Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 81208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“It is my specialty,” Robert reminds me.
“And I’ll be forever grateful that it is,” I say.
“Would you be able to cope with guests today?”
“Guests?” Apart from Hallie and her mates, Dorien and Fraser, and my friend, Rosie, we’ve been alone in the house since I arrived. There’s never a dull moment but having someone to show the cubs off to will be nice.
“The extended clan want to come and pay their respects. It’s a tradition at the six-week mark.”
“Sure. That sounds like fun. How many people are we talking about?”
“Forty-two,” Hunter says.
“Forty-two?”
Robert puts his hands up at my surprised gasp. “Don’t worry. We’ll order food and take care of everything else. All you have to do is dress for guests and care for the babies.”
“I can do that,” I say, although I’m not sure what smart clothes I have that will fit me.
“They’re going to want to talk about what happened.” Hunter strokes Coran’s head as he says it. I feel him remembering in the way he holds his breath, and his heart picks up speed.
I haven’t really processed that part of the birth, the missing minutes when I slipped into a liquid state, neither here nor at the next place. I could feel my mates’ panic and hear their thoughts, but I couldn’t do anything to make it better.
They told me about the second claiming and the ties that bind us now. When they told me five days after the birth, it was with so much shame and grief. They knelt around my bed while I nursed our children and explained what had happened. They apologized for going to such lengths without discussing it with me. I cried, not because I was angry about their decision, but because they seemed to regret what they’d done. I hated the gray fog I could feel lingering around their hearts.
“You saved me,” I told them. “You did what you had to do to save me. And anyway, I’m glad that our fates are linked. I could never have lived if one of you died. The pain would have taken me with you, anyway.”
They’d kissed me then, one after another. They’d each looked at the deeper claim scars I now carry across my body with a strange awe. I studied them, too, later when I was alone. They’re silver now, each like the arcs of two waning moons, one on my shoulder, one on my arm, one on my calf.
They’re the marks our sons will see, confirming their parents are bonded to the end of our lives. They’re beautiful.
“When are the guests arriving?” I ask.
“Tomorrow,” Hunter says. “The cubs will be six weeks, exactly.”
Six weeks. It’s a milestone for the clan, but it's also a milestone for me. When the gathering is over tomorrow, I can be with my mates again.
They seem to sense my arousal, and for the first time in a long time, their eyes shine gold. “Careful, Goldie.” Hunter’s accompanying growl in my mind is deep and sexual. I shift in my seat as the others growl, too.
“Down boys,” I chastise, laughing, but they’ll never stop being this way about me. We’re mates for life, bonded with a link so deep, our life forces and our destinies are intertwined.
I often ask myself how I got here. The triplets say it was all predetermined, but there are many parts to our stories before our paths crossed. So many decisions led me to respond to Robert’s phone call, landing on his doorstep with my box of tools and a lack of hope that had sunk deep into my bones.
If I’d left earlier, before Hunter had returned home, we might never have known about our deep and intended connection. We could have walked the rest of our journeys alone.
Hunter tells me it isn’t possible. Once mates are sealed by nature, they’ll always find their way to each other. It’s a nice thought, romantic even, but it makes me feel weird about my life before I met my bears. Was it just there as a stopgap before fulfilling that one moment of destiny? I learned too much in that early portion of my life. Too much to ignore or rest aside as an interlude.
Who knows what tomorrow will hold. Many external forces can bring both good and evil to our lives. But with my bears by my side, I’ll never have to face life’s difficulties alone.
Through this journey, I’ve learned that accepting ourselves—for all our flaws and quirks—is the key to happiness. Sometimes, life has an idea about where we need to be, and finding that place of recognition, approval, and love is the greatest adventure of all.
EPILOGUE
EVAN
Coran and Connell are sleeping, tucked up together in their crib. Their faces are relaxed, and their hands rest by their heads in the way that only babies sleep. I study them, still marveling at how they’re a total blend of me and my brothers, and their mother. They have her full lips and similar shaped eyes. They have our face shape, eye and hair color. They’re perfect. The monitor is on, although we can usually sense when they’re awake. My bear is scratching at the edges of my human form, desperate to be let loose.