by Sophie Stern
I press my hands to his chest, and then I hug him tightly.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I’m sorry you were scared, and I’m sorry you were alone.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Your mate should have been with you,” I whisper.
He cocks his head, looking down at me.
“What are you saying?” He raises his eyebrows, waiting for me, and I realize this is it. This is my shot. This is my one chance to prove to him that I care, and that I’m in this for real. This may be the only chance I have to show him that I want him as much as he wants me.
“I was wrong.”
He’s silent, and the sound is deafening.
He heard me, right?
“I’m sorry for what I did,” I tell him. “I was scared. I know that probably doesn’t mean too much, but it’s the truth. I was scared, so I made a bad call. I thought it would be better to push you away than to try, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.”
“Why did you do it?” He asks, choking on his own words, and I realize just how deeply my rejection must have hurt him, especially after he gave me his mating mark.
“I’ve been scared for a long time. Even before I lost my mom, I was scared of everything. Then you came along and you threw me for a loop.”
He chuckles a little.
“A loop, huh?” But he waits, and he lets me articulate how I’m feeling because I know that this moment is so important.
“A loop,” I nod. “I didn’t think when I downloaded Team Shifter that I was going to find anything but a fling. I didn’t think I was going to find anything real.”
“Is that what this is?” He steps a little bit closer. I reach up and touch my scar.
“Feels pretty real to me.”
“I thought you wanted out. The dragon.”
“I was wrong. I don’t want out, Robert. I just want you.”
I push up on my tippy-toes and press my lips to his, for just a moment, I fear that he’s going to push me away and to reject me again. After all, I rejected him first. He has no reason to want to give me a second chance, but...
But he doesn’t push me away.
He pulls me close to himself and he kisses me deeply. Over and over, he kisses me, showing me what true forgiveness looks like, and my heart feels full.
“So this is our second chance, huh?” I whisper to him.
“Meredith, I’ll give you second chances and third chances and fourth chances. I’ll give you as many chances as you need as long as it means that we get to keep trying.”
He kisses me again, and suddenly, I realize that this really is it.
He really is my mate.
He is my forever someone.
And even though I know that the mating claim is usually made during sex, in a fierce moment of intimacy, I also know that Robert and I don’t exactly play by the rules. So when I lean forward to plant a kiss on his neck, I follow it up with a sharp bite. He growls, but he lets me mark him. I seal the wound with my tongue, closing it up. Then I step back to look at what I’ve done to him, and I see the scar.
He smiles at me and raises an eyebrow.
“Happy now, little wolf?”
“Yes.”
“How’s it look?”
“Good,” I blush.
I did that.
I made that mark.
I wanted something, and I went for it, and I made a mark on my mate so everyone in Claw Valley will know that he is loved by me.
Robert pulls me close and kisses me again.
“I’m glad you’re here.”
“I was worried you’d be upset.”
“Because you broke into my house?” He laughs. “Nah, I’m not mad about that. Besides, sometimes it’s good to be a little wild.”
And somehow, I think that he’s right.
I know that my life with Robert isn’t going to be a cakewalk. There will be times when things feel hard and I’m going to need those third and fourth and fifth chances. I’m going to need his patience and his love, but I’ll give those things right back to him, too.
Because Robert is my mate.
He’s my one and only.
And the two of us?
We’re forever.
Epilogue
Meredith
One Month Later
I run, chasing my bear.
Who knew that so much of our mated life would be spent running together? It’s okay because that’s what we love. We love running wild in the woods that surround Claw Valley. We love running and swimming and jumping and just being.
Being together is wonderfully fantastic.
In fact, I’ve never done anything like this before. I’ve never been with someone who makes me feel the way that Robert makes me feel. I’ve never had a connection even half as deep as our mating claim.
After I claimed Robert as my mate, I cancelled our meeting with the dragon. It’s quite incredible that he’s able to reverse one-sided mating claims, and I suppose it’s one of those magical dragon things I’ll never really understand. Even though we’re all shifters here, there are a lot of things I still don’t know about our magical world.
That’s okay because I have the rest of my life to explore it and to figure out what’s going to happen next.
And I have the rest of my life to spend with Robert.
Making him happy, loving him, and enjoying his company sounds like a wonderful way to spend a lifetime, and I’m all in. We had a rough start, but his patience coupled with my tenacity means that we have a fighting chance, and this time, I’m not going to quit.
Besides, I can’t.
Because it’s not just about us anymore.
Today, I’m going to tell Robert that he’s going to be a dad. He’s going to have a child of his very own and he’s going to get to raise a shifter cub that will grow up to be so very loved and so very adored. I miss my own mother every day, but I know that her legacy is going to live on in me as I raise my own child right here in Claw Valley.
But for now, I run.
I chase my bear, and I run, because when it comes to Robert, I’ll spend forever running with him.
He is my everything.
He is my bear.
