Page 14 of Protected By The Polar Bear

My polar bear whines inside of me. He can’t stand the thought that our mate could leave us. Not when we’ve finally given in and claimed her.

“If she leaves, I won’t be able to live without her,” I say quietly, and all the guys give me a grim look.

“Then don’t let her leave,” Flint says, and I sigh, clapping him on the shoulder as I push to my feet and head for the door.

I head out to my truck and climb in. My polar bear is busy pacing back and forth inside me, and I try to calm him down as we head into town to her place.

I park outside her apartment building and try to give myself a little pep talk as I climb out of my truck and head up the stairs to her place. I can hear her moving around inside and I take a deep breath before I knock.

“One minute!” She calls out, and my polar bear rises to his legs inside me as we wait for her to answer the door.

The door opens, and her smile drops when she sees me standing there. My polar bear paws at me, and I wince.

“Hey,” I start, and she nods.

“Hey. What are you doing here?”

Alright, not off to a great start, but maybe I can turn things around.

“I wanted to talk to you. Could I come in for a minute?” I ask her, and she chews on her plump bottom lip.

My bear growls. He wants us to be the one chewing on her lip, kissing her, touching her, loving her.

Hopefully we will be soon, I tell him, and he nods.

We will, he vows.

“Um, okay,” she says, opening the door a little more so I can come in.

She smells so good, like sugar cookies, and my mouth starts to water. I want to lick her from head to toe, but I can tell from the look on her face that’s not going to happen.

“I wanted to apologize again and try to explain myself better,” I start as we sit down in her living room.

“I already heard your excuses. You’re afraid that I’m going to change my mind and leave you, that I’m going to be fickle with my love because I’m a human instead of a shifter,” she says, and I can hear the hurt and anger in her voice.

My polar bear paws at me, just as angry with me for hurting our mate, and I duck my head.

“I—” I start but she cuts me off.

“No. It’s my turn to talk. You think that I’m the one who is going to leave, but the truth is that you’re the one being wishy-washy about all of this. You’re the one who can’t decide if he wants me or not, who rejected me for months, who finally claimed me and then started to push me away again the next morning.”

“I do want you, Tessa. I always did. I was just afraid that you?—”

“No. Stop. You can say that now, but how can I trust that?”

“I’m your fated mate. I’m a shifter. You’re the only one I will ever want,” I try to tell her, but she shakes her head.

“How can I trust that? If that were true, then wouldn’t you have claimed me long before the other night? Obviously, you can reject me if you want to.”

“Not now that I’ve claimed you.”

Her mouth is in a flat line, and I know this talk isn’t going the way I wanted it to.

“Tessa,” I start, and she shakes her head.

“How can this work? You don’t trust me, and I don’t trust you now.”

I can feel my heart breaking in my chest at her words. My polar bear cries out, howling inside of me so loud that it almost deafens me.

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