by Tasha Black
“I can do that,” she whispered.
“Excellent,” he smiled down at her.
She lifted her chin for a kiss.
“Hold that thought for just a sec, baby,” he said, slipping something out of his pocket.
He pulled out a plastic toy key ring and held it out to Orson, who eyed it delightedly, and closed his little starfish hand around it.
“A ring for Orson,” he said. “You’ve already got the keys to Daddy’s heart, my beautiful boy.”
Before Sarah could respond, Max was kneeling in front of her, holding out something that she couldn’t see because of the tears suddenly clouding her vision.
“And a ring for Mommy,” Max said. “Because I want to earn the keys to hers.”
“You already have,” Sarah breathed.
“Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Yes,” someone shouted from outside the open window.
Max laughed and stood up, wrapping Sarah and Orson in his arms. “Sounds like we have an audience.”
“Er, my sister was a little worried about how this visit might go,” Sarah said.
“If she’s protective of my mate and my son then I love her already,” he said.
“And I love you,” Sarah said, letting out the words that had crowded her heart for a year. “So much.”
“It’s about damned time,” Max said with a wink.
He leaned down and kissed her so softly, so tenderly, she thought her heart would break.
And then the back door slammed as Mandy and the Harkness clan all came stampeding in to congratulate them.
21
Max
Max Reynolds felt like a million bucks.
His son was in his arms, his fiancée was by his side, and a swarm of happy people who considered him to be part of the family surrounded them.
Harkness kids were pouring apple cider, setting bowls of food down on the oak plank table until it groaned, and good-naturedly laughing their heads off at each other.
“Are you overwhelmed yet?” the one called Darcy asked him with a wink.
“Not even close,” he said.
“Good,” Darcy nodded. “You’re the only one of us to ever come home for your 300th moon. Mom will never let us live it down.”
“Oh, yeah, right,” he said, having forgotten about the 300 moons thing.
“Oh, yeah, right,” Darcy teased. “Do you guys remember my 300th moon?”
“Not this again,” Will groaned.
“I was nearly killed,” Darcy said.
“Things may be different nowadays if what happened down in South Carolina with my Adrian is any indication,” Kate said from where she sat. “So don’t let them scare you, Max. But still, I’m glad you’re home.”
Home.
It was a wild idea that this place where he’d spent a few hours when he was a baby was home, but it felt right.
He looked down at Sarah, who was slathering butter on a sweet potato roll. She looked right at home too.
“Sorry, do you want one?” she asked. “I can take Orson…”
“No, no, no,” he said. “Don’t even try it. Eat.”
“If you let him have his way, no one else will ever hold Orson again,” Mandy teased from Sarah’s other side.
“Mandy,” Sarah scolded happily.
“She’s not wrong,” Max said, stroking Orson’s tender cheek with his index finger.
“Actually I am wrong,” Mandy said wistfully. “Unhappily for you, Orson has a hot date with his Aunt Mandy tonight.”
“He does?” Max asked.
Sarah nodded.
“It’s your engagement present,” Mandy said in a stage whisper. “A night at Tarker’s Hollow’s most romantic bed & breakfast, and free babysitting to go with it.”
Nice.
“Mandy, that’s really thoughtful, but—” he began.
“Listen, you two have the rest of your lives to watch the baby sleep,” Mandy said. “Tonight is for you.”
“For Max and Sarah,” Kate announced from her place at the head of the table.
“For Max and Sarah,” everyone echoed, raising their cider mugs.
Mandy grinned. She knew she had won.
But it was the pink glow in Sarah’s cheeks that made Max feel he had won too.
God, he couldn’t wait to get her alone, now that he knew she was his forever.
“But your evening will start late,” Will said. “We’re going for a run first.”
“You have to go for a run on your three hundredth moon,” Evangeline said with a smile. “I’m glad there’s another bear. I get tired of running with nothing but wolves.”
“You do?” Will teased, pretending to be hurt.
“What the heck?” Darcy said.
“Jack is meeting us too, and he’s really going to be sad to hear this, Eva,” Will said.
“Another wolf?” Evangeline teased. “You guys just have to outnumber us, don’t you?”
“I can’t wait,” Max laughed.
“Don’t worry Sarah, those of us who don’t shift will be having a movie night with popcorn,” Kate said. “That’s me, you, Mandy, Tess, and Finn. And Orson, of course.”
“And I think Ethan is stopping by with baby Katie, too,” Evangeline added. “She’s going to love meeting Orson.”
A few hours later Max, Will, Jack, Darcy, and Evangeline headed into the woods on the far side of the farm.
“Do you guys do this often?” Max asked.
“Often as we can,” Will told him. “It’ll be fun around the holidays when everyone’s home.”
“There are more of us?” Max asked.
The others laughed.
“There are way more of us, buddy,” Darcy said, slinging her arm around his shoulder in a friendly way.
