“I would love that. Thank you so much,” Hannah said, feeling overwhelmed by their kindness. She clearly didn’t have to worry about whether they would accept her into their group. Their warm, friendly smiles showed their eagerness to get to know her better.
Ryker must have heard Alan and Hannah arrive, because he stuck his head out from a side bedroom.
“Hey, you must be Hannah. I’m Ryker, Kenzie’s life mate. Do you want to meet the cubs?” Ryker’s dark brown hair was a mess, and his violet eyes looked tired, but happy.
“I would love to,” Hannah said, then hesitated. “Are you sure Kenzie is up for it?”
Ryker smiled kindly and nodded. “She’s tired, but resting. She would love to meet you.”
Hannah grinned and followed Ryker and Alan into the bedroom. The bedroom was large, with a huge, king-sized bed in the middle. A single bassinet stood to the right of the room, and Alan chuckled as he pointed at it. “Looks like you’re going to have to get an extra one of those,” he said.
On the bed, lay a woman with dark brown hair and stunning green eyes. She looked tired, but very happy.
“Hi, I’m Hannah,” Hannah introduced herself. “Thank you so much for inviting me over.”
“Hi, I’m Kenzie,” she said with a smile. “It sounds like you’re going to be joining the clan soon, so I thought you might want to meet the newest little clan members.” Kenzie winked at Alan, and Hannah felt a little thrill of excitement. Had Alan said something to his clan members about asking her to be his life mate? Hannah bubbled with anticipation, but there would be time to think about that later. Right now, she wanted to meet the tiny bundles that lay swaddled up next to their mother.
“This is our beautiful little girl, Hope,” Ryker said, handing one of the tiny bundles to Alan. Then he took the second bundle and handed it to Hannah. “And this is our little man cub, Calum. The name Calum means peace.”
“Hope and peace. The future of the Northern Lights Clan,” Alan said, tears gathering in his eyes and threatening to spill over. Hannah could only imagine the emotions he must be feeling right now. She knew he was overjoyed at the additions to the clan, but his heart must break at the fresh reminder that he never got to hold his own little cub in his arms. Ryker seemed to understand this, because he said nothing further, just reached over and gave Alan’s arm a squeeze.
Hannah turned her attention to the little baby in her arms. Calum’s eyes were closed, and he had scrunched his face up into an adorable little scowl. A tiny shock of dark brown hair peeked out from his knit baby hat and onto his forehead. Hannah laughed.
“It looks like he’s not too thrilled with his new surroundings quite yet.”
At the sound of Hannah’s voice, Calum’s eyes flew open. He squinted up at Hannah and his face relaxed.
“Look, I think he likes me! And look at those little violet eyes!”
Ryker grinned and beamed with pride. “Yeah, you can’t see it right now because she’s sleeping, but Hope’s eyes are violet as well. Definitely two little Northern Lights shifter cubs.”
Hannah looked down at Calum and took in his tiny face with wonder. He was so impossibly tiny. His little nose was barely the size of the tip of Hannah’s pinky finger. She glanced over at baby Hope in Alan’s arms. Hope’s eyes were indeed closed, and her face looked serene as she slept.
Hannah took in the sight of Alan holding a tiny baby in his arms, and she couldn’t help but feel a yearning in her chest to see him holding a cub of their own. She forced herself to push the thought away. He hadn’t even officially asked her to be his life mate yet, although from the way the rest of the clan was reacting to Hannah’s presence it seemed they knew he planned to ask Hannah soon. But even once they agreed to become life mates, Hannah didn’t know how Alan felt about having a cub of their own. She didn’t want to bring up the subject, because even now she could see the fresh, raw pain laced across his eyes. The anguish of losing his unborn cub was something he would carry with him the rest of his life. True, time made everything easier to bear. But that didn’t mean the heartache would ever completely disappear. It was one of those things you just learned to live with.
“They’re beautiful,” Alan said, his voice soft and emotional as he handed Hope back to Ryker.
