by T. S. Joyce
Leah, Rory, and Quinn were all pursing their lips, shoulders shaking as they tried to stifle their laughter. Quinn snorted, and it was all over as they burst into a fit of giggles.
“I was afraid they would split up my family, but Aaron over here, my five-year-old grandson, is only concerned with the bacon shortage in this house. Boy, I told you I have to go to the grocery store, and even if we did have bacon, you can’t cook it yourself. The stove isn’t a toy. Now shut that fridge door before you let all the cold air out.” Ma shook her head at something off camera. “No popsicles. Those are for treats.”
Rory spoke up. “Aaron, we’re doing an interview. You were supposed to be good and play in the toy room with your cousins, remember?”
“I want to be on television.” Aaron’s voice got louder with every word. Suddenly, a giant blue eyeball appeared right in the screen, and he whispered, “Hi,” against the microphone.
Now not even Cora could keep her composure as she pulled the tot into her lap and tickled him. “Take five.”
The next several minutes were a mashup of moments Cora must’ve caught on film yesterday. The family around Ma’s dining table, playing a board game, trash-talking and over-celebrating. The Crew sitting on the front porch eating spaghetti from paper bowls, the laughter and murmured conversation constant. Boone playing with the cubs and pretending all three of them had overpowered him on the front lawn. Rory’s toes tucked under Cody’s legs as he stroked her hair and talked to Dade. Ma’s look of sheer pride when Gage picked his cubs up and covered them with biting kisses as they laughed and laughed. Dade dancing with Quinn in the kitchen when they were doing dishes and thought no one was watching. Quinn’s bare feet were on top of Dade’s scuffed up old work boots, her dress swishing around her knees as she smiled against his chest.
Endless moments Boone hadn’t even realized were so profound, but Cora had seen it with that special way she viewed the world. In awe of what she’d done, he wiped his hand over the two day scruff on his face.
She interviewed them all, but only the real moments were included. The mess-ups and the tears. The quivering lips and the looks of adoration as they talked about the crew they loved. The instances where their human sides were on display.
Boone’s heart sank when the clip transitioned to him, looking unsettled on the couch, because he already knew which clip she had chosen.
“Boone,” Cora said softly with a shy smile.
“Cora,” he said, leaning forward just to be closer to her.
“You like me.”
“Trouble, that isn’t a question.”
“Do you like me?”
His smile faded, then returned, sadder this time. “I love you.” Draping his arm over the couch, he sighed deeply and shook his knee in a fast, nervous rhythm.
“What do you see for our future?”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to do this on camera.”
“Fine, it’s just you and me. What are we?”
He leaned forward again and ran his hands through his hair. “You’re my mate. You’re everything. What we have when we’re together feels like…everything that’s good.”
“Someday, would you consider Turning me so I could be like you? So I could be bound as your mate by shifter tradition?”
Boone shook his head for a long time, dragged his gaze to Cora, then away.
She sat stoically, waiting.
“No,” he said finally.
“If I wanted to be a part of this crew, and if we loved each other enough, why wouldn’t you want to make me like you?”
He grimaced, muscles twitching around his clenched teeth. “Because I don’t want this for you. I want you to be happy. I don’t want people to think you’re a monster.”
Cora dragged tear-rimmed eyes, openly hurt by their reality, to the camera. Slowly, she stood and approached the lens and the screen went black as she turned it off.
The next sequence was of shots she’d taken when he was a bear, leading her to his waterfall.
Hands in his fur, him gazing back at her like she was the whole sun and sky.
“Boone, Boone, you hung the moon,” she sang, but she was wrong. She was the one who hung the moon. The moon and the stars and everything that mattered.
“Is it strange that I like your bear side, too?” she asked.
His bear shook his head. Of course, it wasn’t strange.
“Now take me someplace beautiful. Someplace only you could find,” she murmured off camera as the lens stayed focused on him.
