Chapter 9
Valley had learned several things over the last few days.
Among them, that Luke snored when he was exhausted from a long day of hard work; that her eclectic collection of coffee mugs looked great in his kitchen cabinet; and that moving into his house had taken far less time than she’d spent packing up for the life she didn’t want anymore.
She’d expected to move over slowly, a couple boxes at a time while he worked during the day, but his den had shown up and carried everything out of her garage apartment in a few hours.
He’d told her to decorate however she wanted, but she didn’t want to change everything. She just liked adding her own pieces among his.
Her favorite soft blanket across the back of his navy-blue sectional sofa. Her baking implements in the pantry. Her body wash and shampoo on the shower shelf next to his.
Friday came and went. She spent it setting up her flour and sugar containers in Luke’s pantry instead of loading a truck, and she didn’t think about the drive she wasn’t taking until she was already half asleep.
When she woke up Saturday morning with his arm around her, and his warm breath fanning her neck, her first thought was that her life had changed so completely in a week, but not in a scary way.
She wasn’t mourning lost chances or the road she didn’t take, she was with the guy who held her heart.
She might have walked away from a job she thought she wanted, but she didn’t feel like she had lost anything.
She’d gained Luke and his friends, and the bonus was that she got to stay close to her parents and Eisley.
She might not have a job right now, but she felt blessed in so many other ways.
And after hearing everyone’s opinion about the burgers of the week being magical in some interesting way related to shifters finding their mates, she figured some of that fate-magic might be waiting to bring the right job to her.
That afternoon, they went to her parents and took the outdoor furniture her dad had just refinished. The old set was a roadside find he’d been tickled about for months.
“I think it’s fate, honey,” her dad said, watching as Luke tied down the round table in the truck bed.
“Me and Luke meeting?”
“What? Oh, yes,” he said with a chuckle. “I mean it was fate that I grabbed the outdoor furniture. So that you and Luke would have what you need to make your house a home.”
She smiled at her dad. “Shifters talk a lot about fate.”
He hummed. “Maybe because they see things as more set in stone than we do as humans. He knew that one day he’d meet someone he was meant to be with, and that would be it for him. It would be nice to have that feeling, don’t you think?”
“Yeah,” she said. She watched Luke as he jumped down from the truck and hefted one of the four matching chairs. He was so sexy. So capable and strong. And so very much hers. “Having a shifter for a mate is like love at first sight on steroids. Fast and strong.”
Her mom joined them. “What’s your plan for the night?”
Luke set a chair next to the table on the truck bed and said, “Date night.”
“How fun,” her mom said. “How would you two feel about a weekly family dinner? Or breakfast on Sundays?”
Luke smiled encouragingly at Valley.
“Sunday breakfasts sound great,” Valley said. “I’ll make some cinnamon rolls.”
“Perfect,” her mom said.
After Luke finished securing the outdoor set, they said goodbye to her parents, and Valley grabbed the last of the clothes from the apartment closet before they headed back to King Lake.
She hosed off the patio while he untied the furniture, and then they arranged the table and chairs on the concrete and made plans to have dinner there Sunday night. “I’m thinking brats,” he said.
“Why not burgers?” she asked.
“Because we’re having burgers tonight, if that’s okay? I talked to Sigh earlier and asked if we could get a small table on the deck for dinner tonight and he said he’d reserve one.”
“Oh, how cool! That works for me.”
Luke stepped close and drew her against him, his brown eyes ringed with amber. “Good. We’ve got a few hours until then.”
“A few hours for what?” she asked.
He took her hands and walked backward and she followed him into the house. He pushed the sliding door shut, then swung her up into his arms.
“You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, Valley.”
She loved how he said her name, with a growl like his bear was also saying it. “I feel the same way.”
He carried her into the bedroom and laid her on the bed, lowering himself over her.
“I want my fangs in your neck, sweetheart,” he said, his voice rough and rumbling with his bear. “I want you to be mine in truth.”
Heat rushed through her so fast that her breath caught.
