Mating Instinct (Morgan Clan Bears, Book 2) Read online

  Mating Instinct

  Morgan Clan Bears

  Book 2

  By

  Theresa Hissong

  Copyright © 2019 Theresa Hissong

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this eBook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Disclaimer:

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead is purely coincidental. The names of people, places, things, songs, bands are all created from the author's mind and are only used for entertainment. Any mention of a song, or band, in the book, has been given proper credit for use.

  This book is for adults 18 and older only; due to content.

  Cover Design:

  Custom eBook Covers

  Editing by:

  Heidi Ryan

  Amour the Line Editing

  Cover Model:

  Kyle Koelsch

  Cover Photographer:

  David Kowalski

  Other Books by Theresa Hissong:

  Fatal Cross Live!

  Fatal Desires

  Fatal Temptations

  Fatal Seduction

  Rise of the Pride:

  Talon

  Winter

  Savage

  The Birth of an Alpha

  Ranger

  Kye

  The Healer

  Dane

  Incubus Tamed

  Thirst

  Standalone Novella:

  Something Wicked

  Book for Charity:

  Fully Loaded

  Bad Girls of Romance:

  The Huntress

  Standalone Erotic Romance:

  Rocked (A Rockstar Reverse Harem Novel)

  Dedication:

  Kyle Koelsch

  Thank you for being my Rex.

  Content:

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Rex Morgan knocked the dirt from his weathered jeans, standing and stretching his back after working the plow all afternoon. Spring was upon them, and while his brother, Drake, was at home helping his mate with their new bear cub, he and his other brother, Gunnar, were in charge of planting corn in one of their five fields.

  The beginning of March had come all too soon. He’d spent the last two weeks working with his brother, preparing everything they would need to plant their crops by the middle of the month. He still had several pieces of equipment to service before they’d be up and running for the season, but they had caught a break in the weather and needed to get started while they had a chance.

  The cold wind caused a shiver to roll up his spine. He hated the beginning of spring. Coming out of hibernation always left him irritable until the temperature warmed to an acceptable range. His bear didn’t care much for it either. The beast that lived inside him was agitated, so he tried to calm him, but it was of no use.

  He and Gunnar were already feeling the pull of mating season. It was a natural instinct for them to search for their mates in the spring. Both of them had scoured the local area last season, but never met anyone their bears found any interest in. He’d touched a few females at the bar they frequented, but there was never a need to mate them. It was probably for the best since they’d been too busy last mating season with Drake finding his mate to find one of their own. Rex didn’t mind, because Tessa was the best thing that had ever happened to his older brother.

  The sun was setting and it was time to head back to the house. Gunnar would be starting dinner soon, and he wanted to get back so he could watch Drake’s mate, Tessa, argue with the youngest Morgan brother about who was going to make the meal. He chuckled to himself as he closed and locked the door on the plow, pocketing the keys.

  Gunnar loved to cook, and so did Tessa, yet she still hadn’t learned that the bears spoiled their mates, which meant the men took care of the food. It was an honor for them to provide food, shelter, and love to their females. When Rex found his mate, he was certain to pamper her with everything she needed. Especially when she was round with his cub.

  Rex hadn’t realized how much he yearned for a cub until Aria had come into the world a few months ago. Holding her was everything, and he couldn’t wait until he could start a family of his own. Maybe this year would be different.

  When he arrived at the house, Tessa was already scowling in Gunnar’s direction while holding her cub, rocking her as she slept. Rex chuckled to himself as he took a seat at the breakfast bar next to his oldest brother and Tessa’s mate, Drake.

  “How long have they been arguing?” Rex asked, watching as Drake took a long pull off of his beer.

  “Long enough that I’ve had two of these,” he replied, draining the rest of the liquid and leaning over to toss the bottle into the trash can at the end of the counter. He sighed and shook his head before standing up to take his cub from his mate. “Come on, Tessa. Let him cook. If you two keep arguing, we will never eat, and I’m hungry.”

  “You’re always hungry,” she complained, turning around. Her face lit up when she noticed Rex sitting there. She’d been too preoccupied with fussing over Gunnar to have heard him enter. “Hey, Rex.”

  “Hey, Tessa,” he greeted, shaking his head. That female was going to keep his brother on his toes for the rest of their lives, and Rex was going to enjoy every second of it. “May I hold my niece?”

  “Sure,” Drake said, handing over the infant. She was almost three months old, and Rex was mesmerized by how amazing she already was, but he wasn’t surprised at how much he was in love with the little cub. Aria had wrapped herself around her Uncle Rex’s finger, and he would do anything for her.

