Read Wild Bear for Free Online

pointing to herself. “This means nothing. Why the hell do you keep looking at it? And what the hell were you doing not using a condom?”
    He tilted his head. “Why would I do that? You asked me to take you.”
    She blinked, looking guilty but like she didn’t want to face it. “Fine. It’s my fault too. But it’s a mistake. That’s all it is.”
    He took a step forward, a bad, nervous feeling waving through him for the first time since he’d laid hands on her. “It’s not a mistake. It’s forever.”
    Her eyes went even wider, her mouth gaping in anger, and then she was standing, dragging the sheet with her as she went into the living room. She knelt over her clothes and then let out a shriek of anger as she found them in scraps.
    Maverick scratched the back of his head. Maybe he could have taken it a little easier with that. But when the mating heat had taken over…
    “So,” she said, waving what was left of her shirt around as she gathered up her clothes. “You think you can just take me without protection and that means some kind of permanence?” She shook her head, still irate. “You owe me a new bra!” She threw hers on the ground, irritated.
    “I do think it means that,” he said. “Why else would you let me do it?”
    She stormed toward him, still holding the sheet around her. She looked tiny and angry, and he was trying not to find it adorable. He frowned down at her in response.
    “Because it was fun!” she said, waving her hands like a maniac. “Because I thought you were hot. Because I had to get this,” she gestured between them, “out of my system!”
    His frown deepened, and the chasm inside him started to feel bottomless and yawning. His mate was rejecting him. Had used him.
    “You want me out of your system?” he asked in a tight voice.
    She had the awareness to look sufficiently ashamed for having said it. “Yes. Any man who thinks he can use that to pin me down isn’t someone I need around.”
    “It’s not about the ranch,” he said. “If that’s what you’re thinking.”
    “What?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “Wait, what about the ranch?
    Maverick had a feeling this was when he should shut his mouth. But his lack of inhibition won out, as usual. “We have to find mates in order to keep our land, according to our father’s will.”
    She looked like she was almost exploding with anger as she took a step forward, jabbing him in the chest with each word. “So let me get this straight. You tried to take me… for a ranch?”
    He shook his head.
    She whirled on him, letting out a frustrated noise. “I can’t freaking believe it.” She turned back to him. “Wait, do Bonnie and Ruby know? I have to tell them!”
    She rushed for the door, and Maverick growled and ran forward, catching her easily around the waist and dragging her back against him.
    “Stop it! I’m going!” she said.
    “Not like that you’re not,” he said, hauling her up in his arms and carrying her back to the bedroom. He tossed her back on the bed, and she looked up at him with a furious glare. “No one sees my mate naked.”
    She pushed hair out of her face. “For the last time, I’m not your mate,” she said. She sighed. “And as for what we did, I’m on birth control, so don’t worry about it. None of those ‘permanent’ consequences.”
    “What do you mean birth control?”
    She put a hand to her face and sighed. “Oh, come on. What do you think I mean? Birth control. As in the pills women take to prevent getting pregnant. Come on.”
    Maverick just stood there, stunned. He hadn’t thought about that. Did that even apply to shifters? How did that affect mating?
    For once, he was totally caught off guard.
    And it was clear she was seething, wanting to leave. Somehow, this had all gone very wrong, and keeping her here wasn’t going to fix it.
    Even if things had been so hot between them, so amazing, it was clear she was determined to be angry with him.
    But what was wrong?