Page 5 of Wooded Bliss (Mated to the Monster: Season 3)

THATCHER

When I storm into the main house, my anger is almost uncontrollable. While I have no fucking idea how Circe managed it, I know she’s behind my mate showing up at my house today. The moment I step inside, I’m sure anyone in the house can feel the anger coming off me.

My bear huffs, “You need to calm down.”

“Calm down,” I roar back at him, “I don’t need to fucking calm down. I told you I didn’t want to meet our mate. I don’t want another person taken from me.”

“Our parents didn’t want to leave us,” my bear’s growling voice is filled with sadness, but it does nothing to quell how pissed off I am.

Before I can respond to my bear, he blocks me out which pisses me off even more. I hate being at odds with my bear. It doesn’t happen often except when it comes to the mate situation.

When I enter the kitchen, I find Wylie sitting at the island with his laptop open in front of him and Circe is mixing something in a bowl. My eyes narrow as I take her in. She looks comfortable here.

Too fucking comfortable.

“How fucking dare you,” I roar at the witch who shouldn’t even fucking be here.

Both their heads snap up to look at me. My brother looks confused as fuck, but Circe doesn’t. I swear the corner of her fucking mouth twitches, and I have to stop myself from launching across the kitchen and attacking her.

It’s a damn good thing she’s a woman, witch or not. I’m not that kind of man and I don’t ever want to be.

Wylie stands up and takes a step toward me, his voice laced with confusion, “What’s wrong?”

I motion toward Circe with my hand as my lip curls up in a snarl. “Ask her,” every word is an accusation.

He spins and turns his attention toward Circe who holds her hands up as if she’s fucking innocent. I know better though.

“I’m not sure what you’re trying to accuse me of,” she tries to defend herself.

“You know what you did,” I spit right back at her.

“No,” she tries again, “I really don’t.”

“You did something to make my mate randomly show up today,” I snarl just as Ripp and Grady burst into the kitchen and freeze when they hear what I’ve just said.

The smile that spreads across Circe’s face is all I need to see. She did this. She did this without a fucking thought about what I want.

“You found your mate?” Wylie’s voice is filled with shock.

When I glance at Ripp and Grady, my oldest brother’s mouth is open and closing like a suffocating fucking fish. He looks ridiculous and if this were any other situation then I would find it hilarious. But I’m too damn mad right now.

“Yes,” I grit out through my clenched teeth. “She showed up at my cabin.”

“Wait,” Grady waves his hands around, “back up. You’re saying your mate, the one fated to you by the Moon Goddess, just showed up at your cabin?”

I glance at my youngest brother, and he has a look on his face which I’m not sure how to read. It’s not longing. It’s not jealousy. It’s something else.

“She was delivering a bouquet of flowers to me,” I explain.

Wylie sits up a little taller in his chair. I hope I don’t have to kill my brother for whatever he’s about to say, but I’m afraid it’s a real possibility.

“We will kill him in the name of our mate if we need to,” my bear grumbles like he hasn’t been acting like a petulant child.

“Birdie is your mate?” I growl in Wylie’s direction and I’m not sure if it’s a warning or because I’m jealous he knows my mate’s name and I needed to ask her for it.

“Yes,” I grunt as I fix my gaze on Circe, “she is.”

“The flower shop lady is nice,” Grady offers as he grins at me, “and she’s very pretty.”

“Don’t,” I growl threateningly. “Don’t talk about my mate.”

“Why are you pissed because you met your mate?” Ripp’s question is tentative.

When I glance at him, he’s studying me closely. It’s not like I can blame him considering I’m not exactly acting like a bear who has just found his fated mate. Hell, I wouldn’t even be here right now if this were a normal situation.

I would be buried balls deep in my mate while biting her marking spot and binding her to me forever. If I was interested in having a mate. If my mate weren’t human without a fucking clue that she lives in a town built on the back of a bear pack. A pack which used to be large and formidable, even though it’s not anymore.

“I’m not interested in having a mate,” I grunt.

Circe’s eyebrows shoot up toward her hairline as the mouths of my brothers fall open. Shock. Yeah, they’re all shocked. What can I say? In the last ten years we’ve been living side by side, trying to hold together what is left of the Bosch pack, which isn’t much. What we haven’t been doing is sharing.

For a long time, all our focus was on Grady. We needed to raise him and the only way to do it was to work together. When our parents died, he didn’t have his bear yet. We needed to get him through puberty, through his transition, and into adulthood. All while trying not to fuck him up and impart to him the things our parents did to us.

