Salvatore pointedly ignored his youngest brother as Uberto pulled on a new shirt. Cleaning up at the park had become a one man job after Salvatore demanded Valerio come to the apartment ahead of time. Finished with the disposal, their youngest brother had arrived a few minutes ago. Lifting his arm toward his nose, Uberto’s expression soured. “Dear God, is that smell still on me?”

Salvatore waved off his concern. “You can shower later.”

“Why don’t I just shower here?”

Salvatore bristled, his shoulders doubling in size as his breath blew from his nose, flaring his nostrils. “Stay away.”

“Calm down, Salvatore. I’m not trying to challenge you,” Uberto worked on his buttons, admiring the shirt he'd borrowed from his brother. “If I was, I’d start by asking why was I the one taking your left overs to a landfill in Jersey?”

Salvatore glared at him, his lips pulling back to bare his fangs as fur pushed free of his skin. “You did it because Valerio is the healer, and you don't get to question my decisions, ‘Berto. Unless you want to challenge me in all things.”

He saw the quick intake of breath and the way Uberto’s eyes bled black spoke volumes, but the discussion was shelved when the bedroom door opened.

Valerio left Natale’s bedroom and stopped just outside the door looking at both of his brothers. Salvatore tamped down on his bear, pushing him away from the surface. Before his brother could speak, Salvatore was already on his feet pacing toward him. Valerio held up his hand, but Salvatore nearly walked through his brother, forcing the younger man to take a hold of the back of his shirt. “Don’t make me rip it.”

Salvatore glared at him over his shoulder. “It’s already ruined. So let go, or rip it off, I don’t care. I’m going to see her.”

His brother didn’t flinch and he didn’t let go of the shirt either. “A word, brother.”

He heard the truth in Valerio’s tone, saw the warning in his eyes. Even though he was younger than Salvatore, he was wise beyond his years. “Make it quick. I need to see her for myself.”

“Fine.” Valerio released the shirt and leaned closer. “Are you sure this is the right thing to do?”

“This? Talking to her?” Salvatore shook his head. “If you’re worried about her learning we’re shifters, don’t.” He smiled, waiting to see his brother’s reaction. “She knows.”

“How does she know?” Uberto had been the next to speak, standing up from the couch and taking a few steps around the arm to join his brothers. “What happened?”

“You went to the park,” he answered, “you saw what I did to that piece of garbage who attacked her. So did she.”

“You let her see you?” Uberto’s voice held a cutting edge to it. “What were you thinking?”

“What option did I have?” Salvatore pushed Valerio aside and grabbed the front of Uberto’s shirt, lifting him up off the ground. “She’s my mate! She’s a part of me, the only part that matters!”

“And how does she feel about that?” Uberto grabbed at Salvatore’s hands. “Is she just going to accept that you’re not human?”

Salvatore’s hand slipped up higher on his shirt, tugging the collar tightly around his throat. “She was fine with it.”

Uberto swallowed, or rather, he tried to swallow, and gave Valerio a look as his face reddened. “A little help, brother?”

“Leave me out of it.” He held up his hands. “I’m the one that patched her up. But, if you two don’t mind getting whatever this is over, I’m pretty sure she’ll be waking up soon and she’ll probably be hungry.”

The anger bled slowly from Salvatore’s shoulders, lowering Uberto to the ground, and managing to loosen his hands from his brother’s shirtfront. “She’ll survive?”

Rolling his eyes, Valerio flopped onto the couch, and everyone ignored the answering groan from the aging piece of furniture. “If she was in danger, I wouldn’t have left the room. You know me better than that.” He gestured toward her bedroom. “She’s lost a bit of blood, quite a bit, actually, but she’s strong.” He leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his legs, his eyes focused intently on his elder brother. “You were lucky, ‘Tore.”

Realization and reality gave Salvatore a swift kick in the gut. Pushing Uberto to the side, he moved toward the bedroom. “Set the alarms, get out. Make sure there’s no evidence of that man in the park.”

