br /> “Yes,” he admits. “You’re right. Do you believe in myths and legends, Bellamy?”
“I don’t know.” A pang of guilt strikes, and I push upright. This isn’t a conversation to have while I’m being lulled to sleep by scented oils and the sounds of lapping water. “When I was a child, I believed in fairies. I found one in my backyard. She was tiny. No bigger than my finger.” He goes entirely still at my admission and my stomach clenches that he may think I’m a loon now. I anxiously search his face for any kind of mockery.
“Did you speak to her?” His voice is even and his gaze steady. He believes me!
I suck in my bottom lip before answering, “Yes.” Again, there’s nothing but acceptance in his eyes. Encouraged, I go on. “She’d lost her crown, she told me. I spent all day looking for it with her. We couldn’t find it, and that night she cried, telling me that if she didn’t return to her home before dawn, she would be stuck here forever. I ran inside and found my mom’s phone and used it as a flashlight.”
“Did you find the crown?” he asks. His hand rubs along my leg in a soothing motion.
I nod. “Yes. Dawn was breaking through. I could see the sky lightening. The fairy was becoming more solid as each hour passed. Part of me wanted to keep her. She was so tiny and amazing. I wanted her to come live with me. But as the night started to fade, her tears became more real and her pain—” I lay a hand across my heart. “My heart started hurting for her. We found the crown and she slipped it on, right before dawn broke, and disappeared.”
“Did she grant you a boon?” A strange tension grips him—I can feel him nearly vibrating with anticipation as he asks me.
“Yes. A wish for anything.”
“And you haven’t used it, have you?”
I tilt my head. “How did you know?” Even at my lowest, I hadn’t considered using my wish, which was damned stupid of me now that I think about it. But something inside me had insisted that it wasn’t time yet.
He sweeps a hand over my forehead, brushing damp strands away from my face. His eyes are practically aglow with joy. “Because you’re my mate. You saved it for this. You see, like your fairy, my people come from a myth. The origin story has been told and retold so many times, I’m not sure what is the true version. Many thousands of years ago, an ancestor of mine was out hunting for a stag. His wife was very sick and had been told by a medicine man that stag meat would make her better. He hunted for three days and three nights but found no stag. On his journey home, he found a magic pelt. He placed this pelt around his waist and became a wolf. He raced back to his wife to tell her of his discovery, but the medicine man stopped him.”
“Oh no. This medicine man sounds like a bad man.”
A smile flits across Garrett’s face. “Do you know the end of this story, then?”
I pinch the top of his foot. “Stop playing.”
He grins, a breathtaking smile that makes me glad that I’m already sitting down. “Playing is part of being a wolf.”
“Not yet,” I say.
Sobering, he gives a brief nod of acknowledgment. “The medicine man stops him and demands the pelt. The hunter refuses. The medicine man tries to bargain. The pelt is big enough for both of them. If the hunter shares the pelt with the medicine man they can both be wealthy and immortal. If the hunter denies the medicine man, then the hunter and his wife will die.”
“I told you!” I exclaim. “But the man doesn’t give him the pelt, right? Or you wouldn’t be a man of myth and legend.”
“Very wise.” He lifts my foot again and presses a kiss on my ankle. I shiver at the contact. “No, he fights the medicine man, declaring that his wife is his mate and that he’d rather die than live without her. The medicine man is very powerful. He is able to defeat the hunter.”
“What?” I give an angry slap against the water. “This isn’t how the story should go.”
“What ending would you like?”
“One where they’re together, of course.” I give him a disgusted look.
He reaches across the water and grabs my shoulders, pulling me onto his lap. His thick shaft pokes me in the leg. “You haven’t heard the end yet.” He nibbles my ear.
“It better be good,” I mutter, wriggling slightly to get into a more comfortable position.
He groans and reaches between us to reposition his cock at the cleft of my butt. “The hunter is dragged inside and thrown onto his mate’s body. The hunter has only one breath left. He seals his mouth across that of his mate and releases his last breath into her form. The medicine man leaves the cottage and orders his men to burn the place to the ground. Before he can do that, there’s a mighty roar from inside. A wolf appears at the door. Behind him is another. The two tear into the henchmen and then advance on the medicine man, who throws the pelt onto the two in his haste to get away, and seemingly curses them, saying that if they are so insistent on being together in death, they shall forever be tied together in life.”
“Seemingly curses them?” I ask.
“To some, being bound to one mate forever is a curse.” He tips my chin up so that my eyes have nowhere to look but into his. “I thought it was a curse before, but that is because I had not found my mate.”
