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CHAPTER ONE

Julian

I t’s hard to tattoo when you’re irritated. Your muscles tense up. Your pulse quickens. The tightness in your jaw makes it hard to focus.

And right now, this couple is really testing my limits.

I’m getting all twitchy as my inner grizzly bear paces around in a fury. I can feel him moving in the deep, dark depths of me, getting madder by the minute.

I trace the faded black line on my client’s skin, tattooing the head of a Kodiak bear onto her ribs. It’s the Kodiak bear that her prick boyfriend has lurking inside him.

They’re newlymates. And they’re fucking annoying about it.

The possessive fucker actually asked me if I could do his mate’s tattoo without touching her. I told him yeah, if you want the bear to look like a donkey.

He finally agreed to let me touch her if I had gloves on and he still keeps watching me like a hawk.

She whimpers as I do the shading on the bear’s nose .

“You’re hurting her,” the brute growls, glaring at me.

I glare back at him. “It’s a tattoo,” I snap. “It’s supposed to fucking hurt.”

“ You’re going to be hurting if you don’t be more gentle,” he warns.

I bite my tongue and focus on the lines even though I’d like to take this prick outside and unleash some of my aggression onto his face.

“It’s okay, babe,” she says, whimpering again as she takes his hand.

“I just hate to see you in pain,” he whispers, gently kissing her temple. “It kills me to see it.”

“As long as you’re beside me,” she whispers back, staring up at him with her big doey eyes, “I can endure anything.”

Gross. I want to be sick.

It’s always hard being around newlymates. My bear gets so agitated. He can smell the newly imprinted mark on her neck and it makes him ache with longing for our mate.

We’ve been waiting for her our entire life, but it’s been much harder lately. It’s been physically painful.

“It’s so sweet,” my younger sister Victoria says, smiling at them. “When did you two lovebears find each other?”

Why is she encouraging them?

She should know better. I shoot her a look where she’s sitting at the front desk, but she ignores me. Victoria has always been a romantic. She loves to hear everyone’s story about how they met their fated mates. It’s so annoying.

“Don’t you have a tattoo to prepare?” I ask, interrupting her.

She shakes her head and grins at me. “I’m all done. I have nothing but free time until my customer arrives.”

“Wonderful,” I growl as I get back to work, tracing the bear’s nostril.

It can be hard working with family. Believe me, I know.

I work with both of my siblings at our tattoo shop, Heat & Ink. My older brother Magnus thinks he’s the boss since he found the location and put in the most money to get us started. Then, there’s my younger sister, Victoria. She’s a talented artist, but she never stops yapping. It drives me crazy.

We’re all tattoo artists and we’re all grizzly bear shifters, but that’s where the similarities end. Besides that, we couldn’t possibly be any less alike.

“I was parked at a red light,” the lady says as I stretch her skin out, shading the inner nostril, “when then this man pulled up in his pickup truck beside me. I felt this intense feeling coming over me.”

“I was immediately taken,” the bear shifter says. “I knew I needed to have her.”

“ Awwww ,” Victoria says, clasping her hands together with a dreamy look in her jade-green eyes. I know she’s been waiting for her own mate to come along. Somehow the wait doesn’t bother her bear like it bothers mine. Her bear doesn’t keep her up all night, pacing and growling and snarling in her ear. Her bear doesn’t demand that she go out and search for her mate every waking second. Her bear isn’t making her life a living hell.

I try to tune them out as I continue working on the tattoo. This is going to be a two-day job. Minimum. Luckily, my time with these lovebears is almost up. Next week me will have to figure out a way to deal with them.

“I’m so in love with him,” the girl says, looking up at her mate with hearts in her eyes. She keeps moving and I have to pull the tattoo gun away. “I never thought I’d ever be this lucky. It feels like my soul is complete.”

“Stop talking,” I snarl. It comes out a little more aggressive than I had planned.

And of course, since my luck is pure dog shit today, it’s right as Magnus comes in from the back.

“Don’t fucking talk to her like that,” her beast of a mate snarls back. His body flexes as he sits up, hands squeezing into fists .

My grizzly bear growls inside, urging me to let him out. There’s nothing he’d like more than to get into a fight right now.

“When she talks, she moves,” I snap back at him. “You want her bear tattoo to be cross-eyed?”

“You want a black eye?” he says, standing up so fast his stool rolls away.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Magnus says, rushing over, trying to calm everyone down. “Julian didn’t mean any harm, did you, Julian?”

“No,” I grunt as I dip the tattoo needle into the ink cap. “It’s just hard to work when she’s constantly moving.”

“Sorry about him,” Magnus whispers to the heaving brute. “He’s having a hard time waiting for his mate to arrive. You know how it is.”

