He grabbed her wrist and used it to reel her in. She came easily, needing the comfort as much as he needed to give it. She was such a tiny thing in his arms. Normal-sized for a woman, but he was on the huge side, even for grizzly shifters. And when she tucked her face against his chest, wetting his shirt with her tears, he marveled at how perfect this felt. Not the fear or the taut clench of her hands in his flannel shirt, but the inaudible click in his head as they synced together. Tiny as she was, she filled his arms. And together, they made a whole that he’d been aching for his entire life.
“Do you know what I remember of last night?” he said against her hair.
“Abject terror?” she asked. Then she moaned. “No, that was me.”
He squeezed her. “It was me, too. The moment I saw you head out for Justin. I kept roaring for you to stay back.”
She shifted in his arms. “Is that what you were doing? I thought—” She cut off her words, but he wouldn’t let her get away with that.
“What? Believe me, I’ve heard it all.”
She winced, and as close as they were, he felt the movement. “I thought you were going to eat him.”
He sighed. Of course she’d think the absolute worst. “I was trying to protect him by standing over him. And you were safest hidden by the tree.”
She shifted back and he reluctantly eased his hold. “So when you’re a bear, you can think? Like a man?”
“I think like a bear with simple man words. Protect. Defend.” Destroy.
“And you were protecting Justin?”
“I was protecting you both. I knew there was someone in the trees. So when you came out into the open, I had to become more aggressive. I had to take out the threat.”
“Which is why you left us.”
Again, she’d thought the worst. “I didn’t know there were more hunters. I only sensed the one man.”
She nodded and stepped farther back. “You thought you were doing the right thing.”
“I was doing the right thing,” he huffed. “That guy had a tranq gun. He could have picked us both off and then taken Justin and us without a fight.”
She nodded, and he could see that her mind was telling her the same thing. But inside she was feeling something else entirely. It didn’t take a genius to guess what.
“You thought I’d abandoned you.”
She snorted. “I wanted you to abandon us. I thought you were trying to eat Justin.”
Ridiculous to feel hurt. She knew nothing of their kind and so of course jumped to all the wrong conclusions. But did she really think he could do that? Even as a bear? “When did you realize the truth?”
She took too long to answer, which told him clear as day that she’d never understood . He’d never abandon her. Not while there was breath in his body.
“I should have called 911 sooner,” she said. “I should have thought before I ran out into the open.”
“You did the bravest thing I’ve ever seen, Becca. You had no defenses, but you ran out to protect Justin anyway.”
She shook her head. “It was stupid.”
“It was brave. And yeah, next time you’re going to have a gun and a cell with 911 on speed dial.” He touched her cheek. “I’ll never forget the sight of you crouching down as they were heading toward you. You were going to fight.” He pressed his forehead to hers. “That’s when I felt complete terror. I knew I couldn’t get to you in time to save you.”
“But you did.”
He nodded. He had. Adrenaline and all that. Plus shifter reflexes. “Don’t run, Becca. Not where I can’t protect you.”
She jerked as he spoke, lifting her head back and away from him. “I don’t need protection. None of this is my fight.”
He could see she wanted to believe that. She needed to hold on to the thought that she could run back to Kalamazoo and none of what had happened in the last two and a half days would follow her. And maybe it was possible. Maybe Theo hadn’t gone through his First Change and certainly hadn’t been taken by whatever nut jobs were out there chasing down shifter kids. Maybe all of this was a big misunderstanding. But even if that were true, he’d already gone too far to let her go.
“There’s something else I have to tell you,” he said, hating that he was backed into another corner, but delaying this wasn’t going to help. Which meant he needed to get it out there in the open.
