Alpha’s Claim (Bad Boy Bears #1)

Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

P aloma

My jaw hangs open. Darius is a bear! A massive, terrifying grizzly bear with a row of gleaming sharp teeth and five-inch claws.

He launches himself at his brother– who is also a bear! The two grapple and roll to the ground with vicious roars.

My heart pounds. My feet remain glued to the forest floor despite Darius’ commands to run. I don’t know whether I’m frozen with fear or fascination. Or just because I refuse to be told what to do ever again.

Mostly, I want Teddy to leave Darius the fuck alone.

“Stop!” I scream, picking up a rock and aiming. I reconsider and drop it–I don’t want to hit Darius. I find a big stick instead. I can handle this–I’m around large animals all the time.

“Stop it! Shoo!” I know which one is Teddy by the color of the shreds of the shirt that hang in rags around his neck. I smack him over the head. “Go away.”

As soon as the wood cracks over that massive skull, I realize what a huge mistake I made. This is a grizzly bear, not a horse. Not that I would hit a horse. But this bear could kill me with one swipe of that massive paw.

But, shockingly, Teddy makes a warbling sound and drops to all fours, ducking his head away from me.

“That’s right,” I yell, emboldened. “Go! Go home!” I poke him with the end of the stick. “Bad bear!”

He grabs the branch and breaks it in a very human-like move, and for a moment, I think I’ve gone too far, but then he wheels and bounds away in the same direction he came.

I stare after him in shock, and then a hysterical giggle comes out of my mouth. “A bad bear” –I cover my mouth to hold in the fit of giggles– “on Bad Bear Mountain.”

When I turn to face down Darius, though, I find a naked man in place of the bear. A glorious, muscled Viking man.

He’s panting, his expression strained, his fists and teeth clenched as if in concentration. He stalks toward me, eyes still gleaming gold, and lifts me into his arms, making me feel as light as a feather.

Now I know why I’m not too heavy for Darius. He’s not human. His bear probably likes his woman to have some meat on her bones. He’d crack one of those waiflike models Thom wanted me to look like in half.

“Can’t–” He seems unable to speak. He carries me up the steps of the cabin.

My brain reels and crashes into a brick wall, recognizing anew that my lover is a bear . I’ve heard of werewolves. I didn’t know about bears.

“Not–” Darius tries again. “...not safe,” he mutters. “You’re not safe with me.”

Maybe I should be afraid. Maybe Teddy was trying to get Darius to bite me and turn me into a werewolf like them. I mean bear. Werebear .

Oh my God–what is happening right now?

This can’t be real!

Except I’m certain that I am safe. Yes, my pulse is racing from adrenaline pumping through my veins, but no part of me believes Darius would hurt me. I didn’t even believe it when he was a giant grizzly bear.

Plus, Teddy said he wouldn’t hurt me.

But Darius seems to think he will.

“This isn’t right. I didn’t want you to see that.” Darius carries me to the bedroom. “Lock the door. Lock me out. You’re not safe with him.” He tries to set me down, but I cling to his neck and wrap my legs around his waist.

“Not safe with whom? Teddy?”

“With me.” He walks over to the bed and tries to deposit me, but I still refuse to be put down. If he thinks I’m going to be locked in a bedroom again–even if it’s for my safety–he’s delusional.

“I’m safe here.”

“Not with me. Not with my bear.”

I lean my forehead against his creased one. “I’m okay,” I murmur against his skin. As if he were my horse, Starlight, spooked by something on a ride, I hold the presence of quiet for him. “I’m okay. Nothing bad happened. We’re okay here together now.”

He climbs onto the bed with me still in his arms and lowers us together, his naked body covering mine. We lock eyes. His still have the wild glow of amber–I understand now what I’ve been seeing. Darius isn’t human–he is something altogether different. Maybe that’s why I was so drawn to him from the very beginning.

I sensed he was nothing like the wretched men who have surrounded me for the last ten years. I mistakenly assumed he was one of them, there to buy me, but my body knew he was different. My body went electric in his presence.

He’s my electric yes.

I reach up and touch his face. “Darius.” His eyes burn bright, blazing with his animal side.

He lowers his mouth in a ferocious kiss. He pries my lips apart with his tongue as his hips settle in the cradle of my legs.

I reach for the tie of the sweatpants to unknot it. I manage to get it undone and shove the waistband of the sweats down the curves of my hips.

“Paloma,” Darius rasps. “I don’t know if I should–”

“You should. We’re okay,” I murmur. “We’re okay.“

“It’s not safe,” Darius insists between desperate kisses. “I’m not safe. Being here with you on this mountain…” He rips open the flannel shirt I’m wearing, popping all the buttons. He’s better than a Viking. He’s glorious.

