1 Chapter 1

Bjorn Ritter exited his bungalow on Bayside Row and glanced up and down the narrow neighborhood road. A few more days and the leaves would shield his small, lush garden from prying eyes—and there were prying eyes.

Bear streets were terrible, but his mother had insisted he’d stay in the area. In this case, ‘the area’ meant Bayside Row which was where he’d grown up, where all his cousins, second cousins, third cousins, and some who weren’t any kind of cousins, but had ended up being part of the Bayside Bear Community anyway, lived.

It wasn’t an official community. Humans believed it to be a coincidence that everyone living on Bayside Row, Cherry Street, and Ridge Road were huge, towering, grunting people with no sense of privacy. Even the women were six feet tall, had broad shoulders and strong arms.

He stepped out on the sidewalk and waved at Nita Wilson, who opened her front door simply to watch him go to his car.

Her eyes and mouth narrowed at the same time. “Are you gonna meet your mother dressed like that?” She crossed her arms over her chest, her wide shoulders tensing.

Bjorn looked down at himself. His jeans hung low on his hips, his T-shirt tight enough so anyone who cared to look could see the ridges of his abs, but he was clean, and he’d made an effort to pick a pair of jeans without holes in them.

“I was planning on it, yes.” He scowled as Ursula Zimmerman came out to stand on the doorstep of the house next to Nita’s.

“Is he going on a date dressed like that?”

Clutching his keys, Bjorn hurried around his car and yanked the door open. Nosy fucking bears

“No, he blew off the last one. The youngest daughter of the Boris family. It’ll cause quite a stir.” Nita chuckled disapprovingly. “A Boris rejected! It’s gonna take a lot of sucking up to amend.”

Ursula groaned. “That boy will be the death of us.”

“Maeve will set him straight.”

Bjorn dived into the car, almost hitting his head in the process. The dented old Toyota wasn’t built for people who were six-five. But again, his mother had insisted on him taking it over when she’d gotten herself a new car. He glared at the women still talking about him and turned the key.

Yes, he had blown off Nikita Boris. Yes, her father, Igor Boris, would be furious. Yes, Igor would do what he could to tarnish the Bayside bears’ reputation. But he would not be set straight. Straight was not in the cards for him.

He hadn’t fucking asked to be set up on a date. He had told his mother over and over again that if she wouldn’t give up on finding him a mate, then she should at least search for someone who wasn’t a woman. But being gay was not okay in the shifter community, and Maeve Ritter would not have a homosexual for a son.

Bjorn sighed. At thirty-six, you’d think his mother would give up. But nope, she mourned the grandchildren he hadn’t given her—mourned!How the fuck could she mourn something she’d never had? He slammed his palm against the steering wheel as he took a right turn toward the city. She lived two houses down the street and yet she demandedhe come to the city to meet her at her office.

He had to move.

Living away from Bayside had never been something he’d considered, but while he liked his little house, he couldn’t take everyone meddling in his life anymore.

There had been a great disturbance on Bayside Row a few years ago when he’d refused to work in the hotel business, as if choosing another profession betrayed his race. He was perfectly happy running his small, cozy coffee shop. It would never make him rich, would never bring him fame, but he went to work with a smile on his lips every morning. So why should he care if every bear he’d ever known sneered as soon as they were talking work?

He tried not to let it affect him, but it still stung. So, he’d never rule an empire or a hotel chain, but he was happy. Wasn’t that what mattered?

All he wanted was a normal life, a human life. He looked at his employees—all human—and he wanted their lives.

Nova, his younger sister, had gotten pregnant in college and married a human. Big disgrace for the family, but Bjorn envied her every day of the week, except on Sundays.

They still had to attend Sunday dinner, and the almighty Maeve Ritter did nothing to hide her disappointment in Nova’s choice of man. But Sunday dinner was the only obligation Nova had. Monday through Saturday she got to live in a house downtown, with a husband she loved and two adorable children. She could do whatever she wanted.