Bear Mine for Christmas: BBW Holiday Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance (Christmas Bear Shifter Romance Book 2) (13 page)

“One thing I didn’t mention is that when you visit someone’s profile, you leave a track behind, so they can see you’ve checked them out.”

“What? This is terrible!” Kristin exclaimed.

“Shifters are pretty direct; there’s no hiding yourself on this site,” Logan said in his warm, rumbly voice.

“And what are you worried about?” Dina said. “He thinks you’re hot!”

“No. Just no. He’s way hotter than I am.”

“Uh, hello?” Lauren snatched the phone out of Kristin’s hand and pulled up her profile photos. “Not from where I’m standing, chica!” she said.

“I appreciate you putting up those photos of me, but they’re really flattering. If he saw the real me, he’d be sorely disappointed,” Kristin said firmly.

“But – ”

“No buts. Now, I’m going to check out my other messages.”

Most of them were simple ‘
Want to find out if we’re a match?’
alerts, followed by a happy face and a sad face icon.

“I feel like I’m going to really offend these guys by looking at their profiles, leaving a track, and then saying no,” Kristin said, clicking on a profile of a beaver shifter. “I mean, this one looks like a great guy, but – a beaver? I don’t know. It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

“Guys don’t work like that, especially shifters,” Logan said, with a grin. “We’re all about finding our perfect match, so anything else is a waste of everyone’s time. If you’re not interested, you’ll be doing these guys a big favor by telling them straight up.”

“Uh, ok,” Kristin said, giving the beaver the sad-face treatment.

“You know you can filter by animal, right?” Lauren said.

“Oh, really?”

“Tell me what kind of shifters you see yourself with? Or at least, which ones you wouldn’t rule out?” Lauren said, swiping to the options page. Kristin leaned back on the sofa and stared up at the cabin’s wooden beams.

“All big cats, I guess,” she said. “Wolves kind of intrigue me.” She slid a glance at Logan. “Bears, of course.”

“Are you sure?” Dina said. “You’re such a city girl, Kristin, and bears always live out in nature.”

“We’re earthy and kind of homely. And we get a little slow and grizzly in winter when our bodies want us to hibernate,” Logan chipped in.

“Ok, fair enough,” she said, her voice tinged with regret. “What else is there?”

“Um, horses, deer, moose, sea creatures. Everything you can think of really,” Dina said.

“No. I think I’m good with felines and wolves. I feel like I need to be with a shifter that’s high up in the food chain. I want a guy I can wrestle with, you know? The kind who challenges me.” Dina shuddered and snuggled into Logan.

“It’s a good job there are so many types of shifter out there,” she said. “Conflict is the last thing I like in a relationship.” Kristin looked at Dina with affection. Logan’s hand was resting on her pregnant belly, and he looked like he couldn’t be happier sitting with her, just chilling, while she gossiped with her friends. They were absolutely adorable together, she thought, as she got up to visit the bathroom.

“I’ll be back in a moment,” she announced, and headed out of the living room. The second she’d gone, Dina leapt to her feet.

“Quick, give me her phone before it locks itself!” she hissed.

“You’re going to message the tiger, aren’t you?” Lauren said, handing it over.

“Absolutely. I’ve got a hunch that they’d be good together,” Dina said, tapping and scrolling on the screen. “Ooh – wait – the app has a new setting. There’s a perfect match analysis. Apparently they’re 100% compatible. How crazy is that?”

“Wow! Let’s send the guy a message, and when she starts to complain, point out that they’re a perfect match,” Lauren said, eyes sparkling with mischief.

“Ok. I’m writing:
‘Hey, handsome. I was just padding by, when your profile made me stop in my tracks. Looks like you and I might have a thing or two in common.’”
Dina hit send just as Kristin skipped back into the room.

“I’m just applying the animal filters for you,” Dina said, hurriedly, her thumb moving fast.

“Thanks,” Kristin said, taking her phone back.

“Oh. That’s made half my messages disappear. So that leaves – ” She clicked on the next message in her inbox. “A wolf. Ooh, he’s hot,” she said, opening the guy’s profile. Dina and Lauren craned their necks to see his photo. He had black hair and amber eyes, with a narrow, slightly hard face. As with the others, he was bare chested, but he was also wearing a leather jacket. His hair was done in a quiff, and he was raising an eyebrow, cockily.

