Bear-ever Yours (9 page)
“Same to you,” she said.
“So,” he said, “Think we could have sex in the water next time?”
She gasped and tried to sit up against his chest. “Listen here, Mister…”
He laughed and pulled her back against his chest. “All right. One thing at a time. As long as I get to make love to you. Keep you and make you happy and always protect you, I’m all right with that.”
“All right,” she said. “But I want you to bring my family out here. And I want a ring.”
“Not a problem,” he said. “I got the funds.”
She eyed him curiously. “Just how many funds do you have?”
He shrugged. “Enough.”
“Enough? I’m your mate now, I should know.”
“You’re right,” he said. “You can’t be after me for my money now. Well, with the licensing from the equipment I helped invent, I’m guessing a few hundred thousand a year, and about a million in savings. I have pretty simple needs, after all.”
She laughed. “Holy crap. Well, I’m not going to complain. But I want a ring, Mister.”
“And I want it on your finger.” He chuckled and held her tight and they both looked up at the stars together.
“Thanks for bringing me out here. For making it so special,” she said.
“Sure,” he said. “Only the best for you.”
They waited for another few moments. She could still hear the hypnotic crash of the waves out beyond the hotel. She stroked a finger up the ridges of his abs and over his pecs. “Hey, Sky?” she asked.
“Yes?” he said, looking down at her.
“How long until we can do that again?”
His eyes widened and he laughed, his dimple appearing in his chin. “All right you. Come up here and kiss me and we’ll see if we get lucky.”
So she did, knowing that no matter what else happened tonight, she was already outrageously lucky.
Because she had him.
L
eah maneuvered
around the front desk where she made sure the scuba classes ran smoothly when she wasn’t helping Sky teach. It was lunchtime and she was excited to meet up with her mate.
Nausea swept through her and she reminded herself it wouldn’t be much longer until it abated. She was almost through the first trimester. They really had made a cub that night on the roof, if her math was correct. She touched the slight curve of her stomach and cursed Sky for not mentioning that bears usually had multiples. They hadn’t been to an ultrasound yet, but they would be going this week, and she had a feeling it was twins. She couldn’t pin exactly why she thought that, she just did.
But then, she was getting better at using the intuition that Sky used so naturally. As she was thinking of him, he materialized at the back door, a towel around his shoulders as he strode in from class, still dripping water and wearing only sandals and his board shorts, looking much as he had the first time she saw him, all those months ago when she’d first come to the hotel.
“How are my mate and cubs?” he asked, sidling up to her and putting a protective arm around her as he guided her to the elevator. He seemed extra excited today, and she couldn’t tell exactly why.
“Fine, a little hot and a little nauseous, but okay. Why, what’s going on with you? You seem wired.”
He grinned and pressed the button for the elevator. “No reason.”
Her eyes narrowed. He wasn’t fooling anyone. He looked damn sneaky. “What is it? Besides, we’re meeting for lunch right?”
“I have something set up in our room,” he said. “I figured the cafe would be too crowded and hot for you.”
She nodded and followed him into the elevator, leaning against his arms with a sigh.
“Long day?” he asked.
“Just busy,” she said. “But it’s good for the hotel. How about you? I’m sorry we had to combine classes when Kyle didn’t come in today.”
“That’s okay,” he said. “I can handle a crowd. Especially when I know I get to come home to my sexy mate afterward.”
“Always,” she said, raising up on her toes to kiss him on the cheek. He hugged her in response, but seemed to be bouncing lightly from foot to foot in excitement.
She shook her head, deciding that whatever was going on, he obviously didn’t plan to tell her. She sighed as he led her to the penthouse suite that was theirs while their home was being built. Then they would have their own private place, away from the hotel but close enough to easily work there.
He slid his card and opened the door, and she gasped at the transformed room. She put her hands to her mouth and looked around.
There was a table in the middle with a white, elegant tablecloth trimmed in lace, candlesticks on the top, crystal glasses and a perfect steak dinner set on plates.
“But, you have to get back to class,” she said.
“Nope,” he said. “That’s the surprise. Kyle is actually taking the class for the rest of the day. He agreed so that we could have the rest of the day together. That’s why I took the first half of the day alone.”
Her heart warmed. Her mate could be so thoughtful.
He pulled out her chair for her and she sat, eyeing the food and not knowing where to start. Then she saw the envelope on one side of her plate, and the little blue box on the other.
