Stone runs his hands over my body, working the soap all over me before washing it away. He hasn’t said much since we got home. I thought we’d sit down and talk with everyone, but no. We’re in the shower while everyone waits for us downstairs.
After Koda spoke, I shifted back. I was scared I wouldn’t know how to do it again, but Stone was there, so I knew I could do it, and I just did it. Once I was back in human form, Stone hurried me back into the bakery and got my clothes from the upstairs apartment. Then he told everyone to come back to our house to sit down and talk. Other than that, he hasn’t really said much. Every time I’ve tried to talk since we’ve been alone, he’s just kissed me. The hard, sad look on his face has put a giant knot in my stomach.
He doesn’t seem too happy that my brother is here. It’s starting to freak me out a little. Shouldn’t he be happy for me? That I finally found out where I came from? All the memories came back in a flash. It was so weird to feel like I knew my brother, but I didn’t. It had been years, but he still looked the same.
I can see why Stone was worried when he saw me with Koda. He’s a freaking giant, but I remember everything about him, and he’s just a big teddy bear. Unless provoked. I can’t even begin to think about how life has been for him without me. It’s always just been him and me.
Stone’s hands work over my breasts, then up to my neck where he starts to rub. Leaning down, he kisses my mating mark, then just stares at it.
I reach up and cup his face, running my fingers into his beard, which is a little longer than normal. “Are you okay?”
“I just love you so damn much. I can’t live without you. You know that, right? If you leave me, I’ll be nothing. I can’t go back to living how I was. I need your sweetness. It balances me. Makes me feel whole. I just—”
“Stone,” I say, hearing my voice break at the one word. I can’t get anything else out or the floodgates might break.
“I know it’s fucked up, but I can’t let you leave. I won’t let you leave. I thought for a second I could be a better man and let you pick. It’s selfish, but I don’t care. You’re mine. Mine.”
He says the last word with such force and possessiveness, I feel a delicious chill run down my spine. I would never leave him, but he keeps talking without giving me a chance to tell him. And to be honest, I don’t want to stop him.
“I can’t leave the pack. They need us,” he says, going on as he tries to make his point. Like I’d ever leave him. My heart warms that he said ‘us.’ That the pack needs us. “You’re already making me a better alpha.” His hands come around my neck, his thumbs stroking my jaw. “I need you. They need you.”
“I’d never leave you,” I finally say. I love hearing him talk about how much he needs me after all these years thinking he wanted nothing to do with me. But I don’t want him to think that I’d ever leave him. We’ve waited so long to be together. Nothing will ever keep us apart again.
He growls, picking me up. Our naked, wet bodies are flush against each other as he raises me a little. I have to look down in order to look into his eyes. My hands rest on his shoulders as the warm water runs between us.
“Because you can’t,” he responds.
“However you want to cut it is fine with me, Alpha. I can’t leave because you won’t let me, or I won’t leave because I never want to be without you.”
He smiles up at me, and I lean down, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. He tries to deepen it, but I pull back.
“Guest downstairs.”
He grunts a response.
“My brother is here.” My eyes fill with tears again.
“You remember,” he says.
I just nod my head, a smile pulling at my lips.
“And you love him. He was good to you?” he asks, his hold tightening on me, wanting to know if what I remember was good.
“The best,” I say instantly, because it’s true, and Stone’s hold releases a little. My brother was everything I could have asked for. He raised me after our parents passed. They had us late in life. My mother told me that it can be hard for bears to conceive sometimes. Even rarer for them to have a girl. She always told me I was special.
“Let’s get down there then.”
He places me back on the floor, and we both make quick work of drying off and dressing before heading downstairs.
When I enter the room, Gwen is sitting on X’s lap in a corner chair of the living room while he rubs her belly. My brother comes to his feet, and I pull away from Stone to go to him. Stone reluctantly releases my hand as I run to my brother and hug him. He wraps me in his arms, holding me close.
When we finally loosen our hold, I lean back to look up at him.
“I don’t think you even grew an inch,” he says, smiling back at me. I can see it doesn’t reach his eyes or light up his whole face like it used to.
“You stole them all,” I tease. We always used to joke about our height difference. He ruffles my hair, and I want to cry at the action because it was something he used to do a lot.