by Jenika Snow
The rest of my brothers were in the living room, lounging like they owned the place. Cason and Damon were in the middle of bullshitting about a job bid next week, and Asher had his feet propped up on the ottoman and a book in his lap. Oli held a bottle of whiskey and drank directly from it as he watched us.
I shut the door behind me, feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders suddenly. I’d found my mate and my brothers were finally meeting her. It was like a full circle.
And the entire time I kept my hand around Ali’s waist, keeping her close to me.
After a few moments of introductions, we headed into the living room and I sat down, pulling her onto my lap. I saw the way her cheeks turned pink, knew my public affection might be embarrassing for her, but my bear and I needed her close at all times. Hell, I needed my brothers to see that she was mine. I’d even asked her to wear her hair up so the mating mark could be seen.
Yeah, I was that kind of mated shifter.
And as I held her, saw the way my brothers checked out the mark I’d given her, scented their acceptance and happiness for me, I knew that all that time I waited for my mate was worth it.
I knew that Allison had been worth it tenfold.
And that’s why I was never letting her go. We were stuck together for life. And fuck, didn’t that sound like heaven.
Allison
I pulled open the front door but stopped before exiting. I turned around and looked at my now empty apartment, the place I’d called home for so long. Although if I were being honest, it had never really been a home, but a place I lived at.
Where Maddix was, where I felt free and alive, where I felt happy, that’s where home was. And being with him, mated to my bear shifter, was exactly where I should be. It made me feel like I’d been missing out on so much in life, that until I found him I’d just been going through the motions.
I wasn’t sad that I was leaving the city behind, that I wouldn’t be instructing dance classes anymore. Because if I was being honest, it was a miserable experience for me. Teaching others but not able to do that same thing myself had scraped off another layer of me until I felt like just one more piece of myself was exposed.
I shut and locked the door one last time, and headed downstairs and out the front lobby doors, seeing Maddix waiting by his truck. He leaned against the side of it, his arms crossed over his chest, his big body looking really tense. I could tell he hated the city. It showed in the way he stood, in the fact he kept looking around, curling his upper lip in disgust.
I couldn’t help but chuckle. He saw me and pushed away from the truck, striding over to me and embracing me instantly. Maddix had his nose buried in the crook of my neck, right by the mating mark, and I heard him inhale.
“This place is suffocating,” he grumbled against my throat. I had my arms wrapped around him, knowing exactly what he meant. Although I’d felt the weight of the city on me, it wasn’t until I finally found Maddix—my other half—that I realized just how crushing it all had been.
All of this was a little crazy, I wouldn’t lie. I was moving out of the city, turning my back on everything I’d known for years. But it wasn’t just some whim. It was the right decision. Definitely. Undeniably.
Besides, I wasn’t leaving anything, but instead going forward, starting my future ... living my life. And at the end of the day, my happiness, being with Maddix and starting our lives together was what mattered.
Oli
I leaned against the thick trunk of a tree and watched as my brothers grilled steaks and visited. I was happy for Zakari and Maddix. They’d finally found their mates, something we all wanted, all hoped for.
I kept my needs hidden, busied myself, worked my ass off in my garage because I didn’t want that crushing loneliness to eat away at me like it did them.
And it did, because I could smell it pouring off them in waves, that desperation, impatience, and desire to find the other half of their soul.
Being a shifter wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. We had strength, healed faster, and could shift, but we were always searching for our mates, always feeling empty without them. We just went through the motions every day until they were with us.
And how fucking depressing was that?
If my brothers wanted to live that way, hope that they’d happen upon their female, then so be it. But not me. I was getting out of here, at least for a short while, seeing if I could be the one to find her.
Was she human? A shifter? Was she on the East Coast? The west?
All of these questions would be answered, because I wouldn’t stop until I found her. I was taking my future, my fate, into my own hands.
I brought the whiskey bottle to my mouth and took another pull from it. I’d been nursing it the entire day, and by now my throat was numb and my body relaxed.
My mate.
I’d find her or die trying.
Epilogue
Maddix
A few months later
I pushed the shopping cart down each aisle, feeling pretty out of place for being here, but when my mate said she needed help at the grocery store, I dropped what I was doing and went with her.
The stares I got, the whispers I heard, made me feel even more like I shouldn’t be here.
“Oh my God, is that a bear brother?”
“One of them actually came down the mountain?”
I glowered at each person I passed, showing them a flash of my canines.
I curled my hands around the plastic handle, one of the wheels on the cart jacked up as it wiggled and squeaked. I clenched my teeth together, my annoyance rising, my bear itching to get out of here. I turned the cart down the junk food aisle and start tossing in chips, donuts, hell, anything that would make me feel better about the situation. I was a stress eater, for sure, and being in town, around all these people, put me on edge.
Even now, I could see the looks they gave me, the whispers I heard in the next aisle.
“I heard they were getting mates. Maybe that’ll make them not so feral.”
I tossed in a couple more bags of chips.
