"One down, three to go," Chase whispers, walking past me on the stairs as I go down to the lounge after having a shower and changing into my jeans and a shirt.
"Two to go at this rate," I snap back. Asshole.
"You keep telling yourself that," he laughs, and when he gets to the bottom of the stairs, he throws the door open. I watch as he jumps down the stairs, shifting mid jump into a giant brown bear that makes a loud thud when it lands. Its large, flurry head turns towards me, watching me for what feels like a few minutes before running off into the woods.
"I wish he would pick his damn ripped clothes up. I hate when the lazy bastard does that," Cain mutters, walking up the steps and picking up pieces of clothes on the way. He sees me and smiles widely. "Congrats on mating with Callum."
"You aren't jealous?" I ask, surprised. I was scared he wouldn’t be happy with me mating to one of them so quickly when I stopped him kissing me.
"No, and you don't have to worry about me becoming jealous in the future either," he tells me. "I did come to see if you wanted to drive to the Forest Pack and get some clothes. I doubt you have much left, or anything suitable for tonight's party. The baby’s parents have asked everyone to wear blue to celebrate the little boy," he says, and I mentally try to think if I have anything at home. I remember one blue dress finally and smile.
"Let's go then. I would love to see Snow and Arisa. I only got to speak to them for a few minutes last night because I was so tired," I reply, and he smiles, holding out a hand. We walk to his car, and as we get inside, I glance around the area, just noticing something.
"I didn't think of it before because of everything, but where is my car?" I ask as he starts his car and drives us down the main path out of the pack.
"Chase took it to his garage to fix it up after the rogue broke the window. I did go check, and yes, he really is fixing it before you wonder if he is making it worse on purpose," he answers as I watch three people walking into a house on the side of the path. There are people everywhere, well, bears. Some are even shifted into their bears as they walk next to the people.
"Why would he do that? He clearly doesn’t like me," I comment, and Cain rests his hand on my leg as he pulls up to the gate, and we wait for it to open.
"Chase is complicated. Everything that happened with our father messed him up. He wasn't always like this," he tells me, starting the car once again and driving out the pack.
"It seems like he is just out to be a dick to me; I don't get it. In one breath he says he wants me as his mate, and the next he is pushing me away by being a dick," I sigh loudly and rest my head back against the car seat. I can feel Callum's emotions from here, knowing he is still working at the animal centre for the rest of the day. My wolf lets out a little growl at the thought of sweet little Gerry, who kept her eyes on my mate like she wanted to eat him up. I've never been jealous of anything, and yet here I am, knowing I would kill her if she dared touch Callum.
"Chase does want you, but you did reject him. He can't cope well with that, and he is still trying to process it all," he tries to explain to me, and I guess he does have a point. "At the end of the day, if you want Chase as your mate, you might need to go after him."
"So, I should chase, Chase?" I joke. We both laugh, and he shakes his head.
"It would fix his ego if you did. Chase likes red by the way," he suggests, making me chuckle.
"I best pick up a red dress then. What is your favourite colour?" I ask.
"Blue," he winks, and I know tonight is going to be a brilliant night.
* * *
"Hello, stranger," I say, stepping out the car and opening my arms for Arisa who runs out the door and straight to me. I lift her up, swinging her around as she giggles. I put her down, noticing how she has already grown a few inches since I last saw her. Snow comes running out the door, smiling when she sees Arisa with me. Her eyes go to Cain as he steps to my side, kneeling down and holding a hand out for Arisa.
"So, who are you?" Arisa asks, shaking Cain's hand.
"Cain Bearlay," he answers.
"You're a bear! Can I see you shift? That would be so cool!" Arisa shouts, jumping up and down while Cain straightens up. Snow places her hands on her daughter’s shoulders, and Arisa smiles up at her. "Mum, he is a bear!"
"I heard, and I also know it’s super rude to ask someone to shift for you," Snow reminds Arisa, who huffs.
"But I want to see a bear," she whines in annoyance.
"Also, you have dinner on the table with Light," Snow tells her. Arisa huffs once more before stomping back into the house.
"How are you?" Snow asks as she pulls me into a hug, and then sharply pulls me back. "You have mated to a bear, I can smell him on you!"
"Callum. We mated yesterday," I tell her, and she turns to Cain.
"Are you Callum? Or one of the other brothers?" she questions him.
"Cain. Lovely to meet you, Snow. Callum is the youngest brother," he explains.
