I’m the first maul!
I wanted to rip her out of Walker’s arms. Claim her against his classic candy-apple red Ford F-150. Uncaring who saw as long as I could sink my maw into her neck. Mark her so that everyone could see that this female also belonged to me.
Luckily, Zion intervened before I could take my first step toward that goal.
“Don’t touch her yet,” he warned inside my mind. “I commiserate with all of your feelings in this moment, Ravik, but understand she is severely traumatized and you will only exacerbate that trauma if you follow through on any of those graphic images flashing through your head.”
Then Zion showed me what Walker had shown him: the first image he had of Bell handcuffed and beaten badly, her reaction when he tried to kiss her, and her fragile state over the days she spent healing—and now.
After he flashed those images through my head, the need to claim her was replaced with the urge to ask Ash’s shaman mother about a resurrection spell so I could do terrible things to the spirit of the male who had hurt her.
It was never going to happen again. No one would ever hurt her. Not on my watch. I wanted so badly to tell Bell that.
But I refused to scare her. Last night, after we got her back to Zion’s and my old Outer Limits house, I made myself stay in the background, at least a meter or two away, so I wouldn’t be tempted. And this morning, I stood by silently while Zion shifted his head back to human and did his best to explain how we’d all scent-matched with her on first sniff
Unfortunately, telling her about our incoming mate bond didn’t go so well.
“What do you mean, all three of you imprinted on me?” Her entire face scrunched up after Zion finished talking. “You just met me! And this Ravik guy and I have barely exchanged ten words.”
This Ravik guy. The label burned like a lump of coal in my chest.
Zion was our words guy. That had been established as soon as Niska’s bear brought him into our maul. Truth be told, I’d been relieved to let him handle the talking while I concentrated on protecting our maul and our town as its then sole RCMP.
But for the first time, I wished I was better at words. I didn’t want to be “this Ravik guy” to her. I wanted her to be as comfortable with me as she already was with Walker and was starting to get with Zion.
“Patience,”Zion advised over our maul bond.
Out loud, he explained to Bell, “I know it’s hard to understand. Even for me, as I’m a made bear, not born, like Ravik and Walker. Until yesterday, I don’t believe I fully grasped what came over our late wife when she caught me alone while trailhiking and bond bit me, instantly turning me into a bear like her and Ravik?—”
Bell held up her hand, brown eyes blazing. “Wait. She just bit you and turned you into a bear? Without asking you first?”
I felt an unexpected surge of pride that she was already taking offense on behalf of her soon-to-be second maul mate.
Bell might not be a bear, but somewhere inside, she sensed what we sensed.
To my surprise, Zion defended Niska.
“She bit me while in bear form during an emotional episode—she’d just learned her older sister had died rather suddenly and tragically. Then she caught my scent, and again, it’s hard to explain, but our scents were profoundly compatible. That’s how her bear knew I’d be a good match, even though we’d only exchanged a few words when I’d asked her for directions earlier.”
Through the maul bond, I saw his memories unfold. The pretty Indigenous woman answering his questions about where best to grab a short hike without violating the Ayaska’s no-trespass rules. The black bear, charging out of the woods straight at him while he was on his solo hike. Everything going dark until he woke in the cave den Niska’s bear had dragged him to—to the sight of Niska and me in human form, frantically mating atop a hastily constructed nest. Pulling Niska to him after I was spent, compelled by something he didn’t understand to cover her with his body and take her just as frantically, even though he had a girlfriend waiting in Toronto.
“We can mostly control our bears,” Zion continued on to Bell, “but sometimes they take over when emotions are heightened—or when we encounter a compatible scent. A scent like yours.”
Understatement. Even now, Zion’s usually precise diction was slipping. His maw was fighting him to stop explaining and start biting.
Mine, too.
I’d never felt anything like this burn inside of me. Niska had been duty. A promise made between our parents before I was even old enough to remember not being engaged to her.
But this? My gums itched to bite this female. Make her mine. Protect her. Ensure no one ever hurt her again.
Meanwhile, Bell was looking at us like we’d lost our minds. “So you think I’m your mate because I smell good to you?”
“Not justgood.” I found myself shifting my head back to fully human to correct her. “Amazing. Compatible. With all three of us. Like, if you put what we smelled like on a table together, we’d all want to eat.”
Through Zion, I sensed the many dirty thoughts the word “eat” had put into Walker’s head.
“To us, you smell like sugar cookies.” Zion’s voice audibly strained as he tried to push down the sudden erection Walker’s dirty images caused behind his chinos. “Bears don’t just trust our noses—we depend on them to know when someone is compatible on a biological level. It’s something you probably sense, too. An attraction to all three of us unlike anything you’ve felt before. Even if you don’t want to admit it.”
