by Sable Sylvan
“That’s never happened before,” said Jasper, clasping Artemis’s hand to his chest before releasing it as he said, “And you know what that means, Artemis.”
“Jasper...” started Artemis, withdrawing her hand as the mark faded and the skin became normal and nonluminescent again. “I guess...I really am your mate.”
“You might guess, but I know for sure,” said Jasper, pulling Artemis up for a deep kiss, holding her on the bed as he kissed away her happy tears, tears which mixed with his own. “I’ve looked for you for years, Artemis...and finally, we’ve found each other.” Jasper wiped a tear from under Artemis’s eye with a crooked finger and she couldn’t help but smile at the way his touch felt against her skin.
“This has, hands down, been the best summer of my life,” said Artemis. “You know what the funny thing is?”
“What?” asked Jasper.
“The one thing I promised myself I wouldn’t do this summer? Was date,” said Artemis. “But I guess technically, we didn’t date.”
“Does this mean you won’t be my girlfriend until the summer ends?” asked Jasper.
Artemis laughed and pushed Jasper playfully. “Is that your roundabout way of asking me to be your girlfriend?”
Jasper got off the bed and got down on one knee, and for a split second, Artemis was really worried he was going to pop a certain question...and more worried that she’d do the impulsive thing and say yes. “Artemis Miller...will you be my girlfriend?” asked Jasper.
“Of course,” said Artemis.
“You know...you never did guess my mate mark,” said Jasper, getting back into bed before pulling Artemis close. He pressed a kiss on the top of her forehead.
“Guess that means you owe me dinner for a month, boyfriend” said Artemis with a soft smile. The word ‘boyfriend’ felt foreign on her lips.
“You only have a month left, don’t you,” said Jasper quietly, holding Artemis’s hand in his gently.
“Hey...you can always visit me at college,” said Artemis. “Besides, I only have one year left. How hard is it really going to be?”
“Absolutely agonizing,” said Jasper, taking the whole moment in. He was finally with his fated mate, after years of searching and dozens of mistakes, but it was the path that had brought them together. He ran his hands over Artemis’s curves, eyes closed, as if to memorize their feeling for later. “But I’ve waited to be with you for this long...another year won’t hurt.”
Epilogue
One Year Later
When they got back to Seattle, Artemis and Jasper gave Cedar their proposal for a series of harvest festivals. Cedar approved the plan and got the ball rolling so that there would be some late fall festivals held in various small towns around the country to boost image. The events were a success: sales skyrocketed in regions that had festivals, and there was a bigger planning push to hold festivals in twice as many towns the next year.
And Artemis and Jasper?
Artemis made well on her bet with Jasper: for the rest of her internship, she had dinner with him, and she practically slept over at his apartment every night of the week.
Once her internship was over, Artemis headed back to Bozeman to finish up college. Of course, she spent every free moment talking to Jasper over the phone, and she spent her breaks with him in Seattle, or wherever he wanted to spirit her away for a weekend of loving, from New England B+Bs to some much needed R+R at a resort in Georgia during the winter. Through all four of the next seasons, their relationship blossomed, until finally, they were both ready to take the next step. They just had to find the right moment...
It was the second annual Asher Harvest Festival in Port Jameson, and while it was taking place, similar celebrations were taking place around the country, including back in Artemis’s hometown in Montana. The festival had gone off without a hitch: it had attracted Seattle tourists to the Port Jameson area and the local economy was booming from the influx of jobs for the festival preparations. All around town, businesses were busy setting up for the festival, and that included the Bear Claw Bakery, where both Artemis and Jasper had their sleeves rolled up as they went over the bakery’s production queue, ensuring that enough honey buns and bear claws to feed an army of shifters would be ready for the evening.
Artemis checked on her pies: the blueberry pie recipe she’d inherited from her late grandmother had worked well with the substitution of marionberries, and the pies were going to be cool in time for the pie eating contest.
Jasper brought Artemis a glass of water. “Thanks,” said Artemis, sipping the water before going back to her pies.
