Mating Season (Morgan Clan Bears, Book 1) Read online

  Getting rid of that motherfucker’s last name would be the next order of business. Drake was okay with going directly to the court house as soon as she woke up, but he wondered if she wanted a real wedding. The thought of all the frilly attachments that came along with that kind of ceremony gave him a case of the hives.

  A scream bubbled out of her throat and Drake immediately reached for her, calling out for the healer. Her hold on his arm was painful, and he took that as a good sign; the blood was working.

  “It’s going to be another hour before I can give her more medicine,” Harold frowned. “Do I need to get your brothers? Because this is about to get bad until I can inject her again.”

  “No,” he barked. “I’m going to be fine.” He knew what he’d said was a lie. As Tessa thrashed on the bed, he felt his beast’s agitation boiling beneath his skin. With the next scream, his fangs burst through his gums and he roared at the healer, warning him away from his mate.

  The more she screamed, the more Drake’s beast pushed for release.

  Harold held his hands out in front of him and backed out the door. Within minutes, his brothers entered the room, and that was when all hell broke loose.

  Tessa opened her mouth to scream and blood poured out, cutting off her oxygen.

  “Healer!” all three men yelled.

  The healer entered the room with his bag and pulled on his special gloves. Drake’s heart beat a million miles and hour as he held her tight, blood dripping onto his arms. “I can’t let her go. What’s going on?”

  “Her body is rejecting your blood, Drake,” Harold said, turning her head to the side as she vomited. Rex and Gunner ran to the bathroom and grabbed every clean towel they could find.

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” Drake snarled.

  “Move!” the healer said, removing some tubing from his bag. He quickly started an IV line in Tessa’s arm as Drake held her still. “Give me your arm.”

  “Why?” Drake paused as the doc came forward with his own needle.

  “I need your god damn blood, Drake,” Harold snarled. “I have to replace what she threw up, and I’m going to draw it from your arm to put in hers.”

  “Do whatever you have to do,” Drake said, realizing what the healer was saying. He would do anything for her, even if that meant giving Tessa every drop of blood in his body.

  “What will happen if you don’t give her enough blood?” Rex asked, his brother’s eyes watching over Tessa like a doting brother. It was then he realized his brothers considered her family.

  “She will be in pain for nothing,” Harold said, uncapping the needle with his teeth. He wrapped the band around Drake’s upper arm and punctured the vein to insert his own line, using a needle to draw a large amount from the vein, immediately turning toward Tessa to inject it into the line in the crook of her arm.

  “Take as much of my blood as you need,” Drake panicked, seeing his brothers move closer.

  The stick of the needle wasn’t painful. There was nothing more painful than watching Tessa suffer. As soon as the doc drew his blood, Drake immediately took Tessa back into his arms, throwing his leg over hers to keep her still.

  The moment he injected her with Drake’s blood, everything changed. No matter how tight his hold was on his mate, her strength tripled and she convulsed, her back arching at an odd angle. Drake’s human side knew it was from the change, but his beast didn’t accept it. No, his beast pushed at his skin and his face began to change, his anger and distress taking over.

  “Get away!” he snarled around his thick fangs. His fingers had shifted to claws, and the shirt he wore ripped at the seams as his arms began to grow. The shift was upon him, and at this point, there was no turning back.

  Hands grabbed at him as he turned on the bed, coming to his feet and crouching down in a protective stance in front of Tessa. His brothers and the healer were moving closer. “I will kill you if you touch her!”

  Gunner made a leap, taking him to the ground. Rex sat on his legs as the healer came forward with another needle. He felt the prick to his arm as they held him in place. He tried to fight them, but it was no use. The last thing he remembered was hearing his own agonizing wail.

  “Nooooooo!”

  Rex sat on the couch in Drake’s living quarters, watching as his older brother slept off the sedation. It’d been two days, and Drake had gotten to the point where he couldn’t handle it any time Tessa would scream. He hated seeing his brother and sister-in-law hurting so much. He hoped he never had to see another human changed into what they were.

