I grabbed the spatula and flipped everything then, a few moments later, slid it all onto a plate. Cashel set the table, but all of us stopped moving once we heard footsteps on the stairs.
“Good morning,” Cashel said, followed by York and then me.
“I slept too much,” she said, rubbing her eyes.
“How do you feel?” I asked, bringing the food to the dining room table. We hadn’t really eaten at the table much but now, everything had changed. Because of her.
“Really good.”
I nodded. “Then enough sleep.”
“I guess you’re right. Everything smells incredible. Thank you.”
She didn’t need to thank us for breakfast, for crying out loud. She’d had such a horrid sampling of what an alpha should be. We would spend our lives showing her how she should be treated.
“We need to take you shopping,” Cashel said, rounding his shoulders.
“You already bought me clothes. They are all perfect and so comfortable.”
“You deserve new things,” I added.
“Maybe one day,” she said. We ate breakfast together and, while we had work to do and jobs to explore, right now, the only thing that was important was time with Isabella. Making her life as calm as possible and, in that calm, healing would come.
“Can we talk about the bear thing?” She pushed her plate away. She’d eaten more than I thought she would. Always a good thing.
“Bear thing?” I asked. My bear roared inside me, eager to meet his mate in person, or in animal. Become downright feral about it, really.
“Yes. My alphas are bear shifters, and I understand the notion but I want to see them.”
The three of us shared a look. “Are you sure? Lyon’s bear is very…big.”
I smacked York on the arm for that. He wasn’t wrong, though. Cashel and York were black bears. Smaller, although just as imposing. But mine? Big and loud and had lots of teeth. That was how Cash described him the first time he saw me. All bears had teeth, but mine were apparently sharper somehow. “He’d never hurt our mate. Shut up.”
“None of you would ever hurt me.”
Cashel stood up. “Let’s go outside. We need space.”
She walked first, strong omega. Every day, we watched in awe as she grew her mental muscles. Asking for what she needed. Being honest about what she did and didn’t like. Risking her heart, even though the man before us did everything to shatter it beyond repair.
Her trust was her real strength.
And now, she wanted to trust our bears.
It was everything. I was sure she was simply curious. Natural, considering she was mated to three bears but, to our animals, this was where the depth was. She would stand in the face of three fierce bears with courage. Knowing we would never hurt her.
This was the moment where lifelong bonds were formed. Yes, there was mating, but right now was for our bears alone.
“We have to take our clothes off,” I said. I had to assume she knew nothing about shifting. I didn’t want her taken by surprise or misinterpreting out action. “Otherwise, they will be ruined.”
“Okay. Naked men. Got it. Then what?”
“We shift,” York replied. “There will be noises. Bones breaking. Muscles stretching and recompositing. It sounds pretty gnarly, but it doesn’t hurt us.”
“I understand. Thank you for explaining it.”
We stripped and, to my amusement and pride, she stared with rapt attention as we took off everything and then shifted. Me first then Cash then York.
She didn’t cower. Didn’t flinch.
