Alpha’s Prey: A BBW Bear Shifter Romance (Bad Boy Alphas Book 11)
Alpha’s Prey: Chapter 13

Miranda

I feel like glass about to shatter. Everything is strange and out-of-body. Waking up with Caleb. Eating breakfast. Putting my things in the back of the Subaru.

Everything this morning has turned to ash in my mouth.

I’m leaving. Saying goodbye and driving away from Pecos.

From Caleb.

And I want to make some kind of plan—give him my number and ask him to call. Or tell him to come visit me in Albuquerque, but we both know none of those things will happen.

He belongs up here and I have my own life. Besides, we’re not in a relationship. We had sex.

A lot.

We had a lot of sex.

That doesn’t mean we’re a couple. It doesn’t mean we made commitments or promises.

It doesn’t mean we have a future.

“Well.” I stand beside my car, the door open, Bear already inside, waiting with wagging tail.

“All right. Drive safe.” Caleb’s not looking me in the eye.

“Thanks for everything.” I try opening my arms, like we’re going to do a friendly hug.

Caleb doesn’t move. His dark gaze pins me in place, the glower on his face stops any more meaningless words from tumbling out of my mouth.

“I care about you, Miranda,” he says.

I stop breathing.

“I don’t like the idea of you being pushed around by those scientists.”

Oh.

We’re back here again. Where we started four days ago in his cabin.

“I can take care of myself,” I mutter, trying to shake off the disappointment.

“You’d better.” He says it like a warning. Grumpy mountain man is back in full force this morning.

“If you’re ever in Albuquerque—”

“I won’t be,” he cuts me off.

“Right. Okay. Well, I’m there. And, um, you’ll be here.” I don’t mention that I may have to come back for more research. It feels like it would be fishing for something that he doesn’t want to give me.

I step toward him and go onto my tiptoes to give him a peck on the cheek.

He doesn’t move. Just stands like a statue. Like my kiss froze him.

“Goodbye,” I whisper.

Because it really is a goodbye. Not a see you later, or until we meet again.

He says nothing.

My stomach is as hard as stone, I get in the Subaru and start it up. I don’t start crying until I’ve turned the first bend.

And then I totally break down.

Caleb

I watch Miranda’s Subaru disappear down the forest road and my bear roars in anguish.

Don’t let her go.

Do not let her go.

But I have to. What choice do I have? She doesn’t belong with me. I have nothing to offer that woman. I am a broken man, low on cash, lower on ambition. I’ve been broken by grief and my brain addled by my animal. Even without all that, I’m a shifter and she’s human. We shouldn’t mix.

I get into my truck and drive back to my cabin. All the while, my bear’s going nuts. Trying to take control. Roaring beneath my skin.

Let her go, bear. We can’t have her.

She’s not for us.

Miranda

It didn’t mean anything. Or maybe it didn’t mean enough.

I wasn’t enough to distract Caleb from his grief.

From his loss.

And even though I made it all about sex, he wormed his way into my heart. Because I am driving away with that organ smashed to smithereens. Pieces of it left all over that mountain.

I’m just past the town of Pecos when a man steps out in front of the car, waving his arms like he needs help.

I brake and come to stop, then roll my window down. “Yes?”

Bear goes nuts, barking from the back seat, but before I can heed the warning, the guy’s hand shoots through the open window so fast I barely see it coming. He stabs my neck with something sharp.

I stare up at him, horror flushing out the grief.

Caleb was right all along. There was a killer stalking me as his prey.

And now he’s got me.

I slump over the steering wheel as everything goes black.

When I wake up, I’m in my panties and tank top in a cage. It’s a large, wire cage, like a big dog kennel in a dimly lit room that smells dank and earthy. Like we’re in a cellar. Fear shoots through me and brings me out of my drugged haze as I remember what happened. I try to sit up and bang my head on the top of my prison.

I groan and blink my eyes, trying to get my surroundings as my brain struggles to catch up.