Uberto glared at him, even when Valerio pushed himself off of the couch and tried to walk him toward the door. “And you,” he scoffed, “where will you be?”

“Trying not to mess up the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

* * *

The world dawned on her one fuzzy inch at a time. The world outside her window was dark, but her bedside light was on. It wasn't enough light to make her blink or squint, but it was enough to see that someone was sitting beside her on the bed.

“How,” she swallowed, hoping that her mouth wouldn't be so dry, “how did I get-”

“I carried you, Principessa.”

She turned her head toward the side table, but couldn't quite see the face of the clock. “What time-”

He set his hand on her shoulder and rolled her onto her back. “You should be sleeping, Natale. Close your eyes.”

“No,” she lifted her arm, reaching for him, “I don't want to sleep. If I do,” she drew in a breath, “I'm not sure you’ll be here when I wake up.” Her hand came in contact with the hard length of his thigh.

She felt him tremble under her touch, and his voice repaid the favor. “I'm not going anywhere, Natale.”

He leaned toward her, his hand braced on the edge of the bed by her shoulder, raising her up until she was just a few inches from him.

There were a score of things she wanted to tell him. She didn't know where to start or what he even wanted to hear, but she had to say something.

“I don't want you to go anywhere,” she managed to meet his eyes with her own, “I was stupid tonight. I left the workroom because I wanted to prove that I didn't need your help. I’d hoped that you were wrong, and I left because I thought… because I embarrassed myself last night.”

“Natale,” she heard the entreaty in his tone, saw the gentle shake of his head, “I wanted to explain.”

“You don't need to, really.” She lifted her hand and tried to turn on her side and avoid the pity she knew would be in his eyes. “I’m a big girl,” she laughed a little, “in more ways than one. I knew that I was going to look desperate, but I couldn't help myself, Salvatore. For once,” she grabbed a handful of her blankets and pulled it up toward her chin, “I just wanted to tell someone how I felt. I thought you felt the same way,” her heart squeezed painfully in her chest, “or I wouldn't have said anything. I'm so-”

“Don't.”

She felt his hand on her shoulder and while she could have fought him, part of her really wanted to get this over with. Once she knew where he stood, she could get back to what she needed to do.

Natale turned toward him and felt his palm gently cup the side of her face. She sighed at the gentle touch.

“I stopped you,” he shook his head, “I stopped us last night because I couldn't let myself love you like that unless you knew who I really am. What I really am.”

He trailed the backs of his fingers down the length of her neck.

“You needed to know the truth. And I need to know that you wouldn't hate me when you found out that the man who loved you wasn't just a man.”

He took her hand in his, lifted it until he could brush a kiss over her knuckles.

“And to let you know that the bear inside me loved you just as much.”

She heard the words and wondered if it would ever sound more like reality than a fairy tale someday. She started to push herself up on the bed and Salvatore was right there, helping her ease up, placing a pillow behind her. She rarely had someone take care of her. Sure, Ericka did in some ways, dragging her out from time to time or shoving a carrot cake in front of her with a big spoon instead of a fork. But, not like this.

And, whatever this was, she wanted more of it.

“Salvatore?”

“Yes, Principessa?”

She almost groaned at him. “I'm no princess. I don't sit in my high turret and have people wait on me.”

“You are a woman to be admired and honored. My tesoro,” he offered, “my treasure.”

She blushed, embarrassed to even ask him the question that had been at the tip of her tongue since he'd saved her life.

“Will you,” she bit her lip, worried that he'd take offense.

“Natale, ask me.”

She nodded and struggled to find the courage she knew she had.

“Show me,” she asked him, her voice slightly breathless with curiosity, “can you show me your bear?”

She heard a growl and felt as if the sound itself was a physical touch skimming over her body. Instead of pulling away, she leaned into the sensation, reaching out a hand to touch him.

