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

Dunn snarled, then his eyes narrowed and he pushed off her.

“Change back, Joanna,” Blake commanded. “The game is through and you’re caught. Best if we get you back to Nathan before he has any more time to build his fury.”

Blake, that smarmy *, had a point. Nathan, alpha of the Long Claw Clan, didn’t like to wait.

Her clothes lay in tatters from her unintentional shift and she hesitated. Maybe she could just walk back as a bear and find clothes when she arrived at the community.

“Now,” Blake ordered.

Dunn had already changed back and stood with his hands on his hips, smiling wickedly with his erection proudly on display. Well, she was safe from mishandling by that idiot because of Nathan’s arrogance. He didn’t take other men’s seconds. Blake hadn’t been kidding about Dunn’s impending doom if he so much as kissed her. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and shrunk back to her human form.

Dunn sucked on his teeth and devoured her body with his gaze. She flipped him off and followed Blake back toward the trail.

“So your plan was what, Joanna?” Blake admonished. “Run until you found town? You don’t even know where you are and people saw you leave. You weren’t exactly stealthy about your escape this time. What is this? Time number three? Give up, Joanna. Bow to your fate and let Nathan claim you.”

“Let him make me one of his whores, you mean?”

Blake turned so fast, she gasped. He jabbed a finger in her face and growled, low in his throat. “Don’t you call them that. His mates are to be honored and revered. They’ll bear sons of the strongest bloodline the Long Claws have ever known. Call them whores again and I’ll put you in seclusion for a week. Do you understand?”

“Yes.” Her voice came out a ragged whisper. She’d been in seclusion before and the cost had nearly been her mind.

Mates, plural. Nathan had three of them and she would be just another notch on his belt. Another trophy for him to boast about. The spoils of a war her people had lost to the Long Claws. How could he blame her for not wanting to mate with the man who’d killed and scattered her people?

Blake spun and stomped down the trail. “You could have it a lot worse than to pair with the most feared alpha in the world, you know,” he called over his shoulder. “He takes good care of his mates and he makes it no secret that you are special to him. You’ll be taken care of.”

Where she came from, the Blood Den Clan, bears mated for life and monogamously. Sharing a mate with a harem of other women would suck the joy from her soul. She believed in love now, but if she allowed a pairing with him, she’d be jaded and grow hard, like Nathan’s mates would become when the fun of being mated to the alpha wore off and they realized they were sharing his affection. It worked for now, but it wouldn’t—couldn’t—work forever. Arguing with Blake was pointless though. He never listened or cared.

The clan was bustling with activity. Two cubs in their bear form play-fought in the street as their mothers laughed and chatted in the shade of one of the house porches. The homes here were cookie cutter. Kit homes had been ordered two years ago when the land had been taken from a rival clan, and the Long Claws had begun immediate work to adapt to living in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. She’d been newly taken in at the time and hadn’t understood that good people had died trying to defend this stretch of land. Now that she knew the dark history of the demise of the Kodiak Clan, the place felt haunted.

Great jungle gardens lay beside a sprawling orchard with every fruit tree and bush imaginable. Perspiring men worked on fences and laughing kids weaved through the crowd. If she didn’t know the bloody origins of this place, it would be peaceful—a place she could call home. As it stood, she’d had too many personal conversations with Nathan to ignore the fact that shifters had died so this clan could inhabit this land.

Why Nathan, the most powerful alpha she’d ever met, felt the need to bare his soul to her, she’d never know.

Down an alley of children playing a game of marbles they stepped. At the mouth of it was a two story home with gray siding and an inviting stone walkway. She closed her eyes and took a steadying breath before she stepped through the door behind Blake. Nathan was going to punish her. Oh, he’d never laid a hand on any woman that she’d ever seen, but Nathan was creative with his punishments. And she was in heat.

Heat. The bane of her current existence, and likely the reason Nathan was so adamant about claiming her. That and she’d told him no about two dozen times. The man had probably never heard the word before he conquered her people and took her in.

Blake led her down a hallway, past a large office and then up a flight of stairs. The top story was a single room with blackout curtains, incense, a king sized bed and pillows set up in front of a fireplace. The elaborate fabrics in the room were dyed in deep gold and burgundy. This was the room Nathan…let off steam.

There was no door, so as soon as she climbed to the top of the stairs, her gaze collided with Nathan’s.

Be strong.

His eyes were mossy green under thick golden eyebrows. His blond hair was cut short on the sides, and tousled longer on top. The man was tall and lithe when he moved, more like a panther than the gigantic bear that slept inside of him. There wasn’t an ounce of body fat on him. How did she know this? Because he was sitting completely naked on a wooden throne with one knee drawn up comfortably and his hand resting over his mouth. His eyes sparked with temper and she wanted to run.