Blake, Abby - Suddenly Bear (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (16 page)

“Come for us, kitten.”

And then, as if Declan’s words had been the permission she’d been waiting for, her orgasm exploded through her. She growled, the noise strange, low, coming from deep in her throat, as heat snaked through every vein in her body and her pussy and ass tightened, holding her men harder, caressing them more frantically, claiming their orgasms, too.

Brandon fell forward, his arms shaking with fatigue as he held his weight off her back.

“Holy fuck,” Declan growled as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. Brandon eased his cock from her ass, collapsing onto the mattress beside her.

“I second that,” he said breathlessly. “No wonder fate gave us only one mate between us.”

Mate? It seemed like a strange choice of words, but it wasn’t until Declan stiffened underneath her that she realized something wasn’t right.

Gathering her courage, certain that they’d left out a detail or two about the whole bear-shifter thing, Violet asked, “What’s a mate? And what does fate have to do with it?”

She’d almost managed to convince herself that she was imagining things when Jayden sighed, and lifted her away from his brother. “Let’s get cleaned up and the four of us will talk.”

Talk?

Crap, she really didn’t want to talk. It was obvious that they had something to tell her—something they expected her not to like—and suddenly talking was the last thing she wanted to do. Her hands shook as she pushed herself out of Jayden’s embrace.

“I–I’ll just go…ah…have a shower.”

She turned and fled the room, ducking into the bathroom and locking the door behind her before any of them could react. Her hands shook violently as she turned on the taps. She stepped into the water flow before it was warm, and the cold water still did nothing to calm her panic.

Damn it.

Damn it!

She had no idea what they wanted to talk about. She was overreacting. She was being silly. She was just overwhelmed by amazing sex and mind-blowing orgasms. Shit, there couldn’t be anything wrong. They would have told her.

But obviously they hadn’t.

They had something they wanted to talk about.

She glanced at her shaking hands, and blinked several times, trying to clear her vision.

But the massive bear claw didn’t go away. She shook her head, her face feeling strange, feeling puffy. She tried to turn around in the large shower stall, but bumped into the wall. Suddenly the space felt much smaller.

Disoriented, she looked down at her feet.

And screamed.

* * * *

Jayden could feel the anger coming off his brothers in waves. They weren’t happy. They hadn’t been happy to delay telling her, but Jayden knew how stubborn Violet could be. He knew she would react badly to the idea of fate. She’d always told him that there was no such thing. She believed in making choices in this world, not letting something as unreliable as fate to run her life.

He hadn’t really believed in fate either until the night her ex had attacked her and they’d found the brain tumor that would have killed her. Worried that Violet would feel her choices had been stolen from her, he’d convinced his brothers that they had time, and that they shouldn’t tell her until she’d had a chance to fall in love with them the human way. But of course the stubborn woman had refused their offer to pay for her flight, and Declan and Brandon had been stuck running the ski lodge hundreds of miles away. It had taken way too long to get her here, and now, instead of being able to ease her into the idea, time was running out.

But it was the terrified bear growl that came from the bathroom that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’d waited too long.

All three of them ran to the door. Brandon didn’t even bother stopping to try and unlock it. He just dropped his shoulder into the wood and forced it open. Glass cracked as their mate, beautiful in her ginger-colored bear form, reacted in fright and bumped into the safety glass of the shower stall.

“Baby girl,” Brandon said, getting closer to a pissed-off bear than was advisable in human form. “You are the most beautiful she-bear I’ve ever seen.” She growled as he moved closer. “Don’t take that tone with me.” Brandon stepped even closer, a friendly smile curving his lips as he added, “Or I’ll spank that pretty ass a lot harder next time.”

Their beautiful mate dropped her head low, tilting it to the side as she seemed to be trying to comprehend his words.

* * * *

Did Brandon just threaten to spank her ass?

Considering that it was now bear-
freaking
-wide, he had his work cut out for him.

She laughed at the strangeness of it all, giggling harder when the noise came out of her bear mouth as a series of squeaks and grunts. She was a freaking bear!

Fuck, could her life get any more ridiculous?

“Violet,” Jayden said as he, too, stepped closer. “It’s my fault we didn’t tell you sooner.” Sooner? How long had she been a bear? Or did he mean that they should have warned her this could happen? Or, fuck, could having sex with all three of them at the same time have caused this?

She opened her mouth—or was it called a muzzle?—to ask her million pressing questions and nearly fell over at the noise that came out. She rolled onto her side, the move strangely familiar and comforting even though she was pretty sure she’d never done anything like that before—especially on a cold tile floor.

Declan didn’t try to talk to her. He just dropped to all fours and turned into a bear. He made a grunting, squealing, squeaking sort of noise that made her bear-girly parts tingle, and then he nuzzled her face with his snout. She huffed out a bear version of a sigh and nuzzled him back, grunting when she once again forgot that she couldn’t actually talk in bear form.

Shit.

She was a freaking bear.

“Okay, baby girl, how about you change back to human form, and we’ll answer all of your questions,” Brandon said. Declan changed back into his two-legged form and nodded his head in encouragement.

