Authors: Anya Nowlan
Jonah was made of rippling muscles and hard, unyielding strength. His determined hazel eyes held the quiet power of both the man and the bear, and Callie had to bite down on a small gasp as he flexed, once more getting used to the nimble body of a man. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing up and she balled her hands into fists, trying to contain her lust for the hot man in front of her. Her man. She thought she had managed to hide it well enough, but Jonah’s smirk told another story. He stepped closer to her and grabbed her with a quick, harsh motion, pressing her against his chiseled body. Callie murmured in protest, but the strangled words quickly died as Jonah pressed his lips to hers and drank from their kiss. She melted into him, her soft lines welcoming his touch as Jonah’s hands trailed down her back and cupped her ass. When he squeezed her butt, she yelped and batted at his chest, drawing away from the kiss.
“Hey! Behave!”
“Oh come on, you can’t expect me to play nice when you look like that, and kiss me like
that
,” Jonah said, licking his lips like a predator about to pounce on his prey.
“Like what?” Callie asked, not sure whether she meant to tease or if she really wanted to know.
Why not both?
“Like you’re just about ready to be bent over the kitchen table and taken long,
slow
, and hard, Calliope,” Jonah whispered, each word striking Callie to the core. She moaned as he nipped at her lower lip with his teeth, and she felt the hardness of his erection against her, beckoning her to give in to the deliciousness that a night with him would promise. It was so hard fighting against it, especially because she knew exactly what he wanted to do to her, and how he could do it. Jonah was just inching his kisses down her neck when Callie pushed away from him, shaking herself all over when she got a few feet of distance between them.
“What did I do!?” Jonah asked, looking like a boy whose favorite toy had just been unceremoniously yanked from his hands.
“You know what you did,” Callie growled through her teeth, though she couldn’t hide the smile that wanted to come to her lips. They were still hot and flushed from Jonah’s kiss – a perfect ruby bows that just needed to be smothered by a demanding mouth. “I can’t think when you do that. Be all hot and charming and…”
“And what?” Jonah asked, quirking a brow slightly. He tucked his hands into his pockets and shifted uncomfortably, obviously wishing that he could get rid of the distance she kept wanting to create between them, both physically and mentally.
“And
hard
.” Callie hissed, turning her back to him. Her core throbbed with need, and she was wet from just the heated kiss.
Lord knows what would happen if we did it now. I’d probably explode into superheated, needy dust.
Jonah chuckled, and the next thing Callie knew, she had been picked up easily and carried to a fallen log overlooking the wide-open scene of Montana magic that surrounded them. Jonah sat down and settled her on his lap, making it look like hauling her curvy form was no trouble at all. Of course, to him, it really was nothing. Callie had tried dating a human during her first year of college, but she’d quickly learned that no matter how big a human looked, he could never measure up to the size or strength of a werebear. It really only took one experience to show Callie that once you go werebear, you never go back.
“Hush,” Jonah said as Callie grumbled softly, his arm snaking around her stomach and pulling her tight to him. “Now, enjoy your victory.”
As much as she wanted to wail in protest, being so close to him was too cozy to pass up on. With a sigh, she draped her arms around his neck and dipped her head to rest on his shoulder. The scenery was beautiful. They’d been waiting for the first snowfall, and Callie was sure it would come any day now and cover the lands in a soft, white blanket. She closed her eyes and smiled to herself, taking advantage of the moment. All the trouble and turmoil that seemed to haunt them drifted away for a second, giving her the sensation of pure bliss she had become so accustomed to in their everyday life back in Texas. Every evening when she got back from her law classes, Jonah would already be home, greeting her with open arms and an open heart. Though their relationship had started off rocky, with Jonah obviously scarred by battle and the thirst for blood roaring in him – as it did in so many young werebears – Callie had found a way to soothe his frazzled mind with her understanding presence. She had got to show him the care she had always wished she could have shown her brother when he went through his own painful experience by losing his place in life. Callie hadn’t managed to save Christopher, but she had succeeded with Jonah.
