“Why not?”
“Well,” he said, searching for a way to tell her without spilling their secret. “We can’t. It’s an instinct thing.”
“You’re competitive?”
“Massively competitive,” he murmured, grateful she got it.
“Okay, so no holiday celebrations with them?”
Pain slashed through his chest as he thought about the holidays. He hibernated during the big ones, and he hadn’t thought about her being all alone on Thanksgiving and Christmas before now. Even New Year’s wasn’t doable. Shit.
“No,” he admitted low. “No holidays.”
“Well, I want you to meet Josiah. He’s good people. Maybe you won’t be competitive with him,” she said hopefully.
“Yeah, I want to meet your brother.” He wasn’t on a quest for friends, but Josiah was a big part of keeping Elyse’s cattle safe, and her brother should know he had back-up from Ian during the warm months if he needed it.
The puppy was tugging at the hem of his work jeans and growling as he shook his little fluffy head ferociously.
“I’ve named him,” Elyse said.
“Tell me.”
“Miki. It’s an Inuit name meaning—”
“Little,” he finished, approving. The little furry terror had released his pant leg and was now barking and bouncing around him, trying to scare his denim apparently. “It’s perfect. Do you want to bring him with us today?”
“Where are we going?”
“Far away.”
“For our date?”
Ian dipped his chin once and eased out of her embrace so he could better see the green and gold in her eyes. Damn, she was beautiful.
“Maybe it should just be us today,” she said, scrunching up her petite little nose. He wanted to kiss it, but big tough bear shifters didn’t do cutesy shit like that.
“Good,” he rumbled, picking up the pup.
The dog nipped him, and without thinking, Ian latched his teeth onto the scruff of his neck and let off a low snarl as a warning. Miki’s growl died in his throat, and he hunched in submission. Good pup. Ian released his neck and nuzzled his little face as a reward, and got one timid lick on the nose in return. Then he set the puppy into the small enclosed stall he’d cleared out for him to sleep in until Miki was big enough to wander the yard when they weren’t home.
“I can’t believe biting him worked,” Elyse muttered when he turned around. Her eyes were round, and she stood frozen in the same position she’d been in, her hands still out like she was surprised he wasn’t hugging her anymore.
“Mmm,” he said noncommittally, not about to explain dominance or how he knew so much about animal behavior. “Miki will be a good watchdog, but he has to learn who is boss. You ready?”
“After we fix the fence. I don’t want the horses getting out while we’re gone.”
“Yep.” Ian grabbed a box of nails and a hammer and followed Elyse out of the barn. They would need to hurry if he was going to take her to his favorite fishing spot. He was all about a date, but it would be the kind he understood. The multi-tasking sort where they brought meat home at the end of the day because winter was coming up, and fast. Hopefully she liked what he had planned.
One of the posts was rotted and leaning heavily to the side, so Ian clipped the wire and pulled it out while Elyse blocked the horses from escaping. He replaced it with a log he’d brought up this morning with the four-wheeler, all the while calculating how much lumber Elyse’s wood burning stove would require for the winter. He didn’t want her running out and having to go too far alone to haul and chop more. Not while he was sleeping and couldn’t help her with the heavy work.
And when they were done, Ian packed the back of the truck with his nets and fishing poles, then opened the door for Elyse and laughed at her as she practically hummed with excitement.
“I know what we’re doing! We’re going fishing. Where? The Yukon? There’s a stream off it near here that I’ve caught fish in before.”
“This will be nowhere you’ve been and up in bear country.”
“Bear country? Black bear or brown bear?”
“Both.”
Her delicate eyebrows jacked up, creating little wrinkles of worry across her forehead. He wanted to kiss them smooth. “I’ll keep you safe,” he promised.
“Against a grizzly?”
Ian swallowed his smile down as he pulled out of the homestead. “Yes, Elyse. Against a grizzly. I brought the right weapons.”
Sure, his high caliber rifle sat in the back of the truck, ready to be loaded and emptied into a bruin if they were charged, but that wasn’t the weapon he was talking about. Ian had claws and teeth and had fought many a wild bear in his adventures in the Alaskan wilderness. Sometimes, his inner monster required a good fight.
He was much more afraid of what Elyse was doing to his insides than what a bear could do to his outside.