“Wait until Christmas,” Will said. “You’ll see.”
“Well you guys are going to need name tags or something,” Max laughed.
“Don’t worry,” Evangeline put in. “Hannah’s making you a family photo album. But it’s supposed to be a surprise, so, you know…”
“I will be surprised,” Max assured her. “That’s really nice.”
“Okay, everyone pick a tree,” Jack announced.
Max ducked behind a big maple, stripped down, wadded up and hid his clothes, and transformed into his bear.
He’d tasted the purity of the country air when he first got here, but with so much else going on he’d been distracted.
The bear was not distracted.
He lifted his muzzle to the snowy full moon and breathed deep. The air was delicious and the call of the moon was electrifying.
He lumbered out to find his friends.
A bear who must be Evangeline shook herself, her glossy pelt rippling in the moonlight.
Three wolves stood watching her.
While one was distracted, the second one pounced on him and bit his ear, causing the first wolf to yip.
Max saw immediately that this was Darcy attacking Will.
Jack looked on, too cool or too shy to join in. Max couldn’t tell which.
Then Darcy took off into the trees.
They all followed.
The wind ruffled his fur as he ran, the fallen leaves cool beneath his paws. The breeze in the woods was a melody to his sensitive ears.
Max had no idea how long they ran, how many times they stopped to drink from an icy stream, how many times Darcy came at him in the dark, ears flattened to her head in pretend attack, Will howling his amusement in the background.
It was incredible, wild and fun.
At some point, he noticed they were recovering ground they’d run earlier.
Then a sound pierced the air.
It was the cry of an animal, small and reproachful.
Max rose on his hind legs.
His body surged with a protective instinct that made his fur stand on end.
Mine.
Max froze, confused.
Instantl
y Darcy rose into her human form before him.
“That’s Orson, buddy,” she said. “He’s okay, just cranky. Are you ready to change back?”
Her words found their way home and he slipped into the form of a man once more.
The world looked different from his human eyes, but it was still beautiful.
He heard the others in the bushes nearby, so he grabbed his clothes and dressed too.
When they came out there was no more joking or roughhousing. The Harkness siblings seemed sleepy and content at last.
But as the moon caressed Max’s skin and the breeze tousled his hair, carrying with it the scent of his mate, he felt anything but sleepy.
22
Max
Max opened the doors to the little carriage house behind the Rhododendron Grove Bed & Breakfast and gestured for Sarah to follow him in.
It was late, but Mrs. Clintoch, the owner, had left the key under the mat for them. Kate had explained to Max that Mrs. Clintoch loved the Harkness kids, who often helped her to her car with her purchases on her frequent visits to the farm, so she had made the arrangements, no questions asked.
Which was good, because Max would not have wanted to explain that he had to arrive late because he had spent the early part of the evening as a bear.
He was impressed when he flicked on a light and saw the vaulted ceiling with skylights, finished pine floors covered in Oriental rugs, and the enormous sleigh bed in the center of the room. Each bedside table was adorned with a small pot of bright yellow mums that he suspected came from Harkness Farms.
He placed their overnight bags on the dresser.
“Wow,” Sarah breathed.
“Not what you expected, right?” Max asked.
Sarah shook her head. “Nothing in this town is.”
He chuckled and nodded. She was right.
“So you really haven’t seen any of those people since you were a baby?” she asked.
“No,” he said. “But they do feel like family. Is that strange?”
“Not at all,” she said. “Sometimes you just know, right away about someone. In this case, it’s just… a lot of someones.”
“I knew right away about someone,” he told her, taking her hands.
She smiled up at him.
“Not right away,” she said softly.
“Oh yes,” he told her, lifting one of her hands to his mouth and pressing a lingering kiss to it. “Right away. I knew you were my mate from the first time I met you. It just took a while for you to catch up.”
Her lips parted slightly as she watched him kissing her hand.
Suddenly the significance of the moment hit him.
He was alone with her, his ring on her finger, a bed taking up most of the room and hours ahead of them in which to satiate their hunger for each other.
Or try to satiate it. He had a funny feeling that no matter how many times he made love to her tonight he would not have his fill.
“You look worried,” Sarah said. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” he told her, walking her backwards to the bed. “Everything is very okay. As a matter of fact, everything is perfect. I’m only wondering how fast I can get those clothes off you.”
She giggled, actually giggled and he wished he could drink in the sound.
But when she tugged at his shirt the mood turned serious.
He whipped his t-shirt over his head, flexing his muscles just a little to get a reaction out of her.
Her response was so adorable that he wished he could have filmed it. Those green eyes flashed and her mouth dropped open slightly.
He peeled off the rest of his clothes and straightened up, pausing to let her look her fill. He was glad she liked the look of his body.
She gazed at him hungrily. Her cheeks turning pink when she saw how hard he was.
“Don’t be embarrassed, Sarah,” he murmured. “That’s what you do to me.”
