Ski Bear (Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance) (Rescue Bears Book 5) by Scarlett Grove

rising from the buck. He lunged forward, sinking his teeth into the animal’s neck, biting hard.
    As he felt its life slowly seep from its body and fill his mouth with its life force, Zach began to calm.
    Zach’s beast let go of the animal’s neck with a grunt and backed away. He sat down in the snow and studied his kill. The polar bear wanted to eat the whole thing in one sitting, and that was exactly what the animal decided to do.
    Zach threw up his arms at the back of the animal’s mind and went to sleep. When he was conscious again, he found himself inside a snowy den, his stomach stuffed full of deer meat.
    He pushed himself out of the dugout cave and shifted in the snow. It was cold and he was naked, but he was done with his bear for now.
    He padded through the pink snow, through the forest, and back to his cabin. He burped as he walked up the front steps. Damn. He didn’t even like venison.
    He grumbled as he trudged into the shower. This was not how he imagined this morning going. He had lessons for most of the day and usually got a good night’s sleep before work.
    He got into the shower and washed off the dirt and blood from the night before. When he got out of the shower, he saw a text from Maisie on his phone.
    “Can’t wait to go skiing on Sunday.”
    He smiled, feeling a little better. Part of him still wasn’t sure if Maisie would ever like him for who he was. She was a sophisticated lady, and he was just a ski instructor who lived and worked at Levi’s lodge.

8
    A fter their date, Maisie walked up the stairs to her apartment, leaving Zach at the front door. She had no idea what was going on. Maybe she had wanted to bring him upstairs.
    As she opened the door to her apartment and sat down on her couch, she knew that she wouldn’t have regretted bringing him upstairs. But she also knew that doing so would mean a lot to him. Probably more than it would to her.
    She was attracted to Zach. And who wouldn’t be? He was gorgeous and perfect, maybe too perfect. Maisie just didn’t know if she could keep up with him. Why would Zach want to be with her when he could be with anyone? Sure, she was supposed to be his “fated mate”. But what did that even mean? She knew a little bit about it, but from what she had experienced in her own dating life, most “fated mate” stuff seemed incredibly hard to believe.
    Now she wished she had learned more about shifter culture. As involved as her mom had become with shifters over the last six years, it didn’t reflect how Maisie had grown up. She’d always been up to date with current events and culture around the world. As far as shifters went, she just hadn’t caught up.
    For so long, the world had been so divided between shifters and humans. She had grown up in the worst days after the Great Shifter Council had brought shifters out of hiding. There wasn’t a day that passed during her childhood when she didn’t see new stories about riots or killings from one side or the other. The entire country had been in turmoil for years.
    After the war, shifters were suddenly open and interesting and everybody was getting along. That was great, but her subconscious mind simply couldn’t let go. The prejudices of the past had only gone underground, for everyone.
    Now that she had been matched with Zach, maybe there was a small part of her that knew, at the bottom of her heart, that she was the fated mate of a shifter. He seemed pretty sure they belonged together. Maisie, on the other hand, was unconvinced.
    The way she felt when he touched her and kissed her could not be denied. But he had already explained those feelings to her. Knowing that you belonged with someone for the rest of your life was more difficult to explain.
    She didn’t want to hurt the man or mislead him. She just didn’t know if she was ready to commit to what Zach seemed to want. Maisie picked up her cell phone and did a Google search for “fated mates”. What came up on her screen surprised