RANCHER BEAR’S BABY(21)

“Oh, no you don’t.” She blocked the doorway and wagged her finger at me. “We should talk. I’m supposed to be engaged to you. You can’t just leave.”

I growled low in my throat and used my nose to nudge her away from the door. Only, my bear didn’t seem to want to leave her. He kept his head next to her, breathing in her scent.

She actually giggled and rubbed the top of my head. “You’re cute like this. Much better than a mean old gator. Your fur is soft, too. Like a puppy I had once when I was little.”

First off, cute? Lady, a 400 pound grizzly is not cute. Second, neither of us liked being compared to a dog, so we growled. Loud. Like a bear.

She rubbed behind my ears and grinned at me. “Okay, no dog references. Got it.”

I rubbed against her side again, enjoying the way I felt in her presence. Calm. Soothed. Damned if my bear was putty in her hands. He grunted happily when she rubbed us and was almost as bad as a puppy.

“You’re sweeter as a bear. Much sexier as a man, though. I’d like it if you changed back so we could talk.”

My body acted on its own accord. Within a blink of an eye, I was man again, kneeling at her feet, with my face buried against her stomach. Her hands were still in my hair, pulling softly through the messy strands. I looked up at her and my heart started racing. I finally cued into what my bear was chanting and froze. Over and over bear was saying it.

Mate.

Running out on her wasn’t my finest moment, but, I don’t know, I just freaked out. I was bear again before I even stepped paw off my porch. I ran deep into the woods, despite my bear’s will protesting, and vowed to stay away until the human woman left.

I didn’t need a woman. I didn’t want a woman. Most of all, I didn’t think I could be with a woman. I’d become more beast than man.

Hell, I wasn’t sure she’d even be safe with me.





CHAPTER 5: Leila




It hadn’t taken me long to run the man off, that was for sure. I certainly had a gift where the opposite sex was concerned. I got dressed in one of his flannel shirts and the same jeans I’d arrived in before searching his cabin for food. He had absolutely nothing. I found his truck keys sitting under a few weeks of mail on the counter, though. If he wasn’t going to stay home and talk to me, I’d just have to figure some things out on my own.

Mostly, I needed to get away from his scent for a while. My heart was beating like I’d just run a marathon, and my downstairs hadn’t dried since I laid eyes on him. Weird. I was reminded of whisperings I’d heard about similar reactions.

While with my ex, Steven, I’d learned lots of things that had, at the time, made my head swim. Like the fact that shifters even existed at all. I didn’t realize there were so many different types, either. But I had learned a thing or two about them, none the less. Steven and his family were alligators and they were as mean as the day was long. There was no sense of humanity in them that I’d ever seen.

They’d talked as though all other shifters were pussies compared to gators, and I’d been around enough to know that not all shifters were like Steven and his family. It was the only reason I hadn’t run screaming when Matt opened the door.

I’d also heard a little about shifter mates. Women had once in a while whispered about shifters having true mates, others who they were fated to pair up with. Mates found one another through fate. The reaction between mates was sometimes, but not always, supposed to be instantaneous. Attraction like no other and ‘love at first sight’ was the phrase many women had used. A mated pairing was highly regarded and respected amongst shifters. I had thought it was a load of crap at the time.

After meeting Matt, I wasn’t so sure. Something definitely took over my psyche today. While stroking Matt’s bear’s fur, I had experienced a warmth and serenity unlike any I’d ever felt before. I was enveloped in an indescribable feeling of safety and comfort, enough to want to curl up beside his bear and sleep. That was his bear; when he was man, I wanted to jump his bones. One large one, especially.

Matt hadn’t reacted to me the same way, though. There were no sweet murmurings or holding each other. In fact, he’d run out of there so fast, it was almost as though his ass was on fire. Definitely not ‘love at first sight’.

I tied his shirt at the waist so it didn’t look ridiculous on me and then hurried through the cold to his truck. I had my own money and I needed a few things if I was going to set up camp in his cabin. And, I was definitely going to set up camp. Beatrix had done me a giant favor, sending me to Matt Long. I wasn’t going to waste the opportunity.