Her fingers trailed down the front of his jacket, unzipping it so she could slip a hand between the thick leather and the soft cotton of his t-shirt. His heart beat strongly in his chest, and she was taken back to one of their first dates, when she had listened to his heart pound like a trapped animal in a cage.
“Do you remember that night when we walked in St. Edward’s Park?” Callie asked, nuzzling her face into his neck. Her long dark curls must have been lapping at his chin and tickling him, because he patted them down with one hand, brushing her hair gently.
“Of course I do.”
“Do you remember when we kissed there for the first time? Under the big ash tree?”
Jonah nodded, letting his hand run the course of her long hair over and over again. “Yes. I was out of the Marines for the fourth week and I’d had my first night of solid sleep. On your couch, no less. And you said we should go take a walk so I could maybe sleep another night,” he said, the subtle tone of reminiscing creeping into his words. “I thought you looked stunning. It was like I hadn’t seen you clearly before – like a fog had lifted. It was almost sunset, and the pink light was dancing on your hair and cheeks, and I thought it was then or never. So I kissed you.”
Callie bit her lower lip slightly, hearing the smile that hung on his lips in his words.
“I thought we weren’t ready for that yet, but you showed me I was
so
wrong,” Callie added, her fingers curling around the fabric of the shirt. “I remember that your heart was beating like it would jump right out of your chest, and I thought that it must have been hard for you. So early after the war…”
“It wasn’t. Not really. Don’t get me wrong, I still get jumpy, and the flashbacks are not something I like to dwell on, but when the initial wave passed, it was like I filled everything that used to be filled with my unit and the call with you instead. It was like my mind had been filled with this anger and anguish, and then you came and lifted it all off of me.” Jonah shrugged his shoulders a bit, and Callie thought that it was her turn to have a heart that beat like it was about to explode. “It came naturally. When we kissed, I knew you were the one. I had a suspicion before, but it was then and there that I really knew. My dad always used to say that you couldn’t see it coming. It would just hit you without warning, and you’d just have to go with it. That’s how it was. No need to think about it, just go with it and accept the love that was offered to me, to us.”
Jonah pulled back, putting his hands on Callie’s arms. Their gazes met and the certainty in his hazel eyes struck Callie to the core. He was so sure that everything would work out, as if there was no other way. Jonah’s gentle soul had struck her when they first started exchanging letters, and it always surprised her how much pain and darkness had managed to linger around it. First, she had only seen glimpses of his thoughtful, generous heart behind the anger and the determination to follow his call wherever it led him – most probably to an early grave. But, the more she got to know him, the more she had learned that there was a soulful man just looking for a way out, looking for something else to dedicate his life to, if only given the chance. The way he had managed to change his path after it became clear that their relationship was something worth pursuing still filled her with awe.
She wished she could have his resolve. The hard decisions he had made to come out of the darkness when they had got together, and moments like now, when he spoke with such resolve, went a long way in showing her that he was right. There was no escaping fate, no matter how much it would screw with other plans and other commitments. She’d just have to take it as it was given to her – without question, without judgment. Jonah had been patiently waiting for her to come to the same conclusion as he had long ago.
“I love you, Calliope. No war or conflict will make that any less true. I know you feel like you owe a lot to your clan, but I also know that we’re stronger than any trouble that could arise from you and I being together. You’re my fate, my one true mate, and I’m not going to let anything come between that.”
Jonah looked dead serious. Callie nodded, feeling tears brimming in her eyes. She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, but Jonah caught her palm in his. He laid a kiss where a tear was rolling down her cheek, making it disappear.
“You don’t need to hide your tears from me, Callie. You don’t need to hide anything from me,” he said, digging further into her soul. Callie had not felt the kind of security she did now with Jonah ever since her brother had died. His love and affection encompassed all of her, right along with her insecurities. She buried her head in his shoulder, and his arms squeezed her warmly.
