Page 20 of Saved By the Grizzly Bear

“I thought you could feel the bond between us too.”

“And then I told you that it would be fake,” I say, remembering how crestfallen he had looked.

He nods, looking down at his hands.

“It’s why I said that I wanted a chance with you, for real. I know that we’re meant to be, but I knew that you would need time to figure it out.”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him that I figured it out already and that I love him, but I swallow the words down.

“He wants to meet you,” Alec blurts out, and I blink.

“Who?”

“My bear.”

“Your… You can hear him?” I whisper, and he grins.

“Yeah, and he can hear you,” he whispers back, and I laugh.

“Sorry, that’s cool. Have you always been able to communicate with him?”

“Yeah. It was hard at first because you basically have two voices in your head, but now I’m used to it.”

“How do I meet him?” I ask. “Wait, he won’t like hurt me, right?”

“No, of course not. He knows that you’re our mate. We would both die to protect you. You don’t need to be afraid of him,” he reassures me.

“Okay. How do we do this?”

“Let’s go on the back porch. He takes up a lot of room.”

I nod and follow him outside. He grabs a blanket, wrapping it around me before I step onto the porch.

“Just wait there.”

I nod, watching as he heads down the steps and out into the snow.

“I have to strip,” he explains as he starts to pull his shirt over his head.

“Why?”

“I’ll rip my clothes otherwise.”

“Got it.”

It kind of seems crazy to be doing this. I mean, the guy is about to turn into a bear. I’m surprised that I believe him about all of this, but I trust Alec. He’s never lied to me and I have this feeling that he’s right and that we are meant to be.

He reaches for his pants, and I look away, trying to give him some privacy.

“Ready?” He calls a minute later, and I nod, looking back at him.

He’s so strong.

That’s my first thought as I take in Alec’s muscles and tanned skin. He looks huge, even bigger than he normally does without clothes. I guess the winter stuff hides some of it.

He nods at me once, and then it happens. One moment, he’s standing naked in front of me, and the next, there’s a bear there. It almost happened too fast for me to notice, and I blink.

“Whoa,” I breathe, and the bear takes a step towards me.

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