Page 13 of A Bear's Journey

“You could have murdered me right there,” Charlie went on. “But instead you took me back to Daniel and Kade. It took you all night.”

Olivia barely remembered it, and only in snatches: the cage, for sure, along with the one member of the wolf pack who’d been kind to her. Then she was running through the forest, something on her back, until she got to the cabin, tired and sore.

“I barely remember that,” Olivia whispered.

“It’s okay,” Charlie whispered against Olivia’s hair.

“I shouldn’t be here, at a baby shower,” Olivia said. “It’s just... all these people celebrating something I’m never going to have, you know?”

“Why would you say that?” Charlie asked, stroking Olivia’s hair.

Another light knock on the doorframe, and Daniel, her brother’s other mate, walked in.

“Hey,” he said, taking in the scene. He crossed to the tub and sat next to it, taking one of Olivia’s hands in his. “What happened?”

“I’m not fit for human company,” Olivia gasped.

“Some bitch said something mean to her,” Charlie said.

“I’m an animal who kills people. I can’t have relationships with humans, no matter how many marshmallows they have,” Olivia went on, practically burrowing into her sadness.

Daniel squeezed Olivia’s hand. “You are not,” he said, gently but firmly. “You are a good person who had a rough time, but you are our sister in law and we love you.”

Technically, Kade and Daniel and Charlie weren’t married, but close enough.

Downstairs, Olivia heard someone yelling.

Please, let that not be about me, she thought, but she didn’t have high hopes.

Two more faces appeared at the door: Olivia’s cousin Hunter, and her cousin-in-law Quinn. They also came and knelt by the bathtub.

Olivia was starting to feel kind of silly.

“We don’t have to move the whole party in here,” she muttered. “Just because I’m crying in a bathtub.”

Daniel’s face broke into a smile. “There you are,” he said.

Olivia sighed. Charlie was still hugging her from behind.

“I promise not to shift and rip anyone apart,” Olivia promised.

“We weren’t worried,” said Charlie.

More of her relatives’ faces appeared in the doorway: Kade and Hudson and Julius.

“You’re doing fine,” said Quinn, sitting on the floor behind Daniel and peeking over his shoulder. “Hell, if I could shift, I’d have torn that nosy lady a new one.”

This time, Olivia actually laughed.

Then she heard two people coming up the stairs.

“You can’t carry me because I can still use my own two feet, okay? Now back off,” came a woman’s voice from that direction.

Seconds later, an eight-months-pregnant Cora appeared in the doorway. She was slightly out of breath, but smiling.

“Hey Olivia,” Cora said, one hand on her belly, her voice a little too chipper. “I kicked that bitch and her asshole husband out!”

Cora grinned.

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