Awakened by her Bear (Black Ridge Bears Shifter Romance Series Book 5) Read online

He grunted as he gripped her backside and pounded into her, buried his head in her neck and slammed her into the wall with each powerful plunge of his cock. Electric shivers raced through her, stealing the pain away as need built inside her, as it hit her that it was Maverick inside her. Maverick claiming her.

  She moaned and clawed at his neck, couldn’t help herself as his strokes lengthened and he began to slow them, growing gentler with her. She locked her senses on him, felt him calming as he moved inside her, and she knew the reason why.

  He was her fated mate.

  He had been consumed by fear that he would hurt her, but he couldn’t. Every instinct he possessed was probably screaming at him to be gentle with her. Tender. She opened her eyes and looked at him as he pulled back, as he gazed at her, a softness to his grey eyes that warmed her.

  Made her feel loved.

  She loved him too, and while she was enjoying this slower moment, she couldn’t let it last. They had to make this look convincing. The people watching them didn’t want to see him being gentle with her. It wouldn’t satisfy them. They were doing this to break him after all, to humiliate him and ruin things between them.

  “Harder,” she whispered, giving him a look she hoped he could read, one that reminded him why they were here, doing this.

  Their freedom depended upon it.

  He frowned, that soft look in his eyes going nowhere, and for a heartbeat, she was sure he wouldn’t do it, but then he twisted with her and set her backside down on the table. He hesitated as he gripped the shoulder of her robe, gave her an apologetic look, and yanked it down, exposing her. The flat of his hand against her chest was like a brand and she bit back a groan as he shoved her down onto the table, and pulled her robe down to her elbows, baring all of her.

  She arched into his touch as he palmed her breasts and thrust into her, taking her harder again. Gods. She could feel every inch of him as he filled her, as he claimed her body, possessing her completely. She couldn’t hold back the moan that tumbled from her lips as he dragged her to the edge of the table and held her there, tightly gripping her hip as he took her.

  Maverick growled and she looked at him, saw in his eyes it was mostly for show, but it still thrilled her. She clenched around him, ripping a grunt from him, and he bared fangs and hooked his arms under her knees, opening her to him. He gazed down at the point where they joined as he forced her legs further apart, as he drove deeper into her, each forceful thrust shaking the table and making her breasts bounce. Sweat slicked his torso, caressing muscles that flexed as he gripped her harder.

  His handsome face darkened, another grunt leaving his lips as he quickened his pace. Pleasure built inside her with each slide and retreat, had her losing control as she reached for release, so close she could almost touch it. She strained for it, breathing harder, faster, desperate to find it.

  It hit her in a blinding flash and she cried out as she arched off the table, as her entire body quivered and heat rolled through her, leaving her breathless.

  Maverick snarled and pulled out of her, flipped her onto her front on her knees so her breasts and cheek pressed against the cold metal. He mounted the table behind her, twisted the sleeves of her robe around his hand, binding her arms together behind her back, and speared her again, a grunt leaving him as he filled her. Her breath blasted back at her from the table as he held her immobile, pushing her towards another release with each punishing thrust of his thick cock.

  His other hand came down on her backside, his fingers pressing into her buttock, gripping it tightly as he raised one leg and planted his foot against the table on the other side of her shin. She groaned as he pounded into her, taking her harder again, rocking her forwards with every powerful plunge of his shaft. Maverick snarled in response and quickened his pace again, his balls slapping her with each frantic meeting of their bodies.

  Her cries mingled with his grunts as she passed through the haze of her release and soared towards another, the feel of him dominating her triggering her own primal instincts, making her hungry for more. She growled and he snarled in response, answering her demand for more with longer strokes that drove her out of her mind.

  He released her backside and yanked back on her arms, lifting her top half off the table as his free hand delved between her thighs.

