Page 12 of Bearly Mated

“You remember Jimmy Opin asking you to the Spring Fling dance when we were fourteen?” he asked me.

I blinked again.

That seemed like a change of subject.

“I don’t see what that?—”

“Do you remember?” he repeated.

“Yes. I was thrilled.”

“I didn’t go over to your house immediately after school like I usually did. I wanted to follow him home and rip his fucking throat out. It was the first time I ever legitimately wanted to hurt someone. My dad had warned me to tell him when I got violent, so I asked my mom to drive me over to his place right after school. I had to explain why, and she was quiet afterward.”

I frowned as I listened.

I didn’t remember him not coming over right away, but it had happened occasionally.

“Dad explained to me that bear shifters are like most other kinds of shifters when it comes to their mates. Possessive. Violent. Dangerous. But we don’t commit the way most do, so we only take mates we don’t have any feelings for. Usually.”

“Usually?”

He dipped his head. “Fated mates exist for us too. Most bears manage to avoid finding them. I didn’t. Having such a strong possessive streak at such a young age was almost a guaranteethat you were mine. So my dad called yours and explained the situation. Your dad called Jimmy’s and told him you were too young for the dance, removing the potential threat to me.”

“Almosta guarantee?”

“When you tried to kiss me, my canines shifted automatically. That was the confirmation. And the reason I basically ran away from you. I didn’t want my dad to move me away from you, so I never told him what I’d learned. He figured it out on his own at some point, but I didn’t tell him.”

I leaned back, all but reeling from the story. “So we…”

“We’re fated mates, Cal.”

“You haven’t called or texted me without my prodding ineight years.”

“You were happy in New York. I knew you wouldn’t have been happy with me. You hate bear culture. I couldn’t commit to be what you wanted. I thought about you every fucking day and looked through those pictures you sent me obsessively… but I couldn’t take your future from you. If you’d dated anyone, I probably wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from coming after you, but you didn’t. So?—”

“I dated people.”

It was his turn to blink. “No you didn’t.”

“Not in High School. No one was attracted to me then.”

He grimaced. “Actually, I had buddies who knew how I felt about you and would tell me if someone was going to make a move. I’d have a conversation with anyone who showed interest andpolitely threaten to dismember them if they so much as looked at you too long.”

My eyes widened.

That was…

Okay, I wasn’t letting myself think about that yet.

Nope.

“Well, I did date in college. And have since I graduated. I wasn’t going to tell you who I was dating until I had a ring and a commitment, Hud. I had a crush on you for the better part of a decade, and you never even made me think you were attracted to me.”

“I was hard around you constantly,” he protested.

“I was so naïve that I didn’t even know what an erection was until I started college thanks to yours and my dad’s overprotectiveness, so I sure as hell didn’t notice that,” I retorted.

His eyes narrowed. “Who taught you?”

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