Chapter 8
Luke left Valley sitting on the porch to call her boss while he went inside to get dressed. He sent a quick text to Colt.
Running a little late. Valley came over. I’ll be there as soon as I can.
Colt replied a few moments later. No worries. I’m already at the gazebo. Couldn’t sleep, thought I might as well work.
He smiled. That was so Colt. Turning insomnia into productivity.
Luke dressed quickly, pulling on a t-shirt and jeans and finding his worn work boots by the back door.
As he made quick work of washing his face and brushing his teeth, he was acutely aware of Valley on the porch.
He couldn’t hear everything that was said on the call, but he could sense she was upset even though they weren’t marked mates yet.
She’d decided to stay for him. He still couldn’t get over how big that was. King Lake was home for him, but he would have made a new home with her anywhere.
Still… he was glad that she’d decided to stay.
After grabbing his keys, he walked back outside.
Valley was still on the porch, the phone in her lap, staring down the road toward the lake.
She looked so sad that his heart sank.
Sitting next to her, he put his arm around her and kissed her temple.
“You okay, sweetheart?”
She leaned into him.
“Yeah. I told her what was going on. She was disappointed, but she said she understood. I know she was counting on me, and that’s what makes it feel like I just fell into a pricker bush.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” she said. “I chose you because you’re home for me and I wouldn’t have felt right taking you with me to start that new job, even though I appreciate you being willing to do that.”
“I’d go anywhere with you.”
She tilted her head and smiled at him. “Well, I’d stay here for you.”
He kissed her. He didn’t think he’d ever get tired of her saying she was staying. She’d chosen him. He’d never felt so lucky and blessed.
“I told her I’d repay the money.” She sighed and lowered her head to look at her hands. “After I do that, it’ll really eat my savings. I’ll only be okay without a job for so long.”
He hated hearing the worry in her voice.
“The right job will come along at the right time, just like you came into my life at the perfect time. Which, by the way, was the best night of my life.”
She smiled again, the sadness chased out of her eyes, and said, “It was a really great night.” She sighed and leaned on his shoulder. “I don’t want you to think you need to go solve this for me.”
“What?”
“You’re a fixer. You see a problem and you deal with it, like making that planter box for Maggie. But not having a huge savings to carry me until I find The Perfect Job is weighing on my mind a little. But it’ll work out, I know it will. Because I know I made the right choice.”
“I made the right choice when I went to The Howl on Friday.”
She rested her hand on his chest, right over his heart, and exhaled softly. Then she straightened, kissed him, and rose to her feet. “Don’t you have to get to work?”
“Yeah. I told Colt I’d be late.”
“You should go. I’ll just come over after you’re home.”
He rose to his feet. “How about you come with me? You can hang out with me, and if you get bored, you can take my truck wherever you want to go. You just have to promise to pick me up.”
She grinned. “I’d love that.”
Ten minutes later, they were headed across the bridge, the windows down to let in the cool morning air.
His bear was so happy.
Happy she was in the truck, her arm against his on the console, their fingers linked.
Happy she wasn’t moving two hours away.
The gazebo project was in a park in Mill Creek. The town council wanted a small, covered space for events, and Five Pines had gotten the job when council members had seen the deck at The Howl and liked their work.
Colt was measuring boards for the base when they parked.
“Morning, Valley,” he said as he straightened.
“Good morning.”
“I heard you saved The Howl from a bun emergency.”
She smiled. “It was fun and a little stressful, but baking is like that.”
“I know they appreciated your help,” he said.
Valley sat on a bench nearby away from the workspace, her legs tucked under her as she perused online job postings on her phone. After a while, she offered to walk to The Coffee Shop Next Door and get them something, and they were happy to take her up on that offer.
He gave her money from his wallet, and she walked down the sidewalk toward the coffee shop.
“You look happy,” Colt said.
“Well, she’s staying. So I’m ecstatic, but also a little worried about her finding work since she’s worried about it.”
“I’m glad she’s staying. The right job will show up.”
“Yeah. I just never want her to feel like she gave up anything she really wanted because she chose me.”
“She chose you because you’re mates,” Colt pointed out. “She could have still wanted to go to her job and you would have been the one choosing her and following. But she changed her mind because finding you mattered more than her plans. And I think fate rewards that kind of trust, you know?”
“I hope so.” He finished nailing a board into place, and then said, “I want her to be my mate in truth. I want to mark her and mate her properly and show her my shift.”
“By yourself or with all of us?”
“Well, I don’t want her seeing anyone else’s dick, so how about I shift for her at my house and we join you, Riggs, and Tyler?”
“How about dinner first? We can have it at my house, bring the picnic tables over to the patio so we can all sit together.”
“I’d love that.”
Colt took out his phone and texted Maggie, asking if she minded ordering steaks and sides from the grocery in Mill Creek. He’d pick them up at lunch.
“Thanks, man,” Luke said.
“Anytime.”
After Valley came back with coffees and muffins, they took a break and talked about Mill Creek and King Lake, and then she took his truck and went to her house to visit with her family, promising to return at four to pick him up.
He kissed her goodbye and watched her leave, his bear letting out a disgruntled sound at her not being nearby for the rest of the afternoon.
By late afternoon, the base of the gazebo had taken shape, and Luke and Colt were both covered in sawdust. Valley returned before four, and when he got in the truck at the end of the workday and saw she’d packed a bag, he couldn’t stop his smile.
“So, you’re staying tonight?” he asked.
“If that’s okay.”
“Hell yes. I should have asked you before you left to go hang out with your parents anyway.”
He pulled away from the park behind Colt and followed him to King Lake.
