The fur was actually soft and felt nice to run my hands through. “Soft,” I murmured.
It kind of hit me that this wasn’t a Pomeranian or Beagle. I was stroking a bear, so I gingerly took a step back.
The bear did too and stared at me, and I looked at him, and there was something familiar about it.
If I was thinking that, then I was clearly losing it. I backed away. The bear didn’t move, simply stared at me. I didn’t take my eyes off it till I was on deck. “I’ll throw something to you.” When I finally got to the door, I went into the house.
The bear watched me, not moving, and I felt bad leaving him there.
* * *
I didn’t breathe easilyuntil I was back in the house. I stood with my back to the screen door while trying to slow my racing heart, but it seemed to be doing its best attempt to jump out of my chest.
But there was something about the bear…Is that why you’re about to take an apex predator honey?
I knew it was crazy, but I could swear that it understood what I was saying…but that was crazy, right? If I hadn’t stayed frozen, it would probably have ripped my face off. So why did it feel like the bear had been trying to say I was safe?
I snorted at myself.Bears can’t say diddly, Kian.
But that didn’t feel quite right, though. It almost felt like he’d been laughing at me at some point, like he understood me…
HA!You’re definitely getting too much fresh mountain air. After all the pollution in the city, it’s clearly making you loopy.Bears did not communicate with humans. It was sheer luck I hadn’t died out there tonight.
Did that mean I was stuck on crazy since I headed to the kitchen and the pantry to grab the honey? As I opened the door to the beautifully arranged room, I couldn’t help sighing in pleasure.
This pantry made me happy with its white shelves on all three walls and the pullout basket drawers beneath the wall facing the door.
It was all organized, and it was a label maker lover like me’s dream. That was something Rhys and I had in common. For a second, I wondered if I would ever have a home of my own with my partner and a super arranged pantry. I could see it now. I would work from home because I had my own office there with a crib in it… I would make batches of homemade baby food for my little one and store it in the fridge.
I would walk in and find my husband and our son or daughter with their faces covered in chocolate chips after eating too many of the cookies I’d baked.
Shaking off that thought, I grabbed the honey and hurried back the way I’d come, halting at the door to the deck.
“This is crazy.”I should just go up to bed.I sighed. I couldn’t. There was something about the bear that seemed almost familiar… Of course, technically, I knew it was impossible. I’d never seen another bear before, at least not outside of the zoo.
You’re losing your mind, Kian. Completely over the cliff looney. Next thing, you’ll see Wile E. Coyote trying to blow up something or pull some other shenanigan on The Roadrunner.
Still, I opened the screen door since the actual door was left open, which was crazy because if the bear had charged, the damn screen would have been no match.
I’d thought it was completely ridiculous when Rhys said he rarely locked his front door, but now here I was possibly about to make myself dinner to a hungry bear.
The moment I stepped outside, I knew without even having to look that I was once again alone. The bear was gone. Why this knowledge was followed by a pang of disappointment was a mystery to me.
My rational brain was relieved, but there was a part of me that insisted I’d never been in any danger.Yeah, the part that clearly needs to be in bed’cause you’ve obviously been hallucinating.
That voice that said I’d never been in danger didn’t shut up even as I slipped under my covers. Maybe this had all been a dream?
As I turned off the light by my bed, I knew I was wide awake, and I’d just been face-to-face with a real bear.
The freak-out was sure to follow.
8
Gabe
I’d slept soundlyafter coming home. I didn’t know what it was, but my bear had been so happy meeting our mate, and he hadn’t been scared of us… Well, he had, but only like eighty percent of the time.
I tried to focus on the memory of his hands in my fur. My head on his belly. I wanted him to do that in this form.
