Danil’s Mate(37)

He gestured between their naked bodies and the truth settled over Dora like a warm blanket. They hadn't used protection. Wow. Okay. Well. Wow.

"You're doing it again," she murmured, sinking to the floor next to him. "That thing where you say stuff and then it instantly becomes true."

"See," he said, nuzzling her ear. "You know it, too. You are already my wife. I am you husband. We will make it legal as soon as we can." He leaned back, looked in her panicked eyes. "But you might need me to ask? It is not my nature, but maybe you need the words?"

"I don't know what I need," Dora said, reaching out to play with his chest hair. "For the first time in my life I have absolutely no idea."

"Ah. Then I am already being good husband."

"How's that?" she asked, dazed.

"Because I know just what you need." He stood her up on her feet and knelt in front of her. "Pandora Katsaros. I will love you until I die. And then probably after that. I am very stubborn man." He smiled at her, lighting a candle somewhere deep in her gut. She couldn't breathe. "And that alone makes me your husband. Even if you didn't want to be my wife, I'd still be your husband. But you do want to be my wife. I see it in your eyes. You love me as I love you. Deep. From the deepest place in your chest. All you have to do is let it out now." He pulled her down into his lap and ran a hand across her breastbone. "It is okay, Pandora, samotna ptuška. You can let it out."

"What does ‘samotna ptuška’ mean?" she whispered, butchering the pronunciation and making him smile.

"It means 'lonely bird'. But I'm cutting off the ‘samotna' part right now. You'll never be lonely again." With that, he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her with a tenderness that Dora had never once felt in her life. One that spiraled out of him and into her. She'd had family before. She thought she'd been in love before. But this, this was so beyond either. It was the melting of two people in so many ways. In this moment she felt herself step into new territory. One where she let Danil give her everything. Some of those things, trust, caring, protection, only her father had ever given her before. And a whole new set of those things that no one had ever given her.

She pulled back from the kiss, holding his face in her hands to keep him from kissing her into oblivion.

"Wait! Don't steamroll me, Danil."

He eyed her warily.

"So you are determined to fight your feeling for me."

"No, you bossy ass. I'm not. And if you push me around too much then you miss some of the good stuff. Like this." She sat up and went onto her knees, pushing his shoulders back so she straddled him. "I love you, Danishka. And I'm here to stay. And we'll revisit the whole husband-wife thing when I can get my head on straight." She thought for a second, seizing an opportunity for a little leverage. "And after I see you shift into a bear."

Danil immediately stood up with her in his arms, sat her on the counter and stepped back from her. His eyes on hers, he ballooned in size, hair sprouting from every surface. His snout lengthened and teeth the size of dinner knives slid from his mouth. His shoulders were the size of boulders as his light brown fur caught the light and he sat back on his haunches. The kitchen floor creaked with the sudden weight of what had to be at least a thousand-pound animal.

Dora heard an animalistic panting fill the room and realized after a moment that it was hers. Not the bear's.

Danil was a bear.

Yeah. She'd known this for a while. For as long as she'd seen evidence that they even existed. But still. Knowing it and seeing it were two different stories.

Trembling, Dora reached her hand out to Danil's snout and he leaned into the touch. His fur was warm, and rougher than she'd thought it might be. She started to slide off the counter but froze when she realized that he was shifting back.

Seconds later, with a shake of his glossy chestnut hair, he stood in front of her as a man. His brown eyes staring directly into hers.

"Now you've seen it. Now we will be married."

Dora opened her mouth, her head spinning. She'd just received a hell of a lot of information. But Danil was apparently done talking. He grabbed her hand and strode out of the room, tugging her along.

"And now I fuck you on our bed and seal deal."

Dora couldn't help but laugh.





CHAPTER THIRTEEN





The morning came that they'd all been waiting for and Dora found herself sandwiched in a car with four bear shifters. She sat in the middle seat between Danil and Anton. She was a little nervous around Anton still. After he'd stormed out the other night.

"Listen, Anton, I'm so sorry about how crass I was the other night. I didn't realize what Navuka had done to you."