Page 32 of Bear's Rejected Love

“He deserves a father period, Roan, fucked up or not. You’re an adult. Do I need to repeat what Corbin told you about getting off your self-destroying path and getting your head out of your butt cheeks or are you going to come back with me and keep trying?”

“You don’t need to tell me I’m a child. I already know I have the emotional intelligence of a rock.”

“That’s just an excuse and I’m done with those. You’re coming back with me, even if I have to fight you, even if I have to knock you unconscious and drag you back, and you’re staying. You’re staying as a part of our lives where you can be included and accepted and loved and experience all those emotions for yourself.”

“I don’t think so. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not something I’m giving options for. I’m not taking no for an answer. You’re not leaving me to raise our son alone, now that you know he exists. You’re not abandoning those girls or Honor. You made a commitment to every single one of us.”

God, that growl. She was done playing nice. She was done playing at all.

“I’m sorry, but—”

The bear roaring down on him, growling and snarling and snapping cut him right off. Apparently, Tabitha had been pretty serious about not hearing that no. She got up in his face, charging him, clawing at the air. Her bear was seriously pissed off. The suggestion of him choosing to abandon his son didn’t sit well with her. She refused to believe he was a threat. That wasn’t why she was up in his face.

He ducked as one particularly violent swing took the bark right off the tree above his head. It was either get out of the way or be decapitated. He wasn’t particularly keen on missing half his face.

“Alright!” He yelled, dodging around behind the tree, putting it between him and a bear that he had only ever seen by perfectly and utterly gentle. “Alright, I’ll come back with you.” The bear took another swipe at the tree. He dodged backwards fast. If he didn’t have good reflexes, he might be sans body parts as the bear rounded the side and advanced on him. “Tabitha! Stop! I said I’ll come back with you!”

She kept coming. Growling. Snarling. Showing her teeth. She stood on her hind legs and blasted him with a roar. He had to keep backing up. He didn’t exactly trust her to be gentle. It wasn’t that she was out of control, but she was in full on mother bear mode. Corbin might not be in those woods, but she was fighting for him all the same.

He realized what he hadn’t said. The words were acid on the back of his tongue, but they churned out anyway. “I’ll come back with you, and I’ll stay.”

Her bear stopped. The black nostrils of its nose flared and then it dropped back down to all fours and let out a huff, as if to say see, that wasn’t so hard now, was it? She waited for him patiently, brown eyes soft and liquid.

It was only fair that he shift too, and follow her back to Greenacre.

For once, the right animal came out.

They might be half a day late on the run that they were supposed to take, and how many things could change in just half a day, but they were going to have that run now.

Chapter 13

Tabitha

After they returned back to Greenacre, she’d found Roan a chance of clothes- rather, Kier and Tavish had, and then they’d collected Ora, Helena, Corbin, and Honor from Sam and Lily’s cabin. During the time that they’d been gone, Silver had materialized. She’d walked back to Tabitha’s cabin with them, offering her spare room repeatedly, but Tabitha was firm. Roan and the kids would stay with her until they had a new place ready. Since there were extra cabins, she didn’t see it taking very long.

The cabins might be freshly built, but all the next day, there was a flurry of visitors streaming in and out of the cabin. They offered clothing, food, bedding, toys, baby bottles, furniture, and anything they didn’t have, they offered to go to the city and buy. She was floored by the generosity of the people of Greenacre.

Roan did and said the bare minimum. The girls didn’t seem overly worried that he’d shut down. They’d lived with him for years and were used to his moods. Honor was more than happy to be entertained by all the people coming and going. Corbin was right there in the middle of all the planning. It was doubtful he noticed how somber Roan was. He probably assumed that if his dad was back and he’d returned with her, then things were okay.

The blaze had been put out. It hadn’t spread, thanks to how soaking wet everything was. Sam and the others were putting together a better plan for fighting any future fires. It was a bit of surprise that they didn’t have something more concrete in place given that they lived in the middle of the woods, in wooden cabins, but apparently, they’d never been in the path of any forest fires before and they’d lost very few cabins to fire in the history of the settlement.

She hadn’t had a chance to talk to Roan about the feeling that woke her up in the middle of the night. Thinking back on the timing, she realized that she’d had the dream that she couldn’t remember, or the premonition, or whatever that had woken her up likely as the events were playing out, or even before it happened.

She’d spent at least ten minutes running across town—and in hindsight, it would have been a lot smarter to get in her rattletrap car and drive, and she figured the girls had only been standing on the road for a very short time. Probably five minutes at most.

Lying in bed staring the ceiling down wasn’t going to put her to sleep. Her cabin, which had buzzed all day long with their new guests and half the town popping in, was so quiet and still now. It was only just past ten, but Corbin, the girls, and Honor had been asleep for hours. They were worn out by a sleepless night and a long day of endless action.

Corbin had given up his double bed to the girls. He was sleeping on the air mattress they’d brought with them on the floor. Honor was tucked safely into a playpen that Lily brought over for them almost as soon as they’d left. That left the couch for Roan. He’d refused taking her bed, even though she knew that he was far too big to fit comfortably on any piece of furniture.

She knew he didn’t have his comfort in mind.

He probably wasn’t even sleeping.

Her heart clambered around her chest and her pulse knocked around uncomfortably. She was too filled with adrenaline to sleep, but she was also filled with doubt. Roan apologized to the girls and to Corbin and to everyone else who would hear after he got back. It wasn’t his sincerity she doubted. He was truly sorry. He really believed that he was a danger. And that was why she doubted that he’d stay.

Was he awake even now, planning how he’d just walk out the front door and not ever come back? Was he thinking about how he could cover his tracks so she couldn’t trail him? He had the power of flight, if he wanted it. If he shifted into the owl, he could cover a lot of ground quickly. He could disappear and no one would stand a chance. She’d relied on their mated connection to guide her to him once and that failed. It had taken fifteen years and a lot of talking to the right people to guide her here. If Roan left, she didn’t think she’d get another weird dream warning.

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