Only time would tell, of course.
“Let’s go, beautiful.”
I picked Claire up and carried her to my room.
The smell of our earlier sex still lingered but it was the darkness and warmth I knew she craved now.
We stripped off our clothes and climbed into the king bed. Claire in the middle, Jay and I on either side of her.
I lay there for hours, listening to the sound of Claire’s breathing, feeling her soft skin beneath my hands.
Taylor came home sometime around midnight and he settled into the other side of the bed, his fear and worry a tangible presence in the room.
We didn’t speak until the morning, but for me, my whole world had changed.
My life no longer revolved around the pack.
My world was Claire. Her safety, her love, and the health of my individual pack mates were now my priority.
If we needed to move, to live somewhere else, become new people with new identities, I’d do it.
I’d do anything for the woman whom fate had deemed the perfect person for me, for Taylor, for Jay.
She’d carry our pups and love us forever, I was sure of it.
She was the only constant, the only thing I could count on now. Maybe she didn’t know it yet, maybe we’d have to beg her to stay after the fear the bears had instilled in her, but we’d do it.
We all would.
Because no one was getting between me and my Fated mate.
Chapter 11.
Claire.
I was wrapped in warmth and love and protection, like a pillow and dreams and chocolate.
My stomach grumbled. Hmmm… chocolate… damn I was hungry.
I was also sweating.
I opened my eyes slowly, my body enjoying the feeling of being in the bed with Dexter, and… I opened my eyes. Jay lay beside me.
I looked over his shoulder, Taylor had joined us as well.
All three of them in bed with me, and I felt… complete.
Happy.
Whole.
God!
I rolled my eyes at my own stupidity. My own feminine fairy tale gone wrong.
I’d never wanted to be a woman who defined herself by the man in her life, or in this case, the men.
But here I was, for the first time in my whole life, feeling truly happy. My mind began to clear, the feelings of love complicated by the fear of last night.