“He looks interesting,” Kristin said.

“So he’s into bars, JD, his Harley, video games, and biker chicks,” Dina said. “He sounds like one of those guys you used to date. You know, those ones who weren’t good for you. At all.”

“I don’t know. I think we could be good together,” Kristin said. Lauren and Dina shot a warning glance at each other. Kristin had that dreamy tone in her voice that meant she was close to making a bad man-decision. It always amazed them that someone as smart as Kristin could be so dumb when it came to men.

“Ok, look. It says you’re 43% compatible,” Dina said, swiping to the bottom of his profile. That’s not a good match at all. Whereas – ” She located the tiger’s message. At that moment a message popped up:
“According to Shiftr, we have everything in common. Shall we meet up for dinner and find out if our little matchmaker has got it right?”
it said.

“Huh?” Kristin shook her head in confusion. “That doesn’t make sense. Oh, it’s from the tiger.” At the realization, her heart began to beat fast again. “But what does he mean?” As she looked at the messages more closely, she let out a gasp. “What have you done?” she exclaimed, her eyes blazing as she looked from Dina to Lauren and back again.

“You were being ridiculous about not contacting the tiger, so, as your friends, we made an executive decision to give you a helping hand,” Lauren explained, matter of factly.

“You’re a perfect match. 100%,” Dina added.

“That doesn’t mean it’s true. No way am I hot enough for him.”

“Kristin, listen to me,” Lauren said. “Shifters like curvy girls. All the women with a profile on the app are at least as curvy as you are. You’re like the minimum. So you don’t need to feel self-conscious about that. And you’re more than hot enough for any guy.

“No. I’ve made my decision,” Kristin said. “I’m not going to humiliate myself.” She stared typing:

Sorry, it was my friends who messaged you just now. They were messing with my phone without my permission. Thanks for your interest, but I don’t think we’re compatible. I hope you can respect my decision.

Regards,

Kristin.

“Girl, you’re making a big mistake,” Lauren said, her voice heavy with disappointment. “And who ends a dating app message with ‘regards’ anyway?”

“I don’t know. I just wanted to make sure he knew I was being serious,” Kristin said. Another message came through:

I’m sorry to hear that, but I’ll do as you say.

Sadly yours,

Roman

“And he even sounds like a nice guy,” Dina said.

“Maybe he is, but he’s not the nice guy for me,” Kristin replied. She didn’t want to admit that his stunning good looks weren’t the only reason why she didn’t want to speak to him. She was superstitious about mentioning her fears that she wouldn’t be able to have kids, scared that every time she mentioned it, the possibility would increase by one per cent. She knew it was silly; it was just something that was so outside of her control that it seemed to belong in the realms of fate.

“Can you promise me one thing: after making one monumentally silly decision, can you at least not compound it by messaging the wolf?” Lauren asked her.

“I can’t see you with a wolf, Kristin,” Logan said. “I’ve spent enough time with different shifter species to know them pretty well, and I can tell you’re not compatible. They’re too hierarchical for you.”

“Which is why you get a low compatibility rating,” Lauren added. Kristin flicked through her messages. It was true that none of the wolves were more than a 70% match.

At last, she put her phone down with a sigh.

“I think I’ve maxed myself out on shifter dating for one night,” she said. “It’d be good to chill with you guys for a little while before I have to head back home though.”

“Or you could crash here, and have a couple more whiskies?” Logan suggested, shaking the bottle temptingly.

“Ok, done. I’m not a girl who needs much persuasion,” Kristin said with a grin, and held out her glass for a refill. She curled up on the sofa, tucking her long legs underneath her. “So what’s going on with Melissa?”

“She’s dating a shifter too,” Lauren said.

“What? So I’m the last one to join the party?” she said, eyes flashing.

“Kind of, but Melissa doesn’t actually know that this guy is half bear.” Kristin gaped.

“How is that possible?”

“They met at our wedding,” Connor said. “Timo’s part of our clan.”

“So it’d be great if they were a perfect match, but we’re not convinced that they’re right for each other,” Lauren said.

“Why not?”

“Well, they’ve been on a few dates, but it doesn’t look like sparks have been flying.”

“Mmm, Melissa’s shy with guys though. Especially after all she’s been through,” Kristin said.

