by Sophie Stern
Bella had never had a one-night-stand before. She’d never gone crazy and jumped a guy like he was her last chance at breathing.
Like he was her only chance.
Suddenly cold, Bella rubbed her shoulders. Had she made a huge mistake? He had seemed upset when she ran off. She had just left, but really, no big deal, right?
He was just some guy.
Not her mate.
No matter how bad she wanted to believe in such things, she had to be realistic. Brent just got lucky and Bella wasn’t him. She was the unlucky twin and always had been.
Bella was so absorbed in her pity party that she didn’t hear the pickup truck approaching from behind her until it was almost next to her. Quickly, she turned and jammed her thumb out. That was how people hitchhiked, right? Did people still do that? Maybe some do-gooder out for a midnight drive would give her a ride home. She brushed off any thoughts of serial killers or axe murderers. This wasn’t the movies. This was Colorado.
The truck slowed and stopped beside her. Bella took a deep breath and opened the door. She hopped inside and closed it.
“Thanks. I could really use a ride to town, I’ve had the craziest night,” she began as she buckled her seatbelt.
She turned toward the driver and was caught in the gaze of two very familiar, very bright blue eyes.
“Oh, darling,” he said. “Your night hasn’t even begun.”
**
Matthew was more confused than furious. He had a feeling he could never get angry with Bella. Not really. After an amazing connection, after a beautiful moment, she had run off. Just run off. Like it had meant nothing to her. The only problem was that Matthew knew it had meant something. So why had she left?
She sat silently next to him as he pulled back onto the road and continued driving into town. Was he really so bad that she was going to hitchhike? Did she even know what kind of crazy people might pick up a wandering female?
He eyed her as she stared straight ahead, careful to keep her gaze on the road. Tousled hair, wrinkled clothes: oh yeah, she looked freshly bedded. Smelled it, too. Swimming after they made love had done nothing to take the blush out of her cheeks or wash the sweet perfume of her arousal off her skin.
And she had run away.
Matthew was clever enough to realize she hadn’t been running away from him. She’d enjoyed herself immensely. He’d made sure of that. No, she was running away from something else, probably something to do with her family or job, and he intended to get to the bottom of it.
Had someone told her she wasn’t special? Did she think she wasn’t important? Wasn’t worthy of love? What had happened to his little spitfire to make her think she didn’t deserve to find a mate?
Who had broken her spirit?
“Do you wanna tell me now?” He said gruffly.
“Tell you what?” Bella stared ahead, finding something strangely interesting to stare at in the darkness. A speck of dust on the windshield, perhaps?
“You can tell me now or later, little bear, but I’m going to find out why you ran away from me. I know you felt the mating connection.”
His words hung in the air, but she was quiet. So quiet, in fact, that for a moment, he wondered if she had heard him.
Then he heard her heart racing. It was loud and fast and anxious. Oh yes, she had heard him perfectly well. She just wasn’t sure what to say. So quiet all of a sudden, his little bear was. She hadn’t been so quiet or shy when she’d pounced him by the waterfall. She hadn’t been nervous when she’d dived beneath the water and licked his cock. She hadn’t been anxious when he’d been going down on her, when he’d been making her come.
So why now?
“There’s no such thing as mates,” she whispered finally. “That’s a myth.”
“Says who?” He wasn’t buying it.
She shrugged and stared out the window some more.
Patience. He needed to be patient. Matthew remembered being a young cub and his mom repeating that to herself over and over again. He had never really understood the importance of it until now. Now that he’d found his mate – and she was, he just knew it – he realized what she meant.
You had to be patient with people or you’d go crazy. You had to be patient and give them time to think about what they wanted to say, what they needed to say. You had to let them figure out in their own time how they could best communicate.
And even though he felt the mating bond with Bella, the truth was that he really didn’t know her very well. He didn’t know her at all, really, just that fate had brought them together. He just knew she was his destiny.
“My brother is getting married on Saturday,” Bella said finally. She stared at her hands, folded them in her lap, then unfolded them again. “I’m completely jealous.”
Matthew laughed. He shouldn’t, but he did.
“Whatever for?” He asked. “Did you want to marry her?”
Now it was Bella’s turn to smile.
“No, silly,” she said. “It all sounds so stupid when I say it out loud, especially after…well, especially after everything we did.”
“So, why did you feel jealous?”
“He just really has his life together,” Bella said. She leaned her head against the window. “I’ve always been kind of the screw-up. We’re twins, but I don’t really feel like it. He left Alaska to join the Air Force and I stayed behind for college. I graduated, but I can’t find a job. I even moved back home. So I’m jobless, boyfriendless, homeless, and my twin brother is getting married to some smoking hot shifter on Saturday.”
“He doesn’t have to be the only one, you know,” Matthew said quietly. He wasn’t sure what caused him to say it, but Bella’s head whipped around.
“What did you say?”
Now it was Matthew’s turn to take a deep breath.
“Marry me, Bella. Be my wife.”
6.
