Whoa, whoa, whoa. Someone needed to haul back on the reins and stop this runaway horse before someone got hurt, and Jonas had a really bad feeling it was him.

What the hell had just happened? One minute he’d been seducing the sexy doctor, feeling her soft, hot skin under his hand, the brush of her silky curls against his fingers, and the next she had to go and bring up the m word. How was that even right?

His bear grunted, indicating it thought the idea sounded perfectly right. Which was just ridiculous. Brown bears didn’t mate, not the way other shifters did. And especially not the way the Lupines did.

Wolf shifters mated for life, taking soul mates and remaining monogamous forever. Most feline shifters did the same, letting their human sides overrule the more promiscuous habits of their inner cats. And black bears lived so closely with humans and other shifters that most of them mated like humans as well.

But brown bears were different. In the wild, many brown bears didn’t even remain monogamous during a single mating season, and females routinely gave birth to cubs in the same litter with different fathers. Males would mate with any female in season to whom they had access.

Sure, Ursine shifters weren’t fully bears, but among them, the browns maintained a wilder nature than their cousins. Like their animal counterparts, they tended to be more aggressive than other Ursines, and though generally solitary, they weren’t territorial, so they had no trouble living within the confines of a clan. Well, not as long as resources were plentiful and they had access to privacy when they wanted it. But as far as Jonas knew, they had never subscribed to the belief in soul mates that so many other shifter species clung to.

For the brown bears, mating meant having sex, not taking a life partner. When two of them did decide to pair off, it was their human halves who made that decision. They got married, just like regular people did, and sometimes they got divorced the same way. And they did all that because they saw through the romantic bullshit the wolves and the lions and the coyotes and the frickin’ badgers clung to and admitted that there was no such thing as a shifter’s soul mate.

Judging by the sharp chomping noise his bear made in his head, Jonas had to wonder if anyone had bothered to inform their animal spirits of that.

Either way, it didn’t matter at the moment. Jonas shoved his bear into the background and rolled his shoulders to restore his casual posture.

“I think you’re getting ahead of yourself, sweetheart.” He offered the charming grin that had had females eating out of his palm since puberty. “I mean, I’m obviously attracted to you, and judging by that kiss you could say the same right back, but we just met. No one said anything about mates. No need for crazy talk.”

Her eyes went from wide and a little dazed to narrow and sharp in an instant. “Crazy talk?”

Oh, shit. He’d thrown that word out there, hadn’t he? Jonas held up his hands and tried to backpedal. Fast. “I’m just saying that using the word ‘mates’ after an hour’s acquaintance isn’t exactly normal, right? We’re mutually attracted, and neither of us can deny the chemistry, but—”

“But what? But it would be ‘crazy’ to assume that we could be mates? When exactly did I become the only shifter in the room? Sure, if we were human it would be crazy for me to say something like that, but I don’t know if you noticed, I’m not human. And surprise, surprise. Neither are you. I might not be happy to hear my wolf tell me you’re my mate, especially at this particular moment. But that doesn’t make it any less true.”

Jonas felt himself go white as the blood rushed out of his head. The change left him dizzy and more than a little disoriented. How had his day gone from so awesome to so fucked up so fucking fast?

Any previous attempt he’d made at charm fell away and left him scrabbling just to get his feet back on solid ground. His erection was well and truly dead anyway. Now he needed to forget about his dick and concentrate on keeping his balls.

“Look, Annie. I had no intention of insulting you, so I apologize if it came out that way. You’re a beautiful woman, and clearly I find you attractive. So does my bear. But things don’t work the same for my kind as they do for yours. I know Lupines often recognize their mates at their first meeting, and I know wolves mate for life, but that’s just not true for bears. Not for brown bears, anyway. We don’t get that kind of mate bond. Just doesn’t happen. So forgive me if I’m a little shocked and uncomfortable to hear a woman I’ve just met talking like she’s refusing the proposal I didn’t make.”

Jonas watched her face while he tried to explain, mostly so he could gauge any tells that might warn him he was about to get a knee to his dangly bits. He didn’t see any. What he did see was the way her anger and indignation morphed into a kind of baffled hurt in her warm brown eyes.

“What do you mean, you don’t get ‘that kind’ of mate bond?” She demanded. “What other kind is there?”

He shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable. And it came from somewhere beyond his inner bear, who was too pissed at him to cause the tightness in his stomach. His bear just wanted to rip out his spinal cord for causing their female that kind of pain.

Not ours, bear. That’s what I’m trying to explain.

The bear growled. It had been a vocal bastard today, which just went to show how worked up it really was. Bears lived most of their lives in silence, saving their vocalizations for times of extreme emotion.

“No other kind. Which is the point. Brown bears pair up for sex or companionship, stay together while they want, then go their separate ways. Ones who want families get married the same way humans do, according to human laws. If they decide it’s not working out, they get divorced using the same laws. We’re not wolves, Annie. We don’t have life mates or predestined partners the way wolves do.”

She stared at him in silence for a long moment. When she finally spoke, it came out more like a squeak.

“Ever?”

Jonas couldn’t figure out why that question should slam into his gut like a powerful fist, but it did. His bear bellowed and slapped the ground with massive forepaws, expressing its displeasure with its human side. It left Jonas feeling ganged up on—his beast, his conscience, and Annie Cryer had banded together to make him feel like an asshole. Perfect.

“Not that I’ve ever heard of.”

Silence stretched between them again.

“That’s just . . . messed up.”

Jonas scowled. Wait a second, who was she to make that kind of judgment about his kind? Just because the bears did things differently from the wolves didn’t mean they were wrong and the dogs had it right. That would be as bad as him saying the wolves were morons for tying themselves to complete strangers just because meeting one could make them itch.

“Look,” he growled, shoving his hands in his pockets and backing toward the door. “I’m just telling you like it is. Trying to explain myself. There’s no need to get pissy about it.”

Shit. He heard the words come out of his mouth, but it was too late to take them back. He could only plow ahead.

“I only meant that there’s no reason to assume some kind of relationship just because we’re attracted to each other. I’m sure you’ve been attracted to other men, just like I’ve been attracted to other women. It doesn’t mean there’s any kind of cosmic pairing going on. It was just a kiss.”

Annie glared at him. “Just a kiss? Wow. I’d like to know what you consider to be a little groping session if that’s your yardstick.”

Oh, shit, shit. Sarcasm. That did not bode well.

“I didn’t mean it that way. You know that. Don’t be ridiculous—”

Goddamn it. She was a doctor, right? Could he get her to suture his damned lips closed before he choked on his frickin’ kneecap?

“Oh, so now I’m not just crazy, I’m also ridiculous.”

The shy, wary, downright nervous female who had eased into Jaeger’s office with one eye scanning for escape routes had completely disappeared. In her place stood a fierce, furious she-wolf who looked more than ready to rip his throat out and snack on his spleen. And he had only his own big mouth to blame for the transformation.

“If I’m so mentally unstable and prone to flights of fancy, Mr. Browning, maybe I’m not the researcher you want working on your clan’s little problem. You’d probably prefer a more logical and less desperate scientist. Maybe a man. That way there wouldn’t be any chance of anyone trying to trap you into a fictional relationship based on an illogical emotional response to a surge of random hormones. Because that’s what you’re afraid of, right?”

“No. Don’t put words in my mouth, Dr. Cryer. Aren’t you the one who broke off the kiss anyway? The one who said it was inappropriate and unprofessional? Why are you so pissed off at the fact that we’re essentially on the same page?”

Annie snarled, the sound startling in its ferocity. Jonas thought he actually caught a glimpse of fang under her curled lip.

“You know what? That’s a darned good question.” She stalked to the desk, snatched up her backpack, and headed for the door. “For the sake of maintaining our professional non-relationship, I think it’s best if we maintain a certain distance. I’m going to go find a place to stay. You can get a standard HIPAA release form from the clinic. Fill one out for everyone in your clan, have them sign, and get me copies of their medical records. As soon as I have them, I’ll get to work. If you need to ask me a question or give me some information, send me an e-mail.”

She stalked out the door, moving with the lazy, confident grace of a predator and looking entirely different from the uneasy woman he’d met a couple of hours ago.

Jonas noticed she also looked pretty different from the woman he’d kissed just a few minutes ago. If anything, the surge in power made her even sexier.

Fuck off, bear.

Nope. The bear was a hell of a lot more interested in fucking her. Their fierce, feminine she-wolf with the sweet scent, the honey-colored eyes, and the soft, round ass.

Their mate.

The m word again. Jonas froze.

Aw, fuck.