Page 60 of Bearly Hanging On

“He’d let you.” I was trying to keep shit light and fun, make Harper think that every day would be silly races and gold-painted plastic trophies. “He’d let you do any damn thing you wanted and start kicking his back leg as you did so.”

“Like bury my face in that floofy belly?” she asked, her eyes widening. “No, sleep on it. You could stretch out and I could snuggle into all that fur as we stared up at the sky, watching the stars shift in the sky.”

“If that’s what you want.”

Anything, that’s what I wanted to say. Literally anything. I’d fight a polar bear in human form, hold off a million black bears if she’d spare me a second look. Whatever she wanted, needed, I was her guy. I always would be, but I couldn’t say that right now, so I just smiled down at her.

“Sold.” She clinked her beer with mine, which apparently had us formalising an agreement. Just not the one I wanted. “Now, is there a little bear’s room around here?” Harper glanced around the tent, looking over the heads of half the bear shifter community. “All this excitement is a bit much for my bladder.”

“This way.”

Getting Harper away from the tent, away from the noise, was a relief. My dads watched us walk away, thoughtful looks in their eyes, but I’d deal with them later. Out here there were plenty of families having a good time at the fair, but their presence was far off, giving us a little space. The quiet needed to be filled though, which was perhaps why I opened my mouth at the same time as she did.

“So—”

“Did—?”

I snorted, and she smiled at me as we stopped halfway between the tent and the toilet block.

“Did you have fun?” I asked.

“I did.” Her hands went to her hips. “But are you going to explain why your dads were trying to pimp me out to those bear shifters?”

“I…”

There was nothing stopping me from confessing what the dads were up to. I wasn’t about to cover for their hang ups, but right as my lips started to move, a strange scent had my nose whipping up, scenting the wind.

This was a shifter school, so the air was filled with the scent of bears, foxes, big cats, even dragon shifters, but this…? Not all wolf shifters stunk. Mack smelled like motor oil, the expensive sandalwood cologne he wore, and some other ineffable thing I associated with home.

But them…?

My arm shot out as I saw dark shapes move in the shadows. I had Harper behind me moments later, the bear already pushing forward. Not to lope around the oval, but in my fangs and claws, each one ready to tear them apart.

“That you, Kieran?” Joker, that wasn’t the name his mother had given him, but the sly smile, the way his eyes showed way too much white, made clear the nickname fit him. “And all by yourself?” He looked around conspicuously. “Where’s Mackie boy?”

“Home, licking his nuts until you come home to take over, right?”

Vinnie talked big for a weaselly looking fucker. He was a wolf shifter, just, but that narrow face, the way his eyes twitched as they tried to look everywhere at once, made him look more like a rat than anything.

“Not here.” Gray was the really scary one, stepping out into the light and then smiling. “Plenty of bear stink, but no pussy cat.”

I stepped forward, arms crossed.

“Pretty sure there’s plenty of pussies here,” I replied.

There was a reason why Mack was reluctant to join our sleuth, and it was standing right here in front of me. The wolfshifter community weren’t all arseholes, but his family and their circle sure as hell were.

“The fuck you say—” Vinnie said, rushing forward, but Gray threw out a hand, stopping him from getting any closer.

“One in particular.” The way his eyes shone in the artificial light had me snarling, every muscle tensing. He breathed deeply, scenting the air like a snooty guy might a glass of fine wine. “Smells ripe… fertile.”

This was the moment when I lost control. What was splendid isolation moments before was a vulnerability now. The bear, he was sizing everything up, the way he had the competition in the race. But now he was assessing each wolf shifter, the buildings around us and the distant passers-by, working out what he had to take out to keep Harper safe.

Only for her to shoulder forward.

“I’m sorry, but who the fuck are you?” No one she needed to worry herself about, but no words came out of me, just a strangled growl. “And are you smelling me?”

“Ohh… now I see why Bear Boy is all hot under the collar.” Gray’s grin was sharp as he scanned Harper’s form. Too close, my heart beat. Too intent. “And who are you, pretty?”

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