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“Aren’t you tired?” I ask as I look up at him. He looks so beautiful the way he’s staring at the scenery with such a peaceful calmness to him. When he turns and looks at me, my heart does a little squeeze in my chest. “Do you sleep?”
“I do,” he says softly. “But there’s no way I could have slept last night. I finally found my mate. If you would have passed out, I would have just watched you sleeping all night.”
If anyone else had told me that it would have been creepy, but with him, it’s sweet because I know exactly what he means. I can’t wait to see what he looks like when he’s sleeping—those beautiful eyes closed, his big chest slowly rising and falling, the sheets twisted around his muscular body. I would have done the same thing. I would have watched him all night long, studying every inch of him.
“Do you think that coffee machine in the office works?” I ask as another deep yawn comes out. I need to be alert and awake today. I need to be sharp. My grandfather is going to have the whole AFA coming after us and I want to be able to handle the situation when he finally catches up to us.
“I’ll go check.” He kisses my temple and stands up.
“It’s okay!” I say in a hurry. “I didn’t mean for you to… I wasn’t trying to get you to make it…”
He just smiles as he watches me like I’m the most precious thing in his world. “It’s okay, Mindy. Nothing is going to make me happier than taking care of you.”
Wow…
I don’t even have any words as I watch him walk inside. All I want to do is fall into this love affair and get consumed by that man, but everything is so complicated. He has a feral bear inside of him… My grandfather wants him dead…
Grandpa doesn’t play around and he’s not going to want his favorite granddaughter anywhere near a feral bear shifter. I know that Cain will never hurt me, but Grandpa will never trust him. He’s a powerful man who will never let this relationship happen.
I’m getting all choked up and teary-eyed when Cain comes back with two mugs of coffee. It all feels so hopeless until I see the warm inviting way he smiles at me. Hope blooms in my chest. He’s my mate and I love him already. There’s nothing we can’t do if we’re working together.
“What’s wrong?” he suddenly says when I wipe the tears from my eyes. “Are you crying?”
I smile at him as I reach for my mug. “I was just worried… about everything.”
The heat from the coffee warms my chilled hands as he sits close beside me.
“About the guys chasing us? I can handle them.”
“Can you stop the whole Anti-Feral Agency?”
He swallows hard.
“Has your bear really turned feral?”
He drops his eyes to the coffee in his mug.
“I… don’t know.”
My heart goes out to him as I wait for him to continue. I don’t know what he’s been going through, but it must have been hard. The whole AFA turned on him.
“He had turned,” he eventually says in a low voice. “He was slipping out of my control. He was getting meaner every day. Angrier. The rage I could feel swelling through my body at the slightest provocation was terrifying. He would snap at the most mundane thing. The hiss of a bus braking, the beep of a microwave, the smell of a jogger running by. It would set him off and I would be struggling with everything I had not to let him burst out.”
I put my hand on his arm and his brown eyes fill with gratitude.
“I’ve seen firsthand what feral bears are capable of. I’ve seen the destruction they can cause. I’ve helped put many of them down. I always thought if that happened to me, I would do the brave thing, the sensible thing, and let an AFA team take me out. But I just couldn’t… I couldn’t die knowing that I’d never see your face.”
There’s so much pain in his eyes. My heart breaks for him.
I reach up, touch his cheek, and pull his mouth to mine. I can feel the love in the tender way he kisses me.
“As selfish as it was,” he continues as I lick his taste off my lips, “I had to see you. I had to touch you and smell you and taste you, just once. I couldn’t give up so easily even though I knew it was the right thing to do.”
“You keep saying was,” I say as I entwine my fingers with his. “Is your bear still causing you trouble?”
“That’s the thing,” he says as he squeezes my hand. “He hasn’t felt like this in years. He’s just watching from inside, all peaceful and calm. He’s done a complete one-eighty. I don’t understand it. We always thought that once a bear turned feral, there was no turning back. It makes me think… All those men we took out…”
