Annie’s wolf whined again. Its incessant pacing around inside her head was driving her crazy, but no matter how often she urged the animal to patience, it was having none of it. It wanted their mate, and it couldn’t understand why they weren’t out hunting the stubborn bear instead of sitting here in a dull, half-empty office reviewing research and medical charts until her eyes threatened to bleed.

All in good time, Annie soothed. We’re almost done here. As soon as we have a preliminary report, we’ll have the perfect excuse to find Jonas and corner him for a while. Alone.

The wolf hated that plan. What did it care about reports and scientific findings and excuses? As far as it was concerned, it didn’t need an excuse to corner the bear and bite his ass whether he liked it or not. In fact, given the aggravation of the past week apart, it was leaning toward putting the mating bite on the jerk’s uncooperative ass, just for spite. How dare he deny their mating and then abandon them for seven whole days? Who did he think he was?

Annie didn’t bother reminding the beast—again—that she had been the one who had done the abandoning. Semantics flew right over its head. All it knew was that they had a mate, and their mate wasn’t here. Something needed to be done about it.

Rolling her eyes, Annie gave a firm mental shove and pushed the wolf back until she could think clearly again. A week wasn’t a lot of time to work on a problem like Jonas had outlined to her, the decline of an entire species. However, it had turned out to be just long enough for her to gather some very interesting facts, and she couldn’t wait to share them with Mr. Bears-Don’t-Mate.

What she actually couldn’t wait for, she admitted, was the look on his face when she hit him with her hypothesis. She had a feeling he would never see it coming.

Whether or not he tried to be stealthy about it, Annie heard him coming. Yet again, she proved to be the last person in the clinic, staying behind to work after the doctors and staff had closed up shop for the night. Her sharp Lupine hearing immediately picked up on the sound of movement when no one else should be there, and a moment later, his scent drifted to her on the artificial current of air created by the building’s HVAC system.

She kept her eyes on her work, but her attention split to direct half of her focus to him. Okay, maybe more than half. The electrical current of awareness caused by their mating made the hair stand up on her arms and a low tingling begin just beneath her skin.

It felt like her senses turned into a great big hive of bees anytime he was around, and the buzzing and spinning of their activity threatened to drive her crazy. She could only hope that at some point, it would all calm down. If she had to live the rest of her life feeling like she was being swarmed by hyperactive insects, she’d have to rethink the benefits of this whole mating deal.

Annie waited until she sensed his presence in her doorway. Then she calmly set her pen down on top of the notes she had been making and folded her hands on her desk. She looked up, keeping her expression a carefully polite mask.

“Mr. Browning,” she said, matching her tone to her face. “I wasn’t expecting to see you this evening.”

His brow twitched, then smoothed, as if catching himself in mid-frown. “No, I’m sure you weren’t. Do you have a few minutes, or is this a bad time?”

“I’m working for you, Mr. Browning. I’m fairly certain that means that my time is yours.”

He winced.

“Please. I told you to call me Jonas, and I meant it.” He stepped into the room, pushing his suit jacket aside to slide his hands into his trouser pockets. “Look, I realize it’s getting late, and I’m probably keeping you from finding your dinner, but I just wanted to—”

“No need to apologize. Actually, I was going to come find you quite soon. I probably would have waited until morning, regular business hours, but I do have a few things I’d like to share with you.”

That appeared to take him by surprise. “You do? I thought you weren’t speaking to me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” She said it casually, but she saw the barb hit its target. He didn’t like having his concerns dismissed any more than she had at their last meeting. “We have a professional relationship, so of course we’ll have to talk from time to time. But as it happens, I’ve finally reached a point in my research where I think I can summarize for you my preliminary impressions of the problem you brought to my attention.”

Jonas stared at her for a moment, his expression blank. Then he looked confused. “You mean you wanted to talk to me about the population thing?”

She took a certain amount of glee in presenting him with her own look of confusion, feigned though it might be. “Of course. What did you think I wanted to talk to you about?”

“About us, dammit.” He closed the distance to her desk in two long strides and braced his palms on the surface. “Or did you forget about what happened between us the last time we were both in this room?”

“Oh, that.” Annie waved a hand. “I wouldn’t worry about it, Mr. Browning. I think we each made our positions clear at that time. There’s no need to retread that old ground.”

She felt a surge of pride that she managed to get all that out with a straight face and a suitably offhand tone. She’d practiced this very conversation in her head daily since her phone conversation with Sam. After all, flaming a-holes needed to be taught a lesson in manners.

“Like hell,” he snarled, and grabbed her before she could blink.

Who knew a bear could move so fast? She wondered about it even while she found herself crushed against a massive, vibrating chest. Vibrating because the man continued to growl at her even while he kissed her like the world was coming to an end.