“You don’t drink enough water, you know I worry,” said Jasper. “Sorry for worrying about my lovely girlfriend.” Jasper hugged Artemis from behind.
“Hey, not in the kitchen,” said Artemis. “Back up. I’ve got to take these out.” Artemis slipped on her oven mitts and grabbed a single pie from the oven...but as she turned, she almost dropped the pie.
“Dad?” said Artemis. She put the pie down and slipped off the mitts before walking up to her father who was at the Bear Claw Bakery counter.
“I’ll take a bear claw,” said Artemis’s father, Reggie. “How’ve you been, Artemis?”
“Dad, I thought you were in Bozeman for the festival,” said Artemis. “It’s great to see you.”
“Great to see you too, kiddo,” said Reggie. “And I think you’ll recall I said I’d be at the festival, but I didn’t specify where the festival was. After all, I had to finally meet the scoundrel that whisked you away to Seattle right when you finished college.”
“It’s great to see you again, Mr. Miller,” said Jasper. Reggie joked a lot with Jasper, and was more gruff than the average grizzly, but any father with a daughter like Artemis would be, and it was easy to see where Artemis got her sass from. “We’re just finishing up here, and then we can give you the grand Port Jameson tour.”
“You didn’t tell me my father was going to be here,” said Artemis, going back to the oven with Jasper who slipped on a pair of oven mitts to help her with the pies.
“That’s what makes it...wait for it...a surprise,” said Jasper. “We’ve had this arranged since Thanksgiving.”
“You kept a secret from me since Thanks-frikkin’-giving?” said Artemis, putting down a pie and getting another pie out of the oven. She didn’t want them to burn.
“Just admit you like the surprise,” said Jasper, placing down his pie.
“I’ll never do such a thing,” said Artemis, getting out the last pie.
As soon as Artemis put the pie down, Jasper turned her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “You sure you don’t like surprises?” whispered Jasper.
“Fine, I do like surprises,” said Artemis, blushing. “But why did you bring my dad out anyway?”
“He’s proud of you, more than you’ll ever know, and in a lot of ways, he’s the reason we got together in the first place,” said Jasper. “If he hadn’t bragged about your public relations prowess, you wouldn’t have gotten an internship at Asher Lumber without even applying, and if you hadn’t taken the internship and come to Seattle, I’d just be cranky old Rumpled Bear Skin. Besides, you put a lot of work into this Harvest Festival in particular, and I thought he might like to see where I’ve been spending so much time with his daughter.”
“I feel like there’s something you’re not telling me,” said Artemis.
“Oh well, well, let’s not keep your dad waiting,” said Jasper, changing the subject and taking his apron off, dusting flour off his clothes. Jasper didn’t look like a billionaire in a plain white shirt and jeans, which matched Artemis’s outfit to a T (or rather, to a tee!). “How do I look?”
“You’ve got flour on your cheek again,” said Artemis, reaching up to brush the flour off of Jasper’s face. The memories of last summer seemed recent but foreign. She couldn’t imagine being anything but ultimately comfortable in Jasper’s presence. Although he could still get her engine going, they were able to casual
ly touch without turning into hormonal machines by this point.
Artemis slipped off her own apron and led Jasper out to the front where her dad was chomping on a bear claw. “These are really good,” said Reggie. “Jasper, you need to open up one of these in Bozeman.”
“Well, it is a college town, which fits our demographic,” said Jasper. “I’ll keep an eye out for good properties in the area.”
“I’ll keep two eyes out, I’m addicted to these bear claws,” said Reggie, walking with Jasper and Artemis out to Main Street, which was hustling and bustling as people had all kinds of fun, free of charge, courtesy of the Asher Lumber Company. There was a dunk tank that was being shared by various charities selling different kinds of balls to throw at the tank’s lever, photo booths where people could pose against different background pictures, all sceneries taken by the Asher Lumber surveying division, photosets of forests of all types through all four seasons.
