Page 12 of Bearly in Love

ten

MADISON

Bo and I ate a disgusting number of cookies while I sat on his lap—actually clothed this time—and we crushed the other teams in Call of Duty. We were only defeated once. We both agreed there must’ve been a Wi-Fi lag or something, because we totally deserved to win.

Things had changed between us while we played. We felt like… friends.

It was weird, but in a good way.

A really good way.

The way things had only been on a few different occasions when I was a kid and teenager. Bo and Artie had so rarely been willing to hang out with me that the times they did were some of my favorite memories.

And least favorite, considering many of them involved arguing. Loudly. Sometimes violently, when one or more of us shifted forms and we ended up fighting like literal animals.

“So,” Bo said, leaning back against the couch cushions. One of his hands was on my thigh. The other was sprawled over the armrest.

“So.” I turned a little, meeting his gaze for a moment.

His eyes lingered on mine. “I’m not ready for this to end.”

The words took a moment to register. When they did, my body warmed. “I’m not either.”

“Then tell me something.”

“What kind of something?”

“Anything. About your friends. I haven’t heard their names before. Or about your dance studio. I hadn’t heard that you took over.”

“My friends are lot more interesting than my dance studio.”

Bo squeezed my thigh lightly. “I have a hard time believing that.”

“One of them is a blood witch. The other one is a kelpie.”

I caught him off guard with that.

“Don’t most witches hunt blood witches?” he finally asked.

“Mmhm. Sage would be dead, but she mated with a phoenix. The guy who runs the resort, Liam. I think I told you about them. Anyway, his magic keeps her alive somehow if someone tries to kill her. She’s strong enough that no one really gets into the resort unless she lets them, so that doesn’t happen often. ”

“Damn.”

“Yeah. She’s crazy powerful. I was there this one time when this vampire guy threatened her, and she drew a rune on her leg with her own blood to poison him. Her magic killed like a dozen vampires.”

“Remind me not to get on her bad side.”

I smiled. “The funny thing is, she doesn’t really have a bad side. You wouldn’t think she could be vicious the first time you met her. Or any of the other times. She just protects herself when she has to. Vera is a lot more vicious than Sage is.”

“Vera is the kelpie?”

“Yep.”

“What does a kelpie even look like?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t going to ask her to shift.

I think it’s some kind of water horse monster?

Vera is insanely good in the ocean, so I’m sure about the water thing.

You should’ve seen her on that surfboard.

” I shook my head. “Actually, she’s looking for her fated mate in hopes of avoiding her own arranged marriage.

So if you want to meet her, I can set it up. ”

Though I immediately hated the idea, I didn’t want my friend to get stuck marrying the bastard she was engaged to any more than I wanted to get trapped with my fiancé forever.

“Bears don’t have fated mates,” Bo said.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t be hers.”

He made a noncommittal noise. “Even if fate wanted me with her, I wouldn’t be interested.”

“Yeah, I know you don’t want a mate.”

“Not because of that.”

“Then why?”

Bo didn’t respond right away.

His hand lingered on my thigh. If we hadn’t spent a few hours tangled up in each other earlier, his grip would’ve been way too intimate. The touch was far from just friendly.

But we had been tangled up together.

And things between us were intimate, now. At least until I left in three to nine days.

I was crossing my fingers for nine.

“Ambrose.” I poked his knee. “Hello? Why don’t you want a mate?”

“I know what mating means for most bear shifters. It’s agreeing to be loyal to a woman, knocking her up, and walking away.

A few guys in the clan have moved in with their mates and are trying for a real mate bond, but I’m not willing to risk putting a cub through the childhood I survived.

” His voice was low, his grip on my thigh tightening as he spoke.

“I get that.” I nodded. “If I had the choice, I would never mate with someone I didn’t love. Forever is a long time with someone you don’t even like. Life on its own is too long for that.”

Bo grunted in agreement.

“I interact with a lot of kids, but I hadn’t heard that any of the bears were trying to live with their mates,” I added.

“Probably because you teach dance, and most of us don’t have daughters.”

“Probably.”

“It started a decade or so ago, with some of the older guys. I only heard about it a few years back. Two or three. Ran into Hudson at the grocery store. You remember him?”

“Vaguely. Wasn’t he always with that blonde? Callie?”

“Yup. They ended up mating and getting married. They’ve got a little girl now. She’s a toddler, I think. I don’t know much about kids. They live together, though. Seems like they’re in love.”

“Wait, they had a human baby?” My forehead creased.

That never happened.

Shifter genes were too strong.

“Nah, she’s a shifter. First female cub born in more than a century. You should’ve seen the party the clan threw.”

When I looked back, I found him rolling his eyes.

“Tell me they didn’t arrange a marriage for her,” I said.

“No. Someone mentioned it at the party, and Hudson nearly killed them.”

“Then it really was a shifter party.”

Bo snorted. “Guess so.”

“At least they’re protecting her. Hopefully Hudson and Callie’s marriage attempt keeps working.”

“The way he looked at Callie, I think it might.”