The final shot was the waterfall. She turned the camera on them, resting against the huge pine near the bank, smiling like nothing could touch them in those woods. He looked relaxed and happy, so different from the beginning shots of him right after coming out to the public. Cora giggled and turned the camera back on the mist under the waterfall.
The scene faded to nothing and the credits began to roll.
The room was dead silent as they stared at the white lettering across the screen.
“Holy shit,” Jimmy muttered.
Cody grabbed Boone’s shoulder and shook him. Gage and Dade were now clapping slowly, and this feeling of such overwhelming emotion was sitting so heavy on Boone’s chest, it was hard to breathe.
Dade’s phone rang, and he burst into a shit-eating grin as soon as he answered it. “Quinn’s crying. She says they’re all crying.”
“Well?” Cody asked, brows arched high at Boone. “What are you going to do about this?”
Boone nodded slowly and grinned up at his brother, his alpha. “I’m gonna go get my girl.”
“Damn straight you are. Load up! We’re going on a grocery run.”
“We don’t need groceries,” Jimmy argued.
“Dumbass,” Dade said. “That’s code for get in the engine. We all have to stay together while we’re on shift, and Boone needs to go see Cora.”
“Oh, right.” Jimmy lurched up and yelled for shotgun.
Cody blasted the siren as he sped down Main Street toward the news station just outside of town. By the time they pulled up, Boone was just about driven mad with the need to hold his mate.
His mate.
Damn, how had he gotten so lucky?
He was out before Cody pulled the engine to a stop. As soon as his boots hit the pavement, he bolted up the steps, headed straight for the news station’s front door.
He’d been here on a fire inspection before but didn’t remember exactly where the studio room was. Inhaling deeply, he followed the scent of strawberries and mint, bustling past people who made shocked noises.
There she was. Lights bright on her as she sat behind a long podium with the other news anchors. She was talking through a smile, but her eyes were puffy, as if she’d been crying, and her cheeks had gone all rosy. Weaving through the bystanders, he ignored the man with a clipboard and earphones who called out, “Hey, we’re live. You can’t go up there!”
“Keep rolling,” a stout man with glasses and a bald head ordered.
Cora stood, her perfect lips hanging open in shock when she saw him. “Boone?”
He jogged up the stairs to get to her and crushed her to him as soon as he reached her, lifting her off the ground. She was laughing, and crying, and hugging him around his neck.
He opened his eyes and waved an apology to Brandon and Deanna, the other anchors. Deanna was wiping tears from the corners of her eyes with a damp tissue.
“Trouble, you can have all of me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean everything. A ring if you want it, a bear. I’ll claim you if it’s what you want. I was scared of hurting you, but you’re strong enough. You’re strong enough.”
Twin shining tears streaked down her cheeks as she pressed her lips against his, then covered his face with tiny kisses. Easing back, she searched his face. “Well, Boone, are you going to ask me proper or what?”
“One knee!” Dade called out from the shadows.
“One knee!” a bu
nch of voices he didn’t recognize echoed.
“Yeah, all right, all right.” Boone dropped to his knee. “Cora,” he said, taking her hands in his. “I don’t have a ring to put on your finger yet, but I will.”
“Here,” Deanna said, handing him a tissue box.
“Thanks,” he murmured, pulling one out. He rolled it into a line and wrapped it around Cora’s ring finger. “The real one will be shinier, I promise.”
Cora laughed thickly and dashed the back of her hand over her damp lashes as she sniffled.
“Cora,” he said, his heart drumming against his ribcage as he looked up into her beautiful, heart-shaped face and open, adoring hazel eyes. “To me, you’re already my mate, but I want you to be more than that. I want my last name on you, and I want you to feel like you belong in the Breck Crew. I’d be honored if you allowed me to claim you. Cora Wright, will you marry me?”
A tiny, adorable-as-shit squeak wrenched from her throat, and she nodded, her chin bobbing double time.
“Is that a yes?”
