Page 27 of Chosen By The Grizzly

And if you don’t want to end up with your heart broken, that’s how you’ll remember it.

But it’s too late, because the truth is, I’ve fallen for him already. And the thought of being apart from him hurts my heart—

Bang!

There’s a sound like a door smashing back against a wall.

Without stopping to think, I head out of the bedroom, and down the corridor to the living room.

Jason is not there, or in the kitchen. But the front door is swinging open.

I run to it and stare out at the wilderness. A cold, lonely breeze is blowing into the cabin, but there’s no sign of him.

He’s left me here.

Guess he realized yesterday was a mistake and he wants to get away from me.

* * *

Jason

My bear is tearingthrough the forest, out of control. It bust out of me in an uncontrolled shift, and now it’s snorting and foaming at the mouth.

But the blood running through my veins feels like ice. That darn video. What I would give to have it disappear from the Internet. My agent tried to have it taken down, but it keeps popping up, again and again.

I wanted to be the one to tell her. I was planning to take her in my arms and explain it all. After yesterday, I wasn’t worried that she’d look me up and find that awful thing.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!My beast tips back its head and bellows out its pain into the trees.

She was deeply asleep when I left her, and I’d almost finished preparing her breakfast. Never occurred to me she’d wake up and start googling.

She doesn’t trust me. That must be it. She must’ve seen something, or maybe I said something that made her doubt me. And now she’s gonna hate my guts.

My beast runs on and on, churning up the ground with its lethal claws.

I wasn’t planning to charge into the wilderness, but it freaked out. It couldn’t stand the thought that I was going to lose her.

Stop, goddamnit!Finally, I get ahold of it. Its claws dig into the earth and it stands still, trembling and snorting.

She’s my mate, and she trusts me. I know it, deep in my bones.

Someone must’ve sent her the video. That’s the only thing that makes sense. And I don’t have to scour my thoughts to figure out who that might be.

I rip a one-eighty and run hell for leather back to the cabin.

* * *

I’m stilla hundred yards away when I see that the front door is wide open.

Was it me who left it that way?

I guess I must’ve.

But what’s that, off to the side? I peer through the dense pines. Something white, fluttering in the breeze. My heart pounds.

I close up the distance in seconds. Soon, I’m sprinting up the stairs to the deck, and there she is, hanging over the wooden rail, gazing wistfully at the forest, wearing nothing but a white shirt. My shirt. When she catches sight of me, she gasps and presses her hand to her chest. Her eyes dart over my beastly features.

Then she relaxes.

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