by Sable Sylvan
“No, Mace. I don’t accept your proposal. There has to be a mistake. There’s no way I’m your fated mate. Even if there is no mistake, so what if I am?” asked Savina. “That doesn’t change anything, Mason. There’s still a wedding coming up, a wedding for four of my sisters, for four of your brothers. We can’t come in at the last minute and say, ‘Hey, guys, so, turns out that we’re fated mates’ and steal their thunder.”
“Savina, you are my fated mate,” said Mason, getting up from the floor. “Don’t you get that?”
“Don’t you get that saying that over and over doesn’t change anything, Mason?” asked Savina. “This was a mistake. I’m sorry, but…I don’t know why I thought this would be a good idea. I was hoping that this would make things simple, but now, it’s made them more complicated than ever.”
“It doesn’t have to be complicated,” said Mason. “Just talk to your sisters. Heck, just talk to Alice or Herb—”
“No!” shouted Savina. “Mason. We can’t tell anyone. Ever. I don’t know what happened but there must be a mistake of some kind, because you and me? We can’t be together. I’m gonna be a sophomore next year. I don’t want to do long distance. I don’t want to be dating my brother-in-law. If you and I met in five years, if we weren’t going to be practically related, maybe things would be different. I can’t do this, Mason.”
“So what do you want, Savina, for me to just pretend this never happened?” asked Mason.
“Yeah, that’d be great,” said Savina. “We can’t let anyone know this happened.”
“You’re asking me to do something that goes against everything my kind does,” said Mason. “You’re asking me to defy Fate, Savina.”
“And right now, you want to defy the person you insist is your fated mate,” said Savina. “I don’t see Fate in this room, Mason, but if you look hard, you’ll see a girl that’s distraught and begging you to do this favor for her. Can you please just do this for me?”
“I don’t know if I can,” said Mason. “I can’t make a promise that I can’t keep. That’s the one rule I won’t break.”
“Well, can you promise to try?” asked Savina.
“Fine, fine,” said Mason. “I can promise to try. Is that enough for you?”
“I don’t know,” admitted Savina. “I don’t even know where we go from here.”
“You said it yourself,” said Mason. “You’d rather pretend this never happened.”
“Are you saying you’ll be fine going back to what we were before?” asked Savina.
“I didn’t say anything about being ‘fine,’” said Mason. “But if that’s what you want…I’m not about to ruin that for you, Savina. There’s one promise I can make you, and that’s that I won’t ruin your summer or the wedding.”
“Thank you, Mason,” said Savina. “And…I’m sorry I suggested we do this in the first place.” Savina started crying again.
The bear roared. As much pain as Mason was feeling, what was worse was the pain Savina was feeling. There was nothing worse for a shifter than seeing his fated mate in distress, and Mason was no exception…even if his fated mate was refusing to see that she was his fated mate.
“Savina, you’ve gotta get it together,” said Mason, wiping Savina’s eyes with his sheets. “If you want to pretend nothing happened…you have to, y’know, pretend nothing happened.”
Savina laughed. Mason had a way of making her able to laugh even when things seemed dire.
“Okay,” said Savina with a hiccup. “You’re right.”
“We’ve got the rehearsal dinner, the hot sauce competition, and the wedding to handle,” said Mason. “You know that things are gonna go haywire one way or another. You and I have to be the frikkin’ adults while our siblings run around like chickens without feet.”
“Without heads,” said Savina. “The expression is, chickens without heads.”
“See, there you go,” said Mason. “Just concentrate on all the shizz I’m doing wrong, and the summer’ll be over before you know it, okay?”
Mason got up and went to his closet. He picked out some shorts and a shirt.
“What are you doing?” asked Savina.
“I gotta go,” said Mason. “I’m sorry.”
“Go? Go where?” asked Savina. “Mason, where are you going?”
“I need to get some air, that’s all,” said Mason with a sad smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll be back. I just need to go on a run, clear my head, okay?”
“Okay,” said Savina. “I guess I understand.”
