Over the past two weeks, November had drifted into December, and the second snow of the season was here. It wasn’t common to have the frosty stuff on the ground in these parts, but it sure painted a pretty picture.
She’d always hated the snow and ice down in Bryson City where life would grind to a halt, but up here in Harper’s Mountains, she’d never seen the woods so beautiful.
The rhythmic chop, chop of Aaron’s ax cutting through firewood on the chopping block relaxed her. She was bundled up to her chin, but Aaron was out in front of the cabin working in nothing more than a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, as if the cold weather didn’t bother him at all. Would she be immune to cold someday when she was Turned into a bear?
Alana rested her cheek against the doorframe as she watched him shove off a split log and settle another one on the block. His cheeks were red from the chill or the exertion, she didn’t know, but when he cast her a glance, as he so often did on nights when they were just content to be like this, his eyes were steady and blue, and Bear was nowhere near the surface.
Bear had been easier for Aaron to manage lately. She spun the paperclip ring around and around her finger out of habit. Something about Aaron’s proposal had made his animal more manageable. He still wouldn’t risk Changing around her and only did it when she was working at the coffee shop, but someday they would get there. Someday he would completely trust himself around her.
Outside the golden halo of porch light, a giant snowy owl and a black raven flew by low to the ground. Their powerful beating wings kicked up the snow in little tornadoes as they passed.
Aaron looked up at them, nodded his chin in greeting, and Alana waved. The boys were probably in for the night since it was late and the storm was supposed to get worse.
Alana would’ve loved a snow day inside with her mate, but he was on shift tomorrow first thing. Aaron loved his job and was passionate about it, but he’d recently started telling her how much the hard stuff affected him, affected Bear. Now she prayed every time he left their bed for a shift at the firehouse with his gear bag in hand that today he wouldn’t lose anyone. That he and the fire crew would get to whatever crisis fast enough to help.
She could always tell the shifts that had been hard because he would come into her coffee shop the morning after work with ghosts in his eyes. He wouldn’t talk, and she didn’t need him to. He would take her back to the office and just hold her for a while until the soft snarl in his chest faded to nothing.
At least he wasn’t shouldering this alone anymore. At least she could offer some reprieve.
So much had happened in the last two weeks. Aaron had met Lissa and Dad, and Alana had video-chatted twice with Aaron’s parents, Cody and Rory, and even his two younger sisters who still lived in Breckenridge with the Breck Crew. Rory had cried a lot when Alana showed them the paperclip ring. She wasn’t in a rush to replace it with a big sparkly one. This one meant so much to her.
She’d kept the lease on her coffee shop, but not on her apartment. She’d made the repairs from Aric’s attack and moved her stuff up to 1010. Why? Because nights didn’t feel right if she wasn’t with Aaron. Even when he was on a shift and couldn’t sleep beside her, 1010 still felt strangely like home. Maybe it was her growing friendship with Harper and the boys, or maybe it was the call of these mountains that had etched themselves so thoroughly into her heart. Maybe it was the little black and white mouse that ducked in and out of view that kept her loneliness at bay. Or maybe Weston was right, and there was something magical about this place. She believed in that stuff now, fate, all of it. What else could explain making it to this moment, filled with infinite happiness, watching Aaron Keller, the boy she’d adored in her youth and loved today, chop wood for the fire that would keep her warm all night?
She’d thought moments like these hadn’t been meant for someone like her, but she’d been wrong. She’d just had to stop looking to find it.
Aaron gathered split logs into his arms and strode up the stairs, dusted the snow off on the welcome mat before he stepped over her. She smiled up at him, then at the boot prints in the snow that led directly to her. The clatter of the logs being dumped next to the fireplace in the bedroom sounded, so she drank down the last couple sips of her wine. She knew what was coming next.
Aaron came back to her, hesitated over her with a tender expression on his face, then dipped and picked her up like she weighed nothing. He nudged the front door closed with his boot, carried her into the bedroom, and then settled her onto the bed, blanket and all.