  Bronwyn shouted her release as it hit her, couldn’t hold back her cries of pleasure as it detonated inside her, rocking her harder this time. Her thighs quivered as Maverick pressed deep inside her and roared. His cock pulsed and he thrust hard and deep, sharp plunges to the hilt as he filled her with his hot seed, grunting each time. She groaned with each jet, each fierce throb of his length, and sagged against the table as he released her arms to hold her hips. He groaned in time with her as he held her on him, as he remained buried inside her long after he was done.

  When he finally pulled out of her, she sank onto her belly on a breathless sigh.

  Maverick caught her arm and pulled her around to face him, up into a sitting position at the end of the table. He seized her nape and kissed her. Hard. But it was soft, spoke to her and told her everything he couldn’t while people were listening in. He was sorry. She wasn’t.

  “You didn’t hurt me,” she whispered against his lips, low enough that his sensitive hearing would pick it up but hopefully the microphones wouldn’t.

  He stiffened.

  She skimmed her hands over his damp pectorals as she sensed the shift in his emotions.

  He opened his mouth, closed it and kissed her again, harder this time.

  When he broke the kiss, he whispered, “Play along. I’ll get you out of this. I swear. When you’re free, call Rune. Warn my pride.”

  The warmth filling her turned to ice as she realised something.

  He meant to gain her freedom for her and he intended to do it by sacrificing himself.

  She wasn’t going to allow that.

  They were leaving together.

  She wanted that forever he had promised her.

  Chapter 17

  Bronwyn tensed when the door buzzed and opened, and even though he knew it was all done for show when she shoved him off her and hastily covered herself, it still cut Maverick like a blade.

  She cast her golden eyes down at her legs as she sat on the edge of the table, wrapped her arms around her stomach and refused to look at him.

  Gods, he was a monster.

  Not only because he had taken her hard and for the hunters to see, but because he had taken something else from her. Her first time should have been gentler, definitely should have been private rather than broadcast for the disgusting humans to watch.

  “Move it,” the dark-haired male at the door grunted and waved a gun at both of them.

  Maverick fixed his shorts and glared at the human, bared his fangs and made sure the man knew he was pushing his luck. The only thing stopping Maverick from launching at him to take him down was the fact Bronwyn would be caught in the crossfire. He had to be patient and wait for the right moment to strike.

  Preferably one where Winnie wouldn’t be exposed to danger.

  A male could dream.

  He slid a look at her and she glanced at him, a flush of colour on her cheeks that wasn’t anger. Her honey-coloured eyes heated as she held his gaze, spoke to him on a primal level, one where he wasn’t quite master. There was hunger in that look. Need. He could feel it in her too and it drove him crazy all over again, and gave him hope.

  She still wanted him.

  That had to be a good sign, right?

  A sign that he hadn’t just messed everything up?

  He had tried his hardest to be gentle with her and make it look convincing, had tempered his need and somehow controlled his darker urges. Although, he wasn’t sure somehow was the right word. Something about her had tamed that part of him. The moment he had gotten inside her, a calm had come over him, the part of him he had feared would rise to the fore falling away instead, replaced by a powerful need to please her, to savour the conn
ection and even deepen it.

  Maverick’s gaze shifted to her neck and he shivered as he thought about when he had been on the table with her, how he hadn’t been able to take his eyes off that spot on her nape or his mind off the urge to sink his fangs into it and bind them as mates.

  “I said move it.” The human made the mistake of lunging for Bronwyn.

  On a vicious black growl, Maverick caught the male’s arm and twisted it hard enough to snap bone. The human bellowed in agony, sending satisfaction rolling through Maverick and tugging a grin from him.

  “Son of a bitch.” Another male launched into the room.

  Drove the butt of his gun into Maverick’s temple hard enough to have the room pitching and wobbling and fading towards black. He fell into Bronwyn and she gasped, grabbed hold of him and stopped him from hitting the deck. Maverick bit out a ripe curse as he tried to shake off the blow.

  Stupid move.

  So much for biding his time.

  Apparently, he couldn’t control his aggression when Winnie was in danger. He focused on dialling back his need to protect her, clawing back control and breathing through the urge to utterly destroy the two human males now in the room with her. All in good time.

