Untamed Beast Read online

  “And hurts like hell, too.” He pressed his fingers into it and she jumped, “Hey, that hurts.”

  “Deal with it,” he said. Not looking at her, Thorn kept pressing and when she tried to pull her leg back he only tightened his hold on it. “Don’t think it’s broken, but you’re not going to be walking far for a few days. Which is good news for me.”

  “Eat shit,” she smarted off. “You don’t have to look so damn happy about it.”

  “Sure I do.” He moved to the side of her and scooped her up. “You won’t be able to run, yet now you’re going to be an even bigger pain in my ass.”

  The walk back to the cabin didn’t take nearly as long as what she thought. Back inside, Thorn pretty much dropped her on the sofa and tossed her bag back into the bedroom. He disappeared into the bathroom for a moment then came out with an ace bandage in his hand and an ice pack. Sitting down next to her, he took hold of her leg and brought it up to his lap. She said nothing as he pulled her shoe and sock off, then started to wrap her ankle.

  “You have something that I’ve never had before,” she blurted out, unable to keep quiet any longer.

  “What’s that?”

  “A home.” Thorn stopped to look up at her. They had a short stare off then he went back to work on her ankle. “Guess I should thank you, for what you’ve done.”

  “You already did.”

  “Why did you do it though?” He stopped again, but didn’t look up at her. “Why’d you come back to get me?”

  “Dannie asked me to.” He finished and got back up, scooping her in his arms once more and took her back to the bed.

  “If she didn’t, would you have come for me?”

  “Put that ice pack on it. It’ll help with the swelling.”

  Thorn turned to walk away and she got back up, standing on one foot. “Would you?”

  He met her in the eyes and very low said, “Yes.”

  When he turned to leave again, she grabbed hold of the front of his shirt, stopping him. Her next move felt as if she might be standing in a dream. Pulling him down so they were face to face, Katrina got closer as she brought him closer and touched his lips with her own.

  A light kiss at first, but soon his mouth opened and she took the lead, kissing him with a bit more force, touching his lips with her tongue. Turning her head to the side, he followed her lead and turned his the other way, letting the kiss take an even deeper turn.

  For a moment, she thought things might go somewhere when his hands came up to her shoulders. They kept kissing each other, tongues dueling for the right to be in the other’s mouth. However, those hands on her shoulders slid down her arms to her hands and he pulled them away from his shirt, pulling back and ending the kiss.

  They stared at each other, both breathing a bit faster, him still holding onto her hands. She waited for him to get pissed, fly off the handle at her, but he didn’t. Instead, he lowered her hands to the side and took a step backwards.

  “Ice the ankle, Katrina.” And just like that, Thorn turned and walked away, back outside.

  With a sigh, her hands shaking, she sat back down on the bed and wondered what the hell just got into her. Why did she kiss him? What could have possessed her to do something so stupid as to kiss the one guy who really hated her guts?

  Shaking her head, she picked up the icepack and put it on her ankle. “Stupid Katrina, really fucking stupid.”

  Chapter Four

  Thorn had to get out of the cabin. He had to get away from her mostly because something she’d awakened the inside of him and he didn’t really like it. Or did he? Answer to that—yes, he did and that scared the hell out of him. Nothing scared him, but what he was beginning to feel in his body when Katrina kissed him sure did it. Thorn always had control, but around her, his control felt as if it might be slipping right through his fingers.

  The phone in his pocket started to buzz. Thinking it might be Logan checking in with him, to let Thorn know they were in a safe place, he brought it out to quickly glance at it. Then he groaned right before answering it.

  “Hey, Ma, how you doing?”

  “What the hell is going on?” Jada Draeger almost yelled in the phone at him, but not quite. She did have her voice raised, however, telling Thorn the shit was about to land in his lap. “You brought a girl there, Thorn. A girl! Why the hell would you bring someone to our home?”

  “I see Dad has talked to you.” He cringed, rubbing the back of his neck.

  “This isn’t a damn game!” Now she did yell at him. Even though they were on a phone, Thorn suddenly felt as if he was her little boy once more, looking up at his mother and getting his ass handed to him after he screwed up big time.

  Jada Leonard Draeger wasn’t a big woman—she barely came to Kane’s chest, and with Thorn shooting up to match his father in size, it meant his mother didn’t come up to his chest either. However, it didn’t mean she couldn’t hold power over him. She was his mother and Thorn held much respect for her, which is why she could still have him backing down. So far, she happened to be the only woman to do so.

  “You’ve got some crazy bitch after you and you come home. What the hell are you thinking?” she snapped.

  “That it’s the safest place I can go,” he sighed. “No one knows about this place and no one will ever know.”

  “That isn’t good enough!”

  “It’s all I’ve got, Ma.” Thorn took a deep breath and worked to keep himself calm. If he got upset or pissed then he knew she’d come back here just to slap the shit out of him. “Look, Ma—”

  “Have you done it then?” she interrupted him.

  “Done what?”

  “Mated her?”

  Now Thorn did sigh and groan at the same time. “No.”

  “What about the sex then?” She had him thinking about when he was tied down to the bed and Katrina had been on top of him, moving, stroking, but never finishing him off. Something he would never tell his mother. “Have you had sex with her?”

