Page 33 of Polestar (The Global Paranormal Security Agency #3)

“Okay,” she murmured, full attention on the rounded figure that continued to move away.

“Okay? Listen to me. We can’t break you out of this thing. It’s hard as marble. You need to find a way out of it yourself.”

“Oh, it’s a bear!”

“What? Ana, are you listening to me?”

“Yeah, Antony, you can’t break me out. There’s a bear here. A white one. I feel like I should see where it goes.”

She dimly registered a roar in the distance. But it wasn’t coming from the white bear in her cotton fluff. It turned to look at her as she drew nearer. Its black eyes and nose were stark and glossy against the mass of white fur.

More roaring in the distance.

Ana was unconcerned.

Antony’s insistent voice grew fainter as she followed the pristine polar bear away from all the noise.

A brush against her wrist drew her attention. Raising her hand, she stared at the garnet rosary her grandmother had insisted she keep. From it dangled both the crucifix and the carved polar bear the priestess had gifted her.

‘When the light is blinding, the bear will guide you.’ she’d said.

“Huh. Well, I’d say the light is blinding.”

As she followed the bear, the quality of the light changed, allowing a bit of gray into the mass. Visible color striations pointed the way along a tunnel like structure.

Antony said I wasn’t dead, and yet here I am going down a tunnel away from the light.

She studied the bear as they went, wondering if she could communicate with it as she had with Aksel in the astral.

Color drifted through the structure, mingling to form new colors, then drifted apart again. Threads of black also streaked through the mix of color and white and gray.

The bear stopped at a convergence in the tunnel where it branched off in several directions.

The tingling she’d experienced in the white area intensified here, vibrating through her every particle, strongest along the center of her body from the crown of her head down to her pubic bone, reminding her of the Chakra diagram Jack had told her to memorize.

Seven in all, with different functions and associated colors.

Colors like those wisping through the mass surrounding her and the bear.

Ana turned toward the tunnel with more violet than any other color and stepped toward it.

The bear growled.

Ana blinked, returning her gaze to her guide. “Okay, not that way. Sorry.” She turned her back on the attractive tunnel—and all the others drawing her attention—to focus on her designated direction.

The bear ambled down a greenish tunnel, which opened into a domed room. Not quite a dome, no… Ana squinted up into the ceiling. It was the roof of a cave covered in aurora borealis.

“So beautiful,” she whispered, following the bear around a massive stalagmite. “But why am I here? What do I need to do?”

Beyond the stalagmite slumped a figure on the floor.

“Magnus!” Ana gasped, bringing her hands to her mouth.

Unconscious, he was naked and bleeding.

“Is he dying?” She rushed forward. She crouched, placing her hands on his face.

Next to her, the bear peered into his face, its expression so very sad.

“What do I do?”

The bear pressed its nose to Magnus’ breastbone then poked Ana in the same place, shocking her by the gesture and the electric sensation. Her hand drifted to her chest.

Her heart.

Magnus’ heart.

Her throat tightened. Instinct told her what the bear wanted her to do, but she couldn’t form the words in her head.

Overhead, the lights shimmered green and blue.

Looking at the bear, she said, “I’m not sure I understand, but I’ll try.” The bear huffed and nudged her forward.

Ana straddled Magnus’ thighs and sank to her knees.

Despite his weakened state, he radiated warmth.

With all her strength, she hooked her arms under his, leaning him toward her, chest to chest.

Heart to heart.

She closed her eyes. Listening to the beat of his heart and the beat of her heart.

In the magic of this place, it seemed to echo around them as they synced into a single beat.

Thoughts of one another had guided them together like a single pulsing polestar.

His hands slid around her waist and up her back as he nuzzled her shoulder. “Ana,” his voice was hoarse as his arms crushed her to him. “I thought I’d lost you forever.”

Enveloped in his embrace, she sank into him, eyes closed. “Not a chance, when you only just found me.”

He pulled away just enough to look into her face.

It felt like a mile between them.

“What you said in the registrar’s office?”

Mate.

“That I choose you?”

He nodded.

Emotion swelled her heart, making her throat constrict and her eyes tear up as her heart opened, responding to Magnus.

Love.

Acceptance.

That’s all she’d ever wanted in her life, though she’d spent most of her time trying to bury that unrealistic longing.

In this place, somewhere outside of the reality they lived in, everything she felt was real. Everything that was in her heart, was real. It was all that mattered.

“For all time, Magnus.” She took up his large hand and pressed his palm to her heart, and whispered. “For all time.”

He pressed her palm first to his nose and lips, inhaling her scent, then to his heart, echoing her words. “I choose you for all time, Ana.”

She brushed the tip of her nose across his.

He brushed his lips across hers.

They released each other’s hands, and she reached for his face to deepen their kiss, while his arms wrapped around her waist and hips, pulling her impossibly close. He was naked beneath her, and his arousal was unmistakable.

She broke the kiss with a gasp, “Magnus, we’re not alone—.” Looking around the cave, the bear was gone.

They were indeed alone.

She looked into his eyes.

“Mate,” she whispered. Instinct told her that this would be more binding than anything she’d ever committed to in her life.

“Do you want to finish this?”

“I want nothing more than to finish this,” she said, quickly removing her clothes as a sense of impending urgency took over.

Undressing, here, was an act of deliberation in a place where they didn’t actually have physical bodies.

They were all energy, co-mingling in this astral place—wherever it was.

All sensation and knowing and needing.

She resumed her place, straddling his thighs.

He slid an arm around her hips, pulling her close so that he could trail his lips over her heart.

She shuddered against the overwhelming sensation of emotion his tenderness elicited in her.

She slid her fiery core along his steely erection, then angled her hips so that his tip waited at her entrance.

Magnus claimed her lips, swiping his tongue along hers, teasing and enticing.

She moaned as need spiked through her. A need only Magnus could fulfill.

Ready, she drew him in, easing down his length.

Their breaths mingled as he filled her so that his tip rested against her sweet spot. Her toes curled against the intense pleasure.

Magnus grazed his teeth along the column of her throat, inhaling her scent and nibbling the tender skin until he reached the crook of her shoulder. With his forearm still encircling her hips, he pressed her down even further.

His breath hitched as he pulsed inside her.

She moaned his name as her hips tilted forward, then slid back.

Leaning against the support of his arm, she arched so that he had access to her breasts. As his mouth fastened on first one nipple and then the other, she rode him faster, harder still.

Magnus looked up into her face, reflecting her passion as they ascended.

He licked his lips. “You’re sure, Ana? About the mating? It’ll probably hurt.”

As she looked into his eyes and saw her own vulnerability, she slowed her pace, rolling her hips.

She’d said forever, and that’s what a mating was.

She’d spent enough time around shifters to understand that much, regardless of the mechanics.

“Yes,” she breathed as her desire continued to ascend. “Yes, Magnus, I’m sure.”

“Gods, I’ll never get enough of you, Ana.”

Tears gathered as her heart soared, opening to him. Those words sent her over the edge.

Too much.

“Magnus!” she warned; the colors in the room converged around them as she exploded. As her climax took her over, she gripped him, determined to take him with her.

Pain shot through the muscle at the crook of her shoulder. She dimly realized Magnus bit her as he joined her. It did nothing to detract from the rolling waves of ecstasy crashing through her.