by G. Bailey
"I don’t want to play, I want you. Claim your mate, Callum. I can’t wait," she whispers against my lips.
"My mate never needs to ask," I tell her and slam my lips onto hers. I pull my hand away and grab her hips, driving deep inside of her with one long thrust. She moans loudly, meeting my every thrust as she holds onto my shoulders and gently bites my lip.
"I'm so close," she cries out, and I kiss down her neck, finding the spot that makes her tighten around my cock and call out my name. I bite down on her shoulder and pound into her one more time as I finish. I feel her teeth dig into my neck as I come, and the mating bond slams into our minds. The emotions rocket from her into me, the love, the worry, and mostly the happiness. She is happy. We are both breathing heavily as she lets go, and I rest my forehead against hers.
"Mate," I whisper reverently, and she chuckles, licking my blood off her lip. I glance at where I bit her and notice it bleeding a little, but it should heal quickly.
"You don't regret this, do you? I know it happened fast, but I just knew when I saw you with the fox, how you acted, who you are. I want you as my mate, and you make me happy, even after the short amount of time we have known each other," Gold asks me, rambling.
"I will never regret this. We aren’t human, our animals knew we were perfect for each other. Humans can take years, but we have both been around long enough to know what we want and what is good for us by now," I tell her, and she kisses me lightly in return.
"One problem," she says around a smile.
"What?" I ask.
"I don’t have any underwear now, after you ripped them," she chuckles.
"I don't see that as a problem," I grin as I reply, making her laugh.
"One down, three to go," Chase whispers, walking past me on the stairs as I go down to the lounge after having a shower and changing into my jeans and a shirt.
"Two to go at this rate," I snap back. Asshole.
"You keep telling yourself that," he laughs, and when he gets to the bottom of the stairs, he throws the door open. I watch as he jumps down the stairs, shifting mid jump into a giant brown bear that makes a loud thud when it lands. Its large, flurry head turns towards me, watching me for what feels like a few minutes before running off into the woods.
"I wish he would pick his damn ripped clothes up. I hate when the lazy bastard does that," Cain mutters, walking up the steps and picking up pieces of clothes on the way. He sees me and smiles widely. "Congrats on mating with Callum."
"You aren't jealous?" I ask, surprised. I was scared he wouldn’t be happy with me mating to one of them so quickly when I stopped him kissing me.
"No, and you don't have to worry about me becoming jealous in the future either," he tells me. "I did come to see if you wanted to drive to the Forest Pack and get some clothes. I doubt you have much left, or anything suitable for tonight's party. The baby’s parents have asked everyone to wear blue to celebrate the little boy," he says, and I mentally try to think if I have anything at home. I remember one blue dress finally and smile.
"Let's go then. I would love to see Snow and Arisa. I only got to speak to them for a few minutes last night because I was so tired," I reply, and he smiles, holding out a hand. We walk to his car, and as we get inside, I glance around the area, just noticing something.
"I didn't think of it before because of everything, but where is my car?" I ask as he starts his car and drives us down the main path out of the pack.
"Chase took it to his garage to fix it up after the rogue broke the window. I did go check, and yes, he really is fixing it before you wonder if he is making it worse on purpose," he answers as I watch three people walking into a house on the side of the path. There are people everywhere, well, bears. Some are even shifted into their bears as they walk next to the people.
"Why would he do that? He clearly doesn’t like me," I comment, and Cain rests his hand on my leg as he pulls up to the gate, and we wait for it to open.
"Chase is complicated. Everything that happened with our father messed him up. He wasn't always like this," he tells me, starting the car once again and driving out the pack.
"It seems like he is just out to be a dick to me; I don't get it. In one breath he says he wants me as his mate, and the next he is pushing me away by being a dick," I sigh loudly and rest my head back against the car seat. I can feel Callum's emotions from here, knowing he is still working at the animal centre for the rest of the day. My wolf lets out a little growl at the thought of sweet little Gerry, who kept her eyes on my mate like she wanted to eat him up. I've never been jealous of anything, and yet here I am, knowing I would kill her if she dared touch Callum.
"Chase does want you, but you did reject him. He can't cope well with that, and he is still trying to process it all," he tries to explain to me, and I guess he does have a point. "At the end of the day, if you want Chase as your mate, you might need to go after him."
"So, I should chase, Chase?" I joke. We both laugh, and he shakes his head.
"It would fix his ego if you did. Chase likes red by the way," he suggests, making me chuckle.
"I best pick up a red dress then. What is your favourite colour?" I ask.
"Blue," he winks, and I know tonight is going to be a brilliant night.
"Hello, stranger," I say, stepping out the car and opening my arms for Arisa who runs out the door and straight to me. I lift her up, swinging her around as she giggles. I put her down, noticing how she has already grown a few inches since I last saw her. Snow comes running out the door, smiling when she sees Arisa with me. Her eyes go to Cain as he steps to my side, kneeling down and holding a hand out for Arisa.
"So, who are you?" Arisa asks, shaking Cain's hand.
