Page 23 of Rose's Untamed Bear
His hand cupped my cheek. His palm was rough and cracked, but warmer than any fire. He tipped my head and looked at me, looked so hard I thought he meant to burn the hatred right out of me.
“My Rose…” His thumb caught the tear that trembled down my face, gentle as dawn. “You are nothing of him. Do you hear me?”
He waited, but I had no words. The world had gone hollow. I thought, if I could claw open my skin and scrape out the tainted blood, I would. If I could walk into a river and let it suck out my marrow, I’d never step out again.
A sob cracked my chest. “But—” I tried to shake my head, and his hand stilled me.
“I said, you are nothing of him.” Derrick’s voice was fierce, and I finally understood why the wolves had always cowered from the sight of him. He could be pure fury if it meant defending someone he loved. “Whatever he was—whatever he did—you are not his shadow. You are the light that banished him. Do you understand?”
I squirmed, desperate for some way to contradict him. I wanted to argue, to prove that I was right and he was wrong, that I was ruined, spoiled, irredeemably cursed. But when I tried tospeak, the only thing that came out was a pitiful whimper. “The blood?—”
His eyes turned molten. “Listen to me, Rose. Blood does not make you. Choice does. And you chose love. You chose kindness. You chose me. That is all that matters. Not fate, not chance, not curses. Only what you hold on to when everything else is stripped from you. And you have always, always chosen to be good.”
My heart battered my ribs. I sagged against him. “You don’t understand. I feel it. It’s inside me. What if one day?—”
He kissed my brow, hard and quick. “Then I will be here to catch you. To remind you who you are, even if you forget. Especially then.” His hand trembled where it held my face. “You’re mine, Rose Red. Always. No wizard’s blood could change that.”
For a moment, I wanted to scream at him, to force him to see me as I was, to punish him for loving a thing so foul. But then I saw the way he looked at me, with a hunger and a reverence that cut through all the layers of self-hatred. I realized he was right. I had never met my father. Not really. He had no part in my life. I was nothing like him. In wonderment, I looked at Derrick, marveling at his seeing it so clearly while I was still trying to wipe away the cobwebs in my mind that were trying to screw up my brain with self-doubt.
Somewhere in the woods, a wind shrieked. It sounded like the cry of the broken world, mourning something lost. The trees groaned. I pressed my face into the crook of his neck and wept, but he didn’t flinch, didn’t loosen his grip. He held me as if I were the thing keeping him upright, not the other way around.
Gradually, the worst of the shaking passed. My chest ached, but the pain had become something dull and manageable. Like a wound that had begun, at last, to clot. Derrick didn’t speak again, didn’t move, just traced circles on my back with his thumb and breathed with me until our hearts fell into the same rhythm.
We sat together in the fading light, so close our knees brushed, our fingers laced like neither of us dared let go. Every touch felt like a miracle. No claws. No curse. Just skin to skin, warm and trembling. I couldn’t stop running my thumb across the back of her hand, couldn’t stop drinking in the sight of her, her firelit hair, her tear-stained cheeks, the fierce, aching love in her eyes. But she still shook her head stubbornly, so much my Rose, my heart swelled.
“Derrick, you don’t understand. I’m Alarion’s daughter. His blood is in me. That makes me bad. How can you possibly know I’m not?”
I chuckled deeply, because the thought of her being anything but good was absurd. “Because I lived with a beast for years. It takesone to know one.” I touched her cheek, cradling her face until she met my eyes. “And you, Rose Red—you’re not one.”
Her breath hitched, and a single tear slipped free. I kissed it away, but then froze. At the back of my skull, Magnus rumbled and stirred.I’m still here,he said. Not angry. Not snarling. Just present.I can still hear you.
My heart lurched. The bear hadn’t vanished. He hadn’t died with the curse. He was still part of me. And suddenly, I understood. The curse was well and truly broken; for the first time in nearly two decades, I wasn’t trapped, held captive by the whims of nature. I was free to call him forward if I wished. Change. Shift. Move between man and beast. Magnus’s presence brushed mine, steady as bedrock. For once, not an enemy. A partner.
We shook mental hands, two halves of the same soul, finally whole.
I looked back at Rose, who was watching me like the entire world hung on the next words out of my mouth. I cupped her face in both hands, kissed the salt of her tears from her skin.
“Tell me,” I whispered, “do you love me less now that I can turn into a bear?”
Her eyes widened. “Of course not!” Her voice cracked, fierce and certain. “How could you think that?”
A smile broke across my face, raw and unguarded. “Then why should I love you less? Because of the blood in your veins? You are mine, Rose. Not your father’s, not anyone’s but mine.”
She let out a sob and pressed her forehead to mine, “Always yours,” she whispered.
The forest around us grew darker, the shadows lengthened, and I became alarmed. We would never make it back to her cottage. Spring might be in the air, but it was still chilly at night. But then I smiled. I could turn into a bear, the king of the forest. I would protect my Rose, and I would keep her warm.
Still, we needed at least a fire, a shelter, and food. She had to be exhausted after what she had been through. Which reminded me, "What were you doing out here, anyway?"
She tried to laugh, but it came out brittle and dry. "Believe it or not, but I was going to force Alerion to release you from his curse."
Of course she was. My brave, stubborn little Rose. "Oh, my little flame," I groaned and pulled her closer. I didn't even want to think about what would have happened to her had I not come. Harrumph, excuse me, Magnus reminded me of his presence, and I sighed internally. What would have happened ifwehadn't come, I corrected.That's what I thought.
I didn't pay him any more mind, because mine was churning and my stomach was souring at the risk Rose had taken.
"How?" I pressed out, not trusting my voice to add any more words.
Her chin jutted out defiantly. "I had the arrows prepared with Hawthorne, Rowan berries, and Ash."