Braden

He closed his eyes and stretched, forcing himself awake.

You don’t need the sleep. You made the choice to sacrifice it in exchange for other things. So stop whining brain, and wake up.

His brain countered that argument by saying he’d been thinking with another part of his body when he made the decision to stay up late, and then wake up several times throughout the night. Braden tried to counter it, but he couldn’t. It was true.

Doesn’t matter. Get up anyway.

Reluctantly he pushed himself into a sitting position, doing his best not to disturb Elle. He smiled as she rolled over from where she’d been sleeping on her back and found his leg, wrapping one arm over it and cuddling up to his upper thigh with an adorable little contented smile.

She was perfect for him. If he’d had any doubts, they were gone now after the night of passionate lovemaking that they’d shared. There were no doubts in his mind. Most of the night had been slow and intense to the point of being overwhelming as they explored each other’s sexuality. Occasionally they’d had a bout of rougher, harder sex, but much of the night had been spent in each other’s arms, simply writhing and grinding against one another with a patience and leisurely pace that would have driven him insane if it were with anyone else.

But not Elle. She made him want to take his time, to explore every nook and cranny of her body, to know how she tasted, to feel her pressed against him in every manner. The deep understanding of one another that had been forged through the night was something he wasn’t sure could be put into words. It was so intimate, so personal, that it defied any expectation he’d ever had of a lover. Which made complete sense when he acknowledged the fact that she wasn’t just a lover.

Elle was his mate.

He knew that. His bear definitely knew it. The only one who didn’t was the one who it was most important that he tell. Braden wanted to do that, to do it so badly. Every fiber of his being strained against his willpower, which was the only thing stopping him from waking her now and telling her the truth of what he knew. But he couldn’t. Not yet.

One of the other shifters had told him to be wary of this, if he stumbled upon his mate in Cloud Lake. It was one of the first things that Gray had told him, in fact. That he needed to be aware of the differences between humans and shifters. If his mate were a shifter, there would be no further need to keep it hidden, because they would know it, just like he did.

But Elle was a human, and that meant he had to approach things differently.

“She’ll feel an attraction to you, but it won’t be the explosion that two shifters experience. Instead, think of it more like lighting a fire. You have the tinder and easily flammable pieces. That’s followed by the smaller sticks, eventually working your way up to the big logs that compose the heart of the fire, which in this case is your love.”

Gray’s words still echoed around in his head.

“Now, you’re probably thinking, ‘Well I’m a shifter, isn’t that like adding gasoline or something to the fire?’ And you’d be right. But you need to add it in very small, measured doses. That way it will start the fire faster, but it won’t blow up in your face. If you rush it, there is a very good chance that you’ll scare her off, possibly even permanently. Which I take it you wouldn’t want to do if you found your mate.”

Braden didn’t then, and he didn’t now. So he kept his mouth shut, trying instead to simply add a little more gas to the fire, so that it could burn brighter sooner. When Elle was ready to light up his sky, then, and only then would he reveal the truth to her.

Probably.

It was hard. Everything he’d ever grown up with told him that he should be telling her right now, proclaiming his love and his desire to spend the rest of his life with her. Side by side, partners in crime. Together they could live out the rest of his term here in Cloud Lake peacefully, and then he’d arrange for her and Gwen to accompany him back to Cadia.

It would be perfect. Closing his eyes, he pictured it in his mind, the images bringing a smile to his lips. There was nothing complicated about that at all. The only thing Braden had to do was open his mouth and tell her that she was his. That they were destined to be together. Surely Elle could see that, couldn’t she? It’s not like she was lacking in the intelligence department.

He snorted softly. No, she wasn’t lacking there at all. A post-secondary education certainly wasn’t necessary to gain life skills and knowledge. Elle didn’t have one, and yet she had more poise and class than many shifters her age, who arguably were exposed to much tougher education standards than humans were at a similar age. No, Elle was unique, and that was what attracted him to her so strongly.

Tell her.

But he couldn’t. Not yet. The risk was too great, despite his desire to do so.

“You have a rather serious look on your face.”

Braden jumped slightly as Elle spoke from next to him, her voice breaking the silence and scaring him.

“Sorry,” he said as his leg jerked along with the rest of him, bouncing Elle up out of her peaceful position.

She winced slightly but still settled back down on top of his thigh. “I’ll manage. But I clearly disturbed some deep thinking.”

