Page 52 of Titan’s Mate

“He’s a good man. A good bear. And he’s been…” She didn’t know what words would encompass what Titan had done for her in the last four days. “He’s been amazing to me.”

Brandon nodded slowly. “He is a good man. A little fucked up, but so are we all.”

Someone had put a game on the TV in the other room, and they could hear a crowd cheering.

Mari looked at this scary man, who could kill her in probably five seconds if he wanted, without even trying very hard.

But she could sense the goodness in him, and even more, the love. He loved his crew and he would do anything to protect them.

And Titan trusted him. Her bear thought they should trust him too, and her bear was an excellent judge of character.

She said quietly, “Yeah, me too.”

Brandon studied her. “You love him, don’t you.” It wasn’t a question—more of a statement. He knew.

There was no point in hiding it. He needed to know how things were. “Yes,” she admitted. “It seems crazy, after only four days. But I feel… connected to him.”

“Connected like a mate?”

She’d thought about that so many times in the last few days. “I don’t know.” She met his eyes. He was surrounded by people who were true mates, and he had one of his own. “Don’t people usually know?”

It was something she’d told herself over and over. She couldn’t be Titan’s mate, his true mate, because she’d have known. Her bear would have told her. And his bear would tell him.

Brandon said, “Unless they don’t want to know.”

Mari hadn’t thought about that. She hadn’t even known about it. She’d always heard… mates knew right away.

“Do you think… he doesn’t want to know?” she asked timidly.

“I think maybe neither of you do.”

“We can’t bond,” she said to him. The thought of it was terrifying. “I’m dying. He’s already going to be so sad. That would just make it worse for him.” She looked down at her hands. Her chest felt like she’d swallowed broken glass, just thinking about Titan losing her—and her losing him.

Brandon sighed. “Judging by the way he looks at you, I don’t know if anything would make it worse. I’m worried about him. And I’m worried about the crew.”

Mari looked up at him, startled. “Why the crew?”

He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “I don’t know if pandas have the same kind of crew bonds that we have. But… what we have, all of us, it’s not just a feeling. It’s a magical bond. It’s powerful, and it allows us to be there for each other in amazing ways. But there’s always a downside, and one of them is that anything that affects one of us, affects all of us. And if we lose someone…”

Mari tried to understand what he was saying. “Bonded crews do lose people sometimes, though. Don’t they?”

“Yeah. But it’s… pretty devastating. Especially if it’s a crew as small as ours.”

She understood then. If something happened to Titan—or if Titan was too torn up over something happening to her—then it would ripple through the whole crew.

And from what she knew of them, some of them weren’t too stable.

She realized again that her coming and dumping her troubles on Titan had much more far-reaching effects than she’d ever anticipated.

And it was too late to stop it now.

She made herself look Brandon in the eye. “I’m sorry if I dragged the crew into something that’s not about them. When I came here, I didn’t realize what it would cost Titan to help me. And I certainly didn’t expect… whatever this is between us.

“I’ll leave if you want me to—this is your territory and your crew. But Titan deserves some happiness, however little it might be. And if we have to lose each other… well, I’m glad you’re all here to help him through it. And maybe he can find love with someone else, someday.”

He narrowed his eyes. “So the idea of him being with someone else doesn’t bother you?”

Mari straightened herself up and faced him squarely. “Of course it does! I want to claw her face off, whoever she is, which is very disturbing because even though I told you we’re ferocious we’re really not. It’s very unlike me.”