He kissed her, tenderly at first and then slowly deepening, their tongues dancing together. He pushed up her shirt, his rough fingers grazing her skin. In between kisses, they stripped each other, clothes flying, and then he cupped her cheek.
His eyes were bright amber and she could see the hint of fangs between his parted lips. “If I mark you, that means you’re mine forever, Valley. Marking is like marriage for shifters.”
She shivered under his intense gaze. “Will we still get married?”
“I will absolutely ask you to be my wife too, I just want you to know that to my bear you’ll be mine forever once you’re wearing my marks.”
“And you’ll be mine?”
He nodded. “One thousand percent.”
“Then I want it. I want to be yours forever.”
She curled her fingers into his hair and drew him to her lips for another kiss. He settled over her, sliding one arm under her and drawing her close as his cock nudged her pussy. She wrapped her legs around his waist with a soft moan.
He kissed her like they had all the time in the world, and it felt like they did. She’d be perfectly happy if they never had to get dressed or leave the house. She was crazy about him. No one else had ever made her feel the way he did.
His hand moved up to her breast, his thumb circling her nipple until it tightened. She groaned and clenched her knees against his hips.
He kissed along her jaw and down the column of her throat. He licked across her collarbone as he slid his hand down her belly and between her legs. She arched up under him when he simultaneously took her nipple into his mouth and rubbed his fingers over her clit.
She trailed her fingers down his neck and shoulders. He was all thick muscle and heat, strong and solid above her.
He rubbed her clit and sucked on her nipples, alternating between them until she was writhing in his hold, her heels digging into the backs of his thighs, her body pulsing on the edge of pleasure.
He kissed his way down the center of her body, roughly pushing her thighs apart. He stared at her for a heartbeat, his gaze so intense she thought she might combust, and then he lowered his head and licked her clit. She nearly rocketed off the bed!
Laying his arm across her belly, he held her in place as he flicked his tongue over her clit and slipped two fingers into her heat.
She spiraled to the height of pleasure so fast it was dizzying.
Her whole body clenched hard, her stomach flipping as he fingered her hard and fast, laying his tongue over her clit and growling deeply.
She fell into white hot pleasure so fast she barely had time to cry out his name before he was over her, in her, thrusting home over and over.
His hands curled over her shoulders and held her against him as he kissed her throat and her jaw and her cheeks before settling on her lips and kissing her.
She wrapped her legs around him again, locking her ankles at his lower back.
He buried himself deep inside her and froze. “Mine,” he said with a snarl.
“Yes,” she gasped.
He kissed her once more, and then he drew out slowly, making her moan at the loss.
He pressed back in with a powerful, deep stroke that made her arch up under him.
She tilted her hips to take him deeper, and the rough sound he made as his cock went impossibly deep inside her sent heat spiraling through her all over again.
Each stroke felt like a claim.
She was his. He was hers. There was only Luke and home.
A second wave of pleasure built fast, bright and overwhelming.
She tore her mouth from his with a gasp and cried out his name as he surged impossibly faster and harder into her, his control fraying as she leaped into another depth of pleasure.
His name broke from her lips as her body clamped around him, waves of deep bliss crashing over her.
He buried his face against her neck as he followed her climax with his own. And then his fangs sank into her neck and something lit inside her, a little beacon of pleasure from the mating bite that made her orgasm surge again, her vision sparking with fireworks and her skin prickling.
His growl vibrated through her body as the bond between them snapped into place. She felt a layer of connection to him that she hadn’t before, like she could feel his devotion to her and his bear’s fierce and unwavering loyalty.
He pulled his fangs gently from her neck and pressed a soft kiss below the tender mark. “My mate.”
She wrapped her arms around him tightly. “Yours. And you’re mine.”
“Always.”
Too blissed to move under her own power, Valley let Luke gather her closer as he rolled to his back and settled her on his chest. His heartbeat thundered beneath her cheek, strong and steady. The mark on her neck pulsed a little, like a tether between them.
