Return To The Bear (Bear Valley Shifters #3)(11)

At the top of the stairs, she halted in confusion. She’d halfway expected Nathan to be naked, draped across his bed or throne in his typical fashion. He was naked, yes, but he was standing with his arms crossed as a dark headed woman mirrored his stance and glared at him. April, Greta and Anya sat on a bench, also naked and looking utterly bored. Anya gestured her over and Nathan looked up, following her journey across the room with stormy eyes. Still mad, then.

“Is that her?” Joanna asked Anya. Merit, Brody had called her.

Before Nathan’s mate could respond, Merit said low, “We had a deal. I brought you a bargaining chip against the only clan that could ever rival your numbers and you will make me your mate.”

“You don’t seem like a woman who would fit in with my other mates. I do take them into consideration, you know. And you did betray your own clan. How could I ever trust you?”

Merit raked her eyes over the four women sitting against the wall and scoffed. “Honey, you won’t even remember their names when I’m done with you.”

Cocky woman. Joanna’s eyebrows shot up so high her forehead hurt. She huffed a laugh but pursed her lips when Nathan cast her an angry glare. His erection had already been at half mast, but at the woman’s promise, it hardened and thickened between them. A smile curled Merit’s full lips as she dipped her gaze downward.

“Benson Riker couldn’t handle my appetites but I have a good feeling about you, Nathan.” She practically purred his name. “Kill Hannah or use her, I don’t care. She was my ticket to you.” She peeled off her red blouse and the sequins tossed little fragments of light across the walls. Her bra was black lace and transparent, and her nipples pressed against the thin fabric as if she were already aroused.

“Nathan,” April warned.

Joanna didn’t care who he boned, so long as it wasn’t her, but a little sliver of pride filled her that at least his mates knew when to draw the line.

“I have more than enough women to keep me satisfied,” Nathan said, though he took a step forward. “And you are in no position to make demands. I already have the mate of Benson Riker, thanks to you, so why would I have to meet you halfway on anything?”

Merit unzipped her jeans and shimmied them down her thighs. “Because I can make you feel things.”

April stood and stormed out. Greta followed and Anya looked like she was about to cry. Something about Anya’s tears dragged tendrils of Joanna’s earlier fury through her.

As Anya slunk down the stairs behind the others, Joanna stood. “If you do this, you are dishonoring your mates.”

Nathan’s eyes rolled closed as Merit clasped his shaft in her hands and stroked. “Come here.”

“No. I’m not joining in whatever you’re doing with her.”

“Come here!” he bellowed.

Her heart pounded against her breastbone as she approached. He grabbed the back of her hair, an unspoken rule broken between them, and he pressed his forehead against hers. “You were supposed to save me.”

Merit dropped to her knees and the sound of her suckling his skin made Joanna queasy. “No one can save you.”

He pushed her back and the icy blue of his eyes grew colder. “Your punishment won’t be to bed me because that isn’t a forfeiture. That’s a privilege. For your outburst tonight, you will be denied affection, both from me and from my mates. You will live as mine but without any benefit. Your rank in this clan is hereby stripped and no one will be allowed to touch you from here until the end of your life, which will come whenever I please. You’ll endure every single heat, watching me f*ck my mates, and you’ll never know touch, never know love.” He entangled his fingers into Merit’s hair and his hips bucked as Merit drew him all the way into her mouth. His breath shook and his stomach tensed as he eased in and out, but his heated gaze never left Joanna’s. “Leave.”

She turned so he wouldn’t see the relief on her face. A cruel punishment for sure, but she’d somehow lucked onto a path where he didn’t push her into bed. No touch? She could endure that until she made her escape. He thought he would draw this out for years and torture her, make her feel alone and unwanted until he was sure she was broken, but she knew something he didn’t.

She was leaving this place, and him, behind in a day’s time.





Chapter Four


Joanna nearly fell down the stairs in her hurry to escape the moaning sounds Merit was making. She was loud. Obnoxiously so, and he wasn’t even touching her yet.

Now was her chance to find Hannah. He’d be preoccupied at least for a little while with Merit. Where would he hide the mate of a rival alpha? Somewhere closed off because he wouldn’t want the rest of the clan knowing. Not yet. Not until he was ready to give them a battle speech and prepare them for another war. This house, where he could guard her himself, seemed like the most obvious choice. But it didn’t have a basement and a quick check of the rooms told her only his mates were here, somberly quiet and readying for bed. Anya lay on top of her comforter in her room, facing the walls and her shoulders shook as if she were weeping.

Time was ticking away but Joanna couldn’t pull herself away from the grieving woman without consoling her. “Anya, are you okay?” The bed creaked as she sat beside the woman and rubbed her back in soothing circles.