THE END
Author
Sophie Stern loves cowboys, soldiers, and shifters. When she’s not busy writing, she’s got her nose buried in a book. Sophie lives with her husband and two little boys who are always keeping her on her toes.
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Books
If you enjoyed this story, check out these other books!
CONQUERED (The Hidden Planet)
Abducted.
Taken.
Locked away.
Fiona doesn't know true fear until she is whisked away from her loving family and doting boyfriend. When she finds herself on an alien ship with only a giant beast for company, her fear turns to anger when she realizes her loved ones have betrayed her.
Quinn doesn't know what to do with the squirrely little human aboard his ship. Yeah, he bought her, but only to save her from a worse fate. She has no idea what could have happened to her if he hadn't found her. She has no idea what could have happened on Dreagle. But now she's on his ship and somehow, she's wormed her way into his heart. Can he ever let her go?
CONQUERED is available wherever eBooks are sold.
ALIEN BEAST
He's a war hero.
She's a virgin.
He's broken.
She's perfect.
When he finds her in the midst of an alien war, Luke takes Willow for himself. He can't help himself. He's never taken a prisoner alive before, but Willow is different. He needs her. He wants her. Most of all, he craves her.
Willow is a human who has the worst luck in the wo
rld. When the tour ship she's on malfunctions and crash-lands on the wrong planet, she's thrust into the middle of a war: one she has no desire to be in.
Then everything changes.
She's captured by an alien beast unlike anything she's ever seen before.
And the worst part is that after awhile, she's not so sure she wants him to let her go.
ALIEN BEAST is available wherever eBooks are sold.
ALIEN DRAGON
I'm on the last ship out.
I don't think I'm going to make it, but I do. Earth is dying and there's only one way I can possibly survive: fight for a spot on the dragon planet of Taneyemm.
They don't want humans there.
They don't like us.
They don't know us.
But when I step foot on the ship bound for Taneyemm, I know it's my last hope. I'll do anything I have to survive.
I'll do whatever it takes.
When I finally reach my destination and I see the alien dragons for the first time, I realize I'm in way over my head.
And I don't know if my heart is ready for this.
ALIEN DRAGON is available wherever eBooks are sold.
Hybrid Academy
If you love urban fantasy and fairies, you might also enjoy Hybrid Academy, a story by my alter-ego, L.C. Mortimer. Check out the first chapter here!
Chapter 1
"This isn't what I ordered." The tall man in the suit looked at the coffee and sneered. He thrust the cup back at me. A little bit sloshed over the side of the cup and onto the counter. "And you'd better clean that up."
Biting back irritation, I managed a smile.
"Of course. Anything else I can do for you?” I asked politely. Inside, I felt anything but polite. This guy was being a total jerk, as always. I knew for a fact that his coffee had been made perfectly. He just didn’t like me because I couldn’t do magic.
He wanted Maggie to make his drink.
“A free bagel couldn’t hurt,” the man said, jerking his head toward the display of blueberry bagels.
“I’ll have to get my manager’s permission,” I said. “Please wait just a moment.”
I scurried to the back of the café and knocked on the door to the office.
“Come in.”
I yanked the door open and peered inside. Tony was sitting at his desk with his ankles crossed over the top. He looked bored out of his mind.
“What do you want, Maxine?” He asked.
“It’s Max,” I said. “Not Maxine. And there’s a customer who wants a free bagel.”
“We don’t give out bagels for free,” Tony said with a yawn. He was obviously bored. He was always bored at the café.
“I know, but he said that his drink was wrong and he wants to be compensated with free food.”
Tony glared at me and got up with a huff. He acted like it was my fault that he was the manager of the café or that he had to leave the safety of his office to come do his actual job. Whatever. I’d been dealing with Tony ever since I started working at the café. He was neither a good boss nor a team player, so I tried to stay as far away from him as possible. Besides, something about Tony made me uncomfortable, and I couldn’t quite pinpoint why.
“Is there a problem, Lionel?” Tony asked the tall man.
“Yeah, your em-ploy-ee,” he dragged the word out sarcastically. “Messed up my drink. I asked her nicely if she could fix it.”
“Not a problem,” Tony said. He jerked his head toward one of my coworkers. “Maggie, make Lionel a new drink.”
Maggie shot me a nasty look but nodded and started the drink. The café wasn’t busy and the drink wasn’t complicated, so I wasn’t sure what the big deal was. Actually, I had the distinct feeling that Lionel’s original drink had been just fine, but that he wanted a bagel out of the deal.
Correction: he wanted a free bagel.
Tony and Lionel sat and chatted while Maggie made the drink. I cleaned up the spill on the counter before starting to check our inventory. I wasn’t a magic user, so I couldn’t just summon cups whenever we ran out of something we needed. Instead, I’d have to trot back to the stockroom, find what we needed, and carry it back. It was kind of a drag for everyone, which was just another reason nobody liked me.
By the time I left work that day, I was tired, exhausted, and spent.
And I knew my grandmother was going to be beyond pissed that I was late.