That’s when I realize I’m not alone. There’s a cage beside mine and—oh my God—there’s another woman in it. She’s thin and pale. Her blonde hair’s a matted mess. She puts a finger to her lips in warning.

Fresh fear pumps through my veins, but my rational side is encouraged. I’m not alone. And if this woman’s here, too, that means immediate death is probably not in my future. Because I’m guessing she’s one of the missing hikers.

I peer into the dimly lit room and spy another cage, and another. Eight in total. Two more are occupied, also by young women. So these could be all three of the missing women.

And I just became number four.

That thought sinks like a stone, but then it’s followed by hope.

Caleb will replace me.

I try to shove that Disney princess hope away, because Caleb isn’t looking for me. He thinks I drove away to Albuquerque, and even though I gave him my phone number before I left, we had no plans to communicate.

It’s not like he’ll call the cops if I don’t text I got home safely.

No one will.

It will be days—maybe over a week—before someone realizes something’s gone wrong. The guys at the lab and my friends will just think I’m still up here doing research. I didn’t tell anyone I was headed down the mountain today.

I peer into the cage beside mine again.

Again, the woman puts her finger to her lips and shakes her head. “Quiet,” she mouths.

Shivers run down my spine, but I nod my understanding.

I have to trust my fellow prisoner in this situation. She’s been here longer than I have.

Nothing happens for a long time. I catalogue a million questions to ask these women when—if—I get a chance.

Finally, a door opens, bringing a shaft of light into the room, and the man who flagged me down on the road comes in. He’s wearing a white lab coat.

“Ah, our newest subject is awake,” he says in one of those falsely cheerful voices. “Time to start testing.”

I shoot a glance at the woman next to me, and the dread on her face confirms I’m not going to like this.

My captor opens the cage. “Tell me, what were you doing with the bear?”

I’m certain then, without a doubt, this is the man who murdered Caleb’s wife and child.

He grabs my arm and jams a needle into me, injecting me again. This time I don’t pass out, but my muscles go slack. I can’t move my limbs or even hold up my head.

The man wheels a gurney over to the cage and yanks me out by the arm. I can’t feel where he grips me, but it occurs to me he must be inhumanly strong, because he handles my dead weight with ease.

Refusing to play helpless victim, I use the only weapon available to me at the moment—my mind and my tongue. “You’re the bear,” I accuse him.

He freezes, eyes turning amber. As I watch in horror, he transforms. Or half-transforms. His face changes to bear—a snout grows where his nose was, vicious teeth stab down. His hands become giant paws, too—giant paws with killer claws. Some fur sprouts, too, but only in patches. He doesn’t fully shape-shift. He’s stuck somewhere in the middle: half-man, half-bear.

One of the other women in the cages screams, telling me she either hasn’t seen this side of her captor before, or it’s something to fear.

The guy goes nuts, slashing his claws through the air, knocking over a table and chair. He throws the gurney I’m on and my body slumps to the floor. It’s probably a blessing I have no muscle control because the softness of my body makes my landing easier.

He tosses the cages around the room. The women in them scream. He continues on his rampage, tearing everything down, smashing lab equipment—decanters and test tubes and vials.

It seems to last forever. When there’s nothing left to smash, he runs from the room, coughing and wheezing between roars.

I hear another door slam and then one of the women speaks. “Holy shit. What the hell was that?”

“A shape-shifter experiment gone wrong,” I answer.

“A what?” This shaky query comes from another cage.

“This guy was a test subject of a government research project gone wrong. I’m guessing it made him insane as well as a monster.”

“Oh lordy,” the first women says. “That makes sense.”

“Why?”

“He calls this cellar the lab. He thinks he’s doing experiments on us, but they don’t add up. He takes blood and shakes it up in little vials with food coloring and water. He tortures us and says it’s pain tolerance tests. While we’re screaming, he yells at us to shift. We had no freaking clue what he wanted or is trying to do. Only that he’s fuck-nuts crazy.”

