Page 104 of Choose the Bears

“Don’t let the prick go anywhere and you’ll… have my eternal gratitude,” I told Rye.

That was a fucking stupid promise to make to a fox. He’d use it, abuse that offer, wringing more from me than the initial favour warranted, but I couldn’t think straight, think smart, when she was standing there. Imogen’s hair formed a loose halo around her head, a little mussed from whatever she was doing before this moment as her eyes searched mine.

“You got it.”

I heard Rye’s voice dimly as I ended the call and moved towards her.

When our fingers touched, when I had her hands in mine, I had to hold myself and the bear back. She caught when fur prickled across my arms, her eyes widening. This was the moment when she’d pull away, when she’d see the claws form and then fade away, confronted by my animal nature. Instead, she shot me this winsome smile and gripped my hands tighter before squaring up to me.

“Where do you need to be in eight hours?”

There was no hiding anything from her, not now. She knew what we were, what I was, and that meant she deserved honesty going forward.

“Coober Pedy,” I told her.

One eyebrow shot up and her focus sharpened.

“Going opal fossicking?” she asked, because the desert town was one of the biggest centres for opal mining in Australia, if not the world.

“Hunting,” I replied, watching her closely for her reaction. She knew what I meant, nodding slowly.

“You want…” She swallowed hard, no doubt remembering the stories Ursula had told her. “You need to… end Phil.”

She understood. That knowledge lit a fire in my chest, warming me down to my bones.

“I have to, Imogen.”

There was a reverence to the way I lifted my hand and stroked the fingers through her hair. Part of me tried to memorise the sensation, right before going back for more. “He can’t walk around in the world hurting women.” She sucked in a breath to argue, but I pushed on. “He can’t be out there fixating on you.”

Her hands went to my wrists, bringing them down to her jaw.

“But he’ll never get within ten feet of me. The three of you? Three massive, fuck-off bears?” Her eyes bore into mine. “None of you will let him touch me.”

I loved her confidence in us, but she didn’t understand. There was no level of risk when it came to her that I was comfortable with. However, when she grabbed my hand and dragged me to my chair and sat me back down into it, I went, especially when she climbed into my lap.

“You’re my fated mates. You’ll always keep me safe.”

Her fingers trailed down the side of my face, tracing the shapes there, then scruffing through my stubble. Her fingers skated over the scar and right when I expected to see revulsion, there was only a gentle warmth in her gaze. It was then I saw what she was doing, stalling, distracting me. It was working because the bear was no longer stamping his paws. Instead, he was calm, still, leaning into her touch as much as I was.

“This place locks up like Fort Knox, doesn’t it? Why don’t you trust what you’ve built?”

I did. Every day I did. We’d had shitty husbands and boyfriends find us before, but our security protocols repelled even the most persistent attempts to get to their victims, so why was this different?

Because I lived every day with the guilt. When Phil attacked Imogen, I was focussed on her, not him, getting him as far away as possible from my mate before attending to her injuries. Then I saw those fucking videos.

Nobody’s daughter deserved to be treated like that, and while I knew it happened every fucking day, right now I could only focus on him. If Phil was dead, his blood on my claws, if he took his last breath staring at me, piss spreading in a puddle under him, then that would be a strike back. For Imogen. For all women. My arms locked tighter around my mate, dragging her closer.

“I trust our security protocols,” I told my mate in a careful tone. “I trust my sleuth, but…”

I had more to say as she twisted in my grip, straddling my hips, yet it all seemed to fade away as she settled back down again. Her scent was warm, thick, and sweet like honey, and it felt like my anger couldn’t exist in the same space as it. The bear looked at me with one sleepy eye, then closed them, leaving just her and me in the room.

“But?”

She smiled then, a wicked one full of confidence, and I loved it. Never had a woman adjusted to becoming a shifter’s fated mate as easily as Imogen did. I was starting to think she needed to put together a reading list to be disseminated by all other bear shifters when they met their mates. Imogen moved her hips slightly, her grin widening as she realised exactly what effect she was having on me. Of course my dick was hardening. It, like me, was eternally at her service, so when she kissed me, I was right there with her. When her lips touched mine, all thought of Phil, of any other man, was driven out of my mind.

There was a wildness to my mate. Her fingers raked along my scalp and then grabbed at my hair, giving it a yank to pull my head back slightly, opening my mouth to hers.

“Shit, sorry!” she yelped, but I just grinned.

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