Page 33 of Bearly Hanging On

“Need to get to that job,” I said, staring each one of them down. “The one we blew off to go and clean the floor at Harper’s work yesterday?”

“We could go by the cafe.” Tor perked up almost immediately. “Grab some breakfast and then see if we can talk to Harper. We?—”

“Can come across as crazy stalkers?” How the hell were they not getting this? “First of all you worked out where she worked, then you rocked up there uninvited, then you dumped the wholefated mate thing on her. Ever thought maybe you were rushing her?”

I was met by a wall of stony silence.

“Look, let’s get our arses to work, and I’ll…” I shook my head. “I’ll do a bit of recon and see if the situation can be saved.”

Picking up after them and fixing their mistakes, it’s what I did, so they moved now, grabbing breakfast and getting ready, even if without the usual rowdy bullshit. But if things were tense before we started work, they got so much worse when we got to work.

“Here he is.”Jim was one of Kieran’s dads, and he looked up as we walked onto the site. He set down his coffee cup and then looked us over. “Heard you found your girl, son?”

“Um, yeah…” Kieran said, raking his hair out of his eyes.

“That doesn’t sound too promising.” Jim looked at Fred and Kieran’s other dad, Brenton. The three of them stepped closer. “What happened?”

This was the point where I frantically signalled for Kieran to shut his yap, right? I didn’t get a chance. Kieran’s dads were like all the other bear dads: fiercely protective.

“It’s fine,” he said. “So we need?—”

“To tell us what’s going on.” Fred came to stand in front of Kieran, arms crossed. They were about the same height, but Fred carried the weight of parental concern and frustration with him.

At least that’s what I think it was. Didn’t exactly have a caring and interested father figure in my life, so I had no idea how to navigate this.

“Son, you know you can talk to us.” We had a case of good dad, bad dad going on, and Brenton was playing good dad. “If you’re having trouble with your mate?—”

“We told her she was our fated mate,” Tor blurted out and that had me moving. Kitty Cat’s mouth engaged before his brain did, and so I needed to hit the brakes for him. “Then we took her home and…”

“And what?” Fred snapped at Kieran. “Cooked her a nice meal? Explained what a sleuth…” He glanced at us. “Whatever you call yourselves is.”

“You didn’t rush things, did you?” Brad seemed very concerned right now. “Just because people know shifters exist doesn’t mean a girl is ready to jump into a mate bond straight away. You still need to do the work.”

“Make her feel safe,” Jim said. “Be clear about your intentions.”

“How do we do that when she left in the middle of the night?”

Fuck. Kieran stared his dads down, but I knew what was coming. I scratched the back of my neck, because shit was going to hit the fan in ten, nine, eight?—

“What was she doing leaving your place in the middle of the night?” Fred snapped.

“Maybe they fell asleep in front of the TV,” Brenton said. “Maybe they?—”

“Were thinking with their little heads, not their big ones.” Jim frowned as he faced us down. “That go for you too, Tor, Mack?”

“Ahh—” Tor started to say.

“Not me.” That should’ve won me some brownie points, right? Um, no. The dads’ eyes narrowed as I said my piece. “I was getting some paperwork done?—”

“While we slept with our mate.” Kieran was such a big guy, it was weird to see his shoulders droop. “It was her idea.”

“Not good enough, son,” Fred said. “We told you.” He glanced at the other dads. “Didn’t we tell him?”

“Of course, we told him.” Jim nodded. “But you’ve always gotta jump in feet first and worry about the consequences later. That’s why…” He paused for a second as he stared at Tor, then me. “That’s why you should’ve created a proper sleuth. The right bears in your pack would’ve tempered that recklessness.”

Right. Somehow it was my fault, even though I hadn’t done anything other than been the sober driver.

“So, how do you move forward?” Brad shot the others a warning look. “All’s not lost. You didn’t force her or rush her.”

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