THE FINAL
As they drove back to the house, Malik waited until Andy, Lily, and Paisley were all very firmly asleep in the back seat before he slid Ainslie a brief, sidelong glance and wondered, “Are you alright?” His voice was low and careful, as if he was coaxing a shy puppy out of the house for the first time.
“I killed someone,” she stated blankly, staring out the windshield as she said it. There was no particular tone to her voice. If there was a particular way she was supposed to feel, she didn’t know what that was, and presumably she wasn’t feeling it. She settled on “numb” for the time being. It seemed like a safe place to be just then.
Malik’s voice was unexpectedly firm as he replied, “You kept my girls safe. As far as I’m concerned, that’s all you did.”
“But—”
Malik’s grip on the wheel tightened with both hands, until the leather began to creak and his knuckles went white and bloodless. “She was going to kill Paisley if she got a chance.” Ainslie had never heard Malik angry before, and there was something slightly unsettling about it, after everything else that had happened.
At the same time, it was the anger of a father worried for his children, so she couldn’t exactly say she could fault him for it. “Lily, too, if she got in the way. Maybe even Jackson if he woke up too soon. You stopped her from doing that.”
Ainslie supposed she couldn’t argue with that. More than that, she didn’t really want to get into an argument just then. She reached across the center console instead, curling her hand over top of Malik’s hand nearest to her. Gradually, his grip on the steering wheel loosened again, until he pulled one hand off the wheel, instead lacing their fingers together on top of the center console.
They kept their hands there for the rest of the drive.
*
Arriving back at the house was a subdued affair. Everything seemed too normal, as if they were simply waiting for something to happen but it was refusing to just happen. Ainslie knew it was a ridiculous feeling—Maria was gone, so clearly there was nothing to happen and there was no other shoe to drop—but it persisted regardless.
The girls were awake just long enough to shuffle back to their bedrooms and fall right back to sleep, leaving their bags in the family room to be dealt with later. It seemed like a good idea, so Malik and Ainslie made their way into Malik’s room. They stripped down to their underwear and climbed beneath the covers, not even bothering with pajamas.
By all rights, they should have been asleep in moments. It had been a very long night. They were both exhausted. And yet, Ainslie found herself laying on her back and staring at the ceiling, watching shadows shift across it. She tried closing her eyes and just willing herself to fall asleep, but it wasn’t particularly helpful. Mostly she just kept remembering the weight of the rock in her hands and how it really hadn’t seemed to take that much force to kill someone with it.
After roughly twenty minutes, she gave up on getting any sleep just then, instead whispering quietly, “Malik?” Loud enough to be heard, but low enough not to wake him if he was asleep. She wasn’t going to wake him up and demand he keep her company if he was having better luck with sleep than she was.
Luckily for her, that didn’t seem to be the case, though. There was a shuffle from beside her as Malik rolled onto his side to face her. “Can’t sleep either, I take it,” he guessed, his volume just as low as hers.
“Got it in one,” she confirmed, and she sat up, the blanket pooling around her waist as she did. “I don’t know, I’m tired, but I sort of feel like I could run a marathon at the same time.”
Malik huffed out a breath of quiet laughter. “I understand the feeling,” he assured her, rolling onto his back again, his hands folded on his stomach.
They lapsed into silence once again, though only for a few minutes. It was Ainslie who broke the silence again. “Malik?”
“Hm?”
Ainslie turned sideways, the blanket falling away as she shifted her weight onto one hip. She shuffled across the bed until she was nudging his side with one of her knees, and before he had a chance to ask what she had in mind, she ducked her head to kiss him, her hands bracketing his head on either side of his pillow.
There was a moment where he seemed startled, before he leaned up on one elbow to return the kiss, his other hand settling at her hip before it began to slowly slide up her side and to her back, stopping just between her shoulders.
