Page 16 of Coveted By The Bear

I couldn’t wipe it off if I tried. And I didn’t even want to.

“Good! I got a surprise for you,” she said, and yeah, she was smiling too. I could hear it in her tone.

“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”

“Bike’s all done. Got her engine purring like a kitten,” she said, and I could tell she was proud of her work.

“Oh yeah? I think I need to see this for myself.”

“You do? Well, technically I have a break coming up in a little while if you wanted to do a video call?—”

Something crashed in the background, and Hope’s voice faded out as she turned her head.

“Hope? What is that?” I asked, my lazy jog turned into a run as I waited impatiently for her to answer.

“Um, I don’t know. Sorry, Miles, I have to check what that sound is. I’m just gonna put the phone down. I’ll be right back,” she said.

But I heard something in the background. Something her human sensibilities couldn’t hear if she tried.

Growling.

I heard growling, and it was familiar.

Bear.

My Grizzly was right. It was a Bear. Some motherfucker was stalking my sweet, unclaimed mate.

“Hello? Who’s there? Oh my God!”

I could hear Hope’s voice easily with my Shifter hearing, and it damn near stopped my heart when she screamed.

Fuck. No!

My Shift took over before I had a second to even think. My Grizzly burst out of me, a roar piercing the night as I pushed myself faster than ever before.

The moon was bright, casting shadows across the forest floor as I leaped over fallen branches and gnarly tree roots. This part of Barvale was covered in dense thickets of bushes and trees.

Every cell inside of me was hellbent on one thing and one thing only, getting to Hope quickly. The scenery blurred by as I pushed my muscles to move faster.

Hurry.

Chapter Eight-Hope

The hours ticked by slowly after I finished fixing Miles’ bike. I was so excited to show him, I even took the liberty to detail it.

My reasoning was fairly simple.

I’d never been on a Harley, and I planned on begging a ride on the back of that powerful machine.

Besides, I was pretty sure my tenant was getting around to asking me out on a date if that kiss we shared earlier meant anything.

I really hoped it did. I mean, it had me daydreaming all night about the two of us, and silly or not, I was wildly attracted to the man.

Oh, I knew better, I supposed. But what could I say? I was a hopeless romantic.

Biting my lip, I went back to work. I changed the oil on two cars that had been left overnight and dropped the keys in the little lock boxes next to each spot where I parked them once I was finished.

I emailed the lock codes to the customer, and they could pick them up at their earliest convenience. That’s all that was on mylist, so I was pretty much free, unless someone came in with an emergency.

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