Page 27 of Promising Her Forever

Apollo-bear finally wiggles his way into the living room where he takes up a lot of it. As a human, he stands six foot six. But as a polar bear? When he’s sitting, he’s about six feet. But standing? He’s pushing over eight feet. He opens his mouth and smiles at everyone.

“Back away slowly. I heard they won’t chase you if you don’t give them a reason to.” Daphne says quietly.

Apollo makes a noise like he’s annoyed. Seraphina goes over to him and kisses his muzzle.

“Why are you touching the killer bear?” Riley asks.

“Apollo would never kill any of us. If someone was hurting me, he might…”Seraphina smiles as she continues to let Apollo nuzzle her.

“Did you just call that killer bear, Apollo?” Riley frowns. “Why would you name it after your husband?”

Daphne is gripping Riley’s arm and they’re trying to back away from Apollo-bear. But there’s really no where to go.

“I didn’t name it after Apollo. That IS Apollo.” Seraphina laughs.

“Are you all fucking with us? How is that Apollo?” Riley whispers. “Holy fuck. You weren’t joking when you were explaining that they’re shifters?”

I shake my head no.

“A-are you a shifter too?” Riley asks Seraphina.

“I am. I’m a Taipan snake. Our family are all Taipan snakes.”

“Wait. You’re a snake, like the one that tried to kill us. And Apollo’s a polar bear and you’re married?”

“Yes. There’s a lot to us being shifters. One day we’ll sit down and talk.” Seraphina smiles.

“I’d like that. Because I’m still not sure that I’m not hallucinating.”

I laugh more. “Why don’t we all head to the hospital. Fiorella will love to hear this story when she’s out of surgery and awake.”

I have to believe that Fiorella will be okay. Our family can’t lose anyone because of Playboy.

CHAPTER TEN

Riley

Finding out about shifters is like a dream. That was never something I thought would be real. Not ever. But now that I know? I want to know more. But first I need to know that Fiorella’s okay and hopefully she doesn’t blame me for her getting shot.

“What’s going through that beautiful head of yours?” Fionn whispers as he holds me.

“What if Fiorella hates me?”

“Baby, I know Fiorella, she’s going to tell you that none of this was your fault. That there was nothing you could’ve done to change this.”

“Thank you. It scares me to think that any of the family might be mad at me. I’ve come to see them as my family too.”

“They are your family.Iam your family.” He says as he kisses me.

We join the rest of the family in the surgical waiting room. Every one of them hugs me and I can’t help the tears that arefalling. Finally, after another hour, a doctor came out. Fionn tells me that his name is Jérôme Laurent and he’s another member of the mafia family. He tells us that Fiorella is doing well. That the bullet went through cleanly and didn’t hit any organs she will be in recover for about an hour. Then he’ll move her to a private room and then we can all see her. For now, her mama, Rosaura went to sit with her.

“I’m going to get on the security upgrades for our buildings. Mam told me she really doesn’t want to keep the bakery closed for more than a day. So if it’s okay, I’m going to grab as many guys…” Sebastiano starts to say as his sister Giovanna is squinting at him.

“And girls I can…” he squints back at her. “To get it done as fast as we can.”

“Okay. Make sure you’re all paying attention to your surroundings. Head on a swivel and no one goes anywhere alone. I don’t care what the reason is. No one.” His papà, Enea, says to him.

“Sì, papà.”