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her. But he had.
    And he had fallen hard and fast. Working near her all day, every day, had driven him wild. He had been attracted to women before, but never like this. Alexis had become all he could think about, and the bear inside of him went crazy whenever she was around. He had tried to push away the feelings at first, worried that things would be too complicated since she knew he was a shifter. Then, one day, a light bulb went off in his head and he realized that her knowing he was a shifter actually made things easier. He wouldn’t have to break the news to her gently—she already knew. And despite knowing, she still treated him like a normal human, for the most part. Sure, she made snarky comments about his shifting abilities being supernatural, which annoyed him somewhat. But, overall, she seemed to just accept him for who he was.
    James pulled up in front of his cabin and parked, then saw that Neal was sitting on his front porch a few doors down, soaking in the bright, 10 p.m. sunshine. James hopped out of his truck and decided to go spend a few minutes talking to his alpha. Neal always offered good advice, and James was hoping he could get a few pointers on how to navigate through a new relationship.
    “Hey,” Neal said as James approached the porch. “How’s it going? Feel free to grab a beer from the fridge if you want.”
    “Thanks,” James said, and went inside for a moment to choose a pale ale from Neal’s fridge. He popped the top off and then came back to the porch, where he settled into one of the sturdy wooden chairs next to Neal.
    “How’s Christine doing?” James asked before taking a long sip from his beer.
    “Pretty good overall. She’s had a relatively uneventful pregnancy so far. She just gets more and more exhausted as the weeks go by, though. And she still has a few months to go.”
    James nodded. “I don’t know much about pregnancy, but it seems like it takes a lot out of you.”
    Neal chuckled. “Yeah. Christine has informed me that it’s best if I just assume I don’t understand at all what it’s like to be pregnant, which is fair enough, I guess. I’m so excited to be a dad, though. Watching the clan grow with all the new cubs has been a great feeling, but even that pales in comparison to the anticipation of having your own cub.”
    “Hopefully I’ll get to experience that someday,” James said.
    “You will,” Neal said confidently. “You’re smart, kind, and good-looking. I know there’s an amazing woman out there waiting for you.”
    “Yeah, about that,” James said. “How did you know Christine was the one?”
    Neal raised an eyebrow in James’ direction. “Uh-oh, does someone have his eye on a prospective lifemate?”
    James blushed. “Maybe. I met a girl at work, and I’m really starting to fall for her. Her name’s Alexis, and I’m pretty sure she likes me, too. And she knows I’m a shifter,” James said with an apologetic shrug, and then rushed to explain. “I didn’t tell her. She figured it out on her own. Somehow she seems to have some weird sense about these things.”
    To James’ relief, Neal didn’t seem upset that Alexis knew he was a shifter. James had heard stories about Neal flying off the handle at his clan members in the past at the smallest possibility that they had outed the clan to humans. But James had never seen Neal get irrationally upset about things like that. Ryker told James that Neal had mellowed quite a bit since the other bears had taken human mates, and especially since Neal met Christine. Now, Neal just stroked his chin thoughtfully.
    “Is she native Alaskan?”
    James raised his eyebrows in surprise. “She is, actually. How did you know that?”
    “I’ve heard that native Alaskans are often able to recognize shifters. They’ve lived among shifters for so long that they’ve learned to recognize things like the difference in gait between a normal bear and a shifter bear. And they can see the animal essence in a