Sasquatch’s Claiming (Mated to the Monster: Season 2)

Chapter 8

8

B en wasn’t sure when they eventually fell asleep. When he imagined and fantasized about the day he could have Bernadette as a mate, he never pictured a night quite like what they had just had. The way she got on all fours every time. Her juicy ass in plain view. It was so easy to mount her, and her pussy clenched around him, gripping him tight, making him quiver. She’d milked him hard.

All day and all night.

Not that he was complaining.

He was a very glad participant.

It was hard to believe she had wolf in her. It all made sense now, why she could see through the veil. Why she was wanted by other beings and maybe why he wanted her, why he was drawn to her that night he first met her in The Lusty Kraken.

It also meant no one could take her away. She belonged in this world, on this side of the veil.

Bernadette rolled over, opening one eye. She smiled at him dreamily. “You’re awake.”

Ben grunted. “I went to the lake and caught some breakfast.”

“If you clean it, I’ll cook it.” She leaned up on her elbow, her bob of blonde hair mussed up, her pink nipples bare for him to gaze upon appreciatively.

“Already cleaned.” He set his catch on the counter and then washed his hands.

“How is your arm?”

“Better. I redressed it this morning.” He gestured at the basket. “You have letters from your friend. Many letters.”

Bernadette got up and grabbed the package of mail he’d left neatly tied up on the coffee table. “I need to get in touch with her. I need to close down my old life.”

His heart skipped a beat. “Truly? I mean, you were keeping the apartment for safety.”

“I’m done holding on to it all. I just want to be with you.”

He took one step to cross the room. With ease, he pulled her into his arms and held her. It was everything he wanted to hear for so long.

Something he never thought he’d have.

“I love you. You are a part of my soul,” he murmured.

“I love you too.”

He let go of her so he could put away the fish while she curled up on the couch, naked and so adorable. She began to open her mail. When she was finished with something, she tossed it in the fireplace. Except the ones from her friend. Those, he could tell were bothering her as she went through them.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, finally needing to know what had happened.

“My uncle found out I wasn’t in North Bay. She’s been warning me that he was coming to Thunder Bay.”

“This is the uncle you mentioned before?”

She nodded. “He went missing on his way to Thunder Bay though, but still, he knew where to find me.”

“So the wendigo could have attacked your uncle or?—”

“Is my uncle.” Bernadette shivered.

Just as she put the last letter from her friend back in the envelope, there was a loud crack that sent a shock wave through the forest. All the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and he raced outside, half expecting the forest to be levelled.

The sky was turning pitch black. Clouds were gathering quickly. Last time he saw something like this was when Aoife’s mother came to the woods, shortly before Death arrived and dragged her to hell. When Cillian would arrive, the clouds and forest would also darken, but not like this.

This was something completely different.

Daniel appeared at the bottom of his path.

“Ben,” Daniel called out. “Something has breached the barrier. The portal collapsed and we’re all meeting there. Those of us who are on this side of the portal, that is.”

Daniel bounded away. Ben ran inside and Bernadette was pulling on her clothes.

“I think it’s my uncle,” she said tightly, not even waiting for him to tell her what happened. It was apparent that she heard what had happened.

Ben grimaced. “I think so too.”

“Let’s get this over with. Hopefully we can deal with him. I don’t think I’m pregnant, so that won’t finish him.”

“We’ll take care of him. I’d give my life for you.” He scooped her up in his arms, kissing her on the mouth, tenderly, the way humans seemed to like and how she taught him.

“Ben, I can’t live without you.” She closed her eyes. “If we get through this, will you promise me something?”

“Anything.”

“A wedding. I want a white dress and I want to be your wife. I want to claim you as my husband in this realm. Legally.”

He didn’t know what it would entail, but he didn’t care. He’d do anything for her.

“I will gladly give that to you.”

As Ben carried her through the woods, Bernadette grew angrier and angrier. Mostly at herself for being skittish for so long. Her parents meant well shielding her, but they kept a lot from her.

The wolf thing was empowering. She had always felt a bit out of place with the world and now she knew why. Finally, she felt like she belonged. She wasn’t just some awkward, clumsy, accident-prone curvy girl. She was fierce. An alpha wolf who had found her beastly mate.

There was no way she was going to let her uncle ruin all this for her. He’d ruined so many things in the past. He’d been a horrible stain on her life for too long.

Today, it was all going to end and then she was going to move on with her life and have the happiness she deserved.

