Nerves ate away at my belly as the sunshine of late morning enveloped me, and I blinked hard before my eyes adjusted to the light. The air was crisp and cool, not cold but with a kind of bite to it that told me wearing pants was a good idea. Stepping over the threshold to the back porch, my thighs stuck together with the help of a sticky substance I still hadn’t wiped away.
“Okay.” Ryan’s heavy sigh made my breath catch in my throat, and I gulped down the lump that had formed. The taste of him still clung to my taste buds, and the salty phantom texture pulled the saliva from my mouth as he turned to face me. “Sylvia, I just want you to know I’d never force anything on you.”
Right before my eyes, the climax of a B-rated romance movie unfolded, and Ryan took a few large steps back. Standing in the middle of the deck, he wasted no time in stripping off his jeans to toss them aside. My gaze took him in all his naked glory, and for just a second he let me admire his chiseled form.
Then, suddenly, he started to change, and I tensed when I noticed the hairs on his arms growing thicker and longer. Ryan made no sounds, there was no ripple in the air- there was nothing as he was slowly replaced with an animal. Shaggy, brown fur hung down to drag along the porch as it creaked slightly from his weight, and his thick, long claws dug into the wood.
My jaw unhinged and a tremble shot down my spine with pin needle-like sharpness. Ryan was nowhere to be seen, and in his place, was a bear that was easily the size of an industrial van. Blinking hard, I reached with shaking hands to rub my eyes, but the creature hadn’t moved, and Ryan hadn’t come back.
When he had said, ‘something important,’ this wasn’t even on my list of possibilities.
“Oh - u-uh… um, so -… y-you… are a b-bear…” I couldn’t even make a coherent sentence, but the bear that sat only a few feet from me threw its head in a nod. Forcing my jaw together, I clenched and released my fists as my legs grew tense from just standing there.
“... a bear -” Grumbling more to myself, I bit down on my bottom lip before actually focusing on the bear’s face. He was large and in charge, but there was a glint in his eyes that made mine go wide. It was almost like I could see Ryan staring back at me beneath the veil of a wild animal - if that was even a real thing.
Oh God, I’m going insane. Did I even come to Alaska? Is this real?
My fist hit the siding of the house, and the crack echoed through the air like lightning. The birds stopped chirping, even the wind stopped breezing by, at the sudden slice in the atmosphere.
“Oh-h-h-! Oh my God! Oh!” Cradling my throbbing hand, my body crumpled as my screech reached up high into the heavens. Definitely real! Definitely real!
Stumbling back, I nearly tripped over my own feet until large hands wrapped around my shoulders. Glancing up past the tears that welled in my eyes, I felt all sorts of confusion at the fiery expression that twisted Ryan’s face. His human face… what the…
“What the Hell is wrong with you, Sylvia!” Short, curt, the bark wasn’t so much a question, and I had no answer anyway. Heat scorched my veins, fueling my muscles as I ripped myself from Ryan’s grasp. Holding my injured hand to my chest, I steadied myself with my free arm before words just started to pour from my mouth.
“Me! Me? I didn’t just turn into a bear! Ryan! I - you… you can do that?! What did you expect me to do, huh? Bring you inside and use you as a bed or something?” The heartbroken look on Ryan’s face brought me down a notch, but not by much. Swiping away my tears angrily, I shook my head hard as venomous words spewed from my chest. “You can’t honestly expect me to accept this - whatever this is - just like that. I don’t even know what’s going on anymore.”
“Sylvia – ba -”
“Don’t call me babe!” Cutting Ryan off, my shriek made him wince, but at that moment, I didn’t particularly care. I couldn’t even think straight, let alone comprehend what was going on. My legs started to move, forcing me into a rigorous pace as Ryan held up his hands in surrender.
“Okay… okay. Please, I can explain. I’m a bear shifter- you have to at least have heard of shifters, right?” There was a kind of hope in Ryan’s question that made goosebumps rise on my skin, and I reached up to rub them furiously without responding. “… I know it seems insane, but I’m telling you that it’s real, Sylvia. I can shift into a bear and have been able to since I was 15 years old. I’m not a science experiment or something crazy; I was born this way. And you… Sylvia, you’re my mate.”
Ryan’s hesitancy made me pause all movement, and my head whipped up to face him. Eyes narrowing on his panicked expression, I pursed my lips together as blood rushed to my head.
I wasn’t stupid or culturally ignorant. The concept of ‘shifters’ wasn’t new and was actually very prevalent in movies and books.
But it’s real. It’s real, and supposedly I’m mated to a shifter. The thought was so outlandish it forced a harsh bark of laughter from my throat.
“Mate? Mate? Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds?” My heart squeezed in my chest as Ryan went stone faced, but I couldn’t take back my words. I was falling in a violent, downward spiral into an abyss where up was down, and reality was fantasy.
Maybe he could sense it because in the time it took me to blink his lips were on mine, pulling me back to the light.
Taking hold of my face tightly, Ryan’s kiss was hard and heavy as it stole my breath.
“I know how it sounds, Sylvia, but it’s the truth. You’re mine. I knew from the moment you walked into my bar, and I’ve been trying to find the right time to tell you.” Gently his words flowed down my chin, and I let out a sob. My confusion was crippling, and if Ryan’s arm weren’t around my waist, I would’ve been on the floor.
“This can’t be happening- it can’t…”
Squeezing me, Ryan pressed his forehead against mine, but my tears made his distorted face indiscernible. Stroking my head, his soft shushing noises drowned out the relentless beat in my ears, driven by a heart that was pumping too hard.
“Shh… shh… Just breathe… It’s okay.”