by Lila Felix
“It’s about time. We thought you two had gotten—ahem—lost on the way.”
Rev. That bastard.
Every head turned in our direction and my mom didn’t even try to hide the fact that she was gawking. She stood up from where she was seated.
“Tarrow, you need to make an introduction.”
I winked at my mate and then cleared my throat. I wanted every male in the room to hear what I had to say.
“Alpha, Coeur, Betas and clansmen, this is my mate Dahlia. She doesn’t belong to a clan, so she’s not used to all of this, let’s not all hover at once, please.”
Dahlia got closer to me. “Thank you.”
“No need.”
The Alpha and Coeur approached us first and my mom looked like she had some serious twitching going on.
“Dahlia, welcome to our clan lands. We are so happy to meet you.” Of course, the Coeur spoke first. That’s why she was our heart.
“Thank you. I’m happy to be here.”
“We’ve already started to eat, but please sit down.”
Dahlia spoke up. “I’ll make myself a plate.”
Every male in the room grunted or groaned in some form. “Females are served first, even those that come in late. Tarrow will get your plate. Come, sit next to me and meet Tarrow’s mother.” I watched on as I made her plate, giving her a scoop of everything and made sure that my mom’s dishes made up most of the percentage.
Stopping mid-stride, I saw my mother get up once again and hug the life out of Dahlia, taking the time to give her a good once over. The rush of embarrassment and gratitude hit me, emitting from my mate, from across the room. She liked my mom and was relieved that she was kind and loving.
My mom was busy asking Dahlia questions as I placed my mate’s plate in front of her and then went to grab her something to drink. The thing was—I didn’t even know what she wanted.
I turned around to face her and while my mom was still talking, Dahlia was paying all of her attention to me.
I pointed to soda bottles and got a tiny ‘no’ in the form of her shaking her head. I got that same no to tea and sweet tea. The only thing left was water.
Her sweet nod let me know I’d hit the jackpot—and I wasn’t talking about the water.
Dahlia
The clan thing was weird.
Tarrow’s mother was the most doting female I’d ever seen. She escorted me to group after group introducing me to everyone until she was called away by another other female. I thought they said she was Martha’s mother—they expected me to know who Martha was.
I couldn’t recall half of the people I’d been introduced to.
She left me in a conversation with several males and one female—all talking about security runs and the Grizzlies.
I felt like a grizzly—the only grizzly in the room.
Just the thought made me shiver.
“Are you cold?” The male next to me—I thought his name was some kind of tree name asked from beside me and laid his palm on my bicep.
My bear tousled in my chest, warning me off.
And then a growl roared above every voice in the room, calling everything to a halt.
“Aspen, I would unhand the female if I were you.”
My feet took three steps away from the group—pure instinct taking over, offended for the rest of my body.
“Tarrow. Stand down. He didn’t mean anything.”
“Dahlia.” I ticked my head to Echo whose voice commanded I listen. “Please take your mate outside and calm him down before we have a black bear tearing up my home.”
I searched the room for Tarrow, but it didn’t take long. All eyes were on him. He was in the back corner of the room near the back door as if he knew this would happen. Sweat beaded on his forehead. His fists were pumping open and closed and he stared at the floor as though it would help him.
There wasn’t a sound in the place until I began to walk toward him. After I reached his hand and grabbed it, bringing him outside, everyone began to speak again behind us.
All of this belonging to a male thing was beyond me. I’d never seen my father go berserk over anything my mom did. But then again, my mom and my dad did everything together.
Maybe that was the reason.
My bear craved his touch. She wanted to soothe his discomfort and his shaking.
“What can I do?” I asked him, a good ways away from the house. We were in a clearing of trees behind the house. There was an enormous porch behind us and the gentle call of the swamp was before us. It was times like this that my bear wanted to run away from everything that even whispered conventional.
“Come here.” He said through a clenched jaw. I took a step toward him. It wasn’t enough. He bent down a few inches, and dragged me against his hard chest. I could feel the indents and planes of his chest through his shirt. My bear demanded that I steady myself so that he could be okay. Breath by breath he came down from whatever mountain he was on.
“What happened? I don’t understand these things.”
I wished my parents had spent less time feeding me anti-clan propaganda and teaching me more about the bears and the honey.
So to speak.
“He touched you. He put his hand on my mate.”
His voice was chiseled rock and glass, setting me back on edge.
“So you’re going to do this every time a male touches me?”
“Not after you’re marked and mated properly.”
I attempted to bury the influx of embarrassment before it reached through me to him. How do you explain to your mate that you were never really taught about bear mating rituals?
“What is that? Embarrassment?”
He was truly confused.
I didn’t answer. He hadn’t let me go yet and I figured we should concentrate on one catastrophe before I told him about the catastrophe that was me.
“You’re okay now?”
I knew he was. I could feel the movement of his chest recede into normalcy. He kissed my temple once and rubbed my back before letting go.
