Page 17 of Titan’s Mate

Sometime in the middle of the night Mari woke, gasping, out of a dream of demons laughing at her, pulling at her, tearing her skin with their claws.

At first she couldn’t remember where she was. Then she looked up and saw the Great Bear, pivoting around the North Star. True north, never wavering, guiding travelers and sailors for centuries.

As her pounding heart calmed, she felt a huge presence beside her in the room. She rolled over and saw that Titan had Changed to his bear form and was curled up next to the bed, his giant bulk filling the whole floor.

A bulwark between her and anything that might try to hurt her.

Unexpectedly, Mari felt tears sting her eyes. She’d come here to ask him to help her soul reach the other side. She hadn’t expected him to take care of her while she was still alive.

It was an unexpected gift from a fierce, damaged man and his maybe not-so-scary bear.

She reached out and rested her hand on his thick fur, felt him breathing. He rumbled softly in his sleep.

She felt safe and protected, like she hadn’t since she was a little girl. Her breathing slowed, and she fell asleep again, drifting into happy dreams.

When Mari woke again, it was morning and she was alone in the room. She lay there for a few minutes, luxuriating in the warmth and comfort.

Today was Thanksgiving, she remembered. And right now, she had many things to be thankful for. A comfy bed in a warm cabin, underneath a skylight. A night’s sleep without screaming nightmares.

She wondered if mocha coffee would be too much to ask for.

She listened, trying to figure out where Titan was. She didn’t hear anything, but she already knew he could move ridiculously silently for such a huge person.

And she couldn’t even tell by his scent, because he didn’t smell like a proper bear. Maybe it was something to do with his shamanic powers? He only had a faint, wintery scent, like a cold wind across the Arctic.

That didn’t seem right, for someone who could be so warm and sweet when he was able to forget his past for a little while.

She threw back the covers and got out of bed, immediately seeing one more thing to be grateful for. Her clothes, all clean and folded, were in a neat pile on the seat of the easy chair, with Sebastian perched on top. Titan had done that for her. Mari’s heart melted again.

There was a note stuck in Sebastian’s orange rubber beak.

I’m supposed to say Happy Thanksgiving because the girls are trying to civilize me and that’s what civilized people do. So I’m told.

Also, I’m heading down to the main house because Kitty said Brock and I have to cook a real Thanksgiving dinner instead of just drinking beer and eating junk food and watching football all day, and she’s expecting photo proof. But honestly if I were you I wouldn’t expect much, because we suck at cooking except for maybe barbecuing, and microwaving shit.

You can come down whenever you want, just follow the path down the hill. I’ll be there all day because of football being on and Thanksgiving dinner takes forever to cook even if you don’t suck at it. I don’t suppose you can cook? Because that would be fuckin’ awesome.

T

The note made her giggle, both because of Titan trying so hard to be civilized, and also imagining the two guys trying to make a photo-worthy Thanksgiving dinner for Kitty’s approval.

Kitty was the alpha’s mate, Mari remembered from her online research, and her kind-of stalking.

The alpha of Titan’s crew was a panther named Brandon Fierro, formerly of the legendary and terrifying Bad Blood Crew. Two other former Bad Bloods had joined him and Kitty: identical twins Colton and Remington McCall. Two more reasons she’d been hiding in the woods and not coming out.

There were also the twins’ mates, Callie and Jaeda, and a mated pair of lion shifters named Damien and Lila.

From this note, though, Kitty sounded nice, if maybe a little bossy. Mari had never made Thanksgiving dinner before but really, how hard could it be? There had to be directions online.

She pulled on her cutest yoga pants and her favorite sweatshirt, and headed downstairs. Forewarned, she loaded the pockets of her coat with snack cakes, in case the food situation was as hopeless as it sounded. All except the pocket where Sebastian rode, his head sticking out.

Then she stuffed her feet into her fuzzy boots and walked down to the main house, munching a Yodel as she went.

She’d only seen the house from a distance—a huge four-story mansion with a wraparound porch and balconies, that looked like it was in the process of being renovated. She was dying to see the inside.

Maybe football hadn’t started yet, so she could lie on the floor with coffee and cushions and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade first. Because it wasn’t Thanksgiving without giant balloons of cartoon characters.

Unfortunately, her dream was not to be.