Page 5 of Bearly Hanging On

Mack sucked in a breath.

“I don’t?—”

“Thirty-five millimetre wall plugs,” I said, grabbing exactly three lots of them, as spelled out on the list. “Twenty kilo weight hooks and screws. Alright, we…”

Get the stuff, hustle over to the community centre to work on the family history project, and then endure yet more pointed questions from my mum about when I would find my fated mate, that was the plan. So why did it all fall to shit the momentshewalked down the aisle? A little unsteady on her feet, the bear perked up the instant I laid eyes on the woman, blond fur prickling across my skin. I had iron control over my animal, and yet right now I may as well be a young kid at his first shift. The bear shoved hard at the bond, demanding to be let out.

He could now. The world had changed and everyone knew shifters existed, but that didn’t help me in this moment. A massive grizzly bear in the aisles of Bunnings? That’d have people running, screaming, and if she screamed for me, I wanted it to be for a whole other reason. Long dark hair that fellin a messy tangle down her back. Big brown eyes that were a little bloodshot, her skin perfectly pale, I sucked in every detail hungrily, right as I stepped forward.

Mack and Tor too.

Suddenly, all the childish squabbling was shoved to one side, because we were immediately unified.

“Is she…?” Tor hissed.

“Yep.”

Mack barely choked that out, his brows drawn down hard.

“So we—” Tor said.

“Need to go and introduce ourselves.”

As soon as I said that, I was moving, weaving my through the other customers to get to the other end of the aisle, barely resisting the urge to push them out of my way. The girl, my mate, peered over people’s heads as if looking for something, then shook her head, about to turn on her heel, when I finally came to stand in front of her.

“Oh!” Her voice was like butterscotch, equally parts smooth and raspy. “Whoa…” The bear and I were of the same mind, his rumble echoing in my ears as she looked me up and down. “Damn, you are big. Like big all over…?” Those beautiful brown eyes went wide as they met mine. “Sorry, I need a hook up.” She shook her head, wincing at that. “I mean I have some pictures I need to hang and I’m not sure what to get.”

“Thirty-five millimetre wall plugs will work for most walls.” Mack picked up one of the lots I’d tossed in the basket. “Unless you’ve got hollow walls.”

“You’ll need expandable studs if you’ve got hollow core walls.” Tor smirked, edging closer. “And if you’re looking for studs, we can help you out with that.”

At the same time, Mack and I glared at him. Tor was such a damn cat. Shameless fucking flirt, he’d have young women and old eating out of his hand in seconds. Made him handy to havewhen we were out on a renovation job, but we did not need his cheesy shit right now.

“Oh my god…” Our mate slapped her hand over her mouth, barely resisting bursting out laughing. “You didn’t just say that.”

“This kind of stud.” Tor reached out and plucked a packet off the wall and sure enough, it was a bloody expandable bolt. “Why? What did you think I meant?”

“I…” She shot the three of us a sheepish smile, and that had all three of us stepping closer. “I don’t know what kind of walls we have. I’m assuming that if I use the wrong kind of hook, I’ll wreck the walls.”

“Worse case scenario.” I spoke the words, but couldn’t really focus on them, not when she was so damn close. The loose tank top she was wearing, the cotton worn smooth, draped across her body, giving me tantalising views of what lay beneath. “You could put the picture up, tear a hole in the wall.”

“And never get my bond back.” She nodded slowly. “Probably something best left to the professionals.”

“Something we happen to be.” Before I could drag out a business card, Tor had his out and was passing it over. “We do good work at very reasonable rates.”

I stared at him in disbelief. This was our fated mate. We’d build her a damn house from scratch just to make her smile. There would be no charging her for any job.

“Um… great.” She waved the card through the air, then put it in her back pocket. “Thanks. You’ve been very helpful.”

The bear shoved me hard. Our mate was making a move to turn and go and that was not OK. We hadn’t waited all this time just to let her walk away from us.

“Kieran.” I thrust my hand out and her eyebrows shot up to disappear behind her hair. “Kieran Blackthorn.”

“Nice to meet you, Kieran.” I watched her lips move, her cheeks flush just a little, but that all felt like it was happeningto someone else as her palm slid across mine. Back when I was an apprentice, I’d stepped into a puddle of water someone left an extension cord in and those electrical pulses were nothing compared to what I felt right now. Fur rippled along my arm, claws threatening to push free, but I kept them back. “I’m Harper, and if I could just get my hand back...”

“Tor.” My sleuthmate was shouldering forward, taking her hand without asking. “Just in case you want to know the name you’ll be calling out later.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

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