The air around them trembled and the skin under her hand shifted. As she watched, she couldn't quite tell if his skin pulled back or if the fur was pushing forward, but a moment later it didn't seem to matter.

Standing beside her bed, taking up every inch of space from her bed to the wall, her curtains bunching up over his back, was a bear. Big didn't even begin to describe the animal beside her, he was massive. Until that moment, the closest she'd ever been to a wild animal was the squirrels in the park that would take peanuts from her hand, but when the bear shifted his weight and set a paw down on the edge of her bed where Salvatore had just been she let out a long sigh.

The bear’s front leg looked like a tree trunk, and the claws made dark points against her white comforter without tearing the fabric.

“Salvatore?”

His head turned slowly and she saw the muscles of his jaw shift under his thick fur. At this distance, he could snap his jaws and break her neck, but she wasn't afraid, not when the dark eyes that looked back at her seemed hauntingly familiar.

Before she could think, she lifted her hand to touch him and froze when the bear turned to look at it.

She held her breath, sinking her own teeth into her bottom lip for a moment to ease her nerves.

The bear followed the movement with his eyes.

“Can… can I touch you?”

The bear chuffed and she smiled when he turned his head into her hand. She splayed her fingers through his fur, feeling the heady sensation of touching this powerful animal, and having him lean into her touch.

“Goodness,” she lifted her other hand and saw the bear look at the bandage on her arm. He lifted his head and she saw the question in his eyes. “I'm okay. Relax, will you?”

As she said the words, she saw his eyes narrow on her, the expression so familiar she felt tears welling up in her eyes. “Oh, Salvatore, I can't believe it's you! But those eyes,” she laughed and leaned forward until her forehead touch the bear’s sloping brow, “it’s you inside.”

She felt him lean closer, it was only a gentle pressure when he could so easily crush her. Sliding her hands into the thick fur at his neck, she pulled him closer.

Turning her head to the side, she drew in a long breath and sighed. She didn't know what she expected him to smell like, but her senses were filled with the mountains and grass and meadows brimming with wildflowers. She could almost smell the sun on her face.

She felt heat trace her skin, warming her inside and out to a fever pitch. She didn't just tremble with him in her arms.

She burned.

He groaned, a sound that was mostly human, and Natale felt his skin under her hands, the pressure of his lips against the column of her throat.

Her eyes opened on a gasp and she found herself looking at Salvatore, human and perfectly naked. That was the moment she developed a new appreciation for the medium of sculpting. Staring at every gorgeous angle of his body and the stretch of skin over muscle, she ached to touch him again.

“Salvatore,” she reached out and hooked her hand around the back of his neck, tugging him closer, needing to feel his whole body against hers, “don’t make me wait any longer.”

* * *

He didn’t give in to her unspoken request. Salvatore wanted to cover her body with his, but he wasn’t ready to, not just yet. Turning his head, he tugged her hand away from his neck. He placed a kiss on the inside of her wrist and felt her body sigh against his lips.

Opening his mouth, he grazed her skin with his teeth, holding her securely as the muscles in her arm tightened and released. He turned his head and brushed the sensitive spot with the rough scratch of his beard.

“Oh,” she moved closer to the edge of the bed, leaning toward him, “that tickles.” And yet, she didn’t pull away, she moved closer.

Hooking his fingers into her waistband, he tugged her to the edge of the bed until her legs slid over the side, setting her feet on the floor. His hands reached for the buttons of her blouse, tugging at each in turn.

He saw Natale look down at his progress, blocking his view.

He grumbled under his breath, struggling with one of the army of tiny pearl-like buttons that had looked so lovely marching down the front of her blouse, but now only served to torture him. All he wanted to do, was remove them and her blouse as quickly as he could.

“Then do it,” he heard Natale’s breathless voice, felt it on his hands. When she looked up at him, he saw the bright fever in her eyes. “Do it, Salvatore.”

