Julie and Emma were in a state when I found them. They’d seen animals all around and couldn’t find me. They knew I’d gone out into the night to see what was out there.

“We thought you were eaten by a bear!” Emma exclaimed.

“I’m fine. I’m sorry you were worried.”

“You could have at least said you were going to find someone,” Julie said.

“I thought you were still sleeping. I wasn’t going to wake you up just to tell you I was going to call the ranger.”

“Well, leave a note next time!” Emma snapped.

“Or at least take your phone.” Julie held my cell out to me. “Why didn’t you just call the ranger?”

I shrugged. “I was half asleep and saw a croc. I didn’t think much about it and just ran. I guess I thought it would come at me?”

I tried to get them settled as quickly as possible. All I could think about was Owen alone in the woods, naked, waiting for me. Finally, I decided to play the one card they wouldn’t argue with.

“The thing is,” I said. “I wanted an excuse to find Owen. And I found him. He wants to talk.”

They looked at me with surprise.

“Where is he?” Julie asked.

“Back at the station. He had to make some calls or something. But he asked me to come back to talk to him.”

“You sure that’s a good idea after the last talk you had?” Julie arched an eyebrow.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Maybe it was because of that that he wants to talk.”

“Well, give me the full report in the morning.” Emma slid down into her sleeping bag. “I’m not waiting up.”

Julie slid back into her bag, too. “Take your phone this time. Please. Call if anything happens. I don’t want to wake up and find you dead because you got mauled in the night by bears or crocs or any other animal out there.”

“I will.” I made a show of putting my phone in one pocket and my knife in another. “I’ll be with a ranger. There’s not much better protection than that.”

A ranger who also happened to be a bear shifter.

As I exited the tent, I pulled my blanket out with me; better than sitting on the cold ground naked. If I had any clothes that would fit him, I’d bring them, but he was far too muscular for my shirts or close-fitting sweatpants.

I walked back to where I’d left him in the dark, spread out the blanket, then sat. He crawled onto it to join me.

“Sorry about this.” He gestured to his nakedness.

“That’s something you should never apologize for.”

He chuckled. “It’s just awkward. I feel exposed.”

I picked up the end of the blanket and covered him as much as possible. He pulled me back into his lap. Now I felt a little awkward. I was dressed, though not in my clothes, and he had only the blanket.

“So, Owen,” I said in a forced conversational tone. “I may not have told you, since I’m bound by secret and all—but I’m a shifter. I can turn into a bear at will or in the full moonlight. What hobbies and interests do you have?”

We both laughed and he shook his head. “How is this possible?”

“I’ve been asking myself that question since the first time I shifted.”

“When? How? I mean…I had no idea. And that’s absurd. I’m an Alpha, for god’s sake. I’m such an idiot.”

“Ha,” I said. “You think you’re an idiot? I was a shifter for twenty years and didn’t even know it!”

“What do you mean?”

“My parents? They’re not actually my parents.”

He sucked in a breath.

“You remember how I’d always say I felt like I didn’t belong in my family? There was a reason for that. I was adopted. My parents are actually distant relatives of mine. My real parents died when I was just a baby, and they were both shifters. But my second cousin, who raised me as her daughter, was not a shifter and knew nothing about it. I was obviously a late bloomer, and I was in college the first time it happened. There was a party, kind of like the one Aiden invited us to. Outside, you know? And it was the night of the full moon.”

“Ohh,” Owen said.

“Yeah.” I laughed. “So, we were at this party and it was in the woods. It would have been fine if I’d known I was a shifter at the time since there was lots of cover, but I didn’t; it was the first change since my birth shift. When I stepped into the moonlight, I felt the pull. And let me just say that from what I’ve heard from others, shifting for the first time under full moonlight is not the best way to go about it.”

“I’d say not.”

“Now, I’ve shifted enough that it doesn’t hurt me. But you remember those first shifts?”

“I was just a kid when I began to change. It was hard the whole first year, but when I started shifting regularly, yeah, it wasn’t so bad anymore. I’m surprised you didn’t shift by accident while you were growing up, though. That happens fairly often during times of extreme emotional distress.”

“Well, I wasn’t old enough to remember losing my parents. So, that night, I obviously didn’t know what was happening. I thought I was sick or had been drugged; at a party like that, it wasn’t the craziest thought. Being drugged seemed much more feasible than the fact that I was turning into a freaking bear. So, I kinda flipped out. I thought I was hallucinating. I started running, and I ran far. Luckily, another bear had witnessed the whole thing go down and followed me. When he realized what was happening, he stayed with me and got me calmed enough to shift back when the morning came.

“He was an Alpha. I joined his pack and he and his wife looked out for me. They were like my shifter adopted parents, teaching me everything. It was a hard time. Luckily, the guy I was dating had broken up with me just days before that, so I used heartbreak as an excuse to be hiding out all the time. I was lonely, but my new pack helped a lot. Only problem was, they all lived about an hour and a half away, on the western side of the state.”

“You don’t live near your clan?”

I shook my head.

