Chapter 8
Gavin
The only thing that kept me focused on the drive to our cabin was the knowledge that the most precious cargo in the world sat next to me. Even my bear settled down, understanding the clash between his primitive nature and the modern vehicle would be deadly.
Her gasp of wonder gratified me as I pulled to a stop in front of the cabin. Custom built with ceilings and doorways to accommodate my height and wide shoulders, it still looked like part of the forest it had been carved out of.
“Oh, Gavin,” she sighed. “It’s perfect.”
“You haven’t seen the inside.”
“If you’re there, it’s perfect.”
The way she looked at me as she said the words relaxed the man but roused the bear.
Mate. Now.
I ignored her request to put her down so she could look at everything.
There was no time to waste. My bear had waited long enough, and I still had to explain what she was about to see.
My bed was another custom piece, and when I set Serena down, her feet dangled well above the floor.
“Handfasting isn’t the only tradition around here.
” I wanted to pace, to burn off the energy rippling through my body, but our string remained tied.
I was about to mark her as mine and seal the bond in the only way that really mattered, but there was something special about that string that made me reluctant to break it.
“Have you ever heard the legends about Wild Mountain?”
“I’ve heard a few…like the stories about animals changing into people? Cassie and Carrigan told me some wild ones.” She smiled. “Those two have vivid imaginations.”
More like no concept of danger.
“Every story has at least a grain of truth.”
I’d never done this before. Most shifters didn't go around exposing themselves to just anyone; the risks were too great. Those who knew about shifters were a mix. Some feared us too much to do anything, others hated us, and others wanted to fuck us just to say they had. Sadly, a few shifters were so desperate for mates, they didn’t care about being used; some even went rogue which only confirmed fears and scary stories.
“Okay,” Serena said, still looking at me with love and trust in her eyes.
“Those stories about animals becoming people are only wrong about one thing. The truth is, some people change into animals.”
She blinked. She searched my face as if waiting for me to smile, to crack and admit it was a joke.
“Like a metaphor, or an allegory?”
“No.” I remained still. I could only wait for her to feel the truth of my words, the way the solid fact of something new could grow out of ash, the same way lodgepole pines thrived after a fire.
She opened her mouth, then closed it. She didn’t smell scared or nervous. Her heartbeat had picked up, but it wasn’t erratic. She was taking it in. Waiting for more.
The space between us wavered the way it would on a fireground, undulating with a super-heated charge, power hanging in the air.
My bear nudged my chest, as if he understood now was not the time to roar his way out and turn me totally furry and fanged.
I lifted my free hand, not willing to turn completely if I didn’t have to.
“I will never hurt you,” I said, and shifted my fingers into long, black claws, my palm becoming rough pads, my forearm furring over.
She gasped, and leaned back, her wide-eyed gaze darting from my face to my hand and back again.
“That—that’s not real.”
“Touch me,” I commanded, echoing our earlier moments in the woods.
But she was already moving, her hand reaching out the way it had in the forest when she had first reached out to touch the evidence of my wanting her.
I wouldn’t stop her this time. Or ever again.
Her touch was light as she stroked a finger down my arm, the sensations rippling through both parts of me as the bear inside roared for more.
I panted with the effort of holding him back, wanting this moment to go on forever as my mate gently discovered the secret I’d hid from her.
“Soft. Wiry.” She tilted her head at my claws. My goddess gifted weapons designed for climbing, shredding, tearing.
I tracked the switch of her focus to her own wrist. She pulled her other hand over to touch the spot where I’d held her this morning.
“You could have hurt me.”
It wasn’t an accusation. But I dipped my head in acknowledgement.
“I would never harm my mate.”
“Mate?”
I fisted my clawed pad toward my chest. “Shifters do marry, but a marriage is more than paper to us. Mates are forever. Beyond life and death.”
She nodded, plump lips parting and brows raising, as if this was key information she’d been missing.
My cock jumped at the sight, and I forced myself back to the important part. She hadn’t screamed yet or tried to run away.
“You could have hurt me, but you didn’t. You wanted me since the moment we met…and the bear thing is why you avoided me?” Her voice rose with each word. She wasn’t freaking out over my partial shift, but she was questioning why I stayed away.
“I had to protect you.”
She still wasn’t getting it. I was dangerous to her. I wanted her, needed her, but there would never be a time when part of me wasn’t half wild animal. My frustration grew and I growled, my bear joining in.
Her eyes narrowed. “Protect me from what?”
Hadn’t she heard the noise I made? I wasn’t fully human.
“From me.” My jaw ached. “It can be dangerous to reveal ourselves to non-shifters.”
She frowned. “How is it possible to keep it secret when cameras are everywhere? What about when you’re at work? Or—oh my gosh.” She took a breath. “There’s a group of biologists doing research on the lower part of the mountain? What about stuff like that?”
Frustration and want and fear mixed to power my fangs as they punched through my gums. I grimaced around them. “It’s always a concern. And yes, I heard about the researchers looking into wolves on Wild Mountain.” I shook my head. There’d be time for those conversations later.
“I had to protect you from knowing I’m a bear shifter. But if you’re going to trust me, if we’re going to have a life together, I have to tell you everything. I need to mark you, make you mine. And this is how.”
She trembled on the bed between my legs, but I didn’t sense fear.
“Gavin.” She raised the hand tied to hers. “You could have hurt me with your claws, I felt how hard you were holding me, but I don’t have a single mark on me. You had your fingers inside me—” She paused at my deep inhale, her own eyes flaring wide at the memory.
I caught a hit of desire, a scent designed to both make my bear buck inside me and calm my soul at once.
“You made me come so hard I got jealous over a bunch of teenagers checking you out. I’m not afraid of you. Of any part of you. I’m only scared of—” She clamped her lips together, but it was in her eyes.
“Being hurt the way I hurt you, before.” I manned up and said the words.
She nodded.
I sank to my knees. “Sunshine, I vow to you and on our mate bond that I will always face my fears with you instead of trying to protect you from them.”
The superheated air was back, shining in the afternoon sun. I’d seen heat and ash, smokey fire dancing and raging around me. But I’d never seen fine, gold threads like this before.
“Do you see that?” Her voice was a whisper, as she traced the path of the strands winding their way around us.
“Yeah, love, I do.”
She smiled at me, soft and open, her heart in her eyes.
I couldn’t wait any more to touch her, to complete our connection.
I kissed her, more gently than before, her tender lips meeting mine with a sweet passion that turned the heat around us into an inferno.
My shoulders flexed against a tight band that wrapped around my back and across my biceps.
Serena pressed against me, closer than ever.
I shook with the power of my bear’s roar as our mate was bound to us.
But he wanted more. I wanted more.
Fate blessed our bond. And now I could take her the way our bodies demanded.