Love at First Mate - Badlands Territory

“You shouldn’t be standing here alone,” he snorts, and I can almost see the grizzly part of him in his mannerisms.

He’s changed his clothes and the plaid flannel of his shirt he’s wearing now is unbuttoned enough for me to see the dark hair that must cover his massive chest, and I fight the urge to reach out and drag my fingertips across the hard muscle.

I wonder about his grizzly bear. About how it all works outside of the broad strokes Josephine painted for me, but there’s something else I want to know and I’m just buzzed enough to ask.

“So, listen.” I poke a finger into his pectoral muscle and wince a bit when there is no give at all. It’s like concrete, and I decide poking a grizzly bear may not be the best idea. Pulling my hand back with a wary look at his dark eyes, “Why do you act like you want to protect me one second, like you might even like me, then the next second it’s like I’m infected with the plague and you can’t get away fast enough? It’s making me dizzy. And a little pissed off, to be honest.”

A snarl curls his magnificent, sexy lips, and both fear and desire clutch at me as I wait for an answer, sure whatever he says is not going to go my way.

“Because…” His face turns fierce, like whatever he’s trying to say is painful. “You’re everything I don’t want. And everything I need.”

I step back, watching him close his eyes as his hands turn to fists.

“Are you trying to scare me?” The whiskey asks before I can stop myself. “Because, I’m done being scared of guys.”

Fire flashes in his dark eyes as he opens his mouth to say something, but all I hear is my pulse racing in my ears and the crickets in the distance.

Once more, his lips part, silence hanging where words should be.

But what happens next leaves me gape-mouthed and grasping for a shred of reality, because suddenly, what I’m seeing can’t be real.Chapter 5RagnarI’ve lost control.

Never once, not even when my bear and I were going through adolescence, pushing through our rebellious stage, has he ever taken over without my consent.

He’s strong, grumpy like me, but obedient. And unless someone was in clear danger, he always preferred to observe from inside, coming out only when I felt we needed a release. A run. A fight. A hunt.

But, I was always the one that decided.

Something’s changed.

As I stood there trying to find the words to answer Wynter’s question, he snapped and drooled in a near rage, growling at me to take her right there on the street. Or he would. My finger twitched as his claws started to break through my skin, even as I futilely tried to talk him down.

It didn’t work.

With the last seconds of my control, I spin away from Wynter, launching forward at a run as I feel my body heat spike, knowing there is no turning back. My blood sears in my veins. My jaw bones pop as I feel my canines pushing through my gums.

I hear Wynter’s stifled scream as my muscles bulge, the fabric of my shirt tearing, then my boots pop off as claws rip through the leather, my feet replaced by paws twice as big as a human skull.

The ache and sharp sensations of my bones and skin turning from man to beast are painful, but over the years the sensation has morphed. I don’t suffer, but I do feel everything.

Thinking of Wynter watching, there’s a moment in mid-shift that I wonder what would happen if we got caught somehow between human and grizzly. What a monster I would be.

What a monster I am. A dangerous monster. Like my father.

Fuck.

I’m on all fours, chuffing and snorting at a run, and all I can do now is watch from inside. My grizzly is too strong. He’s never done this before and I’m at a loss as to how to rein him in.

We’re down the block, away from the buildings of Main Street, when he stops, drops his head and looks behind him, and when we see her, I know nothing will ever be the same.

Mate.

Mate.

Mate.

He swings his head low, back and forth, back and forth, the obsession growing with each second.

She’s ours.

Ours.

Ours.

I’m no longer sure which thoughts are mine and which are the bear’s.

Get her. We must get her. I’m done waiting. Why are we waiting?

My bear has lost his fucking mind and we’re at odds for the first time in our lives.

Leave her, I order, but a pained roar is his reply. His feet stay firmly planted on the ground as I do my best to reason with him, still able to see Wynter staring, her hands now clasped over her mouth in horror.