STORY EXCERPT

Alan looked up from where he was wiping the counter down, spotting another drunken bastard causing trouble in the bar that he worked in. He shook his head as he watched two men knock the crap out of each other and wondered when these people would ever learn. If the drunks could only see themselves, they would probably just shake their heads as Alan was doing right now.

Throwing the rag down, Alan walked out from behind the bar and over to the two drunks fighting. He grabbed them by the scruffs of their worn shirts, dragged them to the front door, and tossed them out on their sorry drunk asses.

They gave a small protest at being kicked out of the bar, but knew better than to challenge Alan. He was not a small man by any stretch of the imagination. Anyone in their right mind would steer clear of him, but most drunks weren’t in their right mind. They had an abundance of liquid courage, but couldn’t coordinate their inebriated brains with their fists.

Grunting, Alan went back to wiping the bar’s counter down. Everyone here should know by now that Alan didn’t have a sense of humor. They should also know by now that he couldn’t comprehend what friendship meant and didn’t give a rat’s ass what anyone thought about him.

Five years in prison would do that to a man. Anger still rose like bile in his throat when he thought of how he was set up. All the evidence had pointed to him as the person who had robbed that liquor store. Alan hadn’t been anywhere near that damn store, but was convicted of the crime anyway.

For five long years Alan had gone mad in prison, his grizzly unable to roam free. Most of the sentence he spent in solitary confinement because his body couldn’t handle restraining the shift. Alan would purposely get into trouble just so he would be tossed in the hole. With no one around, at least he could shift for a while. Even though he couldn’t run and the space his massive nine-hundred-pound grizzly body took up in that tiny cell left no room even for pacing, the release had pacified his bear for a short time.

And people wondered why he was unfriendly and cold.

Alan worked in a bar around nothing but humans. There were no other of his kind that had he run into since his release from prison. Fred had given him a job here when no one else would even look his way. The job wasn’t much and it gave him a damn headache to deal with all these drunken bastards, but it afforded him his small efficiency apartment and utilities. He ate here for his meals. Fred had opened a small kitchen with an even smaller menu, but it allowed Alan to eat for free.

The sad thing about what Alan was doing was that he feared that was all he was getting out of life. His worst fear was living behind this counter every single night of his life. He dreamed of roaming free, of going back to the days when he didn’t care about pretty much anything. But he had become a hard-core realist in prison. He had to become a productive member of society, no matter how much he hated his job.

Being a grizzly shifter, he was over six foot seven and three hundred ten pounds. In grizzly form he was nine hundred pounds and nine feet tall. He was one mean son of a bitch and didn’t care who disagreed with his disposition. Fred hired him because the old man was tired of his bar getting broken up when these rough men had too much to drink, and sometimes when they didn’t.

Alan could show them what a rough man was really like. Let them cross him the wrong way and the dumb bastards who did would come up missing. No one had the balls yet, and this pissed Alan off even more. He was itching for a fight, someone to take his pent-up hostilities out on. Apparently, as dumb as the drunks were, they were smart enough to stay away from him. And they were smart enough not to raise a fist to him.

That really sucked.

Alan gave a low growl when another set of men began to argue heatedly. Hearing the growl rumble through the room, they quickly lowered their voices. Alan smirked as he grabbed a bottle of beer and handed it to the guy at the bar.

He thought there would be less people in here with someone as surly as him bartending and bouncing, but the customers seemed to multiply. Fred said that folks felt safer when Alan was working, not having to worry about being harassed when all they wanted to do was enjoy a beer.

Go figure.

In the course of the night, Alan had to break up two more fights, dispatching their sorry asses quickly out the front door so the rest of the folks could enjoy themselves. Not that Alan cared, but happy customers were paying customers.

“You’re doing a fine job,” Fred, his boss and the owner of the bar, said. “Keep it up.”

Alan just wished one of them would take a swing at him so he could rid himself of all the anger boiling inside of him. He needed to release some of his pent-up rage before he took it out on some poor sucker and lost his job.

Fred grabbed a crate from under the bar, using it as a stool to adjust the television volume. Fred wasn’t very tall. As a matter of fact, he was shorter than average height. But the man had a mean streak in him that rivaled Alan’s. If anyone mentioned Fred’s height, the man became pissier than a wildcat. Alan knew better than to say a word.

As much as he hated being here, he needed his job.

Alan grabbed a few empty bottles from the counter and tossed them in the trash when his nose wrinkled up. There was an odor wafting by him that pervaded his nasal cavity and traveled down through his lungs. From under his bent head, Alan surveyed the crowd. It was pretty packed tonight, but he spotted the source almost immediately.

The guy was wandering toward him, looking as lost and frightened as a sheep in a room full of wolves. Alan couldn’t believe after all this time of wondering where his kind were that one would just wander into the bar he was working at.

And the man was his mate no less.

This, he didn’t need.

ADULT EXCERPT

Sasha was fucking amazing.

His dainty chest shuddered as Alan circled the little pink nipples with his thumbs. He had seen Sasha naked when the man had taken a bath in his apartment, but Alan hadn’t taken his fill of looking. Now he could gawk until the cows came home, and what a body Sasha had.

