The hot water is beating down on his swollen back and I swear that I see a flash of brown fur sprout from his skin. It’s gone as fast as it appears and I have to force myself to step inside the bathroom.
He whips his head around when he hears my footsteps and I flinch back in surprise when I see his amber eyes flashing a bright golden color. He looks possessed by some kind of monster.
“Carter,” I whisper as I go to him. “Are you okay?”
He turns his head to hide his face, but I don’t want him to hide from me. He’s my mate and I want to see all of him, the good and the monstrous.
I rush over and open the shower door. He slinks away from me, but then seems to settle a little when I touch his jacked shoulder. It looks and feels like it’s twice the size as normal.
“What’s going on?” I whisper in the most soothing voice I can.
He turns to me and the anguish on his face breaks my heart. “My bear…” he says in a low shaky voice that’s full of distress and suffering. I just want to wrap my arms around him and take his pain away, but he keeps flinching away from me whenever I try to get close.
“What about your bear?” I whisper softly to him. “Is he sick?”
“He wants you so badly it’s breaking me,” he says after taking a deep breath. He looks into my eyes and the amber color is back for the moment.
“But he has me,” I say as I take his big wet hand and squeeze it. “You have me. I’m all yours. I’m your mate.”
“Our mark isn’t on your neck yet,” he says as his heated eyes drop to my throat. “I was trying to wait… I didn’t want to hurt you…”
“He wants to bite my neck?” I ask as I lean in closer to him. I should be terrified and running away right now. Any smart female would. But there’s something deep within me that wants it. That’s craving his teeth to sink into my tingling neck. I want him to mark me. I want to be his in every way possible.
“What do you want?” I ask him as I slide my hand up his wet arm and over his round tattooed shoulder. He reaches up, turns off the shower, and climbs out onto the bathmat beside me.
“I want every man to know that you’re mine,” he says as his eyes flash darker. It sends my heart racing and heat rushing down between my legs. It’s selfish and cruel, but I love that he’s torn apart like this for me. It shows how much I mean to him.
“I want you to be mine in every way possible,” he continues in his dark dominant voice as he stares at me with possessive eyes. “I want you bound to me and cuffed to my side. I’m a selfish bastard, Aubrey. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. I need you in every way—mental, physical, spiritual—and my bear needs the same.”
“It’s what I want too,” I tell him as I lean in and hover my lips over his. “I want you to take what you need. What your bear needs. Claim me, Carter. In every way possible.”
He lunges on me with a fierce hunger that takes me by surprise. His lips land on mine hard and his tongue thrusts into my mouth, claiming it with an urgency that shakes me to my core.
I’m panting and so wet as he rips his mouth away from mine and kisses me all over with a savage force that will leave bruises on my tender skin.
“Take me,” I urge him, goading him on as he grabs at my clothes and starts ripping them off. My shirt comes off in shreds as his low rumbling growls penetrate my writhing body and make me even wetter.
He yanks down my bra and my big breasts spill out as his hand goes down to my yoga pants. His mouth latches onto my hard nipples—licking, sucking, and nibbling on them as my hands slide over his hot wet skin.
I’m even more turned on than the first time. The savage beast is out of control and the primal way he’s acting hits something deep in me that I didn’t know existed.
His throbbing erection presses against my thigh and I gasp at how hard he is. The hunger to have it back inside me is crippling. It’s all I can think about.
“Mark me, Carter,” I moan as he thrusts his hand into my pants and underwear. He shoves his fingers into my sopping wet hole and I arch my back and cry out in pleasure. His fingers feel so good, but I want his cock. I want to feel it thrusting in deep as he fills me with his hot cum.
“Carter,” I moan as I dig my fingernails into his back and scratch them down to tempt the beast. “Do it. Fuck me, Carter. Fuck your mate.”
He suddenly leans up and looks down at me with his eyes flashing a bright golden color that sends jolts of excitement straight to my clit. It’s a primal look. A territorial look that tells me I’m his now and I no longer have a say in the matter.
His shoulders start to swell and his teeth grow to the point where they’re pushing out against his upper lip, making him look like a wild animal.
He grabs the crotch of my pants and rips everything clean off until I’m wearing nothing but tattered cloth that’s hooked around my ankles. Lustful growls and snarls keep rumbling out of his big heaving chest as he looks down.
My pussy is wet and willing and completely exposed to him. He grabs his hard cock and shoves it in me with one hard thrust. I scream out in bliss as I feel him stretch and fill me with every inch of his massive dick. He hits me so deep and he doesn’t take it slow like last time. He’s fucking me hard and fast, savagely pounding my pussy with his big cock as he hovers over me, his body growing unusually large.
