She jumped, startled by my gruff tone, and immediately forked some eggs into her delectably pouty mouth.
“Good girl,” I purred, and the flush in her cheeks deepened.
Since drooling all over my mate was not helping my boner situation, I reversed back into the kitchen to make a coffee. Once she’d finished her breakfast, I’d take her back to her dorm.
It wasn’t what my bear wanted, but he was shit out of luck. There wasn’t time to take care of our mate in the way we wanted.
“I’ll see you in class tomorrow,” I said in a low voice, in case there were any shifters nearby. I couldn’t sense anyone around, but I needed to be careful. Montgomery would happily fire me if he knew Raven was my mate and we still hadn’t bonded.
From the way Raven shivered when I pressed her against the wall, she was in no rush to say goodbye to me either.
“Can’t you give me a pass for gym class?” Her cute little frown almost had me on my knees. A place where I’d happily spend all my days. She yawned again, and I almost caved. But then I remembered if she didn’t show for my class, I’d miss out on seeing her for another day.
“No, you’re not slacking off,” I growled. “Physical training is important. There are too many threats out there, and until you get a handle on your magic, you’re vulnerable.”
She huffed loudly while scowling at me. I fought back a smile at the sight of her little tantrum.
“Ugh. Such a meanie.”
“If you’re a good girl in class, I will reward you afterward.”
The scent of her arousal flooded the air around us as my meaning sank in.
“But… but… don’t we need to be careful?”
Nobody would see her if I took her back to my cabin after lessons. If anyone came near my cabin, I’d hear them. It was a perk of being a shifter.
“Don’t you worry, little witch.” I brushed my lips against hers and then pushed her toward the main entrance of her dorm. “Now go get changed. Classes start in twenty minutes!”
She grumbled some more and then shot inside.
I waited a few seconds to make sure the coast was clear before jogging to the sports complex. My phone rang as soon as I unlocked my office and stepped inside.
“Hey, Mom, is everything okay?” I put my phone on speaker as I changed into my shorts. It wasn’t like my mother to call during the day. She was usually too busy with our family’s lumberyard in the Diamond Peaks.
“Honey, it’s your Uncle Seamus.”
I sighed. “What’s he done now?” The old bastard had a drinking problem. Every fucking day, he got wasted on moonshine and scared hikers while staggering around in his bear form. Honestly, how his stupid head hadn’t ended up being mounted on the wall in some hillbilly bar was a mystery.
“He’s turned feral.”
I dropped my sneakers in shock. Feral? Fuck. Once a shifter turned feral, that was it. There was no coming back from feral. The disease was a fucking death sentence.
“How? He doesn’t mix with anyone but us!” Nobody knew what caused the feral shifter disorder, but Boon had told me some of the Shifter Council believed it was a viral infection spread by intimate contact with infected, asymptomatic shifters.
In the early stages of the disease, the symptoms were subtle. Mostly mood swings and a desire to spend more time in shifted form. Since Seamus had always been a moody bastard after losing his mate at a young age and he preferred hanging out in his bear form most days, I doubted anyone would have noticed him devolving. At least not right away.
“We don’t know, honey. He’s stuck in his bear form and can’t communicate. Your father has trapped him in the barn, so he’s safe for now.” Her voice hitched on the last two words, and I swallowed hard.
We both knew I’d have to end Seamus. None of us could risk his escaping and going on a murderous rampage. Not with a human settlement in the valley. While it would take Seamus a good day to reach Diamond Falls on foot, a feral shifter felt no pain and would not stop to rest or eat. They turned into killing machines, infected with an all-consuming bloodlust.
The only solution was to put them down.
“I’ll leave now,” I told Mom, knowing there was nothing else I could do. My father wasn’t strong enough to handle a feral adult bear. Whereas I shifted into a giant Kodiak, my father was a much smaller black bear. Seamus’s grizzly towered over him. Only Thorrin’s polar bear was bigger than my Kodiak, but nobody had seen him in ages.
“I’m sorry, Mav,” Mom said in a soft voice. She knew how much it would hurt me to put Seamus down. As difficult as he had been in recent years, most of my happiest childhood memories involved Seamus taking me and Thorrin fishing and hunting. Teaching us how to forage for food, build a shelter, and defend ourselves against other predators.
I loved him.
