Free How Not To Date a Bear by Stephanie Burke

was in his shaved bear form. But what he was saying now…
    “Mate?” Declan was looking confused but accepting of his word. “Really?”
    “You can’t tell?” The brown-haired man seemed surprised.
    “No,” Declan turned to stare at her, awe in his face. “Mate?”
    “Hey!” she began to protest, but Theo grinned and rose to his feet.
    “Congratulations, Boss. Can’t you smell her?”
    “I am not a bear.”
    At her words, Theo swiveled to face her, shock in every line of his body. “You don’t know?”
    “Generations of hairdressers.” She walked over to replace her pot in the coffee maker, before walking back between the two men. “But no bears. I think I would know.”
    “Then why are you carrying around the Great Grizzly crest?”
    “The what?” She felt confused, and it was a feeling that she hated.
    “Is that what that symbol is?” Declan gasped, his eyes widening. “I was trying to figure out where I saw it before when you called. It’s Grizzly?”
    “Great Grizzly,” Theo corrected. “I am your Keeper of Heritage, Boss. That is the Great Grizzly clan marking, and she smells of grizzly bear.”
    “I smell of what?” Gillian blushed a little, thinking about these guys sniffing her. She looked between the both of them and slid back as she realized what they were sniffing. “Stop that!” she snapped.
    “She just smells right.” Declan threw up his arms. “She smells good and right and -- Great Grizzly?”
    Theo picked up the brush and pointed to the odd triangle shape at the bottom of the brush. It was a bit faded after years of handling, but there was enough of the engraving left to make out the straight lines. “This was the mark of the last clan. As it was told in certain circles, a daughter of the Great Clan fell in with a human. And despite her family’s disapproval of the match, she mated with him anyway. Her father, intent on keeping the bloodlines clean, made plans to murder her mate and foist her off on a cousin or close family friend. The who is neither clear nor important because the daughter took her human and ran. She ran to a place where she thought no one could ever find her, the American West. It is said that her mate became a blacksmith, an important job back then, but a job that allowed them to travel freely. It is said that the family nearly caught up with them a few times, but she was able to run the searchers off. Soon, she disappeared so thoroughly, everyone assumed that she was killed or moved on to an untraceable area. So that branch of the family died off.”
    “My many times removed grandmother,” Gillian breathed, her eyes wide as she listened to this story. “Are you sure?”
    “If this is her brush --”
    “It is.” She nodded, eyes wide in awe. “It’s been in my family… Grizzly?”
    “I did find her in a bear bar,” Declan chuckled and she turned to glare at him.
    “So what if the women in my family have an inherited hair fetish,” she began, then paused, tilting her head to the side. “Well, that would explain this hair thing a little.”
    “So, not only has your new mate denuded you of essential fur, she is a Great Grizzly. You know how to pick them, boss.”
    And Declan let his head thump to the table, rattling cups of coffee that no one had managed to drink.
    “I still haven’t agreed to this mate thing,” Gillian pointed out. “No matter who is in my ancestry.”
    “Not like you have much of a choice,” Theo pointed out. “Even if you choose not to stay, Declan will always look at you as his. And bears, polar bears, Great Polar Bears are very territorial.”
    “Great. You have been bandying that word about all day. What do you mean by Great?” She was growing frustrated with all of this. She only wanted to get fucked! Now there was a war brewing, there were bear bears in her house, and she was coming to terms with the fact that she was part bear herself. Well, she thought, wrinkling up her nose, that would explain her cousin