  The doc was sleeping on a cot Gunner had pulled into the bedroom. At this point, the healer was Tessa’s only caretaker. Gunner and Rex wouldn’t be able to touch her even with the special gloves the doc used. Harold was a pro at being careful with a mated female. Even with the gloves, there was a chance Rex or Gunner would slip up and touch her with their forearm while she thrashed. Harold knew what he was doing, and they had to trust him to keep her sedated and unharmed.

  The door to Drake’s living area opened in a rush. Gunner stood there with glowing eyes, and Rex knew immediately there was something wrong.

  “What is it?” he asked, jumping to his feet.

  “Did you hear the fucking shotgun go off out front?” Gunner barked.

  “No,” Rex snarled. Granted, the room was underground, but his heightened hearing should’ve detected something as loud as a gunshot.

  “That motherfucker is outside, and he’s demanding we return his wife!”

  “Oh, hell no!” Rex snapped.

  “Get his ass up,” Gunner ordered, looking over his shoulder. “We have a human to kill.”

  Rex hurried over to Drake, shaking him as hard as he could. “Man, you gotta wake the fuck up!”

  Like a jolt of lightning had struck his big brother, Drake roared as he came to his feet, “Tessa!”

  “Not quite, big guy,” Rex said, steading Drake. The sedative was still in his system, and his eyes were glassy. “Bradley is on our land. He’s shooting at the house and demanding we give him Tessa.”

  “He’s dead!” Drake promised, and stumbled to the bedroom door. He pushed it open, waking the healer. “We have a problem.”

  “What is it?” Harold asked as he stood from his makeshift bed.

  “Her ex is here, and I’m going to go kill him,” Drake stated. “Do not leave this room.”

  “Take care of him, and I’ll take care of your mate,” Harold promised, touching his fist to his heart in a gesture of pride. The male was a good one. He would be repaid somehow in the future by the Morgan clan. It was guaranteed for protecting a mate.

  Tessa didn’t know how long she’d been screaming in pain. Time was endless in her mind. It could’ve been two hours or three days, but something had changed in the last hour. The sounds of her panting changed into a deeper sounding growl. A roar sounded in her head. Her mind felt like it was being pulled in two different directions. Something was pushing at her mind, her skin, her soul.

  She could open her eyes now, but not for long. Every time she would wake, the healer would be there to reassure her everything was going according to plan, but Drake was nowhere to be found.

  Was he sedated?

  Was he going insane like he had mentioned?

  “Drake,” she moaned, feeling something in her mouth. She used her parched tongue to roll across her teeth, sucking in a gasp of air when sharp fangs pricked the tip of her tongue. She was changing into a bear.

  “He will be here shortly,” the healer reassured her, sitting on the edge of the bed. “You are beginning your shift. Don’t fight it, Tessa.”

  Her fingers tingled as the bones broke and reformed. She screamed out in pain when her back arched at a weird angle. The beast inside her mind wanted out. It needed to hunt, to scavenge the land.

  Her beast was hungry.

  Tessa remembered Drake telling her not to fight the first shift. The healer had advised her giving in to the beast would make th
e shift less painful. Please shift quickly, lady bear.

  The beast controlled her mind and her body as it pushed to be released. Hair sprouted through her human skin, her ears reshaping along with her face. Claws grew from her fingertips and her legs and arms thickened.

  The bed cracked and creaked as she blinked. The room around her was covered in a golden haze. The healer stood in the corner, his eyes narrowing on her. “Tessa? You are a beautiful grizzly.”

  The beast wanted her mate. Where was he?

  Tessa roared at the male, wanting answers, but her human mind knew he didn’t understand her. They couldn’t talk in this form, and who knew if the panther understood bear mannerisms enough to sense what she was wanting.

  Tessa slowly crawled off the bed, walking over to the door. Her legs wobbled with each step, but it didn’t take but a few to get her balance. The bear lifted its paw and tapped it against the door. She looked over her shoulder and leaned her head toward the exit. The healer sighed heavily and shook his head. “Drake wants you in here.”

