Charlie watched in delight as the tiny, pale brown Shetland ran around the yard, the two dogs chasing it, yapping. The little horse, Ciro, kicked up his legs and cantered by. He loved to play with the dogs, and she loved him. So much.
She recalled the day she’d arrived back here, two and a bit months ago, and Bren had taken her outside after they’d made love to show her the gift he’d gotten her.
She’d cried with happiness. And today, tears welled up in her eyes as she thought of the gift she was about to give her male.
The off-roader pulled up, and Bren and Justin clambered out. Both wearing T-shirts that showed off their massive arms. She was glad her male didn’t do the showing the tourists around thing, because she’d be jealous of the women getting a good look at all that. Maybe she already had a bit of bear in her with the way she got all protective and possessive over Bren?
“Hey, gorgeous.” Justin brushed a kiss to the top of her head as he went past, ignoring Brenin’s growl.
She marveled at how well she got on with the whole clan these days.
Her work helped them to no end though, which earned their respect. Although not a formally qualified accountant, her background in financial services and her logical mind meant she’d sorted their finances and saved them a ton of money already.
“How are things looking?” she asked Bren.
They’d been to look at some tracks through the woods. She’d had the idea of maybe acquiring a handful of horses and offering treks to tourists. Aiyana and Eric both rode well, as did she. It would be something other than the accounting she’d love to be involved in.
Brenin came right up to her and claimed her mouth in a hard kiss before he answered. “Looks good, actually. There are a few paths that need some clearing, but it’s the work of a few weeks. Maybe next week, you, Aiyana, and Eric can go look at some horses at the market?”
She clapped her hands together. “Oh, that would be awesome. Thank you!”
“For what?” He kissed her again then ran his nose up her throat and neck, inhaling her scent.
“For making me happy.”
“Always, Charlie. Always.”
It had turned out they were so alike in many ways. They liked a lot of the same stuff. Photography. Horror films. Thrillers. Both liked to go jogging in the woods along the trails. About the only thing they really clashed on was music. She hated the depressing, joyless noise he called music, and he couldn’t stand her taste in cheesy tunes. But, hey, if that’s all they had to worry about, she’d say they were golden.
Last week, her mother had been to visit. She had no idea of what the clan were, of course, and thought Charlie was working there and had started to date Brenin once she’d been there a couple of weeks. She’d taken her daughter to one side before she left and told her she’d done well for herself, then lectured her not to “screw it up.”
Whereas, once upon a time, her mother’s words would have hurt, now they didn’t. She had Bren’s unconditional love to soothe her heart, and she honestly thought her mum meant well.
“I want to make you happy in return.” Her heart pounded hard as she began to speak.
He pulled back and looked at her. “You do.”
“I want to give you something.”
“What’s that?”
“I want to become your mate.”
His sharp inhale of breath made her smile.
“Really?”
She nodded. “Yep, really. I love you. I want to be with you, in the way your people are when they commit.”
“You understand it means I will have to bite you to turn you?”
She nodded and swallowed down her fear. “It’s safe, right?”
He nodded. “Absolutely. You’re being turned by your mate-to-be, it’s totally safe. It hurts a bit at first, and the bite might sting awhile, but you’ll be fine. And once you’re turned, you’ll be stronger, and you’ll live for a long, long time. You’ll age slower though, too, so it might be an issue with the people you love.”
Other than her mother, she didn’t much care. Her brother was awful to her most of the time, and her dad had left ages ago. She had no close friends and no one she’d miss desperately.
“I’d want to be able to keep seeing my mum.”
He nodded. “There may be some magic that can help with that. Make you appear aged to her. We could ask the fae?”
She shivered as she always did when they were mentioned. Sometimes, very rarely, the good fae still spoke to her, and she liked to hear them, but she feared the dark fae might return for her one day.
“Whatever you ask, we shall do it.”
A singsong voice spoke to the right of them, making her jump. She turned to see a stunning young woman sitting on the fence, swinging her legs. She wore a long white dress, which showed the outline of her stunning figure, and her white-blond hair shone in the sun.
