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“But you still are.”
His breath rose dramatically as he drew a deep breath. The giant beast was on edge. “They’d been buried in rock.”
“Did they say what they wanted?”
“They think I’m protecting Leif, my brother, and if they don’t get what they want, they’ll makemepay.”
There was no way I’d let them lay a paw on Lars. “Will anything else appease them?”
“They want the other two relics.”
A sense of relief washed over me, but it was short-lived. Not that I’d ever been intimidated by any wolf, but I’d never dealt with any that had come back from the dead. Which was the least of our worries.
“Do you happen to know where they are?”
“The Statue of Bounty was destroyed by my brother,” Lars said. “The Sempiternal Scepter has been kept in a safe place.”
“So you know where it is.”
“I do.”
“Care to share that location with me?”
“No,” he said matter-of-factly. “I trust you implicitly, Bibi. But I won’t give you any information that will put you in danger.”
I bristled. “I can hold my own against any wolf.”
“These aren’t any wolf.” His words were gruff. “Dire wolves are bigger than the modern shifters you’re used to. Stronger. Their teeth are big, fanglike. Meant to kill. They don’t know anything about a world where humans have made the rules.” He sighed. “I can’t put you in danger, and Hannah…she’s human. And so enthusiastically curious about things she has no idea could kill her.”
“Which is exactly what made you want to claim her,” I reminded him.
“I need to keep her safe. Even if it means walking away from her.” He looked down at the flowers and held out his hand to me. “Will you make sure she gets them?”
“Of course I will.” I took the bouquet from him. This giant fuzzy creature was going to break my heart. He’d taken great care in curating the purple and pink flowers, complemented by wild yellow and orange blooms, and a spray of white. The beast had an eye for design. “Lars, I’m not willing to let you walk away from Hannah for something that might not be real. You said yourself that you might have dreamed this. Do you think you could just be nervous about making such a big change in your life? If that’s the case, I can tell you that almost all our contestants feel that way.”
“Could be.” He shrugged. “The last thing I want to do is give up on Hannah.”
“There’s only one rule onThe Mating Game: No giving up.” Which meant we’d have to move fast to make sure this episode actually happened. “Hannah’s been waiting patiently to take that stage, and I have a feeling she won’t do it if you’re not there, too.”
There were plenty of eager women ready, willing, and able to take her place if she refused to go forward. That wasn’t the problem. But we’d picked Hannah intentionally. We loved her energy and what she brought to the show. Not to mention she was a force to be reckoned with in the show’s online forum community.
Was I about to make a decision based on avoiding bad publicity? Hell no. Nobody canceled Bibi le Bonnet.
“I’ll be there,” he growled.
“Good.” My mind was going a million miles an hour. “We’ll get everything scheduled ASAP. In the meantime, I’ll team you up with our former contestants so you’ll know exactly what to expect, and they can answer any questions you have about claiming a human mate.”
“I’d like that.” Lars put his big paw on my arm. It always surprised me how such a powerful creature could be so gentle. I couldn’t wait for the world to fall in love with Lars. “Thanks for believing in me, Bibi. I won’t let you down.”
“Hugo and Bjorn are in back if you’d like to talk to them before you head home,” I said. Lars had been friendly with us, generous with information about the ancient civilization that we’d otherwise only been able to access through history books. Not all of what had been recorded, we learned, was accurate. And he’d saved Hannah’s life when she’d been caught in an avalanche. For that alone I was forever indebted to the beast. I’d do everything in my power to take the utmost care of him as he stepped into our world. I was good at getting humans and beasts alike to share what was on their minds and in their hearts, but I had a feeling he might confess some things to the guys that he would be too shy to talk to me about.
Lars nodded and headed to the backyard.
I turned to deal with the looky-loos and tell them they’d better get used to seeing this gentle, fuzzy giant in our village, but instead I found Marissa and Tina.
Marissa still had that newly mated glow to her. She and Bjorn had simply refused to take a proper mate moon so Hannah wouldn’t have to wait long for her episode while they were away. They’d spent time in a secluded mountain cabin, and I’d texted them more than once to let them know they could extend their vacation because Lars had yet to shift.
Tina had insisted she was ready to come back to work full time, even with twin babies.
