So that’s what all of the fuss was about. I stared up at the ceiling, tinged blue by the lit numbers of the alarm clock and listened to the soft snores of my mate My mate. Fate had smiled on me at last.

I smiled up at the ceiling and hid the light with my bicep over my eyes. I was naked, satisfied, and happy. I don’t remember ever being happy before. Pleased, sure. Content, a time or two. Happy? Really happy? Not at all.

I’d found my mate at last, just at the point where I’d almost given up. I guess our mother in the sky, the queen that gave it all up for us to live in the stars, had really wanted to make it up to me. She’d sent me a very fine specimen of manhood, a gorgeous rock of a man, even if he was human. He’d make a good bear, if he so chose.

I stretched and turned to him, my fingers tracing down the hard planes of his abdomen. I watched him in the blue light, sleeping peacefully. His breathing changed, and I knew he was awake, though he hadn’t given any other clue.

“Where am I?” He asked finally, his deep voice accented with the drawl of Georgia.

“In my bed, honey.” I said simply, waiting.

“Ah. Okay.” Just as simple. My lips twisted into a dark smile, yeah, two could play that game.

“How long have you been out?” I finally asked, the hints he’d given earlier had come together as he slept.

“What time is it?” He didn’t turn his head, his own arm thrown over his eyes.

“6:45.”

“Right around 22 hours, give or take a few minutes.” He moved his arm and turned his face to me. He was awaiting my response.

“You on parole?” I watched him, waiting for a lie, hoping I wouldn’t get one.

“Nope, free and clear.” His eyes didn’t flicker, he was telling the truth then.

“Good, we won’t have to hide you from bounty hunters then.” I sat up, slid my legs out from under the black comforter, and stood up.

I stretched, needing to ease the ache of muscles well-used, but also knowing he’d watch every second of it. I bet over at the waist, picked up my clothes, and carried them to my private bathroom. “You staying in bed, or do you want a shower?”

He eyed me, his hand sliding down his abdomen, beneath the covers. His eyes went dark, and I knew he wanted me again. “I’d like some answers, actually.”

His eyes told me those answers could wait.

“Which do you want most, right now? Me or those answers?” I just wanted a small token of a reassurance, as needy as that might seem. The man was my mate, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t fight it. If he wanted to, that is.

His answer was to sit up in the bed, which reminded me of the IV in his arm. I went to him and looked him over. I was worried he’d already been exposed to my bear too much. His wounds were healing quickly, far too quickly for a human and he seemed to feel little pain. I looked into his eyes as I examined him and saw a faint glimmer of a flame there.

Fuck. I’d exposed him already. Looking down at his body I knew a man as healthy as him would absorb it quickly, would even be eager for it. The fire there in his eyes told me he would have a use for it too, once he realized what he was now. It must have transferred from my saliva.

I removed his IV, put pressure on the site, and in seconds it stopped bleeding. Yeah, he was going to realize he was different quickly. The site was healing already. I looked at him again and knew I had guilt written all over my face. I looked away before he could notice and stood up.

Tavin stood up, his face above mine. I was tall for a woman, but then I was a bear. It was rare that I had to look up at a man. The fact that I had to so that I could look into Tavin’s eyes made me smile.

His fingers came up, tracing the lines of my mouth.

“Open.” He demanded, and I grinned, my eyes challenging him. His fingers gripped my jaw and tilted my face. His lips were just at the edge of mine, teasing me, making me want his kiss. “Open.”

I opened, my lips parted in eager expectation.

Our tongues mingled, and my hands came up to steady the sway that was a product of my knees going weak. He kissed me until I was breathless and then he pulled away. He kept a grip on my hand and lead me into the bathroom I’d headed for earlier.

He adjusted the water in the black-tiled shower stall with a seat, before he pulled me in with him. His right hand found soap and we began to wash each other, our hands exploring slowly. I washed his wounds gingerly, amazed at just how well he was healing. Our first explorations were efforts to clean. He apparently decided I was clean enough when I found his already hard cock and washed it to a pulsing length. I wanted to sink to my knees, but he had other ideas.

He sank down to the seat I used to shave my legs and pulled me to him. He looked at me with admiring eyes, his fingers tracing the path his eyes took. Over taut nipples, my flat stomach, and down, to my silky-smooth mound, his fingers traced heat down my skin. When his fingers slid into my wet flesh, his lips captured my right breast to bite gently at my tight nipple.

I gasped as I felt that bite all the way down to the place where his fingers had found a new playground. I let my head fall back and water coursed down my face, down my body, the heat nothing compared to what he was causing with his touch.

I rode his fingers, two gently teasing my clit as his mouth tormented my nipples and could only gasp out moans of encouragement. I stole a look at him, his beautiful face, and wanted to know what his mouth felt like on me.

Fuck he has beautiful lips.

As if he’d read my thoughts he pulled at my left thigh and placed my foot as his side. The move pulled my center close to his face and he darted forward to swipe a long path from my entrance, all the way up to the throbbing bundle of nerves at the top. “Tavin.”

I felt my fingers clench into his shoulders but couldn’t stop it. I was too caught up in the way his lips wrapped around my clit and sucked.

I’m going to die of pleasure, I know it. He’s going to kill me with it. Fuck, how does he do that?

My back arched, and I had to hold onto the handle in the shower to keep from falling over as his fingers slid inside of me.