  “Bit of a personal question Ma, but the answer is no.”

  “Keep it that way.”

  He decided it was a much needed change of subject. “So how’s the family doing?”

  “Changing the subject I see.”

  “Damn straight.”

  She chuckled. “They’re driving me nuts. I want to come home.”

  Oh hell, no! “And here I thought you could handle it. After all, you handle Dad so well.”

  She snorted. “He’s a piece of cake, always has been. So what’s your great plan, then? I know you have one.”

  “I’m working on one, but don’t really have it yet.”

  “And that is what?”

  “I need to finish this.”

  Jada sighed. “Thorn, you can’t carry the weight of this war on your shoulders alone. You need help. Let the family help you.”

  “Can’t risk it.”

  “And you think I want to risk you?”

  He stopped his pacing and hung his head down. He forgot what this might be doing to his own family. For so long he had been on his own, keeping the fact of having a family secret, that for a short time, he forgot he had one also. “You can’t do this alone. You know that.”

  “I have to.”

  “Why?”

  He looked up at the sky. The sun was just starting to set and being so deep in the woods, even in summer, the temperature was starting to drop. Tonight he would be sitting in front of a fire as he did when he was younger and that meant he needed to get some wood.

  “She started this, Ma. I’m going to finish it.”

  “So like your father,” she sighed. “Hard headed through and through.” Thorn had to smile at her statement. “So what do you expect me to do then? Just sit around here and worry?”

  “Well, I’d say don’t worry, but we both know you will. Trust me however and believe I know what I’m doing.”

  “Do you?”

  “Yes, Ma, I do. I’m going to figure this out and finish it, ju
st like I’ve said I will and I’m going to keep the family safe as well. Don’t need any more getting hurt because of this bitch.”

  “Well, I’ll trust you to work it out, but I’m not going to just sit back and do nothing.”

  His gut dropped. “What are you talking about?”

  “I have skills, son, skills that you don’t even know about and that your father has forgotten all about. You do your thing, and I’m going to do mine to help you.”

  “Ma!” he sighed with a groan, rubbing his eyes now.

  “Save it, Thorn. Didn’t say I was going to leave, but I can do a few things from here with a great thing called the internet,” she smarted back. “Let me do my thing and see if I can’t help you from my end of this shit. Okay?”

  He knew trying to argue with her would be pointless. His father had tried for so long to get her to stop doing things like finding dirt on people, fearing one day it would come back again and get her. Thorn didn’t really understand the comeback part. His parents never really told him much about what Jada did before Kane, or how they even hooked up. He didn’t really want to know. But he knew when his mother put her mind to doing something, even if it was to help, then that is what she is going to do, end of story.

  “Fine, but as long as you do it from there and call me with the information. And it stays between us,” he said. “If Dad finds out, I’m not taking the blame for it.”

  “You sound like such a girl. Love you, and I’ll be in touch when I find something out.” The line went dead, leaving Thorn to bite his lower lip and shake his head.

  Putting the phone back into his pocket, he started for the back of the cabin where the wood was kept which needed chopping. Taking off his shirt, he went to work, loading up a pile on the porch to burn at night.

  It was late when he called it a night. Exhausted, dirty, a bit smelly, and very sweaty, Thorn headed back around to the front and went inside. The cabin was quiet, dark with no life to it. For a moment, he feared Katrina had run again and he hadn’t even noticed it. Rushing to the back, he stopped and relaxed. She was sound asleep in the bed, laying on her side with the covers just at her hip.

  Thorn didn’t bother her. Instead, he walked quietly towards the bathroom for a nice hot shower. Closing the door, stripping to nothing, he turned the water on in the shower and stepped in once it was nice and hot.

  He just stood under the water for a bit before washing and when the water started to cool he shut it off and got out, wrapping a towel around his hips.

  Leaving the bathroom, he stopped dead in his tracks. Something slightly sweet hit his senses and Thorn frowned. He sniffed a few times, not understanding where the strange smell might be coming from. Using his nose only, he followed the smell around the bed right up to Katrina, who still was sleeping on her side. She hadn’t moved an inch while he was in the shower. But he still didn’t get why a smell might be coming from her.

  When she shivered, he bent over and reached out to touch her. He must’ve made a noise or something because her eyes opened. Shock spread across her face, as she rolled away from him. He noticed she was in nothing more than a robe.

  “What are you doing?” she huffed, moving to the far side of the bed. “Don’t touch me.”

  “What’s wrong with you?”

  “Nothing.” Sweat covered her forehead and she started to breathe harder, faster. “Just stay away!”

  Before he could process anything, Katrina bolted from the bed and ran right out the front door. Thorn turned and went after her, forgetting that he was in nothing more than a towel. He ran after her, that strange scent following behind her it seemed. Deep into the woods they went. He really started to worry when he came up on her. She was down on her knees, bent over, rocking back and forth, while she moaned very softly.

  “Katrina?” he called out.

  “Please go away!” she moaned. “Please. It will go away soon. It always goes away.”

  “If you’re sick I need to know.”

