Page 61 of Choose the Bears

While the Kodiak was dodging the swipe of the polar bear, the grizzly darted in, raking his paws across the other bear. With more power than he intended, I think. The roar of the Kodiak echoed through the forest, sending birds up and out of their roosting spots for the night, but that wasn’t the strangest thing.

“Fuck!”

A human voice, a familiar one, the Kodiak gave way to Kyle who now stood there naked, inspecting a now bleeding claw mark that raked down his side.

“Shit, you OK?”

I shifted restlessly in my bed, my brain trying to free itself from the dream, but something kept me right where I was as Lucas appeared where the grizzly bear was.

“Just a scratch.”

Asher stepped forward, just as naked, just as glorious as he looked the other night, but the sly smirk on his face was new.

“All right for you.” Kyle jerked back when Asher went to touch the wound, and the bunch of his abs caught my attention. I hadn’t felt free to stare at those hard muscles when he slept beside me, but now? I was nothing but an eye in the sky, free to trace each one lovingly. “The two of you ganged up on me.”

“Like you normally do me,” Asher shot back.

“That’ll be healed in a day, if that,” Lucas said, his body gleaming pale in the moonlight. Those broad shoulders, those arms thickly corded with muscle, drew my eye as he stepped closer. That perfectly formed arse and long legs were new, though. Dream me was very good at conjuring the ideal male form it appeared. “Stop complaining.”

“Might leave a scar.” Kyle sounded pouty, right up until the point he looked up, a slow smile forming. “Chicks dig scars.”

“Doesn’t mean Imogen does.”

Asher’s words, they felt like a rope tied around me, tugging me down to earth as I rushed closer.

“She will on me.” Kyle tried for cocky, but now that I hovered just beyond them, I saw the flash of worry in his eyes.

“She will on us,” Lucas asserted, his chin jerking up.

Evidently dream me had decided I was the mysterious woman they were pining for.

“Then you better earn every one of them,” Asher told the two of them. “To protect her from that prick Phil, we’ll need to use every tool at our disposal.” His jaw flexed as his tone grew grim. “Even our bears.”

Dreams were wish fulfilment, that safe place where we can let our fantasies come to life, that’s what I told myself furiously, because right then he looked past his friends to a space over Lucas’ shoulder.

To where my consciousness hovered, disembodied and adrift. Just as he had the other night, dream Asher held my gaze, those blue eyes of his glowing brighter and brighter, right before he was forced to jerk them away.

“So you want us training in fur?” Kyle grinned, and I saw then something I’d never seen before. Long canines like a dog’s… No, a bear’s. “Heard loud and clear.”

One minute there was a man there, and the next the Kodiak stood, ready to attack the other two, but they took fur in seconds and rallied. I was pulled out of the dream, flying higher and higher into the sky as I watched them spar, bear paws slicing through the air even as their bodies twisted to avoid blows. Up, up, up I went until my eyes flicked open.

Light was startingto seep past the curtains, and by the sounds of the birds’ songs, it was nearly morning. I rolled out of bed with a groan, putting my sling back on with more ease now, the bruising reducing with each day. For just a moment I sat there, piecing it all together, that I wasn’t in the forest watching bear shifters fight, but here.

With a job to do.

I blinked, remembering the kids’ complaints about the supplied breakfast and that I’d planned to cook pancakes and eggs and bacon for everyone this morning. I pulled on another set of borrowed clothing, going for an easy to wear loose t-shirt and some leggings, but when I walked out into the hallway, it wasn’t towards the kitchen, but into Ursula.

“There you are!” She had the bright, chipper demeanour of someone who’d had more than one cup of coffee, or worse, that of a morning person. “I was just coming to get you.”

“To get breakfast on?” I swallowed hard. “Don’t worry, I’m on it.”

“No, to get you to come and work out with me.”

“What?” I stared at her uncomprehendingly, but the smile didn’t falter for a second.

“When you love someone who doesn’t treat you right, they teach you something dangerous.” Her gaze was intense, reminding me of her brother’s. “That you need to put everyone else first before yourself. You’re the only one you’ve got.” Her finger tapped my chest. “No one else will prioritise what you need in the same way, so… Come workout with me.”

“But breakfast?—”

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