-24-

 

“This was never supposed to happen... but I’m pretty sure I like it.”

--Clea Kellen

 

 

Orion held my hand.

He’s my anchor, the gravity that keeps me pinned to earth. Thing is? It doesn’t go just one way. Everything he does for me, all the security and safety he makes me feel, the warmth that spreads through my chest every time he looks my way, the tingles between my legs that show up whenever he smiles? I do all the same things for him – or to him, I guess.

He squeezed my hand, and smiled. Of course he smiled.

In the weeks since two lovey-dovey, stitched up bears had held a dam, Orion saved me, I saved him, and a brave squirrel electrocuted an eco-terrorist, smiles had started coming a lot more regularly.

Something else had too. Or maybe I should say someone.

I shook my head, intent on not blushing my way through this bizarre little ceremony.

Alpha Danniken wandered into the main courtroom, pushed through a crowd, and pretty much collapsed into the chair at the front of the room. Orion shot a glance in my direction that made me melt just a little, and then nodded toward the alpha’s opened shirt.

Jamie Ampton, who was a little flushed herself, leaned over and whispered in Erik’s ear. He looked immediately irritated, and then rolled his eyes before buttoning his collar. He wrestled with his tie for a second, but then just sighed and gave up.

His mate came in a second later, much more put together, but glowing a little.

Orion slid an arm around behind my back and pinched me softly. When I looked at him, he wiggled his eyebrows a couple times. I slapped at him playfully and cleared my throat.

Not gonna laugh, I told myself. Not in the middle of everyone watching me.

“When do we get to start complaining?” someone in the back – a wild-eyed panther with huge, red eyebrows, asked. “I got sixteen complaints!”

“Yeah! Start court, Alpha! We got places to be!”

Alpha Danniken stood up, banged on the lectern with a gavel, and then squeezed the top until his knuckles turned white. No one seemed to react, even when he did it again, louder. “They’re always like this,” he said, turning to me. “They’re gonna be real pissed when they figure out no one’s going to listen to them whine today.”

He pulled out a flask, dumped a generous amount of something brown into his coffee, and took a swallow.

“Wolves,” Orion said, stifling a laugh. He looked past me to the alpha, and they shared a strange, knowing glance before Erik faked a scowl.

They’d been spending some time together recently – him and Erik and Ash Morgan. Those two took him in, sorta training him to live in regular society. They even played golf once, although that was aborted after one of them broke so many clubs they had to replace the entire rental set. Since then, it was mostly weight lifting. Harder to break enormous iron bars, I guess.

Mitch got a speedy introduction to the state prison system, and almost the second he was hauled in, the Dirty Devils more or less dissolved. Celia, oddly, never surfaced. Everyone was convinced she was a permanent resident of the river, but I wasn’t so sure.

“Oh, finally,” Erik said. “The... uh, well man of the hour. I guess. I’ve never been sure about this.”

Preceded by Jenga and his rattling beard, Atlas and Sara tromped into court. A cloud of lilac, and a cloud of lavender, came with them. It was hard to tell which one smelled like what, but it was a noticeable improvement over last time. It might be overpowering, but nothing – nothing – is worse than the ripe smell of Axe.

“Hey! No cutting!” someone screamed at Jenga as he tried to push through. “Wait at the back!”

Atlas frowned. His hand shot out, catching the collar of the guy hassling Jenga. A second later, the mousy looking, brown-haired man’s kicked back and forth like he was running on air.

That got everyone quite.

“Oh!” Erik said. “Thanks Atlas. I wondered how I was going to get these idiots quiet.”

Orion squeezed my hand again. He had that look on his face. The one that wobbled my knees, the one that made me all warm inside... and outside. I couldn’t handle it much longer, I knew. I wanted this all over so we could go back and...

“Keep looking at me like that, and I’m going to throw you over my shoulder and we’re leaving right now,” Orion growled, under his breath. The vibration from his talking did something crazy in the pit of my stomach.

“I wouldn’t complain,” I whispered back.

