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“All I can say, Ford, is don’t fight it. Get rid of that hatred you have buried deep inside. Let your bear roam free and experience it with you, and just be glad you found your female. There are a whole lot of shifters who spend their lives trying to find what you stumbled upon. I tried fighting it with Ary, and it didn’t help. In fact, it made me want her all the more. I felt unstable and on edge. All I wanted to do was claim her, and there was a point when I worried I would be too rough with her and that my bear would take over too aggressively.” Ford took in his brother’s words. “Now, I look back, and I can’t see my life without her, and I am damn glad she wants me. The baby will be here in a few months, and all I keep thinking about is I’m one lucky bastard to have her accept me.”
They threw back their shots, and Ford leaned back. He knew deep down he couldn’t and wouldn’t fight the need to be with Talia, but there was that uncertainty he always carried, and he hated that ten years later he was still holding onto these unnecessary emotions.
“You need to forget about Mina and how she ruined you, and focus on the future, Ford.”
He looked at Bram.
“I can’t wait until you find your mate, Bram. Man, I’m going to give you such a hard time ‘cause I already know you’ll be crawling on your hands and knees to please her.” Charlie’s words had Ford laughing, even though he wasn’t feeling very amused at the moment. He thought about Talia and everything Charlie said.
“Charlie?” The sound of a very tired Ary pierced the air. Charlie was out of his seat and by Ary as she came walking into the kitchen. She wore a T-shirt and a pair of pajama bottoms. The swell of her belly was evident, and Ford found himself smiling at the prospect of being an uncle. It still stunned him that Charlie was going to be a father.
He’d never thought his eldest brother would settle down, but when it came to Ary, he was protective and extremely territorial. Ford could see Charlie’s bear rise to the surface every time his mate was near, and Ford knew he was the same way with Talia.
He felt the need to be with her, protect her from any assholes who wanted to fuck with her, and make sure she always felt safe.
Charlie stood and walked toward his mate, and Ford watched with a pang in his chest as Charlie embraced Ary.
Feeling like he was intruding on their personal moment, Ford stood and motioned Bram to follow. They said their goodbyes, and when they were in the truck and headed down the road, Ford knew he wouldn’t deny him or his bear what they really wanted, and that was his little redhead, Talia Landon.
Fuck his demons and hang-ups, and fuck Mina for making him feel for all these years that he wasn’t worthy of claiming his mate.
12
Talia gritted her teeth for the fifth time in the last ten minutes. Mina, with her haughty attitude, was busy scolding the barista on the fact that they didn’t top her cappuccino with nutmeg.
She turned away from the human who thought she was so much better than everyone else and looked around the coffee shop. It was hard not to think about the first time she stepped in here.
She had been humiliated over her coffee spill, but then she had met Ford and fallen instantly in lust. She had thought maybe being with him sexually might have eased her arousal for him, but it had the opposite effect.
Here she was in a constant state of desire, unable to get the image of him over her out of her mind, thrusting deep and hard and sending her over the edge multiple times.
Her clit throbbed, her nipples beaded, and she cursed her body for having this kind of reaction to a man she had a one-night stand with, and that was what it had been.
They hadn’t exchanged numbers, and he hadn’t asked to see her again, so she needed to get it through her head that there wasn’t going to be another time with Ford Wylde, as crappy as that was.
“God, I swear these people are still as incompetent as ever in this town.” Mina took a sip of her cappuccino and made a face. “It certainly isn’t from Marco’s, but it’s going to have to do.” They sat at one of the small tables, and Mina pulled out a very thick leather book. If not for Luke asking her to go with Mina today, she would have been somewhere else, somewhere that didn’t feel like that seventh level of hell. “Okay, so I know Kimberly should have been setting this up, but I have her working on something more important, and I figure you really aren’t doing anything anyway.”
