The rest of the night is a blur of repeating my story a dozen times and getting checked over by doctors at the hospital.
After we left the sheriff's, Caleb took Bear up to his place, and I went in the ambulance to Santa Fe. We'd only been given bread and small rations of water for the duration of captivity and Rachel passed out by the time the ambulance arrived. She'd been there the longest-eight months. According to everyone who heard the story, we're all lucky to be alive, considering the mental state of our captor. The other women's families were contacted and the hospital is trying to keep the media out for their privacy. I'm glad I was never reported missing-maybe I can stay out of the stories.
Caleb waits with me in the hospital room. I'm sitting on the bed, he's in the chair beside it.
"Is there someone I should call? Your parents or someone else?"
"Oh, um…" Disappointment hits me like a punch to the solar plexus. For some reason, I thought I'd be going back up to Caleb's. But maybe that was the wrong assumption.
He must see my fluster, because he picks up my hand. "I'll be taking care of you tonight, of course. I just didn't want to intrude. You know, if someone else should know what's going on."
Happiness seeps back in. "Oh. No, I can worry my parents with the story later. They're going to freak out completely, but it can wait."
He nods. "Good. I'm bringing you back to my place tonight."
Contentment flows through me like an easy river. Back to Caleb's. Where I spent two of the best days of my life.
He cups my chin. "Listen, Miranda. I didn't like the way we left things."
I lick my lips. "Wh-what do you mean?" My heart is beating hella fast. I just survived being kidnapped and tortured. Talking about a relationship with Caleb shouldn't make me break out into a cold sweat, but it does.
"I mean…" He runs a hand down his beard. "I want to see you again. I don't want things to end. I know you have your career-"
"I don't want things to end, either," I blurt, then feel my face heat.
Caleb wraps a large palm around the back of my head and pulls me to stand, claiming my mouth with all the aggression of a wild animal.
I surrender happily, letting him plunder my mouth with his tongue, moaning when he drags my lower lip through his teeth.
"Then we're agreed," Caleb breathes when he breaks the kiss.
The nurse clears her throat from the doorway. "The doctor signed your release papers. You can check out at the desk."
"Great." I beam at her, taking Caleb's hand and letting him lead me out to his truck.
Caleb
MIRANDA and I need to talk but I've been too busy fucking her brains out. I had her in my bed. On the living room floor. Over the couch. Against the kitchen counter. On the bed again. She's there now, a limp rag doll, panting as she recovers.
I was gentle at first, feeling terrible about the torture she endured, and the gash I gave her with my claws. But then I lost control and had to take her roughly. In every position imaginable.
I pretty much kept her up all night. Now that I've decided I can have her, I'm ravenous. My bear wants to claim her permanently.
It's strange for a bear to get the urge to permanently mate. Even stranger that I've had it twice. Of course, I can't mate Miranda. She's not a shifter. But the fact that I want to is a delicious conundrum. I feel more alive than I have in years. Anything feels possible.
I stroke her thick red locks back from her face, marveling at how pale her skin is. The black bear and the red-haired science goddess. She's a warrior in her own right. Saving the Earth with her dogged determination to catalogue and report on climate change.
"I have to go back today," Miranda sighs.
"Yeah. About that." My throat goes dry. I don't even know what I'm asking. Or at least, I'm ambivalent about it. I want Miranda and she lives in Albuquerque. But I'm a bear and I belong in the forest.
Miranda turns big questioning greens on me.
I swallow. "I could go down with you. Make sure you get there safe and settle in."
Miranda smiles the brightest smile ever seen. "That would be great. I would love that. You could stay as long as you wanted. I mean, if you don't need to get back here or anything."
Something releases in me and my eyes sting. I'm really going to let myself have this. Have her. I'm really going to move past my tragedy and live again.
I roll on top of her, leaning on my forearms to protect her from my full weight. "I don't like to be away from the forest, but I also don't want to be away from you."
Her breath catches, a sheen of tears glints in her eyes. "I don't want to be away from you, either." Her lips tremble.
I drop kisses across her forehead. Her temples. The bridge of her nose. "So I'll come to Albuquerque. Make you breakfast and keep you safe. We'll see how the bear does in captivity."
Tears spill from her eyes. "I don't want you to leave your home, but having you in Albuquerque would be incredible. Promise me you'll come back here as soon as you get itchy. Or you get sick of me."
I thrust my hips against hers, showing her how quickly my need for her returns. "You think I'd ever get sick of this?" I spear her with my erection and she whimpers, sore from all the sex we've had.
I take mercy on her and pull back out.
"Besides, I have a newfound interest in watching you tromp all over the competition in trivia. I'm thinking of bringing you to Burbank to compete on Jeopardy."
She laughs.