  If he got into a fight in here, they would close the doors again, trapping them. He needed to wait until they were in transit to the cells before he made his move, and even then it was risky. The collar could easily take him down in his current state. He was tired from the fight and from being with Winnie, and now he was a little groggy from being struck by the gun. It wouldn’t take much for the hunters to incapacitate him and then Winnie would be left defenceless.

  Maverick rolled his neck as best he could as he pushed back onto his feet, itching to get the damned collar off now that he was hyper-aware of it again. He eyed the hunters, wondering if either of them had one of the devices that controlled it. Doubtful. They didn’t look like senior staff.

  The one Maverick had injured muttered about his arm as he left the room, a new dark-haired hunter filing in to take his place. This one smiled at Winnie. Maverick recognised him from the video she had saved on her laptop. It was the hunter who had cut her brother and pretended to be hurting him, forcing her hand.

  She growled at him, her agitation flowing around Maverick as she dropped to her feet and came to face him.

  “Good to see you again too.” The hunter grinned at her and pulled out a blade, flipping it around in his hand as he kept his eyes locked on hers. “Did you like that little act of mine?”

  Bronwyn spat in his face. “You bastard!”

  The male wiped it away.

  Maverick caught her arm before she could do something foolish like attacking him. She glared over her shoulder at him and yanked her arm free of his grip, breathing hard as rage and hurt shone in her eyes.

  “Move it, or I’ll pump your boyfriend with fifty thousand volts.” The hunter waved the knife in her face.

  Bronwyn tensed and threw a nervous look at Maverick. He nodded, silently telling her it was fine for her to do as the hunter wanted. Eager to get going now that he knew this male had what he needed—a controller for his collar.

  Maverick eyed him as he led the way, studying everything about him. Killing him wouldn’t be a chore. Winnie needed some form of closure, revenge against the hunters who had tricked her, and he would give that to her in a heartbeat, and gain his freedom at the same time.

  He filed out of the holding room behind Bronwyn, aware of the hunter behind him. Mostly because the male was enjoying prodding him in the back with the muzzle of his assault rifle.

  Several other hunters were waiting in the wide plain white corridor, fell into step with him and Winnie as they moved through the compound, following the maze of hallways. Maverick tried to get the lay of the land, scouting out every route that branched off the main avenue through the building. He could sense more humans in the distance down those hallways. Escaping was going to be difficult.

  A young hunter eyed Bronwyn and then the male who walked on the other side of her. “Did you see the way she took that pounding?”

  Maverick scowled at him and then the other hunter when he answered.

  “Did I? I almost nutted just watching her get boned. How twisted is it that I’m attracted to a shifter of all things?”

  Maverick growled when Bronwyn tensed and he sensed her shame, saw it in how she lowered her head and curled inwards, holding herself. He hated that she had been forced to do that with him, that she had seen that side of him and had been subjected to it.

  And that these fiends had watched.

  Had seen her in the wildest throes of passion.

  Something only he should have seen.

  The dark-haired hunter flicked a look over his shoulder at Maverick and then the two younger hunters. “Dial it back. All of you.”

  The youngest hunter shrugged. “I’m just saying. I’d like to get up on that table and do her like that. Think they’d let me?”

  The male held his hands in front of his hips and gyrated.

  Maverick slammed a fist into the side of his head, knocking him into the wall. His head cracked off it and he went down hard, out for the count.

  Lightning shot down Maverick’s spine and he bellowed as electricity arced along his bones, dropped to his knees and grabbed the collar as his body bowed forwards.

  “Maverick.” Bronwyn turned and reached for him, growled when a hunter grabbed her and stopped her. Her face twisted and she battered him with her elbow. “Let go of me. Stop hurting him!”

  The radio on the dark-haired hunter’s belt crackled and then a voice came over it. “Readying the helicopters for departure. Wheels up in one hour. Briefing in thirty in the hangar. Expected return time with the assets is just after dawn.”

