Page 11 of Wooded Bliss

Too fucking comfortable.

“How fucking dare you,” I roar at the witch who shouldn’t even fucking be here.

Both their heads snap up to look at me. My brother looks confused as fuck, but Circe doesn’t. I swear the corner of her fucking mouth twitches, and I have to stop myself from launching across the kitchen and attacking her.

It’s a damn good thing she’s a woman, witch or not. I’m not that kind of man and I don’t ever want to be.

Wylie stands up and takes a step toward me, his voice laced with confusion, “What’s wrong?”

I motion toward Circe with my hand as my lip curls up in a snarl. “Ask her,” every word is an accusation.

He spins and turns his attention toward Circe who holds her hands up as if she’s fucking innocent. I know better though.

“I’m not sure what you’re trying to accuse me of,” she tries to defend herself.

“You know what you did,” I spit right back at her.

“No,” she tries again, “I really don’t.”

“You did something to make my mate randomly show up today,” I snarl just as Ripp and Grady burst into the kitchen and freeze when they hear what I’ve just said.

The smile that spreads across Circe’s face is all I need to see. She did this. She did this without a fucking thought about what I want.

“You found your mate?” Wylie’s voice is filled with shock.

When I glance at Ripp and Grady, my oldest brother’s mouth is open and closing like a suffocating fucking fish. He looks ridiculous and if this were any other situation then I would find it hilarious. But I’m too damn mad right now.

“Yes,” I grit out through my clenched teeth. “She showed up at my cabin.”

“Wait,” Grady waves his hands around, “back up. You’re saying your mate, the one fated to you by the Moon Goddess, just showed up at your cabin?”

I glance at my youngest brother, and he has a look on his face which I’m not sure how to read. It’s not longing. It’s not jealousy. It’s something else.

“She was delivering a bouquet of flowers to me,” I explain.

Wylie sits up a little taller in his chair. I hope I don’t have to kill my brother for whatever he’s about to say, but I’m afraid it’s a real possibility.

“We will kill him in the name of our mate if we need to,”my bear grumbles like he hasn’t been acting like a petulant child.

“Birdie is your mate?” I growl in Wylie’s direction and I’m not sure if it’s a warning or because I’m jealous he knows my mate’s name and I needed to ask her for it.

“Yes,” I grunt as I fix my gaze on Circe, “she is.”

“The flower shop lady is nice,” Grady offers as he grins at me, “and she’s very pretty.”

“Don’t,” I growl threateningly. “Don’t talk about my mate.”

“Why are you pissed because you met your mate?” Ripp’s question is tentative.

When I glance at him, he’s studying me closely. It’s not like I can blame him considering I’m not exactly acting like a bear who has just found his fated mate. Hell, I wouldn’t even be here right now if this were a normal situation.

I would be buried balls deep in my mate while biting her marking spot and binding her to me forever. If I was interested in having a mate. If my mate weren’t human without a fucking clue that she lives in a town built on the back of a bear pack. A pack which used to be large and formidable, even though it’s not anymore.

“I’m not interested in having a mate,” I grunt.

Circe’s eyebrows shoot up toward her hairline as the mouths of my brothers fall open. Shock. Yeah, they’re all shocked. What can I say? In the last ten years we’ve been living side by side, trying to hold together what is left of the Bosch pack, which isn’t much. What we haven’t been doing is sharing.

For a long time, all our focus was on Grady. We needed to raise him and the only way to do it was to work together. When our parents died, he didn’t have his bear yet. We needed to get him through puberty, through his transition, and into adulthood. All while trying not to fuck him up and impart to him the things our parents did to us.

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