Page 46 of Fated to the Grizzly

“Yeah, she’s pretty cool,” he says, grinning. “Sorry for the third degree though. She was just real excited to meet you.”

“Oh, same here. I can’t believe how much she knows about me already.”

“She’s spooky like that. You better get used to it.” He puts his arm around my shoulder. “Now, let’s go home, my beautiful mate.”

It feels different now. Last time I was here, I had this nagging sense of unfinished business. But now, all that’s behind us, and I know nothing is going to come between us again.

I stop walking as something occurs to me. “You know something?” I say. “The first time I came here I was unconscious?”

He crooks one of his thick eyebrows. “Sure do. I had to carry you in my arms.” He lunges for me, and the next thing I know, he’s tossing me over one of his broad shoulders.

“Oh, my god, you carried me likethis?” I squeak, from my upside-down position.

“Nope. You weren’t my mate then. And, I was kinda worried about you.”

“Is this how a bear carries his mate?”

“Oh, yeah,” he growls and swats my ass.

Heat surges through my core. Is it wrong that I like being carried around caveman style?

Whatever, I don’t care. All I want to do is get indoors, get out of our clothes, and have my big grizzly mate claim me, all night long.

EPILOGUE

Six months later

“Oh, my god, I think I’m going to be sick.”

“That’s okay.” Orion smoothes my hair back from my forehead and speaks softly into my ear. “If you’ve gotta puke, you’ve gotta puke.”

I giggle, and instantly my stomach quits churning. “Would you still love me if I puked all over the beautiful new laptop you’ve bought me?”

“Baby, I’d love you if you puked over a hundred laptops. Now, as much as I’m enjoying this topic of conversation, shall we check your results?”

“I’ve so failed,” I moan.

“You worked super hard. You got great scores in all the practice questions. You’re the smartest person I’ve ever met. If somehow that didn’t all align when you took your test, you can just do it again. It’s nothing to worry about.”

With every sentence, my heartbeat slows. Orion knows how to calm me like no one else.

There’s nothing to worry about.

The bottomless dread that consumed me throughout my childhood hasalmostdisappeared under his care and easygoing nature.

I hold my breath and, keeping my eyes half-closed, I jab at my laptop’s trackpad.

“798!” Orion hollers, before I’ve even absorbed the blurry figures in front of me. He plants a smacking kiss on my cheek. Then he lifts me right up, holding me up high with his massive arms and spinning me around. “Baby, you did it! An almost perfect score!”

“Oh, my god!” I say over and over. “I’ve got my GED!”

“The world is your oyster!”

I laugh joyously, beyond touched at how excited Orion is for me. Ever since I told him how it bothered me that I hadn’t graduated high school, he’s been encouraging me.

Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of gaps in my parents’ “home-schooling” syllabus, so for the past three months I’ve been studying my ass off. And it’s finally paid off.

“And all because of you.” I wrap my legs around his waist and kiss him, but he pulls back.

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