More days than not, I’m pretty sure we failed him. He spends the least amount of time in bear form. I’m just not sure what to do about it at this point. He’s no longer a child and we did the best we could at the time even if it wasn’t nearly enough.

Our parents would have done it better.

But they were taken from us far too soon and all we could do was try to keep our heads above water.

We might have been standing next to each other day in and day out, but things have fallen through the cracks. I never brought up my reservations about finding a mate to my brothers. What would be the point?

“Our mate is the other half of our soul?” Wylie looks confused as fuck, his words coming out more like a question than the statement of fact it is.

I give a curt nod and agree without inflection, “They are.”

Ripp shifts from one foot to the other, “Why don’t you want your mate?”

I look at my eldest brother and even though he’s clearly uncomfortable, I can feel how much he wants to solve this issue. Since the pack became just the four of us, the Alpha inside of him has been itching for problems to solve. It’s one of the reasons he poured himself into working for the Forestry Service. It was a way for him to protect the land surrounding our home and, in a way, protect us in the process.

It’s a damn good cover for a bear shifter.

“I just don’t,” I try to verbally sidestep his direct question. From the way he straightens his shoulders, he’s not going to let it go. I sigh, hating the feeling of vulnerability wanting to take me under. When I glance at Circe, she’s not looking at me but at Ripp instead. “Look,” I try to sound strong, hoping my voice doesn’t break and give me away, “I’m good with living in these woods and only having you guys. I don’t need a mate.”

“That’s bullshit,” Wylie sounds incensed as he stands and takes a menacing step toward me.

“What?” I snarl, “Are you interested in my mate?”

The smirk on Wylie’s face has me clenching my fists before I force myself to release them and shake out my hands. I want to wipe the look off his face. But I can’t give into the impulse.

“No,” he scoffs, “I’m only interested in my mate, the same mate who hasn’t made her presence known yet. But when she does you better believe I’ll be claiming her and never letting her go.”

“I believe your mate will be making an appearance before you know it,” Circe’s voice is ominous in a way which has me snapping my focus back to her.

She did this. I don’t know how and I’m not even sure it matters, but she is behind Birdie showing up at my door like a fucking present complete with a shiny bow and a tag addressed to me.

“How the fuck did you manage to find out who my mate is, when I had no idea, and get her out here?” I’m seething, spitting my question at Circe who doesn’t look concerned in the least when confronted with my anger.

Circe shrugs one shoulder as if we’re talking about outfit choices or some shit. “I didn’t know who your mate was until you revealed her,” she admits.

I watch her face closely, looking for any hint that she’s lying. Either she’s very good or she’s telling the truth. I’m not sure I even give a fuck which one at the moment.

“Then how do you explain her showing up here?”

Circe sighs and sets aside whatever she’s mixing up. Considering the ingredients on the counter, I would guess she’s making cookies.

My youngest brother, being the pain in the ass he is, must have the same thought because he perks right fucking up, his voice bright, “Are you making cookies?”

Circe beams at him which has a warning growl rumbling out of Ripp’s chest. I’m not the only one surprised if the look on Ripp’s face is anything to go by. However, none of this is going to give me the answers I want and need.

“I don’t give a fuck if she’s making cookies or a damn Beef Wellington,” I snarl. “Answer the fucking question.”

“Thatcher,” her tone is placating and the hair on the back of my neck stands on end, “I can’t explain how this happened.”

My eyes narrow as I take her in. “Did you or did you not cast some sort of spell involving our mates? You said you felt a calling here. There’s no way my mate would suddenly show up, with a delivery from a flower shop I didn’t even know was open let alone owned and operated by my mate, without you being involved.”

“I wouldn’t call it a spell exactly,” she hedges, and I growl, the sound reverberating through the kitchen. Ripp curls his lip, but he’s not looking at the interloper; he’s looking right at me. I’m not trying to challenge his authority, but I’m sick of getting the runaround from this witch. “All I did was put out a call to your mates. I have no control over who they are or how it is answered.”

“You didn’t place the order?” My voice is filled with righteous skepticism.

She shakes her head slowly. “No, I didn’t place the order, but if the fates deigned that the only way to get your mate out here to you, since you haven’t met before now, then the order would have been placed.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that,” she confirms with a nod.

No matter how long I study her, she gives nothing away. I fucking hate it. Someone needs to be blamed for this. If it’s the fates, so be it.

