Chapter 16 Guy
Guy
Darkness had descended, and the moon was high, bathing the man in bed beside me in an otherworldly glow, splayed across the sheets, sated and sleepy.
I groaned as I rolled out of bed, reluctant to step away from him for even a moment.
Sweat was still drying on our skin, but I had certain obligations when it came to taking care of my mate, and that included food and water.
It was too easy to lose myself in him, but that was where my beaver came in handy.
L’eau, he demanded, nipping at my mind with sharp teeth to get me moving. Nourriture. Et des bissous. At least he added kisses to the list of necessities, but I got the impression he meant for himself, in his fur.
And he was right. It was long past time to introduce them in person.
Fable was my fated mate, and as much as I longed for the future we were destined to have, we couldn’t move forward until he knew all of me, furry side included.
I only hoped that he wouldn’t run screaming into the night, naked.
Maybe I should make sure he was dressed first, just in case; wouldn’t want him to catch cold.
“Where are you going?” Fable murmured as I pulled on my boxer briefs.
“Just to the kitchen to grab a snack. Any requests?”
“Mmm, peanut butter, chocolate, ice cream, and… pastrami.” One of those things did not belong on that list. I laughed, thinking he was joking, but his thoughtful expression said otherwise. “And sauerkraut,” he added with a decisive nod.
My stomach clenched at imagining the flavor combo, but I still said, “I’ll see what I can do.” My love for him was unconditional; it didn’t depend on his taste in food.
Raiding my fridge, I managed to come up with at least a couple of his cravings, including a roll of summer sausage, and I hoped that was close enough. We didn’t get a great variety of specialty foods this far north, but I would order an emergency airdrop of supplies if that was what my mate needed.
I loaded up a wooden tray and headed back into the bedroom, nerves crawling under my skin because of what I knew came next. Fable was sitting up in bed, the blanket pooled around his waist, leaving just a hint of his dark, curly hair in a delicious tease of what lay hidden under the blanket.
His gaze smoldered. “Keep looking at me like that, and we’ll have to put our snack on hold, and it would be really unfortunate to let that ice cream melt.”
I took a deep, bracing breath as I set the tray on the bed.
Fable sobered as I settled on the bed across from him, leaving some distance between us so I could keep my head on straight.
He sighed and nodded, clasping his hands in his lap, hard enough that his knuckles went white.
“I need to tell you something,” he said.
I blinked for a moment, wondering what it could be. “Me first,” I told him. “I’ve wanted to tell you something about myself since I first laid eyes on you, and if I wait any longer, I might chicken out again.”
“Oh… okay.” His gulp was audible, and he sat back against the headboard and pulled his knees up, hugging them to his chest.
Right. Where did I start? I’d never admitted the existence of shifters to someone before.
It wasn’t the kind of secret we told all willy-nilly.
I cleared my throat. “So, you know how scientists discover a new species of frog in the Rainforest every year? Or, like, some weird squishy horror fish in the deepest ocean?”
Fable was making a face that was hard to interpret. Confusion, probably. Like, where was I going with this? “Yeah?”
“Well, there are lots of different species of animal that we don’t know exist, even right under our noses.”
“What, like a spider or dust mite or something?”
I frowned. “Not… exactly.” Gnawing on my thumbnail, I decided I would just blurt it out. “I mean me, Fable. I’m not human.”
The silence stretched on for a long moment as I waited for him to reply, and just when it started to venture into awkward territory, he threw his head back and laughed.
Not just a little laugh, either, but a full-on guffaw.
The whole bed shook with his laughter, while my beaver and I watched on, stunned.
Finally, he got his giggles under control, wiping away a couple tears from the corner of his eye.
“Okay, I admit, you had me going there for a minute. Very funny, Guy.”
But then he looked at me—really looked at me, my posture slumped, eyes a little sad—and his smile dropped right off his face. “What, you’re serious?”
I nodded slowly. “Yes, I am serious.”
“Well, if you’re not human, what are you? Don’t tell me you’re an alien like in that romance series, with that guy with the horns and the-the…” he gestured to his crotch, “the bumps and ridges.”
Now it was my turn to laugh. “No, nothing quite so weird. I’m a shifter, which means I share my body with an animal.
There are all kinds of shifters—wolf, bear, squirrel—but I’m a beaver.
Our species has actually been around just as long as humans, but we live in secret because there aren’t as many of us, and humans tend to… ” I grimaced with a shrug.
“Grab the torches and pitchforks?” he supplied.
“Exactly.” I raked my eyes over Fable to check for signs of stress, but beyond the initial delirium, he seemed to be taking it in stride.
He didn’t look afraid or like he was about to pack his bags and leave.
He was frowning a little, as if deep in thought.
I couldn’t imagine it was an easy truth to swallow, so I decided there was really only one way to be sure he fully understood.
“Would you like to meet my beaver?” I asked cautiously, wincing at how that sounded.
He snorted. “Obviously. What kind of question is that?”
I paused briefly, thumbs tucked into the waistband of my underwear. “Please don’t leave,” I whispered, before slipping off my boxers and allowing my beaver to come forward, eager to meet our mate at last.
My bones, muscles, ligaments, they all stretched and popped into their new position, and when the shift had finally finished, the floor was much closer than it had been a mere moment ago.
