Page 40 of Bear With Me

Bjorn got the door opened and gave his mother a gentle push through it, then turned to Kevin. “Nice meeting you, Kevin. You seem cool; you’re just not for me.”

“No, I get it,” Kevin said quickly. “I had no idea you already had a mate, believe me. Please tell him I’m sorry.”

“They’re not mates!” Rowena snapped. “There’s no claiming bite. He can’t even shift! He’s human!”

Bjorn was at the end of his patience. He bent down to put his face near his mother’s and snarled. “Then it’s a good thing I’m not asking you to mate him, huh? I, however, can make my own mating decisions. Now, leave. I need to get Gran her breakfast.”

Kevin shot a quick look at Rowena, who didn’t look like she was going to give up, and apparently decided flight was his best option, because he gave Bjorn a quick salute and hightailed it into the brush.

“Now look what you’ve done!” his mother screeched, pointing at the fleeing man. “There aren’t that many young men available in this den, and you’ve driven off one of the few -”

“Enough!” Dennis’s voice boomed from just behind him, and Bjorn spun unsteadily to see his mate standing in the foyer, eyes bright with…something he couldn’t read. “Bjorn has already told you he’s not interested. If he’s going to mate anyone, it’s going to be me. So take your interfering ass out of here -” he pointed away from the house “- and find a new hobby.”

Rowena gasped and put a hand to her chest. “Well, I never!” she gasped yet again. “How dare you speak to me like that?”

Dennis continued glaring, but before he could get out a retort, Bjorn jumped in. “He dares because he speaks with my voice, mother. That’s what mates do. So here, let me tell you the same thing: get out of here, and find someone else to bother, because I’m not going to be taking your orders anymore.”

She sputtered something angry-sounding, but couldn’t seem to muster actual words. Her eyes burned with fury, though, and Bjorn knew he’d be hearing about this for the rest of his life, and not just from his mother. One did not simply tell Rowena Karlsson no or to go away.

“The fuck?” came another voice from the direction Kevin had just exited in. “Rowena? What’s going on here?” Alpha Escalus strode into the clearing, barefoot and wearing only a pair of sweatpants that hung low on his hips. “Why did I just see Kevin Lukes running away from here like his ass was on fire?”

“Oh, Alpha,” she simpered, attitude switching on a dime, “Kevin and I were just visiting my son to say hello and introduce them to each other! As I’m sure you’d agree, a proper mate is very important in life, and -” She began rambling about the value of mates without mentioning that she’d been trying to pair off her own son.

Escalus cut her off with a low growl. “Get to the point.”

Bjorn was tired of this. “She wanted me to replace Dennis with Kevin,” he said shortly. He wasn’t entirely sure where his alpha fell on the question of whether it was ok to mate a human, but he wasn’t going to try to cover for his mother, either way.

Escalus turned to look at him. “Replace Dennis? Your mate?” he asked incredulously.

Bjorn nodded as Dennis came up next to him and leaned, arms crossed belligerently, against the door jamb.

“Your mother,” Escalus said slowly, “brought Kevin over here…to get you to drop your fated mate?”

“Ayup,” Dennis drawled before Bjorn could speak. “And she wasn’t particularly nice about it to either of them. Or me, for that matter.”

“Alpha,” Rowena said pleadingly, “you must know that a man of Bjorn’s stature can’t mate some random human. He doesn’t even live around here!”

“Neither do I!” Bjorn exclaimed, exasperated. “And as I’ve already told you, that’s not going to change. I’m not moving back to the den, I’m not taking over for Papa, and I’m not mating some random kid you dragged in here. Now,” he added, “as I said, I really need to get breakfast to Gran. Alpha, do you need anything else from me this morning?”

Escalus was growling continuously, low in his throat, but shook his head. When the growl finally cut off, he looked at Bjorn’s mother. “Rowena. Come.”

“Alpha…” she began weakly.

“Come.” And with that, he turned and walked away.

She squeaked and scrambled after him.

Bjorn and Dennis stood in the door and watched until the two figures had disappeared down the path, then looked at each other. “I’m so sorry,” Bjorn started. “I wouldn’t…I’d never…” He gulped at the dark look on his mate’s face.

Dennis said nothing, only stalked into the kitchen and picked up the plate of eggs and bacon he’d apparently prepared while Bjorn was talking to their visitors. Then he stalked back out of the kitchen and into Gran’s bedroom. “Breakfast, Ginevra.”

Bjorn followed him into Gran’s bedroom in time to hear her asking, “…that yelling I heard?”

“Your son’s wife came calling,” Dennis said calmly. “It didn’t go well.”

“Oh, that bitch. What did she do?” she said casually, and both Dennis and Bjorn stared at her, open-mouthed. “What?” she asked.

“Well,” Bjorn said tentatively, “it’s just that you don’t usually, you know, cuss much. Except at Healer.”