I stood in the bar downstairs from Sabina’s apartment, a bar just like any other biker bar I’d been to in my life, except for the stage maybe. Sabina was up there now with a cute little dark-haired woman that she obviously had feelings for. She didn’t touch the woman like she touched me though, and her eyes were only for me.

I can’t say watching her with the other woman wasn’t hot, because it fucking was, but my eyes were only for the amazing stranger that had saved my life. I kind of suspect she’d done far more than that. She’d given me a new life, if I chose to take it. I looked around the bar, full of bear regalia, and saw the patches on the leather jackets and vest the crowd wore. Men and women all had some kind of bear insignia on, whether it was a tattoo or a patch, they all wore something on them.

A very close gang then. I sipped at the beer Quinn, Sabina’s brother had given me. He was a male copy of his sister, and I knew both could be deadly if pushed. I had, somehow, found a new family. Sabina vouched for me, that was all the clan needed to know. I was ignored for the most part, but every now and then someone would walk by and say hi.

I wasn’t interested in most of it, I had only for the women on the stage. The blue-eyed one in particular. She moved like a dancer, sensually, with ease, in ways that were amazing and seductive. The people that could pry their eyes from the stage still seemed to be intoxicated by the scene on the stage though. Every single one danced that wasn’t watching, and some were doing both.

They were both beautiful, they were both sensual, but only Sabina was mine. I watched the way her hands smoothed down the other woman’s sides. Trudi, that was her name, I thought as I slugged back more beer. Trudi and Sabina.

I put the beer down without looking and was surprised to feel a new one filling it. I couldn’t take my eyes from Sabina though. The woman really had bewitched me.

I had no idea what I was going to do next, where I was going to go, or what my life would be, but I knew she had to be a part of it. Somehow.

My brain screamed that Annamaria and her husband needed to pay for what they’d done to me. I even had a plan forming back there in the back somewhere. Behind the ideas of how to make Sabina make that panting little sigh of a groan she made just before she came. Yesterday, I’d been in prison, left, gone home, and been chased out of town.

My bike had been found by somebody and was already getting a new paint job, from what I understood. My thoughts turned as Sabina jumped from the stage. She slithered her way to me and half the bar turned to watch her while the other half watched Trudi doing the same as she headed to Travis and Quinn.

“Wanna dance, baby?” She asked me with a grin, her body brushing against mine as she moved with the pounding sound of the music, a song about a rather independent girl, from the sounds of it. I saw her mouth the words and then she rolled her eyes with a laugh.

“You are a cool girl, Sabina.” I moved with her out to the floor and we danced. Her body moved much more sensually than mine, but one quick glance up showed everyone in the bar was watching us as we danced. I was willing to bet most of that was still for Sabina, but I saw more than one pair of female eyes raking over me.

I had on a pair of Quinn’s black jeans, a little too tight on me but Sabina had loved them, and black t-shirt from Travis. The combination seemed to be pleasing to the ladies that looked my way. Still, my body now belonged to Sabina. I don’t know how else to say it. The moment I’d opened my eyes in her bed and saw her sweet face so close to mine my brain had been blaring the word mine followed quickly by hers.

I didn’t mind being owned by her. It wasn’t like the way I’d felt about Annamaria. That was like comparing dried garlic powder and the real thing, still wrapped in its skin and attached to the clove. This was real, it was raw, and overpowering but if you loved garlic, then it was just right. I don’t know about love, I’ve known the woman less than a day, but I was all hers.

The song ended, and she pulled me to the bar. I picked up the beer I’d abandoned and thanked Travis for it.

“No problem, man. How’s those wounds?” He was wiping glasses down and placing them on the bar to put away. His woman was with her other man, in a corner, dancing a private dance from the looks of it.

“Great. Like it never happened.” And I wasn’t about to admit how much that freaked me out to the man across from me. Something in his gaze told me he knew something I didn’t, but he’d never tell me what that something was.

“Good, Sabina, why don’t you show him around a little? He’s been here all day but hasn’t seen anything. His bike’s being painted out by the barn.” Travis looked at Sabina in a way that made her bristle.

“Yeah, sure. Fine.” She turned around, her long dark hair fanning out behind her as she turned on her heel.

“This should be good.” I heard Travis mutter, but knew I shouldn’t have been able to hear that. What the fuck is happening to me?

I followed Sabina, beer in hand, and we went outside. She handed me my jacket and I saw it had been gently cared for, but there were still scuffs in it. I’d treasure those scuffs knowing what they meant. And the patch in the shoulder where the bullet went in. Bear patches. I looked at Sabina and she smiled.

“Come on. You’re one of us now and as Travis is trying to hint, I need to explain a few things to you.”

“Um, okay?” It was a question, but she didn’t answer, not until we were outside and past the barn.

