Page 139 of Choose the Bears

“Not so sexy fingers after all,” Razor said, slapping me on the shoulder as I walked up to the bar. “Rox, get the man a beer!”

“Already on it.” She appeared then, and if I thought that previous moment of recognition was a gut punch just because it was the first, I was wrong. Her eyes locked with mine, burning me all the way down to the depths of my soul, right before she smiled. “Here you go.” I blinked, forcing myself to focus on the beer, not her. The feel of the bottle, the cool of the condensation, the noise returning to the bar. Anything but her. “A bloke working past his mummy issues? That’s kinda hot, y’know.”

I looked up, wanting, needing to read Roxy’s expression, but she was gone, walking down the bar to serve other customers. Razor noted the way my claws snapped out, digging into the bar with a raised eyebrow, then smirked as he raised his beer in my direction. I tapped my bottle against his and then drank down a long mouthful.

Hours later,I was still on the same beer. Nelly left with some persuasion from the bouncers, so that should’ve had the tension leeching out of my body. It didn’t.

“Thanks.”

My brother settled down beside me on a barstool, his focus ostensibly on the insanity raging around us. People were drunkon beer and spirits, on the victory of today, but who knew what the hangover would be like tomorrow.

“For what?” I asked.

“That shit with Mum.” His elbows came to rest on the bar. “I… I fucking hated you for so damn long.”

“Seems like a reasonable response.” I nodded slowly. “Before I came along, you had a family.”

“Mum always told everyone that would listen that she was tough, that she ‘built a bridge?—’”

“And got over her childhood?” I finished for him, the two of us shaking our heads. “Yeah, I know. Pretty sure if you’re actually over things, you just move on and don’t talk about it all the time. She needed therapy, lots and lots of fucking therapy.”

“But she felt she didn’t when she had you.”

I felt his focus shift to me, and for a moment I resisted the urge to meet his eyes. Probably because when I did, his eyes were full of all of it. Humour, exhaustion, pain, and love, the last one the hardest to see. Because I didn’t deserve it. I’d never deserve it, because as Roxy moved closer, wiping the bar clean, I felt what he must’ve each time he saw Maddie. A terrible burning need to leap over that bar and bury my hands in all that beautiful red hair, making her mine before the whole fucking bar.

“I know. I know, Bjorn.”

“Brother,” he corrected, nodding for me to continue.

“I…” How did I say this? How did I put into words the betrayal I’d committed every fucking day. No wonder why my beast hid deep inside me. Why the hell would he push forward in someone so fucking unworthy? “I fucked up.”

“You have said that a few times before,” he said.

“But I get it now.” His eyes bore into mine. “I get it, and I should’ve before, and I’m fucking sorry. To you, to Maddie, to the guys, everyone.” I shoved myself away from the bar, theshame threatening to bring me to my knees, so I better stay on my feet. “I’ll go?—”

“What’re you intending to do now?” His question was mild. “Go back to Coober Pedy?”

I should say yes. Staying away, living in that arid hell hole, as far from my brother and his happiness as I could get, that was a proper fate for me. Instead, I looked back at him over my shoulder.

“You’ve always been good at knocking heads and…” The doors of the bar were thrust open and a bunch of fox shifters came slinking in, the tension in the room building instantly. “We’re dealing with a lot more trouble here. None of us can spare the time to keep the bar safe for Roxy?—”

“Yes.”

That was my only answer as I marched forward, snatching a pool cue from a bloke about to take his shot, spinning it as I met the fox shifter phalanx head on, just in time for the bouncers to come rushing in sporting bruised faces.

“Evening, fellas. Seems like you’re not welcome here.”

“I’m here for Roxy, not you, bear boy.”

I could tolerate that epithet from Greg and his crew. They demanded my respect and I gave it to them, but this fuck? I took in the narrow face, those green eyes and dark hair, and shook my head, my grip on the pool cue tightening.

“Well, mate, that’s gonna be a problem.”

Chapter 72

Imogen

There’s nothing like coming home as a conquering hero. I wasn’t, of course, since I managed to get knocked out cold in my first fight, but you’d never know it by the crowd that greeted us when we returned from the hospital. I sucked in a breath as we parked out the front of HQ, seeing the masses of people and balloons standing by the door.

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