Redeem the Bear (Bear Valley Shifters #5)(33)

“Fuck.” His muttered oath drifted through the closed door. Pain, anger and something more tainted the word and made the tiny hairs on her ears lift in discomfort.

The entire house was beginning to smell like ozone. Like the power that came after a big storm and every step she took toward the bathroom made her stomach tingle with disquiet.

Whatever was happening in there, he wanted hidden, but he was hers. Didn’t he understand that? Whatever dark secrets he harbored were safe with her. She was strong enough to share the burden.

The knob was cold under her hand, unnaturally so, but she twisted it anyway and pushed the door open. Wads of bandages filled the trashcan, fragrant with blood in different stages of drying. Her bear came to the surface, intrigued by the scent and worried about her mate.

Her mate?

Brooks stood in the shower, hands on the wall, staring at her through the glass door as steaming water rained down onto his shoulders. The stream near his feet ran burgundy, and his eyes churned an inhuman mercury color.

Dropping her gaze, she slipped out of her jeans and folded them neatly onto the sink. Her bra and panties were next, and, holding her breath in hopes that his bear wouldn’t shred her, she opened the shower door and slipped in behind him. Without a word, she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested them gently against his taut abdomen. It seemed to be the only place he wasn’t injured.

His body had been cut and sliced, and scars in every shade of age and healing crisscrossed his skin. He had obviously been fighting for his life, for her life, and for the lives of Bear Valley at the cost of his flesh.

Pressing her cheek against his back, the raining water hid her tears. “I’m scarred too,” she whispered. It hadn’t bothered her much until now, when she realized Brooks would never see her unmarred. “Will you show me?”

“Why?” he asked in a gravelly voice.

“Because you sharing everything with me will only make me love you more.”

His hand slid up her arm and held her hand in place against his stomach, and a shuddering sigh escaped him. His voice sounded strangled when he said, “Why do you keep saying that. How can you love someone like me? I’ve killed people, Corin. Ten years of killing just like every other Long Claw.”

Turning her face, she rested her forehead against the tensed muscles of his back and squeezed her eyes tightly closed. “You didn’t know any other way. The Long Claws molded you into the enforcer they needed. What’s important to me is how you live your life from here on. You won’t scare me off, Brooks. So stop trying.”

Straightening, he turned and lifted his chin as she studied his shredded chest. His eyes were expressionless, emotionless—as empty as the first time she’d seen him. She hated that he could turn it off so easily.

The water had washed away the old, dry blood, and the extent of his injuries made her shake her head back and forth in denial that he could sustain such abuse and still be upright. It was a testament to how strong he really was that he’d survived the Long Claws at all.

And his eyes, so cold as he watched her…she wanted to embrace him until he softened under her touch once again.

Turning to give him her back, she looked over her shoulder and said, “Now, we match.”

He ran a light fingertip over the clawed scars that ran down her spine and sides. She only looked at them when she was putting on the medicines Anya had made for her.

“I’m going to take care of you,” she promised. “You don’t have to hide from me, Brooks Butler. The fates have given us another chance, and I’m not wasting the time they gave us chasing you. Stop running from me.” She turned and glared at him through her damp eyelashes.

The strong cords of his throat moved as he swallowed. “What do you want from me?”

“Everything.”

His chin lowered and tilted as he stalked her. “Done,” he said, just before his mouth came down on hers.

Brooks dipped his tongue deeper and deeper against hers, and his jutting erection pressed against her belly. If she was hurting him, he showed no signs of it as he spun her and pressed her back against the cold tiled wall.

All of the gentleness had melted away from him and she was glad. She didn’t want him forcing himself to be soft. Not this time. She wanted him as he was now. Not as the dim memory she harbored of Daniel, but as Brooks, dominant alpha and mature, ravenous man.

“Please,” she begged, biting his bottom lip as a snarl ripped out of him.

His fingers gripped her hair and arched her neck. He trailed biting kisses down her sensitive flesh and shoved his knee in between hers, widening her stance.

Shower water splashed against her cheek and she closed her eyes to better lose herself to Brooks’ affection. Now he was rutting, insatiable and rough, and she found it incredibly alluring. She had the power to make one of the strongest bear shifters in the world lose control.

He slid a hand between her legs and pressed a finger inside of her, as if testing that she was ready to take him. Pushing his hand away, she growled, “No. I want you. All of you, Brooks. Now.”

His breath came in short pants as he reared back and thrust into her. She cried out as he stretched her, and pleasure began to build on the second plunging stroke. Propping her arms on his shoulders, she gripped his hair as he set a punishing pace, powerful hips flexing with every thrust. She met him, arching into him over and over. His kisses left her lips swollen and throbbing, but still she wanted more.