  Another roar.

  “Tessa, you have to stay in here,” Harold repeated. “The men are taking care of a problem on the land.”

  Problem? Her human mind and her beast knew something was wrong. The only person who’d come onto this land was Bradley. Oh no!

  Tessa’s beast stood on her hind legs and bashed her large paws against the door, demanding to be set free. Harold cursed loudly behind her but didn’t make a move from his spot in the corner. It didn’t matter, because with each hit to the door, the wood split little by little.

  “Tessa, no!” Harold yelled as the door splintered from the weight of her body slamming against it.

  She let the beast run toward the front room. When she came into the large living room, the bear lifted its snout to the sky and scented the air. Drake’s scent was strong, along with others she hoped were his brothers.

  “Tessa, damn it!” Harold barked as he slid to a stop behind her. “Your ex-husband is out there. You cannot let him see you or the bear.”

  Drake is out there!

  It didn’t matter. She was going to kill Bradley now that she had the beast inside her, and the beast wanted that male’s blood for coming on their lands. The fact that her mate was out there just sealed the deal. She was going out to confront him. She wanted to see the look on Bradley’s face when he came face to face with a grizzly bear.

  I hope he pisses himself.

  She didn’t know how to shift back to her human form to tell Harold to open the door, because she didn’t want to destroy another one. As she prowled toward the front of the house, Harold cursed but came around her to stand in front of the door. The bear didn’t want to hurt him, but she would take a swipe at him if he didn’t move.

  “I’ll let you out, but don’t you fucking get hurt,” he snarled, then opened the door.

  The moment the door opened, Tessa’s bear scented her mate. A gunshot rang off to her left, just inside the woods, and she took off at a dead run.

  As she rounded the side of the house, she saw Drake drop to his knees as he held his chest. She could see his eyes glowing from fifty yards away. Tessa’s heart shattered at the sight, and her bear roared as it ran faster, panting and tasting Bradley’s blood on its tongue.

  When Bradley came into view, Tessa’s human side gritted her teeth. She wanted to rip him to shreds. Her true mate was on the ground, bleeding from a shotgun wound. The pain of her change was nothing compared to what she was feeling now.

  “Tessa!” Bradley called out. He still didn’t see her coming, because he was too focused on Drake’s body as it lay on the ground. “Where are you?”

  Right here, motherfucker!

  Bradley’s head turned to the left, his eyes going wide as saucers. Her eyes were locked on his as he realized a bear was coming for him at full speed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement, but didn’t look to see who, or what, it was. All she wanted was Bradley’s life.

  A roar split the night as a flash of brown filled the space between Tessa and Bradley. The scent of blood in the air doubled as Drake’s bear landed on Bradley, taking him to the ground by the throat.

  “Tessa! Get out of here!” Rex yelled from behind her. She looked over her shoulder and saw the two brothers running for them. Gunner was already throwing his clothes off as he began to shift. Within seconds, another bear ran past her, stopping a few feet from Drake. “Come on, Tessa. This is Drake’s right as your mate.”

  She wanted to scream at them. She wanted to push Drake out of the way. He’d been shot!

  “He’s fine,” Rex promised, and stood in front of her. “You don’t want to see this. Go inside.”

  Her beast panted and small growls sounded from somewhere deep inside the bear. Drake was hers, and she’d be damned if he took Bradley out without her there.

  With one swipe of her paw, she pushed Rex out of the way. He yelled for her to stop, but she took off at a dead run, ducking her head to push Drake off of her ex-husband. It took one look at her to make Bradley scream out in fear.

  His throat was already bleeding, the scent was like ambrosia on the air. The man lying on the ground had tormented her for years. Seeing him in the same position she’d been in several times was the biggest gift karma could’ve ever delivered.

  “Tessa!” Drake’s human voice echoed off the trees. Her name was a command in the air, and she looked up at him as he marched toward them. He was stark naked, covered in sweat, and his eyes still glowed with the anger of his beast. “Kill him, or I will.”

