Bearing It All (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance) by Lynn Red Page A

you know where.”
    Just then, Henry and Lex came back out from the back. From the look of things, they’d been unpacking boxes, because both of them had a liquor bottle in each hand.
    “Everything okay?” Henry asked, setting hers on the bar top.
    “We have a date tomorrow,” I said, my mouth moving and my voice sounding like a robot’s beeps and boops, echoed inside my head. “He told me so.”
    “Uh... that’s... nice? Very good, girly. Are you drunk?” Henry had a little bit of a nervous twist to her laugh. “Should we be going?”
    Crag shrugged, but never took his eyes off me. “See you tomorrow?” he asked, as Henry pulled me toward the door. “I’ll get in touch.”
    By the time Henry and I got to the car, my mouth had unfrozen and my brain was dripping out of it in a torrent.
    “What happened ?” she asked.
    I babbled for a second, saying some nonsense about how hot he was and how he was so nice and how he was this and that.
    “No, Violet, you’ve done gone nuts. What happened ? A date? I thought you were on the prowl for... I dunno, a one-night stand or something, so I set you up with him. You’re going on a date with a pit fighter ?”
    “I,” I trailed off, shaking my head. “It just kind of happened, it... it felt right to say yes.”
    “But, why?” she asked.
    I squinted and shook my head. “I... I think I was going to go home with him. Or I mean I was going to take him to my apartment, like tonight I mean.”
    “Why didn’t you? That was the whole point.” Henry was a lot more irritated than I thought made any sense. “Now you’re going on a date. With... a pit fighter.”
    I shook my head. “I thought of... of him. We were about to leave, and Crag asked me if you would be upset. For some reason, that made a click go off in my brain and I started thinking about Reid.”
    “Oh no,” Henry groaned. “How does he keep coming back to haunt you? You’ve been rid of that lice bag for over a year.”
    “He didn’t have lice,” I said absently. Henry clicked her tongue against her teeth. “But... I couldn’t get him out of my head. I couldn’t make myself stop thinking about all that horrible stuff he said to me about how I was nervous and awful and how my stomach stuck out and my legs were—”
    “Okay, that’s enough,” Henry said. “Sorry for snapping. I’m not mad at you, I’m mad that that arch-asshole managed to come back from the past and ruin a fun night for you.”
    I snorted a laugh. “Yeah, I guess,” I said. “It’s better this way though. I gotta work tomorrow. But then I have two days off, so...”
    “Oh you naughty fox, you!” Henry said, finally laughing.
    Mission accomplished , I thought. Letting the tension ease just a little was all I needed. I took a deep breath and then let it out nice and slow.
    “I also thought about what we talked about,” I added.
    “What? About you chasing the boys all the time?” Henry asked, pulling into my parking lot.
    “To answer what you asked earlier,” I said, grinning, “yeah, I’m going on a date with a pit fighter. A pit fighting bear who’s chasing me .”

-6-
Violet
    ––––––––
    M orning came early.
    Well, duh, yeah of course it did, morning is always early. But three hours after I ran away from Crag and about two and a half since Henry dropped left me at my doorstep, I woke up with a grumbling stomach and a couple starlings outside my window having a fight over half a beetle.
    “Why won’t you guys ever use the feeder I have? Why does it always have to be beetles? The black ones stink.” I let out a puff of air and was pretty happy that I didn’t smell any beer on my breath.
    That was a good sign I was going to be hangover free. The last thing in the world I need when I’m getting two hours of sleep instead of my normal eight-to-ten is a dull throb in the back of my skull.
    I waited for a second to see if either of the birds was going to answer me, but neither did. It’s hard to