by Mia Wolf
I want to tell him to put this misery to an end, to take what he wants, but I don’t and let Andrew do as he pleases. He slows down his sucking of my breasts and removes his finger from my panties. Lifting his head, he takes his time observing my breasts which makes me blush because I know they’re swollen too now, and he’s simply enjoying his masterpiece.
When something resembling satisfaction appears on his face, he tugs at my panties like they’re an inconvenience. Now that the warmth of his mouth is gone, the cool breeze caressing my wet skin makes my nipples tighten.
Andrew peels my panties away softly, grazing my legs with his fingers the entire way down. He removes his underwear, too, then searches for something nearby. He opens the drawer at our bedside and finds a condom. I bite my lip in anticipation as he tears up the packet and slips the condom onto his rock-hard erection.
The thing is, Andrew is big which makes the sex amazing but also pretty painful when he first inserts himself. For that reason, we had decided to take it slowly in the beginning the previous times we had sex. But no such rule applies right now. Andrew positions himself at my entrance then his gray eyes try to focus on me. He pulls me to himself, pressing my body to his in the same motion that he thrusts inside of me completely. The pain rips through me like a lightning bolt, and I scream out loud, scratching the hair on his head.
He lets me adjust to his size, and I dig my nails into his unmarked skin, but the wounds I leave do not match the ones he already has.
He slowly pulls out after a minute or so then thrusts in again. The pain is reduced this time. My naked body is touching Andrew’s in all the right places. I can feel the blood on Andrew’s chest now smearing my torso, but it doesn’t stop him from pushing in and out of me. I don’t want him to, either.
He doesn't wait too long and thrusts harder and harder until I can feel him hitting something inside. My hold onto him strengthens as I inch close to my release and it comes in a single flood of sensation. Andrew isn’t done yet, but I hear him growl as my wet, warm fluids cover his dick inside me. He pushes himself in again, and the final thrust is so deep it makes me convulse as Andrew finally climaxes.
He pulls out of me; my eyes are shut from the pleasure and pain still flowing through my body. He clears my face of the unruly locks that are pouring down my cheeks, which makes me open my eyes.
The kind Andrew is back, looking down at me with tiredness reflecting on his bruised face. I don’t have any extra energy left to spare as I attempt to blink sleep away from my eyes, wanting to be awake for Andrew, to be with him until he feels better, but it doesn’t work. I slip into a deep, calming sleep still feeling the warmth of Andrew’s breath on my ear.
When I wake up the next morning, lazily stretching my arms and back while the sunlight covers me in its warmth, I realize that Andrew is already up. His face is turned towards me, and he’s staring at me with his head resting on his elbow.
“Can I help you, sir?” I ask with a mischievous smile.
He simply shakes his head and smiles back.
Then I remember something I needed to do. I clear my throat before speaking. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
Andrew’s gray eyes stare back into mine intently.
“I’m a bear, too,” I say as if it’s a revelation.
Andrew first chuckles then bursts into full-blown laughter. I don’t understand what’s so funny.
“I thought so,” he replies and leans in to kiss my forehead.
Chapter 31 – Andrew
Six months have passed since Rose and I started living with each other. I kept my promise of picking her up from work and dropping her off as often as I could.
I’m on my way to Steve Parera’s office building getting mildly annoyed at the New York traffic as usual.
In the six months of living together with Rose and realizing that she’s my mate, I’ve been thinking about the old bear tradition of the mating ceremony.
Rose has never explicitly said that she wants to go back home to the bear village, but she keeps mentioning how much she misses Jessica and Joshua, her other friends back home, the cave houses, the decorations, and the festivals. We’ve both been far too busy with work to even think about going on vacation.
I honk as I pull in front of Steve Parera’s office and see Rose standing outside waiting for me. She notices the car when I honk again. She’s walking towards me with the biggest smile on her face and makes the exhaustion of the day evaporate.
“Hello, sweetheart,” I say to her reciprocating the smile.
She slips into the passenger seat and kisses me on the mouth.
“How was your day?” she asks turning towards me as I pull into the street and drive us home.
“It just got better,” I say, “after seeing your face.” I take her hand in the one that’s not on the steering wheel and bring it close to my lips to kiss it.
“Aren’t you romantic, Mr. Brehm,” she responds in a cheeky tone, but I don’t pay attention to it.
“I’ve been thinking,” I say to which she sings a low “hmm.” “Do you want to go to your village for the winter solstice? We haven’t been on vacation at all, and it’d be nice to celebrate your birthday there.” I pause and take a look at her from the corner of my eyes, my attention still on the busy road ahead of us. “What do you think?”
She mouths a long “hmm,” tilting her head to the left then to the right and then left again.
“No?” I ask when she doesn’t answer for a while.
“That sounds like an amazing idea,” she says and takes hold of my hand again.
What I don’t tell her is that I want to have a mating ceremony at the village. I’m looking forward to meeting her friends, too.
