Free The Bear Truth by Ivy Sinclair Page B

a wedding it’s really important to me."
    “Maren, of course, we’re going to have an official wedding,” Lukas said. He squeezed my hand tighter. His eyes locked on mine. “We are mates in the clan, but we will be man and wife to the world. No matter what comes our way, you and I are in this together now. Forever."
    His words made me melt. They were the words that I had been longing to hear for so long that there was a part of me that still felt like I was in a dream. But the edges of my dream were marred with things like murder, kidnapping, and violence. That’s what made me think that sometimes my dream might actually turn into a nightmare. I worried now that I was going to lose everything with Lukas that I had just found.
    “Whatever happens now, I need you to be careful." I reached across the seat and brushed his hair out of his eyes. He was so handsome it made my heart hurt. He was mine. I needed to take care of him the way that he took care of me.
    “I’m always careful,” Lukas said sarcastically.
    “I mean it," I said. I have a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach that I couldn’t quite shake. Everything was happening so fast.
    “Don’t worry,” Lukas said. “I need you to trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
    I thought about how many times Lukas had said those words to me over the years. Most of the time, it ended up with him either being thrown in the back of the sheriff’s squad car or bloody in bruised from his most recent fight. Lukas wasn’t known for his thoughtfulness. But as I looked into his eyes, I knew saw a maturity there that hadn’t existed before. I was banking on him being different now, and I had to give him a chance to prove it. So I nodded and squeezed his hand.
    “Okay,” I said. “I’m trusting you on this. But if you go off and get yourself hurt, you’re going to have to go find yourself a new mate. I’m not going to put up with that kind of nonsense.”
    Lukas chuckled, and I joined him in the laughter. It felt good to laugh.
    I was curious about where we were going, even though I didn’t say so. The truck followed the road that bordered the western boundary line of grizzly land and then headed due north into the national state park. Those lands were wilderness.
    There was nothing resembling civilization for miles, and the government had agreed that this was a place where shifters could roam free without threat of being hunted. Humans usually stayed away. This was a place where cell phones didn’t work. It was where nature had been returned to nature. Something about the place made a chill ran down my spine. Of course, this would be where the shifters would choose to meet for their secret summit location.
    There was a strict no-fly law over all park property. No one could come in or out except on a few remote, isolated roads that ran through the park, many of them only one-lane. It would be easy to get lost forever in a place like that.
    We fell into a kind of comfortable silence. Lukas and I often did that from time to time. It was a comfort level that had been developed over the course of many years of friendship. Of course, now there was something more between us, and it made me feel warm inside. I didn’t have to wonder what he was thinking about. He was focused on the hunt for Joshua.  I was just praying that events wouldn’t turn so that I’d lose him again.
    We pulled into a dirt parking lot that seem to appear out of nowhere off the right hand side of the road. “So are you going to tell me where were going?”
    “This is where the shifter leaders meet.” Lukas shrugged. “It’s isolated, remote, and away from prying eyes. It’s the perfect location.”
    I understood what he meant when he said perfect. When he said away from prying eyes, he meant this was a place where shifters ruled the land and were able to be in their natural element, not ours. No matter what the shifters said, there was always a certain uneasiness between them and us. I