He devoured her mouth, all heat and anger and possessive desperation. It made her fight for breath and for the strength not to wrap her legs around him like the eager hussy her inner wolf urged her to be. That bitch danced around inside her head, yipping and yodeling with joy. If she had her way, they’d already be lifting their tail and inviting their mate to hurry up with the mounting already. Annie had to work hard to get her human side to throw on the brakes.

She tore her mouth from his and panted up at him. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Jonas hauled her even closer, and Annie winced as the edge of the desk cut into her upper thighs. He might not notice the piece of furniture still between them, but his arms were long enough that he didn’t even have to lean over it to grab her around the waist. In order to spare herself from permanent nerve damage, she surrendered to his tugging just enough to scramble to kneel on the surface of the desk.

“What the hell do you think I’m doing?” he snapped back. “I’m trying to get my hands on my goddamned mate.”

“Well, when you find her, you can give it your best shot, Teddy.”

Calling on the speed of her wolf, she ignored the inevitable protests and darted to the side, leaping off the furniture and placing a few feet of new distance between them.

“Get back here.”

She shook her head. “No. As I said before, this kind of behavior is completely unprofessional. And since I’ve already begun working on your case, it’s also highly unethical. You could be considered a patient at this point.”

Which was only a teensy, little, humongous stretch of the truth. Jonas’s was one of the only medical files of the North Lake Clan that she hadn’t reviewed, so he was the furthest thing from a patient of hers that it was possible for any bear in the vicinity to be. But the male still needed to be taught a lesson, no matter what her wolf might be telling her.

“I’m not your damned patient, Dr. Cryer. I’m your mate.”

“No, you aren’t,” she countered. “You said it yourself. Brown bears don’t mate, not the way we mean the term. And that brings me back to the preliminary report I was getting ready to share with you. It may very well be that not practicing the shifter tradition of matebonds might be having an impact on your species’ population growth.”

Annie had been gradually circling around the perimeter of the office, keeping her eyes on Jonas and a careful distance between them. Now, he paused in his stalking behavior and straightened.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that recent research indicates that across the majority of shifter species, couples who are matebonded to each other report higher birth rates than those who do not claim to be true mates.”

He frowned, then shook his head. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter, because like I came here to tell you—”

She ignored his interruption. She’d prefer to have notes in her hands while she told him this, just because it felt more official that way. And also because it would provide some sort of barrier—however flimsy—between them.

“Furthermore,” she continued, “females of any species who maintain supportive, committed relationships are more likely to sustain a pregnancy than females who experience the stress of unstable or nonexistent ones.”

“Annie.” His growl was a warning. “I didn’t come here to discuss my clan—”

“But the most important thing the research I’ve done this week has revealed to me is that it’s doubtful your clan has any sort of fertility problem at all.”

Annie paused, waited for half a heartbeat, then began moving faster when her big bombshell failed to have the desired effect. Instead of stopping Jonas in his tracks and distracting him from his pursuit of her, the news seemed to roll right over him as if he hadn’t even heard it.

“Jonas, didn’t you hear me? I said your problem might not be a problem at all. Your clan’s lack of births in this generation might not be anything to worry about.”

He stalked closer.

“Oh, I have a problem all right, Doc. But it’s got nothing to do with my clan. My problem is that my mate is trying to keep me at a distance when we both know that she belongs—”

He feinted right.

“—In—”

Then left.

“—My—”

Annie watched him with wide eyes, waiting for him to strike. When he did, she’d need to move faster than she ever had in her life to get around him.

He leaped.

“—Bed!”

She was too slow.

He scooped her up, crowing with triumph, then tossed her over his shoulder and began striding for the door. Annie protested loudly, but with no one else in the building, she had a feeling there would be no cavalry riding to her rescue.

Her wolf felt just fine with that.

“Jonas, what do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, thumping her fist hard against his back. “Put me down!”

He didn’t even break stride.

“I think I’m claiming my mate,” he said, pushing through the lab’s swinging door and heading down the hallway that lead to the clinic’s parking lot. “You might as well lie still and enjoy the ride, honey.”

“But I’m not your mate. You told me so yourself.”

He exited the building, carrying her through the darkness to the single car left in the lot—a big, luxury SUV that suited the gigantic bear to a tee. Before she could draw a deep breath, he had her bundled into the passenger seat and securely buckled in, and he’d activated the child-proof locks to keep her from leaping out again.

As he put the vehicle in gear and pulled out of the lot, he looked at her long enough to flash a feral smile.

“You know what, Doc? You’re an extremely smart woman. You should be able to recognize when someone tells you something that it’s a complete load of bullshit.”