Golden Binds

“In that dream, was I a bear?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?” She laughed then quickly stopped as it edged into hysteria. “Silly, huh?”

Both Garret and Sawyer turned to look at Joe.

“Not so silly. And not a dream. I finally lost control of my beast when I saw my mate had been beaten within an inch of her life.”

She just stared at him. Those drugs were really messing with her mind.

“Funny, I thought you just said you turned into a bear.”

“I did.”

* * *

Joe gazed down at his mate. He couldn’t stare at her battered face for long without wanting to hit something. Damn, it would have felt good to kill that asshole, Gio, again. As it was, snapping his neck had been rather unsatisfying. Too short and pain free.

But he’d been in a rush. He’d had an injured mate and he hadn’t wanted to risk one of those assholes shooting him.

“We’re bear shifters,” he told her. Her face had grown paler. She licked her full, red lips.

“Yeah, I was guessing it was that or magicians.”

“Sort of similar,” Garret attempted to joke. “All of our family were bear shifters. Usually we produce boys. There has been a girl or two in the mix. But our bears don’t make an appearance until we meet our mate.”

“Your mate.”

“You,” Sawyer said.

“Right.”

“Bear shifters usually share a mate,” Garret explained. “Our fathers shared our mother, as you know.”

“So, you never changed into a bear until you met me?”

Garret attempted a smile. “Nope. It was a hell of a shock when Sawyer changed.”

“I lost control when I discovered you had escaped through the tunnel,” he told her.

“There is a legend that says our mate will come to us. And then our bears will break free,” Garret explained. “That we’ll all become bound together. But as far as we know there has never been a human mate. They’ve always been other bear shifters.”

“Right. Lucky me, huh?”

Joe watched as her eyes grew wide, the pupils dilated. “I’m really your mate?”

“We didn’t know for sure until I changed,” Sawyer explained. “And then the same thing happened to Garret. Joe took longer.”

“Mr. Control,” she whispered. “This is a little hard to believe.”

Garret patted her hand. “We know. Don’t panic. We’re still us in bear form. We’re just a little hairier.”

She attempted a smile. “W-what happens now?”

“Now you rest and heal,” he told her. “And keep out of trouble.

“And try not to think about the fact you can all turn into bears?” she countered. A little color had entered her cheeks. “And I don’t go looking for trouble.”

He snorted.