"Ah I see. Well, come on in," Snow says, nodding her head towards the house. Cain's warm hand finds my lower back as we walk into the house. I’ve come to like him guiding me like this.
"Where is Harper?" I ask.
"Is something wrong? I never even asked why you are here," she asks as we step into the house and gives me a worried look
"No, don’t worry! Nothing is wrong, I just wanted to see how she is," I answer. "I came back here to get some clothes. There is celebration party in the pack to celebrate a new baby tonight."
"How amazing! Does your pack have many young ones, Cain? We are all amazed that there are four babies due this year in the Forest Pack." Snow asks, and she is right. There has been a massive amount of pregnancies considering we are used to only having one baby born to a pack in a year, typically.
"As far as I know, there is one bear pregnant, and the baby that was born last week. Even for us, that is considered a lot," Cain comments as I look to see Harper walking out of Nikoli's office, smoothing down her hair. I smile at the little bump she now has, and how her top is all wonky. It doesn’t surprise me at all when Colton walks out the office behind her, wrapping an arm around Harper's waist. They both kiss, clearly not noticing we are here until Snow clears her throat. Harper sharply turns away from Colton and sees me, running over quickly and wrapping her arms around me.
"Gold! You didn’t say you were coming! I would have made you cookies or something,"
"You can’t make cookies. You promised me you wouldn’t try that again after they somehow burnt my tongue last time," I remind her and cringe at the memory.
"I forgot about that. Well, I could buy cookies from the shop, warm them up, and pretend I cooked them. That would work," she suggests. “Now why are you back? Not that I’m not happy you are.”
"I need clothes, more importantly, a dress," I explain, and she smiles at me.
"Want some help?" Harper asks.
"I will take the bear and find Nikoli," Colton tells Harper, kissing her cheek. He nods his head towards the corridor, and Cain goes with him, looking back at me once and winking.
"You're mated. It took me a second to recognise the scent on you," Harper says.
"I know. Mixing wolf and bear has a strange smell to me too," Snow says, watching me like she is trying to figure something out.
"You guys are acting like I smell bad or something," I grumble as we all start to walk towards the stairs.
"Not bad! Just different," Snow explains. "It is like when Harper mated with Colton, her scent changed, and because he is a vampire, the smell is so strange. Do you remember?"
"Yes, I do actually, now you mention it,” I say, looking at Harper. I guess when wolves mated to other wolves, their scent never changed so we didn't know that mating to different species could change your scent.
"So how are things going at the Bearlay pack?" Harper asks me as we get to the top of the stairs and head towards my old room.
"Strangely perfect...it is like I was always meant to be there. You know?" I ask, and Harper smiles. I can't explain how much being there makes me relax, far more than I can ever remember relaxing in many, many years. The bears make me happy, and happiness is not something I am willing to walk away from. I guess I was so scared of mating to someone that wouldn't love me, or that I couldn't trust, that I didn't see the bears are what I have been looking for my entire life.
"I get that. When you find your home, you know," she says.
"Exactly," I reply with a smile and open my door, holding it open for Snow and Harper to walk in before I do.
"I started bringing some empty boxes in for you, and I was going to ask if you wanted me to pack your things and have them sent over," Snow asks when I see the folded cardboard boxes near the door.
"I'd love that, but leave some things here. I plan on coming over for weekends at least once a month. You are my family, and the bears know that. Luckily, our packs are so close," I say, and Snow's whole face lights up as she pulls me into another big hug.
"Good. You are my sister, and I can’t not see you. Plus, Arisa needs her badass aunt around," Snow says as she pulls away. Harper and Snow sit on my bed as I pull the door to my wardrobe open and start going through it. I find my suitcase on the floor under my shoes and drag it out, throwing in all the clothes I like to wear. I open the secret compartment in the wall that hides my daggers and sword. I am not leaving without these beauties. I pack the daggers in the suitcase and put the sword in its sheath. I glance around the walk-in wardrobe and frown when I don’t see the blue dress I was looking for.
"Dammit," I mutter.
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah, well, no. I can't find the blue dress I need. I have to wear blue tonight for the celebration," I explain.
"I have the perfect dress for you. Come on, I can do your hair and make-up before you leave," Snow says.
"Sounds like a brilliant idea."
"I have this ice blue nail varnish, and we can do your nails too," Harper says and walks to the door. "After I check that Colton and Nikoli haven’t scared Cain off that is. I heard they planned something." I laugh as Harper walks out the room and know that nothing they could do would scare Cain off. I hope so anyway.