Page 76 of Bear With Me

Growling happily, Bjorn switched to nosing at his hand. He wanted pets, dammit.

Dennis got the message after a few seconds. “What, you want me to pet you?” Bjorn nodded his shaggy head, and Dennis laughed. “Ok, I can do that.” He lifted a hand to rub Bjorn’s right ear, really digging in his blunt fingertips until Bjorn groaned his ecstasy. Bjorn pushed closer to him, not realizing he was leaning some of his weight on Dennis until the man stumbled. “Whoa!” he exclaimed, catching himself against a tree. “Don’t forget you’re bigger than me, Bjorn.”

Oops. Bjorn backed off and sat, giving him what he hoped was an apologetic look. No crushing the new mate, right.

Dennis snickered. “You look like a scolded puppy.” Bjorn was not a puppy! He grunted and did his best to scowl at Dennis, but he just laughed harder. “Now you look like a puppy that wants to chew on my pant leg.”

To get back at him, Bjorn bent his head and gnawed lightly at the hem of his jeans. So there!

He elbowed Bjorn in the shoulder. “So rude. Someday I really am gonna ride you, just so you know. And I do mean that in the non-sexual sense.”

Bjorn snorted his refusal. You couldn’t ride a bear!

“Nope, I’m totally gonna do it. But not today; I suspect you don’t want your den-mates to see that. For now, how about you change back and we go see Escalus?”

Yeah, Bjorn supposed they needed to do that at some point. Talking to Alpha, and then a visit to the healer to see how Gran was really doing. Then they could make plans for going back to the cabin in Pennsylvania for Bjorn’s car and, eventually home to Dennis’s house in Maryland. Together.

Home, together. Wow.

28

Dennis

Dennis tried not to leer as Bjorn slipped back into his clothes as a human, but it was a near thing. While the visual of his shift wasn’t, itself, sexual, the fact that he had to get naked to do it couldn’t not be after they’d bonded so sensually. What? Dennis was attracted to his mate, sue him!

“Ready?” Dennis asked as Bjorn straightened his shirt and Dennis shifted his half-chub in his jeans to a more comfortable position.

“Yup.” He eyed Dennis. “You sure you’re ok with this?”

“Which ‘this’ are we talking about?” Dennis asked, starting to walk around Gran’s house toward the path that led to the alpha house. “You shifting? Being mated? Going to talk to Escalus instead of rolling around in bed for a whole day just because we can?”

Bjorn looked taken aback at that recital. “Uh…all of the above? But technically, I meant going to talk to Alpha right after we mated.”

“Oh, that.” Dennis shrugged. “Has to be done, right? I’d rather not go have tea with your parents while we’re at it, though, if that can be avoided.”

“You and me both,” Bjorn said with a shudder. “Not least because Mom’s tea is always too weak.”

“That’s your complaint?” Dennis paused his stride and stared at him.

He took Dennis’s arm gently, towing him along. “Well, no. But I didn’t want to say ‘she’s a stone-cold, bigoted bitch’ out loud. So thanks for making me,” he added teasingly.

Dennis harrumphed, but allowed himself to be pulled along the path until they emerged into the clearing around Escalus’s house-cum-office. The alpha, to his surprise, was slouched in a rocking chair on the front porch, cup of coffee held under his nose like the aroma was all that was keeping him tethered to this world. He looked up at them, grunted, and took another sip of coffee.

Dennis was going to choose to interpret that as a greeting, and apparently Bjorn was of the same mind, because he raised a large hand and waved. “Morning, Alpha!”

“Hmm.” Escalus didn’t stand, but he also didn’t object as they drew closer, eventually mounting the steps to the porch. Another two sips of coffee went down the hatch before he acknowledged them with anything more than his eyes. “You two look happy. Why?”

Bjorn bounced a little on his toes, like a little boy who needed to go potty, and then before Dennis could react, he yanked the neck of Dennis’s t-shirt aside to bare the bond mark. “Look!”

Escalus’s eyebrows went up as he studied the scar. “Interesting,” he remarked, then took another sip of coffee. “It looks like it healed well. That’s a good omen. What changed your mind, Dennis?”

Dennis shrugged. He still wasn’t really sure how to answer that, no matter how much he tried to come up with a coherent reason. Bjorn had just…grown on him. He was sweet, genuine, caring – but also not afraid to throw down when necessary. Dennis thought he’d fit in well at the Retort, and Myrah was going to love him. Hell, he was pretty sure he loved him, and wasn’t that a mindfuck and a half?

“No answer?” Escalus said mildly, and Bjorn tittered nervously, glancing at Dennis, who realized he’d been standing there without answering his question for too long. Damn.

“I just fucking like him,” Dennis grumped defensively. “And I want to keep him. So I am.”

Escalus nodded as if this answer hadn’t surprised him. “Fair enough. Did y’all come for my blessing?”