“Spill it.”

“It’s nothing.” She sits up, letting her legs hang over the side of the bed, and looks anywhere but at me. She tries to avoid the question by trying to change the subject. “What are you going to wear?”

Damn, she knows my weakness. Clothes distract me easily, and I let her have this one because I don’t want to push her. Winnie retreats into herself, and that’s not what I want to happen today. We closed the bakery early, and tonight’s about having fun, something I know she needs. I like to go out and have a good time, but Winnie likes to put her nose in a book and forget the world.

“I was thinking a sweater dress with some boots.” Dresses are my favorite, and with summer long gone and the chill of winter getting closer, it’s time to put up the summer dresses and break out something new.

“God, I’d kill to have your legs. I’d wear dresses all the time, too.”

“You can wear dresses,” I snap at her, harder than I mean to, and it makes her flinch. It’s so subtle that I almost don’t catch it. Then she just rolls her eyes at me like I don’t know what I’m talking about.

It kills me when she does this to herself. She’s a beautiful girl, but growing up the last few years around wolf girls probably hasn’t helped. We’re lean by nature; it’s just how we’re all built. I can eat all day, every day and still not add anything to my hips. But the downside is a lot of wolf females are also bitches. I’m not sure if that’s by nature or not.

“Look at Ruby, she’s curvy and Dominic follows her around like a lost puppy. He can’t keep his hands off her.”

“They’re mates”

“What’s your point?” I reach for a dress and pull off the one I’m wearing. I slip on the dark blue sweater dress and grab my boots. I walk over and sit next to Winnie on the bed to slide them on.

“My point is, of course he can’t keep his hands off her.” Winnie says, like she doesn’t like the idea of that.

“The mating heat stops after the full moon. It’s been over and he’s still all over her like a dog in heat.”

Winnie’s face turns red, making me smile. I grab her hand, linking her fingers with mine, wanting to give her comfort. Shifters like human contact, well, wolves do. I don’t know much about bears, Winnie being the only one I’ve ever met, but I’m guessing they like it, too.

“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this but you’re gorgeous. You may not look like the wolf shifter females, but that’s because you’re not one.” She flinches again, but I just squeeze her hand in mine. “You’re a bear, Winnie, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Just remember the things you don’t like about yourself are the same things other women want. I’d kill to have some boobs and ass like you’ve got. Hell, you’d fill this dress out better than me. Bet some of the tourist boys would hit on you if you put this on.”

She always hides behind the baggiest clothes, which make her look bigger than she really is. I don’t know who did this to her ego, but I think it has something to do with the Stockton daughters. Those two bitches are always up to no good.

It doesn’t help that I know they sleep with the human boys who pass through town. Why, I have no freaking clue. Shifters can’t get off unless it’s with their mates, so what’s the point? If you ask me, it seems like the oh-so-perfect Stockton twin sisters have ego issues of their own. If they’re spreading their legs for absolutely no reason except for some male attention, they’ve got problems.

“I guess. Do you think Alpha Stone would think I’m pretty in a dress?”

My eyes almost bug out at Winnie wanting my brother to notice her. Maybe because I have the opposite reaction to him. I avoid him like the plague if I can, hence my moving out into my own place. He’s so overbearing and I don’t get it.

He acts like I run around town hooking up with random guys or something. Sure, I like to go out and have a good time and throw back a few drinks, but that’s it. I’m waiting for my mate.

The thought makes my stomach clench, like it does every time I think about my mate. I thought I’d found him once. I sometimes wonder if I dreamed him up and he was never really here. He told me he’d always watch me. That was a lie. I’ve never seen him since that day. I knew then he wasn’t mine. My question must have scared him when I asked about his own mate. He must have found her, because he never returned to watch me again.

“Hmm… maybe? Stone nags me about my clothes so maybe not.”

Her shoulders slump at my words.

Things start to click together then. Winnie always wants to come over to dinner to my brother’s house, and she’s always asking about him. While he doesn’t even seem to notice her, he did help place her in a home when Dominic found her. Stone keeps tabs on her like he does everyone in our makeshift pack.

I wonder what a wolf and bear mating is like.

“You like my brother?”

“No! I just thought…” Her words trail off and she looks away.

“Thought what?” I nudge her shoulder with mine, trying to get her to talk.

“I don’t know.”

“Is he your mate?”

“No!” she squeals, and it’s the loudest she’s ever been.

“Okay, okay,” I say, holding my hands up. “Let get to the fair before all the good food is gone.”