Donovan (The Shifters of Eagle Creek Book 1) Read online

  My coyote purred inside, liking what she was seeing. I told her to shut up.

  With another bark at Donovan, I feigned forward again, almost catching his left shoulder in my jaws. He stumbled backward but didn’t fight back. I readied for another charge, but then he roared at me. I felt the hot air from his breath and smelled that distinct scent of man again. It made me instantly cower, the submissive coyote inside of me knowing when she needed to back off.

  Donovan dropped to the ground, tucked his head, and let the magic of the shift take over. His body shuddered just a moment before switching from beast to man. He lay on the forest floor, arms and legs underneath him, and took several deep breaths before lifting his gaze up to mine. His golden eyes focused so sharply on my own that I found my mouth hanging open. His dark skin, cropped hair, chiseled jaw, and miles of muscles made him the most stunning specimen I’d ever seen. Even the scar down the left side of his cheek couldn’t mask the beauty hidden underneath. I sat, unsure of why he’d taken the risk of changing back into a human.

  Raising his left hand, he whispered, “Mariah, it’s me. Donovan Bain.”

  I nodded my coyote head, letting him know I understood but not changing back just yet.

  “Can we talk?” he asked.

  Shaking my head, I took a few steps away from him. I didn’t think I had anything to say.

  Donovan pushed up to standing, his full naked body on display and I had to hang my head to look away from all of his perfect attributes. “Mariah, I know you’ve been camping out here and I want to invite you back to my place.”

  What? No. No, I couldn’t do that, right? I skittered away from his steps.

  “Mariah, please change back so we can talk.”

  I turned and started to run. But damn him if he wasn’t just as fast as a human. In less than two steps, his large body landed hard on top of my back and we both crashed to the ground. The force of the fall knocked my breath away and also scared the coyote back into hiding. I would fight with her later, but now I was too concerned with the way my body was shifting back to human right underneath the beast named Donovan.

  I wiggled and squirmed and tried my best to get away, but his large hands grabbed my wrists and flipped me around on my back before I could even scream his name. Donovan stared down at me and I instantly slipped into a different mindset. The man I’d lusted after for so many months now lay on top of me, naked and large, and he felt so…amazing.

  “What are you doing?” I breathed.

  He smiled down at me. “Just making sure you aren’t going to claw my face off.”

  I huffed. “Well, maybe you should have thought about that before you captured me.”

  His eyes narrowed at the word capture, and I instantly had a thousand more questions for him. But I didn’t get a chance to answer because a split second later, Donovan’s lips were pressing down firmly against mine. Those large, soft lips that tasted like honey in winter. His scent excited me in ways I’d never experienced before, and in no time at all, I found myself pushing my tongue into his mouth and begging for more. Donovan moaned on top of me and ground his thick, hard cock against my folds. The dirt beneath me dug into my back, but that only made me want him more. The pain with the pleasure—I’d always been a fan of mixing the two together.

  Donovan pulled away from the kiss and stared down at me. “I can’t believe I’m finally doing this,” he said. “I haven’t stopped thinking about you since Nenana.”

  My heart fluttered at hearing those words, yet there was still something inside that was restless and independent and didn’t want to be owned. I may have lusted after Donovan Bain for months, but he didn’t get to have me this easily.

  I slid my fingers along the defined muscles of his rib cage and rubbed them inside toward his pecks. Jesus, this man was ripped and I knew I didn’t really want to end this now. But I had to take back some of my control. So, I got my hands ready and I pushed up against him with everything I had. He flew back, caught off guard, and that gave me the chance to whip around to my feet and take off running.

  He laughed and I instantly knew he liked the chase as much as I did. With a smile on my face, I ran. Hearing his footsteps pounding behind me had me basking in the anticipation of what he would do when he caught me. I could hear his laugh, smell his arousal, and I knew that if he caught me…I would be his forever.

