"Thank you. For staying. For keeping your promise."
His eyes meet mine. "I don't break promises. Especially not to you."
"Why especially not to me?"
"Because you're—" He stops, jaw working. "It's complicated."
"Everything about this is complicated."
"This more than anything else."
"Then help me understand. Explain the complicated parts."
He releases my hands and steps back, running a hand through his damp hair. "You remember what I told you? About shifters?"
"That you exist, that there are different kinds, that you've been hiding in plain sight. Yes."
"There's more to it than that. There are... bonds. Connections between shifters. And sometimes—" He struggles with the words, like they're being dragged out of him against his will. "Sometimes a shifter will meet someone, and everything just... clicks. Like the universe saying 'this one, this person, they're yours.'"
My heart starts beating faster. "Like soulmates?"
"Fated mates," he corrects. "It's more than soulmates. It's biological, primal. The bear recognizes its other half and refuses to let go."
"And you think—" I can barely say it. "You think I'm your fated mate?"
"I know you are."
The certainty in his voice makes my legs tremble.
"Since when?"
"Since the moment I caught your scent. The bear knew immediately. I've been trying to deny it, trying to convince myself it wasn't real, but—" He looks at me. "I can feel you. Your emotions, your heartbeat, your presence. It's like there's a rope tied between us, and it just keeps getting stronger."
I should probably be freaking out about this. This is a lot to process on top of the whole shapeshifter revelation. But instead, I feel something slot into place. A puzzle piece I didn't know was missing.
"Is that why you were so hostile when we first met? You were trying to push me away?"
"Yes. If I scared you off, if you never came back, I could keep pretending the bond didn't exist."
"But I did come back."
"You did," he says roughly. "With chocolate and oranges and that smile, and every time you show up it gets harder to remember why I'm supposed to stay away from you."
"Maybe you're not supposed to stay away." I stand up, closing the distance between us. "Maybe the universe is smarter than you're giving it credit for."
"The universe doesn't know what I've done. What I'm capable of."
"The universe gave you a mate anyway. Maybe that means something."
He's looking down at me now, and I'm craning my neck to meet his eyes. This close, I can see the gold flecks in the brown, the way his pupils are dilated.
"You don't know what you're saying," he says, but there's no conviction in it.
"I'm saying that I feel it too. This pull. I thought it was just attraction, just me developing a crush on the grumpy mountain man. But it's more than that, isn't it?"
"Autumn—"
"I felt safe with you from the beginning. Even when you were growling at me to leave. Even when you showed me the bear. I should have been terrified, but all I could think was that you'd never hurt me. That you'd protect me."
