A Wary Heart-25

The kiss between the two was gentle and natural, Maria's heart beat wildly as the hand of the male that was on her cheek moved down to her waist being careful of the bruise on her ribs.

Maria's face was slightly red and flushed as Will deepened the kiss gently as he softly nipped her lip in a moment of boldness.

Maria was surprised as she wrapped her arms around his neck as he gently pulled her a little closer.

His mind was nitpicking every little detail as he thought about deepening it again but thought against it and broke the kiss.

Maria slowly opened her eyes as he looked at her, before coughing and adverting his gaze as his face flushed a deep red.

He knew their feeling about eachother we're the same since the spouse bond was triggered but he couldn't help but feel he wasnt good enough.

Was it selfish to want this female so badly?

Even though his arms were covered in scars and his chest now bore sign of a fight.

Maria just smiled at him as her face was tinged pink as she giggled.

"Well... in any case, I'm worried that Roy will come back..." Maria said as she continued doctoring the wound on his chest as his ears perked.

"I'll make sure he won't be able to walk if he tries anything again, I promise you this Maria."

Will's voice was confident as she looked up and him and gave him a wide and cheerful smile.

"Thank you Will, I for one know I can trust you. Your heart is genuine." She said softly as she looked at him fondly, Seb walked out of the room and looked over.

"There's a pretty nice nest back there Mary can take." The tall male said as he motioned back at the back room.

Maria looked back and gave a smile, as she looked at his honey brown eyes.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, what kind of handsome stoic male would I be if I let a charming female sleep on the floor?" Seb said as he teased softly as he sent a wink over, Maria gasped and rolled her eyes.

"Haha. Sureeeeee." She said as she went back to medicating the Bear males chest.

Will looked at Seb in curiosity as Seb went to the opening of the hole.

"Where are you off too?" Will asked as he looked as Seb looked out, Seb glanced at the two and gave a confident smile.

"Planning on hunting before the weather gets bad, clouds are looking pretty dark." Seb grunted as he looked out, Maria looked towards the opening at the sky as she narrowed her gaze.

"Be careful." She said softly as she put away the charcoal ointment.

"Yeah... those clouds don't look very good don't want to get caught up in that." Will said as he watched Maria get up, as he did the same. She didn't wrap his wound since it needed to breath.

"Yeah, yeah... I'll be fine try not to miss me too much sweeties." Seb said with a laugh as he shifted into his tiger form and carefully climbed dorn the tree, Maria sighed worriedly as she shook her head at his words.

She went to the bag and took out the pelts and went to the back room.

Will followed her curiously, as his ears perked up, Maria enter the room and put the pelts onto the nest of leaves and brush.

"He's quite bold." Maria noted with a awkward laugh as Will watched her leaned against the wall.

"Are you interested in him?" Will said in a soft and genuine voice as he crossed his arms.

"I- what?" She said looking over her shoulder as she was messing with the nest, she was shocked he asked that.

"Um... well are you interested in taking him as a m-mate?" Will repeated as Maria looked at him in shock.

"Will, I already have you why would I need another?" She said as she really didn't understand why exactly he was asking all of this.

Will tilted his head at her softly as one of his ears flicked.

"Uh... um w-well I mean most females have more than one male... so." Will said as he adverted his gaze starting to wish that he hadn't even asked the question.

"Will, were I'm from... you don't really have more than one romantic relationship." Maria said nervously as she arched a eyebrow at the male.

"Oh? r-really? So are there a lot of unmated males then?" Will said curiously as Maria sat onto the nest and positioned things where she wanted them.

"No?" She said tilting her head in confusion.

Will walked over as he talked to her he was very curious which showed in his body language.

"So... females are common in y-your world." He said as he put a hand on his chin as he listened to her gentle voice.

"Yes, their not common here I presume?" She said as she thought that was a little weird, she softly twirled her hair around a finger as she thought.

"It's...um hard to have a baby female here yes. S-so there is a lot more males." He said softly as she finally came to a conclusion.

"Ah! so that's why some of the females in the Bear Tribe had multiple males. I was wondering why Pip had so many." She said as she remembered Will's mother.

"Uh...Y-yeah the female to male ratio is very bad." Will said as he nodded Maria thought and sighed as she put her head in her hands as thunder rumbled outside the tree.

"This world is so complicated..." The woman groaned as she rubbed her eyes, Will thought for a minute as he nodded.

"I can see how you think that." Will said softly as he sat infront of the black haired woman..

"Will, can you tell me anything else I may need to know?" Maria said lifting her gaze as she looked at the man, his ears pricked forward as he thought.

"Well... I can't really um... think of anything off the top of my head." Will said in honesty as he softly traced a crack in the wood floor.

"How bout on the topic spouse bonds?" She said looking up at the male, he sorta looked surprised as she looked at him.

"We don't have those in my world, it's more of a invisible bond if that... makes sense." She said awkwardly as, he nodded and thought.

"Well... uh a spouse bond is created between a Male and a Female with mutual feelings between them. You get a bracelet with a specific look on it it's different from each species." He paused as he looked at the gold bracelet that clung to his left wrist.

"It is formed through a kiss, and sealed with a jewel once.... u-uh mating takes place." Will said the last part and coughed while looking away as he rubbed his neck, Maria's face slightly flushed but she listened.

