Page 13 of Bear the Burden

“Yes.” Hyett nodded.

“In your world, your kind is given a mate.”

Okay, this was much better, so Hyett wasn’t going to tell Wesley that there were many different shifter species or the fact that vampires, demons, and other preternatural beings existed. “Yes.”

Wesley slid his tongue over his bottom lip and damn if Hyett didn’t want to feel it sliding over his. “When you stood at the counter earlier, you knew I was your mate.”

“Yes!” Hyett felt as if they’d just climbed a fucking mountain, but they’d finally made it to the top.

“So now I belong to your family?”

And they just fell off the mountaintop. “Why do you keep circling back to my family?” Hyett asked incredulously. “You were nailing it perfectly until the last part. You belong solely to me, Wesley. Me. Not Killian or Ryker or my dad. Just me. Now do you get it?”

The side of his mate’s mouth twitched.

Hyett narrowed his eyes. “You were just fucking with me.”

Wesley’s smile fully blossomed. “I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. You looked so hopeful and—” He shrugged. “Now, the question is, do I believe you?”

“But you just—”

“Let me finish,” Wesley said calmly as he held up his hand again. “Please.”

“Go ahead, babe.” Hyett would just sit there and listen to the guy call him seven kinds of crazy. Then he would show his claws to prove he was a bear, followed by his mate having a meltdown.

Just your average Friday evening.

“I’m open to the possibility that something is going on, simply because my pain completely disappears when you touch me,” Wesley said. “But the mate thing? My attraction to you can be explained by, you guessed it, simple attraction.”

While Hyett wasn’t thrilled that his mate thought their connection was merely attraction, at least he hadn’t called Hyett a flat-out liar. “And my bear?”

Wesley’s gorgeous smile widened. “You are utterly insane.”

Locking gazes with his mate, Hyett raised his hand and slid his claws free.

The skin under Wesley’s eyes twitched.

Hyett retracted his claws, but his mate had yet to move a muscle. It was as if he was frozen. “Talk to me, hon. You have a weird look in your eyes. Tell me if you’re about to run.”

They were on the side of the road, and Hyett didn’t need the guy running into oncoming traffic, even though there currently weren’t any cars in sight.

“Right.” Wesley grabbed the handle, gently pushed the door open, then got out. He simply walked into the field next to them.

“Shit. He’s having a silent meltdown.” Hyett jumped out then flattened himself against the front panel of his SUV when a semi rushed by. Jesus. He was about to die going after his mate.

Jogging after Wesley, who was walking at a steady pace, Hyett wondered where the guy was heading. “Wesley?”

His mate stopped. “I’m working this out in my head,” he said to Hyett. “I can’t be…” He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. “I’m a monster.”

What was his mate talking about? How was he a monster?

“And you’re apparently a bear.” Wesley let out a quick, hysterical laugh then grew quiet. “Clearly I’m the one who’s insane.”

Wesley was definitely having a meltdown, and Hyett wasn’t sure how to stop it.

Chapter Four

Wesley tried to work this out in his head as he walked. His life hadn’t been the same since that fateful night, and now… A bear? Maybe, just maybe, he could somehow get beyond the fact the guy he was overwhelmingly attracted to was a bear, but how would he deal with them being mates?

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