Chapter 8
Chapter
Eight
S uzannah felt the rest of the day pass in an amazing haze.
She'd always been a hard worker.
It was just her last job that sapped the love of work out of her. Having a boss that was such a drudge had really taken the joy out of accomplishments, but it wasn't the same at Raisin' Cakes.
A tour of the prep area had turned into a lesson in the basics of pastry and dough.
Suzannah knew that she wasn't going to learn everything in a day. Things that were worthwhile took time.
She enjoyed every lesson that Hetty gave her and while they talked and worked through those lessons, Ash was there.
When they finished prepping dough for the next morning, Ash helped to wipe down the counters and tidy up.
Even when she assured him that she was fine and could easily handle the cleaning duties, he would just lean in and place a kiss on her cheek and go on with whatever he was doing to help.
Hetty even invited the two to have an early dinner with her at her home.
Suzannah had wanted to accept the invitation, if only to spend more time with her Great Aunt's friend, but also Ash who Hetty invited along, but she was exhausted and barely dragging her feet to move.
So just a few hours after she'd met Ash, he was walking her to her door to say goodnight.
She fumbled with her keys, her hands shaking with exhaustion and Ash had taken the keys from her and quickly opened the door to her home.
Pushing the door open, he stepped back to allow her to enter.
Suzannah stopped on the threshold of her home and turned back to look at the man... the shapeshifter that she'd met that day.
The man who had declared that she was his mate.
The woman that he would love for the rest of their lives.
There was a moment as she stood there where she wondered if this had all been some kind of fever dream.
Had she fallen asleep on the bus and this was all the most precious of dreams?
Something that she would wake from at any moment.
Ash shifted his feet, and she turned to look at him.
His smile was hesitant as he met her gaze with his own.
"Is something wrong?"
He was worried about her. Caring about her.
She held onto that feeling as he answered his question. "Would it seem strange to you if I was wondering... how real this was? This... thing between us?"
He held out his hand to her and she took it, feeling the reassuring heat of his skin against her. "I would say that you're all too human." A corner of his mouth tugged up. "Or perhaps you're all too much of a shapeshifter. I'm worried that you'll go to sleep tonight and wake up in the morning thinking that you've made the wrong decision and tell me to stay away from you.
"Maybe you'll wake up and think that I'm crazy. And decide that you don't want to see me again. Or that Mystic Mountain isn't where you want to be, and you'll get on the bus the next time it comes through town and leave."
She felt him stroke the inside of her wrist with the pad of his thumb. "So I'm not the only one worried?"
He shook his head.
"My bear is worried, too."
That was a shock. "Your bear?"
He gestured at the center of his chest. "He's worried, but not about you... about your feelings or mine. He's worried about leaving you alone. Leaving you here without us."
Suzannah was surprised to see his cheeks heat with color. Compared to the salt and pepper of his hair and the tanned surface of his skin, the blush was nice to see.
"I meant what I said when I talked about taking care of you. Having you away from me... from us... is going to take some effort."
She wasn't sure what he meant by it.
"He doesn't want me to leave you here alone." Ash lifted his free hand and rubbed his palm against the back of his head. "He worries about what could happen when we're not here to protect you."
Suzannah frowned at the thought. "Is there a lot of crime here in Mystic?"
Ash shook his head. "No. Hardly any at all, unless someone is passing through. But that doesn't stop us from worrying about you. Especially before you wear our mark."
She frowned, her brow furrowing at the thought. "I don't..." She stifled a yawn. "I don't understand."
He let go of her hand and her hand felt incredibly empty without his touch, but a moment later she felt the warmth of his hands cradling her face.
"You're too tired to hear it all now."
She frowned at that. "But I want to know."
Ash leaned in and placed a kiss on her forehead. "If I told you everything tonight, you might really run for the hills. Go inside. Rest. And I'll see you in the morning."
Suzannah felt his hesitation.
She felt how much he didn't want to leave.
At least she thought she did.
He was right.
There was so much swirling around inside of her.
Feelings.
Information.
And still there was an undercurrent of fear.
Fear of loss.
And fear put in her head and her heart by that man at the diner.
With a shake of her head, she tried to shut the door on that memory.
There were so many things that she wanted to put behind her.
That was definitely one.
"Ash?"
She heard a soft, aching groan from him and then he moved his hands, gently tucking her hair behind her ears.
"I know one thing that's going to be there when I wake up in the morning."
His brows raised at that. "Hmm? What is that?"
She lifted her hands and touched his face the way he'd touched hers. His beard under her hands was surprisingly soft and she moved her palms over it as she met his gaze with her own. She smiled as she realized that he was almost petting the sides of his face as she looked deep into his eyes.
