Page 33 of More Than I Can Bear

“And what would that mean?”

“That you were mine and I was yours,” he replied simply.

“And can I do the same to you?” I asked, my voice starting to rise.

“If you want. I’d let you do almost anything, Freya.”

“And can you…?” I let out a shuddering sigh, remembering the other night and all of a sudden coming to a conclusion that, at the same time, couldn’t be true. “Can you enter my dreams?”

“That I don’t know,” he said with a slight frown. “You’re connected to Adam now. That’s what he’s apologising for. He shouldn’t have done that, not without your permission. It’s supposed to be a meaningful thing, done between two people who really care about each other, as an expression of that love.”

Was it a meaningful thing? Adam was hot, sweet and had swept me off my feet literally, something I’d always fantasised about, but had it been meaningful? It’d felt like there was a very real connection, despite the fact we didn’t know each other, but that feeling had persisted anyway. I’d felt like I’d been free to dive head first into whatever was happening because it had a use by date. I would walk away, return to my normal little life, and he’d let me because I was just some random girl.

But Kaine was saying that wasn’t true.

“What does that mean?” I asked, my voice way more plaintive than I planned it to be. “What does this mean?” I rubbed at the bite mark, then snatched my hand away. “None of this makes sense.” I got to my feet then. “Make it make sense.”

“I can.” He nodded reassuringly.

I’d felt safe with Kaine for some reason, ever since I’d met him, and I couldn’t say why. He was still way taller, way stronger than me. But, as he stood up as well, I paid way more attention to the sense of reassurance that he gave me.

“I can show you, Freya, but that’s not what I had planned for tonight. I thought we could just chill out, relax, get to know each other.” That sadness was back in his eyes, making me want to know what had caused it.

“Why?” I demanded, not willing to back down now. Between the two of them they’d turned my life topsy turvy, and I wasn’t going to stay here for a second longer if I didn’t start getting some answers. “Why, Kaine?”

“Because you’re our fated mate,” he replied, like that made any sense. “There’s only one woman in the world for us and that’s you.”

“Fuck off,” I snapped, laughing then sobering up seconds later as he continued to stare. “What, like in Buffy or Twilight or something?”

“Or something,” he agreed. “We don’t have to argue about this. I can show you why I know it without a shadow of a doubt, if that’s what you want.”

I nodded then, standing tall, at least until his hand went to his belt.

“What the fuck?”

“Look away if you don’t want to see,” he said, pulling his shirt free once his belt was unbuckled then tossing it on the couch.

My eyes took in everything, the breadth of his chest, the small smattering of hair there, the way his muscles bunched and shifted as his hands moved. He stripped off, standing there for just a second, completely naked, meeting my gaze and not flinching for a second.

And then it happened.

Where there had been a man, now there was a polar bear. And all that came to my mind was that the size of this place made sense. It looked too fucking small to contain a beast like him.

“Fuck…”

I couldn’t take him all in, adrenalin pumping so fast through my blood. As it would when facing an apex predator. He chuffed, his head swinging around to look at me, that massive snout wrinkling as he scented the air, right as my phone began to buzz. I’d made sure to put Jack on a different tone to everyone else so I’d know when she was calling me, so I pulled my phone out and blindly tapped the screen.

“Freya? Freya, you there?”

“Yep.” My reply was short and immediate.

“Look, I’ve got news for you and… fuck, you’re not gonna believe this.”

“Uh huh.”

I slowly, slowly took a step backwards, but the bear noted that, following me. No, tracking me.

“So about Adam—”

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