“What are these?” she’s asked.
“Ah ah,” he said, snatching them back and sitting beside her. He held them out. “Which first?”
“The envelope,” she said, reaching for it. He handed it over and she opened it carefully. When she looked inside, her eyes pricked. “Tickets? You’re bringing my parents here?”
“Yup, your dad was finally able to work out some time off work.” He gently caressed her stomach. “After all, we have news for them. Now that you’re about twelve weeks, it’s time to start sharing.”
She groaned. “Except that I look more than twelve weeks, because I think it’s twins.”
He grinned. “So do I.”
“Stupid bear blood,” she said. “Even one of your babies will probably be huge. I’ll be ginormous.”
“And I’ll be right here with you,” he said. “Waiting on you hand and foot. Tourist season will be over soon, and we’ll have more time to just be on our own. I’m sorry you haven’t been able to dive though.”
She shrugged. It was why she could only help with shallow drills in class or work the front desk. No one really knew the effects of depth on babies, so when pregnant you couldn’t dive. But she guessed she’d get plenty of time in the water with him after the baby came.
She suspected her very friendly brothers in law who had accepted her as family would be happy to babysit. The thought of her babies in their uncles’ arms brought images of them in her husband’s arms, and she couldn’t help blushing. That would be wonderful.
“I have one more present,” he said. “I know this is a little late, but it had to be special, so it was custom made.”
“Wow, a bespoke ring? I’m impressed.”
He nodded. “Only the best for my mate. And you know, we had such a one in a million story, I knew we needed a one in a million ring. One that reminds you what is special about us.”
She opened the box and her breath caught in her throat as she looked down at the twinkling ring. “Oh, Sky…”
He took it from the box and slid it onto her ringer, where it fit perfect. “I made sure it could be resized, you know, if you change during or after pregnancy.”
She swatted at his arm, but mainly to distract herself from the waves of emotion coursing through her as she looked down at the ring. It was simple, with a white gold band in sweeping lines that looked like waves, and in the center, caught on a wave, was a plump starfish with a diamond in the center, sparkling up at her like the stars had sparkled on the night when they came together.
“Oh Sky, it’s perfect.”
“Now you can look at it and remember, that whether it’s under the sea or under the stars, I just want to be with you, forever.”
She swallowed and leaned into his chest and he held her. She couldn’t help it. She was hormonal and emotional and this was just too sweet. Too much, on top of everything. “Sky, you’re overwhelming.”
“But you love me,” he said.
“Yes I do. I know I do,” she said.
He grinned and held her tight. She stayed against his chest and felt the breeze from an open window blow over her, cooling her.
She looked down at the ring and smiled. She couldn’t wait for another night under the stars with him. Or another day under the sea.
But wherever she was, she was okay. As long as they were together.
T
hanks
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T
urn
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F
or the first
time in her life, Lacey Matthias Wolford the Third, known to most shifters as simply Matt, was
not
going to be a good little wolf.
She hadn’t complained when she’d been raised as a boy in order to hide the fact that her father, the leader of the Tribunal and therefore of all werewolves, had had only daughters. She hadn’t complained when she’d been sent for him to spy on alpha challenges and mate claimings and had to report back on what she’d seen. She hadn’t complained as she’d seen her sisters happily mated, knowing such a life would never be for her, because she was destined to lead their kind one day.
She hadn’t complained because she’d thought there was a plan for her. And knowing what it was, always knowing what the future held, had given her a kind of control that she had desperately needed over the years as she pushed everything real about her down and played the part her father needed her to play.
But now he’d decided that one of his son-in-laws was trustworthy enough to lead the wolves, and he planned to marry her off in a political marriage to hide her from view and let the son everyone knew about quietly disappear.
Well, she’d be damned if she let him.
He’d dictated her whole life, and he’d not dictate another moment.
She shoved supplies into the backpack she’d borrowed from her sister’s room. She put in extra pairs of breast wraps, since she didn’t know how long she’d need to keep posing as a boy to stay safe. She put in bras just in case she had to go that way to stay undercover.
In her heart, she’d tried to be the man her father had needed. She’d felt useful, grounded. Special.
But it didn’t matter any longer.
That future was gone, and along with it went the frail sense of superiority she’d clung to as she’d watched other females live a life she’d never know.