Propping the pillow under her cheek, she watched as he made the fire in the small stone hearth. And when it was crackling and glowing and the first wave of warmth washed over her skin, she asked the same thing she did every day like this. “Are you happy?”
“You already know the answer to that,” he murmured in that deep timbre of his.
“I like to hear you say it.”
Aaron locked his arms on either side of her shoulders on the bed, trapped her in his gaze. “I’ve never been so happy.” The mattress creaked as he leaned down and kissed the answering grin from her lips.
Alana slid her hands down his stomach and hooked her fingers in the waist of his jeans. His skin was warm under her touch, but it wasn’t enough. Slowly, she pulled his shirt over his head, let it slip from her fingers onto the floor, then admired his body as it tensed with the soft breaths he took. His hair was mussed from taking off his shirt, so she ran her fingers through it to mess it up more. She loved when he looked disheveled.
Aaron grabbed her wrist, kissed it, then slid his palm up her hand and linked their fingers. He kissed her knuckles gently and asked, “How did I get so lucky?”
She didn’t know the answer, but she knew how he felt. As she stared at their linked hands, his skin shades paler than hers, she felt like the lucky one, too. She’d never known what to expect in the man she would finally settle down with, but Aaron had turned out to be her perfect match.
He released her and pulled the blanket off, then her shirt and pajama pants hit the ground, too. He was gentle and took his time, kissing her skin that he had exposed while she melted slowly into a puddle of wanting. His teeth grazed her neck where the bite mark from Aric had healed to faint scars. Writhing against him, she let off a needy sound and rolled her hips up at him seductively. Take me.
Aaron’s lips collided with hers, and a snarl rattled up his throat as he ground his hips against hers. He worked his biting kisses down her throat and then drew her nipple into his mouth. He sucked hard enough until she could feel his teeth, so she hissed and grabbed his hair. That only seemed to spur him on, though, because his fingers dug deeply into her hip.
Since he’d almost bitten her, Aaron had bedded her gently, but this was different. This was him letting her glimpse his animal side. This was rutting dominance and passion and uncontrollable desire, and she loved every fucking second of it. The rip of his zipper rivaled the growl that rattled his chest, and Alana spread her legs wider, inviting him closer.
She thought he would take her deep and hard, but he cupped her sex and slid his finger into her instead. “I like how wet you always get for me,” he murmured, and when she looked up again, his eyes were blazing a bright glittering gold.
“Bear,” she whispered.
Another snarl, louder this time, and Aaron pulled his hand away and pushed his long, thick shaft into her.
Arching back helplessly, clutching the sheets in her clenched fists, Alana cried out at the pang of ecstasy that pumped through her body just with that one thrust. And then he was in it if the feral sound in his throat was anything to go by, completely lost to the grinding of their bodies. She’d never witnessed him wild like this. Never felt him rough like this, but it meant he was letting her really see him. Really letting her in.
He leaned down, clamped his teeth on her neck, and then released her. Yes, yes, yes! The grin he flashed her when he pulled away was nothing shy of wicked, the tease.
He s
lammed into her, harder now, his stomach flexing every time he filled her. His arm locked behind her back, he pushed in deeper, hit her clit perfectly at the peak of every roll of his hips.
“Fuck, Aaron, yes! Harder!”
Aaron gritted his teeth and pulled out of her, spun her on the bed so fast it stole her breath. Never give me your back. Oh, she was about to get herself bitten by her mate, but for the life of her, she couldn’t conjure a single, solitary fuck. He grabbed her ass and pulled her backward. He shoved his palm against the small of her back, making her arch for him, and then he gripped her hair as he pushed his swollen cock inside her. Alana gasped out a helpless sound as he pulled back and pounded into her again. Her arms shook with how good her body felt right now. With the force of him bucking, she fell forward onto her elbows, spread her knees wider, and groaned as he pushed deeper. His arm wrapped around her middle, gripping her breast as he picked up his pace, harder and faster. Pressure, pressure, so much pressure. It was building too fast, too blindingly hot in her middle as he filled her over and over again. As the first throbbing sensation of her orgasm exploded through her, Aaron’s chest rested onto her back. Clamping his teeth onto her shoulder blade, Aaron froze, his dick swelling and pulsing inside of her as jets of hot seed flooded into her.
