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Grrrr.
He closed his eyes to settle his beast.The Bruin inside him wanted to claim her more than he wanted his next breath.It was a difficult battle, the Bear nearly out of control with longing, but Eddie’s human side was master here.
She was an angel, and he was so far from perfect.He just had to look at himself to see it.His skin was marred by countless battles.Both beast and human skins marked up like he’d seen a thousand wars.Sometimes, he felt like he had.Bullets, knives, teeth, claws, shrapnel, and even Dragonfire had worked against him, scarring him on the inside and out.
Still, he wanted her.Nothing could stop him from feeling that intense desire of true mates.All the legends said a Shifter would go mad if he did not claim his fated mate.Eddie was not sure about that.But sometimes, it felt like they had it right.
Fuck.What was he going to do?He could not claim her.She deserved more.But he could not sit there and watch her take her clothes off and shake her ass for the paying public.Just the thought made him want to tear someone’s fucking head off.
Grrrrrr.Mine.
No more.He just could not take anymore.Eduardo thrust his tablet into the hands of one of his security guards, a young Panther named Carlo.He gave him terse instructions to place the thing inside Eddie’s office, and then he took off.
Forty-five minutes later, Eddie pulled over on a back road close to a wooded area.He wasn’t even paying attention to where he was going, noticing too late he was on his way to Short Hills.That was where Konstantin and his family lived on a sprawling compound.
He should know.Eduardo had only recently moved out of the guest house, having made a menace of himself after they’d rescued Alina from the Ivanovich motherfuckers who had kidnapped her from Russia.It had almost killed him, leaving the place she slept.
Not that he went far.Eduardo grabbed a rental only a few minutes away, sating his beast by driving by several times a night to ensure she was safe.Damn it.This was no way to live.He knew that, but it was a cycle he could not break.His Bear roared deep within him.The beast scratching at his skin.
Eddie almost didn’t make it out of the car before his Bruin ripped out of him, landing on the snow covered ground in a crash of claws and rage.His clothes were ruined, but he did not give a rat’s ass.
His beast was angry and feeling territorial.Standing at his Grizzly’s full height of nine and a half feet tall and weighing fourteen hundred pounds, Eduardo’s beast let an earth-shattering roar explode from his prehensile lips before he went to town on half a dozen oak trees.
His five inch long claws made easy work of tearing through the bark.When he was finished, he hunted up some dinner, foraging for whatever was left of the nuts that had fallen from the trees.Afterward, he went for a dip in the tiny creek that ran behind rows of expensive houses dotting the landscape.Eddie exited the water, shaking his fur and grunting softly.He paused and looked around, realizing he’d moved further away from his car than intended.
Fuck.I know this place.Goddamned Bear.
The soft sound of singing reached his Grizzly’s sensitive ears, and he stilled.Shit.How much time had passed?He must have been in his fur for hours.Unable to help himself, he followed the sounds of singing as it grew louder.The further he walked, the more he felt the pull towards the source of all that music.A few moments later, Eddie found himself standing at the edge of Konstantin’s property.
His lovesick monster had brought him to her.Damn.Damn.Damn.Tension roiled through him like a thousand bees stinging his skin, and no sooner had he spied her than his body began to break.The pain was agonizing, but he was used to that.
The popping sounds of his bones breaking and reknitting were loud in his ears, but they were replaced by the gentle whispering of the female he was so utterly obsessed with.
“Shhh.Moy bogatyr, be still now.”
“Alina,” he growled, a panting mess on his knees before her.
Well, fuck.At least the position was correct.He should be at her knees, unworthy fucker that he was.Eddie grunted as his body finished resetting itself.The change was something he did not fully understand, or if he did, well, he sure as fuck could not explain it.
He’d been born with the Bear, but the shift from human to beast and back was just about as magical as it got.Only, it wasn’t the Disney kind of fairytale magic.It was brutal, bloody, and a daily fucking occurrence.But Eddie could not imagine life without his Bear.
Still, he wished the fucker would listen better.Alina was not for him.He didn’t want to look at her, but he could not help himself.She stood in the winter frosted garden of her brother’s home in a nightgown, like some sort of snow fairy, and his breath caught in his throat.
Her dark blonde brows were furrowed, and a breeze stirred her hair.Fuck, she had it down.Of course she did.It was late.He must have been in the woods for even longer than he suspected.Eddie had a thing for hair.Especially hers.Long, shiny, blonde, it swirled around her shoulders like a living thing, one lock dipping inside the front of the tiny slip of a nightgown she wore.
“What are you doing outside alone at this time of night?”he asked, shaking off the last of his change.
He did not bother to ask if she was cold.The woman had a Siberian Tiger inside of her.New Jersey winters had nothing on the kind of cold she was used to.
“I was just walking.Sometimes I can’t sleep, and walking helps.”
“You were singing,” he stated.
“Yes, it relaxes me.Today was long,” she whispered, and her eyes seemed to glow so bright they were almost white.
Fucking gorgeous.
Eduardo could relate to her statement.Today had been long.He cleared his throat, unembarrassed by his nudity.Shifters were used to that, and it was bad manners to stare.Alina was a Tigress, she knew the deal.She kept her eyes on his face.
