Betray the Bear (Bear Valley Shifters #4)(6)

“I don’t remember there being orders in our bedroom before this,” she observed boldly. Her cheeks heated, and she bit her bottom lip as anger bloomed in his face.

“Our bedroom, Anya? No, love. This is my bedroom, and you’ll do best to remember that. Turn around. Get on your hands and knees.”

She frowned but did as she was told. He knew she didn’t like it from behind. He was never careful with the angle of his shaft, and he was too rough. She could never come like this. Apparently he wasn’t concerned with that anymore. His strong hands grasped her backside and her back flexed instinctively.

“No more defiance, mate,” he growled, then thrust into her, hard.

She gasped at the unexpected pain that warred with pleasure and clenched the bed sheets in her fists as he pounded into her again and again. His pace was too fast, frantic almost, and she screwed up her face to still the urge to plead with him to slow down. She grunted at the discomfort, but he was almost finished. Wildly, he bucked against her until the sound of his flesh slapping hers filled the room like rhythmic drumming.

“Joanna,” he whispered.

Offended, Anya cast a glance over her shoulder, and he was staring with such intensity at the bench seat he’d made Joanna sit on more than a month ago. He had spilled into Anya then while staring at Joanna’s naked body, and he was doing it again without the woman even being here. Asshole.

She lurched forward to escape him, angry that he’d disrespect her so epically, but he gripped her hips and slammed against her one last time, freezing in place as he shot warm wetness into her.

She felt empty. Like a hollow vessel for him to fill at his whim. Her heart broke a little more.

Pulling out of her, he pushed her forward and she landed with an oof on her stomach. He curled around her like he usually did, but it lacked affection this time. He didn’t feel much for her either. Or if he did, he was still angry about her defying him, and her punishment was aloofness.

It had been like this since Merit had come to the Long Claws. “I hate Merit.”

“Are you jealous, love?” he asked against her hair.

Love. There was that word again. “Do you love me?” she asked. She’d never wondered it out loud to him before.

“Do you love me?” he countered. It wasn’t lost on her that he avoided answering. His evasive tactics were answer enough.

“Yes.” At least, she thought she did before Joanna. Maybe he wouldn’t hear the lie in her voice. Or perhaps he wouldn’t care.

“Merit will be around for a long time. Best you get used to her, Anya.”

Minutes drifted by and she thought he would fall asleep as he often did after pumping his seed into a woman. His voice surprised her when he said, “I chose you today because I need to talk to you about something. I have a job for you, one where you could serve me and the Long Claws in an honorable way.”

“A job?” Her heart quickened with the possibility of leaving the gardens. Maybe he’d changed his mind about letting her do pipe work. Then she would be able to travel the mountains with a pipe crew. She’d escape life here for a few hours a day, and relieve the stifling fog that had taken over her life lately.

“I need Joanna back.”

Frowning at the unexpected turn in their conversation, she asked, “Did Joanna agree to come back home?”

“Doesn’t matter. Her mate has to die for what he did to me. I’d planned to finish him at the meeting with Joanna, but Riker accompanied her instead. That coward, Brody, never even bothered to show up.”

Okay. She was confused. Joanna had left with this man, Brody, on purpose, and she didn’t seem the type to come running back to Nathan. If he killed her mate, how would that get Nathan what he wanted? “Does she love him?”

“What is with your obsession with love today? Don’t mention the word to me again or I’ll punish you.” His voice was quiet and dangerous, and she swallowed hard.

“I won’t mention it again,” she promised. “The job?”

“You’re leaving here, Anya, for a month at least.”

Dread slammed into her and her heart drummed against her sternum. Leave here? This was home, the only one she had ever known. She wasn’t equipped for the outside world and even if she was, she’d heard horrible stories about bear shifters on the outskirts of clans. Such a doomed feeling washed over her, she sat straight up and turned to see if he was serious, handling her fate so carelessly. “Why? Where will I go?” The panic in her voice wasn’t pretty, but hang it all. Her mate was throwing her away.

“You and Joanna bonded, and she’ll be your ticket into Bear Valley.”

“Bear Valley?” she whispered, horrified. Nathan had told her awful things about the shifters there. They beat their mates, took them as they pleased. She was first mate to the alpha of the Long Claw Clan. She was respected here. There, she’d be used or brutalized, or worse. “You can’t mean it, Nathan.”

He propped up on his elbow and his eyes were hard and cold, like shards of glass. “I won’t keep a mate who is useless to me. We’ve been paired for two years, and still you haven’t given me a cub. What use is a sterile mate to a man in my position? Because I care for you, I’m giving you a chance to prove your worth to me. If you succeed, I will consider keeping you.”