Page 14 of Taken Home By the Grizzly

“What about your family? Couldn’t you stay with them?”

“Oh, I don’t have any family. I’m flying solo.”

My breath catches. She’s alone in the world, just like me. But ten times as vulnerable.

“Did they die?” I blurt out.

She’s silent for a long time.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“It’s okay, I’m just not used to talking about it.” She clears her throat. “My mom abandoned me when I was three. I think she might’ve OD’d, but no one’s ever told me the truth. Then I got passed around a bunch of relatives until I was sixteen, and old enough to escape. I’ve been on my own ever since.”

“I’m so sorry, Zoe,” I say.

“Thanks for saying so.” She flashes me a small, brave smile.

Protectiveness pours through me. When she’s mine, she’ll never fly solo again.

We reach the gate.

“I padlocked it behind me, just in case.” She takes out the key from her pocket and wrestles with the lock.

“Here, let me.”

When I reach out to take it from her, her soft fingers brush mine, and there’s a jolt, like an electrical charge shooting through me.

“Oh,” she says at the same moment, her head snapping toward me. I gaze deep into her eyes. They’re wide and shocked. She felt it too.

It’s the mate-bond. I’ve heard about it before. You connect body and soul, become a single energy source. I remember elders in my clan saying it was physically painful to be apart from their mate. All I know is I’d give anything to feel that electricity again.

We slip through the gate and I lock it behind us. My beast calms now that she’s welcoming me into her space.

“Do you know the family?” she asks as we trek up the snowy driveway.

“No, this house has been empty for a long time. The family only moved in a couple of days ago, and I figured it was a property they inherited or something.”

“So, they arrived here, dumped their kids with a brand-new employee, and left. Interesting.”

I was just thinking the same thing myself. “What do you know about these kids?”

“Well, they’re the wildest ones I’ve ever met,” she says with a laugh. “They did warn me about that in the ad, at least. But what do you mean?”

I was hoping she might know about shifters already. There are a lot of us around here. That’s why I made this forest my home. But where she came from—maybe they’re not so common.

She doesn’t pick up on my cues though. Doesn’t matter. I’m gonna prove to her that she needs to be with a shifter. This shifter.

“I meant, do you know if they have any special requirements?”

She lets out a long sigh. “From the very little their mom told me, no. They’re not easy kids, but I’m guessing they haven’t had a lot of discipline. Maybe not a lot of love either.” She puts so much to emotion into the sentence, so much longing and pain. And suddenly, I understand something: she’s talking about herself, too.

I want to take her into my arms and hug all her suffering away. Show her I’ll always protect her, no matter what.

“I’m sure they’ll get all they need from you,” I say.

She startles. “Why do you say that?”

“It’s just a feeling I get about you. I can tell you’ve got a big heart. And you’re responsible, too.”

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