Page 13 of More Than I Can Bear

He caught the moment my eyes went wide, telling me what a good girl I was as I felt it rush over me. Pure, perfect pleasure. It turned my body to gold, every nerve ending singing. But it was more than that. Right as I was my most vulnerable, he was right there with me, watching me fall apart, and he scooped me up and held me close, nestled against his chest as he did exactly what he’d promised.

I felt every spurt of his cum, aftershocks of pleasure hitting me with each burst. He was emptying more than his seed into me, he was sharing himself as well and it felt so good. Adam chuckled as I went limp against him, utterly spent, then he lowered me down onto the bed and gave me the thing I needed the most right now. His body curled around mine, his leg thrown over top of mine to keep us locked together.

“Just like this…” he promised in a sleepy whisper. “Let’s stay just like this.”

I couldn’t think of anything better. There was a bone deep satisfaction that came from curling into his chest, his arms going around me. Going to sleep never felt so good, a strange kind of warmth allowed every muscle to relax and just let go. But right as I was about to drop off, I heard this.

“Gonna find you,” he promised in a voice hoarse with exhaustion. “Can’t let this go, Freya. You’re mine. You’ll always be mine and somehow I’ve gotta make you see that.”

Chapter7

Kaine

Did I tell my brother what I knew? I’d been fucking furious when he confessed what he’d done and I’d spent most of Sunday out of the house—away from him, River, our family—because I didn’t know what I’d do to him if I looked at his face.

Then River and I had pulled into that cafe.

I knew who she was the minute I stepped foot in the place. I’d assumed that honey sweet scent was coming from the kitchen, right up until I saw her. Freya was so fucking beautiful. Her eyes seemed to shine with life when she turned to the two of us and those lips were slightly swollen when they curved in a smile, making me think of very dirty things to do with them.

It drove out all thought of my brother and his fuck-ups and replaced it with this: she was mine. That burned hot and hard and true in my chest and for just a second, I understood exactly why Adam had done it.

Right before I cursed him because he had.

We needed to take things slowly, at Freya’s pace. We needed to find out what that pace was, not rush into things. A protective need had hit me, so deep and vicious it took my breath away, rising and rising so that I barely kept a civil tongue in my head when the mother stood by as her baby trashed the cafe.

I needed to keep her safe, keep River and Adam safe, protect the sleuth to make sure it formed strong enough to last a lifetime. I needed to ensure that what we had was as good as what our parents had. But Adam… But River… I let out a sigh as I stood in my kitchen, setting the coffee mug down when Adam waltzed in.

“You look… better,” I said. The bear noticed everything and everyone and there was that familiar bounce in my brother’s step as he went to the fridge and hung there with the door open, looking for something to eat. “Pick something, then shut the bloody door. You’re wasting electricity.”

He smirked at me as he pulled out eggs, bacon and juice, then shut the fridge door conspicuously before dumping the lot on the counter.

“Yeah, I am.” He whistled, the bloody idiot, as he pulled out fry pans and set them to heat on the stove. “Want some breakfast?”

“Whatcha cooking?” River appeared from nowhere like a shadow. The man needed a bell around his neck.

“Bacon and eggs.” Adam shot me a sidelong look. “Just as easy to cook for three as it is one.”

“If you’ve got the energy to do that, you can start back at work this week.” The dads paid him a wage all year, but he only had to work for it in the off season. Unlike me, his sporting career seemed to take precedence over meetings and approvals and invoicing and—

“Monday,” he promised, cracking eggs into one fry pan and laying down bacon in the other. “This week I’m gonna kick back, chill. Might go for a run down the beach this morning or something.” He shrugged.

Whereas I had a diary full of appointments and missed calls on my phone from contractors already and it wasn’t even seven o’clock.

“You’re better,” River said, a small line forming between his eyebrows.

“Better than better. I’m feeling fucking amazing.” Adam hummed to himself as he got a pair of tongs from the kitchen drawer, clacking them as he turned back to the food. “I think I dream walked last night.”

“What?”

Dream walking was an ability some bear shifters had, but not most. It allowed you to enter the dreams of your fated mate. Not for the first time did I feel the hot, hot burn of jealousy. It felt like everything took on a reddish cast as I stared holes in my brother.

“At least I think that’s what it is. I’m gonna go and see Nanna today and see what she thinks but yeah…” He flushed bright red, but that self-satisfied smirk made clear exactly what kind of dream walk it’d been. “Freya’s amazing, so fucking amazing, and when I find her, you’ll know that too.”

But I already did. It was only sheer will and having notifications buzzing in my pocket that got me out of that cafe the other day. Freya moved with a grace no other woman could match. And the way she shouldered the responsibility of cleaning up after the child without complaint squeezed at my heart, right before I shut that shit down.

And this was why I’d not said anything to Adam about meeting Freya.

My brother was the baby of the family. But more than that, he was the golden child. Not in any unhealthy way. It was just that, wherever he was, people paid attention. Nothing I did seemed to get our family as excited. People were kind to me, attentive and supportive, but then they’d turn to him… Part of me that I didn’t like very much at all, felt like I had to shield this, her, us, away from his golden glow for just a moment, because when we brought Adam back into the mix, it’d be all over for me.

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