Pierce

“What’s the significance of this?”

Mila trailed a fingernail along his arm, indicating the tattoo there.

“Family,” he said gruffly, looking away. He really, really didn’t want to explain much more than that.

She rolled over onto her side, nuzzling in closer between his left arm and his body. One of her legs hooked up and over his, pressing her firmly again him. He could feel the heat of her sex practically pulsing against him. As much as Pierce wanted to go again, he would need another fifteen minutes or so.

The escape from the theater, being shot, healing, mating with Mila on the forest floor, fleeing from the police, and finally mating once more here at her home, had left him exhausted. His brain hadn’t felt so calm and orderly since before he’d been arrested back in Cadia, which was nice, but he was thoroughly tired and needed time to catch his breath.

Which unfortunately meant pillow talk, and as he had several tattoos, it was only natural that she might want to ask him about them. This one was fairly easily explained, but he knew if he started to go into detail, she’d ask about the others.

That was what he wished to avoid.

“Is there any reason for the six to be face-up?” she asked.

He nodded slowly after a long moment. “The six of us.”

Mila frowned. “I thought you only had four brothers?”

“And Sasha, our sister,” he said. “We all got it after she was born and we realized we’d have to look out for her.”

“That’s cute,” she said with a lazy smile of contentment.

Maybe Pierce wasn’t the only one who needed a few minutes he realized, looking at her more carefully.

He just shrugged in response, unsure of what exactly to say. It was a family thing, and Sasha had already announced that when she turned sixteen she was going to get one as well.

“So this looks to be a joker,” she said, touching the arm currently curled around her. “And these are the suits on a deck of cards.”

He bit his lip, hoping she would just leave it at that.

“And you have a pair of cards on your back. The jack and ace of spades,” she said slowly. “Any particular meaning to any of those?”

Pierce contemplated lying to Mila. Then he quickly thought better of it. There was another option—one that wasn’t the best—but was still better than telling her the truth.

“Ink that I got done with my brothers,” he said, staring straight up at the ceiling, avoiding her eyes.

He could see her head rotate slightly to the side as she regarded him curiously, but much to his relief, she didn’t push the issue. She would, he knew, but not just then. Neither of them wanted to ruin the pleasing glowing sensation currently infusing their body as they came down from the high of mating.

“What are we going to do about them?” he asked at last.

Almost immediately the familiar anger flowed through him, banishing his buzz faster than a cold shower could kill arousal. His muscles stiffened and he breathed a little deeper.

“First,” Mila said as she sat up, pulling the sheets of her bed to her chest. “We’re going to talk about whatever the fuck that was.” She pointed a finger at him and moved it in circles.

“What?”

“Enough,” she said, her mood clearly altered as well. “Any time you mention your brothers being missing, or going to look for them, you just clam up, all your muscles tense at once, and you look like you’re about to fly off the hook. What the fuck is up with that?”

Pierce wasn’t sure he’d heard Mila curse that much in the entire time he’d been with her. The shock of it told him he shouldn’t lie to her. Not right then. The truth might scare her away, but she needed to know so that it didn’t surprise her later.

“I’m going to kill whoever did this to them,” he said bluntly. “Whenever I catch up with them and rescue my brothers, I’m going to kill the person responsible for taking them.”

Mila’s mouth had been open to speak, but now it slammed shut. She sat back, until she was leaning against the headboard. A sizeable gap had opened between them now.

She was distancing herself from him. Pierce knew it. He hadn’t really expected it, but the fact that she wanted to be away from him just then didn’t surprise him either. After all, what human woman would be able to accept his words so easily? To another shifter, it would have just been stating facts. But to Mila it was different.

He sighed, turning to face her, but not making any attempt to close the distance. That would be up to her when she was ready.

“I’m not some sort of bloodthirsty killer, Mila,” he said slowly. “Nor am I a cold-blooded murderer.”

She crossed her arms. “You just said to me, right now, that you’re going to kill them.”

Her voice was strangely subdued, tinged with some emotion he couldn’t identify. It wasn’t the emotional reaction he’d expected though, and it threw him off balance in his argument.

“Things are different where I come from,” he said quietly, still trying to understand what was bothering her. Had she not realized that life as a shifter was much more violent than her human world? That death was always nearby, and not something that was as terrifying to shifters as it was to humans?

Mila didn’t reply, and she refused to meet his searching gaze as well.

“You don’t come to my homeland and kidnap five of its citizens without expecting to pay a price when caught,” he told her fiercely. “There are laws against that. Punishment that must be meted out if we wish to stop further incidents of it. Whoever did this, they know that. And if they don’t, they will be made to.”

She still didn’t react.

“This goes beyond just me,” he said. “This is about protecting what is yours, and not letting someone else take it from you. In this case it just so happens to be people we’re referring to, not objects.”

Silence.

“My brothers are my family. Besides my sister, they are everything I have. Without them, I would be nothing,” he said. “I need to find them, to help them. And to punish whoever took them.”