I struggle to move, but my body still won’t obey my brain. “I have to get us out of here,” I mutter, my lips and tongue turning as numb as the rest of me.

“Yeah, good luck with that. You won’t be moving for another six hours at the least.”

“My name is Miranda,” I tell them. “And we’re going to get out of here.”

“You sound pretty sure of that, Miranda,” one of them says drily. “But it doesn’t look to me like your plan is working so far. I’m Julia.”

“I’m Rachel.”

“I’m Tracy.”

“I would say nice to meet you, but the circumstances are shit,” I say. I’m slurring a little from the muscle relaxant. “There are Missing Person posters for all three of you all over New Mexico. You haven’t been forgotten.”

“Are you a cop or something?” one of them—Tracy, I think—asks.

“No. I’m an ecologist. But I met a man this week who was trying to solve your cases. He thinks this guy killed his wife and kid.”

Caleb.

Thinking of never seeing him again makes my chest go corset-tight.

I can’t count on him replaceing us. We said goodbye and he has no reason to suspect I’m not safely at home by now, curled up with my dog.

Bear!

“Have any of you seen or heard my dog?”

My heart pounds, thinking of how Bear went in that river. What if it wasn’t an accident, and my captor threw him in? What if he’s done something horrible to Bear?

“No.” Each of them answers.

I hear a door open and the three other prisoners all make hushing sounds. I shut my mouth and heed their warning. Making the crazy man mad isn’t going to be my best plan.

I need to get my brain working on a plan to get us out of here. Because staying trapped here forever as a crazy man’s test subject is not an option.

Caleb

Everything in my cabin looks wrong.

Feels wrong.

It’s been two days since Miranda left, and it’s impossible to return to my old ways. I’ve changed.

She changed me.

The cabin seems empty without her. And strangely, it no longer feels like a memorial for Jen and Gretchen. Not that their memories have been erased. No, if anything, I feel more honoring of them. More determined to track down their killer and get closure. But I also get that it’s time to start living again.

Holing up here alone, making myself a hermit, doesn’t feel right any more.

I want more.

Need more.

Fuck, I miss Miranda. I miss the hell out of her, actually.

I look at my cell phone, where I stored her number. Of course, I can’t get service from my cabin. But maybe it’s worth driving into town. I can see if Parker called and send Miranda a text.

Or call her.

I need to let her know that I want to pursue something more.

Us.

I want to pursue us. I thought my heart couldn’t hold another person. That loving someone else would be a betrayal to my dead mate.

What I didn’t realize was that my heart had already made room for another. And I let that person drive away without me telling her. I was an idiot, but it might not be too late to fix this.

Some of the heaviness in my chest lightens.

I stand up from the couch, shove my phone in my pocket and head for the door.

And that’s when I hear the whine.

It’s coming from right outside my door and—

I throw open the door and drop to my haunches. “Bear!”

Miranda’s dog sits and barks at me. What is he doing here?

I peer outside, but there’s no sign of Miranda’s Subaru. She didn’t drive back here.

“Come here, boy.” I reach out to pet the dog, but he backs away and barks some more. I scent his blood—not fresh. He’s limping slightly. He doesn’t come in, even though he looks half frozen. No, he’s telling me something.

Oh fuck.

What’s happened to Miranda now?

Except I already know.

I know with the certain dread that makes all my hairs stand on end. I know with the agony of a dagger through the heart.

Please don’t let her be dead.

Please not like Jen.

A cold band squeezes around my chest as I grab my jacket and jog outside. “Where is she, boy? Show me where.”

Bear takes off running and I realize we won’t be going in my truck.

“Hold up, dog.” I whistle and Bear comes back and barks again.

“Thirty seconds,” I tell him, even though he can’t understand me. He’ll get the gist. I dash inside and strip off my clothes, then step outside, pull the door shut and shift.

Bear whines, but takes off again and I lope beside him as we run for miles down the side of the mountain.

