Page 4 of Mating Season
I feel the tears gathering in my eyes. “You are legitimately delusional, and that scares me a lot.” There’s no point in putting on a brave face. I’m in the middle of nowhere and injured. Maybe I can find a way to break through his delusion and save myself.
He kneels beside my chair and brushes the back of his warm hand over my cheek. I donotlean into it like some pathetic damsel.
“Shhhh, please don’t cry.”
“Then let me go,” I whisper.
“No. I absolutely cannot do that.”
“You mean won’t, not can’t. You’re not a bear, Cooper, just another piece of shit human male who feels entitled to fuck. You’re no better than the guy last night. Just a prettier monster.”
It takes everything in me not to let my gaze rove over the evidence of all his prettiness.
His features go dark, and his jaw clenches. “I’m not going to rape you, for fuck’s sake.”
“Well, you just assumed I’d fuck you and said you can’t let me go until I do, so… I genuinely don’t get why you don’t get that sounds like rape to me.”
He stands up and takes a few steps back, then he does this motion with his hands like he’s showcasing a brand new refrigerator on a game show, except he’s the refrigerator.
“Really? You don’t want all this?” He waggles his eyebrows suggestively at me.
Oh my god. Could he be any more arrogant right now?He’s not wrong, my traitorous brain supplies.
“Youare straight, right?” he prods.
“That’s not the point.”
“Well, I know you don’t have a husband or boyfriend.”
I cross my arms over my chest, my anger starting to edge out my fear. I wonder if he’s pissing me off on purpose so I’ll stop crying. “And how would you know that?”
“I only smell the man from last night on you. So unless you’re with a long haul trucker or a soldier that’s currently fighting a foreign war, you’re single.”
“So? Maybe Iwantto be single. Did you ever think of that? Maybe I have no interest in having my life revolve around a man. There’s way more shit to do in this world besides half-assed romance. And trust me, most men can barely half ass it.”
“Fate has a different plan, I’m afraid.” He doesn’t say anything else, just gets up and goes to the cabinet. I don’t bother trying to escape… it’s pointless with this ankle, and we both know it.
3
COOPER
Last night. Before it happened.
I don’t really like to hunt as a bear. The wolf shifters seem to like it a lot but the only thing worth hunting in this forest is rabbit, and it’s too gamey to me. Usually I do what most bears do… find human junk food.
There’s a gas station about five miles away where I like to get free snacks. Yes, as a bear. I just walk right in. The owners think it’s hilarious—a bear in their little food market aisle with a favorite snack. I get Gummy Bears a lot just to mess with them. And Snickers’ bars.
Shifters have a high metabolism but I’m also pretty dedicated to my physique. Anything a shifter eats in their animal form has no direct caloric effect on their human form, so I tend to eat most of my cheat meals on the nights of the full moon.
Tonight I just sit in the middle of the aisle and gorge on chocolate. They think I’m the smartest bear in the world because I’ve “figured out” how to get the wrapper off. I just slit the plastic with my claw and push out the candy. Bears aren’t reallysupposed to have chocolate, but as a shifter I have neither the normal frailties and illnesses of a human or of a bear.
When I’m finished with my petty crime, I begin to amble out the same way I came in. I get that it’s a little shitty for me to steal from a gas station every month, but it’s really less about getting away with the theft and more the thrill of them thinking I’m just a bear, all the while I know the truth… that I can understand every word that comes out of their mouths.
And anyway… I’d hardly call it stealing. Brenda and Bob Bronson—the couple that owns this fine establishment—started a Youtube channel that now has over a million subscribers. They film all my antics. I’m internet famous, and what they make in ad revenue more than makes up for what I steal every month.
I take a bag of BBQ chips for the road and then I head back to my den in the forest to sleep off my junk food bender. I’m about half a mile from the den when I hear a woman cry out. “Help!”
Does she think there’s help in these woods? She’s not far from me. Is it an animal threat? Another human? I decide to investigate. When I get closer I see it’s a human male, and then something in me just… snaps. I make angry chuffing sounds and then I roar… something I don’t typically do as a bear.
