Page 61 of Grin and Bear It

“Nope.”

She nodded slowly.

“I figured as much. It’s a good colour.”

“Yep.” I had to push the word through gritted teeth to get it out.

She shot me a sidelong look.

“It’ll make the place look a whole lot better when he’s done.”

And right about then I felt stupid, like a petulant child.

“Yeah, it will.”

“We can talk.” Her voice contained a small note of hope. “Not here, because fuck… You’re just as likely to tear that scaffolding down while he’s still standing on it.” She turned to face me. “Nachos and Coronas at the pub on the corner? My shout.”

“Fuck.” I raked my fingers across my face. “Sure, but you’re not paying, not in cash at least.” I narrowed my eyes as I stared at my best friend. “You’re going to give me all the intel I need, because you don’t look surprised at all to see Cole here and I want to know why.”

“So is Dale a bear shifter?”I asked as we settled down in a booth. It was still early in the afternoon so the place was pretty empty.

“Going straight for the throat?” she said, tilting her beer bottle my way and I clinked mine against it. “Sort of, but not.”

“So that’s not vague at all…”

“He’s the son of one, but for reasons I don’t quite understand, not all have a bear. He became a teenager and then… nothing. But growing up in a sleuth of shifters, he picked up some of their traits.” She smiled wistfully then. “Remember when I told you that he said he loved me on the first night?”

“Fuck, yes, and you were running scared. Of course, you ran straight into his arms,” I said with a laugh, remembering Dale’s ardent pursuit and Coll’s just as ardent avoidance of him.

“Well, he let the cat out of the bag about six months into the relationship. I’m his fated mate, even if he doesn’t have a bear or a sleuth. He says when he saw me, he just knew. He felt filled with this—”

“Golden light?” She nodded at the description with a smile. “And it feels warm like a summer day and pulses in time with your heart?”

“That I’ll have to take your word for. You will have a more… elemental response to them than I have with Dale. Whatever this bond thing is, it's more intense for you. But you have a choice.”

“I know. I’ve made—”

She held up her hand then, stopping me mid tirade.

“You’re the only one for them. I don’t tell you that because I want you to feel sorry for them or anything, but because you need to know.” Coll was by turns mischievous and sarcastic and long suffering, but rarely this serious. I felt like every single other thing was peeled away now, leaving only an inherent truth. “No one else will love you like a bear shifter will. Remember when I took a break from Dale?”

Fuck, did I? He was absolutely bereft, while dealing with it stoically, watching my bestie date other guys as he ate his own heart. And Coll? She came home irritated, upset and then distraught because one night she’d seen some girls trying to hit on Dale at the pub, and he hadn’t pushed them away.

“I had to know,” she said with a sad smile. “We were so young when we met and it felt like forever, but forever is scary at that age so… I dated quite a few guys and I can confidently say that not one of them was worth the time. Only Dale. And this is your chance, El, to get your own pack of Dales. They’ll pamper you, and look after you, and want to have really noisy group sex where every single one of them competes to make you come more than the other—”

“Fuck off,” I hissed, shoving at her with my bottle, but that was the moment the waitress arrived with our loaded nachos and the next round of beers. The pile of crunchy corn chips, and layers of tasty goodness drew our attention, and for a little while there was only the sound of us chewing great cheesy mouthfuls.

“None of the guys you’ve brought home are good enough for you, El, but these guys? Maybe they just might be.”

“So will your sons be bear shifters? If you have them?” I added hastily.

“Maybe.” She shrugged. “It’s hard to know. The theory is they have a better chance of reproducing with someone they’re drawn to. Current thinking is that’s what the mate bond is.”

“So they… what?” I was talking a little too loud and with a slight slur, because I was three beers in and it was going to my head. “Want to pump me full of babies.” I saw Natalie and her sons then. “Make sure the next generation of bear shifters is made.” But then I thought about the pumping part and the brief flicker of mental images had me squirming in my seat.

“If that’s what you want. Family is important, but there’s no big emphasis on having kids unless the sleuth decides they want to.”

“But how does that work?” I threw my hands in the air. “Like the whole poly thing was blowing my mind before but now… They aren’t furries who, y’know.” I poked one finger in through the circle I created from another. “Do it when shifted?”

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