Very Bearly Mated by Rebel Carter

Chapter 5

Rosie really wished she’d been warned about the shock to her system signing the contract would give her. The second she added the last flourish to her last name, it was like she’d been shot through with fire.

“Fuck!” she screamed, throwing the pen down while Eric winced. “What the hell was that?”

He held out his hands and shook his head. “Toni didn’t say it was going to be like that.”

“Like what? Like I just got a fire poker to the belly?”

He nodded, rubbing a hand against his own stomach. “Yes, holy shit.” He looked at her. “Are you all right?”

The pain was subsiding now, no longer feeling like she was benign ripped apart but just a dull ache that told her it had been there and could still return.

“Yes, I’m fine.” She cleared her throat and looked him over. “How about you?”

He gave her another once over, eyes scanning her slowly for signs of discomfort. “I’ve had worse. More worried about you, Rosie. Do you feel okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said, looking down at the book in front of her. The words on the page were gleaming, looking like they were spun of moonlight and not ink. Iridescent in color and shining bright, the words flared and then died down to their normal inky blackness. She reached out and slapped the book shut. “I’ve had enough of this thing though.”

Eric chuckled. “I couldn’t agree more.” He reached out and picked it up, tucking it under his arm. “I’ll keep it close, but…”

“No more signing anything.”

He nodded. “But now that we have…”

“Now that we have what?” she asked, hands going back to her hips. The dull ache in her stomach was nearly gone now.

“Take a walk with me,” he said.

Rosie leaned forward, her feet wanting to take her closer to Eric but she stayed where she was by sheer strength of will. “I can’t. I’m working.”

He glanced around the coffee shop with a frown. “Fine, then dinner.”

Rosie wanted to tell him no, to buy more time away from him because the dull ache of the pull she’d felt towards Eric was multiplied by a thousand now. It had to be the contract, she knew it. But why did that amplify her feelings, no, not her feelings, but her urge to be close to him? She was free for dinner, but that didn’t mean she intended to go with him. She opened her mouth to tell him no, but it was as if her voice were stolen. She raised a hand to her throat, eyes wide and tried again, but still the words wouldn’t come out.

Something was wrong.

“What the hell is going on?” she croaked. “Why can’t I answer you?” she asked, even though she didn’t need to. Rosie knew exactly why she was having trouble speaking and she glared at the book he had tucked under his arm. She pointed a finger at the book simultaneously with Eric’s answer.

“You signed a contract. It knows you were trying to lie.”

She shook her head. “I’m not-” again her voice cut off and she gasped, throwing her hands up in the air. “This is so not fair.”

“It was in the contract, petal. You read the contract.” He paused and then tilted his head, giving her a scrutinizing look. “You did read the contract, Rosie. Right?”

She shrugged and rocked back on her heels. “More or less.” Eric gave her a doubtful as hell look and she sighed. “I read enough, okay?”

“Rosie, you cannot be signing things without reading them and understanding them. There are fairies around. What if one of them asked you to sign something?”

She scoffed at him. “You think I’m that dumb? I’m impatient, okay? Not an idiot. Of course, I wouldn’t sign anything a fairy gave me.”

Eric didn’t look like he believed her but he sighed and opened the book to the contract and held it out to her. “Right here, Rosie.” He tapped his finger against the parchment and she looked to see where he was pointing.

“Any and all sabotage, deceit—both verbal and non, and/or attempts to intimidate or force consent will be stopped by magical means.”

Oh right. That.

“Shit,” she whispered.

“I’m guessing the stealing your voice bit is the magical means the contract references.”

She frowned, raising a hand to her throat. She’d tried to lie her way out of dinner and the contract knew. How the hell had it known? She sighed and pushed away from the counter with a shake of her head. There was only one way it knew.

“It’s Fey. There’s no other explanation for how thorough that contract is. It knew…” she let her voice trail off and then cleared her throat continuing on, “it knew I was trying to get out of dinner.”

“Why would you try to get out of dinner?”

No use in lying, or covering up the truth. Not now. “To buy more time,” she told him.

“More time? You want time away from me?” Eric asked, and he didn’t sound the way she might have imagined him to be, which was angry or shocked. He sounded hurt. Her heart cracked at the note of sadness in the big bear’s voice. She didn’t like hearing him like that, she liked it even less knowing she’d been the one to put it there.

