by Sable Sylvan
“Oh yeah?” asked Lance, reaching up to pull Zelda close. He gave her a quick kiss and then whispered in her ear, “I’m pretty sure you’re just addicted to this dick.”
Zelda pushed Lance away and kept her hands on his chest as she rode him, hard. “You know they make dildos bigger than your twig and berries,” said Zelda. “This isn’t about sex.”
“Yeah, but I’m the best lay you’ve ever had,” said Lance. The bear inside him was roaring, telling Lance what a dummy he was for continuing on this stupid path of arguing with the woman that Lance knew, without a doubt, was his fated mate. Lance hushed the bear: sure, Zelda was his fated mate, that was undeniable, but the question was, if he was really her fated mate, why would she leave?
“You’re the only lay I’ve ever had,” said Zelda, bouncing up and down on Lance. Zelda’s bear growled and swiped, telling Zelda that being so mean to the man that the bear was sure was her fated mate was not exactly the way to make friends, or make babies. Zelda let her bear talk without shushing it: the bear was right. “But...you’re the only lay I’d ever want to have.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” said Lance, bucking up into Zelda and trying to find that spot of hers that would drive her wild and make her scream his name loud enough to make his neighbors hear...which would be quite a feat, given his closest neighbor was over twenty miles away.
“It means...if my mark doesn’t glow, I won’t ever try to find anyone else,” said Zelda, slowing the pace of her hip rolling. “I would want to be with you, and only you, for the rest of my life. Because I love you, Lance.”
“You...you love me?” asked Lance, slowing down. “Zelda...why didn’t you just tell me?”
“Because I didn’t know how to let you in,” admitted Zelda, running her hands over the chest she’d missed so much over the last few months. Just as her body had curves, so did Lance’s, although his were in the form of the strong muscles that lay beneath the layer of fat that covered him, as his shift was still supposed to be hibernating.
“Just let me in,” said Lance, pulling Zelda close and rolling over so she was underneath him, looking up at him and his bright blue eyes as the sunset’s tie-dye colors streamed through the open window, filtered into streaks by the tops of the pine trees and scattering over Lance’s glossy body, turning him shades of orange, yellow, and red, setting the snow bear on fire.
“I don’t know how,” said Zelda, her eyes filling with tears.
“Just do it slowly,” said Lance, leaning in to kiss Zelda’s tears away. They tasted salty on his tongue, but he knew the tears would become bittersweet. “Let’s just take everything a day at a time, princess.”
“I need you, Lance,” said Zelda, pulling Lance in closer, before she kissed him deeply. Lance gripped onto Zelda’s hips and pulled them in as he entered her, with fast thrusts in and slow thrusts out, savoring every last inch of Zelda’s body and enjoying feeling it react to her, her pussy getting wetter as he pressed against that spot inside her that made her need to dig her nails into his back. “Lance...I love you. I love you, Lance.”
I love you: those were the three little words that Lance had been longing to hear from Zelda since the day he’d met her, since the day a connection had been sparked and the day he knew that he had to find out for sure if she was his fated mate. “I love you too, Zelda,” said Lance, kissing his mate deeply. She pulled him close as she kissed him back, her hands rubbing along his shoulders, his neck, and down his back to touch his shoulder blades, which felt to her like angel’s wings.
The feel of Zelda’s shifter hands against his back made everything feel so right. The palms of her hands weren’t as rough as his yet, and they may never be, as he’d had years of shifting on her, but the feeling of Zelda pulling him in, her whole body begging to be done, hard and slow, was bringing him close to the edge.
But Lance held back: to ensure the mate mark was really a reference to him, he had to make her get off first. Lance changed his angle, so that the line of muscle leading down his crotch was rubbing against Zelda’s clit, while he rubbed up and down, swirling his hips around as if he was an exotic dancer and she was a bachelorette having a last hurrah.
That was enough to drive Zelda over the brink. She held onto Lance, but he pushed her back down: he had to see what the mark did. The feeling of Zelda wrapped around him in ecstasy sent him past the point of no return as well, and he let loose inside his mate.