Jealousy sprang up hot and acrid in her belly. This woman was gorgeous.
“Yes, anything.” Another slender woman walked out from behind the barn and came to stand by her friend.
They both looked like supermodels. Seriously. Charlie hated them. She turned to Brenin, expecting to see him gazing at them with lust. But instead, he looked puzzled.
“You don’t normally show yourselves.”
Wait? He knew these women? She did not like that at all!
“No, we do not. But we wish to help. We got you together, so of course, we want you to stay together.”
“On that note, not that I’m not grateful, because I am, but why did you get us together?” Bren watched the blonde, his expression guarded.
“We sense things happening. Events building. The shifters, all of them, they are too isolated. Too many males. Not enough young. We’re playing our small part. Using some of our…skills, to find mates for you. All of you.”
“All of us!” Brenin’s face was a picture. Eyes wide, eyebrows raised. “You mean to tell me you’re going to be finding mates for Justin and Kyle?”
“We intend to, bear. If we can find the females, of course. The finding is the hard bit, but once we have them on our radar, then it is nothing to bring them here. All we had to do in Charlie’s case was whisper in her boss’s ear about team building and then get the outward bound team to do a decidedly out of season booking, and Rob’s your uncle, you have a mate.”
Charlie began to giggle. “It’s Bob’s your uncle.”
The visions shrugged delicate shoulders, and Charlie frowned. “Why don’t you mate with the bears? You’re so beautiful. I’m sure Bren would rather have had one of you.”
Stupid tears threatened at the thought, and a low, rumbling growl emanated from her side. “Don’t ever say anything so stupid again. I don’t want anyone but you. You’re the most beautiful woman in the world.”
She laughed through her tears at that, but Bren only growled some more.
“Seriously, Charlie. I thought we were over this shit. You seemed happy in your skin.”
“I am…generally. Honestly, I am. But, Bren, look at them!”
“We don’t really look like this.” The blond one laughed and flicked back her hair. “Do you wish to see my real form?”
Charlie nodded, a bit scared, but too curious not to.
The blond vision jumped down from the fence and stood about six feet away from them. A soft golden glow enveloped her and then faded to reveal a tiny woman. Not tiny like the fairies in children’s books. But she must only have been about four feet tall. She had wavy golden hair and huge eyes that dominated a delicate face. She seemed oddly ageless, and Charlie could have easily placed her as anywhere from eighteen to forty.
“You’re still beautiful,” she breathed. The woman had a strange aura around her, as if tiny lights danced around her head.
“Thank you, my lovely. And so are you. Anyway, to your point about shifters and us. We are fae, dear, and we don’t mix with shifters. They’re so big and clumsy. Look at the size of him, he’d squish me like a bug.”
Charlie giggled at the way the fairy wrinkled her nose at Brenin.
“Besides, we need to find the females, not spend our time getting all worked up about giant, galumphing men like him and his ilk.”
“I don’t galumph, and I still don’t get what it is to the fae if shifters die out completely or not?” Brenin said.
“We want as many of the light ones as we can find to be happy and mated and strong for what we fear is coming. The dark creatures, the evil ones of our kind, are stirring.”
“Stirring,” the other fairy repeated. She still looked like some sort of nineties era supermodel and sashayed toward them on long legs, her hips swaying.
“We are so glad you’re staying.” She hugged Charlie.
“We need to go now. Find more of you.” The petite one smiled at them.
“Find more. We must find more,” the supermodel repeated, and their way of speaking struck Charlie as very odd.
As they walked off, the tall one turned to her friend and giggled. “Can you imagine it? Us with one of those giants. They wouldn’t fit into our home. Take one of those big lugs in, and there’d be no room to swing a rabbit.”
She burst out laughing before they turned, waving at Charlie and Bren as they walked off.
“Should we tell the guys?” She looked to Brenin.
He gave an evil laugh. “Oh, no. No way. Let it be a surprise to them. This is going to be fun.”
They headed toward the house, and Brenin stopped her before she reached the door. “Do you want to do it now? The turning, I mean. No fuss, just us two?”
