Chapter 17
The fourth workshop, the last one before the agreed pause, was the best one yet.
Mr. Leeland had built a demonstration panel.
It was a four-by-four section of framing with actual wiring run through it, a breaker box, two outlets and a switch, the whole thing mounted on a base so it could stand upright or lie flat.
He’d spent a week on it, working in the evenings while Bree handled the store, and the result was a teaching tool any trade school would have envied.
He showed the young people how current moved, how a circuit was protected, and what happened when it wasn’t. He let each of them trip the breaker and reset it. He showed them how to read the box. When Emilio asked if he could take a photograph of the wiring diagram, her father’s eyes twinkled.
“You can have the diagram itself. I made extra,” Mr. Leeland said triumphantly and turned to the table where he’d kept a stack of papers separate.
Bree stood at the back and watched her dad hand out diagrams, happier than she’d seen him in years, and her chest went tight. It was too much emotion for a Saturday morning, but she let herself feel it anyway, because she knew she was going to lose this.
Not all of it. Not right away. Not her father, not the store, not the workshops.
But this exact version of her life, with Pax coming through the back door every morning and the two of them working through whatever the day brought, then talking until her father went to bed.
That would change. It had to. The trouble circling them would end one way or another, and whatever came after wouldn’t look exactly like these last few weeks.
She was being ungrateful and she knew it. She did her best to make herself stop.
After the session, when the young people had gone and her father was packing up his panel with visible satisfaction, Pax appeared beside her with two coffees.
“Good call that he made extra diagrams,” Pax said.
“He always makes extra.” She accepted the cup, smiling fondly at her dad across the room.
“He made sure there was extra of everything when my mother was sick. There were extra meals in the freezer, and he brought in extras of all the practical things, as if he could stack up enough supplies to hold off what was coming.” She looked at her father’s back.
“It’s how he loves people. He prepares for their needs before they even know they have them. ”
Pax was quiet beside her and she realized she might’ve made him uncomfortable. Men, in her admittedly limited experience, didn’t really like to talk about feelings all that much.
“Sorry,” she said. “That was more than you needed to know.”
“No, don’t apologize. It’s kind of beautiful, the way he cares.”
Bree saw how Pax was watching her father. He appeared a bit more introspective and open than he usually let himself be in the middle of the day.
“He’s going to be all right,” Pax said, still watching her dad. “After this is over, whatever happens, the store is going to be all right, and he’s going to be all right.”
“I know you’ll do everything in your power to make that happen. I’m not really worried about after this mess is over. I’m feeling sort of greedy about right now.”
He turned to her then, surprised. “Greedy?”
“Greedy for this. I don’t want it to end.” She gestured, a small motion that took in the store, the workshop, her dad’s smile, all of it. “I know it can’t last like this forever, but I’m greedy to keep it. Despite the danger outside, these are good times. The best we’ve had in a long time.”
He regarded her for a long moment. Then he said, softly enough that only she could hear, “It doesn’t have to end.”
She held that close. “But things always change.”
“Some things change. That’s inevitable, and true,” he agreed. “But sometimes, things get even better.”
Her father called from across the room, asking about where she thought the demonstration panel should be stored between sessions, and she went to help him. When she glanced back, Pax was still watching her.
She thought about his words for the rest of the afternoon.
Pax came back that evening. Bree was in the kitchen when she heard his motorcycle pull up behind the store, and she glanced at the clock. Eight-thirty. Late enough that her father had already gone to bed. She went down to unlock the back door.
Pax came in, going up to the apartment with her after he’d made a point of securing the back door. He set his keys on the counter. There was no sign of hesitation in him anywhere. He’d clearly made up his mind about something on the drive over.
“I’ve been thinking about what we talked about this afternoon,” he said.
“About things getting even better?” she asked, feeling a bit shaky all of a sudden.
“Yeah.” He crossed to her. “I want you to know, I meant it.”
She looked up at him. He was close. The kitchen wasn’t big enough for him to be anything else, and she could see the line of his jaw and the steadiness in his eyes. She thought about the weeks they’d had together, and everything they’d built without quite planning to.