Hannah handed Calum back to Kenzie. “They’re so beautiful,” she said, echoing Alan’s sentiment. “I want to let you get some rest, now, but thank you for sharing your cubs with us. I can’t wait to get to know them, and you, even better.”
Kenzie nodded happily and smiled at Alan and Hannah. “Thanks for coming by, guys. It means a lot to me to see your joy at our new cubs.” Kenzie gave Alan an especially meaningful look, and he started to tear up again.
“Okay, well, we’ll go and let you rest,” Alan said abruptly. After very quick goodbyes to the rest of the clan, Alan and Hannah made their way back to Alan’s cabin. As soon as they closed the door behind them, Alan dissolved into tears.
Hannah took him in her arms and stroked his hair. She didn’t say anything, just held him as he sobbed for several minutes. When his tears finally subsided, he wiped at his eyes and sniffed, looking embarrassed.
“You must think I’m so weak, sitting here sniveling and weeping over something that happened over a year ago. It’s not very manly of me,” Alan said as he stared down at the floor.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Crying doesn’t mean you’re weak. It means you’re strong enough to let go of the pain bottled up inside of you.”
Alan gave Hannah a grateful look, but he still looked sheepish. Hannah took his hand.
“Come here,” she said, leading him into the bedroom. She sat on one side of bed, leaning back against the large, fluffy pillows. Then she patted the empty spot in the bed next to her.
“Sit,” she ordered, and Alan obeyed. He sat next to her and joined her in laying back against the pillows. Hannah reached over and took his hand again, lacing her fingers into his.
“Tell me about her.”
“About Tessa?”
“Yes. What was she like?” Hannah turned her head sideways to look at Alan, who was staring up at the ceiling. For several moments, he remained silent. His eyes teared up, and Hannah thought he might not answer the question. But then he spoke.
“She was beautiful. Petite, with strawberry blonde hair and violet eyes like mine. She was quiet and reserved. Not shy, just quiet. She had a certain aura of tranquility about her, and the ability to remain calm no matter what the circumstances. She didn’t like to fight or rock the boat. She was a peacemaker. One of the kindest people you could have ever met. She would have made such a good mother,” Alan said, his voice catching in his throat. “I still miss her every day. But having you here has made things easier. I’ve seen that it is possible to love again. And I’ve realized that loving again doesn’t mean that I’m disloyal to Tessa. I still cherish her memory, but I know she would have wanted me to be happy. And being here with you makes me happy. You’re different from her. You’ve got much more of a fiery, stubborn streak. But you’re kind, just like she was. She would have liked you.”
Alan finally looked over at Hannah. His eyes still glistened with tears that threatened to spill over, and the rims of his eyelids were red from crying. But he smiled at Hannah.
“I know you’ve faced pain yourself, too,” he said. “Being separated from your clan with no idea where they are can’t be easy. But you’ve stayed so strong and optimistic. You’ve brought beauty back into my life where I thought I’d never find it again.”
Hannah squeezed his hand and leaned over to kiss him. He kissed her back, and then put her arms around her. They lay there together for a long time, holding each other and taking in the warmth and security that comes from being held by someone who loves you.
The shadows in the room grew long as the daylight started to fade away. As the sun set over the horizon, leaving them in the dim, gray light of dusk, Alan snuggled his face against Hannah’s ear.
“Be my life
mate, Hannah,” he said. “I know I should plan some extravagant, super romantic proposal. But I’ve never seen you look more beautiful than this moment right now, and I don’t want to wait any longer to ask you. Please, say you’ll be my life mate.”
Hannah held him tighter in the gathering darkness. “Yes. My answer is yes. Always and forever, I’m yours.”
Alan held her tighter and kissed her long and hard. They didn’t say anything else that evening, just laid together happily until they both drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Twelve
Hannah awoke to the sensation of Alan’s lips on her lips. She peeked open her eyes, and saw him grinning at her before he leaned in to give her another peck on the lips. His lips on hers filled her with a delightful, familiar warmth.
“I’m sorry if I woke you,” he said. “I just couldn’t stop myself from kissing that beautiful mouth.”
