Page 15 of His to Defend

“You are a very yummy mummy,” Chloe said.

“And you know Axel loves every single inch of you.” Ella grinned at her and they all laughed because it was true. Axel adored Harper and all her curves. In fact, as Nina looked around the room, all of the women there were curvy, with a little extra padding, but they all had partners who worshiped them completely. All except Bree, but Nina had just met her. She might have someone, too, who Nina hadn’t met yet.

And then there was Ryker. He didn’t seem to mind Nina’s curves. In fact, it had seemed like quite the opposite. Ryker had seemed to quite enjoy her curves.

A spark lit deep in her core at the memory of the way he’d touched her.

Hopefully he’d get another chance soon to check out all of her curves a little more thoroughly later.

“He does,” Harper said proudly. “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to look fierce in my dress.”

Bree laughed. “Oh, I promise you. All eyes will definitely be on you. Now go. Try it on. I’m dying to see how it looks.”

“So, you and Nina, huh?” Axel made the comment offhandedly as he and Ryker walked down the path to Axel and Harper’s cabin, but Ryker knew there wasn’t anything offhanded about it. He wasn’t kidding himself to think that there wasn’t a lot more meaning laced through Axel’s words.

“Nope.”

Axel stopped and stared at him. “Is that right? Because that’s not what I heard.”

“And what did you hear, Axel? Because there is no me and Nina.”

“Well, maybe you don’t consider it a thing to go for a ride with a woman in the mountains and come back with her wearing your shirt. But I think I know more than a few people around here who would consider it a thing.” Axel winked in his direction, which only annoyed him. “Especially because ever since you set foot on the ridge, your bear has barely been contained, cousin. I think you may have found your—”

“Shut up.” He gritted his teeth and took a step up to Axel so he was right in his cousin’s face. It’s not that he wanted to punch him only days before his wedding, but he would if it came to that. If it meant he’d keep his mouth shut.

Because the last thing Ryker wanted to hear was what he knew Axel was going to say. And if he breathed one word about a mate, Ryker could not be held responsible for his actions.

Grizzlies didn’t mate with humans.

He glanced at his cousin, who’d resumed walking.

At least they shouldn’t mate with humans or half breeds, or…dammit. He knew it had been a mistake coming to the ridge. Whatever was going on up here was wrong. Axel knew it. His brother knew it and his grandfather was not pleased about it. He’d be even less pleased to know that Ryker had engaged in any kind of relations with a human. But dammit, he couldn’t have stopped himself if every member of his family had stood between him and Nina. He had to have her. The fact that he’d been able to resist plunging himself deep within her depths was something he still didn’t fully understand. The amount of restraint it had taken was unlike anything he’d ever had to do before, but having her juices on him had been enough.

Once.

It wouldn’t be enough a second time and he knew it.

Axel shook his head and laughed as he kept walking. “Whatever you say, cousin. But I know what I see.” He grinned and Ryker balled his hands into fists at his side. “Even if you don’t,” Axel said as he slipped past.

Ryker had to hold himself back from charging after him. After a moment, and a deep breath, he managed to pull himself together and follow Axel up the steps into his cabin. By the time he stepped inside, he was feeling relatively calmer, and more than ready to change the subject.

Unfortunately, Axel still wasn’t ready to move on.

“You know,” he said when Ryker stepped into the cozy cabin. “I know what you’re feeling because I recognize myself in you. A lot.”

Ryker shook his head and accepted the cold beer his cousin offered him.

“It’s true,” Axel continued. “I didn’t want to see it either. I mean, come on, we share the same grandfather.”

He froze, the beer halfway to his lips. It was true. Of course. They had the same grandfather. They’d been raised the same way. Only it had been worse for Axel and his siblings because their grandfather had cast out his mother and father. All because she’d chosen what he thought of as the wrong mate. And then everything that had happened with Kira…of course Axel would have been all kinds of conflicted when he’d fallen for Harper. From all reports that Ryker had heard, Axel had been so clouded by her before they mated that he hadn’t even realized she was a half breed. It wasn’t until after.

So he was willing to give it all up, to risk everything—the banishment of his family—for a human.

Ryker swallowed hard. “So why did you do it?” Suddenly the need to know what drove Axel to make the choices he’d made a year ago was the most important thing. “Why did you risk Grandfather’s wrath? Banishment from the clan? Exile? All of it?”

Axel grinned. “We were already banished, remember?”

“You know that’s not the same thing. You know this is different.”