We reach home, and I coerce Rose into fixing the dates for the trip and ask her to inform the people at work. Then I secretly reach out to Jessica and tell her about what I’m planning. Jessica loves the idea and doesn’t seem to dislike me all that much, either.
I’ve been away from my clan for far too long, and I feel like going back to one, hoping it will be different, better this time. I think back to mating ceremonies that I’ve seen at my clan and suddenly remember that they have to be performed by the guardians of the people involved.
Shit.
On my next exchange with Jessica, I bring up the fact that neither Rose nor I really have anyone who could be a guardian figure for the mating ceremony. I sense her smiling for some reason, and she says that Eli would be happy to do it and that she would let him know in my stead.
I obviously don’t tell Zack about the mating ceremony or the village; I tell him that Rose and I are thinking of going for a vacation and that I’m going to propose to her on the trip. He approves of my decision. Having met Rose, he feels okay leaving some of his Andrew duties to her.
“Thanks for taking him off my hands,” he told her when they first met.
“I didn’t know I was so much work,” was all I could say to that.
I spend the rest of the days until the trip in both excitement and nervousness. She can’t really say no to a mating ceremony, right? Or can she?
It would be quite awkward if she does, but that’s not really going to stop me from asking her. So I suck it up and deal with the discomfort until the fortunate day arrives.
Epilogue
Nearly a year after I moved away, I’m finally back in the village. Surprisingly, the phenomenon of girls flocking to Andrew isn’t limited to humans. When we arrive, we instantly get surrounded by the kids of the village because Andrew’s BMW is too fancy and by the women of the neighborhood because Andrew looks like a movie star. Neither of which I find very easy to tolerate.
It’s still light outside, but I can see that the entire village is in celebration mode. The lamps, the fairy lights, the lanterns; they’ll all illuminate the village in an unforgettable glow. I might not have lived here for the past year or so, but the memories of the beautiful lights of the winter solstice festival never left
me. The same thing happened when I went away to college; I looked forward to the winter festival each year, to come back and enjoy the bubbles of lights on the winding path that cuts through the village, to the warmth of the people, and to the bonfire.
“Whoa,” Andrew exclaims when he sees the giant mountain of firewood stacked in the middle of the rotunda for the winter solstice festival’s ritual. “That’s one massive bonfire.”
He explained earlier how the bonfire in their village was always built away from the village for fear of it turning into a wildfire.
As we progress further and pass the rotunda, I realize that there are rows upon rows of chairs placed around the bonfire in a circle like they often did during a mating ceremony. There must be one happening tonight, I think. Though, Jessica didn’t warn me about one.
I slip my hand into Andrew’s and take him up the hill to my house. He is completely taken by the cave houses in the village and laughs every time he notices an interesting architectural detail. Like the roof of Tatiana and Rigsby’s house, which has a curve above the porch that creates a cute little shed-like space in the front of the house.
“You will not like what my clan did to their caves,” Andrew says absent-mindedly while gaping at the village. “This is the prettiest place I’ve seen in my life.”
That makes me giggle; he seems to be lost in the scenery around him like a child lost at the carnival.
We reach my front porch, and I unlock the door to let us in. Andrew eyes the place as if evaluating it for purchase.
“You’re not buying real-estate,” I say jokingly. “Make yourself at home.”
He sits on the couch, his eyes traveling up the ceiling then to the paintings on the wall and finally to the floor. He looks confused.
“What’s wrong?” I ask him, getting a bit concerned now. “Is there a problem?”
He shakes his head, looking dumb-founded and seems to be speechless for some time. “I’m just thinking,” he finally manages to speak. “How do you even feel at home at my place?”
I shrug my shoulders because he doesn’t really understand the fact that it’s his presence that makes any place feel like home.
“Andrew,” I say snapping him out of ogling the place wide-eyed. “Any place where you are is home.”
He doesn’t accept the answer and seems to be comically upset the entire time we stay at my place.
“Rose,” he calls out to me while I’m trying to fix a bath.
“Give me a minute,” I yell, but it takes me more than a minute.
I gasp when I feel warm hands coiling around my stomach and Andrew lodging his head in the crook of my neck.
“What’s happening?” I ask him even though he gets this romantic quite often. Without a word, he slips a hand into mine. We cross our fingers, and I realize something is different. There is something solid stuck between our palms. I bring our hands in front of me and unlock my fingers from Andrew’s. A golden ring falls on his palm lying flat in front of my eyes.
I stare at it with my jaw dropped open and then turn around to look at his face wondering if it’s real or not.
“So what do you think?” he asks.
“Yes,” I say and throw my arms around him. “Yes, yes, yes, yes!” I’m screaming.
Andrew picks me up and spins me in circles. I cannot believe this is happening.
“So shall we have a mating ceremony then?” His words stun me into silence. Mates. The word hits me somewhere deep in my gut, tugging at a string too close to my soul.
Then it occurs to me that the seats outside the rotunda have been put there for our mating ceremony.
“Are we really having it tonight?” I ask him. “At the winter solstice festival?”
