by Maia Dylan
His hearing had improved to the point where he could hear the voices and conversations taking place far down the hallway. One of the guards—not Henrick, but one of the more senior ranked members of his team—was talking about how a full squadron of Uruheim fighters had left at first light into the forest, looking to intercept a woman wanted for treason against the Uruheim people and their queen.
Rohan immediately knew they were talking about Olwen. His beloved was out there somewhere in the wilds of the Otherworld forests heading here to rescue him, and what stood between then was a full battle squadron of Uruheim fighters. The fear for his beloved, his hatred for the woman who had put them both through this hell, and the realization that perhaps all was not lost made something happen that he had never expected.
His beast pushed forward, and Rohan felt like all the skin exploded from his body as every bone within him shattered and reformed. He threw back his head to scream at the pain of it, but the sound was an inhuman roar the likes of which he had never heard before. Power and strength flowed like a river through his veins and he was suddenly able to wrench free of the chains and structure that had been holding him captive in that room.
He fell forward onto all fours, and it was in that moment that he realized that the beast was no longer within him. It had somehow exploded from him.
* * * *
Olwen cursed her bad luck as she cowered in the trunk of a fallen tree, trying desperately to avoid the multitude of creepy-crawlies that had obviously taken up residence in it. Had she known that the tree was home to what could well have been every crawling bug, insect and slimy thing in the Otherworld, she would have taken her chances with the Uruheim fighters she had heard making their way in her direction. From the sounds of things, there were only four of them, and she figured four men on two feet would be better than dealing with a number of insects she was now convinced were crawling all over her.
Despite her misgivings, she held strong, waiting until the four moved beyond her, before slipping silently from the tree. Skin crawling, she waited until she had completed a thorough visual scan of the area before dancing around, flapping her hands and ridding herself of the few hundred insect stowaways who had come out of her hiding place with her.
With one last shudder, she started forward again. She was making good time and, by her calculations, would be coming up on the fortress of the Uruheim people before the sun set on this day. She had stopped a couple of times during the night to rest, but hadn’t stopped to rest completely, and she knew if she was going to be at her best, giving her and Rohan the best chance to get out of this alive, she would need to sleep.
She continued on for another two hours, avoiding the Uruheim who were either in the forest going about their own business or looking for her, until she found exactly what she was looking for, a tree with thick upper branches and full foliage. She spent a couple of minutes making sure she had covered any tracks leading to the tree before scrambling up the truck with a skill and confidence that many who knew her before her captivity would never have thought her capable of.
Once she reached the top of the tree, she drew the staff from the sheath behind her and conjured more foliage to hide her position a little better. She then manipulated the wood at the top to create a dip within which she could sleep without fear of falling from the tree. Then, wrapping herself completely into the jacket she had summoned the night before and pulling the face shield over her, she settled in to try and sleep. Over the years of her captivity, she had trained her mind to shut down from reality and allow her to simply drift into sleep. It was a skill that came in handy when the reality of her life became too much. Today, it simply allowed her to take the rest she needed.
At least, that was until she sat bolt upright, her heart pounding and her brain scrambling to compute what the hell was going on. Something had happened that had rocked her enough to wake up, but she had no recollection of what that might have been. Olwen flinched then as the enraged roar of an animal—one that sounded none too happy with what was currently happening in its life—pierced the air. The forest around her shook with the force of it.
Olwen pulled the face shield down and was a little surprised to see that the sun was setting. She had slept much longer than she should have. Peeking tentatively through the foliage that surrounded her, she looked down at the forest floor. There was nothing there, yet. The trembling of the tree she sheltered in told her that there was something making its way through the forest to this location. Something big.
Olwen stayed frozen in place, deciding it would be best to wait and see what emerged from the forest. A few tense moment later, which Olwen spent trying to picture all the known creatures in this land, a shape burst out of the trees and ran straight past the tree she hid in. Olwen gasped slightly in shock. It was a bear, at least three times the size of the black bear her Air Elemental shifted into. What the hell was a bear doing in the Otherworld?
She was thankful her surprise had held her still as the bear suddenly ambled back into view. It made strange chuffing noises in its chest and threw its head from side to side, inhaling great gusts of air as if it were actually tasting the air, trying to catch a scent.
Olwen closed her eyes as she realized it was, in fact, tracking her. If she couldn’t convince this majestic and beautiful beast to move on quickly in search of different prey then she was going to have to kill it. As she contemplated just how on earth she was going to do that, the bear’s head swung up and looked directly at her.
“Wow,” she whispered as the bear’s eyes locked on hers. It was the most surreal moment of her life, and considering she was a goddess who had lived in the prison of a demon with a god complex the size of Texas, orchestrating her rescue across realms and through time, that was saying something!
She saw that there was blood around its snout and surmised that, at some point, this bear had eaten something. Or someone. So perhaps it was not tracking her for an evening meal after all. Perplexed, she continued to stare into the dark eyes of the black bear, struck by how beautiful they were. She watched as it seemed to rock from side to side, eyeing her at the top of the tree. It made strange huffing noises before rising up onto its hind legs.
