Page 30 of Bear’s True Mate

The words hung in the air between us, and I meant every one of them, but it was the way she was looking at me that really did me in.

Like she believed me.

Like she knew I wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

My bear’s rage melted away at that look too. Until we took in how pale she was and how quickly she was breathing. She was terrified, and every inch of me hated that for her.

I handed her the phone back because I was scared I might crush it as my bear’s rage continued to build. Her fingers clenched around it after she took it from me like she was afraid to put it down and afraid to hold it at the same time. She looked smaller than usual in the low lighting of my living room, and my bear’s desire to protect her at all costs flared even more because of it.

“Do you want some tea?” I asked, not knowing why.

She was terrified her psycho ex was going to come after her, and here I was asking her if she wanted some tea?

What the fuck?

“Sure,” she whispered, surprising me. “Thank you.”

I headed into the kitchen and felt her following.

“Sit,” I said, nodding to the small table and chairs against the wall.

She didn’t hesitate. Honestly, it looked as though she was relieved to be off her feet.

I grabbed a small pot and filled it with water. After I placed it on the stove, I grabbed two mugs and the box of Earl Grey I’d bought the other day without thinking too hard about why. She didn’t say anything, and neither did I. I watched the water come to a boil and then unwrapped two tea bags. Once I poured the hot water in the mugs, I grabbed them and sat with her at the table.

I placed one of the mugs in front of her. She immediately wrapped her hands around it but didn’t take a sip. I stared at her, noticing the color had come back to her face. That had to be a good sign. Maybe she wasn’t in shock anymore.

“I knew this would happen,” she said quietly, staring at the mug. “I knew he’d look for me.”

“He’s guessing, though. He doesn’t know where you are.”

“Not yet.” She licked her lips. “But he will. You don’t know him like I do.” She shook her head. “I was stupid to think I could outrun him.”

“You’re not stupid,” I said. “You got out. That’s the opposite of stupid.”

She didn’t look convinced.

“You packed a bag and left a man who was hurting you. You came somewhere he couldn’t find you. That took guts.”

Her chin trembled. She pressed her lips together and stared at her tea. I wanted to reach across the table and take her hands, to make her feel the certainty I had that nothing was going to happen to her while I was breathing.

“He doesn’t know where you are,” I said again. “And even if he figures it out, he has to go through me to get to you. That’s not going to end well for him.”

She looked up. Her eyes searched my face the way they had on the patio—looking for the crack, the place where the words would fall apart.

“You barely know me, Nolan.”

“I know enough.”

I didn’t say anything more. I waited because something in the way she said it told me there was more, and I’d learned by now that Rose gave things to me in pieces, in her own time, and pushing only made her fold back up.

She took a small sip of her tea and then set the mug down on the table. I waited for her to say something, but instead, she just sat there, her thumb tracing the rim.

“Do you want to know what he was like? At the beginning?” she asked.

“Only if you want to tell me.”

“He wasn’t always like this,” she said, her gaze locked on her tea. “That’s the part nobody gets. In the beginning, he was... good. Kind. Attentive. He remembered things. The little things—my favorite flowers, the way I liked my tea, how I hate the way cantaloupe tastes.” She swallowed. “I thought that meant he loved me, but it took me a long time to figure out he was just taking notes.”