4. Gage

As soon as Mr. Lucas paid me a very generous amount, I drove home, bypassing the grocery store. I'd make do with fish I could catch in the river, berries, and any greens I could forage.

Fish, yum, berries, yum, green things, ewww!My beast wasn't a fan of leafy greens.

I couldn't think straight and almost didn't stop at an intersection. A horn blared, and curse words were shouted out an open window. My foot hovered over the accelerator, waiting for the car to move, but he seemed to take deliberate pleasure in going as slow as he could. And he was a shifter, I caught his scent. Asshat!

On leaving town, my heart slowed a tad, but I couldn't piece together what had happened until I got home, out of these damned clothes and into my fur. My beast could eat first while I stayed in the background and puzzled over Cedric.

Our mate.

Fate says he is, but he's not. I wasn't mating anyone, especially a human on vacation from the city. What do we have in common?

What does it matter? You are mates.

My beast who looked at life in black and white would never understand.

Leaving the car door open, I wrenched off the damned shirt and jeans and gave my bear his fur. He headed to the grove where the hawthorn trees grew, and I lapsed into silence, my mind churning with thoughts of Cedric and whether it was time for me to up and leave this area.

Maybe it's time for someplace new.

No. My beast stopped feeding, begging me to reconsider.

Mating wasn't for me. Even if I met another grizzly shifter wandering the forest, who never interacted with the world and spent a lot of time in their fur, I wouldn't consider mating. That wasn't for me. I was content with my solitary existence.

I couldn't fathom being mated to a human. How would that work? My human mate would live in the city and I'd stay where I was. That wasn't mating, but I didn't have a word to describe it.

But what I couldn't ignore was what lay beneath the fear. A tiny nugget of desire blossomed in my belly, but like the flowers on the hawthorn trees, it'd disappear eventually. Unlike the trees, there'd be no fruit, so no happy ever afters. Even if we agreed to mate, we'd tear one another apart wanting to go in different directions.

I was so distracted, my beast had to tell me he'd finished eating and we could return to the cabin.

Why not go and see the bumblebees? Unlike the honey variety, the bumblebees didn't produce glorious sweet honey that my beast enjoyed, though when he did take honeycomb, it was just a little, unlike humans.

These endangered bees were in a patch of land not designated as the nature reserve but owned by Reed. It was a safe place for me and my beast, and we enjoyed sitting near the nest and listening to the bees.

My beast tramped through the forest, and when we reached the hive, he grabbed a few berries from a nearby tree and slumped onto the forest floor. The bees had met my beast many times and went about their day, not worried he was there to interfere.

He closed his eyes, the buzzing forming a backdrop to the other forest sounds, and it lulled him to sleep. I was wide awake, my belly and head churning as I puzzled over my future.

But a gentle padding over the ground alerted me we weren't alone. They were too far away to catch their scent.

Wake up. Wake up, I raged at my beast, hoping he'd open his eyes. Other than humans, my bear didn't have many enemies in the woods, if any. And a grizzly standing on his hind legs was enough to scare any human hiker.

The stumbling and brushing against the bushes, the almost tripping over a rock, and the cursing told me the intruder was human. And as they got closer, their scent made its way to me.

No, it couldn't be. Why was fate doing this to me? It was a giant cosmic joke. Not only was the interloper not a shifter but they were the one person I did not want to see.

Cedric!

That thought made its way to my beast, and he awoke and crawled to his feet.

Our mate!He growled, more of a greeting than a threat, but Cedric froze, a phone clutched in one hand. My heart constricted, imagining his fear. He had no idea my beast was a big teddy bear and wouldn't hurt him, especially as Cedric was my mate.

You said that he is our mate.

No. Yes. But only because the universe dictated it. I do not accept that fate.

Cedric's mouth opened, but no recognizable sound came out. His chest heaved, and his ragged voice tugged at my heart. Gods, no. I had to show him he was safe, and without thinking of the consequences, I took my skin.

His body was trembling, his one hand bunched at his side, the other gripping the phone so tightly I cringed, expecting it to shatter. But humans didn't have the strength to do that. His mouth, shaped into a shriek, didn't close or quiver. Instead, his jaw sagged as if it were broken.

I snuck behind a tree because not only had he observed me shift, but I was naked, and humans didn't cope well with nude strangers. "Cedric, there's no need to be scared. Turn around and go."

But instead of stumbling out of the forest, he blundered toward me, the phone out in front. That damned device. He might be filming me. That couldn't happen.

"Where…" He clutched his chest. "Where is the bear? The big hulking grizzly that towered above me?" His fear had evaporated, and his voice was riddled with anger. "Where did you put him?"

Huh?

As if anyone other than humans with ropes, tranquilizer guns, or bullets could put my beast somewhere.

Cedric's voice quivered, as did his body when he took one wobbly step after another. "Pl… please tell me."

"Cedric, call Reed and have him collect you. If you really want to know, he'll explain."

I came out from behind the tree, and Cedric's gaze dropped to my crotch. "Dear gods, what is that?" He raked a hand over his scalp, making it stick up, and it was adorably cute. Not cute. More messy. Nothing about this human was cute.

He had to have seen a dick before. Presumably he had one. Maybe I could draw a diagram in the dirt and name his body parts. Weird he'd gotten to this age and he was questioning my cock.

It was huge. I prided myself on my big fat dick. People had told me that. Omegas who I'd slept with in the past. Not that I'd had sex with anyone, except my own hand, in years.

"Reed?" His blank expression suggested he wasn't focusing on anything except my length. He lifted his head and studied my face. "What does he have to do with anything?" But his eyes focused on my dick again. "I've never seen anything like that before."

Okay, this was becoming tiresome. Big cock. Big deal.

Cedric was only a few steps away and his scent enveloped me, teasing the goosebumps to sprawl over my skin and my cock to engorge further so it was pointing at him.

"Turn around and go the way you came." I indicated the path behind me. "I'll go this way, and you head back to the road." I twirled my hand to show him he had to back off.

"Okay." His voice had a dreamlike quality about it, and I wondered if he'd remember our encounter when he returned to where he was staying. He smiled and swiveled around, taking a few steps, before saying over his shoulder, "You smell good."

He wandered off, and I waited until he disappeared between the trees. He'd be almost at the road so I didn't have to follow him. I trotted toward my cabin, but his scent had washed over me and into my pores, so it taunted me.

I have to jump in the river.

But I paused to listen for his footsteps. There was only silence. Damn, did that human manage to get himself lost? I fumed at him for crashing into my world and traipsed over the path he'd taken.

Every bush, rock, leaf, and blade of grass was tainted with his scent, and it messed with my head. I ducked behind a shrub at the road's edge, not wanting to get arrested for indecent exposure.

Cedric was in the distance, going the wrong way. He should have been headed into Riverford, but he was going toward Reed's office. Harry would be there. He could deal with that pesky human.

But he was in such a state when we parted, I had to make sure he was okay, and I stayed in the woods, following the road until Cedric reached Reed's office. He and Harry were out front, and Cedric waved frantically at them before falling into Reed's arms.

Why wasn't he falling into my arms?

Wait, who said that? Not me. Nope.