"Cain Bearlay," he answers.
"You're a bear! Can I see you shift? That would be so cool!" Arisa shouts, jumping up and down while Cain straightens up. Snow places her hands on her daughter’s shoulders, and Arisa smiles up at her. "Mum, he is a bear!"
"I heard, and I also know it’s super rude to ask someone to shift for you," Snow reminds Arisa, who huffs.
"But I want to see a bear," she whines in annoyance.
"Also, you have dinner on the table with Light," Snow tells her. Arisa huffs once more before stomping back into the house.
"How are you?" Snow asks as she pulls me into a hug, and then sharply pulls me back. "You have mated to a bear, I can smell him on you!"
"Callum. We mated yesterday," I tell her, and she turns to Cain.
"Are you Callum? Or one of the other brothers?" she questions him.
"Cain. Lovely to meet you, Snow. Callum is the youngest brother," he explains.
"Ah I see. Well, come on in," Snow says, nodding her head towards the house. Cain's warm hand finds my lower back as we walk into the house. I’ve come to like him guiding me like this.
"Where is Harper?" I ask.
"Is something wrong? I never even asked why you are here," she asks as we step into the house and gives me a worried look
"No, don’t worry! Nothing is wrong, I just wanted to see how she is," I answer. "I came back here to get some clothes. There is celebration party in the pack to celebrate a new baby tonight."
"How amazing! Does your pack have many young ones, Cain? We are all amazed that there are four babies due this year in the Forest Pack." Snow asks, and she is right. There has been a massive amount of pregnancies considering we are used to only having one baby born to a pack in a year, typically.
"As far as I know, there is one bear pregnant, and the baby that was born last week. Even for us, that is considered a lot," Cain comments as I look to see Harper walking out of Nikoli's office, smoothing down her hair. I smile at the little bump she now has, and how her top is all wonky. It doesn’t surprise me at all when Colton walks out the office behind her, wrapping an arm around Harper's waist. They both kiss, clearly not noticing we are here until Snow clears her throat. Harper sharply turns away from Colton and sees me, running over quickly and wrapping her
arms around me.
"Gold! You didn’t say you were coming! I would have made you cookies or something,"
"You can’t make cookies. You promised me you wouldn’t try that again after they somehow burnt my tongue last time," I remind her and cringe at the memory.
"I forgot about that. Well, I could buy cookies from the shop, warm them up, and pretend I cooked them. That would work," she suggests. “Now why are you back? Not that I’m not happy you are.”
"I need clothes, more importantly, a dress," I explain, and she smiles at me.
"Want some help?" Harper asks.
"I will take the bear and find Nikoli," Colton tells Harper, kissing her cheek. He nods his head towards the corridor, and Cain goes with him, looking back at me once and winking.
"You're mated. It took me a second to recognise the scent on you," Harper says.
"I know. Mixing wolf and bear has a strange smell to me too," Snow says, watching me like she is trying to figure something out.
"You guys are acting like I smell bad or something," I grumble as we all start to walk towards the stairs.
"Not bad! Just different," Snow explains. "It is like when Harper mated with Colton, her scent changed, and because he is a vampire, the smell is so strange. Do you remember?"
"Yes, I do actually, now you mention it,” I say, looking at Harper. I guess when wolves mated to other wolves, their scent never changed so we didn't know that mating to different species could change your scent.
"So how are things going at the Bearlay pack?" Harper asks me as we get to the top of the stairs and head towards my old room.
"Strangely perfect...it is like I was always meant to be there. You know?" I ask, and Harper smiles. I can't explain how much being there makes me relax, far more than I can ever remember relaxing in many, many years. The bears make me happy, and happiness is not something I am willing to walk away from. I guess I was so scared of mating to someone that wouldn't love me, or that I couldn't trust, that I didn't see the bears are what I have been looking for my entire life.
"I get that. When you find your home, you know," she says.
"Exactly," I reply with a smile and open my door, holding it open for Snow and Harper to walk in before I do.
"I started bringing some empty boxes in for you, and I was going to ask if you wanted me to pack your things and have them sent over," Snow asks when I see the folded cardboard boxes near the door.
"I'd love that, but leave some things here. I plan on coming over for weekends at least once a month. You are my family, and the bears know that. Luckily, our packs are so close," I say, and Snow's whole face lights up as she pulls me into another big hug.
"Good. You are my sister, and I can’t not see you. Plus, Arisa needs her badass aunt around," Snow says as she pulls away. Harper and Snow sit on my bed as I pull the door to my wardrobe open and start going through it. I find my suitcase on the floor under my shoes and drag it out, throwing in all the clothes I like to wear. I open the secret compartment in the wall that hides my daggers and sword. I am not leaving without these beauties. I pack the daggers in the suitcase and put the sword in its sheath. I glance around the walk-in wardrobe and frown when I don’t see the blue dress I was looking for.
"Dammit," I mutter.
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah, well, no. I can't find the blue dress I need. I have to wear blue tonight for the celebration," I explain.
