Saving Briar

“By the Goddess, Torin. I’m so sorry.” Torin’s head jerked up and he stared at Briar, startled by her words. That was the last thing that he had expected her to say.

“I killed him, Briar.”

“He was part of a group who killed your mate. They hunted her. My… how can you forgive me for coming from the pack who took her from you?” Tears were streaming down Briar’s cheeks, and instinctively, Torin folded her in his thick arms, pulling her against his chest.

“You had nothing to do with it. You aren’t guilty of anything. But can you get past the fact that I was the one who ended your father’s life? The result of my actions must have made your life harder. You suffered more because of me, didn’t you? Life was harder after you lost him. Besides the fact that you must have loved him. Even if I have a good reason that still has too-”

“There’s nothing to forgive.” Briar shook her head. “I understand why it happened. If he hadn’t been trying so hard to get in the Alpha’s good graces, he wouldn’t have been there.” Torin could feel her trembling in his arms, and more than anything he wanted to comfort her and somehow make it better, but he didn’t know exactly how to do that.

“I loved my father. But the two of us were never close. He spent a lot of time with my sister, but he seemed to avoid spending time with me. It didn’t really bother me. I was more my mother’s daughter anyways. More than I really knew I guess. He wasn’t cruel to me, he was just distant.” Briar let out a long sigh before she began to speak again. “I never understood why. I always thought that he and Lilliet just had more in common.”

“Now I think it’s probably because he knew that I wasn’t his daughter. And honestly Torin, that just leaves me with so many questions. I saw my mom and her mate together and they were so in love. I can’t imagine her cheating on him. So where did I come from? I get that it’s likely that our pack’s Beta is my sperm donor. I’m not even going to give him the title of biological father because he doesn’t deserve that. He’s been no kind of father to me, letting us live the way we did, if I really am his daughter.”

“I want to talk to mom, without bringing up painful memories, if that’s even possible. But that will come later. Right now I need to know that you’re okay that you’ve been mated to me. I find myself torn between being so thankful that you’re mine, and wondering what the Hell the Goddess had in mind pairing us together with that history.”

“Maybe she was trying to fix the things that the people around us broke.” Briar hadn’t thought that anything could make her feel better, but Torin’s words made her feel lighter almost instantly. “Maybe it was just a lousy coincidence. But it doesn’t matter. Because you’re right. I am yours and you are mine. And Briar. I still came after you after I knew all of this. I found out on the plane. If it was a deal breaker, I could have turned around. But it wasn’t and it isn’t. You are it for me. And I knew that even before I realized that you were my mate.”

Briar swallowed hard, blinking away tears. She didn’t want to cry. She was sad that the man who she had known as her father had taken part in the hunt that had ended Torin’s first mate’s life. There were so many choices that other people had made that had effected her far too much for far too long. But she was more than ready to be done with all of that. She wanted to move forward and she wanted to do that with the strong, caring man who was now sitting next to her on the bed.

“You’re it for me too. You’re all that I want. And make no mistake, Torin, I do want you. I was drawn to you from the moment that I woke up in your home. And now that I know that you’re my mate, that pull is impossible to ignore.” Leaning towards him she tilted her head back, obviously in need of a kiss.

“I just want you to be sure that you’re ready. That’s all. If you just want to kiss and lay here together talking, we can do that too. I’m not in a hurry. We have forever.” He said the words as he began to lean towards her slowly, not in the least bit surprised when she closed the distance between them by pushing herself up onto her knees, and throwing one leg across his lap so that she was straddling him. Her arms wrapped around his neck, even as he pulled her against him, one hand clasping across the back of her head while the other snaked around her waist.

Her lips parted and he plunged his tongue between them, tasting what he thought was cherry lip balm as he plundered her mouth. She ground down against him, unable to miss his hard, long length pressing against her core, even with several layers between them.

“I’ve been ready since the last time I tried to seduce you back in Alaska. Please Torin.” Her voice was breathless and sexy as she pulled back from a long kiss and managed to get out the words. Her lips were already red and swollen and her pupils were dilated as her mate stared down at her. “Don’t make me ask again.”

As he gently lay Briar back on the bed he knew he would never be able to deny her anything that she really wanted. In truth, they hadn’t spent all that much time together, but he knew without a doubt that she already had him wrapped around her little finger and that he would do anything to see her smile, the way she had when he’d walked into the room back in the hotel for the first time. And while Torin had been prepared to take things slow, it was only because he was worried that Briar might not be ready to move forward physically with their relationship after everything that she’d gone through.

To have just been rejected by one mate only to find out that you already had a second chance mate would probably give most people whiplash. But Torin wanted his mate every bit as much as she wanted him and now that he knew that she was serious about being ready he shifted his weight onto his arms and began to kiss his way down her body.