He growled, a sound that vibrated throughout my center, as he pulled me more tightly to his face. Yep, I’m going to die.

Tavin leaned back, pulling me to his lap.

“I couldn’t live another moment without knowing what you taste like. I’ll finish that later. Right now, I need to fuck you, Sabina. I need my cock inside of you, or I will die. I don’t know why, I just know I will.”

I shifted on him, my legs opening to him. I waited for him, but he didn’t make me wait long this time. With a quick jerk he pulled my hips down while he thrust up. It was quick, brutal, but so fucking good.

“Fuck!” He ground out against my collarbone as he sucked water from my skin. “Now I’m home.”

I moved on him, pulling up only to sink right back down, and Tavin groaned in encouragement. “Don’t stop, baby. Fuck me just like that.”

I gave him a smile of satisfied possession. He was mine. I would ask him more about his prison time later, right now, I just wanted to ride his cock.

I rode him slowly at first, my breasts swaying gently in front of him. His right hand cupped a breast as squeezed it softly, sending a jolt down my abdomen. I lifted myself over and over again, pulled up then slid down with a slick sound that was more than just the water from the shower. I could feel the way my body gripped at him, as if it didn’t want to let him go but opened gladly as he split me open with each powerful thrust of slim hips.

I ground myself down onto him, my hands clasped at the back of his neck. I lost myself in concentrating, on finding just the right angle to grind my clit into him as he filled me in just the right way. I found that angle and moaned in appreciation. His fingers moved to my ass and dug in to guide me in a faster rhythm, a harder rhythm that took my breath away.

“Fuck.” I cried out when something deep inside of me pulsed and spasmed.

“That’s it, Sabina. Show me what you got, baby.” Tavin leaned away from me to watch as the pulse blossomed into a full-on clench that had me gasping.

I worked myself down on him, as my body became a wave of pleasure that shot up from between my thighs, through my abdomen and up to tighten my nipples even harder, and finally into my brain. If I could think I’d have wondered if light was shooting out of my head in beams, but I couldn’t think. I could only feel.

I couldn’t cry out anymore, I couldn’t sigh appreciatively, I could only hang on as my jaw fell open and my body did whatever the fuck it wanted to. Tavin kept driving into me, deep and hard, but I couldn’t move, not as a new wave started, just the same, on the hells of the last orgasm to steal my breath again. I really might die from it.

Then Tavin started to speak to me, and somehow the words set me off again.

“My ex set me up. She wanted to be the drug dealer’s lady. They sent me to prison for a theft I didn’t commit. It was all worth it for your pussy, Sabina, to watch you face as you come all over my dick, baby. Fuck, I can watch that for the rest of my life.”

I found the strength to open my eyes, to look at him, as I exploded once again. He followed me this time, a fourth round of my pussy swallowing him too much to resist. His face turned to stone as I felt the first shot of his orgasm inside of me. He gave a soft grunt of satisfaction, and his hips stopped moving as he lost the ability to keep his eyes open. A low, soft moan escaped him as he fell back.

I looked down at him, the world finally coming back to me. I watched him as he shook beneath me, knowing he was feeling exactly what I’d just felt. A final groan made my body pulse around him one last time.

He was mine. I was his. I sank into his arms, hot water still splashing my back. We were both trying to catch our breath and just too lost in each other to say anything yet.

Within seconds he was hard again, and I looked up in surprise. He stared at me for a moment and then he stood, our bodies still joined. Gently he set us down on the bed, his body over mine, encapsulated by mine. I wondered if this hunger would ever end, if he’d hate me when he found out what I’d done to him.

“Mine.” He growled as he thrust into me sharply, and I wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince me, himself, or the world. I let him take what he wanted and held him in my arms. I have a mate, and he was all I’d wanted. Handsome, hard, and hot. I also knew next to nothing about him, but that didn’t matter, I’d die without him. It might take months, or even years, but I would die without him. I’d have to explain all of this to him, I thought as he rocked over me, his pace uneven. He was lost in something I wasn’t a part of yet, but I would be, I knew that as well as I knew my own name.

All I could do was hang onto him until he was ready to tell me about his life. With a final thrust and a groan that sounded like it was wrenched out of his very soul he emptied himself into me. I wiped a tear from my eye, a tear for him. This man had demons far darker than mine. I’d lost my parents at a young age, but other than that, I’ve not had a hard life.

I’d had the support of my clan, I’ve had my brothers. I’ve seen, over the years, the pain the human world can cause. We bears lived a peaceful life. Sometimes nature took one of us, sometimes there were arguments, but it was only the human world that brought us pain. It dawned on me then, why exactly Quinn and Travis didn’t want me to leave.

Cubs didn’t die in the bear world, our children lived, thrived in our world. If they ventured outside of the safety of our region that’s when suffering came. When humans entered our world, they sometimes brought their hurt with them. Especially if one of our clan came to love the human and the human couldn’t resist the pull of their own world. Tavin would be different, I knew he would because he was mate. He felt that already, the attraction we had would grow, and I could already tell by the way he took solace in my body that he would come to adore me as much as Trudi was adored by my brothers.

He wouldn’t leave me, he would be mine. I know it. Just because my fingers clenched into the sheets and another tear slid from my hard blue eyes doesn’t me I doubt that. It doesn’t mean that at all. I stroked his back as he fought for his breath, this stranger that had suddenly become my whole world. He was mine, that’s all there was to it.