As Lance came at the same time as Zelda, the mark on Zelda’s chest started to glow. The glowing hurt: it made Zelda feel colder, rather than warmer, and it was as if she was being pierced by a knife. Still, she held onto Lance, as the mark glowed, harder and harder, filling the room with white light then emanated from the blade mark of the portion, a blade of pure ice. Although it was some of the strongest pain that Zelda had ever felt, it was also the happiest moment in her life as it affirmed what she knew deep in her heart: that Lance was her fated mate.
At the same time, Lance’s mark glowed, almost as hard as it had the first night. Lance’s mark glowed bright, along the brush strokes of the calligraphy letter Z until the letter was finished, and then, the letter’s ink-like paths seemed to bleed into the paths of the flourishes around the letter Z, the black vines that ensnared the letter, and turned those spots gold, so that the letter Z was unbound as it glowed bright in the cabin while the sun set through the windows.
Lance pulled out. “I really am your fated mate,” said Lance, watching the glow on Zelda’s chest dissipate.
“I know,” said Zelda, exhausted. “I think a part of me always knew.”
“Why did it take you so long to find me?” asked Lance.
“Because I had a lot to try to figure out,” said Zelda. “I...took you up on your offer, obviously, on getting set up.”
“Where did you end up living?” asked Lance.
“I got an apartment in Seattle, nothing expensive,” said Zelda. “Then, I got my paperwork, and my health checked. I’m fine, there was never any disease: Lorelei made it all up. She’s going to jail. I don’t want to talk about it, but she should never bother us again, ever. Litigation is going through, and I’ll be able to sue her for a few million...but they’re busy figuring out what to do about the other girls out there. Some of them were as young as I was when she took me.”
“But what about you, what have you been doing?” asked Lance.
“Well, then I got driving lessons...and I drove, as far as I could, meeting as many shifters as I could,” said Zelda. “I met as many bears as I could, asking if there was anything about a golden bear clan, but none had ever seen a shift like mine before. I still am no closer to finding my family than I was before...but at least I have you, Lance.”
“You do,” said Lance, pulling Zelda close and giving her a kiss on her forehead.
“What were you going to do if I wasn’t your fated mate?” asked Zelda, looking up to Lance. “Or if you weren’t mine?”
“Well...even if I wasn’t, I had something for you,” said Lance. Lance got out of bed and opened his end table. He pulled out a small wooden box and got down on his knees as Zelda sat up on the side of the bed. “I made this for you when I met you, the box, that is. The rest...well, I’ve had a lot of time, over the last few months, and I put my obsession with you to work.”
Lance opened the box. Inside was a ring that Lance had made himself. The ring was made of gold, braided like Zelda’s hair, the gold in three varying shades of gold that, to the average observer, would be invisible. The braid was endless, with no breaks, except embedded in one of the curves was a brilliant white diamond, large and multifaceted.
Lance took Zelda’s hand in his. “Zelda...I’ve been looking all my life for you, literally, and I never want to have to wait for you again. I need you, Zelda, and I want you to be my wife, to start a new life with me, wherever you want. I’d moved to New York frikkin’ City to be with you, because wherever we are, we’ll be home. Zelda...will you do me the honor of marrying
me?”
“I do,” said Zelda, wiping a happy ear from the corner of her eye. Lance pulled her hand, lifting her off the bed and kissed Zelda deeply on the mouth before slipping the ring on her finger. “I guess the only question now is...what are we gonna do about the wedding?”
“Trust me,” said Lance, brushing a lock of Zelda’s long golden hair out of her face. “It’s all going to come together.”
Epilogue
One Month Later
Just south of Seattle, along a river in the Willamette Valley, you’ll find a town. It’s a small town, rural, known for its berries and for its bear shifters. Port Jameson, an unassuming town with more heart than any big city, was the town many shifter families called home...and in its woods, in a hidden glade, many clans came together to watch the moon, during monthly moon watching ceremonies.
