Bear with Me (#2, Completed)

18. A second chance

SCARLETT

"How am I still alive?" I repeated my question, the lack of response from her side making me even more anxious.

"Scar-"

"Don't." I didn't want her to calm me down- I wanted her to be honest.

"Listen, I will tell you everything, but the doctor said that you need to rest right now. Please!"

"Answer me, goddammit. I have the right to know!"

I could count on one hand all the times that I had ever raised my voice at Riley since we first met all those years ago- this was by far the worst one but I had to know the truth.

"Do you know how mates recognise each other in the shifter world? Sometime after they touch for the first time, a text appears somewhere on their bodies. A line of what they will hear their mate say around them at one point."

A shiver ran down my spine as I listened to her speak, her words making the hairs at the back of my neck stand up. I was too stunned to react though. My mysterious tattoo. Callum's words at the restaurant. The text written on his abs. The connection I felt with him, the attraction.

Riley gave me a second to collect my thoughts before she continued again. "Shifters heal quickly and on their own. That's why you saw Callum's gunshot wounds disappear- he told me about it."

A wave of relief washed over me at the confirmation that he made it out alive.

"When he found you...." Riley paused, her voice trembling as she struggled to speak. Tears pooled in her eyes, and I knew what she was going to say. "You were nearly gone, Scarlett- we almost lost you. Mahon killed the bastard who did that to you, but you barely had a pulse by the time he reached you."

"Did he turn me?"

"What? No! Of course not. This is not a movie, Scarlett."

"Funny, my life sure feels like it right now."

Riley rolled her eyes as if what I was saying was unrealistic. Ha!

"He didn't turn you. He could have marked you as his mate to give you his shifter healing abilities, but he did not want to force you into the mate bond without your consent if it worked. So he did the next best thing- Mahon licked your neck wound to heal it because the lick of a shifter mate has healing powers."

I was lost for words, which was a rare occurrence for me. To know that I had a bear lick my wound was bizarre but not as much as understanding that I had been brought back from the dead. There was something so life-altering in acknowledging that you were on the brink of death but you got another chance to remain amongst the living.

Yet, that was not the most dumfounding revelation of the day- what left me shaken was the discovery that I had a destined mate, whatever that actually entailed, and that it was none other than Callum Andrews.

A man who I had accused of playing a prank on me because of the words that now appeared faintly on my arm.

A man who I ran out on because I discovered that he had slept with my best friend, and whom I suspected was just playing some sick game with us.

A man- half-beast, half-human- who put his own life at risk to save me, even when I told him to stay away.

He was my saviour, my protector- my supposed soulmate.

Mates.

Was this the answer to all those questions I had?

The idea of having a mate was so foreign to me. But the more I pondered about it, the more I realised that it was actually not as shocking as I thought. Almost like under the many layers of common sense in mind, I knew that it was true.