As their lips parted and their tongues slid together and each time they parted it was for only a breath of air before they dove back into each other, it became increasingly obvious what the goal was. Taking that as a cue, Malik unhooked the back of Ainslie’s bra and she let it drop off of her arms and then tossed it aside without breaking the kiss. It was only when she leaned back to start squirming her panties down her legs that they separated. Malik used it as a chance to pull his boxer briefs off.
Once they were both free of anything even resembling clothing, they came back together clumsily, noses bumping as they kissed and hands sliding over skin.
His hands kneaded her breasts and circled her nipples until they hardened into nubs, and he tweaked and pinched them, and she curled a hand around his already hardening cock and stroked it with quick, sure motions until his erection was standing at full mast.
It may have been their first time with each other, but it was not the time for patient, gentle exploration. It was a time for catharsis and blowing off steam. They would have all the time in the world to explore each other in a more leisurely manner in the future. Just then, though, that wasn’t what they needed.
They broke away from each other for a second to catch a breath, and then their mouths crashed together again. As one hand still pinched and twisted one nipple, Malik’s other hand trailed lower, fingers gliding down her chest and abdomen until they were circling her clit. He stroked it with firm motions, until her sex was hot and dripping and she was panting into the kiss.
With some reluctance, the kiss parted, and Malik’s hands curled gently over Ainslie’s shoulders.
As Malik pushed at her shoulders, Ainslie laid back on the bed without any protest, spreading her knees so he could kneel between her legs. He wrapped his hands around her thighs and gave her a tug to pull her closer, and she wrapped her legs around him as he sat up on his knees.
One hand holding her waist to help her balance, Malik wrapped his other hand around his cock and lined himself up with her entrance. Both of his hands wrapped around her hips and he paused for a moment before he began to push in, slowly, just the tip at first. And then Ainslie tightened her legs around him and shoved at his back with the heel of one foot.
“Come on,” she demanded, giving him another prod.
Malik, to his credit, needed no second hints. His grip on her hips tightened and then he thrust forward, and Ainslie threw her head back as he sheathed himself in her all at once, in one quick motion. Her thighs tightened around him as she made a noise like all of the air had left her lungs, and her hands fisted in the blanket.
Taking the cue from that initial demand for haste, there was no pause and there was no slow, gentle easing into things. Malik’s grip on her waist tightened and he drew out and then thrust back in, and Ainslie’s back arched with the motion, pressing her shoulders deeper against the bed.
That was the pace he kept up, pulling out until just the head of his cock remained enveloped in her heat and then slamming back in, in one quick motion. Ainslie had to clamp a hand over her mouth to keep herself quiet, lest the girls or perhaps even the neighbor across the street hear what they were up to.
Neither of them were going to last long, and Ainslie knew that already. There was pressure building in her core and she felt as if she was going to burst apart at the seams and go flying in every direction, as if she was going to be struck by lightning.
There were words pouring past her lips, muffled by her hand, though she wasn’t sure if they really counted as words or just sounds, moans and gasps and partially formed syllables. Above her, Malik was no more coherent, groaning and sighing with each thrust. His hold on her waist shifted slightly and the angle he was thrusting at changed just so, and that was it. That was the end of it. Everything went taut as Ainslie came, and she clapped both hands over her mouth.
Malik lasted only a few moments longer than her, his rhythm faltering before he tensed. He managed a handful of uneven thrusts after that before he came, his hips pumping through it before he slowed to a halt.
Everything seemed frozen for just a moment as they stayed joined together, before he slowly pulled out and lowered Ainslie back down to the bed.
For a moment they didn’t move, until Malik shifted sideways, his weight landing on one hip as he sat down for just a second before he flopped down on the bed. Ainslie wasted no time in shuffling closer to curl up against his side, one cheek pillowed on his chest. Malik shifted slightly, squirming one arm beneath and then around her, fingers idly trailing up and down her arm.
Afterwards, as sweat cooled and dried and their breathing gradually returned to normal, they didn’t bother to disentangle themselves from each other. They didn’t say anything. It seemed a little unnecessary in the moment. Ainslie was pretty sure they had managed to get across whatever they both wanted to convey pretty well. And eventually, sleep fell over them. Maybe it wasn’t the best or most restful sleep they had ever had, but it was better than they had been managing on their own.
