Page 24 of Her Beary Spicy Valentine (Welcome to Bear Mountain #2)
leif
T his was all planned out. Sort of.
I’d picked out a ring at Maple & Diamond on Robson Street before we drove over to Holly’s neighborhood in the DTES—what we locals call the Downtown Eastside, I’d explained to Hawk on the way.
And we’d talked about what we’d say as soon as she opened the door.
Takoda would start with a big speech about how he’d never been as happy or content as he was last night, falling asleep in her nest. How she’d shown him what the real prize in life was—love.
Hawk was supposed to go next with a heartfelt monologue about how this maul and our mate were better than anything he could have envisioned. The best reward for his redemption arc.
And finally, I’d tell her how I knew I’d grown up because I’d never felt as ready for anything as I did to spend the rest of my life on Bear Mountain with her and our maul.
But having to threaten Corey—and Holly being more tearfully furious than happy to see us—hadn’t been in the plan.
So, after a lot of explaining and apologizing, we all just ended up dropping to one knee, pouring our feelings into Hawk’s maul bite. Takoda lifted his arms, his shirt sleeves pulling back to show the maul bites Hawk and I had given him on each forearm, as he flipped open a scarlet box to reveal the entwined rose gold and platinum three-band diamond ring I’d picked out.
“Will you marry us?” he asked on all three of our behalves.
Holly slapped both hands over her mouth. Then immediately put her shields back up so we couldn’t feel or hear what she was thinking.
Fuck. Did that mean the answer was no? I could feel Takoda and Hawk worrying the same thing beside me, their tension rolling over the bond.
“I…” Holly lowered her hands, lips parting as if she were about to say something. But then she clamped them shut again, her face crumpling like she was about to cry—not the happy kind of tears.
Takoda was full-on panicking now, pushing backup plans into our heads. “Alright, the two of you will need to stay in Vancouver and woo her back.”
“Nah, Koda, don’t try backing out now. This maul doesn’t work without you,” Hawk insisted. “And you don’t want the puppy to give you another black eye.”
“I’ll do it!” I confirmed--and threatened.
“I’m not backing out,” Takoda insisted, his voice grim . “I’ll return to Bear Mountain, finish un-death trapping the den, and figure out a big enough grand gesture to win her heart ? —
“Hey, ssh!” I cut the conversation short. “She’s talking again.”
“I’m sorry, guys, but I can’t…” She shook her head, her voice breaking. “I just can’t...”
All three of our hearts sank.
Until Holly cracked up laughing and pointed at us.
“I can’t believe how good it feels to feel the three of you panic like I did when I woke up in the den alone!”
“Vixen…” Takoda growled while Hawk and I stared, our mouths hanging open.
Holly just grinned, dropping her shields to flood the bond with how much she already loved us.
“But if you don’t mind promising forever to a super-petty vixen,” she teased—right before her smile melted into something tender and full of hope. “Of course, I’ll marry you.”
She was a super-petty vixen.
And, of course, we didn’t mind.
Takoda let out a stunned exhale, then vaulted to his feet, sweeping her into his arms.
“Mate,” he murmured against her hair, the word reverberating down all our bonds as Hawk and I closed in, surrounding her in a warm, unbreakable hold and pressing kisses wherever we could find skin.
Her head tilted back, and that’s when we got the happy tears we’d been hoping for since we climbed the stairs to her fifth-floor apartment.
“We’re a maul now,” Takoda said, his voice thick with emotion as he kissed her forehead. “You’re not alone anymore, Holly. Never again.”
Hawk’s rough hand steadied her back, his lips brushing the crown of her head. “You’re ours, sweetheart. Always.”
I pressed closer, letting my warmth soothe away any residual feelings of abandonment. I could feel how much she needed this—how much she needed us. And I let our truly petty vixen know, “You’re perfect.”
Holly turned her head to look up at me, and her lips trembled with a fragile smile. “I’ve never been good at believing something like this could last,” she admitted a lot more softly than she teased us. “Thank you for not giving up on me.”
“Never,” Takoda said fiercely. “We’d never give up on you.”