And he knew he had to, because she wanted it as much as he did. The buttons didn’t rip free of the fabric under his hands, just the fabric, and the scream-like sound of silk splitting in two had them both breathless.

He reached for the clasp of her bra and she pulled way, reaching for the light on the table, her fingers almost touching the cord dangling from the stand. “No, Natale.”

She stopped moving and looked up at him with an entreaty in her eyes. “Please, let me-”

“I want to see you.”

Natale hesitated. “I don’t want you to see me. I don’t want you to regret-”

“You don’t have to hide from me,” he promised her. “You never have to.”

He heard the words in her head, just as if she'd spoken them aloud. There were many people in the world, too many of them, who didn't understand real beauty. They looked for a narrow slice of nature and ignored the true loveliness that surrounded them. Certainly not the beauty right before their eyes if they didn’t see Natale’s true worth.

He wasn’t going to make the same mistake.

She moved her hand away from the lamp, but didn’t set it down. Instead, she took hold of the clasp at the front of her bra and with a twist of her fingers opened it.

Natale looked up into his eyes as she rolled her shoulders back and let the straps of her bra slide down her arms, falling to the bed behind her. She tugged at her waistband, struggling to push her pants down over her hips while she was still seated, but he was more than happy to help.

“Here,” he tucked his fingers in her waistband and leaned forward, “lift up.” He gave her a smile, pleased that he hadn’t scared her away. She set her hands by her sides and lifted her hips from the bed.

A moment later he was peeling her pants down and dropping them on the floor at his feet.

He saw the uncertainty in her eyes and shook his head. “When you’re with me, Natale, the last thing you need to feel is hesitation. Tell me what you want.” He meant it. Whatever she wanted, he would find a way to give it to her.

She opened her lips to answer him and his body tensed, hardened, needed to touch her.

“I want you to come to bed, Salvatore. Show me what I almost lost tonight.” He saw her take in a breath that drew his eyes to her full breasts. “Show me what I have to live for.”

He couldn’t resist her.

He knew he never would.

He crawled up onto the bed, using the opportunity to brush his bare skin against hers as much as he could. His arm against the side of her breast, his thigh slipping between her legs, the heavy caress of his erection against her hip. He heard a soft moan pass her lips as he leaned down and breathed in her plea.

“Please,” she wrapped her arms around his chest, sliding her calf over the back of his knee, drawing him closer to her heat, “love me.”

“Closer,” his lips traveled along her jaw before pressing against the sensitive skin under her ear, “I need you closer.”

Natale dug her fingers into his back, her leg lifting higher, until her knee pressed against the taut curve of his backside. “Is that better?” She didn’t even wait for him to answer. “Because it’s not close enough for me.”

He drew his hand up from the bed and over her hip and down between her legs. She rolled her hips toward him, pressing into his palm.

Natale must have heard the question in his head, shaking her head from side to side. “Not close enough.”

“Then I’ll need to get closer still.” Salvatore smiled and he knew that the way his lips pulled back from his teeth, it was nearly a feral grin, felt the prick of his fangs against the inside of his lip. The blood that touched his tongue only made him hungrier, for her.

Leaning down, his lips closed over the base of her neck where it met her shoulder, his tongue swirling over the tender skin there. “One day, Natale,” he felt her body tense against his, shivering at the heavy sweep of his tongue, “when you decide that you’re mine, forever,” he drew a fang over her flesh and heard her breathless sigh reach his ears, “I’m going to mark you here.”

“Yes,” she turned her head to give him more access to her skin, “yes.”

“But for now,” he growled against her shoulder, his lips moving lower inch by inch, “I’m going to enjoy learning what makes you tremble.”

He brushed his cheek against the side of her breast, turning his head slowly to tease her skin with the crisp brush of his beard. Her back arched as his lips parted, and when she gasped in a breath his lips closed gently over her nipple.

