Mated. The word echoed through my head as I stared at the moving shadows on the ceiling. I’m a mated female. When Ciarán had burst into my rooms a few weeks ago, I had assumed it was to reject me again. To tell me I wasn’t enough. Instead, my proud, stubborn Celt had knelt tearfully to the ground and apologized. To me and my bears. Apparently, a little heart-to-heart with Nix had given him a new sense of purpose, and he had told me there was nothing he wanted more than to mate with me, with us, and to form the family he had always wanted. In his adamant declaration, his Puca had risen, and together they’d shifted into a new form, a bear, to show his love for me and his commitment to our family and his promise. Shock and elation warred inside me, even as he had scooped me into his arms and kissed me until I melted. He wanted me. He really, truly wanted me.
I hadn’t even had a chance to thank Nix before our lives exploded. With the appearance of Tao as a Qilin, and the arrival of a true invitation to war, our lives had been one emergency after the next. But Ciarán had worked his magic, cobbling together a small ceremony with our friends and family for the five of us. Now I lay in bed, listening to my bears snore like chainsaws, as a sense of utter warmth and peace washed across me. This was exactly what I had been waiting for.
“Can’t sleep, little bear?” Ciarán’s arm wrapped around me, tugging me against him as I squeaked.
“Just thinking,” I admitted with a sigh, snuggling closer. Heat built in my body as his hard, bare chest rubbed against my back. The man was ripped as hell, and he knew how to use that body well.
Ciarán turned me over, tilting my head up to search my eyes. “Are you having regrets?” Although his voice was calm, I could see the nerves in his eyes, the way the pale jade green swirled with shadows at the thought. My sweet Puca. He put up that shield with everyone else, hiding the man he truly was. The sweet, sexy, violent man that was wrapped up in layers of false humor, manipulation, and stoicism.
“No,” I assured him immediately, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips. “No, of course not. I was just thinking of how happy I am. How much I owe Nix for this.” I’d never stop owing her for this. If I had formed the bond with my bears, there never would have been a way to add Ciarán to it. I would have lived my life with a missing piece, all because we were both too trapped by our own insecurities to be honest with each other and hope for a future.
Ciarán ran his hand through my hair, his fingers toying with the strands as though they were the softest silk against his skin. “She loves you very much.”
“You as well,” I reminded him. I laughed as a thought occurred to me. “You know, when she mates with her men, we’ll end up as sisters-in-law.”
A bright smile swept across Ciarán’s face as he considered that. “I think she’d be very happy with that idea.” He nuzzled my neck, nipping gently as I sucked in a breath. “Just a few weeks left until their ceremony.”
I murmured my agreement, even as he sought to distract me. “I still wish she had agreed to a double ceremony,” I told him, my voice husky and breathy as he traced small circles across my lower back, his fingers dipping into the dimples at the base of my spine.
“I don’t.” His lips found mine, his tongue darting into my mouth to taste me, consuming me before he pulled away to stare into my eyes. “Today was for us, Serena,” he purred, and my bears stirred, waking up and murmuring their agreement to Ciarán’s sentiments. “To show you how much we love you, how much we will always love you. No matter what happens, teddy bear, no matter what this war brings, you are the sunshine of my life. I am lucky to have you. We all are.”
Desperation crashed into me at the idea of losing him, losing any of them, and I fused my lips to his again. Slowly, other hands began to stroke over my back, my thigh, my arm, and I smiled against Ciarán’s lips as I pulled away to look