I leaned down, my forehead brushing her temple. “You’re worth every fight, Holly. Every misunderstanding cleared up. Everything we’re willing to do to show you this is forever.”
I felt the best thing from her then—the crumble of her walls breaking, her heart letting us in, one beat at a time.
But then it suddenly stuttered, and a slew of new, panicked doubts spilled over the bond.
Everything that had happened before she opened the door to find her ex-husband standing there lit up our maul bites as Holly drew back from our group hug.
“My license is at risk. My visa’s in the air. And all threats aside, I still officially owe Corey, like, four more years of alimony payments....” She shook her head, bitter regret replacing all the happy feelings from a few moments ago. “My life is currently a mess, and I don’t know how all of this is supposed to work with a three-way marriage—which I’m sure is technically illegal anyway.”
“Ayaska Bears have a special exemption,” Takoda said, his voice steady. “And I meant what I said earlier. You’re not alone anymore, Holly. We’ll figure this out together.”
“Worst case, you disappear to Bear Mountain,” Hawk offered casually.
Takoda nodded, shooting approval over the bond. “I no longer talk to Ash, but we’re having a cub boom this spring, and I’ve heard he’s in desperate need of a midwife.”
Dr. Ash. Just the name made my bond with Hawk and Takoda hum with tension. But they were both willing to set aside their estrangement with him if it meant Holly getting to keep the job she truly loved—and Bear Mountain gaining a capable midwife on top of everything else.
“You belong with us, Holly,” Takoda told her. “We’ll take care of you.”
But Holly just kept shaking her head. “I trust you. I do. But I can’t practice without a license, and I really can’t stay here illegally. Plus, if immigration—or worse, the RCMP—finds out you’re harboring me…”
Her words trailed off, and I felt Hawk’s and Takoda’s hearts sinking through the bond.
Then they stopped.
Because both of them noticed at the same time that my heart wasn’t sinking right along with theirs. I’d kept it carefully neutral.
They turned in unison to squint at me.
“Why ain’t you as upset about all this as we are, puppy?” Hawk demanded.
Well, I knew this would have to come up sometime.
“Actually,” I said, grimacing, “I’m pretty sure I can help with all of this. The thing is… I changed my last name to Bjorn about three years ago, after I was made and before I joined the RCMP.…”
With that, I finally unshielded the one thing I’d hidden from them. From everyone in Bear Mountain.
A beat of stunned silence. Then they all exploded with questions.
“You used to be the billionaire vice president of a major corporation?” Takoda asked. "And now you're my constable ?
“We’ve been dominating a motherfucking Barrington?” Hawk realized out loud.
“Like a Barrington-Barrington? My favorite grocery store-slash-supercenter place, where I get 5% back on all my purchases because I shop there so much I decided to get the store credit card?” Holly blurted.
Their questions hit me all at once, but I answered the best I could.
“Canadian billions, but yeah, pretty much,” I told Takoda, my first-ever real boss. “And the vice president thing was more like a title gift for graduating from B-School at UBC.”
I turned to Hawk. “Yeah, being a Barrington’s probably why it took me so long to figure out what was really going on with my sex drive.”
And I threw Holly a sheepish grin. “If you think that 5% is great, wait until you all start shopping with the family discount.”
Hawk shook his head. “No wonder you said you’d handle the ring.”
Holly blinked at her wedding ring finger. “Oh, my God. How much did this cost?”
I still wasn’t great at understanding what my half-siblings referred to as “real-world money.” Was high five figures too much or too little for an engagement ring? Either way, I shielded the answer from her, sensing she didn’t really want to know.
Luckily, Hawk had another question. “Wait, isn’t your mom that Swedish swimsuit model? The one with huge…?”
Unluckily, it was that question.
He cupped his hands in front of his chest in the universal sign for big tits. “I remember that Bleachers Illustrated Swimsuit Edition cover from back in the day. Blondes aren’t my thing, personally, but that mag got passed around by a few of my friends’ older brothers and?—”
I groaned, rubbing my face. “Can you not finish that story?”
I turned back to Holly before he could answer. “Point being, I’m pretty sure I can help.”