“I know you meant it,” she whispered.
“Then why are you still looking at me like you’re afraid I’m going to leave again?”
His words floored her and she scrambled for a response. She might have even stuttered when she finally replied.
“Because that’s what you do. You left when we were kids and made a life for yourself out there in the world.
” He looked stricken at her whispered words.
She put her hands flat on his chest, anchoring herself.
“I don’t want this to end, but I also don’t want to scare you off.
If I tell you what I’m really thinking, I’m afraid you’ll run. ”
“Tell me,” he commanded gently.
“Pax—” She was torn. She wanted forever with this man, but she couldn’t leave her father.
She couldn’t leave this town. Not right now.
And she feared Pax’s destiny lay elsewhere and there would be no room for her in his big life, while her life remained small and confined to this little part of the great big world.
“Bree.” He covered her hands with his. “We’ve been avoiding talking about this since the day I came home. I’m done with that. Tell me.”
She looked at his big hands over hers. Then she looked up and decided to be brave. She took a leap of faith, praying he’d be there to catch her.
“I was already halfway in love with you when we were teenagers,” she said.
“I’ve been hiding that for a very long time.
And then you came back, and you fixed every broken thing in my store, and you talked to my father, and you kissed me, and I—” She stopped, reorganized her thoughts, and made herself finish.
“I am a lot more than halfway in love with you now, Pax, and that scares the heck out of me, because you still might leave. You left before.”
He went very still.
“Have I killed it? Are you going to run now?” she asked, a nervous smile making one corner of her mouth lift.
He looked at her long enough that she felt the raw exposure of what she’d just handed him.
Then he said, “I’m not going to leave.”
“You can’t know that.” Her whisper held hope and fear in equal measures.
“I do know it,” he insisted. He brought one hand up to cradle her face. “Bree, honey, you’re my mate. I’ve been afraid to tell you, in case it scared you off, but you’re it for me. Forever. There’s no turning back from a true mate.”
“Are you serious?” Her heart was racing. Was he really staking his claim? She could hardly believe her ears.
“As serious as I’ve ever been. My heart knew that first night we shared, though I suspect I must have intuited it all along.
Why else would I be drawn to you so much when we were young?
We just had to wait until we were both old enough to grow into our fated roles. As mates. Never to be separated. Ever.”
“You won’t leave again?” she asked, just to make sure.
“My place is with my mate and if you’re here, then that’s where I’ll be. Always. Mating is forever among my kind.” He leaned down to kiss her, and his arms held her tight against his chest. She melted into him, happy tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes.
When he let her up for air a few long minutes later, she was filled with joy. “I guess you weren’t kidding about things getting even better.”
He chuckled, and held her close. “Look, I don’t know yet how everything is going to play out, but you’re my mate and that means I’ll do anything for you.
We are joined together on a soul-deep level for the rest of our lives.
Whatever happens, you are my first priority now, in all things.
Once I tell my family and the Clan, you’ll be my acknowledged mate in their eyes for all time.
You’ll have the protection of the Clan should anything happen to me, not that I’m planning on letting anything interfere with our future.
We just have to get past this little hurdle first and make sure everybody lives through it so we can move on to the good part. ”
“The good part?” she asked, parroting his words with a grin.
“Settling down. Making a home and a family, if we’re so blessed. All the good stuff that comes with belonging to another person and sharing our lives,” he told her softly. She really liked the sound of that.
“Okay,” she whispered, reaching up to kiss his jaw. “I’ll look forward to all of the above, once things settle down again.”
“I’ll hold you to that, babe,” he replied with a little growl in his voice as he took her lips once again.
The kiss was different this time. There was no desperation in it, and no brand-new discovery, either. This was…more settled. His hands moved over her with the ease of a man who knew her now, and she pressed closer without a single pretense left between them.
They made it to her bedroom, and he smiled against her neck and they landed on the bed tangled up in each other.
She pulled back to meet his gaze in the low light.
His face was relaxed in a way she rarely got to see.
The vigilance he carried everywhere, even in sleep, was gone, and he was looking at her with an openness that felt like trust.
