“It really is good.” Caleb took another bite. “Are these all ingredients you found today?”
“Yes, with a little help from your bear.” She ate for a moment, glancing up at him as she chewed. “I like him. I like him a lot.”
“He likes you a lot.” His brow creased. “If I told you he loved you, would that freak you out?”
“No, not at all. I can see he’s a part of you. I can see you in his eyes. Or are they the same eyes?” she asked. “I have so many questions.”
“I want to answer them all.” He waggled an eyebrow. “But I also want to keep some mystery. I’d hate for you to get bored of me.”
“There’s no hope of that. I don’t think I could ever get bored of watching you shift.” She placed her fork on her plate and ran her hand over her forearm. “It gave me goosebumps. Like if you hear a beautiful piece of music, it makes your hairs stand on end.”
Caleb nodded and ate the rest of his food. “So you’re no longer scared of bears?”
“No, your bear has won me over.” She chuckled. “When we leave, we can head to that patch of sweet-smelling mushrooms and we can pick some and save them until tomorrow night.”
“Tomorrow night?” he asked.
“Yes, I figured you could come over to the house and your bear can eat the mushrooms. I’ve never seen a drunken bear before.” She finished her food and leaned back, enjoying the warmth of the fire as twilight settled around them and the temperature dipped.
“My bear has never been drunk so it should be fun for both of us, as long as he doesn’t pass out.”
“What happens if he does?” Elise asked.
“I might be stuck in bear mode for a while.” Caleb chuckled and shook his head. “Logan’s wolf once knocked himself out.”
“How?” Elise leaned closer to him, mesmerized by the warm low tone of his voice.
“I suppose he didn’t exactly knock himself out. We were playing in the mountains, stalking each other. It wasn’t long after we all learned to shift. Logan tried this new idea of delaying his shift. We’d all done it before, but he tried to push it too far. As a wolf, he’s a lot lighter and more agile than a bear, and he miscalculated where he’d land, and his wolf smacked into a boulder.”
“And he was stuck as a wolf?” Elise sat up and looked at Caleb with her hands over her mouth. “Was he okay? I mean he’s alive and doesn’t seem brain damaged so I guess he didn’t seriously hurt himself.”
“He was out for a few minutes, and we panicked. It’s not something that you’re ever really prepared for. We were trying to figure out how to get him back down the mountain. Dario or Ivan had carried us on their backs in their human forms before but neither of them had ever attempted to carry any of us in our shifter form.”
“That must have been a long five minutes.” Elise shook her head. “When we have children, they’re going to be shifters, right?”
He smothered a smile, as if he could read the direction of her thoughts. “They are.”
“And we’re going to go through this? I mean our kids experimenting with shifting.” She swallowed hard. “I don’t know if I’m ever going to be ready for that.”
“We’ll worry about them shifting, in the same way we’ll worry about them coming here.” He held out his arm toward the canopy above their heads.
“What’s wrong with the wildwood?” Elise’s brows knitted together. “The bears? I shouldn’t have told you.”
“No, it’s not the bears. We will worry about our children wherever they are and whatever they do. As a parent, it’s only natural. But they have to be allowed to explore the world around them and figure out where they fit into it.”
“So, we need to teach them common sense?” Elise nodded. “Maybe we’ll survive parenting after all.”
“Valerie taught us to think for ourselves and how to take care of each other. At least when Logan knocked himself out, the rest of us were there for him.” He lifted his arm and then casually draped it over her shoulders. “Our children will have their cousins to play with and we’ll teach them all how to look after each other. Just like me and my brothers and you and Karros.”
She leaned into him as he tightened his grip around her shoulders. “Karros has always been