I can feel his grizzly bear hovering at the surface, and knowing that he could phase at any moment is the biggest aphrodisiac there is. He’s so powerful. He’s so dangerous. I love how tiny and helpless I feel in his arms, but at the same time knowing he would never do anything to hurt me.
I love this man to my core and I want to be his in every way possible.
“Mark me,” I urge him as he rocks my body with every powerful thrust.
I submit to him fully as I turn my head and expose my neck for his taking. He growls as his big teeth come forward.
This time he won’t hold back. I can tell he’s reached his limit of restraining himself when it comes to me. That’s okay. I don’t want him to take it easy on me anymore. I want him to show me what it really means to be mated to a bear shifter.
He drags his big sharp canines up my hot skin and it sends me spiraling. The sudden orgasm has me screaming out as my body twists helplessly under him.
My mind breaks and I feel nothing but pleasure as his hard cock pounds in and out of my clenching pulsing pussy. The heat spreads everywhere in waves from my toes to the top of my head.
And when the pleasure peaks within, Carter sinks his teeth into my neck with a low vicious growl. I scream out as tears flood my eyes, but it’s a pleasing burn because I know it’s going to make me his.
It’s over fast and I’m still cumming as he slides his canines out of my skin. The pain disappears and a tingling takes over as Carter finishes off with three hard thrusts and then buries himself deep inside me. His body is larger than ever as he lets out a primal roar and fills my pussy with his hot sticky cum.
I wrap my arms and legs around him tightly and bury my face into his neck as I feel his heat flowing through me. With every heavy breath he takes, his body shrinks to his normal muscular size. He’s still huge, he’s just not grizzly bear huge.
We lie on the floor like this until our breath returns and our bodies start aching with soreness.
“Are you okay?” he whispers as he leans up and looks at me with his beautiful amber eyes. They’re back to normal, but after this, I don’t know what normal for us is anymore.
“I think so,” I moan as I reach up and touch the new mark on my neck. It’s tingling like crazy and when I touch it, it sends jolts of pleasure shooting through my body. “Is that what your bear needed?”
He kisses me softly on the lips and then looks into my eyes. “That’s what we needed. You’re mine now, Aubrey. There’s no getting away.”
I smile as I pull his lips back down onto mine.
That’s the best news I’ve heard all day.
Epilogue
Aubrey
Seven months later…
This is the funnest day ever. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much and my phone is dead from all of the pictures I’ve taken.
I look at the parents of my kids and they look so freaking happy as they watch their little ones graduate kindergarten. I set up a ceremony in the gym and invited the families of my students.
Gwendolyn is on stage with me and she gives me a little nudge with her elbow. “I love this,” she whispers. “I knew hiring you full time was a great idea. One of my best.”
“It wasn’t that great,” I laugh as I rub my swollen belly. “I went and got myself knocked up a few days after I signed the papers.”
She looks down at the baby growing inside me and smiles warmly. “I’ll tell you what. You bring your little baby boy to the office next fall and we’ll call it even.”
“Deal,” I say with a nod.
My life has been amazing over the past seven months. Buddy and I have officially moved in with Carter and I fall more in love with that man every single day.
I buckled down, worked hard, and paid off almost all of my debt. I just needed a chance to get ahead and I’m so thankful that Carter gave it to me. By the end of the summer, I’ll be debt-free.
Work has been great too, even though I’ve been a bit tired from the pregnancy, but summer vacation is almost here and then I’m done with work until I’m ready to go back after the baby is born. Carter says I can stay home with the little guy if I want to, but I’m not sure yet. We’re going to have to take it one day at a time and see.
Stacy and Karen have stopped bullying me and they’re even trying to be my friend now that Gwendolyn is on my side. I don’t pay too much attention to them, and now it’s them who get uncomfortable when I walk into the break room.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” I say as the graduation music stops playing. “This is your graduating class of 2019!”
The parents and grandparents clap their hands and holler as the smiling kids take off their cardboard hats that we made and throw them into the air.
My eyes wander to the back of the room where Carter is watching me with a smile on his face. This man is always watching me.
Max walks over with a wrapped-up present and my cheeks start to flush as he hands it to me.
My hair has grown back from the glue gun incident and I’ve forgiven the little guy. Mostly…
“This is for you, Mrs. Olson,” he says as he hands me the box.
I already have tears in my eyes (damn pregnancy hormones!) as I take it and start to open it up. It’s the cutest onesie that has little apples all over it.
“So, you can still have your apple a day when you’re at home with the baby,” Max says and all the parents chuckle.
“I love it,” I say as I bend down and hug him. The class rushes forward and my twenty kindergarteners swarm me with a giant hug that I’ll treasure forever.