He knew her so well. She’d been nervous as hell of the others watching in case she made a fool of herself somehow.
She nodded, nerves swirling in her belly, but she wanted to do this. Wanted to be by Bren’s side fully.
“Come with me.” He led her to the back of the house and toward one of the run-down outbuildings they hadn’t gotten around to doing up yet. They went around to the back of it where they were hidden from view.
“You might want to take your clothes off because they’ll get ruined otherwise when you turn.”
She got undressed, feeling odd exposing herself outdoors. She hoped there were no trespassers about; they’d get a real eyeful.
Nude, she turned to Bren to see his eyes eating her up.
“Oh, no, you don’t.” She stepped back once. “Turn me first. I’m scared, and I want to get it done.”
“How about something to take the edge off your nerves? We can mate, and then I can turn you. You’ll feel me though our bond that way. Might be less scary.”
Despite her determination to get it over with, his heavy gaze roaming over her body had an effect. Her nipples hardened, and she felt wet between her legs.
“I want to mate you, Charlie. To fuck you—now, out here in the wild—without anything between us.”
“I want it, too. But I want to do this. I’m so bloody nervous.”
“We can make it fast.”
“Ever the romantic,” she shot back at him. But who was she kidding? She was so het up and turned on, she didn’t want some slow lovemaking. Not now. They could do that later.
“You want me too, I can sense it.”
“I always want you.” It wasn’t a lie.
“But you want this? To mate now, here?”
She did. So she gave a small nod of her head.
He growled and began to take his clothes off. Then he was on her, and it wasn’t like the other times. He grabbed her hair and pulled her into him by wrapping it around his fist, and he kissed her with harsh, demanding lips. She went liquid in his arms and kissed him back, giving him everything she’d got.
He took her to the ground, cushioning her fall with his arm around her back.
She didn’t want or need any foreplay. Already primed for him beyond belief, she parted her legs and pressed her core to him, inviting him into her body.
He didn’t hesitate but surged inside her with a cry. Oh lord, she saw stars as he filled her so completely. The grass tickled her back, and the sun beat down on them as he began to move inside her. No barrier came between them this time, and it felt so different.
Her skin heated as a strange sensation filled her, a burning, itching need she thought she’d never satisfy. Writhing under him, she tried to pull him in more, arching up to him, pillowing her breasts against his granite chest.
They moved together as one, in perfect sync as the breeze ghosted over her skin, making it more sensitized.
Almost mindless with her need to come, to feel him come, she raked her nails down his back and then stilled in shock at what she’d done. She might have hurt him. But he shocked her right back.
“Fuck yes. Do that again. Mark me, my mate.”
So, she did. She clawed at him like a wild thing, and he thrust into her, until with a cry, he stilled. His cock twitched and jerked deep inside, and the sensation set her off as she exploded with him. He came and came, and there was so much of him, it ran out of her and down her thighs.
When it ended, he put his nose and lips to her forehead and kissed her.
“You’re so fucking perfect.”
She thought he was the perfect one but was too tired to argue. Instead, she kissed him, and their tongues tangled lazily now that the urgency was gone. Her core throbbed, and her insides felt liquid.
“Now, I need to turn you, my mate.”
He stood and held out his hand. She took it, nerves fluttering.
“Turn around.”
She did as he said, and he pulled her into him. He was still hard against her. His fingers brushed her hair away from her neck on the left side, and his warm lips found the skin there. “This may hurt, I’m sorry.”
He bit down, and she screamed and tried to get away, but his big arms held her in place, as strong as the iron band on her finger.
Two more times, he bit her, and just when she thought she couldn’t take another second of the pain, it went away. Something else took its place. A roaring, powerful essence. It rushed through her body, making her high on endorphins.
“I’m going to let go of you now, and in a moment, you’re going to change form. It will hurt, briefly, but then we’ll meet your bear.”
His arms went from around her, and she stumbled forward, looking back to him, surprised he’d let her go so suddenly. Something cracked in her elbow. Ouch! It hurt so badly. Then her knees popped and cracked, and her leg plain broke, she was sure of it. As she opened her mouth to scream, everything went white noise on her. No sound but the rushing in her ears, no sight except for the starry burst of light playing across her vision.