When I catch the mutant shifter scent, I want to heave. I growl the whole time we run, a low, angry rumble that keeps me focused. As the scent grows stronger, the fur on my nape stands on end. And then I see it—Miranda’s Subaru down in a ditch, a few hundred yards from the road to Santa Fe.

Fuck.

Bear goes crazy, barking and running around the car.

Shit. He doesn’t know where she is. This must be the last place he saw her. I need to figure this out on my own.

I lift my nose in the air to replace her scent. It’s mingled with the mutant bear’s scent, but I catch it. I follow it downhill another mile or so until we get to a cabin.

The place reeks of mutant bear. This has to be the place.

That’s when I hear her scream.

Miranda

My throat is raw and hoarse from screaming. I’m strapped to the gurney with a madman standing over me. He’s already taken my blood four times using dirty, unsterilized equipment. The fellow prisoners were right—there’s no real science happening here. Just a delusional lunatic who thinks he’s a real scientist. And enjoys inflicting pain. I scream as he shoves the needle under my thumbnail in deeper.

“Shift!” the madman shouts at me, spittle flying from his mouth. “You have bear DNA growing inside you. Use it to shift!”

I scream again.

The other women are huddled in their cages, eyes closed, ears plugged to block out the horror of my torture.

Suddenly the door comes crashing in, rent from its hinges. I hear Bear barking and the snarl of very real bear.

Caleb.

I knew he’d come.

The madman whirls, his fake glasses falling down his face, his dirty lab coat whipping around his legs.

An answering growl comes from him—demonic and furious. He transforms into his monster self, but Caleb’s already tackled him to the ground. Bear—my fearless, precious dog is circling around both of them, barking and growling.

Caleb bares his teeth and roars like a dark god coming down to smite the devil himself.

My captor fights like the madman he is, though. He has superhuman strength as well, and is totally out of control. The two animals roar and tumble around the room, smashing everything, knocking things over.

Caleb picks up my captor and throws him across the room. He hits the wall and slides down it, but is instantly up, fumbling at the lab equipment.

“Watch out for the needle!” I scream when I realize he’s filling one of the hypodermics. He can’t take Caleb prisoner, too. He can’t.

Caleb dodges the needle and knocks it from my captor’s hand. It goes rolling and Rachel reaches through her cage bars to pick it up, meeting my eye and giving me a nod.

I nod back.

Caleb tackles our captor and lets out a terrible snarl as he slashes his claws across the man’s throat. A gurgling sound confirms his death. Caleb keeps slashing though, ripping open the guy’s chest and belly.

“Caleb!” I scream.

He shakes his great head and swings it in my direction. His lips peel back from ferocious teeth and he bellows again, even more furious than before.

The women in the cages scream.

He seems to see them for the first time, and roars some more.

He slices his claws through the bindings holding my wrist, scratching some of my skin in the process.

I gasp but quickly mutter, “I’m okay.”

He rips the other side and I’m free. I sit up and yank the needle out of my thumbnail, screaming again as I do. Bear whines at my side, licking my hand and the bloodied scrape on my wrist.

Caleb bares his teeth again, lifts his head toward the ceiling and roars his anger.

I get up to search the body of our captor for the keys to the cage, but Caleb grabs the door of one of the cages with one huge paw and pushes his foot against the body of the cage and tears the door off from its hinges. Rachel lifts the hypodermic needle, ready to plunge it into Caleb’s neck.

“No, don’t!” I scream.

She freezes.

Caleb snorts and bats it out of her hand.

“It’s okay. He’s, um… he won’t hurt us.” I help her out of the cage.

Caleb moves to the next cage, where he tears off its door, too. Then the next.

“Let’s get out of here,” Rachel says, rushing through the door.

Caleb plows through on all fours, knocking us out of the way, like he needs to go first.

“It’s okay. He won’t hurt you, I promise,” I tell them, my brain already working overtime trying to figure out how to explain my pet bear to them.

We go up a set of stairs—he had been keeping us in a cellar, as I suspected. Upstairs is a crude, filthy cottage. Signs of a man barely able to take care of his personal needs.

