Flawless River (Grizzly Bear Lake #2) - Ruby Shae Page 0,40

and a sister he would only wish on his worst enemy, and then she’d taken control of her life and left that scene.

What if she decided to leave him?

He didn’t think she would, but what the hell did he know?

Okay, that thought was stupid. He did know some things. He knew that he loved Stacey, and that he wanted to be with her for the rest of his life. He also knew his family loved her, and he knew that she loved them, too. Did she love him? He was pretty sure she did. They hadn’t said the words, but there was a certain look on her face sometimes when she looked at him, and he’d never seen her give that look to anyone else.

“Are you breaking up with me?”

“What? No!” He stopped pacing, kneeled in front of her, and took both of her hands in his. “Why would you ask that?”

“Because you just met my sister, and I just told you more about my past than I ever wanted to share, and now you’re pacing around like a caged animal. I can’t help but wonder if maybe you’ve changed your mind about me.”

“I love you, sweetheart, and even though I’m fucking this all up, I’m never letting you go. Your sister and your past have nothing to do with that decision, either. It’s just a coincidence that your sister showed up today, and while I’m glad you shared some of your past with me, you’ve already been doing that little by little, and I know you’ll tell me more when you’re ready. This is all about me now,” he laughed nervously, “and that’s why I’m pacing around like a caged animal. The other reason is…”

God, he just had to spit it out.

“…because I am one. An animal. Though I’m obviously not caged.”

“Um…what?”

“I have to pace again,” he said, letting her hands go and standing. “No matter what happens, don’t run okay? I will never hurt you, and neither will any members of my family.”

“Okay,” she answered, her voice still full of nerves.

“First, let me say that I love you, and—”

“You do?”

“Yes, very much. I want to marry you, too, but I also want to mate with you. I wasn’t kidding when I said I was an animal. My siblings and I…we can all shift—change—into grizzly bears. It’s the reason we over-promote bear safety, and the reason we know bears will always be around. It’s because we are the animals.”

She didn’t say anything, just stared at him, but she wasn’t running so he continued.

“We’re shifters, sweetheart, and when a shifter finds his mate, the urge to mark her—mate with her—is a living, breathing thing. I’ve waited, trying to give you time, but I know what I want, and that is you, by my side, for the rest of our lives.”

“Does mating hurt? Will I be a bear, too? We haven’t known each other that long. How do you know you won’t change your mind in a month, or a year, down the line? What if we mate and you decide you don’t like me anymore?”

“Once the bond is made, it’s unbreakable. We will, literally, never want anyone else. I can’t explain how it happens, but it does. It probably has something to do with the link, though. After we mate, we can communicate telepathically. We won’t be able to read each other’s minds, but we can communicate without words spoken aloud, and we will always have a connection. The only thing that can break the connection is death, but otherwise, we are bound together for life.

“You won’t become a bear, though, and the mating does hurt a little bit. I have to bite you with my canines while my cock is buried deep inside your pussy, and it leaves behind a pretty gnarly bruise. Luckily, the mark fades in a few hours, and the permanent scar is barely visible.”

“There was a bear at our swimming spot once,” she said. “I told him that I liked you even though I knew that it was stupid, and he looked at me the way you do sometimes. Was that you?”

“It was,” he nodded.

“That’s a sneaky trick,” she laughed. “What if I had told you something really personal? Or, I don’t know, did something really embarrassing? If I see your bear next to your bothers, or Lacey, in their bear forms, can I tell you all apart?”

“You can,” he nodded. “We all look different up close, and once you get to know us in