“What do you think?” Skylar asked.
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
“See.” Riley said. “This is too much for her.”
“I doubt it,” Skylar insisted. “Emma. Do you believe in soul mates?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Skylar, leave Emma alone.”
But Emma wasn’t going down without a fight. “Do you?” She asked Skylar. Then turned toward Riley. “Is Tyler your soul mate? And why do you say fated mate?”
In her gut, she knew why they used the phrase fated mates, but it didn’t seem possible. Not when these people she’d had breakfast with seemed just so damned normal.
And not when she was falling in love with one of them.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“You know you have to tell her.”
Aiden tightened the strap on his saddle and looked up at his friend Tyler. “I know.”
“Sooner than later.”
“I know.”
“You can’t wait too late.” Tyler insisted.
Aiden looked over the horse’s back at Tyler. “You’re preaching to the choir.”
“I know, but Riley made me promise to make sure I told you.”
“Riley can tell me herself.”
Tyler shrugged. “She thought it’d be better coming man to man, you know.”
“Horse shit.” Aiden straddled his horse. “She just wanted to see what she could get out of Emma.”
“If anybody can, Riley can.”
“There’s nothing to get. Now that we’re on the subject, when are you planning on making Riley into an honest woman?”
“Ha. Riley wants to elope.”
“Really? When?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Where?”
“If I tell you that, it’s not an elopement.” Tyler straddled his own horse and together they left the barn.
“What does she want to elope for?”
“I don’t know. She wants her dad to be there.”
Aiden scowled at his friend. “Then how is that an elopement?”
“You’re asking the wrong person. Hey, I heard you broke your wrist.”
Aiden flexed his wrist. “Yeah, It’s fine now.”
“Being a shifter has its benefits.”
“It certainly does,” Aiden admitted. His wrist had healed quickly. Even more quickly than Doc had predicted.
They rode in silence for a bit. Aiden enjoyed the crisp morning air. Some people liked to watch the waves come in on the beach, but Aiden preferred to watch the low-banked clouds masking the mountains. It was going to snow again tonight. He hadn’t watched his weather girl lately, but he would bet money that she had snow in her forecast.
“Is she your mate?” Tyler asked.
Aiden groaned to himself. “I don’t believe in fated mates.” But his words were softly spoken and didn’t hold the conviction he normally used when protested the notion of fated mates.
“How can you not? We all know it’s real. Especially now that you’ve met Emma.”
“Why does everyone think Emma’s my mate? Shouldn’t I be the one to determine who my mate is? If I even have one.”
“Because you’re hard-headed. You married Michelle when everyone knew she was wrong for you. That’s the thing about fated mates. We don’t always know at first, but other people can see it. Take me and Riley. Everyone knew we were going to end up together, but she and I made damn sure we stayed as far away from each as we could for years. It’s a scary thing.”
“I’m not scared.” Even as he said the words, he had the image again. The image of carrying Emma over the threshold. It was more clear this time. It was his cabin and she was wearing what could only be a wedding dress.
“Dammit, Skylar.” He muttered to himself.
“What did Skylar do?”
“Both of you. And Riley, too. For all this nonsense about fated mates.”
But Tyler just laughed and nudged his horse into a canter, leaving Aiden with his own tortured thoughts.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“I definitely believe in fated mates.” Skylar drank from her champagne glass.
“Why?” Riley asked. “You always have. As long as I can remember. Since we were little.”
Skylar smiled sheepishly. “Maybe I think it’s romantic.”
“Have you met yours?” Emma asked, playing along. “Your soul mate?”
Skylar frowned. “I’m not sure soul mate and fated mate are the same thing.”
“I think it depends on your background,” Riley said.
“Okay,” Emma said. “Have you found your fated mate?”
Skylar sighed. “No. But…” She held up a finger. “I have an idea about that. I can’t tell you until I get all figured out, but I’m working on it.”
Riley shrugged and turned back to Emma, seemingly unimpressed. She must be used to Skylar’s ideas. “Emma. It’s difficult to explain. For me it’s always been Tyler, from the moment I saw him in seventh grade. I’d never tell him that though. His head would swell up too much. But we dated in high school. We dated until he learned some… things about me that he couldn’t handle back then. So I left. But I never forgot, and I never let go. I thought about him all the time. Probably every day. And now I know we were meant to be. And even though there are things about me that he couldn’t handle back then, those thing don’t bother us anymore.”
“What kinds of things?” Emma asked.
“Well.” Riley glanced at Skylar. “My mother was from Bhutan, so my heritage was a little different.”
“Does that really matter when you love someone?”
Skylar’s face brightened. “Exactly!”
“Come on,” Riley said. “We’ve tortured Emma enough already.”
Skylar sat back and pouted.
“She and Aiden will figure things out themselves. On their own time.”