He chuckled. “I’ve got a surprise for you. I promise it’ll be worth it.”

“You’ve been saying that for a week,” I said. “Why won’t you tell me what it is?”

Orion’s answer was to grin, to shrug, and turn back to the circus.

“All right, Atlas, put the chucklehead down,” Erik said.

“Hnnng,” Atlas groaned, then did as he was ordered, very literally. The guy fell about three inches, then plopped on the floor when his feet went right out from under him. Atlas cracked a slow, satisfied smirk. “O...kay.”

“Psssh!” Sara hissed. “Don’t be... don’t... rude!”

Atlas took a slow, deep breath, and sighed.

“Welcome to mated life, big friend,” Erik said, slapping the massive bear on the shoulder as the trio approached. He took his hand away, rubbed his fingertips together, smelled them, and shook his head.

Evidently, someone in the gallery heard. “A mating? Son of a bitch! I thought this was Complainer’s Court! My neighbor put up a fence that’s ugly as hell! And he’s got two unlicensed pigs!”

On the other side of us, the hedgehog professor, Duggan, began to bristle. “We need to deal with that, Erik!” he said as he puffed up. “That’s a violation of—”

“Next week, professor anxiety,” Erik said, raising a hand. “We can take a week off from all that once in a while.”

The crowd began to grow restless. Two people tried to slip out the back, but Erik caught their attention with a slammed gavel. “Stop!” he ordered. They did. “These two almost killed themselves to save this town.”

“Well, in a way,” Jenga said. “They wouldn’t have actually died, they would have just—”

Erik silenced him with a glare.

“Right, sorry.”

“As I was saying, the town of Jamesburg owes these two completely unlikely, and frankly, slightly disturbing, bears a great debt of gratitude. I’m not entirely sure of the legal ramifications of mating two zombies for life, but here we are. In the last four years, I’ve learned that when things get weird, that’s the best time to roll with the punches. And this is one punch that,” he trailed off and shook his head.

Izzy poked him in the leg and nodded toward the audience. They were all silent.

“Oh,” Erik said, distracted by something. “Thanks for your attention. Anyway, I’ll keep this short because we’ve got two of these and the next one is a little warmer, uh, so to speak.” He laughed at his own joke.

Atlas turned his huge head and groaned. He started to drool, but Jenga caught it with a handkerchief before it got out of control. Sara pushed him away, grabbed the cloth, and wiped Atlas’s mouth. “I ca-ca-ha-ha! I take... care,” she said with a wide grin. She, in turn, drooled, but didn’t seem to notice, so Jenga caught that one instead.

It was over before quickly. Atlas groaned his I-Do’s and Sara chirped hers. The two of them hugged, and had a half-hearted attempt at a kiss that was aborted due to public safety concerns.

“Thank... you,” Atlas moaned, in Erik’s direction. The alpha nodded, and the happily mated couple, along with their every present chaperone, shuffled, jingled, and lurched out of the courthouse, pausing every few seconds to share a heartwarmingly sloppy kiss or two.

As soon as they were gone, I grabbed my purse as my heart started to race. Soon, I’d be in his arms, I’d be touching him, holding him, and he’d kiss me up and down and in and out.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Orion asked. “He said there were two matings today, didn’t you hear?”

It hit me square in the chest. “I mean,” he continued, “if you’ll have me, I mean.”

My valiant attempt at not blushing when I thought about him naked the whole day went right out the window. My mouth moved, but no sound came out. That’s when I noticed that Orion – huge, powerful, beautiful Orion – was blushing too, but he didn’t care one damn bit.

“I’ve never met anyone, never knew anyone that made me feel the way you do.” He grabbed my hands, in front of Erik, Jamie, Duggan and an entire room full of scratching, tongue flicking, irritable shifters. “I didn’t know it was even possible to feel like you make me feel. Not until I met you, Clea.”

