How Not To Date a Bear (8 page)

“So,” Theo began, placing the brush on the table beside him. “I would die for you, Declan. I would lay down my life for you and for your beliefs. I have traveled all the way to the West with you when you asked and broke away from tradition and the beliefs that have held our clan sacred and safe for generations. And now I need to know one thing. You have always had our best in mind when you acted for us as leader, but why the hell can’t you make this simple meeting?” His eyes were not accusing, but they were direct and demanded answers. “The Brown Bears already think we are violent and uncivilized, which is why they are doing their best to contest this move. But it would only take one conversation with you for them to know that you mean no harm.”

Shaking his head and knowing there was no other way but to show him, Declan stood up dropped his pants. Naked, he stood back from the table, and with one final glare at Gillian, he shifted.

There was a bang, and Declan looked down from his bear’s height to see his second lying on the kitchen floor. He shifted back and raced to his side, only to see the brown-haired man rolling on the floor in laughter.

“Who --?” he choked out, tears running down his face as he curled up into a fetal ball. “What -- Oh,
Uris
, De --” Then he dissolved into laughter again, damn near choking on it.

“Har-de-har-har,” Declan grumbled, standing up and reaching for his pants.

“You have -- oh, Great
Uris
-- puff balls around your paws!”

“Theo!” Declan snapped, embarrassment making his voice sharper than he intended.

“Your bare ass is ashy gray! You need lotion, Boss!” He gagged, he was laughing so hard. “And the puff balls!”

“Laugh it up, Teddy Bear.” And Theo laughed harder. “You wanted to know why I couldn’t go to the meeting in true form, now you know. Can you imagine their reaction to that?”

Theo was starting to pull himself together. Gillian’s baleful stare and his own agitated glare probably helped. After a few moments, Theo dragged himself back onto his chair, clutching his stomach as if something had broken from his laughing jag.

“I -- I, uh -- I think I understand,” he snorted, laying his head on the table, shudders still shaking his body.

“It’s not funny,” Declan snapped, pulling on his pants and taking his seat, staring down at the table, a blush highlighting his cheekbones.

“Who did that?” Theo finally calmed himself enough to ask clearly.

“She did it,” he grumbled, pointing to a guilty-looking Gillian. “Why I haven’t murdered her yet, I still don’t know.”

“Hey!” Gillian snapped, ready to defend herself, but turning to her coffee pot when it began to gurgle. The rich, heady scent of fresh, dark roasted coffee filled the air. Within seconds she made her way over to the table to pour, smirking as she placed Declan’s cup as far away from him as possible.

He noticed Theo taking another sniff and was about to comment about it when Theo opened his mouth and rocked his world.

“Of course you can’t kill her. She’s your mate.”

“Mate?” Gillian’s voice squeaked as she stared at the two men sitting at her table.

There was her half naked Declan looking tempting, tasty, and itchy while the very attractive Theodore, Teddy Bear, looked between the two of them, a smile highlighting his attractive features.

Yes, both men were tall and muscular, bears in every sense of the kinky meaning of the word. Yet there was something extra about Declan. He just seemed… more. He radiated power, even when he was in his shaved bear form. But what he was saying now…

“Mate?” Declan was looking confused but accepting of his word. “Really?”

“You can’t tell?” The brown-haired man seemed surprised.

“No,” Declan turned to stare at her, awe in his face. “Mate?”

“Hey!” she began to protest, but Theo grinned and rose to his feet.

“Congratulations, Boss. Can’t you smell her?”

“I am not a bear.”

At her words, Theo swiveled to face her, shock in every line of his body. “You don’t know?”

“Generations of hairdressers.” She walked over to replace her pot in the coffee maker, before walking back between the two men. “But no bears. I think I would know.”

“Then why are you carrying around the Great Grizzly crest?”

“The what?” She felt confused, and it was a feeling that she hated.

“Is that what that symbol is?” Declan gasped, his eyes widening. “I was trying to figure out where I saw it before when you called. It’s Grizzly?”

“Great Grizzly,” Theo corrected. “I am your Keeper of Heritage, Boss. That is the Great Grizzly clan marking, and she smells of grizzly bear.”

