Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 23578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
“I gotta work tomorrow,” I whisper as I slip off my boxer briefs. “And Magnus already wants to kill me, so please behave. You have two hours. That’s it.”
He grumbles an answer, but I’m not sure if it’s an agreement or a protest. Either way, I have to take my chances.
I take a deep breath, shaking out my arms as I close my eyes. I try to relax my body as much as I can before I let him loose.
“Okay,” I whisper, letting him out.
My bear surges up from the darkness, exploding out of me with a primal roar.
I get pulled down inside where I can watch through his eyes, smell through his nose, and hear through his ears. The whole forest comes alive.
Scents and sounds appear that even my enhanced senses can’t pick up. I smell a raccoon that passed this way a few days ago. A rotten carcass a few miles away. I can hear an earthworm wiggling through the dirt by my paw. The breeze through the trees is deafening.
But I’m used to all that. What I’m not used to is this buzzing feeling rippling through my grizzly. It’s an excitement. A desire. A need.
A need to mark his mate.
And not with a tattoo. A proper mark. With our teeth.
He glances over his shoulder at my house—a wooden cabin I built with my brothers. We each have a similar one spread over the twenty acres of pristine Montana wilderness we inherited from our parents before they picked up and moved to Switzerland for their retirement.
He huffs out a breath and turns back to the forest, stepping into the darkness with our mate on his mind.
“Where are you going?” I ask him from inside as he turns left instead of his usual right. Right leads to the river, to the mountains, to hundreds of acres of wilderness exploration. Left leads to a dirt road that leads to the highway that eventually leads to our shop.
He huffs out a heavy breath as he picks up the pace.
My mind goes right back to Lainey as my bear takes over, waddling his big ass down the dirt road.
I still can’t believe I did that. I hope she’s not mad.
I know her friends will never like me after that horrible scene, but I’m more worried about my girl. I’ll die if she doesn’t forgive me. I don’t know how I could live with that angel mad at me. It would torment me forever.
I obsess over it as my bear wanders down the side of the highway, singularly focused on our girl. Cars slow to take pictures of my grizzly, but he doesn’t pay them any attention. A cute seven-year-old girl waves to him from the backseat and now I can’t stop thinking of having children with Lainey. I want a family with her. I want to breed her sexy body until my truck is full of my own adorable kids.
We arrive in the parking lot of Heat & Ink and my bear takes his time, smelling every inch of it. Lainey’s scent is still lingering around. It’s faint, but strong enough to get our heart pumping.
A rush of excitement hits me when I picture her stunning face with those mesmerizing brown eyes. I shiver as I recall the way they were watching me with such confusion and wonder, like she couldn’t quite understand what was happening to her. Why her body was reacting that way.
I let my grizzly smell around for over an hour, but when he starts looking down the highway in the direction she left, I pull him in.
I’m not going to let him drag me around for days and then force me to emerge on the side of the highway in Iowa with no car, wallet, or clothes. I have no idea where my girl came from. It’s not uncommon for people to travel a long way to be tattooed by us. She could be from anywhere.
I have to be the one to figure out where she is. Not my bear.
While my bear is distracted, I grab a hold of his essence and yank him in while forcing my way up. He roars at the sky in outrage as he’s dragged back in, helpless to stop me.
My bare feet hit the cold, damp pavement and I take a deep breath of cool air, letting it fill my lungs. The night breeze feels good on my hot, sweaty skin and I’m glad that I’m wearing nothing but my birthday suit.
I stare at my shop with my shoulders slumped, replaying the events of the afternoon for the hundredth time. It gets worse every time I think about it.
There’s not much you can do about it now…
With a lump in my throat, I head to the door. I have some emergency clothes stashed in the stock room—some jeans, shoes, and a T-shirt. I’ll grab them and walk home.