Chapter 42

Chapter 42

Kyle

Fuck, we were doing this. We were really doing this.

I watched as Asher shoved the gym doors open with a growing sense of unreality, but that didn't stop me from hustling after them. Lucas too. I shot my sleuth mate a look then hissed, "Didn't you tell Imogen?"

"I…"

The way Lucas' voice trailed away told me everything I needed to know, but then my nostrils flared, sucking in his scent.

And hers.

Deep, sweet as honey, and twice as tasty, it was like nothing I'd smelled since we met Imogen, so that meant…

"You fuck…!" That came out as a hoarse whisper rather than a shout, even if that's what I wanted to do. "You…"

I knew that if we managed to woo our mate successfully one of us would end up in bed with her first, but right now I hated that it was Lucas. Not because he was first, but because he hadn't done what he hadn't given the opportunity to choose to do so with her eyes open, the truth of us in front of her.

So we'd have to do that now.

"What…?" Her voice carried across the cavernous space of the gym, part protest, part plea, and she looked around wildly, wondering what the hell the big deal was, right before Asher jerked his zip down. "Whoa, what the…?"

Her eyes staring, wide open and unblinking, I'd never forget that moment, because I was watching them, not my sleuth mate. I caught the moment her pupils blew wide, when reflected in those dark depths Asher's polar bear appeared. Then her rapidly sucked in breath, her mouth going slack as she just stared.

This was it, the do or die moment. She'd either accept the bond or reject it. My heart hurt it was beating so fast. For her, I realised. I'd known that the entire time, but it was an academic thing until this point.

If she rejected us, I'd never see her smile again. Never see the way her brown eyes sparkled when she let herself laugh, or the way her hair slipped over her shoulders. Never hear her voice. Never talk to her about some dumb shit. Never get close to her, smell her scent in the air. Never listen to the things she had to say, from simple and prosaic to so damn awful my fangs ground together. I think I knew how she felt right now, teetering on the precipice of something massive, but there was only one way forward. We had to toss ourselves off that edge and into the unknown, because there was no way of knowing where we'd land. Asher's bear's whuff was all the command I needed. I jerked my t-shirt off, then my shorts and then summoned him forward.

Whoa, boy. Whoa!

Communicating with the bear directly was never an easy thing. Our brains worked so very differently–right now he strained against any control I had, his nose working as his paws landed on the gym floor, right before he craned his neck to get closer to her. And she…

I expected fear, screams, for her to run out of the gym and keep on running until her legs gave out. Tales of women doing just that peppered the stories the elders told us, but they never said anything about this. A slow smile spread across her face and a spark lit in her eyes, growing brighter and brighter as Lucas took fur as well, our bears jostling closer to get to her.

"Oh my god, you are shifters?"

The bear didn't, couldn't, make sense of that, but this? Her fingers outstretched, even the injured hand, reaching for us. He knew exactly what that meant. A moment when our heart and hers met on an equal plane. She wanted us, the bear's heart grabbed onto that, and as a result I was free to do the same. My eyes, his eyes, falling closed, so we could better feel the moment when her hand landed on our head.

Scratching at our fur, my back paw clawed at the air in sympathy. Smoothing her hand over my head. "Oh my god, these ears!" she said and we bent lower so she could feel them, the sensation so damn good that we went perfectly still, as if to prolong the experience. One ear was scratched, then the other, before he moved, unable to stop himself from bunting his muzzle into her side. Probably because she did this.

Her arms went around us to stay on her feet, but when she did, they slid down. She slipped under our head and that's when we received the sweetest of rewards. Whatever I'd done to deserve a hug in bear form, I'd do it over and over again I vowed silently as she held me tight. My front paw moved carefully, hugging her right back, until the others pushed forward.

The polar bear huffed, making clear that he thought he was due a cuddle as well, so I relinquished my hold on her.

"You want bear hugs as well?" she asked, the amusement clear in her voice.

My bear chuffed at that, not liking the way our mate pulled away from us, but when she ducked under the polar bear's head to hug him too, it made sense. So did the grizzly bear's muzzle pressing into her back. Lucas was always patient, but his bear, not so much. His nudges had her laughing and then pulling free. Asher's paw rose, wanting to claw her back, but he would never use that brute strength against her. Instead, he watched her throw herself into Lucas' bear's paws, the idiot falling backwards to the sound of her shriek, only for him to end up sprawled across the gym floor, her body pressed into the fur of his belly.

"Oh, this is nice." She turned around and started waving her arms and legs around, like she was making snow angels, but then her head popped up. "This is why you were so good to me." I watched her scramble off Lucas, much to his chagrin. Her feet landed on the floor and her injured arm was tucked up against her chest. "Why you needed to protect me from Phil. I'm…"

She seemed to know somehow what she was here, and that's what persuaded the bear to relinquish his control on me. He couldn't navigate this conversation, so I was sent as his delegate. I dropped to the floor in human form, jerking on a pair of shorts, the others doing the same.

"Our fated mate," Asher confirmed as he buttoned his jeans. "Yes. We knew it the moment we saw you with your ex, when Phil was stalking you. We've known it the entire time."

For some women, this was a terrible betrayal. They felt it wasn't their character, who they were as a person that earned them the mate treatment, but some mystical bond they'd never heard of. Not Imogen. She stood tall then, taller than I'd ever seen her, her smile tremulous, but it got firmer by the second.

"So you're… mine?" she asked.

"Always," I said, my voice breaking on the word. "Just like you're ours, if you choose to accept?—"

"The bond?" I don't know where she got this knowledge from, but she threw herself at me then, wrapping her arms around my chest and pressing her face into it. "I accept. Trust me, I accept."

I'd prepared myself for a fight for her affection, to talk her down off a ledge when we told her, but not this. Not this incredible rush of relief, of possessiveness, but most of all, of love. My eyes closed as I pressed my face into her head.

"You'll never regret it, that I promise. Never, Imogen."

When my grip tightened, hers did too, right as the others ambled closer.

"Well, if that's settled," Asher said, "we need to get you in to meet with the elders."