*
“Is it possible to turn someone into a were-animal?” Ainslie wondered the next morning as she poured cereal into her bowl. Truth be told, she had been wondering about it for a while, but she hadn’t been sure when was an appropriate time to ask. Finally, she decided that she probably wasn’t going to find a magical appropriate moment, so she may as well just spit it out.
Malik rolled his eyes in fond exasperation. “No, it’s not possible,” he answered dryly. “It’s a genetic thing. So, someone who isn’t a were-animal could give birth to one after coupling with a were-animal, but the regular human would remain a regular human.” He arched one eyebrow at her, his expression turning expectant. “Why? Hoping for a different answer?”
Ainslie shrugged innocently. “Call it scientific curiosity,” she replied, before she started shoveling cereal into her mouth.
Malik snorted out a laugh. “I had no idea you were such a scientist,” he drawled in reply.
“You learn something new every day,” Ainslie offered in a sing-song tone.
“I’ll endeavor to keep my eyes open for any future lessons,” Malik assured her. “I wouldn’t want to miss a thing.”
Ainslie reached out to poke his nose with the tip of one finger. “That’s right,” she confirmed. “You never know what might be waiting around the next corner.”
Malik watched her with a bemused half-smile as she sauntered out of the room to finish eating breakfast on the porch, enjoying the weather while it was not yet too cold to do so.
*
It was early in the afternoon, and Ainslie and Paisley had just finished having lunch. On occasion, from time to time, Paisley could be a picky eater, largely because she liked being able to exercise her ability to say no at random intervals. But she would never turn down a grilled cheese sandwich.
About half an hour later, she was toddling up the stairs, her fingers curled in the hem of Ainslie’s shirt as Ainslie led the way. Paisley was yawning and blinking and grumbling about everything, which was perfectly understandable, considering she had been running around like a madwoman for most of the morning and she had completely foregone her late morning nap.
They got to Paisley’s bedroom and Ainslie tucked her in for a nap. Paisley rolled about under her blanket for a moment, until her pillow was adequately squished and she had managed to form a nest out of her blanket. She could fall asleep literally anywhere, but if she was in her bed, she managed to be one of the most finicky sleepers Ainslie had ever had the pleasure of meeting.
“You sleep tight,” Ainslie murmured, heading back to the door and flicking the light switch to turn the lights off.
Eyes half-closed already, Paisley mumbled, “See you later, Mama,” against her pillow before her eyes slowly drooped the rest of the way shut.
Ainslie stared for a moment, gawking as Paisley’s breathing deepened into sleep. It was pretty clear she hadn’t even been aware of what she was saying, but even so, it brought a bewildered, slightly dazed smile to Ainslie’s face as she finally backed into the hallway and turned back towards the stairs.
*
Andy got home with little pomp and circumstance, abandoning her backpack in the family room and her shoes at the door, before she made her way cautiously into the kitchen where Ainslie was browsing over a list of recipes on her laptop.
“Ainslie?” Andy called after a moment, leaning around the doorframe rather than properly entering the room.
Ainslie looked up from the laptop, lowering the screen halfway to signal that she was paying attention. “Need me for something?” she wondered, hands settling lightly on the edge of the table as she prepared to shove her chair away from the table.
“Not quite,” Andy replied slowly. “I just have a question.” She fell silent after that, though, shifting back and forth on her feet as Ainslie watched her expectantly. Finally, she blurted out in one hurried breath, “Are you and my dad going to get married?”
Ainslie blinked at her, head cocked to one side as she pondered that question. “I’m not actually sure,” she answered after a moment. “It isn’t something we’ve talked about yet,” she replied. “I mean, I know I want our relationship to be permanent, but whether that means I’m his wife or his live-in girlfriend is still sort of up in the air.”
Andy nodded slowly, one hand lifting to distractedly shove her hair back, behind one ear. Eventually she wondered, “Do you want to marry him?”
