Page 1 of Bear with Me

Chapter One

Jemma growled as she stomped her way from the back door of the main lodge where the Holloways lived to the edge of the woods that ran through the Wyoming property they called home. She wanted to rage, to scream to the skies. At the same time, she wanted to cry. To empty every caged emotion she’d locked inside since she was thirteen.

Locked away.

Hidden.

It was all she’d known for five fucking years. Trapped in a tiny room where she couldn’t even shift and free her bear. It had been pure hell. One she refused to go back to. No matter how much the Holloways wanted to protect her. She didn’t need that. Freedom was all she needed. Fresh air. The feel of the earth beneath her feet. The ability to shift into her brown bear whenever she wanted. Those were the things that reminded her she was alive. She certainly didn’t need a mate who didn’t want her, who treated her like a child when she hadn’t been one since her family was killed and she was taken.

She ignored the other members of the Holloway den as she wove her way deeper into the woods. She didn’t want to talk, didn’t want to be around anyone.

“Jemma! Wait up!”

She sped up, hoping if she didn’t slow down or acknowledge Helen, the other woman would leave her alone. She’d been close friends with the female shifter since she’d been rescued from the hunters who’d held Helen captive for years. Instead, Helen jogged toward her and fell into step at her side.

“Where you headed?”

Jemma shrugged.

Helen sighed. “Brock?”

Jemma pressed her lips tightly together, holding in all the words she wanted to say.

“Have dinner with Fletch and me tonight,” Helen said. “Milo will be there, but that’s it.”

Fletch and Milo Calderson were polar bear shifters who were part of the Holloway den. Fletch had been the one to save Jemma from that tiny basement room. And he was the one who’d brought her back to the Holloways, the seven brothers she’d been hidden from. Laramie, the oldest and alpha, Koby, Jensen, Declan, Slade, Brock, and Matheus. The Holloways, who’d tried to lock her in a dark, basement room again.

She’d been willing to do anything to prevent that from happening. Even chasing after Laramie Holloway. Really, she’d been chasing her freedom, but no one understood that. They judged her, especially Brock Holloway. Not once had he asked her what she’d been through, what she’d seen, or what she’d suffered. What her nightmares were about. Instead, he stared at her with contempt and condemnation.

That was why she refused to acknowledge what everyone else tiptoed around. Brock Holloway was her mate. A fact that changed nothing.

“I wouldn’t be good company,” Jemma offered, which was nothing but the truth.

“I know what you’re thinking. Don’t,” Helen warned, pulling Jemma to a stop. “Talk to him. Hell, talk to Laramie and Em. They’ll understand. Don’t leave. You’re safer here.”

Em was Laramie’s mate. Though she and Jemma had a rocky start, they’d become friends, as well. Em often took Jemma’s side when she argued with one of the Holloway brothers, even on the very rare occasion it was Laramie.

“Rissa might think differently,” Jemma fired back, shrugging off Helen’s hand and walking again.

Rissa was Slade Holloway’s mate. The woman, along with a visiting tiger shifter, had been taken by a group of hunters, though they’d both been on Holloway land at the time—something that had never happened before. Jemma knew if it could happen once, it could happen again.

“What happened to Rissa isn’t the norm for here, and you know it.” Helen’s voice was right on Jemma’s heels, letting her know Helen wasn’t leaving her alone.

“She was taken from Holloway land, tortured, and almost killed, proving there’s no place safe from these zealots who hunt us. Hunters can get to us anywhere.”

“Jemma.” Helen darted around Jemma and blocked her path, forcing her to stop again. “You know when Slade and the others went after her, they killed every single one of those responsible. We’re safer here.”

Jemma shook her head.

“We are!” Helen growled, showing a flash of the bear she’d just reconnected with. “You may not talk about it, but I know you didn’t have it easy when you were taken and hidden away. But you were hidden away. I was captured, and I spent years in that hell. A hell so dark I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. I didn’t think I’d survive, not when so many of us were dying every day. Then…” Helen paused, shoulders shaking as a shudder went through her. “Then I didn’t want to. I wanted to die. I didn’t care.”

Jemma’s heart caught at the torment on Helen’s face, and she stepped closer, hugging her friend.

“Until you met Fletch.”

Helen nodded. “He’s my mate.”

“He’s a good man,” Jemma agreed. “You’re a lucky woman.”

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