He violently nods in agreement, and I’m out of words, yet happiness is so absolutely taking over my being.
“Where are you going?” I ask Andrew when he steps out the door.
“Don’t you need to get ready for the ceremony?” He winks at me, and Jessica enters the house.
She searches for something on Andrew's face and becomes a ball of joy when he shows her a thumbs up.
“Congratulations!” Jessica screams, tackling me in a hug and breaking the congratulations in three different pieces. She has a white dress in her hand that I immediately recognize.
It’s one of the dresses I had designed for the fashion week but ended up discarding because it looked too close to my mother’s wedding dress. I had cried in Jessica’s arms when I told her the reason for not selecting the design and the story of my parents’ death.
“Did you guys really do this?” I’m asking half in tears not believing my stupid luck.
“Let’s get you ready, the ceremony is in an hour.” Jessica smiles at me and helps me get ready for the event.
The dress is a white Shoma made out of a clingy, see-through fabric, wrapped in place by a long black thread that first goes around the waist forming a belt then hangs down to my knees. In stiletto heels and a flower crown on my head, both of which are Jessica’s addition to the attire, I look like some runaway princess who’s ready to walk down the runway.
“I look like my mom,” I whisper. Jessica smiles at me in the mirror.
“We can go whenever you’re ready.”
I breathe in deeply and check the daylight through the window. It’s gotten dark, but the final rays of sunlight are painting the sky red.
“Let’s go.”
Jessica is holding my hand tightly as we parade down the meandering path.
The entire village is lit up by the lights that come out every year around this time. I never thought this day would come for me. That I would walk down this path and there would be someone waiting for me down at the rotunda.
I stop in my tracks as I notice a figure behind one of the neighborhood houses. I immediately know who it is even before the figure steps into the light. I take a brief look at Jessica who’s searching the reason for stopping mid-step. She hasn’t noticed the intruder.
“You go ahead,” I tell her. “I need a moment.”
She’s hesitant and confused, so I squeeze her hand firmly to assure her I’ll be fine. I watch her go down the path and join the rest of the clan gathered at the rotunda.
“Do you always sneak into these kinds of events?” I say as Warren steps forward.
He doesn’t say anything and instead observes me silently from top to bottom.
“You look beautiful, sister,” he says almost as if it pains him.
“Thanks.”
Warren cranes his neck to look over to the rotunda. “Everyone seems to be happy,” he coos in a low voice.
“Join us,” I immediately blurt out.
He smiles warmly at me and takes my face in his hands. The faintest hint of a shake of his head is the only response I get. He kisses my forehead in goodbye.
“You’re leaving.” The words don’t come out as a question because I already know that he is. A single tear threatens to spill at the corner of my eye. I don’t have anything else to say to him. There’s nothing I can say to make him stay. If I did, I would’ve done it a long time ago.
But I think about what Andrew and I had talked about. “Are you well?” I ask him for the first time in a long, long time.
He smiles and captures me into an embrace.
“You’ve grown up so much. I will be back.”
He pulls away from me and walks away then disappears into the darkness of the woods leaving me standing alone in the middle of the universe.
I try to gather my wits and continue to walk down the road where the entire village has gathered to take part in the most important event of my life. For some reason, I don’t feel saddened by the absence of my family. It’s almost as if they’re with me, somewhere in my heart.
I step onto the rotunda dressed up from head to toe and scan the crowd, observing all the smiling faces. I notice Rigsby, Tatiana, and Rin sitting in the crowd and smile at them. There are Raymond and Julia, too. When I reach the end of
the circular rows, I see Joshua on the seat up front, and sitting beside him is his mate and my best friend, Jessica with their son on her lap. I wave at her to reassure her that I’m alright because I see creases on her forehead.
I walk up to the front where Eli is standing in the center of the ground with a piece of paper in his hand. I notice he’s wearing the same Shoma I had designed for him for Jessica and Joshua’s mating ceremony.
Standing next to Eli is Andrew, and I choke when I see what he’s wearing.
“The showstopper,” I say, and he presents his hand to me which I take because my knees are getting weaker by the second.
Eli clears his throat when he notices Andrew and me getting a little too close to each other. We stand a little further apart as Eli begins the ceremony.
“This is the second time I’m doing this even though I never planned to,” he chuckles, and the whole crowd joins in with him. He’s referring to the fact that he never had children of his own and so never expected to be the guardian at a mating ceremony.
“As an inseparable part of the clan, your union is a sacred one. And with my blessing and the blessing of everyone present here, I pronounce you each other’s mate.”
The words are like a powerful spell cast upon the entire village. I feel immediately baptized by some invisible bless of the clan.
I’m completely caught up by Eli’s words and it’s only when Andrew’s lips touch mine that I snap back to the place where I’m standing next to him, united with him as his mate.
“I never told you, did I?” he asks, and I’m confused about what he could possibly mean to tell me at such a time. “I love you, too.”
What a blessing, I think to myself, finding someone I can call home.