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Kindergartners.”
    Easton took a long draw of his beer. She was smart then. So why was she talking to him? “Why aren’t you a teacher anymore?”
    Her cheeks turned the most appealing shade of pink. “I quit for a man.”
    His bear snarled inside and scratched tauntingly beneath his skin. “Why would you do that?”
    “Because he asked me to, and I didn’t understand that I could say no at the time. I thought he was it for me.”
    “Your mate?”
    She couldn’t meet his eyes anymore. She nodded her chin once. “I guess you could call him that.”
    Easton wanted to kill everything. “Why aren’t you with him now?”
    “Because I didn’t want to be with a man who asked me to quit something I loved.”
    Pride blasted through his chest, and he smiled as he took another drink of his beer. “Good.” Not so frail. Not so fragile.
    The soft sound of giggling brushed his sensitive ears, and he turned to where his rowdy crew had moved off down the bar. Willa and Georgia both gave him thumbs up and big, confusing smiles, and when he looked for Gia—because she was pregnant and he liked her close so he could help Creed protect her—she was waddling double-time, round belly leading the way, toward the jukebox in the corner. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
    “I met Willa and the others in the bathroom,” Ana said softly, following his gaze. “They seem nice.”
    “Then why are you so afraid of us?”
    That part he couldn’t figure out. If she was a shifter groupie, she’d be more brazen. Instead, she was clutching her drink and sitting at the opposite edge of her barstool.
    “Because you’re a bear shifter.”
    “And you’re scared of shifters?”
    She nodded.
    He stared at her for a long time. She was beautiful, smart, and shy, and obviously terrified to be this close to him, so why was she talking to him in the first place?
    “Is this some sort of dare or bet?” he asked, scanning the room. Kong lifted his beer in the corner from a table he sat at with his Lowlander Crew, but other than that, no one was watching them that he could tell. “Are your friends taking pictures or something? I don’t do social media, and I’m rarely on the Internet, so that shit won’t hurt me.”
    “I’d never hurt you,” she said on a rushed breath.
    He jerked his gaze back to her. Truth. Every word she’d just uttered had been laced with honesty. Who the fuck was this girl? And why wasn’t his bear a snarling mess inside of him like he was every other minute of his life? He set the beer bottle down and backed off the stool. “Why would you want to talk to me? And don’t give me the handsome line. I know what I am, and I know what I ain’t. Mixed up, bloodletting berserker at the mercy of my alpha’s patience. But you’re too good to be sitting next to some crazy lumberjack grizzly shifter.”
    Ana was clutching her purse now, and as she slid off her chair, she looked like she was going to cry. Human women are like that. Soft and full of tears. She was little and helpless, like he used to be, and now his protective instincts were kicking in for a woman he couldn’t afford to get attached to.
    She wasn’t a Gray Back. Would never be a Gray Back because all the boys were mated. Except you.
    Easton took a step back. His bear had the right of it—afraid and quiet around this dangerous little creature.
    Easton spun to escape Sammy’s Bar—to escape Ana—but Willa stood in his way, a pissed off little hellion. She blasted her fists on her hips. “Ask her to dance.”
    “What? No.”
    Willa’s usually happy brown eyes narrowed to dangerous little slits. “Yes, she’s soft, Easton, yet somehow, she found the courage to come over here and talk to your scary ass. I like her. If you hurt her feelings, I’ll break your fucking leg.”
    He made an angry clicking sound behind his teeth. “You already broke my leg.” And he had the permanent limp to prove it.
    Willa’s eyebrows wrenched upward. “You have two