She wanted to say yes, but at the last moment remembered to nod her head instead. She looked up at Brandon’s handsome face. Wow, it felt really weird looking at the world from all fours—especially when surrounded by naked Delko brothers. She did her funny bear-giggle noise again.

“Come on, baby girl,” Brandon encouraged. “Find a calm, sensible—” Did he just tell her to be sensible? She huffed what she hoped translated as a bear equivalent of “fuck you” and sat on her ass. She let her long tongue fall out of her mouth and shook her head. Okay, now that just felt funny.

“Violet,” Brandon tried to reprimand in his bossy tone, but he ruined it by laughing. “Fine. Okay. I get it. This is strange and unexpected, and we should have told you earlier. But, baby girl, I’d really appreciate you turning back into human form so that we can discuss this.”

“Fine,” she grumbled, not even realizing she was changing forms until the word actually came out of her mouth. “But talk fast because I really think all of you need a good ass whooping.”

Brandon grabbed her hand, hauled her into his embrace, and held her while he laughed. Jayden looked really pale, and she finally realized what he’d meant earlier when he said it was his fault. She held her hand out to him, and he stepped closer.

“Do you think we could maybe head back to the bedroom?” Declan asked. “It’s kind of crowded in here.” He winked at her, then turned and left the room, confident that his brothers would follow. They didn’t disappoint. Brandon lifted her into his arms, cuddling her close as they headed back into the bedroom.

He sat her in the middle of the bed, and her men took up positions around her. They all seemed to hesitate, probably having no idea where to start. She supposed they had good reason. She’d run from the “talk” they wanted earlier and gone and turned herself into a bear. Considering the wicked claws that form brought with it, she could understand why they wouldn’t want her to scratch up the mattress.

“How did I become a bear?”

“We used our healing abilities on you. Unfortunately, the amount of healing you required meant that we had no choice but to change you into one of us.”

“You healed me? When?”

Jayden grabbed one of her hands and pressed it between both of his. “Remember the day Bruce attacked you in our apartment?” She nodded. It wasn’t exactly an experience she would forget, but it seemed she had obviously missed something about that night. “He must have hit you, or maybe you bumped your head when he pushed you to the ground, but a few moments after we threw Bruce out, you collapsed from bleeding in your brain.”

“We? You were there that night?” she asked Declan and Brandon. They both nodded, but left it to Jayden to finish his explanation. He seemed to hesitate, so she asked another question. “How do you know I was bleeding in my brain?” It didn’t make any sense. Didn’t doctors use diagnostic medical imaging to find things like that? She had no memory of leaving the apartment or of being ill.

“All bear-shifters are born with a small amount of magic. We’re not sure exactly how it works.”

Declan moved closer, wrapping his arm around her waist as he sat beside her. “The mythology from some of America’s indigenous peoples says that the black bear was created by the Great Spirit. Bear-shifters believe that’s where the magic comes from. But we can only call on it to heal the sick or injured.”

Violet turned her gaze on Jayden. “If you can do that, why are you studying to be a doctor?”

“The sicker a person is, the higher the amount of magical energy required, and well, you already know what happens to a person who gets a lot of magical healing.”

Finally the answer she’d been seeking. “They turn into a bear?” she asked with a soft smile.

Jayden gave her a worried smile. “They turn into a bear-shifter, yes.”

“So what is a mate? Is that just a bear name for girlfriend?”

“Not exactly,” Declan answered, looking a little less comfortable than a moment ago. “A mate is a special someone that fate chooses for us. She is our perfect match.”

“And I’m this ‘perfect match’ for you three?” They all nodded. “So you didn’t want to know me—Violet, the person—you’re just following your animal instinct?” She couldn’t hide how much that hurt. She’d been falling in love with them for months now, and they’d just been following the choice fate had made for them.

“Violet,” Declan said quietly, his voice very serious. “The reason we didn’t tell you is that we wanted you to get to know us, to fall in love with the men we are, not the bears fate chose for you.” He leaned over and caressed a finger over her jaw. “Fate may throw us together, but it doesn’t guarantee we’ll like each other.”

“I love you, Violet,” Jayden said quietly. “Declan and Brandon learned to love you over the Internet. Hell, Declan fell for you even before he got to hold you in his arms.” She glanced at the two men in question, tears blurring her vision as they both confirmed Jayden’s words before he continued. “I’ve loved you for over a year, even before I knew you were my mate. I can’t regret using our magic to heal your tumor, because I never want to live without you.”

“Tumor?” she practically screamed. “I thought you said I was bleeding into my brain.”

“You were, but if Bruce hadn’t attacked you we may not have found the tumor before it was too late.”

“I should have died?” It was frightening to realize that they were telling her the truth. She’d had a headache practically the whole week leading up to the attack, but so many things had changed afterward that she’d given little thought to the absence of pain.

“No,” Jayden said as he pulled her hand closer and pressed it against his heart. “You were meant to live. That was the night my brothers came to visit us—their presence was unexpected, and even they couldn’t explain why they felt the need to be there that night. Fate stepped in and made certain that help was there exactly when you needed it.” He leaned closer and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Please forgive us for not explaining sooner.”