Hunter slid his eyes to Joss for the millionth time since they were given the okay to leave. Crewe and his band of agents had their hands full with the real criminals. A tiny revolt from a clan seeking to help one of their own was small potatoes compared to those that wanted to trade in flesh.

Fuck ‘em, and Joyce, too. He didn’t care what cell they ended up in or for how long. He had his mate back and he intended to never let her out of his sight again. Sure, she might hate it at first, him always dogging at her heels. But he was sure he could be as still as a statue wherever she went. Her own portable, protective gargoyle.

“Watch the road,” she murmured.

Shit. Hunter corrected the slow merge into the empty oncoming lane.

Somehow, they made it back to the ranch without any accidents. She didn’t move when he killed the engine and jumped when he opened her door.

His bear paced through his head and roared at him to fix everything.

Hunter helped Joss from her seat and led her through his door. A flick of a switch turned on a light, but Joss’s eyes stayed dull. Unease skittered over him.

She was there, physically, but mentally? She’d checked out when he told her to shift and had yet to process the night.

The silence weighed down on him. He was always free with a word and a grin, and the heaviness between them made him want to pace as much as his bear. His father’s words came back to him. Show up. Be there. Grab on.

Hunter rubbed at his jaw and tried to put himself in her shoes. She didn’t know this life. Her worst fears were hurting someone in her other form.

His sweet, sensitive mate had experienced true monstrosity at entirely regular, human hands because of him. His past mistakes were taken out on her. How the fuck did he make that up to her?

Images flashed through his head with clear instructions from his bear: never leave her side again.

Maybe Joss wasn’t ready to talk it out, but the floodgates would open sooner or later and he intended to be there when they did.

Hunter jerked his chin toward the bathroom. “Come on. Let’s take a shower.”

She glanced up and blinked. Then his words processed. She pointed at his chest. “You’re still bleeding.”

He glanced down, then stripped off his stained shirt. The place where he’d been shot trickled blood down his chest and side. He gave the wound until morning until it was nothing but a puckered pink splotch. Maybe his bear would stay under his skin long enough to give his body the rest he needed.

“It’s nothing,” he insisted. “Doesn’t even sting.”

Her eyes flicked down his chest. Pupils blown wide, her tongue flicked out to wet her lips.

“You should get cleaned up,” he said in a strangled voice. All he wanted was to sip at those gorgeous lips and make promises to her body he didn’t know how to put into words. Some higher language borrowed from heavenly, otherworldly beings was needed for that. He was but a simple man who only wanted to bring back the smiles to his mate’s face. The troubled frown dragging down her lips was torture.

He grabbed her hand and led her into the bathroom. A fresh shower. Clothes that weren’t borrowed from agents. Those would help set her world to rights.

He hoped.

“Do you want me to leave?”

Joss shook her head, sending her hair cascading all around her. “Stay. Please.”

The plaintive note in her voice grabbed him by the balls. His bear stopped pacing and started ripping him to shreds.

Hunter twisted to the side to turn on the water. A second later, he was back and tugging her close. A hug, that was all he allowed himself while the water warmed. Her racing heart drowned out all other noise.

She let him strip her down. Skies above, she was beautiful. It took everything in his power not to reach for her and carry her to bed.

But that wasn’t what she needed.

Hunter pushed aside the shower curtain and helped her step into the water and mist.

The silence of their ride home was nothing compared to the deafening pings and splatters of water droplets hitting the tiled wall, the tub bottom, or their skin.

And Joss still stayed quiet.

She tilted her face up into the stream and let the water run over her body until she was soaked and her hair clung to her skin.

Hunter stayed back. Emotions ran high in the tight space. He could barely pick out one from another in the intense waves rolling off her. His bear watched with such ferocity, Hunter doubted he’d have been able to move if the house burned down around him.

Then Joss fished a hand behind her and he slipped his palm into hers. A tiny tug pulled him forward.

Heat billowed between their bodies as he reached for her. Touch helped. Hadn’t she done the same when he needed her? Joss stiffened under his hands, but didn’t move away. He caressed her shoulders. Tension melted away with every swipe of his hands across her back and down her arms. She bent her head forward and let off a tiny, pleased sigh.

Fuck, what that noise did to him. Energy crackled between them.

“I thought coming here would be different. That maybe I wouldn’t need to look over my shoulder or worry about the wrong people knowing what I am,” she said finally, voice barely above a whisper.

“I’m sorry, Joss. I want this so bad and I can’t seem to stop fucking up. This is on me. You were only a target because of me.” Safe. She was safe now. A growl still trickled out of his throat. “I’m no good for you. You don’t deserve to pay for my mistakes.”

