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“I’m glad, but it didn’t matter to me. I would rather you have a scar from him and be alive than the alternative.”
“Me, too. Are you all right?”
“I’m still healing, but I’m fine.”
She inspected the bandages that covered his claw marks. She growled, and he cupped her cheek. “You and I are both alive. That’s what matters the most.”
“If they weren’t dead I would kill them.”
“My fierce mate.”
She leaned over him and planted her hands on either side of his body. She gazed into his eyes. “You’ve changed me completely.”
His brows lifted. “What?”
“You charged into my life like a wrecking ball. NowI’mlike a wrecking ball.”
He laughed. “How so?”
“When Hector came into the cave, I knew he wanted to hurt me and kill you. There was a part of me that wanted to curl up and let him do his worst, but I knew I couldn’t live without you. It’s strange to think of myself as standing up to someone so scary, but I did. I attackedhim.”
Row sobered. “You could’ve been killed. I would’ve preferred that you run.”
“Never,” she swore, baring her teeth.
He curled his arms around her and pulled her against his chest, sighing deeply as he brushed his lips over her forehead. “I’m sorry that my past came back to haunt us. I’m sorry I didn’t keep you safe. I’m especially sorry that you had to defend yourself. I never wanted you to have to do that.”
“It’s because of you that I had the courage to stand up for myself. You’ve taught me a lot in a short amount of time. I don’t want to be a doormat. I sure as hell wasn’t going to let an asshole with a grudge rape me and pass me around like a party favor.”
He growled, his whole body vibrating. Then he hugged her tighter. “I’m thankful you’re in my arms now, Kammie.”
She lifted her head and smiled. “I don’t want to keep being angry about what could’ve happened. I want to let it go, the way I’ve let go of a lot of things since I met you.”
“Like your insistence on wearing clothes?”
She chuckled. “Old habits die hard, but you’re worth making new habits for.”
His fingers crept down her back slowly, and he cupped her ass and ground her into his erection. “Let’s make it a habit to make love every morning.”
“And at night too?”
“Of course. I can’t sleep right without you naked and satisfied in my arms.”
“That sounds like a great habit.”
* * *
Kammie passed the grape jelly to a female bear named Desendra who sat on her left. “I was thinking about learning how to make jelly,” Kammie said.
“I have a great recipe that uses grape juice, it’s super easy. Unless you don’t like grape jelly, then it’s just a time-waster,” Desendra said, laughing.
“It would be fun to give out jars of jelly as a gifts.”
“I’ll teach you. I also like to make strawberry jelly the old-fashioned way. It takes a hell of a lot of work, but it’s delicious.”
Kammie and Row were seated at a long table in a big building in the sleuth territory. Kammie had thought it was for storage, until she found out it was used for gatherings of the sleuth and had a commercial kitchen in the back. Because she and Row were interrupted on their mating night and they’d both been injured, the sleuth pushed their celebration breakfast to that night, and Kammie had looked forward to getting to know the bears.
Row’s mom sat across from them, next to Gloria and Fayar, who sat at the head of the table. “I love Desendra’s cherry preserves. She sells them at a local market in the summer and makes a killing.”