His eyes were burning in me. The whole world was gone except for him, and me. Somehow – it didn’t even make sense – I had such powerful tunnel vision that all the cheering and the whistling and everything else simply didn’t exist.

“Will you? Will you be mine for life, and let me be yours?”

I let out a gasp as warmth spread from my head to my toes, prickling, sparking, melting me from the inside out. Every insecurity, every bit of self-loathing that Liam had put on me, every shred of guilt or hate or fear, it all drained out of me and into a puddle on the floor at my feet. I didn’t need that anymore. I was past it all.

Somehow, this man had helped me work up the courage to step over all that, and then turn around, and kick it right in the damn face.

“I,” my throat hitched, and I swallowed. “I’m ready,” I whispered, as a smile crept across my face. “I’m ready for this, for you, for life, for the future. I’m ready to turn my back on the past and look forward for once.”

When I was finished, I took a deep breath to steady my hands. Eloquence under pressure hasn’t ever been one of my strong suits. I was just as surprised as Dean and Malia were – who I just noticed for the first time, were sitting in the front row, along with the raccoon twins, the panda triplets, and my two favorite bear cubs. All of the little ones were doing the best job they could at keeping still, but Dean and Malia definitely had their hands full.

And Ash, Rex and Lilah Lee, how had I managed to not notice them before? All of them were sitting on the same bench as Dean and Malia and...

Sometimes I could just slap myself in the forehead.

“Ready?” he asked. “I fooled myself into thinking I wasn’t. I fooled myself into thinking I backed away to keep you safe from my father and from the gang and everything else. But now? I know what I was doing. I was scared of myself. I was scared of admitting that I was in love. That it was even possible for me to love. I’ve never been more ready for anything in my life.”

Taking my hands, he pulled me to my feet, stared into my eyes, and then parted my lips with a soft kiss that went all the way to my soul.

“Well then,” Erik said. “Mates for life, there you go. I’d try to give a speech, but what the hell, I’m not gonna top that.”

Eternity swirled around us, Orion’s hands running up and down my back and me desperately gripping him, clutching him, clinging to him. Heat welled up inside me, heat like I’d never felt.

I’d heard a whole lot about two bodies with one soul, and always thought it was a big old load. But right then? Well let’s just say that all that fate stuff? And all that stuff about taking love on faith and not doubting when beauty is looking you straight in the face?

I was starting to realize I’d been wrong all along.

 

*

 

“Don’t you dare make me wait one more second.”

I was grabbing at Orion before the door had time to close.

“I don’t think I can,” he said. Grabbing my shoulders, he forced my head back with a kiss so strong I thought I saw the sun behind my eyelids. I opened my mouth for him, he pressed his tongue against mine, before exploring me with the tip. I fought back, pushing mine into him, sliding it along his lips, behind his teeth, before clutching his face in my hands and kissing him as deep as I could.

I went for the button on his jeans, popping it open just as he shoved me backward until the rough texture on my wall bit into my back. My shirt slid up as I slid down, the prickling pinpoints dragging against me, burning and filling me with a warm chill at the same time.

With his hands in my hair, I turned my head left and right to make it pull. “Harder,” I moaned in between desperate, sucking kisses. “Pull my hair, yank on it. Yes!”

Orion wrenched my head backward, then ran his tongue from my collarbones to the back of my ear. He pressed the tip to my skin, making me squirm. When he kissed, he sucked and nibbled, shooting a surge of goosebumps down my neck. My knees went weak, and I slid further.

With my legs apart, Orion stepped closer and wedged one of his massive legs between them. Flattening his palm on the bared small of my back, he dragged me up his thigh, my panties bunching and tugging at me in just the right way. The pressure on my clit made me gasp softly, but then he sucked another kiss on the side of my neck and my gasp turned into me just moaning his name, over and over.

“Don’t ever stop,” I managed to get out. Wet heat slid out of me. I reached for Orion’s unbuttoned fly and shoved my hand down the front of his jeans. His stiff, hard thickness filled my palm with warmth that radiated through my panties and tightened my muscles.

