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She felt his claws press into her arm, and she lifted her hand to his bicep. “The crescent moon,” he said reverently, “holds a place of honor for bears. We gather under the crescent for celebrations, and the mark reminds us of our tie. I mark you as mine, Kammie.”
The cut was a swift twist of one claw against her skin. The wound burned slightly, but she was too focused on his bicep to think too much about a small ache. She let her claws out and envisioned the curved mark in her mind, using the one he’d made as a guide. She moved as quickly as he had, cutting his arm with her claw in a curved line. She stared at the blood that welled on his arm, and then looked at her own. He rubbed his finger lightly over her cut, gathering her blood on his finger, and then rubbed it along his own. After mixing their blood on his arm, he stroked his finger over her cut, their blood now combined on both of their marks. The mixing of blood prevented the cuts from healing entirely, so that they would scar.
He lowered his mouth to hers with a growl. As their lips met, she slid her hands up his back. He drew her closer until their bodies touched, his cock trapped between them, hot and hard. She eased onto her back, tugging him with her as they settled onto the furs. Row held himself slightly above her, his fingers tracing slow patterns up and down her waist.
He nipped her lower lip and kissed her chin, nuzzling her throat. Cupping her breast, he fit his mouth over her nipple, sucking gently. Tingles raced through her as he hummed against her flesh, and she sank her fingers into his hair, fisting the soft strands as he feasted on her breast before moving on to the other nipple, sucking and licking it to a hard point.
He kissed down her body slowly, his hands following his lips as he mapped out her curves until he reached the apex of her thighs. Row was the only man she’d ever let between her legs this way, and she was glad she’d saved that part of herself for him alone. He teased her with his lips and tongue, driving her forward to the height of pleasure, his hands wrapped around her thighs and holding her close as he feasted on her.
She screamed his name, writhing under him as he pushed her to another crest of pleasure, his fingers twisting and pumping as she shuddered under his touch. He climbed up her body and she lifted her legs to wrap them around his hips as his cock pressed into her slowly, filling her perfectly. He growled as their bodies met, and she pressed her hand against his cheek. She wanted to say a million things in that moment, to tell him all of the emotions that were rising up in her. Instead she chose the simplest and most powerful phrase she knew, which she had only ever said to him: “I love you.”
“I love you, too, Kammie. My sweet, beautifuladara.”
They made love slowly, keeping their gazes locked together as pleasure washed over them and carried them into bliss. After they’d come down from the heavens, they ate and talked and then made love once more, reveling in their time together in the sacred cave. As she drifted to sleep lying on top of Row, a fur over them both, she considered the strange turn her life had taken. One moment she’d been living a not-so-content life as an omega, unsure if she’d ever find anyone who would be able to handle her scars. The next, she was being hauled through the woods by her truemate, a demanding male who thought her scars were badges of honor proving she’d been tough enough to survive. She’d never felt as stripped bare as she did with Row, but she didn’t fear that now. She could see her scars not as crippling marks to hold her down, but as proof that she was a survivor. She’d lost out on a lot because of them and her pack’s belief that they made her weak, but she didn’t see herself as weak any longer.
It had only taken falling in love with a bear and a few naked conversations to get her to the place where she saw herself as a valuable woman, with an opinion worth hearing and a life worth living. She owed it to herself to live her life to the fullest, and that included this new chapter with Row. Eventually they’d have kids and she’d teach them to never be ashamed of anything they went through. She’d be the role model to her children she’d never had herself.
She smiled and let sleep claim her.
CHAPTERNINE
Row felt Kammie’s weight slide off him suddenly. She screamed in alarm, and he shot to his feet with a warning roar as he watched her being dragged from the chamber by something he couldn’t see. He raced after her, lunging to catch her hand as she was slammed into the side of the tunnel. Her fingers slipped from his and he bellowed in rage as he charged out of the cave and found himself facing Hector and three males Row recognized from Hector’s sleuth.
“Release my mate,” Row demanded. Kammie lay naked on the snow, facedown and unmoving. He could see the rise and fall of her chest, so he knew she was alive, but he could also smell her blood.
Hector tilted his head and blinked slowly. He placed a booted foot on Kammie’s back, and Row snarled. “I could kill her right now.”
“What do you want?” Row forced himself to think past the blinding rage. Not only had Kammie been literally snatched from his arms, but she was in danger.
“I want your claws pulled out,” Hector said, making a sweeping gesture with the hunting knife he brandished. “I want your blood spilled and your life ended, but not before you watch me fuck your mate and then hand her off to my friends.”
“That willnothappen,” Row said, his bear surfacing enough for his body to bulk and fur to sprout from his skin.
“I think it will. I think,” Hector tapped his chin with the tip of the blade, his eyes gleaming feverishly, “that my friends will make sure you can’t do anything but watch: watch me fuck her, watch me take what’s yours and make it mine, over and over, while she begs for mercy.”
Row swept his gaze over the three males standing with Hector. They were savage fighters; Row had faced all of them at one time or another and beaten them. That was one-on-one, however. Row was a great fighter, but he wasn’t sure he could take on three males at once, and he was certain they weren’t planning to fight honorably.
His bear bellowed, and he let the rage bloom inside him until it eclipsed everything else. He had to save Kammie. He’d promised to keep her safe for the rest of their lives, and their lives sure as fuck weren’t ending today.
Letting loose a savage roar, he leaped at the males as his shift took over. They weren’t playing fair, so he wasn’t going to play fair, either. The males shouted in surprise as he landed on top of one of them, hearing the satisfying crunch of bones as his heavy bulk hit full-force. Vengeance rode him hard. No one took what was his. No one threatened his mate.
* * *
Kammie felt something press hard into the center of her back as she came to. Her head ached and her vision was blurry. She blinked rapidly to clear her sight, watching as Row roared loud enough to hurt her ears and flew through the air, shifting into an enormous bear. Whatever had been holding her down disappeared as the scent of blood and the sound of shattering bones and screams of pain filled the air.
Ice and snow stung her skin as she pushed herself up and raced into the chamber. She navigated the tunnel and skidded to a stop on the furs, facing a male with shaggy blond hair holding a knife. He pressed it to her throat, his eyes glinting in the flickering candlelight.
“I knew I’d get you one way or another,” he said darkly.
Row couldn’t get to her unless he shifted into his human form, and she could still hear him fighting outside the cave. She was on her own. Fear slithered over her, and for a moment she wanted to curl up and take whatever beating the male had planned for her. But as she stared up at him, she realized she wouldn’t survive if she didn’t fight. Row was fighting three males outside the cave, and although she was no fighter herself, she had one ace up her sleeve—her wolf.
She willed her pulse to slow, and her wolf rose to the surface, waiting for the moment she could let her free. “What do you want with us?”
The knife tip pressed more firmly into her throat. He was tense, his eyes wild and his chest heaving as he snarled. “Suffering.”
Fuck. That.
She’d already suffered more than enough in her lifetime, and Row—who she could hear roaring outside the cave—had suffered through monthly battles, too. As the male’s hand curled tighter on the knife, she noticed the rough marks on his thumb. She realized he was the one who’d tried to claw off Row’s dick, which was a part of her mate’s anatomy she happened to really enjoy.
