33. Quin

33

QUIN

A unt Emerald drives us back home in the van. The shelving is filled to the brim with goblets and manly curios that Uncle Dagger haggled for with dogged determination. I can’t wait to show Quin every goblet I found along the way, and how I made them sparkle just by touching them. I feel magical and full of love. I also feel a little tender from the piercings.

Hopefully Slade will like those too. I don’t think male grizzly shifters wear jewelry. Jake wasn’t wearing any when he visited.

It’s past eleven o’clock when we finally get home. I’m relieved to see Slade’s car is still here. I didn’t ask him to stay because I understand he may still need time with his brother, and I didn’t want to be greedy.

He appears in the doorway as I climb out of the van. I’m struck by how much he belongs there, leaning his forearm against the doorframe. He smiles at me as I approach, his gaze darting to my new nose ring and the glittery dermal piercings on my cheek. In addition to the piercings, I also have a slim chain wound around my right wrist several times and a collection of rings on my fingers. The jewelry feels masculine to me, but also pretty.

I’d like to think I can be both.

I approach Slade slowly, letting him take in the new me. He cups my jaw and tilts my face to get a better look at the three dermal piercings below my right eye.

“What do you think?” I ask, my heart in my throat.

“I love them. They’re very you.”

I stand on tiptoes to kiss him. It feels different to kiss him now that my collection is in the back of the van. More solid and permanent.

“I’m glad you didn’t leave,” I say.

He cups my cheek. “Me too.”

Aunt Emerald carries the first box inside the house. Slade helps carry the others, including the really heavy curios. It takes the better part of two hours to get everything inside. The boxes fill the entire living room. I like the bulk of them, the way I like the bulk of Slade. I’ll have to rearrange the whole room to get everything to fit.

It’s just Slade and me now. Aunt Emerald went home. I sit on the edge of the couch and look at all the boxes crowding the space.

“I’m a man now. I mean in raccoon shifter culture.”

He sits next to me. “It suits you.”

“Would you take me to bed now? I need… to be with you.” I need it as much as I needed to buy all this stuff. It feels like a ritual, in and of itself.

“What about Chime?” he asks.

“I think it’s time for her to know who you are,” I realize. Tomorrow, she’ll see the goblets, too. She’ll see how beautiful they are, just like I saw the beauty of my mom’s picture frames and chandeliers.

“Okay. But I have work tomorrow. Your alpha mom has decided that I’m working for her. She’s also decided that we’re moving the trailer next door to them.” Slade’s lips quirk up, which is the only way I can tell that this doesn’t bother him.

“Is that what you want?” I ask.

He nods. “Yes. I need work, and I want to prove myself to your moms. I think this is a good way of doing that. I also like the idea of Chime having her grandmas close by. Do you want to move away from here?”

I love living out here with Aunt Emerald and her animals, but I always wanted to live near my moms. I was just too ashamed of what I’d done to be that close to them for a while. I also like having the bakery close by. I’d have to pay rent for the trailer if we moved it.

“Maybe we can figure that out later?” I suggest.

“Okay.”

Slade scoops me up in his arms and carries me down the hall. I love being held like this. After a day with my aunts and uncle, coming home to Slade makes my heart so full. He lays me down on the mattress and gently removes all of my clothes. He takes his time with each article of clothing, kissing my skin as he reveals it. He inhales the scent under my armpits, which makes me feel a little self-conscious, but it’s obvious from the heat in his eyes that he enjoys it. He removes his own clothing too and lies on top of me.

It reminds me of our first night together, when we were both gloriously naked together, but everything is much slower now. I get to run my hands along his broad chest and over his wide shoulders. I get to kiss his collar bone and cup his muscled ass. We have all the time in the world, and it’s such a gift.

I don’t know why I ever thought being slow was a bad thing.

He strokes my cock lazily. The heat between our bodies grows, especially as his fingers dip between my legs to where I’m wet for him. He teases my entrance, circling his fingers round and round, until I’m rocking my hips, eager for more friction. When he finally sinks his finger inside, I throw my head back and clamp down on it, reveling in its thickness. He fucks me with that finger slowly, almost making me come before he adds another. I’m panting and sweating, gripping at his shoulders like a lifeline, when he finally pushes his cock inside me. The moment he sinks home, I feel the click between our souls.

He buries his nose in the crook of my neck and lets out a sob. I hold him close, whispering how much I love him—how much I missed him. It isn’t until that moment I realized this was always how it had to be. If I had let him go without putting my paws on him, he would have left for Austin and never looked back. He still would have gone to prison for Jake, but I never would have checked in with him when he got out.

I have spent so much time regretting what I did six years ago. Now I don’t. We are both imperfect people who made mistakes, and because of those mistakes, we are here. His hips move, and pleasure blooms inside me. I kiss him with a passion that reflects the deep love in my soul. This is the way we had to come together. It’s messy and painful and slow, but now that this gentle, sweet man is in my bed, and our daughter is in the next room, I wouldn’t go back and change it.

Our bodies move faster and faster, racing toward a cliff that we jump off together. I’m a man now—a raccoon shifter who has claimed my mate before Fate. Even my body glitters from the joy of it.

I let the bliss of our love pull me under.