I bit my lip and realized my canines were bigger, sharper than usual.

“You’re... oh God,” I groaned. “You’re making me sh – sh...”

“I’m making you do more than shift,” Orion growled, smiling.

His pale eyes were starting to smolder. His teeth grew, too, and the hair on the sides of his face was getting longer and harder.

That’s when it hit me. I hadn’t even realized how close I was until the muscles between my legs tensed and tightened. A wave of cold, then hot, passed over me, prickling my nipples inside my bra which got me going even more.

I reached back to unhook it, but my shaking hands were no good. Orion took the hint though, and helped. He got one of the three hooks undone before a surge inside me got me gasping.

“Your face,” he whispered. “Your scent, everything about you, I can’t control myself.”

The next thing I knew, I was being ground against his thigh as he grabbed my shirt and my bra with those lengthening teeth. He tugged, ripping my collar and tugging the cloth against my skin. I bucked my hips, out of control and loving every second of it.

“You’re tearing my bra! That’s expensive,” I giggled.

I closed my eyes, shuddering, and suddenly didn’t give the first shit about what happened to my bra. Good thing, too. He let out a triumphant groan as the cloth tore away from my chest, shirt, bra and everything. My erect nipples tasted air, and ached sweetly.

Then they tasted the warmth from his kiss, his tongue, and his warm palms.

Squeezing, sucking, gripping.

I held him as tight as I could, and drove my hips against his leg, squeaking and purring, completely out of my own head.

A hot sex flush went from my neck, down my naked chest, and disappeared under my jeans.

“Let me see your face when you come,” he whispered in between sucks. “Let me watch how good I make you feel.”

I opened my mouth at the same time I opened my eyes, but I was so far gone that outside of some vague purring sounds, and a little more heavy breathing, I wasn’t making much sound.

“You’re perfect,” he whispered. “Everything about you, your eyes, your mouth, your perfect smile.”

His saying that made a grin spread across my lips. It wasn’t just the compliments; it was how he made me feel. How he made me realize that after all my fear and my worrying and my fretting, that I really am good enough.

Orion sucked harder on one nipple, pinching the other between his thumb and forefinger, rolling it gently as I bucked against him. “Hard... er,” I moaned, feeling the flush creep up my cheeks. “Harder, harder, so close... I’m so... Ah!”

The first pulse surprised me, but the second felt like heaven. My muscles went tight and loose, hot and cold. Energy crackled through me, heightening my senses. I sucked a breath through my nose, relishing Orion’s body, the scent of his sweat and the scent of sex oozing out of his pores.

“I’m... I’m... Oh! Oh my god!”

“I know,” he said, staring into my face. “Harder,” he urged. “Let it all out.”

I squealed, I writhed, I squirmed. Grabbing his hair, I tugged him back to my breast where he sucked until the last grasps of my sex subsided.

My back scratched against the wall as I slid the rest of the way. He grabbed his shirt, ripping it straight down the middle and throwing it over his shoulder. He wrenched his jeans to the floor, but before he got his boxer briefs down, I reached up and ran my hand along his thickness.

Pushing myself to my knees, I made him groan when I touched my lips to his tip, massaging him through his underwear with the tip of my tongue.

I massaged him briefly, grinning at the swaying of his hips and the content moaning that met my ears. He balled up his fist in my hair, rhythmically clenching and releasing in time with the pulses of my tongue against his underside. Sliding my hand all the way to his tip, then back down again, I massaged, and gently gnawed at him until the grinding sweetness in my chest made me need more.

Pulling the waistband of his underwear down, his erection was in my hands before I could open my mouth. Up, then down, my strokes were slow and heavy at first, then short and fast. “Perfect,” he groaned. “Whatever you do is—”

I shut him right up with a swish of my tongue, then I locked my lips around the tip of my swooning bear’s cock and circled with the tip of my tongue. I danced my fingers up and down his shaft, teasing and tickling, all the while making waves against his most sensitive place. When I finally looked up at his face, Orion’s head was leaned backwards, rolling around on his massive neck.