Hannah smirked at him. “Oh really,” she said. “Well you better be careful kissing me like that.”
Alan’s eyes danced at Hannah’s playful tone. “And why is that?”
“Because you’re turning me on, and I love morning sex,” Hannah said, then she rolled over and pushed Alan onto his back. She shimmied on top of him and put her mouth over his, kissing him deeply.
Alan didn’t seem to have any complaints. He happily returned Hannah’s kiss, and she could feel his dick stiffening beneath her as their tongues met and slid over each other. Hannah felt her entire body warming as Alan pulled his hands up and placed his palms gently on her cheeks as he kissed her. They kissed hungrily for several minutes, and Alan used his thumbs to stroke her cheeks. Then he pulled back and gave her a mischievous look.
“I think you’re the one who better be careful,” he teased. “Because no one likes morning sex better than me.”
Hannah shrieked and giggled as he pushed her off of him and onto her back, then started tugging her sweater over her head. They had never bothered to undress last night, so they were both still fully clothed, but Alan was about to remedy that situation. After pulling off her shirt, he trailed his hand down her navel to the top of her jeans. He gave her a seductive look as he unbuttoned the top button and then slid the zipper down. He pulled the heavy denim material off and over her feet, leaving Hannah wearing only a lacy black bra and panties.
He paused for a moment to pull his own shirt over his head, putting his muscular, chiseled abs on display. Then he unbuttoned his own jeans and slid both them and his boxers off, throwing them onto the growing pile of clothes across the room. Fully naked, with his ample penis standing at attention, he returned his focus to removing Hannah’s clothes. He straddled her on the bed, reaching behind her to unclasp her bra. Slowly, teasingly, he slid each strap down over her shoulder and then tossed the garment aside. Her nipples were alert and hard, waiting and longing for his touch. Alan knew how to give Hannah what she wanted.
She moaned as he leaned over and slowly started drawing little wet circles around each nipple with his tongue. Every now and then he would throw in a gentle nibble, closing his teeth over the hard pink flesh of first the left nipple, then the right. He cupped each breast under his hand and massaged the undersides as he continued to tease the nipples with his teeth and tongue. At one point he pushed her breasts together so the nipples were almost touching. Then he ran his tongue back and forth from left to right, sending a shock of warm ecstasy through Hannah’s body as he hit each nipple over and over in rapid succession. She could feel her the moisture between her legs growing as Alan drove her wild with his exploration of her breasts.
He began moving his tongue down, tracing a sensual, wet line from her breasts to her navel. He circled her bellybutton with his tongue, and she shivered in ecstasy at the warm, tickling sensation. Then he reached her panties. He grabbed the top edge with his teeth, and started pulling them off. He reached up and used his hands to help him strip away that last article of clothing, tossing it aside and quickly returning to straddle Hannah.
She breathed heavily as he slid into her. He pushed himself all the way in, and leaned his bare chest against her bare breasts. Hannah panted as he filled her, his pressure inside of her sending little tremors of ecstasy through her being. He moved his hips against her in a circular motion, then raised himself up slightly on his elbows so he could rock back and forth, forward and backward inside of her. As he moved slowly, steadily, the little tremors grew. Warm, wet passion filled Hannah, building in pressure until she exploded like a crescendo. She cried out his name as her body erupted into a full blown earthquake. The orgasm came quickly, and the intensity grew until it felt greater than anything Hannah had experienced before. As the tremors of passion passed through her, over and over, she felt Alan stiffen his whole body and then let out a groan as he let himself come into her, his large, rigid penis pulsing in concert with Hannah’s own spasms. When the action had subsided, they lay together, breathless and satisfied, until Alan raised his head to give Hannah a sweet kiss on the lips.
“Not a bad way to start the day, huh?” he said, grinning from ear to ear.
* * *
The day only got better from there. In fact, the weeks only got better from there. One month later, in November, Alan and Hannah held a simple, but meaningful life mate ceremony. Neal officially welcomed Hannah into the Northern Lights Clan, and gave his blessing to the new couple. The day was filled with bittersweet happiness for Hannah. She had found a new family, but her heart ached that her old clan was not there to share in this special life event with her. Alan understood her sadness. He gave Hannah space to grieve whenever she needed it, even on the day of their life mate ceremony.
