Page 11 of Cowboy Bear's Hope

Of course, I would fetch them. My heart thundered at every single prospect of seeing that woman and her cub.

Ever since my mother died, and I left my old Clan, I’d been searching for a connection. Something to ground my Bear.

When I first met the little firecracker of a human, she damn near brained me with a metal bat.

But I swear to the gods that had nothing on the lightning bolt that zapped me right in the chest the second I met her honey gold stare.

Avery was it for me. The woman was my fated mate.

I knew it.

My Grizzly knew it.

But she didn’t.

And that was the whole fucking problem.

Really, I should just stay away from her. A monster like me had no business with soft, sweet things like her.

But I couldn’t. She took up every inch of available space in my head and my heart, and I wanted her with a ferocity that rivaled my Bear’s hunger for all things honey flavored—which coincidentally happened to be her natural scent.

What were the odds? A woman smelling like honey, with eyes just as gold, and a temper worse than Lucifer himself.

Fucking perfect.

“Car’s at that new place, Lance’s Auto Repair & Body Shop. It’s a chain,” Emmet explained before continuing, “Dion, the mechanic, is a Lion Shifter, he said it needs a new transmission. Gonna cost an arm and a leg.”

“That car would serve everyone better if it was crushed into a cube like a piece of modern art,” I grumbled, worrying about the safety of my future mate always put my Bear on edge.

“I agree. But Avery won’t let Max buy her a new one. He already offered.”

That Max had offered to buy Avery a new car was a kind gesture. At least, I was sure he meant it that way, likely to keep his own mate from worrying.

But it made my fur bristle and my Bear chuff angrily. No one should be taking care of my girls but me.

I shouldn’t think about Avery and Rosie as mine, but the sassy woman and her sweet cub felt important to me. The Bear had already claimed them in his mind.

Sure, we’d only kissed the one time, but I knew even before her lips touched mine, she was the one.

I didn’t know what the fuck I’d done wrong to make her hate me ever since then.

In all honesty, it wrecked my confidence having her growl the word no at me every time she saw me since. But not talking to her was making my beast unmanageable, and a pissed off Grizzly wasn’t good for anyone.

I had to talk to her. To come clean about my feelings.

But it wasn’t easy.

The fear of rejection was real and mighty.

Aside from all that, I still had to tell Avery what I suspected about Rosie Posie. That child was special. And not just because she was so sweet she gave me a toothache just looking at her.

Cute little cub. Precious baby.

See, ever since I met the pretty little girl, my Bear had started calling her cub. More than that. The possessive beast thought of her as my cub.

At first, I thought it was just my animal being proprietary, laying claim to the child of the woman the Fates destined to be our mate.

Then I scented fur beneath the little girl’s skin, and I realized there was another reason my Bear called her cub.

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