Page 114 of Choose the Bears

I only read MF romance, so negotiating more than one mate was something I was unprepared for, though it wasn’t hard toput two and two together. I looked back at the boxes, then pulled free of Kyle, crawling towards them.

“Who bought me the books?” I asked.

“What?”

Kyle stared in incomprehension and I felt a pang of guilt. That was the vibe for this afternoon apparently.

“Who bought all these books?” I opened one box then another, so many more than what I asked for stuffed in there. It made sense that they’d bought so many book cases because there were hundreds, if not thousands, of books inside.

“Luc—”

“Lucas did.” I scrambled to my feet but stopped, feeling like I was torn in two different directions. “Lucas did all this for me.”

“I helped,” Kyle said, then his face fell. “Oh.”

“This was his grand gesture.” We all turned to see Asher standing in the doorway. “This was his attempt to make you feel happy and secure here, Imogen. I was working to keep you safe. Kyle was trying to keep your spirits up, but?—”

“Lucas was making a space for me.”

I made for the doorway, but Asher only moved aside a little.

“And where are you off to?”

“To make it up to him. To let him know how much I appreciate everything he’s done. To tell him…” My throat worked but no sound came out. “To tell him…”

“That he’s enough,” Asher finished for me as he stepped aside. “Go. He’ll be in his room.”

“Wait…”

I felt bad leaving Kyle behind, but I reached out and touched his mind, trying to show him everything I was thinking, feeling.

You need him the most right now, he said carefully down the link.

I need all of you, always. Somehow the mate bond made it so much easier to admit. Why pretend if someone could see straight into your soul?All of you, at all times.

That’s something a man never gets sick of hearing.Kyle’s voice was like a warm hug inside my head and knowing it’d always be there helped settle something within me as I ran down the stairs.

“Everything OK?”Ursula asked as she caught sight of me.

“Lucas? Have you seen Lucas?”

“He went?—”

Her reply was cut off as I followed the direction her finger pointed in and then I moved. Weaving between groups of people, walking past open doors filled with women and children, but not my mate, until I heard the muffled sound of heavy metal music playing at top volume behind one door.

“Lucas?” I knocked sharply on the door. “Luc?” My hand worked the handle, but it didn’t budge. “Lu…”

My voice trailed away as the door was jerked open and in the darkness stood a now shirtless Luc. His chest heaved, brownish fur forming and then fading away as he stared at me, his eyes molten gold as his fangs bared.

“Imogen.” The bear was talking, not the man. “You need to step away.”

“Can’t do that, big guy.”

“Imogen—”

“You see this guy, he bought me a library and you know what happens to little girls that watch Beauty and the Beast?” He shook his head slowly, his face partially transforming before returning back to its human form. “They grow up to be women with lady boners for libraries and the monsters that lurk within them.” I took a tentative step forward and watched his musclestwitch with the effort of holding himself back. “You found all those books for me, Lucas.”

“That’s what you needed,” he growled.

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