Bear Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire #2)(32)

“You want me to meet your family?”

Now that blush was back in her cheeks as she dropped her gaze to the fire. “Does that bother you?”

“Bother me? Hell no.” It would have to be in the summer, though, and not this year. It was the end of July, and he had two months until hibernation, three max. He was homebound until April because he couldn’t risk falling asleep for the winter without a den and where he could be caught. “I like that you’ve already met one of my brothers.”

“About Tobias. You said he scarred you up, but I didn’t understand how. He’s a bear shifter too, isn’t he?”

Jenner nodded once. “We were sixteen and on one of our first Changes, out in the woods and alone and didn’t know what was happening.”

“Why didn’t you know what was happening?”

“Uh, my dad is a bear shifter. All of the men in my lineage are, but unfortunately, Dad wasn’t too keen on explaining what we would be going through when we came of age. He was more of a hands-off parent. He thinks that good bear shifters just know how to handle themselves because of instinct.”

“But you didn’t?”

Jenner shook his head and set his plate down, then stood and walked around the fire just to be closer to her. He couldn’t stand not touching her right now. Not after today’s close encounter with Titus. Not after what he’d shared with her. Lena hadn’t run, and that thought still shocked him. Lena was still here, looking at him like he was a man and not a freak.

Tough woman. His tough woman.

Jenner sat behind her and hugged her back to his chest, rested his chin on the shoulder he hadn’t injured. “It was snowing really hard, and Tobias didn’t have control of his bear like Ian and I did. He needed to bleed something, and I got in the way, and after he left, I thought I was going to die out there. Ian looked so scared. There was red snow all under me, and I got so cold. All he had was this damned tiny first aid kit. I heal fast thanks to the bear, but he just kept packing snow into my cuts, and he was crying. We were under this little rock ledge, unprotected, and terrified Tobias would come back and finish us both off.”

“Oh, Jenner.” Heartbreak tainted her soft words.

“We went to battle that spring, and that was the last time we spent any long amount of time together. Our bears are all dominant and can’t stand to be close to another bruin. It’s the way of it for most of our kind.”

“Are there lots of you?”

“No. Hardly any.”

“Why?”

Jenner pressed his lips against her temple and frowned at the firelight. He couldn’t bring himself to tell her about hibernation right now. Cowardly? Hell yeah, but he just couldn’t. Even if Bear wasn’t a deal breaker for her, no woman was going to put up with him falling asleep for six months of the year. It wouldn’t be fair to ask anyone to stick around for that. So instead he said simply, “We don’t pair up easily.”

“But your dad did,” she argued.

“Nah, he didn’t. He got a woman pregnant, never explained what he was, and she was out on raising me and my brothers while we were still in diapers. Bear shifters are not adept at keeping a mate happy.”

“A mate,” she whispered.

He smiled at how sweetly she’d uttered that word, as if it was something she wanted. She didn’t know all of the grit yet, but damn, he would go to his grave remembering just how she’d said that.

“So Dalton and Chance, huh. Owooooo!”

He chuckled and rubbed his cheek against hers. That was the type of affection Bear had been pushing him to give her all along, and now he could finally do it. “Now you get the Wolf Camp reference, right?”

Lena gasped and grinned at him. “Are they going to be pissed that you told me?”

“No, because you aren’t going to tell anyone that you know. I mean, no one can know, Lena, or it puts me and my brothers in danger. It puts all shifters in danger. We’re really careful with who we tell. Mate’s only. It’s one of the rules.”

“I knew it! Jenner!” Lena twisted in his arms and leveled him with those beautiful honey eyes of hers. “I’m your mate, and you’re my mate, right? That’s why this feels so big. I mean, from the first time I saw you, you felt important. Like a piece of me had always been tethered to you, and it was a relief just being around you.”

God, perfect. She’d just described what he’d felt so adequately. “Yeah.”

Her eyes went wide, and the smile dipped from her face. “Is that why you wanted to bite me?”

Jenner pulled the neck of her sweater over to expose the bandage he’d put on her before he’d cooked dinner. “I’ve never wanted to do that to anyone before.”

“Not even Brea?”

He shook his head. “It’s called a claiming mark. For shifters, it means you’re off limits.”

“I’m claimed,” she said on a breath as she rested back against him. “By you.”

“I thought you would be freaking out more by all of this.”

“I should be. This is insane. You have a bear in you, Jenner. Like a giant, sharp-toothed, long-clawed grizzly bear. It’s not wrong to still want you, right?”

A laugh rattled his chest, and the stretch of his smile felt so damned good. “I don’t think so. You won’t be fooling around with my animal or anything. That’s taboo in both of our cultures. So no, falling for me isn’t wrong.” He rocked her to the side and nipped on her neck. “You’ll have the man. The bear is just an unfortunate bonus.”