Page 7 of Riding With the Grizzly

She eyes me warily and I hurry to go on.

“What are you afraid of?” I ask. “That I’ll prove you wrong?”

Her eyes spark at the challenge and I hold my breath to see what she has to say.

“Of course not,” she says.

“Then prove it. Go out on a date with me. Give me a chance.”

“Why are you doing this? Is the dating pool around here really that bad?” she asks in exasperation.

“Because we’re meant to be,” I tell her plainly.

She snorts at that and I know that she’s about to reject me. My bear paws at me and whines, begging me to fix it, but I don’t know how.

"Well, I'll give you a three for your pickup lines. I'd maybe work on that before you try to start dating," she suggests with a laugh.

She thinks this is a game to me.

Tell her she’s wrong!My bear yells.

"Wait!" I say, grabbing her arm before she can leave. "There's more."

She raises an eyebrow at me and I take a deep breath, debating how much I should tell her about shifters and fated mates right now.

How much can she handle?I wonder.

She’s going to have to be able to hear it all,my bear says and I swallow hard.

But will she believe us?

CHAPTER FOUR

NARA

“Will you come with me? Let me explain some things?” Jude asks me and I pause.

“Explain what? Why can’t you just tell me here?”

“I… please, Nara. Just give me a chance.”

I want to,I realize, and that scares the crap out of me. I’ve never been interested in guys or dating. I thought it was just the dating pool in high school - the same boys I grew up with who, surprise, surprise, haven’t grown up at all since I’ve been away. I thought for sure when I went to college, things would change. At first, I convinced myself that it was because I was still getting settled and used to being away from home. By my third year, it dawned on me that none of the guys around me sparked any interest in me. The feeling between me and every other man I’ve met seems to be mutual. But then Jude…

I was beginning to think something was wrong with me, but when I saw Jude, all of those tingly feelings that I had heard about in romance books and movies sparked to life. He’s handsome, but I’ve seen other handsome men before and they never made me feel like this. There’s something about him that I find irresistible. I just can’t quite put my finger on it.

“A chance for what?” I ask him.

“To win you over.”

I frown, weighing my options.

“Let me explain something to you and then you can make a decision,” he rushes to add.

“Fine,” I say, throwing caution to the wind.

I want to explore what it is about Jude that draws me in.

"Let's go."

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