“You shouldn’t have put out this call,” I sneer, my voice dripping with disdain. For the witch in our midst. For finding the mate I wasn’t looking for. For how badly I want Birdie but can never have her. “I didn’t ask you to get involved.”

Circe stands at her full height, something hardening in her expression. Her voice is firm but there is a hint of warmth in its depth, “I felt a call and I answered it. Fate asked me to be involved. The Moon Goddess asked me to be involved. There’s no way I could have ignored it; the call would have only gotten more intense and insistent.”

“I didn’t ask for this,” I roar, panic gripping my chest as my heart clenches.

My brothers look startled at my outburst for a moment. Sure, I’ve always been on the quiet side and being broody is my default setting since my parents passed, but I’m usually even keeled.

Ripp is the first one to get his shit together—no surprise there—and he takes a step toward me without a single ounce of hesitation in the movement. We might be pretty equally matched, but he’s still the Alpha. He might not throw around his power and title, but we know who the leader is when it counts, when it matters.

“Why are you fighting this?” His dark eyes, so much like mine, so much like our dad’s, study me as if he can peel away the layers to show him what the real problem is. “When we were growing up, you always talked about looking forward to finding your mate. You always talked about how much you wanted what Mom and Dad had.”

“And then they were gone,” the words are a whispered croak which barely make it past my lips, but they do.

And then they hang there in the quiet of the room. In the stillness. In the grief, and the devastation.

Understanding crosses Ripp’s face and he falters for a split second.

“They didn’t want to leave us,” Wylie’s soft-spoken words have me slowly turning toward him as tears prick the back of my eyes.

He was young when we lost our parents. He was just on the verge of adulthood, of the change at 18, of becoming the man they were raising him to be. They never got the chance to see it, though. We stood by his side when his bear came forward. We helped him find his stride and his future.

“They wouldn’t want you using their death to stop you from accepting your mate,” Wylie’s voice is filled with conviction. “They would hate the thought.”

My chest feels like it’s caving in as my heart clenches. I know he’s right, but that doesn’t make it any easier.

“You have to let yourself open up to your mate,” Ripp murmurs. “You’ll regret it if you don’t.”

“I need my mate,” my bear practically pleads, and my eyes close.

Resignation fills me, but it’s not the only thing I feel.

Fear. Pure, unadulterated fear.

What if I lose her? What if she loses me? Wouldn’t it be easier to just not allow it to happen?

“It’s too late now,” my bear reminds me. “The mate bond is powerful, and I won’t let you reject or walk away from her. Birdie is mine,” his growl is filled with possession which echoes through my soul.

“She’s ours,” I tell him.

The chuff he lets out is filled with relief. “Don’t fuck it up or I’ll make your life hell.” His words are a vow, one I know he’ll follow through on. Before curling up in a dark corner of my mind he adds on, “If you haven’t already.”

When I open my eyes, I’m glad to find that Circe has gone back to making whatever it is she’s making. My brothers are looking at me warily and my lips thin into something that might be a smile or might be a grimace.

“My bear won’t let this go,” I push the blame off on him and he huffs out a low growl, not bothered at all, “which means I guess I have a mate to court.”

Ripp gives a nod of approval as Grady rubs his hands together like a movie villain and Wylie flashes me a bright smile. I’ve never tried to woo a woman and I’m not sure where to begin. Maybe starting with an apology for my rudeness today is as good a start as any.

“And figure out a way to tell a human about the supernatural world, including what mates are,” Ripp adds with a grimace.

Well, fuck.

“I’ve always wanted a sister,” Grady crows before heading toward Circe and peering into the bowl she’s mixing. “Now, about these cookies,” he uses his most charming voice as he grins at her.

Circe smiles back and shakes her head before swatting his hand as he reaches in for a taste of the batter. “First I need to cook them, then you can have one.” She rolls her eyes and accuses, “You’re like a toddler.”

Grady shrugs, not at all bothered by her very true assertion. “I just like cookies.”

I can’t help but smile a little at my youngest brother while trying to find some sort of peace with the idea of, maybe, trying this whole mate thing. I don’t know if I’ll be able to pull it off, but I’ll never hear the end of it if I don’t try.

Circe looks at me and her eyes soften. “Just remember, the Goddess doesn’t make mistakes. Birdie is the mate who was made for you, the one who is the other half of your soul. She will heal you if you let her and you will give her strength and love.”

My throat constricts and I turn, not caring about Grady calling after me about him eating my share of the cookies as I walk away. I need a moment and there’s no better place to breathe than in the forest.