Page 32 of Saving Meri

Meri’s fingers curled against the counter, her nails biting into the smooth surface. “I don’t want…”

“You do,” he interrupted. “You want it and you need it. Moreover, you know it. And since you won’t admit it, I’m going to give it to you, anyway.”

She clenched her jaw. But he was right, and they both knew it.

Bear released her throat and stepped back, his presence no less commanding from the small distance he gave her. “From now on, you follow the rules I set. You eat when I tell you to. You sleep when I tell you to. You listen when I tell you to. No more games, no more picking fights to feel something.”

Her heart pounded against her ribs, but it wasn’t fear. It was something far more dangerous. Something she didn’t want to admit to.

“You disobey,” Bear continued, “and there will be consequences.”

Meri’s breath caught, her fingers tightening against the counter. “What kind of consequences?”

His gaze darkened, voice dropping to something rough and final. “The kind you crave.”

Heat licked down her spine, sharp and undeniable.

Bear tilted his head slightly, watching her reaction with quiet authority. “Say ‘no’ if you don’t want this.”

She should have. The word was right there on her tongue, so easy to grab. But instead, she whispered, “I don’t know how.”

Bear’s expression didn’t change. “Then I’ll teach you.”

She hated how much she wanted that.

Bear reached for her wrist, his grip firm but careful. “Come here.”

Meri hesitated, just long enough for the war inside her to scream in protest. But then she stepped forward, into his space, into his control.

Bear’s lips brushed her temple. “Good girl.”

The words sent something sharp through her chest. Something terrifying. Something freeing. She was falling. She had been falling since the moment he’d pulled her from that auction.

And Bear? He was the only one strong enough to catch her.

The floor-to-ceiling windows cast long streaks of moonlight across the hardwood, the city glittering beyond the glass, but itfelt too far away. Too distant. The warehouse had been cramped, cold, and industrial, but familiar. This was something else entirely. This felt permanent.

Bear had barely left her side since they’d arrived, watching her with those sharp, knowing eyes, waiting. For what, she wasn’t sure. Maybe for her to break. Maybe for her to run. Maybe for her to admit that she had no idea how to exist anymore in a world where she wasn’t constantly preparing for battle.

She hadn’t stopped moving since she’d walked inside. Every time Bear turned his back, she found something to do—rearranging things that didn’t need rearranging, pacing from one side of the loft to the other. She could feel the restraint in her limbs, the need to lash out just to prove to herself that she was still fighting.

She didn’t want to need his control, but she did.

"Sit down, Meri," Bear ordered from across the room, his voice calm but firm.

She ignored him, walking to the window instead, pressing her palm against the cool glass.

"I said, sit down."

She clenched her jaw. "I don’t take orders."

"Yes, you do," he countered, the slow, deliberate sound of his boots crossing the floor filling the silence. "You just don’t like that you need them."

Her pulse kicked, heat curling low in her belly. He was too close now, his body behind hers, heat radiating from him like a furnace.

"You’ve been picking fights all night," he murmured, his breath ghosting over her ear. "You don’t like the quiet. You don’t like that no one’s coming for you. So you push me, because you need something to push against."

She gritted her teeth, but she didn’t deny it.

---