“I was hardly Miss Confident,” Dina said. “But when you meet your mate, everything’s different. It’s like – like a whole new world opens up to you, and you just want to be
with
that person. You want to be part of them, as close as two people can be.”

“Ok, ok, pass the sick bucket!” Kristin said with a laugh. Dina’s eyes widened.

“Sorry, I didn’t want to make you feel bad. But I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t know you were about to meet your mate too. Trust me, he’s waiting on Shiftr for you.”

“And I think he’s
a tiger!”
Lauren sang.

“Stop!” Kristin said, and batted her with a cushion.

The four of them chatted for a while about this and that, the girls telling Kristin how much fun it was to live in the national park. Dina was talking excitedly about the hike she’d done last weekend, and the animal species she’d seen. Before long, Connor came to pick Lauren up. He’d been catching up with a few of the guys. Kristin looked at him with envy. He was just as good looking as Logan, and obviously a really nice, gentle guy, despite his huge bulk. Could she really dare to believe that there was a shifter out there who was perfect for her too?

Dina, Logan and Kristin stayed up for a while longer, and Logan kept topping up Kristin’s glass. She was glad for it. Thinking about dating made her nervous. She’d been single now for more than a year, after her last relationship had ended in disaster when she’d caught her boyfriend cheating on her. With a tiny, skinny girl. Putting herself out there again brought her insecurities rushing to the surface.

At last Dina started yawning.

“I’m off to bed, guys,” she said, pulling herself up from the sofa.

“I think I’m done for the night too,” Logan said. “I’ve got to do fire drills with the boys tomorrow morning.” They hugged Kristin goodnight, and brought her a pillow and a blanket. She was asleep in seconds.

It took Kristin a few moments to work out where she was when she woke up. She was staring up at wooden rafters, instead of her white painted ceiling. There was a sweet smell of wood and nature in the air, and all she could hear was birdsong. Her head felt fuzzy. She reached down, picked up the glass of water that Logan had thoughtfully put out for her, and drank it all in one go. As she sat up, she registered that she had a slight headache. “
Too much whisky
,” she muttered to herself. She looked at the time on her phone and groaned. She had five hours to clear her head before basketball that afternoon. Absently, she unlocked the phone to check for new messages, and her eyes immediately zoomed in on the little orange app, with the playful, heart-shaped paw print. She tapped it. There were a ton of new messages from wolves, wanting to find out if they were a match, and right at the top were the messages from the tiger and the bad-boy wolf from last night. Her thumb hovered over the wolf. Waking up by herself, knowing that Dina was snuggled up with Logan next door and Lauren was with Connor a few cabins away made her feel lonely and empty. She clicked on the wolf’s message. It was just the standard alert, with the happy face and sad face icons. It wouldn’t hurt to exchange a few messages and find out whether the app was wrong about their compatibility. She tapped the happy face icon. Then she gazed at the thumbnail photo of the tiger. She couldn’t see his striking face or his muscular torso very well in the tiny image. She had an overwhelming urge to click on it and look at his profile again. But if she did that, she’d leave another track. And he’d know that what she’d written last night was bullshit. Sighing, she closed the app. She’d leave the messages from the other guys for when she was more awake.

There was no sound coming from the rest of the cabin. Dina and Logan were most likely still sleeping. Her stomach was growling: she needed breakfast. Gathering up her things, she tiptoed out of the cabin. She closed the door behind her, and looked around, disoriented.
Ok, we walked towards the cabins from that direction last, night, I’m pretty sure
, she thought, and began walking through a dense wood, with a narrow track lightly marked out.

Kristin exhaled in relief as the track led her out to the road, and her car. Although it was early, the fall sun was bright, and she enjoyed the drive home, partly through forest and rolling hills. That was one of the best things about living in a small town – you were never too far from green spaces.

As she turned into her street, her phone made a weird radar sound, and she jumped.
What the hell was that?
She drove to her driveway, parked, and picked it up. There was a message alert on the screen, bordered with hearts, stars and little orange paw prints.

Proximity alert!!! A Shiftr you’ve been messaging is very close by!!!

it said.
“What?”
she muttered, and tapped the message. The app opened up, an alert filling the screen:

This member is 412 feet from your current location!

