When the elevator doors swished open, she felt warm air envelop her and reached out a hand. It was a silly thing. It also wasn’t normal… for her. Reaching out for someone. Stupid. Silly.

She squeezed her eyes shut, another silly gesture on her part.

Shaking her head, she stepped out of the elevator and was drawn up short… by a hand around her wrist.

It didn’t hurt. As big as Valerio’s hand was, he held her like fragile glass.

And while she stood there trying not to tremble or make herself feel anymore-

“You’re not silly.”

She swallowed and managed a few words. “Are you reading my mind?”

Something brushed over the top of her hair and then she realized that it was a kiss. His kiss.

And when he answered she was fairly stunned to hear the truth. “You think you’re talking in your head, Allegra, but you don’t.”

“I do!” She turned toward him. “It’s in my head.”

“Maybe with other people,” she could hear his smile, “but when you’re with me, you say things out loud.”

She wanted to argue with him, but it seemed, yet again, silly.

“Or maybe I just know what you’re thinking.” The smile in his voice seemed to dim. “Like when I felt your fear on the platform.”

“You felt that?” She didn’t know how to feel about his words, but she felt the truth in them nonetheless.

He shifted beside her and together they began to walk.

“Where are we?”

The ground beneath her feet felt… natural. The air, a warm balmy temperature that was so very different than what they’d walked through just minutes before. And the scent, the smells that tickled her nose, brought her a bit of wonder… a rush of joy.

“We went up in an elevator.” She reasoned through her thoughts. “My ears,” she swallowed, “popped just the tiniest bit. And yet I feel like we’re on top of a mountain instead of the top of a building in New York City.”

The twitter of a Starling reached her ears and she froze. “Tell me,” she grinned, her heart trembling with excitement, “where have you brought me?”

“Our home.”

Our.

She knew what he meant. His home with his brothers. Natale had explained that they shared several floors of a building together. She thought that meant a series of rooms, separate areas, storage spaces, not a nature preserve.

“Ours,” he repeated, “but I will continue to remind you, until you realize that I mean what I say.”

She flushed and decided to tip toe around the issue for a little while until she found a little balance. “You have the out of doors indoors?”

Valerio shifted his hand, moving from her wrist, lower, linking their fingers together. “We have what I believe the Victorians called a Conservatory.”

Allegra took in a breath, filling her lungs. “It smells like heaven. My family liked camping in the mountains when I was a little girl, but I haven’t been up since I moved here to New York City. After I lost them, it didn’t seem to make sense. After I lost my sight, I didn’t think I could.”

They moved again, walking slowly side by side.

“What happened to your family?”

“It was just me and my parents as long as I can remember. And when I was in Juilliard,” she swallowed the lump of pain in her throat and struggled not to squeeze his hand in hers, “they died in a car accident. If it hadn’t been for-” She stopped short, tilting her ear down toward her shoulder as she struggled to understand what she heard. “Is that water?”

“Yes,” his voice held more than a hint of humor, and something that sounded like a rumble of laughter.

“It doesn’t sound like a fountain,” she reasoned, “and it wasn’t raining outside when we arrived.”

“No,” he agreed, “it’s not raining now, either.”

She tentatively bent down toward the floor.

Valerio didn’t stop her. He bent with her, sliding a hand up her arm to guide her gently to the ground.

“Oh wow.” She felt grass under her palm. A plush cover of grass that reminded her of long-forgotten hours of joy. A soft crunch of leaves that crumbled between her searching fingers. Smooth stones interspersed with grass, weeds too if she could trust her fingers and her memory.

Then water, rushing water licking at her fingers. She got up on her knees and leaned further out to see how wide the water was.

She felt a hand on her hip and one on her waist before she heard the rough growl of his voice. “Are you so sure I won’t let you fall in?”

Allegra didn’t even turn to speak over her shoulder, she plunged her hand into the rushing chill. “Yes. You wouldn’t let me fall in.”

He grumbled and yet he tightened his hands on her when the hand that she’d braced on the ground slipped the littlest bit. One of his hands slipped around to her stomach and a little lower. She froze, waiting to see what else might happen, but he didn’t let her go, even when she felt them trembling against her.

Backing up a little, she managed to settle herself on the bank and give herself some time to relax. She wanted to believe what he said about them, she wanted to act on it in some way, but being blind was a big disadvantage in some ways. Gauging his interest, his reactions, was harder without being able to see what he looked like, the expression in his eyes.

Then again, she remembered, she’d looked into Lance’s eyes for over two years and didn’t see the dark side of his nature. He’d hidden that way behind his smile and sweet words.

The water burbled along beside them as she sat in silence, her mind working over the thoughts in her head, trading one problem for another. Letting her fingers dip into the water again, she felt the pieces of one problem fall into place. “You have a river in a building,” it wasn’t so much a question as it was an observance with a hint of incredulity. “Wow. That’s something.”

“It’s more of a brook then a river, we don’t have enough land for that.”

She heard the earnest tone in his voice and a smile picked up the corners of her mouth. “Right. Of course. I completely understand.”

“You do?” Now it was his turn to sound… confused.

