Unleashed By her Bear by Felicity Heaton

Chapter 14

Instinct pushed Callie to run. Instinct to escape Carrigan and a life in slavery. Instinct to draw Rune away from danger. The moment he moved to pursue her, she ran harder, luring him into the forest that lined the sloping side of the mountain.

“Callie.” Rune’s deep voice rolled over her, soothed her fear even as the scent of his blood stoked it. “You’re safe now. Slow down!”

She couldn’t.

She wasn’t strong enough to fight the primal urges that had stolen control of her, could only obey them. Wind played in her fur, cold against her face as she thundered through the evergreens, leaping bushes and kicking up pine needles. She savoured it as it filled her lungs, cooling her blood, helping her slowly claw back control together with the growing distance between her and Carrigan.

Ahead of her, a stream crossed a clearing, glittering like a river of diamonds nestled among green velvet in the sunlight.

“Callie,” Rune called.

She skidded to a halt near the narrow stream, ending side-on to him, and looked back at him as sunlight bathed her fur, warmed it and soothed her further.

The moment her eyes landed on Rune, the instinct to run disappeared. He tucked her clothes beneath his right arm and huffed as he placed his hand over his left forearm, over the darker patch on the sleeve of his fleece.

The instincts screamed at her again, demanding she go to him. Her male was injured. She obeyed them, trotting to him as he entered the clearing. When she reached him, she tilted her head up and nuzzled his arm, licked it as the urge to clean it and tend to him stole control of her.

His pale blue eyes raked over her, concern shining in them as he settled them on her right hind leg. She looked there and bent her head around, lapped at the blood trickling down to her paw.

“You hurt yourself. Let me take a look.” Rune eased to his knees beside her.

Calm suffused every inch of her as he ran his palm along her side, over her hips, and down her leg. Heat followed it as he leaned towards her, as his rich, earthy scent swirled around her, triggering a fierce reaction in her, one that swept through her and was too powerful for her to hold back.

Callie shifted back, framed his face and kissed him.

The primal instincts that had been dictating her actions faded now that she was in her human form and she froze with her lips pressed to his, shock rolling through her as she realised what she had done.

And how fiercely her body ached.

Every millimetre of her skin felt too sensitive, the slightest breeze making her shiver and sending subtle thrills through her, and inside she felt as if someone had cranked her tight, as if she needed someone to break a chain or kick open a floodgate to let all the tension explode from her.

And gods she needed that someone to be Rune.

He eased back slightly and cleared his throat.

Callie remained where she was, frozen like a statue as she replayed what had just happened. Not the kiss. What had come before it. She couldn’t believe how she had reacted when she had seen Rune fighting, how desperately she had needed to protect him when that wolf had hurt him.

She hadn’t been able to stop herself from shifting and leaping into the fray.

Silence stretched between them, thick and heavy, pressing down on her, and she struggled to find something to say, needing to shatter it.

“How… how long will it take Carrigan to get around that ravine? Are we even on the right side of it?” Her words came out shaky, betraying her nerves, but Rune didn’t pick her up on it.

He was too busy staring at the narrow strip of grass between them, diligently keeping his eyes off her bare curves.

Gods, she felt like a fool. A blush scalded her cheeks and she wanted to beg him to forget what she had just done, to pretend it had never happened, even as she wanted to kiss him again.

Wanted to take it further than that.

Her body was on fire for this male, the flames refusing to abate as the seconds ticked by. In fact, she feared they were growing stronger, on the verge of transforming into an inferno that might consume her if she didn’t do something to quench them. She had never felt like this, had never been this needy, and she feared her suspicions about Rune were right.

There was one way to find out.

She shook that thought away.

Rune hadn’t kissed her back.

That was a huge red flag, one she would be a fool not to take heed of.

“The ravine is caused by the river that branches off from the creek that runs through Black Ridge. It flows all the way to the White Wolf pack territory. Carrigan can’t get across it for a few miles, but if he follows it, it will lead him there.” Rune’s voice sounded as tight as she felt inside, his words gruff and low-spoken, husky almost.

She risked a glance at him, shivered when she found him gazing at her breasts before he shifted his gaze off to his right.

Did he want her?

If he did, he would have kissed her. Surely?

His blue eyes lifted to meet hers, lingered as an uneasy silence settled over the glade again.

There was banked heat in them, a look that made her feel he did want her, but he was fighting it for some reason.

Callie planted her right hand against the short grass near his thigh and leaned towards him, her gaze holding his as she murmured, “What are you thinking while you’re looking at me like that?”

Rune startled her by seizing her nape with his left hand.

Swallowed her shocked gasp in a hard kiss.

Callie groaned and leaned into him, pressed her hands to his shoulders and pushed him back onto the grass as the hunger riding her got the better of her. The ache worsened with each fierce brush of his lips across hers. A thrill chased through her, stoking the fire to an inferno as he angled his head and deepened the kiss, his tongue demanding entrance. Callie opened for him on a trembling moan, shivered as his fingers tightened against her nape, holding her immobile as he devastated her with his kiss.