And it was accompanied by a tiny photo of a shirtless guy. Reflexively, she tapped the photo.

“No!” she exclaimed. It was the tiger. This couldn’t be true. She looked around wildly, as if expecting to see him.
He’s really here, on the same street as me?
She looked up at her apartment building, and laughed at her own dimness. He couldn’t be
in
the building. It wasn’t that tall by a long shot. And, anyway, the radar sound had gone off while she was driving. She continued to gaze in her rearview mirror. It was probably bullshit anyway. Some marketing crap the app company had created to get you all excited about the guys on there. The thought made her irritable. Ok, she’d test it out. Carefully, she did a 180-turn in her car and drove back the way she’d come. She glanced at the app as she drove. The 412 feet had become 300, then 200, 100. She lurched to a stop as the distance from ‘your current location’ had dropped to 50 feet.
Oh my god! He’s here!
She looked from one side of the street to the other.
So this means that he lives in one of these apartment blocks
? As she gazed around in a panic, a tall, broad-shouldered man walked out of the entrance of the block on the far side of the street, and strode along the pathway in a loose, loping gait. He was holding a phone out in front of him, and he seemed to be looking at it intently.
Shit! Is that him?
She snatched up her phone and held down the power button until it turned off, and, at the same time, she ducked down low in her seat.
Maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe it was just some guy, you know, leaving his apartment and checking his messages on the way.
She was now crouching down in her car’s footwell. She lifted her head a little, an inch at a time, until she could just see out of the opposite window. The guy was now standing on the edge of the sidewalk. He had brown hair, strong cheekbones, a square jaw, and – amazingly, despite the distance – she could make out that his eyes were green. Her head shot down again.
Relax, doofus. It’s real sunny outside and the windows are tinted. There’s no way he’ll be able to see you
. Once more, she lifted her head, and looked at him more calmly. It was the tiger; she was sure of it. His unique bone structure was emblazoned into her mind. His hair had a hint of gold, and he was wearing black jeans and a simple teal-colored sweater that clung to his muscles, outlining his amazing physique. He didn’t cross the street, but continued to stand on the sidewalk, looking around in confusion. Kristin drank in the sight of him. Christ, just looking at him was arousing. Images flooded her mind: that face, looking down at her, as she lay flat on her back; his bare torso pressed against her breasts; her legs wrapped around those alluringly narrow hips, as he pushed himself –
stop!
Wow, her mind was spinning out of control.

As Kristin stared, he tilted his jaw and took a deep sniff of the air. And then he looked right at her. Her breath caught in her throat. “
He can’t see you, he can’t see you
,” she told herself over and over. He smiled, revealing flashing white teeth. Then he shook his head, turned and walked back into the apartment building.

Kristin waited until he’d gone. And she waited another five minutes, and then she started up the car and drove back home. As she got out of the car and went inside, she discovered that she was trembling.
What’s the matter with me?
She thought. She walked into her apartment and shut the door, and a message alert on her phone pinged. It was from the app. It said:

I was going to comply with your wishes to leave you alone. But now that I know your delicious scent, it’s going to be next to impossible. I hope you realize that.

Kristin quivered all over, her legs turning to jello.
He smelled me. From that distance. And all the car’s windows and doors were shut.
One thought hit her after another:
he knew I was hiding from him, so he probably thinks I’m a freak. And he’s my neighbor. Oh god, he’s so unbelievably hot. But none of that matters, because I’m not going to meet him, and get all into him, and let myself get rejected.

She stormed into the kitchen and began to prepare her breakfast – scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and spinach on rye toast. She whisked the eggs up angrily.
Why does he think he has the right to message me, after I’ve told him to leave me alone, just because we happen to be neighbors?
It was too much having him living right on the same street as her.
Damn Shiftr and its stupid ‘proximity locator’! And damn that arrogant prick!

Her anger mounting, Kristin wiped her hands on a towel, picked up her phone, and, before she could think twice, she tapped on the tiger’s profile, and swiped right. He was gone.

“That’s that,” she announced to her empty apartment, and returned to cooking.

Before her eggs were done, she was having second thoughts. But it was too late.

*

Lauren called as Kristin was on her way to her basketball game.

“Great to see you last night, Lauren!” Kristin said, speaking into her hands-free microphone as she drove. “I’m trying to make the most of having you to myself before the little critter comes.” Lauren laughed.