Her laugh was answered by birdsong and she lifted her hand and pressed her fingers against her lips. “What is it that you do,” she wondered, “beyond rescuing random damsels in the subway?”

“My brother Salvatore founded Orsino Security. We make sure people are safe.”

“So yesterday, in the subway, was that just… what you do.” She tried not to let her tone flatten out. She shook her head at herself and turned her head toward the soft sound of the running water. “Help people.”

“Allegra…”

His voice was a caress, at least in her imagination, and she turned her cheek into the sound hoping to prolong the feeling.

“We help people. Our family has done it for generations in Italy. We continue our work here.”

She swallowed and prepared to paste a cheery grin on her face.

“But it’s more with you.”

Allegra wanted to shake herself for her irrational reaction. She fairly shook with relief.

“It’s always going to be more with you.”

“You don’t need to say that.”

“You’re everything to me.”

He was close enough to touch, not that she heard him close the short distance between them, but when she pushed out her hand to gesture for a moment, her palm collided with the wall of his chest. Funny how she could tell that at a single touch. “I don’t need you to make me feel better.”

“I want to make you feel better, Allegra. The rest of my life, I want to make you feel better, feel loved, adored.”

She heard the truth in his words, it was too easy to hear, but it was so very difficult to believe. “You’re trying to kill me.” She laughed at his sudden growl of denial. “I don’t think you’re trying to hurt me, but your words, your declarations, it’s hard to believe. Those words have always been empty promises.”

His hand closed over hers, and his fingers gently lifted it from his chest and slowly raised it until she felt his lips against her palm, a soft flutter of heat against her skin. “Empty,” he added another kiss and turned her hand, “my heart was empty before I met you.”

She swallowed and tried to blink away the tears that prickled at her eyes. “Please don’t-”

“That you’ve been hurt before, hurts me, but from this moment on, Allegra, things will be different.”

Her palm tickled… scratched and when she felt his breath on her wrist she knew he’d brushed his cheek against her palm.

“They will be different, because I am different from anyone you’ve ever met. You are my equal, my other half, the woman born to complete my heart and inspire my soul.”

Floating. She was sure she was dreaming and the sensations rolling through her body were just her imagination. Her senses were alive and tingling as her body begged to be closer… to be consumed by his words and his promises.

He lifted her as gently as someone might pick up a treasure, setting her down a moment later on his lap, before gently encircling her in his arms. She felt his legs beneath her, the strength of his muscles, the broad wall of his chest, the sensitive scratch of his beard against her forehead, soothed a moment later by his lips.

“I will be here, Allegra, for you. What you need from me you will have. Whatever it takes to make you believe that I’m telling you the truth, is yours.”

She leaned her head down and felt the fine wool of his coat under her cheek. Allegra drew in one breath after another, concentrating on slowing her heartbeat, calming her nerves.

Being with Valerio had been instinct, a jump from the Lion’s head, but conscious thought hadn’t really played a part yet. And now, he was giving her that, sitting still with her as she relaxed against him.

The sound of his heartbeat calmed her, even when his own heartrate thundered within his chest, her own slowed down, easing into a rhythm that echoed the brook just a few feet away. They sat in silence as she brushed her cheek against his shoulder, enjoying the fine fabric under her cheek, the heat of his body against hers, and scent of him as it filled her lungs and whispered over her tongue.

Her body heated, her breath quickened, and her nerves danced just under the sensitive surface of her skin.

“It’s been so long,” she began and her thoughts drew her back into a darker place, “I-”

She felt a hand on her arm. It didn’t hurt, it soothed her. “I’m here.”

And he was, he was a rock that sheltered her in the darkness and gave her his strength.

Allegra turned, ever so slightly, adjusting her seat in his lap to bring her closer, lifting her face toward his, taking a deeper breath of him into her lungs.

“You’re not…” She felt him tense against her, but she didn’t move away. “You’re not completely human.”

* * *

He waited.

Waited for her to push him away.

Waited for her to scream.

To put distance between them.

It nearly slayed him when she leaned closer and took in another breath along the side of his neck, nearly where it met his shoulder. It took his breath away and he could feel his bear crouched within him, waiting.

“How did I not know?”

Her words stoked a fire within him. “How do you know?” he wondered aloud.

She flushed and his mouth when dry. He wanted to know if that beautiful flush that colored her face and neck, colored more of her supple flesh. His bear pushed him with a shoulder, rising up to break his fangs through and score the inside of his lip.

“One of my therapists, the one who taught me how to get around with my cane, was a jaguar. The scent was something… new. It was like I could smell a faraway place not a person, something wild… more,” she shrugged, “than human.”

Valerio couldn’t stop the low growl that escaped his lips, nor the arms that wrapped around her lush body.

Allegra wiggled a little and instead of loosening his embrace, he gathered her closer. “What?” She didn’t fight him for freedom, instead, she cuddled closer, setting her hand on his chest, calming the bear within. “What’s going on?”

He struggled to keep his breathing even. Struggling to find his human voice to explain. When he opened his lips, his bear rode him hard. “Mine.”

She relaxed even more, lowering her hand over his chest and around to his side.

