“Don’t be apologizing for that, Ranger. You bitey”—he nipped her lip—“sexy”—he kissed her—“beautiful mate.”
“Mate?” The word came out a trembling whisper since Jason was building another release between her legs.
He pushed into her harder, then eased out slow. “Yeah, Georgia. Mate. You bite me like that, I’m yours.”
He thrust into her again, and she teetered over the edge, her body pulsing around him as she moaned his name. Breathlessly, she leaned her forehead against his.
Jason bucked into her slowly, drawing every last throbbing burst of pleasure from her. “And now you’re mine. Three.”
Chapter Eight
Jason traced his finger lightly from one freckle to the next on Georgia’s back. He smiled as she giggled. He pressed harder as he connected her spots so it wouldn’t tickle her so much.
She lay on her stomach on a pile of blankets that had been stashed in the treehouse. Dinner was long gone, eaten on the floor as she’d sat between his legs, talking and laughing. This woman, his woman, eased his soul in ways he couldn’t ever explain to her. And not once tonight had he seen Tessa. For a moment, watching Georgia’s slow smile and her lips move with her words, he forgot he was broken at all.
Georgia didn’t know it yet, but she possessed magic. It’s the only thing that could explain how normal he felt right now, propped up on his elbow, lying beside the woman he’d do anything for.
His attraction to her had been instant and shocking, but after tonight, his fate was sealed to collide with hers for always. His heart and body already belonged to her, but he wouldn’t say such things out loud. Georgia was human and didn’t understand how fast a bond worked. He was a simple man who didn’t know much, but he knew one thing. Georgia was his in all the ways that mattered.
This wasn’t like with Tessa. It wasn’t hard love or painful affection. It wasn’t waiting for a rare compliment and enduring so much bad. It wasn’t fighting and throwing hateful words like grenades. It wasn’t absorbing animosity because the words “I love you” had been used. It wasn’t sticking around out of stubbornness or a fear of failing a relationship.
Being with Georgia was easy. It was a song his heart had memorized that he could sing without thinking about the lyrics. Two weeks ago, he’d been headed to hell, but Georgia had caught him. She’d hugged him close and stopped his freefall.
“If you were a shifter, you’d be a leopard.” He traced another shape into her freckled skin.
“Or perhaps a cheetah,” she said, her full, petal-pink lips spreading in a happy smile. “Not a scary bear.”
“Never a bear,” he agreed, his mind skittering away from the thought of her with silver eyes.
“Never?”
Gooseflesh rippled across her back and arms, so he pulled the blanket firmly over her to keep in the warmth. The snow had stopped, but the sun had gone down and taken its warmth with it.
“I let Tessa Turn me, and it has been my biggest regret. I had to hide what I was from the people I loved the most.”
“Your family?”
He nodded. “My mom called me the day I registered with the Gray Backs. One of her friends had told her that her youngest son was a bear shifter. She should’ve heard it from me.”
“Was she upset?” Georgia asked, her strange-colored blue and gold eyes filling with sympathy.
“She cried on the phone for a long time. It was after Tessa had left me—after she died. Mom guessed what had happened right away and knew it was Tessa who Turned me. I’d written all these letters, hell bent on sending them to her and Dad someday because I was too chicken shit to admit out loud I’d given up being human for a woman like Tessa. I felt weak. Ashamed. They’d set this incredible example of a loving, healthy relationship, and I’d ignored all of that when I chose someone like Tessa.”
Jason pressed his lips against her shoulder. Georgia’s skin was soft as silk, so he let them linger there before he said, “I want to take you to my hometown for the holidays. We have a while yet, but I want my family to meet you. They’ll love you.”
“Jason?”
“Yeah,” he murmured, brushing a strand of that long, curly hair away from her heart-shaped cheeks that had gone rosy as the night had worn on.
“What if someday I asked you to Turn me?”
“I won’t.”