“Good. I want to wake up in your arms.”
“I like that too.” He cleared his throat. “Would you like to have dinner with the den?”
“Tonight?”
“Yes.”
“I’d love to. Where?”
“At Colt’s. And then after, I’d like to shift so you can see my bear. The whole den will shift, except for Maggie since she’s pregnant and doesn’t shift right now.”
“Oh! How cool. That sounds awesome.”
“How did the visit with your parents go?”
“Good. They’re happy I’m sticking around. They like you. And I think my dad is very happy to have a strong guy around. You wouldn’t believe how often he’s called for Mom and me to help him lift some old, dusty piece of furniture out of his panel van that he found on the side of the road.”
“I’m happy to help. I like your parents, too.”
They parked at his house and walked inside so she could put her bag in the bedroom.
Instead of walking over to Colt’s right away, he took her outside on the back patio.
The only thing back there was an old grill and a bench he’d built when he had some leftover wood from a project and wanted a place to sit.
The yard behind the house ended in the woods, and beyond it, he could see part of the Pine Ridge mountain range where the dragon clan lived, ran a security company, and patrolled the town from time to time to watch for trouble.
“Is everything okay? You got really quiet,” Valley said.
He looked down at her. “Yeah, actually. Everything’s amazing. I wanted to ask you something.”
“Anything.”
“Would you move in with me? I know you live on your parents’ land and that means you’re not in danger of getting kicked out if your savings run out.
I don’t think you need saving, but I just want you with me.
I want you to make this house into a home with me, and I want to come home to you. I want to build a life here with you.”
Her mouth fell open and she let out a soft gasp.
Then she smiled, the sweetest, most beautiful smile. “Yes.”
He hugged and kissed her. “Let’s go to Colt’s for dinner so you can get to know the den.”
“Sounds good to me.”
He took her hand and they walked to Colt’s, where Tyler and Riggs were moving two picnic tables together and Colt was manning the grill.
Valley stepped away to help Maggie set the tables and bring the food out from the house that had been delivered, and Luke grabbed a cooler and filled it with ice and drinks.
Dinner with the den was easy. He’d known his friends would welcome Valley to the group as if she’d been there all along. She and Maggie were thick as thieves right away. Before they dug into thick steaks and tubs of potato salad and macaroni and cheese, Colt lifted his beer and called for a toast.
“To new friends and one of our own finding his mate,” Colt said.
“To The Howl and opening night,” Luke said.
“To us,” Valley said.
“To me and Colt finding our mates,” Riggs said.
“Hear hear,” they all called, clinking their bottles.
Luke kissed Valley after the toast.
While they ate, they talked about the town and the den, sharing stories about shifting with Valley, as she shared about growing up with two free-wheeling hippies and a parade of rescue dogs.
When the meal was over, they helped clean up and then Luke took Valley back to the house.
“Why aren’t you shifting with your friends?” she asked.
“Because I want mine to be the first shift you see.”
“Is that the only reason?”
He gave her a look.
She laughed. “Right. You don’t want me to see any other naked guys.”
“Also that.”
She giggled. “I wouldn’t look.”
He snorted.
“I’ll look at you, though? Maybe you can dance a little while you strip?”
He laughed. “Only if you hum a sexy tune for me.”
When they got to the back patio, he undid his work boots and took them off. “When you move in, I want you to redecorate however you want. I don’t want it to be you just living in my house, I want it to be our house together. And we definitely need better outside furniture.”
“My dad has some in his shop, we should check it out.”
“Definitely. Then we can have them over for dinner.”
Her eyes shone. “That would be great.”
He took off his shirt and she made an appreciative sound in her throat. Stepping close, she ran her palms up his abdomen to his chest. “You’re so sexy. I wonder how I got so lucky to have you for a mate.”
“Fate really smiled on me,” he said. “Since my mate is so beautiful.”
He kissed her and gently pushed her wandering hands away.
“Spoilsport,” she said with a wink.
He finished undressing as she hummed various unsexy tunes.
“I’m trying to be serious here,” he said.
“I’m being super helpful, I’ll have you know.” She was smiling so hard, her cheeks had to hurt.
“You’re the opposite of helpful right now,” he said with a grumble. Then he stepped backward onto the grass. “I’m still me inside the bear.”
“I promise I won’t freak out. I’m really excited to see you.”
He let his change come over him. Swiftly, his body changed from two legs to four, from skin to fur. He landed on his paws and shook himself out with a grunt.
“Oh.”
He looked at her and her mouth was open, her fingers against her lips.
“You’re so big! And oh my gosh, I love your fur color.”
He moved to her, lowering his head, and she touched his face.
She let out an excited giggle. “I’m touching a dang bear!”
He let out a bearish chuckle.
“Hey, Luke,” she said, pressing her head against his. He gave a soft growl in response.
They walked to the lake, watching the sun set, and then they caught up to the den in the woods.
Maggie was walking with Tyler in his shift, and she and Valley spoke for a long while about being mates to bears, and although Maggie was a bear herself, she and Tyler had had a whirlwind romance of their own, so she could relate to how fast things moved when shifters found their forever person.
Like how Luke had found Valley.
He and Valley ended up back at the lake after a while, and he stretched out on the still-warm grass and she leaned against him, staring up at the dark sky and the stars.
She talked quietly for a while, about her past and family, and her hopes for the future, and then she drifted off to sleep, snuggled into his fur.
When he was able to shift back, she woke up long enough for him to return to human and then he carried her back to the house and straight to bed, where they fell asleep, arms around each other, in the house that was suddenly a home because Valley was there.