Page 13 of Marked By The Grouchy Grizzly

But they’re just being good protective friends, I guess. They don’t know that something else is happening here. Something that I’m not even fully aware of.

“Carly, can I borrow your car?” I ask her as I grab her keys off the counter. “I could use some ice cream.”

She nods as she holds her hand over the phone. “Sure. Can you get me some chocolate mint?”

“No problem,” I say as I hurry out before any more questions are asked—like what state am I getting the ice cream in.

I run out into the cool night air and jump into Carly’s car.

It’s not long before I’m on the highway, driving the ninety minutes back to the tattoo parlor.

I don’t know what I’ll find when I get there—probably an empty, closed shop—but I have to go.

I can’t just sit here doing nothing.

I have to find that man again.

And I have to figure out what the heck is going on.

CHAPTER SIX

Julian

After my long ass day, I let my grizzly bear out to burn off some of the pent-up energy he’s been hitting me with since Lainey left. He doesn’t understand why we’re not with our mate and he certainly doesn’t understand why we didn’t mark her neck.

“It’s complicated,” I whisper to him as I take off my T-shirt and toss it onto my back porch. “But I’m working on it.”

The sun has just set over the mountains and the forest sprawled out in front of me is glowing from the silvery moonlight. Fireflies are sparkling between the dark trees. A deer passed by not too long ago. I can smell it.

Normally, my grizzly would be captivated by the scent, but there’s only one thing on his mind right now and it’s not any of the animals frolicking in the forest.

I sigh as I kick off my shoes and undo my belt while my bear claws and paces around, wondering why I’m taking so long to free him.

“Behave,” I warn him as I pull down my jeans.

It’s not uncommon for a bear to go to extreme lengths to find his mate. I once heard a story from an old Kodiak shifter whose bear walked across three states to get to his mate. The bear wouldn’t let him out for five days.

“I gotta work tomorrow,” I whisper as I slip off my boxer briefs. “And Magnus already wants to kill me, so please behave. You have two hours. That’s it.”

He grumbles an answer, but I’m not sure if it’s an agreement or a protest. Either way, I have to take my chances.

I take a deep breath, shaking out my arms as I close my eyes. I try to relax my body as much as I can before I let him loose.

“Okay,” I whisper, letting him out.

My bear surges up from the darkness, exploding out of me with a primal roar.

I get pulled down inside where I can watch through his eyes, smell through his nose, and hear through his ears. The whole forest comes alive.

Scents and sounds appear that even my enhanced senses can’t pick up. I smell a raccoon that passed this way a few days ago. A rotten carcass a few miles away. I can hear an earthworm wiggling through the dirt by my paw. The breeze through the trees is deafening.

But I’m used to all that. What I’m not used to is this buzzing feeling rippling through my grizzly. It’s an excitement. A desire. Aneed.

A need to mark his mate.

And not with a tattoo. A proper mark. With our teeth.

He glances over his shoulder at my house—a wooden cabin I built with my brothers. We each have a similar one spread over the twenty acres of pristine Montana wilderness we inherited from our parents before they picked up and moved to Switzerland for their retirement.

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