“I’m not that guy anymore,” I said finally, my voice low, heavy with something I didn’t want to name. Shame? Regret?
“Okay,” he said softly. But I could tell he wanted more.
Before he could ask, the door jingled again. Rowan and Cyrus burst in, laughing about something. Callum followed a moment later, already reaching for an apron.
“Ooooh,” Cyrus grinned when he spotted me. “Guess who’s back from his surprise lunch date?”
James rolled his eyes but didn’t deny it.
“He ate my terrible cupcakes,” he said, as if that explained everything.
The wolves snickered. James blushed.
I couldn’t stay. Not now. Not after… that.
“I should go,” I muttered, already heading toward the door.
James turned, eyes catching mine. He looked like he wanted to follow. I shook my head once, and he stopped. The air outside hit colder than I expected.
Why did it feel like something had cracked open inside me, and now I couldn’t shove it closed again?
Chapter 8
Rafael
I walked fast,jaw tight, hands shoved deep into the pockets of my jacket. The door to Wolf and Whisk shut behind me with a muted jingle, but the echo of that guy’s voice still rang in my ears.
“I knew it. You’re from Ironfalls, aren’t you?”
My lungs burned, though the air was cool. I hadn’t realized how hard my chest was clenching until I tried to breathe. I wanted to hit something.
Not someone though maybe, if that guy had stayed just a second longer, I might’ve given in to that urge. And what then? I’d prove him right. Violent bear. Dangerous. A threat.
I turned a corner too sharp, boots scuffing against the sidewalk, and nearly collided with a lamppost.
I caught myself with one hand against the cold metal and stared at my reflection in the glass window beside me. And there it was. The look I hated most. Not anger. Not even guilt. Shame.
James had looked at me differently. Not with fear exactly. He wasn’t the type to scare easily, but with that cautious curiosity.
Like he suddenly realized he’d invited a loaded gun into his shop, and he wasn’t quite sure if the safety was on. I blew out a shaky breath and scrubbed a hand down my face.
Sean and the other bears knew where Beau and I came from. We didn’t exactly wear it like a badge of honor, but we never lied about it either. Ironfalls wasn’t something you could just erase.
It wasn’t some tiny backwoods clan. It was infamous for a reason. Bears born of stone and rage, half-feral with a taste for blood and power. I wasn’t even one of the worst of them. Not close.
But I’d still walked those streets, wore the clan tattoo on my skin, fought in the clan challenge pit for rank. The fight that guy brought up? It wasn’t even the worst one.
It was just the one someone remembered.
I gritted my teeth and kept walking. My apartment wasn’t far, but every step felt heavier than it should have. What if James told the others? Would Callum ban me from the Wolf and Whisk?
No. That wasn’t what bothered me most. What gutted me was the look in James’s eyes. The way something subtle in him pulled back, even if he didn’t mean to.
He was trying. He’d been trying from the start. He was flirting, joking, baking those terrible cupcakes that I ate anyway like a lovesick fool.
He was the kind of person who wore his heart on his sleeve, even when it was bruised. And I’d spent the last few weeks watching him, wanting him, feeling like maybe I deserved him.
But who the hell did I think I was?