“You see? I’m out of control.” He rents the fabric of my pink satin cami in half.

My exposed breasts bounce out, nipples taut.

He lowers his mouth, like he’s desperate to get his lips over my nipple. He sucks hard, and I cry out, the answering tug between my legs making the flesh tighten there.

“Sorry.” He lifts his head, breathless. “Was it too much?”

I grasp his ears and guide his head to my other nipple. “No. Keep going.”

He swirls his tongue around it. Scrapes his teeth.

The suave, controlling lover from the beach house is gone. I thought nothing could top him, but it turns out, there was something even better.

Because I love Darius unhinged.

This rough passion is the magic that creates legends .

“I’m sorry.” Darius is still apologizing for his animal side. His rough hands tug me down on the bed, so he can nip at my neck. I sense his internal struggle, guess that he doesn’t like to be this way. To show this side of himself.

Finally, his brother said when he changed form.

Perhaps he’s rejected this side of himself. Exchanged it for the manicured Wall Street Hedge Fund manager. He’s at odds with the two sides of himself.

“No…no!” He roars, shaking his head so hard his neck cracks and snaps. My sense is that he’s not talking to me–he’s talking to his other half.

He’s talking to the bear.

“I’m sorry, Paloma. I shouldn’t be here with you. Not like this.”

“You should .” I’m firm. I know from working with horses that if I follow his lead with fear, his animal will react. I have to maintain the energy of trust. Show him I’m unafraid. That we’re friends.

“It’s just that I’m not myself here. The mountain brings out my bear. And my brothers bring him out. And you . Especially you, princess. The moment I saw you back at Lockepoint, my bear went nuts. He’s crazy over you.”

“I love your bear,” I assure him.

I don’t know why I say it–I barely met his bear, but I can tell there’s some kind of terrible struggle within Darius right now. I want him to feel safe being his true self with me.

Whatever that may be.

“I don’t want him to hurt you.”

I don’t know how dangerous his bear is, but I do know his twin, who had an equally ferocious-looking bear, ducked his head when I hit him with a stick and then ran off when I told him to go. And I know his twin also assured me that Darius wouldn’t harm me.

It seemed that Darius’ bear only came out because Teddy goaded him into a rage, and that rage was about his insult to me.

“You won’t hurt me.” I run my hands over his bare shoulders, my palms loving the sculpted landscape of his bunched muscles. His hard cock finds the notch between my legs, and he groans, dropping his forehead to mine as he slides it over my slickness.

“Paloma…” He sounds broken. “I can’t. I’m afraid I will mark you.”

“Mark me? What does that mean?”

“A bear…” He groans as if he’s in pain. As if being so near me is a torture.

I roll my hips beneath him, getting more contact with his shaft.

“Oh fuck,” he groans.

“What does it mean?” I prompt again.

“Right. It’s… a bear marks his mate with his scent.” He scraps his teeth along the side of my neck. “Then other shifters know she’s been claimed. My bear wants to claim you with his teeth.”

His words give me pause, and I might have pulled back or slowed down, but at that same moment, the head of Darius’ cock finds my entrance. I moan as my soaked sex parts for him, as if my body knows and understands I am his to claim.

I tip my pelvis and push back against the steady pressure of the head of his cock. I take in the tip. It feels delicious.

He groans in return. “I can’t–” But his body doesn’t obey his will. He penetrates me with one snap of his hips .

I cry out at the pain-pleasure. At being pried open by his thickness. Filled by his length.

“I’m sorry. Sorry, Paloma. I didn’t mean to.”

I know he’s not wearing a condom, but I don’t care. I’m taking charge of my own breeding, now, too.

Fuck Thom Thompson and all his sick plans for me.

“ I meant to.” I hold his gaze.

It turns steadier as he rocks into me.

“No biting,” I say firmly, since that sounded dangerous. “But I want your Viking bear cock.”

More of Darius returns, expression clearing from anguish and delirium to the sexy man who seduced me in my bedroom. His lips turn up at the edges.

He rides me, his beautiful body rocking over mine. “You want this, princess? You want this big cock?”

“Yes. This is what I want.”

“You like it when I fill you up? When I stretch your sweet virgin flesh to take me?”

I smile like a satisfied cat as he makes the bed shake with his thrusts. “Not a virgin anymore,” I brag.

Because I’m damn proud of taking control of my sex life. Of asking for and getting what I need. Of ruining all of Thom’s plans for me.