"How thankful I am for the time you spent with me today. There have been years and years in my life where I was achingly alone." She blinked back tears and realized how tired she was. "Today, I met a man who looks at me and sees someone beautiful. A man who gave me his time and attention, helping me before I even had to ask." She rose up on her toes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "If nothing else happens between us, I want you to know how amazing this day has been."
Before either of them moved, he put his hands on her waist and smiled down at her. "Today was only the beginning for us, Suzannah."
She closed her eyes gently and enjoyed the feeling of his hands on her.
It was an intimate sensation for her even though she was fully clothed.
There was just something about the way that Ash touched her that made her feel precious and protected.
"I hope," his voice rumbled in the air between them, which wasn't much at all, "that you hear what I'm saying. As you get to know people in town, they'll tell you that I'm a man of few words, but what I say, I mean."
She nodded and rose up on the balls of her feet, bring her lips within a breath of his.
He looked down into her face and even with the soft cast of twilight around them, he smiled.
That smile did things to her in her heart and other places that she wouldn't dare talk about.
"It... It's time for me to go."
She heard his words and felt like clinging onto his shirt to keep him there, but she had no energy left, even to talk to him for a few minutes.
She would be lucky if she had enough energy to get herself inside before she fell asleep.
"Would it be too much... for me to ask for a kiss?"
A kiss?
Suzannah heard the warm tones of voice in her head and could now recognize it as the sound of Ash's bear.
What are you waiting for, human?
Ash groaned and she recognized the sound as frustration.
She was experiencing the sensation herself.
He leaned in closer and Suzannah tilted her chin up, hoping for her first real kiss.
So help me, human. Ash's bear grumbled in her mind. If you don't kiss her soon, I'm going to come out and do it my -
Suzannah would never know if his bear finished the word.
She certainly couldn't hear it over the rush of blood pounding through her veins the very moment that Ash Thomas kissed her.
It was tender but there was a strength added to it.
It was innocent and yet she could taste the passion stirring in her soul.
It was a kiss and a promise as well.
It was... everything.
A sh wasn't going to leave just yet.
He meant what he said about her getting sleep. She needed rest.
They'd thrown a whole lot of information at her on her first day in Mystic Mountain, he didn't want to keep heaping it on her.
Especially after he'd announced to her that she was his mate.
Our mate.
He wanted to bite back at his bear for the reminder, but instead, he smiled.
Yes, our mate .
Ash closed his eyes and called up a memory of her face.
She's beautiful.
When do I get to see her?
Ash rolled his eyes.
You can see her through my eyes.
Really?
In the next moment, Ash was disoriented by the change in his vision.
He was still looking at the house but there was a strange sharpness to the lines and edge of the plants and the house. In the darker atmosphere of night, the world around him was much brighter than it was to his human eyes. It was the same reason why it was easier to move around in the darkness as his bear. They just had better vision at night.
I, his bear added in, have better vision in the dark .
Ash shook his head. Are you going to continue to be this big of an ass?
I want time with our mate .
He felt the sharp edge of his bear's voice in his head. This wasn't like wanting to splash around in the river or wanting to sit under a tree and eat their body weight in fermenting apples, getting drunk. His bear wanted to meet Suzannah face to... face.
It's not asking for much.
No , he agreed. It wasn't much in the grand scheme of things, but...
I don't want to scare her .
Ash heard the earnest tone of his bear's thoughts. He understood what he was feeling. He felt it, too.
Neither one of us wants to scare her , Ash agreed. We have our whole lives with her.
The light that she'd left on in the bathroom dimmed and Ash's vision changed back to his own, pushing his bear from his head.
The bear groused to him. My vision is better.
He let his bear back into his head, retreating into background.
They watched as the bathroom door closed and then they waited for it to open again, both of them ignoring any sounds beyond the door.
They knew that the bathroom had been empty before she walked in, they'd already searched the house with their hearing, searching for any dangers in her home.
A thought popped up in his head.
Is this, Ash asked his bear, is this why you wanted to come to town? Because you knew that Suzannah was coming?
He felt his bear shift uncomfortably inside.
Not exactly.
The bathroom door opened, and the light flared within view of the window.
They quieted as she walked back into her bedroom and closed the door.
Then what?
He felt the doleful sigh of his bear.
I felt a pull.
A pull. Ash knew the feeling himself.
He'd felt the pull between his parents and other mated couples that he knew. There was a kind of connection between mates that wasn't visible, but he could feel it there. And he'd felt an emptiness inside of him.
And even though he'd met Suzannah now, there was still a... a space inside of him.