“Your mistakes?” She twisted around to face him. Sternness pursed her lips. “Did you stab me full of drugs and silver?”

“Well, no—”

“Did you tie me up and stuff me in a closet?”

“No, but—”

“Try to sell me to some truly despicable people?” When he shook his head, she barreled on. “You are not responsible for anyone else’s actions.”

“But they only picked you because of me. They wanted to hurt me, so they went after you.”

“Which is a whole load of bull poop on their parts. Theirs, Hunter. They are such small people for what they did. What did you do wrong? Care for someone?”

He crushed her to him. The weight that’d tied around his neck the moment he realized she’d been taken disappeared in a strangled growl. “You’re too good.”

For him, for the world, he didn’t know.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face into his shoulder. “I was so scared. Not for me. Well, yes, for me. But mostly that I’d never get to do this again.”

A shuddering breath bathed his neck and with it, the last bit of stiffness that remained in her died. She melted against him, molding to his solid frame like she was made for it.

Maybe she was. Maybe true, fated mates were one in a billion. His bear had known she belonged to him from the beginning. She fit better than any of the others he tried to convince himself was the one for him. It was just natural with her. Easy.

Perfect.

“I would move mountains to find you, Joss. Don’t you ever worry about being parted for long.”

“I know.” She tightened her grip. “You picked me.”

“I want it all with you. Rings and a wedding to match the marks on our skin, cubs, you name it. I want you.”

“Cubs?” she murmured.

Joss slid back a step and canted her head. Hope glittered in her eyes and Hunter wanted to punch her ex harder than ever. He’d give her everything the man denied her.

Hunter spread his hands over her stomach. “I think you’d look so fucking cute with a big belly.”

“You can’t curse in front of the cubs.”

“Who do you trust to ease them into it—me or my old man?” He sipped at her lips. “We’ll start easy with the four-letter basics. Work up to creative combinations by kindergarten. If they ain’t blistering ears by the time they hit middle school, we’ll know we’ve done something wrong.”

“Hunter!” She hid her laugh in a shocked gasp, but the wide grin that kept appearing on her face gave her away. “You’re going to be a bad influence and, if you’re anything like your dad, a good father.”

Emotion worked his throat. “I’ll be happy if I’m half as good a man as him.”

Joss walked two fingers from his navel up his chest. “I guess you’ll need to give me a mate mark, then.”

It was his turn to take a shocked step backward. A slow smile played across her lips and she peeked at him from under thick eyelashes.

“Joss,” he said slowly, “are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

Fucking hell, his bear was going nuts in his head. Victory laps. High jumps and somersaults. Her words were everything.

“Yes.” She nodded. “To all of it. Mates and rings and cubs. I want it all with you, too.”

Hunter slanted his mouth over hers, licking deeply. A hum rose up in her throat. More, the noise seemed to say. So did the arms firmly wrapped around his neck again.

Hunter swung her around and pressed her against the wet tile. Her soft curves welcomed him again as she groaned right along with him. Sexy, noisy woman.

Mate.

His.

Blood rushed straight to his cock with the thought. She wanted him. Not for a fling while she sorted herself out. Arousal flooded his nose and made his mouth water. This was the moment leading to the rest of his life.

He was hers forever.

Joss nipped at Hunter’s lips, giving as well as he gave. Anticipation raised goose bumps up and down her arms and legs. She tilted her head back and threaded her fingers through his hair. A growl vibrated through him, sending shockwaves of heat whipping through her.

Joss dragged her lips across his stubbled jaw as he pulled her knee up to his hip. The head of his cock prodded against her entrance. Joss bit down on her lower lip to hold back her cry.

Hunter leaned down and kissed her throat. “Don’t hold back… mate.”

Holy cannoli, that word. The word. The biggest, most important, looming large, written across the sky, word. Her badger bounced through her head, all memories of being a crouching, hissing menace vanished at letters put together in a magic order.

Mate.

Yeah. She’d be his mate. Just as he’d be hers.

Her moan rolled through her just as he sank down her body, letting her leg fall over his shoulder.

Tease. Tease!

Joss sucked in a gasp when Hunter’s tongue trailed a line of fire from one hip to the other. Strong hands held her steady even when she started to shake. Each trembling breath gulped down more of his scent. All the water in the world couldn’t wash away the fresh rain and leather that made up him. Nor could it hide the musky man scent that tightened her core. He wanted her. His words said for pretty reasons, but that delectable scent admitted something primal.

Her hands landed on his shoulders the moment he slid his fingers into her center. The slow pump of his fingers rattled a growl in her chest. She rocked her hips against him to urge more from him, eyes sliding shut. Every thrust pushed her closer to the edge of delirium.