She laughed nervously.
He stepped over to her, took her chin in his hand and tilted her face up.
“I love you,” he told her. “Are you ready?”
“Yes.” She smiled up at him, her giddiness forgotten.
Max slid his hands under her shirt, enjoyed the soft warmth of her skin as he pushed the fabric over her head.
She nuzzled his neck and the lace of her bra tickled his chest.
He swept her hair off her shoulder and bent to kiss her neck. This sweet, fragrant spot was where he would bite her and claim her once and for all.
Slowly, slowly, he begged himself inwardly.
He slid his hands down her arms, unfastened her jeans and pulled them down over her hips.
The scrap of emerald lace beneath matched her bra.
Max looked up at her, wishing he could memorize the anticipation in her eyes, her downy skin and the tantalizing lingerie that matched her eyes.
“Max,” she whispered pleadingly.
A corresponding wave of need threatened to overwhelm him.
He rose, led her to bed.
She crawled in and held her arms out to him.
Max stretched out by her side.
The bear urged him on, desperate to stake their claim.
Easy, boy.
But Sarah sighed, a sweet needy sound, and he nearly lost his cool.
“You’re so beautiful,” he told her, wishing he had a better word to describe the way the sight of her made his heart ache.
She smiled up at him, reaching out a hand to tentatively stroke his cheek.
He turned his mouth to her palm, trailing kisses down to the inside of her elbow.
“Max,” she whispered again.
The bear rumbled in his chest.
He kissed her ruby lips gently, then slid down to nuzzle her neck and rain feather-light kisses on the pale tops of her breasts until her pouting nipples poked at the lace.
“So beautiful,” he whispered, sliding a finger under one cup to release her left breast.
He licked her nipple into his mouth.
She shivered and he felt her nails sink into his biceps.
He pulled down the other cup and lavished her breasts with attention until the quivering of her hips told him she needed more.
She whimpered when he abandoned her breasts.
“Easy, baby,” he told her as he kissed his way down her belly.
He could have said the same to the bear, who raged in his head.
Sarah lifted her hips and Max pulled her panties off.
He caught the scent of her in the air, like rain on a meadow, and he nearly lost control.
“Max,” she whimpered, clenching the sheets.
“Easy,” he murmured into her creamy thigh, as much to himself as to her.
She cried out the moment he licked her opening.
He groaned into her fragrant heat, and lapped at her, loving the way she opened for him like a flower, loving the insistent throb of her little clit against his tongue.
“Please,” she begged.
He meant to take his time, tease and torment her until her climax was intense enough to blind them both.
But her pleading was his undoing.
He pressed a finger into her heavenly heat and quickly sucked her clit into his mouth, flicking it mercilessly with his tongue.
Sarah moaned his name and he swore she almost lifted off the bed as she convulsed around his finger again and again.
23
Sarah
Sarah let her head fall back on the pillow and panted.
Shivers of pleasure still sizzled just beneath her skin and she felt as if all her joints were melting.
“Are you okay?” Max asked.
She opened her eyes to see him looking up at her from between her legs, an expression of concern on his masculine face.
His lips were wet and she blushed at the reason.
“Don’t you dare blush,” he said, crawling on top of her and caging her head between his arms. “Not after you begged.”
A g
iggle bubbled up in her chest but fizzled before it left her lips when she saw the expression of savage hunger on his face.
“Are you ready, Sarah?” he asked. “Is this what you want?”
“Yes,” she told him.
“You know that for me this means forever?”
He’d explained to her about the bite. How he would be permanently bonded to her after that.
She gazed up at him in wonder, shocked to see fear in the eyes of the bravest man she’d ever met.
“It’s forever for me too,” she told him.
He smiled down at her, though there was still pain in his eyes.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss.
He kissed her slowly and carefully.
Sarah was amazed to feel her body responding immediately. The pleasure he’d just given her forgotten already, her body hungrily demanding more.
Max pulled back and gazed into her eyes.
She shivered in anticipation as he took himself in his hand, pressed against her.
“Oh, god, Sarah,” he groaned.
“Please,” she whimpered.
He complied.
The pinching sensation as she stretched to accommodate his girth was brief, and then the pleasure flooded her senses.
This was right, this was home, this was everything.
“Sarah,” he whispered.
His brown eyes were so beautiful she could hardly stand to look back at him.
They moved together as if they had done this a thousand times and not just once before. Sarah felt the tension building, building, and though he filled her the craving she felt only grew stronger.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
She nodded, too lost in pleasure to speak.
He lowered his head and licked the tender place where her neck met her shoulder.
She gasped.
Max bit down hard.
Sarah expected pain and there was a little, but mostly the bite unleashed a frenzy of desire in her.
She clawed at his back, thrusting her hips up to meet him, frantic.
“Easy,” he growled. But she knew by the rasp in his voice that he was no more in control now than she was.