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CHAPTER EIGHT

Julian

I feel overwhelmed with gratitude as I place Victoria’s stencil on my girl’s skin. I can’t believe I got a second chance with her. I almost ruined it again by being naked. The first thing I did when I stepped into the shop was put on my spare clothes.

My heart is pounding. I can’t believe she’s sitting here in front of me right now.

Even my grizzly bear senses the enormity of the situation. He’s dead silent inside like he’s afraid that if he moves he’ll scare her away again.

Behave , I warn him just in case.

It’s silent inside the shop—just the soft sounds of our breathing as I line up one of the petals so it hides my name.

“You don’t have to cover it completely,” she says in a sweet melodic voice. “I don’t mind if it shows a little.”

Her back is to me, so she can’t see the smile spreading across my face. After all this chaos, she likes it.

“You want my name on you? ”

She shrugs with an adorable little grin on her face as she looks at me over her shoulder. “It’s kind of growing on me.”

“I’ll tell you what,” I say as I shift the stencil so my name is inside the petal, hidden but still visible if you look closely. “Since you’re keeping my name on you, I’ll tattoo your name on me.”

“Looks like you’re almost out of real estate,” she says with a chuckle as she glances at my tattoo-covered arms. “Where are you going to put it?”

“Anywhere you want.”

“After what you put me through, maybe your forehead,” she says, teasing. I hope she’s teasing.

“Whatever you desire,” I tell her as I place the stencil, making it stick.

She laughs. “My friends would probably choose that for you, but I won’t.”

I peel the stencil off, leaving the picture of the lily on the back of her shoulder.

“How does this look?” I ask her.

She heads over to the mirror, checking it out.

Meanwhile, I’m checking her out. She’s so perfect. I couldn’t imagine a more tempting mate for the universe to choose for me.

My body gets going as I admire the beautiful curve of her hips. My blood starts to boil as she moves around, looking at the tattoo from all angles. Her ass looks incredible in those jeans. It’s taking everything I have not to charge over there and rip them off. I sit on my hands, trying to keep myself under control as she touches her neck and looks at her reflection.

I love her body. I can’t wait to see it all, to touch it all, to taste it all.

I’ve waited twenty-seven years to have sex with my mate and now I can’t seem to wait another second. My whole body is on edge. My hands are shaking I want it so badly.

I want to breed her .

I want to see her stomach growing with my child. I want to see her hips getting thicker and wider as her due date comes closer.

“I love it,” she says, turning to me with a smile that takes my breath away.

She’s wearing the same white tank top as earlier, those beautiful round breasts just waiting to be released. I can’t wait to see them bouncing and jiggling as I slide my hard cock deep into her.

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” she says. “It’s getting late. I can come back another time.”

“ No ,” I say a little too quickly. “I won’t be able to sleep anyway.”

“Me neither,” she says with her cheeks blushing.

She walks back over and I focus on my tools instead of watching her sexy body coming toward me. I can’t be too distracted while I do this. I learned that lesson this afternoon.

She slips onto my chair and tucks her hands into the groove of her inner thighs, watching me as I get the needles and colors ready.

“Are you going to be okay with a little pain?” I ask. “I don’t want to hurt you. That’s the last thing in the world I want.”

“I’ll be okay,” she says, smiling. “A little pain never hurt anybody. Is that a saying?”

I laugh as I dip my needle into the ink and press the button to collect it. “I don’t think so.”

She turns around and I get a whiff of her vanilla conditioner. My bear grumbles, content at being surrounded by her alluring scent. Every breath I take fills me with tingles.

I start the tattoo and she takes it like a champ, only letting out the occasional whimper when I’m too rough. It breaks my heart, but it also turns me on. The sounds she’s making are so fucking sexy. The whimpers, gasps, and little moans are exactly what I’m going to hear when I fuck her.

“Distract me,” she says as I trace the stem of the lily .

I need a little distraction too. I can’t stop thinking of this girl naked.

“Tell me about yourself,” I say.

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything.”

She chuckles. “I just graduated from University.”

“Congratulations,” I say, already so proud of her. I knew my girl would be a smart one. “What was it like?”

She tells me all about her time at Gonzaga University in Spokane and how she’s unsure of where to go and what to do now that it’s over. Her family is in Florida, but she’s not sure if she wants to go back.

