Her father arrived the next morning, determined to explain his position, but Emiliana had other things in mind.

Seated beside Uberto she gestured toward a chair a few feet away.

A moment after he sat down in the chair, she spoke. “Am I a woman?”

The question seemed to confuse her father. “What kind of question is that?”

“One that I want answered. Am I a woman?” She didn’t hesitate even though she knew that her father had a short temper if he felt she was playing games with him. The only things she had in her favor were that she wasn’t playing a game and she had Uberto by her side.

The thought itself was comforting.

Nodding slowly, as if he was worried that he was walking into an ambush. “Yes, you are a woman.”

“And that is why you entertained an offer to push me into a mating?”

“An offer from a man like us, Ana. A shifter eager for a mate.”

She felt Uberto tense beside her. He was her mate and the way he took her hand in his she felt comforted by his presence and hoped she returned the favor to him as well.

“Why me? Surely, he knew that I wear ‘Berto’s mark.”

“A mark,” her father only seemed too happy to point out, “that you rejected.”

She felt a sharp twinge of regret in her chest. Like a seed planted in fertile earth, her complaints and her repeated justifications for sending Uberto away and only grown in her father’s mind. And no doubt in the minds of the people around her.

“It was something personal between Uberto and myself, and I made the mistake of telling you about it.”

Uberto’s leaned against her arm. “You were young.” He sighed. “We were both young. And I didn’t help, thinking I knew what we should be, how you should let me care for you.”

“Has it changed?” Her father’s voice was tight, strained. “Have you changed your mind about Uberto?”

Emiliana nodded a little and then shook her head once. “It’s a process.”

She heard Uberto’s laugh beside her and she nudged him with her elbow.

The look on her father’s face as he witnessed their playful interaction brought true joy to her heart. For so long they had been at odds.

“But I wanted to ask you,” she looked at her father and waited for him to focus on her. “Why were you so eager to push this ‘offer’ to send me away?”

“It wasn’t for that reason,” he looked away and let out a long breath. When it was finished he looked much older than he had a moment before. “I love you, Emiliana, but surely you understand how unique you are.”

“Not really,” she shook her head, “I’m a shifter, the first in anyone’s memory, at least from this area, but it hasn’t helped me at all. No one wants me to help with anything that I seem to be made for. I want to help protect the people here in our valley. I want to use my strengths to benefit others, but you never seem to take me seriously.”

Her father opened his mouth to reply but shut it a moment later.

“I’d blame old habits, Ana, but I worry that I’m stuck in my ways.”

“Just explain it to me,” she swallowed and squeezed Uberto’s hand, “I want to understand.”

“It started with some of the other elders,” he explained, “through the last few generations, the number of our children that become shifters when they reach their last few years of youth, are dwindling. Some of the stories from the past tell us that children born of two parents, both shifters, will have a higher chance of-”

“Being just like their parents.” Emiliana let the information settle in her head. “But I have a mate. Why would you have even considered the offer? Would it work if I already have a mate?”

“Nothing is certain in any case, Ana, but the elders,” he shook his head, regret turning down the corners of his mouth, “they wanted to make sure we did everything possible to try. The idea of bolstering our numbers-”

“Using me as a brood mare?”

She almost felt bad for her father’s stricken look, almost.

“I will tell the others that the offer has been turned down, if they ask about you and Uberto?”

Emiliana gave her father a genuine smile. “I think it’s safe to say that they won’t have to worry much longer.”

To say that he father was relieved was an understatement. He looked about ready to burst.

“I love you, Emiliana. I haven’t always acted like it, but I did my best for you… for Felisa.”

She stood and stepped into her father’s embrace for the first time in a long time. “I know. I know. I’m just happy we don’t have to fight anymore.”

He gave her a loud kiss on her cheek and released her into the arms of her mate.

“Now go… spend some time together.”

When he left moments later, Emiliana turned to look at Uberto and saw a curious look on his face.

“What is that look, ‘Berto?”

He shrugged and smiled at her.

“I think the two of us need to go for a run.”

Her eyes widened as she took in a gasp of air. “Do you mean it?”

His eyes narrowed at her and she felt a rush of heat push through her veins.

“Now?”

Uberto reached for the buttons on his shirt and she copied his actions. “I’m going to run you ragged.”

He groaned at the challenge in her eyes. “I’m looking forward to it, Ana.”

Once outside, they shed their skin and embraced the wild abandon of their bears, running across the green meadows and under the trees of the forested areas. They raced and chased each other in turn, finding a rare moment of peace together.