“I definitely wouldn’t mind it,” Ainslie assured her. “And if something changes then I assure you, you’ll be the first one to know about it.”
Once more, Andy nodded, before she slowly turned and walked back down the hall. Ainslie watched her go for a moment, but after that, her thoughts were rather thoroughly occupied.
Did she want to marry Malik? She supposed the answer was yes. She didn’t want to leave, and she supposed the end result of that was the same as marriage; in sickness and in health, so on and so forth.
Maybe she would bring it up at some point. She would need to think of a casual way to do that, without sounding like she was pushing for something too quickly. After all, they really hadn’t been together for that long. It had only been about a month.
Despite that reasonably short amount of time, it was definitely food for thought, and it stayed with Ainslie for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
*
When Lily got home from school, she seemed sort of… expectant. As if she was waiting for something to happen, or as if she was looking for the evidence that something already had happened.
“Something on your mind?” Ainslie wondered, quietly amused at how hard it seemed like Lily’s thoughts were churning inside her head.
Lily nearly leaped out of her skin, and her eyes went wide, like a deer staring down a semi truck’s headlights. There was a slow, drawn-out, “Um…” before she simply managed, “It’s nothing,” and turned and scurried away.
Well. That was odd.
Ainslie supposed it probably had to do with the full moon. Things had been… intense. She was still trying her best not to think of it, or else it would feel like she had been pulled out of her skin again. She couldn’t even imagine how the girls were feeling.
But if they didn’t want to talk about it, then Ainslie wasn’t going to force them to. They would talk about it when they wanted to, and trying to badger them into it wasn’t going to do anything but make them dig in their heels like ornery mules.
On the whole, though, the girls all seemed surprisingly alright. Granted, she wasn’t even sure if Paisley had a working understanding of what death was, and she wasn’t sure how much of the situation Lily had really processed. And Andy just seemed glad that no one in her family had been seriously hurt.
Ainslie was glad none of them seemed seriously traumatized, though, so she wasn’t going to question it too much.
*
Malik was late getting home from work that evening. Late enough that Ainslie prepared dinner in his stead. Not that it was much of an issue. While baking would always be more her forte, it wasn’t as if she couldn’t cook, and none of the girls seemed to have any complaints about it.
If any of them found Malik’s delayed return odd, none of them brought it up. She supposed he could have let them know that he would be home late, but she wasn’t sure how he would remember to tell them but forget to tell her if his delay was planned.
Still, strange though it was—on an average day Malik’s schedule tended to unfurl like clockwork—Ainslie didn’t put much thought into it. The day before had been… strange, to say the least, and the fact of the matter was that she was still doing her best to avoid thinking about it. Compared to all of that, Malik running a bit behind schedule was perfectly normal. Maybe there was a complication with a project. Maybe there was a car accident and he was stuck in traffic.
She put the thought out of her mind, and when the time came to tuck Paisley and Lily in, neither of them seemed concerned.
Ainslie did start to think maybe something was going on when she passed Andy in the hall as Andy headed to her room, and the girl gave her a look. Sly and sort of knowing, as if she knew something that she knew Ainslie didn’t know.
“Something on your mind?” Ainslie wondered curiously.
Andy pasted an innocent look into place. It didn’t particularly suit her. “Nope,” she replied, and with that eloquent response, she turned and loped towards her room.
Ainslie huffed out a sigh and watched her leave until the bedroom door slammed. Shaking her head, Ainslie headed down to the family room.
She put in a movie on television, set though it was largely reduced to background noise as the majority of her attention span was directed at her laptop. It was late for small children, perhaps, but for adults the night was still young, so of course Carrie was still online.
AEBarrows: Something is going on here.
The messenger pinged with Carrie’s reply almost immediately.
QueenCarrie: something good or something bad?
AEBarrows: I have no idea. But the girls know something. Especially Andy.
QueenCarrie: doesn’t Andy always know something? she seems sort of devious, just going by what you’ve said about her.
