10. Chapter Ten

The door closed behind Behemoth with a soft click. He was restless; the issues surrounding Gaelynn and his need to claim her officially as his mate swirled in his mind. He needed a plan. Steps to work through to keep him focused.

He found Zeus and Bull still in the living room, their faces lit by the blue glow of computer monitors. Zeus tipped his chin in Behemoth’s direction before refocusing on the screen.

“We need something big to draw them out.” Bull spoke as Behemoth moved to stand behind him.

Zeus speared his fingers through his short hair. “Drugs or money would be too obvious. They’ll know it’s a setup. What if one of us acts as bait? From the attack on Bee’s house, we know they’re gunning for us.”

“That might work. Would work better if we knew why they were gunning for us. Revenge for Sean? That doesn’t make sense. Garrison had to be acting on orders from whoever controls The Level when he blew up the house.”

Behemoth shook his head. “We’re a thorn in their side. A nasty one.”

Zeus nodded. “It makes sense they’d want to eliminate us before we track them down. We pose a much bigger threat than Damruck P.D., and if Garrison shared his insider knowledge of our abilities, then they know they have to strike hard and fast.”

“How do we offer up someone from Supe Sec without it looking like an obvious trap?” Bull’s fingers never paused their dance across his keyboard.

Zeus winced, and Behemoth knew he wasn’t going to like what his boss said next.

“We put the word out that we believe the attack came from Gaelynn’s former cult leader. The rest of us need to go back to the appearance of life as usual.” His heavy hand landed on Behemoth’s shoulder. “You and Gaelynn will stay here, out of sight. Work on a plan for taking care of Sonjour for good.”

He grinned. “And for fate’s sake, tell her about Society so we can stop pussy footing around her.”

Behemoth grunted. As he returned to the underground level, he relaxed. One problem was off his plate. He could focus on Sonjour and his Guiding Light Mission after tackling the bigger problem—coming out to Gaelynn as a bear shifter.

He knew better than to just shift in front of her and roll over for belly pats, unlike his teammate Titan, who took that route when he told his mate, Virginia. He didn’t think telling her in words would work, either.

What words would he even use? Hey Gaelynn, I’m actually a grizzly bear didn’t seem like a good approach.

He slipped into the room assigned for them and stared down at the vision sleeping in the bed. She slept on her side, her dark hair spread across the pillow. He stripped down to his boxers and eased under the covers, pulling her against his chest.

He couldn’t think with her scent wrapping around him, her soft, luscious body lulling him to sleep. He nuzzled into her hair and she sighed. He exhaled slowly. Confident she was sound asleep, he whispered, “I’m the bear you saw in the woods.”

Her screech had him scrambling off the bed.

“You’re the what?”

He froze like a deer in headlights. Then he smacked himself in the head and scrubbed his palm down to his neck.

“You’re joking.” Her chuckle was too high pitched and awkward. “Of course you’re joking. Or you didn’t say what I thought you did. That’s it. My concussion still has my brain fuzzy.” She laughed again. “I totally thought you just said you were the bear I saw ripping dudes apart in the woods. Next you’ll tell me you’re also the polar bear I hallucinated outside your house.”

“No, that’s my cousin.” He winced.

She looked at him sideways and took a step back. “Right. So… I think I’ll just go upstairs and talk to Zeus for a minute.”

He dropped his chin to his chest and took a deep breath. “That’s not everything.”

“Oh? There’s more?” Her voice was thready.

“You’re my mate, Gaelynn.” In for a penny, in for a pound, right? He was beginning to think Titan’s method of just shifting may have gone better.

Gaelynn stood frozen on the other side of the room. She’d gone white as a sheet and her chest rose and fell in quick bursts. She was on the verge of a full-blown panic.

He shook his head. “Werebears, werewolves, all manner of supernatural beings exist.”

“And Zeus knows about this? That you’re what, a werebear?”

“Yes.”

“Are you going to tell me that Zeus is a vampire?”

He couldn’t help but smile at that. “God, no. He’s a werewolf like Titan and Ghost.”

“Titan… and Ghost…”

He nodded. “All of Supe Sec are Society—what we call supernaturals. I’ve gone about this all wrong.” He held his hands up in supplication. “Know that I would never hurt you, but I think you need to see my bear.”

“O-okay. Maybe let me get near the door first?”

He moved to the head of the bed and she darted to stand against the wall, one hand on the doorknob.

He waited until she seemed a bit settled, even if she still looked at him like he’d grown a second head. Then he shifted.

Her scent flooded his nose and her scream pierced his ears. He took care not to move, but he could hear the others run for their door. Ghost arrived first, with Titan hot on his heels.

Ghost stopped short in the doorway, causing Titan to crash into him. He threw his hands up and rolled his eyes. “Did you learn nothing from Titan? You can’t just shift in front of them, man.”