Her smile turned megawatt as she laughed and looked around at the crowd that had gathered just outside the stage lighting. Some of them were already clapping.
Cora shook her head as if she couldn’t believe she was in this moment with him. “That’s a hell yes.”
Epilogue
“Here, let me,” Quinn said softly, taking the eyeliner pencil from Cora’s hand.
“I don’t know why I’m shaking so badly,” Cora said on a breath. “I’m so ready for this.”
“Are you nervous about tonight?” Rory asked, adjusting the strap of her cream-colored, lace inlay gown. “Because that, I completely understand. I have to pee every half an hour just thinking about it.”
“Neither one of you should be nervous about Cody and Boone Turning you,” Quinn said as she applied a steady black line over Cora’s lashes. “It only hurts for a minute, and then it’s wonderful. You get to meet your bears tonight.”
Cora got all choked up thinking about how far they’d all come. Today, all three would take the Keller name, and after Cora and Rory were Turned tonight, the Breck Crew would be complete.
Leah looked up from Cora’s ivory dress, pulled the last pin out of her mouth, and tucked in the last piece of beaded fabric before fastening it into place. Thank goodness for her seamstress skills because there hadn’t been enough time to get the strapless, fitted dress altered, and Cora had been having nightmares about tripping over it and ruining the ceremony for everyone. True, it was a laid back affair, as they had all agreed they wanted, but still.
“There you go. All hemmed and perfect,” Leah said, shaking her curled dark hair over her shoulder and smiling brightly. “Are you all ready?”
Cora looked expectantly at Quinn and Rory, both gorgeous in their gowns. They nodded.
Outside the door, Ma waited with bouquets of late season roses in soft pinks. She was already crying, so Cora hugged her shoulders and told her, “Ma, you’re going to get me all weepy.”
“No, dear, you’ll ruin your make-up. They are tears of joy. I couldn’t have handpicked better mates for my boys. You’ve all made me so proud.” She turned and pulled her fifth daughter-in-law to her side. “You too, Diem.”
Bruiser’s wife blushed and smiled shyly, then held out her hand. On her palm sat three strawberry-shaped sapphire hair pins. “Strawberries for the Keller mark, and the color for something blue. A gift from my father and me.”
“Oh, Diem,” Cora said, reverently touching one. “They’re beautiful.”
“May I?” she asked.
Cora bent, allowing a better angle for Diem to place the pin in the curled hair gathered in back.
“I like the pink dye in your hair,” Diem said in a soft voice, touching the pinned lock gently.
Cora laughed and stood, admiring Diem’s sparkling gift in a hallway mirror. “I think I’m going to keep the color for a while. It suits me now.”
Ma fussed over Cora’s necklace as Diem placed the pins in Rory and Quinn’s hair in turn. And when at last they were ready, they moved toward the double doors where Monroe was waiting for them. The police officer dipped his chin and touched the bill of his hat, then opened the barrier wide.
A city hall marriage might not be the most romantic locale, but it suited Cora just fine. She was getting more than a husband today. She was sharing this momentous time in her life with women who had become like sisters to her. She was gaining a family with the words she would recite to Boone here today.
Squeezing Rory and Quinn’s hands, she kissed Ma on the cheek and gave Diem and Leah a smile and a wink.
With a deep breath, she looked down the aisle, and her gaze collided with Boone’s. His answering smile pulled her closer, step by step until she stood in front of him.
Tagan James, alpha of the Ashe Crew and personal friend to Bruiser, had been ordained and had agreed to preside over their marriages. It seemed fitting that a stranger didn’t do it, and instead, the same man who married Diem and Bruiser now bonded the other Kellers with their mates here today.
The alpha’s piercing blue eyes scanned the couples, Rory and Cody, Quinn and Dade, and finally, she and Boone.
Cora looked up into Boone’s clear, happy eyes, and her heart melted at how relaxed and well-rested he was now. Big changes had happened when they stopped fighting their destinies, and one of those was that his nightmares had stopped.
