Tiger saw their days stretched before them, Carly with him, and all their cubs. He pulled Carly close.
“I know what I was made for,” Tiger whispered into her ear. “I was made for you.”
That, and happiness. Tiger had reached for happiness in the past, only to have it shatter like a glass bubble when he closed his hand around it.
“I love you, my mate,” Tiger said, touching the softness of her cheek.
“I love you, Tiger,” Carly said again.
This time, as Carly smiled up at him, her green eyes the most beautiful things Tiger had ever seen, happiness stayed with him, whole and warm, and surrounded his heart.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Carly didn’t thoroughly understand the Shifter mating ceremonies, though Kim and Andrea had done their best to explain the symbolism. The circle dances called the Goddess and the God to the place; the flower garland in Carly’s hair represented nature, eternity, and fertility. The ritual sealed Carly and Tiger so that their union was sacred under the moon—the Mother Goddess—and under the sun—the Father God.
What Carly did understand was that the ceremony itself was brief, Liam saying, with a smile, “Under the light of the moon, the Mother Goddess, I recognize this mating.”
She also understood the party into which the solemn ceremony degenerated, music blasting from Sean’s back porch, the beer flowing, meat grilling, Shifters dancing, talking, laughing. Carly’s mother and sisters, who’d come to Shiftertown for the event, fit right in—Althea and Zoë already had Shifter admirers. Janine and Simon, her husband, were a little more reticent, but Olaf and Jordan soon had their son playing with them, and Andrea and Sean had the couple laughing and talking.
Likewise Yvette and Armand had come for the ritual, Armand with gifts of food and his beneficence, Yvette with a wise smile for Carly for following her heart. Yvette immediately joined Liam at the grill, first discussing with him and then arguing about cooking techniques, marinades, and what should be served with what.
Liam was in a particularly good mood, even beyond his excitement at presiding over a mating. The other Shifter leaders, he’d told Carly and Tiger before the ceremony, had agreed it was a good thing that Tiger would work with the Shifter Bureau in learning about himself. The arrangement kept Tiger out of trouble—in other words, made him someone else’s problem. And the Shifter leaders, particularly Bowman, Eric, and Graham, were interested in Liam testing out Collar changes on Tiger. Tiger had agreed to help in figuring out ways to get the Collars off Shifters, especially after Liam mentioned he wanted to get the cubs out of the Collars first.
As the night deepened and the food and beer were consumed, some Shifters started slinking into darkness to be alone together. Mating rituals stirred the mating frenzies, Kim had said.
Carly also understood how she and Tiger ended up in his bed under the eaves, moonlight streaming in to caress them.
They were alone in the house, Liam and company still out reveling. To thumping strains of party music coming from next door, Tiger gave himself over to Carly as though theirs would be the last coupling on earth.
Carly didn’t mind, as her body rose to his, her hands gripping the sweet tightness of his bu**ocks to pull him inside her. She arched to him, sweat hot between them, dripping to the sheets.
Tiger wasn’t silent, and tonight he wasn’t gentle. Gripped by the mating frenzy, Tiger drove into her with ferocity, and Carly, bound to him, wound up into frenzy herself.
Tiger opened points of pleasure in Carly she’d never known existed. Sounds escaped her mouth, incoherent, her throat aching with them.
Tiger filled her and loved her, his hands everywhere, his mouth a place of heat. He was one with her, and she with him, and that was all Carly wanted.
After a long time, Tiger growled, his eyes flashing golden as he neared his peak. He continued to rock into her, and she was crying out in joy by the time he spilled his seed. They fell together, spent and shaking, and the room went silent.
Carly lay in the tangle of sheets, her body scalding, with the hottest part of her the place where they were still joined. She ran her hands down Tiger’s back, his skin slick with sweat. But he was whole, healed, hers. The touch of a mate.
His touch healed her in return. Carly had never felt so well, so cared for, in all her life.
Tiger would never desert her. She understood that now. Even when Tiger had been gone, he’d been taking care of her.
Because he cared. Carly’s father had cared for only himself, had seen his family as an obstacle, a distraction. And so he’d left them.
Tiger saw Carly as his anchor in the roiling stream of life, and she now thought of him in the same way. Not because of a magical mate bond, but because he loved her and she loved him. Love, not programming, not magic.
“I love you,” Carly whispered, her voice ragged from their lovemaking. “You know that, right?”
Tiger rose over her again, his rare smile wide, his eyes warm with afterglow. “I do know,” he said. “And I know I love you, Carly. My beautiful mate.”
Carly traced his cheek. She wriggled her hips at the same time, Tiger still rigid inside her. Wildness touched her again.
“You know everything, do you?” she asked, teasing.
“Yes.” His kiss was lazy, warm. “I do.”
“Mmm. Then you know I want to do that again.”
“I want to do it too, mate of my heart. Right now.”
“Yep. Right now.”
“I know something else,” Tiger said as he brushed kisses down her neck.
He slid out of her, the friction delightful, the anticipation of more to come even better. Tiger kissed her br**sts, then moved down to press a long kiss just below her navel.
“What do you know?” Carly asked, stroking his hair, which was already growing back in, black and orange.
Tiger chuckled, his breath warm on her abdomen. “That it’s a boy.”
Carly laughed in delight, the sound ringing through the room. She opened her arms, and Tiger kissed his way back up her body, his welcoming heat covering her as he slid inside her again.
Right where he belonged. The mate bond wound around her heart, and his, and Carly was complete.