“No, you’re not, are you?” Darius braces one hand beside my head, using the other to keep my head from hitting the headboard. “You’re mine now,” he declares.

The rebel in me wants to deny it. I may like to pretend I’m the fair maiden captured by the Viking, but in real life, I belong to no one. Never again will a man hold me against my will.

Except Darius isn’t holding me against his will. I want to be here, underneath him. I want to be the one driving him and his bear mad. I want him to claim me as his. Even to mark me with his scent, so all other shifters know.

I want to claim Darius Medvedev right back.

“You’re mine now,” I say back to him.

A slow smile spreads across his face, and he thrusts with intention. Like he’s staking his claim on my pussy. On my womb. “That’s right, little dove. I’m yours. You want this cock, you demand it. Morning, noon, or night–it’s yours.”

It feels so good that my eyes are rolling back in my head. I want nothing more than to be filled by this beautiful man-bear. Except, then it’s not enough. I need more. Faster.

“Please,” I start to chant. “Please…now. I need it.”

“You need to come, sweetheart?” Darius’ voice is rough.

“Yes. Together.”

“You want us to come together?”

I want it. I may be inexperienced with sex, but romance novels have been my only form of entertainment for the past ten years. I’m programmed to believe in that holy grail of completion–the simultaneous orgasm where fireworks go off and volcanos erupt.

I want to reach the apex with Darius. I want us to be in this together. Because I suddenly have the sense that it’s the only way we will succeed against Thom. Love is the oldest magic.

Thom separated me from Wren to keep us from using it against him, but he didn’t count on Darius. The man whose bear knew we belonged together.

And I have the sense that together, we’ll be unstoppable.

“Fuck,” Darius mutters. “I’m losing control.”

“No biting,” I remind him, gasping at the force he’s pounding me with. “Now, Darius! Please!”

Darius’ face contorts. His beard seems to grow before my eyes. He gives a shout and then bucks into me, the bed slamming against the wall so loudly, I suspect all seven of his brothers will hear it.

“Yes!” I shriek. “Yes!” I catapult off the edge, tumbling and spinning into oblivion.

There aren’t fireworks. It’s an avalanche. A cascade of pleasure that turns me inside out. And also a volcano–that’s Darius, erupting and spewing his hot seed into me. So hot and copious, I swear I feel it hitting the back wall of my channel.

Afterward, it’s the eye of a hurricane. The whipping winds of a storm all around us, but we’re in the center, floating.

Cocooned in the still point of togetherness.

Darius

“Paloma,” I croak, as reality seeps back in, and I realize what I’ve done.

I didn’t bite her. At least, I don’t think I did.

But I was out of control.

Fate, I could’ve bitten her. If I ever lost control of my bear around her, I could inflict serious damage. Hell, I could even end her life.

It’s enough reason to break this thing off completely when we’ve defeated Thompson.

Never. My bear roars to the surface.

I roll off Paloma before I do something I regret.

She gasps at my sudden withdrawal.

I stand beside the bed where my feet landed, my gaze drawn to my cum smeared between her legs. “Fuck, Paloma. I lost control. I didn’t use protection. ”

“I know,” she says, calm as a cucumber. Are cucumbers calm? No, they’re cool. Well, she’s cool as a cucumber, then.

Agony over my mistake rolls over me. “I’ll get you a washcloth.” I head to the bathroom and get a warm cloth as she calls, “It’s okay.”

When I return, I find Paloma trailing her fingertips through my essence, using it to stroke herself, painting it all over her inner lips and clit, like she relishes being coated in my scent. Like she’s marking herself human-style.

I nearly lose it again, my bear tearing at the leash, dying to sink his sharp teeth into her delicate human flesh. I freeze halfway across the room to her, breathing deeply through my nostrils to force my bear back down.

Paloma watches me with heavy lids, still stroking, as if she gets off on torturing me this way.

“Fuck, I want you,” I mutter when it’s safe to walk again.

“You have me,” she purrs.

“It’s not enough.” I’m suddenly upon her, spreading those knees wide and using my tongue to help her distribute my essence over every millimeter of her sex.

She orgasms against my mouth, as if she was just waiting for my tongue to bring her to the finish line a second time.

I use the washcloth to clean her up, and kiss the apex of her slit, sliding my tongue in the cleft one more time.

She shivers and convulses again with another aftershock.

“You’re a bear,” she croons softly when I lift my head. She reaches for me, pulling my head up to her face for another kiss. “And what’s going on with your hair? Does being a bear make it grow super fast?”

“Oh.” I run my hand through my hair and find I have Fabio-length locks. “Maybe my bear thinks if I look like a Viking, I can claim you.”

