Redeem the Bear (Bear Valley Shifters #5)(20)

He dropped to his knees and gripped her hips, pressed her back against the tree and pressed his mouth onto her sex.

“Oooh,” she said in a shaking voice. Never mind. This was the best reward ever.

His tongue dipped languidly inside of her, over and over and the soreness there melted away. She had already been close, and her knees grew weaker as he kissed on and on. He held her steady in place, as if he’d known her reaction would be to go limp as mud at his capable touch. Cocky genius.

Was she supposed to watch his head bobbing sensually between her thighs? Was she supposed to close her eyes and enjoy the waves of pleasure he was bringing her? She should have studied up. Arching against him, she gripped a low hanging branch above her and bore more of her weight as the first moan of ecstasy left her lips. He was so damned good at this.

Tiny patterned whimpers escaped her as the pressure built and she came even harder than the first time, pulsing around his clever tongue. Shaft in hand, he was stroking long and slow, and now a single dewy bead of cum sat at the top, glistening in the moonlight.

He kissed between her thighs once more and stood on steady, powerful legs.

“Are you growling at me?” he asked, raking his teeth against her neck.

Was she? Indeed she was. That was a first. “I wanted to do that.”

“Do what?”

“Stroke you.”

“Submissive bear, so bold to growl at a dominant,” he murmured.

She couldn’t tell if he was angry or amused and his face gave away nothing. Slowly, he lifted her hands back to the tree branch above her, then slid inside of her. “I was taking care of myself so I’d be close when I took you, Corin. So it wouldn’t hurt as much.” He thrust hard and she gasped.

His hands found her backside and he pressed her against him with the next thrust. It hurt compared to his tongue, but still felt right. Felt good.

“Don’t growl at me again, Corin, or I’ll punish you.” Another thrust and another. Then three short bursts and warmth shot into her as he groaned and bucked erratically.

She came again, encouraged by his own throbbing release. “Brooks,” she whispered as she tipped over the edge.

“Good girl,” he rasped, and she nearly glowed under his compliment. He didn’t seem the type to give them lightly.

He clutched her chin and kissed her hard and short as he pulled out of her. “Put your clothes on. Dawn will be here soon.”

Dawn. The word had become synonymous with death and the bottom dropped out of her stomach. Brooks and his tender affection had been a beautiful distraction from the end, but there was no more avoiding it. No more hours left to ignore the bloody fate that was coming.

“You won’t stop this war? You won’t save all of these people?” she asked as her last hope lay in the coming sunrise.

“It’s beyond me now,” he said, void of emotion. “If that’s what you came for, your mission was doomed before you even met me.”

She swallowed back crippling emotion as he plucked his pants from the grass and disappeared around the tree.

A night with her enemy hadn’t saved her people.

A night with Brooks had only proved that her Daniel really was dead.





Chapter Nine


Brooks didn’t offer his hand this time as he led her toward the meadow separating their camps. The moon hung low and it illuminated the gently waving grass in an eerie glow. Corin balked as Brooks took his first step into the field of whispers.

“I don’t think we should go through there.” Her instincts were screaming to back away slowly.

“Why?” he asked in a hard voice.

“It’s haunted.”

His face morphed from interested to completely closed off. “Spirits don’t come around creatures like me, Corin. Come.”

Creatures like him? Dark? Soulless? What did that even mean?

“Why did you choose this place?” The first tendrils of suspicion touched her heart. “What does it mean to you?”

A cold smile crooked his lips but failed to reach his eyes. “I fought Bear Valley for my first battle in this meadow. The souls you hear whispering against your neck? They are the unsettled ghosts of my people and yours. We lost that battle, but today will be different. This is the place I choose to end Bear Valley, where my battles began.”

Horrified, she shook her head in denial that he would plan this. The second she thought she knew him, thought he had a heart somewhere in his dark, echoing chest cavity, his words pulled the hope right from her. Seething that she’d been so stupid, she brushed by him.

“I can get back to my people just fine from here.”

She wasn’t going to look back, no matter what. He could watch her go all he wanted. The wind picked up and lifted her hair and she covered her ears as the whispers began again.

Corin, Corin, the wind hissed, and she froze as terror seized her muscles. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. How were the voices inside her head?

She could tell the exact moment Brooks stepped into the meadow behind her, because the ghosts quieted like they’d never even been here at all. Brooks scooped her up like she weighed nothing and strode with long, steady strides until they reached the other side.

His black eyes smoldered like a fire just gone out. “You’re good, Corin. They wouldn’t reach out to you if you weren’t. Not even I could taint you. Run.”