Page 20 of Make Me Bleed

Bridget will die. One day, she’ll be a memory, and I’ll live on. I knew that going into our friendship, but she’s not even thirty human years yet. Now that she’s bonded to Conall, her lifespan will match his.

And if I take Hank as my beloved, his will match mine.

“When a vampire bonds with their mate, the exchange makes our partner as immortal as we are. I can live without him. But Hank? If I die, so will he.”

“Whoa.” Bridge leans back in the seat. “Heavy.”

Not so much. I mean, I have no intention of dying, and if I do agree to be Hank’s true mate, he’ll do everything he can to keep me safe. Like I said, that’s how they’re wired.

“Okay, then. You found your mate… and it’s abear.”

“Yes,” I say, deadpan. “Thank you for reminding me.”

A bear with a Southern drawl who lives in a cave out in the woods being the fated mate to a coddled vampire whose idea of camping out is lying on my couch in the heated cabin, watching a streaming show on the television in the living room…

“So. What’s got you so tightened up?” She scrunches her face, closing her body up, mimicking my pose. “He said he could smell your fear. Conall could, too. What’s up, Elise?” Relaxing again, Bridget gives me a knowing look. “Is it the cave?”

Surprised, I look at her. “How did you guess?”

“I didn’t guess. I could tell. You face,” she adds. “You’re already super pale, but you lost all your color when he mentioned bringing you home. Since he doesn’t live in Dyea, and Conall said he knows him from the woods, I thought about where a bear might make his den. Not the underground caves, since I would’ve known that after all the time I spent down there with Conall. But there are a couple above ground. He told me we might have to check them once, but we never had the chance.” She rubs her thumb over the orange crystal hanging off the chain around her neck. “Then we didn’t need to.”

I sigh. “Well, you’re absolutely right. I saw the cave. He was sleeping on a rock just outside it. If he thinks I can go there…”

“So? Don’t.”

“What?”

“You heard me. He seems to accept you pretty readily as his mate. Use that. Let him know that Elise van Duren isn’t sleeping with him on the floor of the cave or however it is the bears sleep. You have a house. He might brush his head against the ceiling, but he’ll fit. Tell him that if he wants you, he comes to you.”

How can I tell that to a dominant male shifter who came after me one, thenleft?

When I stay quiet, Bridget asks, “Is that it? Is that the only thing holding you back?”

She’s serious again, and I give her question a good amount of contemplation before I look at her, lost.

“I don’t know.”

“I get it, Elise. I do. And no one is saying you have to rush into mating. I mean, I did once I knew I was meant for Conall and pulled my head out of ass, accepting he was the one for me. But you… maybe you should figure that out.”

Maybe I should.

I staywith Elise until Conall returns, admitting that he lurked just behind Hank, watching to make sure that the bear returned back to the deeper part of the wild where I stumbled upon him.

I’m not surprised that he did so. After all, he’s the head of security in Dyea. And while he mentions his suspicion that Hank was able to breach the borders because the boundary spell recognized that he was my mate following after me—another point in the ‘he’s mine’ column—he still has to keep the rest of the town’s safety in mind. Especially now that Hank is a bear shifter who is apart from his mate, Conall wanted to make sure he keeps his distance.

And if Bridget hugs her mate, showing him gratitude for protecting her friend at the same time, I avoid the searching stare Conall shoots me over her head.

Now that I know Hank’s gone for the moment, I decide it’s time to go home. Of course, Bridget offers to walk me home. Conall joins us, eager to be near his mate again after she booted him from their home. Walking just behind them, I’m quiet until I say my soft goodbyes, then let myself into my house.

I take a shower. Change into my pajamas. Drink a glass of water out of habit because, for the first time in months, I… I’m actually not thirsty. Hank’s blood is still flooding through me, and if I don’t know how to think about that, that’s fine. I just curl up on the couch, grab my remote, and start mindlessly scrolling through one of my streaming apps.

I lose track of time after that, lost in thought as I am. The mate bond keeps pulling at me, almost like Hank himself is calling me to him. I try to shove it away, doing my best to ignoreit, but when my mind is consumed by the memory of his deep voice and that sexy drawl, it’s tough.

Which is why, when the sensation that someone is lurking near my house, I can’t help but think that the bear shifter has returned to Dyea. It worries me that my first instinct is to run to him. I mean, we just met.Justmet. I shouldn’t want him to disregard my confusion and follow me. That’s what made me grow to wish I’d never met Peter… and, yet, I rise up from the couch, tiptoeing toward the window, and pull back the curtain.

A silhouette stands beneath the half-moon peeking through the dark clouds up above.

For a split second, I inexplicably hope that it is Hank. Only for a split second, though, as I realize that the figure is too short, too slender to be my bear.

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