“You should probably get back to your room so that nobody sees you here,” said Mason.
“Oh, yeah, you’re right,” said Savina. She all of a sudden felt too exposed. She covered herself up while Mason got changed. When he left the room, she got up to go to hers, to shower, to think, to try to forget.
* * *
Mason walked downstairs to the showers. Luckily, he didn’t pass any members of the family. He went to the locker rooms and got changed out of his clothes quickly before getting on all fours to shift. He tried to avoid looking at mirrors, but just as he started to shift, he caught a glimpse of himself. He saw the mark on his chest, the mark that had proved what the bear had known all along, the mark that had proved that Savina was his fated mate.
Mason completed his shift into his bear form, his bear big, red, russet-toned, more grizzly than polar. Mason left the dressing room via the shifter exit, which had an automatic door, and ran out into the backyard. He ran and ran until he was in the mountains, the same mountains he’d flown over that very day with Savina, and he let out a big, pained roar. He looked up at the full moon and let out a howl, like the big, bad wolf he felt like. After all, he’d lost his little red-hooded firebrand, his pride eating up any chance he had of making her truly his. The knowledge that she was his fated mate made it all the worse, even worse than the fact he’d have to see that mark on his chest for the rest of his life, a mark that would forever remind him not of true love, but of lost love.
The mate mark was supposed to make things so simple. It glowed. It had never glowed before. Savina was obviously his fated mate. He had felt it for some time, in his heart, from his shift. He had waited too long to listen to the bear, and now, he was paying the ultimate price. The only question was, could he earn Savina’s love in time to fix things, or would he end up not getting his fairytale ending?
Chapter Nine
Savina couldn’t believe what she’d done with Mason, even though the footage kept playing over and over in her head. She was so worried that Mason would spill the beans, although she couldn’t blame him if he did. She had no idea what it must be like for him, to have found his fated mate and to have her reject him. She felt guilty, and the guilt kept her up at night, until she fell asleep, exhausted, mere hours before she needed to get up.
Savina couldn’t talk about this with anyone. After all, she was always either at work or back at the manor. She couldn’t talk about it with her sisters for obvious reasons. She definitely couldn’t talk about it with Mason. Even if she’d wanted to, she couldn’t have. As soon as they finished up working on the sauce, he was out for a nightly run. He seemed more tired in the mornings, but Sav didn’t feel it was her place to say anything. Hadn’t she said enough already?
Mason hadn’t avoided her after what she was referring to, in her head, as ‘the incident’. In fact, he had treated her just as he had minutes before he’d blurted out he was in love with her: no better, no worse, no different. They had worked on refining the hot sauce and hadn’t talked about what had happened. On Tuesday night, they’d been asked to submit a large batch of their sauce to Alice and Herb for inspection by Thursday night. They’d brewed up a storm on Wednesday night and submitted the sauce together that same night. The sauce was finished. Now, the only question was, would it bring them back together again…or was this truly the end of their friendship?
The next weekend was busy. There’d be the rehearsal dinner held at The Matchstick Grill and th
e hot sauce competition, as the weekend after would be the wedding and the opening day of the Bright Star County Fair the day after. Once the fair was over, all four couples would be headed to a different locale for some much needed alone time. Between the wedding and the hot sauce competition would be the bachelorette party. As everyone was so busy with all the hectic wedding and county fair planning, they’d be having a small shindig at the manor.
Savina helped her sisters handle the various wedding emergencies, but all through the week, her head was focused on what had happened between her and Mason.
On Saturday afternoon, the afternoon of the rehearsal dinner, the Quincy family and the Quiggly family came to town, some staying at the manor, others at the old Quincy house in town, and others at the Fallowedirt Hotel. The Scoville parents and a few other members of the Scoville family would be arriving in town just in time for the dinner, and the rest of the Scovilles would show up in time for the wedding, with some arriving that night after the dinner or in the early morning before the hot sauce competition.
Savina was going through her closet, figuring out what to wear, when she heard a knock on her door.
