7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Jayce

"We have an hour before I need to get back to the house and get some paperwork done." Stupid paperwork ruled that man's life. No wonder he had a stick up his ass half the time. No, scratch that. Three quarters of the time. "Would you like to see the rest of the territory in our bear form?"

"Yes, very much so, but there's no way we can see all of it in an hour." People had taken to me a lot better than I thought they would, given how badly I stank. Baked deliciousness for the win. "You're just going to have to not do paperwork tonight."

Aydan's face took on a look of horror, and I laughed, pushing at his shoulder. I was half serious, but also, paperwork at night would suck too. The look on his face amused me probably a lot more than it should.

"Come on, Alpha, let's have fun. You've been doing so well today. I know I broke your precious schedule and we did things that weren't in the plan, and we ran late, but look how much fun we had."

His jaw set, and his eyes narrowed. He wasn't correcting me, though. He knew I was right. I couldn't possibly understand the weight on his shoulders, but seeing him break out from under it, even for a short while, had been great.

I let out another laugh. "Aw, come on, Alpha, let's go."

We were back at the house now, but we hadn't gone inside. Going in meant out time would be over. He'd head into his office and not come out again for gods knew how long. If he was going to continue to have fun, that front door was the enemy.

I walked around to the back, stripping off my clothes as I went. I could hear him grumbling behind me, but it wasn't in the distance. He was following. Winning.

When I finally risked turning around to look at him, his arms were full of my clothing. I probably should've expected that. But what he was attempting to do with them? That was something only the everything-by-the-book alpha would do: folding them as he walked.

I rolled my eyes. "You really don't let anything be out of order, do you?"

"One mess leads to more messes, leads to chaos, and I don't do well in chaos." In that perspective, it made sense, and also told me the two of us were opposites. I thrived in what he called chaos. Too much order made me twitchy.

"Then we shall never get along," I said with a wink. I smiled, but something inside of me screamed with sadness I didn't like. "Come on, grumpy, let's go."

"I'm not grumpy."

"Stoic? Reserved? Constipated? Which one do you prefer?" He was grumpy. Full-on grumpy. But if he wanted another adjective, I was going to give it to him.

Aydan rolled his eyes, and I counted that as a win. It was a break in his Alpha I've-got-everything-under-control facade. But then he pulled off his own shirt, and my mouth went totally dry and I all but forgot about my mini breakthrough.

In that moment, I wished I didn't stink like a skunk, that I could get closer, maybe wrap my body around him. These were not thoughts I should be having about my Alpha and my best friend's brother. Nope. I wasn't supposed to go within a thousand miles of these kinds of thoughts, but gods, the man was delicious, even more so than my baked goods, and I knocked those out of the park.

"See something you like?" Suddenly, he was right in front of me.

My mouth opened and closed, no words coming out. There was no right answer here. None.

"Don't have a quip ready, do you now?"

I did the only thing I could think of and shifted into my bear form. Couldn't talk if I didn't have my human face on. Beyond that, my cock was getting thick and heavy, my ass slick. Sure, the skunk spray might hide that a little, but it wouldn't shield my arousal from his eyes. This was better. Much.

I landed on the ground with a thud, my bear unsure what to do next. He too wanted to stay with Aydan, but I wanted to hide from him, at least until I pulled myself together. That and rub up against him. Why was this so intense? We were only shifting together. I shifted with other people all the time. It was no big deal.

Except it was.

Aydan chuckled. Perhaps it was the enhanced hearing in my animal form, but I loved the sound of his laugh and his voice and… crap, everything. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I was second-guessing everything. He was Corey's brother, and he wasn't a big fan of me. This was bad. This was very, very bad.

Alpha shifted next and lumbered forward. I followed behind him, swatting at the nub of his tail, my bear insisting on all the alpha's attention. Aydan was not a fan.

He turned around and let out a little growl, but that didn't stop me from doing it again and again as I followed him through the territory. As great as walking around and meeting people was, a shifter never understood their territory until they explored it in their fur—or scales or feathers. Whatever. This was important to my beast, but also for me as well. It gave me an opportunity to see Aydan in a new light. His bear was a part of him.

His beast led me where the berries grew and where the river intersected with our woods. I could see my bear spending a lot of time in both places, especially when the fruit was ripe and ready for picking. I wanted to jump in the water, for our bears to play together, but I knew better. I'd already been pushing my luck.

At one point, he did swipe a paw into the water and pull out a fish. I was surprised when he tossed it at me. It was another glimpse of the sweet side his brother had told me was there and I'd started to see hints of.

My bear enjoyed it, devouring it without a second's thought. Fish in my bear form were my absolute favorite treat. My bear was decent at fishing but nowhere near as skilled as Adyan seemed to be.

Our shift was too short, maybe an hour had passed, and we were making our way back to his home. I respected that he had work to do, but surely it didn't all have to be done right then. What could be so important that it got in the way of his time in his animal form? He needed to shift just like the rest of his den. I had a feeling he sacrificed a lot for them.

I made it my mission to make sure he had some fun. Letting him get a few paces ahead, I suddenly took off running and tackled him to the ground. He let out a yelp and quickly turned around, batting at me with his paw. His claws didn't catch my skin, so I knew he was playing. I hadn't made a plan for what to do if he took my actions as a sign of aggression. Submit, I suppose.

We wrestled like that for a while, his competitive nature not letting me get away. I knew he needed the upper hand, so all I had to do was make a run for it. I didn't know the territory perfectly, but I dashed through the trees with him following close behind, swatting at my rump.

At one point, I lost him—or at least thought I did. Suddenly, he appeared in front of me, standing tall and letting out a loud roar. He was massive in his bear form, much bigger than me. I stopped in my tracks, instinctively rolling over to expose my belly like a wolf, acknowledging his dominance as the Alpha. His lips curled in what looked like a grin as he panted, worn out from our run.

I tipped my chin and turned away, and he let out a satisfied chuff, as if to say, "I win." Perhaps he had, but I felt like I won in a different way. He had fun. There was a glint in his eye that hadn't been there before, and we were well past the time he'd wanted to be back home. Adyan needed more of this in his life. Good thing I was around to make that happen. At least for a little while.

He started walking toward wherever we needed to go. By this point, I was completely lost. I walked by his side, our shoulders brushing every so often. Sometimes he would nudge me with his head, and I did the same. It was cozy and relaxed, and I wanted it to last forever.