AEBarrows: That’s beside the point. Lily isn’t devious and Paisley is three but they all definitely know something. Malik’s late and Andy gave me a LOOK.
QueenCarrie: he ran off to Vegas. to spare the girls’ feelings he told them he’s getting them all ponies.
AEBarrows: Honestly, I think Paisley would be more disappointed by the pony than his absence. Ponies don’t have any sharp edges and they don’t eat suits of armor.
QueenCarrie: these kids are weird.
AEBarrows: You don’t know the half of it. They’re endearingly weird, though.
Just then, the front door opened, and though the lights were off, Malik’s silhouette was easy enough to recognize.
AEBarrows: False alarm, he’s back. Talk to you later!
She closed her laptop before Carrie had a chance to reply, setting it down beside her on the couch and pushing it away.
As she sat and watched the entryway expectantly, Malik seemed to be dithering, taking too long to take his shoes off and making sure they were lined up perfectly on the rug, when ordinarily he would just kick them off without a care.
As Ainslie watched, Malik dragged a hand through his hair and rocked on his feet for a moment, and he was mumbling something to himself, though it was too quiet for Ainslie to catch the words. Finally, he nodded once and turned to come into the family room.
“Good day at work?” Ainslie wondered, leaning her elbows on her thighs and leaning forward to prop her chin up in both hands.
“Yeah, it was fine,” he replied, and he sounded distracted as he crossed the room, each step careful and measured. He didn’t quite seem nervous, but he most definitely had something on his mind.
“What kept you?” Ainslie asked, tipping her head to one side slightly, though without lifting her chin from her hands. “Is everything alright?”
“Everything is fine,” he assured her, and by that point he was standing in front of the couch. One of his hands darted into his pocket and curled around something in there.
Ainslie’s eyes narrowed slightly as she tried putting all the evening’s puzzle pieces together.
And then her eyes grew as wide and as round as dinner plates as Malik slowly dropped to one knee on the floor and pulled a small velvet box out of his pocket, his hand curled around it so tightly that his knuckles had blanched.
Ainslie’s mouth worked silently for a moment as she stared at the box, before she decided that talking was just not going to happen just then, and she closed her mouth with a click.
With a wry, crooked smile, Malik opened the box and held it out to her. “I’m fairly sure you know what I’m going to ask,” he pointed out, “just going by the look on your face.”
It was a fairly simple ring, and strangely, Ainslie was glad for that. Something huge and ornate would make it feel like she was trying to show off, and that wasn’t really in her nature. It was a thin gold band with a single diamond set into it, held in place with a swirl of gold on either side, and each swirl held a considerably smaller opal caught in the loops. It was sitting on a nest of black fabric, and Ainslie reached a hand towards it on autopilot, not even fully processing that she was moving.
Malik caught her hand in his free hand.
“Still,” he continued slowly, “I would at least like to get to ask properly. So, Ainslie Barrows. Will you marry me?” He looked so earnest, as if there was any possible chance she was going to say no.
Once again, Ainslie’s jaw worked and her mouth moved, but she didn’t quite manage words for a moment. Finally, she made a frustrated noise and managed, “Of course I will, you idiot. Did you think I would say no?”
With a burst of laughter, Malik’s grip on her hand tightened and he tugged her forward, until she scooted off of the couch and was kneeling on the floor in front of him. “I worry about these things sometimes,” he returned dryly, as he lifted her hand and slid the ring onto her fourth finger. “Needlessly, I guess,” he conceded.
Rather than waste any more time talking about it or needlessly worrying, Ainslie disentangled her hand from Malik’s and reached up, both hands cupping the back of his head so she could pull him towards her. Their lips met too quickly, so their teeth clicked together, but they both shifted until they found the right angle and their lips slid together easily. His tongue probed at her lips until they parted, and her eyes slowly drifted shut.
It seemed as if no time passed at all before the kiss broke and they parted, and she was opening her eyes once again. Foreheads resting together as they breathed, for a few moments neither of them said anything.
