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He popped a grape into his mouth "The cafeteria lady loaned me the basket I told her I needed to impress a beautiful woman"

Elsa snorted "I’ and talented at what you do It’s part of whathim was so hard

"Have some food" He stacked a piece of cheese onto a cracker and bit into it "How’s your day going?"

She nibbled on so awful"

"Why?"

"When I followed you yesterday, I left the note on the kitchen counter You know, the note you wrote"

"Let roarm "Now every time they see me, they bon and say, ’I’m not worthy’!"

Howard chuckled "Sorry about that"

She ate another piece of cheese with a cracker and looked about Three squirrels and a raccoon atching A deer was crossing the clearing, headed toward the to find me"

"Shoo!" Hoaved a hand at them and they scattered

She huffed "You don’t have to frighten theuardian A week ago, they were freaking you out, and now you’re acting protective"

"They don’t mean me any harm"

"You can’t be sure I don’t think those feral pigs were irapes off the steuardian and all"

"Ifound it hard to believe at first My grandfather toldup, but I always considered it a fairy tale But now" He sipped soht "It uardians should exist, too You made us e are"

She sed hard Was this why the berserkers killed their guardian? "Do youresent us?"

"For what?"

She winced "My ancestor turned you into beasts Doesn’t that ry?"

"No Elsa, I’, super fast, have superior senses, and I can live for about five hundred years"

Herasped "You’re hundreds of years old?"

"No! I’h his thick brown hair "Holy crap I thought I looked a lot younger"

"Oh You do" She bit her lip to keep froave her a dubious look "Sorry When you said five hundred years, I thought"

"Never e of chocolate and stuffed it into his runted "My point is I don’t resent being what I am I like it And all the were-bears I know like it, too So you have nothing to fear frorandrandrimaced "I’ht? Maybe the berserkers there are a bunch of miserable SOBs I can tell you for a fact that the were-bears in Alaska are a jolly bunch We would never harm a woman"

Could that be true? Could the berserkers who left Scandinavia be different? "How did your people end up in Alaska?"

Howard shrugged "According to rated all the way across Russia"

"How did the line continue? Did they find feene is always dominant, so they were free to marry whomever they pleased"

"And the children were alere-bears?"

Howard nodded "According to randfather, the berserkers did find some were-bears in Alaska Local shamans who could turn into Kodiak bears Our line mixed with theirs, and that’s why I’m a Kodiak bear"

"Oh" She considered this news Howard’s line of were-bears could be quite different from the berserkers who had remained in Scandinavia Maybe the curse hadn’t followed his people "But your grandfather still believes you are cursed?"

Hoaved a dismissive hand "It has no power unless you believe in it"

She nodded That’s what she’d always thought But the curse had been much easier to dismiss before she’d learned that berserkers were real "I’m still a bit worried - "

"I know you are And I’ve been racking my brain to come up ays to convince you that I can be trusted" He leaned toward her "Look o Bears"

She blinked "Football?"

"Yes I was a defensive - "

"The Chicago Bears?" She gave him an incredulous look

"Yes" His eyes twinkled with humor "I realize the irony Anyway, I was a defensive linebacker I took hits for a living"

"You were a professional football player?"

"Yes Huge, three-hundred-pound linemen tried to mow me down on a daily basis Usually, Ito hurt me"

"You played professional football?"

His mouth curled into a half smile "Is there a probleroar, I was paid to take abuse and annihilate the other team I sacked a lot of quarterbacks I realize that soundsaggressive, even violent"

She nodded, restraining an urge to fan herself When had the afternoon gotten so hot?

"My point is, I was taking hard hits but hitting back even harder You would think that would anger the beast inside ht? But with all that violence, I never lost control I never seriously injured anyone Even the quarterbacks I sacked were able to ju her flitted through her mind Except when he tackled her, they would land in bed Touchdown<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>