“You are adorable.” Sage laughed as she ran her hands over their little furry bodies. “It’s very nice to meet you.”
“Here, let me help.” I knelt and pulled one cub into my arms as another crawled into my lap. The last cub stayed on Sage’s lap and nuzzled into her side.
“They are seriously charming.”
“Yes, they are,” I said. “This is Honor, Jackson, and Henry. They should be with their mother. I can scent her somewhere near. She probably needed a break, and since I’m here…”
“Am I on den territory, then? Should I have asked?”
I met her gaze. “You never have to ask to be on my territory, Sage.”
Her cheeks flamed, and the baby bears gave me curious looks. I cleared my throat since what I was thinking wasn’t for baby ears.
“I wanted to see you. And to talk. And, wow, I’m not very good at this.”
“As you can see, neither am I.”
“Okay, darlings,” the triplets’ mother said as she came into the clearing, shaking her head. “You had your fun. Now it’s time to leave your alpha alone. He has to speak with his lady.”
And I knew with that, tales of Sage coming onto my land and playing with the cubs would be spread throughout the den in a matter of moments. Everybody likely had questions about my mate. Those who knew. And there was no hiding my reaction to her. Outside of that, they all wanted to know about the new witch in Ravenwood. The person that would help defend against the revenants, fight back the darkness, and potentially break through the prophecy. We all had questions, and for curious bears who always seemed to get into everything, they were actually being quite careful about it. They must have sensed Sage’s fear or knew she was overwhelmed about her new world and were giving her space.
I didn’t know how long that would last, but it was nice to see that they tried.
The baby bears went off with their mother, one stopping to wave again as they did. Sage waved back, her smile bright. She was stunning, breathtaking, but she wasn’t mine yet. My bear wasn’t in the mood to listen anymore. All it wanted was to claim her. I pushed that thought aside. I needed to. Sage wasn’t a shifter and didn’t understand mates. I didn’t know if she would ever fully grasp it. So, I wouldn’t push. But I would do my best to be my charming bear self. Hopefully, that would be enough.
I rocked back on my heels, forcing myself not to move forward or touch her.
Sage blinked up at me and studied my face. “You’re holding so much of yourself back, aren’t you?”
I swallowed hard. “What do you mean?”
She shook her head. “You have to be. You’re a bear, and yet you don’t act growly with me. I’ve only seen you that way when Faith attacked or when the revenants came. You protected all of us, but you were more bear than anything when you were protecting me. You’re holding yourself back when it comes to everything else.”
I couldn’t lie to her. She was my mate. So, I shrugged. “You’re not ready to see what being a bear shifter means.”
Sage’s eyes narrowed. “You say that. Everyone keeps saying that. That I’m not ready for the magic. I’m not ready to know the history of this town. But I’ve been through two attacks, have seen magic, and shifters, and everything else I didn’t believe was real. And I haven’t run away yet. Don’t think so little of me.”
I let out a breath, and my bear growled at me. “I would never think little of you, Sage. I’m an alpha bear. I could hurt you.”
“Could you? Or are you worried that you don’t know if it’s fate or something real?”
I didn’t know what I could say to that other than what I knew was our truth. “Fate is real. That’s what makes us who we are. Determines how we push and pull against the force itself.”
She swallowed hard and looked at me again. “Then talk to me. Who are you, Rome?”
How was I supposed to answer that? “I’m me. A bear shifter. An alpha. I grew up here.”
“And you say that I could be yours forever. I don’t know what that means.”
“What do you want to know, Sage?”
She looked around us and bit her lip. “Can we go inside? I don’t know who might be watching.”
I tilted my head, inhaled. “No one’s near enough to listen in, but yes, we can go inside.”
She laughed, shook her head. “Extra-sharp senses could be handy.”
“We should see if there’s a spell to find out if someone or something’s listening in. Witches are very handy.”
She brightened slightly. “Maybe. I learned how to hold water today.”
I grinned at the pride in her voice as I let her inside. “Seriously? That’s great.”
Sage practically bounced as she spoke. “It was a sphere, and I only got Rowen and me a little wet.”
I looked at her dry clothes. “Did Rowen do her air thing to dry you off?”
She beamed. “Yes, something I will probably take another decade to learn.”
“I’ve grown up knowing who I am and about the magic in our world. I don’t know what I would do if I suddenly found myself finding out that everything was new and completely different.”
“It feels like a veil has been lifted. Things were always different for me. The tattoos for one.”
My bear anchor slid over my body and peaked out of my collar, wanting to see our mate.
Sage’s eyes widened as she looked at it. “I’ll never get used to them moving around.”
“I find it funny that some of my ink doesn’t move,” I said with a laugh. “I have more tattoos than the bear.”
Her gaze darkened a bit, and my cock hardened. Now I wanted to show her every drop of ink on my body, but I refrained. This was about getting to know each other, not stripping each other naked, and marking her as mine.
“I feel a pull towards you, Rome.”
“Good,” I said, relief pouring through me, even as undeniable hunger clawed at my insides. “We don’t have to do anything about it, Sage.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know if that’s what I want. You’re a very handsome man, Rome. I love how you are around the cubs and how protective you are. I could see myself going out on a date with you. I really could. And this pull? I don’t know. I’m not good at this. I wasn’t even good about this with Rupert.”
My bear sat up, intrigued, not jealous at all of the man she had once loved. There was no competition with a ghost, and there shouldn’t be. There needed to be balance. Only I didn’t know how to find that.
“You weren’t like this with Rupert?” I paused. “You don’t have to talk about him if you don’t want to.”
She shook her head. “I always talk about him. And I don’t know if that’s weird to anyone else, but he was a huge part of my life and will always be in my memories. So, I talk about him. I loved him. I love him differently now, a feeling that is more about a memory that feels difficult to hold onto. He’ll always be there. I told myself when I was ready to start dating again, that I wouldn’t compare anyone else to him. That I would try my best not to compare myself to who I was before with him. I’m not the same person who married Rupert. I’m not even the same woman I was when I first drove into this town.”