Finn shouted something back, and then he rocked me in his arms. After I stopped trying to get away, it was sort of soothing.
Rylan came to the side of us and put his hand on my cheek. Were there tears in his eyes? There shouldn’t be. They didn’t cry in my dreams. They were free. Running as bears. No more nonsense.
No more war.
Then Cole was back, still holding that injection. I closed my eyes. I was through fighting the inevitable. Okay, he was going to hurt me. There was going to be a pounding right in my arm. But he was gentle. It pinched, and then it was over. A coolness passed through my arm. Whatever he put in me didn’t hurt like the way the abusive drugs did.
I wasn’t out cold. It didn’t knock me on my rear. More like. . .I crawled against Finn. Letting him hold me closer. Cole touched my ear, and it didn’t hurt. That was weird. Anytime anyone came anywhere near it, I hollered in pain. He shined a light in it, and I could hear his voice as he spoke to Finn and Rylan. I couldn’t understand him, but that close to my ear, I could hear him.
This was starting to feel very real.
“Dreams shouldn’t be this real. That makes them harder to leave.”
Rylan stroked the top of my head. To make matters even stranger, my brother came through the door.
“What’s the prognosis?” I could understand him just fine.
I sat up a little, and Cole put his hand on me to stop me. He answered Cal, but I couldn’t understand him.
“Okay, then. See you in a bit, Jess. Love you.”
Love me? He didn’t love me. No one loved me.
All three of my mates spoke. Maybe I’d said that last part aloud.
“Can you understand me and hear me?” Cole brushed my hair off my forehead. I sweated badly. It was hot in here. Or maybe it was just the furnace that was Finn holding me.
“I can.” I squirmed, and Finn let me up just a little. He still had his arm around me. “How is this happening?”
Rylan scooted over from where he’d been leaning by the wall. “Fuck, yes.”
I rubbed at my eyes. “I don’t understand.”
Cole grinned at me for a second before his head fell down like his neck couldn’t support the weight. He took a deep breath and lifted it. “Your translator was damaged. No one fixed it. A side effect of a damaged translator left in the ear is that it makes the person hard of hearing. Worse and worse. I simply had to change it out. Not a big deal. I’m sorry they didn’t do it for you. They were all of them butchers and. . .” He didn’t finish whatever he was going to say. He rubbed his eyes.
They’d all lost weight since I last saw them, and I had a million questions.
“How is this possible?”
Rylan sat down on the edge of the table. “After we found out you weren’t dead, we tracked down McDermott. You’d been gone three days. He’s not breathing air anymore. Neither are any of the Derbys.”
I swallowed that information and found it didn’t bother me at all. “Okay.” I pointed to my ear. “Their leader is the one who hurt me with the translator.”
Finn snarled. “I wish I could kill him again.”
“We got ahold of our cousin, and he came and got us. We were on our way to Earth, working out a plan on how to get to you, not even knowing where you were, when we got a message from your brother. Well, he found us. Turned out he knew our cousin. Nefarious personalities run in crowds.” Rylan smiled at the memory. “He knew where you were. Was planning on getting you and wanted to know if we wanted in. He knew who we were, thanks to our cousin.”
This all made sense. I hadn’t hallucinated seeing Cal. “I. . .I never thought.” I choked on a sob and then tugged it back in. They all made varying degrees of growls and whimpers. “I thought that was that. I’d never see you again.”
Finn sucked in a long breath. “We failed you.” He hit the ground on his knees, his head lowered. “We can’t make it right. There isn’t fixing this. There is only what can come next. Do you want a future with us? We cannot live in the world if you aren’t okay, but if we know you are okay, we will leave you alone. If that is what you wish.”
Is that what I wished? “I have wanted nothing but you for. . .” I didn’t know how long it had been. “How long since we saw each other?”
Cole sighed. “A year and one day. We were hoping to get you yesterday, but things aren’t moving as fast as we keep trying to make them. We’re a bit of a slow moving cog.”
“Why?” My ears were working, and suddenly the sound of the ship we flew on overwhelmed my senses. It had been such a long time since I’d been in space, and I used to spend almost every waking moment there. My trip to the asylum didn’t matter. I’d been knocked out for most of it. This was a large ship. This was. . .
“Are we on a freighter? Why is this ship so big?”
Rylan put out his hand. “Before we left, Finn gave the people a choice. They could stay where they were and live a completely isolationist life, potentially never finding their mates or they could come with us. It would be a long time until we found a new home, but they could come.”
Finn got to his feet, hugging me to him. I could hear his heartbeat. Both of those facts—his heartbeat being near me and that I could hear it—were large miracles.
“I thought maybe Mark would show up with his mate and brothers. We had a larger group than we initially thought. Hence the large ship. There are actually four ships.”
Goosebumps broke out on my arms, and I rubbed them away. “That’s huge. You guys don’t like to leave home, mostly. Where are we going?”
“We’ve been focused on getting to you. But your brother helped some of the others find a planet he knew about. Terraformed fifty years ago. Apparently, there are all kinds of people there. Shifters, and others who prefer to simply be left alone. We’re going to go there now.”
My planet on the edge of the universe. Yes, sure, Cal knew about it. I’d talked about it a million times. That’s where I was supposed to be going when I got him out of jail.
I nodded. “You had to change your entire planet to be with me. I don’t know if I can ever live up to expectations.”
Rylan kissed my hand. “No expectations. Just you. Just us. We’re not even going to try to lead once we’re there. We’re just going to be. Just family.”
Tears streamed from my eyes. “And can we have a house where the chairs are too big? And the bed is too big? And the fridge has some items I can’t identify in it?”