  I scrambled down a small hill and jumped off an outcropping ten feet high. Donovan didn’t even slow as he took the jump and made up some ground. And just as I saw my tent in between a circle of pine trees, I felt his breath on my neck. Then his hand on my arms. And then he had me.

  From behind, he wrapped his thick arms around my breasts and squeezed them tight. “Don’t you know running from lions is a dangerous thing?” he breathed against my ear and I shivered.

  “Don’t you know catching a coyote is bad luck?”

  He laughed against me and then slid his large hand in between my legs. With a single flick of his finger, he found my clit and melted my knees. Breathing into my ear, he continued to tease. “I’ve wanted you for so long. There is no way I will let you go now.” He pushed a finger inside and I felt his cock twitch against my lower back.

  “What if I say no?” I whispered, fully aware that I had no intention of turning this man down.

  “Then I will leave you be,” he said quickly. But then, he grabbed my head and gently pushed it to the side where he started working on my neck. His teeth brushed against the most erotic zone of my body as his fingers on the other hand worked their magic.

  I wouldn’t last much longer like this.

  Wiggling out of his grip, I turned to face him, grabbed his cheeks, and pushed my lips against his. He responded instantly, picking me up and carrying us over to the closest tree. With my back brushed up against it, the pain igniting another fire, he caressed every part of my body he could reach. I wrapped my fingers around his erection and stroked him several times. Enjoying the way he melted under my touch, I slowly started to guide him toward my entrance. He didn’t miss the signal at all, but quickly set me on my feet, whipped me around, and pressed my front against the tree. And before I could even smile, he pushed himself inside from behind.

  All that man. All that beast of a lion, filled me up. He stretched me slowly as he entered, the feeling of fullness exciting me in a whole new way. His arm wrapped around my chest, protecting it from the bark. His right hand slid down my ass and then my thigh, until he lifted up my leg so he could get all the way inside. Donovan was tall, much taller than me, but somehow it all worked. His giant cock throbbed as he slowly slid it in and out of my sex. The wildness of him, and the way I’d wanted to feel this for so long, had me panting his name in no time at all. Donovan pushed inside even harder as I called out his name. The hand holding my leg slid around to the front so he could reach my clit again. And in just three or four flicks of his magical fingers, I felt the orgasm racing to the surface.

  I pushed my head back against his shoulder and screamed into the air as I came. He pounded me hard from behind, each thrust timed perfectly with my pulses of ecstasy. But when I was finished, I was surprised when he pulled out, turned me around and lifted me up to his waist.

  “Oh, we’re not done yet little coyote.”

  I kissed his lips while he lowered my hips onto his dick. As I held onto his shoulders, he moved my body up and down over his erection, getting faster and harder with each thrust. The movement hit the perfect spot on my already swollen sex and this time I clenched him hard as I felt his erection grow and throb inside. Donovan exploded with an orgasm just moments before I let my second one have my body. He bit down on my shoulder hard enough to bruise but not hard enough to draw blood. My love of pain mixed with pleasure had me screaming his name yet again as we came together for the first time. His hot seed exploded into my body, igniting another fire inside of me that was unfamiliar, yet welcomed.

  The sex was wild and rough and animalistic…and I couldn’t have imagined
anything better with him. Donovan had been in my lustful dreams for months, but they’d been nothing compared to the real deal. He held me close as his body finished shuddering with release. I squeezed my legs and my arms tight, not wanting this—whatever this was—to be over yet.

  I didn’t know how long we’d been there, locked together like two star-crossed lovers, before Donovan finally set me down. Losing the heat of his body and the feel of him inside, had me missing him the moment my feet hit the leaves. Like our souls couldn’t part, I felt an instant emptiness that scared the shit out of me.

  Donovan looked down at my face and brushed his fingers against my cheek. “It’s good to see you again,” he teased.

  I laughed and shook my head. “Is this how you greet all of the females?” I’d meant it as a joke, but something instantly changed in him.

  “No,” he said stiffly.

  “I was just kidding,” I whispered. But it was too late. I’d done something wrong.

