Piper had waited until Anson had fallen asleep, his low snore a sign that he was out for the count. She carefully got out of bed, not knowing how sensitive he’d be to her moving. He didn’t stir and she made it to the bathroom, clicking the door closed quietly. Flicking on the light, she opened the robe she had slid on for modesty. She wasn’t sure if people could see into the hotel rooms from outside. She wasn’t taking any chances.

Standing in the mirror, she took in her raw, chapped lips from the kisses. Oh, so many kisses. Her eyes had a sparkle to them, a little tired, but pleasantly relaxed. Her breasts felt swollen and achy, Anson finding them particularly appealing. She held her gaze for a final moment, almost daring herself to believe something she hadn’t seen yet. Could she prove some kind of faith if she didn’t need the physical proof of what she had just experienced with Anson?

No, she needed it. As much as she needed Anson now. He had gone from an annoyance to something more important than air to her in just a day. Steadying her breath, she let her eyes drop down to the skin above her heart. There, in a smaller size, were two intertwining hearts. One right side up, one upside down. Connected in a perfect infinity loop… it was her mate mark.

The colors changed as she shifted her body, moving like they were liquid over her skin. She brought her left hand up and traced her finger over it, making the circle and loop a number of times. Looking back to the mirror, she saw her wedding band next to her mate mark and felt the emotion of the day start to crash down on her. So many feelings. Anger, despair, humor, happiness, even love. Making love to Anson had made a connection from her heart to his. From her soul to his, like they were braided together in an impossible knot.

She didn’t need to cry. That wasn’t what she was feeling. It was bigger than tears. She had a husband and a mate. There wasn’t anything that could change that now. Divorce was just a piece of paper. Mates were forever. She had someone to love her for the rest of her life. It felt like such an impossible dream for her to ever dare to have again after the last time. Now she had it all.

The door to the bathroom opened and Piper took in a rumpled-looking Anson. “I’m sorry. Did I wake you?”

Anson came up behind her and slid his arms around her waist. He was unabashedly naked, and Piper blushed just a little as she felt him press against her.

“Babe, I felt you,” he said, placing a soft kiss on her neck before nuzzling his face into the space.

“Felt me?”

Anson reached up one hand from her waist to open her robe, exposing her mark again. He brought his other hand up to his mate mark and ran his finger over the design. Piper gasped as she felt the touch transfer to her mark. It warmed and felt like it was his finger on her mark.

“How?”

“We’re connected. The gift of the mate mark is from the Great Mother. We’ll always be able to communicate this way. Some couples have different benefits of their joining. They usually come over time. Feelings, emotions, just a clearer connection to the other person.”

“Do your dads have that?”

“Papa says dad drags his nails over his mark when he’s mad. It’s a miracle they haven’t killed each other,” he said with a laugh.

“But they love each other, right?”

“To the moon and back, just like I love you.”

Piper met his eyes and reach her hand back up to her mark. “Anson, I love you too. I can’t explain how or why, it’s just there. Like the love is a rope that came between us. I can feel it. Like I can feel your love for me. Is that weird?”

“Piper, I’m okay if it takes you a while to say it to me. I know we need to get to know each other still. There are a lot of things we have to take care of before starting our lives together. But we will always have this love between us. No matter how far apart we are, I will always be there for you. You’ll know. I don’t want you to say it because you think you have to. It will come, in time.”

She understood what he meant. She’d said it and he was giving her time to get used to that feeling. She said the words to her parents, she’d even said it to her exes, but when she thought about it, it was always said with a smile. A smile of being too casual. It was said as an afterthought.

She didn’t feel that way with Anson. She wanted to say it to him, eye to eye, heart to heart. No laughter, no lack of conviction. What she felt was too precious for that. Piper hoped he didn’t think her sincerity was funny, it would break her heart.

“Okay,” she said to him, leaning her head back against his chest.

“Come back to bed. You need some sleep.”

“You’re going to let me sleep?”

“Sure, eventually,” he said, sweeping her into his arms with a growl.

The next few days didn’t seem real to Piper. The fact that she had taken an impromptu vacation didn’t go over well with her boss until she explained that she was married and was on a short honeymoon. Even her boss knew that was something worth celebrating. She promised to be back to work by the end of the week and that she’d catch up anything that was pending.

Anson had sat back and chuckled as she made promises. He interjected under his breath comments like, “Only if you work naked,” or “you should probably take another week off.” She ignored him and kept to the professional speech she’d practiced.

The hotel, the pool, and the food were amazing and she could almost relax. There were moments when Anson would take phone calls, stepping away from her. She’d watch him pace, his head down, his hand on his hip. There would be nodding and talking that she couldn’t hear, then he’d hang up and come back to her with a smile on his face like he wasn’t checking in with King. He’d stalk back to her and park himself in their bungalow beside the pool. It was still warm enough to enjoy the heated pool even in October. It was going to get too cold soon and Piper just soaked up as much sun as she could.

Anson had kept his word and took her shopping in her business suit for sundresses and bikinis. She’d never worn one before, not liking how they cut her on her hips, but she found a soft yellow one with a high waist and a top with a built-in bra. She hadn’t even bothered to check what her ass looked like in it, she was enamored how her mate mark stood out against the color of the suit. She’d bought it and another one in an emerald green.

They had been lying by the pool together, Anson holding her hand between their lounge chairs. Piper noticed a group of women walking by and their eyes were all over Anson. Smiles, breasts arched out, trying to out-strut each other. As they got close, Piper didn’t know what came over her, but she hissed at the group, causing one of them to stumble. The women looked shocked then glared and her and kept going. Anson thought it was the funniest thing he’d ever seen in his life. He was curled on his side laughing.

“They were ogling you!”

“Babe, they might have been. But if you noticed, I was looking at you.”

Piper blushed. “I don’t want them looking at you,” she admitted.

“Good, that’s how a mate should feel. I love it.”

“Glad you do.”

Piper had worked on controlling her responses because as the days went by she saw that women looking at her man was going to be a daily occurrence.

She saw plenty of envious glances from men and women when they spied her mate mark. Anson was easy to spot as a shifter because of his size. Bears were big, there was no doubt about that. But still, she could be Kindred, they didn’t know. As long as she had on sunglasses, her eyes couldn’t give away that she was the human.

It was a small annoyance because Anson was true to his word. Whenever she looked at him, he was already looking at her. She would have thought it would be annoying to be watched that way. But the look in his gray eyes made her feel loved and exquisite.

The slippery slope of happiness was getting harder and harder to keep a grip on. Anson kept telling her to relax. He kept her fed, entertained, and fully fucked. She’d even started letting her work worry disappear. As she lay by the pool soaking up the sun, her Seattle body desperately needing the vitamin D, she wondered if they could just stay there. Move to Las Vegas, settle down, raise cactuses Sure, she’d have to give up her great job. She’d miss her family. But would her problems follow her here?

In a fantasyland, she would love to think they wouldn’t. But Darius and Tristan had said her problem had followed them to other states. There was no hope her stalker would leave her alone now. Letting that thought sink to the back of her brain, she reached her hand out, keeping her eyes closed. In seconds her hand was wrapped in a bigger warmer one. Anson was there. He said he would always be there. This might be the end of her old life and truly the beginning of a new one.