“I smell of what?” Gillian blushed a little, thinking about these guys sniffing her. She looked between the both of them and slid back as she realized what they were sniffing. “Stop that!” she snapped.

“She just smells right.” Declan threw up his arms. “She smells good and right and -- Great Grizzly?”

Theo picked up the brush and pointed to the odd triangle shape at the bottom of the brush. It was a bit faded after years of handling, but there was enough of the engraving left to make out the straight lines. “This was the mark of the last clan. As it was told in certain circles, a daughter of the Great Clan fell in with a human. And despite her family’s disapproval of the match, she mated with him anyway. Her father, intent on keeping the bloodlines clean, made plans to murder her mate and foist her off on a cousin or close family friend. The who is neither clear nor important because the daughter took her human and ran. She ran to a place where she thought no one could ever find her, the American West. It is said that her mate became a blacksmith, an important job back then, but a job that allowed them to travel freely. It is said that the family nearly caught up with them a few times, but she was able to run the searchers off. Soon, she disappeared so thoroughly, everyone assumed that she was killed or moved on to an untraceable area. So that branch of the family died off.”

“My many times removed grandmother,” Gillian breathed, her eyes wide as she listened to this story. “Are you sure?”

“If this is her brush --”

“It is.” She nodded, eyes wide in awe. “It’s been in my family… Grizzly?”

“I did find her in a bear bar,” Declan chuckled and she turned to glare at him.

“So what if the women in my family have an inherited hair fetish,” she began, then paused, tilting her head to the side. “Well, that would explain this hair thing a little.”

“So, not only has your new mate denuded you of essential fur, she is a Great Grizzly. You know how to pick them, boss.”

And Declan let his head thump to the table, rattling cups of coffee that no one had managed to drink.

“I still haven’t agreed to this mate thing,” Gillian pointed out. “No matter who is in my ancestry.”

“Not like you have much of a choice,” Theo pointed out. “Even if you choose not to stay, Declan will always look at you as his. And bears, polar bears, Great Polar Bears are very territorial.”

“Great. You have been bandying that word about all day. What do you mean by Great?” She was growing frustrated with all of this. She only wanted to get fucked! Now there was a war brewing, there were
bear
bears in her house, and she was coming to terms with the fact that she was part
bear
herself. Well, she thought, wrinkling up her nose, that would explain her cousin Velma who was forced to get laser hair removal or risk being captured for a sideshow as the great dog-girl --

“Great --” Declan’s deep voice broke into her line of thought, thankfully. “-- means that your clan can be considered royalty, the source strain of all the shifter blood on the planet.”

“The source…” Her eyes widened at that. “I am related --”

“To every Grizzly shifter that ever was.” Declan sighed. “Factions break off from the main branch, but none are as powerful as the members of the Great Bear shifter clans.”

“But -- but I can’t shift!” She was growing angry and nervous all over again. These people were coming into her home and trying to change her way of life and her view of herself. It was unnerving, to say the least.

“Doesn’t matter,” Declan pointed out. “Blood of the Great Clan, direct blood of a Great Clan, affords you a lot of power, Gillian.”

“I don’t want power,” she snapped, rising to her feet. “And you never said anything about being part of a Great Clan. Theo said you were a Great Polar!” she accused.

“I didn’t think it mattered.” He sat back and stared at her, his green eyes glinting like jewels. “And now I know why I can’t hurt you. Anyone else would have been buried out in the woods by now.”

“Declan! Now is not the time to joke!”

“I am not joking,” he grumbled, smiling, showing how his sharp teeth had replaced the even white ones she was used to seeing in his pretty smile. “If you were anyone else, the penalty would be death for having the audacity to shear a bear.”

She gulped and looked over at Theo, and found him nodding. “He is royalty, after all,” he pointed out. “And what you have done is what we used to do in the old days to brand cowards.”

Gillian gulped and slowly stood back from the table, her eyes on Declan. She didn’t know him at all.

