The Bear Prince: A BBW Bear Shifter Billionaire Paranormal Romance Novella (Seattle's Billionaire Bears Book 3) (13 page)

The stars couldn’t be seen from the Asher Manor that night, as the light pollution from Seattle blotted out the stars, but below, in the labyrinthine gardens, what glistened were the dresses and shoes of the many guests, some dancing, some flirting, some loving, as the orchestra inside played dancing music.

“So, what do you think?” asked Damien.

“Of what, specifically?” asked Crystal.

“Of all of this,” said Damien, motioning over the guests below them. “Is this...a life you’d be willing to try?”

“Going to balls? I can take it or leave it,” said Crystal. She took a sip of her drink. “But being with you? That’s an adventure I’d sign up for any day of the week.”

“To adventures,” said Damien, lifting up his glass.

“To adventures,” agreed Crystal. She lifted up her glass to meet his and clinked the edge of her glass against his. “And...to true love.”

“And to fated mates,” said Damien.

“And to tonight,” said Crystal, before sipping at her drink.

Damien took a sip of his drink, and turned to Crystal. She was gorgeous, and not because of the fancy hair or makeup, which of course only added to her stunningness. No, she was beautiful because of her warm heart and hungry eyes that looked at his world for the first time the way he’d never seen anyone look at it before. “And to this,” said Damien, pulling Crystal close with one hand before using the other to pull her chin up to kiss her, right on the lips, for all of his world to see.

Crystal leaned into the kiss. Everything was so perfect, so right. Damien had shown her that he was serious about her, about this, and there was nothing that could possibly ruin this magical thing they had.

“Come on, I want to do something with you,” said Damien, taking Crystal by the hand.

“I’m up for anything,” said Crystal with a laugh.

“Then come on, let’s go,” said Damien, leading Crystal through the edges of the dance floor and past the spot where she’d taken interviews, down a hallway marked PRIVATE with a large, polite, but foreboding sign with red letters.

“It says private,” said Crystal.

“One, I’m Damien Frikkin’ Dixon. No room in the world is private to me. Two. In case you forgot, this is my grand-aunt’s frikkin’ party and I frikkin’ live here,” said Damien. “I want to show you the side of the manor you haven’t seen, that most haven’t seen.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t write about it, Delaina would have my head for breakfast,” said Crystal.

“She’s all meow and no bite,” said Damien. “Besides, if I thought you were that type, would I really be taking you back here?”

“You mean...you’ve never shown a girl this before?” asked Crystal. “Ooh, Damien, you better be careful, or a certain girl might get a certain idea about her being a certain kind of special.”

“Would that girl happen to be you? Because that girl would happen to be right,” said Damien, squeezing Crystal’s hand.

Damien led Crystal through all the rooms in the Asher Manor that most people either had no idea existed or had only seen in vintage photographs. The Asher Manor was mostly unoccupied and therefore, older rooms were shown for tours, but of course, the Ashers and the Dixons still used the old family home as first and foremost a home, and their most precious treasures were in these secret nooks and crannies. There were hallways lined with rugs that belonged in museums, rugs made of patterns that hadn’t been seen in decades. There were private collections of precious minerals and fossils that cost millions of dollars, as well as paintings of all the members of the family, from distant cousins to the progenitor of the Asher and Dixon clans, as well as portraits of those that had married into the clan. There were fully stocked private kitchens, where Damien made Crystal a sandwich before they headed back out into the halls to peep at the treasures hidden in the private sections of the mansion before they headed back downstairs to join the party.

When they had left the party, people had been mulling about chatting, a few dancing on the dance floor, but by the time they got back, the dance floor was filled with gorgeous people dancing in what seemed like intricate patterns. “Miss Wordsworth...would you care to join me for a dance?” asked Damien, offering a hand

“Of course, Mister Dixon,” said Crystal, curtsying to Damien, before taking his hand, and walking with him to the dance floor.

It had been a few years since Crystal had been a high school girl interested in ballroom dance for a single summer, but she still remembered the most important rules. Follow his lead, don’t be nervous, and follow the tempo of the music. She identified the dance and the beat correctly as that of a waltz, and she let Damien lead, one hand holding hers, the other on her waist, his posture perfect. Even though they had a height difference, they were able to dance together gracefully.

