Page 23 of Claimed By the Grumpy Shifter

"I'm not wise. I just know what it's like to have complicated family relationships." She reaches across the table, her fingers finding mine. "The difference is, my parents are still in my life. They drive me crazy, but they're there. You lost your parents when you were so young, and then you lost your brother too. That's... that's a lot of loss for one person to carry."

Her understanding, her compassion, it's like a balm on wounds I didn't even realize were still bleeding. When's the last time someone looked at me with anything other than fear or suspicion? When's the last time someone saw past the walls I've built to the man underneath?

"You make it sound like I'm some tragic hero," I say, trying to lighten the mood before the emotion overwhelms me.

"Aren't you? Brooding, mysterious, carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders?" She smiles, but her eyes are serious. "All you need is a damsel in distress to rescue."

"I'm not looking for a damsel in distress."

"No? What are you looking for?"

What am I looking for? I came to Cedar Falls seeking solitude, isolation, a place to hide from what I am. But looking at Christine, feeling the way she makes me want to be better than I am, I realize I wasn't looking for anything at all.

I was waiting for her.

"I wasn't looking for anything," I say honestly. "I was just trying to survive. But now..."

"Now?"

"Now I'm looking at you, and I can't remember why I thought surviving was enough."

I can hear her heart rate spike. The scent of her arousal grows stronger, sweet and intoxicating, and the bear claws at my control.

"Marc..."

"What do you dream about, Christine? Besides the white picket fence and babies?"

The change of subject catches her off guard, but she recovers quickly. "I dream about traveling. Seeing places I've only read about in books. Maybe opening a second shop somewhere exotic, doing destination weddings on beaches or in castles."

"Why don't you?"

"Because dreams are safer than reality. Dreams don't require you to leave everything familiar behind, to risk failure, to possibly end up alone in a strange place with nothing to show for it."

"They also don't give you the chance to discover you're braver than you thought. That you're capable of more than you imagined."

She looks at me with surprise. "You sound like you speak from experience."

"I do. I spent years afraid of what I might become, so afraid that I never tried to become anything at all. Just drifted from oneassignment to the next, one deployment to the next, never really living."

"And now?"

"Now I'm sitting across from a woman who makes me want to be worthy of her dreams."

The words are out before I can stop them, too honest, too revealing. But Christine doesn't look scared or overwhelmed. She looks... hopeful.

"What if I told you that you already are?"

The bear roars its approval, and I have to grip the edge of the table to keep from reaching for her. She believes in me. This incredible woman who barely knows me, who has no idea what I really am, believes I'm worthy of her.

"Then I'd say you don't know me very well yet."

"Maybe not. But I know enough." She leans forward, her voice dropping to a whisper. "I know you're kind to strangers, that you read poetry, that you've lost people you love and it's made you careful with your heart. I know you look at me like I'm something precious, and I know you make me feel things I've never felt before."

"What kind of things?"

"Brave things. Reckless things. Things that would probably scandalize the old ladies at church."

The bear is done with patience. Done with careful conversation and emotional revelations. It wants what belongs to us, and it wants it now.

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