He kept her near his side every second. It was bad enough that she smelled like warm vanilla and honey, but she was wearing a dress that showed off her legs—legs that had been wrapped around his waist only hours ago, and he didn’t want anyone to look at what belonged to him.

His dick surged at the thought. With her caged between his arms, he locked her in place in front of him. If his dirty looks didn’t tell every asshole in the place she was his, then the fact he had her locked down would.

Finn slapped a twenty dollar bill on the bar and asked for two BE’s Brews.

“Who’s this little beauty?” Rex asked as he popped off the caps and slid the two bottles across the old wooden surface.

“Mine,” Finn growled deep in the back of his throat.

“Right on,” the bartender said and backed away.

“Really?” Mackenzie turned her body to face him. “You force me to come here so I can meet some of the locals and then you growl at them when they try to be friendly.” She shook her head and slipped under his arm. With the cold bottle in her hand, she walked toward a table against the wall.

All eyes were on her, and it made Finn’s teeth begin to itch against his gums—a sure fire sign that his bear would do anything to protect her. The inner animal was furious with him for not letting him mark her during their mating, but Finn wanted her to know the truth before he claimed her for life.

He followed her to the table and sat so he faced the room.

This whole possessive thing was new to him. There was no doubt in his mind that she was his fated mate. Every cell in his being knew it to be fact.

“I’m sorry if I embarrassed you.” Finn wasn’t sorry at all, but he didn’t want the evening to go sour when all he wanted to do was to give her a look at the locals.

She sipped at her drink and looked around the room. “I’m not embarrassed, Finn, I’m flattered despite your behavior being something out of the Iron Age.”

“And they say we’ve evolved.” Finn looked at the shifters that were already in the bar. It was a local hangout so most of the people there were like him in a loose sense. “Let’s play a game.”

She wiggled in her chair with excitement. “I love games. How do we play?”

“It’s easy. I’m going to point to a local, and you’re going to tell me what animal they resemble.”

She furrowed her brows. “You think these people look like animals?”

Finn leaned back and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. It was so comfortable with her. “Love, these people are animals.” Little did she know, there was no embellishment in his statement. “What about Rex?”

She stared at him for a good long minute. “Little man, reddish hair, long nose, pointy ears… fox.” She said it like it was fact. She was good. Rex was indeed a fox shifter.

“How about the guy in the blue T-shirt at the pool table?” Jack was just passing through. He stopped at the Left Bank Bar each time he came through town. As a long haul trucker, he shot through town every two weeks.

“That’s a tough one.” She tilted her head and watched him carefully. “Black, sleek, piercing green eyes, slinks like a cat when he moves. Hmm.” She leaned forward. “Panther.”

“Nice job.” From that point forward she picked the men and woman around the room.

“Lion,” she said about Cade, but his mane of yellow hair was a giveaway. She pegged Flynn as a Wolf, but was stumped at the little female in the corner. “She’s a tough one. Small beady eyes like a rodent.”

Finn knew Mackenzie would never get Megan’s animal right. No one ever did on the first go. She was a hybrid and so her features were blended. “What’s your best guess?”

She lifted her nose in the air and breathed deep. Finn was certain that she had no idea she was using her animal instincts, but he loved that she was in touch with them. That meant their cubs would be shifters.

“She’s a mole.”

“What?” He couldn’t believe she pegged the most difficult part of her. “How did you know?” Megan was a mole and meerkat hybrid and no one ever got her right. Pride puffed out his chest, His mate was so intuitive.

“It’s a game, Finn. It’s not like she’s really a mole, but with those thick glasses and sallow skin, there wasn’t a better guess.”

He almost broke it to her right there that everyone she’d labeled was correct, but then he’d have to tell her the truth, and he wanted to ease her into it. Tomorrow he’d take her near clan lands so she could see the cubs, and then he’d sit her down and tell her the truth. After that, he’d take her back to his place, mate her and mark her. “And me. What animal would you give me?”

