Page 63 of Choose the Bears

“How did you get this mark?”

“I…” My mouth was moving, needing to answer her, to explain, but I put the brakes on real fast. “I hurt myself?—”

“He got scratched up by a tree when we were out running,” Lucas supplied smoothly, shooting me a meaningful look. We could not tell Imogen what we were, not until she was ready.

But when exactly was that?

“This fucker tripped me.” I jerked my thumb in Luc’s direction. “Scratched me up.”

“Where?” Why did she ask that so intently? “Where did you go for a run?”

Luc and I looked at each other in confusion, but Asher stepped forward. He seemed to either avoid looking at Imogen at all or couldn’t stop himself from staring, and he did the latter right now.

“In a forest.” That was correct and all the details she needed, but he forged on. “A pine forest on the outskirts of the city.”

“Why…?” My mate’s voice died in her throat and she seemed to realise she was still touching me, so she snatched her hand back. I missed that small spot of warmth the moment it was gone. “Why would you go all the way out there? There’s huge parks right near this place.”

There was, ringing the entire city, which is why I shot Asher a dark look, mentally questioning how he was going to get us out of this situation, but he just smiled. Not answering her, just stared and watched her closely until I was forced to speak up.

“Asher likes to push us hard and make sure we can deal with a variety of terrains when training. The parks are nice, but they’re all big stretches of neatly mowed grass. The forest is full of trees to dodge around, hidden rocks and fallen logs. Lots of obstacles to jump over.”

“Right.” She looked down at her palm then, as if realising now what she’d done. “Right. Well, I better get breakfast on.”

I watched her walk away and so did everyone else, but did they do so with the same kind of longing? I fucking hated lying to Imogen. Her ex had done just that and more besides, and we hated him for it, but what did that make us?

“OK, let’s get some bag work done before we have breakfast,” Asher said, walking towards the punching bags.

“So we’re not going to talk about this?” Lucas voiced my own complaint perfectly. “That Imogen knew that Kyle got scratched up, that she seemed real interested in where we were last night?”

“No, because I know why,” Asher said, pulling on gloves.

“What?” The prick ignored me, because of course he did, focussing on getting his straps just perfect until I pushed my hand into his chest. His eyes whipped up, a snarl there before he thought better of it, but his gaze was dark as he stared into my eyes. “What do you know?”

“I’m a dream walker.” He referenced a rare ability amongst bear shifters. When asleep, they could enter the dreams of their fated mates. Shit, the really rare ones could get into the dreams of other people.

“You’re… what?”

I didn’t need him to explain what that meant. I’d learned the lore of our people at the elders’ knees, just like everyone else, but that my sleuth mate had that specific ability was a revelation.

“I can enter the?—”

“I know that, fuckhead.” I gave him a shove, and in skin I could get Asher’s feet stumbling across the gym floor in ways that my bear never could. “I mean this specific situation. How long…?” My throat closed over, somehow jealous of the scenario I imagined. All of us wanted to get closer to Imogen. She was the fire we all clustered around, driving out the chill of the world we lived in. “How long have you been able to do that?”

“Dream walk?” He shrugged like we were talking about whether to have black or white coffee. “Since the first time I turned. It used to be Ursula’s dreams I entered.”

“He thought I was his fated mate for a while there.” The woman herself crossed her arms and shook her head. Sometimes I forgot they weren’t joined by a blood bond. “I set him straight there. He… protected me in my dreams.” Her hand shot out and she gave his shoulder a squeeze. “Kept the nightmares from overwhelming me, but I haven’t needed that for a long time, and Imogen… She’s the one that needs you, obviously.”

“She was having nightmares about Phil.” Asher’s voice was flat and even. “The bear couldn’t let that happen so he chased them away.”

“And?”

Lucas’ barked that out.

“And then the bear relinquished control and she saw that.”

“In a dream.” Luc sounded like he was bargaining now. “In a dream, right?”

“Only in a dream,” he said. “Imogen was sleeping when we were in the forest and I… felt her presence. The bond seems to go both ways. She can walk through my head just like I can hers.”

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