Page 123 of Secret Shifters Next Door

He pulled away and whispered, “Because we’re soul mates. We’ve been given a chance to make things right, and I plan on doing just that.”

I clutched at his shirt, the words plunging deep into my heart. Soul mate? For the longest time, I’d believed Steff and I were soul mates. It was the reason I thought I’d never found a fulfilling relationship with another man. My soul belonged to Steff.

I held his gaze, my heart racing with fear, excitement, and trepidation. I had to stop the fighting between my brain and my heart and be honest with myself. I had to give, but I had to be careful. The fear was so strong that it was all I could do to allow myself a small sliver of hope.

“One chance, Steff. That’s all I can give you.” My voice quavered. “If you break my heart again, there won’t be another do-over. I’ll be gone, and you’ll never see me again. This is it. Do you understand?”

Steff let out a sigh of relief and nodded faintly. “All I need is one chance. I won’t need another,” he whispered, then he kissed me again.

SIXTEEN

STEFF

The end of the first week of the baseball camp fell on July Fourth. We decided to do a couple of practice innings of real play for about two hours, then we let all the kids head out early since most of their families had plans. Aiden was doing crazy good. The extra coaching was really helping him excel.

I’d arranged with Kellan to meet him in town. He wanted to take Aiden out for lunch to celebrate a great first week. To my surprise, Kellan texted me that I was welcome to come along for lunch. We met at a burger place that had an old-fashioned arcade with pinball machines and everything in the back.

After Kellan and I had ordered at the counter, he gave Aiden a stack of one-dollar bills to go play games with while we waited for our food. As he ran toward the games, I said, “You know, that kid is a really good baseball player.”

Kellan nodded. “Yeah. Thanks again for suggesting the camp. He’s been talking about it nonstop all week. It’s the most fun I’ve seen him have in forever.”

“No thanks needed. Like I said, he’s a talented kid. He deserves to have that talent explored and molded.”

“Still, I’m happy you offered. And I’m really happy April offered to pay for it. I couldn’t have swung the price otherwise.”

“Are you really surprised she did?” I asked. “April loves her family. Always has. There’s no way she’d let Aiden miss out on something like this.”

Kellan sighed and smiled, nodding his head. “You’re right about that.”

The next few minutes passed in silence—amiable at first, but it grew awkward after a while. Mostly because I could tell Kellan was trying to figure out how to ask something. I could only imagine what it was. My anxiety grew with each passing second.

Finally, he said, “So what’s really going on between you and April? Like for real. I need to know. You broke her heart when you left, and I don’t think she ever really recovered. That’s a lot to try to forgive. Plus we were friends, man. Best friends. You, me, Kris. Like the Three Musketeers. You broke our hearts, too. You walked away and left us behind like none of us mattered. Not me. Not my brother, and especially not my sister. I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on.”

It was pretty much what I thought he’d been about to say. It didn’t make it any less painful to hear. I took a breath, trying to collect my thoughts. I wanted to make sure I said this the right way. It was a hard conversation, but it needed to happen.

“There was a lot of stuff going on with me back then. A ton of stress and personal issues that none of you knew about. They were… complicated. It’s hard to explain, but I knew, or at least thought I knew, that April would get hurt. It would have been hard with me being away for college. My uncle’s health wasn’t so well. Plus, high-school romances never really pan out. All those things bouncing around my mind… I decided it was better to end things. All because I didn’t want April to hook herself onto me and ruin her future with a guy who wasn’t good enough. Or wasn’t… I don’t know… what she needed.

“In hindsight it was the absolute worst decision I could have made. I know that now. Honestly, I probably knew it withinminutes of breaking things off. I was too scared to try to take it back. Like, how do you take something like that back? You can’t. And I was sure you and Kris would hate me as much as April would. I couldn’t face that, so I cut all ties. Disappeared and never looked back. It hurt like hell, but at the time, I really truly did think it was the right thing to do for everyone involved.”

I took a deep breath, hoping I’d explained things as well as I could. The truth wasn’t an option, but what I’d said had been 99 percent what I’d felt and thought. It was the closest I could get to the truth without revealing what couldn’t be revealed.

“What could be so important that you’d leave behind everyone you loved?”

My bear whined at the question. April hadn’t been the only one we’d been bonded to. Kris and Kellan had been my de facto pack. Friends who somehow kept me from going feral without my real family. They’d been the brothers I’d always wanted my real brother to be. It had broken my bear’s heart.

I sat for a moment, trying to think of how to explain better. I’d done all I could without telling the actual truth. And the actual truth would sound like a joke. A thousand explanations or stories flitted through my head, and they all sounded like lies. I didn’t want to lie to Kellan. Not again. I’d trusted him with my life at one point.

Fuck it, I thought. “So… basically I’m a human-bear hybrid shapeshifter. I can turn into a bear whenever I want. In the long run, April and I couldn’t be together because she’s a human and I’m not.”

Kellan took a sip of his tea and leaned back in his chair. I’d expected him to laugh and call me a liar. Or worse slap me across the face and call me a liar. Instead, he sat there staring at the ceiling, introspective and quiet. My heart started to flutter. What the hell was he doing? I wanted him to do something, say something. Anything. Christ, was he trying to think of how tograb Aiden and run from the psychopath who thought he was a bear shifter?

Instead, Kellan nodded once. “That checks out, actually.”

I stared at him dumbly, my mouth agape. For a few seconds, it was like my brain had been short-circuited. Or more like my mind was a scratched record or CD, going back over the same words over and over again. “What?” I mumbled.

Kellan shrugged, his brow knitted. “There were times when we were kids when you’d get really angry and you’d growl. It didn’t sound like a kid pretending to growl. I mean, it really sounded like an actual animal. Kris told me once that he saw your eyes start to glow. Said it wasn’t a trick of the light. Plus, whenever we went over to your house, there were giant-ass bear prints in the backyard. All over the place, you couldn’t miss them. You and your uncle never acted like they were weird or out of place. Then there was the way you could eat what-the-fuck-ever you wanted and still have abs of steel. Pint of ice cream, three bowls of spaghetti, and a platter of fried hot wings? Still have a six-pack? Bro, that’s not human, not by a long shot.”

I didn’t have words. The server brought our hamburgers and I continued to look at Kellan, unable to form the words I wanted to say. Finally, I managed a single sentence. “You mean you actually believe me?”

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