Emma looked from one to the other. There was something they weren’t telling her.
“So you changed your mind?” Riley asked.
“Yes.”
“We’re not going to do it?”
Skylar shook her head. “No. Aiden would shoot both of us.”
“What are you two talking about?” Emma asked.
They both picked up their glasses of champagne and hid behind them.
Emma got it that Skylar and Aiden would have a bond unique to them, despite never having experienced it for herself, but she didn’t understand how Riley and Tyler fit into the picture.
Whatever it was, they were right. She and Aiden would figure things out.
And this moment seemed to be the perfect time for her to get away. “I’m going to step outside and get some air.” She announced.
Walking slowly on her ankle, Emma went outside and stood on the back porch of the lodge and let the solitude calm her. She sat on a chair away from everyone else.
Her ankle hurt less today, but she wouldn’t be doing any hiking any time soon.
It was funny that she and Aiden both had injuries – her ankle and his wrist.
His wrist.
When they had gotten up this morning, he was no longer wearing the bandage. In fact, his wrist seemed to have healed. Maybe he’d just been ignoring the pain in an effort to impress her.
No one could possibly have healed that quickly. She would ask him about it when he got back.
She leaned her head back against the chair and closed her eyes. Her head was swimming in confusion. What were Skylar and Riley talking about? It was almost like they were talking in some kind of code. There was something they didn’t want to tell her. Something Aiden would have to tell her. Maybe he had some kind of disease. A little ripple of panic shot through her. No. Surely, he would have told her that already. After all, they’d spent the night together in his bed.
It was something else. Something she couldn’t quite pin down. Whatever it was, though, Emma really didn’t care at the moment.
All
she cared about was the way he looked at her and made her feel like she was the only woman in the room; maybe even the only person.
Even now, she missed him. She looked toward the mountains and saw two riders in the distance. It was too far to tell if it was Aiden and Tyler, but there was a dog running beside the horses, so she made an educated guess that it was them. She would have liked to have gone with them. She was the wildlife biologist after all. It wasn’t like she couldn’t help them with things like wildlife.
What if they encountered a bear or a mountain lion? They may live here, but Emma was the specialist. She knew what to do if an animal was hurt.
If an animal was hurt.
An image flashed through her mind of the bear with the injured paw. No one had said anything about the bear.
Instead, Aiden had come in the cabin with a fractured wrist. And the bear had been forgotten.
Now Aiden’s wrist seemed to have healed.
What was it that speaker had said at the conference last spring? There’s a theory that shifters heal faster than humans.
Humans.
Emma felt lightheaded. What if Aiden was a shifter? What if she’d just spent the night making love to a man who could shift into a bear?
She put a hand over her eyes. No.
No. She couldn’t wrap her mind around that. Shifters were fine in theory, but to fall in love with one? That was something else entirely.
“I have to find Aiden. I have to talk to him.” She said the words aloud.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Aiden turned his horse and followed the road toward the valley and the river. The soothing sound of rushing water always had a calming effect on him. His head was filled with Emma. Her feel. Her scent. Her lips.
He felt a strange sense of wholeness. Was this what it was like when a bear shifter found his fated mate?
There’s no such thing.
Reaching the river’s edge, he tightened the horse’s reins and sat glaring at the water.
“Dammit.” He heaved out the word. Emma was his fated mate.
He could resist it all day long, but deep inside, he knew it was true.
He slid off the horse’s back and looped the reins over the limb of a fir tree. He took a deep breath, inhaling the clean crisp scent of the trees. It was like standing in the middle of a Christmas tree grove or a candle shop.
He needed to shift into his bear. Needed the perspective of that part of him. If his bear agreed, then he could begin to accept it.
He smiled to himself. Why was he even resisting the idea? If he had the opportunity to choose his mate, it would be Emma. He was merely opposed to the idea in general. He picked up a rock and tossed it into the water, watching the ripples compete with the rapids.
His stone’s ripples were swept into the rapids, only there for a fleeting moment. It was nature’s way.
Aiden considered himself to be fortunate. His great uncle Bert had gone his entire life without finding his mate. Or so the legend went.
Maybe in truth, Great Uncle Bert had found his mate and pushed her away, unwilling to accept fate. Aiden did not want to go through life like his uncle. In old age, the man had withered. He spent his days sleeping and staring out the window. It was though a part of him had shriveled and died.
Everyone said that’s what happened when a shifter didn’t find their mate.
Aiden glanced around. The area was deserted. He was far enough away from the road that no one could see him. He rubbed the horse’s nose before he took off his clothes and laid them over the horse’s saddle. With one final glance around, he quickly shifted into his bear.
He sauntered along the bank a bit, then stood up and stretched to his full height. It felt good to stretch his bear’s muscles.