  With it being mating season, holding the cub made his desire to find a mate a deep ache in his soul; more so than when he was daydreaming about a mate while in the field less than an hour ago. As the cub cooed in his arms and looked up at him with all the trust in the world, he closed his eyes and imagined himself holding his own.

  It was bred into the males to want many cubs. Their own father had told the siblings of the winters of their births. He’d spoken with pride when he told them exactly how each of them had come into the world and how proud he had been every time.

  Rex wanted that. He wanted what his father had spoken of. It didn’t matter to him if he had to deliver his own cubs every winter and miss out on sleep. The exhaustion of bringing his son or daughter into the world was going to be worth it.

  He missed his father and mother. They’d been killed several years ago by a human male looking to rob them when they’d had a business office in town. Drake, Rex, and Gunnar had been thrust into the farming business, and they’d lived a bitter existence toward humans for a very long time because of it.

  It wasn’t until Tessa had come into their lives that they started to live again. Drake had been the hardest to convince when it came to trusting them. Tessa was
human then, but she had been changed into what they were so she could fully mate with his older brother. Since Aria had arrived and they’d come out of their winter hibernation, Rex had noticed a change in Drake. Granted, he was still quiet, but he had more patience than before, and it was all because of Tessa and the infant in his arms.

  “Well, damn,” Rex huffed when her nose scrunched up only a second before she let out a loud wail.

  “She’s hungry,” Tessa sighed, then waited for Drake to take the cub. Tessa knew not to touch the other males, because being mated meant she could only have skin to skin contact with her mate. If she accidentally touched Rex or Gunnar, it would cause her pain. “You can hold her after she’s fed.”

  “Thanks,” he replied and waited for Tessa to leave the kitchen so he could grab his own beer without getting in her way.

  Gunnar stood over the stove, stirring a large pot that smelled a lot like beef stew. At that point, Rex didn’t care. He was still tired from the winter, so he just wanted to eat and retire to his room for the night.

  “Dinner will be ready in thirty,” Gunnar announced and wiped his hands on a clean towel he kept tucked into his back pocket. His brother could’ve been a chef somewhere, but he chose to stay behind and help with the farm. It took a lot to run the largest corn farm in Olive Branch, Mississippi, and Rex was glad he’d stayed. They needed to stick together.

  “One of us should run the land before dark,” Drake announced as he retuned from his quarters. “We need to make sure no one came on our property while we were hibernating this winter.”

  “I’ll be glad to go,” Rex announced, running his hand through his long, dark-blond hair. The thought of shifting and roaming his land made the bear inside him sit up and growl. “I need to run anyway.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Gunnar offered.

  As usual, dinner was quiet. They didn’t talk much, but hell, they never did. Rex and his brothers were hard working men and they only spoke when needed. Things were different with Tessa now a part of the clan. She kept them active, asking questions about their day, forcing them to communicate more.

  After dinner, Rex and Gunnar shifted on the back porch. The bears shook out their dark-brown coats and ambled slowly off the porch. The first order of business was to search for scents around their home. When they found none, Rex nudged his brother’s hind quarter to let him know he was heading into the wooded area behind their home.

  The night was clear, but the wind was cool on the beast’s snout. Regardless of the temperature, he had a mission to complete so he could return to his room and sleep until sunrise the next morning. Gunnar would be working the fields while Rex stayed behind to repair a piece of machinery, and as much as he wanted to sleep in, he knew he wouldn’t be able to get much rest over the next five to six weeks.

  His brother’s bear wandered off the trails, pausing to lift his nose in the air. A warning growl came from Gunnar. He’d caught a scent. When Rex turned, his own bear snarled and headed in the direction of the foreign scent.

  Their steps were not soft. No, a bear didn’t fucking care about being quiet or stealthy. They were huge animals, and anyone who came across them should be afraid. At almost a thousand pounds of teeth, claws, and muscle, the grizzly wasn’t one to go up against in a fight.

  Rex paused when the scent became stronger. They were heading in the right direction, but the edge of their property was close. They’d installed a fence a few years ago when there’d been some issues with the enemies of the panthers in town. Drake had ordered the fence to be installed to keep humans off their land.

  Rex scented the air again when they reached the fence. The wind shifted and the scent of roses made him pause. There weren’t any of those flowers this far out in the woods, and it was too damned early in the spring for them to even be ready to bloom.

  Where is that scent coming from?

  He wanted to shift and speak to his brother, frustrated with their inability to communicate between themselves when in their animal form. Usually, being in bear form, the human side rested and allowed the animal to be just that…an animal, but when the human side needed the animal’s extra abilities, they fought for dominance.