Behemoth did his best to shrug in bear form.

Virginia pushed past the other two weres. Her eyes darted from the bear to Gaelynn a few times before she grinned. “Welcome to Society, Gaelynn.”

Gaelynn rounded on her friend. “You knew about this? And you didn’t tell me?” Her voice rose as she spoke. She knew she was yelling, but she didn’t care. “How could you keep this from me?”

She gasped and narrowed her eyes at the woman she used to think was her best friend. “Does Cate know?”

“No!” Virginia deflated. “I couldn’t tell you. There’s a council that governs Society and us Normals aren’t allowed to know unless we’re exposed by accident or we’re one of these guys’ mates.”

She turned to stare at the massive grizzly in the room—not a metaphor—and thought he looked uncomfortable. Which was a strange thing to think about a grizzly bear. “How long have you known I was your mate?”

Gaelynn couldn’t deny the proof of her own eyesight, and since her best friend and two of his coworkers were crammed into the doorway looking like this was an everyday occurrence, she had no choice but to accept the fact that the brown bear was, in fact, Behemoth.

The bear swung his head toward the door and then back to Gaelynn. Much like Behemoth’s grunts, she learned she could understand the bear’s gestures. “Out! All of you. Out.”

Virginia patted her on the arm as she turned to leave. “You’ll be okay?”

She yanked her arm away. “I’ll be fine, but I’ll be annoyed with you for a bit.”

Virginia grinned. “That’s fair.” She leaned close and dropped her voice to a whisper. “Go easy on him. He’s been tied up in knots over this for a while.”

Gaelynn snorted. The door closed behind the trio and she turned on the bear, who was no longer a bear. The man she’d caught feelings for was standing where the bear had been, in all his naked glory.

She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot.

He grabbed a pair of sweatpants from the nightstand and pulled them on before running a hand through his hair.

It didn’t seem like he meant to speak anytime soon, so she repeated her question. “How long, Bee?”

He cleared his throat. “From the moment I first saw you.”

Her hands dropped to her side, her mouth gaped open. “Why didn’t you say anything, then?”

“You were dead set against any sort of relationship with me. I asked you out several times, remember?” He sagged onto the edge of the bed. “You wouldn’t give me a chance.”

“When were you going to tell me about …” She waved her hand up and down his body. “All of that?”

“I’ve wanted to tell you for a while, believe me. It was never the right time, or I was having to run off and keep Ghost from getting himself killed.”

“Would you have told me tonight if I hadn’t heard you?”

He shook his head. “No.”

She threw her hands up in frustration, but he kept talking.

“I was going to tell you in the morning. I wanted you to rest tonight.”

She looked at him. She could tell he was being honest with her. Did it really matter if he was a supernatural werebear? He’d been more thoughtful than any man she’d ever dated, and he certainly could protect her.

If she were really honest with herself, she’d admit it was kind of hot. She wasn’t ready for that level of self-awareness.

She sat down on the bed next to him, close but not touching. “So the polar bear?”

“My cousin Connor. I asked him to check in on you while I was gone. He was supposed to stay out of sight.”

“Not sure how a big white bear would manage to hide in an evergreen forest.”

“Yeah,” he rubbed the back of his neck, “clearly I didn’t think that through.”

“What does this mate business entail? Don’t lie to me or hold anything back. Tell me straight.” She gave him the fiercest look she could. She hoped it came across that way, and not like she was constipated. She never knew what her face was doing.

“In our history, weres and dragons have always had mates—“

“Hold the phone. There are dragons?”

He nodded.

She shook her head to get her thoughts back on track. “We’ll circle back to that. Keep going.”

“Right. So we’ve always had fated mates. The one person in all the world you were meant to be with.”

“Okay, I’m with you so far. Popular culture got that one right.”

He smirked. “Mostly. They couldn’t know that centuries ago, Fenrir decided he wanted one of the fates and pursued her a bit too hard. She and her sisters got pissed and punished all the shifters by taking away our fated mates.”

Her brows dropped. “So, if they took them away, how can I be your mate?”

“Rumors started circulating a few decades ago about shifters finding their mates. Not many, but a few here and there. Most of us thought they were just stories our parents would tell to keep hope alive. But then Titan found Virginia, and when I met you my instincts went crazy. I knew I’d found my mate too.”

“So the sisters forgave Fenrir and gave shifters back their mates?”

He shrugged. “We don’t know. That’s the working theory, but I doubt we’ll ever know for sure unless the gods return.”

She blinked. “What do you mean ‘the gods return’? Are they on vacation?”

He sighed. “We don’t know that either. They just up and left Earth one day. They left a hell of a mess behind, too, but that’s Jackal Division’s to clean up.”

Gaelynn rubbed at her temples, her head swirling with too much information. “So I’m your fated mate.”

He nodded.

“The one person in the entire world you’re meant to be with.”