Aaron drew out and pushed in again, every muscle in his body tense against her. Again and again, he throbbed inside of her until she rocked with him numbly, completely high on release.
Her mate left her skin unbroken, then rested his forehead on her back as he exhaled a long, shaking breath. His body twitched against her once more before he pulled her over with him and hugged her back to his chest. His kisses gentled, right over the place he’d thought about biting her. And oh, she knew he’d considered it. He’d tempted himself with it, but he’d been strong enough to resist.
She turned in his arms, completely exhausted and sated, and pressed against him. Her breasts were so soft in contrast with his rock-hard body. And when she looked up at him, his eyes were still as gold as fire, but he wore a slight smile.
She could almost feel his pride—could almost feel the relief wafting from his skin.
“Good Bear,” she whispered.
Aaron turned slightly, and the glow of the fire behind him reflected off a mark she’d never noticed before. There was a dark patch in the shape of a strawberry on his neck. She’d thought she had memorized everything about his body, but it was on the side Aric had ripped up when the Bloodrunners had killed the Queen of the Asheville Coven. Naturally, because it looked painful and made her hate the vampires, Alana’s gaze just skipped right over the scarring there so she’d missed this little treasure.
With a frown, she sat up and traced the outer edge of the mark. “What is that?”
Aaron propped his cheek on his arm and rolled his eyes closed as though her petting felt good. “It’s a birthmark. All the men in my family have them.” He grew quiet for a while, just content to let her trace the darker skin, but finally he murmured, “That was how my dad knew I was his the first time he saw me.”
“Do you remember the first time you met him?”
His lips twitched into a pained line, then softened. “Yeah. I was five, and I know memories that old are supposed to fade, but I still remember it like it was a few minutes ago. It’s one of my brightest memories. I started Changing when I was one, and I was a brawler. Raised by just my mom, who was human at the time and had no clue my dad was a shifter. She didn’t even know they existed until I turned into a little bear cub. I didn’t have any control at all. I still remember how it was. I would fight the Change, and when I did, it would slow it down. I would just cry and cry as my bones broke one by one, and when I got my canines in, my mom had to protect herself from me. She had to put me in a cage when I had to Change.”
“Oh, my gosh, Aaron.”
He made a dismissive ticking sound, then opened his bright gold eyes. “She did the best she could. I hurt her really bad once. Clawed her down her entire forearm, and I remember watching her cry and bleed, but I was still on the attack. Bear was a monster from birth. Or maybe the human in me was too weak, I don’t know. My mom took me to Breckenridge to meet my dad and beg his help because I was getting too big, too out of control, and she hated caging me. It made me worse. Made me wild. Made me feel crazy for days afterward. I remember my dad turned white as a sheet when he saw my birthmark. Just…no blood in his face, eyes changing to a color just like mine. It was as if my bear recognized him. I didn’t know what it meant, but I felt…relief. I wasn’t alone anymore.”
“Did he work with you?”
“Yeah. He took me out in the woods and watched over me. It was the first time I could remember Changing outside of the cage, so I just went crazy. Running everywhere, sniffing everything. The woods were kind of like the biggest playground you can ever imagine. And he kept me out of trouble. When he brought me to my mom, I attacked her. Couldn’t help it. Couldn’t control it, but my dad swatted me hard. Showed me it hurt when I used my claws on skin. Reminded me of who she was, and it changed a lot for me after that.”
“But not everything.”
Aaron shook his head slowly and rolled onto his back, pulled her hand onto his chest. “I got better, but I never got control over my bear like I should’ve.”
“Do your parents know?”
