Pacific Northwest Werebears(79)

“Sorry, is that your sister talking to Jinger?” Conner coughed a little to clear his throat. Just watching her was making him drool. So what, he got caught staring, it was a fine ass to stare at.

“If you’ll behave, I’ll introduce you,” Dax offered. Giving him a nod, he watched Dax call out, “Hey, Kenzi, come meet Conner.”

Conner watched as the tall blonde goddess turned to look at Dax. She was still laughing from whatever she had been talking about to Jinger. She looked at her brother first, gave him a sweet smile. Watching her, Conner took in a beautiful face, lush full lips, an oddly petite nose and shocking golden eyes. With her blonde hair, California tanned skin and those eyes, she seemed to glow.

Then those eyes turned to him and his breath caught in his throat. A whooshing sound started to pulse in his ears. His bear was roaring, frantic to be heard. The whooshing turned into the loud constant beat of his own heart, he heard it skip, then skip again as it resumed a new stronger beat. Without a doubt he knew what it meant. His heart and hers were now in sync. His feet were on the floor, but he was looking down on the scene from above.

Eyes. Those amazing eyes that seemed to change colors as the different emotions played over her face. Now toffee colored eyes were staring back at him in complete shock. He knew, she knew, there was no denying the magnetic pull. Conner’s mate, his mate was a cougar, a shifter like him. She was here, standing mere feet away from him. He was overwhelmed. No, that wasn’t even the word for it. He felt like a bus had just hit him, every muscle in his body strained as his bear tried to push out to smell and touch his mate. He wanted to taste and claim now, not later.

He watched as her breath caught, then caught again as she struggled to come to terms with what was happening too. His first thought was to comfort her, he needed to hold her, tell her it was all right. Bear wanted that, wanted him next to her, the sooner the better.

But as always, Conner held his bear back. Held himself back. This was not fair, he wasn’t going to be the puppet of some unseeing fates. They forced a bear on him when he didn’t want one, he wasn’t going to let them decide who he was going to love.

Fuck, love? He wasn’t in love, he didn’t even know this girl. That’s how crazy this was. He was a man, he could make his own choices, goddamnit.

“Hey man, you okay?” Cage gave him a nudge. He wasn’t sure how long he and what was her name? Kenzi? had been staring at each other. It seemed like hours, but he was sure it was mere seconds.

Without thinking, the second Cage touched his shoulder, he lashed out with a shove. “MINE!”

“Fuck me!” Cage took a step back, his head whipping between Conner and Dax’s sister.

Dax let out a very unhappy growl that had all but two sets of eyes turn to the angry cat.

A quiet fell over the group as everyone turned their attention back to Mackenzie and Conner

Conner looked at the beautiful blonde and watched her mouth, “Mine.”

It was too much, Conner turned and dashed out of the house. He ran stripping off his clothes and let his bear push out of him in agonizing ferocity. Bear wanted to turn back, claim his mate, but Conner didn’t let him take over. He forced him further into the woods. Leaving his mate behind.

What he didn’t see is the minute he turned for the door, the eyes of Mackenzie Hayes filled with tears as she ran into her brother’s arms.





Chapter 6




Conner ran until even his bear couldn’t go any further. He’d reached a high point on the mountain behind his house where he knew there was a small cave. Lumbering into it, he collapsed against the wall and his bear was more than happy to let him take back over.

It wasn’t more than a few minutes later when two bears came into the opening of the cave, both looking pissed and out of breath. In a shimmer, Cage and Wyatt were standing in front of him.

“What the fuck! Why the hell did you just bail?” Wyatt demanded stepping closer to Conner.

“Do you have any idea what kind of insult you just threw out to Dax and his whole family?” Cage stood with hands on his hips in a very disappointed father pose.

Conner let his head fall into his hands, how the hell was he going to explain this to them?

“Your mate, man! You found your mate and she’s a shifter! No awkward conversations, well aside from the one where you explain why you ran out on her. That one might suck just a little bit,” Wyatt offered, looking chagrined once he realized what he’d said.

Sighing Cage stepped in and sat down across from Conner. “First, I want to tell you how thrilled I am to be sitting buck naked in a cave in the dark, thanks for that. Second, why on earth would you run out on your mate? I understand the timing was less than ideal with all of us standing around staring at you. But we would have given you privacy, a chance to talk. Instead, you ran out without a word. Well besides the ‘mine’, which Wyatt and I totally understand.”