My sense of human preservation kicked in, and I scrambled to my feet to take off again.
“Don’t run, Holly,” his voice called out behind me. Strained and tinged with warning. “Don’t trigger my predator instinct and make me chase you again.”
It wasn’t a request, as it turned out.
Before I could get more than a few steps, his arms closed around me from behind like steel bars, unyielding and immovable. He pinned me against his chest, his hard erection pressing into the lower curve of my back as my feet dangled helplessly above the ground.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured into my ear, his voice rough. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean what I said back there.”
“Bull hockey, you didn’t mean it!” I snapped, twisting inside his hold. I knew the truth. I’d felt his rage. His utter disgust.
“It wasn’t disgust,” he said as if I’d accused him out loud. “It was the opposite of that. I swear. My bear set all this up behind my back, and I just didn’t know how to react.”
His words rang true.
The bite on my arm tingled again, an otherworldly lie detector confirming his sincerity.
But it didn’t matter.
I needed to get out of there. Before I got hurt again.
I struggled, but it was useless. He was too strong, and I was too drained—from all the running, from all the remembering.
“Please don’t fight me,” the Mountie said, his voice low and strained. “I can feel your fear, but I would never hurt you. Never.”
The words made my chest ache, and I shook my head, voice breaking. “But you already did.”
His grip loosened just enough for me to catch my breath, but he didn’t let go. “I didn’t mean it,” he said, his tone raw and halting.“I promise you, I didn’t mean it. I… I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t… I didn’t expect this.”
More truth. The bite on my arm tingled, confirming his sincerity. But his words felt like a flimsy patch over a gaping wound. I turned my face away, blinking more tears that I’d never let fall before stepping foot on Bear Mountain.
“Then why did you say it?” I whispered. “Why did you…” My voice faltered, the rest of the question dying on my lips.
He exhaled shakily, his breath warm against my temple. “Because I’m a coward,” he admitted. “Because I was terrified of losing control. Terrified of losing you.”
That caught me off guard. “You don’t even know me,” I said softly, disbelief lacing my words.
“I know enough,” he replied. “I know you’re strong. I know you’re kind. I know that after deciding to go it alone for the rest of my life, The Great Bear Forest delivered you to me. For reasons I still don’t understand.
“I know…” His voice wavered, like he was learning the truth of his own words as he spoke them. “I know that no matter what I said back there, my bear chose you. And because of that, I won’t be able to let you go.”
“But why?” The question slipped out before I could stop it. “Why me? What explanation could there possibly be for someone like you wanting someone like me?”
A pause. Then, he gently set me on my feet and turned me to face him.
I blinked up at him. Instead of the hard-edged, unyielding Mountie I’d faced before, I saw someone with soft, dark eyes. Someone who looked just as confused as I felt.
“Because…” he said softly, reaching up to brush a stray tear from my cheek. “Because you’re mine. And I guess I’m yours now. Whether we wanted this or not, it’s done. My bear bonded you.”
“Bonded me?” I shook my head, trying to make sense of what he was saying.
“I’m not sure how to explain this,” he admitted, glancing to the side. His expression grew pensive, his brow furrowing like he was wrestling with his thoughts.
It was kind of a crazy look, considering he was 100% naked in the snow. Like a light umber-brown marble version ofThe Thinkerhad come to life and decided to have an existential crisis in the middle of a frozen meadow.
“I think I’m going to have to show you,” he said finally.
“Show me what?” I asked, still reeling, still trying to wrap my head around all of this—up to and including how neither of us was getting frostbite while having this argument in the snow.