Everything was going perfectly. Crystal and Damien were finally together, even though over the last few weeks, they’d both had to learn to trust one another. Now, they had no secrets. They were together, holding one another for the world to see. Damien’s family and friends were all there, seeing that he’d finally found a woman worthy of calling his fated mate, a woman who had literally changed him, and all that was left was for them to have this dance, to have this beginning to their happy ending...

As Crystal and Damien made their fifth round around the dance floor, the floor started to shake. The Manor wasn’t over any subway lines or anything that could explain this. The light flickered, and a vase crashed. Crystal held onto Damien, as everyone held still, looking around, trying to figure out what was going on. Damien kissed the top of Crystal’s head. Crystal sighed, and closed her eyes. If the worst that could happen at this ball was that the lights went out for a few seconds, well...she’d call that a success.

The lights flickered again and the rumbling started again. Crystal heard the sound of something large being rolled. She opened her eyes but it was dark, and she felt herself get pushed, but she had no clue what was going on, just that she was in the dark and couldn’t see Damien anywhere. “Damien?” she shouted. “Damien! Where are you!” She felt bodies rush around her and push her and she moved so she wouldn’t keep getting pushed, because apparently, she was in the way of something.

There were screams in the background and shouts. The lights flickered back on, revealing a large crowd of people, in a circle around the spot where she’d been with Damien.

Damien.

Crystal rushed over and pushed through the crowd to see what was going on, shouting Damien’s name over and over.

Then, she saw the sight that she would never forget.

Down, on the ground, was her boyfriend, the man who she’d fallen in love with, hard and fast, down on the ground...his legs pinned down by the giant golden ball that had been on the stand in the center of the room.

“Give him some air!” shouted somebody.

“Crystal!” shouted Damien, spotting the curvy reporter. “Crystal, is that you? Are you okay?”

People backed off to let Crystal through. “Damien...I’m fine, but what happened to you?” said Crystal, her eyes welling with tears.

“Crystal, babe...don’t cry,” said Damien, pulling her close to kiss her tears away. “Crystal. Look at me. Honey. Everything’s fine.”

“It’s not fine, you’re pinned beneath a frikkin’ giant disco ball,” said Crystal, wiping the tears from her eyes.

“My legs are pinned, and okay, they hurt like hell, but guess what? I’m a frikkin’ billionaire, so I can afford the best treatment. And, I’m a bear shifter. That means I’ll heal fast, trust me. I’ll go to the hospital, I’ll get fixed up in no time, and I’ll owe you a sleepover,” said Damien. “Honey. You’ve gotta be strong for me.”

“Damien, how did this happen?” asked Crystal.

“Earthquake. It was a freak accident. Lights went out, and...well, I can see better in the dark than you, even in my human form,” explained Damien. “I saw the ball rolling, and I only had time to push you out of the way and try and stop the ball myself...well, I guess I stopped it after all. I didn’t even have time to shift into my bear form. Nobody else got hurt seriously, and most importantly, you didn’t get hurt.”

“Damien...you saved my life,” said Crystal. “I can’t ever do anything to pay you back for this.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” said Damien. He reached into his pocket. “It’s funny, isn’t it...we had that whole conversation about how I need to tell you things before some disaster happens...and right before I was going to tell you something, this happens. Well, I’m not going to let that change my plans.” Damien pulled out a small black box.

Crystal immediately knew what it was. Her heart was racing for two reasons now. She reached out and held Damien’s free hand.

“Crystal...I meant to do this properly, and get down on one knee, but, I’m not exactly able to do that right now,” said Damien. “So let’s do it now.”

Damien popped open the ring box. Inside the box there was a gorgeous gold-banded diamond ring. There were six diamonds, pear cut, three large, on the top, and three small, between the three large diamonds. The diamonds were arranged in the form of the star lily, the same symbol that marked both their chests. “Crystal Wordsworth...over the last month, you turned me from a bear with the heart of a frog — no offense, Niles — to a bear with the heart of a prince. Now, will you make me the happiest bear prince alive and do me...the great honor...of becoming...my wife?”

“I do,” said Crystal, wiping tears of both stress and joy from her eyes. “Oh, Damien, I do!”