His bear luxuriated in her touch, the feel of her body against his. “Mine.”

Her laughter peeled his lips back from his teeth in a snarl.

“Are you jealous?”

Valerio pulled her closer to him and she sucked in a breath when her rounded backside shifted in his lap, he knew she could feel his erection under her thigh. He was rock hard and hungry and when she sighed, her breath heating the side of his neck, she cuddled closer.

“Yes,” the word nearly hissed out from between his lips, “did you… care for him?”

Her laughter wasn’t the response that he was hoping for… or even expected, but when she leaned her head back against his shoulder he nearly forgot the whole reason he was jealous, but she didn’t.

Through her laughter, she stroked his chest and regrettably, his ego. “My therapist was a jaguar shifter and a woman,” she confided. “As much as I’m sure she was as gorgeous as she was good at her job, I think the only woman I’d date would be Catherine Zeta Jones and last I checked, she’s taken.”

He nodded, struggling to catch his own breath. “So, no.”

“No, that I’m not interested in my therapist. Or is there another question that I missed between all of the growling?”

He nodded and then shook his head, struggling still.

“Then maybe I get a question.”

Her fingers found their way to the buttons on his shirt. Drawing in a breath, he pressed his chest against her curious fingers, watching as she used her fingertips to walk her way up through the line of buttons. Buttons to his collar. Collar to the heated skin of his neck and to the line of his neatly trimmed beard.

“What are you?” She smiled as he swallowed and his Adam’s apple pushed against her fingers.

He dropped his head and nipped at her fingertip, holding it for a moment between his teeth before letting it go.

He expected her to lower her hand away, but he was just learning that Allegra wasn’t going to be what… or who anyone would expect. She raised her hand, fumbling her touch over his chin and smoothed her fingers over his lips.

“Tell me?”

He leaned into her touch, felt fur push through his skin, drew her scent into his lungs.

Her hands touched his cheeks, stilling for a moment and then smoothing her palms back towards his ears once and then again, as if she was petting him, soothing him.

Instead the bear wasn’t in a mind to be soothed. He wanted to be closer. He wanted their mate.

Valerio did too. So, he needed to answer her question. He needed to know if who he was… was enough for her. “Bear.”

“Bear,” she repeated the answer, her eyes moving over his face as if she could see… and maybe she could. “Grizzly? Brown?” Her laughter made him thirsty for her kiss. “Dare I hope… a panda?”

The growl that passed his lips had her sucking in a breath.

“I like bears,” she sighed, “the bigger… the stronger… the better.” Her hands wouldn’t let go, she slid one around the back of his neck, the other through the short-cropped hair behind his ear.

His hands moved over her shoulders, danced over her back, sliding over the full curve of her backside, holding her closer. “Mine.”

She flicked her tongue over her bottom lip and then rubbed it over the back of her teeth, steadying herself. “As long as you’re mine too.” She tugged him closer and he went willingly, pausing when their lips were a hairsbreadth away from each other. “Yours.”

It was a battle of wills that was fought within him. His bear wanted her naked, writhing beneath them, wrapped around them, begging for more. Valerio wanted that too, but not right then.

So much had been forced on Allegra in her life that he wanted to make sure that when he made her their mate, it was because she wanted it. She was already his perfect match, his equal. But when he joined their bodies together for the rest of their lives, she would make the choice with a clear head.

And yet, he wouldn’t give up the opportunity to taste her, just a little.

He parted his lips and brushed a kiss against one corner of her mouth and then the other. He felt her press her lips against his, open and pliant.

The sigh that he swallowed was followed by her tongue. She teased and he chased, sweeping over her teeth to meet the heated stroke of her tongue again.

Allegra’s fingers bit into the back of his neck and he mourned her close-cut nails. He would have loved to feel her score his flesh, bite into his skin and scratch him raw.

Her teeth closed over his lower lip, nipping them together until he hissed out a groan.

She pulled back, a gasp bursting from her lips. “Did I hurt you?”

Valerio couldn’t stop the way his heart thundered in his chest, he couldn’t stop the need that flowed through his veins. Leaning closer, he rubbed his cheek against hers and felt her cling to his shoulders.

His teeth scraped the sensitive lobe of her ear, leaving him to soothe the scratch with his tongue. “Yes, Allegra, you hurt me.”

She tensed in his arms and he felt her shudder against him. “Do not apologize, Allegra. I like your fangs.”

“Do you now?” Allegra flushed and drew her tongue over the plump flesh of her bottom lip.

He tasted her lip, following her tantalizing show with a searching sweep of his own before he leaned back again to draw in a deep breath. Allegra was beautiful on her own, but scenting her arousal, the heat of her skin and deep within her body, he felt his body hovering on the change, his eyes bleeding black with his own barely restrained passion.

“Always, Allegra. If it’s your mouth on me, you can do what you will.”

“Be careful what you say, Valerio.” She trembled in his embrace, but it wasn’t fear he smelled, but anticipation. “I’m going to hold you to that.”

He gave her one last kiss before helping her up from the grassy expanse in the heart of their home. “Anything you want, Stellina, you shall have.”