The shifter’s shoulders are heaving up and down as he turns to me. His face softens a little when he sees how pathetically mateless I am.

“I don’t like the way he’s talking to her,” he says, but there’s less bite in his voice. He shakes his hands out as he walks over to get the stool. “He needs to learn some manners.”

I’ve heard that before.

“Maybe this is a good place to stop for the day,” Victoria says, pulling out the large appointment book. “When can we schedule you in for the next session? Maybe in three weeks to give time for your skin to heal? How’s Tuesday, June 17 th ?”

I keep busy with my tools as the newlymates get up and head to the front desk to speak with Victoria. I can feel Magnus’ eyes on me. He keeps shaking his head and I know I’m about to get an older brother lecture as soon as those two leave.

As soon as the door closes, he laces into me.

“Are you trying to shut us down?” Magnus says, crossing his arms over his massive chest. He’s larger than me, but I’m sure I could take him. I’m way more fierce. He wouldn’t stand a chance. “How many one-star reviews have we gotten because of your shitty attitude?”

“We’re booked solid for the month,” I say, shaking my head. “So, what’s the fucking problem?”

We’re lucky we’re all so talented. People don’t mind dealing with a grouchy attitude for an afternoon if it means they get a work of art on their body.

“The fucking problem is,” Magnus says, raising his voice, “is that we’re running a goddamn business and we have to stay professional.”

“I was being professional,” I say. “She kept talking. I can’t work with her constantly moving. You know that’s annoying.”

“I thought they were sweet,” Victoria says, putting some final touches on the tattoo for her next appointment.

“And you were no help,” I say, shooting her a dirty look. “You know how my grizzly loves to hear about new mates.”

“She’ll come soon enough, Julian,” she says with a shrug. “Just stay patient.”

I hold back a growl. She has no goddamn idea how hard it is for me. How merciless my bear can get.

“You have to be nicer,” Magnus says, standing over me. “Or, you’re fired.”

I laugh. “You can’t fire me.”

“I’m the boss.”

“You try to fire me and I’ll break your arm.”

“Real mature,” Victoria says, shaking her head.

Magnus throws his arms up in frustration. “I can’t work like this.”

“Just ignore him,” Victoria says. “He’s just pissy because he wants his mate.”

No, I need my mate. I need her like I need skin. She’s a part of me that’s been ripped off. I’m empty without her. I need need fucking need her.

“We all need our mates,” Magnus says with a roll of his eyes. “Doesn’t mean we get to hate the world until they get here. We’re not wild animals.”

My grizzly bear disagrees with that. He’s practically feral from waiting.

The bell over the door rings and someone walks in. I take a breath of relief for the distraction.

“Hi, Curt,” Victoria says with a big smile. “I have your dragon ready.”

Curt is a male stripper who’s one of our most regular customers. My sister has tattooed his arms, back, and neck. She’s working on his chest now.

I’m not convinced that he’s here for the tattoos. The only thing he seems to want is to get into my sister’s pants.

A part of me wants to tell him he has no shot. Not a chance in hell.

Victoria is a grizzly bear shifter and he’s… not.

He’s not her mate and therefore she has zero interest in him no matter how many times he flexes his arms or flashes his baby-blue eyes at her. It’s kind of pathetic to watch, thinking he has a chance, while we all know he absolutely does not.

“Think that would look good on my chest?” Curt asks as he pulls off his T-shirt in dramatic fashion. He flexes his chest like he’s on stage in front of screeching women at a bachelorette party. Instead, he’s in front of my not-so-amused sister and her two older brothers.

“It will look great,” she says, nodding as she looks at his left pec.

“What about on the side here?” he asks, pointing to his abs. “Or, would that ruin my six-pack?”

He’s trying to impress her. Fucking humans… At least I’m not that pathetic.

“Let’s get you on the chair and we’ll figure it out,” Victoria says as she takes her stencil and walks around the counter.

Once they’re distracted at Victoria’s station, Magnus comes over and sits in front of me .

“You got to keep your emotions in check,” he whispers as he puts a hand on my shoulder.

I drop my head and sigh as my bear paces around inside, snarling at the world. I can tell it’s going to be another long sleepless night tonight.

“We’re running a business here,” Magnus continues. “And we need you.”

I take a deep breath as I look at him and then look at Victoria as she deals with Curt, laughing at his lame jokes. He’s constantly flirting with her, but she just rolls with it.

She could literally bite his head off. Her inner grizzly bear is crazy strong. She did have two older brothers and we made sure she was tough enough to handle herself.

Against a human? He wouldn’t stand a chance.

But she’s still playing nice. She’s still being professional.

Maybe I should do the same.

My bear lets out a nasty hiss in my ear as he begins to pace around, snarling savagely.

If only my damn bear could get on the same page…