13. Noelle

noelle

. . .

"Run!"

Mak held his massive frame taut, holding back an invisible dam inside of his body. That was about to burst. Tears of exertion trailed down his rough-hewn face. “I don’t think I can keep my bear from claiming you—bond biting you against your wishes. I’m trying, Noelle, but you’ve got to run!”

He was right.

Without another moment’s hesitation, I ran.

Toward him.

I launched myself at Mak, climbing him like a tree trunk, my arms wrapping tightly around his neck. His eyes widened in shock, and before I could second-guess what I was doing, sharpened teeth I didn’t even know I had sank into the soft, vulnerable flesh where his neck met his collarbone.

The world stopped.

A surge of primal energy coursed through me, electrifying every nerve. The sensation was raw, untamed, and strangely beautiful. My bear roared in total approval, guiding me as the universe seemed to collapse into this one moment—this one bite.

Mak froze beneath me, his breath catching—just before his massive frame shook with one earthquake of a shudder.

Then, two voices roared through my mind like a thunderclap, a stereo echo that shook me to my core. “She chose us.”

The words reverberated through my body, carrying with them Mak’s shock, his awe—and the undeniable power of two bears reacting as one.

One moment, I knew Mak the least of the three males who’d rescued me, and the next, I knew him best.

Through the bond, his jagged past unfolded before me. I felt his shame, carved deep by his father’s actions—a lone bear who had forced his way into his mother’s maul with a bond bite she hadn’t chosen. That unworthiness had been etched even deeper when his mother and the two fathers she’d handpicked had no choice but to cast Mak’s dad out.

I felt Mak’s clashing desires and insecurities about forming a maul when Ash asked him to triple up with him and Cody—followed by his quiet determination to be a worthy First Maul to them while leading his tribe, a job he still believed should have gone to his full Ayaska brother.

Then came the moment he walked into the den and saw me—a female who smelled like hot cocoa, lying in a nest like an unwrapped gift.

He’d fallen for me instantly. Completely. From the very start, he’d loved me.

But those feelings, so immediate and all-encompassing, were tempered by doubt—not in me, but in himself. He believed I was perfect for Ash and Cody but far too good for him. So when I refused forever with the three of them, it roared louder than any bear could, shattering the heart that had opened to me the moment we met.

I felt all of this—all of him through the bite I’d plunged into his neck.

The rawness of his emotions broke something open inside me. How could I not love him back? I’d spent two years trying to prove my worth to the dead man on the ground, and in less than two seconds, Mak made me feel like a gift sent down from the Ayaska’s Great Serpent god.

A tidal wave of emotion crashed into me, wild and all-consuming. It surged through my veins like fire and light, filling every empty corner of my heart and searing away all my doubts and fears.

Along with his.

“Love you! Adore you! Ours! Ours! Ours!” the double voices chanted into my mind, raw and commanding. Then came the growled demand: “Take our bite.”

There was no hesitation. None at all.

I raised my wrist—the one meant for him—and pressed it against his lips.

“Take it,” I whispered into his mind.

I felt Mak’s bear hearts vibrate with emotions that shone brighter than Christmas lights.

Then, his teeth sank in, sharp and precise. Pain shot up my arm. But it was only a brief flare before it melted into something far greater.

A flood of bear magic surged through me, overwhelming and pure, a tide of love and gratitude so profound, I couldn't tell where he ended and I began.

Either way, the estrus flowed from my pussy in a hot gush, splattering onto the pristine snow beneath us.

Oh God, I was coming—just from his bite alone.

It was done. Our bears were officially mated. But it still wasn’t enough.

"Not enough!" I released him from my bite—only to do something almost as feral. His thick, rigid cock pressed like a long, unyielding branch beneath my folds.

"Need you! Need you! Need you!" I snapped my hips, dragging my soaked pussy back and forth over him, desperate to get him inside me.

Mak didn’t release my wrist from his teeth. But his rough hands cupped my ass, lifting me like I weighed nothing.

And then, with one powerful motion, he impaled me.

I cried out, lost to the overwhelming stretch as he thrust deep, filling me completely. Then he began lifting and crashing my body. His strong hands holding me steady, he turned my pussy into a sleeve for his cock as he drove me up and down his length.

It was a feat of strength I wasn't able to appreciate for long. After just a few frenzied strokes, the mating orgasm tore through me. I shattered, breaking apart as my body turned inside out, pleasure detonating with unbearable intensity.

And then Mak’s voice rumbled inside my head, a stereo growl both desperate and euphoric. “Baby, you’re tearing me apart!”

With that declaration, he finally released my wrist from his mouth.

"Baby!" he roared aloud beforeslamming me down one last time, his thick cock hitting so deep my vision blurred. My pussy clenched tight around him, strangling his length as his release jetted into me.

Oh god, oh god! My body convulsed with a new kind of orgasm, this one deeper and womb-based—my bear surging forward with a purpose I couldn’t deny. I could feel her sending an egg toward Mak’s incoming seed, ready to meet him halfway.

Ash had been right, I realized as wave after wave of body-quaking ecstasy overtook me. Bears were efficient—and possibly superior—when it came to mating.

With that lost thought of complete surrender, I slumped against Mak’s broad chest, a trembling, blissed-out mess. My bear growl-purring in the most replete satisfaction.

“Well, this is not what we expected to find when we came looking for you,” a wry voice that was neither of Mak's bears remarked inside my head.

My eyes fluttered open to find Ash standing a few feet away in human form, one eyebrow raised. Beside him, Cody’s enormous Kodiak bear grinned, his absurdly long tongue lolling out.

“I assume this means you’re staying?” Ash asked out loud, his tone holding no room for argument.

And he was right.

No more fighting what my bear had known from the start. I sighed happily and nodded against Mak’s chest.

Cody let out a huge whoop, and his amplified voice echoed through all of our heads. “Looks like it’s going to be a Beary Sexy Christmas after all!”