Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Veronica
Leanne pushes through the crowd, holding three pints in her hands. “Heads up,” she barks as she wiggles between two large men. “I will spill these all over you if you’re not careful.”
I give Boone a shy smile as she comes over and slams the three pints on our table. “There are so many hot guys in here,” she says, scanning the crowded pub with large eyes. “Boone, do you know any of these hunky men? A sexy lumberjack or a big strong mountain man who knows how to treat a lady?”
Boone clears his throat as he takes a beer. “I kind of keep to myself.”
Leanne huffs out a breath and turns back to us. She sees the way we’re looking at each other and sighs. “Alright,” she says with a sip of her stout. “I’ll stop being a third wheel and go find myself a big muscular man to curl up to tonight. Enjoy yourselves, you two.”
She gives me a wink and then disappears into the crowd to find her Romeo.
I’ve already found mine.
Boone is nothing like the man I thought I’d end up with, but now that he’s in front of me, I know that he’s perfect.
I love the quiet calmness of him. I’m chatty enough for two people in a relationship and I’m starting to see how having someone with his serene tranquilness would be good for me. How it would calm me down. How it would keep me grounded.
I tuck my legs together under the high top table and my knee brushes Boone’s leg. I see the way he reacts to me. The way he holds his breath, the way his lips part, the way he looks at me like he’s dying to kiss me.
I feel a warm shiver racing through me, still not quite believing this is real. A spot on my neck, under my right ear tingles so much I have to touch it.
“So, are you from Wildpeak Village?” I ask, trying to get the big man talking.
He nods as he wraps his huge hand around the pint glass. He’s so big. Those broad shoulders and powerful arms… He could just pick me up and lower me onto his lap…
I get a little hot and flushed thinking about it.
Stop that, I warn myself. Focus on talking and not on those big sexy shoulders and how my bare legs would look resting on them as he rocks me back and forth… Stop it!
“I’ve lived here my whole life,” he says in that deep growly voice that makes me all warm between my thighs. “Although it didn’t look like this when I was growing up.”
“What did it look like?” I ask, leaning closer.
“It was still very natural. Untouched wild land. It was perfect. The mountains were my playground.”
I look down at the table and smile, running my finger up and down my frosty glass.
“It’s changed a lot,” he says. “Ever since an article brought attention to it. People have been flocking here like crazy.”
I grin at the mention of my article. I sit a little straighter, excited to let him know about my proudest work accomplishment.
“That was my article,” I say with a grin. “I wrote it.”
He swallows hard as he stares at me.
“Pretty cool, right?” I say, feeling my pulse race with the way he’s looking at me like he can’t believe it.
“I’m happy you wrote it,” he says after a long moment. “It brought you here, tonight, and I’m grateful for that.”
“Thanks,” I say, a little confused. We clink glasses and I take a sip of the foamy stout.
I spot Leanne by the pool table flirting with a tall guy in flannel. He has the whole lumberjack vibe going on with a full beard and a beanie on his head. All he’s missing is an axe slung over his shoulder.
By the way Leanne is looking up at him with thirsty eyes, I bet she’s going to be playing with his wood all night long.
Boone is so handsome up close with his dark hair all perfectly messy and his strong jaw with the sexy stubble coating it.
But it’s his eyes that really get me. They’re so intense.
Brown with these warm flecks of gold that catch the light when he looks at me.
They’re full of… possession. Like he knows I’m his.
Like he already knows it in his very core.
“Do you live nearby?” he asks.
I start rambling. Rambling. I tell him that I live about forty minutes away in a larger town and somehow that morphs into me talking about my landlord and all of his health issues, and all of the gossip in my apartment building and how Mrs. Wright called the cops on me for parking an inch over my parking spot line.
It’s bad. I must ramble on for five minutes without taking a breath.
“I’m sorry,” I say when I finally catch myself.
“For what?” he asks, tilting his head, looking confused.
“My family and friends always say I talk too much,” I say, feeling my cheeks getting hot. “They say I can ramble on with the best of them.”
“Don’t apologize for that,” he says in that calm way of his. “I could listen to you talk for the rest of my life.”
You might have to. I think it, but I don’t say it.
I have to turn away from those intense sexy eyes. Having them burning on me is too much. I feel like I might pass out.
My neck keeps tingling like crazy and I have no idea why.
