Page 7 of Her Beta

“This is the tough part of the conversation.”

My brows drew together as I straightened and drew my knees toward my chest, wrapping my arms around my legs. “Why?”

Wrapping his hand around my ankle, he gave it a comforting squeeze. “I need you to keep an open mind about what I’m going to share with you.”

“Okay,” I drawled, my breath caught in my chest as I wondered what kind of explanation could need this kind of prelude. “I’ll do my best. That’s all I can promise without knowing more.”

“I’m going to guess that you’re the kind of woman who likes facts and data since you chose nursing as your profession.” He heaved a deep sigh. “So I’m not expecting you to accept what I’m about to reveal to you without some incontrovertible evidence.”

I bit my bottom lip. “You’re starting to scare me.”

“You have nothing to fear from me,” he vowed. “Mates are wired to protect—not hurt—each other.”

“Mates?” I echoed, my brows drawing together.

“I’m a grizzly bear shifter, and we’re destined to be together. In my world, we call that being fated mates,” he explained.

I wasn’t sure how he kept a straight face while talking about something that was a physical impossibility. “You’re a big guy, but don’t grizzlies weigh in around five hundred pounds?”

“For males, more like six hundred.” He shrugged as though our topic of conversation was totally normal. “Mine clocks in closer to six hundred and fifty. My brother’s is even bigger, which is why he’s the pack alpha. And because he’s older than me.”

I pressed my knees closer to my chest. “You have to realize how unbelievable this all sounds.”

“Which is why I’m prepared to demonstrate that I’m telling the truth in the only way possible.” After giving my ankle another squeeze, he got to his feet and shoved the king-sized bed I was sitting on to the side as though it weighed nothing.

My squeak of surprise turned into one of shock when he started to strip off his shirt. “What you need to show me requires you to be naked?”

“Only if you want me to still have clothes to put back on once I’m done.” Clenching his shirt in his fist, he quirked a brow. “The choice is yours.”

The thought of him walking out of here with his muscular body revealed to anyone in his path was something I couldn’t stand. So my answer was easy. “By all means, please get naked.”

“Feel free to tell me that whenever you want.”

My reaction to the wink he aimed my way almost distracted me from the sight of him shoving his jeans and boxer briefs to the floor. Luckily, I was able to pull my scattered wits together in time to take in the glory that he revealed to my eyes.

The muscles roping his tall frame were impressive. I’d seen more than my fair share of the human body during my studies to become a nurse, although most were women once I decided to focus on maternity care. But I had never seen a fully naked man up close and personal like this. And definitely not with a raging hard-on that had a bead of precome dripping from the tip.

As I licked my lips, wondering what that little drop would taste like, Leyton followed through on his promise to give me irrefutable proof that shifters existed. After some popping sounds, his large body grew even bigger…and started to sprout fur. Before I knew it, a giant bear stood before me.

5

EVETTE

My brain said it wasn’t possible, but there was no denying I just watched Leyton change into a grizzly bear. A huge one, just as he described.

Everything about the gorgeous man who’d been standing in front of me only a moment before had changed…except for his dark eyes. Those remained the same, which I found comforting.

“Holy crap,” I breathed. “You weren’t lying, and you’re not delusional. You really can shift into a grizzly bear.”

He gently butted his giant head against my head, and I scratched him under the chin. He let out a low rumble of approval, and I laughed softly.

Shaking my head, I mumbled, “I cannot believe I’m petting a bear in a hotel room in the middle of nowhere. Let alone one who turns into the hottest man I’ve ever seen.”

He huffed before the popping sounds filled the room again, and he shifted back into his human form. This time, I was too shocked to react to him being naked again. I sat there blinking while he tugged his jeans and shirt back on. When he tugged the bed back into place and dropped onto the mattress next to me, I interlaced my fingers with his.

“Okay, so the shifter thing seems fairly self-explanatory now that I’ve seen it for myself. But I’m sure there’s some finer details that you need to explain. Starting with what exactly does being your fated mate entail?”

“In the simplest of terms, it means that we belong together,” he replied, piling the pillows against the headboard. Then he leaned against it and pulled me into his side, flinging his arm over my shoulders to keep me close. “It’s a pretty safe guess that you’ve probably always wondered why you never felt desire before we met.”

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