The entire crowd clapped. Crystal kissed Damien deeply and held his hand as the EMTs who were on site moved the large ball off of Damien’s legs.

***

D
amien woke up the next day to the sound of beeping hospital equipment. He opened his eyes and looked around. His legs were in casts, but he could still feel them. He looked around: there, in a chair by his bed, was Crystal, asleep, in last night’s clothes. He pressed the call button, and a nurse came over.

“What’s going on?” whispered Damien.

“Good morning, Mr. Dixon,” whispered the nurse. “We gave you some pretty heavy meds last night, it might’ve affected your memory. What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Asking that woman over there to marry me,” said Damien. “And her saying yes.”

“Your fiancée has waited with you ever since you came to the hospital,” said the nurse. “The EMTs at the party moved this giant...disco ball, according to the chart, off of your legs. You were rushed here by ambulance, and she came with you. You insisted she be allowed to stay with you. She hasn’t left your side, except for when we had to take x-rays, and when we took you in for surgery.”

“Surgery?” asked Damien. “So what’s going on down there?”

“Somehow, you only ended up with a three piece comminuted fracture on one leg, and a stable fracture on the other. The three-piece fracture, it was in three large pieces that we realigned in surgery. You don’t have to worry too much about anything at all, just follow the doctor’s orders,” said the nurse. “You’ll need to be here for two weeks, under observation, but then, we’ll set up a plan to get you back home. You may not be able to work for twelve weeks, but this will all be behind you shortly. You’re a really lucky man, you know that?”

“Yeah, I know,” said Damien, but he wasn’t thinking about the nurse. No, he was thinking about the woman who had stayed with him all night. “Was there a phone with my things?”

“Yes, it’s charging, I’ll fetch it for you,” said the nurse.

In a few minutes, the nurse had the phone in Damien’s hands, and a few phone calls later, Damien asked the nurse to wake up Crystal.

Crystal woke up after the nurse shook her a few times. “What’s going on?” she asked, and then she saw Damien, eyes open. “Damien!”

She walked over to him and kissed him, but was careful not to touch him too roughly. “Damien! I was so scared. How are you feeling?”

“I’ve been better,” said Damien. He took Crystal’s hand in his. The ring he’d given her was on her finger and fit perfectly. “I couldn’t remember much about last night...but the one thing I’m glad about? That I didn’t just dream up you saying ‘I do’ to my proposal.”

“Of course I said ‘I do’,” said Crystal, sitting back down by Damien. “I love you, Damien, and you could propose to me from a quarantine room, and I’d still say ‘I do’.”

“Really? You’re that in love with me?” asked Damien.

“How could I be anything but that in love with you?” asked Crystal. “Damien...we’ve had our ups, and we’ve had a few downs, but you’re the man I want to spend the rest of my forever with. I’ve never doubted that.”

“That’s all I had to hear,” said Damien with a smile. There was a knock at the door and Crystal went to answer it.

“Niles?” said Crystal. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here for two reasons,” said Niles. “First off, gifts from your aunt and from your cousins.” Niles was carrying a giant set of get well balloons in bright pink with a matching teddy bear, and there was also a brand new e-reader kit.

“Your cousins got you an e-reader? That’s nice,” said Crystal.

“No, if I know my cousins...they got the biggest, pinkest, tackiest balloon set in the store,” said Damien. “The e-reader’s from my aunt.”

“Second order of business?” asked Crystal.

“That’d be taking you home, miss,” said Niles.

“No frikkin’ way, I’ve gotta stay with Damien,” said Crystal.

“You can’t stay here for the two weeks I’m going to be under observation,” said Damien. “Crystal. Trust me. I’ll be fine. You can visit me, but you’ve gotta go home and live your life, sugar.”

“Alright, but you have to call me,” said Crystal. “And if anything, and I mean anything, goes wrong...you have to let me know.”

“Come over here, princess,” ordered Damien. Crystal walked over to Damien’s bed. “Listen. You’ve got to be strong, for me, and keep living your life. I’m gonna be out of commission for twelve weeks, but you know what that means? You can come over and visit me whenever you want after work, on the weekends, whenever. We’ll have take-out and watch bad movies together, and I can’t take you anywhere fancy, but we’ll still have each other, even when we’re not face to face. You got that?”