Page 38 of A Bear's Journey

Jasper grabbed her hand.

“We should go,” he said. “We’ll deal with this later, but first things first.”

Olivia took one look at the man and followed the two of them out of the restaurant.

“Hey!” she heard a man’s voice shouting behind her. “HEYYY!”

They booked it to their waiting car.

* * *

For an hour,Olivia sat in the back of their car as Jasper held her close while Craig drove around. At first, she’d been worried that either the police or animal control was after her, but the sirens never materialized.

Even so, the awful scene played in her head, non-stop: the wolves attacking, her spinning around, clawing them open. If it wasn’t that, it was the scene she’d just caused in the restaurant: the horrible feeling of her bear being totally out of control, the screaming patrons, the way that everyone had looked at her like she was an animal.

Olivia hadn’t meant to kill anyone. She hadn’t meant to shift. It had just happened.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Jasper whispered into her hair, over and over again. Olivia stayed silent for a long time, trying to process everything.

Now, she was almost certainly going to get locked up somewhere. She’d shifted in a restaurant, for the love of God, and you couldn’t just do that. Besides, given her reputation, it was unlikely that anyone would believe her account over Buck — though his pack had certainly been willing to take her side into consideration.

“Do you want us to take you home?” Craig asked from the front seat.

“No,” said Olivia, snuggling further into Jasper’s solid, comforting warmth. “I can’t face my mom right now.”

“Do you want to come back to our place?” Jasper asked.

Olivia nodded. She knew that usually, that question had sexy overtones, but she was totally certain that she’d ruined any chance she had of getting it on with these two.

I should have been more persuasive that night in my backyard, she thought. Turns out that was my only chance. They’re only taking me home because they feel sorry for me now, for sure.

Suddenly, bright lights flooded through the car and it came to a stop. Olivia sat up, feeling panicked, and looked around for the cop cars.

“I’m just picking up dinner,” Craig said. “Aren’t you hungry?”

Olivia’s stomach growled, as if responding to him, and for the first time since they’d left the French restaurant, she smiled.

“I guess,” she said.

* * *

When they gotto Craig and Jasper’s house, the moment Olivia got inside, a wagging black shape made a beeline for her.

She panicked for a millisecond, her nerves still on edge, then realized: it was a dog.

“That’s Ninety Nine,” Craig said. “You can just call her Ninety.”

Ninety sniffed Olivia, nudging her face underneath Olivia’s hands like crazy, wagging her tail and licking her hands.

“She likes you,” Craig said.

“I smell like barbecue,” Olivia said.

“She doesn’t like barbecue that much,” Jasper observed.

The three of them didn’t even bother to sit at the table. Instead they stood around the island in the kitchen, eating barbecue ribs with their hands, smearing the sauce all over their faces.

“These are amazing,” Olivia said between mouthfuls. “What is this place?”

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