I’d seen my bike, freshly painted and beautiful, but hadn’t paused. Something was about to be revealed, and I wanted to know what.

I might be in shock, I pondered as I stared at a bear that had appeared where Sabina had been standing. A bear. Hmm. Yeah.

A fucking bear!

It sat back on its haunches and motioned me closer with a large paw. A fucking beat just waved me over. Right. The word stretched out in my thoughts as I tried to decide if maybe I’d died last night.

I’d been shot, dropped my bike, and skidded straight into heaven it would seem. How else do you explain the beguiling temptress that had fucked my cares away, and my injuries it would seem. Now this. A bear. It stood on its back legs, front paws on its hips like I’ve seen countless woman do countless times and roared at me.

It was definitely female.

I wish someone had told me heaven had bars, and bikes, babes, and bears. Oh, and the beer too. I swigged at the best beer I’ve ever tasted and tilted my head at the bear. Or maybe I’d been shanked in prison and I’d never made it out alive? I mean, it was possible, and getting to see Annamaria so fucking miserable and afraid of my return had done wonders for my ego. I’m a man, what can I say, I loved her comeuppance, but this bear thing was a little freaky.

Insanity possibly? Maybe I was in solitaire, and I’d gone totally bonkers. Bear-shit crazy? Hmm, where had Sabina gone? Maybe she was my path back to sanity.

“Sabina? Where’d you go? There’s a bear out here, honey. Oh, and I think I’ve lost my marbles, can you help me find them? Maybe we can find hunt the hot dog while we’re out here? I don’t know, but please come out. I’m starting to get a little freaked out here.”

I looked around, but all I saw was the bear. She came closer, and I stepped back. She gave a huff and shook her head as if to say ‘stand still’. I did, because it’s a fucking bear!

She came closer and the moonlight bounced off of her eyes. That’s when the world tilted at a crazy angle and I literally fell over. Not the euphemistic kind of falling over, oh no, for real, on my ass, falling over.

She had blue eyes. Sabina’s eyes.

“How…?” But I didn’t finish, I just held my hand out to the bear and she came closer, nuzzling her face against my palm. “Sabina?”

She gave a mewling answer, but in bear, so I didn’t understand. Not really. She could have been saying, hey baby, it’s me, want to get naked, but I wouldn’t know.

I stroked her fur, scratched her ears, and before I knew it, she’d popped back into being a human, sitting beside me with her legs pointed out behind me. We were face to face, my hand still in her hair.

“What the fuck, Sabina?” I didn’t mean to put it so blunt, but that’s what happened.

“I’m a bear shifter. And, if I’m not mistaken, you are now too.” She looked at me with guilt all over her face.

I swallowed and wished I hadn’t spilled the rest of my beer when I fell. “Okay.”

“It’s a lot, I know, and you’ve had two days of a lot now, but please, let me explain.”

“I don’t guess there’s a lot to explain, babe. You turn into a bear. What else is there?”

“The part where you will too?” She looked at me in question, but it wasn’t really sinking in. I was still stuck on she’s a bear.

“Yeah, that’s cool and all, but this is real? I’m not crazy or dead? Hallucinating on some bad prison booze?” I gave her a possibility or two but she shook her head no.

“Nope, this is real.”

“Great.” I had no idea what else to say. I was stunned stupidly silent.

I’d learned a lot in my life, especially during my time in prison. Keeping your mouth shut was probably the best lesson I learned. It keeps you from implicating yourself and has a way of keeping the other person talking.

“We’re an old clan of bears.” She started. I told you.

“Right?” I encouraged, waiting.

“We’re here to help those in need. We shunned the human world a long time ago, when the dragons left the human world.”

“Dragons? Dragons are real too?”

“Of course, they are! There are all kinds of shifter in this world.” Her eyes begged for brevity, but I just couldn’t do it.

“And I suppose vampires and fairies are real to?” I quirked an eyebrow at her to let her know I was teasing.

“Um. Yeah. They are.” She didn’t look like she was pleased with my response. Kind of miffed actually. I can’t take it seriously though, my brain was just flopping all over in my skull, trying to make sense of chaos and linear thought was impossible.

She was right about what she’d said earlier, the last 48 hours have been hell on my sanity. The fear and rush of being shot, the exhilaration of being out of prison, her, this, it was all just a lot to take in. I swear, in the last two days we’ve gone through every emotion a couple can have in months. There was that too, this connection we had. I’d never believed in love at first sight, but there was something about Sabina.

“You’re brave.” I observed as I stroked her cheek. “Kind. Patient when you need to be, impatient at others. You’re funny, confident, amazing really. And that dance stuff with your sister in law? Hot!”