“I’m sorry. It probably won’t be the last apology I make before everything is said and done. I’m gonna keep you next to me from here on out if that’s okay with you.”
“It’s more than okay. I kind of thought you were staying away for a reason.”
Pulling away, he hooked a finger under my chin and pulled it up so I was forced to meet his gaze. His brown eyes drove into me, causing my stomach to jump and my knees to waiver.
My damned legs refused to work around Tarrow Rivers.
“There is nothing you could do that would ever make me stay away from you. Is that clear?”
His proclamation was coupled with a pull of my waist, causing me to be flush with every part of his body.
“Yes.” One syllable—that’s all I could get out.
“Do you need to be home at a certain time or can I have you for a few more hours?” I knew exactly what he meant but having this faint-worthy male asking to ‘have me for hours’ caused all kinds of tingles in all kinds of places.
“I can be home whenever. I officially don’t have a job and I’m done with school.”
“Your parents don’t care?”
“No. I’m twenty years old.”
“Okay. I don’t want to piss off my in-laws already.”
His arms relaxed around me and when he released me, his eyes lied about his actions. He didn’t want to let go of me at all.
“Do we have to stay here?” I hesitated, not wanting to sound ungrateful.
“No. I think everything is pretty much over. I took care of that.” He wasn’t happy with himself about the whole ordeal. It sounded like something completely out of his control—and that’s what he hated most. “I have to bring my mom home. Is that okay? It’s just a short walk and then we can get out of here.”
I followed him inside, this time our hands clasped. The only people left in the house were the Alpha and his mate and Tarrow’s mother who looked more conce
rned than I was.
“Mom, are you ready to go home?” His voice had leveled out as well.
“I am. Alpha, Coeur, thank you for your continued hospitality.”
The older woman got up with Tarrow’s help and hugged both leaders of the clan before going outside. She’d asked me everything from my birthday to my favorite color while I was eating. I was sure it was an information gathering effort for Tarrow.
It was a sweet gesture, but I would’ve rather I conveyed the information directly to my mate.
While we walked through the clan houses, I took in the place. I thought clans were places with barefoot children ran amuck and women were forced to stay home and breed until their uteruses burst.
More like a backwoods commune.
Nothing like this place.
The houses weren’t modern, but not an older style either. Everyone’s home was in good condition and through their windows, families and couples could be seen spending time together—much like my family did.
“Mom, your food was amazing. The Coeur said she would have leftovers for a week.”
Tarrow’s mom giggled and took his other elbow, which I found completely endearing. “Not with a male around. You can cook twice as much, hoping to put some away and that will be the night they decide to be extra hungry. But I’m glad I can still help.” She turned the conversation onto me. “Dahlia, did you have a good time, dear? I know the first time with a clan can be overwhelming. It was for me.”
Tarrow turned his head to her and faltered a little in his steps. “You weren’t clan?”
I felt like an outsider. It seemed like something he was supposed to know, but didn’t.
“No, son. I wasn’t clan. I was a lone bear just roaming around when your father found me. I was with a foster family—I saw him on my first day in that new high school.”
We reached their home and I stayed outside while Tarrow escorted her in. Only a few seconds later, he came out.
“What are you doing out here?”
“I—I don’t know.”
I sent a tiny prayer for knowledge up to the Creator. I had no idea how things were done, down to the tiniest detail. I’d lived with my family all my life. I was free to go anywhere I pleased and my friends were my sisters.
I was a lost cub in all this formality and set rules.
It made me itchy.
“Come on, wild girl. My house is yours and…” He mumbled something else, but I couldn’t make it out, even with my heightened hearing.
I stopped right inside of the threshold, amazed at the house that belonged to my mate. It was neat and everything had a place. Tarrow’s mother even put her keys on a little hook near the door where her coat and purse also hung.
It took me at least a half hour to find my keys every time I went somewhere.
There were no paint cans strewn around and their furniture looked like it had never been sat on.
It was like walking into Ikea for bears.
I shivered again, but this time really from the cold. “Hold on.” Tarrow bounced up the stairs, taking some of them three at a time and disappeared into the first room at the top. He came out seconds later with a hoodie in his hands.
I was warm already.
“Here. I should’ve asked you earlier. I’ll get the hang of it, I swear.”
I didn’t know who he was trying to convince—me or him.
It sounded like him.
“It’s fine, Tarrow. I should’ve gotten a sweater from home. This is great.”
I pulled the sweatshirt over my head and had to do some major rearranging of my hair. It smelled like him, like being surrounded by pine trees and my mate.
There was no way I could ever pinpoint that smell.
“We’re going, Mom. Is there anything you need? I have my cell if something happens.”
I watched the exchange with interest. I’d heard that you could tell the way a man would be by the way he treats his mother.
If so, I was one lucky bear.