“I can’t believe you lifted that giant tree all by yourself,” I say, getting all worked up and flustered picturing it again. “Are you like a lumberjack or something?”
“Sometimes.”
Ooh, a lumberjack? Hot. “Elaborate please.”
“I mostly live off the mountain,” he says. “But sometimes I take a logging job in the summer for extra money. And once every few years, I head up north and hop on a boat to do some king crab fishing with a crew. That lasts me for a while. I don’t need much.”
I picture this man swinging an axe into a thick trunk or tossing heavy crates into the freezing cold Arctic Ocean and I don’t know why, but it gets me going something fierce.
“Well thanks for lifting the tree,” I say, my heart doing strange little flips in my chest. “You really saved the night. And my segment.”
“I didn’t like seeing you upset,” he says, his eyes softening on me.
“You mean, the town upset.”
He shakes his head. “No. I mean you.”
“You noticed me?”
“How could I not? You’re the most breathtaking girl I’ve ever seen. Once I saw you, I couldn’t look away.”
There’s not a lot of men in this world who can shut me up, but this man keeps taking all the words out of my mouth. I’m speechless.
“I’m the one who should be thanking you.”
“For what?” I ask with a chuckle. “Immortalizing your heroics on the nightly news?”
“For saving my life.”
I laugh and lightly bat his forearm, thinking he’s joking. He’s not.
“You didn’t even hesitate,” he says, those sexy eyes practically melting me. “With the rifle. You leaped on the Sheriff like a badass superhero.”
Oh. That. I’m lucky I’m not in a cell right now. The Sheriff was so distracted with the grizzly bear and getting the festival back in order that he probably forgot that I must have broken at least half a dozen laws with that crazed reaction.
But how did that save his life?
“You saw that, huh?” I say, dragging my fingertip up my pint glass.
“First hand,” he says in a low voice. “It was pointed at my head.”
I look up at him slowly.
“What do you mean, your head?” I ask. “You weren’t—”
He just watches me, steady and quiet.
I frown. “I don’t follow.”
There’s a subtle shift in the air around us. I feel it tingling on my skin. The noise of the bar fades into the background as all of my focus centers on Boone. He sets his beer down with deliberate care and leans in just a little.
“Do you know about shifters?” he whispers in my ear.
I blink. “Shifters like… werewolves in movies?”
“Not like in movies,” he says. “Like in real life. Men who turn into bears. Men with animals inside them.”
I stare at him, trying to tell if this is some kind of joke. His expression doesn’t move.
“What are you saying?” I ask slowly.
He holds my gaze.
“That grizzly bear,” he says. “The one at the tree.”
My breath stutters.
He taps two fingers against his chest. “Was me.”
The world seems to tilt for a second. I grab the table as it all comes crashing down, making sense although none of it makes sense.
That huge bear… The way it was looking at me with those same brown eyes with golden flecks in the beautiful irises… That strange comforting feeling when he charged at me… Feeling like I was safe instead of feeling any terror…
Being so drawn to that bear… Being so drawn to Boone in the same way…
“Wait,” I whisper, looking up at him. “Are you serious?”
He nods once.
I study his face, searching for some sign of a lie.
I don’t find one.
“I’ve read about shifters,” I say, my mind swirling. “I thought they were fake. Like ghosts and unicorns and Bigfoot.”
“I don’t know about Bigfoot,” he says with a hint of a smile. “But shifters are real.”
“And you’re a…”
“Grizzly bear shifter,” he says. “Yeah.”
I laugh weakly. “Is this some elaborate prank? Am I being Punk’d? Is there a camera somewhere?” I look around, half-expecting Leanne to pop up with a second camera yelling surprise.
But no one does.
Boone just sits there. Solid. Unmoving. Real.
“This is hard to believe,” I say, wondering if I should leave now, force Leanne away from that lumberjack, and get out of here.
But even as I think it, I know I’m not going anywhere.
I’m finally feeling like this is exactly where I need to be.
“You’re telling me you can change into a grizzly bear? That’s kind of insane.”
“What is your heart telling you?” he asks. “What do you feel in your gut? What is your soul saying?”
My logic is screaming that none of this makes sense, but everything else, everything that matters is telling me that this is real.
“It’s saying to believe you.”
He sits back, satisfied. “I would never lie to you, Veronica.”
“Prove it.”