“But what if it’s what I wanted? What if I wanted your claiming mark?”
Jason sighed and lay down beside her. When she was nestled against his arm, he stared up at the cedar rafters above them. “I want to give you everything you want, Georgia. I want you to be happy. I want to be the one who makes you smile the most, but a bear isn’t something I can give you. Everything started going wrong when Tessa marked me. I don’t want you trapped in the same life.”
Georgia kissed his chest and snuggled closer to him, quiet and thoughtful now. Minutes passed before he realized her breathing had changed. It had deepened to the slow and steady rhythm of sleep. He pulled his eyes away from the rafters to look at her face. A tear track was still damp on her nose, and a tiny drop of moisture sat on his arm.
He brushed her heartache away and sucked it from his thumb to taste her tear. He deserved the pain it caused him, but he wouldn’t take his denial back.
He wouldn’t curse her like Tessa had done to him.
That’s not how love worked.
Chapter Nine
Jason followed Georgia’s laughter. It tinkled like a bell, echoing off the dilapidated wooden walls. Gray and splintered, the stairwell didn’t put him off—not if Georgia was laughing. If she was happy, everything was okay.
He raced up to the next landing and caught his first glimpse of her. Just a twitch of her hair as she disappeared to the next set of stairs. Damn, she was fast.
“Catch me if you can,” she sang.
Breathing hard, he leaned over the railing and looked up. The tower they were in seemed to stretch on forever. He frowned, but Georgia giggled again, and the sound warmed his heart.
She peeked her head out, waiting for him around the next corner, and just as he caught up to her, she took off again. He was tired and slow. Where had his shifter speed gone?
He climbed and climbed, always missing Georgia by inches. He just wanted to hold her and feel her laughter vibrating against his chest.
She skidded to a stop at the top landing. A wall had been cut out and a jagged walkway led to nothing. Beside the hole in the wall sat an ax, silver and shiny, sharp blade gleaming in the muted light.
Georgia turned, her eyes scared. She wore a white dress that whipped around her legs as she backed onto the platform.
“Georgia, don’t!”
She took another step back, and the fear in her eyes made way for sadness. “I trust you,” she whispered.
He lurched forward as she fell off the edge. Skidding on his stomach, he reached for her hand but only brushed her fingertips. “No!” he screamed as she fell down to oblivion.
And just before she disappeared, she opened her mouth and screamed as her skin melted away from her face and her bones turned to ash.
“She’s not for you,” a hard voice said from behind him.
He turned to find Tessa leaned on the porch railing just inside of the tower. With a roar of fury, he picked up the ax and rushed her. Just before he reached her, he locked his legs and skidded to a stop as he rotated his hips and blasted the ax toward her. The blade sliced through her like smoke, never really touching her, but it sank deep into a thick beam. It splintered, and the tower rocked. Jason yanked the ax out of the creaking wood.
“That’s right, Jason. Take us both down.” Tessa’s voice bounced off the walls before she appeared in front of the beam again. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
Madness consumed him. She’d done this—taken Georgia. He slammed the ax through her again, and the beam shattered inward.
Dust, rock, and wood rained down as the floor beneath his feet shifted.
Tessa appeared at his right as he gripped onto the splintering railing.
“All I ever wanted was for you to come with me,” she whispered.
****
Gasping, Jason lurched up. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he murmured as he struggled to breathe. Frantically, he patted Georgia’s arms and back, but she was warm and alive beside him in the treehouse. She was still here, under the bed they’d made with spare blankets, and all tucked up beside him.
A soft rattling sounded, stopped, then vibrated again. Jason cast the moon outside a frown, then padded over to his jeans in search of his phone. It was the middle of the night. Who the devil was calling him right now?
Beaston, the caller ID read.
“Hey, man,” he whispered. “Hang on.”
He shimmied into his jeans and opened the door as quietly as he could so he wouldn’t disturb Georgia. Out on the porch, he lifted the phone to his ear and said, “Sorry. I was trying not to wake someone.”
