“Wait—so she spent the night?” Gretchen asks, a hopeful grin teasing the corner of her mouth.
“Yeah, but I didn’t claim her. She asked me not to. But we connected, I swear it. And this morning when I woke alone, I thought—” My voice catches for a second, then I push through it. “I thought something might’ve happened. Like she got hurt or something. Then it hit me. She might have left. Might’ve rejected me.”
The word tastes like ash.
“And my Tiger?” I shake my head. “He lost it. I lost it. I fucked up.”
Embarrassment burns hot under my skin.
So does something worse.
Heartache.
Gretchen snorts softly.
“Okay, first of all? Hadley’s not a weakling. She’s a badass Bear Shifter,” she says. “Not prey.”
“I know what she is,” I reply.
And that’s the problem.
Because she’s not something to chase down and corner.
She’s not something to take.
She’s—my chest tightens—special.
A miracle.
Mine.
“Okay, let’s strategize,” Reg starts, already shifting into problem-solving mode.
“Bro,” I cut in, dropping my head into my hands, “this isn’t about strategy anymore.”
My voice is rough.
Fractured.
“This is instinct. And my instinct has me losing my damn mind.”
Silence.
Heavy.
Ugly.
“Fact is,” I mutter, quieter now, “I’m a fucking monster.”
The words come out before I can stop them.
Too honest.
Too real.
“I’ve spent years in the military,” I go on. “Doing things people don’t come back from clean.”
Things I don’t talk about.
