Olsen cracked open a beer and settled into an easy chair on his deck, putting his feet up on the rail with a sigh. The job at the school was complete. Tamika was happy with the clan’s work. More than happy. She looked about ready to burst with excitement, peppering the bears with compliments and gratitude. They’d actually finished work the previous day. It was pure chance that he’d stopped by to collect something he’d forgotten and run into that small, curvy human. Panic attacks. He knew the symptoms well enough to recognize them in someone else. He didn’t know what the hell made him share that information with Dolores though. It wasn’t because she looked so beautiful and vulnerable, and her evident pain had touched something deep inside him. Until now, there had only been one person in the whole damn world who knew he suffered from them. And that was Connor, the Alpha of his clan. The one who’d helped him move beyond his bear existence, and take on his human form. It hadn’t been easy. Olsen hadn’t even realized that he was a shifter until he was eighteen, and the discovery had shaken him to his core. Brought up by bears, he wasn’t equipped to live in the human world, and every new discovery brought a deep sense of dread, and a longing to return to his simple bear life. But that life was gone, forever. A forest fire had killed his entire family. Except for him. The shock had forced his first shift, and left him trapped in his human form, with no idea how to become a bear again. Then, Connor had found him, wandering alone, and grieving for the loss of everything he’d known.

Connor took him in, taught him how to shift at will, and, very slowly and patiently, taught him how to speak the human tongue. His speech was still a little slow, and he sometimes struggled to find the right words, which made him feel like the dumbest bear in all the clan. But Connor always supported him, showing him that he had valuable talents. He had an amazing eye for dimensions. He could cut a piece of wood to an exact size without needing to use a measuring tape. He could carve out a block of wood into an amazingly intricate design, without using a template. And he could repeat it as many times as necessary, with the accuracy of a machine. He was also the strongest of the bears. Having lived for his first eighteen years only as a bear seemed to have given an edge to his powerful muscles.

He would always be in Connor’s debt. But more than that, he loved him like a brother. He was a great Alpha of the clan – wise, judicious and always working tirelessly to ensure all the happiness of the bears. Olsen gave an involuntary grunt. That was – Connor was a great Alpha when he wasn’t always up his ass to get mated. Olsen was part of the losers club. One of only four bears in the clan who hadn’t yet found their mate. And he was happy with that. While Niall, Frankie and Dalton spent hours on Shiftr, that dumb dating app, trying to find their perfect match, he only pretended to use it. Sure, he’d pull it out now and again, and flick through the thumbnails of beautiful curvy human females, while his bear paced and panted and flexed its muscles. But that was as far as his interest went… Except.

Except nothing. An image of that beautiful, dark-haired human, whose heart seem to hurt as much as his own, rose up in his mind again, and he drove it out savagely. He was too different from humans. He wasn’t like his clan mates, who understood humans as well as they understood their own bear instincts. He would never find a human mate. But now that he knew he was a shifter, he would never find a bear mate either. He was stuck in limbo; destined to be alone. And that wasn’t such a bad thing. If only Connor would understand and quit bugging him.

* * *

That hope didn’t last long. Four days later, he was at a ribs cook-off in Connor’s backyard, when Niall thrust that stupid orange app in front of his face.

“How’s it going, bro? I haven’t seen you online for a while.”

“How would you even know if –?” Olsen broke off. The workings of the app, and of all technology were a mystery to him. “I’ve been busy,” he snapped, more aggressively than he’d meant to.

“Yup, and now you’re not.” Olsen let off a snarl. The job at the school had paid so well that the bears didn’t even need to work for the next six months, and they’d agreed to take a vacation for the next month at least. Which meant that Niall, who was pretty much Connor’s Second, would also be on his ass to get mated.

“Give me your phone,” Niall demanded.

“Why is it so goddamned important that I find a mate?” Olsen roared. Everyone stopped talking, their heads snapping in his direction. “Sorry. Sorry,” he mumbled. Always too loud. He always felt like he didn’t fit in the clan, and he tried not to draw attention to himself, in case the rest of the bears decided that he wasn’t one of them after all, and kicked him out. He was every bit as hotheaded as Ryzard had been before he found his mate, but he usually did a better job of hiding it.

As the other bears turned back to the conversations, he handed his phone to Niall like a chastened cub. His eyes glazed over as Niall fiddled with the app. There was no point in this. None at all. Several long moments later, Niall let off a whistle, and Olsen’s head snapped toward him.

“What is it?” he demanded. Instead of answering, Niall pulled his own phone out of his back pocket and started scrolling frantically. “What are you doing?” As he watched Niall suspiciously, Niall’s expression mutated from shock, to disbelief, to anger. Olsen snatched his phone back and stared at the screen. And then his bear let off a long purr. Dolores. She was looking into the camera, her green eyes wide, showing a hint of vulnerability, those pretty lips pursed, and her shiny curtain of hair hanging into her face, hiding the scar that made his heart feel like a piece of cotton candy. Without thinking, he put his thumb on the screen and swiped to the left. A full-length photo of her was revealed. She was standing outside a motel, leaning against a light-blue door, hands behind her back, in a pair of skinny black jeans and a black V-neck shirt, displaying those delicious curves. He ran a forefinger over those curves, as he yearned to touch them in real life. And then his finger shot back. What the hell? She’s a human. She’s not for me.

“Beautiful, isn’t she?” Niall said sharply. Olsen’s head jerked toward him, sensing something mean in his tone. Niall was often kind of serious, even more so since he’d become Connor’s second. But he was never cruel.

“What’s wrong, bro?” Olsen said.

“Nothing at all. Good luck with your mate.” Niall jammed his hands in his pockets and stalked off.

Olsen frowned at Dolores’ photos, swapping from one to another. What was Niall so mad about? He knew he was saying something different from what he really meant. Sometimes he didn’t get sarcasm at all. Did Niall think she wasn’t so pretty? No. She was the prettiest human he’d ever laid eyes on. At the top of her main profile page was a little green box, surrounded by tiny stars. That’s new. He wished he knew what it meant. Niall had called her “your mate”. That meant something. He sat down on the edge of Connor’s deck and stared at Dolores’ profile, turning over Niall’s words.

Suddenly, some kind of alert popped up. A message. It was from Dolores! A tiny version of her profile photo was right beside it. It was a long message. He scrolled through it in agitation. Then he looked for Connor. He badly needed his help right now. But he was busy with the barbecue. And he didn’t want him to know he was looking at Shiftr, because he’d be on his case the entire time. With a snort, he shut the app down and stuck his phone in his back pocket.

A moment later, he thought better of it and returned to the message. He picked five emojis – a smiley face, a woman, a bear, a yellow flower and a truck. Then, with a grunt of satisfaction, he got up and joined the other guys.