Claim the Bear by T. S. Joyce Read Free Book Online Page B

what I’ve just got us both into and how to fix this.”
    How much was she allowed to tell this stranger? And what was off limits so she could avoid betraying her pride? Were they her pride anymore, or had she just landed ass first into the middle of a clan of bear shifters?
    She studied his profile. Straight nose, smile lines of which she had yet to see a single smile, short, touchable hair on the sides with that sexy messy look up top. His teeth were straight and white. She knew because she couldn’t take her eyes from his snarl when he growled. He’d done that a lot since she’d met him.
    “What?” he asked. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
    As heat flooded her cheeks, she turned away and bit her lip.
    “You’re going to have to learn to talk to me, kitty. I’m your only ally up here, and things are about to get real hairy when we get to Bron’s house. What?”
    “It’s really obvious you are way out of my league, Dillon,” she said in a cowardly whisper.
    He made a single clicking sound behind his teeth and twitched his neck like she was being ridiculous. “Look, what Asshole Thomas was saying, that’s all bullcrap. You know that, right? It’s not real. That’s what men like him say to keep woman under their thumbs.” His voice lowered. “That’s what my dad used to do to my mom. He was just trying to get to you.”
    “It wasn’t just Thomas. Everyone knows what I am.”
    “And what are you,” he said, taking his eyes from the road long enough to challenge her with a hard look.
    “Useless.”
    “Bullshit. If you were useless, why would they want you back so badly?”
    “Because I’m supposed to be bred by Thomas,” she blurted out.
    “Bred? What does that mean?”
    She rubbed her cheeks in an effort to cool them down. “It means it’s my turn to give the pride a cub.”
    “Do you want a cub?” he asked in a careful voice.
    “Someday. Maybe. I’m at the bottom of our pride, like Thomas said. I’ve always been in charge of the nursery. I raise the cubs while the mothers go about their business. The fathers are never involved and I want something different.” Her voice lowered to a whisper. “I wanted what Logan has.”
    “A love match?”
    Tears stung her eyes and she rested her cheek against the cool glass of the window. “Yeah. A love match. I didn’t know the words for it, but that’s what I wanted. Which is just another thing that makes me useless as a lioness. I think too differently.”
    Dillon slid a big, comforting hand down her leg and squeezed her knee. “I messed it all up for you, didn’t I?”
    “It’s okay. You took a big risk, saving me from Thomas. If I can’t have a love match, I’d rather be claimed by someone who would protect me instead of hurt me.”
    Dillon’s eyes pooled with sadness and he drew her across the bench seat until she was nestled into his side. It felt nice, absorbing his warmth. And strangely, a humming feeling drifted over her. Everything hurt and she was headed for utter disaster and annihilation with Bronson Cress, alpha of the Hells Canyon shifters, but here in the cab of her new stranger mate’s truck, she felt safe for the first time in her life.
    “Whatever happens at Bron’s house tonight, you can’t change into your lion. No matter what, you stay human, and you keep your head down.”
    “What’s going to happen?”
    “I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “Nothing good.”
    “Dillon?”
    “Hmm?”
    “How did you know to bite my neck?”
    Dillon guided her head forward and moved her hair to the side, then sucked air through his front teeth. “I think I went too deep. I’ll take care of it. You mentioned Logan. He’s one of my best friends. Everything I know about your people, I learned from him.”
    “He told you how to claim a lioness?”
    “He claimed his mate Muriel that way. She is a black bear shifter and didn’t know what it meant, but she found out eventually. Nearly mauled him.”
    Breshia’s