“Come in,” said Savina.
The door opened and in came Mace.
“Oh,” said Savina. “Hey, Mason. Can I help you with something?”
“Yeah, actually, you can,” said Mace. “I didn’t get a chance to see the hairdresser, and I need some help fixing this.” Mace pointed to his hair. The red was growing out, and he had blond roots. Luckily, the red had lightened quite a bit.
“I’m not sure I follow,” said Savina. “How can I help?”
“I need an extra pair of hands to help me strip the rest of the red out and put in the blue,” said Mace.
“Wait…you’re gonna strip the red out, and then re-dye it?” asked Savina. “Why not just go blond?”
“Because if my parents see me without dyed hair, they’re gonna think something’s wrong with me,” joked Mace.
“Do we need to go out and get any more supplies?” asked Savina.
“Nope,” said Mace. “I ordered the stuff you missed earlier this week and they just arrived. It’s just some foil, some brushes, and blue dye. I haven’t gone blue in a while. Never mind. I set everything up in my bathroom.”
“Are you sure you want me to do it? I’ve never dyed hair before,” said Savina.
“It’s easy,” insisted Mace. “I’ll walk you through it. Just wear some clothes that you don’t mind ruining.”
“So, any of my clothes,” joked Savina. “All right. Give me five and I’ll meet you in your bathroom.”
“You got it,” said Mace.
Savina quickly got into some ratty jeans and an old shirt before heading over to Mason’s bathroom.
What Savina was expecting: bleach, hair dye, strips of foil, mixing bowls, brushes.
What Savina wasn’t expecting: a hot polar bear shifter with red hair that was practically frikkin’ naked, glossy and oily, sitting in a chair wearing a pair of basketball shorts, a towel over his shoulders and back, and nothing else.
What Savina got: all of the above.
“Uh, why are you shirtless?” asked Savina, looking away from Mace.
“Fewer clothes to ruin,” said Mace. “After all, I need you to bleach the back of my head. The bleach will run down to my clothing if I wear any.”
“And the towel is enough to stop it from burning you?” asked Savina, looking back to Mace and trying to avoid looking at his mate mark. It was like a scarlet letter, worn by someone else for something bad that she’d done.
“Totally,” said Mace. “First off, I need you to mix…”
Mace walked Savina through the mixing process and helped her mix up the bleach, something to strip out the red in his hair, some toner to remove yellow tints, and some toner to remove orange brassy tones. Within an hour, they’d gotten his hair from crimson to red to pink to a pale rose gold blond.
“I don’t think we can get it lighter,” admitted Savina.
“At least I’m not bright frikkin’ red,” said Mace. “Now, we just need to give me some blue on the tips. I got three kinds. Just use a bit on the tips, randomly, like this.” Mace showed Savina how to apply the dye.
Savina couldn’t admit it to herself, but this was the most fun she’d had since, well, she’d stopped having fun with Mace after they’d had too much that one night. Being with Mace, solving a problem, getting messy, with Mace shirtless to boot, was the only thing that had made her happy all week. She couldn’t help but smile softly as she gently pinched the tips of his hairs, infusing them with shades of sky blue, navy blue, and a teal-toned aqua as well as true cyan. Mace’s hair had looked like a bleached shiny copper penny before, but now, it looked like a shiny pink pearl that had been touched by a mermaid’s magic, with the many shades of blue in his hair making it look like a wild, untamable and unnamable ocean.
They let the dye soak into the hair and finally, Savina had to wash it out of Mace’s hair. He leaned back while Savina ran her hands through his hair, washing the dye out into the stainless steel bathroom sink. Herb had counted on Mace to make a mess of his bathroom and had included the steel sink in expectation of an event like this. What Herb hadn’t expected was for Mace to turn his head quickly, splattering the wall with dots of blue dye that would never, ever come out of the walls.
“Are we done?” asked Savina, helping bag up the trash, before throwing out her gloves. The worn shirt she’d worn was so messed up that it’d need to be thrown away because if it were washed, it would ruin the rest of the clothes in the wash.