“You’re not going back home, are you?” I ask, the desperation clear in my voice. I can handle having her ninety minutes away—as horrible as that would be—but on the other side of the country in Florida? I couldn’t… I’d have to go with her. I’d follow her anywhere.

“I don’t think so,” she says. “My parents are divorced and they’re both settled in now. My mom got an apartment with my stepdad, and my father has a younger wife and two new kids. I love them all, but a house with toddlers in it isn’t the place for me anymore.”

“I think you should move here,” I say.

She laughs. “Move into the tattoo shop?”

“In with me.”

She shakes her head and laughs. “Are all bear shifters this crazy?”

“When they meet their mate, yeah.”

She looks over her shoulder at me and I get lost in those gorgeous brown eyes. She’s stunning. She’s mesmerizing. I can’t handle it.

How am I ever supposed to get anything done with her around?

“I need to know a little bit more about you before I agree to that ,” she says with a grin. “Tell me about your life. Those were your siblings? ”

I tell her all about Magnus and Victoria and our life in Montana. About our parents, building our cabins, opening the tattoo shop, and anything else she wants to know.

I don’t think I’ve ever talked this much in my whole life, but I keep going like an open book, telling her anything she wants to know.

“How did all three of you get into tattooing?” she asks.

“My mom is an artist,” I tell her. “She’s always painting and drawing and working on her art, so we were always around art supplies growing up. We all got pretty good.”

“Did she do tattoos as well?”

“No,” I say, grinning when I recall the memory. “Magnus bought an old tattoo machine at a yard sale when he was a teenager and brought it home. We thought it was the coolest thing and we learned how to use it, tattooing on pig carcasses, fruit, fake skin, our legs, our friends, anything really. Victoria is six years younger than me—she’s twenty-one now—so she was always trying to hang out with us. She was watching the whole time and when we finally let her have a turn, we were shocked to find out that she was the best one out of the three of us.”

“I can picture you as a kid,” she says, smiling at the image in her head. “I can’t wait to see some pictures.”

I open my drawer and grab an old photo I have laying around in there. It’s Victoria’s sixth birthday and she’s smiling wide in front of her cake—looking adorable with her two front teeth missing. Magnus and me are in the back. Magnus is giving her bunny ears with his two fingers and I’m scooping my finger into the icing of the cake. It’s one of our favorites.

“So cute,” she says, smiling at the photo. She has a million questions about my parents and what they’re like. They moved to Switzerland so my mom could paint the mountains and my father’s grizzly bear could roam in them. I haven’t visited them yet, but they seem really happy .

“Whose idea was it to open up the shop?” she asks as I finish one petal and start on another one.

“That was Magnus. He’s always been the go-getter. The man with the plan.”

I talk about how it’s been so hard for me without her and she just listens quietly. She doesn’t freak out or get scared or tell me this is moving too fast. She takes my free hand and holds it as I talk. I take a breath of relief, knowing those days of intense longing and pain are finally over. She’s here now. I can just sit back and relax for once.

The hours fly by and before I know it, I’m done. I put my tattoo gun down and then wipe her skin with green soap to get rid of the stencil and any excess ink.

“Are you done?” she asks, perking up in the chair.

“Go check it out,” I tell her. “Tell me what you think.”

She rushes over to the mirror and turns, looking over her shoulder at the new work of art on her body. Her lip quivers and her eyes fill with tears when she sees it.

“Are you okay?” I ask, rushing over to her when I see those tears. “Do you not like it?”

She shakes her head, staring at it in awe. “I love it. It’s beautiful. Thank you.”

I watch as she runs her fingertip over my name which is just barely visible on a flower petal if you know where to look.

“Thank you for keeping it,” she whispers, looking into my eyes. “I keep having this feeling that my body needs to be marked by you.”

I glance at the spot on her neck that’s destined for my mark. She shivers as she reaches up and touches it.

“What goes here?” she whispers.

My mouth waters as I stare at it. I slide my hands onto her arms, gripping her as I close the distance between us.

“The mark on your back was mine,” I say in a voice that comes out all deep and growly. “This spot is for my bear. ”

She shivers, but there’s a spark of arousal in her eyes. It makes me snap. It pushes me over the edge.

I’ve been holding myself back all night for this girl, but I can’t anymore.

I lean down and take her mouth in a hard, demanding kiss. She whimpers on my tongue and it pushes me even further.

I go sailing over the edge.

She moans as I scoop her up into my possessive arms and carry her back to the chair.

There’s no going back now.

It’s time to claim my mate.