  She shook her head, “I’m not sick. I have this every month—right before—damn will you just go away! You are making it worse and I don’t know why.”

  “What are you talking about?” He took a couple of steps closer and the smell hit him again, only this time it was stronger. Much, much stronger and for the life of him his brain couldn’t seem to break it down. He couldn’t process what was going on, even when his body seemed to hum and feel strange with each step he took closer to her. “What the hell is going on?”

  “It came early,” she whispered, rocking faster. “It came early. Why did it come early?”

  Like a punch to the gut, it hit Thorn what was wrong and what he just got pulled into that he couldn’t walk away from now.

  Katrina was in her cycle.

  But what shocked him more than anything was the timing. Females didn’t go into their cycle until twenty-four hours before the full moon. They had their moment, both would rest, and the male would have his heat. That is how it went. The full moon isn’t due for another week. So why the hell was Katrina having her cycle. No scratch that—why was she having one at all?

  Thorn tried to pull himself together and was finding it a bit hard when her sweet scent started to get stronger and the humming in his body started to feel like finger tips caressing his flesh. It sent chills down his spine to pool between his legs and his damn dick hardened instantly.

  Slowly he went down to his knees and she turned around so fast that she fell backwards on her ass. Again, those eyes of hers were wide open and even more sweat covered her face. One drop fell from her chin, caught his eyes and he followed it all the way down between her breasts that were still covered by the robe. Legs came up slowly and the robe parted some, letting him know that she had nothing under that robe at all. That tested him even further.

  He just couldn’t fight it now when all of his senses were being filled by her. The scent coming off her did things to him he had never experienced before. Slowly, reaching out to her, he watched his own hand as it touched her belly, feeling the fluttering. Scooting a bit closer he parted the robe to feel her flesh and she slapped his hand away. With a frown, Thorn looked up at her and growled low then touched her belly. Katrina sucked air in and stiffened up. She almost acted like he might hurt her or something. He was just about to start to move his hand down and pull the tie to the robe when she slapped his hand away again.

  “Don’t!” she snapped, turning as if to crawl away from him, but she stopped up on her knees and moaned aloud as if in pain.

  Her motion had his nose flaring with her sweet scent and his cock getting even harder between his legs. The animal inside woke up and any thought of putting it back in the cage went right out the door.

  Another low growl and he reached for her, pushing her back around to face him then he pushed her down on her back. Quickly Thorn pulled the knot on the towel and pushed the robe open, giving a nice view of her body. Moving both hands now to her legs he grabbed her by the back of them and pulled her close, up on his lap, then covered her body with his own. He reached between them, jerked the towel around his waist out of the way, took his shaft and positioned it right where he wanted it. She pushed at his shoulders, twisted under him as if to get away, but there was no getting away this time.

  Thorn took hold of both wrists and pinned them up over her head, then in one swift, hard thrust he buried himself as deep inside her as he could get. Katrina cried out, arched her back and climaxed right then.

  “Ah, fuck!” he moaned, closing his eyes at the tight bliss which wrapped around his cock as if made just for him.

  Thorn let his animal go and simply pounded into her hard and fast. He had no control over what he was doing. Hell, it felt as if someone was taking over his body, forcing him to move, driving him to a goal that would change everything between them. Not that things weren’t already strange between them.

  The fast and hard way he plunged into her body caused the robe to slip from her shoulder. The sight of that shoulde
r had his mouth watering, but he avoided it and looked down at her breasts. Thorn watched them sway with each thrust, each hard pound he gave to her. He had to taste her skin, if for no other reason than to still the urge to have his mouth clamp down on her shoulder.

  Thorn bent just enough to close his mouth over one nipple. He kept his hips moving. She gasped then cried out when he gave the sweet nub in his mouth a little nip, which had her contracting around his cock once more. That was enough to shove him right over the edge as well.

  He swelled, one more hard deep thrust and he exploded inside her, growling against her breast as he came. Opening his eyes Thorn worked to get control, only he couldn’t seem to find his control and the damn scent of her made things even more difficult at the moment. Like a wave of pure lust, he was hit again and found himself swelling all over again.

  “More,” he growled, moving up to his knees and flipping her over to her hands and knees. He yanked the robe off, grabbed her hips and surged into her again.

  As he once more pounded hard into her, he looked up at the night sky. Full moon was close, but not here. There were still several days left before he would be hit with this kind of need, and what would he do when it came? Would he seek her out and release this burning heat upon her flesh? Or would he go running into the woods, hiding?

  Again, it came to a crashing fast end. Katrina screamed, her body clamping down on him and Thorn gave in. One more hard thrust and he came, holding her close and tight as he spilled his seed.

  “What’s—what’s happening?” she panted.

  He knew just what was happening, but unable to answer her at the moment. Another sweet wave hit and he once more started to get hard inside her. However, instead of him taking charge she turned and pushed him down onto the ground, coming up over him.

  Thorn couldn’t speak, could only nod. She took hold of his shaft, positioned it and lowered herself down, taking every inch he had. She moved quickly, putting her hands on his flat chest, hips moving. He reached up, cupping both breasts and she gasped, arching back into those hands. She picked up the pace and soon he was bucking under her.