Read Commander Bear (Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance) (Bear Patrol Book 1) for Free Online Page A

be together. That’s all there was to it.
    “You can’t be serious.”
    He sent it before he realized that it had a rude tone to it. But in the end, he didn’t care. She was a shifter, and she knew exactly what she was saying by telling him she didn’t want a mate. It meant that they would both forever know that the other existed, and they were meant to be together. Suggesting that they should not be together condemned them both to a life of loneliness. He was unwilling to accept that.
    “I understand why you would be upset,” she texted back.
    “Don’t you think we should at least meet?”
    “I’m not ready for that right now. Maybe in a few months if I decide to stay on Fate Mountain.”
    “Where would you go?”
    “I don’t know. I haven’t stayed in one place for a long time.”
    “I read that on your profile. I understand that you might want to get back out on the road, but you owe it to yourself to at least meet your mate before you do.”
    “Fair enough. But not now. I’ll hit you up before I leave. For now, I’m deleting my Mate.com profile.”
    “Zoe, wait.”
    But it was too late, her profile disappeared before his eyes. She was gone, and she didn’t even want to meet him. He sat dumbfounded for long moments, considering what to do. He knew who she was. He knew where she lived. He could easily meet her if he wanted. But how could he force a meeting on her?
    It was behavior he would not find acceptable in other men, let alone in himself. But Rollo was at the end of his rope. He had been waiting for her for a long time. If he lost her now, he would never find another mate that could fill his heart the way she could.
    A fated mate was not just a partner or a spouse or a lover. They were all those things and more. A fated mate was connected to a shifter’s very soul. They belong together in body and spirit. A shifter could tell his fated mate by sight or scent and the animal inside immediately desired to claim her. Rollo and Zoe had to be together. There was no other way.
    Rollo had never considered himself a romantic. He knew that not every fated mate relationship ended up with a fairytale ending. But, fated mate pairs were profoundly happy together when they did work things out. The success rate of fated mate relationships was much, much higher than the success rate of the average human relationship.
    Zoe belonged to him, and he belonged to her. She would always have his heart, his body, and his soul. He could not allow her to walk away when she had that much power over him. If she did, he would never be the same again. He would lose his self-esteem, his confidence, his alpha swagger. Without his fated mate, he would be less of a man, knowing that she was out there and didn’t want him.
    Rollo Morris would not allow that to happen. Somehow, someway, he would meet Zoe Bright, and he would claim her. That was final.
    When Rollo arrived at the station in the morning, with a cup of coffee from the drive-through coffee place on the highway, he found Cadet Heath Reynolds already waiting in the waiting area of the station. He was wearing his street clothes, looking nervous but competent. Where the hell was Knox? He was supposed to babysit the cadet.
    “Commander Morris,” Heath said, standing from the chair.
    “Good morning Cadet Reynolds,” Rollo said. “Follow me.”
    He walked through the waiting area into the back offices where he found several of his Bear Patrol crew getting ready to go out for the day. Gauge was still absent as was Knox. There were several human cops at their desks and a few walking out the front door to go on patrol.
    “You’ll find your uniform in the locker room. Go get yourself dressed and we’ll get you set up with Knox for the day.”
    “Thank you, sir,” Heath said, hurrying off towards the locker room.
    Rollo continued into his office, sipping his coffee. As he sat down behind his desk, Damien walked into the room.
    “I hope you have good news for me