Page 129 of Secret Shifters Next Door

After I punched in the code, I found her in my living room. She was pacing back and forth. Not knowing what to do, I simply stood there. Every time she’d turn to walk in a differentdirection, she ran her hands through her hair manically. She looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack.

After what seemed like an eternity, she stopped and looked at me, pinning me in place with a look so intense I almost shriveled away from it. “What are you?”

My breath caught in my throat.Oh, shit. “Um, what do you mean by that?”

“I mean, that a few minutes ago, I wasn’t looking at a man. Your eyes? That growling noise, the voice, everything? It was like I was looking into the face of a feral animal, Steff. What the fuck is going on?”

Deep inside, my bear writhed in shame and heartache at being called feral. “I was mad, okay. I sort of lost control, I guess.”

She leveled a finger at me. “No. Not an explanation. People’s eyes don’t change color when they’re mad. People don’t growl like dogs when they get angry.”

Being compared to a dog offended both me and my bear. But what could I say? I’d fucked up and I couldn’t figure a way out. In a couple of seconds, my brain spun and worked through dozens of possible stories or excuses.My eyes changed color because of a reaction to contact lenses? It sounded like a growl, but it’s just me fighting off a chest cold?None of those were even remotely plausible or believable.

“I think you’re reading too much into that. It was probably the way the light reflected off my eyes or something.”

“Goddamn it,” she shouted, sending a bolt of fear through me. “Steffen, tell me what the fuck is going on right now. If you keep lying to me, we are done. Do you understand that? Done forever. I’ll never speak to you again.”

That was too much for my bear to stand. I could feel it trying to take over. It was desperate to keep her—so was I. The beastinside me was punching me to tell the truth. I couldn’t hold back any longer. I might explode.

I held my hands up. “Okay, all right, I’ll tell you. I need you to know that I was going to tell you. It’s all part of why I left back then.”

She crossed her arms and bolted me in place with her stare. She didn’t say anything. Instead, she was waiting for me to speak. The look on her face was as strong as any verbal command.

I took a deep breath, then glanced at the ceiling and prayed for a good outcome. “So… I’m a bear shifter. That means I’m a shapeshifter and can turn into a bear.” My heart started beating madly in my chest, and the words started to tumble out, rapid-fire and without time for April to interject. “You see, me and all my friends are. Miles is a wolf, Blayne is a panther, Tate is a dragon. Yes, I know that sounds even crazier, but yes, dragons are real. Shifters and humans can’t have relationships. We can’t have kids together, and the possibility of exposure is too high. That’s why I left you all those years ago. I wanted you to have a normal life. Harley is Tate’s mate. Once the bond was formed and he claimed her, she became a dragon, too.

“Oh, damn, I forgot that part. The curse also makes the human mate become a shifter. If that ever happens, you’ll be a bear shifter. That’s a lot of baggage. Like the worst STD ever or something.

“Anyway, there was this witch, I can’t get into all that, but she was helping these hunters who go all over the country hunting and killing shifters like me. They were working around the state and finally set their eyes on us. She cast this—oh, shit, I sound psychotic—spell. She cast a spell that cursed all four of us. We’re fated to have a human mate. If we don’t create a mating bond with them, we die. Like screaming-in-agony type pain. It lookslike I’m fated to you. So, now you’re part of all this, and can you see how fucking hard this was to bring up?”

I flopped onto the couch, breathing heavily like I’d run wind sprints. I looked over hesitantly, and April was slowly lowering herself to the couch, a wary look on her face. Wary and overwhelmed. Both the bear and I were terrified of being rejected. The thought that she would turn her back on us was almost more than I could take.

My heart couldn’t beat any faster than it did when she finally spoke. Her voice was barely a whisper. “That bear in your backyard?” She looked at me. “Was that you?”

I nodded, not knowing what else to say. She stared at the floor for several long moments before she looked up again. “Back in school, you left me. You didn’t trust me with this secret. You didn’t trust me?”

I shook my head. Panicked by her reaction. “No, that’s not it. The reason we’re being pulled together now is the curse. Before this curse, shifters and humans didn’t—couldn’t—mate. No babies, no future, no claiming, and without that we could never have had the bond shifters needed. I would have ended up hiding things and lying to you. But I did love you, and it was getting harder and harder for me to let you go. I knew I had to do it quickly. Even though I couldn’t mate with you, deep down I was sure that we were meant to be together. This curse has changed that. We have a chance now.

“I wanted to push you away at first, I didn’t want to force you to be a shifter. I thought it would be better to have you reject me. Risk the pain and whatever else came with that. My bear, the inside part of me, knew all along it wouldn’t work. So, I stopped fighting. Curse or no curse, there is no one in the world who loves you as much as I do.”

April looked down at her hands as soon as I finished speaking. I sat, rigid, waiting for what she was going to say. I couldn’t have moved if I wanted to. My body was like a statue.

April finally looked up, and she was crying. Her face was crumpled and miserable. My heart felt like it had shattered. She looked the same as when I left her fifteen years ago—agonized and heartbroken.

“I would have loved you. I would have accepted you. You could have trusted me with your life, because you were my life. Kids, no kids, adoption, whatever. I would have made sure you didn’t feel like you were missing anything. You should have known that.”

Every word she said was like a knife being stabbed into my chest. “April, I did what I thought was necessary?—”

“You selfish bastard. You didn’t even take me into account. All that worry and you didn’t even consider that I would accept you for what you were?”

“That’s not what I meant. All I wanted was the best for you.”

“You were what was best for me,” she screamed.

My bear raged inside me because I was upsetting April. It was doing all it could to make it stop. The fear of rejection and a broken bond was still there. Front and center.

We stared at each other in silence for a beat before her eyes widened. “Did Kris and Kellan know?”

“No, not then. I just told Kellan not long ago. He’s trying to work Kris into being cool with me again. We thought that was best before we told him.”

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