Page 41

Wes

By the time they left the pizza place, most of the tables around them had emptied. Wes held the door while Kate stepped outside, and the cool evening air followed them across the parking lot. She pulled her jacket closed, smiling as she waited while he unlocked the truck.

The evening had gone better than he had expected. Not that he had expected it to go badly. He already knew he liked being with Kate. But tonight there had been no orchard to discuss, no problem waiting to be solved, no family around them filling the spaces in the conversation. They had eaten pizza, talked about Penny and places they might like to visit, laughed over things that did not matter, and two hours had disappeared.

He knew more about her now than he had that morning, but it was not the sort of knowledge he could list neatly. It was the way her whole face changed when she talked about Penny. The fact that she still wanted to travel but now imagined every trip partly through the eyes of a four-year-old. The way she could admit she had panicked when she found out she was pregnant and still talk about Penny as the best thing that had happened to her. None of that had anything to do with mate recognition.

His bear had been quiet for much of the meal, content to listen while Wes got to know the woman fate had already named for them. He was not quiet now. We need to tell her.

Wes glanced at Kate, waiting beside the passenger door. He knew.

The decision had been building for several days, but tonight had stripped away the last reason for putting it off. He could not keep asking Kate to know him better while leaving out something this fundamental. Not after talking about children and family. Not when whatever was developing between them had begun to feel less like a few stolen hours during her visit and more like something he genuinely wanted to protect.

He opened her door, waited until she climbed in, then went around to the driver’s side.

For the first few minutes after they left town, Kate talked about the coffee being stronger than she had expected and whether Penny would still be awake when she got home. Wes answered, but part of his attention remained fixed on what he was about to do. Shifting itself did not make him nervous. He had done it thousands of times. Showing Kate did. How was he supposed to prepare Kate for watching a man disappear and a bear stand in his place?

His bear stirred. Show her. The words can come afterward.

Wes let out a slow breath. His bear was right. When the lights of town had fallen behind them, he said, “Will you come back to my place for a few minutes before I take you home?”

Kate turned toward him, her expression curious rather than concerned.

“There’s something I need to show you.”

“That sounds mysterious.”

“It probably will until I show you.”

She studied him for a moment. Wes resisted the temptation to start explaining. That would only make it worse.

Eventually Kate nodded. “All right.”

That was all. The drive to his orchard was short enough that Wes had no time to rethink the decision, which was probably for the best. He parked beside the house, then waited while Kate came around the truck.

The night had gone properly dark now. A few lights glowed from the house, but beyond them the orchard stretched away in rows of shadow, the scent of apples carrying on the cooling air. Wes led Kate along the track behind the barn to a patch of open ground screened from the road by the last rows of trees. He had shifted there plenty of times when he wanted space without going farther into the woods.

Kate stopped beside him and looked around. “All right. What am I looking at?”

Wes turned to face her. For all the times he had imagined telling his mate what he was, he had never expected the moment to feel quite so vulnerable. Kate knew him as a man. She knew his orchard, his friends, the way he worked. She had kissed him and trusted him and spent the evening talking to him about her daughter. Now he was about to show her something that might make all of that feel different. Would she still look at him the same way after this? Wes flexed his hands at his sides. He had asked her to trust him without telling her what she was agreeing to. Whatever happened next, she deserved to know.

He took both her hands. “If I try to explain this first, there’s a good chance you’re going to think I’ve lost my mind.”

Her eyebrows rose.

“So I need you to trust me for a minute.”

The curiosity in her expression softened. Her fingers tightened around his. “I trust you.”

The words hit him harder than they should have. Wes held on to her for another second before making himself let go. “Stay there. You’re completely safe.”

“You really aren’t making this less mysterious.” Her tone was light enough to make him smile.

“Just watch.” He stepped back several yards.

His bear came forward eagerly, but the closer they got to the moment, the more that excitement changed. He wanted Kate to see him. Had wanted it from the first day. But not at the cost of frightening her.

Don’t go toward her.