Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Maisy
I drive up Bad Bear Mountain. I know where Lana and Teddy live. I also know which property is Darius, Paloma and Wren’s. Both of them have built new, gorgeous mountain homes in the past few years.
I also know that threaded through the woods are the older cabins where each brother lives, but I don’t know which one is Matthias.
Still, I drive straight up the mountain, somehow certain that I’ll figure it out.
I scream and throw on the brakes when a giant, polar-grizzly leaps in front of the car, waving its giant paws. My Subaru is made for snow, but it still skids at the sudden stop.
The bear leaps toward the rear of my car and braces against it to stop the skid.
“Everest! “ I open my door to look back at him. “What’s wrong? Is it Matthias?” My fear spikes again.
He nods his head and starts loping forward on the road.
I step on the gas, making the Subaru fishtail again. I’m hoping he’s leading me to the cabin. When he heads off-road and plunges into the woods, I hope that he’s on a road, so I don’t get stuck in a ditch.
He points again. I round the bend and see an adorable cabin nestled in the trees. The windows glow with firelight, and I see figures in the windows.
“Is this it?”
Everest paws at my door.
I skid to a stop. Okay, I guess this is it.
I throw open my door and jog to the cabin. There is a freshly tromped path of bear tracks and human boots through the snow, as well as the imprint of something large being dragged.
Matthias! Oh, God.
I throw the door open without knocking, fear gripping my throat.
Matthias’ head jerks up from where it rested in his hands. He’s sitting at the kitchen table while his brothers stand over him.
He lurches from the chair toward me. His clothes rip and shred as he changes from man to bear midair.
Darius and Teddy both grab his arms to keep him from reaching me.
“Whoa! No, Matthias! You’ll hurt her. Shift back,” Darius yells.
“Shift, Matthias,” Teddy commands.
Their agitation and obvious fear only increase mine.
“Let him go!” I cry out, running to him.
They don’t release him, but I put my hand on his chest, over his heart. “Hey,” I say softly. “What’s wrong?”
He lets out a long bear-warble. It makes the hair on the back of my neck raise.
“Can you shift back?” I ask gently.
He roars and shakes his head, jerking away from his brothers and knocking me back in the process.
“No, Matthias!” The twins tackle him to the ground.
I scream.
What can I do?
“The bear wants to mark her,” Teddy mutters.
“Fuck. He’s too wild. He’s gonna hurt her.” Darius straddles Matthias’ chest to hold him down on the ground.
I spy his black doctor’s bag on the hearth. The Moon Cure! I run for it and dump the contents onto the sofa with shaking hands.
Syringe. Vial. Rubber strap. “Is this what you need?” I hold them up to show Matthias.
He roars.
“What is that?” Darius asks.
I yank off my coat, so I’m less restricted. “A medicine he developed to keep from going moon mad. He calls it Moon Cure.”
“Hell, I didn’t know anything about this. Did you?” Teddy looks at his twin, who shakes his head.
I’ve never filled a syringe before. Never used a needle, but I figure it out. I’m a capable person, and Matthias needs me.
I walk over to him, my heart in my throat. Then I realize he’s covered in fur. I have no idea where his veins would be. Well, I’ll just have to use a big muscle, then. I drop to my knees, jab the needle into his quad, and depress the plunger.
He lets out a deep, low grumble that goes on for several seconds.
Darius gets off his brother, who has stopped fighting. He takes the syringe from me and sniffs it, then hands it to Teddy.
I try to catch Matthias’ eye, but his giant bear head turns away from me, like he’s ashamed. He rumbles some more.
My heart thuds. Should he have transformed by now? How long does it take to work? Was I too late?
A tear drips down my nose.
Matthias’ head jerks around, his nose twitching like he smelled my tear. He opens his giant jaws, and then his body contorts.
I gasp as I hear the sound of popping joints, but it’s okay. Matthias is transforming back to a man.
A very naked man.
A gorgeous, naked man who belongs to me.
“Thank fuck,” Teddy murmurs. He and Darius move back to give him room.
Matthias sits up, leaning back on his hands like he’s weak and stares at me, panting.
“So…it worked?” I croak.
He nods, his eyes shadowed. “I’m sorry. I…I didn’t want to take it anymore. You didn’t like it,” he explains.
Tears prick my eyes. “I don’t want you to turn feral, Matthias.”
“Seems like you got this, brother,” Teddy mutters. “Maisy, call Everest if he shifts again.”
I nod, and the twins leave the cabin, giving us privacy.
He looks at me. His gaze snags on the wedding ring I put back on.
I look at his hand to see he’s still wearing his too. My breath catches.
“What do you want, Maisy?”
“I want you to claim me,” I whisper.
His eyes turn red, and he blinks hard. “You do?” His voice sounds rough. He starts to reach for me as I speak.
“But…”
He freezes. “Yes?”
“Not if you don’t want me. I don’t want to be with someone who doesn’t want me. Or love me.”