“Addie, we’re not meant to be lone bears. We’re meant to live with our clans. In some areas, they live together in a big compound or a shared house, if it’s a smaller clan.”

“I don’t know of any near me. And I like my clan. They were there for me when I needed them.”

“I’m glad for that,” he said. “I really am, but you’re making things harder on yourself than they should be.”

I shrugged. “It’s okay. I don’t go out when it’s a full moon and I don’t shift often. It’s better for me to just pretend like that part of me doesn’t exist. With the whole secret thing, it makes it easier, too. Sometimes, like tonight, it comes in handy. It did feel good to shift. I think it’s been about six months since I have.”

“You haven’t shifted in six months?”

“Nope.”

He blinked at me in shock. “I didn’t even know that was possible.”

“Really?”

“The instinct is so strong.”

“I guess mine isn’t.”

“That might explain some things. Like why I didn’t pick on your shifter scent. Why you didn’t pick up on mine.”

I covered my face with my hand. “I thought you changed colognes.”

“You have a good excuse—you’re new and mostly alone. But I don’t. I thought it was just lust. The best I can come up with is that we’d already been together so long when I came of age that I was too accustomed to your scent. And if you didn’t know you were a shifter and had never shifted, I guess that’s why my parents didn’t pick up on it, either.”

“We’re a lot less rare than I thought,” I joked.

“You’re telling me.” He nuzzled his nose into my neck, taking in a long inhale. “How could I have missed it? I’m such an idiot. God! I’m such an idiot!”

“It’s okay. I mean, yeah it would have been better if you’d been the one to tell me and had been there in the beginning, but it’s okay. I figured it out. I’m okay now. I know how to handle it better.”

“No, Addie, you don’t get it.” He put his fist to his forehead and growled. “I can’t believe this!”

“What’s wrong? It’s not that big of a deal, is it? I mean, I can see you being freaked out if I were a shifter and you knew nothing of this life, but you are, too. I don’t see how—”

“Adeline.”

I closed my mouth and looked at him expectantly.

“Our clan believes that Alphas should only marry shifters. They want to keep the leadership pure to preserve our lineage. No second will be promoted if he’s married to a non-shifter and Alphas are forced to step down if they take a non-shifter wife.”

I scrunched up my face in confusion.

“Addie.” He put a hand on either side of my face. “My dad was the Alpha; that means I’ve always been in line to be Alpha. I took over for him when I finished college, and I’ve always believed that I had to fulfill my duty as his son. I hated the rule. I nearly left my family and my clan because of it. Addie, the only reason I ended things with you was because you weren’t a shifter, and I had to marry a shifter if I was going to fulfill my duty.”

His words sunk into my mind slowly. I didn’t want to get excited. I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I’d just done that and it had ended terribly.

“So… you’re saying…”

He let out a laugh and kissed me hard. “I’m saying, I love you. Marry me?”

“What?” I laughed, too. I clearly hadn’t heard him right.

“Marry me. Please. Please marry me. Be my wife. I can’t live another day without you.”

I shook my head. “No, you’re… this isn’t right.”

“What?” His face fell. “What do you mean?”

“You can’t be proposing to me. You just ended things again. You just broke my heart again.”

“It was only because of the shifter thing. That was it. I’ve wanted you so badly this whole time. I’ve missed you. Ask my clan how much of a wreck I was after you came by to see me and I had to send you off. I thought about leaving again. I was ready to give up everything for you.”

I spoke slowly to make sure I didn’t miss anything. “So, let me get this straight. You’re telling me that the only reason you broke up with me in high school is because you thought I wasn’t a shifter?”

“No. It’s because I thought you weren’t a shifter, and I knew I had to marry a shifter. I could have kept dating you, I guess, but I could never marry you, and I didn’t want you to go through that. We talked about marriage. I even had a ring picked out. I knew how I was going to propose and everything.”

“And the other day when I came to see you?”

“Same thing. There was no way I could see you and never marry you. Or be with you for any length of time and not tell you my secret. I had no choice but to send you away again.”

“That’s the only reason?”

“That’s the only reason.” He stood and I was reminded of his nakedness. “Come for a run with me.”

“I don’t have my sneakers or running—”

“Not as a human.”

“Oh.” I stood up and took off Hailey’s clothes, setting them in the center of the blanket.

We both shifted and took a moment to rub against each other before taking off on the run. I followed him, partly because I had no idea where we were going, and also, because he was much faster than me. We ran until we came to a long, wooden bridge.

He shifted back and took my hand, leading me to the center of the bridge. “This isn’t exactly how I pictured it. I mean, I thought we’d at least be wearing clothing. And I planned to have a ring.”

He turned toward the water and stretched out his arm. “This bridge looks out over two bodies of water. If you look to one side, it’s like our past, stretched out long behind us. But on the other side is our future. Wide open. Full of possibilities. Going on and on forever, into eternity.”

He got down on one knee and took my hands.

“I should have said this to you long ago, Addie. I love you. I’ve had to live without you for too many years now, and I don’t want to spend another day without you. Will you marry me? Be my mate in every way, for the rest of our lives?”

I blinked in shock, then sputtered, “Yes!”