Page 13 of Alpha Bear Accountant

When I arrived at Todd’s house, he was standing there like a god. His jeans were hanging low and his fitted T-shirt left little to the imagination. If there hadn’t been a lasagna pan between us, I’d have thrown myself into his arms and kissed him, not even caring about decorum or propriety.

This was a date, and I had no self-control. So who could blame me for ogling the man. “You look amazing.”And like you need to be kissed from head to toe.

“You always do.” He took the food from me and inhaled deeply. “And this smells amazing.”

“I figured it was something we could eat right away or reheat if you want to get some work done first.”

He didn’t hesitate at all. “I vote to eat. This smells too good to ignore.”

We discussed the project over dinner. It wasn’t going to be a ton of work, but it was definitely work that went faster with two people. The baseboards were pretty long, and after we got the old ones out, we needed to cut the new ones and install them. If all went well, there would be no water damage underneath.

One room, though—along a wall—did show signs of having been wet at one point. My guess was it happened from the old roofleaking. It wasn’t a pipe-bearing wall, or at least it shouldn’t be, but there were always surprises with old houses like this.

It was late when we finally finished, and what I wanted to do was climb Todd like a tree and ask to stay the night. But he had work in the morning and his day apparently included a meeting with one of the bigwigs. And I still had a lot to do at the office, too. So instead, I left him with the leftovers and started to leave. But before I could get two steps away, I turned right back around and pulled him close, pressing my lip against his.

He leaned into the kiss, wrapping his arms around me.

If it weren’t for the sound of a car backfiring as it drove down the road, we’d have stayed in the embrace longer. But the sound startled us both and we pulled away, which was probably for the best.

As much as I hated it, it was time to leave. “See you Friday?”

Todd reached up and cupped my cheek. “Absolutely. I’ll be counting the minutes.”

Me too. Seconds, even.

11

TODD

Date night had finally arrived.

I had reservations in place, a small gift for when I picked him up, and was looking pretty darn good—with one exception. My eyes. They were not even close to human.

My bear was right at the surface. Far too close. And he wouldn’t stop insisting that Niam was my mate. It wasn’t that I disagreed with him, because I didn’t. After Wednesday night, there was zero doubt left about who Niam was to me.

This was more than just attraction. This was more than just getting along. He was my mate. Full. Stop.

But if my bear kept pushing against me, making himself known enough that any random person could see, he would scare Niam away. Niam had been pretty cool about the whole shifter thing, but it was one thing to know I was a shifter and another to see my grizzly pushing at me, demanding to be seen.

“Could you please calm down?” I didn’t know why I was arguing with my beast. It never went well. I was going to have to just force him down—one of my very least favorite things to do.

Mate. Ours. Claim.

“I know he’s our mate, but he’s human. We need to do this right, or we’ll lose him.” Watching my bear through the mirror as I spoke to him was weird, but speaking to him the way I normally did when he was right there didn’t have the same impact. Not with my stubborn beast, that was for sure.

No. Claim. Ours.

When he got like this, there was no reasoning with him. But still, I found myself trying. “You need to fall back, or he won’t stay with us.”

He growled, but after a beat, my eyes were finally back to mine.

Thank you.

Now, I was ready to go get Niam.

He was staying with his father in town. At first, I worried that picking him up there might make him nervous. Meeting the family was kind of a big deal for humans—not that picking him up at his father’s house meant I’d meet him, but the potential was there. But really, I probably should have met the man already since I was representing his business during an audit.

His other son—my mate’s brother—was a piece of work, I’d give him that. If there was a way to fuck up the books, he had managed to do it. It was like a case study they gave you in school where pretty much everything was wrong. But unlike in school, this situation had the very real possibility of putting good people out of work. Now that I was just about done with the online record keeping, it would be so much easier for me and Niam to maintain for the long term.

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