by Anya Nowlan
“Doesn’t that hurt?” she asked, trying to swallow another yawn.
He felt so warm and secure that her body wanted to give in immediately to the sleep that had been eluding her while she’d been waiting for him to wake up. Everything seemed to be going her way for once and her body was adamant about making use of that as fast as it could.
“It would hurt more to let you go,” he said, and Nia smiled to herself, snuggling closer.
“Who knew that there was a poet hidden under that growly exterior?” she teased.
“Don’t get any ideas,” Thor scoffed playfully, his head falling back on the pillow as he yawned as well. “Is there anythin’ else I said while I was out of it?”
“A few things,” Nia admitted, feeling her stomach twist a little.
“Like?” he asked, curiosity in his tone.
“Well, I know you were hopped up on drugs and it doesn’t mean anything so it doesn’t really mat-“
“Nia,” Thor said, stopping her rambling. “What did I say?”
“You said you loved me,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper.
Her body seemed to freeze in time and space as she clenched herself against whatever reaction he would muster. While a part of her kept expecting him to let his walls down because of everything he’d said and done already, a much larger part of her seemed to be indefinitely paranoid that all of this would end any second now.
“Good,” he said, after a moment of contemplation.
“Good?” Nia asked, her brows arching as she looked up at him in surprise.
“Yes, good. I was worried that you didn’t know yet. I’m glad that’s been settled,” he said simply, kissing her on the top of her head while he wore the most maddening smile.
“You’re impossible,” she gasped, but allowed her head to drop back on his chest.
“Fables,” he snorted, coughing for a moment as he said that.
It wasn’t a minute later that Nia fell asleep in Thor’s arms, the two wounded shifters finally in the safest place in the world – right next to one another.
Epilogue
Nia
“Shh, honey, it’s okay,” Nia cooed, cradling the baby in her arms.
They’d been travelling for the better part of the last twenty-four hours and while the baby had mostly behaved, then Nia herself was this close to throwing a tantrum.
No way for the mother of a newborn to act, she mused darkly, hushing the baby in the sling across her chest while she walked soundlessly through the jungle.
Every step deeper into the woods filled her with a sense of homecoming and calm, but it was nothing compared to the pit of nervousness that needed to be soothed. She hadn’t seen Thor in nearly three weeks and this trip was supposed to be when they finally showed her family Tyor, their son, and introduced Thor as someone else than the guy who’d lost his eyesight in the jungle.
But that would have required Thor to be there. Which he most definitely was not.
“Just you and me, honey,” she said with a sigh, waving the look away that she got from her cousin who had come to meet her at the edge of the forest. “You know what I mean,” she muttered to him.
The clan home had been moved to a new location now. Though The Firm had scoped out Borneo once more to make certain that there were no more Arctics’ strongholds there, one couldn’t be too careful. Nia’s kin had decided to start rotating between three locations in the woods, occasionally changing one of them for a new one as well. Only way to know where they were now was… well, to know where they were.
“How much longer?” Nia asked, her bare feet padding over the jungle floor.
As soon as she’d gotten to the woods, she’d shucked off her shoes and forgotten all about her bags, leaving them in the back of the van that had picked her up. Living with normal people got awfully bothersome after a while and she was more than glad to embrace her roots when home, even if she was still entirely heartbroken that Thor couldn’t come with her.
The Firm needs to make him work less, Nia thought, continuing her silent grumbling.
“Almost there.”
“Good,” Nia said, looking down at Tyor.
Her and Thor’s son was only three months old, but there was no doubt in her mind that he was the light of her life and Thor’s. While her relationship with her mate was one that took work from both of them – for him to trust, and for her to get used to the fact that not everyone was as carefree and ‘silver lining’-oriented as she was – loving Tyor came effortlessly for both of them.
Thor was a model father, if a bit overprotective. Getting him out of the house they were now renting in California and making him go to the first mission after Tyor’s birth had been a task of herculean proportions. Nia smiled, thinking of that memory.
And then the smile disappeared just as quickly because she hadn’t seen him in three weeks.
It was then that she heard the sounds of home, people talking and laughing and the distant sound of singing. Without thinking about it, she broke into a run, rushing past her cousin. She held Tyor close, but the baby was quiet, not a whisper of a cry coming from him.
Nia was grinning wide when she reached a clearing by the river, expecting to find the smiling faces of her family staring back at her. She found just that, but it was even better.
Her clan stood in a semi-circle around Thor, who stood in the middle, dressed in his usual black slacks and tee – how he didn’t melt was beyond her. Nia’s family was dressed in their best, the bright colors of her clan – whites and yellows of the great hornbills – everywhere.
Nia’s cousin came up behind her, clapping a hand on her shoulder.
“Told you it wasn’t far,” he said with a chuckle, giving her a gentle shove forward.
