Page 43 of Bad Blood Bear

Lissa didn’t know what mating meant to shifters, but she knew some animals mated for life. If they lost their mate, they never took another one.

Maybe bears were like that. Shifter bears, anyway.

Sadness washed through her, and loneliness. She usually didn’t feel lonely—she didn’t let herself. But feeling so close to Tank, so cherished, and then losing that all in the same evening, made her feel cold inside.

She wished she could go over and sit next to him, snuggle in under his arm and keep him company, even if he didn’t feel like talking. But she wasn’t brave enough. If he wanted to be near her, he would come over to her.

So she sat and listened to the others banter until the food was ready. As soon as she took the first bite, she figured out why Xander and Sloan put up with being Jasmin’s abused kitchen slaves.

It was amazing. Lissa didn’t know what some of it was, but there were cheeseburgers with the melted cheese on the inside of the meat patty instead of the outside, and some kind of fancy hotdogs slit lengthwise down the middle with soft creamy cheese called Brie stuffed in the crack.

There was homemade salsa, and seasoned potato cubes with onions and mushrooms, and grilled asparagus.

“Watch out for the asparagus,” Xander said. “It makes your pee smell funny.”

“Sweet,” Lissa said. “I’m gonna leave an asparagus pee trail in the woods. Maybe rabbits will follow it, and I can eat them for a midnight snack. I’m a mighty hunter now, you know.”

The guys snickered. “Uh huh,” Xander said. “Better learn to shift before you get all mighty and huntery, Little Dip.”

“If you catch any bunnies, Jaz makes a mean rabbit stew,” Flynn said, from his shadowy corner.

“That’s civet de lapin to you, peasant,” Jasmin sniffed.

Flynn just grinned lazily.

After dinner they kicked back around the fire. It was getting cold out, but Tank had found a warm hunting jacket for her to wear, and the fire was blazing high.

Lissa leaned back in her chair and looked up at the stars. This was the life. Even if she was a messed-up bear, even if something happened and they couldn’t fix the bad magic inside her, at this moment she didn’t even care. She had a full stomach and an amazing, warm place to sleep, and she might even have someone to sleep with.

If he still liked her.

She glanced over at him. Tank was still sitting at the picnic table, drinking a beer and staring moodily at nothing. He’d made sure Lissa had plenty to eat, filling her plate and bringing it to her, but he’d barely spoken a word since they came outside.

After a few minutes of hesitation, Lissa went over and sat next to him. “Hey,” she said softly. “Is everything okay?”

He glanced at her, his gorgeous face unreadable as stone. “Sure,” he said. “I just don’t feel like talking right now.”

She felt totally shut out. “Did I do something wrong?” she asked, hating herself for even asking the question. She didn’t do that. She didn’t follow around after guys trying to figure out how to get them to approve of her.

Tank flicked his gaze to her again, then away. “Don’t worry about it, okay? Just leave it.”

Leave it? He’d bailed her out of jail and brought her here, and they’d shared something amazing, and now he was pretending they had no connection at all. He was such a…such a guy.

Lips pressed together and hurt lancing through her, Lissa went back and sat down by the fire. Her feeling of happiness had evaporated, and she felt clumsy and embarrassed and out of place.

Sloan finished stacking up dishes and sat down next to her, giving Tank an uneasy glance.

“Want to see your constellation?” he asked in his quiet voice. He always acted like he was afraid to talk, like he didn’t have the right to make too much noise or take up too much space. The opposite of most of the others here, who walked with a confidence that said they owned any space they occupied.

“Sure,” she said, grateful that anyone wanted to be nice to her.

Sloan got her to find the Big Dipper, and then showed her how she could follow the line made by two of its stars to the North Star, which was part of the Little Dipper—the Little Bear. “I’m in the sky,” Lissa said, delighted when she found it.

He showed her a few other constellations. “The Big Dipper and the Little Dipper are always there,” he said. “Other ones change with the seasons. See those three bright stars all in a row?” He pointed them out. “That’s Orion’s Belt. The rest of him doesn’t really look like a man—more like a big box—but the belt is easy to see. It’s a winter constellation, though. You can’t see it in the summer.”

“Cool,” she said. She thought it might be fun to learn about the stars and the pictures they made. She’d never paid much attention to the stars when she lived with the cult, and before that she’d lived in cities. But maybe she’d learn about them now.

She heard a murmur of conversation, getting heated. She looked over to see Xander and Tank having words.

“Just stay out of it, Panther,” Tank was saying, his voice low but hard. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Xander said something she didn’t catch, and then all of the sudden the picnic bench fell over as Tank rose to his feet. “Leave me the fuck alone,” he said. “And keep your opinions about Lissa to yourself.”

They were fighting about her? Lissa got up out of her patio chair.

“Lissa,” Sloan said, warning in his voice.

Xander shook his head and put his hand on Tank’s arm. “I’m just saying—”

“Well, don’t.” Tank smacked Xander’s hand away, harder than necessary.

“Hey guys,” Lissa said. “Cut it out.”

She tried to get between them. Xander snarled, and Tank slapped at him again. Lissa reached for his arm.

Xander rippled into panther form, his clothes tearing off him. Tank roared, and then a grizzly bear burst out of his skin, his huge claws just missing taking half her arm off.