The bear walked over to her tree, surprisingly steadily, considering it was on two feet. The tree moved alarmingly when it placed its front paws on the tree and shook it.
Olwen gasped in alarm. “Stop! Do you want me to fall?” As if the bear understood every word, it stopped shaking the tree and gave her what she could only classify as an extremely sheepish bear grin. What in the name of all the gods is going here?
“Olwen.” Rohan’s voice sounded in her head and she gasped. Her hand lifted immediately to her chest to ease the ache the sound of it brought with it, and tears flooded her eyes. “Come to me, beloved. It has been so long.”
“Rohan.” Olwen heard the tears in her own voice and loved the immediate wave of reassurance that flooded back to her. “I am, my love. I am coming to you. I just have a slight situation I need to deal with and then I will continue to make my way to you. Just hold on.”
The bear seemed to swell as its eyes narrowed and its gaze shifted to the forest around them. Then it dropped to all fours, rumbling a warning growl again and walking around the trunk of the tree, swinging its head in a display that clearly communicated it was not an animal to mess with.
“What sort of situation? I thought I had removed the threat to you. Where are they? Can you see them?” Rohan asked, his voice deeper and, well, growlier than she had ever heard before.
“How could you have removed the threat to me? How in the hell did you even know I was back in the Otherworld?”
“I felt you the moment you arrived back in the Otherworld.” Olwen felt her body heat at the thought of her man being so connected to her that he sensed her very presence. “Argon felt it, too, and sent a while fucking squadron of Uruheim fighters after you.” Huh. Hearing that her sister was just as connected didn’t do anything for her
.
“And you removed them? How?”
“I tracked them through the forest and ripped them limb from limb. It was very therapeutic.” There was smug satisfaction in his voice, and Olwen heard the bear chuff what sounded like a laugh at the same time. A sudden, unexpected conclusion came to her and she sat back in a state of shock. “Olwen! What happened? I felt you react to something. Are you okay? For the love of the gods, will you please bring your sweet, beautiful ass down out of that fucking tree and let me protect you?”
Olwen’s jaw dropped, and she wouldn’t have been surprised if the bottom of it hit the actual forest floor. Somehow, someway, her beloved Rohan had been turned into a bear shifter, and he was standing at the bottom of the very tree she was currently sitting in.
“Olwen?” This time, Rohan sounded hesitant and worried. “Does my appearance shock you? Or…Oh hell, do I disgust you in this form, my love? I do not know the nature of the beast I have become, but I am forever grateful to the change for my freedom.”
As if his hesitation and vulnerability were a signal to move, she leaped from her hiding place and headed for the ground as fast as she could.
“Olwen!” Rohan yelled as he moved toward her, obviously intent on catching her. Calling the air once again, she cushioned her fall and landed gently on the forest floor. Before she could even contemplate moving in Rohan’s direction, she was suddenly hit from the side by a large, furry object and propelled to the ground.
She landed with an oomph and sat there for a moment, trying to catch her breath. From out of the corner of her eye she saw the huge bear that had hit her in its clumsy attempt to catch her, rocking from side to side anxiously.
“Olwen, my love, are you hurt? Please tell me you’re okay?” Rohan asked down the link that connected them telepathically.
Sitting up with a moan, she rubbed her shoulder and arm that had caught the brunt of the impact. “Yeah, I’m fine,” Olwen answered aloud and looked up at the bear questioningly. He nodded his huge head to indicate he understood her, and she continued. “But please, do not do that again.” With a moan, she pushed up to her feet and brushed herself off a little before turning to the bear.
With a small, tentative smile, she walked up to him, marveling at his size the closer she got to him. On all fours, his head was about half a foot above her. Reaching up her hand, she pushed her fingers tentatively into the fur on his face. She jerked back slightly with a laugh as the bear made a happy chuffing noise and seemed to close his eyes in bliss.
When he opened his eyes and looked down at her, Olwen recognized the emotions that swirled within the dark depths of his gaze. There were happiness and joy at finally being together after all these years. There was sadness over the number of years they had lost, but the strongest emotion she saw—and it reflected hers exactly—was the desire and longing that existed between the two of them.
Olwen took a deep, shuddering breath. “Come to me, my love.” She deliberately repeated his heartfelt plea of moments before. “Hold me close and tell me that you love me. Make me feel safe and tell me that you will never again be taken from my side.”
In a tender move that belied the sheer size of the bear, he dropped his head to gently press his cheek against hers. Olwen felt tears begin to fall unheeded as she reached up to wrap her arms as far around the bears neck as she could, as she gave into the tears and sobbed. She cried for everything that they each had endured, for the years she hadn’t even known Rohan was suffering, too, for all the hurt and pain her family had caused this beautiful strong man, and she cried for the young woman who had found love, but never learned what it meant to truly be loved by a man.
There was a sudden shift around her, like all the air was displaced for a moment, and when it ended she found herself engulfed in the arms of the only man she would ever love. This time, she was fairly confident the tears that fell were happy ones.
