Blind Date With A Bear (A BBW Paranormal Romance) by Marie Mason Page A

probably in bed by now.”
    “I just talked to her about a half an hour ago. Come on, little brother. Would I steer you wrong?”
    “Yes,” Quinn had to bite back a smile, his first since leaving Paige. “Every chance you get.”
    Deb sighed. “Okay, if you won’t call her back tonight, you better call her first thing tomorrow. Ask her out and don’t let her say no. She doesn’t want to.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “Don’t question my powers, just do as I say.”
    Quinn hung up and debated the wisdom of doing what his sister advised. He took a deep breath, imagining Paige in her bed, all warm and soft. All his bear wanted to do was shift and run back to her.
    “Hey, bro, if you need to go back, we can handle it,” Ryker spoke this time. While it wasn’t difficult for shifters to tell the twins apart, they’d fooled many humans over the years. Which Quinn thought was really weird since the two had such different personalities. Ryland was outspoken and quick to make people laugh. Ryker was harder edged and closed mouth. Both were instinctive and empathic.
    “No, we need to do another search. Tonight, before this damn storm breaks.” The twins had discovered both tracks and footprints going in and out of the site. He wanted to pull his hair out in frustration. Nothing made sense and he couldn’t think straight at the moment. He wanted to go back to Paige tonight. Love her. Claim her. Because he knew he’d claim her, sure as shit, if he saw her again tonight. He also knew she wasn’t ready. No, he’d call her first thing in the morning and talk her into seeing him tomorrow night. Then he’d take her back to his house and love the hell out of her.
    The twins nodded their agreement to continue the investigation tonight. Jason went home to his mate, promising to come back if they needed him. The brothers quickly stripped and shifted. Soon three large grizzlies were lumbering towards the woods at the back of the construction site. Quinn huffed as he turned toward the north side and Ryland and Ryker headed east and west. It was going to be one long, frustrating night.
     
    Ryker slowed as he neared the edge of the property line, trying to figure out what was bothering him so much about these tracks. He didn’t know if his brothers had noticed any anomalies or not. All had found jackal tracks and human footprints. Here, near the eastern edge, he’d found another set of shifter prints. There were faint markings of a cat of some sort. So faint, he really couldn’t tell if they were fresh or not. He didn’t think they were since the security guards had never reported a cat sighting. He sniffed along the trail of prints, trying to filter through all the different smells of the forest. There’d been jackals for sure. Marcum construction flunkies.
    There was something else…
    He shifted into human form and knelt beside the tracks. He quickly found the cat’s print and rubbed his hand along the faint impression. He lifted the soil to his nose and inhaled. There was something…something underneath that he couldn’t quite make out. All he knew, was it was driving him—and his bear—freaking crazy. The animal wanted to track the cat. No, the animal needed to track the cat.
    “Fuck.” What the hell was wrong with him and his bear? He shifted again and continued the search. They needed something concrete to go on. Solid evidence that the jackals were treading on bear territory, so he, Ryland, and Quinn could kick some jackal ass.
     
    Quinn was convinced he was in hell. The air was hot and humid and he couldn’t wait to get back home, to Paige. It was Thursday morning and he’d just exited the jammed packed air shuttle that had taken him to North Carolina. He hadn’t been away from his mate twelve hours and already his bear was going batshit crazy. He stretched trying to work out the kinks to his back and shoulders. How the hell did you call five measly seats first class?
    He was on his way to see the