“Your ranger.”
Jason smiled and sighed. “Yeah, Georgia.”
“Are you in the treehouse?” Easton asked.
“How did you know?”
“I can hear it. The trees make different sounds.”
Jason crossed his arms over his chest to ward off the chilly breeze. “Oh.” A soft noise perked his senses up. Narrowing his eyes, Jason searched the woods as far as he could in the light of the half moon. Someone was crying.
No, not someone. Something.
“I burned the bones,” Easton murmured. “There was a guard, so it took me longer than I thought it would to get to her body. Is she gone?”
The sniffling, quiet crying got louder as the wind changed directions.
“No.”
“Shit.” Easton sighed on the other end. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Okay. Easton?”
“What?” Easton asked.
“Thanks for trying to help me. It means a lot.”
The line was quiet so long, Jason thought he’d already hung up.
“You’re my best friend,” Easton muttered.
The line went dead, and Jason pulled the phone back to stare at the screen as the glow faded.
He’d thought Easton wasn’t capable of wanting friendship. Sure, he’d softened up to Willa and Gia, but he was always ready to fight when it came to him and the other men in the Gray Backs.
The corners of Jason’s lips lifted in a baffled smile.
He’d never been anyone’s best friend before.
A pathetic whimper pulled his attention from the phone in his hands. With a sigh, he climbed down the ladder, then moved through the brush toward the sound of Tessa’s misery.
He wasn’t a stupid man. Tessa couldn’t get close to him when he was with Georgia, so she had to use what she could as bait to lure him farther away from his mate. Did he want to be out here in the dead of night half naked in the cold? Hell no. But he also knew Tessa enough to realize she wasn’t going to stop with the sniffling until he gave her whatever attention she needed. And he had to be up in a couple hours for work on the landing. He needed sleep.
She sat against a tree, knees to her chest, face buried on her arms as she cried. Her vulnerability wasn’t what stopped him in his tracks, though. Tessa was only half a ghost. He could see right through her to the rough tree bark behind her.
Jason leaned against a tree and crossed his arms over his chest. “Why did you give me that nightmare, Tessa?”
She looked up at him with startled eyes, but he knew this game. She sniffed and stood. “Because you won’t listen to me.”
“What are you talking about? I have no choice. You talk all the fucking time.”
“But you don’t hear me. I don’t want to leave. Not without you. And now look what you’ve done to me.” She looked down at her transparent body.
The burning of her bones had done this.
“I don’t want to come with you, Tessa. And if you ever cared for me, you wouldn’t ask.”
“I do care for you. Why do you think I’m here waiting? And now you’re with her. I heard you bonding with her. What about our bond?”
“We didn’t ever have one! Tessa, a bond isn’t just temporarily liking someone and wanting to fuck them on the regular. A bond is unbreakable stitches that hold your heart right up against someone else’s. If you’d ever bonded to me, you wouldn’t have left me for another mate. You couldn’t have. I’m not going with you. I’m not dying so you can use me as a crutch.”
“You love me!”
“I don’t. I haven’t in a long time. I pity you, but no, I don’t love you.”
Tessa’s voice dipped to a whisper. “But you don’t love her.”
Jason shifted his weight and held her gaze so she could see the honesty in his eyes when he said, “Wrong again.”
Tessa’s eyes blazed as she opened her mouth, but Jason had expected this. He turned away from her gory show and walked back to the treehouse.
By the time he’d reached the bottom rung of the ladder, Tessa’s scream had faded away.
Chapter Ten
Jason couldn’t take his eyes off Georgia. She drove this way and that on her ATV, standing straight up, arms locked on the handlebars as she scanned the forest floor in front of her.
He hadn’t meant to stalk her, only to meet up with her, but when he’d followed her scent from the ranger tower out here, he hadn’t been able to stop observing her. He didn’t know this Georgia. Not yet.
