Page 33 of Bear's Rejected Love

It was important that he stay for the kids, but that wasn’t the only reason.

She wanted him to stay.

Not because the universe ordained it, but because she just wanted him to.

It was impossible to stay in bed once her mind started freaking out, spinning in circles. She climbed out of bed and walked quietly to the living room. She nearly let out a scream when she saw that it was empty.

“Roan!”

The front door cracked open, nearly giving her a heart attack. Roan stuck his head in. He didn’t look the least bit amused. There was no sparkle to his eyes. He looked dead on the inside and dead on the outside. “No need to wake the dead. I’m just sitting outside. I needed a breath.”

She wasn’t going to let him sit out there alone. She didn’t trust him to keep his word—not when things were no doubt still so raw.

She didn’t need a sweater or a jacket, even though the nights chilled off a surprising degree from the daytime heat. There were the regular amount of insects buzzing around the porch outside, attracted by the light of the windows and the heat close to the door. In the distance, they sounded so much more pleasant. The crickets, the calls of nightbirds, and the soft sound of the wind in the trees made for a nicer song than the whine of mosquitoes up close.

Roan sat down on the porch steps. He looked out at the woods with so much longing that it enraged her and fairly broke her in half. She’d been ashamed that as a bear, she’d taken swipes at him, but she knew he had good reflexes. She knew she wouldn’t hit him. She’d needed to show him how serious she was. Alright, so maybe there was a little bit of frustration venting for the past, oh, lifetime that she’d spent searching for him. She wasn’t going to let him disappear without one hell of a fight.

She wasn’t going to let him walk away from her or their family again.

Their. Family.

The girls and Honor weren’t hers, but they were his, and they shared Corbin, and that made them all family, didn’t it? That’s what she meant in her own head, wasn’t it?

“I know you’re in pain. I know this is hard.”

“Goddamn it, Tabitha, I almost killed three people the other night. Anyone else could have been hurt putting out that blaze. You and Corbin could have run straight into it if you hadn’t seen the girls on the road.”

“We can’t play the coulds and almosts game. It’ll just make us crazy.” She swallowed hard. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I had a… some kind of warning last night. I was sleeping and something woke me up. I yelled and Corbin rushed into my room. It was him who asked me about a connection between mates. It was something he heard my mom of all people say when he was little. I would have figured it out, but I might have been a few minutes later than I was. Whatever that feeling was, it got me over there. Fast. It woke Corbin up and he went for help. We’re still connected, you and me, in some way, whether you like it or not.”

“Maybe it’s this place. It’s fucking weird here. Haunted or something.”

“Or maybe there’s more to the mating thing than we ever gave it credit for. Everyone always said there was.”

“And everyone else had a real relationship with their mates.”

“It doesn’t matter what our relationship was or what it is now. I always cared about you. We have Corbin, who we made together. He’s half of each of us. Maybe that’s enough.”

“Tabitha…”

“Don’t.” She put up a hand, dropping down on the step beside Roan. He had to pull in his leg to make room for her. He didn’t want to touch her, but then why did he suck in a breath? Maybe he hadn’t. Maybe she’d heard something that wasn’t even there. She’d done that in the past. Fabricated feelings where they didn’t exist on his part, the first time around.

Hadn’t she?

“I’m sorry that I had to give you tough love in the woods. I needed you to hear me.” That empty, aching feeling of loneliness stole over her. She wasn’t alone here, but for the past few years, she had been. She’d been without him, and the thought of him just flying off still sent shockwaves of panic spearing through her like weapons on a battlefield.

“I heard you when you nearly took my face off,” he said wryly.

She was shocked for a second, then saw the ghost of a smile. “Oh. I don’t know if I’m sorry for that or not. I never would have. It was just an empty threat.”

“I know that.”

“You came back anyway.”

“I didn’t think I had another choice. Threat or warning shot, you got my attention. Truth is, I don’t want to leave. I don’t want to find another place to carve out as my own. I don’t want to feel so hollow all the time. Also truth? I don’t want to feel hopeful. Hope makes a person stupid.”

That had been true for her once. Maybe for both of them. But the larger truth was that Roan had never been able to see past the cloud of black hanging over his horizon. It was always there for him, closing in whenever the sun threatened to peek out. It wasn’t her job to save him. He needed to save himself. She’d told herself that in the past and had still messed it all up anyway. She’d offered friendship and that had gone too far. Just the one night, when everything exploded, the first time the world had been set on fire between them. She’d had the best intentions and the outcome had still been all wrong.

“I thought you were gone,” she admitted. Might as well tell him the shameful truth. “I thought you’d be gone the second I turned my back. That you were just waiting for the right time to leave. I know that you think the girls would be fine. Honor too. Corbin, because he has me.”

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