We all rush outside, even though we’re barely dressed and don’t have jackets or shoes on.

I grip Caleb’s furry shoulder. “Go get Caleb,” I tell him firmly, shivering in the cold. We need him in man form now. We need to call the police and maybe an ambulance.

He shakes his great head, like he’s unwilling to leave me.

I show him the hypodermic needle I picked up after he batted it out of Rachel’s hand. “I’m pretty sure he’s dead, but I’m armed, just in case.”

Caleb snorts and lopes away, his great strides taking him up the side of the mountain with shocking speed.

“What. The hell. Was that?” Julia asks.

“Um, my friend Caleb has a, ah, pet bear. I mean, he’s not really a pet, but they’re friends. He’s highly intelligent.”

Julia, Rachel and Tracy all stare at me with disbelief.

Damn, I’m a terrible liar. But I promised Caleb I’d take his secret to the grave, and I intend to keep that promise.

“I don’t know about you three, but I’m not sticking around here another minute,” Tracy announces, walking into the snow in her bare feet.

“No, no, no,” I call out. “Wait here. Caleb will come and bring help. I promise.”

Tracy looks back, eyes narrowed. “Are you nuts? You told a bear to bring back your friend and you think he’s going to show? You’re as crazy at that guy down there.” She points in the direction of the cellar.

“No, really. Did that bear just save our asses? He’ll bring Caleb. Trust me.”

Her lips tighten, but she comes back and the three of us go back inside because we’re freezing our asses off. I replace my clothing in with his dirty laundry and put it on. I don’t have any luck replaceing the rest of their clothes, but it’s okay, because Caleb’s truck tears down the dirt drive and skids to a stop. He’s out of the truck and running for me before I can even breathe his name.

I rush down the steps and launch into his arms.

“Caleb!” Suddenly, I’m crying. Bawling, actually. “I knew you’d come for me. I mean, I hoped you would. And you did. Thank you so much.”

“Fuck, baby, fuck. I’m so glad you’re alive. I’m so fucking glad.” He’s spinning me around slowly, my feet not touching the ground. “I never should have let you leave here. Wait—that’s not what I meant.” He glances up at the three women standing in the doorway. “Nevermind, I’ll tell you later.” He waves a beckoning arm to my fellow captives. “Get in the truck. I’ll take you to the sheriff’s.”

My heart’s still stuttering on the I’ll tell you later. He has something to tell me? About not letting me leave?

We all squeeze into the cab of Caleb’s truck—Bear included—and he drives a couple miles up the road into the town of Pecos and tears into the sheriff’s building.

It’s a small town, so people come out to see what all the fuss is about. Someone recognizes the women from the Missing Person posters and points and then everyone’s chattering, moving in for more information as we troop into the sheriff’s office.

Caleb takes my hand protectively as we go in and my heart does a full flip flop. We tell our story five or six times each to the sheriff, who calls an ambulance to take all four of us down to Santa Fe to get checked out. Caleb stays by my side the whole time, my strong silent bodyguard. The sheriff speaks to him with respect, like they go way back. Caleb tells him my dog came to get him and that’s how he found us. None of us contradict him—the bear story was too fantastical, anyway.

He doesn’t believe our story about the man turning into a monster, either, until Caleb and his deputies on site confirm it was true.

The rest of the night is a blur of repeating my story a dozen times and getting checked over by doctors at the hospital.

After we left the sheriff’s, Caleb took Bear up to his place, and I went in the ambulance to Santa Fe. We’d only been given bread and small rations of water for the duration of captivity and Rachel passed out by the time the ambulance arrived. She’d been there the longest—eight months. According to everyone who heard the story, we’re all lucky to be alive, considering the mental state of our captor. The other women’s families were contacted and the hospital is trying to keep the media out for their privacy. I’m glad I was never reported missing—maybe I can stay out of the stories.

Caleb waits with me in the hospital room. I’m sitting on the bed, he’s in the chair beside it.