Terrified, she dropped to the ground only to land on all fours. The world snapped back into focus, the noise receding, and oh God. The smells! Grass and flowers and Bren. His gorgeous scent filled her, soothing her.
She took a step forward, and the lumbering motion surprised her. Looking down, she saw great paws where her hands should have been. She was in her bear form.
A roar to her side had her whipping her head around. Bren ran toward her in the form of his own bear. He reached her and nudged her, urging her to run with him, so she did. How could anything so heavy and bulky move so fast? Her body wasn’t her own, and every now and then, her legs wobbled or she stumbled, but she quickly righted herself and carried on.
They ran and played for a long, long time. Until the sun started to set on the horizon. By the time they came to a stop, utterly exhausted, she’d learned how to control this new body of hers better.
Bren changed back into his human form and came to put his arms around her neck. “Your bear is amazing. Now, you need to change back. Envision your human form, let your brain take center stage, and the scents and sounds recede, and you should change back.”
She did, and the trip back wasn’t half as painful as the change into a bear had been.
Naked and shivering from the exhilaration of the change and shaky from the adrenaline pumping through her body, she hardly noticed as Bren pulled his pants on, shoved his T-shirt over her head and then picked her up in his arms. He marched back around the front of the outbuildings and toward the main house.
Reaching the door, he kicked on it with his booted foot and looked down into her face, his eyes shining.
“This is like the first time I brought you here, only now you are my mate.”
The love on his face twisted her heart in the best way, and tears pricked at her eyes.
The door opened, and Justin stood there, his seemingly perpetual scowl in place. He scented the air twice and broke into a huge grin.
“Congrats, asshole.” He punched Bren in the arm.
“And congrats to you, Charlie. You’re a brave woman taking on this one.”
She smiled up at Bren. “I’m a brave woman taking on the lot of you,” she quipped at them both.
Bren elbowed his way past Justin, who grumbled under his breath, but there was no rancor in it, and he kept on grinning.
They reached the top of the stairs, and Bren carried her into the spare room she’d been staying in and placed her on the bed. He pulled a thick blanket around her shoulders.
“I’m going to go and tell the others. I won’t be long, and I’m going to make you a hot drink. You’re still shivering. Close your eyes and rest for ten minutes. I’ll be back soon, my mate.”
He kissed her long and lingering on the mouth. “Thank you for making me the happiest bear alive.”
“Well, fair is fair since you’ve made me one very happy woman.”
He left the room, and she jumped out of bed, went to the wardrobe, and took her suitcase out before methodically packing her clothes. Once she’d filled it, she dragged it out of the door and down the corridor, trying to be quiet.
She reached Bren’s room and opened the door, taking her case in. She’d hung everything up when she heard his familiar heavy tread. Thankfully, she didn’t have many clothes, so it hadn’t taken her long to unpack. She leaped onto the bed and burrowed under the covers, pulling the sheet up.
He went past the door, and she heard his worried shout as he saw the guest bedroom.
“In here,” she called out.
The door opened, and he came in, his face still holding a drawn, worried expression. He saw her in the bed and started to smile.
She nodded toward the still open wardrobe door, with her clothes hung clearly on display. “Is this okay?”
“It’s more than okay. It is right. I was going to ask you to move in to my room with me.”
“Come.” She patted the bed. “Come give me a cuddle.”
He placed a steaming mug on the bedside table, and she smelled the delicious aroma of hot chocolate.
The bed dipped, and Bren’s reassuring weight settled behind her, his arms coming around her.
“They want to hold a party,” he mumbled into her hair.
“Let them. But not tonight.”
“No, not tonight.”
“Tonight, I want to spend snuggled up in here with you.”
His answer was to kiss her neck and the top of her head. He pulled her in tighter to him.
She closed her eyes and smiled. Happy and safe in her mate’s arms.
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Have you tried my wolf shifter series? For a sneak peak of book one in that series, read on.