Sputtering in disbelief, Nia walked into the clearing, Thor coming to greet her. He pulled her into a gentle hug and then kissed her lips while all Nia could do was stare at him in wonder, feeling like she should pinch herself because this simply couldn’t be real.
“H-how?” she muttered, eyes wide.
“How what?” Thor teased, arching a brow while some of Nia’s family snickered.
“How did you get here?!” she said, exasperated.
“They have these things we call ‘helicopters’ for that, love,” he said, waggling his brows.
“You know what I mean!” Nia protested.
“Fine,” Thor laughed, slipping his arm around her shoulder and walking her into the semi-circle formed by her family. “I wasn’t completely honest with you. There’s no mission. I got here a few days ago to meet your folks and to ask them a few things.”
“Ask them what?” Nia queried, her heart beating out of her chest now as anticipation filled her.
He couldn’t have…
“If they’d let me marry you, of course,” Thor said. “Turns out havin’ a panther for a husband is the best damn idea a great hornbill could have.”
Thor’s grin was toothy and incredibly smug, but Nia didn’t care. It was finally happening. He was letting down his walls for her completely and she couldn’t have been happier.
“Shouldn’t you ask me first?” Nia countered, forcing her expression serious.
Thor’s face fell a little and she could feel the spike of worry that went through him, sensing it as clearly as he must have. It was one of the joys of having a shifter partner – suddenly it seemed like there were two sets of emotions to feel.
“Of course. Nia Feroulis… would you do me the honor of takin’ my dumb ass as yours until a bullet do us part?”
Nia let the silence linger for a moment, glancing at her parents, who seemed more than supportive by the huge smiles on their faces. Finally, she relented, letting the wide smile spread over her lips as well.
“Of course,” she whispered.
Thor’s eyes were tinted with tears as he hugged her, gently to avoid squishing Tyor, and by the time he let her go, she was crying outright tears of joy. Things had gone from bad to worse an
d then to good and excellent and now?
Well, now they were perfect.
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Did you miss the previous books in the series? Pick them up here:
Bear My Heir
Kitten Me Twice
If you’ve missed Anya’s Shifter Squad Six series, then check it out by picking up the first book or the 4-book bundle:
Bear My Baby, Book 1
Shifter Squad Six Bundle
Don’t miss the excerpt of the fourth book in the series, Twice the Pups, on the next page!
Twice the Pups Excerpt
She twitched visibly in her seat when she heard Prowler’s laugh. It had a ghostly quality to it that she hadn’t heard ever before and it made her turn around to look at him.
It was only the wolf twins who were walking in. She’d been expecting to see Dice with them, or the rest of the squad, but a quick calculation in her head told her that those two were really the only ones she could have expected.
The squad’s sniper had skipped the safehouse way before the rest of them got in, having rushed home because of his kid’s ear infection with the first transport that headed toward California. Dice was probably strewn up somewhere, sleeping off his painkillers. That only left the lion twins, one of whom had suffered serious injuries and the other one had to be by his side to help with the healing.
“Look here, it’s the cavalry,” Price called, spreading his arms in a welcoming fashion. “Boy, were we glad to see you guys.”
The sarcasm was dripping off his tongue as he pulled up a chair and plopped down next to Amy, Prowler finding a seat to the right of Tatiana. Amy conjured up a smile, ignoring the twisting in her stomach that seemed to arrive right along with them. She wasn’t sure what it was about those two, but even when she’d read their files for the first time more than a year ago, she’d gotten a feeling about them.
Somehow, they were different, and it bothered her that she didn’t know why they made goosebumps appear on her skin and her throat to go dry when they were around.
It can’t be just because they’re hot as hell, she mused quietly, letting her eyes roll over the twins as they poured themselves and everyone else at the table another round of shots. I mean, they’re smoking, sure, but I’ve seen better.
It sounded like she was trying to convince herself of something that wasn’t entirely true. In fact, the more she looked at them, those devilish grins and those pale green eyes, the more she began wondering if they were in fact the hottest men she’d ever seen. Being a career soldier, first serving in the Navy and now in The Firm, she’d seen a lot of delectable men in her time.
These two? They seemed to stand head and shoulders above the rest for some reason. Another thing that she couldn’t put her finger on.
Though I’d love to run my fingers all over these guys, she thought, biting down on the inside of her mouth to keep from blushing.
“What about it, Marguiles? Will you drink with us? For saving our asses?” Prowler asked, raising the glass in toast.
He didn’t sound quite as ironic as his brother had and with a sigh, exchanging glances with Roy and Tatiana first, Amy took the glass and held it up. Nothing quite like some alcohol to burn the memories of a shitty day out of her head.
“Salut. And here’s to hoping I never have to bail another Shifter Squad Nine out of some deep shit,” she said.
“Here’s to hoping you do,” Price added with a shit-eating grin that got him a quick punch in the arm by Roy.
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