Southern Shifters: Bearly Dreaming (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Online Free PDF Page B

longing for her without my knowing it—came crashing down at once. I’d met my mate and not realized it. I hadn’t thought the woman in my dreams could be more than that, something not quite real, something tormenting me. And she
was
tormenting me, in the best way possible. As my mate.
    Hearing the word from Audrey had suddenly made the dream of a mate something real, though. Mate. My mate. Nyla was
my
mate. My bear made his agreement known, grumbling in my mind. Yes, mate. Absolutely. And he wanted to find her, to claim her, to rut her into the dirt of his beloved forest and make sure every male knew she was taken. He wanted her immediately. And I couldn’t argue with him.
    “Holy shit,” I whispered.
    Audrey bit her lip. “You okay?”
    I swallowed hard, unable to say the words spinning through my head.
Nyla
…was my
mate
. Everything suddenly made sense—the dreams, the desire, the distraction from anything but her, the constant arousal, the jacking off like a goddamned teenager every day. I was longing for my mate.
    “Holy shit.”
    “Yeah,” she said with a nod. “I agree. It’s kind of holy shit-like when it happens.”
    My stomach clenched, thoughts of mates and bears and my life in the wild swirling together. “I have to tell her about me.”
    Audrey nodded. “Absolutely, about you and this place and your bear. You need to tell her everything.”
    I licked my lips, heart pounding, mouth dry. “What if…what if she won’t believe me? What if she won’t accept me because she thinks I’m a regular human?”
    The look on Audrey’s face could have been the visual representation of the word duh. “Kian, the woman can stroll into your dreams and interact with you. I’m pretty sure you’ve both got a few skeletons in your closets.”
    “Yeah, right. Dreamwalking.” I went to stand but sat back down, unsure. Not knowing where to go or what was next. We knew so little about each other, and yet we had a connection that could be permanent if we let it. The idea of reaching her, telling her about me, learning about her, and convincing her to accept our bond was daunting. With a capital fucking D.
    “What should I do?”
    Audrey shrugged, grinning, obviously excited. “Find her.”
    “Fuck. Right. I need to find her.” I jumped to my feet, my chair slamming to the ground behind me in my haste. “Sorry, I have to—”
    “Go,” she yelled, laughing as she tossed me my bag. “Go find your mate.”
    I grinned over my shoulder before blasting through the door. Mate…I had a mate! My bear chuffed, demanding I shift, needing to run. He’d found his mate, too, and he was going to do everything in his power to claim her and bring her back to his den. And that started right fucking now.

Chapter Six
Nyla
    At the end of what felt like one of the longest days of my life, I slid into a tub filled with lavender water, trying to soothe my frazzled nerves. I’d been alternating between intense emotions since I woke up, fighting to find a balance as I’d gone about the mundane chores the clan had assigned me while avoiding their watchful eyes. Sadly, that balance hadn’t happened.
    I’d started the day off in bliss, the night with Kian consuming my sleepy mind. But that quickly changed to fear as my memories spun out of control, growing darker due to the deterioration of my mind. The power surge brought on by my mating call was draining me, making me see things I shouldn’t, and bringing a false reality into my thoughts more and more often. Still easy enough to see through and combat, the visions caused an emotional shock that was hard to smooth out. And with the frequency of those dark moments ramping up, I knew they would only get worse.
    But even that knowledge couldn’t fully dampen my excitement over the previous night. The smile on Kian’s face when he’d mouthed my name had played over and over, never giving me more than a few minutes break in between showings, fighting back when I saw a different