My beaver was a significant beast, if I did say so myself.
He had a large, round head, incisors like chisels, and deep-chocolate fur.
Wanting to show off for our mate, he slapped his flat leathery tail on the floor, and Fable jumped, gasping.
“Oh, wow,” he wheezed, rolling out of the bed with the sheet wrapped around him.
He dropped to the floor in front of my beaver with a muffled thud.
“Just… wow.” He reached out but then hesitated, his hand hovering in the air over my beaver’s back.
“May I?” he asked, and in response, my beast tipped up to meet his touch, his webbed feet pitter-pattering on the wood floor.
It was a strange sensation, being in the background for this meeting.
I could feel Fable’s fingers combing through the waterproof fur, and my beast made these cute little chirping sounds, a beaver’s equivalent to a cat’s purr.
I loved letting them bond, but I could already sense Fable’s excitement getting the best of him.
“I have so many questions,” he said, shaking his head, eyes full of absolute wonder. “Like, is everyone here a beaver? Do you age the same as a human, or are you, like, vampire old? Ohmygods, are vampires real?”
I was laughing when I shifted back into my skin, Fable’s hands warm on my body. “I turn into a beaver in front of you, and you want to know if vampires are real?”
He shrugged, smiling shyly. “Sorry, it’s just that this whole new world has been opened up to me, and I don’t know where it ends.”
“Neither do I, I’m afraid, but as far as I know, vampires are a myth.” I pulled Fable into my lap, right there on the floor, and he shuffled around until he was straddling my thighs.
“Okay, well, then I’ll ask you something easier. What’s your beaver’s name?” he asked, stroking my chest hair as if it were my beaver’s pelt.
Huh, I’d never heard that one before. “He doesn’t have a name. He’s a part of me.”
Fable frowned, leaning back to stare up at me, genuinely distressed. “By that logic, you’re also a part of him, but you have a name. So doesn’t he deserve one too?”
Oui! Je veux un nom! And of course, my beaver wanted a name now. I sighed. There was no way I was going to win this with the two of them ganging up on me. “Fair enough. Why don’t you name him?”
“Really? It would be an honor!” He held his hands over his heart as he thought about it for a moment. “How about… Maurice? Like Maurice Richard.”
“Like, the Canadian hockey player?” I asked, surprised that he knew the name.
His smile was part mischief, part embarrassment, and 100% love. “What, you thought I wasn’t going to try to show an interest in the things you like?” But then a look came over his face, skin pale, cheeks slackening, and then he shoved off my lap and ran for the bathroom.
The door slammed, and I heard retching on the other side. C’est moi? my beaver asked, distressed that he might’ve somehow caused our mate to be sick.
No, but it might’ve been me… I thought, hope burbling up inside me as I counted back the days to our first time together, remembering how sick and tired he’d looked on our video calls.
I waited outside the door until the toilet flushed, then water ran in the sink as I listened to Fable brush his teeth and gargle.
When the door finally cracked open, Fable emerged smelling fresher but looking dejected, shoulders sagging as he stared at the floor, his hands placed protectively over his stomach.
“I’m sorry, Guy. I didn’t mean for it to happen.
I really did think we were in the clear.
It shouldn’t have even been possible, the timing was all wrong, but…
I’m pregnant. Please don’t be mad, because…
I am so, so happy.” He looked up at me pleadingly.
“Gods, I love you,” I said without thinking, swooping in and peppering his face with kisses.
“You love me?” he gasped, and I paused there, lips on skin, dreading that I had just taken a step in our relationship without him. Just because he was pregnant, that didn’t necessarily mean love. But when I pulled back to look down at him, he was smiling, tears beading on his lashes.
“Is that okay?” I asked warily. “You don’t have to say it back.
I understand that it’s sudden, but… you’re my mate.
That’s like a shifter’s destiny. You’re the one person on this earth that is meant for me.
That’s probably how you were able to get pregnant—fate will always find a way to bring us together, no matter the distance. ”
“That’s so beautiful,” he said, sniffling back tears. “Fate or not, I love you too, Guy. It is sudden, yes, but from the moment I laid eyes on you, it felt right. I didn’t know how it would work—hell, I still don’t—but I don’t want to be apart from you anymore. I want to stay.”
This man, he was my everything. He’d taken my shifting in stride, was handling a surprise pregnancy with nothing but joy, and he was willing to give up his life in California to be with me. I didn’t deserve him.
Human laws prevented him from moving here yet, but… “There is something,” I began, leading him back to bed. “Something that will make us feel more connected, even when we’re apart.”
“Tell me,” he demanded, fingers digging into my arms in desperation.
“A mark. A bite,” I said more specifically. “If we bite each other, it will create an unbreakable bond, no matter the time or distance apart.”
He was already nodding. “Yes. I want that.” He peeled back the sheet he was wrapped in and looked down at himself. “Where?”
“Right here.” I traced the slope of his neck, then moved down to his shoulder, where my mark could be easily covered. As much as I wanted to show the world that he was mine, a scar like that in the human world would draw questions.
I lay back on the bed, taking Fable with me, and even though we’d spent hours pleasuring each other, I was more than ready for one more time, this one with the most satisfying conclusion—the promise of forever.