She put her hand against his jaw. He turned his face into her palm and kissed it.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi,” he replied, looking bemused.
She kissed him, slow and deliberate. Then, he undressed her like he was unwrapping something precious, kissing every inch of skin as he bared it, until she was trembling and impatient and had to help him out of his own clothes because he was taking entirely too long about it.
When he would have moved over her, she pushed his shoulders back down onto the bed and reversed their positions. She’d been wanting to try this for a while, and this time she wanted to be the one in charge. Or, at least, the one on top.
He caught on pretty quick and helped her settle over him, his big hands grasping her hips lightly.
They hadn’t been using protection since she was on the pill, but for just a moment she thought about how perfect life would be if he got her pregnant and they started their own little family.
How she would love a little Pax running around underfoot.
But the urgency of the moment stole the dreamy vision from her mind as she settled over his hard cock, joining them together. He went deep and she loved every second of his possession. His hands urged her to move and she obliged, stunned at the sensations of this new position.
She moved over him, unhurried at first, then eventually nearly losing control as their passions mounted and her pleasure began to peak. At that point, he rolled them and took over.
He watched her face the whole time like she was the only thing in the world worth looking at. The pleasure built again and rolled through her in a long, warm wave, and he followed her over with her name on his lips. Afterward, neither of them moved for a good long while, too content to bother.
Later, she lay with her head on his shoulder while he traced idle patterns on her arm. She watched the shadows play on the ceiling and thought about nothing urgent at all.
“I’m going to want to meet Danny someday,” she said.
His finger stopped. “What?”
“The young bear shifter. The one you were escorting. The reason for all of this.” She tilted her head to look up at him. “I feel like I have a stake in his future now, and I probably need to thank him.”
He stared at her. “That is not what I expected you to say.”
“What did you expect?”
“I don’t know. Not that.” But the corner of his mouth had curved. “He’s safe in Grizzly Cove now. From what Ari said, he’s adjusting fine.”
“Good.” She put her head back down on his shoulder. “I’m glad he’s safe. It seems important that he’s all right.”
“It is,” Pax said. His arm tightened around her, and she felt the understanding in it. She fell asleep to the soft sounds of the desert outside and the slow, steady beat of his heart, and dreamed of a beautiful future with the man she had always loved.
Pax was still there in the morning. She woke to the smell of coffee and found him in the kitchen.
“Anything interesting?” she asked, moving to stand beside him.
“Nothing.” He turned from the view. “Just a regular morning, so far.”
She got herself a cup of coffee and they watched the sunrise layer copper and rose and palest blue across the sky. She’d watched that show her whole life, but having him beside her for it, somehow made it all brand new.
“Rodrigo wants to meet with you,” Pax said.
“With me specifically?”
“With both of us, but you’re the one he wants to hear from.
” He held her gaze. “He wants your read on the town, and especially the business owners. He wants to know who you think can be trusted with information and who can’t.
He needs to know what the human community really thinks of us that live on the res, at street level.
” He paused. “He said you’d know things we don’t. ”
She turned that over. The Alpha of the local jaguar Clan wanted her assessment of the town, and thought she might have insights worth hearing. She was both surprised and honored.
“When?”
“Soon, but there’s no rush. He’ll send word.” Pax’s mouth quirked. “He doesn’t exactly move on a dime, but he doesn’t forget, either. And when we see him, I’ll want to tell him, and therefore the Clan, officially, that you’re my mate.”
A little thrill ran through her. It was real. It hadn’t been a dream.
“Okay,” she whispered, accepting anything and everything he wanted. Pax would never lead her astray.
Bree’s father appeared in the doorway of his bedroom in his robe, saw the two of them, and said, “Is there more coffee, or are you two drinking all of it again?”
Pax took the old man’s cup from the counter where it waited and poured it full. Mr. Leeland accepted it, looked at his daughter over the rim with a knowing expression that required no answer, and went to sit at the kitchen table.
Bree’s gaze shot to Pax. He just shook his head, biting back a small grin. She picked up her coffee and went to start the day.