“Did you tell the girls about this?” Ainslie asked. There were probably better times to ask about it, but the words blurted out of her mouth as soon as they occurred to her.
Malik laughed gently. “I told Andy and Lily, since they’re actually capable of secrecy. Paisley just knew I wouldn’t be home in time to tuck her in.”
And just like that, Andy’s earlier question and Lily’s jumpiness made sense. Andy had been gauging whether or not Ainslie knew and Lily simply didn’t want to blow the secret. And that certainly explained the look Andy had given her earlier.
Laughing helplessly, Ainslie let her forehead thump down against Malik’s shoulder. What a day it had turned out to be. She could barely even process it.
*
It had been a long day, they decided shortly afterwards, and it was probably time to head to bed.
As Ainslie walked up the stairs, everything sort of felt like it was going in slow motion. Not in a bad way, but as if the world was still trying to catch up with everything that had happened.
As she got to the top of the stairs, she could see Andy peeking out of her bedroom, only her eyes and her forehead visible from behind her door. Ainslie arched one eyebrow and lifted a hand, pointing to her own eyes with two fingers and then jabbing those two fingers in Andy’s direction, silently saying ‘I’m watching you.’
Andy leaned out of her room just enough to grin and stick her tongue out before she ducked back into her room and closed the door. Ainslie continued along down the hallway.
When Ainslie got to her room to change, she still felt like she was moving in a daze. Her door was open a crack when she got there and Christopher was curled up on her bed when she stepped inside, sulking at her from behind his tail. Ainslie supposed she could understand why; she had been spending the last few nights in Malik’s room. She supposed the cat was lonely. While she did feel sort of bad about that, she didn’t actually feel bad enough to do anything about it. Her comfort came before the cat’s, as far as she was concerned.
Besides, wouldn’t it be strange if she lived with her fiancé but didn’t sleep with him?
She couldn’t quite hold back a high, tittering giggle as she thought the word “fiancé.” Like a small child being given exactly what she asked for on her birthday. It was a good feeling, though. She wasn’t particularly inclined to feel bad about it.
She changed into her pajamas slowly and sat down on the edge of the bed. As the mattress dipped, Christopher shuffled closer to her, and she reached back to absentmindedly scratch behind his ears with one hand. With her phone in the other hand, she dialed in Carrie’s number.
“That was quick!” Carrie greeted after three rings, chipper and slightly too loud. Either the roommate didn’t mind the noise or she was a heavy sleeper with an early bedtime. “Was there a crisis? Do I need to call in the cavalry?”
Ainslie was sort of tempted to say yes just so she could see who the cavalry was (though she was pretty sure it would just be Carrie with a sharp stick and a getaway car, and the most flamboyant masks she could find), but she shook her head briefly, ushering that thought away.
“Nothing like that,” she replied. “But I do have a question.” Reality was
re-solidifying around her at that point, and a slow, impish smile began to curl on Ainslie’s lips.
“Ooooh, sounds ominous,” came the cheerful reply. “Alright, shoot.”
“I’m going to need a maid of honor,” Ainslie stated, as casually as she could manage. “Are you up to the task?”
There was silence at first, stretching across the line. And then it broke stupendously.
Ainslie wrenched her phone away from her ear, a grin plastered on her face from ear to ear. She was willing to assume that the high-pitched, nearly inhuman shrieking coming from Carrie’s end of the line most likely constituted “yes.” ’
Which was good, really. Ainslie was going to need all the help she could get planning her wedding.
Because she was engaged now. She was getting married. To Malik.
She held that thought close as the call ended and she sauntered back down the hallway to his bedroom.
After all, they needed to celebrate their engagement.
* *
Hiiii
Thanks so much for reading, I really hope you enjoyed it. If you are a WereBear fan and want to read more WereBear books then just check out my author page to see all of them!
They are all listed on there for you to read right away
Amy x x
Otherwise, turn the page to enjoy a COMPLETE novel I included in your download as a way of saying thank you!
P.S It is one of my previous bestsellers! xx