Artemis and Reggie stopped by the frozen lemonade stand run by one of the men from the Craston Bros. Farm, the strong silent one, Bill, who made the pair two marionberry slushies, on the house (or the farm, as the case may be) because if it hadn’t been for Artemis, the festival would never have happened in the first place, and it allowed a lot of the local farms to move a lot of product in a single night. Artemis sipped on the slushie: it tasted like a non-alcoholic sangria, as the marionberries had a dark taste, similar to red wine, and the lemonade was tangy, with a floral taste that Artemis couldn’t quite place.
“So what do you think of Jasper?” asked Artemis.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this... and about a Seattle fat cat nonetheless...but that boy’s good for you,” said Reggie. “That’s all I could really ask for. He made you more adventurous, and you two seem like a good fit. But what do you think of him?”
“Honestly, dad?” asked Artemis. “I’m in love. I have been since the first week I formally met him...and that love grows stronger every day.”
“It was like that with me and your mother too,” said Reggie.
Jasper walked up to the pair, having given them space as he had checked over the festival activities. “Everything looks great, Artemis,” said Jasper.
“See, I told you bears, my girl knows how to turn anything into pure gold,” said Reggie, swelling with pride to the point his chest was practically puffed out like a rooster’s breast.
“And you were right: this festival looks great, and it’s going to do a lot of good for a lot of people,” said Jasper, looking around the festival. Everyone had happy, smiling faces, and humans and shifters alike were mingling.
“Well, Jasper, you’ve worn me down...err, earned my approval. I didn’t think anybody could convince me to do this but...I give you my blessing,” said Reggie.
Artemis turned to Jasper and put down her lemonade. “Jasper, what’s he talking about?”
Jasper got down on knee, taking Artemis’s hand in his. “Artemis...by now, you’ve figured out that I brought your dad out here for a very special reason. I wanted his blessing to ask you...for your hand in marriage. Artemis Miller, will you do me the greatest honor of all, and become my wife?”
“Yes,” said Artemis, happy tears welling in her eyes. She hadn’t ever expected Jasper to pull off a surprise like this. She had thought her father was the only surprise, but when Jasper opened a small blue box and revealed a ring, she knew he was absolutely not kidding. Inside the box was a ring, made of strong titanium. The arrow wrapped around and between the point and the fletching, a small round shape was suspended: a diamond, held in place purely by tension. A softer, more precious metal would not have worked reliably to maintain such an illusion. The arrow was detailed on the inside, engraved with the date that Jasper had met Artemis in Seattle, and the entire ring was cushioned in a golden gossamer wrapping that looked like it had been spun from pure gold.
“It’s perfect,” said Artemis as Jasper slipped the ring on her finger.
“So, you’re accepting him as your fiancé?” asked Reggie.
“Well, you see a ring, don’t you?” teased Artemis, flashing the ring.
“Good, we’ve got a wedding to get to,” said Jasper, taking Artemis by the arm and leading her down Main Street...but as they walked down the Main Street, people started clapping and waving, and rice and rose petals were thrown over the happy couple.
“Jasper, what’s going on?” asked Artemis.
“You’ll see,” said Jasper, waving to people as one of his Asher cousins, Thorne Asher, showed up out of seemingly nowhere and put a suit jacket around Jasper. A bunch of ladies from BCB came up and put a veil headband on Artemis’s head and put a bunch of white roses in her hands.
“Oh heck no,” said Artemis. “Is what I think’s happening actually happening?”
“Artemis, I know this is unorthodox, but I can’t stand to be apart from you for another day, and every day that I’m just your boyfriend, I feel like I’m not being true to myself, because the man I should be...is your husband,” said Jasper, leading Artemis through a set of folding chairs that were full of their friends and family, including friends of Artemis that she hadn’t seen since graduation.
“How did you get everyone to come?” asked Artemis as they reached the end of the aisle. The priest started reading the standard ceremonial words.
“I’m a billionaire, baby, it was no big deal,” whispered Jasper. “Now be quiet. We’re at a wedding, for crying out loud.”
“My wedding!” said Artemis.
