Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 81208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
I’d usually wait for her to finish rambling, but today, I have no patience. I interrupt her flow. “I have to go, Mom. Something’s come up.”
“What? What’s more important than talking to your mother?”
“Have a good week,” I tell her brightly and hang up. My hands are trembling as I lower the phone to the comforter.
I’m starting to get hungry, but no one has come up to offer me food.
Maybe Hunter’s preventing them from bringing me anything. God, I could just slap that man. Maybe he’d have grown up better if his momma had scolded some of his arrogance. I guess he was too alpha for that.
I crack open the door just a little. The house is silent—totally silent. I tiptoe out of the door and into the hallway, craning to listen. The floorboards creek beneath my feet, and I brace, waiting for footsteps, but none come. Curious, I make my way downstairs. Maybe I can raid the fridge and return to my room without being spotted.
At the bottom of the stairs, I come face to face with the front door. The basket next to it is overflowing with men’s clothes, and three sets of shoes rest on the mat. I glance around, finding the space empty and still silent. “Hello,” I call out, waiting for a response.
Nothing.
I stand frozen, unsure of what to do next. Have they left me alone in the house? I haven’t had time to prepare for this opportunity. Do I want to walk away?
I like Robert and Evan, and I love how they treat me. There’s more kindness and compassion in this house than I’ve ever experienced from men, and enough epic-level sex to render me horizontal for life. If things were different, I’d be in deep enough to stay. Leaving now will feel a lot like betrayal.
But there is a whole barrel of challenges, too. This bear situation is beyond weird, and Hunter’s attitude stinks. I’m seriously worried about his intentions, even though his brothers are so adamant that he’s not getting near me unless I want him to.
And that’s never going to happen. Hunter's arrogance is such a turnoff that it’d make me rage to have him anywhere near me.
None of this has any hope of being anything more than a temporary patch to my otherwise lonely existence, fulfilling my sexual fantasies but not my life goals.
They’re so certain I’m their destiny, but that’s not something I believe. Destiny is an abstract thing that only exists in people’s minds to make them feel better about their choices and the paths they choose. Our lives are just a random sequence of events that lead us into people’s lives and out of them. These men don’t need to fulfill their fate; the sooner they realize it, the better. They’ve been shackled to a dream that isn’t real for too long.
I’m going to leave because it’s better for all of us. They need to find someone who wants to be impregnated with their bear cubs and live with all of them. They need to find someone who can deal with Hunter’s primitive attitude. That person just isn’t me.
And I need to get back on track and return to my quiet and predictable life.
It takes me a couple of minutes to put on my shoes and assemble my possessions before I jog down the hall. My eyes dart around, but the atmosphere in the house still feels empty and hollow. When I’m by the front door, I turn to look around one more time. A picture catches my eye. It’s of a man and a woman, dressed in nineteen-twenties style clothes. The woman is beaming and has her hand resting on her obviously pregnant belly. The man isn’t looking at the observer but is turned to gaze at his wife with a contented smile.
This doesn’t look like a photo of an unhappy woman trapped in a life she didn’t choose. It looks like a picture of two people in love. Maybe there has been love between bears and their mates before.
The front door is large and heavy, but I struggle to get it open and drop my suitcase and purse on the step outside. Pulling it closed is difficult, and I don’t have a key to lock it up. I hope nothing happens to their home while they’re gone, but it’s not my problem.
My car is still where I parked it, but it’s not until I’m at the door that I realize I gave the keys to Robert earlier, and he still hasn’t given them back.
Shit.
I’m locked out of the house and out of my car. My only escape is on foot. I can’t carry my suitcase for miles, so I leave it behind my car and start walking. Possessions aren’t important to me. My freedom is.
It’s a cool day and walking through the forest surrounding the Bjorn mansion should be pleasant. The trees are dense above me, allowing only sporadic shafts of brilliant light to illuminate the leaf-littered ground. My footsteps rustle as I stride toward the road, focusing on a point in the distance. But even as I try to stay calm, the hairs on the back of my neck begin to rise. It’s normal to feel frightened in a situation like this. I'd be foolish if I didn’t have some kind of fear response. But it’s more than that. A sixth sense warns me I’m being watched. The eyes on me press like fingers into my skin.