Chapter 18 #2
Technically he’d first talked to her nine months earlier on a double phone call. He’d been chatting with Ben while Fern was on the phone with Liv. That had to count for something. Nine months was a reasonable timeframe for emotions to develop. And he did love her.
But ten days of in-person activities wasn’t much, and that was Fern’s lived experience. Knowing they’d inevitably end up together as true mates and telling her he already loved her were two very different things.
He exhaled through rounded lips, deciding to chew on the confession a while longer, to savor it every time he thought of her, and to hold off on speaking up.
It could wait until the perfect moment, until she’d had time to digest. It didn’t matter where he said it; it mattered when. He’d know when the time was right.
“Are you okay?” She tapped the tip of his nose, and when he smiled, she leaned in to give him a peck. “I want to stick my tongue in your mouth, but I’m trying to be good.”
“You’re being a very good girl,” he rumbled, trying to stay serious and sexy despite wanting to laugh.
She squirmed, settling further between his legs so her butt hit the stone as she sat across his lap. “So, um... how long do people usually wait before mating in this sort of situation? Are we talking months or minutes?”
“That’s up to you.”
“Up to me? You’re the one who said life was good before you met me.”
“I clarified that it was good enough, and now it’s great. Don’t act like you didn’t hear all of that.” Teasing, he slipped his hand down her back, under her ass, and pinched.
“This week is going to be so busy. Could we do it now?”
“I’m not fucking you for the first time in a cave, Fern.”
She grumbled and moved to stand. “Then let’s go—”
“Ah, no.” He tugged her back down. “I think we should wait until after the wedding next weekend. Isn’t Ren coming in on Thursday? And all the guests get here Friday?”
“Yes. Whyyy?” she lamented.
“Because Fern, as true mates, when we have sex with the intent of mating, we’re going to be thrust into the super compelling.”
“Such a fancy name.”
“It is, isn’t it? But we’ll be insatiable.” With a hooked pointer finger, he urged her to look at his face rather than his hand she’d been studying. “We’re going to want time alone. And I don’t want you to rush into something you’ve only just learned about. It’s permanent, Fern.”
“I know.” She captured his gaze, eyes glossy and crinkled at the corners. “Don’t think I’m being impulsive here. I’m known for it, a little bit, but I’ve thought a lot about this, about you.”
“We’ve only known each other for a week and a half,” he tossed out the obvious with little conviction. The short timeframe didn’t change his opinion of her, why would it change hers of him?
“That’s about ten days too long, Elliott.”
Joy erupted in his heart, and he almost started yelling about love. “You’d have wanted me to bite you the moment we met?”
“Yeah. You should’ve yanked me out of my car and clawed off my leggings.
Maybe tossed me up on the roof for a little snack.
” She ran her nails down his chest, sending hot threads of passion snaking through his body.
“Then you could’ve dragged me inside and fucked me—claimed me—on your couch, your table, in the shower, maybe the bed. ”
“Fern,” he growled. “Fuck. Those are some seriously aggressive verbs.” It was like she’d been in his dreams that first fitful night when he’d imagined all the ways he could have her.
Leaning in close, she nipped his bottom lip, then whispered, “I like when you’re in control, and I like a little fear.”
“I’ll remember that.” The perfect woman, that’s what she was. Gently, but not very discreetly, he reached down to adjust his hard cock. “Can we wait until Sunday, when the wedding is done and the guests are gone?”
“Are you asking me or are you asking yourself?”
He chuckled. “I’m justifying it. It’ll be safer to do the chase without humans around. You’ll need to take off work, too, but I think Ros will be all right with that.”
“She will, she’s already brought it up like twenty times. Oh my god, does she know, too?”
His lips drooped down as his brows went up. “I don’t think so, but Ros and Bruce are true mates, so maybe she’s been seeing the signs.”
“What happens after the super compelling? Biting, right?”
“Mhm.” Saliva filled his mouth at the thought of sinking his teeth into her, of claiming her as his. It was animalistic, sure, but he had a literal bear in him, so it was fine. “When we’re ready, you’ll start the chase.”
“I start it? I thought you had to chase me?”
“I do. But you have to run.”
With a quick shuffle of limbs and what had to be some expert yoga moves, Fern spun to face him, once again straddling his thighs. “I can do that. Then what happens? When do I get my animal?”
Elliott sighed, slumping against the rock wall. Swallowing his dread, he said, “After I bite you, the sickness begins.”
Fern’s lip curled like she smelled something bad. “That’s a new detail. Please explain.”
Rubbing slow circles on her back, Elliott took a stab at it.
“When a non-shifter enters the bonding—the super compelling—the magic begins, but it’s not too late to back out and continue life as a human.
If you move into the claiming because you’ve let me bite you, your body will start its first transition.
Basically, it’s the magic settling into you, it’s an animal either climbing out of your soul or being shoved in by some outside source. ”
Her thighs tightened around his waist. “You don’t know which?”
He shook his head.
“Everyone goes through the sickness,” she said, reciting the words like a comforting fact.
He felt bad correcting the misnomer. “Um, no. Only humans who become shifters. Natural shifters are born with animals, but they don’t usually come out until we’re around four.”
“Oh. So what is the sickness?”
“It’s like the flu, I’ve heard. Shifters don’t really get sick, or when we do, we don’t stay sick, not until we’re getting old and the magic stops protecting us from illness and injury.”
“That’s so cool. So, I get the flu, but as a prize I get an animal?”
“Mhm. It can take a few days, sweating, fever, the whole nine yards. But when it’s done, your animal should emerge.”
“Should?” Her eyes rounded.
“Will,” he corrected.
“Is there... Can I die during this?”
“My god, no. I don’t think so, at least. I’ve never heard of it killing anyone, and I think there’d be stories.”
She nodded slowly. “All right. So, Saturday, after the reception—”
“Sunday, after everyone leaves,” he dragged her back on track.
With a pout that stuck her delectable lower lip right in his face, she grumbled, “How am I supposed to keep this from Ren?”
“She’ll be busy getting married.”
“Not at the bachelorette party! Not all day Friday! Not all day Saturday while we’re getting ready for the wedding.”
“Fern,” he growled. “You can’t tell her about shifting even after we’re mated.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Saturday—”
“Sunday.”
“Sunday, we kick this off. And I finally get to feel you inside me?”
He tried to answer in the affirmative but only managed a throaty groan when she arched her back, planted her palms on the stone beside his calves, and ground herself against his erection.
He wouldn’t fuck her in the cave, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have that snack she’d brought up.
Urging a partial shift, his nails grew clawed and—frankly—creepy.
But when he lifted one to her throat, lightly scraping from the base of her chin to dip beneath her collar, she whimpered and caught his gaze, her pupils blown wide.
“You’re in control,” she murmured before tossing her head back and giving over to him.