Page 12 of Bear with Me
"Other bears?" Did that mean Ollie was looking for a relationship with another bear shifter? Not that I, with my grumpy streak, was a good catch, but I'd hoped to have a chance for a romantic interlude in our shared cabin.
"Yeah!" He forked a huge section of waffle into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed it down with a milk chaser before continuing. "There's a local community. I've already met a grizzly and two black bears. I think there might even be a polar bear, but this is their element — it was a little too hard to see."
"Is that something you're looking for in a relationship? Another bear shifter?"
Ollie took a deep breath as he studied me. His eyes were a golden brown that reminded me of honey. Instead of answering, he took another bite of waffle, and then another.
"Okay, I get it. If you want to spend time in the woods, that's cool. I'll stick to my self-study, meditations, and journaling, and you do your thing. I promise I'll be a good roommate, and then we'll go our separate ways."
I expected Ollie to look relieved, but a dark cloud rolled over his expression. Instead of answering me, he drowned what was left of his waffle in syrup.
CHAPTER 7
OLLIE
I didn't knowhow to tell Blake he was my mate, but telling him nothing felt even worse. My bear confirmed it when I shifted. He couldn't stop saying,"Mate, mate, mate,"even when we wandered into the woods, following the scent of other bear shifters.
Finding the other bears had been fun. A grizzly named Maddie lived in a cabin not far from the lodge. She introduced me to two black bears, Ian and Kleah. They were locals, but Maddie said she would introduce me to the bears staying at the lodge, if I wanted.
"You never know where you'll find your mate," she teased.
"I think I already have."
She couldn't believe my wild story of sitting next to the grumpy asshole on the plane, discovering we shared a cabin, and then having my bear declare him my mate.
"Speaking of which, I need to get back," I told her. "I need a shower, and then we're going grocery shopping."
I'd shifted to speak to her. When I shifted back, my bear was furious we'd left Blake alone so long.
I'd found him sitting on the loveseat, listless after his shower. At first, I wondered if he'd found alcohol hidden in one of thecabinets, or if I'd given him enough time to run to the lodge and buy a bottle.
One sniff gave me more information. He smelled scared, not drunk. When he hesitated before accepting my offer to pay for a ride share into town for breakfast, I knew he was afraid of me.
Our conversation at the diner went well enough. He was right to be afraid of bears, but I was a bear shifter, and he was my mate. I'd never knowingly hurt him.
I stopped short of telling him he was my mate, though. On the day he discovered that not all people who looked like him were human, that would probably freak him out completely.
Blake immediately blamed himself for my silence, but it wasn't his fault. I hated the way he wrote himself off, like he wasn't worthy of love. He'd already berated himself three times about his behavior on the plane. When animals made a mistake, they shouldered the blame only once. When humans erred, they blamed themselves repeatedly.
I was grateful for my bear for so many reasons. He kept me sane when my human brain got too overwhelmed with society's false expectations. All bears wanted to do was eat, sleep, and fuck. Since I wouldn't be fucking anyone until my mate understood what he meant to me, I had plenty of eating and sleeping to do while on vacation.
The waffles had just the right amount of crunch. Even with all the syrup I poured on them, they weren't soggy. It helped that I ate them so fast, before Blake had cleared half of his plate.
He split the second half of his waffle into quarters and pointed to the one with the square of butter on it. "Do you want more?"
"Only if you don't."
He slid it from his plate to mine with the side of his knife.
I nodded out the window to a store sign that had just lit up. "The general store should have notebooks."
"All I really need is tape to stick the first page to the cover," he said. "But thank you. I appreciate your offer to buy me a new notebook."
"Who said I would buy only one?"
He frowned at me.
"If they have a notebook you like, we're getting it, even if you buy out their entire stock."
