“I liked last night,” Trig murmured from behind her in the dark before dawn.

“Mmm?” she asked sleepily.

“I said I liked last night.”

With a happy sigh, Ava snuggled back against her big-spoon. And he was a giant spoon. The man was six-foot-three and his feet hung off their bed. He’d turned the heater on in their room because she’d gotten so cold, and it seemed he couldn’t go back to sleep. She squinted one eye open at the alarm clock. They still had an hour before he needed to get up to feed the cattle and tackle the hundred chores he had to do around the ranch today.

“I’m gonna plan adventures for us,” Trig said.

“What kind of adventures?”

“I want to do something fun every day from here until Christmas. Something for you and me mostly, but sometimes for you, me, Colton, Kurt, and Gunner.”

Ava drew his arm tighter over her hip and kissed his hand, right at the base of his thumb. Even in the dark, she could trace his tattoos. She’d memorized them all. “Like dates?”

“Like new traditions.”

“Will any of the traditions be illegal?”

“Probably.”

She giggled and murmured, “We could call it the Seven Days of Outlaw Christmas.”

“I like that. Let’s count it down. Like an advent calendar, but instead, it’s a list of things we could do every year.”

“Hmmm,” she hummed happily. He was making a game, and she loved those.

Trigger brushed his fingertips across her lips, then to her jaw, neck, and the tip of her shoulder. She was only wearing panties, which is why she’d gotten cold in the first place.

“Remember when you first came back to Darby, you said you wanted a baby reindeer and baby goats so you could dress them in pajamas and they would be your hairy babies and you would make them social media pages?”

“Mmm hmm,” she said, utterly distracted by what his fingertips were doing. He was writing something on her hip, over and over, and she was trying to read it just on feel alone.

Ava Massey. Ava Massey. Ava Massey.

Well, now she was awake. “Are you writing your last name on my first name?”

“Maybe.”

Huh. She relaxed against him again and couldn’t help the grin that took her entire face. “It has a ring to it.”

“You’re mine now. You know that, right?” Trig gripped her hips and rolling his own against her back.

Ava let off a shaking breath and arched back against him. She slid her hand over her shoulder and gripped the back of his neck as he plucked at her sensitive earlobe with his lips. His fingers dug into her skin as he rocked against her, and she could feel him so easy like this. How hard and big he was. He was only wearing a pair of sweatpants, and his abs were flexing against her back with every stroke. He took his time, revving her up, teasing her, getting her ready before he took her.

His fingers drifted under the lacey edge of her panties before he slid them down her legs. Trig was smooth, like he’d taken lessons on removing panties, but she still lifted to make it easier for him. They only made it to her ankles before his hand was back on her hips. When he pushed against her, she could feel his dick between her legs, touching the wetness he’d made there.

“You gonna take it for me?” he murmured. When Trig eased back, she could feel him right there.

“Yes,” she gasped as she writhed back against him, silently begging.

The swollen head of his hard cock slid into her for just a second before he pulled back.

“Please,” she pleaded.

“God, I love when you beg for it.”

“Please, please, please,” she whispered mindlessly as he pushed into her another inch. She spread her legs, urging him to stop the torture.

“Good girl,” he whispered against her neck, and then he gripped her hips hard and pushed into her, deeper, deeper until she took all of him.

“Oh my gosh, Trig!”

He eased back slow, then slammed into her. Eased back, slammed. Eased back, slammed. There was a snarl in his throat now, and she was totally gone, her focus completely on how he felt inside of her. His body had been made for her. Perfect match, perfect fit.

Ava had been gripping the pillow in front of her, but Trig slid his fingers from her hip to her hand. “Feel us.”

He guided her hand between her legs so she could feel them. Her fingertips brushed his slick cock sliding in and out of her. He was so hard. Trig pushed her hand down, putting pressure on her clit. Moving with him, she kept her hand there, gasping with every stroke. So close, and he was pushing into her harder and deeper now. Faster. Faster. He was close, too. The bear inside of him always gave it away. He got growly. Trig pulled her knee farther up, spreading her legs more, and then his hands were on her hips again, jerking her back against him as he bucked into her.