“He was obsessed with her their whole lives, wasn’t he?”

“Yeah. He started fights with anyone who looked at her too long. Threatened more than his fair share of human guys, too. He says he knew she was his when they were kids.”

“He thinks they’re fated?” Surprise lifted my voice, and my eyebrows.

“Yup.”

“What do you think?”

Bo was silent for a moment before he answered. “I think it’s natural for shifters to get attached to a person because of the way they smell or the time we’ve spent around them. That obsession isn’t a statement about fate. We’re just animals.”

I nodded.

He had mentioned a little bit of an obsession with me, and we obviously weren’t fated.

Bo definitely hadn’t threatened everyone who came close to me, either. Artie did that. And Bo had fucked women while I was listening, just to try to prove to himself that he wasn’t interested in me. I was pretty sure fate would’ve frowned on that.

So yeah, we weren’t fated.

If Hudson and Callie were, their connection had to be a lot different than ours. Bo and I hadn’t even been friends until… well, today. While the other couple had been basically inseparable their entire childhoods.

“What other drama has happened in the clan?” I asked.

“They decided to stop shunning me.”

“Seriously?” My eyebrows jumped upward.

“Yep. The thing with guys deciding to live with their mates has started to change things. One of the couples already has three kids. Reed and Wren.”

“So they’ve realized that liking your mate actually leads to more children among extremely fertile shifters? Shocking.”

Bo chuckled. “Right. They’ve been worried about our numbers for so long that they’ve actually hurt them more by pressuring us to accept arranged bonds.”

“Morons.”

“The whole lot of them,” he agreed.

“How’s your dad? I’m sure he didn’t get back with your mom.”

“That’s never going to happen.” There was no doubt in his voice. “She died a few years back. Overdose.”

“Shit. I’m sorry.”

“Wasn’t your fault.” He squeezed my thigh, and loosened his grip afterward.

“My feelings around her were complicated, anyway. Are complicated. She was still my mom. But it’s hard to forget what it was like to sleep on the porch during winter with an endless pit in my stomach at five years old because she was too high to remember that I existed. ”

My throat swelled.

Life hadn’t been great for me, but it was nothing like that. Not even a little.

“You deserved better.”

“Every kid does. Which is why I’m not risking a mate bond.”

“Unless you meet the perfect woman and your bear refuses to take no for an answer. You know we’re controlled by our animals, when it comes down to it.”

Bo snorted. “My bear is too fucking obsessed with honey and chocolate to notice any of the very few women I interact with.”

He was talking about me.

I was confident about that, after our conversation earlier.

“You never know what’s going to happen when you hook up with someone you randomly meet at a bar,” I teased lightly. “Maybe he’ll get addicted to strawberries and cream or something.”

“Not likely.”

“There’s always a chance. Saying never is basically tempting fate.”

“I make my own fate.” He lowered his lips to my shoulder, brushing them lightly over my skin. “Kind of like you, little runaway.”

My amusement faded slightly at the reminder. “I’m not trying to make my own fate. I’m just trying to survive. If I end up mated to that fucker, he’s going to drain the life out of me.”

“You’re not going to mate with him. We’re going to get you away from here before he can catch you.” Bo’s voice was firm.

“I hope so.”

“We will.” He kissed my shoulder again, lightly. “We should call it a night. We need our energy for a day full of Call of Duty tomorrow.”

“Good plan.” I eased myself off his lap and to my feet. “You’re sleeping in your bed with me, right?”

“Yup. I’m not spending all night on the couch when I could have you pressed up against me.” He squeezed my ass lightly.

My chest warmed, but I caught his hand before I headed to the bedroom. He followed closely, and our bodies brushed repeatedly as we moved.

Bo slipped beneath the rumpled blanket while I got ready for bed. He was waiting with an arm tucked lazily behind his head when I stepped out of the bathroom in nothing but my typical pair of shorts.

That was all I usually slept in, and my inner devil pushed me to see how he felt about it.

His bare chest rumbled, his eyes growing hooded as his gaze followed me across the room. “No bra?”

“Bras are annoying.”

“Agreed. You should never wear one again.”

“I’ll throw them out,” I drawled, slipping beneath the blanket with Bo.

“As long as you remember who those pretty little tits belong to.”

“Me?” I teased.

He growled playfully, grabbing my waist and dragging my bare chest to his. He had on a pair of shorts, but I knew he wasn’t wearing anything beneath them.

His erection pressed against my inner thigh as he pulled my body halfway over the top of his. “No. You’re mine, Madi.”

“Until the snow melts.”

“Forget the snow.” He buried his face in my hair and inhaled deeply. “How do you feel about middle of the night sex?”

“While we’re half asleep?”

He made a sound of agreement.

“Sounds hot. I’m in. Just let me sleep for a few hours first.”

“Guess I can manage that.”

I swatted his arm lightheartedly. “Go to sleep, Bobo.”

“Alright. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight. Or morning, I guess.”

He chuckled softly.

I fell asleep quickly, wrapped in his arms and his scent.