Briar gasped as his lips skimmed over the delicate skin of her neck, her back arching beneath him as she sought his body with her own. Nipping the spot where he knew wolves marked one another he felt her fingers flex, her nails digging into the skin on his back.

“Are you,” he began to ask a question, only to stop again as he continued to kiss his way further down her body. He tugged at the top of her dress, and Briar moved her arms, using her hands to slide the straps over the shoulders so that the dress could slip down her body. She gasped as his mouth found one of her nipples and he sucked it into his mouth while his other hand found the other, neglected side, and gave it as much attention as he could manage while his mind was reeling with the pleasure of having his mate laying beneath him.

Finally though, after at least ten minutes of nearly making her come simply by playing with her sensitive peaks, he pulled away, scooting so that he was kneeling between her legs as he stripped his shirt up and off, over his head.

“Are you on anything?” He got out the question he’d tried to ask her earlier, before he’d been so overwhelmed by her intoxicating scent and the feel of her skin beneath his lips.

“On?” She was still laying flat on her back, panting, with her dress pulled down just above her belly button.

“Birth control? Are you on anything like that?” Briar shook her head, biting her lower lip as she realized what he was asking. “Okay, next question then. Are you going to want to go on birth control? Or are you okay with just going with this and seeing what happens?” As Briar’s eyes widened at the second possibility that he mentioned he rushed on to reassure her. “There should be condoms down stairs. I actually ordered a pack with the groceries that I had sent over before we left the hotel. They should be somewhere in one of the bags. I meant to find them before we came up here, but then I got so caught up in you…” his voice trailed off.

“I mean, I’m not the only one who’s going to be affected by this decision.” Briar’s voice sounded uncertain, as if she was afraid to say the wrong thing, but she took a deep breath and quickly pushed on, her eyes closing briefly as she said the next few words. “But I’m okay with not doing anything to prevent it and just seeing what happens. If that’s okay with you?” When she opened her eyes she saw Torin staring at her with a huge grin on his face.

“Is that okay with you?” She could clearly see that he looked happy, but she wanted to hear him actually say the words before she would believe it. “I’ve always wanted a family of my own. I just couldn’t imagine having one back where I grew up. But now that I’m with you-” she watched him nervously, tugging at a long, dark strand of wavy hair.

“It’s more than okay with me. I want to marry you, Briar. I want to have a family with you. I don’t care if our children are wolf shifters, or bear shifters, or even humans. I just want them to be ours.”

“I think it might take a while for it to happen. Because-” Briar bit her lip, either unable or unwilling to finish the sentence.

“Because you haven’t been taken care of in the past. We need to make sure you’re good and healthy. You’re never going to go hungry again. And hopefully once your body is ready, it’ll happen.”

Briar nodded, but didn’t move, until her mate leaned over and placed a gentle kiss just above the place where her dress lay across the flat expanse of her abdomen.

“Do you still want to?” His voice was low, his hands at the top edge of the dress, but he didn’t move until she nodded.

He had just laid down between her legs, and was slowly kissing his way from her knee, teasing her with his slowness, when his phone rang.

Torin paused mid kiss and looked up, chuckling softly when Briar arched her back and moaned for him not to stop. They missed the first call, but less than a minute later the phone was ringing again.

“Don’t. Stop.” He was nearly to the apex of her legs, and he could smell her desire, could see the slickness of her juices glistening on her folds, when a thought occurred to him.

“What if it’s about your family?” He sat up, as Briar brought her hands up to her face, trying to suppress a moan. “Let’s just find out if we can send the movers in and explain briefly what’s going on and then we can get everything started. I just need to send a text to my guys to get them headed over on their way.”

“Fine.” She’d actually said several choice swear words before the single word of agreement left her lips and Torin had to hold back his laughter. He didn’t mind drawing out their first time together. He was looking forward to the moment when he slid inside of her, but right now the anticipation was pretty amazing too.

“Hello?” Torin had slipped the phone into her hand and she was holding it up to her ear when her little sister’s voice came over the other end.

“Briar. Thank goodness you answered. You have to come home. Right now. I don’t know what to do, Briar. I’m scared.” Briar was already sitting up, her eyes wide with fear. She had known that her sister was afraid before the younger girl told her. She could hear it in her voice.

“What’s going on Lil? Is mom there? Can I talk to her?”

“No. You can’t. That’s why you need to get back here. A group of men came by earlier. They broke in through the window after mom saw that they had masks on and wouldn’t let them in. They hurt her when they took her. She tried to fight them, but they kept hitting her until she stopped. And then they said that if I ever wanted to see her again that I better get a hold of my whore of a sister and tell her that she better come home. Then they’d make a trade. What does that even mean, Briar? I can’t lose mom. Not after I lost dad and now you too. Please. Briar. Please help us.”