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He’d had Timber on his stomach and craning his neck upward toward the sky. Lyra knew without a shadow of a doubt that her mate, her man, her lover, her darling, would be dead and gone in a split second if Edmund had decided to even slightly move Timber’s neck further upward. His spine would snap like a twig, and just like that, it would be lights out, and dreams shattered.
She clung to Marigold, who was staring in confusion at her father. Lyra began to mutter to herself, not entirely sure why.
“You can do this, Timber,” she said, biting her words like hard candy. “I know you can.”
Elias, who was the referee for the battle, ran through the thick slashing of rain and jumped down the hill. He held a hand in the air, beginning the count of three.
“ONE! TWO!”
Just as Elias's lips formed the word of the final count, Timber was somehow able to use his back legs to sweep Edmund off him, sending him tumbling down to the sticky leaves below. Timber shot upward onto all fours and proceeded to go mad on his opponent, who was caught off guard.
He punched the younger bear with very human gestures, sending him soaring backward to skid across his back in the wet soil. The women and shifters cheered through the storm as his body thudded, the sound of crystal glass smashing echoing through the woods.
Edmund’s nose bled profusely over his dark fur. He was dazed when he tried to stand, and Timber used this opportunity to get in a few final blows.
He stood on his hind legs and let out a magnificent roar. It was a victorious one that made Lyra break out into goose flesh.
Timber smacked Edmund again, once in the chops, then in his throat. The air seemed to siphon out of the young bear’s throat like a squeezed straw before sending him back to the ground, groaning on his side as if he had just been tranquilized.
Timber stood there, Lyra’s champion, her heart soaring for her man. But he wasn’t unscathed; she could see the slash of blood trickling down his sweet bear face, the early indications of a swelling eye.
“ONE! TWO! THREE!”
Elias called out the numbers reluctantly, and that was when Timber fell to his knees. The shifters and women cheered while medical personnel moved to Edmund and the new Montana Maul’s leader, both shifting nearly simultaneously.
Lyra let go of the umbrella, settled it into Isabel’s palm, and then handed Marigold over. She ran toward Timber as he returned to his human state, the winner but beaten and bloody. Rainwater splashed as he crashed, naked and on all fours in his human form.
Lyra fell to her knees, too, sliding through the soaking dirt, likely staining her jeans for life. She took Timber’s head in her arms, hearing him breathing raggedly, running her fingers up and down his body like she was a witch who could heal him instantly.
“You did it, baby!” she said tearfully. “I’m so fucking proud of you.”
Timber lifted his head with Lyra’s hands holding it upright like it was set to fall off at any second. Her heart lurched when she saw that one eye had swollen shut, gleaming the colors royal purple and blue, the shades of an angry storm.
But he was smiling.
Timber touched her neck, stroking the place where he had marked her. He gazed at it thoughtfully and mused in the pouring rain.
“No, darling, we did it.”
FORTY-ONE
TIMBER
Timber felt like his life was finally coming together like one giant puzzle, all of the pieces fitting gently into one another. After he won the fight, he was tended to by the shifter medical personnel, who deemed he had a few broken ribs and had injured some of his right occipital bone. Lyra was by his side the entire time, holding his hand, looking like a dream in her soaked-through sweater.
On their way home, he whispered to her that he loved how she looked all wet. Her eyes widened, and she bit her lip, her body curling into itself the way it did when she was turned on. It was recommended that they wait a few days before engaging in any physical acts so he could heal, but that didn’t stop him from plunging head-first into her pussy the second she returned from the shower.
“What’s this for?” she moaned, hanging off the edge of the bed with her hair dripping onto him.
“For everything,” he growled.
She tasted like golden honey laced with sparks from the stars. It was the added layer of his vicious day, enhancing the enchanting feeling of wholeness that surged through him like a mystical fire.
The new members of the bear council, who were all of the shifters with human wives that they had previously engaged with, let him rest for a few days before beginning to go to work. The original council had disbanded, with Elias, Jameson, Callum, and everyone else becoming casual bear-shifting citizens of the state.
The first plan of action was to mark down the whereabouts of the old members and then to interview a few of the lower-tier ones who might want to join. As the leader, Timber had to oversee it all, as he was used to doing as the leader of the Montana Maul. Except, the council was a much larger scope of shifters, expanding throughout the state and the entire country. It was a lot to take on, but with Lyra by his side, he felt like he could carry the weight of the entire world.
The next action to check off the list was to hunt down the bear hunter who had been ravaging through Canada and Montana, killing the natural bears. It had been the maul’s major focus when he’d first met Lyra but had receded into the background as their courtship became the top priority. But everything had settled with Lyra moving into what he considered their home, taking care of Marigold like she was her own offspring.
