4. Cooper

4

COOPER

N ow.

She thinks I'm delusional, and she probably wouldn't be that wrong but for far different reasons than she thinks. This is the first time I've ever had a woman in my den. Oh, I've had them in my penthouse in the city. I'm not a monk. But I've always known those could only be one night stands and short flings at best.

I can't do that to a woman… let her fall in love with me and then throw her away because fate decided to give me my mate at an inopportune time. A shifter could be married with four kids and deliriously happy, but if they were foolish enough to choose their own partner and then their true mate showed up, that relationship they thought was so special, is over.

I've seen decades-long loves end, all because that bitch fate decided to fuck around with some lives. So, like smart shifters, I have remained a bachelor and never let any woman get too close to me—mostly, anyway. Anyone who isn't your true mate is for playtime only.

And here she is, a gorgeous petite brunette with shimmering green eyes, all for me.

I'm only thirty. Often it's decades before a shifter finds their mate. In a lot of ways I'm lucky… and in a lot of ways I'm not.

A mate can be another shifter or a human, and I was hoping against all hope it would be another shifter because shifters understand this. They accept this. A human does not. Rosalie cannot understand how impossible it would be for me to let her go. I just rescued her from a fucking rapist in the woods, and I absolutely know how this looks to her. But until the mate bond is complete, she won't understand… can't understand.

I really hope I don't have to become a monster to secure this union because the thoughts running through my mind... the needs… And I don't just mean sexual. There is a clawing need for her to be here with me, for her to never leave my sight… at least until the bond is complete. Then I won't have to worry as much. I'll know where she is, what she's feeling, if she's in danger. At all times.

But right now? She's fragile. This is fragile. I could have lost her last night. If I'd been just a little bit later would my mate be dead in the woods right now? All because I ate just one too many candy bars to entertain random viewers on the internet?

Would fate send me another or would I just ignorantly wander the earth for centuries thinking she was coming when I'd already failed her?

"If you're a bear, why do you have bear skin rugs in here? That seems a little psychotic don't you think? It would be like if I had a people-skin wallet in my bag."

I sigh. I'm sitting on the floor next to her chair, inspecting her swollen ankle. I wish I could have done something about it last night, but… bear. While older shifters can shift at will, most of us can only do partial shifts until the three nights of the full moon where we must shift and don't return to human form until morning.

I was wide awake most of the night counting down the time until I could shift back and look at that injury and really tend to it properly.

"Can you wiggle your toes for me?"

"Foot fetish?" she asks, the snark in her tone as sharp as a razor blade. She's cute as fuck, but that mouth… that mouth is going to get her into some trouble.

"I just want to make sure it's not broken and see the extent of your injuries. As for the rugs, those are my ancestors."

"Oh, that makes you sound well-adjusted and safe to be around," she says.

This is going to be a long day. "Shifters live a long time. Centuries. We age much more slowly than humans. We also don't have the kind of rabbit-like fertility humans have. When one of us dies, part of our rituals to honor the dead involves preserving the… hide and passing it down. It's a way in which the ancestors are always with us."

"What if they die as a human?"

"They won't. Shifters always shift before they die. Now wiggle your toes."

She does, reluctantly, and I'm relieved at least it isn't broken. I stand and take her hands in mine to help her up.

"Now try to put some weight on it."

She does and grimaces against the pain.

"Can you walk on it at all?" I know she was walking, sort of, not that long ago, but if she lets it tighten up she could lose that ability quickly.

She half hobbles around the den, but it's something at least. I had a human friend who once sprained his ankle so badly he couldn't walk without crutches for three months. This is decidedly less serious. I help her back to the chair.

I proceed to rub a healing salve that has been in my family for generations onto her ankle. Shifters usually heal instantly, but there are wounds made with silver weapons that require first aid.

It isn't true that a silver bullet or weapon will necessarily kill us merely because it's silver. It just slows our healing to that of a human. An injury that would be instantly fatal to a human is only fatal to us with silver. And an injury that wouldn't kill a human, won't kill a shifter either—even if silver is used. Even after a bullet is removed, the exposure to the silver has a lasting effect. So, I keep a first aid kit everywhere—just in case.

I've never been grateful for this shifter weakness, but without it, I wouldn't have anything to tend to Rosalie's injury right now.

"That smells rank," she says.

