Page 9 of Fearless Bond

Then my stomach growled, so I focused on my food. Hunger without constant underlying nausea was a welcome novelty. It had been a while since I’d been just plain hungry and felt like I could eat more than a few nibbles at a time. Toast had never tasted this good.

After polishing off his plate, Barclay laid his fork aside. “Do you have someone who could pick you up?”

I wasn’t even halfway through my portion. I chewed quickly so I could answer.

“Your parents? Other family?” he pressed.

“I… no.”

“No?”

“If I tell my father, he will only send my ex for me. He was very much in favor of my relationship with Damian.”

“The asshole endangered your life. That should be enough to convince any reasonable parent that you’re better off without him.”

How to explain years of family toxicity to a stranger? “My father won’t believe me.”

Barclay straightened in his chair. “That’s fucked up.”

I snickered. Yeah, that explanation would do nicely. “I guess. I have a friend I can call, but he’s on the West Coast now and works late. He usually sleeps until lunch. I should wait a fewhours before I call him. Is there a hotel in Beauville?” Not that I had any money on me, but my friend Laure would help me with that.

“There’s a B&B. The guy who runs it is a friend of mine, but I think they’re full this week. A wedding or something.”

“Oh. Um. And someplace else? In a neighboring town perhaps?”

Barclay let out a snort. Did he ever smile? “What neighboring town? It would take me at least two hours to drive you to Green Peaks in this weather. That is, if they don’t close the pass. You’re staying here.”

“I would hate to be a bother.”

“As long as I don’t have to run around the forest looking for your frozen ass, we’re good.”

“I’ll talk to Laure, my friend, and I’ll be out of your hair as soon as possible.”

For some reason, his eyes got sad. “You’ve had it rough. No rush.” He cleared his throat and gestured to my plate. “You done eating?”

“Yes. Thank you so much.”

He collected the plates and growled at me when I offered to help with the cleanup. An honest-to-goodness, beastly growl as if he were a cranky old dog and I’d tugged on his tail. I sat down and nursed my coffee, trying to purge any tail-tugging thoughts from my mind.

Barclay closed the dishwasher and glanced at me. “I’m going out. Make yourself at home. Have more coffee. You can take a shower or whatever…” He waved his arm awkwardly. “If you steal anything, I’ll hunt you down.”

Was he joking? I couldn’t tell. I let out a weak chuckle. “Okay. I’ll try to resist then.”

He smiled a little bit. Or… his beard moved. I wasn’t sure if it had been a real smile. One last grunt, and he was gone. After some rustling from the hallway, the door clicked shut.

I exhaled. The empty kitchen looked vaguely ominous in the silence, but the scents in Barclay’s home calmed me. Was it really him who smelled like this? So nice. He’d been kind to me and respectful—not with his words but with his actions. He’d opened his home to me and hadn’t pushed me to reveal more than I had. He just took me at my word, which was something I wasn’t used to from the alphas in my life.

Pity he was such a grouch.

4

BARCLAY

Fuck my life.

I had to leave. I had to run the fuck away. I dropped my clothes in the shed, shifted, and sneaked out into the forest. The cute tiny omega smelled like sex on legs. I had to cleanse my lungs and clear my head.

He was more than twenty years my junior—which wouldn’t mean all that much in bear years, but still. He was also vulnerable and looked like I’d break him if I breathed on him too hard. I had no business being attracted to the boy. And I wasn’t! Sure, he was pretty to look at, like a picture in a magazine, but I liked men with more meat on their bones. It was just his damned scent that messed with my brain. Pulling in gulps of fresh air, I tried to get rid of the rich smell lingering in my airways.

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