Page 10

proposition

. . .

gideon

“ A ny ideas on how we make her stay forever once we get her back to our place?” Cal asked me.

Soon to be her place, too.

My eyes stayed glued to the door of the women’s bathroom at the bar and grill Cal had reopened at her request. Because even though I hated having her out of my sight, it was impossible to deny her anything she truly needed.

“I can’t believe she’s finally here.” Cal’s gaze was also locked on the door. “But I’ve got this crazy feeling in my chest. Like we should be in there with her. But I don’t want to give her the ick.”

Understood. On a cellular level. Only my mission-level commitment to not scaring her kept me from breaching that single-stall door and standing guard while she pissed.

For the first time—without any mirroring on my part—Callum and I were on the exact same page.

Contrary to local belief, my twin and I didn’t share a hive mind. If it came off that way, it was because I put a shit-ton of effort into matching him. So no one around here would ever see the real me.

But she didn’t think we matched.

This morning, like always, I’d waited to see what Callum was wearing. Then I replicated it. Piece by piece. Standard issue camouflage that always worked—until her.

She looked at my twin and saw him for who he was. Not a matching unit. Not part of a set. Him.

So what the hell was she going to see when she finally looked at me?

The idea of it sent a bolt of fear up my spine.

But I wanted her eyes on me.

My dick throbbed behind my jeans at the thought of holding her still beneath me, making our mate give me those pretty brown eyes as I drove myself into her.

“By the way, did you catch her name?” Callum asked, cutting off my fantasy. “I was so busy falling, I forgot to ask.”

“Lark. Lark Bird,” I answered, still unable to tear my eyes from the wooden barrier standing between us. “She doesn’t know your name either.”

“Lark Bird,” Cal repeated with a satisfied chuff. “That’s a great name.”

He was wrong.

It wasn’t great.

It was the most perfect name in all creation.

“You have to work your magic on her,” I bit out. “Make her want to stay for you, even if she doesn’t…”

My stomach twisted, remembering how she wouldn’t even meet my eyes back at the hotel.

…even if she doesn’t want anything to do with me.

Still, I insisted out loud, “Use your seduction skills. Convince her to give our maul a chance.”

“Eh, I don’t know about that.” An uncharacteristic insecurity entered my twin’s tone. “She’s not like anyone I ever tried to chat up. I brought my A-game to our earlier conversation, and she saw right through me. Pretty much called me an opportunistic lothario to my face.”

She was right about that.

Cal was an opportunistic lothario when it came to tourists.

But that was all over now—just like my indifference to finding a mate.

“Also, she still doesn’t know we’re shifters,” he added. “So that’s another big reveal we need to figure out. You know what? It’s time to call in Rys, isn’t it?”

I sensed his movement to pull his phone from his back pocket in my peripheral.

“This is his wheelhouse. Better give him a heads-up. He’s going to go insane when he smells her tomorrow morning, and he’ll know exactly how to sell her on giving up her city life and moving in with?—”

Cal cut off.

I stood up straighter when the door opened and our mate stepped out with a sheepish look on her face.

Why had she taken so long? Was something wrong? Worry churned in my chest as I continued to track her.

And she continued to avoid my eyes.

“So…” she said, once again turning her entire body to address Callum, as if I were a gamma radiation leak she needed to shield herself from. “I should have asked for your name earlier.”

“No problem.” Cal grinned down at her. “I’m Callum. Callum Baerlow. But everybody calls me Cal or Twin. You do whatever you want. And my brother’s name is Gideon.”

“Okay, Callum,” she said with a nod. As if she hadn’t even heard my name. “Callum, I’ve got another request, and it involves your invitation to host me.”

She shifted her eyes to me. Then quickly glanced away.

Fuck .

A bad, sour stone dropped into the pit of my stomach as she told Callum, “I hate to put you in this position. And I realize now I shouldn’t have promised to stay at your place if the hotel room fell through earlier.

Because, in light of recent information, I don’t think I can bring myself to accept your kind offer—I mean, I won’t be able to sleep peacefully unless… ”

Another furtive glance. Even quicker than the last. Didn’t even stay on me for a microsecond.

I locked my bear down as tight as I could. But I wasn’t sure it would be enough. Not if she told my twin I’d creeped her out and needed to be gone before she could feel safe enough to stay.

“Again, I’m so sorry to put you in this position. But as it turns out, I’m ovulating—and long medical backstory short, I need you to fuck me without a condom.”

Cal’s mouth dropped open. He stared down at her in mute shock.

“You, too, if you’re willing,” she told me with a quick side glance before looking back to Cal.

“And you don’t have to worry about me asking for support or anything.

All I need is your sperm. Hopefully more than once.

Over the next four to five days. To increase the chances of a pregnancy before I go back to Vancouver. ”

She bowed her head, then looked up again. “I know it’s a lot to ask. But I have a limited window to try for a baby, and I can’t let it slip away again.”

She waited for his answer. Our answer.

But Cal could only gawk at her, completely at a loss for words.

His silence sagged her shoulders. And even though I’d misread her body language earlier, this I understood: She was about to feel hurt.

And her feeling hurt? That shot straight to the top of my Never Let Happen Again list.

For the first time in all the years since I’d come back to Bear Mountain, I stepped forward and spoke for both of us.

“The answer is yes,” I said. “We are ready and willing to fuck a baby into you, little bird.”

She turned to me and almost… almost gave me her eyes.

“Thank you,” she said to my feet. Her voice cracked with gratitude. “It’s been a long year. And you have no idea what this means to me.”

No. She was the one who had no idea. Forget her talking about not asking for support. She didn’t realize she’d just handed us the perfect opportunity to baby trap her. And I felt exactly zero remorse about it.

Conscience wasn’t something I had when it came to her. I’d do anything— anything —to keep her.

But this time Cal wasn’t on the same page. “Wait, wait. I’m all in, but there’s something you should know.”

We both turned our heads toward him. Her with a curious look. Me with a silent curse.

Guess my twin wasn’t nearly as without a conscience as me.

“We’re bears,” he blurted. “That’s the missing piece I didn’t tell you. Our family, the town, your best friend—we’re all bear shifters. Which means if my brother and I impregnate you—even without a bond bite—your baby would become a bear. Maybe you, too.”

He shifted awkwardly in his Blundstones. “I don’t know much about human-to-bear biology outside of bonding. That’s the bite thing male bears do when we want to turn a human.”

She stared at him for several long seconds.

“Is this like the you’re ‘identical twins’ thing?

” she asked gently in that same soft teacher voice she’d probably used on our ten-year-old nephew, Wabby.

“I don’t want to diagnose you, but it kind of sounds like maybe you two are suffering from some sort of shared delus?—”

“Aw, hell. Just show her, Cal,” I said before she could finish gaslighting us about our very nature.

I never commanded my twin. But I guess his biology never forgot that I was older by ten minutes.

One moment, Cal was sheepish and awkward. The next, he beared out just his head. Leaving her staring up at a man with a red grizzly’s face and wide, apologetic eyes.

“Oh my gosh!” she gasped, stumbling backward like any human would.

But she didn’t get far before hitting my chest.

Keeping it honest, I jumped at the chance to catch her by the shoulders. To steady her—without letting her feel the raging erection pressed against my jeans. Any excuse. I’d take any excuse to touch her.

But once she was steady, I had to ask her the only question that mattered now….

“Still wanna make a baby with us?”