Page 10 of Bear's Rejected Love

“I- I really didn’t even know that was a thing, but of course that would be. After my parents died, I made my brother promise to take Corbin if anything ever happened to me.”

“Your parents are…” His stomach heaved. That was a sucker punch he hadn’t seen coming.

“Yeah.” Her face hardened, but her eyes filled with tears. She’d always been tough as they came, but so soft too. She was eloquent, graceful, big hearted, kind, but try messing with her? That was a big no. She didn’t let anyone get away with anything. No one could bully Tabitha Catherine. “A few years ago. Dad went first, then mom. Health stuff.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I know, Roan. I know you loved them. I should have told you a different way instead of just blurting it out. I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

She hadn’t done it on purpose. She would never stick knives in him no matter what he’d done to deserve them. He patted Honor’s back and tried to get the world to stop spinning and reeling.

“I got taken. Put in a lab. I was there for years. They did all sorts of experiments on me. You shouldn’t want me around Corbin. I’m not even a bear anymore, after what they did.”

Her face went bloodless. She stopped walking and this time, tears flowed down her cheeks, “What? When?”

“It was years ago, I got out just over three years ago, me, the girls, and a panther shifter called Silver.” His heart was racing but he felt icy cold.

“I don’t know what to say. I can’t even begin to imagine—”

“It’s over now,” he said firmly. Inside his emotions were surging, but outside he knew his face was unreadable.

“I’d say how sorry I was you had to go through that, but I won’t, because the Roan I know would never want anyone to feel bad for him.”

“Who wants to be pitied, especially as a man?”

“What does what happened in the lab have to do with Corbin?” She closed in and her hand reached out. His heart pounded frantically. He wanted to spin away until he realized she was just reaching to stroke Honor’s back.

She was too close, but he couldn’t step away and just jerk the baby back from her like she had some kind of plague. He’d hurt her for years by leaving. She was a rejected mate and everyone in the clan knew it, and then she raised his son, basically alone. Her parents were gone, the clan had fractured. She was out there in the world, working her ass off, doing the best she could.

And he’d been such a clueless prick that whenever he’d thought about Maine before the lab, he’d felt relieved that he was far away from there.

“Did they cut out your ability to be a good man at that place?”

“Hard to cut out what was never there.”

She rolled her eyes and his stomach fluttered painfully. She had huge, gorgeous eyes. She was too close. She smelled like vanilla and ginger and the spearmint gum she chewed. “Corbin doesn’t hate you, you know. He’s probably a little bit angry, but what kid isn’t? His whole world changed coming here. He might not be sure he needs you, but I’m sure that he does. You don’t have to be a dad. I thought you could just be a friend. The girls living with you—they’re a similar age?”

“Yes,” he admitted through a tone of gravel. “Fourteen and fifteen.”

“Exactly the same age then.” Her lips twitched. “How ironic that life gave you children when you didn’t want them. You didn’t want a family, and you got one anyway. They chose you, even if you wanted to run from them too. And they’re the same age as our son.”

“That’s not- they like other people here just fine. They only wanted to live with me because they got attached to me in the lab. We went through that together. They see me as someone who understands and knows what happened without them having to go through all the details. I’ll always keep them safe.”

“Sounds a lot like what someone does for someone else when they care very much about them.” She nodded at the baby. “They don’t need to be your blood to be your kids.”

Jesus. She was so perfectly made, so tiny and curvy and womanly. She didn’t have a single imperfection that he could see, she was brilliant and quick-witted. She still didn’t take any shit. She looked him up and down and looked like she’d decided right there that he could be the world’s biggest douchebag and she didn’t care. She still wasn’t taking no for an answer.

“It’s great they’re similar ages,” she went on, letting the weight off that bruise she’d pressed against. “I think he needs some friends his own age who aren’t into tagging other people’s property, stealing things, smoking and drinking, and home tattoo kits.”

“Are you serious?”

“He doesn’t have any ink yet, thank goodness.”

He shook his head. “I didn’t realize it was that bad.”

“No. Because you didn’t know about him. You’ve been here, in this paradise, and before that you were… you were not in paradise. You were in a prison. Did you at least enjoy the years of freedom you had after leaving the clan?”

There was no answer for that question that wouldn’t tear her apart, but she wanted him to be honest. That was always what had made Tabitha so dangerous. Not only was she irresistibly beautiful, she was so down to earth and kind that it made her easy to talk to. Entirely too relatable. She could take even the most feral beast and earn its trust. She could make that beast see how lovable she was. She could make that beast make a mistake and think he could have that for himself when he was the last person who deserved it.

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