She cried out as she came, and two strokes later, Trig groaned, and his dick throbbed hard inside of her. Once, twice, three times, he was filling her. Sexy noises in his throat, helpless ones in hers, and her orgasm went on and on. He drew every one from her until she lay there twitching, completely sated. He didn’t leave her right away. Instead, he hugged her up tight and rested his face against the back of her neck. He stayed inside of her, connected.

“You make me better,” he said in a deep, gravelly voice. “You make everything better. Make me try harder. Make the bear try harder. I got so lucky the day you came back to Darby. I never thought I would have a single easy day in this life, and then you came in and changed everything. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, Ava, and someday I’m gonna put my last name on you. You can have everything. Anything you want. All of me.” His lips brushed the back of her neck gently. “I’m yours.”

Tears burned her eyes. He’d come so far, yes, but so had she, because of him. He didn’t realize what he’d done for her, or how big a difference he’d made in her life. And not just now, either. She hadn’t known it at the time, but he’d watched over her when they were kids, too. He’d always been hers. And she was just realizing she’d always been his as well. She’d felt so alone for so long, but she never really had been. She just hadn’t been paying attention.

And now look at her life. By witnessing his growing happiness, it was fueling her own. And she was pretty sure this was how it was supposed to work. Love was supposed to be like this. He thought he was the lucky one that she’d come back to Darby, but she’d been living filler years. Forgettable years. She’d been wasting her life, and now everything was in such sharp focus because of him.

He didn’t realize it, but he’d saved her in a lot of ways. Trig had earned her loyalty.

“I want to chop down a Christmas tree for the house,” she whispered, her heart aching and soaring all at once. This was a huge moment of growth for her, and it wasn’t an easy one. “I swore to myself I would never celebrate Christmas again when my dad left. I swore I would never get attached to anything again. Not any person, not any home, and not any tradition. But…” Ava swallowed hard and found the courage to finish. “With you, I want to try.”

Trig let off a sigh as though he’d been holding his breath. “Day six. Chop down a tree for our cabin.” He rolled out of bed.

Ava tried to follow, thinking he wanted to get up for breakfast, but Trig pressed her back down in the dark and tucked her under the blankets. “Go back to sleep, mate.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I need to Change. What happened at the Gut Shot last night riled up the bear, and he’s been loud all night. I don’t like when people threaten you, or call you names. I don’t like it when they test us. I’ll Change while you sleep, and then I’ll gather the Clan and we’ll find a tree when you’re ready.”

“Trig?” she asked as he made his way to the door.

Moonlight streamed through the window, highlighting his naked body in blue shadows. “Yeah, Ava?”

“I don’t like that you have to Change alone. Sometimes I wish I was a bear shifter too, so I could be in the woods with you.”

She could hear him swallow hard. “If you saw what I did to Colton, and what he went through, you wouldn’t wish for the bear. Sleep, Ava. I’ll be back soon.”

Ava lay in the dark, under the warm blankets, in the breeze from the heater, until the front door clicked closed. And then she slid from bed and made her way to the window. The sky was clear, and the half moon and stars illuminated the yard.

Trig tromped in the ankle-deep snow until he reached the tree line, and then he turned toward her as if he could feel her watching him. He stood tall and proud, muscles rippling, the tattoos on his shoulders, arms, and torso stark against his pale skin, his breath frozen in front of him, his eyes so bright she could see them glowing from here. Beautiful monster.

She knew what he would do before he even started breaking. He was going to show her what the bear did. Show her the pain on his face. He was going to remind her it was a curse to be a shifter.

And as his body ripped apart and reshaped into a massive brown bear with a roar so loud it shook the house, she blew a breath on the window, then drew a heart for him and colored it in with the tip of her finger.

Because man or beast, he owned her heart.

And no matter what, he always would.