And now she had a chance at a life like that, if she could just find a place to hide from her father and his power. And she knew just who could help her.
It had been three years since she’d seen Thornton Wilder. Three years since he’d bullied her during the massive alpha games that had been held at a mansion for an unclaimed alpha female. She’d gone as a male to make sure things went okay, and for the most part they had.
Aside from Thornton, also known as Thor, being a tremendous bully. Back then she’d looked down on him. He’d been everything she didn’t want. Huge, brutish, rough, an alpha without parents who had no regard for rules.
And he was exactly what she needed now.
He’d help her because he owed her big time. For his brother’s life. When his brother had been caught by the Tribunal and charged with treason, Thor had come to her, begging. It had been odd to see the huge man on his knees before her, head lowered as he begged for his brother’s life. Her father had been away on business. She had the key to the holding cell.
After Thor promised that Lock (his twin) wouldn’t hurt anyone if freed, she’d had to let him go. She tried to be hard, like her father, but in reality, her heart was soft. Too soft. So Lock had been freed and Thor had looked at her with a look in those warm amber eyes that was unlike anything she’d seen before. And he’d promised if he could ever return the favor, that he would.
She hoped he hadn’t forgotten.
She finished packing and peeked out the door of her bedroom for anyone watching. She pulled the hood of the dark sweatshirt she was wearing up over her shiny blonde hair and started down the hall. It was nighttime and no one should notice. Her father would never guess she was running.
She hadn’t yelled, hadn’t screamed, hadn’t thrown a tantrum like everyone might have expected. No, she was too smart for that. If she’d protested, they’d have locked her up. One thing she’d learned from growing up with the Tribunal as family was that the best thing to do was pretend you were loyal to them up until the moment you turned.
She padded quietly down the stairs, looked both ways in the huge, marble-floored foyer, noted for the last time how the moonlight looked blue across the pretty tiles, and then crossed silently over the floor and out into the night, leaving the door open behind her.
T
hornton Wilder
, known to his friends as Thor, stretched and looked out the window at the tree line in the distance. An odd thrill of excitement moved through him, and he wasn’t sure why. He thought about taking a run, but even though it was nearly midnight, the pack business he’d been working on wasn’t even close to finished.
He’d taken over as alpha when he’d inherited his parent’s fortune and finally been able to throw his uncle out of the pack.
When his parents had died, leaving him and his twin Lock orphaned, his uncle had taken the chance to turn the pack against them. He was bitter that the pure alpha blood in their veins meant that they would grow up and take leadership of the pack from him. Unless he destroyed them, which he had tried to do.
Beatings. Isolation. Hunger. All the punishments that would feel worst for a young animal who should be part of a pack.
And Thor had closed off for a long time as a result. Holed up deep inside himself and tried not to let anyone touch him. Became mean and strong, the type who wouldn’t let anyone mess with him. Lock, his twin, his salvation, had been the one to protect him. The one to never lose his smile, even when he came back to their shack with bruises, the punishment for stealing the food he brought for them.
Lock had always been the sensitive one. The one who couldn’t stand to see his twin suffer, and as they grew, the strength in Thor made him want to become the truly protective one. Where Lock solved problems with his smile, Thor solved problems with his fist. He was fast, strong, a true alpha, and he wouldn’t let them hurt the one person in his life who had done something for him.
Thor sighed and looked out at the forest, wondering where Lock was now. He hadn’t seen him since he’d gone to the Tribunal and groveled to that brat Matt to free his brother. Matt, as the youngest pup and only son of the head of the Tribunal, was everything Thor hated. Privileged, born to wealth and protection, thinking himself superior to everyone around him. He’d made that plain in the short amount of time Thor had gotten to know him when they’d shared a mansion during a huge alpha challenge involving eight other males.
He didn’t know why Matt got under his skin so easily, why he kept wanting to pick the tiny male up and shake him. Why he couldn’t help teasing him.
He was pretty. Of course he would be. All of the Tribunal leader’s daughters were gorgeous. The type of female Thor would have been destined for if his parents hadn’t been murdered and his pack hadn’t fallen into disrepute after his uncle took over.
Things were recovering now. There was much more money, thanks to some savvy investments, and multiple pack members were running clean, honest businesses that brought in revenue. And Thor had slowly tried to lower the walls around him to be a fair and more approachable leader, though he still heard subordinates refer to him as “Thorns” occasionally.
