Laid Bear by Eve Vaughn (e books for reading .TXT) 📕

one of her mates for appearance sake, even though she’s mated to all three men. My mother however, was and still is a bit of a traditionalist.”

“Your parents are still alive?”

He laughed again. “Of course, why wouldn’t they be?”

“Okay, that was a silly question. Go ahead and finish.”

“Basically, there’s not a lot to tell. My mother and fathers raised me to be aware of my heritage. I did grow up around other humans so my dads would take us to a retreat every so often where we could be ourselves. Heath and Logan’s families also came along. Since the three of us were only children, we basically grew up like brothers. We always grew up knowing we’d share a mate. Of course, as I’ve already told you, we’re a dying breed and had we not found you… well, our mothers were finally at the point where they were willing to accept a human bride for each of us so they could have grandchildren to dote on. With a normal human female we probably would have gone the adoption route. My mother will be very delighted to meet you, and I’m sure my aunts will as well.”

Even though Zora had yet to agree to anything, the prospect of meeting twelve individual in-laws as opposed to the traditional two was daunting.

As if reading her thoughts, Gavin gave her shoulder another pat. “Don’t worry. Our parents will love you.”

“Maybe,” she answered noncommittally. “Tell me something else.”

“Anything.”

“I’ve been made to understand that while my injuries were extensive, it only took five days to heal. How is that possible?”

“Some of my kind have certain abilities. Mine is healing.

You were also given a small dose of medicine that I developed that works with the Kelowna physiology.”

“Do all of your kind have powers?”

He shook his head. “Not many of us do. Some believe it’s because our blood has been too diluted with human blood.

Whatever the reason, I’ve only ever met a few others of my kind with a special talent.”

“Even though I was out of it, I felt you. You have a gentle touch.”

He grinned. “Thank you. Medicine is a bit of a passion of mine.”

The more Zora talked to Gavin, the more she realized how at ease she was in his presence. She really enjoyed talking to him. Though she still found his dark good looks distracting, in his presence she felt—safe. “Can I ask you another question? I don’t want you to take it the wrong way, though.”

He raised a dark brow and looked at her briefly, taking his eyes off the road once more. “Oh? Sounds ominous. But like I said, you can ask me anything.”

She paused for a second to play the words in her head to assure she wasn’t offensive. “Your cousins… they seem so much more intense, especially Logan. I mean, you’re so laid back. If you guys didn’t have a family resemblance, I wouldn’t think you were related.”

He chuckled. “Intense is definitely one word that could be used to describe them, but in our culture it’s in the male’s nature to be aggressive. It’s something bred into us, especially when there were so few females to mate with. The early Kelowna didn’t have the option to cross breed. My family jokes that those two are throwbacks.”

“But you don’t seem that way. You’ve been… really sweet.”

“Patience can be learned, especially with what I do in the real world. But I have my moments.” He looked in her direction and winked, adding a wolfish grin to make it quite clear to Zora that he could be just as alpha as his cousins.

“What’s your medical specialty?”

“Family medcine. I like it because I get to see patients at all stages.”

“I’m impressed.”

“Well, I thought I’d put my ability to good use.”

“Makes sense.”

They chatted idly for the duration of the ride until they finally came to town. It wasn’t very big, but seemed to have all the necessities like gas stations, a grocery store, a bank and a few restaurants.

“Is there a pay phone around here?”

“Try the glove compartment.”

Zora opened up the glove compartment and pulled out a smartphone. She didn’t know whether to be highly pissed or impressed by his trickiness or a little bit of both. “Are you kidding me? You’ve