Bella would have laughed if the whole thing wasn’t so ridiculous. Instead of laughing, she was speechless until they got to the hotel. Matthew dropped her off, kissed her, and told her to think about it. He gave her his number and he got hers, and they made plans to meet up in the afternoon before the rehearsal dinner.
They had a lot to talk about, but Bella needed sleep and food and a shower.
In that order.
She stumbled upstairs to her room and fell into her bed. She was glad she had her own hotel room. Her parents had been kind enough to pay for it, along with most of the wedding-related travel expenses. Otherwise, she never would have been able to afford the king-sized bed or the suite with the whirlpool tub.
For a brief moment, she had considered inviting Matthew up. If she didn’t have to explain him to her relatives the next morning, she would have, but it was already very late – well past 3am – and she absolutely would have to explain a random man in her room.
So she went upstairs, fell onto the bed, and closed her eyes. Despite the fatigue, though, Bella didn’t fall asleep right away. Too many thoughts rolled through her head. Matthew had been a surprise. A mistake, maybe, but she didn’t want to think that way. No, he wasn’t a mistake. He was just unexpected.
Her sweet polar bear.
At some point, she drifted off and had sweet dreams of swimming with him in Alaska, of exploring in the snow. She dreamt they were on drift ice together as bears, that they were together, that they were off to have adventures in the world as a happy mated pair.
And then her alarm blared and woke her up, shattering any notion of a perfect morning.
**
Matthew pulled up to the gate at Forrest Air Force Base the next morning. Somehow, after a few hours of tossing and turning, he’d been able to fall asleep and had dreamt about Bella.
Sweet, perfect dreams.
He was exhausted from only getting an hour of sleep, but he had a feeling his day was about to be pretty damn wonderful.
He handed his ID card to the gate guard to check. The man looked at the card, flipped it over, then ha
nded it back.
“Senior Airman,” he said. “Have a nice day.”
“You too,” Matthew said, and pulled through the gate. He drove down the bustling street, heading for his building. It was early and he should have been tired, but somehow, he had a newfound energy as he made his way to work.
His mate.
After all this time, he’d finally found her.
Bella was perfect: sweet, kind, gentle. She was funny and cute and he had a feeling she’d keep him on her toes.
There was just one problem: she didn’t want to admit they were destined to be together. Maybe she was damaged from her past or maybe she just didn’t believe she deserved love, but Matthew was going to prove to her that he could be the man she needed him to be.
He just had to find a way.
“Senior Airman Reese,” a familiar voice said when Matthew stepped into the room.
“Master Sergeant Swain?” Matthew was surprised. “I thought you were working over at the SB office.” Shifter Brigade wasn’t the official title for the team of special-ops shifters Ryan frequently worked with, but it was common enough to use in non-classified settings.
“Yeah,” Ryan stood and gathered a pile of paperwork. “Try not to look too excited, but Logan had to miss work for a personal matter.”
“His wife sick again?”
“Yeah,” Ryan carried the paperwork over to the printer. “Something like that.”
Matthew wasn’t sure if Logan’s personal problems had to do with the fact that his wife was openly sleeping around with his colleagues or if she really did “get sick” a lot. He did know that most airmen wouldn’t be able to miss as much work as Logan did without some kind of special permission. He had a feeling Logan was going to have some unscheduled vacation time coming up.
As he settled into his desk, Matthew spun around in his chair. He picked up his phone and looked at it. No text from Bella. That was fine. It was still early. He wanted to text her though. Wanted to see what she was doing, wearing, thinking about. How did people who had mates ever get anything done? All he could do was think about seeing her again.
“You okay?” Ryan asked when he sat back down at his desk. He was across from Matthew, so he had a front-row seat to the airman’s goofy grin.
“Yeah,” Matthew said with a smile. “I found my mate last night.”
Ryan grinned.
“Hey, man, congratulations. That’s pretty exciting. No wonder you have those dark circles under your eyes. I’m guessing you didn’t get much sleep.”
Matthew should have blushed or felt embarrassed, but he was too happy. Nothing was going to make him upset today. Nothing.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said with a wink. “I slept like a baby.”
“So, not at all?”
“Not at all.”
**
Bella went to Matthew’s apartment at 5:30. She had exactly one hour before she had to show up at the rehearsal dinner, which wasn’t nearly enough time with this man who was making her crazy. She had spent the whole day thinking about him and was completely distracted. She was supposed to be focusing on Brent and Mary, but what was she doing?
Masturbating thinking about her mate.
Touching herself in the bathroom every chance she got.
Taking an extra shower because one just wasn’t enough.
She had gotten off four times so far and it was only 5:30. She probably smelled like sex and arousal and lucky her, she was hanging out with a group of shifters all weekend. They’d all know she was horny if they took the time to smell her and scent her mood.
Bella tried not to worry about that. Mary had been pleasant all day, despite having last-minute problems with the caterer and photographer. The caterer had accidentally gotten the number of wedding guests wrong and was trying to overcharge Mary and Brent for the food. The photographer had double-booked his weekend and was going to send his colleague instead of himself. Luckily, Mary had taken the whole thing in stride.