“You’re easy. You’re a bear. A big teddy bear.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him tight. He didn’t know how he was going to be able to drop her off and leave her tonight, but he’d have to or else she’d get a baptism by fire into the shifter world.

“What animal am I?”

Finn ran his hands up and down her back. “If I’m a bear, then so are you because you’re my perfect mate.” His fingers threaded through her hair, and he pulled her in for a kiss. The connection had a way of lighting him up from the inside. It was the equivalent of poking his bear with a sharp stick, and he knew it would take every ounce of control to push him back from the surface. “You’re perfect. Our cubs will be perfect. Our life will be perfect.”

“You keep talking about our life together, but we’ve known each other for days. We haven’t discussed a future. And cubs? You’re really taking this animal thing to the nth degree”

“Our future is a given, Mackenzie. You know it. I know it. It’s a fated thing.” Finn was beginning to regret bringing her here. What he really needed to do was show her what he was. “Let’s go, I want to show you something.” Inside his bear was roaring with approval.

There was no good place to show her. Some places were riskier than others, but he wanted her to be near the bed and breakfast just in case she fled.

“Where are we going now? You want to show me some other animals in town?”

“Something like that.” His heart pounded inside his chest. What if she couldn’t handle it? What if he lost her?

Instead of driving to the bed and breakfast parking lot, he drove farther down the road and parked the truck near the lake.

“Are you getting frisky again?” She didn’t wait for him to open her door. She opened it herself and slid from her seat to the claylike dirt.

Finn raced around the truck. He wanted to walk with her for a few minutes before he let the bear out of the bag.

“Have you ever thought you were something more than you were?” He tried to pick his words wisely.

“Of course, hasn’t everyone?” Her hand slipped comfortably into his. “I thought I had superpowers when I was a kid.”

She instinctively reached for him. That was part of their perfect match. They were two halves to a whole.

“Really? What was your super power?” Finn walked with her around the edge of the lake. When they got to the other side he’d show himself—his other self.

“It’s silly, really. I’ve always had a keen sense of hearing and smell.” She dropped her head. “It irritated my mom. She hated that I could hear her coming from a block away.”

“A trait she said came from your father?”

She stopped and looked at him. “How did you know?” Pain flashed across her eyes.

“I’m getting a good idea of what you had to put up with. You were different, and your mother blamed all of your differences on your father.”

She nodded. “She called me a half-breed. Half wonderful like her and half like my wild beast of a father. Her words, not mine.”

“Do you remember him?” They were almost to the place where he’d shown her his bear before. His stomach clenched, and his heart ricocheted in his chest. This one moment would define the rest of his life.

“No, I have flash memories. I think he was hairy. You know like a beard and mustache. He had to be big because I’m not what you’d call small.”

“You’re perfect.”

“I’m not what you think I am. I’m not perfect.” She looked around and recognition flashed across her expression. They were in the exact spot she’d met his bear.

“I’m not what you think I am either.” Finn helped her sit on the rock and gave her a light, fleeting kiss. “I’ll be right back. Stay put. No matter what happens, stay here, and know that I’m in love with you, Mackenzie.”

“Now you’re scaring me. What’s wrong?” She twisted her hands in her lap and looked toward the still water.

“Nothing, love. Just go with it, okay?” He placed his hand over her heart. “You need to listen to this part of you. Promise me.”

“I promise, but where are you going?”

Finn started to walk toward the forest. It wouldn’t do her any good for him to stand on his hind legs and let his bear roar. He wanted to show her, not shock her into a catatonic state.

He stripped out of his clothes and let them fall where they may. The fur popped through his skin and his bones snapped and grew. His nose elongated into his snout, and his teeth dropped like fangs. By the time he cleared the woods, his bear was in full form. Twigs snapped beneath his weight and Mackenzie turned toward him. Her eyes grew wide. She looked left and right.

“Finn.” It was a whisper yell. “Finn, where are you?”