  Maverick gritted his teeth against the electricity surging through him, anger blazing hot on its heels as he realised the person on the radio was talking about heading to Black Ridge while it was dark. Saint wouldn’t be prepared for the onslaught. They would catch his pride and the cougars while they were sleeping.

  He couldn’t let that happen.

  He drew on every last shred of his strength and snarled as he lumbered onto his feet, fighting the effects of the collar. The dark-haired hunter narrowed his eyes on him and shifted his thumb over another button on the small device he gripped.

  The one that would shoot Maverick with a hefty dose of tranquiliser.

  Bronwyn noticed it too and threw a hard elbow into the face of the hunter who was restraining her, breaking his nose, and launched at the dark-haired male. She slammed into him, knocking the device flying, and shoving him off-balance. The hunter tipped backwards with her, found his footing at the last second and grappled with her as she growled and lashed out at him.

  The hunter seized her by her throat and threw her away from him.

  Maverick exploded into action, not wasting a second. He took down the hunter who had held her and dodged right as one of the pair behind him opened fire. One of the bullets ripped through his shoulder and he grunted as heat bloomed over his left deltoid, the hot slide of blood down his bare skin dragging the darker part of him to the fore. He made fast work of the next hunter, snapped his neck with a vicious twist of his hands, and set his sights on the dark-haired one.

  The male grabbed Bronwyn again and Maverick bared fangs at him as she wrestled against his hold. The sight of his fated female being manhandled by another male, the scent of her fear as it mingled with her peaches and cream fragrance, hurled Maverick off the deep end.

  He roared as he rushed the hunter, not giving him a chance to use the blade he brought up towards her throat, catching him before he could get it close to her. He smashed his palm against the hunter’s fist, knocking the knife away from Bronwyn, and barrelled into him as she twisted away from the male, leaving him open.

  Maverick slammed him into the floor, landing on top of him, and grabbed his head. He lifted it and drove it into the concrete with enough forc
e that bone cracked. The hunter went limp and Maverick turned on another vicious snarl as he heard the remaining two hunters fighting Bronwyn.

  She fought valiantly, hitting them with untrained punches that were powerful enough to deal damage to the male who was trying to pin her and get hold of her. The second male readied his gun again, aiming it at her, wavering as his companion kept getting in the way of his shot.

  Maverick sprang at him, cocking his fist at the same time, and drove it into his face as he landed, knocking the male out.

  The hunter’s finger hit the trigger on his way down and Maverick grunted as a bullet ripped through his side, just above his right hip. He plastered his hand against it and staggered into the wall to his right, breathed hard as he fought the pain that swept through him like a white-hot inferno.

  “Maverick!” Bronwyn twisted and slammed the hunter she was wrestling into the wall. His head cracked off it and he slid to the floor when she released him, out cold. She hurried to Maverick, concern warming her golden eyes as her brow furrowed and she looked him over. “Is it bad?”

  He swallowed hard and shook his head. “I’ll live.”

  But he was weakening. The fight had left him tired and sore enough, had depleted him, and taking two nasty hits wasn’t helping matters. He could feel his strength bleeding from him. They had to move quickly if they were going to stop the hunters.

  “The hangar. We need to find the hangar.” Maverick clutched his side, his fingers slipping in the blood.

  Bronwyn looked around her, eyes darting over everything, and when she hurried off behind him, he eased his back against the wall to keep an eye on her.

  “What are you doing?” He frowned at her as she grabbed the knife from the concrete floor and bent over.

  She nicked the edge of her robe around six inches up from the hem and ripped it all the way around, tearing a strip off, and then tossed the knife away. “We need to stop the bleeding.”

  He sagged into the wall as she hurried back to him. “We don’t have time for this.”

  “We do.” Her eyes flashed fire at him and he felt like a bastard when he saw the worry in them—the fear. He sighed and surrendered, couldn’t deny his female anything that would make her feel better and would give her hope. She tore a piece off one end of the strip of material and folded it. “Hold this in place.”