While Bella admired her soon-to-be sister-in-law’s tenacity, the entire ordeal made her wish she didn’t have to have a wedding. She would rather just skip all the drama and elope. Quick, quiet, and simple: that was her dream wedding.
Maybe Matthew would agree.
Matthew lived just a few blocks from the hotel, so Bella made up an excuse about going for a walk and headed over to his place. She wore a pair of black flats even though her mother had protested and argued that heels would look much nicer.
Bella just wasn’t a high-heels type of girl, unfortunately.
She reached the building and stood for a moment, looking at it. It was more of a condo-style residence than a classic apartment building. There were three stories and each one had two apartments. His was on the top, so she carefully climbed the exterior staircase to the third floor and knocked on his door.
Butterflies threatened to destroy her as she waited for what felt like hours. He would answer the door. She knew he would. They had agreed to meet after he got off work. Still, there was a tiny part of her that nagged, that worried it might be a cruel joke.
Fortunately, she didn’t have to wait long. The door swung open and Senior Airman Matthew Reese reached for Bella and swept her inside. His mouth was on her before she knew what was happening. She barely even had a chance to admire his uniform or his way-too-sexy combat boots. Uniforms should be outlawed, she thought. It was a wonder anyone got any work done wearing them. She felt like she’d spend all of her time clawing his clothes off if they worked together.
Apparently it was a good thing she didn’t.
“I missed you all day,” Matthew said breathlessly through the kiss. His hands never left her body. They didn’t even close the door as they made their way to the couch and kissed and kissed and kissed. Soon Bella stopped thinking about the uniform.
Soon she stopped thinking about anything at all but his touch.
7.
Bella sat squished between Judith and Heather as her brother practiced his vows. The two females smelled wonderful and Bella secretly wondered what her problem was. Why was she so aware of how other women smelled? Why was every inch of her body so alive? She’d never felt like this before! Darn Matthew, making her feel so awake.
“Are you okay?” Judith whispered, her breath hot against Bella’s ear. Her skin tingled. “You’re kind of wiggly today.”
“I’m fine,” Bella managed to bite out, but she wondered how long she was going to make it before she had to go find Matthew again. Was she in some sort of mating frenzy? Was that what this was? Not every set of mates had a frenzy the first time they got together, but maybe she had brought one on because she and Matthew had slept together so quickly.
She hadn’t even known his name before they got started!
How crazy was that?
“You smell…different,” Heather whispered on Bella’s other side, and she bit her lip. The two women were dressed in identical, low-cut black dresses. Bella had one on, too. They were going to the bachelorette party right after the rehearsal dinner, so they had worn outfits that were multi-functional.
At the rehearsal dinner, they each had a colorful cardigan on to offset the black of the dress and to add a touch of modesty.
When they got to the club, though, all bets were off. The cardigans would be forgotten and the dancing would commence.
That is, if Bella could make it to the party.
“Yeah, what’s with you?” Judith whispered again. They were sitting at the back of the church. The bridesmaids had stood during part of the rehearsal, but now Brent and Mary were practicing their vows and learning how to light a candle correctly or something, so the girls had sat in the last pew.
“I…” Should she tell them? No reason not to, right? If anyone would understand what she was going through, it was Judith and Heather. The two females had been friends for a long time and they were both married to polar bear shifters. Neither had been married very long, if Bella understood correctly,
but they both seemed pretty happy.
They were both with their mates.
“I found my mate last night,” she cringed as she said the words, hating how true they were.
Judith raised a carefully manicured hand and placed it on Bella’s leg.
“Why does that make you sound like you’re about to get teeth pulled, hon?”
“Because,” Bella squeaked out. “I’m going to mess it up.”
And there it was: the real reason she didn’t want to let Matthew love her. The idea that you could find someone and instantly know they were your mate was legend among shifters, especially bears. There was no reason to wait until you’d been dating a year or five years to get married or move in together. Mates knew.
But Bella didn’t deserve a mate. Bella couldn’t even get a job. How was she going to keep Matthew happy?
She wanted to let herself love him, but he wasn’t just a shifter. He was a military shifter.
He could get called away at any moment, die in the line of duty, be gone for weeks or months or years at a time and what? What would she do? Sit around and wait? Sit around and worry?
It might be better to just be alone.
It might be better to not take a chance than to take one and find out she was the reason their relationship had failed.
She knew, even as she thought it, that it wasn’t true. Matthew would definitely be worth the trouble, worth the work, worth the effort, but her life was so complicated right now. She wondered if she was really what was best for him.
“Oh, sweetie,” Heather slid a hand around Bella’s waist. Now she was really squished between the girls. “Everyone makes mistakes, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to somehow ruin the relationship.”
“Yeah,” Judith agreed. “Ryan and I got off to a really rocky start.” She frowned. “Really.”
“You did?” Judith seemed so happy. Bella found it hard to believe the human had struggled with the idea of mating Ryan. He was tall and fierce and loyal. Most of all, he truly adored Judith. Anyone could tell just by looking at him. He was 100% Team Judith.