Chapter 27

Skin privileges aren’t just about touch. They’re about trust.

—“Skin Privileges: An Exploration” by Xandra Jabi (thesis concept in progress)

THEO WOKE FROM the best sleep of her life. Her entire body felt heavy, but the kind of heavy that indicated a dreamless rest. And she was so wonderfully warm. The fur blanket was—

Fur blanket?

Eyes snapping fully open, she jerked around to come face-to-face with a thick wall of dark brown fur that was rising and falling in a steady rhythm. She probably should’ve been scared, but instead, all she felt was a wondrous fascination. Moving with utmost care so as not to jostle the bed, she sat up.

And took in the bear fast asleep next to her.

StoneWater was made up mostly of Kamchatka brown bears. She’d read that in her research notes on the clan. She’d also read that Kamchatka bears were some of the biggest in the world. She hadn’t actually comprehended what that meant until she took in the astonishing living mountain next to her.

The mass differential made no logical sense.

She didn’t care. She just wanted to touch him.

 . . . I’ll turn into a bear and let you pet me.

Her heart thumped as she remembered that he’d given her permission for what Wild Woman termed “skin privileges.” She probably should let him sleep, but she felt like a child with a forbidden toy. She wanted to touch as she hadn’t wanted anything in an eternity.

A little scared he’d react to her touch as a threat, she nonetheless moved her hand oh-so-carefully to his side. Her heart all but pounded out of her at the sheer wonder of touching this magnificent creature that was Yakov’s other form, the other half of him.

Another kind of twinning, she thought to herself as she sank her fingers deeper into the luxuriant silk of his fur. She’d thought she’d never again feel warm or safe or even a little happy after the numbness engendered by her conscious acceptance of her grandfather’s cruelty—but bubbles of excited joy popped in her bloodstream. A thing she hadn’t felt for so long that it took her a while to pinpoint the emotion.

Yakov slept on as she petted him in long strokes, indulging herself in the feel of him. He was pure power and heat and wild. Right here in bed next to her. She looked at the fancy sheets, then at the claws visible on the paw on which he’d propped his head. Yet there were no rips in the sheets that she could see—and the bed was holding.

Built for bears, she realized. Of course everything in this apartment is built for bears.

Emboldened by her success thus far, she dared move her hand to his head, stroke the softer fur there. He stirred . . . and then he was yawning, that big and dangerous mouth opening to reveal equally dangerous teeth.

She’d frozen at his first movement, but yawn done and eyes still closed, he butted his head against her hand in a silent demand. Theo wanted to laugh in utter delight. She didn’t know how to laugh, but the urge, it was rampant. Twisting to sit cross-legged next to him now that she knew he was awake, she petted him in earnest.

When he turned his head so that her hand ended up near an ear, she went with instinct and scratched him there. He sighed, then gave her his other ear. Theo wasn’t sure she wasn’t dreaming. “If this is a dream, I don’t want to wake up,” she said, leaning down to rub her cheek against his fur.

THE bear that was Yakov smiled, smug that she loved him in this form. He settled into her petting and would’ve happily gone back to his napping except that the human half of him knew they had to get moving if they were going to relieve Moon and Elbek early as he’d promised.

Finally opening his eyes, he allowed himself a moment to take in the happiness on Theo’s face. She didn’t smile, but there was a softness there, a light in her eyes. He felt himself turn to mush.

Chert voz’mi! He was going to be putty in her hands if he wasn’t careful.

Groaning at having to be an adult bear, he lifted his head.

She slid her hand down his neck to lie on his side. “Time to go?”

When he nodded, she looked as disappointed as he felt, and then and there he decided he’d be a bear again for her the next chance he got. When he’d woken earlier with the desperate urge to change into his bear form, he’d hesitated, then thought Theo was tough enough to handle it.

Of course he’d wakened when she had; he was a bear second, his instincts finely honed. He’d been ready to shift back if she showed any signs of fear—but his pchelka was made of sterner stuff.

Proud of her in a way that told him he was heading into ever deeper waters, he considered how to get off the bed. It was built to take his weight in bear form, but Chimeg would set his hair on fire if he tore up her sheets, and while that was easy to avoid when he was dozing, walking on the sheets was another matter.

Theo patted his side. “I’ll go use the bathroom so you can shift.”

He rubbed his head against hers in thanks, and she clenched her hand in his fur for a second. He almost thought he felt her smile before she got off the bed and headed out.

Shifting the second she was gone, he pulled on his borrowed clothes. He had no trouble being naked, but neither was he an undomesticated dolt. Theo was Psy, hadn’t been raised among feral bears. Though, to be fair, were he courting a bear woman, he wouldn’t shift into naked human form in front of her, either—at least not until they were into the intimate skin privileges stage.

This depth of attraction? It altered things.

When he heard the shower come on, he used his time to make up the bed. No point in stripping it, since he had every intention of talking Theo into staying here again tonight. With him. Where she could pet him all over once more. Perhaps even on his human skin this time.

His cock grew hard between one breath and the next.

He groaned again. “Not now,” he said sternly, but it still took teeth-gritted will for him to get his rampant body under control by the time Theo was done with her shower.

He went out to raid the spare clothes stash again as she crossed back to the bedroom, deliberately keeping his back to her. No doubt she was wearing one of the silky guest robes Chimeg stocked in the bathroom, but it’d be oh-so-easy to undo the fabric belt around her waist and unravel that robe, slide his skin over the smooth nakedness of hers.

His cock reacted again.

Clenching his jaw, he grabbed a dark green T-shirt that looked like it’d fit. He could wear his jeans again, just go commando. But since he planned to stay in the city with Theo for the duration, he’d have Pavel or another clanmate drop off some clothes for him.

For now, he had a quick shower, dressed, then finger-combed his hair and was done. “Thanks, Denu,” he said with a grin in the mirror. Because it was his great-grandfather’s genes that meant his hair didn’t tangle, that it fell back into perfect lines no matter what.

“You okay with grabbing food at the bakery?” he called out to Theo after he exited the bathroom. “They stock nutrient drinks, too.” Silver had taught him that Psy needed those nutrients to refuel the psychic parts of their brains—they could get the same through food, but it took a lot longer. Easier to just add nutrients to other meals.

Theo had also spent considerable energy unlocking the gate at the facility yesterday, never mind the emotional energy she’d expended when she’d walked into the past.

“Yes, of course,” she said, emerging from her room wearing dark blue jeans, a gray sweater . . . and his jacket. She’d braided her hair neatly and once again wore that metal bracelet on her wrist. “We don’t want to let down your clanmates after they stepped in to assist.”

They put on their shoes side by side. And when he held out a hand, she slid hers into his. It was only after they were outside that he realized she hadn’t even asked about moving to her apartment.

Bear and man both smiled, and for this misty morning, they didn’t talk about the dark cloud that hovered above, and just kept everything light. Yakov did get an odd prickling sensation when he pulled out onto the street, as if they were being watched, but he saw nothing when he scanned the area.

Might just be the whole Ripper situation making him edgy.

That reminded him not to turn on the radio in the car; he didn’t want news of blood and death to fill the vehicle when Theo looked relaxed for the first time since he’d met her.

When he pulled up in front of the bakery, he groaned. “Bears, fucking bears everywhere.” He looked around. “It’s six in the morning! Not even full light!”

“You’re a bear and you’re here,” Theo pointed out.

He scowled. “I’m different.”

Getting out, they walked into the bakery. A dark-haired male was leaning on the top of the display case, chatting with the owner, Gustav, while a bear cub in cub form clung upside down to his back. Another cub—this one a polar bear—was clinging to his leg like a barnacle.