Alan skated his hands over Sasha’s chest, feeling the skin pimple as his mate shivered. Pulling him down, Alan took one of those perfectly shaped pink circles into his mouth. Sasha yanked at his hair, tried to pull him closer. Alan growled at the pain, wanting more. He released the pebbled pink peak.

“Harder,” he begged before sucking the other nipple into his mouth. Sasha pulled harder, grinding his erection against Alan’s stomach. Alan grabbed Sasha’s hips, helping his mate with faster friction.

When Sasha stiffened and bowed his back, Alan looked up to see the sheer pleasure cross his mate’s face. Sasha had come in his pants. It was the sexiest damn thing Alan had even seen in his life. Sasha shuddered and then dropped his head forward, gazing down at Alan with such pleasure in his blue eyes that Alan knew the man had him heart and soul.

No other man would ever move Alan the way Sasha did.

Alan pulled up, rolled his small bear to his back, and then scooted off of the bed. Sasha grabbed for him, desperation and panic etched in harsh lines on his face. Alan pulled Sasha’s ankles up, unlaced both boots, and then tossed them aside, sliding the socks off to join them.

Sasha relaxed.

Reaching up, Alan unsnapped his mate’s jeans and pulled the zipper down. Sasha hitched his hips up so Alan could pull the work pants off. Alan just stood there for a moment, visually worshipping the deity that was laid out before him.

Sasha pinked with a blush at Alan’s watchful eyes as his cock slapped his abdomen, fully erect again and ready to go. Alan wrapped his hands around the hardened shaft, sticky from his mate’s orgasm. With a few pumps, Alan could feel his own dick pushing to free itself. He rolled Sasha to his stomach. Even his mate’s backside was creamy and smooth. Alan laid his hand on the twin globes, smiling as he squeezed and rubbed the smooth skin.

Alan glanced up to see Sasha had laid his head on his hands, watching. His eyes were lust-filled with a little bit of fear mixed in.

“I won’t hurt you. I promise. I’ll be gentle.”

Sasha gave a slight nod, still watching.

Alan spread his mate’s cheeks apart, his breath catching at the little puckered hole waiting to be claimed. He ran his finger over the tight ring, and Sasha bucked.

Alan grabbed the lube from under his pillow and set it next to Sasha’s hip. Leaning down, Alan ran his tongue over the quivering hole as he pushed the tip of his thumb into the entrance. Sasha flew to his knees, rocking back onto Alan’s mouth as Alan licked and tasted his mate’s tight entrance.

Alan nipped lightly. His saliva coating the entrance, Alan pushed his thumb all the way in. Sasha pushed back, his body obviously begging for more. Alan grabbed the lubricant with his free hand, opened the lid with his teeth, and then squirted the cool gel onto Sasha’s rosette. Setting the tube down, Alan pushed his other thumb in alongside. Sasha rose to the balls of his feet. Alan had to guide his mate back down to his knees. Sasha squirmed around Alan’s thumbs, his ass wiggling back and forth. Alan knew his mate wasn’t in pain. If he were, he’d be pulling away, not pushing toward Alan so wantonly.

Alan fucked Sasha’s hole with his tongue as his thumbs stretched his mate wide. He could feel the muscle relaxing, loosening. Pulling his hand away, Alan pushed three fingers in, Sasha’s body sucking them in as his mate bucked harder against Alan’s invasion.

Sasha pulled away, pleading hunger on his face as he looked over his shoulder. Alan knew it was time to claim his small bear. Grabbing Sasha’s hips, he rolled his mate over to his back. Sasha hooked his hands behind his knees and pulled his legs back until they were touching his chest, opening himself up for his mate. Never a prettier sight had Alan witnessed. Lubing his cock and then Sasha’s hole once more, Alan took Sasha’s legs and draped them over his arms.

“Tell me if it hurts.” Alan rimmed the sweet little pink hole with his thumb once more then lined his cock up. “Wave your hands in front of you if you want me to stop.”

Sasha clenched the covers in his hands and then nodded.

Alan blew out a breath as he pushed past the band of muscles. “So damn tight,” he whispered. “And all mine.”

Sasha’s hands flew up from the blankets and began to wave frantically in front of him. Alan began to pull out, but Sasha waved them again.

“You just want me to hold still?”

Sasha nodded as he panted and closed his eyes. Alan locked every muscle in place to stop himself from thrusting forward. After a moment Sasha tapped the bed.

“Go?”

Sasha nodded again, reaching up to run his hands over Alan’s arms. Alan pushed forward, finally bottoming out. He had to hold still for a moment until the tingling in his spine subsided. Sasha was one exquisite creature that would have Alan wrapped around his pinky in no time flat.

Sasha slapped Alan’s arm. Alan grinned down at his decadent-looking mate. “Pushy.”

Sasha gave him two thumbs up with a wide grin. Alan chuckled as he pulled back, almost all the way out, and then spread Sasha’s legs apart as he slid back in.