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This was nothing like what she felt with the panther, because Bram was nothing like Rook. There was so much truth in his words that her knees threatened to give out.
“Come on, little deer, and let me show you where you’ll be sleeping.”
He turned fully around and held his hand out to her. Kenzie looked at it then back to his face. She took that first step toward him, knew this was wrong on so many levels, but couldn’t stop herself. Her deer was taking the reins, following its instincts and going toward the first person she felt safe with since she turned eighteen.
What in the hell was she doing, and would she come out of this unscathed?12Bram watched the change of emotions on Kenzie’s face. He should have been gentler with her, not so demanding and possessive, and should have bitten his tongue, but dammit he wasn’t going to let her run from him or her past, and he had seen she was going to do just that.
He didn’t know what that motherfucker had done to her, but his instincts told him she had been harmed beyond words.
Yeah, he may have been too coarse, but he didn’t know any other way to be. Bram had never had a mate, had never wanted to care for another person as much as he wanted to take care of her. He didn’t know how scarred she really was or what unspeakable things that fucking panther had done to her, but he would find out, and then he would hunt him down and kill the motherfucker.
The shifting emotions in her could have brought Bram to his knees. What he needed to do was go slow with her, ease her into the fact that they were mates. She might know they were meant to be together, and that his bear wouldn’t let her go, but he didn’t think she truly knew the lengths he would go to keep her safe and to make sure she never felt pain again in her life.
This was fast, intense, and like nothing he had ever experienced, but that was the way of mating, and he wasn’t going to let it pass him by. For the first time in his fucked-up life, Bram was slowing down and embracing what was right in front of him.
Hell, he had lived a life of violence and getting drunk to pass the time. He wasn’t proud of his life, especially not when his girl was standing right in front of him smelling of her sweet and innocent desire for him.
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to frighten you even more.” Running a hand over his jaw, he waited for her to make another move. She affected him like no other, made him want to do unspeakable acts, but it had only taken a couple hours for him to fall to his knees and give her the world.
She looked down and smoothed her hands over the remains of her shirt. He told her he would wait until she was rested to know what had happened, but maybe she needed to tell him now.
“Do you want to tell me what happened with him?” Smothering her was not what he was going for, and a surefire way for her to book it out of there was for him to push her too fast and too hard.
“I—” She took a deep breath, lifted her head, and looked up at him. There was indecision and hesitance written across her face.
“Listen, you don’t have to say anything right now. I know I can be an assertive ass on the best of days, but I am a male of my word, and I will protect you and keep you safe until I’m no longer breathing.” Bram hoped she would eventually trust him enough to tell him what the shifter had done to her, but he didn’t blame her for her uncertainty.
Just thinking about the male had blind fury coursing through him. Taking a deep, somewhat calming breath had him relaxing enough that he didn’t want to rush out of the house and find the fucker.
“Let me show you where you’ll be sleeping,” he said again. For a moment, he thought she might object, and he felt another flash of fear. It was a strange emotion, one he didn’t care for, but his mate brought out a lot of unusual emotions inside him.
He couldn’t help but be protective of her, but even if she wasn’t his mate, he would have taken care of her, given her situation. He was glad she didn’t put up a fight, because he could see the exhaustion on her face, and he was hanging on by a thread himself.
He pushed one of the guest bedroom doors open and turned the light on. It was the smallest room in the cabin, but it was the one right next to his, and if she wasn’t going to be sleeping in his room tonight, he wanted her as close as possible to him.