He had no real way to tell how long they’d run, but instinct turned them around as they reached the foothills and when he turned to his mate he sent her an image of home through their deepening connection.

He could feel her smile if he couldn’t see it in the expression of her bear. They turned and headed back to the Orsino House, a place that was well and truly as much hers as it was his, but by the time they returned, they were both exhausted.

Emiliana tried to put on a good show. Whether it was for his benefit or done just to prove herself, Uberto moved closer and touched the side of his broad face against her shoulder, nudging her to right herself from where she was listing from exertion just inside of the garden gate.

A long heavy sigh of breath pushed from her mouth and she lifted her head to give him a baleful look. He knew she was hurting and that she was upset. He didn’t care if she took it out on him.

Her eyes were glassy with pain, but she was being stubborn.

He loved her so much.

Uberto wished they could communicate easier as bears, but there was something between them, keeping their bond weaker than it should be. One more time he lowered his head toward the ground hoping that she would understand and lie down to rest.

Ana’s bear curled her lip back and glared at him. He could almost see her stubbornly sink her claws into the ground under her feet.

He wanted to laugh, not at her of course, he didn’t have a death wish, but he needed her to rest so she could heal and then he could as well. Still, Ana didn’t seem to understand what he was trying to say, or rather, she was not going to listen to him.

Her body wavered just enough for him to grind his teeth together. Salvatore had always told him to be a gentleman, the same message that their father had impressed upon them from the start.

Yet, being a gentleman wasn’t going to help at the moment, not when he was faced with the most glorious woman he’d ever known, and she was trying to out-stubborn him, just as she always had.

A twitch in his side turned into a stitch and a small howl of pain passed through his lips as his chest puffed wide open like a bellows. When he pulled in his next breath, he lowered his larger frame and laid his aching body down with a soft huff. Relief flooded through his body, as if fighting gravity by remaining on his paws was more of a struggle than it should have been.

The grass under his cheek was cool, but his skin still ran hot from the long run and the waning adrenaline in his veins. Drawing in a long breath through his nose he huffed it out, moving the grass around under his nose.

Uberto didn’t even have to turn and look for Ana. Once he was finally still and relaxing into the grass, Emiliana moved around his prone body and she laid her head down just inches from his, her smaller form curving into his belly.

His bear chuffed with satisfaction and the fur at the ruff of her neck moved under his breath. Even though they were only touching here and there, it was enough. Uberto felt her relax, felt healing rush through her body. Only then, did he allow his eyes to close and melt against her in the cool breeze. Moments later, they were both asleep.

He woke to Ana’s hand on his hip, trailing her fingers slowly up over the rise of his bare skin and then down again. The sensation was heavenly as a soft breeze rushed over his back. He moaned and found his arm tightening around her warm body. “How long have you been up?”

Her soft laughter vibrated through their bodies, pressing them even closer together as she lightly dug her fingertips into the smooth curve of his ass. “Long enough to find a few scars that are new.”

Uberto felt her thumb rub along his bare flesh. It felt good to have her touch his skin, to touch any part of him. “Did you look your fill?”

She sighed and gave his skin a pinch, making him wince the littlest bit. “Maybe.”

Smoothing his hand down over her belly, his palm brushed up over her hip and down her thigh. The shift in movement allowed him to place kisses along her skin from the base of her neck to the curve of her shoulder. His fingertips rubbed lightly back and forth over her thigh and found Ana’s skin flushed with heat. “Touching you is heaven.”

“It that what it feels like?” The slightest arch of her back stole his next breath as he felt the lush curve of her body press against the thick length of his erection. “I think I like what this feels like.”

He couldn’t argue there.

Ana lifted her knee, trailing her toes against his shin and then down until she’d tangled his foot in between her own. She shifted again, and he could only manage a soft grunt of sound from his throat.

“Is that all you’re going to say?”

He opened his mouth but stopped as her hand curled even further around between his legs, and her fingertips glanced over a particularly sensitive bit of flesh.

He heard her soft peel of laughter mixed in with the sound of birds chattering above them beyond the canopy of vines and felt a strange feeling of satisfaction in his chest. Just having Ana his arms was heaven, but hearing joy in her voice? It was truly a gift.

Leaning closer, fitting every bit of flesh of his own that he could manage against hers, Uberto gently nipped the shell of her ear with his teeth. Her laughter turned into a breathy gasp.

“You know how much I love you, hmm?”

There was a moment that turned into two and just before he tried to speak again, her soft rebuke met his ears. “Do I?”