She revved the motor and pulled her four-wheeler around a clump of brush. She was wearing a brown, button-down shirt that clung to that hourglass figure he found so damned sexy. Her thick cargo pants clung to her ass just right, and her hair was in a ponytail, whipping behind her when she gunned the accelerator. Her puff jacket was open and a long hunting knife hung down from her belt on one side, a handgun on the other. Both of which she wore and maneuvered around as if the weapons were an extension of herself.
Georgia was a badass.
His dick thumped against the seam of his jeans as he moved forward to show himself. Her eyes met his the second he moved. Surprise faded to relief, then to happiness as her face brightened with that gorgeous smile he breathed for.
Her cheeks were rosy from the cold, and her breath, like his, steamed out in front of her on every exhale as she drove toward him. God, she was beautiful.
“What are you looking for?”
Her smile slipped. “Bodies.”
“What?”
“We have a poacher problem I’m trying to work out. They keep moving inward, closer to Boarlander territory, and it has me nervous. I need to stop them before they get bold enough, and close enough, to take a bear, if you catch my drift. I’ve already warned Harrison and his crew, and they’re on the lookout, but I’ve dealt with this crap before, and these people aren’t acting like regular poachers. They aren’t the get in, take their animals illegally, and get out type. I’ve found three old campsites. That’s ballsy, setting up tents and staying overnight.”
“Maybe they don’t know it’s private land.”
“How could they not? They have to pass through gates with no trespassing signs on them.”
“Hmm,” Jason said. Uneasiness slipped over his shoulders thinking about his mate going head-to-head with these assholes, but this was her job. And like she’d said, she’d dealt with poachers before. Still, his instincts were blaring to tuck her up against him where she would be safe and protected. But he’d learned from Gia and Willa, if they’re mate became overbearing like that, those Gray Back women would put the hurt on them. He suspected Georgia was no different and just as strong.
“You know what gets me?” she asked, scanning the woods with a troubled furrow to her delicate eyebrows. “They aren’t keeping their kills. Hunters are respectful about taking meat, but these guys? They’re just shooting for sport.” She swung her bright gaze back to Jason. “I’ve never seen poachers leave their game behind like this. Bad shots and not even trying to track down the a
nimals.”
“You want me to sniff around? See if I can’t find something you missed?”
“You mean as a bear?”
“Yeah.”
“Nope. I don’t want your animal anywhere near here. Plus, I’m terrified of bears, remember? Now hop on up here and take me back to the ranger tower, sexy dick.” Georgia slapped her hand over her mouth as her eyes went wide. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I just said that.”
Jason laughed and pulled her hand away from her mouth. “Said what? Dick?”
“I don’t cuss.”
“Ranger, I think it’s sexy when you let naughty words slip. Call me sexy dick whenever you want.”
Her cheeks blazed bright red, making her freckles disappear completely. Damn she was cute. He leaned forward and kissed her, nipping her lip right before he pulled away. He climbed in front of her on the ATV and pulled her arms around his waist. It felt as if she’d been made to fit right against him like this. He revved the engine, then hit the gas. Georgia laughed breathlessly as he sped through the piney woods toward the treehouse.
Over the sound of the whipping wind, Georgia asked, “How was Tessa today?”
Relentless, haunting, heartbreaking. When the ghost wasn’t spewing hate at him, her sobbing rattled around in his mind, making it hard to focus on working the processor up on the landing. With Clinton gone, he’d taken over the big machine to strip the lumber into neat, limbless logs with perfectly cut ends. The entire shift had been a miserable affair as he operated heavy machinery in the midst of Tessa’s efforts to ruin his confidence. Georgia didn’t have to know how much Tessa had been battering him, though. She would only worry and put her job on hold to come up to the landing if she thought she could protect him. That’s how Georgia was. Selfless.
“Tessa was fine.”
“Good. When is Easton getting home? I picked him up a present.”