Cedar Asher, the surprising manipulative matchmaker bear behind this whole story, walked up behind Jasper. He was wearing a designer suit and he slipped between the couple with a pillow holding two rings. There were two matching golden bands which had a soft woven pattern engraved on the outermost side of the ring.
Jasper picked up the smaller of the two rings. “With this ring, I thee wed,” said Jasper, taking Artemis’s hand in his and slipping the ring onto her finger so that it fit over Artemis’ brand spanking new engagement ring.
Artemis looked at the pillow. Artemis, usually the rational, levelheaded one of the pair, the one with big plans and the ability to spin just about anything into gold, had been outdone by the man she’d gone from seeing as a rival to seeing as a friend, a lover, and finally, a mate...but mere minutes ago, he’d become a fiancé: was she really ready to take yet another step with Jasper so quickly?
Artemis picked up the ring. “With this ring, I thee wed,” said Artemis, slipping the ring over Jasper’s finger.
“I now pronounce you...husband and wife,” said the priest.
Jasper pushed back the veil and kissed Artemis on her plump, perky lips, pressing her against his chest as he took her as his own in front of the whole town. Artemis pressed back into Jasper just as firmly, wrapping her arms around his neck and getting on her tippy toes to meet him halfway. In Jasper’s arms, with his ring on her finger, everything just felt right, as if it had all fallen into place, even if the method to his madness was filled with twists, turns, and more than a few surprises. There was no way Jasper was going to outdo this surprise, but Artemis still had a trick up her sleeve. Everyone clapped as the couple walked back down the aisle, and the Harvest Festival formally began...and as the couple walked down the aisle, Artemis whispered, “I have a surprise for you too.”
“What is it?” asked Jasper.
Artemis pressed Jasper’s hand to her stomach. “I’m pregnant,” she said with a sly grin to the man that had taught her that life was full of surprises.
...and they lived happily ever after...
Sneak Peek: Blue Bear
Poppy Beaton closed her umbrella as she rushed into the elevator at Asher Lumber Co.’s Seattle headquarters. She was never going to get used to this weather. The autumn intern had taken the internship without thinking about how the Seattle climate was much different from the climate of her native New Mexico. She barely got into the elevator before the doors closed. The button for her floor was already lit, so s
he took the opportunity to preen her hair back into place.
The elevator jerked and stopped. Poppy looked to the side, at her companion in the elevator. “Do we press the emergency button now, or...?” she started, before she realized who she was talking to.
Charles Dixon. He was one of the other younger employees, a few years older than her, but he didn’t mingle with other employees. He came in, clocked in, clocked out, and left, but he did the best work in the office, with high commissions that some attributed to his high society connections.
“We wait,” said Charles stiffly, pressing the emergency button before giving Poppy only a cursory glance. He knew exactly who she was, and he wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction of being ogled by him.
That didn’t stop Poppy. She looked Charles over from head to toe. His hair was dry, but he must’ve been driven to work by a private driver.
Charles pulled out his phone: didn’t the girl know it was rude to stare...and even ruder to make others stare? There was no way the sales intern didn’t know what she looked like, dressed in a black pencil skirt that hugged her every curve, in a white silk top that clung to her skin, the wetness of the top making her bra show through the fabric. Black, and lacy, there was no way that Poppy hadn’t chosen that bra with that blouse without realizing how it made her look.
Charles Dixon was one of the few shifters that Poppy had ever seen that had dyed hair. It had to be dyed: the shades of white, blue, and black, all mixed together on Charles’s head, couldn’t be produced by human beings, at least without heavy usage of chemicals...but his hair didn’t look brittle or dry like a lot of dyed hair. No, his hair looked soft and touchable, and Poppy just wanted to lose herself in it.
But Charles Dixon was a man with a reputation, a reputation that was rather unsavory. As Poppy looked over the man who needed no introduction, she realized just why he was the most talked about and least talked to man in the office. They called him “Blue Bear”, the blue-haired bear shifter, because he would take women to his cabin, down in Port Jameson, and he was never seen twice with the same woman. A womanizer like the other Dixon men, there was no frikkin’ way that Poppy was going to be just another notch on his bed post.
