All eyes turned to Dawn as Garrett looked over his shoulder at her, amber-colored bear eyes registering obvious confusion.

Not sure what had come over her, Dawn stepped forward, in front of Garrett and between the two groups. Garrett, not liking having her in front of him, came beside her, warm fur brushing her side as he squared off possessively with the increasingly surprised pack.

“You don’t have to fight like this. I don’t want to see anyone’s family in danger just because of a dispute over some land.” She tried to sound courageous. Losing anything was better than losing Garrett. And even though she was quite confident the gigantic bear was just fine taking care of this, she couldn’t watch it escalate if both sides refused to back down.

“This is much more than that. You have no idea what you’re getting into, human,” the leader said condescendingly.

“She’s not just a human. She’s my mate.” Garrett was starting to growl again, his body tensing next to her. Dawn reached a hand over, stroking the thick fur, and Garrett calmed slightly.

“Isn’t there something we can offer that would help instead? Make it so there can be peace?” There had to be some way to negotiate.

“I mean, yeah, weren’t you the guys stealing tools and materials from our work site? It must mean you need something.” Hunter was beside her again, sounding cool as a cucumber about the whole affair.

“No, the Silver Lake pack needs nothing from classless rogues like you three.”

“Better a rogue than an inbred ingrate like you,” Grayson shot back, sounding oddly offended at the remark that made little sense to Dawn. But surely there were politics here at play that she had no clue about.

“Can there be an exchange? Some sort of trade?” Hunter persisted, ignoring Garrett and Grayson as their tension did nothing to diffuse the situation.

The gray wolf shook his head, and there was silence for a moment. Then, from the back, a wolf popped its head up and spoke.

“Actually, yes, there is.”

All eyes turned to the earth-colored wolf with patches of silver on its back.

“Our homes, if they could even be called that, are a wreck. Many of us have tried to transition to living like humans, but so many of us have been wolves our entire lives.” The wolf looked particularly scraggly, in need of a bath and nourishment. “We have no clue how to use human implements, how to make human abodes livable. We can’t even cook human food for ourselves. So most of us still sleep out in the open or in caves like feral wolves. But we can’t keep living like this. Our pack won’t survive if we can’t look and act like humans.”

“Stand down.” The gray wolf looked livid. “You’re not alpha. This is not your place.” But the newcomer stood his ground, coming up to Garrett who, for the first time, seemed to have pity warring with rage in his expression.

“It’s true.” Grayson chimed in, sounding surprisingly earnest. “You won’t survive. I know from experience what happens. If you can’t make a place to raise your young in safety, then you will die out. To prevent that, you’ll need work, need a place to live where humans won’t become suspicious of what you really are.”

“We might be able to help with that,” Garrett said, looking to the side and sounding more than a little reticent to be offering anything.

“Especially Grayson here. He loves to help. It’s his favorite thing to do,” Hunter said with a fanged grin, and Grayson shot him an annoyed glare.

Hope showed on the brown wolf’s face, and the pack began to mutter optimistically amongst itself. The gray leader looked defeated, but even he seemed to be unable to deny what was being said.

“You’d do that?” Dawn asked, amazed at Garrett’s ability to show mercy in spite of his own anger. She felt completely safe next to him, knew that nothing could harm her as long as he was here. So with her safety no longer in question, it seemed hard to still hold a grudge against the wolves in front of them.

If the pack had really wanted to harm her, they could have done it in a dozen different ways before this whole confrontation. She had to believe they weren’t as evil as they were trying to look.

They were just trying to protect themselves the best way they knew how.

“Yes,” Garrett muttered as he looked at the gray wolf suspiciously. “But only if you promise to never trespass on my mate’s land ever again. Or next time I won’t go so easy on you.”

The gray wolf visibly gulped, his bravado now faded.

“Of course not. You have my pack’s promise that no harm will befall your mate at the hands of my pack. And since our land surrounds yours, it will be our duty to protect this home as we would our own.”

There were several yips and howls in assent, and Garrett nodded. “Then when we’re finished here, we’ll do whatever we can to help you get set up out here.”

The gray wolf bowed its head, and they all exchanged a few more remarks before the wolf howled and led it’s pack out into the forest, disappearing like blurs into the shadows of the forest beyond the clearing of her home. When the last wolf was gone, Garrett gave out a loud, exasperated huff and shook himself as if relieving stress.

“Thanks for doing that, guys. And thank you for coming back for me, Garrett,” Dawn said, leaning into his side and relishing in the feel of his soft brown fur.

Garrett took a breath as if to say something, but Hunter interrupted him.

“Yeah, well, he was crying so hard when we left we forced him to turn the truck around. Told him to come back and beg you to take him back.” The cougar strolled around, making lazy circles and leaving giant paw prints in the dust.

“I wasn’t crying,” Garrett muttered.

“Not crying.” Grayson confirmed. “But it was obvious he needed his mate. He was broken without you. A complete mess.” He shrugged, and Dawn couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or caring. Maybe both.

“That’s not how it happened.” Garrett groaned, turning to face her, his height even more intimidating as a bear than as a broad-shouldered human. “But yes, I had to come back to you, Dawn.”

She smiled. “So how do you change back to a human? Is it painful?” Watching his bear in action was incredible, but her heart longed to see the man that she needed badly to make up with.

“No, but…” Garrett trailed off, looking back at the trailer, then to her. He closed his eyes, and she watched as the giant bear shrank back down to the six-foot-something Garrett, looking a little dusty but no worse for wear.

And completely naked.

She felt a blush creep up her cheeks as she tried not to gawk at all his muscle fully on display, and Garrett held a hand up.

“Be right back,” he said, and ran back to the trailer, disappearing for a second.

Grayson and Hunter just watched with amusement.