  “Yeah, you stupid bitch, kill me,” Bradley snarled from the ground as he held his throat. Blood seeped through his fingers, assuring Drake had already broken his prey’s skin. “So, you’re a fucking shifter? Ha! You’re better off with these idiots. Maybe they can get some use out of you.”

  “You son of a bitch!” Drake roared as he shifted again, pushing Tessa away as her true mate took him by the throat again.

  The sound of Bradley’s air leaving his body was softer, less morbid than it should’ve been when Drake ripped out his throat with his fangs. Tessa’s bear backed away when Drake’s bear turned for her. He had blood all over his snout, but it didn’t seem to bother him. He just prowled toward her as if she was his next victim.

  Please, let me be a human.

  The thought was followed by a tingling in her spine. Tessa’s bear eased itself to the ground, resting on its belly, and the shift began, returning her to her human self. The bear in her mind slinked away and quieted, content with the kill her mate had made to protect her.

  “Drake?” she whispered as soon as her human voice returned. She didn’t care that she was naked. She didn’t care that Rex and Gunner were watching them. The only thing Tessa wanted was for Drake to shift to his human body and take her away from Bradley. “It’s over. It’s over. It’s over.”

  Tessa covered her face with her hands as the tears fell from her eyes. Bradley was dead and she was free. She was finally free from running and worrying for her life. Warm hands wrapped around her body and lifted her from the ground. She knew immediately it was Drake, but she didn’t uncover her face. There was no need. Her new senses could tell it was him.

  “Shh, I’ve got you,” he whispered against her hair.

  Chapter 15

  May

  Tessa woke from a dream about the bouquet of various blue flowers Drake had brought home the night before, smiling into the darkness of their bedroom as she brought up the image of the night before in her mind’s eye. He looked awkward walking into the house with the plastic-wrapped bouquet in his large hand, but she didn’t make fun of him. No, she loved the sentiment so much, she’d made him skip dinner and took him to bed.

  They spent the evening curled up together after a marathon round of sex. Drake was a demanding lover, and she was happy to let him take the lead. There was nothing she wanted more than a man who could dominate her in the bedroom, but not control her life. She’d had enough of that w
ith Bradley.

  She shook her head to clear her thoughts of her former life. Bradley would not hold anymore space in her mind. Drake completed her in so many ways. Who knew she’d find the man she was destined to love and change her species all within a month of each other?

  Some days, Tessa still couldn’t believe she could shift into a bear. She had a strength about her she’d only seen in super hero movies. Only this was real life.

  Reaching for the other side of the bed, she sighed when she found a cool spot where Drake slept. He probably woke up before dawn to check on his fields. Rex and Gunner would be with him, and she could get some payments made for the business.

  Tessa had quit the diner and Tulley’s parts shop a few weeks ago after Drake convinced her to work for him. She made a nice wage, and she was sure he paid her more than her worth, but he said he had always hated the paperwork part of the business. After she’d gotten a gander at his inbox, she immediately made her decision to help him at home.

  The clock on the bedside table said it was nearing eight in the morning when she finally climbed out of bed, grabbing clothes as she headed for the shower. She did nothing more than wash and dry her hair, pulling it up into a sloppy bun at the top of her head. Drake told her she was beautiful without makeup, but she wore it anyway. Today would be no different.

  The scent of coffee tickled her nose when she entered the main house, and she found her favorite cup sitting by the pot, a spoon resting inside. Tessa smiled at the gesture and made her coffee.

  Right before she took the first sip, her phone rang, and her mother’s number flashed across the screen. A smile as bright as a million suns lit up her face as she answered, “Hey momma!”

  “Tessa girl, how are you?” her mother said into the phone.

  “I’m so happy, mama,” Tessa replied, setting her cup beside the computer’s keyboard. “When will you be here?”

  “Our plane lands at two tomorrow afternoon,” she stated. “Your brother is threatening your fiancé’s life if he is an asshole.”