Paloma’s laugh is warm and husky. She kisses me. “I have a million questions.”

“Yeah?” I settle beside her, tugging her to face me, so I can tuck her in close.

“Uh huh.” She scrapes her fingernails lightly through the hair on my chest. “How often do you turn into a bear? Is it a full moon thing? Or an anger thing?”

I shake my head. “Not a full moon thing. Yes, anger.” My hand finds her ass and squeezes. “And lust. But only with you.”

She looks up at me from under her lashes. “No one else?”

“Never. My bear never wanted anyone else.”

I watch the pulse at her throat quicken. She doesn’t seem afraid–that’s a relief.

“And to answer your question–almost never. My bear isn’t safe.”

“What do you mean?”

I shake my head. “I can’t let him out because…he rampages. I can’t control him when he’s out. It’s not normal–the rest of my brothers have control. It’s…there’s something wrong with me.”

Paloma seems to chew on that. My psychic knowing tells me it’s not true. Darius may not trust his bear, but the energy doesn’t read that there’s anything wrong with him. I let it go for the moment.

“Was the bear outside this window earlier Teddy?”

“No, that was Everest. Another brother. You met him on the rugby field.”

“Right the ‘ pet’ .” She makes little quotation marks in the air with her fingers. “So, all your brothers are bears?”

“Yes.”

“Is your mother a bear?”

“Winnie? Yes. She’s…in hibernation.”

“Really?” Paloma sits up in bed.

“Yeah.”

“Do you hibernate?”

“No. It’s not really… normal. I mean, it’s not abnormal, either. But we don’t know why she’s been asleep for years.”

“ Years? Is it like a coma? Is she on life-support? How does she stay alive?”

“Nah, she just nonstop sleeps. Occasionally she gets up, bathes, eats a little and then goes back to sleep.”

Paloma reaches for my hand and covers it. “I’m sorry. That must be hard for all of you.“

“Yeah.”

“What’s the deal with Teddy? Seems like you guys don’t get along. What’s that about?”

“He’s just pissed off that I moved to New York to live amongst humans.”

Paloma waits for more, forcing me to examine my words. “That’s not really true,” I admit. “He’s pissed off because I wanted to develop part of Bad Bear Mountain in order to save it from other developers.”

Paloma‘s eyes round. “Oh. I guess any development would be upsetting if you were a bear.”

I slump under her assessment. “Yeah. I just thought if I could control the way it happened, at least we’d be able to salvage our side of the mountain.”

“So what happened?”

“Teddy met Lana, his mate, when she was out here hiking, and her stepbrother tried to murder her. He rescued her. And then she rescued him right back. Turns out she’s a billionaire. She’s a clothing designer. She owns a plus-sized athleisure wear company.”

“GoddessWear?”

“Yes, that’s the one. So she saved the mountain from all development.” There’s a bitter taste of failure in that story for me, despite it all working out. I hate that I’m the bad guy when all I tried to do was make things right for our mom. For my family.

As if Paloma reads my mind, she squeezes my hand again. “You were trying to help, and they still blamed you. That must hurt.”

I nod. Fuck. “Yeah. This…thanks. I’ve never talked about my family with anyone. It’s a…uh, vulnerable place, to be honest.”

Paloma’s gaze is warm and open. There’s a river of understanding flowing from her to me, despite the guilt and darkness I’ve felt over it all. “Hey, you know I come from the most fucked-up ‘family’ of all time.” She makes finger quotes again when she says the word family . “I can tell you guys love each other. At least you aren’t poisoning each other or locking people in towers.”

I draw her face against my chest and kiss the top of her head.

“They think I’m greedy. And it’s true–I went to New York to figure out how to get rich. My goal was always to save the mountain. But it took a lot longer than the younger me expected.”

“But you did it. I heard Thom mention you had the fastest-growing hedge fund last year. He seemed proud, like he somehow had something to do with your success.”

“He likes to pretend he mentored me,” I scoff.

“Yeah, he takes the fatherly thing to a sickening level.”

“The truth is…I believed I was going to save the mo untain. I believed it right until last year when it no longer needed saving. And then…”

“It must be hard when your motivation for success falls out from underneath you.”

My eyes inexplicably burn. “Actually…it made me realize it had all been a lie.”

Paloma’s forehead wrinkles in confusion.

Suddenly, I need to get it all out–the source of all my pain. The reason I fled to New York. The real reason, not the one I concocted to justify staying away.

“Teddy doesn’t just hate me because I wanted to develop the mountain. He has deeper reasons.”

