Page 32 of Cuddles for the Bear
“Hey, is everything all right? Didn’t you enjoy the movie?”
“Huh?” Devon looked up and saw the credits rolling up the screen. “I think I’d seen it before,” he said quickly, grabbing the remote and turning the television off. “Did you enjoy it?”
“I couldn’t watch it.” Wren looked down, but then it was as if he’d made some kind of decision, and he moved from being snuggled under Devon’s arm and sat upright, his legs curled under him. Devon was struck by how guarded Wren seemed to be. “This might sound weird – I don’t know if it’s normal or not – but my animal side is restless. He’s telling me we’re in danger and he wants to come out and fight.”
“Fight who? Where are these feelings coming from?” A deep pit started opening up in Devon’s stomach.
Wren hesitated and then said quietly, “Our mating bond.”
“Shit.” It was just three simple words from someone Devon could pick up one-handed, but those words punched him in the gut, snapped his chin with an uppercut, and if he hadn’t already been lounging against the headboard, Devon would’ve been flat on the floor.
“Am I reading things wrong?” Wren sounded so nervous. “Is there something wrong with my chameleon?”
And there was the revival slap Devon needed. “There is nothing wrong with your chameleon,” he said quickly, reaching over and taking one of Wren’s hands. “Don’t ever think that. Our animal sides are the truest part of who we are. They don’t play games. They don’t lie. They’ll never hurt us.”
He inhaled shakily and then said in a rush, “Your chameleon is picking up my worries through our bond. I promised Cyrus I would talk to you about when you were taken, the people who raised you, and details like that, and I’ve been hiding that from you because I didn’t want to see you upset. I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry. I should’ve talked to you about it when it first came up.”
Wren was silent, his eyes scrunched shut. Devon wasn’t sure if he was blocking out Devon’s words or thinking about something else entirely. Even their bond, the awareness Devon had of Wren in the back of his skull, was frozen, as if Wren wasn’t sure of their connection anymore.
“Is this about you thinking I’m frail and weak again?” Wren asked after the longest two minutes of Devon’s life. His eyes were still closed, and Devon could barely see his mate breathing.
There’s no way of answering that without getting me deeper in the shit.“I was being protective of you. The agency I work for was hounding Cyrus about interviewing you about that snake, and I didn’t want you anywhere near them.”
“The people you work for?” Frown lines appeared on Wren’s forehead. “Can’t they be trusted? I thought you were all the good guys.”
“The only people I trust in the entire world are you and the men who live in the Alley. I’m not saying the agency personnel don’t do any good. I know they do. Many people, hundreds of them, are taken out every year. People who the courts have set free, people with crimes so horrific that jail would be a vacation for them. People who kill their victims before anyone can raise the alarm, leaving them to hurt innocents over and over again. The network is huge – worldwide. They have resources I could only dream about, if I was that way inclined.”
“Then why…?”
“They have no heart. They believe that the snake had to have had contacts with other people who were all involved in the same horrific crimes against children he perpetrated against you.” Devon wished Wren would open his eyes. “They think you can give them information to help find those other people the snake was connected to.”
“I know how long it takes to scrub the four walls, floor, and ceiling of a standard bedroom with a toothbrush. I’m not sure how much that information would help, though.”
Noooooooo!The flat tones, the defeat and despair. Everything Devon wanted to avoid for his mate. “I told them you wouldn’t know anything. I told them you never left the house and that snake would never have confided anything important to you. I told Cyrus over and over again, that they should just leave you alone. That they should check his apartment, check his phone, check whatever, but to leave you alone. You’ve already been through so much.”
“Did they check the snake tank in his bedroom?”
“What?” Devon vaguely remembered Wren mentioning it before. “The one you thought that used to have a snake in it? Was it still in the apartment?”
“I saw a snake in there more than once. The tank was in the snake’s bedroom, and I don’t think you went in there. The tank was big… The snake I saw was the same color as Python’s boots. There was a safe under the pebbles at the bottom of the tank. I saw him go into it a few times when he forgot to close his bedroom door properly. The tank was still there when we left.”
“Okay. Right. I’ll pass that on. That could be helpful. Thank you.” Devon’s bear was fretting. Wren was within touching distance. Devon was holding his hand. But he felt as if his connection to Wren was fraying by the second.
“What else do they want to know?”
Devon’s knee-jerk reaction was to tell his mate he’d done enough, that Wren didn’t have to think about or talk about his times prior to meeting Devon again. But that wasn’t true – at least as far as the agency was concerned – and Devon wasalready in enough trouble with his mate to risk actually lying to him.
“They want to know if the snake ever mentioned anyone else’s name, if he had any friends, if anyone ever came to the apartment.”
Wren shook his head. “No one ever came. He would go out.”
“Did he ever take you out anywhere?”
“No.”
His mate wasn’t lying, and his answers confirmed what Devon had already guessed.
“Thinking back to your home life before you were sold to Michael, did your grandparents ever tell you what happened to your parents?”
