Page 5 of Bearly Mated

So I couldn’t do it.

She wasn’t mine, despite the way I’d felt since I was a kid.

Even as I thought the words, my paws carried me down an overgrown path through the forest that I knew better than anything else in my hometown.

A path that led directly to her.

three

CALLIE

“You can’t gothrough with this,” Wren said, her collarbone-length, dark brown hair a wreck as she ran her hand through the top of it again.

“It’s going to be good.” I leaned back in my porch swing, my socked feet braced on the railing. Though I would be enjoying Cub Lake for the entire foreseeable future, I couldn’t resist the urge to sit outside and take in the view. “I’ll have my baby. Our boys will be friends. I don’t need a partner.”

“You’re going to get to know him, though. It’s going to hurt.”

“I’m a tough cookie.”

“Do you remember that time you found an injured feral cat behind our dorm?” she asked.

“Not this again.”

“Do you, Callie? Because you fed that cat until it was healed, and when it left without coming back, you were crushed. You were sad about it formonths. And that was a cat you barely knew.”

“I’m going to keep and raise my baby,” I protested. “You know I’ll love him more than anything. I?—”

“I’m not talking about the baby. The baby will be loved and spoiled. I’m talking aboutyou. Because the guy who breeds you isn’t going to stay. You’re going to have his baby, and he’s going to become a permanent fixture in your life. Permanently floating in and out. Mostly out. And nothing you can do will change that.” I could hear the pain in her voice.

Though she hadn’t seen her mate since he knocked her up, she had been really damn in love with him. She didn’t say she missed him, but I could tell she did every time the topic came up.

“I know, Wren. But this is the only option that makes sense. My baby will have a good childhood, and I’ll get to watch him grow up. That has to be enough. You were strong enough to survive this—I will be too, because I have to be.”

Wren didn’t say anything for a moment, then finally said, “Shifter pregnancies are a bitch. You’ll have all of the worst symptoms the humans have. You’ll puke through the whole pregnancy, your heartburn will be so bad you feel like your chest and throat are on fire… not to mention the gestational diabetes. It’s a cluster. You’re lucky you’ll have me there to hold your hand.”

My lips curved upward. “I know. I’m a lucky bitch.”

I heard the humor in her voice when she said, “You have to promise me that you’re going to date through the pregnancy and afterward. You hate being alone. You can’t spend your life alone.”

I nodded, eyes stinging behind my eyelids. “Alright. Fine.” She was right—I knew she was right. “You have to start dating too, though. I can’t do it alone.

“Alright, deal. Now is when we act cheerful, isn’t it?” she asked, lifting her voice a little.

A soft laugh escaped me. “Yep.”

“You’re going to fuck a bear shifter. Your whole world will be rocked, because nothing even comes close to comparing.”

“I can’t say I’m disappointed about that. It’s been years since I was with anyone.”

“Which is why you’re going to have to be really, really careful not to catch feelings.”

“That’s fair.” I leaned back in my chair. “Do I need to be worried about anything?”

“Not as far as the sex goes. It’s just otherworldly-good,” she said.

“Fingers crossed that my shifter is as good in bed as yours. I?—”

A low, angry growl rolled in from the forest in front of me, and I cut myself off.

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