Page 23 of A Bear's Secret

Lizzy looked at him with wide eyes, then snapped her attention back to her plate. Trevor felt the rage flicker through him, just watching his niece. Sure, with him, she could be a bratty know-it-all sometimes, but she was a teenager. He hated the way she was around his mom, the quiet, meek girl who seemed to shrink into herself.

There were days that he wished she’d died instead of Papa, as awful as it made him feel to wish that. Sometimes he thought about what it might be like if Papa hadn’t died, even though that was a useless thing to wonder about. If Papa hadn’t died, would Trevor’s other two parents still have kicked him out the moment he turned eighteen? Would David and his mates still have died in that car crash, leaving their two kids to Trevor and David’s parents?

If Papa hadn’t died, could he finally tell his family the truth about his mate? That that bear they hated so much was his lover, the person he desperately wanted to spend his life with?

“What are you two doing today?” his mom asked, blithely changing the subject.

“Lizzy has a book report she needs to finish,” he said, giving the teenager a stern look. She made a face, but didn’t argue. “Tim’s out in the workshop with Dad and Scarlet and a few of the guys.”

He didn’t like Lizzy’s little brother being out in the workshop, which was really more of an armory, with his father, sister, and the men of the Ponderosa Pack, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Most days, Trevor’s job was to keep everyone’s head above water. He was pretty sure that without him, they’d all slide under.

“You?” his mom said, her eyes narrowing a little.

“I’ve got some stuff to do,” he said. “I need wolf time. I’m getting twitchy.”

“I could have sworn I saw you come in late last night,” his mom said. She sounded oddly sober for a moment, and Trevor felt his stomach twist inside him. “Or was that some other wolf?”

“Must have been one of the new ranch workers,” Trevor said. He had the horrible feeling that, no matter how drunk she was, he could never quite lie to his mom.

“Ah,” she said. “That must be it.”

In the silence that followed, Lizzy got out of her chair, put her dishes in the sink, and went up to her room.

Trevor said nothing, just washed the breakfast dishes. When he finished, his mom was pouring herself more orange juice. With Lizzy gone, she didn’t even bother to hide the tequila she poured into her glass.

“Be careful out there,” she said. “Someone’s tranquilizing people.”

Trevor couldn’t tell if it was concern or a warning.

Then she walked back out of the kitchen, drink in hand.

* * *

After the barely-hiddenchaos of his house, the woods were welcome solace to Trevor. Lately, he’d been going out there more and more, especially since about half the Ponderosa wolf pack had practically started living on their ranch. They were mostly good guys — they pitched in around the ranch, were nice to Lizzy and Tim, and even brought groceries home without being asked — but Trevor knew why they were really there.

They were there because his father, Buck, needed someone watching him. Six months ago, he’d gotten two of his own pack members killed when he’d attacked a feral bear and then run away, leaving them for dead. Then he’d trapped the feral bear — Austin’s cousin, no less — and kept her for days.

Trevor still felt awful when he thought about it, though he hadn’t known who she was at the time. At the time, he’d been too afraid of his father to let her go, so he’d had to settle for sneaking her food and finally slipping someone else the key to her cage. But now, he wished he’d just done it himself, that the poor girl hadn’t had to go through being locked in a cage for days.

It was too late for all that, though. The best he could do now was to hope that his father didn’t bring everything crashing down around them, and do right by Lizzy and Tim, his brother’s kids.

He found the trail to the overlook without even having to search for it. That was the nice thing about spending a lot of time as an animal: his sense of direction was incredible.

He didn’t know how he was going to work this out with the human girl, though. While Austin had already spent a lot of time with her, Trevor had only learned her name from his mate after seeing her for all of thirty seconds. Even though he trusted Austin utterly, and felt inescapably drawn to her himself, he just wasn’t sure that he could fit her into his life.

After all, he had more going on than Austin did, and he couldn’t even introduce Austin to his family. He wouldn’t let Austin introduce Trevor to his family, even though they were much less likely to react badly. Sure, they wouldn’t be thrilled, but to hear Austin tell it, they’d be so happy he’d found a mate that they would someday overlook the fact that his mate happened to be a wolf instead of a bear.

It was just too much, at least for now.

Let her go, he thought. Let her finish hiking, and maybe we’ll find her again when things calm down a little.

Every molecule in his body protested the idea, but he couldn’t think of a better way. Every path either ended with his parents kicking him out again, leaving Lizzy and Tim alone in their house with no one to watch over them, or things carrying on just like they were now.

His thoughts spun around and around until, finally, he reached the overlook. Trevor sat on a rock to wait, looking out over the valley. From there, the ranches and houses looked so peaceful and perfect, like a painting of idyllic American life.

Trevor sighed and closed his eyes, taking a moment to clear his mind and calm himself down.

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