Page 12 of Bear's Rejected Love

“I mean it. You’re beautiful. I know you probably think you look old, but screw that. All my friends thought you were super-hot. They’d joke about it all the time and I’d always have to threaten to kick their asses.”

“That’s not exactly welcome information, but thank you. Also, do you swear in school? I hope you just do that here. I mean, I’d like you not to do it at all, but…”

“I don’t swear there. I save it all for you. When I’m out of the house, I just hurl insults around in my head. I have a back-and-forth conversation, perfecting the perfect comebacks.”

“Oh my god.” She walked over and cupped his face. “Sweetheart, no.”

“Don’t worry. They’re all directed at him.”

“Him, being your dad.”

“Him, being the guy who donated DNA to make me and doesn’t deserve that title.”

“You know that he—”

“Yeah.” He made an eyeroll look like a twenty second artform. “I know that he didn’t know about me, but he knew about you and that’s enough for me to hate him.”

“There are things you don’t know. Things I don’t even know. Roan’s parents died when he was young. He came to live with my family—”

“I know his history. The fact that he was raised by grandma and grandpa only makes it worse. He was best friends with Uncle Denver. He abandoned all of you.”

“Roan and me becoming mates was forced on us. What the alpha chose, you rolled with. We might never have thought of each other as brother and sister, but when two people are forced together, it doesn’t always work out. That doesn’t make someone a bad person. He thought he was doing the right thing by leaving.”

“He humiliated you. Everyone knows when a mate is still alive, you can’t choose someone else. You were never truly free to live your life, but he probably said that was his intention. He probably thought you’d move and be happy, blah, blah, blah. He sounds like a selfish, epic asshole to me.”

She pinned Corbin to the door, a hand at either shoulder. “Your father was taken against his will and put in a lab. They did horrible things to him there. Things I don’t even know the extent of. I don’t know how long he was there or—”

“Good!” Corbin blurted. He raised his wrist, but not to make a fist. He thrust his watch into her face. “In case you didn’t notice, he’s also half an hour late and the sandwiches you spent hours making are getting dried out and sweaty.”

“I don’t think they can be both at once,” she said, putting on a brave face.

“The meat is sweating. The bread is dry.”

“Touche.” Jesus, Roan. Where the hell are you?

She actually believed that he’d come. She trusted him when she had half a lifetime of experience that told her not to put an ounce of faith in him. What was wrong with her? She felt telling Corbin about the lunch was the right thing to do. She’d had to convince him about it in the first place.

“He has a baby. When you have a child that young, you’re never on time.”

“You were probably always on time.”

“I had help when you were young. I lived with the clan.”

“He has two girls my age. They’re the most mature people I’ve ever met. It’s actually freaky. You’d think they’re snobby, but they’re not. They’re perfectly nice…” He trained off, getting slightly red, but only on the bridge of his nose. It was the oddest spot but for some reason, it gave away her son’s emotions every time. “They’d look after the baby.”

“I think he’s teething. He might be miserable. Babies get bad tummies when they teeth, or fevers and he’s not going to thrust that on teenage girls who need to be kids and not unpaid babysitters.”

“Okay then, he could have sent someone over here. Or called. You’re going to have to face it.” He twisted away from her, but grabbed her hand and clenched it tight. She was always shocked by how big his palms were. When had they gone from curling around one of her fingers to this man-sized grip with all that strength behind it? “He’s just a man who you shouldn’t put any faith in. We’re here and he’s here and we have to live with that, but he deserves zero respect from you. You can stop thinking about him now. You can put that search to rest. I know you still feel something, but you should crush it. I’m sorry that you put hope in him and that you’ve kept it burning all these years. He didn’t deserve it.”

Holy. Shit. When had her son turned into a man in general, never mind the firm handshake? In the city, he’d gone running wild, and she was worried he was all gangly teenager and rocketing hormones, but even in a body that was still in between boyhood and manhood, he was wise. She hadn’t seen that from him in Maine.

“Come on.” He brushed his hands up and down her arms like she was cold. “Let’s put the food away.”

One thing was true. Hope was a dangerous emotion. She was still stupidly clinging to it. Everything else her son put out there was also true. She did still feel something. Roan was the first boy she’d ever had a crush on. He was the first man she’d loved. First. And. Only. She’d always been stupid for him. It never really went away with time.

Fuck. That.

Not fuck her feelings, but fuck letting Roan do this. He promised he’d come, and she was going to go over there and get a reason. She knew where he was now. He couldn’t run from her this time.

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