“Maisy, beautiful.” He’s in motion now, reaching for me, lifting me to straddle his waist. “You’re all I want. Fuck, is that how I screwed this up? I made you think I didn’t want you?”
I suck on my lower lip and nod.
“Gah! That’s why you didn’t like hearing it was a biological attraction.” He smacks his forehead with the heel of his hand. “I’m such an idiot. My explanation must’ve been the least romantic thing you’d ever heard.”
“Yes. It was.”
“Maisy, you’re everything to me. I adore you. I’m obsessed with you. You’re the only female I’ve ever wanted or ever will want. And I’m sorry I made you think anything other than that.”
“But is that all just biology?”
Matthias leans his forehead against mine. “No, sweetheart,” he murmurs. “Science soothes me. Reducing transcendent experiences to scientific or medical explanations helps me think I can control them, but, of course, I can’t. And my scientific explanation hurt your feelings. I’m so sorry.”
“But if you want me, why didn’t you claim me?”
Matthias’ expression takes on that stoic look I’ve come to recognize.
The one he wore when he talked about keeping his mother’s illness a secret from the entire family and carrying the burden all on his own.
“It wouldn’t be fair to you. You’re young.
Barely an adult. You hadn’t even experimented with another man–not a date or even a kiss.
How could I trap you into a lifelong mating before you even had a chance to experience life? ”
My lips part in shock.
That’s why he didn’t want to mate me? Not that I wasn’t experienced enough for him, but this was Matthias’ altruism coming out. The tight bands that had been constricting my heart since the day I left Las Vegas burst open. My chest fills with warm light.
Still, I want to be sure I understand. I tilt my head. “So you were… were protecting me…from yourself?”
Matthias
It feels so incredible to have my mate in my arms again. Her caramel and cinnamon scent soothe my bear. It’s a miracle I didn’t expect.
“Yes, beautiful. I was afraid I’d steamroll you. I know I’m a lot. Especially in bed. You have no idea the filthy things I want to do to you.”
Far from being taken aback, my mate smiles and frames my face with her hands. She drops her voice into a sexy purr. “I want you to do those filthy things to me.”
My dick lengthens under her lap. I grip her ass and pull her closer, a possessive twinge returning to my behavior.
She lowers her lips and slides them across mine, and I want to weep from the pleasure of it. The sweetness.
“Did you ever stop to consider that maybe I wasn’t out experimenting with other guys because I was waiting for you to claim me?
I might have read a gazillion sexy books, but I was fantasizing about you to experience the real thing.
I mean, here you are, and yet, you’re the guy who’s explaining away our entire attraction to biology. ”
I groan and lean my forehead against hers again. She will probably never let me live that one down.
She continues, “Wouldn’t it stand to reason that if I’m your mate, my biology wouldn’t allow me to be interested in another man?”
I blink. “Well, yes, I guess that would make sense.”
“Listen, here’s the only way this is going to work.”
My heart pounds. I’m usually the dom. The one in control. Before I knew Maisy was my mate, I made females beg and plead for more. Even with Maisy, I’ve been the one setting the rules in our relationship or non-relationship.
It’s unnerving to be the one prepared to beg now.
“I’m either your equal and able to make my own decisions about who I want to be with and whether I want to be with you, or I’m out.
You’re either going to let me choose, or you’re treating me like I’m a child, and I’m not going to be with someone who doesn’t value me or trust me to make up my own mind. ”
I suck in a breath, finally understanding how badly I fucked up.
I was trying to protect her from my controlling, dominant, all-consuming side. Trying to protect her from all the dark and filthy things I want to do with her. I tried not to wield undue influence on a female so much younger than I am. But it was that very paternalism that offended her.
I thought I was leaving space for her to have a choice. But in reality, I took a choice away from her. I didn’t let her choose.
I clear my throat. “I’m sorry, Maisy. I took your choice from you, and that was wrong. You are my equal. Absolutely.”
“So I get to choose?”
“Of course.” My heart’s still pounding. She’s here, on my lap, in my arms, but she could still tell me it’s off. She could still walk away like she did in Las Vegas.
“Do you trust me?”
“With my whole heart.”
Her expression softens at my choice of words. Yes, I included my heart, and I wasn’t even talking about the organ that pumps blood through the body.
“I choose you.”
My eyes get wet. The lump in my throat won’t go away.
“I choose you,” I say. “My heart chooses you. My mind chooses you. My soul chooses you. My bear chooses you. My body chooses you.” I try to cover all my bases, so she’ll never doubt my love again.
“You,” she whispers, her eyes glittering with tears, too.
“You.” A smile cracks my face for the first time in a week. It feels like it might break. No, wait. That’s the cage around my heart splintering open. I kiss her, hard. “Yeah?” I ask when I pull away, and she’s breathless.
She smiles back and nods. “Yeah. Only you. It’s always been you.”
I capture the back of her head with my palm and pull her down on top of me then log roll us until she’s on her back, pinned beneath me.
“Once I mark you, I’ll never let you go,” I warn.
She flushes, but her expression is pure pleasure. “Promise?”