“You too, hun! And there’s a few months yet. Hard to believe though, since I feel so big already! So, what’s going on in the Shiftr world this morning?”

“You’re calling to find out if I messaged the wolf-guy, right?” Kristin demanded.

“Yes, I am, I admit. But it’s because we really care about you. And we’ve shown you this app because we know there are so many great guys on there. The last thing we want is for you to root out a bad one and have a disastrous relationship with him.”

“How do you know he’s a bad one anyway?”

“Please. He’s the only one wearing a jacket, and did you see that conceited expression on his face?”

“Maybe you’re right. I don’t know,” Kristin said. “Anyway, speaking of conceited, you’re not going to believe this – the tiger lives right on my street.” Lauren’s gasp almost deafened her.

“What? That’s amazing news! But how did you figure it out?”

Kristin related the incident, while Lauren giggled helplessly.

“So, he’s arrogant enough to think he can come and sniff me out,” she finished.

“Umm, weren’t you the one who drove right up to his apartment, giving him the opportunity to scent you?”

“I was just checking whether the app was genuinely registering proximity, or if it was some marketing crap they were doing to make you think that your perfect man is right on your doorstep.”

“Uh huh. And he is, honey.”

“Stop! He’s even hotter in the flesh than in his photo, if that’s possible.”

“Kristin, please stop doing yourself down! You’re absolutely good enough for this guy. And I know for a fact that if he saw you, he wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off you. So what did you reply to his message?”

“I didn’t. I right-swiped him,” Kristin said. There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. “You still there?”

“Yes, hun. I’m just quietly reeling in shock. And wondering if one of my closest friends is a masochist.”

“No, you’ve got it all wrong. I’m just saving myself pain in the long run.” Kristin was quiet for a moment, as she negotiated her way through a busy intersection. “So, will he be able to figure out where I live now?”

“Most likely,” Lauren replied. “Shifters have the full faculties of their animal, even when they’re in human form. I don’t know much about tigers specifically, but I’ll be surprised if they don’t have a pretty amazing sense of smell.”

“So he could catch onto my smell if I was out walking in the neighborhood, right?”

“Girl, to a shifter, the entire street is probably full of your scent. He’s probably inhaling it from the comfort of his armchair right now.”

“Ooh, that’s freaky,” Kristin said, unconsciously taking a quick sniff of her armpit. Lauren cackled.

“Hey! I can hear you sniffing your underarms, you know?” she yelled.

“I so wasn’t,” Kristin muttered, her cheeks warming.

“It’s not like
that
. It’s like they find your scent totally irresistible. Isn’t that kind of sexy?”

“I guess it is. But, seriously, what do I do if he turns up on my doorstep?”

“Let him in. Into your bedroom, of course!” Lauren said, and let out a gale of laughter. “Ok, I’ve gotta go now, chica, but I’ll call you tomorrow, and hopefully you’ll have something new to tell me about this sexy guy. Grrr!”

Kristin hit ‘end’, smirking to herself. Lauren was always so much fun to talk to. She sighed. And she was known for giving great advice. She also had to admit that the thought that her scent had infiltrated the entire street, and that the tiger might be picking it up and following it was actually as sexy as hell. She imagined herself as a sexy, fertile animal, being hunted down by a potential mate and that tell-tale tingle hit her between her thighs again. She pressed them together, but it only made things worse. She hadn’t had sex for a long time, and she missed it badly. She yearned to be taken roughly, to be fucked for days on end, until she was completely sated and worn out. She wanted to be possessed, her body covered in the marks of her lover. Dina and Lauren said that shifters made great lovers, because they were so connected with their animal side. The thought of making love with a tiger, beautiful and fierce and dangerous, turned her insides to mush. She realized that she’d been muttering a line from something:
“Tiger, tiger, burning bright, in the forests of the night…”
What was that? A song? No, a poem
. She’d studied it at high school. It was about the incredible beauty and power of opposing forces in nature. It had been her favorite poem for so long. She’d even written it out in calligraphy, and pinned it on her bedroom wall. When she used to recite it, she’d get shivers down her spine.
Is that what it would be like to mate with a tiger? To come face-to-face with an unstoppable force of nature, and to absorb that force into your body?
She kind of liked that idea.

*