Page 15 of Grumpy Special Ops Bear: Ep. 3
Moved by the pain in her words, I reached over, running my fingers down her cheek. “Your life seems to have turned out pretty damn good to me.” Dropping my hand away, I sat by her side, pulling on my boots.
“Well, yeah, now it is. Not having a family or anyone who gave a shit about me did horrible things to my confidence. There was no Team Us. It was just Team Me. I learned to cope.” She shrugged. “So back to Grant. What happened to him?”
My eyes darkened as I remembered a few years ago. Grant had always been a good fighter and kept to himself, but he knew how to have fun, knew what it was like to be happy.
“He lost someone very dear to him. A wolf killed her. Her death nearly destroyed him. I was there for him, helped him pick up the pieces the best he could, but still, something’s missing inside him.” It filled me with a sadness that Grant was now an empty shell.
“That’s horrible,” Trinity whispered. “Was she his wife?”
“More than that, she was his fated mate. When a shifter finds his fated mate, it’s like finding a lost piece of himself. He feels complete, whole. And when his mate’s gone…” I wasn’t sure how to explain it, and I fumbled for words. “It breaks most shifters. It’s like losing your soul. Grant tries to keep it together, but we all know he’s still hurting. He might never recover from it.”
“She was his soul mate.” Trinity bit her bottom lip. “Could he die from a broken heart?”
“No. But it could be a distraction during a battle, so it could get him killed. What’s really fucked up is he knows who killed her, but he never talks about it.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Price or Boyle?”
“Neither, actually. Maggie. She’s a ripe little bitch with a jealous streak. There was a time when our clan and Price’s pack got along. That was before Price took over as alpha. Maggie liked Grant, and though wolf-shifters normally never mate with bear-shifters, she convinced herself he would take her as his fated mate.” I left out the part that it didn’t hurt that Grant’s family was very wealthy and prominent in the shifter community. “Then Grant found his mate, a bear-shifter, in another clan. Maggie couldn’t take it. Now I hear she clings to Price’s side, hoping to be his mate and alpha-female of his pack.”
Trinity nodded. “It makes sense. Maggie was always close to Price, her gaze never straying very far from him. She looked like a lost puppy most of the time.”
“After his mate died, Grant changed. He went from being a fighter to a coldhearted killer. He’s the deadliest man I know, shifter or otherwise. Every time I see him take a life, I remind myself how lucky I am to be on his side.”
Trinity shivered next to me.
“He would never harm you, Trinity.”
She rolled her eyes. “I know. I’m not scared of Grant, but what you told me explains the sadness in his gaze when he looks at me. Damn, I just hope he finds love again.” She looked at me. “What about you?”
Her question made me growl. “What about me?”
She laughed. “Oh I see. Not used to talking about yourself?”
She read me well. “No, I usually keep to myself.”
The power of being the alpha of my clan often made for loneliness, even with a ton of bears living around me.
I always worried about the well-being of my clan, from their protection to their survival and growth. Then there was the isolation my position brought me, and not having a fated mate to confide in, to love, to protect, and to help strengthen the clan made my status as alpha stifling as a wool sweater.
“Oh come on. There has to be something you can tell me,” she said, nudging my arm. “Do you have a mate?”
The bear inside my head roared at the word, but I told him to shut the hell up. “No,” I replied tightly. “Cutter would love it if I did though. It would free up some ladies who hang on me.”
Trinity laughed. “Ah, you charm them with your good looks and then leave them behind.” She winked at me. “So you’re the fuck-’em-and-leave-’em bear-shifter.”
“No. I just haven’t found the right woman yet.” I lied through my teeth.
We sat in comfortable silence with only the noise from the trickling spring. A chilly breeze blew by, and Trinity shivered. Instantly, I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, pulling her in close. She snuggled up against my side. Every nerve in my body screamed for me to kiss her, to tell her the truth, but I couldn’t. Not yet. There was enough on her mind, and telling her she was my fated mate would only add to all the distractions.
“What do you do in this job of yours?” she asked. “It doesn’t sound like a dream job if you’re never home.”
“I hunt shifters that step out of line,” I replied. “Many of my kind feel humans are beneath them. Easy prey. My job is to take down those shifters.”
“But isn’t that what Protectors do?” she asked.
“Yes.” I nodded. “But Protectors don’t work for the government. The three of us—Grant, Cutter, and I—do.” I scratched my chin. “We’re a band of brothers. All three of us serve in an elite secret shifter military unit together.”
She arched a brow. “There’s a secret shifter military unit?”