Hunter smiled against her skin. Intoxicating man. Sexy man. Did he know what those hidden grins meant to her, or how they warmed her heart? They were his and his alone, not something he put on to make her feel better. They simply were.

He licked a circle around her clit and Joss forgot what words meant. Flicks and lapping, while his fingers mercilessly stroked, sent a tingling wave of awareness through her limbs. Water still raining down on her only intensified the sensations whipping through her body until the world melted away to nothing but Hunter. He was life. The rest of her life.

He was everything.

Joss struggled to catch her breath. She dug her nails into his shoulders and hair, anywhere she could reach, and threw her head back in a hoarse scream.

Hunter was on his feet in an instant. He picked her up like she weighed nothing, wrapping her legs around his waist and shoving the curtain aside. His mouth closed over hers just as he slung a towel over her back.

Hunter didn’t stop until he reached his bed. He sank to his knees and settled her, still wrapped in the towel, against the mattress.

“What I wouldn’t give to get this as a picture,” he drawled.

“I’m a mess,” she protested weakly.

His eyelids drooped, but didn’t hide the flash of fiery gold. That look consumed her. He didn’t see someone with an extra few pounds, or hair in knots, or at a crossroads in her life. He saw someone who survived everything tossed at her and came out on the other side.

She liked the person he made her feel she could be.

“Exactly. A beautiful mess.” He fell forward and slowly sipped her lips. “My mess.”

Warmth spread through her heart. “And you’re mine.”

He’d tried to tell her that same thing from the very beginning and she’d refused to hear it. Her bruised, broken heart erected a wall to protect her. It was time to follow through on the decision she made at the wedding. She picked him, and there was no more losing out on love.

Her badger rumbled agreement. Hunter belonged to them. They’d gone through the trials to prove it. Now they just needed the mark to prove to everyone else.

Hunter pressed forward, his weight settling against her. An inch, then more. The slow crawl of stretching and driving deep brought her breath in quick pants all over again. She butterflied her knees to cradle him closer, but it wasn’t enough. Wouldn’t be enough until—

Hunter retreated and pushed back with a groan.

His mouth crashed against hers, kisses going rough right along with his thrusts. Joss loved that about him, loved that he could be laughing and gentle one minute and claiming her thoroughly the very next. He was a tough, coarse gentleman at heart.

One hand wrapped around the back of her neck. His free hand gripped her breast, plucking and kneading until she writhed under him. Joss mewled into his kiss, feeling the edge of pleasure cutting through her.

Droplets of water from his hair hit her skin. Her own hair shifted and clung whenever they moved. The chill from the remnants of their shower contrasted deliciously with the heat flaming off their bodies. She was surprised they didn’t sizzle.

He surged forward, driving the pressure building inside her to new heights. His arms shook where he held himself above her, gold eyes watching her with intently and daring her to look away. She couldn’t. She didn’t dare. Even with her release bubbling through her, waiting for the final moment, she could hardly even blink. He held her in rapture.

He stayed deep, bucking shallow and hitting her clit.

“Hunter.”

The word sounded thick and inhuman. Needy. Demanding. Full of her badger.

A smug grin hitched his lips. “Do it, darlin’. Come for your mate.”

“Fuck,” she whimpered. The curse tasted right on her tongue.

She arched into him and felt his mouth on the base of her neck.

Yes. More.

Sharp pain eased with the blinding bliss of her release. At the same time, Joss turned her head and bit down.

A floodgate of ecstasy opened. This was what she was meant for. The love she thought she had was nothing in comparison to the bone-deep instincts that marked Hunter as the one and only. He filled the entirety of her heart.

Hunter groaned, the sound loud and low against her shoulder. He threw his head back, the sting immediately gone from her shoulder. His neck and shoulders tensed, muscles standing out against his skin, as his throbbed release filled her with warmth. His movement stuttered, slowed, then picked up again as he stretched her pleasure out until the last of their aftershocks faded.

He collapsed over her, then rolled to the side and brought her against him. She loved that, too. He didn’t push away and make some excuse to end their connection. He wanted more of it.

A proper mate.

Her badger twittered in her head and a tiny purr of pleasure entered the air.

Against her neck, she felt her mate—eek!—grin.

Hunter’s arms tightened around her.

“Never letting you go, crazy badger.”

“Good. Because there’s no going back now. You’re stuck,” she teased with a smile.

“Good.” He repeated and pressed his lips to the back of her neck. “There’s no one else I want.”

Joss’s heart swelled. She believed him.