Suzannah was there in his life, but she wasn't bonded to him yet.
And that space between them, both the physical space and their souls, was unsettling. He wanted to be closer to her in every way, but he wasn't going to force a bond on her.
Not now.
Soon.
Ash shook his head. She needs time to understand.
We need to protect her.
Who here in Mystic would dare come after my mate?
His bear breathed into the silence and Ash sighed. He knew the answer to that. It wasn't the shapeshifters that he had to worry about. Outsiders had come to Mystic Mountain and tried to hurt the people in town. Aaron Winter, Xavier Salazar, and Locke Ascher had defended their mates from danger within the area surrounding Mystic Mountain.
We'll stop any danger that comes her way.
He smiled at his bear's thoughts. Something else he completely agreed with.
They didn't always agree so whole-heartedly on many things, but this?
The front door of Suzannah's house opened and Ash turned to look.
Wrapped up in a quilt, Suzannah walked down the steps and started across the grass.
Ash stepped out of the bushes and met her more than halfway across the yard. "You should be sleeping."
She gave him a pointed look. "I was sleeping and then I woke up to use the ladies room and..."
Suzannah yawned and his bear stretched his jaws wide open in a sympathetic gesture.
Ash had to fight back his own yawn as she continued talking to him.
"Then I climbed back into bed and closed my eyes," she lifted a hand and set it on his chest, "only to hear a voice that sounds like your bear inside my head." She leaned forward and her forehead touched his shoulder. "It's interesting, but it's hard to sleep with a deep, rumbling voice in my head."
Ash felt jealousy flood his senses.
She was hearing his bear?
She hears me, human.
Suzannah chuckled, but since she was still leaning against him with her forehead on his shoulder, he couldn't see her.
"It's so strange," she murmured. "If I ever had to talk to a therapist and they asked me if I hear voices, I'd have to say yes. But how would they react if I told them there was a bear talking in my head?"
Ash didn't respond in words. He leaned closer, breathing in the scent of her hair and her skin. He rubbed her back gently through the blanket she had wrapped around her.
"I guess for you," she tipped her head back, "it's something you're used to."
Being this close to her, feeling her warmth, listening to her sleepy voice brought to mind other things, but he fought back those thoughts, choosing to focus on the woman standing before him.
Our mate .
She hummed and he knew that she'd heard his bear again.
"This mate thing..."
His body tensed and he wondered if she'd sensed the things he'd been thinking of.
"What exactly are we talking about?"
She shifted slightly, tilting her head back until he could see directly into her eyes.
He'd never seen such a beautiful sight.
He didn't want to see fear in those eyes.
Suzannah narrowed her eyes at him. "What's going on in your head, Ash?"
He turned his attention inward, wondering what his bear was going to say in response.
But his bear remained silent.
Ash pressed his lips together in a thin line.
"Ash?"
He managed a smile. "I was hoping that my bear might have something to say."
She smiled. "And he's keeping mum."
Ash nodded. "The big coward."
A flash of frustration rushed at him and Ash steeled himself for the impact, but it eased back and he felt his bear's mortification.
He looked at Suzannah. "He's sorry about that."
She nodded. "I felt that, too."
She moved her hand over his chest and Ash was tempted to pull his shirt from his body so he could feel her hands against his skin.
"So," she let out a slow exhale, "how scary is this mating thing. It's been a while since I had health class in school, but back when I was in school shapeshifters weren't a thing that we discussed." When he didn't speak, she continued on. "I mean, it's not something really scary, right? It's not... something illegal?"
He felt his bear push him as if he leaned in with his shoulder, but it wasn’t pushing him away from Suzannah. He was pushing him to do something.
To say something.
Ash lifted his hand and lightly fanned his fingers through her hair.
She watched him as he moved, but didn't move away.
Over and over, he brushed her hair back from her face and the quilt she'd wrapped around herself sagged and then dropped to her waist. She lifted her other hand and put it on his chest, smoothing her hands over his shirt.
Heat was building between them, rising up from the earth like the hot springs higher up in the mountain.
It wasn't a heat that would burn and hurt. It was a heat that would warm and soothe, a heat that he would bask in.
He would love to feel her touch all over his body and he would want to... love to return the favor.
"Mating," the word was little more than a whisper of sound, "isn't something you should be afraid of."
He moved his hand through her hair again, but this time, he grasped the shoulder length strands, closing his fingers around it in almost a fist.
Ash watched her eyes as he tipped her head back, opening her neck to his gaze.
"Mating is a life-long bond, Suzannah."
Her eyes had been fixed on his, but as he spoke to her, her eyes started to drift closed.