That’s why Lance and Zelda had made their way down to Port Jameson a few weeks beforehand. Zelda learned about her shifter roots via a baptism by fire, with Lance as well as with the rest of the grizzly clan, who had accepted their long lost daughter with open arms and many big, cuddly teddy bear hugs.
Port Jameson was covered with a thick layer of fog, but the woods, which peaked out over the fog, had clear skies, and lighting the hidden glade was the full moon. Zelda had learned the legends of Star Mother, Star Cub, and Moon Father (Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, and Luna to the humans), and was ready to undergo the mate ceremony in front of the local bear shifter community. Members of Lance’s family had arrived and were part of the wedding party as well: it had been a while since the Asher Clan had a proper bear shifter wedding. As nice as the human brides in the family were, they hadn’t been shifters, and thus, were not eligible to have a shifter-style wedding unless there were special circumstances.
In the past few weeks, Zelda had a baptism by fire into the world of shifters. Although she still didn’t know what clan she was part of by birth, the shifter clans structure allowed her to join the Asher Clan and the PNW regional bear clan, which was multi-species, as well as a specific grizzly clan. She learned lots of lore, while Lance’s lawyers handled Lorelei, who was sent to prison with a life sentence for trafficking. The various other girls that Zelda had never even met were helped by Lance’s charity branch, which mobilized to search for the parents of the girls, and to place them with their clans, and dozens of girls had been returned to their rightful homes...except for Zelda, who was part of Asher’s family, but wished she also had a family of her own.
Although Lance and Zelda were already fated mates, a public acknowledgement was common among the shifters, in legally binding weddings. Lance and Zelda held hands as one of the Port Jameson Clan’s elders, a blind elderly woman whom everyone referred to as Grandma Dixon, was ready to lead the ceremony.
Lance was wearing casual attire, as was Zelda and the rest of the members of the ceremony. Bear shifter ceremonies were about community, rather than pomp and circumstance, but the beautiful wedding, lit only by the light of the moon, was perfect for Zelda, who had been sickened by excess and luxury after spending so many years trapped as a princess in a tower.
Of course, Zelda had to have something a bit fancy, so her hair was braided by the other bear shifter women, who did her long hair up into a style that could survive the hike up the mountain. Small wildflowers were added in between the many curves of the braid’s intertwining strands. The braid stood for unity, as the varying paths the hair meandered all met at certain junctions, braids matching braids at points, and becoming one large braid at another, the main braid hanging down Zelda’s back to her mid-waist.
What made this wedding like something out of a fairy tale was the experience as a whole, the journey from the wooden bridge covered in moss and flowers on the Craston Bros. Honey property which went over a babbling creek to the soft blue and green glows of fireflies that led the way to the glade. All the members of the wedding followed up to the wedding in their human forms, their advanced shifter senses allowing them heightened senses of smell and sight that led them to the meadow which was impossible for most humans to find, wearing hiking boots, jeans, and plaid flannel shirts.
Lance and Zelda had carried a wicker basket each, which they had woven themselves, and which were filled with items they would need for the wedding ceremony. Other members of the party had carried baskets filled with the supplies needed for the wedding’s feast.
Once the party got to the glade, everybody set out large blankets, many family heirlooms which had been used for moonwatching ceremonies for generations. Grandma Dixon and the other elders led the moonwatching, recounting stories of the shifter legends, before they called Lance and Zelda up for their wedding.
“We are gathered here today to watch not only the moon, but to listen to these two lovers,” said Grandma Dixon. “They will share with us their story...and then, we will witness them exchange tokens of love. Zelda Woods, of the grizzly clan, will go first.”
Zelda opened her basket. Inside was a bound book, with a gold imprint. She’d bound and gilded the book herself. The text on the front read, ‘For Lance, from Zelda: the first of many moments.’
Zelda stopped herself from tearing up before she started speaking. “Lance, you were the first person I felt anything for, the first person I ever wanted to draw, to capture on paper the way you were captured in my heart, because you captured my heart, Lance, without even trying,” said Zelda. “The one thing you don’t have is this sketchbook. It contains all the sketches I made of you during the months I missed you dearly, the months I took to make sure I could be with you, the months I took to make sure I was the woman you deserve.”
