STORY EXCERPT

Gideon looked at the man, daring him to come at him, challenging him.

The man backed off a step, his hands up.

Gideon knew this was for the best, but he was irritated all the same.

“Pathetic. You’re no warrior. Neither of you. Both of you should be ashamed of yourselves for being so weak.”

A snapping sound from behind caught his attention.

Gideon looked.

It was that young girl. She had…somewhere she had found metal cutters. More cages were open, more omegas and even the humans were helping each other to escape as she continued cutting open the cages.

A fiery spirit. He had to commend her.

But there was someone else with her. Someone at her side, whose grey face indicated he wouldn’t be much help to her, but who was trying to help her cut the locks nonetheless, even as he weakly commanded her to go.

Who was…that must have been her brother.

Despite looking like a walking ghost, he was the most handsome male Gideon had ever seen in his life, and his honor to stay, to use what little strength he had to cut away at the locks of the other prisoners, triggered something deep within his gut.

Something that burned.

No. Pain!

He looked down at himself, seeing for the first time what had actually taken place, and he chuckled.

The weakling Gideon had just been making fun of had come up and punched him in the stomach with those bladed knuckles.

“Cowards, the lot of you.” He grabbed at the wrists of the male, and it seemed to shock him when Gideon pulled together the strength to push him back, his wrists trembling, blood sliding from the thin blades.

“Always with the sneak attacks. Always with ganging up on people. What is it with you bears and having no sense of honor?”

“Honor?” The bear scoffed at him. “We don’t eat because of you people!”

The man hardly looked starving. In fact, it was the prisoners in those cages Gideon had just released who appeared to be the starving ones.

But he didn’t think he was going to get that through the head of this man. Not when he was so caught up in his own self-righteousness.

Gideon figured he would give the male something to think about by head butting him instead.

“Guh!” The man’s head flew backward, blood shooting from his nose, catching Gideon in the eye and partially blinding him.

“Look out!”

Something whipped by Gideon’s face. The fact that he hadn’t sensed it coming was a shock. He should have sensed it coming!

The fact that it smacked the first bear in the face, the one who had the spiked silver knuckles, was likely the reason why he hadn’t seen it coming in the first place.

The bear cried out. The rock hadn’t been thrown with that much force, but hitting the male in the face, right where Gideon had first punched him, was probably why he flew backwards and screamed so terribly.

Gideon blinked, glancing back.

The grey-faced male was there, gasping for breath, his arm still outstretched where he’d thrown the rock before his feet wobbled.

“Alan!” The young girl was there to catch him as he fell against her. She held him up, looking up at him as though she thought he was going to die.

The male, Alan, didn’t look at her. He looked at Gideon, a tired smile on his face.

Gideon’s heart stopped. His breath caught, and if a physical hand had reached out and grabbed his balls in an iron tight grip, then it had him real good.

He had to look down at himself just to make sure there really wasn’t anything there.

What…what was this?”

“Ashlyn, you need to go,” Alan said, coughing.

The girl, who looked so much like him, but smaller, her blonde hair longer, glared at him even as she tried to limp along with him.

“As if I would ever do that.”

Gideon watched them go. Alan turned his head back to look towards Gideon from time to time as they hobbled their way to the tree line.

Even if they made it out of sight, these were only two bears taken down, and both were still conscious.

They would get what little help remained out here, and those two would be caught, there was no doubt.

Gideon glanced down at both men, who were still rolling and clutching at their wounded faces like a couple of children who had just experienced their first fight.

He sneered down at them. He could kill them. He was genuinely tempted to do just that.

But what sort of person would he be if he did that to an enemy who was already down?

Who could barely see?

“I know you would not give me the same consideration, and it’s unlikely you will take this as a lesson for yourselves in the future, but you are being given a gift here.”

He reached down, taking their silver knuckles off their hands and ignoring the sting as he held on to them.