“And now that you have?” I ask breathlessly.
“To have a mate such as you is no curse. It is a blessing.”
Chapter Eight
Him
A look of wonder and joy comes over Bellamy’s face at my words—words I never believed I would speak to anyone, much less a human. But she is much more than an ordinary human—she is my mate.
She grabs my face and kisses me fiercely, and I groan as I taste her sweetness, the hunger rising desperately again. A hunger that I know now will never be sated. But before I can lift her and impale her on my cock, she breaks off the kiss and pushes me away gently when I try to find her lips again.
“Wait, we need to finish talking first,” Bellamy says, and I scowl. I thought we had finished talking—what else was there to talk about? We should fuck now.
“You were telling me about the curse?” she prompted.
But didn’t I just tell her all she needed to know? Bellamy giggles when my expression changes from disgruntled to befuddled. “So what happened after the medicine man cursed your ancestors?”
Ah. I swallow a sigh and reposition her so that her tempting ass isn’t resting directly on my throbbing cock. “The medicine man disappeared, never to be seen again, and my ancestors were no longer humans. They became one with the wolf, and ever since then my people have been more wolf than man.”
“Wait!” Bellamy looks at me in shock. “Do you mean you can actually turn into a wolf, too?”
I laugh, charmed by her innocence. “Did you think the knot was the only thing I have that is more wolf?”
Reacting purely on instinct, I shift right there in the bathtub. Bellamy shrieks and starts flailing when she finds herself in a tub with a huge black and silver wolf with golden eyes grinning at her, but the wolf doesn’t care. He is so happy to be with his mate that he ignores her shrieking and simply nuzzles her, licking her along her jaw. She freezes at his touch but then brings up a cautious hand to stroke the wolf’s head. He gives a happy yip and rubs his nose against her neck.
Mine, the wolf whispers. My mate.
Ours, I correct, but I am content to let the wolf have this time with her as it is critical that she accepts the wolf equally as much as the man.
Slowly she relaxes and continues to pet the wolf, her hand threading through the thick fur. The wolf rumbles with pleasure and licks her neck, his muzzle slowly descending to her collarbone before he swipes his tongue across the top of her breast.
Bellamy gives a strangled gasp and shoves the wolf away. “Down, boy!”
Both the man and the wolf whine with disappointment, but we know it’s too soon. The wolf grumbles his acceptance and doesn’t fight when I shift back, although Bellamy doesn’t seem as pleased as I expect to find me instead of the wolf holding he
r.
“Oh my God! Can you give me some kind of warning before you do that again? I swear that I nearly had a heart attack twice now in this tub!”
I blink. “I thought it was important that I introduce you to my wolf, since he and I are a two-for-one.”
“Oh, I agree, I just wish you’d picked a place other than a bathtub to do it since I nearly drowned!”
I run my hand through my hair and admit that she has a point. “I’ll warn you next time, but I will do it again, soon, since my wolf needs his freedom to run.” I look at her in the eyes—the wolf will know if she lies. “Can you accept my wolf?” Both my wolf and I are anxious awaiting her response—it will kill us both if she can’t accept the beast.
Her face softens, and she smiles, and it’s like the sun breaking past the clouds on a rainy day. “Although I wish you had figured out another way to tell me, yes, I can accept the wolf. Not only is he a part of you, he’s beautiful in his own right.” A pause and then an adorable blush stains her cheeks. “Although I’m not sure about inviting him into the bedroom, if you know what I mean.”
I stifle a grin. We’ll have to work on that. But I can’t hide the joy I feel at knowing my mate has accepted all that I am and is willing to leave her life behind to be with me for always. “You’ll need to make your fairy wish and become one of us—the fairies have the power to transform you. And we’ll need to have the mating ceremony soon—I wish we could skip it, but as the Alpha it’s important for my pack to witness the ritual and welcome you to the pack as my mate. And of course Cairns will gloat that he found you for me.” Damn the bastard, he’ll be unbearably smug about it. I’ll just have to beat him up again. My wolf perks up at the prospect.
She stares at me, her eyes widening. A trickle of fear runs down my spine as she starts to shake her head. “Wait, slow down. Are you saying that fairy wish can transform me into a w-wolf, like you? You want me to give up being human? And you’re asking me to marry you? We just met today! And what exactly is an Alpha? Everyone keeps talking as if I already know what’s going on! WILL YOU PLEASE JUST TELL ME?”