Bear shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. It’s possible, but I have never heard of one. Most likely, your father was rejected, and your mother saved him. It’s that idiot fae leader of the clan that is just too blind to see.”
In a bittersweet way, I was following in my mother’s footsteps. I was the second chance for my bear.
I let out a large breath. This was a lot to take in. The people who raised me, I would always see them as parental figures. They kissed my knees when I fell. They taught me ways to survive, and they taught me to help others to save those unable to help themselves. I would never forget them. I would always love and be grateful to them. I would always see them as the parents that raised me.
I now may have a chance to see the parents who didn’t want to let go of me. Find out where I came from. Find closure, find out who I really was. Let them become bonded.
“Bear?”
Bear pulled me down to his chest, cradling me. “We are going to find them.”
I smiled, rubbing my face into his hairy chest. “How did you know I was going to say that?”
He chuckled. “Our bond, little bee. Soon you will feel my emotions and read my mind as I can read yours. Right now you are a ball of nerves and cannot clear your head, but it will come, and we will speak to each other as we do out loud.”
I groaned and tapped my head on his chest. “This is a lot.”
“It is.” He sighed. “And it may be a lot more complicated now that we know you are half-fae. I don’t know if you will shift into a bear or if you will become a full fae.”
That’s too bad because I wanted to be a bear. It sounded more badass.
Bear let out a bark of laughter and rolled to his side. He petted my hair and placed a kiss on my forehead. “It will all work out. You do not worry about anything. It is my job to take care of you. We will take all of this one step at a time.”
I hummed, rubbing my face into his chest to seek his comfort. The more I felt his skin, the more at ease I felt.
“May I ask you another question, mate? If you do not feel comfortable answering, I do not mind waiting.”
I huffed and sat up on his chest. Bear thought it would be too invasive to ask me a question? After eating out of my body, pushing his dick inside me? Biting me? Claiming me as his? How could he think I wouldn’t answer a question and not confide in him?
“The people who took care of you—who exactly were they?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Bear
Mymatewastiredafter I pleasured her again. Her body was still healing and using my tongue to lick her swollen pussy helped her relax and brought her back to sleep quickly. I wrapped her in blankets filled with my scent and placed a kiss on her forehead.
I wanted to stay with her, stay wrapped up in this cave, and not leave for the entire day, but I wanted to work on a surprise I would conduct for her.
Bear shifters had connections all over the world. Though we were mostly solitary creatures, bears came together at sleuths several times a year to trade, network, gather for potential mates, and for news in other parts of the lands on Earth. Now that we had come into technology amongst humans, it had become more useful to connect with other bear shifters around the world, such as Russia.
Before I left my sleeping mate, I wrote some emails and texts to my home sleuth to see if I could find this clan. Russia was a large place, but there were plenty of bear shifters in Russia who liked the cold winters there, and I was sure over the years they had heard of at least one traveling fae clan. If I was lucky, I could hear something within days.
What I couldn’t wrap my head around was how my mate was part fae. How I couldn’t smell any part of her being other than human. Was there more magic around her body than we all realized? Even with my bear nearly healed, I couldn’t smell an ounce of fae on her body.
I slightly opened the door, allowing my mate’s soft snores to trickle into my ears. As I glanced upwards, I caught sight of Anaki’s wide grin, his fingers wrapped around a steaming cup of coffee. The aroma of rich, roasted beans filled the main part of the cabin, mingling with the metallic scent of the two thick strips of bloody steak resting on a porcelain plate.
“Sleep well, teddy bear?”
I growled, pulled out the chair to the table, and immediately started cutting into the meat. If Anaki wasn’t here, I would have cut it with my claws and shoved it into my mouth.
“When do you want me to schedule a meeting with everyone?” Anaki took a sip of his black coffee. “I’m sure Locke, in his state of near demented mind, will love the idea that Nadia’s adoptive parents were hired Russian spies paid to protect a half-faeling.”
I let the meat slide down my throat, tasting the bloody taste of the raw meat settling in my stomach. “Did you sit at the door and listen to our entire conversation?” I raised an eyebrow.
Anaki smirked. “You know it.”
I groaned. “You are a fucking bastard. We need to talk about boundaries now that I have a mate. It’s damn wrong. We need privacy. I’ll build you a bedroom, but you can’t be spying on us.”