The moment they got to where the portal was located, her hair stood on end. There was a hum and crackling. Almost like a transformer had exploded. Aoife had collapsed and Adam knelt on the ground, holding her.

Her hands looked burnt.

Ben’s other brothers were circling a horrific creature and Bernadette knew it was the wendigo, and when the creatures red eyes latched onto her as Ben carried her into the clearing, she knew it was her uncle.

There was no doubt.

Under the evil layer, there was a knowing.

Coraliane was bruised and battered, lying against the ground. It looked like she’d been thrown. There were a few other beings around.

“Someone get Coraliane to a water source,” Adam shouted. “She needs to heal.”

“I can handle it,” an elf said, scooping up Coraliane to carry her away.

Bernadette looked up at Ben.

“She’s a mermaid,” Ben responded. “She’s powerful and no doubt she was helping Aoife keep the portal intact.”

The portal itself, which glowed gold, was cracked and sparking. It seemed to be fading in and out of existence. Aoife tried to stand, but Adam wouldn’t let her.

Ben set Bernadette down and she walked with him slowly over to where Adam was.

“What happened?” Ben asked quietly.

“That thing broke through. Shattered this portal. We tried to repair it, but Aoife was injured. Coraliane is worse off, she was trying to protect Aoife.” Adam glared at the wendigo, which was pacing at the edge of the barrier. At least that was still intact.

It seemed edgy, its eyes locked on her, but it also didn’t seem to want to touch the intact barrier or the axes that were pointed at it by Ben and Adam’s other brothers, as well as a few other magical beings that guarded it.

“ Bernadette ,” it called in her mind.

That horrible voice she often heard.

Now she understood where that voice was from. Her uncle all along.

She took a step forward, but Ben held her back.

“I have this. It’s okay,” she said reassuringly.

“I’ll be with you,” Ben stated.

“I know.” She just knew that she was the only one who could banish this creature. Something Cillian had said to her the one time she had met him was reverberating in her mind. How her blood was powerful, how she alone had to claim Ben.

And she had done that.

Inside, she could feel this powerful light growing within her and she knew what she had to do to destroy this wendigo and send her uncle to the netherworld.

Permanently.

“Uncle,” Bernadette said, calmly stepping in front of Ben’s brothers.

The wendigo grinned, hunched over. “Bernadette, you thought you could hide from me?”

“I know who I am now,” Bernadette stated. “Wolf.”

The wendigo growled. “How?”

Bernadette didn’t give it away. “Does it matter? I know now. I know that I am an alpha and when you were a wolf, you were not. You planned to claim me and force your rank.”

“Your father was an alpha and your mother was human. Those who raised you weren’t even your real parents.”

That stung, but she recalled that memory of her uncle telling the man she thought was her father, that she wasn’t his child. Those two people crying and giving her away in another memory were her real parents. She knew that deep in her soul.

“You know it to be true,” her uncle snarled.

“And if I do?” she countered.

The wendigo laughed. “The alpha who fathered you died. He was my brother. Your adopted parents were part of our pack, but they were even lower than me. They had no choice but to let me in their life.”

“You killed them, didn’t you? You killed my adopted parents in that car crash.”

“I did.”

Rage boiled through her. “You killed my biological parents as well. Didn’t you?”

“How do you think I became what I am. I feasted on their flesh to gain their powers and now I will claim you.” He made a lunge for her, but Ben grabbed an axe and sliced off its arm.

The wendigo let out a god-awful shriek, spurting black blood everywhere as it gripped the remnants of its stump.

“You leave my mate alone,” Ben growled, his voice deep and his eyes flashing with golden burning fire. “She’s my mate. MINE.”

The wendigo hissed, slumping on the ground.

“You have no power over me,” Bernadette shouted. “I am alpha and I carry his young. You need to leave.”

Her uncle shrieked, the skin cracking. “No.”

“Yes. I banish you to the netherworld. You belong there and I hope you rot for all eternity.”

There was a ripple, like an explosion, through the air. As soon as the words came out of her mouth, her uncle, or what was left of him, began to crumple and shrivel. Its body turning to dust. There was another blast of energy and he was gone.

The sky lightened and the heaviness that had come over the clearing dissipated.

Bernadette felt dizzy and Ben caught her, but for the first time in her life, she really did feel free. There was a lightness to the world around her.

“That was it?” Ethan asked, snorting. “Ben had to knock up a wolf to send the wendigo off.”

“Shut your face,” Ben responded.