I RAN UP THE STEPS to the little log cabin where I lived with my Grandmother. My heart was pounding, racing, and I silently begged it to stop. Slow down. It needed to chill out, to be honest. Overreacting never turned out well for anyone, least of all me.
I smelled sweaty and I was tired: both signs that I left work much later than I should have. I didn’t want her to give me a hard time about it. Mémère had enough to worry about. She didn’t need to be concerned that my boss still wasn’t letting me leave on time or that my customers were constantly giving me a hard time.
That’s the price I paid to work at a café in Brooksville.
Nobody liked me because I was poor, and an orphan, and I couldn’t do magic.
All of those elements combined to make me one of the most disliked people in town. Despite trying to have a charming personality and showing kindness to the people around me, I somehow still managed to catch the eye of every magic-user within shouting distance, and not in a good way.
I glanced down at my work clothes. My once-white blouse was now splattered with coffee, no thanks to Maggie and Justine for their “assistance” at work. My jeans had fared just as poorly. They had a few new stains, a new tear, and smelled slightly questionable. I sighed. Mémère was definitely going to notice something was wrong.
I hated to make her worry.
I hated to make her sad.
She worked so hard to raise me, to take care of me, that the idea of letting her down again filled me with stress and anxiety. I wished for the millionth time that I could use magic. I wished that I had a wand, that I knew spells, or that I had, you know,powers. I wished that I could whisper a few carefully practiced words and somehow whip up an appearance she could be proud of.
But I couldn’t.
In my case, practice hadn’t made perfect.
I stared at the front door of our home for a long minute. My breathing finally began to stabilize and I began to feel like everything was going to be okay. Maybe it would. Maybe everything would be fine. One bad day at work wouldn’t kill me.
A hundred bad days at work wouldn’t kill me.
Besides, I owed Mémèreeverything. Without her, I wouldn’t exist. I would have died when my parents did. I would have been killed or lost or starved. No one else in this place was about to take in a little orphan kid who couldn’t do spells. Nobody. Yet my grandmother was ready.
My grandmother was brave.
I reached for the door and pressed my hand against it, but I didn’t turn the knob. Not yet. I needed a few more minutes to be alone with my thoughts, to focus on the fact that today had been the worst day yet. Today seemed different somehow. Part of me thought that after awhile, things at work would get easier. I thought that they’d improve and that I would finally begin to connect with people who understood me.
I was so wrong.
I’m not understood now, just like I wasn’t understood before.
A tear slid down my cheek and I brushed it away. I look around wildly, like someone could see me, even though I was completely alone.
“I know you’re out there,” I heard her voice through the door. “Come on in, love. I won’t bite.”
I gulped.
Yeah, my grandmother definitely knew something was up. She didn’t want me working in town, anyway, but I had convinced her that I needed to. The reality was that I knew she didn’t have a lot of money and I felt bad for not contributing to our family. The café didn’t bring in a lot of money, but I was finished with school and wasn’t really doing anything else with my time.
There weren’t a lot
of job prospects in Brookville, but the café was something. It enabled me to make some money, spend time socializing, and get to know people who lived near me. It meant I could be around other people, for once. It meant I could explore the world, if only just a little.
The front door opened before I could turn the knob, and there stood my grandmother: tall, lean, and silvery.
Fierce.
My grandma was fierce.
Everything about her screamed strong. She was taller than me, which was sometimes hard for me to grasp since at 5’7”, I wasn’t a tiny girl. Although she was getting older, she still had strong muscles that were clearly defined. Whether it was from being a witch or from years of exercise and hard work, I wasn’t sure. I just knew that my grandma wasn’t the type of person anyone messed with.
Not if they knew what was good for them.
“You’re late,” she said simply, but she glared when she did. Her eyes narrowed a little: not too much. She didn’t quite look mad. It was more like, a cautious sort of look, as though she was waiting for me to say something first. I knew exactly what she wanted from me. She wanted me to admit that working in the shop was a bad choice and that I was ready to stay home with her.
After all, even if I couldn’t use magic, I could still learn about it, and my grandmother loved it when I studied.
“Not by much,” I responded, but I knew instantly it was the wrong thing to say. My grandmother didn’t yell at me or raise her voice. She never had. We didn’t have that kind of relationship. Besides, disappointment was so much worse than yelling, anyway. If I wanted to trick Gram, I should have acted stupid. I should have pretended like I didn’t know just how late it was. Then I could have pretended that I was lollygagging or chatting with someone and just completely lost track of the time.
My answer let her know that I knew I was late, and that there was a reason for it.
“What happened?” She said gently. Her eyes softened when she looked at me. Mr. Boo, my familiar, came out of the cabin and rubbed against my legs. I reached down and picked up the fat, black-and-white cat and held him in my arms for a minute. Somehow, Boo always managed to calm my racing heart when I felt stressed. I might not do magic, but Grams had given him to me just the same.