“I --”

“I am not a toy, Gillian,” Declan ground out, also rising. “I am not one of the romantic heroes that Hollywood creates or writers extol the virtues of. I am a Great Polar Bear, not a human being. I am an animal in human guise. I am dangerous, and I led what you would call a renegade branch of my clan here to get away from the fucking war that helped lead to the exposure of shifters.”

She took a step away.

“And now that I reflect upon a few things, like my releasing control of my shift to allow my fur to be exposed and sleeping beside you so deeply while you shaved me, like how I let you order me around, like how I haven’t hurt you for the dishonor you visited upon my person with your razor --” He paused, a rueful looking smile crossing his lips as he shook his head. “I have come to the one conclusion that fits. You are indeed my mate. I have mated with a Great Grizzly right before I am to go out and convince the Brown Bears that I am not in collusion with the Grizzlies that live here.”

The last thing Gillian heard before she raced out of the room was Theo’s sardonic voice. “I’d say we are pretty fucked, Boss.”

* * *

Gillian needed some time to clear her head. She needed that time in the shower, the best place to do deep thinking, by her reckoning, anyway. So now she stood under the hard, beating water thinking about all that had happened to her.

“Damn my stupid hair kink,” she sniffed, trying not to cry.

But things had gotten complicated real fast. How was she to know that she was a bear? She had no idea why she’d shaved her man. She had no idea he was a
bear
bear and not just a regular muscle bear down for a good fuck and maybe future friendships. Who knew what could result when you were sexually compatible?

Oh, yeah, she reminded herself. You find yourself with a bear shifter -- a royal bear shifter -- and a new family history. And let’s not forget about a war at your doorstep, she thought darkly.

“And what does being a mate mean anyway?”

“It means --” She squeaked as the shower door opened and a naked Declan stepped in. “It means that I would never hurt you. That I will always protect you, with my life if need be. It means that you are the one to carry my children, the one to be a balm to my soul while I uplift and protect yours. It means you are the perfect match for me physically, mentally, and spiritually.” He moved in and took her into his arms, ignoring the water that plastered his black hair to his head and ran into those intense green eyes. “It means that you are mine, Gillian. Mine, a gift to me from the heavens, and I will do anything to keep you.”

Suddenly, she realized, her heart pounding, her blood racing, her soul soaring with his words, suddenly being a mate didn’t sound too bad.

His mouth slammed into hers, forcing his way inside as he tasted her, demanded her compliance.

And something deep inside her submitted.

She gave into the kiss, leaning against his solid mass, pressing herself to him fully.

“You are mine,” he repeated, his hands going to her waist, lifting her high.

Her legs wrapped around his body as his hands dropped to her ass, holding her in place. Gillian shuddered at the feel of his hard cock rising to press hot and hard against her stomach.

She buried her hands in his hair and hung on. This was where she wanted to be. This was perfect. Declan had driven away all the shadows. The fidelity he offered was almost too good to be true. But somehow she knew he was a man of honor, that he would keep his word.

Her instincts were driving at her, her mind and body yearned for this. She had to keep this man. She did the only thing she could do.

“Yes,” she breathed, breaking away from the kiss to bury her face in his neck. “Yes, I am yours as you are mine.”

“Gillian,” he moaned, leaning back against the wall of the shower, allowing the hot water to rush over both of them as he nuzzled her until she lifted her face to his once more. “My own. I am yours.”

And then he was devouring her again, his tongue dancing in her mouth, caressing hers, playing a game until she chased it back between his teeth.

Then she found herself melting into his arms as the flavor of him overwhelmed her. This was pure Declan, hot and sweet, and she relished the taste.

“I hate to interrupt,” Theo called out, making Gillian break from Declan and his hypnotic mouth as she flushed prettily. “But there are some people outside waiting to talk to you, Boss. And they won’t take no for an answer.”

“The Brown Bears?” Declan snapped.

“Yes.”

“Damn them,” Declan snarled, suddenly no longer the demanding lover who held her in his arms moments ago. This Declan, this snarling, glaring man, was a warrior.

And when he stepped from the shower after giving her one final, incomprehensible look, she knew blood would be shed.

Chapter Seven