Paloma waits again, but I find it hard to speak. She touches my shoulder. “You can tell me. Whatever it is–it’s in the past. I won’t judge.”

I draw in a deep breath and try to explain. “I hit puberty early–really early. We were only seven when I had my first shift, and it was completely out of control. I was terrified. I knew we were bears, but our mom–our bio mom–never shifted. She didn’t like to. She said she couldn’t because we lived in this human trailer park.

“I didn’t know what being a bear really meant. Or what it felt like to shift. One minute, I was seven years old, and the next, I was a scared cub trapped in a tiny trailer home. I had none of my human thoughts. I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t recognize the trailer. I didn’t even know that the human woman and child in the trailer with me were my mom and brother.

“I just had the sense I was in the wrong place, and I needed to get out into the woods. Of course, I didn’t know how to open the door or even what a door was. So I slammed around in the little trailer we lived in, tearing it all to hell trying to get out .

“I hurt my mom in the process. I slashed my claws across her chest and face. I stabbed Teddy. Finally, Teddy opened the door, and I raced out.”

“God, Darius. I can’t imagine how traumatic that was for you.”

“I just remember blind terror. I didn’t know what had happened, or how to shift back to human form. My mom didn’t follow. She could have shifted to give me a mama bear who could help me, but she didn’t. Winnie, our adopted mom, would have. She knew how to raise young bears.”

“Why didn’t she?”

“I don’t know. It was like our real mom was afraid of bears, even though she was one.”

“What happened to you?”

“I ran. I found my way into the woods, and I kept running for three days and nights until I finally collapsed in exhaustion and changed back to my human form.

“It was Winnie who found me–up here on Bad Bear Mountain. She found me and eventually located my mom and brought me back to the trailer. Three days later, our mom dropped us off at Winnie’s house and disappeared forever.”

“ What ?” Paloma’s eyes are wide with shock. “She abandoned her children?”

I try and fail to swallow past the lump in my throat. “Yeah. Basically. She left a note to Winnie that said she didn’t know how to raise bears.”

“God, that must’ve been confusing and heartbreaking for a little kid.”

It helps to have her name the trauma for me. I internalized the whole event as my bear being out of control. Terrorizing me and my family. Causing wounds that can’t be healed.

That’s what I’m afraid he’ll do with Paloma.

Sometimes I forget that I was just a tiny kid. It’s no wonder I couldn’t handle my bear.

“So maybe Teddy hates me for that–I don’t know. Winnie was patient, but my bear continued to be out of control for years. After high school, he enlisted in the army, and I went to New York. We’ve been on completely different paths ever since.”

I’m looking out the window, so the salty scent of Paloma’s tears takes me by surprise. My head whips back to look at her. Her beautiful brown eyes swim with tears, and she’s wiping more away underneath them.

“Oh fuck.“ I sit up and tug her onto my lap, leaning against me. “Don’t be sad for me.”

“I’m sad for both of us,” Paloma says. “We have both been tragically apart from our siblings for far too long.”

“I don’t know about tragically ,” I mutter.

“Yes, the tragedy is you two could’ve worked it out long ago, but you were running from yourself. And you made that self out to be Teddy.”

I stare at Paloma, my heart thundering unnaturally in my chest. If anyone else had said it, I would’ve ignored them. Walked away, like I always do. Suppressed any feelings that caused me pain, just as I suppress my bear.

But it’s Paloma. My mate . The female who already holds my heart. The female I want to give everything to.

“I don’t know if I was running from myself. But definitely from my past. I wanted to go somewhere my bear couldn’t hurt anyone. Away from this mountain where I could barely control him. ”

“It sounds like you’re afraid of your bear. Maybe you got that from your mother.”

“It’s no wonder my mom was afraid–my bear hurt my mom. And she’s a shifter, so she healed, but if he did something like that to you–”

“I mean she was afraid of her own bear.”

I swallow the torrent of damning words that were about to flow out of my mouth about my bear and the damage he’s done.

I blink.

It never occurred to me that my mom was afraid of her own bear.

And I sure as fuck don’t want to be like my mom.

But…fuck. I did the same exact thing she did! I abandoned my family because they were too bear-like for me to handle.

Right now, I wish Teddy were here beating the shit out of me. It would feel so much better than the deep shame that’s burying me alive.

“Fuck, you’re right,” I mutter, rubbing my forehead.

“Come on.” Paloma climbs off the bed and tugs my hand. “Let’s get you cleaned up–you still have the forest on you, and I could use a shower myself.”

I follow her to the bathroom and turn on the shower, and I then treat Paloma to a slow, sudsy round two.