Page 3 of Hot For Her Bear

“Okay. I’m coming.”

“Dasha, be a dear and put this tablecloth on the patio table.” Theola Prime shoved light-blue material into her arms.

“Why do we need this? It’s just our family, or are we having company?” Dasha stared at her mother, who turned and went over to the stove.

Theola was a social butterfly and was always inviting people over to her house. Dasha had been under the impression that today was just a day for the Prime children to come spend an afternoon with their parents. It was a tradition their mother had started a few years ago. All of her children were out of her home and had become so busy she didn’t get to see them as much as she would like to. So Theola began hosting dinner once a month. It was nice to see her siblings. It wasn’t often she came down from her cabin in the mountains. She liked the quiet, serene nature and being away from people.

Shifters included.

Dasha was the eldest of the three cubs born to Amos and Theola Prime. She loved her family but she really didn’t want to be bothered by her mother’s friends. They were very nosy and always asking questions that were none of their business. Such as when was she going to settle down and get mated.

Well, that was a loaded question. She was a bear shifter, and she was waiting for fate to reveal that special person to her. She could be impatient and find someone to mate with out of convenience, but she did still believe in fate. Her parents were a fated pair. Watching them as she’d grown up, she knew she wanted what they had. She was willing to wait for it.

She just asked that fate hurried up. She was thirty-nine years old and wasn’t getting any younger. Her birthday was later this year, and she would be forty. She would love to be able to run around with any cubs she and her mate would have. At this rate, her sister, Pola, or her brother, Junior, would be mated off and have cubs before her.

“You know how Mom gets,” Pola said, entering the kitchen. Her sister breezed into the room with a wide grin on her lips and a twinkle in her eyes. She beelined it to Dasha and wrapped her up in a tight hug. “Hey, sis, I’ve missed you.”

“You just saw me,” Dasha grumbled. She bit back a smile and returned her younger sister’s embrace. She knew she could be a grumpy bear, but it always felt good to know someone missed her.

“Excuse me. We haven’t seen each other in two months.” Pola gasped, pulling back. She moved over to their mother and kissed her on the cheek.

“That’s not my fault. You didn’t show up for dinner,” Dasha scoffed.

“You should be seeing each other more than what you do,” Theola said. “If something was to happen to me, who would feed your father?” She rested her hands on her waist. That same twinkle appeared in her eyes that Pola had.

Her family loved to joke. Dasha sometimes wished she was more like them. Instead, she was the oddball.

“Dasha would. You know I can barely make toast.” Pola snorted.

“Where did I go wrong with you?” Theola sighed.

It was no secret that Dasha loved to cook. Living alone she had to, unless she wanted to starve. She loved to go fishing along the lake. There was nothing tastier than freshly caught fish cooked up the same day.

“You still didn’t answer me on why we are dressing up the table,” Dasha grumbled. She held up the tablecloth.

“Saffron is joining us today. She hasn’t been by in a while, so I told her to come by,” Pola said.

“I can’t wait to see her. I heard her new shop is doing well,” Theola grinned. She flew around the kitchen pulling items needed from the fridge.

“Oh.” That was all Dasha could muster. She spun around and left the kitchen through the back patio doors.

Her mother had set up the table for them plus one. Dasha’s hands grew moist at the thought of seeing Saffron. It had been a long time since she’d seen her sister’s best friend. Her bear had sat up at the sound of Saffron’s name. Her bear was in her lazy phase and resting while Dasha was in control.

Dasha moved some items off the oversized table and draped the cloth on it. She quickly placed the vase back in the middle. A slight wind blew, and she didn’t feel like chasing the cloth to the middle of the yard.

Saffron was a beautiful brunette who was small and petite. At least by bear shifter standards. Dasha herself was six foot two, while her sister and mother were six foot even. Her brother and father topped out around six foot eight. Her sister’s friend never appeared bothered by the height differences.

Dasha felt awkward around Saffron. She was always smiling, and when she was younger, she’d asked a ton of questions. Dasha wasn’t a talker and preferred the quiet. Saffron and Pola were constantly at their parents’ home, so Dasha would leave so she wouldn’t have to be bothered by the younger girls.

But that wasn’t entirely true.

Something had happened when Saffron turned eighteen. It was like a light was turned on. Dasha took notice of how pretty the young girl was. Dasha knew that wasn’t right, she shouldn’t be looking at her sister’s friend like that. She was ten years the girls’ senior, so she made sure she was never around, and if they had to be around each other, she never knew now to act, hence her gruff attitude toward her.

“Mom said for me to put this out here,” Pola announced. She stepped outside with a glass pitcher of sweet tea and some glasses.

“Put it here,” Dasha said. She tapped the middle of the table and turned away. She grabbed some other items that had been on it and put them back.

“You’re not going to be mean to Saffron, are you?’’ Pola asked.

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