"Now do you believe me?" he asks roughly.
I open my mouth to respond.
Nothing comes out.
The room tilts, and then everything goes black.
Chapter 8 - Rhett
She crumples like a puppet with cut strings.
I catch her before she hits the floor, my reflexes faster than thought. One second she's conscious, staring at me with those wide, terrified hazel eyes. The next she's unconscious in my arms, her head lolling against my shoulder.
"Fuck," I breathe. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."
What did I expect? That she'd take it in stride? That she'd nod calmly and say, *Oh, you're a shapeshifter, how interesting, tell me more*?
I scared her. Traumatized her. Showed her the monster I've spent five years hiding from the world, and her brain did the only rational thing it could. It shut down rather than process the impossible.
I lay her back on the bed, checking her pulse. Strong and steady. Her breathing is normal. She just fainted, nothing worse.
But the look on her face before she went under, pure terror.
Of me.
The bear whines, distressed. *Mate scared. Mate hurt. Fix it.*
"I can't fix this," I mutter, pulling on pants with shaking hands. "This is exactly why I should have kept my mouth shut."
But the bear wouldn't let me. I'd tried to deflect, tried to keep the truth buried, but it kept pushing, kept demanding that I show her, that I prove to our mate what we are.
Because that's what she is. What she's been since the moment she walked into my clearing.
My fated mate.
The bear recognized her instantly, even if I tried to deny it. But tonight, lying next to her in the darkness, feeling the bond strengthen with every word we exchanged, there's no denying it anymore.
The universe, in its infinite cruelty, has given me a mate.
Someone I'm bound to. Someone I'm supposed to protect and cherish and build a life with. Someone who will be tied to me for as long as we both live, connected on a level most people can't even comprehend.
And I repay that gift by shifting in front of her and scaring her unconscious.
I grab a cloth and wet it from the water basin, pressing it gently to her forehead. Her eyelids flutter but don't open.
"I'm sorry," I whisper. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have… I should have just lied. Should have let you think I was crazy or metaphorical or whatever made sense to you."
But the bear is right there, still pressing against my control. Still insisting that mates don't lie to each other, mates share everything, mates are supposed to know each other completely.
The mate bond is ancient. Primal. It doesn't care about human complications like consent or timing or the fact that I'm a broken disaster who has no business being tied to anyone, let alone someone like her.
Someone bright and alive and full of curiosity and joy. Someone who makes beautiful things and shares them with the world. Someone who deserves a partner who isn't haunted by the ghosts of the people he killed.
I check her pulse again even though I just did it thirty seconds ago. Still strong. Still steady.
She's going to wake up and she's going to run. She'd be an idiot not to. And she's not an idiot, despite her occasional lapses in judgment.
She'll go back to town and she'll tell people. No, wait. Will she? Who would believe her? She has no proof. No footage. Just a wild story about a man who turns into a bear.
