Chapter 12 Mate?
mate?
BELL
“You know, I’m just trying not to fuck this up.” Boone’s low, gruff voice brought me back to the conversation I was eavesdropping on from behind the stairs. “That piece of human shit put her through enough. But what if I’m making it worse?”
As confused as I was, a warm feeling stirred in my chest. Boone sounded so uncharacteristically uncertain.
“You haven’t made anything worse,” Zion assured him.
Then another much quieter voice added, “You brought… her home … to us.”
Home? To us?
Was that Ravik talking? I crept forward, wanting to overhear more of their conversation before I made my presence known.
“Both Ravik and I believe we need some manner of plan going forward,” Zion started to say as I edged closer. “However, first things first, you and he should address this maul bite business before she—”
Zion broke off with an audible sniff. “She’s arisen.”
Hurried footsteps, and then the three males rounded the corner like they were in a race. But Boone got there first, filling up the narrow hallway, nearly wall to wall with his muscular bulk.
“Hey there.” His face lit up with a welcoming smile. “You okay? Hungry? Vik made breakfast. Way better than my oatmeal.”
Zion squeezed his long, lean frame in beside Boone. “Yes, Ravik and I were rather chagrined to hear you were subjected to nothing but chili and oatmeal for days on end in Minneapolis.”
Boone glared only slightly down at the not-much-shorter man. “Hey, it was the best I could do with what I had on hand.”
“Have you not been introduced to the modern marvel of food delivery services?” Zion asked. “I’m told they’re rather prevalent outside of Bear Mountain.”
“I would have had to go to the building’s downstairs door to pick up the food,” Boone shot back, visibly grinding his jaw. “What part of ‘no coverage’ are you not understanding?”
Before Zion could answer, I held up my hand. “Okay, I’m not understanding any of this.”
I widened my eyes at Boone. “Exactly how much did you tell them?” Then I shook my head at Zion. “And what did you mean by ‘our mate’?”
Both Zion and Boone winced, and Boone said, “So you heard that before we picked up your scent?”
Picked up your scent—yet another phrase that didn’t make sense.
“Who exactly are you two?” I glanced from Zion to Ravik, who I could see standing behind Boone. “Why are you still here?”
Zion exchanged a look with Boone, for so long, I got the weird sense that they were communicating, even though neither of them spoke out loud.
Then Zion turned back to me with a somber expression. “You’ll want to grab your coat, Bell. We should relocate this explanatory conversation outside.”
As confused as I was about why we needed to have this “explanatory conversation” outside, I had to admit, the scenery was beautiful.
The sun filtered through pines interspersed between a long row of cabins on either side of a dirt road that eventually came to a bend in the distance. The rays reflected even brighter against melting snow, and the crisp mountain air smelled clean. Resinous. Like trees and damp earth.
As we walked down the cabin’s steps to the front road, I sort of understood why hiking was a thing.
But just a few sentences into Zion’s explanation, I had to stop him to get clarifications.
“Let me get this straight,” I said, rubbing my temples. “You and Ravik are the fathers of Makari and Takoda, the brothers my daughters are planning to marry in July.”
“Correct,” Zion said.
He, Boone, and the guy he called Ravik—not Vik, like Boone did—had gathered around me in a sort of arc, with Zion in the middle.
“So, you’re, like, a couple?" A small frisson of disappointment that I had no intention of investigating rose and got pushed right back down, as I clarified, "Takoda and Makari have two dads?”
Vik immediately began shaking his head while Zion corrected, “Takoda and Makari have three fathers. One of whom died after being ejected from our family. And as for Ravik and I…”
He regarded the other man with a fond look. "We are not a couple in the romantic sense. We were both married to the same woman. Along with a third man, Boone's late brother. At the same time."
I gaped at him. Closed my mouth. Then opened it again to choke out. "You two ... shared a wife? With Boone's brother?"
"Indeed, we did," Zion answered as if having been in a polycule before polycules were even a thing was no big deal.
"This is what our kind calls a maul—m-a-u-l, not the shopping establishment.
In the most traditional Ayaska sense, a maul is three males bonded to one female.
The Ayaska call this Four-Direction Spirit.
And Bell, this wasn't information I wished to impart, but for the sake of clarity, you should know. "
He paused with a look that said, Brace yourself, there's more.
"Both of your daughters have entered into similar arrangements. Each of them is engaged to three men. The Joining Ceremony in July will formalize these bonds."
"Hold up." I jutted out my chin. "Are you trying to say that both Noelle and Holly are engaged to marry not just one man, but three? Each?"
Even for someone who’d gone to art school and worked at a museum where only a handful of staff identified as both strictly straight and monogamous, this was a lot to process.
“Also, what do you mean by ‘our kind’?” I demanded. A new, scary thought occurred to me. “Have Holly and Noelle fallen into some kind of polyamorous mountain cult?”
“Oh wow.” Boone’s hand returned to the back of his neck. “That’s a read.”
Ravik cast me a sympathetic look, and Zion seemed to be speaking for all of them when he said, “I can see how it would appear that way. But please understand—the maul relationship framework predates modern relationship structures. The males of our kind have been mating in threes since before the advent of the written word.”
Our kind. There were those two words again.
It was obvious that neither Boone nor Zion were Indigenous, but Zion kept saying “our kind” like they had something in common with Ravik.
“What exactly do you mean by ‘our kind’?” I asked slowly.
They all went very still.
Zion and Ravik exchanged a glance. Boone rubbed the back of his neck.
Then Boone finally spoke for the first time since coming outside.
“Okay, sugar, listen. We’re going to show you something, and we need you not to scream.
Also, to trust that you’re safe with us, no matter what it looks like.
We won’t be able to talk to you for a few seconds, but don’t worry—we won’t hurt you. ”
“We would never hurt you,” Ravik added, his voice quiet but absolute. “Under any circumstance.”
Boone, who was dressed in nothing but a solid black tee and sweatpants, suddenly began removing both. And, oh wow, nope, he wasn’t wearing any underwear.
“What-what are you doing?” I asked, averting my eyes back to Zion and Ravik before he could fully reveal his package. But then, I stumbled backward with an “Oh my God!”
All three men suddenly sprouted animal heads.
Fur. Snouts. Round ears.
I didn’t scream. But I did stare for several long moments, my breaths coming out of my gaped mouth in short puffs of white vapor.
They were bears!
Zion and Ravik both wore the heads of black bears atop their human bodies—Zion’s turtleneck and Ravik’s ceremonial shirt.
And Boone had collapsed down to all fours—going what I’d guess you’d call “full bear.”
He was huge, and his entire body was covered in white fur. Polar bear. I’d seen enough nature documentaries and soda ads to recognize the species.
“Okay… okay,” I managed to say when I finally found my voice. My knees felt about ready to give out.
“So this is how you’re all connected," I said more to myself than the three guys... bears. "I guess that tracks.”
Because weirdly, them being bears suddenly made everything finally make sense.
The strange sounds I’d heard when Dennis died.
The way none of them seemed cold, even in this weather.
The whole “our kind’s been doing polyamory since before polyamory was even a word.
” The "long story" text message from Noelle.
I was very, very shocked, but I no longer confused—actually, wait a minute....
I narrowed my eyes at the three men—males—bear beings standing in front of me. “What does any of this have to do with you three calling me your mate?”