He slid his fingers through my hair, making my scalp prickle to life. I slid my free hand down my body, cupped it underneath myself, and pushed against my sex, through my jeans.

Orion threw his head side to side, roaring softly, growling my name. And then in one smooth motion he plucked me off the ground. His cock pressed flat against my bare belly. When I steepled my fingers over top of it, he yanked my hair just the way I liked, sucked my throat, bit softly behind my ear, and devoured me with a kiss.

I swayed my hips back and forth to catch the wall against the sensitive skin on the small of my back. Each time I did, the scratching sound was muffled more and more with the fur that eased out of me.

“No,” he said, his voice tight in his throat. “No, no, no, you’re too good.” The smile I looked up to was so warm it felt like a blanket around my shoulders on a frigid December day. I stroked his length one last time and felt him shudder.

“I said stop!” Orion said, cracking a laugh.

The wrinkles in the corners of his eyes, the tattoos, his scars, and the dimple on his cheek all mixed me up in a big, giant, ecstatic mess. “Don’t make me wait,” I whispered. “I can’t handle it. I can’t keep waiting, I’ll explode!”

Orion bent over and lifted me off the ground with absolutely no effort at all. “Not here,” he said, as he began the short trek to my... our room. The comforter embraced me, the mattress welcoming my weight. Orion lay on top of me, face to face, inches apart.

“I meant everything I said,” he whispered, kissing me gently. “At that courthouse? Every single word.”

Before I could respond, he unhooked my jeans. I moved my legs back and forth, helping him work out of them. The cool air dried my wetness against my skin seconds before Orion’s hot breath caressed.

The patient circling of his tongue down one side of me then back up the other drew a tentative, quailing breath from my lips. I arched my back as he went deeper, his tongue sliding into me, drawing a gasp and then a groan. “How do you do this to me?” I asked, smiling as the hair on Orion’s neck and shoulders grew longer, harder, furrier.

“How do I do it to you?” he looked up from between my legs, his lips slicked with my sex. He licked them, then slid a curling finger inside me. His eyes flared, gold flecks glowing in his brown irises. When he returned his mouth to my entrance, he vibrated his voice against me, then lapped again.

Reaching backwards, I braced one hand against the wall and grabbed my sheets with another, pulling the fabric to my mouth and bit. My growing fangs punched bite-shaped holes, and he pushed deeper.

“You’re gonna make me come again,” I whispered, spreading my legs to invite him as deep as can be. “You’re gonna—”

Another finger slid into me with absolutely no resistance at all. He hooked both, dragging his fingertips across that spot that makes me breathe like I’m having a heart attack. Every time I managed to relax slightly, he pressed again, until I was gripping at his fingers, the tiny muscles in the deepest parts of me pulling, milking at his fingers.

I bit my lip so hard I squealed at the pinch.

“The business at the courthouse,” he said, teasing me with his fingertips as he spoke. “It was nice. It was Erik’s idea, but it was nice.”

He paused to suck my nipple, swirl his tongue, and knead my clit for a moment with his palm to make sure I didn’t back away from the cliff of pleasure very far or for very long.

“There’s something else we have to do. Something bears do when we mate for life.”

All I could do was open my mouth and suck a breath as he gripped himself and entered me. The bulge of his tip sliding dipped inside, teasing my entrance and then moving past. “Oh!” I let out. “I, oh...” my gasp turned into a moan, and Orion put his hand over my mouth.

“Shh,” he whispered. “I’m going to ask questions and you’re going to answer them.”

There is nothing in the world hotter than my Orion when he gets demanding. I nodded my head and nipped at his fingers playfully. He pushed deep, so deep, that I had to suck a breath through my nose, inhaling the scent of us mixing in the air. Sweat ran down the sides of my face in tiny droplets, soaking partially into my hair and partially into the sheet under my head.