“She is pretty hot. I had a thing for her, still do I guess, but she’s taken. And so am I.”

“You are baby. I don’t know what this is all about, this thing with us, but you’re taken, and so am I.”

“We’re mates. Bonded for eternity, Tavin. That’s what it is.” She looked at me steadily now, her red lips almost black in the darkness. I loved those lips.

“This a bear thing, then?”

“Yeah, it is. We’ll never be able to love anybody like we love each other. Or will. We give each other a strength that we won’t have separately, and we make our clan stronger in turn. We are life partners, something a marriage can’t compete with.”

“Marriage huh?” I wouldn’t mind calling her my wife, actually. I stroked her hair and she smiled that beautiful smile.

“I’m not the wedding dress kind of girl, Tavin. I just want a mate. You.”

“That’s good with me. So, there’s no divorce?”

“No, and if we split up, we’ll die eventually. It’s different with each couple, it could be weeks, it could be years, but if we’re too far apart, for too long, we’ll die.”

“That’s forever then? We can’t break this bond, ever?”

“No, we can’t. We can choose to kill each other, hate is certainly possible between mates, and live apart, but I don’t recommend it. In fact, I’ve never actually seen it happen.”

“Is this like a spell?” I could feel the confusion expressed on my face.

I was trying to understand it all.

“No, the mother bear in the sky chose us to be mates. She knew we’d make a perfect fit. She’s rarely wrong. Very rarely.”

“Is it common for humans to be brought into the clan?” I used her word for the group.

“Not at all. You’re the first I know of.”

“Awesome.” I shook my head to give weight to the single word. “So, I’ll be able to do that turning into a bear thing? How long before I can? Do I have to go to school? Will there be a test?”

I hate tests!

“No, calm down, it’ll come when you’re ready for it, Tavin. I promise. No tests or license required.” She was laughing now as she saw the panic on my face, and I relaxed. Somehow, she’d made this all okay.

I took a deep breath and looked up at the stars. “This is my home forever then?”

“For as long as you want it, certainly, Tavin.”

“And if I want to go back to my world?” I still had that part of my brain that wanted to go, that wanted revenge. It wasn’t fading away.

“You can go back, but I won’t go with you.”

“Why not? Have you seen California? Hawaii? They’re beautiful places, I’d love to see.”

“Have you noticed anything since you’ve been here? How calm and peaceful it is? Quiet?”

She looked down at me, her hands flat behind her back to prop her up.

“Yeah, except for the bar.” I had noticed, I just hadn’t thought about it.

“All of our people live nearby, in their own homes, we even have our own town, a few miles up the mountain there. Humans can’t find it unless they’re in need. That’s why we have the bar down here, to help those that need us. And to keep the ones that don’t out.”

I blinked at the stars, seeing Ursa Major over my head. That was the on the sign for the club. The bear sign. A cosmic, magical sign.

“So, there’s no murder, or drugs, violence?”

“Not usually no. Women and men are equal, it’s utopia really, for all of us. There’s very little to argue or fight about.”

“Fuck. Heaven. I am in heaven!”

“Yeah, you are, oh mate of mine. I don’t think fuck is a word they’d say in your human version of heaven, though.” She giggled and moved to come down to the fragrant grass with me. It was chilly, but neither of us seemed to notice.

“They do in mine. Often. Shall we go in the barn? It might be warmer.” I stood and helped her up, though I doubted she really needed that help.

Her fingers clasped in mine and clenched, a move that reminded me of how it felt to be inside of her. I held back a moan but, I couldn’t stop myself from pressing her into the wall of the barn as we neared it. My lips grazed hers before moving down to her neck to inhale her scent.

“Am I ever going to get enough of you, Sabina?” I was hard already and pressed my hips into her so she’d know it.

“Never, baby. It’s going to be like this for the rest of our lives.” Her head was back to give me access and it made her laugh sexy and throaty in just the right way to make me throb.

“Fuck, I’m going to die.” I was only half joking.

“Me too, but what a way to go.” Her hand came up to press my face to hers for a kiss that stole my breath away.

“Sabina. Maybe we should go inside.” I didn’t care if anyone saw me fucking her into the middle of next Friday, but she might.

“Nobody cares, Tavin. Although, they might ask to join in.”

“What?” I paused, looking down into fiery blue eyes. I loved how those flames made her eyes dance.

“Yeah, we’re not sticklers for your mating traditions around here, if you hadn’t noticed.”

“But, I thought you said we were mates.” I was confused again, very confused.

“Some mates choose to share baby. We don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“Wouldn’t you cut my dick off?”

“Not if I get to join you.” Fuck, I nearly came right then.

“We’ll talk about that later. Let’s get these pants off of you.” I lost all thought then, and found the only place I wanted to be. Right there with Sabina.