Chapter 4
“Olwen, baby, I am so sorry,” Rohan whispered as he held her tight in his arms. Olwen sniffed and fought to bring her crying under control. It had been like the opening of a floodgate. Once that first tear had fallen, she simply couldn’t stop them from coming. In all the years she had been held captive, she had never really cried. She figured now that she had basically just drowned them both in tears, she had well and truly made up for it.
“I’m okay,” she croaked in a voice made raspy by her sobbing. She coughed to clear her throat. “There is nothing for you to apologize for.” She pulled back so she could look at him, and despite the fading light of twilight, she could see him perfectly. “Besides I—”
All ability to continue that sentence was suddenly lost to her beneath the power of that moment. Her beloved Rohan stood before her. His thick, dark hair was longer than she was used to seeing it, but still fell above his shoulders. It was slightly curly and long enough to fall slightly over his eyes.
He had stubble across his jaw, chin, and upper lip that she had never seen when he was the captain of her father’s guard, and she found she liked it on him. A lot. But his eyes were the same. They were a pale brown, with a ring of dark brown around the outside. Rohan had always been very good at hiding what he was feeling from others—that was why he was able to rise so quickly within the ranks of the military that protected her father—but with her, his eyes always told her what he was feeling.
Right now, his eyes told her that his emotions were running high and he was anxious about something. Swallowing to bring moisture back to her mouth and get the ability to talk back, she reached up and pressed her hands to his cheeks, reveling in the shiver of delight that seemed to quiver through them both. “What is it, my love?”
“I can’t remember how many times I have dreamt that the gods would give me just one more chance to hold you in my arms again.”
Rohan’s voice was quiet but so filled with tender emotion she felt her heart stutter slightly.
“You asked me to tell you that I love you and that I will never be taken from you again? Olwen, my love, it would be my pleasure. I fell in love with you the very first day I set eyes on you. You walked down the stairs in the great hall arguing with your sister about who knows what, but you wore a white gown, and you had a string of yellow flowers in your beautiful blonde hair. You turned halfway to the bottom and looked directly at me, and even though it was forbidden, I held your gaze, and in that moment, you claimed my heart.”
Olwen smiled at that memory. “I remember that very same instant, just as vividly as you do, my love, as you claimed my heart in that moment, too.”
Rohan reached up a hand that shook slightly and swept her hair back in one of those tender moves of his that she was starting to think might always make her melt. “You also asked me to tell you that I will never be taken from your side. Now that I have you back in my arms, nothing will take you from me. Olwen, you traversed into another realm and even that didn’t stop me from coming for you. I will always come for you.”
Olwen sighed happily and reached to wrap both her arms around her beloved’s waist. As soon as her hands made contact with the warm skin of his back, she paused. All color drained from her face.
“What is this I can feel on your back?” Rohan grimaced and tried to take her arms from around him, but she held on, running her hands up and down his back, her face filling with horror as she recognized what they were. “She whipped you! That fucking bitch took a goddamn whip to your back? Why? Because you refused her and continued to love me? That witch deserves to die, and I am going to enjoy being the one to end her!”
Olwen spun on her heel and stomped off into the forest. She didn’t make it very far, perhaps only five or six steps, before she was spun around and pulled back into Rohan’s arms, this time right up against his chest. She could feel all the hard muscles that lined his chest and torso pressing against her, and she felt a strange fluttering in her pussy, exactly like she would get when she thought about her beloved.
Rohan pressed his forehead against hers and
she watched as his eyes darkened. “As much as I agree with you, my love—and trust me, that bitch will get what it is coming to her and more—there is a something that I need more than I need my next breath in this moment.” Olwen’s breathing began to come faster. “My beast—”
“Bear,” Olwen corrected, sounding slightly breathless. “Your animal is a bear.”
Rohan considered that for a moment and nodded with a smile. “He likes that. So do I. Okay, so my bear has come to the same conclusion I did all those many years ago. You belong to me. You are my mate.” Olwen gasped slightly and a warmth began to spread within her. She knew exactly what that meant, and she knew what Rohan wanted to do. “We need to claim you, my love.” His hesitation was evident in his voice and on his face.
“Okay.”
His eyes widened with surprise. “Just like that?” Rohan’s face spread in the most beautiful smile she had ever seen in her life.
Olwen laughed softly, a deep, sensual sound she had never made before, and Rohan’s eyes darkened even further, a low growl rumbling through his chest.
“Rohan, my soon-to-be mate, there is nothing just like that about it. You and I have been destined for each other all our lives and we were robbed of the chance of living that life until now. So yeah, I am all on board with the claiming part of our relationship.” Olwen wound her legs around his waist, and her arms around his shoulders, and murmured, “So why don’t we get naked and get this show on the road?”
* * * *
Rohan tightened his hold on his mate and grinned. “Well, I’m one step ahead of you, my love. I’m already naked.” Olwen gasped in surprise and pulled back to look at him. The flare of desire in her eyes told him she liked what she saw. “Although I would love to wait to claim you on a bed with a soft mattress, I don’t think I can.”