His jaw clenches for a second, like he’s nervous about what I’m going to ask. “Okay.”
“Why was your grizzly bear out in the middle of the tree lighting festival?”
He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. “I was trying to ruin it.”
“Why?”
“I wanted everyone out of my town. It’s gotten too busy for my liking.”
“So, you didn’t like my article.”
“Not at first. But I’m grateful for it now.”
“Why? What’s changed?”
He looks at me with a stunned mesmerization in his eyes. “Are you serious, Veronica? That article brought my mate to me.”
“Your… mate?”
It all comes crashing down inside me. Shifters have mates. A one true love they bond with and never let go. One perfect soul that was made for them and them alone.
“Your mate moved here… because of my article?”
He just stares at me, giving me a second, letting me piece it all together.
“Are you saying… no… what?”
He takes a slow breath, as if he’s choosing his words with care.
“You’re my mate, Veronica.”
The word settles between us with a heaviness that makes it hard to breathe.
Mate.
My heart gallops in my chest.
“Your… mate,” I repeat. “Like… wife mate? Life partner mate? Animal Planet mate?”
He smiles. “All of the above.”
I stare at him in stunned silence. And even though it’s a lot to drop on a girl, I know that it’s true. I can feel the truth of that statement from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. I’m his. And he’s mine.
“So… that’s it?” I say, not knowing where to go from here. “No dating. No ‘will he call me?’. We’re just leapfrogging over all that? It’s just final?”
He shrugs those big shoulders.
“And what if I leave and never come back?”
His face twists like I’ve just stabbed him in the heart, and I immediately regret asking it. “Do you want to leave?”
“No,” I say, dropping my eyes to my beer. “I don’t.”
He takes a deep breath of relief.
“Wait,” I say, perking back up. “Don’t you shifter guys like mark your mate’s neck or something?”
I feel the strong tingling under my ear and touch it. His eyes turn hungry as he watches me brushing my fingertips over the demanding spot.
“Only when you’re ready,” he says softly.
I take a long sip of my beer and sigh. “I think I need another drink.”
Boone waves the waitress over and orders us two more beers.
“And send two over to the girl over there by the pool table,” he says, not forgetting about Leanne, which I think is sweet.
It’s all starting to make sense though. Why I never wanted to date or had any crushes. Boys tried to kiss me, but I was never into it, even when the cute ones tried. I always made up an excuse or made a quick getaway. It never felt right.
But this here… sitting with Boone… inching closer to his strong safe presence… this feels right.
This feels like what I’ve been waiting for. What I’ve been yearning for.
Him and his crazy grizzly bear.
“Are you okay?” he asks softly. “It’s okay to take a minute. I know it’s a lot. But I know you feel it. That pull. That connection. Just know, for me, it’s times a thousand.”
“I don’t see how that’s possible,” I say with a scared tiny laugh.
“I didn’t think it was possible either until the moment I saw you,” he says looking at me with so much love and adoration in his eyes that it makes me blush.
“And then I knew, what those old mated shifters always go on about, it was all true. It was more than true. It was more intense than they described. You have to experience it yourself to fully understand.”
My heart aches as I watch him. I reach out and put my hand on his and his whole body loosens. It melts before my very eyes. I love that I can draw that reaction from him.
I can be that calming presence in his life too.
The waitress returns with our beers and then heads over to Leanne. She catches our eye as she takes her beers and hands one to Mr. Hot Lumberjack.
I laugh when Mr. Hot Lumberjack bends over to take a shot at pool and she pretends to hump him from behind, her tongue out, her eyes locked on me.
Boone sees it too and laughs.
“She’s crazy,” I say. “She definitely keeps my job interesting.”
I start rambling on about work for a bit and then I get into my family. Boone asks questions and keeps me talking. I must go on about my parents for at least five minutes straight.
“You’re going to love them,” I say before I can catch myself. But he doesn’t seem freaked out and he’s not eying the emergency exit. He hangs on every word I say. “I can’t believe Christmas is only ten days away. What are you doing for Christmas?”
“What I always do,” he says. “Nothing.”
My heart breaks for him. “Will you spend it with me?” I ask. “With my family?”
I’m expecting him to say no. To make an excuse. To say that he got the whole mate thing wrong.
But he doesn’t.
He just smiles warmly at me.
And nods.
“I’d love to.”