Free Burden by Lila Felix

we’ve had our first fight, and I’ve neglected your most basic needs. You’re freezing and hungry. I suck already.”
    “You do not. Please don’t say that. I think everything just caught up with me. I am cold and I have more questions.”
    He looked shocked as he reared back to look me in the eye, “I thought you talked to Martha.”
    “There were some things she thought were too—intimate to talk about. Plus, we’ve never talked about the basics.”
    “Come on,” he let me go, sliding me down against his massive frame “You need to get warmed up and fed. Then more question and answer. I have lots too.”
    “You do?”
    “Of course, Coeur, I don’t even know how old you are.”

 
     
     

     
     
     
    After we’d eaten , I tucked us both into a heavy quilt, my grandmother’s wedding quilt. She shivered and cuddled in close to me and a satisfied rumble broke in my chest. Something as simple as sharing my warmth with her satisfied me completely. And my bear was pleased as punch to be near her again.
    “So, how old are you?”
    She smiled up at me, “I’m almost twenty-one.”
    “When?”
    “They found me in August, but I’m not sure what day. What about you?”
    “I’m twenty four. My birthday is January the thirtieth.”
    We stayed up until almost midnight talking and discovering the more human things about each other. I could feel her discomfort dissipate the more she learned.
    “Do you want to run? Everyone should be asleep by now.”
    She looked me dead in the eye, “Because I’m not marked yet.”
    “Yes… Martha?”
    “Mmhm , when will we—I mean when will that happen?”
    I couldn’t help myself. I watched her lips as she asked the sexiest question I’d ever heard. All my bear heard was ‘mark me now’—the horn dog.
    “Whenever you make the decision, Echo. I can still feel a pinch of doubt in that beautiful head of yours and I won’t claim you until all of that doubt is gone. It wouldn’t be right. I want all of you, completely and totally submitted to the mate claim. It will be the only time you are forced to submit wholly to me and I wholly to you. There can be no doubt.”
    She tipped her head in understanding, “But we can still run? I’ve never seen another bear like me.”
    “Well, you’re about to—race you there.”
    She laughed and scrambled off the couch but I’d been tangling her in the quilt the entire time we were on the couch, so I knew I’d beat her. I had an ulterior motive. I wanted to be stripped and shifted by the time she came outside. I knew she wouldn’t be ready to face undressing in front of me so early.
    She gasped as she exited the back door and covered her mouth in wonder. She came to me, stroking my fur, tickling my ear between her fingers, holding my head in her hands. “So this is what I look like, only smaller, probably.”
    I huffed in agreement and nudged her with my muzzle, pushing her to shift so we could play.
    “Ok, but turn around. No funny business—yet.”
    I turned and flounced to the ground, covering my eyes with my paws. My bear was anxious to see her, to play with her, roll on the moss in the swamp, nip at her hind quarters, tumble around with my mate.
    Hurry —it called to her.
    I felt her transition inside of me, tingling and bursting excitement, followed by calm. She was beside me in an instant, pushing her nose under my paws. And the word magnificent didn’t begin to cover her majesty. Her body was streamlined, all speed and agility, her ears were tipped with the barest of browns.
    Mate —my bear called to her, not knowing if it was too soon for her to hear me without the claim or mark being completed. And to my disappointment she showed no signs of acknowledgement. But still, we were together and there were so many things I wanted to show her. So, I pushed her gently, she got the clue and followed me into the swamp, stepping gingerly as her paws first touched the sinking ground. She swatted at bullfrogs with her