“Is there someone I should call? Your parents or someone else?”

“Oh, um…” Disappointment hits me like a punch to the solar plexus. For some reason, I thought I’d be going back up to Caleb’s. But maybe that was the wrong assumption.

He must see my fluster, because he picks up my hand. “I’ll be taking care of you tonight, of course. I just didn’t want to intrude. You know, if someone else should know what’s going on.”

Happiness seeps back in. “Oh. No, I can worry my parents with the story later. They’re going to freak out completely, but it can wait.”

He nods. “Good. I’m bringing you back to my place tonight.”

Contentment flows through me like an easy river. Back to Caleb’s. Where I spent two of the best days of my life.

He cups my chin. “Listen, Miranda. I didn’t like the way we left things.”

I lick my lips. “Wh-what do you mean?” My heart is beating hella fast. I just survived being kidnapped and tortured. Talking about a relationship with Caleb shouldn’t make me break out into a cold sweat, but it does.

“I mean…” He runs a hand down his beard. “I want to see you again. I don’t want things to end. I know you have your career—”

“I don’t want things to end, either,” I blurt, then feel my face heat.

Caleb wraps a large palm around the back of my head and pulls me to stand, claiming my mouth with all the aggression of a wild animal.

I surrender happily, letting him plunder my mouth with his tongue, moaning when he drags my lower lip through his teeth.

“Then we’re agreed,” Caleb breathes when he breaks the kiss.

The nurse clears her throat from the doorway. “The doctor signed your release papers. You can check out at the desk.”

“Great.” I beam at her, taking Caleb’s hand and letting him lead me out to his truck.

Caleb

Miranda and I need to talk but I’ve been too busy fucking her brains out. I had her in my bed. On the living room floor. Over the couch. Against the kitchen counter. On the bed again. She’s there now, a limp rag doll, panting as she recovers.

I was gentle at first, feeling terrible about the torture she endured, and the gash I gave her with my claws. But then I lost control and had to take her roughly. In every position imaginable.

I pretty much kept her up all night. Now that I’ve decided I can have her, I’m ravenous. My bear wants to claim her permanently.

It’s strange for a bear to get the urge to permanently mate. Even stranger that I’ve had it twice. Of course, I can’t mate Miranda. She’s not a shifter. But the fact that I want to is a delicious conundrum. I feel more alive than I have in years. Anything feels possible.

I stroke her thick red locks back from her face, marveling at how pale her skin is. The black bear and the red-haired science goddess. She’s a warrior in her own right. Saving the Earth with her dogged determination to catalogue and report on climate change.

“I have to go back today,” Miranda sighs.

“Yeah. About that.” My throat goes dry. I don’t even know what I’m asking. Or at least, I’m ambivalent about it. I want Miranda and she lives in Albuquerque. But I’m a bear and I belong in the forest.

Miranda turns big questioning greens on me.

I swallow. “I could go down with you. Make sure you get there safe and settle in.”

Miranda smiles the brightest smile ever seen. “That would be great. I would love that. You could stay as long as you wanted. I mean, if you don’t need to get back here or anything.”

Something releases in me and my eyes sting. I’m really going to let myself have this. Have her. I’m really going to move past my tragedy and live again.

I roll on top of her, leaning on my forearms to protect her from my full weight. “I don’t like to be away from the forest, but I also don’t want to be away from you.”

Her breath catches, a sheen of tears glints in her eyes. “I don’t want to be away from you, either.” Her lips tremble.

I drop kisses across her forehead. Her temples. The bridge of her nose. “So I’ll come to Albuquerque. Make you breakfast and keep you safe. We’ll see how the bear does in captivity.”

Tears spill from her eyes. “I don’t want you to leave your home, but having you in Albuquerque would be incredible. Promise me you’ll come back here as soon as you get itchy. Or you get sick of me.”

I thrust my hips against hers, showing her how quickly my need for her returns. “You think I’d ever get sick of this?” I spear her with my erection and she whimpers, sore from all the sex we’ve had.

