A bright red carpet anchored a space that seemed to be designed to answer one specific question:How many death traps can I fit into one den?
To one side, a near-Olympic-sized swimming pool loomed ominously, with no guardrails, no warning signs like the ones lining the village roads—hell, not even a raised lip to stop a toddler from wandering in.
The staircase he carried me down descended in a steep drop from the front door. It was a floating, sharp-edged work of art with no banisters on either side. None. Just a gleaming K-Horror-level dare, lying in wait for some unfortunate side character to misstep and plummet to the stone floor below.
If that wasn’t enough, a floating spiral staircase in the middle of the front room led to a second floor with a balcony-free ledge jutting out above. Basically, a visual advertisement for accidental childhood deaths:Want to make sure your toddler snaps their neck if they fall? Have we got the death cliff for you!
Also, every single piece of furniture was white.
This place was the opposite of baby-proofed. The only thing missing was a neon sign declaring:No children wanted here.
This was where Koda lived?
It confirmed what I’d already suspected: even if he managed to get me pregnant, I’d be raising the baby alone. Back in Vancouver.
Which was fine. Exactly what I’d been planning prior to my arrival—minus the bear shifter part.
I shoved down the weird ache of disappointment in my chest. I didn’t need him. I’d be fine.
Just fine.
“I don’t really live here. You can have the den after your estrus is done,” Koda said suddenly, cutting into my thoughts, which must have been written all over my face. “I’ll fix this. All of this.”
With that promise, he stepped down from the final floating stair, his expression resolute. “But first, we need to deal with your estrus. Here…”
He set me down in a pile of pillows and blankets I hadn’t even noticed while I was cataloging the hazards of his hedonistic bachelor pad.
I wasn’t sure what to make of being placed onto a large pallet as opposed to a normal bed.
But my bear’s response was ecstatic.
Nest!she cried out, seeming to forget all about the rest of the space’s death-trap décor.
So that’s what this was.
The makeshift bed wasn’t nearly as formal as the one I’d found Noelle and her mates in, but it didn’t appear to matter.
Nest!My bear thrilled inside me, and though the estrus cramps didn’t entirely disappear, they ebbed, softening into a suggestive ache instead of a relentless biological imperative.
Warmth spread through me, as comforting as the softest blanket.
Here.My bear let out a happy sigh.Here is where we belong.
“I’m glad your bear approves.”
I looked up to find Koda watching me from just outside the nest’s border. As if he knew exactly what my bear was thinking.
“May I join you?” His tone was stiff and formal, but his eyes gleamed with a dark heat.
My thighs pressed together at the thought of him inside the nest—inside ofme. But there was one problem.
“Could you…?” I wrinkled my nose.
I wanted him. With a pride-killing desperation. But I couldn’t stand the cloying marshmallow scent that clung to him, laced into what should have only been the rich warmth of hazelnuts.
“Could you take off your clothes first?”
Surprise flickered across his face, but it quickly softened. “You want me and only me,” he said, understanding my request without explanation.