I’d just work the fuck out later, burn off all this shit. But right now, it all sounded pretty damn good.
“Those bear brothers look like they’d eat small children for a snack.”
“For fuck sake,” I muttered and shook my head slowly as I listened to what they said about me.
Bear brothers.
That seemed like an accurate description for who and what we were.
I grabbed a case of water and tossed it on to the bottom of the cart, maybe a little too forcefully as the cart slid forward a couple inches.
Going down the produce aisle, I counteracted all my junk food with fruits and vegetables.
“I’m so out of fucking place.” I muttered those words under my breath, ready to find Ali so we could get the hell out of there.
I had looked up and down every aisle for her, except the last one, which happened to be feminine hygiene products. I was just about to turn and make another round, away from the aisle that would have me looking out of place, when I heard something drop and then her sweet voice ring out a filthy curse word. I grinned.
That was my girl.
I turned the cart down the aisle and saw her crouched, picking up a few boxes that had clearly fallen off the shelf.
“I knew as soon as I heard my mate say ‘fuck’ I was in the right place,” I teased and grinned wider, but when she stood and I noticed what boxes she held, I sobered immediately. My entire body was tense, my gaze darting from her face to what was in her hands.
Pregnancy tests.
I didn’t know what to say, how to react. Obviously, she’d be holding those for one reason.
She thought she was pregnant.
I felt my heart start to race at the very thought she could be carrying my child. How could I have missed this? How could I have not scented that she was pregnant?
And as I inhaled deeply, trying to take in her scent, I realized her
warring emotions had masked the aroma that she had been fertile … and that she was now with child.
I swallowed, my throat feeling tight, the words lodged, poised at the tip of my tongue. “Ali, baby?”
“You didn’t say anything, like didn’t mention you knew I was fertile or pregnant, so I assumed I wasn’t. But I’m two weeks late, my boobs hurt, and I feel like bursting into tears every time a Hallmark commercial comes on.” She lifted up the boxes and gave me this awkward little smile. “It’ll probably say I’m not, but I want to be sure.” It was clear in her voice she was nervous, and as I smelled her anxiousness, her anticipation, the hesitation, there was also the undertone of happiness and joy.
Of hope.
She wanted a baby.
And underneath all of that, I smelled something much sweeter, filled with life … our baby.
I grinned and walked up to her, pulling her into an embrace and burying my face in her hair. I closed my eyes and just held my mate, not caring that people had stopped to stare. Let them. I wanted them to know she was mine, that she was carrying my child.
I pulled back, my hands on her waist, my fingers gently pressing into her waist. “I didn’t sense it before because you have a lot of emotions swirling around. The stress masked it pretty well.” And then I moved back another inch and dropped to my knees in front of her. I looked up at my mate and saw her smiling, her cheeks pink as she looked around.
My PDA was on point when it came to Allison. I wanted everyone to know how much I loved her.
I rested my forehead gently on her belly, focusing on the faint sound of a heartbeat. There it was.
Ours.
God, I felt like a failure for not knowing this, recognizing it sooner. For weeks, I hadn’t known my mate was with child.
I looked up at her and grinned. “Our baby is right in here, Ali.” I leaned in and kissed her stomach, knowing I could’ve stayed here forever. I forced myself to stand, though, then cupped each side of her neck, staring into her eyes.
“So I am pregnant? We are going to have a baby?” She asked those questions on a whisper, her eyes wide as shock covered her beautiful face.
I nodded and leaned down to press my mouth to hers. “A baby,” I said softly against her lips. “Our baby.” God, I hadn’t realized I could love Allison any more than I did, but knowing she was pregnant, that she carried our child, had my love for her growing tenfold.
If she thought I was possessive and territorial of her before now, she was in for a surprise.
A shifter with a pregnant mate was a force to be reckoned with.
And I’d do whatever it took to protect both of them.
“Let’s go home and celebrate,” I said softly and wrapped my arm around her shoulder.
“Let’s go tell everyone the good news.” I was going to be a father. Hell, who would have thought a grouchy grizzly like me would have ever found his mate, let alone be blessed to have a baby? “If it’s a boy and like any of the bear brothers, I have my work cut out for me. He’ll no doubt be rowdy.”
Ali chuckled and tipped her head back to look at me. “And if it’s a little girl?”
I growled low. “Then I better make sure my shotguns are cleaned for any fucking boy who comes knocking on my door to see her.”
Ali chuckled and I pulled her in tighter. “So dramatic.”
“I’m being serious.”
“I know, and I love you more for it.”
I kissed the crown of her head, feeling like I was the luckiest fucking bear shifter on the planet.
That’s because I am.
The End
About the Author
Want to read more by Jenika Snow? Find all her title here:
http://jenikasnow.com/bookshelf/
Find the author at:
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2FfW7A1
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2E9g3VV
Bookbub: http://bit.ly/2rAfVMm
Newsletter: http://bit.ly/2dkihXD
www.JenikaSnow.com
[email protected]
