If only his father and Stefan would get head injuries that made them even dumber than normal. Oh, to fight them…

Closing his eyes, he returned to his wolf form. This was what he needed. It was the only thing that really comforted him.

But as he lay there, he thought of something else comforted him.

The scent and taste of an ethereal bear.

Put her out of your thoughts. She was as off-limits as anything could be. His father hated him enough. If he ever found out Fang was turned on by a bear…

They’d call out a hunt and he’d be slaughtered.

CHAPTER SIX

Aimee paused outside of Carson’s door, gathering her courage. Even though it’d been a month since she’d last seen the wolfswain, she still couldn’t get the taste or scent of Fang out of her mind or her thoughts. It was as if he’d somehow branded her and made her his.

That was the most upsetting part of all.

Since then, she’d been subjected to three more rounds of “find a sex toy, Aimee.” And unfortunately, none of the bearswains had stirred anything inside her. Not even repulsion or distaste. She was completely numb to them.

All of them.

What was wrong with her?

She needed to talk to someone and didn’t dare speak of her concerns to any member of her large family for fear of it getting back to her parents. Her mother would kill her. Dead. Mutilated. And it wouldn’t be pretty either.

But Aimee had to understand what was wrong with her. Why wasn’t she finding any bears she wanted to mate with?

Most of all, why was she haunted by thoughts of the most unacceptable male on the planet?

“Aimee?”

She cursed inwardly at Carson’s deep voice coming through the door. How could she have forgotten that power? He knew anytime anyone came near his office.

So much for indecisive dawdling.

Hold your fishing pole at ready… .

Bracing herself, she pushed the door open to see him sitting at the desk where a file was open. His hand, which held a pen, hovered over it as if he’d been making notes.

Tall and muscular, he’d almost pass for a bear. But Carson was an Arcadian hawk. His black hair and sharp features paid tribute to his Native American father and the heritage Carson held dear to his heart.

His features softened to those of fatherly affection for her, which was almost comical since she was about a hundred years older than he, even though she looked younger. “Is something wrong?”

Shaking her head, she entered and closed the door tight behind her. “Do you have a second?”

“For you, always.”

She offered him a smile at his sincere answer. The two of them had been friends since he’d first shown up and asked Maman about setting up a clinic in their home-over sixty years ago. It’d been the best decision they ever made. Not only was he the best vet and doctor she’d ever seen, he was a vital ally and trusted friend to them all.

Carson pulled a chair out for her to sit down beside him. Putting his pen aside, he leaned back and folded his hands over his stomach. “So what’s on your mind?”

Aimee sat down and tried to sort through her thoughts and concerns. “I’ve been wondering about something.”

When she hesitated, he arched a brow. “Is this a female problem? You want me to get Margie out here for you? Would that help with your embarrassment? You know, Aimee, I am a doctor so there’s no reason you can’t tell me anything. I may not be a woman, but I understand your bodies and am familiar with your unique problems.”

Heat rushed over her face. That was just what she needed… a human to give her advice on her animal senses going awry. Margie was nice enough, but she knew nothing about mating rituals. Good grief, this was getting worse by the second. “No, it’s nothing like that. It’s just…”

I want to jump a wolf until we’re both limping and I have no idea why.

Why was this so hard for her?

Because you want to jump a wolf and if anyone finds out, you’re toast.

True enough. But she had to talk to Carson and find out if this was some freakish problem of hers or if there was a precedent in their species that she didn’t know about. Something to make her feel a little more “normal.” At least as normal as a werebear with heightened powers could be.

C’mon, Aim. Just say it.

“It’s inter-species related.”

Carson’s other brow shot up. “Are you afraid of insulting me?”

“No… at least I hope not.” She hadn’t even thought about the fact that Carson was half human and half Arcadian. “I’m just trying to understand how it all works. I mean, I understand in your case where one parent is human and the other Arcadian… that’s almost a natural attraction when two humans meet. Most of the time the human has no idea the other isn’t human and so the attraction makes sense, especially since humans tend to have an unnatural attraction to us anyway. I get that. What has me stumped are the ones like Wren’s parents. What would make a snow leopard want to mate with a tiger or a Katagari mate with a human?”

There, that should get her an answer without her telling him the real reason she was asking.

Carson considered his answer carefully before he gave her a gimlet stare. “Honestly?”

She nodded.

“No one really knows. There’s all kinds of speculation that it’s something wrong with the DNA. Maybe a defective gene we don’t know about. A birth defect if you will. Kind of the same thing that makes a human crave inappropriate sexual partners. But…” He glanced away.

Great, she had a birth defect.

“But?” she prompted, wanting to hear if he had another explanation that didn’t end with her being chromosomally damaged.

“I personally wonder if it’s not something the Fates do to us as a continuing punishment.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, look at Wren. Regardless of who he partners with, human or Were-Hunter, he’ll most likely be sterile. Anytime a Katagari, male or female, is mated with a human, there’s no chance whatsoever of progeny. Even as an Arcadian, I have less chance of fathering children because my father was human. I think it’s a way the Fates have contrived to kill off our species.”

Aimee hadn’t even thought of that. How cruel could three goddesses really be?

Then again…

“That makes sense in a very twisted way… which would coincide with it being a gift from the Fates.”

Carson nodded. “Exactly. It would also explain why it’s so common for us to mate outside our species. I think it’s why so many Arcadian and Katagaria end up together. The Fates are hoping the women will reject the men and then both are left sterile for the rest of their lives. It’s cruel really.”

Yes, it was.

But it still didn’t explain her attraction to Fang. “Have you ever heard of a completely out-of-species mating?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like in Wren’s case, while they weren’t the same species per se, they were both cats. Have you ever heard of say a wolf wanting to mate with a hawk or a dragon?”

Or in her case, a bear.

She cleared her throat before she asked the most significant part. “Especially if say one of them was Arcadian and the other Katagaria?”

Carson scowled as if her question was completely preposterous. “No. That’s never been done. At least not to my knowledge. Gods, I can’t imagine anything worse than that. Can you?”

Actually, yes, she could, lots of things, point of fact. But she wasn’t about to say that out loud and risk his telling her mother. “Horrifying to the extreme.”

And she really did mean that. How could she even think about touching Fang? Like Carson had said, it was unnatural and wrong. It defied everything she knew about her people and their traditions.

Everything.

Yet she couldn’t get him out of her mind. He hovered there in the back of her thoughts like a beckoning light, drawing her fantasies to him anytime she left them unguarded. Even now, a part of her wanted to go hunt for him.