Page 7 of Bearly Mated

But my adult self was smart enough to realize that he must’ve taken over for the bear shifter who had followed me home… because he wasn’t there romantically.

He never was.

And that had to be okay.

four

CALLIE

The porch wasempty when I looked out the next morning. Part of me was disappointed that Hudson was gone, though I knew it was to be expected. He wouldn’t want to be around me much when I was pregnant with some other guy’s baby. Bears were possessive of the people they cared about, despite despising commitment.

He'd probably gone back to his security team already. He hadn’t ever left me without saying goodbye in the past, but being a bear, goodbyes were pretty much unexpected.

I padded over to my fridge and opened it up, staring at the desolate shelves.

No breakfast for me until the breeding money came in. Just more beans and rice.

Lovely.

The money wouldn’t come in until I had a positive pregnancy test at a doctor’s office, but that was fine. From what I understood, the bear would most-likely knock me up after screwing me once, since I wasn’t on birth control. I’d stoppedtaking the pills when the lawyer told me she didn’t think she could get me out of my dad’s debt.

When she confirmed it, I put them away in the back of the drawer.

I looked at the time—only an hour until the first of my multiple doctor’s appointments—and headed back to my bedroom to get dressed. I’d nearly reached it when someone knocked on my front door.

I frowned.

No one had knocked on my door in weeks. The casseroles and freezer meals had been great around and after the funeral, but they’d tapered off pretty quickly.

I padded to the door, surprised when I found a freshly-showered Hudson on the doorstep in a tight gray shirt and a pair of jeans that fittoowell. He had a bag of takeout food in one hand, and two cups of coffee in the other.

Before I could ask what he was doing there and what the food was for, he’d stepped into the house and put one of the coffee cups in my hand.

“You still drink it with more milk and sugar than coffee, right?” he asked, on his way to the kitchen table.

“…Yes.” I finally shut the door and trailed into the kitchen behind him.

“Still prefer bacon over sausage, and hashbrowns over roasted potatoes?” He opened one of two to-go trays.

I blinked.

He remembered all of that?

“And—”

I interrupted him. “What are you doing here, Hud? You should be back with your security team by now. You don’t live here, and you rarely visit for holidays. You should be on a plane.”

He handed me a fork.

I accepted it, even though I had no idea what was going on.

As he opened the second tray, he said calmly, “The clan chose me.”

“Chose you for what?”

“To breed with you.” He met my gaze steadily.

Way too steadily.

---