He could already feel some of the poison rushing through him from when he’d been stabbed, now he was holding on to these.

But better them to be in his hands than on their fingers. He would dispose of them quickly.

“Make sure I never see either of you ever again, or I might not be so merciful the next time.”

There was a commotion in the shacks and the barn around him. Someone had figured out something was wrong. He had to go.

He had to go and make sure his mate and that girl got out of here before they could be captured again.

Gideon’s work was far from done.

ADULT EXCERPT

Oh God, this was real. This was a real mating. He’d heard all about this, and now that he was feeling it first hand, there was no way this wasn’t what he thought it was.

It felt like he was taking the first breath of his life. He pushed himself against Gideon’s body, a male he barely knew, desperate for his skin and for his touch.

Even his body heat was amazing.

Then…oh! Alan moaned, falling against the other man, helpless and loving it as he was kissed and stroked. The taste of his tongue slipping between his lips was wonderful. The best damned feeling of his life and he wanted more of it.

Alan was already almost naked. His dick throbbed against the inside of his boxers, but Gideon was a little too dressed up. He needed to get out of these clothes.

Right now.

The fox side of his brain demanded it, growled for it. Nothing could interrupt them.

And he felt it the same way as Gideon backed him up against the bed.

This was a male who took charge in bed, and that was exactly what Alan needed right now.

Not even just because he was desperate to forget about everything that had happened to him.

No. He wanted his mate. He wanted to be fucked.

As though having Gideon inside him could erase the others.

Alan fell backwards onto the thin mattress, and not just because his knees were still a little weak.

It felt more like they were both a little weak in the knees, but having Gideon on top of him, between his legs, the heat of their erections pressing against each other through their clothes, was enough to make Alan feel like he was smoking through his ears.

Their faces were so close that their noses practically touched. Alan smiled, pulling at the hem of Gideon’s shirt. The other man needed a little coaxing before he lifted his arms, and fuck, what a show it was to watch as his abdomen was exposed, his huge biceps moving upward, until Alan got the shirt off his head and threw it away.

Touch me. Please, touch me.

Alan meant to say all of that out loud, but the heat of the moment was getting him, sweeping him away. He felt almost a little too animal and he knew he needed to rein that in a little, but if the glow of those glowing green eyes was anything to go by, Gideon was in a similar state.

God, the guy was huge. At first Alan worried that he might have some trouble taking the man inside himself, but that fear was quick to melt away as the desire overtook everything else.

The mating heat. Pulling them both into action. They’d barely said a few words to each other, but it was enough.

Alan would be damned if he let this man feel any guilt for saving him and his sister.

Sex was the best answer for that. The only reward he could think of until something better came along.

Gideon seemed content to kiss and touch Alan on the bed. His hands were huge. Everything was definitely proportional, but Alan didn’t think he was ever going to get used to the heat that came with being made love to like this.

His eyes burned just thinking it.

Yes, that’s what this was, and it was already perfect.

Gideon, however, was being a little too gentle with him. Taking too much care.

Alan wasn’t about to have any of that. His body ached too damned much. He reached down, his hands finding the zipper and fly to Gideon’s pants. His claws also might have come out just a little as he fought to get the man naked as fast as possible.

Nurse Odette seemed like a nice enough lady, but he didn’t want her walking in on this and interrupting them.

Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.

The fox inside his head whined. Needing it. More. Desperation.

Now. Now. Now.

Gideon growled, the sound of an alpha wolf, and he did the rest of the work for Alan, stripping himself out of his clothes in a hurry.

Alan sighed, shoving down his boxers, and he was honest to God shocked when the other male leaned between his legs, and no sooner was Alan’s cock exposed than it vanished between Gideon’s lips.

Alan’s spine stiffened before the shock of electricity hit him.

And it hit hard.

He wanted to moan a long and loud noise, but it was as though that electricity really did have him under a spell because when he opened his mouth, nothing came out.

He could only feel.