“More,” she swallowed and he felt the movement shiver through her body, “that and more, please.”

He smiled and laved his tongue over the plump flesh in his mouth.

She grabbed at the back of his head, holding him tight to her breast, her other hand scored lines on his back.

Salvatore continued his loving attention to her body, tasting the sensitive valley between her breasts before closing over the other peak. When he tasted her skin, his bear roared in frustration, wanting to end their wait as soon as they could. He fought the beast back, determined that Natale would be the one to decide when he would finally find his release.

The bear sank its claws into their bond, shooting pain through his body, but Salvatore didn’t waver. He wanted his mate happy and he was going to take her over first. And to that end, he drew her deeper into his mouth and rolled his tongue against her nipple, lightly sinking his teeth into the sweet curve of her breast as he parted her curls with his fingertips.

Natale’s shoulders lifted off the bed, her hands tightening on him, digging into his skin.

He moved his fingers against her tender flesh and felt her heat coat his skin. “Close enough?” He wanted to wait for an answer, but he knew what it would be.

His finger slid into her warmth, pressing against her soft inner-walls. She arched against his hand, a cry tearing free from her lips. It felt like she was struggling to free herself at the same time she was trying to pull him deeper into her body.

“Yes,” she sobbed, “no.”

He lifted his head, his body going still in a heartbeat. “Natale?”

It took her a moment to slow her breath, to open her eyes, but when she did, she easily focused on his face and he saw frustration written plainly on her face. “Why did you stop?”

“I had to,” he struggled to put his thoughts into words, “you said no.”

Her eyes closed for a moment, her lips pressing together into a thin pale line as she pondered something. When they opened again, they flashed with a sharp emotion. “I meant,” she groaned, “that you weren’t close enough. Not nearly close enough.”

Before he could say a word, she shifted slightly beneath him and reached into the nightstand beside her bed. Natale lifted her hand up until it was just a few inches from his nose and peeled her fingers back. Spread on her palm was a trio of foil-wrapped condoms.

He felt his bear bristle with anticipation, hunkering down for the challenge ahead. Salvatore met her eyes with a hungry growl in his voice. “Three?”

Her eyes darkened as she rubbed her body against his, creating the most delicious friction between them. “I have more,” she darted a glance at the drawer.

There were no words for how he felt for the woman beneath him. He’d been searching for her for years, wondering how he’d ever find a woman who matched him in every way.

Having her there, wanting him, made him feel truly invincible.

And completely vulnerable.

And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

He knew they didn’t need the condom, not for safety when it came to her health. Shifters didn’t have those problems like humans did, but knowing she was the woman he was fated to love, he knew that babies were a real possibility and this wasn’t the time. Not until he knew she was safe.

He leaned down, took the edge of the wrapper in his teeth, and when he looked down at her he held the challenge in his eyes.

Natale smiled, her widening grin baring her teeth. Dropping the other packets to the bed, she reached up and grabbed the edge between her fingers and ripped it open.

“I need you closer, Salvatore.” She didn’t let go of his eyes as he smoothed the condom over his thick length. “I need you inside me.”

He shifted above her, crouching between her legs as he drew her body closer. When he felt the heat of her body envelop him, he closed his eyes and sank slowly into her body until she’d stolen his breath as well as his heart.

Natale shifted beneath him a few moments later and he opened his eyes to see her staring back at him, her lips parted in long, shuddering sigh.

Salvatore moved, just a little twist of his hips and she drew in another breath. “Well, Principessa,” he goaded her with his tone as much as his words, “is that close enough?”

She shifted under him, drawing him deeper. “More.”

He reached over her head, taking hold of the headboard with one hand, the other fisting in the sheet at her side. “I’m going to give you everything I have,” he told her, his voice rough in his throat, “everything, Natale.”

Her hands caressed his chest as he began to move, her eyes focusing on his face as her lips parted in a gasp at his first hard stroke. In no time at all they were both lost in each other.