A nod. “My dad does, but not my mom. It would hurt her and make her feel guilty. My dad thinks those years Changing in the cage made my bear too wild. Too big. It gave him a chance to overpower what I could control because I stayed scared when I was locked up. I stayed hurt and trapped, and I was just a kid. It stifled my human side, so when Bear wants to take over, I still have a hard time staying present.”
“But you did tonight. I gave you my back, and you didn’t bite me.”
The smile that spread across his face was slow and easy. In a whisper, he said, “That’s why what we did just now is such a big deal. I was still here with you. I could stop him.”
“You loooove me,” she sang as she tickled his ribs.
He laughed and sat up in a blur, taking her with him. He settled her over his lap and kissed her, held her wrists so she wouldn’t tickle him anymore. Little distractor.
And slowly, he released her and slid his arms around her back, hugged her tightly against his chest. Burying his face into her neck, he inhaled deeply, as though he was committing her scent to memory. “I love when you smell like me.”
“You or Bear?”
“Both.” He sucked on her neck. “Bite or no bite, you’re mine, Alana.”
She eased back and traced the healed claiming mark she’d given him. It shone silver here in the flickering glow of the firelight. She thought of her poster of him, and of how she’d followed him as he’d grown up. Of how she felt that bone-deep connection before they’d even met.
Alana kissed his lips softly, then murmured, “Bite or no bite, you were always mine.”
Chapter Twenty
“Aaron.”
“Mmm,” he murmured through the thick layers of sleep.
“Aaron?”
Aaron opened his eyes in the dark, his ears prickling as he listened. Alana’s arm was draped over his waist, completely limp like she was still asleep.
“Aaron, wake up.” It was Alana’s voice.
He sat up quickly and stared down at her. It was hard to tell in the dark, but her lashes looked like they were resting on her cheeks.
“Bite me. I’m ready.”
A snarl rattled his throat, and his instincts blared. He froze with the feeling that something invisible and terrifying was in the room with them. For a moment he was in the cage again, but the bars slipped away just as fast as they’d appeared.
“Bite me, Aaron. I’m ready,” Alana repeated again, her words tumbling over each other, repeating in quick succession.
Aaron shook his head hard to dislodge the remnants of whatever dream was fucking with him.
“Aaron.”
“Stop
it.”
“Please. Please do it now. I’m ready.”
He clutched his head. “I said stop it!”
Alana startled beside him, rested her hand on his leg. “What’s wrong?” Her voice sounded…different.
“Help me!” Harper screamed from outside.
Aaron scrambled from the tangled bedsheets. “Did you hear that?”
“Yes,” Alana said in a horrified voice. “Was that Harper?”
“Shit. Stay here.” Aaron didn’t bother with clothes, just bolted for the door.
“I don’t want to stay here.” Alana’s voice rang with a hollowness he couldn’t understand.
Maybe she was right, though. He couldn’t leave her unprotected. He pulled her hand behind him and bolted out onto the front porch. It was then that the woods rattled with a dragon’s roar, and the night sky was blocked out by something massive. Harper’s fire blasted down into the trees some distance away, and the glow lit up the dark night. The smoke was choking, but Aaron pulled Alana behind him and sprinted for the woods.
“What’s happening?” Alana asked.
“War,” he said. His body felt strange, as if it was being called into the battle.
“Aaron, hurry!” Ryder yelled in a frantic voice.
He pushed his legs harder, faster, and Alana ran behind him, spurred on by the fear he could smell wafting from her skin. Ahead, the stars were blocked out by bats. Mother fucking vampires. Aaron ripped a limb off a tree and splintered it in half, handed the sharpest one to Alana. “Don’t let them near your throat.”
Fuck, he didn’t want to bring her any closer to whatever was happening in the woods, but a pained scream from up ahead froze his blood. No time. No time at all to hide her somewhere safe. They would come for her if he left her unprotected.
Up ahead, another wall of flame illuminated the woods. He could see them now. Wyatt’s bear was clawing and biting viciously at the swarming bats, and Weston and Ryder were fighting human, armed with sharpened wooden stakes. Fighting thick purple smog. Fighting vamps they couldn’t get their hands on.