Page 47 of Hot Girls Date Shifters

We've known each other since we were dumb teenagers getting into trouble around Barvale. The fact that he's a Vampire and I'm a Bear never mattered.

He became the brother I never had, which means he's also one of the only people alive willing to tell me when I'm being an idiot.

Unfortunately...

That’s fairly often, and he's usually right.

“Listen,” he says, his voice losing some of its teasing edge. “I'm busting your balls because I care.”

“I know.”

“You claimed her.”

“I know.”

“You're magically connected now.”

“I fucking know, man.”

“And she's human.”

That one lands differently.

“She doesn't know what she is to you,” Luc continues. “Hell, she doesn't even know what you are.”

The guilt sitting in my chest grows heavier.

“She thinks she got rescued by a really big Bear.”

“Yeah.”

“She has no idea that really big Bear accidentally tied your lives together.”

I lean back against the brick wall across from Moon & Mug.

“She looked at me...” I murmur more to myself than to him.

“And?”

“She wasn't scared.”

“You're kidding, right?”

“Nope,” I reply and pride that I have no right feeling surges through me. “She should've been. But she wasn't.”

“Damn. That’s pretty cool actually,” Lucien mumbles.

I smile despite myself, remembering those pale, wide eyes studying me after the fox ran off.

“She called me a bad Bear.”

Luc barks out a laugh so loud I have to pull the phone away from my ear.

“She what?”

“She scolded me.”

“Oh, this woman is already my favorite.”