“I’ll call if a murderer breaks in.” At her words, Tarrow went at least ten shades lighter and then recovered. “Not a murderer, only a robber. I don’t have time to stop murders. I’m a busy guy.”
His mother cackled from another room.
He was a smartass and had been hiding it from me all this time. He tucked me against his side as we walked to his car and again, opened my door.
“Where to?” His voice was laced with anticipation and it dripped from him and spread through my chest.
“I don’t know. When I want to go somewhere, I run.”
“You wanna run with me?”
“Can we?”
“Of course, as long as we’re alone.”
“We can run behind my house. Would that be okay?”
“That would be perfect.”
He reached over the middle of the car and slowly slid his fingers under mine. My eyes closed at the connection. Every second I was wrapped more and more around this male who was changing the way I saw everything.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Ask me anything, love.”
“I don’t know anything about the mating rituals.”
He sucked in a breath and tightened his hold on my hand. “That wasn’t a question.” He smiled and looked at me. “I’m just kidding. I’m gonna wait until we stop before talking about that. I’m not sure I can drive and talk about something like that in a safe way. I heard my mom asked you every question on the planet.”
“She did. I figured you put her up to that.”
“No. I plan on finding out all of your secrets for myself. She’s probably going to make you a quilt or something. She does a lot of crafts and stuff. It keeps her busy.”
I hoped his mom didn’t expect me to craft with her. I wasn’t allowed near scissors or glue guns. I became a danger to others and myself.
And super glue. Creator help the soul who allowed me near super glue.
“I garden.”
Also, someone stop me from saying asinine things to my mate.
“So, the gnomes and the bed planted in the ground, that’s all you?”
“No. Not the decorations, just the plants. My mom is the creative genius behind those. I handle the dirt and the green things. That’s all I’m good at.”
For the second time that night, he lifted our hands together and kissed the top of my hand and kept them clasped, pressed against his chest.
“Dahlia, you’re good at so many more things than that.”
“You don’t know me very well.”
“I know that you treated my mom with all the respect that I would tonight. I know that you were kind and grateful to every person you met tonight. I felt the kindness toward my clan stirring in you. And most of all, I know that the Creator made you for me—and it’s going to take a hell of a female to put up with me.”
I let all of his compliments settle while he drove up my driveway. He saw things in me that I didn’t see in myself.
He didn’t see the late or the millions of weird bangles on my wrists.
He saw past those things.
“There’s some chairs over there. You want to talk first or run first?”
“Talk. I may need to run off some nerves after talking.”
He chuckled and got out of the car mumbling. “Damned straight.”
I got out of the car before he reached my side and he groaned. I wasn’t inept—that much. The least I could do was open my own door.
We sat in two Adirondack chairs that were next to each other in the garden. I saw my mom look out from one of the windows in the house, but she made no move to come outside.
“Give me your hands. I don’t want you to be scared about anything I’m about to tell you. It can be overwhelming, I’ve heard. I’ll be with you through the whole thing, obviously. So, you know nothing about the mark?”
I shook my head.
“Sometime after the mating bond sets our hearts in sync, the female chooses a spot on the male in
which to place her mark.” I giggled, picturing myself scribbling a smiley face on his shoulder with a permanent marker. “You’re going to have to bite me, Dahlia, draw blood. There are words that need to be said to each other, but I’ll teach you those when the time comes. Maybe I should learn them myself first.”
My smile had downturned into a grimace. My heart was torn in two. I wanted to complete the mating bond—that was my bear side. But under no circumstances did I ever want to hurt the male in front of me. His brown eyes stared me down while I mentally debated both sides.
A girl could lose herself in those puddles of care and concern without even knowing.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
He chuckled and kissed my hands again. “I want you to. There’s actually nothing I want more. I need the mark on me that tells the world that I belong to you and you to me. It’s like wedding rings.”
“And you have to bite me?”
He scooted to the edge of the chair and our knees touched, sending another shiver through me. “Yes. In the same place as your choosing. I’m told it’s a very intimate thing which is why we don’t date or anything. We wait for our mates.”
I’d always been warned away from dating—not given a specific reason, simply to wait for my mate. I’d been asked plenty of times, but always declined. As I looked into the face of my mate—the one that they promised would be the other half of me—I knew why.
There was no one in the world that could compare to him.
“How will I know where?”
“It will come to you. You’ll just know. Trust your bear. She won’t steer you wrong.”
The beast was already planning. She couldn’t make up her mind. Vixen.
“After that is the mating ritual. The Alpha will officiate, much like a human wedding and the last right is—well, the wedding night.” He cleared his throat after that last bit.
“That’s it?”
“Yes. That’s it.”
He let go of my hands and I was grateful. I needed a break from the intensity. My bear mulled everything over in complete joy. If she had her way, we would complete everything, right here, under the light of the moon.
A change of subject was in order.
“You lied to me.”
His forehead furrowed in confusion. “What did I lie about?”