He gave her ear another nip, making her hiss. He swept his tongue over the bite and felt her shudder against him. “What do I need to do,” he wondered aloud, “so that you’ll believe me? What do you want from me, Ana? I’m willing to do anything for you.”

“I don’t know if you’re willing to do anything I ask, but I’m willing to take a chance with you, ‘Berto. I want this to work. If you’re willing to take a chance with me?”

“I was willing to move halfway around the world to make you happy, Ana. And now, here I am, half a world away from my brothers. Tell me what you want from me. I’m sure you’ll find that I’m willing to give it.”

Silence fell between them for a long moment and he resisted the urge to turn her around. This… whatever this was… was on her terms. She needed to be in the driver’s seat.

And deep down inside he was happy to give her that power. Ana had been an amazing woman ten years ago. Now? She was everything he could have hoped for and then some. She dazzled him and frustrated him. Made him ache and burn. He wanted to be that for her too.

“I want you, ‘Berto. I want to be your mate.”

* * *

She tensed and waited for him to say something. To make light with a soft word and a chuckle designed to prod and poke at her temper.

But Uberto Orsino remained quiet.

And if she were feeling fanciful, she might even call him pensive.

Letting go of her hold on his thigh, with more than a little reluctance, she moved away from him far enough that she could turn onto her back and then on her other side, so she could look straight into his face.

What she saw struck her straight in the heart.

Rough and gruff, Uberto was the one she could always count on to push her as hard as she pushed him. He was looking at her with a single question written plainly on his face.

Do you mean it?

Had she pushed him too far this time?

Well, she decided, she was just going to have to show him what she meant.

Lifting her right hand, she lifted it across her body and traced the faint mark at the base of her neck, riding high on the warm tan of her skin. She watched his eyes follow her fingers, saw the warm brown of his irises fade into the black of his bear, and she could feel the heavy pull of her own bear rushing into her gaze.

“I wear your mark, mia anima.” She bit into the flesh of her bottom lip as she watched him breathe. “I want to know if you’ll wear mine.”

If it was possible that hunger itself had a force and form of its own, she felt it in that moment. It rose from his body, less than a foot away and passed through her like a wall of electricity. The sensation hummed through her, anticipation rushing along with need, met somewhere in the middle and made her whole body tremble with excitement.

“Will you?”

His skin flushed from head to toe as his eyes met hers. She read so much in his midnight eyes and scented his arousal like spice in the air. Ana knew what he was going to say before he gave voice to his thoughts, but she needed to hear him say the words.

Uberto reached out with his right hand and took hold of her left. He brought her hand to his mouth and nipped his teeth at the tip of a finger. “You already know the answer, Ana. I am yours.” He pressed a kiss to the same finger, then tugged it between his lips.

She tugged it away and looked down at him with hunger in her eyes. She’d wanted him for years on her own terms. She’d pushed him away and then when he’d come to her again, she’d taken what he’d freely offered, but the whole time she’d kept her walls up.

And now she’d put herself out on a limb, asked for him for what she’d wanted deep down inside. She wanted to know that he was ready to put as much into their relationship as she was, and here was his answer.

She straddled his hips and leaned over, him her palms flat in the grass on either side of his ribs. Leaning down, she came within an inch of kissing his lips and then pulled away, brushing a kiss on his chin. The stubble she felt tickled her and the laugh that followed had her gasping in a surprise as her nipples brushed against the hard plane of his chest.

Another kiss, this one along his jaw, had him tensing beneath her as her nipples hardened from the sensual contact with his body. Moving closer, she nipped her teeth at the soft curve of his earlobe and heard the rough exhale of breath from his lungs before a soft inhale that sounded almost like a moan.

She straightened her arms a bit and looked down into his face.

“What’s the matter, ‘Berto?”

She shifted her hips and felt the hard rise of his cock against her thigh.

“Nothing’s the ma- yes.” His eyes closed for a moment and then snapped open when she drew her thighs closer together, coaxing his erection closer to the center of her heat. “You’re trying to kill me, Ana?”

“Where’s the fun in that, ‘Berto.” She felt her hair tumble around her shoulders and she smiled at him, feeling every inch a conquering queen as she looked down at her mate, sprawled in the shadows of the garden. “I’d much rather keep you around for a long, long time. Torturing you is even more fun for me.”

“If I didn’t love you so much-”

He cut short his growl as she touched her fingertips to his chest.

“Yes?”

