So, these two males were bear shifters, and the only reason they’d “arranged this meeting” was because… “You honestly think I’m a bear? I mean, I know I smell odd.”
“You don’t smell odd,” Tadhg insisted with another glance toward the Shadow King over my shoulder. “You smell like a bear. A bear covered in strawberries and heather, for certain. But a bear, unmistakably.”
“What?” I shook my head at him. “What would make you think that? I’m a she-wolf. I’ve always been a she-wolf, and I do not understand or like this game you’re playing with me.”
That’s what this had to be—a game. Some sort of horrible trick, worse than anything the cruel boys in St. Ailbe ever pulled.
“Why? Why would you say that?” I gasped out, because suddenly I couldn’t breathe. “Why are you doing this to me?” The room was both spinning and attempting to suffocate me at the same time. I had to…I had to get out of here.
I cut toward the dining room’s window door, running blindly, desperate to get outside. Desperate to get some air.
Why would Cian and Tadhg play this trick on me? Bring me all the way here just to make me feel like a freak who didn’t belong with the other Wölfennite brides?
“Sadie, don’t run!” Tadhg had the nerve to chide behind me. “You do not run from bears.”
I was still too much of a Wölfennite to use foul language, but I threw him an extremely dirty look over my shoulder and, yes, continued running as fast as I could toward the dining room’s glass door.
Just as I was about to make it there, a black bear appeared in front of me, rising to its hind legs to reveal a large Celtic knot medallion shaped like a bear hanging over its chest, which was covered in light-brown fur.
It was huge at full height, but the smell of lemons emanating from its fur-covered body let me know this was the Shadow King. Other than blocking my way in the scariest form possible, he didn’t make a move to harm me.
Still, I reeled around, crying out like a trapped animal and running in the other direction.
But then there was Tadhg. Huge and mountainous, even in human form.
“Sadie, we’re not trying to scare you. But you can’t run from us, Strawberry,” he said patiently, as if he and the huge black bear standing right behind me hadn’t completely trapped me between them. “It sets off our predator instincts, doesn’t it? And gods know, we’re already having a hell of a time keeping ourselves polite and sane around you. You’ve no idea how long we’ve been waiting for this opportunity.”
Was he…? Was he crazy? Were all the Irish shifters crazy?
Actually, the answer to those questions didn’t matter—only getting myself out of there.
“I’m not a bear shifter!” I replied, cutting left around him toward one of the dining room’s interior doors.
But the Shadow King blocked that path, too, and this time he dropped down on all fours to growl at me, revealing a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.
Even if he still held a “Don’t Scream” sign, I wouldn’t have been able to stop the shriek that erupted from my mouth. I wheeled back, only to hit something big and broad.
What turned out to be another bear. But this one was wearing glasses and sported brown fur all over its head and neck, which appeared to be sitting on top of Tadhg’s still-human body.
I immediately stopped screaming, but only because I was so shocked.
Apparently, not only was there such a thing as bear shifters, but they could also partially shift just one part of their body if they chose to do so.
But that didn’t mean… it couldn’t mean…
“I am not a bear!” I insisted. I’d never been as emotionally sturdy as my mother or best friend. They would have kept it together, but hot tears burned in the back of my eyes as I told the two scary bears—told myself… “I live in awolfvillage. I shift into awolfevery full moon.”
Suddenly, the bear with Tadhg’s body became a full male again, its face collapsing back to that of the kind-eyed redhead I’d met previously—only with messier hair.
“I’m sorry, Strawberry.” His hazel eyes filled with contrition, and he rubbed the back of his neck. “We’re not trying to terrify you. But explaining your very own nature to you wasn’t on my possible scenarios list when we sent the Irish Wolves to fetch you from Faoiltiarn, was it?”
What? What?…All the what’s rained down. “Are you saying that you two are the ones responsible for the Irish Wolves’ attack on Faoiltiarn?”
Instead of answering that question, Tadhg reset his face to the calm, agreeable expression he’d worn when we first met. “Are you one-hundred-percent sure that you are what you think you are, Strawberry?”
That nickname. Another one I didn’t ask for. But somehow, it felt the exact opposite of Sadie Schaduw.
My heartbeat calmed a bit, even as I answered, “Yes, I’m sure I’m a she-wolf! I don’t know why you think I’m one of you, but I’m not. I promise you, I’m not. I’ve never, ever done…” I waved my hands toward the face that had just been a bear’s a few moments ago. “…whatever that was with any part of my body. Because wolves can’t do that, and I’m a wolf!”
