i'm so sorry
hawk
I’d just finished plating the first meal I’d cooked in ten years that hadn’t been scooped onto a metal tray when a scream tore through the air.
In the next moment, terror, regret, and apology hit me like a flash storm, flooding my two bonds like the emotions were my own.
I growled, already putting the pieces together before I rounded the half wall separating the den’s tiny galley kitchen from the front room, a breakfast plate in each hand. Still, seeing Leif’s pale-yellow grizzly hovering over our mate set my teeth on edge.
When we’d found her sleeping like an angel in her nest, I’d warned him: no crossing the threshold without an invitation. Technically, he hadn’t. His paws stayed outside the blanket pile’s border, but his long neck was stretched so far into her space, his nose might as well have been brushing hers.
And that angel of ours was now wide awake and screaming, “Get back! Don’t bite me!” while scrambling to her knees.
“That train’s already left the station, baby,” I called, glaring at the grizzly. “Blondie, I told you not to crowd her!”
Leif rose to his full height on hind legs, his big yellow head swiveling to glare back at me.
“You said you’d stop calling me Blondie after we exchanged maul bites!”he rumbled through our bond.
Already doubting that decision, I blasted my annoyance down the link. “Shift back already,Leif.”
In the next instant, his hulking bear form was replaced by a sheepish and naked guy with messy blond hair and his hands raised in surrender. Our mate blinked at him—then immediately reached for a blanket to cover herself up.
Too bad. I’d been enjoying the view. That thick and luscious body and those long braids tumbling over bountiful breasts. I got hard again just thinking about fisting a hand in her hair while I took her again and again and…
“I’m sorry,” Leif said, cutting through my carnal thoughts as he turned back to her. “I wasn’t trying to scare you. I didn’t mean to wake you up. I just came over to check on you, and then suddenly, I shifted. And you screamed…”
“He’s still new,” I interjected, setting the plates down at the nest’s border.
Leif glared at me, offense radiating off his maul bite. “I’m three years old!”
“You’re three years old?” she repeated, her forehead crinkling in confusion as she pulled the blanket up higher.
“No! I mean, I was turned three years ago,” Leif rushed to explain. Then, as if realizing he’d made it worse, added, “Not like you, though. The bear that turned me was trying to kill me, not mate me…”
Leif trailed off, his face reddening. “The point is, I’m not new—or a toddler. I’m twenty-nine.Definitelyold enough to be your mate.”
Our mate just stared at him, her expression unreadable.
“So, basically brand fucking new,” I said, picking up where he left off.
“Protective instinct kicked in when he saw you, and schwoop—next thing you know, you’re waking up to a grizzly.”
“I’m really sorry,” Leif repeated.
“It’s…” She glanced warily between the two of us. “It’s okay, I guess. I was just confused.”
“I bet. That must have been so scary for you after everything that’s happened,” Leif said, his voice thick with earnest concern.
Alright, crisis averted. I left Leif to over-empathize with our mate while I headed back to the kitchen to grab the plate stacked with the four extra waffles he’d requested, along with enough forks and knives for all of us to dig in to the breakfast I’d made.
By the time I returned, our mate was sitting near the edge of her nest, the blanket wrapped around her like a sheath dress. Just outside the border, two pillows lay neatly in place. Leif was already seated cross-legged on one. I set the stack of waffles infront of him, tossed the other pillow back into her nest, and crouched down beside them to eat.
“Bon appétit,” I said as we tucked into the breakfast I’d thrown together from the stash I found in the fridge at Koda and Leif’s quarters after showering and changing: vanilla cream waffles, jam compote, and herbed scrambled eggs.
Not gonna lie, I was pretty damn proud of myself when I felt the explosion of flavor ripple through both Leif’s and our mate’s bond marks when they took their first bites.
“Wow!” Leif exclaimed, his tone laced with shock. “This tastes as amazing as it smelled!”