“Heck no,” said Mason. “You and I still have a rehearsal dinner to get to.”
* * *
While the guests arrived at The Matchstick Grill, the staff passed around appetizers, and the Quincy Sisters and the Scoville Brothers stood in the front of the restaurant to greet people. The only couple not there was Alice and Herb, as they had to pick someone up from the airport that day. As all the couples were standing next to each other in the receiving line, in order of age, Savina had no choice but to stand next to Mason. It was awkward as her hands sat at her sides, brushing against his. She had to feel the heat of his body, smell his natural masculine musk. It reminded her of the night that she had told herself she’d try to forget, but something inside of her wouldn’t let her forget, not even for a second. Every rustling of her cocktail dress’s skirt reminded her of the rustling of their sheets. Every soft shadow on the sidewalk reminded her of the shadows he’d cast on her body.
It didn’t help that in his suit, Mason looked ravishing. He was a bad boy, but he could pull off a suit like a fashion model. He wore it like a second skin. It could barely hide his muscular arms or his broad shoulders. He greeted every member of his family and her family as if everything was okay, even though his bear was roaring and weeping. After all, Mason had found his fated mate, but in the one person he knew he could never be with because she didn’t even want him. She’d ignored him since that night they’d made love, even though he’d tried to signal to her that he was there for her if she wanted to talk.
One thing was for certain. Savina wanted zero drama regarding the wedding, so if that’s what his fated mate wanted, that’s what he could give her, even if she didn’t want him. That didn’t mean Mason would give up the hunt. In around a week, the wedding would happen, and after that, there was no telling whether or not Savina’s reaction to being his fated mate would change. All he could do was hope that it would and not ruin his shots by losing his cool. He was supposed to be the bad boy, but there was a difference between breaking all the rules and ruining his chances of being with his true love. If getting her meant being the good guy for a while, he could do that, for as long as he possibly could.
That didn’t mean that Mason wasn’t struggling inside. Any daredevil would agree that the most grueling part of climbing a mountain, surfing a tsunami-sized wave, or flying a helicopter for a rescue mission wasn’t the physical element. I
t was the internal stress that threatened to make one’s hands lose grip of the side of a mountain, that could take one’s head out of the game and pull one under the waves, that could cause one’s hands to jerk and crash their aircraft. For a shifter, this was amplified and all the more dangerous. When Mason lost his cool, there was a possibility he could lose his humanity, shift then and there, turn into the beast that he had to deny being for a week that felt like an eternity.
Alice and Herb’s car came around. They had the last guest that needed greeting, one of the most important guests of the night. A round woman, her shape accentuated by her smart blue pastel blazer and gray pearls around her neck, came out of the car. The pearls matched her salt-and-pepper hair and her satin kitten heels. Her sage green purse was sophisticated but practical, and of course, full of butterscotch candy. There was no mistaking this woman for anyone but the matriarch of the Quiggly family, the one and only Barbara Quiggly, known to the Quincy Sisters as merely, ‘Grandma Barb.’
“Hey, Grandma Barb,” said Cayenne, rushing to give her favorite relative a hug. “I missed you so much this summer.”
“I missed you, too,” said Barbara. “But it looks like you haven’t been too lonely this summer. This is your dear Basil, yes?”
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance,” said Basil. He took Barbara’s hand and gave it a chaste kiss.
“He was raised right,” said Barbara. “Although, I guess I ought not be so surprised! Looks like being around the Scovilles has changed you all quite a bit. Addison, in a cocktail dress? Why I never!”
“I heard that, Grandma,” said Addison. “You should’ve seen these boys before we got our hands on them.”
“Well, if anyone were going to tame four bear shifters, it would be you four,” said Barbara. “So that’s Sage, yes?”
“A pleasure,” said Sage, coming up to Barbara and giving her hand a kiss as well.
“Do they have someone my age?” asked Barbara. “They’re so polite!”