Mary kicks the soccer ball to Paul and he tries to take it to the outside, but I run over and cut him off. We’re playing seven on one, me against everybody.
Usually, I let them win, but the boys are getting older now and they’re starting to have some skill. Paul passes it to Jeff and I run to cut it off, but Mary leaps onto my shoulders.
“Hey, no contact!” I shout as Jeff gets the pass and kicks the ball into the net.
“Sorry about that, stud,” Mary says as she slaps my ass with a grin on her sexy face.
After all these years together and after all these children, she still manages to get sexier and sexier as the years go by.
I loved her as a young girl full of innocence and light in her eyes and I love her just as much now as a smart capable mother who holds our family together.
She’s incredible and every day I’m so thankful to have her. Even with all of the work of raising six kids, she still managed to publish two bestselling non-fiction books, both relationship advice books on being mated with a shifter. She is an expert in the matter after all. This woman is the best mate a shifter could ask for.
“It’s on now,” I say as I grab the ball out of the net and start advancing with it. Caleb and Sara come to try and get it, but I maneuver the ball around their flailing legs and keep going.
Sydney comes running up and I don’t have the heart to juke out a four-year-old so I let her steal it and she scores on my net.
Everyone cheers as she struts over and slaps my ass. “Sorry about that, stud.”
“Hey, that’s my line!” Mary laughs.
“Two to zip,” Paul says with his chest puffed out. “I think he needs someone else on his team.”
“I’m not that old yet,” I say as I toss the ball and start advancing on them. This time, I don’t let anyone take the ball from me and I shoot it into the top corner of the net, scoring my first goal.
“Time for a new strategy,” Jeff says as he kicks off his shoes and yanks his shirt off. He’s only fourteen years old, but he’s already cut without an ounce of fat on his muscular frame.
“Hey! No bears!” I shout, but it’s too late. He starts shaking and explodes into his Kodiak bear.
Paul takes off with the ball, passing it to Mary who then passes it to Caleb. I run over to get it, but Jeff’s Kodiak slams into me with a roar, throwing me off my feet. I land with a grunt as Caleb scores.
Mary is laughing at me as I spit grass out of my mouth. I’m going to make her pay for that later tonight once I get her into bed. She’s going to be begging me for mercy.
“Alright,” I say with a growl. “You want to play with bears? You asked for it!”
I pull off my shirt and let my bear come. He rips out of me and sniffs the air, finding Mary right away. I can feel the love flowing through him as he looks at her.
Focus on the game, I tell him. Not on the girl.
But he doesn’t care about soccer. There’s nothing more fascinating to him than our mate.
Paul and Caleb phase into their bears too, then the rest do as well, until Mary is standing alone in the field surrounded by cubs of all ages.
Caleb’s bear is still young and out of control. He runs over to the soccer ball and grabs it in his jaws, popping it.
“Caleb, no!” Mary shouts with a laugh.
My bear starts to walk toward her with his head hung low.
“Look at what you started?” she says as he arrives in front of her. “Aww, I can’t stay mad at you!”
She digs her hands into the scruff of my bear’s neck and I’m flooded with a warm sense of love as she kisses his snout.
My cubs are wrestling all around us and chasing Caleb who’s got the ball while my bear basks in the loving glow of my mate, my wife, my girl, my everything.
Happier than a bear should be.
The End!