Hannah settled in to life with the Northern Lights Clan, spending most of her days helping Kat and Delaney take care of Kenzie and the new cubs. Hannah had always loved children. In her old clan, she had spent much of her time helping to care for the clan’s cubs when their parents needed to attend to other clan business. And Hope and Calum were two of the cutest, sweetest cubs Hannah had ever met. As their red, wrinkly newborn face started to transform into the smooth, chubby baby skin of early infancy, Hannah often thought that it wasn’t possible for two babies to be any cuter. The combination of human and bear genes gave them a unique, almost mystical appearance.
The Northern Lights bears continued to stand guard over Kenzie and the cubs, fearing a Blizzard attack. But two months after the cubs’ birth, the Blizzards had still not shown up. Hannah thought this was good news, but Neal doubled up efforts to watch over the babies, fearing that the Blizzards were attempting to trick the Northern Lights bears into letting their guard down. Neal frequently sent his bears out in pairs to conduct scouting missions. He wanted to see if he could figure out why the Blizzards remained in hiding even though December had arrived and the cold weather offered the perfect climate for the Blizzards to go on the offensive. The sun had gone dark for the winter again, and snow piled higher and higher as the temperatures dipped far below zero.
Several of the scouting excursions occurred without any sighting of Blizzard activity. One freezing day in mid-December however, Eric and Tyler discovered two wounded polar bear shifters, both in bear form. The bears were too weak to move, but they weren’t Blizzards. Eric and Tyler rushed back to the cabins and got Kenzie’s snowmobile, which had a stretcher for wounded animals on it, since she worked as a veterinarian. With Neal’s permission, they went back to the wounded bears and loaded them on to the stretcher to bring back to the cabins. They had to move them one at a time, since each bear took up the entire space of the stretcher, but they managed to drag them both into a large storage shed behind Neal’s cabin. The polar bears were too weak to shift back into human form, but Kenzie used her veterinarian skills to treat their injuries.
When Alan and Neal came to look at the bears, Alan’s eyes grew wide.
“This is exactly what Hannah looks like in bear form,” he said, his voice sounding tense. “Neal, I think these bears are from her clan!”
“Where�
�s Hannah?” Neal demanded.
“She went to town with Delaney,” Kenzie said, never looking up from her work as she stitched up a large gash on one of the bears. “They needed to pick up some supplies, but they should be back soon.”
“I want to know the minute she gets back,” Neal said. “We need to have her look at these bears in case they are from her clan. We should try to warn her first about the condition they’re in, though. These injuries don’t look pretty.”
Alan nodded his head in agreement, but before he could reply, a loud, shattering sound rang across the room.
Hannah stood in the doorway, a bag of groceries dropped at her feet with its contents spilled over and rolling across the floor. Delaney ran up behind her, breathless.
“I tried to tell her to wait,” Delaney panted, “But Kat and her big mouth mentioned the bears and I couldn’t hold Hannah back for even a second.”
Hannah didn’t say anything, just ran across the room and grabbed one of the bears around the neck in a huge embrace. Then she started sobbing into the bear’s bloody, matted fur.
“I think we have our answer,” Neal said, watching Hannah weep. “It looks like we’ve found Hannah’s clan. What’s left of it, anyways.”
Chapter Thirteen
Hannah confirmed that the three bears came from the Frozen Claw Clan. And for the next two weeks, Hannah stayed by their sides constantly. She only left for short breaks here and there to see Alan or to give Kenzie’s cubs a quick kiss on the cheeks. The bears were James and Seth, two of the younger bears from Hannah’s clan—barely more than teenagers. Hannah desperately wanted a chance to ask them what had happened to them, and if they knew where the rest of the clan was, but the bears were too weak to talk.
Bearing the Black Ice (Ice Bear Shifters Book 4) Page 7