Boone shook his head in awe as he dragged his gaze over her dress. You’re so beautiful, he mouthed.
Grinning, she slid her hands into his as Tagan began the ceremony. It was short and sweet, just as they’d wanted it. Traditional vows repeated together as the cubs fidgeted and giggled near Ma. Bruiser and Gage stood for the men, and Leah and Diem for the women.
It was simple and perfect, and when Tagan announced that the Kellers could kiss their brides, Cora’s stomach did flip-flops with how handsome her mate—her husband—was in his pressed suit with that sexy smile just for her. He leaned forward and touched her lips with his before cupping her cheek and brushing his tongue gently against her mouth.
God, this feeling—she loved the way Boone loved her.
There were tears, so many joyous tears, and embracing and laughter. And just as Cora thought life couldn’t get any better than right here in this moment, Cody led them outside.
Cora’s heart sank when she saw the handful of protestors with their cruel signs, but Boone ignored them and scooped her up, then walked right past them as if he didn’t see them at all.
“I have a surprise for you,” he whispered against her ear.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, clutching her flowers between his shoulder blades. “I love surprises.”
Boone jerked his chin and waited as she took in the decorated fire engine. Just Married it said across one of the windows, and behind was tied tin cans and white streamers. Already, the cubs were scrambling up the back with Bruiser and Gage. The rest of them piled in the front two bench seats, sitting on laps and giggling in fits. Cody drove, blasting the horn and siren.
Cora looked out the window, shocked at the chaos that reined Main Street of their small mountain town. “What’s happening?” she asked, utterly baffled.
“Look,” Boone said, pointing.
Hung across the street was a huge, white banner. Congratulations to the Breck Crew.
And everywhere, people were cheering. Cody pulled to a stop and turned to them. “Welcome to your reception.”
Rory and Quinn’s mouths dropped open, matching Cora’s. In the crowd were smiling faces. These people weren’t here to protest their marriages. They were here to celebrate them.
Cora’s eyes blurred with tears as Boone helped her down from the fire engine. “I don’t understand.”
“It was your documentary,” Boone said, hugging her against his side and smiling at the gatherers. “It sparked something in people—something incredible.” He looked down at her and kissed her forehead. “You once said that
someday bear shifters would walk Changed in the streets, and no one would bat an eye. We aren’t there yet, but I know that someday, we will be.”
In disbelief, she looked over the throngs of onlookers. Jos and Meredith were there, waving and cheering. The Blue Haired Ladies, Mark, Deanna, and Brandon stood chatting off to the side, drinks in hand as live music blared from down the street. Bruiser pulled Diem close and kissed her temple as they made their way toward the Ashe Crew who had come to show their support. Her chest filled with joy as she watched humans and shifters laughing and talking together.
The town she’d grown to love hadn’t abandoned the bear shifters after all.
They’d just needed time to adjust to the idea that the supernatural did exist.
Her future with Boone stretched on and on. She was a wife now, a Keller, and a member of the Breck Crew. She had a family who would do anything to protect her. A family worth protecting. When her documentary had gone viral, and then was picked up by television stations, she’d turned down national news offers to stay at her job in this town where she could be with the ones she loved the most. And if the IESA ever came after her or any of the bear shifters again, there would be hell to pay from the humans determined to keep that agency accountable for their actions.
She was safe here under Boone’s protection—under the shelter of the Breck Crew. Safe with the public who were making great strides to be accepting and protective of their fragile new alliance between humans and shifters.
And tonight, Boone would claim her. She and Rory would meet their bears for the first time, and it wasn’t so scary anymore. She wasn’t alone.
Cora swallowed a sob down as she looked up at her mate. “And here you thought bonding to me would be the end of both of our lives.”
Boone kissed her lips, then rested his forehead against hers and brushed his knuckle across the tear stain on her cheek. “It turns out our bond was the beginning of something much better.”
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