He took a breath, then settled down for a moment before pushing into me, stretching me all around him as he did. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

Orion removed his hand, bracing himself up on it and stared into my face. “Yes,” I whispered.

Again, deeper. Again, I writhed under him, twisting back and forth. I got my hands around him and slid my nails down his back. “Yes, yes, yes, more than anything!”

I pushed my hips up, angling them to invite him further.

“Now?” he asked, and thrust again. The muscles inside me ached as they stretched; the agony and ecstasy mixing into one warm, tingling wave that crept out of me.

I nodded. He drove forward again, the lowest part of his abdominals grinding against my button, the angle of his cock driving me wild.

“Now,” I repeated after him, chewing my lip as he thrust again, driving agony and ecstasy all through me.

“And forever?” he asked.

“And...” I paused to take a breath and try to calm myself down. “And for... forever.”

Orion threw back his massive, shaggy head and roared. His fingernails curled partially into claws, his eyes burned, and before I knew it, he lifted me off the bed and flipped me over on to my stomach. He slid into me, pulling my hips back to meet his.

Bracing myself against the wall, I groaned in pleasure and ached when he left, my body begging for him to return. When he did, his power was a wave that broke against my trembling frame. “I can’t hold on,” I whispered, gritting my teeth. I grabbed for one of Orion’s hands, and led it to my breast. He squeezed, I whimpered in pain, in pleasure, and forced myself backward, slamming against him as hard as I could push.

“I’ve never wanted anyone... so bad,” I managed to say. “I can’t, oh my God!”

I heard Orion grunt when I couldn’t talk anymore. But then he drove into me again, and I felt him swell.

“I’ve never been more in love.” I fell forward, my shoulder bearing my weight. Reaching between my legs, I squeezed him, urging, begging.

“I didn’t even know this was possible,” Orion whispered, bending over me, slamming in again, and biting the back of my neck gently at first.

“Harder,” I whispered. “More teeth, you big softie.”

He snarled, gripped harder. I raked my fingernails that were beginning to resemble claws as I sex-shifted, down his leg. His breathing grew tighter, and inside of me, he grew thicker, harder and longer.

Orion pushed again. His motions halting, urgent, hungry.

“I can’t, I can’t hold on,” he whispered. “I’m... you’re making me...”

Somehow, I wrestled out from under him, and then got him right back in after I’d flipped over to face him. Wrapping my ankles around Orion’s thickly muscled waste, I cupped his face in my hands.

“I want to watch,” I said. “I want to see your face when you claim me for... Oh yes... forever.”

He smiled, and pushed again.

“Open your eyes,” he whispered. “We’re almost there.”

In that moment, the world disappeared again. Everything melted into one tiny pinprick, a singularity of love and pleasure. “Hold me,” I whispered, my voice wavering. “Never let me go.”

My skin burned where we clawed, my nipples stiff and hard against the hair on his chest brushed gently, shooting electric charges through me. And then, all at once, the world exploded. My tendons went taut, my eyes narrowed to slits, and every breath I took seemed to burn, to fill me with Orion.

Both of us shuddered, trembled, and melted into one.

I finally opened my eyes when Orion’s heft lifted off me and he settled down with me in the crook of his arm. Silently, I kissed his neck, his shoulder, and then lay my head on his chest. The slowing heartbeat, the rise and fall of his breathing, it was all so calm.

It was so safe.

It was home.

I felt his fingers intertwine with mine, and I squeezed his hand. A tear ran down the side of my face and onto Orion’s chest. He didn’t react. I think we were both in just about the same place.

But it was over. The pain, the uncertainty, the confusion... it was over.

I breathed. Orion drew a circle on my shoulder.

When I realized Orion hadn’t been talking for a good chunk of time, I craned my neck to look. His eyes were closed, and with the snores, his thick, golden fur came too. I cuddled down against him, letting my eyes fall shut.

I sniffed again, and Orion stirred. He mumbled something incoherent and tightened his grip.

I breathed him in, letting myself relax.

Sometimes, I guess, things really do have happy endings after all.

 

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