Madison
She was standing by the fire pit, the wood a black and white charred image after having been left to burn all night until it ran out of fuel.
Kean came jogging out of the woods, having just finished his morning run.
“Hi,” he said, slowing to a halt in front of her.
“Hey,” she replied.
“Is something wrong?”
Madison considered his choice of words. “Sort of.”
“Oh. Um. Okay. What can I do to help?” he asked, shuffling his weight from side to side uncomfortably.
Her courage failed her just then, and Madison almost turned and ran back into the cabin. It was close. Her weight shifted on her feet in preparation of turning her body around. Even her shoulder started to sway, drifting away from Kean.
Before her fear could take root though, Maddy’s iron focus dropped into place. Yes, she had a mission to complete. Rescuing Raven—she shuddered internally even thinking the ungrateful prick’s name—had been put part of that. Until she brought the Institute down, she wouldn’t rest.
But that didn’t mean she had to do it alone, did it? Kean was just as invested, if not more, in the Institute’s downfall. It was his species that was at risk, after all. Maybe she didn’t have to keep the two things separate. Maybe…maybe there was a way to make it work after all.
You’ve gotta tell him how you feel though. Make it clear.
“Kean,” she said, squaring up to him.
“Yes?” He stood there, looking at her happily, though not without a trace of wariness.
She reached up and tied her hair back in a ponytail, her eyes never leaving him as she did. That done, Maddy straightened, pulling her gray V-necked T-shirt down so that it sat properly on her shoulders.
“We need to talk.”
“Um, okay?”
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
The shifter nodded. “I’ve gathered that.”
“You and me,” she said, the words taking their time coming to her.
“Us.”
She cocked her head. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Repeat what I’m saying. It’s making concentrating hard.”
He shrugged. “Then just spit it out.”
“You and me,” she repeated. “We’re…something more, aren’t we?”
Kean nodded, some of the tension leaving his face as she watched his reaction. “Yes, we are.”
“What are we?”
“I believe we’re mates,” he said slowly. “You are my other half.”
She nodded. “I thought that’s what you were going to say.”
“You did?”
“I did.”
He frowned as she echoed him like he’d been doing to her. “That is annoying. My apologies.”
She grinned.
“How do you know that we’re mates?” she asked.
Kean seemed to think about it for a moment. Then he stepped forward, sweeping her off her feet, holding her tight to him as he continued to spin lazily through the air.
Madison did the only thing that seemed appropriate. She kissed him. Again. And again. And again. She wasn’t sure for how long they moved slowly around the dead fire, but it didn’t matter, because she was with him.
“Because I’m crazy about you,” he whispered at long last, then proceeded to kiss her some more.
“Every time I touch you,” he said through the kisses. “I feel alive. Like a shot of adrenaline is surging through my body. You’re smart, skilled, competent, tough, funny, quick-witted, a fighter. I don’t know everything about you, but if you’ll give me the chance, I will.”
The sheer yearning in his voice, rushed as it was, hit Maddy like a shockwave, blasting through her. Then, to her surprise, she felt the same feeling well up inside of her, like an echo of his desire, his want. His need.
“I want you,” she rushed to say, her words tumbling out. “Physically, emotionally, mentally. I want all of you. Badly. So badly. More so than I’ve wanted anything. I’ve been trying to lie to myself,” she said as he spun her around in a circle for fun. “To deny it, to ensure I stayed focused on the mission. But the harder I deny my interest in you, the connection between us that we seem to have, the more I lose focus on the mission.”
“You’re a distraction, Kean Koche,” she said fiercely.
He kissed her hard, and she melted into him, her words becoming soft moans to complement his deeper noises of excitement.
“And one I’m determined to stop fighting. If you’ll let me, I will finish my mission. But I’ll finish it with you at my side. As part of me.”
He growled excitedly. “I won’t leave you after this is over,” he pronounced. “If you want me by your side now, you’ll have me forever.”
A sliver of fear pierced her heart at that final word. Forever. That was a long time. A long time to commit to something so quickly.
“How can you know?” she asked, pulling away from him. “How do you know this isn’t something just brought on by a need to reaffirm that we’re alive after coming so close to being captured and killed yesterday?”
“Because my bear has been telling me since the day I met you, that something was no longer the same in my life now that you had entered into it.”
To her surprise, Kean actually blushed. “I have a history of falling swiftly for women. Very, very swiftly. But when I saw you that first time over a week ago, I just knew that you were…different. I didn’t fall for you,” he said, frowning in thought. “It was as if I’d already fallen for you, and was just now realizing it. Like I’d been crazy for you my entire life, yet never actually known who you were. That’s why I gasped and stared at you slack-jawed like an idiot when you introduced yourself to us.”
He smiled happily, as if content with his choice of words. “Yeah, what I just said.”
Maddy laughed, giddy with excitement as she finally relaxed, finally let herself be open to the idea that there was something tangible going on between her and Kean.
“I love you, Kean,” she said, saying the words at long, long last.
The shifter, still holding her aloft, held her gaze, his eyes smoldering with passion, desire, and hopefully—
“Madison Kerber.” She watched his lips form her name, feeling a slight tremor run through her body as he paused. “I may have said it to other women before, but until I met you, I can honestly say I had no idea what it truly meant. But I can now.”
She felt a smile breaking out on her face as he grinned widely, his big, bright brown eyes dancing.
“I love you.”