Page 20 of Hot Girls Date Shifters

Graham

The second my paws hit the forest floor, everything gets quieter.

Better.

The scents sharpen.

Pine.

Moss.

Wildflowers.

A deer passed through here an hour ago.

Raccoons sometime before dawn.

Two rabbits.

One fox.

This is home. This is where I make sense.

My fur ripples in the breeze as I lope deeper beneath the trees.

It’s not black like my fellow Black Bear Shifters. It’s cinnamon-colored—red like my hair.

But when I’m in my fur, I’m not self-conscious. Not even a little bit. My Bear is strong and sure.

Everything that plagues me in my skin feels so far away when I’m out for a run.

The music. The downloads. The interviews.

None of that matters here.

Out here, I'm just a Bear.

And my Bear is perfectly content in the woods he grew up roaming…

Well, he is for approximately four minutes.

Then he freezes.

That is, I freeze.

I sniff.

There’s someone out here.

A woman.

I stop.

Sure enough...

I smell her.

She’s closer now. And she’s human.