Her fingers found the start of the zipper on his fleece and she yanked it open, the rasping sound loud in the glade, causing another thrill to bolt through her. Rune groaned as she planted her hands to his chest, feeling the heat and hardness of him through his black T-shirt. It wasn’t enough.

She growled and grabbed the hem of the garment, shoved it up to reveal bare skin, and groaned and shuddered as her skin made contact with his. Wicked urges hijacked control of her, the need he had triggered in her rising back to the fore to overwhelm her. On a vicious snarl, she peeled her mouth away from his and drank her fill of his body, her need to see it too powerful to deny.

A shiver wracked her.

Fire ravaged her.

Gods.

Rune breathed hard, his T-shirt askew, revealing the muscles of his torso as they strained with each rise and fall of his chest. His gaze seared her and she could almost feel him waiting to see what she would do.

Callie was torn between kissing and licking every delectable inch of him, and stripping him bare and riding him into oblivion, until this hunger was sated.

Rune made her decision easier for her by grabbing her right arm and pulling her back to him. He claimed her lips in another bruising kiss, dropped his hand to the small of her back and pinned her to him as he drove her wild. A shudder rolled through her as he brushed the fingers of his other hand across her left breast and cupped it, palmed it in a maddening way.

Too much.

On a low growl, she mounted his thighs, wrenching her body away from his touch. He groaned as she attacked the button of his black jeans, moved his hands there and helped her, his actions jerky and hurried, as frantic as she felt inside. She needed him. Felt as if she might explode if she didn’t hurry.

Rune undid another button on his fly and some part of Callie decided it would have to be enough. She gripped his jeans and yanked them down his hips as she eased back, moaned as her gaze fell to the rigid steel of his cock. Oh gods. The need only grew worse, more desperate, making her wild as her mind raced ahead to imagine him inside her.

She wanted to stroke him, to touch and explore him, but there wasn’t time. She gripped his hard length, relished his rumbling moan of pleasure as she fisted it, and vowed that next time they would do things slower, would indulge her need to chart every inch of his incredible body.

Callie raised herself off him on her knees and leaned forwards, planted her left hand to the broad slabs of his chest as she guided him into her. He growled as she sank back onto him in one swift downward plunge of her hips, his hands shooting to her waist to grip it hard. Fire ignited in his eyes as she wriggled on him, savouring the way he filled her, how well he fitted her.

As if they were made for each other.

That feeling that they were came over her again as she began riding him and he moved in time with her, lifting her up and filling her on her downwards stroke. She stared down into eyes that were no longer cold or filled with ice. They were burning, searing her as he kept them locked on hers, as he drove into her, his pace quickening. She moaned with each thrust of his length into her that sent sparks skittering through her, cranked her temperature up another degree and had her leaning forwards, her actions growing more desperate as she spiralled towards release.

Rune gritted his teeth, his entire body straining as he took her, as he sent her soaring higher. Her fangs descended when she saw his were down, a feral need rolling through her in response to the sight of them. She wanted to bite him. She groaned and threw her head back as he plunged into her, harder now, as if the sight of her fangs had excited him too, had pushed him over the edge. Callie tried to banish thoughts of biting him from her mind, but it was hard, the hunger constantly riding her as pleasure built inside her, as she reached for release.

She bounced on Rune’s cock, focused on how good it felt inside her, how this wild moment with him was sating the urges that had come over her when she had seen him fighting, the need that had been steadily growing inside her from the moment she had met him.

Rune dropped one hand to her thigh, brushed his thumb over her soft folds and then her sensitive bead.

Callie cried out as pleasure detonated inside her, heat rolling through her on every powerful flex of her body around his cock. Her thighs quivered as she tried to keep riding him, as he continued thrusting into her and stroking her, quickly pushing her towards a second release.

It came upon her in a blinding flash as Rune roared and spilled inside her, his length kicking and throbbing, his hot seed pulsing into her. Her body greedily milked his, her breaths leaving her on stuttering sighs as she swayed with each one, as she clung to consciousness as a black tide rolled up on her.

Rune slumped beneath her.

Callie cracked her eyes open, caught a glimpse of his slack face before she sank against his chest, breathing hard as she listened to his heart thundering against her ear.

And there was her proof.

She stroked Rune’s chest, waiting for him to come around, unsure what she was going to tell him when he woke. Gods, she hoped he knew less about wolf shifters than she thought so she could pass off his blacking out as something to do with exertion and the heat of the moment. She thought about what her mother had told her long ago, before she had died. So many wolves had tried to convince Callie that her mother had been lying, but now Callie knew she had been telling the truth.

Sex between two people who could share the most powerful of bonds could result in one or both of them passing out if the female was a wolf ripe for bearing a cub.

Callie pushed herself up and gazed down at Rune’s face.

He was her fated one.

But would he want to be her mate?