Free Mate Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire 3) by T.S. Joyce

father—for her. She didn’t know how she’d lucked into a pairing with a man like him, but she wasn’t one to question gifts like this.
    Perhaps this was the balance being restored to her life.
    Perhaps Tobias was her sunshine after years of rain.
    And for the first time in a long time, she drifted off to sleep, completely unafraid.

Chapter Eight
     
    The woods were freedom. Freedom from pain and human emotion. Free from the misfits who could never run as fast as her. The woods were home for a monster like her.
    Trees blurring by, her nails digging into the rich black earth with every stride, mouth open in a toothy smile, the wind whipping through her thick coat. Happy. Yes, that was the word for the woods. They were synonymous with happy. This was the best part of the animal. Perhaps it was the only good part. The smells, the tastes, chasing, running, circling, claiming her territory because Perl was hers.
    Harlan thought he was king, but he was wrong.
    She was.
    Riiiiiiiing.
    Vera skidded to a stop, the pads of her paws sliding against the soft earth. She turned and narrowed her eyes at the wilderness behind her. The sun was too bright, saturating everything in eye-scorching yellow light. The noise had been an abomination in her woods. A grating human sound that didn’t belong.
    Riiiiiiiing.
     
    Vera gasped and sat up in bed, her head spinning. For a moment, she didn’t know which body she wore, human or animal. The dream had seemed so real, and she could feel her now—the animal that the medicine had tucked away for so long.
    Chest heaving, she blinked hard as the phone rang again.
    Yanking it off its cradle by the bed, she answered in a rush. “Hello?”
    “Good morning. You requested a wake-up call.”
    “I-I did?”
    “Mr. Silver did, ma’am.”
    “Oh okay, thank you.”
    Confused, she hung up and turned to Tobias’s side of the bed. “Did you…” She frowned at Tobias’s empty side of the mattress. “Tobias?”
    Even if the silence hadn’t told her he wasn’t here, her instincts would have. She could sense a lot more now than she could yesterday.
    She looked around the room for clues to where he was. When her attention landed on the small table near the mini-fridge, she smiled. In a glass mason jar was a bouquet of bright orange Gerber daisies. And beside it was a folded piece of paper. Vera bolted out of bed, bare boobs bouncing as she skidded to a stop in front of the flowers. With rushing fingers, she unfolded the letter. A wad of cash fell out. Stunned, she read the scrawled handwriting.
     
    Thistle,
    I have an errand to run today. I’ll be back by tonight. I imagine you won’t do well sitting around waiting on a man, though, so I did some research and made a couple of appointments for you. I hope you don’t mind.
     
    Yours,
    McBeefcake
    p.s. your bite will definitely scar.
     
    There was an itinerary below that.
     
    11:00 – Haircut at Vonda’s Hair right down the street. Take a left on Main.
    1:00 – Nails at Next Door Nails. It’s actually next door to Vonda’s. Ha.
    I asked the front desk about places to go clothes shopping for women, and they said Beek’s Boutique and the Treasure Chest, but when I walked past TC, that store looked like all lacy thongs and shit. Don’t feel pressure to buy panties. I like you just fine without. I have a feeling you’ll balk at spending my money and not the stash you have hidden in your coffee can, but this is my gift. Girly shit, just like you like, as a thank you for last night. And yesterday. And the rest of our lives. So don’t balk, just go have fun.
    You deserve it.
     
    A tear splatted onto the letter, smearing the ink on one of the words. She gasped and blotted it dry because she would keep this letter for always. Wiping her damp lashes, she leaned forward and sniffed the daisies. Orange was her new favorite color.
    With a happy squeak, she jumped, spun mid-air, and landed on the unmade bed. She kicked her legs as she clutched the