He dragged his eyes up from her fingers and she felt his gaze like a physical touch over her body. From the silken curls at the apex of her thighs, to the sweet curve of her belly, and up to the full globes of her breasts, peaked with tight dusky nipples. His gaze left tremors in its wake. When his eyes settled on her lips, she lifted a hand to touch her lips, trying to hold onto the sensation.

Uberto’s eyes had gone dark and still she could see a fire burning deep within them. “If you love me, Ana,” his tone was rough, but she heard his plea at the center of it, “take what you want from me. Give me your mark. I want the world to know,” he hissed in a breath when she bit at the tip of her own finger, rubbing her tongue against her skin, “that I’m yours. Only yours.”

She lowered her hand and set the tip of her finger on his chest, right over his heart.

His body arched up beneath her as if her finger had touched a livewire within him.

When he came back down, he was panting, his head lolling to the side to expose his neck to her. “Please, Ana. Being this close to you, feeling your skin against mine… feeling how wet you are for me,” his throat worked as he swallowed and she loved watching his Adam’s Apple bob under his taut, tanned flesh, “please.”

Her mouth was watering for his taste. Her bear roared within her, unwilling to wait any longer for what was theirs.

And so, she took it. She kissed him. Hungry, open-mouthed, drinking from his lips. She took his breath and gave him hers in return.

She could feel his hesitation, felt the tremors through her skin. She took one of his wrists in her hand, lifting it until his hand was cupped around her hip. Emiliana pulled her lips from his for a moment. “Touch me, ‘Berto.”

He didn’t need any help figuring out what to do with his other hand. He knew just how to touch her to, knew just how hard or soft to stroke her flesh and make her shake.

She moved a few inches down his body, felt the hot push of the head of his cock against her backside.

“Don’t break me,” the words burst from his lips as she nipped her teeth at his jaw and continued a few inches lower, “I don’t want to shift right now.”

She laughed against his neck a moment before she placed her lips over his Adam’s apple and gave it a good deep suck.

“Okay, okay,” his fingers dug into her plush curves of her ass, “break me if you want, just don’t stop touching me.”

“I’m not going to break you, ‘Berto.” She pushed herself up high enough to look him in the eye. “I’m going to eat you alive.”

She couldn’t make out the words that were coming from his lips, but she could feel the way his hands latched on to her as his hips thrust up against her. Emiliana knew she could hold him off, but why fight the inevitable.

Not when she wanted everything that giving in would give her.

Reaching a hand back she took hold of his cock, giving him a long stroke before she gave him a tight squeeze.

His fingers dug into the plush flesh of her thighs. “Just like that.”

She laughed, a full-throated sound of joy. “You know I’m going to want cubs.”

Emiliana took a long stroke and watched his back bow with pleasure.

“Anything you want.”

She repeated the gesture and had him panting. “I want many cubs.”

“Yes, just don’t-”

She smoothed her second hand over the velvety tip of him and looked down to find his hand around her wrist, holding her still, but not hurting her in the least. “You want me to stop?”

He let out a series of muttered curses and then finally managed to speak. “I want inside you, Ana. And then I want your mouth on me. Now!”

Her laughter was a sexy it was teasing. “I’m in charge,” she told him and slowly released his cock from her grasp and watched as it pulsed between them. Hard and thick it made it easy for her to lift herself up and set her hands on his shoulders. Leaning forward, the tips of her breasts against his chest, she felt his broad head nudge at her folds.

She wasted no time, lowering herself over him, her eyes closing on a shuddering sigh as her body stretched around his. He didn’t fill her so much as he completed her.

With anyone else, the act would have been just that, a physical act, but with her hands on his shoulders and his breath on her chest, she had never felt so cherished and needy, all at the same time.

In seconds they were lost in each other and the rhythm that only beat within their souls, and when they reached the crest of the mountain together, Ana pressed closer and sank her teeth deep into his shoulder.

She felt him twitch and jerk in her arms as his body found a release to match hers. He emptied himself into her body as she bathed him in her joy. With her orgasm rolling through her she pulled away enough to press a soft kiss to his torn skin.

He moaned, and she felt him move within her again.

She used her tongue to sweep over her bite, helping him to heal the mark that she had given him.

“No,” he sighed and pulled her closer, burying his face into the side of her neck where he’d placed his mark nearly a decade ago.

Wrapping their arms around each other, the settled into the embrace, drawing each other’s scent into their lungs. Sometime later they fell asleep in much that same position, but smiling as they continued their embrace.

They may have taken the long way around finding their happiness, but now they were finally able to fulfill the destiny that had been set before them from their births.