighs were a wet dream. Pre-cum leaked from his cock, and he clenched his fingers at his sides to keep from grabbing her.

“Alejandra, no man on the planet, besides Deni, will ever want you as much as I do. I need to see strength, and resilience. Power and artistry. That’s you. I know that if I bend you over and fuck you hard enough to send you sliding over the bed, you can take it. I know that the softness of your skin with cradle me. You can take me. My power. My strength. My everything.”

Rich raked his gaze over her until he met hers. Tears pooled in her eyes, but she smiled at him, a wonderful bright smile that took his breath away. And then his heart stopped when she sank to her knees. Before he could say a thing, she swallowed his cock down to her throat and he almost came.

“Fuck, just like that, baby.”

But she didn’t. Not his mate. She sucked him, and let saliva coat him to a fine sheen and the released him. He gasped, but she didn’t keep him hanging for long. She plumped her breasts around his cock, and then set him into the sun. Like a video vixen, she spit down so that her breasts were a slippery mess for him to fuck.

“I want you to come on my face,” she told him seconds before she swirled her tongue over his cockhead.

“This isn’t…I need to stop—” he started, but couldn’t finish. Not when she sucked the head of his dick and played with the underside of his helmet with her tongue. Her soft tits glided up and down his dick, and the combination was magnificent.

She pumped him and sucked what she could reach as he lifted his hips up and down. Unable to stop himself, he gripped her sides of her head, and fucked into her mouth. The harder he pressed, the more she swallowed. He’d never seen this sort of visual in his life, and he wanted it to stay just like that. Saliva coated her tits, slid over his dick, and his balls drew up to his body.

“More, Ally. God, I’m going to come all over you.” She set him on fire, everything about her. “I’ve never gone so quick. Shit, Ally.”

She laughed, the sound wrapping around his body and he tossed his head back and groaned. He jerked his hips faster, rougher, unable to be soft. He needed her too much, wanted to feel her accept his cum.

“Fuck me harder. Don’t you like that tight pussy baby? The way it milks you? Squeezes you? Let me feel you come inside of me,” she cried out against his flesh.

The visual she gave him was enough. He slammed against her body harder, forcing her head down over him so he could get that extra heat. “I’m going to come, Ally.”

She released him, dragging her teeth just a bit over his sensitive flesh, and he roared. His cock throbbed, stiffened, and swelled. Hot cum squirted over her face, thick ropes covering her lips and across her eyes. He couldn’t stop, jerking his hips, and milking everything out that he could. Then she released her breasts, fingered his cum, and sucked it into her mouth.

“You taste so good.”

He laughed, a self-conscious, surprised, and lost sound he couldn’t explain. And he was left there, his cock still rock hard, his balls empty, and wondering what the fuck happened as she got up and left him there.

He was a fucking goner.