Back on all four feet, he walked into the river and watched the occasional trout swim past. His mouth watering, he dipped his snout into the water and came up with a juicy fish. Then holding the fish in his paws, he sat in the rushing water and ate the fish.
After his snack, he stood up, shook the water from his fur, and climbed back to the bank. At the sound of a car door slamming, he ducked beneath some brush and looked in the direction of sound. He could see his horse from here, too.
A few seconds later, Emma approached his horse. At the sight of her, his heart tripped up, and his bear recognized her.
His mate.
She reached out and pulled his blue shirt from the saddle. The same shirt she’d picked out for him to wear today.
With his shirt held close, she walked to the river and began to make her way along the bank. In a few minutes, she would see him.
If he got up and ran the other direction, she would certainly see him. He decided to stay in place, standing there and watching her approach him.
He knew the moment she saw him. It was the same expression everyone had when they came upon him in bear form.
She froze.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Emma held Aiden’s shirt to her like a shield and watched the bear. I’m a wildlife biologist. I know what to do.
“Hello,” she said softly. “I’m a human. I would not make a good lunch.” She took a step back. “Or breakfast.” Another step. “Or a good snack at all.”
She backed into a tree. The bear put his head down.
She stepped sideways, then back again. The unusual movements strained her weak ankle, and she gasped in pain and nearly fell.
The bear stood up and took a step toward her.
“I’ll just back away,” she said. “I didn’t mean to intrude. In fact, I was looking for my friend. Maybe you’ve seen him. His name is Aiden.”
While speaking softly to the bear, she took another step back. Then stopped. The bear slowly began to contort. It was the only word she could think of to describe what was happening with the bear.
Then Aiden stood in front of her. Naked.
Her mind went blank as she stared at him.
Her only coherent thought was strictly scientific. Shapeshifters do exist.
“Hi,” he said, his expression wary.
“Hi.”
“Do you think maybe I could have my shirt?”
She glanced down at the shirt in her hands. Her first impulse was to toss it toward him. But this was Aiden. “Of course.” Holding out the shirt, she took a step toward him.
He, too, took a step forward.
She swallowed her surprise and put a smile on her face.
He took the shirt and held it over his privates.
“I’ll get your pants,” Thankful for the excuse, she turned and limped back to the horse. Pulling Aiden’s pants from the horse, she took a deep breath.
Aiden was a bear. A shapeshifter.
All the talk about fated mates made sense now. Riley and Skylar knew that Aiden was a shifter.
The wildlife biologist in her was fascinated. She could now answer a puzzle that biologists had struggled with for years.
The woman in her, however, was confused and stunned.
The man who had so tenderly made love to her last night could turn himself into a black bear. And back again, seemingly at whim.
Never in her life would she have predicted that she would not only encounter a shifter, but fall in love with one.
Fated mate.
Taking his pants, she turned and jumped. He was standing right behind her.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Aiden touched her cheek ever so lightly, but she pulled away from his touch. Just a little, but pulled away nonetheless. It was Michelle all over again. Only Emma was much calmer. Michelle hadn’t let him touch her after he told her that he was a shifter, and she hadn’t actually seen him shift. Now that Emma had seen him shift, it would be so much worse.
He dropped his hand. “How did you find me?”
“The guy at the stables.” Her voice caught.
He sighed. He’d forgotten she had a car.
Their idyllic world was shattered.
He took his pants, put the
m on, and pulled on his shirt. “You’ll be leaving now.” It was a statement, not a question.
“No. I-”
“It’s okay. I’ll stay away from the cabin until you’ve had time to clear out.” He moved past her and mounted his horse.
“Aiden.”
He looked down at her. Saw the confusion and indecision in her eyes. He couldn’t do it again. He couldn’t keep falling for her only to have her repulsed by him.
Damn the whole notion of fated mates anyway.
He clicked his tongue and turned the horse away. Toward the mountain. He didn’t want to be near anyone right now.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Aiden sat on the edge of Skylar’s desk. “Don’t you have anything? At least a phone number?”
Skylar frowned and sat back with her arms crossed. “I have a name and a credit card number. The credit card number isn’t going to help you, but you can google her name.”
“Like I haven’t tried.” He didn’t bother to keep the frustration out of his voice.
“Men are such idiots.”
“Coming from the girl who doesn’t have one.”
“So you told her to go, and now a week later, you want her back.”
“Yeah. Well, I’m tired of not sleeping.”
“I’m thinking you might as well get used to it.”
Aiden pushed off the desk. “Gee, thanks for your support.”
“That’s what sisters are for.” She smiled.
Aiden rolled his eyes. “Please tell me you’re going to start getting basic information from our guests.”
“Already done.” She sat up and turned the computer screen for him to see the schedule, which now included addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses.
“Too late.” He muttered.
“If you think you can do better.” She swept a hand toward the office.
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