Tough woman. His tough woman.
Jenner sat behind her and hugged her back to his chest, rested his chin on the shoulder he hadn’t injured. “It was snowing really hard, and Tobias didn’t have control of his bear like Ian and I did. He needed to bleed something, and I got in the way, and after he left, I thought I was going to die out there. Ian looked so scared. There was red snow all under me, and I got so cold. All he had was this damned tiny first aid kit. I heal fast thanks to the bear, but he just kept packing snow into my cuts, and he was crying. We were under this little rock ledge, unprotected, and terrified Tobias would come back and finish us both off.”
“Oh, Jenner.” Heartbreak tainted her soft words.
“We went to battle that spring, and that was the last time we spent any long amount of time together. Our bears are all dominant and can’t stand to be close to another bruin. It’s the way of it for most of our kind.”
“Are there lots of you?”
“No. Hardly any.”
“Why?”
Jenner pressed his lips against her temple and frowned at the firelight. He couldn’t bring himself to tell her about hibernation right now. Cowardly? Hell yeah, but he just couldn’t. Even if Bear wasn’t a deal breaker for her, no woman was going to put up with him falling asleep for six months of the year. It wouldn’t be fair to ask anyone to stick around for that. So instead he said simply, “We don’t pair up easily.”
“But your dad did,” she argued.
“Nah, he didn’t. He got a woman pregnant, never explained what he was, and she was out on raising me and my brothers while we were still in diapers. Bear shifters are not adept at keeping a mate happy.”
“A mate,” she whispered.
He smiled at how sweetly she’d uttered that word, as if it was something she wanted. She didn’t know all of the grit yet, but damn, he would go to his grave remembering just how she’d said that.
“So Dalton and Chance, huh. Owooooo!”
He chuckled and rubbed his cheek against hers. That was the type of affection Bear had been pushing him to give her all along, and now he could finally do it. “Now you get the Wolf Camp reference, right?”
Lena gasped and grinned at him. “Are they going to be pissed that you told me?”
“No, because you aren’t going to tell anyone that you know. I mean, no one can know, Lena, or it puts me and my brothers in danger. It puts all shifters in danger. We’re really careful with who we tell. Mate’s only. It’s one of the rules.”
“I knew it! Jenner!” Lena twisted in his arms and leveled him with those beautiful honey eyes of hers. “I’m your mate, and you’re my mate, right? That’s why this feels so big. I mean, from the first time I saw you, you felt important. Like a piece of me had always been tethered to you, and it was a relief just being around you.”
God, perfect. She’d just described what he’d felt so adequately. “Yeah.”
Her eyes went wide, and the smile dipped from her face. “Is that why you wanted to bite me?”
Jenner pulled the neck of her sweater over to expose the bandage he’d put on her before he’d cooked dinner. “I’ve never wanted to do that to anyone before.”
“Not even Brea?”
He shook his head. “It’s called a claiming mark. For shifters, it means you’re off limits.”
“I’m claimed,” she said on a breath as she rested back against him. “By you.”
“I thought you would be freaking out more by all of this.”
“I should be. This is insane. You have a bear in you, Jenner. Like a giant, sharp-toothed, long-clawed grizzly bear. It’s not wrong to still want you, right?”
A laugh rattled his chest, and the stretch of his smile felt so damned good. “I don’t think so. You won’t be fooling around with my animal or anything. That’s taboo in both of our cultures. So no, falling for me isn’t wrong.” He rocked her to the side and nipped on her neck. “You’ll have the man. The bear is just an unfortunate bonus.”
“Don’t say that. Bear isn’t unfortunate. He’s a part of you, and I love everything about you.” Her voice dipped to nothing at the end. “Sorry.”
“For what? Accepting all of me. Yes, woman, I’m offended.”
“No, not just for that. I mean, I’m sorry I didn’t believe you, and then I’m sorry I said the L-word while you were a bear. I know it’s too soon.”
“I’m not sorry,” he murmured over the crackling fire. He couldn’t bring himself to say those words to her until she knew everything, but down to his bones, he felt them. He loved her so deeply it socked him in the gut to think of her leaving, but that was their reality. She had a life and a career that required her to travel, and he was anchored to Alaska, just waiting and preparing to hibernate every year. He wouldn’t ever ask her to give that up, and admitting he loved her out loud would be a gateway conversation to doing just that.