Page 16 of Bear's Rejected Love

“Would it be like that even if they hadn’t turned you into a—”

“Freak?”

“I was going for a wonder or a marvel of nature.” She swung her basket from side to side absently. “It’s peaceful out here, but it’s nice in town too. You should try gardening. Maybe that’s how you could bond with Corbin. He’s getting into it.”

“Again, that seems more your area of expertise.”

“Oh for goodness sake, Roan. I know you think you should stay away, but you’re wrong. You don’t have this debt to pay to either of us. No matter how many friends Corbin makes, none of them are you. I’ve never tried to force him to change his mind. I wouldn’t betray his trust like that. I try never to lie to him. I’ve just given it time. He hasn’t said anything to me, but I can tell that he would be open, if you’d just give it another chance.”

“You’re either the craziest or the dumbest woman on this earth to be so forgiving.”

Her basket rocked on her arm as she took one step forward, her lips compressing. He shouldn’t have said that, and he didn’t mean it, but she looked more taken aback than angry. “The old Roan I know didn’t insult people, even when they deserved it.”

He wanted to pitch his basket at the nearest tree. He set it down, unwilling to even go near being that childish. He tried to calm himself down, anger made it harder to control the other beings that inhabited his body. “The Roan you knew is so dead and fucking gone.”

“The Roan I knew is standing right in front of me, alive, thank you very much.” Her left eye twitched. “I know why you left, and it had nothing to do with performing a service for the community. You were always running scared. It’s okay to admit it. You were so opposed to feeling anything because people get taken away and your parents died in that accident and left you all alone. I knew that. Everyone in the clan knew it. We were mated anyway. You could have said no, but you didn’t.”

“I didn’t because I knew how you felt!” He roared. “I didn’t want to hurt or embarrass you, even though us agreeing to the whole thing was embarrassment enough, when everyone also knew that you were like a little sister.”

“That is not true. No one thought it was like that. You might have lived with our family and Denver might have been your best friend even before that, but everyone knew we weren’t even step anything. You lived with us for a few years then you went away to college. That created enough distance and space in case anyone had their head backwards on the issue anyway.” She copied him and set her basket down, frowning fiercely. “The past doesn’t change the fact that you’re Corbin’s father, and that you’re still my mate.”

“I didn’t give you a single thing to love about me back then and we’re strangers now. I’m nothing like the man you knew. You want something that we can all do together? I’ll arrange a formal ceremony un-mating us. No rejection, unless you want to formally denounce me first.”

Every nerve ending in his body came alive when she flushed a bright red. All her life, it was nearly impossible to make Tabitha angry. She really was too nice. He’d accomplished it now, and all her life, on the off chance she did get real pissed off, it always looked stunning on her.

“No! This isn’t even our clan. What happened in the past is between you and me.” She gave him the death stare down, daring him to argue.

“Let’s make it formal. Let’s make your freedom real,” he insisted.

“You’re not holding me prisoner,” she shot back.

“You’re doing it to yourself. You need to stop.”

“Would that make you happy? You can’t physically run away from me this time, so this is what you have to do?”

That was as scathing as he’d ever known her to be. He was under her skin in all the wrong ways. Anger might look unnaturally becoming on her, but so did a smile. He’d rather be the one to make her laugh. He’d rather that instead of the heated distance between them, it was his huge body pressed up against her smaller, curvy one.

She took a few steps towards him with graceful confidence. “I don’t accept any of that. You want to be un-mated? You tell me straight up that you do.”

“I want to be un-mated.”

She studied him hard. “You’re such a liar. Wow. Resources on the planet are depleting even as we speak. Don’t waste precious oxygen on words you don’t mean.”

“I do mean it.” He hadn’t planned on doing anything of the sort. That kind of ceremony was sacred, and it was sad and often bitter and painful. She’d never asked him to do it, even now. They could just drop it. He’d left and she could have moved on.

Except, she didn’t.

Except she’d chosen to raise their son without finding someone else to fill the void.

He knew how she’d felt in the past. It was inconceivable that she’d still feel the same way.

Her stare scorched a hole through him. “You don’t. You can’t mean it. That’s just… that would be like the cherry on top of the most unkind cake. You would never do that.”

“Never is a pretty strong word, especially considering I’m the man who abandoned you.”

“So what. That’s over and done with. I keep telling you that. If I’m willing to forgive and move past it, then shouldn’t you embrace that forgiveness and get your head out of your ass? It doesn’t come with strings or expectations. Do you have any idea what it’s costing me to say that right now? I’m willing to move on because of Corbin. When you were in the lab, didn’t you do some soul searching and decide to come home anyway? Why are you trying to shove us away now? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Your forgiving me and trusting me not to screw up Corbin’s life doesn’t make any sense. I’m doing this for the good of everyone. I’m glad you’re here in Greenacre, but you need to stay away from me. Wherever I go, I bring ruin.” And that was the truth of it. It was far better for her and his son to keep away from him. If life had taught him anything, it was that he only brought those he loved trouble.

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