"I have the perfect dress for you. Come on, I can do your hair and make-up before you leave," Snow says.
"Sounds like a brilliant idea."
"I have this ice blue nail varnish, and we can do your nails too," Harper says and walks to the door. "After I check that Colton and Nikoli haven’t scared Cain off that is. I heard they planned something." I laugh as Harper walks out the room and know that nothing they could do would scare Cain off. I hope so anyway.
“Hell, you look like an angel,” Cain mumbles after nearly choking on his drink when I walk into Nikoli’s office after saying goodbye to the girls and promising to come back soon. I smooth down my tight, dark blue dress that has a long spilt all the way up my leg as I glance around to see we are alone. My hair is down, curled perfectly, and my makeup matches my dress and blue nails. I don’t usually dress up like this, but seeing the look on Cain’s face, I might do now.
“Thanks. You ready to go? I don’t think we should be late,” I suggest as he gets up off his seat, and Nikoli walks into the room, dropping his phone into his pocket.
“Gold, it is good to see you looking so well,” Nikoli says, coming over and hugging me quickly. A threatening growl slips out of Cain’s throat, and Nikoli laughs as he turns to face him. “Because I remember the extremely possessive stage before mating, I will forget that growl.”
“I think it’s best we leave before we have a repeat of that time in New York,” Cain threatens playfully, coming over to me and sliding an arm around my waist. I chuckle at the possessive move, but then I remember how I felt just seeing the Gerry girl flirting with Callum and completely get Cain’s reaction.
“When you lost the fight in New York you mean,” Nikoli says with a loud laugh, sitting on the edge of his desk.
“I didn’t lose, you passed out. I felt bad hitting a drunk guy,” Cain replies smoothly, chuckling himself.
“You fell off the building!” Nikoli laughs, like falling off a building is a totally normal thing. I give them both wide eyed looks, and they ignore me.
“After you passed out, so I still won,” Cain responds.
“Get out my pack before I throw you out, you cheeky bastard,” Nikoli says, still laughing, and I know why these two get along so well now. They are both clearly crazy.
“Later, old man!” Cain shouts as he leads me out the room, and we hear Nikoli muttering under his breath about annoying bears as we walk outside.
“Help me get the suitcase and bags in?” I ask.
“How did you manage to pack all your things and get dressed in an hour?” Cain asks as he unlocks the car and opens the boot. I pick up my two bags as he gets the suitcase and we stuff them in the boot easily.
“This is, maybe, five percent of my things. I will need a big closet at the house. I like to shop,” I say, winking at his amused face as I walk around the car and get inside.
“We could change your room into a massive closet when you are mated to us all. You could change the beds and everything, if you like,” he suggests, somehow making it sound normal, rather than the dirty version my head made up.
“Or we transform two of the rooms into one and put a giant bed in there. Then we could all share,” I innocently suggest as Cain starts the car and stalls in shock at my suggestion. He clears his throat before starting the car up again and driving it away from the house.
“I doubt that would go down well with my brothers. See I snore. Callum kicks in his sleep, and Chase would tell us all the fuck off if we accidentally touched him,” Cain says, causing me to laugh.
“How about just you, me, and the rogue then?” I tease.
“I’m not totally against the idea. Sharing you would be hot,” Cain replies, making me choke on air as I didn’t expect that dead serious response.
“You would really be down for that?” I ask, and he nods, looking over at me for a second.
“I would be down for anything with you G-G.”
“I will leave the car here, and we can walk up. The party is in the main centre, and it gets pretty packed with people,” Cain explains as he pulls up on the side of the road. I slide out of the car, wrapping my arms around myself as the cold wind blows against me. I see the lights ahead of us down the path and walk to Cain’s side as he locks the car. He wraps an arm around me, holding me close to him as we walk towards the party, and his heat keeps me warm. I can see dozens of lanterns tied to trees, lighting everything up so we can clearly see where we are going.
“How many bears are in the pack?” I ask.
“Two-hundred and twenty-two,” he answer
s.
“How many of them are going to be okay with a wolf as alpha female?” I ask next, and he holds me closer, as if he doesn’t like the question.
“All of them, or they are welcome to change packs. At the end of the day, I know you would protect them if it was needed, and they will come to see that too,” he comforts me with his words, but I still worry. Bears and wolves don’t usually get along in nature, so it makes little sense that a bear pack would want to be led by a wolf.
“I don’t want to disappoint anyone. I always take any job very seriously. I was beta for the Forest Pack since the beginning because I never backed down from my job. I was challenged for the position eighty-two times over the years, and I won every one. I like to do my best, and I am scared I won’t do my best this time,” I explain.
“You will. Do not be so hard on yourself. When I first met you at that party, I thought that a wolf was a terrible idea for an alpha female of a bear pack, and that you wouldn’t be able to handle it. Then you told three alpha bears to piss off and went after your family as they needed you,” he chuckles and kisses the side of my head. “If that isn’t an alpha female to respect, then who knows what is.” I stare up at him for a second and lean up, kissing his cheek.