Page 4 of Bear with Me

He glanced up and found Matheus standing in his path. Just who Brock needed. His younger brother, Jemma’s number one supporter.

“What has you so lost in thought, brother?” Matheus asked then smirked. “Or should I say who?”

“Don’t start,” Brock ordered with a sigh.

“Did big brother finally order you to get your head out of your ass and mate you mate?”

“She’s not my mate.” He said the words, but they suddenly felt wrong on his tongue.

“She wasn’t drugged like Xandra was, but Jemma wasn’t allowed to shift once the entire time she was hidden away,” Matheus told him as he began walking beside Brock.

“What?”

Xandra was their brother Declan’s mate. She’d been held by Lawrence Walker, the elder who betrayed them. He’d drugged her to keep her bear suppressed and make it easier to control her. He’d also threatened to give her twin sisters, Sidia and Jaeda, to the hunters he was working with.

“Jemma wasn’t drugged, but the room she was kept in was tiny. She couldn’t shift. She had a cot and a lamp and not much else. A thirteen-year-old girl locked away for five years. Do you remember what we were doing at thirteen? I’ll tell you. We were balls of energy that mom would kick out of the house, ordering us to go run it off. Jemma had nothing and no one.”

“How do you know this?” Brock asked quietly.

“Because I listen,” Matheus replied with a cutting look. “Because I pay attention to the way she trembles when you threaten to lock her up. I see the uncertainty in her gaze when she’s around too many people. I see the look on her face when she stands under the trees and the breeze blows over her skin. I think she’d sleep outside if she thought she could get away with it.”

Brock stopped, turning and facing his brother. “Are you in love with her?”

Matheus laughed. “She’s your mate or she’s not. If she is, claim her. If she’s not, then you have no right to comment on another man’s interest.”

“Matheus,” he growled.

“I like her. More importantly, I see her. She’s more fragile than you realize, and if you push too far, you just might shatter something you can’t fix.”

Brock shook his head. Jemma? Fragile?

“Also, think about this,” Matheus continued. “Even when she chased Laramie, it was your scent that comforted her. Your sweatshirts and jackets she grabbed. You she looked for when she entered a room. Fear makes people do things they might not do otherwise. And, honestly, you never gave her a reason to look your way, instead. Hell, even I could see she was desperate for a sense of belonging, of never having to fear being locked away again. What did you offer?”

“What did Laramie offer?” Brock demanded.

“That’s something you should ask her.”

“She’s…” This time, he couldn’t finish the rest of the denial. “She makes me so crazy.”

Matheus laughed. “Have you seen our mated brothers? Or Holt? Lord, do you remember when Jaeda claimed him as her mate.”

Brock laughed, feeling some of the tension easing from his frame. Jaeda had thrown the former Marine when she’d said he was her mate. It had been amusing to watch the human male fall for his little black bear mate. She’d flipped his world upside down, but looking at them now, Brock knew Holt wouldn’t change anything. Then Koby, the second of the seven Holloway brothers, had mated Jaeda’s twin sister, Sidia. Declan had fallen for Xandra. Laramie had fallen hard and fast for his mate when she’d arrived to seek protection for herself and little Ruby, who turned out to be the daughter of Malachi Blackstone, the brother of Xandra, Sidia, and Jaeda. He’d gone to Washington to check into the possibility of another den of bear shifters. He’d met his mate, who happened to be Em’s cousin. Unfortunately, his mate had died while giving birth to Ruby. Then Slade, the fifth brother, had fallen for Rissa, who’d followed Em from Washington to Wyoming.

More recently, Brock had been there when Fletch Calderson had found his mate, Helen, during one of their rescues. Fletch had known before he even saw her. He’d said her scent called to him immediately. He’d told Brock that if the attacks on the Holloway den had taught them anything, it was to grab onto every moment of joy life offered and there was nothing more sacred to a bear shifter than their mate.

“It might be too late,” Brock admitted. Hell, he’d done everything he could to chase her away.

“It’s not,” Matheus said, sounding more confident than Brock felt.

“She’s so young.”

Almost ten years younger than Brock. And according to Matheus, she wasn’t just young but had yet to experience much of life. She’d spent five years basically caged. How did he turn around and lock her to him? Because if he mated her, she’d never be far from his side. He’d always known he’d be a possessive bastard, even for a bear shifter. There was a darker side to him, a dominant one he wouldn’t be able to repress if he took her. She was young, naïve, untouched. He’d rather have her hate him than fear him.

“She can handle you,” Matheus said. “All of you.”

“I’m not so sure,” Brock admitted.

Before he could say anything else, a scream split the air.

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