  Donovan stepped away from me, brushing his hands against his shaved head. “I…I should go. But I meant what I said. You can come stay with us. You don’t have to be out here by yourself.”

  Hurt by his abrupt change in demeanor, I instantly went on the defensive. It wasn’t a trait I was proud of, and I fully admitted I needed to work on it. But still, I couldn’t stop the anger from seeping into my words. “I can take care of myself,” I snapped.

  He sighed and hung his head. “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Well, what did you mean?” Taking a few more steps away, I could smell the lion on him and knew he was about to run. “Don’t leave me, Donovan,” I pleaded, hating the way my voice trembled. “You can’t just fuck me and run away.”

  His golden eyes found mine and in them I saw the tears and the torment. For a man who’d just enjoyed himself so thoroughly a few minutes ago, he now looked like his life was about to end. “We shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have…” his words faded into a sigh. “I’m sorry, Mariah. But I can’t do this. I’m not good enough.”

  And before I could question him some more, he lept into the air, let the lion have his skin, and was out of sight by the time I blinked. I wanted to chase after him and make him explain how he could be so into me one second and freaking out the next, but I didn’t. I wanted to scream obscenities into the air after him so everyone around would know what an asshole he was, but I didn’t.

  Instead, I fell to the ground, torn over whether to be pissed or crushed. How could he not be good enough for me? How could he lust after me for so long, and then flee once he got what he wanted? Don’t be stupid, Mariah. You know men. Yes, I knew how men liked to take what they wanted without regard for anyone else’s feelings. But Donovan hadn’t struck me as one of those men.

  Donovan was strong and passionate. He’d wanted me for a long time, just as I’d wanted him. He wasn’t one of those guys who’d fuck and run, right? As I heard his roar echoing in the darkness now falling across the sky, I knew he was a tortured soul.

  And I didn’t run away from someone who needed my help.

  I ran all night.

  I ran far enough I almost made it to the outskirts of Fairbanks. That was a three hour drive one-way, and I’d managed to do it on foot. Or, well, on four feet. So by the time I got back to the woods surrounding our camp at Eagle Creek, I thought I’d finally run the Mariah out of me.

  It wasn’t that I didn’t like her. Hell, I couldn’t control myself around her, I wanted her so bad. But I wasn’t meant to be hers. She deserved someone strong and in control and able to be a good mate, provider, and father. I was none of those things. My animal controlled me most of the time. I worked a seasonal job on the fishing vessels, and I didn’t think I was able to have children considering what had happened to my animal years ago.

  I wasn’t meant to be hers.

  Yet I also couldn’t shake this nagging feeling in my chest that I needed to find her and apologize. I didn’t simply fuck anyone and I certainly didn’t run all night afterward. She deserved an explanation but I was sure she would have packed up and left. I know I would have had it been reversed.

  I trudged back toward the spot where I’d stood with Rhys last night. My clothes were still there, although damp and partially frozen from the chilled air. Slipping into my jeans, I opted to forgo the shirt and work boots and just get back to my cabin. When I’d arrived at this place and met Rhys, there were three hunting cabins on the property. Somehow, Rhys had managed to stake a claim on the land—a story I’d yet to hear the whole truth about. The cabins were in rough shape. Run-down siding, no indoor plumbing, and no electrical hook up. But after a few months, I’d managed to fix up my place, got solar and plumbing, and had carved out a nice little den for my wayward lion. As much as my past tended to haunt me, I still felt safe in small spaces. A part of me hated that, but the more stable part justified that absurd need.

  As I jogged down the hill that formed a rim around the camp, I noticed one particularly bright yellow tent on the edges of the flat area. Mariah was here. At first, I wanted to run over to her, pick her up, kiss those soft lips again, and apologize over and over. Yet, I couldn’t force my feet to move. My lion growled at me, demanding a chance to make things right. Even my human side ached with an unfamiliar pain in my chest—craving some type of companionship. But I didn’t move. Especially when I saw her talking to one of the young wolves. No, not talking. Laughing. She was laughing at something he said and when she brushed her hand against his arm I let out a growl. The shifters huddled in their makeshift camps around me, cowered back under their tents. Good, they should be scared. She should be scared of me.

