She looked back and forth at all three of us. Opened her mouth. Closed it. Stared at the ground.
Finally, she steepled her hands.
“Okay. This is a lot to process. Thank you, I guess?”
She nodded, as if she were announcing a decision. “Thank you for bringing me here and explaining so I’d have time to figure out how not to freak out about both my daughters marrying three… of your kind. I’m not one to judge. I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’m a complete mess right now who needs to get it together.”
“Bell, no, after everything you’ve been through, it’s understandable that—” Zion rushed to reassure her.
“But there’s one thing I know for sure.” Bell cut him off with another raised hand before he could finish. “This?”
She gestured at the two males and one bear standing in an arc before her. “Not going to happen. I’m not remotely in a place for something like this to happen.Ever. So I’m sorry if I’ve somehow set off your biological smell-equals-mate thing. But no. Just no.”
She met each of our eyes to make sure we understood.
Then, without another word, she rushed back into the house Zion, and I used to share.
All three of us flinched when the door slammed behind her.
Then Walker turned to us with a disappointed flash of his polar bear teeth.
“She make run always,”he told us in Bear, the language of our animals.“No stay. No fight. No like Niska.”
No, she wasn’t like Niska. My late wife would have kept insisting on doing things her way until she wore us down, like with Mara’s exile. Or done something rash.
I thought of the screaming match she got in with Zion after Erik bit her.
“You knew it wasn’t supposed to be him, but you went behind our backs. Now we’re in this terrible position because you always have to get your way, even for the one thing—the sole thing—that is supposed to be down to Ravik and me to decide!”
“It’s not my fault! I was just trying to encourage him to convince you two to pick him instead. It was only supposed to be one kiss. How was I supposed to know you were already exchanging maul bites with Walker? Or that Erik would bite me and send me into estrus?”
I’d known Erik was bad news, even if Niska hadn’t. My gut had told me he wasn’t the fun, laidback, good time he’d presented while we were vetting him.
Just like my gut had told me there was more to Bell’s story when Takoda came asking for advice.
I was done not trusting my gut.
And I was done being nice. For once, I wasn’t going to dutifully sit back and let Fate decide my future.
My eyes shifted to the front door she’d slammed behind her.
“We’ll let her hide, for now,” I snarled at Zion and Walker. “But tomorrow, Operation Sugar Cookie goes into full effect. We’re going to make her ours. Fully. Completely. Whether she’s ready for us or not.”
Both Zion and Walker visibly startled. Zion, probably because he’d never heard me snarl before. And Walker, because I’d never taken a stance on anything except duty and tradition.
Walker’s bear recovered first, finally shifting back to his human form to declare, “I’m with you, Vik.”
Right before he asked, “What’s Operation Sugar Cookie?”
14/
goldilocks
BELL
I didn’t know what was more insane. That the Hercules statue who’d rescued me from Dennis was a polar bear shifter.
Or that he and his two black bear shifter friends wanted me to be in a polycule. Or what did they call it? Oh, yes, a maul—M-A-U-L. They wanted me to create something that sounded like it could do a lot of damage. With all three of them.
