Chapter Twelve
Altan
Once the initial shock wore off, I began to work things out logically.
As logical as a human could be when the man they loved told them they turned into a bear. An actual bear. Like a werewolf, but bear. Or rather, nothing like a werewolf. He’d seemed to hate the term. A shifter.
I’d read plenty of shifter books. Got obsessed with them at one point in my life, so the whole concept wasn’t foreign to me but reading the pages and seeing Sothea turn into an animal right in front of me were two completely different things.
Did that change how I felt about him?
No way. Loving someone meant accepting everything about them, including turning into a bear.
I picked up the phone and called him. He was probably worried out of his mind.
“Altan,” he answered on the first ring. His voice shook. I’d tortured him with the distance, but I needed the time to process.
“Can you come over? I want to talk.”
He sucked in an audible breath.
“It’s not bad. I’m not breaking up with you. I promise.”
“Give me ten minutes.”
It took him eight to get to my apartment and knock on the door. I opened it, tears already in my eyes. “What?” He came inside. “What’s making you cry?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. You’re here and I missed you. It’s only been one day. It’s a little overwhelming the way I feel about you. I never thought this would be possible.”
Sothea, my alpha, my partner, my love, my…mate picked me up and sat on the couch, tucking me into his embrace so that I faced him. “It’s possible. I knew you were mine the second I saw you in the shop. Greta put my design in the machine, and I told myself that only my mate would bear that tattoo.”
“I’m your mate,” I whispered. It was more than a statement; it was sealing our fate.
“You are, if you will have me. We only talked for a few minutes about it, but no marriage contract comes close to the bond of fated mates. I’ll never look at another with lust. I’ll never cheat on you.
There is no divorce. If we fight, we fight, but we always come back to each other.
There is no walking away from a mate. Even if one day you decide you don’t want me anymore, I’m bound to you forever.
That isn’t a punishment either. There’s nothing I want more than to be bound to my beautiful mate for the rest of my life and, goddess willing, the afterlife. ”
I laid my head on his chest. “I want that. I want you and me for the rest of whatever time we have. I love you, Sothea.”
He cupped my chin, bringing my face up to his. “I love you, Altan. My bear loves you. All we want is for you to be happy.”
“I am.”
We shared a few sweet kisses and then he held onto me. “What do you want to do today?” he asked.
“I want you to mark me. Isn’t that what shifters do?”
“I kind of already have. With the tattoo. But I’d like the traditional version as well.” He chuckled. “You already marked me. You kept apologizing, but I was so damned proud to wear your mark.”
“What if I hadn’t accepted you? And you have my bite on your skin.”
Sothea shrugged. “Doesn’t change the fact I belong to you.”
“Is there a reason you haven’t marked me yet? If you knew I was yours?”
“Because you had to know the truth about me being a shifter before that. I’d be a real asshole if I marked you and then told you I turned into a bear at will.”
“So what’s stopping you?”
“Nothing, sweet mate. Nothing.”
I pulled at the hem of my shirt and pulled it off. “Make me yours already, alpha.”
We ripped off our clothes and this time, making love to him was frantic. Like he couldn’t get inside me fast enough. “Brace yourself on your hands and knees,” he said. “It’s how my bear wants you. So I can bite your shoulder.”
Three strokes were all it took for both of us to fall apart, and then I felt his teeth break the skin. I cried out with pain and then with absolute blissful ecstasy. We collapsed onto the floor in a heap of heaving breaths and sweat. “Wow.”
“Wow is right.” Despite our sweaty bodies, he wrapped me up in a hug. “I can feel you now. You’re happy and safe and feeling sated. I can sense everything about you.”
“It’s a shame I can’t feel the same things.”
“You will. In time. As our bond grows, you will get a sense of some things. It might not ever be as strong as mine.”
We lay there basking in the joy of our mating.
“Guess what?” Sothea asked.
“What?”
“I’m hungry.”
I laughed, rolling onto my back. “You’re always hungry. My big, hungry bear.”
One minute, he was beside me and the next, he was hovering above me. “Say that again.”
“You are my big, hungry, growly bear. And I love you.”
“I’m never going to get tired of hearing that. I love you too. Let’s order in.”
I had to get used to his appetite, for food and for me. Neither one was an inconvenience, not by a long shot.
We showered while the food was being delivered and spent the rest of the day watching movies and snacking.
“You know what’s crazy?” I said.
Sothea reached for the remote and paused the movie. Not once had he gotten on his phone while the movie was playing. A huge point in his favor. “What’s crazy?”
I put my hand over my chest. “I feel calm. Usually, I’m a bit anxious about things. Sometimes, my mind makes up things to be worried about but now, I’m…still. I think as long as I have you, everything else is going to be okay.”
My bear leaned forward, touching his forehead to mine. “That’s because it will be. We’ll get through anything and everything together.”
We watched movies and talked into the night. I didn’t want him to leave. “Stay the night with me,” I said. “I have to work in the morning but…here.” I stood up and got my spare key and put it in his palm. “Just lock up when you leave.”
“A key? This is getting serious, omega.”
I laughed, throwing my head back. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt so damned free. It was Sothea. The tattoo. His care. His love. Even him turning into a bear. He gave me a purpose.
“Want to take your omega to bed? I need to shower and get my clothes out for tomorrow.”
“I’d be honored. I can help with the showering part.”
I let Sothea pick out my very boring office outfit. Then he insisted on making my lunch because he was the sweetest bear.
When we lay down together, in my bed, I got a sense I was finally where I belonged all the time.
“I want another tattoo,” I said.
Sothea ran his fingers along my mark. I gasped at the full-body tingles that brought me. “You just got another one, of sorts.”
“Want to tattoo your name across my ass?” I slapped my hand over my mouth. What I couldn’t cover was my body shaking from laughter.
“Absolutely not. Though I have done those before. I tried to warn them not to.”
“You did not!” I said.
“I did.”
I sat up and braced my arms on either side of him. “No more ass tattoos for you.”
“Is that right? Are you getting possessive already, little mate?”
“I am. No more asses.”
“That’s fine. I’ll type up the rule and frame it at my station. Greta will get a kick out of that.”