Her brown eyes stared off into the distance, as if she’d still not heard a single word he said. Something was bothering her, but she didn’t seem inclined to reveal it. So he kept talking.

“My brothers and I, we fought a lot. Hell,” he said with a laugh, “we still fight a lot. But family is one of the few things that unites us.”

“I’m sure. That and what, killing people you don’t even know?” Mila snapped.

“What the hell is your problem?” he growled. “Who are you to protect those that would harm my blood? They will get what they deserve, nothing less.”

She turned away again.

Pierce swore to himself. Mila was mad at him, and he didn’t know why. Did she have some sort of predisposition against killing that went above and beyond the normal human repulsion of the concept? She’d never given him such a vibe before, and it all seemed so out of place with everything he’d come to learn about her. He’d never expected her to be okay with the idea, but to shut down like this…that was unexpected.

“I’m not sure what else to say,” he said at last. “I’ve clearly done wrong by speaking my mind, by telling you what was going on. I opened up to you at your request, and now you’re pissed at me. If you won’t tell me why, it’s going to have a serious impact on my ability to trust you in the future when you want me to be honest with you.”

Mila’s eyes blazed with anger as she turned her head to stare daggers at him. “Do not turn this around on me,” she hissed, so venomously that he actually swayed back away from her.

“Excuse me?” he asked blandly. “You asked me to tell you what was going on with me. I did. Now you’re pissed at me. I trusted you to understand, and yet now you won’t even talk to me. How could I not be wary the next time I need to trust you with something personal to me?”

“I don’t have to sit here and listen to this,” she snapped, getting up from bed, the covers falling away to reveal her nakedness. “Turn away,” she spat as his eyes inadvertently looked her over.

“My apologies,” he said, trying to placate her as he turned. “I didn’t do it intentionally.”

“I don’t give a shit.”

The room vibrated slightly as his angry growl filled the space. Pierce’s temper flared as well, and he rose swiftly, interposing himself between her and the door.

“Get. Out. Of. My. Way,” she said, pulling her robe tight across her chest as she stepped closer, punctuating each word to try and drive her threat home.

“Absolutely not,” he said lightly. “Not until you tell me what is bothering you so much.”

“No.”

He laughed in her face. “Oh, well that’s a double-standard for you. I have to tell you, but you get to avoid talking to me?”

Mila glared at him but didn’t speak.

“Exactly. You have no response, because you know it’s true. Dammit Mila, we’re in this together. It’s sudden, abrupt, and scary as all hell, I get that. Oh do I get that. I’m terrified too you know.”

She relented slightly. “What are you scared of?” she scoffed, though some of the acid was gone from her tone.

“I’m scared that I’m not good enough for you,” he said, letting the words speak his fears. “I’m worried sick that you’re going to take one look at me, whether it be right now, tomorrow, next week, and you’re going to see me for who I really am, and you’re going to tell me that we’re done. That you can’t be with me.” He drew a shuddering breath as he revealed his biggest fear to her. “I’m terrified that I’m going to lose you.”

That seemed to rock her back on her heels a little.

“We’ve not talked about it, I know,” he told her. “But there is no denying what’s going on between us. I—” his voice caught, and he was forced to look away, his eyes blinking rapidly.

“What?” she asked, her voice again gentler.

Pierce steeled himself. He was a bear shifter, dammit. He did not wilt like this. He could, and he would voice his emotions, as hard as it may be.

“I thought,” he said slowly, “that I would never find this.” He paused. “That I would never find you.”

“Find me?” Mila asked, shaking her head as she looked up at him, confusion wrought on her face and in those beautiful mocha eyes of hers. “Pierce, what the hell are you talking about?”

“We are mates, Mila.”

“Mates?”

“Yes,” he said softly. “A pair, practically destined to be together.” He frowned as she didn’t seem to register any understanding. “It’s a shifter trait, Mila. We find that one person, that other half, and we are mated to them for life. It’s like love, but...stronger. Love is but one component of it. There is a…bond. Nothing quantifiable or tangible, but love can wax, it can wane, and it can fade away. But a mate is permanent.”

Mila’s already-creamy skin had gone pale as blood flowed from it.

“You think I’m you’re mate?” she asked, and he could see her body trembling as she did.

“No, Mila,” he told her gently. “I know that we are mates. I never expected to be lucky enough to find someone, but I have. I’ve heard from others that the bond is quick and strong, forming in a matter of days between mated pairs.” He smiled. “It scares everyone at the sudden swiftness of it. Of knowing that you’re going to spend the rest of your life with that person, often before you’ve barely known each other for more than a few days. We shifters know that, but it can still sneak up on us. Kind of like you sneaked up on me in the forest.”

Mila looked like a ghost as she stood there, in shock. Then, to his surprise and dismay, she began to shake her head.

“No.” The word came out so quiet as to be barely audible.

“What?”

She began to shake her head. “No, Pierce. You’re wrong. We’re not mates.” She lifted her head to stare at him once more.

“We can’t be.”