Page 62 of Bearly Hanging On

“I think I get it.”

“No, you don’t.” Kieran unclipped his seatbelt and turned in his seat. “Humans’ awareness of shifters is growing by the day, but you don’t know…” His hand gripped the steering wheel tightly. “Some of us don’t follow the ways of our forefathers. They don’t treat human life as precious because our mothers, our mates, come from that community. Because we share blood with them. Some of them…” His fingers flexed and I could see the nails turn to claws and then back again. “Some of them are no better than animals. No, worse. A wolf might thrill-kill a flock of sheep, but at least the end comes quickly to those animals. A real wolf wouldn’t…”

It felt like someone dropped a bucket of cold water over me. I had blithely started messing around with creatures far bigger, stronger, and faster than me, but I never really thought about what that could mean. When I looked up, meeting Kieran’s steady gaze, it wasn’t the usual look of reassuring warmth.

“OK, got it. Keep the fuck away from wolf shifters. I think I want to go home now.”

He let out a sigh so soft I nearly missed it, then turned the key in the ignition, restarting the car. We travelled all the way home in silence, my fingers tracing the shape of the trophy.

“So I want to say I had a good time tonight…” Plastering a smile on my face was my usual way of dealing with awkward situations, but when we pulled up the front of my place, Kieran got out, walking around to my door. He wrenched it open, then held out his hand. “Ohh-kay…”

“I need to make sure you get inside safely,” he growled.

“See, you could’ve made that all hot and sexy.” I pulled my hand free, then started taking the steps to my apartment two at a time as I adopted a low, growly voice. “I’ll protect you with my life, Harper. I’d die for you.”

“I would.”

That bald statement had me pausing, then turning around, only to catch him striding past. He scanned the veranda out the front of our apartment and down the line, past other people’s front doors before plucking the keys from my grip. The lock and dead bolt were disengaged and then he stood in the doorway, sniffing the air.

“Checking what fabric softener I use, Bear Boy?” I asked. “Or is there something you’d like to share?”

“We’re going to need to be careful for a while,” he told me. “Just until we’ve got this situation sorted.”

“One you’re not giving me a lot of details about.” I marched inside, as if daring the wolf shifters to emerge out from under my couch. My hands went to ward off his protests. “Not until you’ve talked to Mack. I’m tired, Kieran. Apparently, being a bear jockey is hard on the body. I want to go to bed and sleep forever, or at least until my alarm goes off.” But as I walked down the hall, he followed. “Or did you have other ideas?”

Suddenly, I wasn’t so cranky. These guys had been blue balling me with these sexy dreams for days, but that didn’t replace that electric feeling that came from actually touching someone else’s body. That was exactly what I felt as he brushed past me, pushing open the door of my bedroom.

He filled the space, seeming to take up way more room than his human body could. As his eyes raked the walls, then he opened my cupboard doors, I watched him closely. Those broad shoulders, the way his shirt hugged his chest as he… I blinked when he turned around.

“Find anything in there?” I asked. “Some rabid dust bunny shifters maybe? Or just that dildo Daria gave me that looks like a tentacle.”

“What?”

He frowned at that.

The creepers at the carnival seemed a long way away right now. Kieran had used his super shifter nose to check the place out. We were safe, and that meant scared Harper got booted out of the room and replaced by this.

“I mean, there’s one way you could ensure I was safe.”

A few slow steps and I was right there in front of him, confronted by his massive size again. Before it was in bear form, which was awe inspiring, but when he was human…? My hand slid down his shirt, plucking at the top bottom.

“Harper—”

He was about to say something sensible, about locking all the doors and windows and getting a good night’s sleep, but right now I didn’t want sensible. If I went to bed alone, I’d replay what happened tonight over and over until the wee hours of the morning, and if I wasn’t going to get any sleep, I’d much rather do so having fun.

“You said you’d do anything for me.” My eyes met his just in time to watch his turn to molten gold.

“Keep you safe. Stop those fuckwits from getting within a metre of you.”

That low, urgent growl. It did something for me back then, but right now, it hit differently. When strangers were being scary, I couldn’t appreciate the raw power of it, but I did right now.

“You did that.” I nodded. “You scared them off and kept me safe.” Another button popped open and this time my hand slid under the soft fabric, finding his chest hard and shockingly hot under my palm. “But that’s not what I need right now.”

“I know what you need.” His hand covered mine, and for a moment I thought he was going to pull it away. The tension in his forearm made me think that was a possibility, but whatever war he was fighting internally, it appeared I won. A thumb brushed across the back of my hand. “I can smell it on you.”

“There you go, talking about my scent again.” His eyes widened and his lips fell open, ready to babble out an apology, but that wasn’t what I needed. “What’s it telling you, Bear Boy?”

“I…”

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