~

 

“Maggie,” Roland had helped his mate to her feet, and now she had the look of a caged beast about her. Her instinct still said; run, and that was one thing that Roland couldn’t allow to happen.

“I know – I know – I’m sorry for kneeing you in the balls…” she tossed up a hand in frustration.

“Good to hear, but that wasn’t what I was going to say,” Roland said and watched as her body unclenched just a little.

He guessed that she’d been pretty much on her guard since the moment that she’d arrived on clan land, and he knew within his bones that his big hulking presence probably wasn’t helping matters, but he couldn’t make himself smaller and less intimidating – after all, intimidating had been what he was going for when he’d first tried to run her from their land – but he could make himself a little softer around the edges.

He just needed to figure out how the hell to do that.

“Oh.” She gave a little shrug. “Well, the apology is out there now, and it still stands.”

She folded her arms and tipped her chin up in defiance. Yep, she still looked like a woman that had her back to the wall, and that thought sent another wave of X-rated thoughts through Roland’s mind. He’d sure like her back to the wall, and his cock buried deep within her.

“My balls would surely appreciate it never happening again…” he cocked an eyebrow and she pressed her lips together once more to squash a smile, but there was amusement in her eyes.

“Talk to them often, do you?” she couldn’t help herself.

“They were screaming at me not long ago, now they’re just kind of offering up what I like to think as a silent protest,” he said, and the start of a grin took his lips and made a smile pull at the corners of her lips.

“Well, you can tell them from me – I’m not promising anything, but if their owner behaves himself…” she waved a hand and let the rest of that sit between them.

“Good enough – I guess – for now – maybe,” he said and watched her grin once more.

“Anything else you want to add to that?” she teased him.

“Not right now, but I reserve the right to later on.”

“I should leave…”

“No!” Roland balked at the idea as he put his big bulk between her and the door.

“See, this is one of those moments why I couldn’t promise not to slay your nuts in future,” Maggie said with a scowl.

“Ok, now just hear me out,” Roland said as he held up two large hands to his chest, palms towards her in the hope of showing her that he meant her no harm.

“I’m all ears,” she said and tried to quiet her heart from trying to escape her chest in a bid for freedom.

She didn’t like the way that he’d blocked the exit. She didn’t like just how he filled the doorway, well, that wasn’t entirely true, she liked that a lot, but it still felt kind of scary, and she certainly didn’t like or understand, why he was trying to keep her there.

Maggie was conflicted because she could also list a whole lot of things that she did like about him too. But the whole situation just didn’t feel right to her, and yet, it did. She kind of wished that she could read people because right then and there, she was a whole lot of confused.

“Damn,” Roland bit out.

How did you go about telling a human that she was your mate and all that implied?   

 

~

~

~

 

Rayner could only see red. Her mate and Bowie were under attack, and that was enough to send her bear bat-shit crazy.

There wasn’t much Dane could do, he’d been knocked sideways by Tank’s bulk, and was dragging his backside up from the ground when Rayner had decided to launch her beast into the fight.

She was damned ferocious in her attack. He wasn’t sure if Tank was surprised, blindsided in some way, or reluctant to engage in a fight with a female, but his beast was taking a hit.

Bowie’s bear was getting into position to the right side of the fight, and Dane took the left side. They had Tank right where they wanted him.

“Stop, please, stop!”

The woman’s voice cut through the mayhem and madness for Rayner, and her beast paused its attack on Tank.

But it was the sound of the hearty cry that went up from the distressed newborn that was cradled in the woman’s arms that stopped the fighting and held everyone in place.