He couldn’t help that his guard defaulted to being up. He’d learned too often that if you lowered it, people beat you. Hurt you.
He clenched his fist and set down the pen he’d been signing forms with so he didn’t break it. From the two-story lodge where he lived and performed administrative duties for the pack, he could see a beautiful, grassy valley stretching out into a thick forest at the foot of high mountains. His pack made up most of a small town nestled in a remote area, and didn’t bother the humans who did have the guts to settle there, despite the rumors of wolves.
The few males he’d had trouble with had left, and the other males were happy to have a strong leader who had good resources thanks to the work of his relatives. He’d make sure what was left to him increased, and he’d leave it to the next generation. Once he found a suitable alpha female.
But that wouldn’t be easy. The last one he’d known of that was available to claim had been the one in the alpha challenge three years ago. Misty. And the fact that ten full alphas had shown up to compete just proved how scarce alpha females really were. When they were born to a pack, they were usually affianced from a young age to keep a bloodline going, and they had their pick of males.
But Thor could wait. He’d make sure whomever he chose was strong and a full-blooded wolf so that they could have shifter offspring. And if not, he wasn’t in any hurry to get mated. He had enough to do already.
So when a loud knock sounded on the front door on the story below him, he rubbed his head and let out a deep sigh. Whoever it was should know better than to bother him at this time of night, when he could be sleeping. He wasn’t, but he could be, and they didn’t know any better.
He pushed himself out of his chair with a groan and slid his arms into his bathrobe, tying the sash around him as he went. He was wearing pajama bottoms but he didn’t think whoever was knocking would appreciate him coming to the door bare chested. Well, maybe some of the pack females wouldn’t mind, but their males would.
He crossed the wood floor of his lodge and over the large rug in front of the door.
He swung the door open and looked at the figure standing in the moonlight. Thin, soaking wet. Small, at least compared to him.
He took a step forward, toward the figure, which was drenched by rain and trembling slightly in the cold wind. Thor reached for the hood and pulled it off to reveal the face of the person he’d already identified by scent and stature.
“Matt?” he asked, astonished.
Pale blue eyes with long lashes looked up at him with determination glowing in their depths. “Thor. That favor you spoke of? I need you to return it.”
Thor took a step back, allowing Matt to come into the lodge. Matt looked behind him briefly and then shut the door and leaned against it, letting out a huge sigh of relief in that high, feminine voice he tended to have. Even when he tried to sound gruff, it just didn’t sound quite right.
“I’m safe,” Matt said, sinking against the door.
Thor pulled his robe tighter around him and tried to figure out why exactly this man of all people would be here, now, in the middle of the night. And also, why the sight of him bothered him in ways that didn’t make any sense.
Matt stretched with a loud yawn and then slumped over to the nearest couch and curled up in it. Thor watched curiously, wondering at how small the thin man could be when curled up. With the hood back, Matt’s blond hair shone softly around his face. His features were truly beautiful, as beautiful or more beautiful than his sisters when Thor had seen them. A thin, slightly upturned nose, pale, flushed skin, long lashes over his cheeks.
Thor felt blood rush to areas of his body it had no business rushing to and turned away from Matt with a hand over his mouth.
What to do? He knew he owed Matt big time, had promised to repay the debt he owed him for saving the one person who meant more to him than anything in the world. But he’d forgotten how confusing it could be to be around Matt. How it made Thor feel things he’d never felt. Made the mean part of him defensive, made the other part of him feel…protective?
He rubbed a hand over his face with a groan. It made no sense for him to be feeling all alpha over another male. Some males did prefer males, but he never had. Just this one, obnoxious troublemaker of a kid that seemed to get under his skin like no one else could.
He heard soft breathing and realized the kid had fallen asleep. He took a step toward him and looked down to make sure.
Yup.
He felt an urge to touch the other wolf’s hair, to grab a towel and dry the drops on his cheeks. But he didn’t. He just stood there, wondering if he should wake him and demand an explanation or just let him sleep and hope answers would be forthcoming when he woke up. He settled in a chair that faced the window.
Matt had said he was safe now and Thor would make sure that was the case. Whatever weird thing was going on between them, he had a debt, and he would repay it.
No matter how much his urge to put his hands on the other wolf made his eye twitch.
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