Page 31 of Bear With Me

“Uh, well…” He shrugged and ran a hand nervously through his hair. “The chaos. And I don’t really buy that there’s such a thing as fate that declares who you’re supposed to spend the rest of your life with. I have free will, you know?”

Gran harrumphed. “You can have free will and still appreciate my grandson. Doesn’t matter if you believe in fate once you realize he’s perfect for you.”

“But how would I know if he is or not?” Dennis asked, and it came out sounding more plaintive than challenging. “I don’t know him or anything about him. We’re total strangers.”

“Hey!” Bjorn protested. “We’ve been in each other’s pockets for three days. Shared beds. Talked throughout the never-ending drive here. You know me now.” He’d enjoyed their three days of bonding, and he’d thought Dennis had too. And sure, they didn’t know everything there was about each other, but no one ever did when they started a relationship. Frankly, he thought I don’t know you was increasingly just an excuse Dennis used to cover…well, he didn’t know what.

Dennis waved a dismissive hand. “Three days. I’ve known you for three days. And yes, we’ve talked a lot, and yes, we get along, but I’m supposed to get shifter-married to someone I’ve known for all of three days? And you wanted to mate me the second you met me, let alone after waiting three days!”

Bjorn’s grandmother had been looking back and forth between them like she was at a tennis match. Now she interjected sagely, “So get to know him. You’ve got the rest of your lives to do it.”

Dennis pursed his lips. “I mean, yeah, I’m happy to get to know him, but that’s supposed to come before the marriage, not after.”

Bjorn opened his mouth, but before he could get out his reply, his grandmother cut in. “Do you realize,” she said sternly, “that until you two are claimed, Bjorn won’t be able to control his shifts? It’s the fates’ way of pushing their couples together. How is he supposed to live like this?” She brandished a demonstrative hand at Bjorn, who was still lying naked on his back but now endeavored to look pathetic.

Dennis stiffened. “So I’m supposed to sacrifice my own life so he can have his? I get that he’s temporarily uncontrolled or whatever, and I’m fine with helping him handle the, you know, life stuff, but I can’t just cancel my life so he can live his.”

“Nobody’s sacrificing their lives!” Bjorn cut in, scandalized. “This isn’t some sort of death pact. I don’t even need to bite you today. I just want the chance to…to…” He shrugged. “To woo you.”

Dennis threw up his hands. “And what if I don’t want to be wooed? What if I just want to get back to my life and my bar and forget any of this ever happened?”

There was sudden silence in response to his exclamation, both Bjorn and Gran frozen, staring at him with wide eyes. Finally, Gran swallowed thickly and spoke. “Do you…understand what happens to a shifter whose mate rejects them, Dennis?”

“Well, I imagine it’s not a good time,” he allowed. “Probably they get depressed. Maybe they have trouble finding anyone else to love?”

Feeling the tears pricking at the backs of his eyes, Bjorn sighed. “Don’t, Gran,” he said when she opened her mouth.

“Don’t tell me ‘don’t’,” she snapped. “He ought to know what he’s doing to you!” She extended one finger and jabbed it in Dennis’s direction. “When a shifter meets their mate, they lose the ability to control their shift. The only way to go back to normal shifting is to complete the claim. If the shifter’s mate can’t or won’t complete the bond, the shifter has to make a choice once they’re formally rejected. Their alpha can compel them into one form or another, but from that point forward, that will be their only form unless a shift is forcibly compelled. They lose their identity as a shifter. They become a human, or a bear, or whatever. Forever.”

Dennis looked pale when Bjorn moved his focus to him. “So he’d have to pick one or the other?” he asked, his voice a little shaky. “There’s…no way to reverse this? I mean, what if he met me and then I’d died before he could claim me? He’d be cursed for the rest of his life?”

Bjorn bit his lip and shook his head. “In a case like that, the person would probably opt to stay as their beast. Our thoughts as animals are more instinctual and less…” He shrugged. “Well, a bear wouldn’t feel the loss quite as acutely as a human.”

“This is bullshit!” Dennis exploded, throwing his hands up into the air. “This is the game your stupid ‘fates’ are playing, and y’all still continue to worship them? They throw you at someone, and then if everything doesn’t go exactly right, it’s just like ‘welp, you’re fucked, have a nice life’?!”

“It’s how the world works,” Gran said wearily. “Sometimes things just can’t be as good as we want them to be.”

Dennis released a growl that would have suited a bear. “So my choices are to marry this guy I’ve known for three days, leave him in limbo unable to control his shifting, or formally reject him and watch him get stuck as either a human or a bear for the rest of his life?”

Bjorn looked at the floor, trying to disguise the need and fear he was sure were written all over his face.

“Bjorn?” Dennis demanded. “Is that really how it works?”

“I…” Bjorn started, but his voice cracked. “I can wait, Dennis. If you want to, you know, get to know each other first. But just…tell me there’s some hope? Because if there’s no hope at all, I’d rather you formally reject me and let me get on with…everything.” He tentatively raised his eyes to meet Dennis’s, trying to read what he could from his mate’s face, but it was unreadable, for the most part. He clearly wasn’t happy, but whether that was because he was upset at Bjorn being wronged by the fates or because he just didn’t want to be here, Bjorn couldn’t tell.

Dennis held his gaze for a long moment, but then his eyes darted away. “I don’t want to doom you,” he said quietly. “I may not know you, but I don’t dislike you, Bjorn. I wouldn’t wish being stuck in one form on any shifter.”

“Ah!” said Gran, startling them away from their staring contest. “Well, then you can’t reject him.” She crossed her arms across her chest and sat back against her pillows looking like the entire matter was now resolved.

“Gran, it’s not that easy. He’s right; he’s not obligated to subjugate his life to mine.” The words tasted bitter in his mouth and he nearly choked on them, but he owed them to his mate. He looked back at Dennis. “Your choice is your own, mate.”

Dennis’s jaw ticked and Bjorn thought he could actually hear his teeth grinding. “Fuck,” he enunciated carefully.

And didn’t that just sum everything up?

10

Dennis