He gave her a reassuring smile. Or at least, he hoped it was reassuring. While he did, Braden considered his response. The drive to confess to her was so strong. Overwhelming in its power. But Braden knew he could be stronger, that he could overcome it and persevere until the right moment in time, the instant that he just knew would be the one to tell her everything.

And that wasn’t right now.

“Trying to decide on where to go for breakfast,” he said, telling a white lie, and mentally begging for her forgiveness for it.

“You shifters are always hungry,” she said, using the nails of one hand to scratch at his chest as he slid back down to cuddle. A happy sound came from her mouth while she snuggled up even tighter to him, her head now resting on his chest, rising and falling with his breaths.

“Yep. It’s the three H’s.”

“The what?”

He chuckled. “Hungry, Horny, and Horngry.”

Elle went still, then she groaned. “Please tell me you didn’t just combine hungry and horny into one word.”

“Okay. I didn’t just combine hungry and horny into one word.”

“Then what is horngry?”

“It’s a combination of horny and hungry.”

Elle glared. “You just said it wasn’t!”

“You told me to say it wasn’t,” he countered.

“I meant only if it was true!” She started laughing, pulling him in tight.

“Technically it was true,” he mused. “You said hungry and horny. But really it’s horny and hungry, the other way around.”

Elle reached behind her, grabbed her pillow and stuffed it into his face before he was finished speaking.

“That’s not very nice,” he said as he calmly used his greater strength to lift the pillow out of her grasp. Then his hand descended on her exposed rear, leaving a little bit of pink on her soft, tender flesh.

“Hey!”

The little yelp she let out was so adorable, Braden could only think of one thing to do. He kissed her. Elle fought him at first, but eventually she sighed through the kiss and leaned in to it.

Another few minutes of intimacy, another shower, and half an hour later they were clothed and ready to start the day.

“So, shall we go get some food?”

Elle looked away. “I could always make something here.” Her voice was subdued, almost unhappy, a rather abrupt change from the entire rest of the morning.

Braden frowned. “What’s wrong with going for food?”

There was a long pause. “It’s embarrassing.”

“I see.” He didn’t. “Could you tell me, so that I can understand? Maybe I can help?”

Elle sighed, a much less joyful noise than the last time he’d heard it come from her. “I don’t have enough money to go out for food.”

His immediate reaction was to scoff and say that he was paying. Which he was doing. But something told Braden not to react that way, that doing so would worsen the situation. It took him a moment to realize why he felt that way. If he just brushed it off, he wouldn’t be taking her seriously. He would be dismissing her feelings and acting like they didn’t matter just because they were in error.

That wasn’t something he wanted to do, so he thought out a different method.

“I’m not sure I think you should be embarrassed by that,” he said at last.

“What do you mean?”

She wasn’t freaking out or getting mad, so Braden pushed ahead with his counterargument.

“Think of the living situation you’re in. You’ve been a single mom for nine months now, and a pregnant mother-to-be for another nine before that. A full year and a half that you’ve effectively been unable to get a job. Not unwilling, not uninterested, but actually unable. On top of that, you’ve been working that entire time. I’ve seen what you do to raise Gwen, and how much effort you put into that. Anyone who says that you haven’t been working is full of shit.” He paused, considering if he had any more to say, then decided no, he didn’t. “So where is the embarrassment in that?”

Elle considered his words, her expression focused.

“I…I’ve never thought of it that way. I’ve always just considered the fact that I don’t have any money, and whenever I do have a bit of spare cash, it inevitably goes toward something for Gwen.”

“Exactly. You’re putting your child first, which is admirable in more ways than I could begin to describe,” he said, trying to drive his point home. “So why can’t you accept that your…” he almost said mate, then started to switch to boyfriend, then realized he was screwed no matter what he said, and went with something simple and blunt, “man wants to take you out for breakfast?”

There was a pause.

“And he also wants to take himself out to breakfast, because he’s worked up a huge appetite from certain activities conducted in the past twelve hours, and doesn’t want to clean you out of food.”

At that Elle laughed and he knew he had her.

“You’re paying?” she asked sheepishly.

“Of course I’m paying.” He felt that the unspoken ‘That’s how it should be’ was more than implied in his tone. Elle was his mate, or his woman, however he needed to refer to her at the moment. Damn straight he was paying. What was the use in having a family fortune if he couldn’t put some of it to use by stuffing her full of delicious breakfast foods like eggs, bacon, toast, and the like?

“Now, as much as I hate myself for saying it, go put something on to cover up that gorgeous tush of yours, and let’s go.”