  Mariah laughed again and I crushed the work boot under my grip. The rubber gave way to my strength but it was better the boot than someone’s head. But really, I had no reason to be jealous. I wasn’t mate material. I couldn’t provide for Mariah.

  Yeah. That’s what I needed to keep telling myself.

  I tried not to look up ahead where the yellow tent was. Instead, I glanced off to the right and to the left, acting like I was taking in the scene but all the while trying to avoid seeing her again. I was so focused on not looking her way, that when I stepped in something warm and squishy, I almost didn’t realize what it was.

  “What the hell?” I said as I looked down at the brown sludge pushing out between my toes. Then I caught a whiff and anger surged through my bones in out into every single cell. I snapped. “Who the fuck took a shit in the middle of camp?” I yelled through gritted teeth, feeling my animal itching to get out. “Who the fuck did this?”

  To my left, a group of twenty-somethings with dreads, tattoos, and bloodshot eyes started to laugh. There were two men and two women and based on their smell, I’d pegged them for some kind of small shifters like a lynx or a fox. Whipping my head toward them, I stomped forward.

  “Do you know anything about this?” I shouted down at them.

  They weren’t laughing as much, but they clearly didn’t get the idea that I was ready to tear their heads off. “No, man. It wasn’t us. We just think it was…you know, poetic or something.”

  I kicked my foot out at the guy with the longest dreads and the dumbest facial piercings I’d ever seen and watched as the shit once clinging to the bottom of my foot smacked him in the face.

  “Whoa, asshole,” one of the girls said. “That is so not cool. I mean, who do you think you are?” She was standing now, and by the scent of her, she was the most dominant of the group.

  “Who the fuck am I?” I growled in her face. “Who the fuck am I? I run this place and you need to leave. Right. Fucking. Now.” My heart pounded against my ribs, threatening to break through. I felt the lion on the surface and if these fuckers didn’t get out of my face right now, I was seriously going to let him have at it.

  “Donovan!” Mariah’s voice cut through me like a sword. She was the last person I wanted to see right now.

  “Donovan?” the other guy said with a smirk. “What kind of
a name is Donovan?”

  Two seconds later my lion had him pinned to the ground.

  “Donovan, stop!”

  Max and Rhys both yelled at the same time, but it was too late. The dominant woman shifter quickly slipped into her animal, a lynx all full of claws and teeth. She was on my back in an instant, her fangs trying to tear into my skin as she dug her claws in tight. Three more tiny cats ganged up on me, all while I had the man trapped against the ground. He looked like he was trying to shift, but my weight on his body prevented it.

  I got a chunk of someone’s leg in my mouth and bit down hard enough to hit bone. They screamed, a feral shriek coming from a giant house cat and a noise that egged my lion on even more. I got in one more nip before I felt the three bodies being ripped off me. Rhys and Mariah had the dominant female, Max grabbed the second female, and some of the other shifters I didn’t know had pulled the last male off my back. He was the one I’d bit, I could smell the blood.

  “Change back now!” Rhys demanded. I knew he’d had experience dealing with unstable wolves, but the way he handled these lynxes had me wondering just how much experience he’d had. Max held the female in a choke hold until she passed out. The other men, two transients, sat on top of the injured guy who’d already shifted back.

  Rhys held the female lynx by the scruff of her neck like she weighed nothing at all. And she wasn’t that tiny—at least not compared to Rhys in his human form. She hissed and spat and clawed at the air, her eyes only looking at me. So, I turned, slowly like a predator, and started stalking her way.

  “Donovan, don’t,” Rhys warned.

  I took another step forward being sure to lick my canines in anticipation of ripping open her soft stomach. The lion rumbled.

  “Donovan!” Rhys shouted this time, but he could not control me. No one here could control my lion.