“Maybe we can make some of that furniture just right.” Rylan put his nose on my neck, like he breathed me in. Cole kissed my cheek while Finn pressed our foreheads together. That was just what I needed. So we stayed like that. For a very long time.
One year later
I watched in amusement as the third bear shifter of the morning arrived to ask my mates for advice. Their idea about not leading had been ridiculous. Everyone wanted to know what they thought all the time about all sorts of matters.
This one had to do with the distribution of crops. I wasn’t sure that Cole exactly knew that, but he was answering just the same.
I put my hand on my stomach to feel the baby move. We only took up such a small portion of the planet, not wanting to cause issues with our neighbors. Rylan estimated it was maybe an eighth of the place. But with all the babies that were going to be born in the next year, that was bound to increase a bit.
Finn walked over and sat down next to me on our big bench. It had sort of become a joke. We made everything just slightly too big for me. Rylan arrived a second later. They’d seen me watch the suns set on this planet every day since we got here like it was my job.
“There’s been something I’ve wanted to ask you guys since day one.”
Cole ran over and sat on the edge of the bench. “Go. I’m here. Ask.”
Rylan rolled his eyes. “I bet we could have answered it without you.”
“Yes, I’m sure, but not as well as I’m going to answer it.”
Finn nudged me. “Ask. T
hey’ll do it all night.”
“Why did the wolves shoot at me that day? Why did they do that when I wasn’t off the set path?”
Finn shrugged. “Who knows with wolves? They’re such miserable creatures. Not like the bear. The loyal, understandable, trustworthy bear.”
I held back my laugh. He might sound like he was kidding, but he wasn’t. If I laughed, he’d try to prove his point, and then we’d be talking about bears for the rest of the night.
Cole nodded. “Never could trust a wolf.”
Rylan drummed his hand on the bench. “Besides, if they hadn’t done that, you’d never have fallen from the sky and into my lap.”
Every time he talked about my crash landing, he added something to it to make the whole thing sound much more romantic than it was.
“That poor ship Goldie. She got me down safely.”
Finn played with a stand of my golden hair. “We can tell the kids stories about her someday. That’s what life is, right? A retelling of beautiful stories over and over? I can’t think of any I like more than the time Jessica arrived on Planet Bear.”
I wasn’t getting away without hearing about bears tonight. I leaned back on my bench and watched the orange redness of the sky. Finn started talking. Cole would be next. Rylan would finish. I was Jessica, and these were my three bears.
* * *
THE END
Also by Rebecca Royce
Wings of Artemis
Kidnapped By Her Husbands
Rescued by Their Wife
Crashing Into Destiny
Meeting Them
Reclaiming Their Love
Loving Them
Ship Called Malice (found in the Married. Wait! What? Anthology)
Saving Them (October 2017)
Dark Demise (coming soon)
* * *
Last Hope
Tradition Be Damned
Past Be Damned
Destiny Be Damned (September 2017)
Compassion Be Damned (coming soon)
* * *
Dragon Wars
Forever
Eternal
Always
Evermore
Endless (coming November 2017)
* * *
Wards and Wands
Hexed and Vexed (December 2017)
Curse Reversed (coming soon)
* * *
Safe Haven
Everywhere and Nowhere
More coming soon….
* * *
Soul Bound
Prisoner of the Dragons
More coming soon….
* * *
Shadow Promised
Strange Days
Weird Nights
Bizarre Years
More coming soon…
* * *
The Warrior
Initiation
Driven
Subversive
Redemption
Justice
* * *
Warrior World
Deacon
Micah (coming soon)
* * *
The Westervelt Wolves
Her Wolf
Summer’s Wolf
Wolf Reborn
Wolf’s Valentine
Wolf’s Magic
Alpha Wolf
Angel’s Wolf
Darkest Wolf
Lone Wolf
* * *
Fallen Alpha
Alpha Rising
Alpha’s Strength
Alpha’s Sacrifice
Alpha’s Truth
Alpha Enticing
Hidden Alpha (coming soon)
* * *
The Capes
Seductive Powers
Adrenaline Rush
Last Ascension
* * *
The Conditioned
Eye Contact
Embraced
More coming soon…
* * *
The Outsiders
Love Beyond Time
Love Beyond Sanity
Love Beyond Loyalty
Love Beyond Sight
Love Beyond Expectations
Love Beyond Oceans
Love Beyond Flames
Love Beyond Lies (coming soon)
* * *
Cascade
Haunted Redemption
Phoenix Everlasting
Fragility Unearthed
Persuasion Enraptured
* * *
Under The Lights
No Quitting Allowed
Mr. Wrong
Bite Marks
Bitten Surrender
The Vampire and The Virgin
Demon Within
About the Author
As a teenager, I would hide in my room to read my favorite romance novels when I was supposed to be doing my homework. I hope, these days, that my parents think it was worth it.
I am the mother of three adorable boys and I am fortunate to be married to my best friend. I live in Austin Texas where I am determined to eat all the barbecue in town.
I am in love with science fiction, fantasy, and the paranormal and try to use all of these elements in my writing. I've been told I'm a little bloodthirsty so I hope that when you read my work you'll enjoy the action packed ride that always ends in romance. I love to write series because I love to see characters develop over time and it always makes me happy to see my favorite characters make guest appearances in other books.
In my world anything is possible, anything can happen, and you should suspect that it will.
* * *
Follow Rebecca on Social Media
www.rebeccaroyce.com
www.twitter.com/rebeccaroyce
https://www.facebook.com/authorrebeccaroyce/?fref=ts
Note From the Publisher
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