"That's how you know it's working." I massage the salve in and try not to develop a foot fetish. Then I wrap her ankle, grateful I keep such an extensive first aid kit.

"Well, I can't be your mate, because that would be tragic."

"How so?" Maybe she isn't attracted to me. I'm well aware of my charms and the effects I have on women, but maybe I'm not her type?

"Humans don't live for centuries. Why would you want a human mate when I'm just going to age and die much sooner than you? I mean… sure I'm twenty-five now, but in a couple of decades I'll start to get wrinkles and gray hair and then start falling apart while you continue to look like this…" she gestures at my body.

I know she's just humoring me, playing devil's advocate. Everything in her tone tells me she thinks I belong in a mental ward. So since she already thinks that… I may as well keep dropping facts about my world on her.

"My bite will take care of your aging problem," I say.

Her expression closes off and she jerks her foot out of my hand. "You're fucking crazy, and I want to go home."

Nightfall can't get here fast enough. I get up and go through the cabinets and pull out some protein bars and bottled water and place it on the table next to her. "This is all I have right now, but as soon as the sun goes down and I shift, I'll go hunt for us."

And by hunt, I mean steal some packaged deli sandwiches from the gas station. Bob and Brenda will be amused by my new "healthy diet".

She eyes me warily but opens the water and one of the protein bars. "What about you?" She's regrouping and seems to be going for appeasement now, though I doubt it will last long with her sharp tongue.

"I ate plenty last night. I'm good for a while." I'm used to intermittent fasting, but I don't tell her that. The bear thing is probably enough for now. She doesn't need to know about my psycho diet and workout regimen.

"Did you eat my attacker?" she asks conversationally. And at this point I'm not sure if she's starting to believe me a little or if it's still part of her sarcastic cross-examination.

"Gross. I don't eat humans, Rosalie."

"But you keep your ancestors' skins. I'm sorry, but it's difficult for me to keep up with the ins and outs of your magic world."

I roll my eyes. I highly doubt it's difficult for this woman to keep up with anything.

But she's not done. "So, tomorrow when you're a real boy again, where exactly are you taking me?"

Yep, she is definitely not on board with any of this. She's trying to get information to plan her escape. No doubt she's heard all the warnings about your kidnapper taking you to a second location. Though technically wouldn't my den be the second location?

I can't really blame her. Even with her being my mate, I'd probably lose some of my attraction if she was just going to take my word for all of this and follow me around like a lost star-eyed puppy.

"My penthouse in the city," I say.

"Oh, so you're a rich werebear? How nice for me."

"Don't call me a werebear. I am a bear shifter. And yes, I'm rich. Old money. It isn't just vampires who can use the wisdom of time and compound interest."

I'm really not sure why the stereotype is that all vampires are rich and all shifters are living simple humble lives out in the woods. Being a bear doesn't make me like a penthouse view any less.

She snorts. "Vampires are real, too?"

"Yes."

"Of course they are."

She rolls her eyes, but her sarcasm is starting to give way again to fear. There is nothing that will convince her I'm telling the truth short of a live demonstration.

We spend the rest of the day in mostly boredom and uncomfortable silence. I can think of a million things I'd like to do with her right now that would definitely fill up the time until my final shift this month, but I know there's no way she'd go for it. She needs to see the truth first, and then we'll go from there.

Finally night comes. The painful snapping and cracking and rearranging of bones and organs commences as the moon rises higher into the sky. I strip off my jeans before the change can fully take me and fall to the ground, my hands reflexively clenching and digging into the dirt. I'm sure this isn't the most attractive thing for Rosalie to have to witness, but she has to know. Once she sees the truth, maybe it will be easier to reason with her and make her understand.

We've spent the entire day with her thinking I'm delusional. When she sees the change, I can at least eliminate that objection to our union.

When the shift is complete and the pain recedes, I turn to Rosalie who looks on me in absolute horror. It's worse than the way she looked at me last night, before she knew there was a person in here. I raise my hands in the placating way humans do, and then realize belatedly that a seven hundred pound bear raising his arms in the air isn't taken in exactly the same way as when I do it in my human form.

She screams and cringes away from me, and I quickly go back to my former stance. I can't communicate with her like this, so I fight every instinct inside me and leave her alone in the den to go get us some food. She can't get far on that ankle, and while the mating bond may not be completed yet, I still have the senses of a bear and can easily track her in this forest. If she tries to leave, she won't get far.