Bernadette tried to hide her giggle and then made her way over to Aoife, getting bandaged by Adam. She knelt by Aoife.

“Are you okay?” Bernadette asked.

“I’ll be fine.” Aoife smiled. “Little tired.”

“I’m taking you home as soon as I can,” Adam groused.

“The portal is destroyed,” Aoife said. “There are other portals, but we’re a little cut off from Thunder Bay now.”

“It can’t be fixed?” Ben asked.

“I don’t know. It takes another kind of magic. Maybe Cillian would know, but I haven’t seen him in a while,” Aoife said.

“Yeah, it’s a bit weird he isn’t here, being all cryptic and shit,” Daniel stated.

“We’ll just have to travel on foot a bit longer to get to a working portal. That’s all,” Adam said.

“How is Coraliane?” Aoife asked quickly.

“She’ll be fine,” the elf who had carried her to the lake stated, coming in from the trees. “She’s angry about the wendigo and I think she’ll be out for revenge, on what I don’t know. That portal was a main passage for all of us. At least she has a water portal still.”

“I’m sorry he destroyed it,” Bernadette remarked. “If I hadn’t…”

“You need to be here,” Aoife stated. “You’re Ben’s mate and you’re part of this realm. It’s clear there are humans of mixed blood out there and we have to protect them. There are creatures from the nether regions and other realms who would control them or hurt them. It’s clear that we have a duty to everyone within our border. On both sides of the veil.”

There was a murmur, but no one really agreed on anything.

Instead, Adam picked up his wife. “You’re too injured to transport yourself. I will carry you home and put you to bed.”

Aoife just smiled at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Okay. That sounds like a plan.”

Bernadette watched as Adam carried off his wife into the forest. Everyone else slowly started to leave. She turned to Ben, still in shock and processing all that happened. Including the loss of not only one set of parents, but two.

“Are you okay?” Ben asked quietly.

“I think I will be. It’s a lot to process.”

He nodded. “Your parents…I’m sorry.”

“It sucks and I’m still raging about it inside.” She smiled up at him and then touched her belly. “I was told I could only banish him if I conceived and I just…I knew in that moment that I was pregnant.”

Ben touched her face, with just one finger, and traced the outline of her jaw. “I know and I’m thrilled.”

“I’m terrified,” she admitted, laughing nervously. “I believed I couldn’t have children.”

“I am scared too. I never thought that I would have a family.”

She leaned her head against him, clinging to her mate. “I think I also need to find a wolf pack and figure out who I really am.”

“We can do that.”

She smiled up at him. “Why are you so good to me?”

“Easy. You’re my mate. Your happiness I all that matters to me.”

“I think I’m ready to go back home now. To our home.”

“Right. You have a lot of planning to do.” Ben picked her up and carried her away from the clearing.

“Planning for the baby?” she asked. “And yes, planning to cut ties with my old life in Thunder Bay. We’re going to have to get there somehow.”

“Yes, but also our wedding.” Ben smiled at her. “I haven’t forgotten.”

“Then we really do need to get into town. I have to buy material for a dress and dresses.”

“Dresses?”

“I want Aoife to stand up with me. I would have my friend from Goderich, but I don’t think she’s going to understand this world.”

Ben chuckled. “Good point.”

They walked in silence through the trees and she got to enjoy the splendour of the boreal forest that clung to the rocky cliffs and mountains leftover from the glaciers and prehistoric volcanoes. There was a mist settling in over the very tops of the mountains and a chill coming off the lake.

It would be a good afternoon to just snuggle with her monster in bed, and she curled up closer to him.

“Are you happy?” he asked.

“That’s a silly question. I think I’ve showed you that I am.”

He chuckled. “I know. It’s just…you’re giving up so much and I want you to be happy. I don’t want you to ever regret anything.”

“Ben, I’ve lived so long scared and alone. No family, only a few friends. I realize what I was missing was you. I am happy.” She kissed him and then settled her head under his chin, against his furry neck, and listened to his pulse. “I didn’t know that this is what I wanted.”

“What’s that?” he murmured, crashing through the bush, his big feet and long strides walking easily through the craggy, steep and uneven terrain.

“To be claimed by a Sasquatch.”

Ben laughed softly. “Well, I’m glad I could make your dreams come true. I love you, Bernadette, and I am bound to you forever. There is no other. There never will be. You are safe with me.”

As she closed her eyes, she knew that she was safe. His words were true.

There was no more running.

No more hiding. No more looking over her shoulder.

She was free.

She was home.