“I love you too,” she whispered. For a moment, a single afternoon, they could make the war between their clans disappear. Even though she knew it was only temporary, she couldn’t help but wish it would never end.
CHAPTER SIX
Callie was curled up on the worn, ragged brown leather chair in front of the fireplace. A steaming mug of cocoa was sitting on the coffee table, all but forgotten as Callie clung to her cellphone with cramping fingers. She gnawed viciously on her lower lip, certain to draw blood If she continued the way she had so far. Her chest felt tight and she felt uneasy as she read over the few lines of text she had tapped onto the little screen. It had taken her the better part of an hour to find a spot in the house where she got any reception at all and then getting a mobile internet connection from there had been the kind of hassle that people blogged angrily about.
Are you sure this is the right thing, Callie? Would you want someone to snoop like this? Or send you an e-mail like this?
she asked herself, trying once more to harangue herself out of doing what she was doing.
The recipient name at the top of the e-mail read Jacqueline Arder. Callie wasn’t sure if Jackie even used that e-mail anymore, but it was the only one Callie knew. She had felt queasy all through writing the few scant lines, which was probably why she had rewritten them about ten times. But, the longer she sat and stewed, the more it seemed like the right thing to do. Finally, she hit send and threw the phone on the table. It landed with a sickening lurch and Callie sat in silence for a few minutes, eyeing the shiny black phone next to her mug of cocoa. It was too late now. She couldn’t take it back.
As far as she knew, no one had talked to Jackie about anything that was going on. After going back and forth on it for the umpteenth time, she couldn’t stop herself anymore. Perhaps it helped that she wasn’t as close to her as Susie or Jackie’s brothers and that she hadn’t seen Ryder and Jackie together in Bitterroot. She hoped it gave her some much-needed objectivity, though she would have been lying if she said that she reached out to the Arder sister for purely selfless reasons. In Callie’s mind, there was little left to do now to keep the two clans from tearing each other to shreds, and if anyone could offer even the tiniest piece of help, she would go for it. Still, it did little to make her feel less queasy about going behind Jonah’s and Ryder’s backs.
God, I hope they don’t hate me for it,
she thought wringing her wrists.
Callie sat there just glaring at the phone, her knees pulled to her chest and her fluffy green sweater encompassing her in a cocoon of warmth. Her stomach churned, and she couldn’t get the image of Jonah’s swollen eye and scratched arm out of her head. He had shown up to their date looking worse than ever, and after repeated questioning he had finally told her that he’d got the black eye when he and some of his guys had happened on Troy and a few crones hassling Keely on her way home. The usual demure scuffle had turned into a bloodier show, and from what Callie had been told, Troy had a broken collarbone and one of the Bitterroot guys was down with a concussion. Jackson had happened on them just in time to break them off of each other and get every bear to back into his corner, so to say.
An anger bubbled inside of her, and she wasn’t sure who to direct it towards – herself for coming back and dragging Jonah along with her (though she knew he would have returned one way or another), Ryder for getting the Bitterroots into the war, or the Kadin pack for starting the whole mess in the first place. In any case, she was getting angrier by the moment, and the fact that she had just done something that she wasn’t particularly proud of didn’t make it any better.
“Oh, screw this,” Callie said out loud, jumping up from the chair and heading towards the door. She stepped into her well-worn hiking boots, and the door slammed shut behind her with a bang that threatened to shatter a window in the aftermath.
If we’re going to descend into war, I’m at least going to get laid first.
***
“Callie! Hey!” Jonah said, greeting the heaving and disheveled mess that was his girlfriend standing on his doorstep in the dead of night. Callie’s eyes burned, and she stomped into his cottage, ducking under his arm as he held open the door. She could feel his eyes on her back as she slipped off her boots and then stopped in the middle of his spacious lodge. Callie took a deep breath, looking around herself.