Page 24 of Bearly Hanging On

“Um… what?” I looked at each guy in turn, but they just stared each other down.

“You can’t dream walk without a mate bond,” the bear shifter insisted.

“You don’t know that.” Mack’s wolf seemed close to the surface, his teeth bared in a snarl. “You don’t know shit about wolf shifters.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I stepped in between the two of them, the alcohol making it so I hardly felt the hostility radiating off both of them. “Back up for a second. That was…” I looked around, suddenly embarrassed by this conversation. “That was real?” I whispered.

“Bloody hell…” Tor rubbed at his face.

“The sounds of your sighs,” Kieran said, his eyes boring into mine. “The way you felt… Your body rising up off the bed?—”

“OK, got it,” I said, then drank the rest of my drink, setting the glass on the bar. “So original plan. We’re going to grab something to eat and you…” I pointed at him, then Mack and Tor. “All of you are going to fill me in on everything I’m missing, including what will happen when I go to bed tonight. Will there be…?” I shook my head, sucking in a breath, then letting it out in a whoosh. “Will there be an encore?”

“If you want there to be.”

Kieran’s grin had me shaking my head, then I grabbed a couple of menus off the bar and walked over to the nearest empty table.

Half an hour later,we all had chicken parmis in front of us, and the only sound was that of cutlery cutting into slabs of meat.

“So tell me about this whole fated mate thing.” I said, waving my knife in the air. “Seems like furry propaganda to me.”

Mack snorted, then swallowed furiously, trying not to choke.

“Not propaganda,” Kieran said, shooting me a sidelong look. “Instinct.”

“So it’s like ‘this is my woman.’” I beat my fists against my chest, gorilla style. “I must mop her floors and clean her toilet for her.”

“More like ‘this is the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with,’” Tor replied, those kitty green eyes watching my every move. “If she lets me. Then I will spend every day?—”

“We,” Kieran corrected.

“Making sure she doesn’t have to lift a finger, not unless she wants to.”

Suddenly I was really focussed on my chicken, cutting up smaller and smaller pieces.

“So you guys won’t spend hours blaming all your problems on some ex girlfriend.” As I blinked, I could see them, thearseholes of dates past. “Won’t tell me you have an open marriage, even though you’ve never discussed the idea with your wife.” Then I saw the muppet I was on a date with last. “Won’t tell me ‘your sister’ is asleep on your couch and that’s why we can’t go back to your place.” I forced myself to smile. “I’m not sure I believe you.”

“There’s no ex girlfriends to talk about.” Tor’s cheeks flamed red at that, but he forged on. “No wives, ex or otherwise.”

“No other women,” Kieran said in a firm tone.

“None…” Now I was the one blushing, trying to reconcile myself with what happened in my dream with their supposed inexperience. Last night was a far cry from my fumbling first time in the back of my teenager boyfriend’s car. “Not ever?”

“What would be the point?” Mack seemed permanently pissed off, but now his gaze felt like it was burning my skin. “Some shifters sleep around, but not many. It’s about as satisfactory as jerking off, and that takes a whole lot less effort. A shifter is supposed to wait for his fated mate, until she’s ready to accept the bond. That’s the only time he feels any kind of…” His words made it sound like a good thing, but his tone, his expression told another story. “Whatever.” He rose to his feet. “I need to take a piss.”

Without any response from us, Mack strode off towards the bathrooms.

“So he seems happy about that idea.” I shook my head, almost able to feel the way Mack’s cock ground into me last night. “A lot less happy than he was last night.”

“Mack, his father—” Tor started to say, but Kieran shook his head.

“Mack’s father, what?” I asked. “Mack’s father did what?”

“Mack’s father didn’t treat his mate right,” Tor said, shooting Kieran a dark look.

Of course he didn’t.

“That doesn’t happen very often. Never in the bear community.” Kieran seemed intent on putting a good spin on this, but I just shook my head slowly, taking another sip of my rum and Coke. “The elders would step in and protect the woman before he raised a hand against her.”

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