Page 39 of Fennick’s Fortune (Sentinels of Apollo #2)

Her scent trail was growing stronger. She was playing and attempting to lose him, but she wouldn’t.

No matter what she did, Ripper would always find her.

He’d waited long enough for her—almost four hundred years.

And he’d let me have my turn with Akiva first, to cement the bond and place the claiming mark.

However, it was time for Nova and Ripper to mate.

The mating bond between bear shifters was similar in some ways to the mating between bears in the wild.

There was the playing and testing that the female was receptive.

In the wild, it happened over the weeks of the seasonal mating season.

For shifters, we were lucky, and that was possible any time of the year.

However, like wild bears, we could copulate up to sixteen times a day while in our animal forms. Luckily, those sessions lasted more than seconds, as they did for the wild ones. Unlike the animals, when the female became pregnant, the egg didn’t remain dormant until winter came and she hibernated.

For shifters, there was more to the process than the biological drive of the species to procreate and move on.

Ripper had deeper instincts and emotions for Nova, and she for him.

They wanted to be together long-term, remain monogamous, and raise their young together.

Wild bears were different. The male left after the deed was done, and the female raised the young cubs alone.

When the time came to have children, the babies would be carried by Akiva and born in human form.

It wasn’t until the child was two years old that they began to have the ability to shift form, though without conscious thought.

It made it scary for parents until the cubs and children learned control and when not to do it.

After Akiva and I were done making love, and without a doubt, even as rough and wild as it was, it was making love, the bears had indicated their impatience to mate.

We’d gone outside into the woods on my land and let them have freedom.

Nova had gone ahead to tempt Ripper to chase and woo her.

He roared to let others in the vicinity know this female was his.

He pissed to scent-mark trees and marked them with his claws, to show his territory.

Now, he was ready for the mating. While both sides were present, no matter who was in charge, I’d pull back to give them as much privacy as possible when the time came for them to do the deed.

Ripper did the same whenever I was with Akiva.

Only this last time, he had risen enough when I transformed my hand to ensure the scent markers would be placed, and he controlled the clawing so it wouldn’t be too deep.

The marks would leave a scar, but with care and the saliva he would lick over it while he was with Nova, he’d ensure it would heal. I’d licked them afterward to stop the bleeding and start the process, but his saliva held more anticoagulants and healing properties than mine.

Ripper sounded off when he spotted Nova.

She was a beautiful American black bear.

Her coat was black, and only her muzzle was a light tan.

I thought it was much prettier than Ripper’s medium golden brown fur.

When he reached her, I drew back. What I found crazy was that while in bear form, Nova and Ripper communicated, and Akiva and I could as well.

“She’s leading him on a merry chase, isn’t she?” Akiva giggled.

“Yeah, just like you did me. Women like to make us poor males insane.”

“Poor males, my ass. You need it or you’d become unbearably conceited and impossible to live with.”

“You wait until I get back into our forms. I’ll give you payback for that,” I warned.

“If your payback is anything like what you gave me not long ago, I won’t complain. That was so amazing and unbelievable, Fen. I can’t believe it. But I am so thankful I found it with you.”

“And I am doubly thankful that you agreed to become mine.”

We lazed there since we weren’t in control.

It wasn’t long before Ripper mounted Nova and held her around her back hips with his arms and his mouth holding the scruff of her neck.

Once his cock was seated firmly inside her, they copulated for the first time.

And while we knew what was happening and the joy it brought them, we were removed enough to be like watching a wildlife documentary from afar.

Several minutes later, they lay down on the ground to rest. We let them continue their cycle for several hours, until it was time to go home and get some sleep. It was now Saturday. We could sleep in. After we rested, I had plans for my woman.