Autumn? Emma slowed and paused outside the door, hesitating to venture further. When she peered into the sunlit room, she found it filled with people. Julian and August stood near the windows of the far side of the room, their heads bent as though looking out, though she was sure they were more absorbed with the events inside the room. On the bed sat Gunnar, his arms crossed as he regarded the confrontation between his friend and Emma’s mother.
Her father, aunt, and uncle stood behind her mother with troubled looks on their faces. Her dad looked like he really wanted to say something, but was waiting for the right moment. Emma knew that look—knew that feeling, too. It was precisely how she felt right now. She should step in, but needed to know more about what they were fighting about, aside from her rebellious mating.
“You don’t understand,” her mother said. “You’ve destroyed her life! I know what it’s like to have to live without my mate for better than two decades. I never wanted this for my daughter, yet you’ve come and condemned her to that fate without any regard to her feelings.”
Autumn’s jaw clenched, her hands forming fists at her sides. She took a deep breath and Emma could imagine steam flowing from her nostrils. When she spoke again, her voice was low and even, her head held high, and her gaze fixed on Emma’s mother.
“I’m not a fool, my lady. I know how much it means to every female of our race to not be parted from her mate. I have no mate yet. Neither does Gunnar. Which is why we want to offer to take the place of Emma’s mates as guardians. I grew up in the human world, so I’ll be comfortable there. And Gunnar has always wanted to learn about it.” She turned her head and squarely met Emma’s gaze. “And our friend would find the happiness she so deserves.”
Emma moved then, striding into the middle of them with determination.
“No, Autumn. You can’t do this. What about . . . ”
Autumn cut her off. “We’re doing it for you and your child, Emma. And our entire race. You need your mates nearby.”
Emma shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
August and Julian approached from the window. They both looked at Autumn as though they were about to drop to their knees and kiss her feet.
August looked at Emma, his expression grave. “It means we still have to leave before the New Year, but we can come back before the Sanctuary is closed to travelers, provided Autumn and Gunnar arrive to take our place beforehand.”
“We’ll only be gone a couple months, at the most. With any luck only a few weeks,” Julian said. “And they are Windchasers—they’ll be able to come and go, just not as frequently as the other Windchaser runners.”
Emma stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Autumn. “You are my absolute favorite person right now, do you know that?” Tears threatened to spill down her cheeks as she tightened her hold on the other woman.
Autumn laughed. “You deserve happiness. Besides, I can’t take all the credit. It was Gunn’s idea, but he needed a female voice to argue with your mother.”
In a low whisper, Emma said, “What about Jasper? He’s awake now.”
Autumn tensed and pulled away, casting her eyes at the floor for a second before meeting Emma’s again. Sadness dwelled deep in her brown-eyed depths. “We had to make a choice. I decided to follow your example, and I don’t regret it. Maybe he won’t remember, anyway. He was half-delirious during the trip to bring him and his sister here.”
“But you and Gunn deserve love, too,” Emma said.
“Your child deserves a safe, loving home to grow up in, and Gunn and I will have each other. The fact that Jasper and his sister are alive right now is enough for us. Be safe, Princess, and keep your child and our love safe, too.”
As Autumn and Gunnar left the room, Emma steeled herself to face her mother.
She’d expected anger, disappointment, but all that greeted her on the older woman’s face was a profound look of acceptance and understanding.
“This is truly what would make you happy?”
Emma sighed and sank back against the pair of solid bodies that came up behind her and slipped their arms around her waist.
“It’s a lot more complicated than that, but yes, Mama. This is what will make me happy, and I think we’ll all be better off for the choices made last night.”
Her mother took a deep breath and let out a tired sigh. “Very well. I am happy to see that you are a woman of conviction, and with friends like Autumn and Gunnar, and mates like Julian and August, you will make a very formidable Queen. I am proud of you.”
“Thank you, Mama.”
When the others left the room, she turned and pressed her face into one of the solid chests behind her. They held her close for a second, then she found herself hoisted effortlessly into August’s arms while Julian turned down the bed.
“How much time do we have again?” Emma asked.
“Eight days,” Julian said, climbing into the bed and sliding to the far side. August laid her on the comfortable mattress and slid in beside her, still naked from their run through the woods.
“We’d better make it last,” she said, reveling in their warmth on either side of her
“Trust me, Princess, we have no plans to let you leave this room until then.”
Want More?
The Hunt isn’t over, not by a long shot. The next book in Ophelia Bell’s Black Mountain Bears is Bitten. It’s the story of Jasper, Autumn, and Gunnar, and their journey to find happily ever after…
Jasper Stonetree used to think he knew what he wanted, but meeting the beautiful pair of ursa who just saved his life changes everything.
Autumn Sundance and Gunnar Windchaser have him twisted so tight he can’t think straight.
His entire life, Jasper’s cared more about his family. Romantic entanglements only lead to pain, after all. Yet after following his cousin into a fantasy realm he had never imagined—his birthplace, no less—he begins to see the truth of what he is.
He is an ursa male, and one of two chosen by a high-ranking female.
And that female is in trouble.
