Bear with Me (#2, Completed)

2. Confusion

CALLUM

I closed my eyes in the hope of seeing those two beautiful green orbs and perfect strawberry blonde hair again. The memories of her gorgeous smile invaded my mind so much that I could imagine her next to me, her sweet feminine scent making my senses go haywire. What did that girl do to me? We only spent a few hours together but I could not get her out of my mind.

What was even crazier was that I found myself thinking about her every so often and yet, I knew she was not my mate. She couldn't be- she was human and I was a bear shifter, and shifters only mated within their own kind.

On top of that, my mating text, the one that every shifter had appearing somewhere on their skin once they had touched their mate for the first time, appeared on my lower abs after we returned from the rescue mission down south, so I must have met my mate amongst the shifter that we released from Markolf's mansion after the cambion had kidnapped Natalia Macalister. I just needed to figure out who it was...and to stop thinking about Riley's stunning best friend.

One thing was sure- whoever my mate was, she was no shy wallflower. I was certain of that because the text, which revealed what I would hear my mate say around me so that I could recognise her, told me that she was more than equipped to handle my boldness. I lifted the hem of my shirt a little and ran my fingers across the words etched on my skin.

"I scratch and bite."

Yes, she was certainly one hell of a ballsy character.

"Goddess, Callum, you need to get laid, mate." My Beta Jack rolled his eyes as he gave me a pitiful look from the other side of the desk. "You look more like a lovesick teddy bear than a fierce Alpha. If any of the idiotic members in our sleuth get wind of your current state, they will waste no time in challenging you for the position."

Jack was a mountain of a man and my right-hand ever since I won the Alpha position from the previous Alpha thirteen years ago. His bulky body and tattoos, coupled with his usually sturdy look, gave the impression that he was a tough man but I knew better than anyone how loyal he was and what a big softie lived underneath the hard exterior.

"Come on, you deserve to have some fun after the battle against Markolf," Jack continued to push, while his expression took on a devilish smile.

"I met my mate, Jack."

His face changed in a matter of seconds, the jokey mood giving way to genuine surprise. "You met your mate and you are only just telling me that now? What the hell, Callum? I thought we were friends!"

His statement was half-joke, half-serious but I was once again too lost in my thoughts to really indulge him with a proper reaction.

"Well, I have no bloody clue who she is, so we are more or less back to square one. All I know is that it happened while I was down in London."

"That's what this is all about?" His mocking snort earned him a low growl from my side. "Callum, you are my Alpha and I respect you enormously but sometimes you really are a stupid prick. If the Sun Goddess had picked that woman for you, whoever she may be, then you are fated to meet. So, relax- it will all work out. "Confidence oozed from him as he tried to reassure me, even if I was having difficulties in believing him on this matter.

I pressed my lips in a slight grimace, as I felt the sinking feeling in my stomach. "Yeah, that's cool and all, but why the hell am I only able to think about a certain human instead?"

My mind was getting tired of the constant internal conflict that I had been battling for the past few days. Fantasising about someone else was not supposed to happen once you found your mate, although I had still not actually discovered who my mate was. Even so, our touch, whenever it had happened earlier that day, had triggered the appearance of mating text and with that came the mating pull that was going to draw us together until we finally found each other and mated.