“We’ll change back later. Garrett wouldn’t like us shifting right now. For obvious reasons. Unless, of course, you’d like to sneak a—” Hunter exclaimed.

“No, she wouldn’t, asshole,” Grayson interjected.

A second later, Garrett emerged, this time wearing pants and a red flannel shirt unbuttoned around his shoulders, and he came back to her.

“How about we go talk over by the pond?” he asked, and Dawn responded with a nod.

There definitely was a lot to talk about.

* * *

Garrett felt oddly vulnerable as he followed Dawn out into the clearing by the water where they’d talked before.

She led the way to the log they’d sat on, and he had an eerie feeling of anxiety at just remembering the motions that had surrounded him when last they’d been here.

He’d bared his heart to her, and she hadn’t been able to take it.

She’d now seen everything. Would she still turn him away?

It was a lot to know he’d protected her, but it still wasn’t enough. That had been the problem all along. No matter how she tried to keep pace with him, offer him what she could, until she was his mate, it would just never be enough.

“So…” She pulled one leg over the other, resting her hands on it, a deep flush on her face from all the excitement. Or embarrassment. He didn’t know since he’d been naked after the shift.

He focused on doing up the rest of the buttons on his flannel shirt. “So… yeah.”

“You’re a bear.” Her gray eyes pinned on him frankly. Affectionately, if he was reading her right.

“Yes. Does it bother you?”

She put her hands in the air and let out a long sigh. “I mean, I feel like I’m going crazy, but no. I’m kind of glad it’s true because I didn’t want to write you off as insane, but it’s still a lot for me to handle. I feel like I was hallucinating back there.”

He nodded, feeling the urge to be closer to his mate but keeping himself distant from her on the log. He didn’t want to push anything until she was ready.

“Do you forgive me?” she asked quietly.

“Of course I do,” he said, scooting a little bit closer. “Do you forgive me for not telling you the truth sooner? I just didn’t want to scare you off.”

“Given how I reacted, I see why,” she said, scooting into him as well so their sides were touching. “So this mate thing, it’s pretty serious, I guess?”

“It’s forever,” he said. “It’s decided. Once you agree.”

She looked up at him. “Does that mean you don’t have a choice in it?”

He shook his head. “It just means that something out there knows better than me. Of course, I could be an idiot and ignore it, but why when everything I could have ever wanted, a woman more amazing than I could have ever hoped, is right in front of me?”

He cupped her head, savoring the feel of her waves in his fingers, the way her grey eyes glinted in the sunlight. The way her lips slightly parted and her eyes closed at the touch of his hand.

He was about to lean down and kiss her when her eyes opened, and he sat back, acting like nothing was about to happen.

“Thank you for coming back,” she said. “I didn’t… I mean, when they showed up and were what you said they were, I knew I’d been stupid.”

He nodded.

“Before that even,” she said, standing again and picking up a rock. “I don’t even have the right to face you after all the things I said. You’ve been nothing but wonderful to me, and I was paranoid. I should never have accused you of anything. It’s just that I’ve been betrayed by a lot of people who should have loved me, you know?”

She stuck out her hand to throw her rock, but instead of skipping expertly as it had before, it thunked into the water with a splash just as she let out a choked sob.

Garrett was off the log and behind her in a second, turning her around and enfolding her in his arms. Beyond them, water rippled in the distance.

“Shh,” he said. “It’s okay now. It’s fine. You’re safe, and I’m not offended. My world, all of this… It’s a lot for a human to take in.”

She looked up at him, eyes still slightly watery. “Is it normal for your mate to be human?”

He wiped away her tears with the pads of his fingers. “Of course.”

“I don’t want you to miss out on a cool bear lady. I could never protect you at all…”

He laughed, brushing her tears off her cheek again. “Just let me do the protecting, okay? I feel like the best person in the world when I can protect you.”

“Best bear?” She smiled up at him.

“Best bear.”

She rested her cheek on his chest, and despite everything they’d been through, it felt as if all was well with the world. He wasn’t mad at her for a second for how she reacted earlier. He was just glad she was fine with him now.

And that he’d gotten here and things had worked out with the wolves so well.

“So I guess I’m going to have some interesting neighbors,” she said, taking his hand and pulling him back over to the log again.

He grunted, hating that he had to let her out of his arms as he took a seat beside her. “You already had them. Now they’re going to stop messing with your stuff. Hopefully.”

She laughed, nudging him in the arm. “Either way, you’ll be here.”

He raised an eyebrow, perking up at that thought. “What?”

“I mean, you’re going to live here, right? It seems like the only answer. You’re nervous about me here alone, and you love me, so… why not?”

He nodded hastily. “Why not?”

She sighed, tucking a stray lock of hair behind one ear. “I love you. I’m not sure how it can happen so fast, and I’m still looking forward to getting to know more about you. Your life, your world. But I trust you, Garrett. You’re my family now, and I couldn’t imagine a life without you.”

He smiled. “I’m so glad you said that. I was worried…”

She leaned forward, nuzzling his nose and making him blush. “I know.”

He leaned closer and kissed her, capturing her lips gently as his hand stroked her jaw and her cheekbone, feeling the light graze of her hair.

She sighed as they pulled back, surrounded by cool forest wind. “I think we’re really going to like it here.”

“Me, too,” he said, looking at the pond.

They would finish the house and live out here, and everything he’d imagined would be perfect.

They stayed like that for a moment, hands locked, hearts full, in a beautiful clearing that just added to the benefits of their new home.

Then Dawn turned to him, a mischievous glint in her eye. “So the mating thing. How does one make it official?”

He felt blood rush all the way down to his toes. “If you want to come on a ride with me, I can show you. But first I’ll have to make a call.”