I take mercy on her and pull back out.

“Besides, I have a newfound interest in watching you tromp all over the competition in trivia. I’m thinking of bringing you to Burbank to compete on Jeopardy.”

She laughs.

“I’m serious. You should be playing for the big bucks.”

“Well, we can come back here on the weekends. I can rearrange my schedule to work three day weekends. Although you may have to get WiFi. Is that a possibility?”

“If WiFi keeps you here, beautiful, I’ll get it. I want you happy. And with me.”

“Is it okay? For you to be with a human? I mean, is it against the rules?” She turns pink in one of those blushes I’ve come to love.

“It’s not recommended. Yeah, kind of against the rules. I don’t give a shit.”

She grabs my cock and guides me back in. “You can’t tease me like that and then just leave me hanging.” Her sultry tone washes over me in shades of bliss.

My teeth punch out to mark her. I groan, but I can’t push away the pleasure. It floods me like a powerful drug. “Miranda, I have to tell you something.” It’s a struggle to even form words.

She stops rocking her pelvis and looks up at me. “What is it?”

“Bears don’t usually mate for life. Many are polyamorous. But sometimes they do.” Heat spikes at the base of my spine, my balls are tight.

“Okaaay.” She sees my teeth and her eyes widen.

“I’m having a hard time keeping my bear under control, though. He wants me to mark you as my mate.”

She eyes my sharp teeth. “What does that mean?” It’s no more than a whisper.

“It means a bite. A love bite. To embed my scent in you. Keep the other males away.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?” I didn’t expect her to agree. I was just trying to explain that I was having a hard time keeping the teeth from descending.

She nods, practically glowing.

“Baby, it could scar. It will definitely hurt.” I can’t stop rocking into her, can’t stop my eyes from rolling back into my head in pleasure.

“Where will you do it?”

Will I do it, not would I do it. She’s accepting this without any protests. My independent feminist wants my claiming bite.

“Oh fates.” I can barely hold back now. “You tell me, baby. It’s usually at the nape, but I can bite your thigh or somewhere that won’t show. Fuck, Miranda, I can’t hold back.”

“Bite me!” She arches up, throwing those big, wondrous tits in my face.

My jaws snap and I’ve claimed her before I even have time to pull back. My teeth are deep into the meat of her shoulder, right in the middle of her pretty tattoo.

She screams, but I swear to fates, she also orgasms.

I come, too. Hard.

I’ve already come a half dozen times in the past twelve hours, but there seems to be no end to the essence that flows out of me now. I fill her, forcing my jaws to release and licking away the blood as I still pump into her.

She wraps her arms around me, crying a little. Laughing a little.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, babe. Tell me you’re okay.”

“I’m okay. It hurts, but it’s not that deep. I’ll be okay.”

“I’ll let you mark me any way you want,” I swear, wanting to offer something back.

She gives a watery laugh. “Yeah? Would you tattoo my name on your pec?”

“Whatever you want,” I promise.

“I’m just kidding,” she says softly. “All I want is you.”

“You got me, baby. I’m here.”

I keep licking her wound because the serum in my mouth should help it heal faster. I hope to fate it heals soon because I’m going to feel like shit every day it hurts her.

“Caleb?” Her voice is soft and tentative.

“Yeah, babe?”

“I will always honor the memory of your wife and child by your side. I don’t want you to ever feel like it’s not okay to talk about her or celebrate what you had.”

My eyes burn and I drop my head into the crook of her neck. This woman is too much. Too good. She doesn’t make me choose between past and present. “Miranda,” I choke. “You are my salvation—you know that? You brought me back to life.”

“You gave me me,” she answers.

“What does that mean?”

“I mean, you helped me feel okay about who I am. About my body. My brains. I don’t have to prove anything to you. You celebrate me just as I am.”

“That’s because you’re already perfect,” I tell her.

Her lips replace my neck and she plants soft kisses there. “I love you, Caleb.”

“I love you, too, babe.”