Page 14 of The Omega's Beary Merry Christmas

Rudy scoffed. “I did not. Everything was working fine when I left. I mean, to my knowledge. I don’t really use either much when I’m home. I use the woodstove as you know.”

“You know better, Brother. Humans need more heat than us and besides, you have to keep it on low. You should’ve checked before you left.”

“So, are you going to fix it?” he asked. “I’ll pay you back for whatever.”

“You will not. And yes, I am trying to fix it. In the meantime…” I didn’t even want to speak the words. I could only imagine how he would laugh. “In the meantime, the human and his daughter are staying in my guest room.”

As I’d expected, my brother broke out in loud laughter. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“I’m not. And it’s not funny.”

“It sounds like it to me.”

“I…” I started. “There’s more. He’s my mate, Rudy.”

My brother gasped. “You…are you serious?”

“Yeah. I am.”

“Bert, he’s a dad. There’s another father in the picture. You can’t—”

“He’s widowed.” I paused for a moment to let that sink in. “We just had a talk about it.”

“You told him! You told him he’s your mate? How did that go?”

“No. He told me that he lost his mate—his husband. I didn’t tell him anything about being my mate. Hell, he doesn’t even know I’m a bear. He might not even be aware of shifters.”

“Damn.”

“Double damn, in fact. What I’m worried about right now is your cabin. I’m worried about the pipes freezing.” I had tried all the options, and I could fix things but needed to get to town for some parts. Turned out, I didn’t have any in my tools.

“Yeah. I mean, thanks for taking care of that. Let me know how this mate saga unfolds, will ya?”

I laughed and hung up on him before answering. He’d left me with a mess and a shady situation, but those two things combined also had my mate in my guest room, warm and toasty.

Gods, my bear even saw his young as mine already.

Too soon, bear. Too soon.

I did what I could in the meantime and drained all the pipes. That was all the prevention I could manage. Leaving a woodstove burning unattended was a recipe for fire. I put my hands on my hips and breathed in the winter air once I got outside. Our cabins were older than old. We both needed upgrades, and there were miniscule things needing to be fixed in every room.

But now that my mate was here, those tiny things became huge. I didn’t want him to think I was a bear who didn’t manage upkeep of his home. Conrad should think of me as an alpha who took care of his mate and his home—his family.

Damn it. There my bear went again, thinking of Conrad and Natalie as his family.

I was still a stranger to them in most ways.

The words mate and alpha and beast might not mean anything to him. There was still that slim chance that he might not feel anything for me and run at the first sight of claws.

I had to figure out a way to tell him. And then we would hopefully find a way to tell his daughter. Not scary at all.

My bear rumbled and clawed me from the inside. He wanted to get out and run under the full moon. More than anything, he loved to romp and play in the snow. What might Natalie think about riding my bear over the wintery landscape? As long as she didn’t call it frolicking, I would run with her all day.

More than that, he wanted to run in front of our mate. Show him what a big, bad bear we were. Show him that nothing and no one would ever cause him harm or the tiny female either as long as he was in the picture.

He wanted Conrad’s fingers through his thick fur. To look him in the eyes and tell him he was mine. That I was his. That we belonged together even in this crazy way of meeting.

My bear craved a lot of things he had no business thinking about…yet.

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