Zelda passed the book to Lance. He opened it: inside was drawing after drawing of him, made from memory, each drawing unique and never seen by any person other than Zelda, and now, Lance.
“This is amazing,” said Lance.
“I have something else,” said Zelda. She pulled a ring out of her pocket: it was a ring made of gold, shaped into a sword, wrapped around so the hilt touched the tip. “This is for you. I know it’s traditional...but I want my mate mark to be with you, and on you, at all times.” Zelda slipped the ring onto Lance’s finger.
“My third and final gift for you,” said Zelda. “Well...it isn’t in the basket.” Zelda rubbed her stomach. She wasn’t showing yet, as she was only three months along, but everyone in the glade knew what she was implying.
“My third gift to you...is the gift of a child, or children, as the case may be,” said Zelda, looking Lance deep in the eyes. Their eyes flashed at the same time as their bears roared in celebration, because the primal instinct to mate had been satisfied...at least, for the next few years.
“Do you accept these gifts, Lance Asher of the Asher Clan?” asked Grandma Dixon.
“I do,” said Lance with a smile. “I accept these wonderful gifts, Zelda.”
“Lance Asher, of the Asher Clan, and of the polar bear clan of Alaska, will go next,” said Grandma Dixon. “Lance Asher, what do you have to offer Zelda?”
“Zelda...over the last few months, I’ve fallen harder for you than I thought I’d fall for anyone, ever,” said Lance. “There’s nothing I can give you that can show you how much I love and appreciate you...but I’m going to try anyway.” Lance opened his palm: in the center of his palm was a plain golden ring that he’d made himself. It was not as fancy as the engagement ring: it was understated but it had been made by Lance, which was what mattered. On the ring, a simple phrase was stamped: ‘happily ever after’, in lowercase, made with a stamp based on Lance’s own handwriting.
“Lance, it’s beautiful,” said Zelda, as Lance put the ring on her finger.
“Zelda, there’s two more gifts I need to give you,” said Lance.
“What are they?” asked Zelda.
“Watch...and wait,” said Lance, opening his basket and signifying there was nothing in it, that all that was in there was air and the empty ring box. “You’ve got some very special guests.”
Two peopl
e came into the clearing. They weren’t in shift, but the man, tall with dark hair, was paired with a woman, equally tall but curvier than usual for a shifter. The woman had bright, shining gold hair that matched Zelda’s, and it was wrapped into a plait. They were both wearing casual clothing, like the rest of the wedding parties, the woman in a pale blue chambray shirt and the man in a dark green shirt.
“Zelda?” said the woman. “Zelda...I can’t believe it’s you.”
“M-mom?” asked Zelda, walking towards the newcomers. She had few memories of her parents, but she remembered her mother better than she had remembered her father. “Mom, is that really you?”
“Lance tracked us down: we’ve been looking for you for years,” explained Zelda’s father. “When you were kidnapped, we had no idea what had happened to you.”
“You didn’t sell me?” asked Zelda.
“Sell you?” asked Zelda’s mom. “No, you were snatched away from us. We had turned away, for only a second, at the mall, buying you clothes for your first day of kindergarten...and you were spirited away. We looked for you for decades, for years, and never found you...but we’ve always loved you, Zelda.”
“Do you accept Lance’s gifts?” asked Grandma Dixon with a smile.
“I do,” said Zelda, taking Lance’s hands into hers, and completing the wedding ceremony with a deep kiss. Lance had given her the best gift in the world: that of a family, not only the family they’d make and build together, but a family she’d never known she’d had.
...and they lived happily ever after...
Sneak Peek: Rumpled Bear Skin
Artemis Miller was called into Cedar Asher’s office. Of course, the PR intern was nervous: she had only got the job at Asher Lumber Co. because her father had bragged that she could spin anything into gold, “anything” being everything from corporate scandals to low sales numbers. In truth, as an English major, Artemis did have a way with words...but was that good enough for the biggest lumber company in the Pacific Northwest? She was about to find out.