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He turned and scrubbed the dog’s head as he looked at Nari. “What’s going on?”
“I tried to tell you,” she mumbled. “Ulf is going to be fine.”
“But how?” His eyes misted over as he smiled back at his furry friend. He’d thought he’d be coming home to say goodbye. Ulf knocked into Nari and nearly sent her tumbling to the floor. He pushed the dog down and swept her up into his arms. “You did it. Like how you used me to heal yourself last night. Reversed.”
She nodded sluggishly, scratching at the collar. “I just need some sleep.”
Nari needed more than that, and he was more than happy to give it to her.
He laid her on his bed. Even half-asleep, she tried to hold on to him. Magnus gently stripped her and then tucked her in. “I’ll be right back.”
He needed to make sure they were safe.
By the time he made it back upstairs to take a much-needed shower, he was satisfied that the house was secure. Ulf had followed him the entire time before settling by the bed next to Nari’s slumbering form.
He barely took the time to scrub himself dry before dropping the towel by the bed. Aware that he was crossing some big boundaries, and of the fact that he didn’t much care, he slid in behind her. Curling himself around her only emphasized their size difference. Every difference.
Nari was so slight, so pale, so silky smooth. A complete contrast to everything he was. Magnus couldn’t stop himself from lowering his nose to the warm curve where her neck met her shoulder and inhaling deeply. It took what was left of his willpower to stop himself from tasting, biting, devouring her.
He’d been alone for so long, avoided everyone—even other shifters—that he wasn’t sure what the hell he was supposed to do to get her to forgive his idiocy. His bear had a great many ideas, but he found himself unwilling to do anything that might drive her away. Obviously, she felt the pull between them. She wouldn’t just let any man touch her.
The thought of another male feeling the silky softness of her skin or smelling her delicate scent sent his bear into a rage, and he couldn’t contain the low growl that came from him.
Nari stirred, turning to his body and pressing her nose against his chest. “Magnus.”
The way she’d sighed his name caused every cell in his body to surge to life, along with the pride that she knew it was him. She hadn’t needed to open her eyes or anything else to make sure that it was him. She just knew. More proof that they were meant to be.
Why the hell hadn’t he paid attention to other bears when they’d talked about mates when he was younger?
He pulled her closer because it felt good. Right. Just because he didn’t know the specifics of it didn’t mean that what was happening here was wrong. Or right. Was that even a thing? It was all about intuition, wasn’t it?
Only his instincts were telling him to nudge her legs apart, lock their bodies together tight and not resurface until there was no doubt in her mind that he was deliriously happy she was his mate. That he belonged to her just as she belonged to him. To make sure that she was so saturated in his scent that there was no doubt to anyone else that she was his.
He looked down at her. She was paler than usual. And that was saying something. She’d given up whatever energy she’d taken from him to save Ulf. His heart clenched and filled to bursting that she would do that. It also terrified him that she would so quickly and easily harm herself to save another.
Magnus would make sure she would never need to make that choice again.
He tipped her head back. “Nari?”
She hummed a response into his pec.
What did he want to tell her? In truth, he had no words for what he wanted to say. Not that he had any idea what was churning him up inside.
He concentrated on the immediate problem. “Kiss me. Do what you did last night.”
As if finally realizing who had hold of her, she opened her eyes a crack to glare at him and shook her head. The pain andanger in the slivers of what he could see of her eyes cut him. She tried to wriggle away from him, but he held her in place. “Nari, please.”
“No.”
She was going to let herself suffer because of his stupidity? Clearly, English was too hard to keep up with in her weakened state, and she muttered at him in her own language. The words might have been foreign, but the condemnation was all too clear.
“Please, Nari, I was an idiot. I’m sorry. Don’t suffer because of me.”
“Big idiot,” she mumbled.
“The biggest.” A tremor of relief skittered through him when she allowed him to pull her closer. “Just do what you need to. Drain me dry if you must.”
She studied him through the slits in her eyelids again.
