Page 17 of Wooded Bliss

I still with my bear’s threat and grunt,“You wouldn’t dare.”I can feel his satisfaction at my reaction, but it quickly dissolves when I tell him,“If you told her that it could delay us mating and marking her.”

He roars loudly in my head and now it’s my turn to feel smug. It’s a fleeting feeling as my nerves kick back in. I step up onto Birdie’s front porch and force myself not to turn around and run.

I’ve been thinking a lot. About having a mate. About my parents. About the future.

I don’t know if I can have a full future without my mate. It’s just a fact and I need to come to terms with it. I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the whole thing now that I have no other choice.

Even though I’ve been telling myself for years how I don’t need or want a mate, I’ve had to face the fact that fear was the only thing driving my staunch resolve. My brother was right when he pointed out how much I used to look forward to having a mate. I remember watching our parents together and yearning for the same kind of love and devotion.

They set the bar very high for me. Then losing them made me rethink so many things including my stance on the mate bond and the power it has. It can enrich your life, without a doubt, but there’s a certain amount of risk there.

It’s a risk I wasn’t willing to face. I didn’t want to. I couldn’t.

Because then I would have to admit my parents wouldn’t be there for all those moments, the big milestones in my life Ialways assumed they would be there for. I took for granted that they would be there to meet my mate. I didn’t even consider they wouldn’t be there to be grandparents and spoil my cubs.

Not facing it and pushing away the whole idea of having a mate allowed me to ignore the thought of how much of my future they would miss. It was already too much to confront everything they missed in the lives of my younger brothers. It was all too much.

Being against having my mate in my life was one of the few things I could control. But now it’s been taken out of my hands, and I know I won’t be able to do anything about it.

The mate bond is strong, and I already feel it tugging at my soul, urging to get closer to Birdie and to make her mine. And then there’s my bear. He would never let me live it down if I didn’t accept my mate.

“That’s right,”he growls,“now go and knock. I want to see our mate again.”

When I step up to Birdie’s front door, I swallow hard and knock before I can talk myself out of it. My knock isn’t soft and gentle. No, I knock like I’m an entire police force here to serve a warrant.

The door to my mate’s home opens slowly and I’m struck, again, when I see her peeking out at me. I have no idea how I didn’t notice her years ago when I did spend time in Whispering Pines. Sure, back then, I had no interest in anyone other than my mate, but she’s stunning and I have no doubt she always has been.

Compared to me, Birdie is short, only coming up to my shoulder. She looks delicate, but she still has curves in all the right places. The way the sunlight hit her blonde hair yesterdaymade it look like it was glowing. As her big blue eyes peek out at me, surprise written all over her face, I can admit she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.

“Tell mate that,”my bear whispers like he’s Cyrano de Bergerac reincarnate.

I shush him, and murmur,“Don’t distract me right now. I need to focus.”

He huffs and then lays down in my mind, his focus completely on my mate. Her voice is filled with curiosity and a little wariness, “Thatcher?”

After clearing my throat, I try and get my shit together. “Hi, Birdie,” I sound nervous, but it’s inevitable at this point. I rub the back of my neck while giving her a sheepish smile. “I’m sure you’re surprised to see me.”

When she opens the door a little wider for me, it feels like I’ve won the first battle. She doesn’t invite me in, but she leans against the door frame as her blue eyes travel down and up my body to take me in. I barely stop myself from puffing up my chest, hoping my mate likes what she sees.

“A little,” her voice is soft and helps me to relax.

This is no big deal. Just talking to my mate after making a horrible impression on her yesterday.

“I owe you an apology,” I blurt out the words.

Birdie looks at me in surprise, her pouty lips forming a perfect o. I want to grab my mate and kiss her, but I can’t. Not yet.

My bear rumbles,“Yes, kiss mate. Want to taste her. She smells so good.”

He’s not wrong. Her wildflower and sunshine scent is distracting. She smells like the most perfect day.

“I was rude yesterday,” I hope she can hear the sincerity in my voice, “and I’m sorry. You came to my home for a delivery, and I treated you like you were the enemy. I don’t have a good reason at all. It wasn’t right and it’s been bugging me since you drove away.”

“Wow,” Birdie whispers as her blue eyes search mine. “You’ve really been thinking about this since yesterday?”

My shoulders slump and I nod slowly. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It might not make a lot of sense, but the thought of upsetting you and you thinking of me as an asshole doesn’t sit right with me.”

A wide smile spreads across my little mate’s face. It’s like the sun breaking through the canopy of the trees to allow you to be kissed by light and heat. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more beautiful.

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