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Magnus nodded. “Yes. I’m the eldest of five.”
I turned my head to look up at him. “And you’re all bear shifters?”
“All six of us,” Magnus confirms. “Like my parents and grandparents, and their parents before them.”
“Your parents are still alive?”
“Yes. They live in Wyoming, close to my mother’s sister. The cousin I mentioned earlier is Emmett, one of Aunt Maggie’s kids. He’s one of five brothers.”
“No girls?”
Magnus shook his head. “Female bear shifters are rare. It’s becoming a problem.” He smiled fondly. “I guess boys run in the family. Each of my brothers heads up an office in a different state. Our bear shifter roots go back generations. Our role is to protect others from harm, keep them safe, which is why Grizzly Guardians deals in all areas of security.”
“When did you first shift?”
“When I hit puberty at twelve.” He chuckles. “My first shift was nowhere near as smooth as you witnessed outside earlier. Damned painful. Like every bone in my body was breaking simultaneously.”
I cringed. “Sounds… awful.”
“It got easier with each shift. Now it’s as natural as drawing breath.” Magnus threaded his fingers through my hair and massaged my scalp, sending tingles down my spine. "What about you? Tell me about your childhood."
I stiffened slightly despite his delicious touch. "You know most of it. It was...rough. I never knew my parents. I was left outside the local police station when I was a few days old. I was in the hospital for several days with dehydration and malnutrition. The cops couldn’t find my parents, so I was made a ward of the state before I was sent to my first foster family.”
“How did you get into hacking?”
My smile was wistful. “I had a knack for computers from an early age. They didn’t make false promises or let you down. They became my escape from the reality of my childhood. I absorbed everything I could, taught myself how to code and navigate the digital world, and later put myself through college. Hacking started as a way to outsmart the system that failed me. But then it became a means of survival, a way to gain control in a world where I had nothing. It also became an addiction, an adrenaline rush with each successful security breach.”
I paused, thinking back to those early days. “I’m not going to excuse my actions. I knew the consequences, the lives I could unintentionally disrupt or endanger, including mine. I’d already decided to leave it behind and make a new life somewhere else before I came to Grizzly Guardians. But it was already too late because that’s when the threats started. This person knew stuff about me that no one else could’ve known. Where I’d been that day, what I’d eaten for breakfast at the local cafe, the people I’d spoken to. Hard proof of all the money I’d stolen from various corporations. I knew they were watching me. They wanted money in exchange for their evidence against me. One last job before I disappeared.”
I laughed hollowly. “You were right in what you said earlier. I had other choices, other paths I could’ve taken. You held a mirror in front of me and made me take a good look at myself.” I winced as I contemplated the woman Magnus had forced me to face. She wasn’t the person I wanted to be for the rest of my life. “I’ve been angry for so long, at the world, at my parents for abandoning me, leaving me alone, and at the mercy of the foster care system. Just… so alone.”
Not anymore. You have me. I’ve never been a greedy man. Ambitious? Yes. Driven? Absolutely. But I’m damned greedy where you’re concerned, Mila. Greedy for your touch, your taste, your smile. For the way you came apart on my fingers yesterday and the way you’ll come apart around my cock when I claim you.”
“Claim me?” I scoffed. “I’m not a raffle prize.”
“No, you’re my prize.”
My breath caught as he rubbed his thumb over my bottom lip. “I’ve never been anyone’s prize,” I whispered, falling into his deep brown eyes.
He smirked. “Better get used to it where I’m concerned because you’re it for me, Mila. The main prize.”
And that was when it hit me. I didn’t want anyone else either. Only Magnus. For the first time in a long time, I felt safe. He made me feel safe. He’d given me a soft place to land instead of the harsh ground I was accustomed to.
He looked at me intently as if trying to see into my soul. He looked at me as though I were the most precious thing in the world to him. And despite all logical reasons, he’d come to mean everything to me.
I searched his eyes. “Tell me how the bond works.”
He explained how shifters formed lifelong bonds with their mates, a sacred connection on both physical and emotional levels. How he’d sensed our bond from the first moment he saw me, even if I was unaware.
"I know this is a lot for you," he said. "But I promise you, I will never intentionally hurt you, Mila.”
My heart swelled at his words. I still couldn’t entirely believe what was happening, but I couldn’t deny the bone-deep need to be close to him, to give myself to him completely, physically and emotionally.
"What happens if I accept this?" I asked in a shaky voice. "If I embrace this bond?"
His eyes darkened, and desire flickered across his face. "Then you become mine in every way, as I become yours. I'll protect and care for you always. We seal the bond by..."
He trailed off, but I knew what he meant. My cheeks heated as I remembered the intimacy we’d shared in the elevator. His fingers inside me, his mouth on my breasts.