He nodded again.

She turned and looked into his eyes. “What if I don’t want to be?”

His heart hit the floor. He’d pick it up later. Right now, he needed to keep it together, for Gaelynn’s sake. She’d learned a lot in the last ten minutes. He imagined it was a bit like trying to drink from a firehouse. She was bound to have questions.

It didn’t mean she was rejecting him.

“Being my mate doesn’t take away your free will. If you want to reject me, you can.”

“What would happen then?”

She was only asking out of curiosity. He might be able to answer her without breaking down if he kept telling himself that.

“You’d live your life, however you choose. Without me.” His fingers flexed on his thighs and he held his breath.

“What about you?”

He broke eye contact and stared at the wall. “I would live alone.”

“So that’s it? You get one chance at a happy relationship? That seems cruel.”

He shrugged.

“And you would just let me go? Knowing that?”

He caught her eyes again. “Yes. I would. You don’t belong to me, Gaelynn. You aren’t a prize to be won or a trophy to be stolen. I want you as my partner. My confidant. My lover. As an equal.”

He watched her eyes dilate, and her shoulders relax. “You mean that, don’t you? You really don’t want to control me?”

“I love your strength and your mind. I would never seek to snuff that out by telling you what to do or not to do.” He wanted to grab her, wrap her up in his arms, and never let her go. But he meant what he said. He would rather lose her than see the spark in her eyes go out.

He wanted her beside him in life.

He registered her movement with just enough time to catch her when she threw herself into his arms. She straddled his hips and grabbed his face in her hands and kissed him like the world was ending.

Maybe he wouldn’t have to rescue his heart from the floor after all.

He broke the kiss before he lost all control. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “My boyfriend is a fucking grizzly bear who tore apart the guys who hurt me. I probably shouldn’t find that hot, but I do.”

“You aren’t rejecting me?” He hated the vulnerability in his voice, but at the same time, he didn’t hate being vulnerable for her.

“No.” She nibbled on the side of his mouth. “I’m not rejecting you.”

A languid heat settled in his bones. Like he’d eaten too much honey on a hot summer day and his full stomach conspired with the sun to make him sleepy. He kissed her, slow and easy, like they had all the time in the world.

Nothing was rushed as he eased the shirt over her head and threw it to the floor. He kissed and licked his way down the column of her throat and rubbed lazy circles on her back.

She let her head fall back, and her hair brushed his fingers where they held her ass.

Mine.

Yes, bear, she was his.

He still had to tell her the plan, that they’d be staying here while the others chased The Level, but that was tomorrow’s problem.

Tonight was about driving her to the brink of madness, pushing her over the edge, and then doing it all over again.

He laid her onto the bed and ignored all her clear signals urging him to go faster. Maybe later, when he’d had his fill of her, he could give her what she wanted. Right now, it was about giving her what she needed—to cherish her, to worship her. To show her with actions that he meant what he’d said.

He was better at action than words, and she knew that.

He kissed and licked every inch of her chest, avoiding her nipples until he’d paid homage to every other part. When he finally latched on she scissored her legs and cried out.

“So beautiful.” He watched as she drifted down from her orgasm, and then set to work again.

By the time he’d reached her clit, she was a squirming mess. He ran his nose up her cleft and flicked the swollen bud with the tip of his tongue, pushing two fingers into her at the same time. She came unglued.

She yanked at his shoulders as she came down for the second time. “Behemoth, please.”

“Please what, little rabbit?”

She took a deep breath. “I want you inside me.”

He was so damn proud of her. She was asking for exactly what she wanted with more confidence. And he planned on giving it to her. “Good girl.”

Her eyes dilated, the barest ring of iris visible around the blown out pupils. He yanked on a condom faster than he ever had before, her hands pulling on him wherever she could reach, her hips straining, seeking what she wanted. What she needed.

He plunged into her and she bowed up, resting her forehead on his shoulder as he stilled over her. “Okay?”

She smacked his ass. “Move.”

He chuckled. “Yes, ma’am.”

He did his best to keep it slow and steady, but she met him thrust for thrust and his control slipped. He needed her to come again, needed to feel her squeeze his dick. He sat back on his knees and pulled her hips into his lap. She reached for him, but her hands fell away as his thumb pressed on her clit.

Her walls fluttered and he knew she was close. He pulled her deeper onto him, his movements uncontrolled.

Her sharp inhale was all the warning he needed to muffle her scream with his mouth. He followed her over the precipice two thrusts later.

They laid there for a long time, let their breathing settle and their heartbeat return to normal. He took care of the condom in the bathroom, and by the time he returned, she was fast asleep. A small smile tipped her lips and when he slid under the covers she curled into him like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Emotion threatened to overwhelm him as he thought about how precious she was.

“I’ll keep you safe,” he whispered into her hair. Even if it meant restricting some of her control.