Free Bear The Blaze (Firebear Brides 3) by Anya Nowlan Page B

It was happening so fast, but it all felt… right. And it knotted her stomach up, knowing that what she wanted to tell him mirrored his feelings almost to the word.
    “I don’t want to leave,” she said with a small smile, brushing away tears that threatened to come to her eyes.
    His face lit up and he grinned widely, the warmest smile she’d seen on him yet. “Really?”
    “Really,” Abigail nodded, scooting up a bit to be level with his face. “I don’t know what this is exactly, but I feel it too. I don’t want to walk out on you without giving this a chance to go where it’s going. I love your darkness, and if you need it, I can shine a light in there and make it a bit brighter,” she said with a grin.
    “It’s a deal, then,” Ragnar growled, a different kind of spark coming to his eyes, one that promised something that Abigail had been craving since that hot afternoon in the workshop.
    “Deal,” she whispered, and she kissed him firmly on the lips, not willing to wait a second longer.
    Whatever came next, she was ready for it. Arsonist bears, crazy wills, bear family drama, you name it. Abigail Ramirez was the right kind of girl to tough it out. As long as she could be curled up in the arms of her very own firebear, she was willing to give anything a shot.
 

EPILOGUE
    Ragnar
     
    The road to recovery was always a long one. It was made all the more longer when there was a cloud hanging over one’s head. But having the right kind of people around sure made it easier.
    Ragnar smirked to himself, tossing a heavy crossbeam on his shoulder like it didn’t weigh a thing and carrying it to the building site. Royce and Redmond were hard at work erecting the framing, and by the evening they hoped to have the structure mostly complete. Now that Abigail had decided to stay with them, setting up a decent workshop for her seemed like the first thing to do.
    The last week or so had been pure heaven. He’d barely gotten out of the room, let alone the house because of the amounts of fun he was having with Abigail. Choosing to give the family some rest from their loud and passionate lovemaking, he’d moved both of them into one of the secondary houses on the farm. It was in as shoddy of a condition as Hamilton House, but everything could be fixed with time.
    The only thing he did take time for was continuing his investigation on the Hasslebacks. From what he could tell, Slade still hadn’t returned and Sear was alone in their house. He’d seen the look on the man’s face. In retrospect, Ragnar should have realized immediately when he saw Sear that the bear at least had nothing to do with the fire that had almost killed Abigail, but he’d been too fucking angry to think straight at that point.
    Good thing that Abigail had been there, because Redmond and Royce had been wound up just as tight. Having only recently found their mates, a threat to one of the women boiled over into a state of emergency for all three Hamiltons.
    “You okay with that?” Royce queried, giving Ragnar a questioning look as he sat on one of the beams high above.
    It needed to be a tall building, since they needed to fit Old Bell in there and they were eventually going to add another fire truck into their stable soon enough.
    “He’ll be fine,” a familiar, low voice called from the distance.
    Ragnar dropped the beam off his shoulder, whipping around. A wide grin plastered itself on his face as he watched the approaching figures of Abigail and Rhodes draw near.
    “Holy shit, I can’t believe it,” Redmond hooted, dropping down from the high beams with all the ease of a big cat. Royce swiftly followed him. “Rhodes Hamilton, the lost brother!”
    Ragnar glanced at Abigail’s smiling face, his heart growing twice in size every time he saw her, and then locked eyes with Rhodes. His little brother looked… weathered. There was a dullness in his eyes that Ragnar knew too well, but the cocky smirk on his lips still carried all of that