Page 14 of Ignited By My Mate

I meet her eyes. “A chance. That’s all. Let me show you what it could be like. Let me earn it. You’ve got a week here, right?”

She hesitates.

Then she exhales and nods once. “Okay. Show me what you’ve got.”

My beargrowlsin my chest, tail wagging, teeth flashing triumphantly.

Challenge accepted.

“Good. I’ll pick you up at nine tomorrow.”

She blinks. “Alright.”

I take her hand, smiling as I lead her back to the bar. “Now, let’s eat.”

We’ve got a chance,I tell my bear.

Don’t mess it up,he warns.

SEVEN

Lark

I don’t sleepmuch that night.

After fainting in front of a man who turned into abear, it’s kind of hard to drift off peacefully. Go figure.

But it’s not fear keeping me awake.

It’s him.

Harris.

Everything he said, everything I saw—it swirls in my head. He told me the truth. He showed me what he was. And instead of running like any rational human being probably would, I… stayed. I agreed to see him again.

Why?

Because deep down, I already knew. Not the shifter part—that still has my brain doing somersaults—but the feeling. The way my body lights up when he’s close to me. The way my soulsettlesaround him like it’s been waiting for him all along.

It’s terrifying.

And intoxicating.

So, when he knocks on the front door the next morning with a paper bag of breakfast sandwiches and two coffees in hand, I don’t hesitate.

I open the door, smile, and let him in.

“How’d you sleep?” he asks as he sets the food down. He eyes me, trying to read my body language to see how I’m feeling.

“Good,” I lie. “Thanks for breakfast.”

“Of course. I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I got a bacon and sausage breakfast sandwich.”

“Oh, bacon. Always bacon,” I say with a dreamy sigh.

Harris laughs. “Good to know.”

He passes me the bacon breakfast sandwich, and I dig in, smiling as he hands me my coffee. I grab a few of the little takeout coffee creamers and dump them in, feeling his eyes on me. He’s watching me, memorizing everything I do, and I know that tomorrow, he’ll bring me a coffee with four creamers already in it.

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