“This is all just very confusing for me, Eric,” she told him. “But I...I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have tried that. It’s not fair.” She had agreed to give him a chance, she’d struck a bargain and she had to hold up her end of it if things were going to be fair. She also didn’t much want to hurt her mate, not if she could help it.

“I’m sorry, I promise no more lying. Do you forgive me?” Those words came easy and fast, and so did Eric’s answer.

“Always.” He was close to the counter, and put his hands back down on the surface, leaning towards her. His blue eyes were warm and kind, his face open to her and Rosie could read the shifter plainly, which she supposed was the entire point of the contract.

No lies. No deception. Only them.

He smiled at her. “I’ll pick you up at seven, petal.”

Rosie cleared her throat, her heart rate speeding up at the thought of Eric at her home. “I can meet you there-”

Eric waved her off. “No. I’ll pick you up. See you then,” he said and then set off towards the coffee shop door.

“But you don’t even know where I live,” she called after him, putting both hands on the counter and leaning forward watching him walk away.

Eric chuckled, and paused by the doorway, giving her a look. “You really think that? In this town?”

He had a point there. She bet there had been no shortage of people offering to show him the way to her house. Eric knew where she lived, of course he did.

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. See you at seven.”

He winked at her before he left and the gesture warmed her through. She was still staring after him when Alice sauntered back into the coffeeshop. “Well, you look smitten. What happened?” she asked.

Rosie sucked in a breath and turned away from the counter with a shrug. “Nothing,” she said.

“Liar.”

“Fine, we’re having dinner tonight.”

Alice clapped her hands excitedly. “Dinner is nice. Dinner is good. You love food.”

Rosie stopped where she’d started on stacking mugs behind the counter. “Why do you sound so excited? Weren’t you with me on the ‘no dopey bear mates’ train just yesterday?” she asked.

Alice waved a hand at her. “Yeah, but that was before I found out he carried you through town like a sack of potatoes. That’s hot. Plus, he owns Wildin’ Waites, and that place is awesome. If you two are mated then you own that bar, and that means I’ve got connections for when I’m twenty-one in another couple of months!”

Rosie crossed her arms. “Gee, I’m really happy to know your support follows your ability to drink with the humans.”

“Look, it’s Alaska. A fox has got to get what she can get for fun, okay? Besides, winter will be here soon enough, but even without that I had some time to think and I honestly think Eric would and could be a good match for you.”

Rosie shook her head. “You know what I think about staying put, Alice.”

“But if there’s nothing wrong with Oak Fast, why would you want to leave? Don’t you like it here, with all of us? We like you,” Alice asked and for the second time that day Rosie glimpsed hurt in someone she cared for.

“Alice, it’s not that I don’t like it. It’s just that I don’t...I don’t know how to stay put. I’ve always moved around. My family didn’t know how to do anything else.”

Alice nodded, her lips pulling down into a frown. “You said your family was kind of awful.”

Awful was an understatement. They’d never cared about her, or anything she was interested in, nor had they nurtured her past the bare minimum. It had always been about their needs, wants and the pursuit for more power. The fact that Rosie had outclassed them all in terms of power hadn’t helped. There had always been a touch of envy when it came to her family and as soon as she was able she’d packed up and left.

That had been ten years ago. Last she’d heard of them they were in South America taking up with shamans down there and dabbling in volcanoes. Whatever that meant. She didn’t know and she hadn’t cared enough to learn so long as they stayed away from her. They’d never been there for her and she didn’t want them now. That all meant she wasn’t used to this. The this being a work family and community that wanted her around.

She smiled at Alice. “They were, but that-that doesn’t mean, well,” she dropped her eyes to the floor, “it just means I need a little more time wrapping my head around home, or what staying put means.”

Alice came forward and put a hand on her arm. “And that’s okay.” The two women stood still for another heartbeat and then Alice hugged her tight. The gesture filled Rosie’s heart to the brim and she hugged her friend back tightly.

“Thank you,” Rosie whispered.

“Always,” Alice told her and the thought of what home could be, the notion that she needed constant movement to find just the “perfect” place to settle down cracked just a little bit more, because right now Oak Fast felt pretty perfect.