  Gunnar shifted, holding his finger up to his lips. Rex’s beast raised its lip but didn’t make a sound. His brother used two fingers to point at his eyes, then off into the distance. When the beast turned its head, he saw a large mound built behind a cluster of trees. It appeared to be a bear’s den, but Rex knew none of his brothers had ever made one out in the woods. He took a step closer and realized the odd rose scent was coming from there. Immediately, he shifted and took a step toward the den.

  “If you’re in there, you better come out now,” he announced, going on alert. His bear was pushing at his skin to shift again. He and his beast knew they were stronger as an animal. He was not only naked, but defenseless.

  There was only a whisper of movement, and the scent of fear overpowered every other scent. Rex’s natural instinct to protect overpowered his need to defend. If the bear inside the den was an enemy, he would be scenting something else…evil.

  “I said, come out!” he bellowed.

  “Rex, don’t get any closer,” Gunnar warned, moving to the left of the den. He made a hand signal, telling Rex he would pull the limbs away from the entrance. Gunnar gave him the count of three, and when they unveiled the bear’s den, what they found in there stunned them both.

  The female bear wouldn’t allow the human part of Ada’s mind to shift during the last two and a half months they’d been hiding in the makeshift den the bear had made when they finally found a secluded place to hide. Being in her bear form, Ada wouldn’t need to feed as much, and the bear knew it would keep them alive.

  Ada heard a male’s voice outside the den, but there was no fight left in her. She’d let them kill her. She just hoped they’d make it quick. The hunger from before she had gone into winter hibernation was brutal enough, but if it wasn’t for the bear’s ability to go long periods of time without food, she’d be dead. There’d been no time to eat before she had fled her clan, and what reserves she’d had were not enough to make it through the winter months.

  “I said, come out!” the male voice bellowed again.

  Ada’s bear growled softly as the entrance to her den was revealed; the limbs torn away. Her eyes barely opened when she saw the two males peering inside. They were obviously shifters, and from their scent, she knew they were grizzlies. However, they were not from her clan.

  Thank God!

  “Ma’am?” the youngest one, with his long, dark-brown hair, called out as he peered inside. She tried to lift her head, but it fell back to the hard ground with an audible thump. She’d been in such a hurry to build a winter resting place, Ada never had a chance to pad the ground with limbs from the nearby pine trees. She’d been sleeping on the cold ground since late December.

  “Come on out, girl,” the other one urged. He was taller with lighter colored hair, but that wasn’t what caught her attention. His scent was strong; stronger than the other male’s. Tattoos painted his thick arms, and she was momentarily mesmerized by the colors.

  The beast inside her tried to make a noise of protest when the darker haired one moved to enter her den. “Gunnar, be careful.”

  “She’s starved, Rex,” he called out as he moved closer. He was on his knees and Ada couldn’t defend herself when he came to her side.

  “Ma’am, can you shift?” the one named Gunnar asked. “Ma’am?”

  Ada pushed at her beast, begging to shift back to a human. It had been a long time since she’d been awake long enough to even notice what time of day it was. From the warmer air entering her hideaway, she knew it was spring even though there was still a chill in the air.

  “Help,” she whispered as her bear finally recessed back into her mind.

  “My god,” one of them gasped under his breath. “She’s skin and bones.”

  “Get her to the house,” the other one said. Ada
didn’t need to look at her human body to know she was a no bigger than a skeleton.

  “Ma’am, my name is Gunnar, and this is my brother, Rex,” the younger one announced. “I’m going to have to touch you to pull you out of the den. We have a home and a warm place for you, but I don’t think you can walk back on your own. I need to know if you are mated before I touch you.”

  “No,” she whispered, unable to form a sentence. “Not…mated.”

  Thank God for that.

  The two males spoke softly to each other, and she didn’t even whimper when the one named Gunnar moved closer. The den was small, and she knew they both wouldn’t be able to fit inside to get her out. Ada used what energy she had left to move closer to the entrance. At that point, those two males were her only hope of survival, so she was going to put her trust in them. If they killed her, so be it…she was almost dead anyway.

  “Rex, I’ll bring her if you get to the house and have blankets and food ready,” Gunnar directed. The one named Rex hesitated, his eyes roaming her body. She inhaled deeply when she caught Rex’s scent. There was a thick spice to the air, and she hummed from how safe it made her feel.

  “Are you sure you can carry her all the way back?” Rex worried.

  “I won’t leave her here, now go,” Gunnar barked. “She needs food or she’s going to die, Rex. Hurry.”

  Ada heard the rustling of leaves and glanced in the direction of the noise. Rex had shifted, and all she saw was the back end of a huge grizzly as he ran through the forest.

  “All right, I’m going to touch you now,” Gunnar informed her, hesitating for a second before extending his hands. “If you feel any pain or anything that makes you uncomfortable, you must let me know.”