On the chase to save his female, Jasper is forced to make a choice. Leave behind his true family—his blood. Or take a step there will be no retreat from to save the woman he loves and hopefully forge a new family outside the ursa Sanctuary.
Buy or Borrow on Amazon
Check out the entire Amelie Hunt Collection!
Want more hot shifter love? There are FIVE trilogies in this collection, and all of them are available now!
Pick up all the books on Amazon!
Also By Amelie Hunt’s Authors
Ophelia Bell’s Sleeping Dragons Series
Can You Handle Six at Once?
What if dragons were intelligent shapeshifters who thrived on the sexual energy of humans? Erika Rosencrans and her team of anthropologists are just adventurous enough to uncover the dark secrets of the ancient dragon temple.
Erika’s spent her entire post-graduate career searching for it. The elusive dragon stronghold her archaeologist professors scoffed at as being only a myth. Now she has the perfect team and has led them into the deepest reaches of the Sumatran jungle. At the edge of the discovery of the century, she’s finally about to prove to everyone how wrong they were.
When the seven intrepid explorers pass through the doors, they’re barely prepared for the conflict of lust versus logic they’re faced with on the inside. Ages-old magic lingers in the stronghold, dictating that they perform a ritual to awaken the long-slumbering beasts within.
And beasts that beautiful only awaken to one thing: the unbridled release of humans in the throes of ecstasy.
“The tale resembles those of Indiana Jones and Benjamin Franklin Gates except that there is a heroine instead of a hero. As a bonus or whipped cream and cherry on this adventurous delight, the reader is treated to essences of Fifty Shades without the
self-doubt and complete lack of self-esteem.” - Goodreads Review
Click here to get first book in the series, Animus, for FREE on Amazon.
Vivian Wood’s Alpha Guardians Series
Evil Abounds: Bear Rising
What would you sacrifice to save what you love most? Three rugged, dominant bear shifters are about to find out...
Dark powers stir the shadows in New Orleans’ paranormal underworld. A sociopathic Voodoo king launches a quest for power that may bring the world to its knees. Rather than watch her proud city crumble, ancient priestess Mere Marie forms a plan.
There’s just one catch: not just any group of men can defend New Orleans. She needs the fiercest, most valiant bear shifters she can find. Mere Marie will have to bend the laws of time, going back in history to find her warriors.
A Highland Laird, desperate to save his struggling clan. A powerful young sorcerer whose magic brings tragedy into his life. A mysterious champion, betrayed and left to die in a dark cave. Mere Marie offers a single chance at redemption, but at what price?
Witness the beginning of the Alpha Guardians, three mighty shifters sworn to protect and serve. Pulse-pounding action, steamy romance, and sultry bayou nights await...
This book is the prequel to the Alpha Guardians series; it is not intended as a standalone work. These books feature big, brawny werebears and the mouthy, curvy ladies who capture their hearts. We suggest reading these books in order for the greatest enjoyment.
Click here to get Evil Abounds: Bear Rising FREE on Amazon!
Sennah Tate’s Soul Shifters Series
Awakened
It can never, never happen. Not with him.
Good girl schoolteacher Gemma has always played it safe, colored inside the lines. Her only indulgence is a recurrent fantasy about Carson, her town’s ultimate bad boy. Carson is fifty shades of wrong for Gemma, but damn if the risk-taking ex-con doesn’t inspire dark, waking-at-night-clenching-the-sheets thoughts in Gemma’s orderly little mind...
Don’t touch. Don’t look. Don’t even think about him. No matter how good he might be in your dreams, he’s bad.
All Gemma’s promises fly out the window when her best friend goes missing. Carson is the only one who can help Gemma uncover the truth, and if some sparks fly along the way… so what? It doesn’t mean anything.
Right?
As tensions rise, Carson and Gemma are both stripped down, revealing steamy paranormal secrets and an unbridled hunger that simply refuses to be tamed.
Click here to get Awakened for FREE!
Books by Ophelia Bell
Sleeping Dragons Series
Animus
Tabula Rasa
Gemini
Shadows
Nexus
Ascend
Rising Dragons Series
Night Fire
Breath of Destiny
Breath of Memory
Breath of Innocence
Breath of Desire
Breath of Love
Breath of Flame and Shadow
Breath of Fate
Sisters of Flame
Immortal Dragons Series
Dragon Blues
Standalone Erotic Tales
After You
Out of the Cold
Ophelia Bell Taboo
Burying His Desires
•
Blackmailing Benjamin
Betraying Benjamin
Belonging to Benjamin
•
Casey’s Secrets
Casey’s Discovery
Casey’s Surrender
About Ophelia Bell
Ophelia Bell loves a good bad-boy and especially strong women in her stories. Women who aren’t apologetic about enjoying sex and bad boys who don’t mind being with a woman who’s in charge, at least on the surface, because pretty much anything goes in the bedroom.
Ophelia grew up on a rural farm in North Carolina and now lives in Los Angeles with her own tattooed bad-boy husband and four attention-whoring cats.
If you’d like to receive regular updates on Ophelia’s publications, freebies, and discounts, please subscribe to her mailing list.
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