"Once that bond is sealed there is nothing that could end it. There's no way we would be apart after that. We'd be tied forever."
He watched as she pulled a breath into her lungs and let it out again. She was wearing a loose T-shirt that went down to her knees, but to him it looked like silk. She deserved silk against her skin.
"I'm not going to rush you into this, Suzannah. I want you." He felt his words coming straight from his soul. "No, I need you."
He heard her gasp, but it wasn't fear.
She didn't shake.
She didn't tense.
Or pull away.
"I don't have skills in romance, but I'm willing to learn. I'll give you all of myself and strive to give you everything you want. So when you're ready. I'm here."
He felt her melting against him, leaning into his heat.
He would give anything to lay her down in the grass and love her until she collapsed under the stars, but she wasn't ready for that yet.
She swallowed and he watched her throat work. It was hypnotic.
"And..." her breath escaped from her lips in a soft groan, "when I'm ready? What do we do?"
There was something about her scent.
It had changed.
She'd taken a shower, her skin was scrubbed clean and fresh, but since she'd come out to talk to him, there was a new scent reaching him.
Earthy. Spice. And...
Aroused.
He was too.
"When the time is right," he was trying not to grit his teeth together as his cock thickened and pressed heavily against the button fly of his jeans, "I'll make love to you and at the height of your release..."
"Oh," her hands were gripping his shirt, her short, trimmed nails scratching at the fabric.
He leaned in, barely holding onto his control and nuzzled against the base of her throat where it met her shoulder.
"Ash?"
"I'll seal our bond," his bear was so close to the surface, he felt his teeth lengthening in his mouth, his eyes darkening with his bear, "with my teeth, biting into your skin, here."
He knew he was tempting fate, but there was something pulling at him. He opened his mouth over her skin and as his eyes drifted closed, he clamped his mouth over her flesh.
Ash knew that he couldn't bite her, the pain would be excruciating, but he sucked at her skin, and he felt her shudder against him, her head falling back heavily against his hand which was still holding her hair in his grasp.
He felt his need swell and slowly subside.
And when he felt as if he could move without dragging her against him and kissing her again and again, he loosened his hold on her hair and slowly shifted his body until she was standing before him.
Slowly, her hands released his shirt, and her eyes opened.
She seemed dazed and so incredibly beautiful to him.
"Ash..."
He smiled at her, aching to love her in any way she'd let him, and tonight, that meant letting her get sleep.
"How is that I've just met you and I feel..." She shivered a little and he moved his hands to pick up the quilt and set it back around her shoulders, tucking it around her lush body. "... so comfortable around you?"
"You don't know me, but I think you know, in your heart that I would never... never hurt you."
Suzannah stepped in and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him close. "I feel like I've finally found the place where I belong, and it's with you."
"It is." He hugged her back and feeling the exhaustion in her body, he reached down, putting his arm behind her legs, and lifted her into his arms. He took her back inside, tucked her in bed, and left as she fell into a deep, restful sleep.
H e waited for hours in the dark.
Sitting and watching.
He'd seen her again.
It had been a lark for him at first.
She'd been nice enough to look at.
He'd been willing to have a little fun.
But then she wouldn't submit to him.
She should have been grateful, really.
Then, she'd locked him out of the bathroom instead of letting him in to play.
He knew she'd missed the bus, because he'd gone out to his car and waited.
The bus had taken off without her.
And having nothing to do on a time schedule, he followed the bus.
Oh, he'd get home eventually. He wasn't in a rush.
His wife would be there waiting.
She didn't do it for him anymore. He liked the chase.
He liked the ones that made him work a little.
He knew they liked it just as much. He knew it gave them a thrill.
The rush when they got caught.
The release.
He'd stopped to look when the bus stopped in this little podunk town and they'd dropped off some bags, but no one had left the bus. He knew she'd be coming.
And here she was.
But this... man?
He wasn't any better than a caveman.
Someone barely good enough to wipe the windshield of his car or pump some gas.
He could maybe take out the trash.
After he'd had a taste of her first.
Something fell on his head and swore under his breath, using his hand to brush it off of his hair.
He didn't know what the hell it was, and he didn't really care, but when he looked up, he saw that the tree it had fallen from was old.
Hell, it had probably been growing there before Jesus wore sandals.
Giving the trunk a good kick, he felt the pain in his foot, but he also saw the chunk of the tree fall to the ground.
He turned his head to follow the path that man took when he walked away.
He knew that man would come back, sniffing around.
He could smell hungry pussy just as well as anyone.
And he needed to make sure that the caveman didn't get a jump on her until he'd had his own piece of that fat ass.
Smiling to himself, he walked back to his car. He needed a couple of tools.