She tilted her face up to look at him and he smiled at her.
“I love you so much,” Luke said.
She moved up enough to kiss him. “I love you too, sweet bear.”
She snuggled back down into his arms, listening to his heartbeat. In a week, Luke had become the most important person in the world to her. She got to live her own happily ever after because she went to The Howl a week ago on a whim and found the other half of her heart.
By the time they made it to The Amber Howl for their date, the tavern was already packed.
It was the second weekend of June and that meant a new band on the deck.
She could hear the music as she and Luke walked to the tavern, hand in hand.
Skipping the front entrance, they walked in through the back and stopped at the kitchen to say hello to Sigh and Juliette, and Marco the line cook.
“I’m glad you guys stopped in,” Sigh said. “Juliette and I will bring out your food to you in a few minutes.”
“We didn’t order yet,” Luke said.
“Trust us,” Juliette said, smiling. “Grab drinks from Dare at the bar, we’ll be out soon.”
Valley looked up at Luke. “I think they’re up to something.”
“Seems like it. Okay, we’ll see you out there.”
They walked through the swinging door into the main room, getting drinks from Dare. She picked one of the new mocktails that Audrey had written on the board: Dragon-ade – lemonade and dragonfruit syrup with dried dragonfruit.
Luke went with a beer, saying that he couldn’t drink anything but beer with a burger from The Howl.
They found their reserved table on the deck and settled in to listen to the band. Luke moved his chair next to hers and put his arm around her. He kissed her temple. “Sweetheart, I love you so much.”
She smiled. “I love you too.”
The table was tucked near the rail with a perfect view of the river and Mill Creek. She was about to ask if Luke wanted to dance when Sigh and Juliette walked out with two plates with burgers and fries.
They set them down on the table.
Valley frowned. “This isn’t the Burger Next Door,” she said. The burgers Sigh set in front of them had melted cheese and some kind of dark sauce. Was that bacon?
“No, it’s not this week’s burger of the week,” Sigh said. “This is next week’s.”
Juliette grinned. “We’re debuting the burger early because it’s for you two. In honor of your mating, Sigh made you the Oh Honey Burger.”
Sigh looked so pleased with himself. “It’s our regular third-pounder, with colby-jack cheese and honey bacon jam.”
“You might have met each other because of the opening night of the deck last weekend, but I am still certain the burgers of the week are magic, and not just because I think Sigh is amazing,” Juliette said.
Valley rose to her feet and hugged Juliette. “I think the whole place is magic. Burgers, tavern, town… everyone in it, too.”
“Enjoy, you two,” Sigh said. “And stop in when you’re finished, I’d like to talk to you before you go.”
They agreed and turned their attention to their burgers. Taking a bite, Valley marveled at the perfect blend of salty and sweet. She especially loved the name.
“I’ve never had a burger named in my honor,” she said.
“Me either. It’s pretty damn cool.”
The band shifted to a slower song as she and Luke finished the last of their fries. Luke asked her to dance, then led her to the dance floor in front of the stage, where a few other couples were swaying beneath the string lights.
As she and Luke moved together, she leaned against him with a contented sigh.
He kissed the top of her head. “Happy?”
“More than happy.” She went onto her toes and kissed him. “I’m home. Because you’re home to me.”
“You’re home to me and my bear, too, Valley.”
She settled back against him, letting the music drift around them as she thought about how much her life had changed in the last week.
She didn’t have everything figured out, but she didn’t need to right now.
Luke had her back and that meant she didn’t have to be afraid of not knowing how everything would shake out.
They were on the way to building a life together in a home on the lake with his den.
The song ended and he kissed her, slow and deep, until she was breathless and smiling.
“I love you, Valley.”
“I love you too.”
A week ago she’d thought her life was two hours away. Now she knew it was across the bridge in King Lake, safe and loved in the arms of a bear.
Don’t leave yet! Want to find out what happens when Luke and Valley talk to Sigh in the kitchen? Read on for Mini Bonus Chapter One: A Batch Made in King Lake.