"The bracelet warms up when we touch, because it's releasing a pheromone which calms the pair... and deepened the bond between the two." Will said as Maria thought for a moment finding it interesting, she looked at the bracelet which was clung to her wrist.

"Umm... The female can reject the males bond with her at anytime, males can't cancel the bond. If a female cancels a bond with a male, that male cant ever be mated again and will become a rogue..." Maria's eyes widened as she looked at him remembering what Will said when they first got pushed into the spouse bond.

"Will! Y-you said...that day you said, I could reject you.... Will you were willing to be made into a rogue!?!" She said as she felt her heart crack a bit for the male as Will just smiled gently.

"W-Will... Why?" She asked as her tone was saddened Will looked down and grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips and kissed it.

"Maria, you..." His face was bright red as he spoke, even though it was his own action which caused his blushing.

"Maria... I-I wanted you to have a choice in the m-matter without thinking about what it'd do to me... it was a accidental spouse bond I wasn't sure it you wanted it or not, I didn't want you forcing yourself Maria." Will said as he looked into her pale blue eyes as she looked at him shocked.

"Will! You idiot." She muttered as she about tackled him into her embrace, feeling overwhelmed at her own emotions.

It was that moment when Maria realized how much the male thought about her care and feelings. They meet not long ago yet Will, put so much thought into her.

Will went stiff as his face beamed red, he thought for a moment before wrapping his muscular arms around her waist gently the movement was slightly awkward as her arms were around his own neck.

"I'm sorry... i-if I've upset you." Will said softly into her ear as she shook her head and smiled as a few tears spilled down her cheeks.

"No... Will you made me realize something, I'm so happy we meet." She said as she looked at him placing a kiss to his cheek which resulted in his face becoming the color of a lobster.

Will adverted his gaze awkwardly as he looked away when Maria smiled at his awkwardness.

She wondered if he'd ever get used to affection, but his reactions were cute and she secretly wished he'd stay like this forever.

Thunder Rumbled again as she looked up from Will's shoulder, hearing the downpour of rain hitting the side of the tree.

She wondered if Seb was back yet as she released Will.

"I'm going to go check the other room, are you coming?" The woman asked as she stood up and smiled at him as she paused when she got to the makeshift door.

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Will said nodding as he stood and followed as she went to the other room it was raining harshly outside as lightening flickered across the dark sky.

"Seb's not back yet..." Maria's said as she looked out of the hole and sighed....

•Seb's•

Rain hit the pelt of Seb as the large Tiger drug a deer carcass as lightening crackled and thunder rumbled.

Seb didn't bother shifting forms as night had fell and he wasn't to far from the tree and would need this form to climb.

His light brown eyes flickered around as he moved, his mostly black pelt matches his surroundings well as his jaws held the deer.

A Raven flew down and perched on his back as the rain whipped harshly.

The bird had two mismatched eyes one yellow and one a blue color as it shook it's feathers, Seb knew the bird and sighed as he accepted giving the bird a ride as he walked.

The bird was a younger man by the name of Humphrey, he was a little annoying and overly curious about everything but Seb saw him more as family than anything.

Seb finally got to the tree and lurched forward as he climbed dragging the deer up.

The bird flew off at the motion as rain pelted them both.

Once Seb had finally made it in the Raven flew into the hole aswell.

Seb shifted his form as the deer fell to the floor, he shook out his hair and looked over to Humphrey as he arched a eyebrow at the Raven as the thunder rumbled.

Neither Maria or Will were in the main room, as the Raven shook its feathers out and tilted it's head at Seb.

"What do you want Humphrey?" Seb said sighing as he got some cutting stones from the bag, the Raven shifted into the young man as he just smiled at Seb.

"Nothing I just saw you and thought Id say hi!" he chirped as he sat on the floor, Seb grunted and nodded as he skinned the deer.

"Well, I suppose there inst any harm in that as long as you don't make it a habit." Seb said jokingly as Humphrey laughed.

"Uh huh, but you know you love me." He said as he dramatically put his hand over his forehead as his pitch black hair swayed.

"Keep dreaming buddy." Seb retorted as he bickered back.

This went on for a couple minutes before Humphrey sighed and looked at the older male.

"I reckon it's about time I make my leave, before my spouse has my head." Humphrey whined as he shifted into a Raven and spread his wings and flew out of the hole and Seb watched him leave silently.

His tail flicked as he got finished with carving away the meat, his ear flicked back hearing movent as he looked towards the back room Maria was looking at him curiously.

Seb looked at her for a minute before giving a friendly smile.

"Oh Marvin, did ya miss me?" Seb said as he laughed putting his hands on his hips as he sat on the floor by the square fire pit which was surrounded by sand.

"I might have if you actually called me by my real name." Maria said as she pursed her lips heading over to Seb curiously.

Seb chuckled as he ran a hand through his dark black hair which had very few specks of orange in it.

"Ah, well I'm sorry bout that love. I can make it up too you with food?" Seb said as he put some wood into the pit before skillfully lighting it.

"I ate some left over meat from yesterday." She said as she crossed her arms, and looked as the fire began to crackled. Thunder rumbled angrily in the sky as the rain poured.

"Mmm, well I suppose I could flatter you into forgivin' me?" Seb teased as he put raw meat over the fire. Maria smiled and chuckled a bit but she shook her head.

"Who was that? The person who left just now?"