Page 9 of Rose's Untamed Bear

“My name is Derrick,” I said finally, proud that my voice sounded steadier than I felt. “I’m your bear.”

The forest hushed around us; the only sound came from the water, as it was rushing too fast to freeze. Slowly, so slowly, she lowered the bow.

“Derrick,” she repeated, as if tasting the name, rolling it on her tongue until it fit. “You’re… my bear?”

I let everything show, every raw edge, every hidden ache. Let her see me. Truly see me.

She stepped closer. The bow slipped from her hands. Ice-blue eyes caught mine, searing and steady. No fear. Only hunger. Recognition.

Then she was kneeling at the stream’s edge, reaching out, her hand hovered before she dared to touch. Tentative at first, then firmer. Her fingers slid against my cheek. Her palm was hot where I was frozen, and I leaned into it like a starving man.

Her breath broke. “It’s really you.”

“Yes,” I whispered.

Her eyes darted over me again, caught on the obvious. “You’re naked.” Accusing.

I grinned helplessly. “Not… by choice.”

Her laugh rang bright and startled, the kind that stripped years of grief. In that instant, I thought: if the world ended now, I’d die happy.

She shrugged off her cloak and flung it around my shoulders, awkward but fiercely protective, her fingers lingered at the nape of my neck. My whole body shuddered under her touch. I wanted to protest; she needed the cape more than I did. The cold bit her worse than it ever could my half-healed body, but the words tangled in my throat. Because she was so close. Because her breath ghosted against my cheek, and I knew if I spoke, I’d tell her everything I wasn’t ready to say, that I had thought of her every hour I’d spent trapped in fur, that I’d dreamed of this touch long before I earned it, that the cloak wasn’t the gift—it was her.

Instead, I swallowed the ache and held still, letting her warmth settle around me like a claim I’d never deserve.

“They say the woods are full of monsters,” she murmured, close enough I felt the words on my lips. “But they never warned us of bears who could turn into men.”

“I’m still myself,” I said, steady now, steady for her. “If you’ll have me.”

Her brow touched mine. Her breath warmed my mouth. “I want you as you are.”

After a moment, her hand tightened around mine. “What happened to you?” she whispered. “How did you become… this?”

I dragged in a breath of river-air into my chest. “A wizard,” I rasped. “Alarion the Wise, they called him. Though wise is not the word I’d use.” My voice cracked, and I forced it to steady. “He came to my father’s house. Said my father stole his wife. It wasn’t true; my father was only protecting her. From a man far worse. A Bluebeard.”

Her brow furrowed, and her thumb brushed my jaw. “Bluebeard,” she echoed, like tasting a poison.

“The wizard didn’t listen. His rage was already set. The curse took hold before I could stop it. I… turned. Into the beast you know. And my father, our household—everyone—” My throat closed. I swallowed hard, forcing it out. “They turned to stone.”

Her eyes widened, but she didn’t flinch away. She stayed close, so close I could count the snowflakes melting on her lashes. “Stone,” she whispered. “Gods above.”

“I’ve been trapped ever since. A man only when standing in the full light of the sun. A bear for all the rest.” My gaze locked on hers, desperate. "For so long, I’ve obeyed the instincts of the beast and kept to the shadows, the man in me almost forgotten. Until you."

I cupped her beautiful face with my freezing hand, hating that I was making her cold, but unable to help myself. I craved the contact. I needed it. For a moment, neither of us moved. The stream rushed around my knees, and the forest breathed its cold silence. She stared into me, into the wreck of me, and I saw no fear. Only disbelief, and something deeper.

Her fingers slid into mine, twining like they had always belonged there. I lifted my free hand, brushed a damp curl back from her cheek. She leaned into the touch, her breath caught, her lips parting just enough to make me ache.

"I always knew," she said, her breath letting out little clouds of steam, "that there was more inside the bear than just a beast."

I wanted to kiss her then, gods, I wanted it more than I’d ever wanted freedom or vengeance or even the warmth of fire. For her to have seenmeinside the bear… it was more than I could have ever asked for. I almost needed to taste her, to prove this moment was real.

“Rose,” I whispered, her name breaking on my tongue like a prayer.

Her eyes dropped to my mouth, then back up, sharp with knowing. Her palm pressed harder against my face, grounding me, daring me. We stayed there, trembling, breaths tangling, so close that if I tilted forward an inch, the world would change forever.

Her palm cupped my cheek, warm and shaky, as if she was afraid I might vanish if she let go. Her lips parted on a breath so quiet I would have missed it if not for the way her eyes searched mine, a blue caught between ice and fire, wanting and doubting at once. Something raw and electric leaped in my chest. For a single heartbeat, we hung there, suspended at the edge of an impossible world: a prince turned monster, and a girl who dared to touch him.

I moved first. Slow, so unbearably slow that I was certain the world would end before I reached her. I leaned in, an inch, then another, letting her stop me at any instant. She didn’t. Her lipsparted just a little more, her breath like a feather’s weight on my skin. I could have died from the longing, but I waited for her to close the final distance.