Page 9 of Bearly Mated

I crossed the room and yanked the door open, my face as hot as my temper. “Why are you doing this? This isn’t what you want. This isn’t what I want. I can get along with almost anyone, sothere has to be someone else in the clan willing to breed with me.”

He stepped up to me and wrapped his hands around my face, tilting my head back as he leaned his toward me. “I chose this, Callie. My dad asked me who to assign to you, and I couldn’t let anyone else have you. Thisiswhat I want. You’re mine. You’ve always been mine.”

“That’snottrue. I?—”

He kissed me.

It was just a brush of his lips to mine at first. A whisper of desire.

Then his tongue was in my mouth, and he was kissing me like it was the only chance he’d ever get. Like he was burning, and I could put out the fire.

Like he’d wanted me since we were teenagers, and had finally decided to do something about it.

And I couldn’t help but kiss him back with just as much intensity.

I was gasping for air when he finally pulled away, my heart pounding like a freight train.

“You need to eat while you can,” he said. “Growing a bear cub is extremely hard on a human body.”

“You kiss me like that, and all you can think to say is‘eat your damn breakfast’?”

His lips curved up in a grin. “It was eithereatortake your clothes off. Considering I’m supposed to be making sure you don’t fuck anyone before breeding, taking you to bed isn’t exactly a good choice.”

“If you’re the one who’s going to breed me, what would it matter?” I stepped out of his arms and strode back to the kitchen, my heart still beating hard.

“It’s just the way things are done.”

“Like leaving your mate?”

He grimaced. “Yeah.”

I sat down in front of the food. “I find it hard to believe that there aren’tanybear shifters living with their mates. If you guys are willing to pay a woman such an insane amount of money to have a kid for you so bear shifters don’t die out, wouldn’t it make more sense to settle down with her for the long run and have multiple kids?”

“Logically, yes. But most bears can’t stay in one place for that long. Living with your mate while knowing you’ll eventually leave her is crueler than not living with her at all. I don’t keep in contact with anyone in the clan, but there was always one guy who lived with his mate. He was the only one, and is very much an outsider for it.”

“Do you guys just not understand commitment, or what? Because commitment means knowing youmightwant to leave, but choosing to stay anyway and figuring out a way to enjoy it in the process. Because you made a promise. Or a vow.”

“We don’t make promises or vows.”

“Because you’re all too afraid to commit, and too much of assholes to stay.”

“Eat your breakfast, Cal. You still need to get dressed.”

I was wearing a pair of pajama shorts and a sleep shirt. “If we do this, we’re not going to be friends anymore, Hud. I won’t think positively of you. I won’t be able to stop myself from pointing out your shittyness to my son, so that one day he might grow up to be as good a man as the outsider in your pack who stays with his mate. Tell your dad to pick someone else, so we don’t have to hate each other.”

His jaw set. “I’m physically incapable of letting you mate with anyone else, Callie. There’s no other choice.”

“As long as you understand that it will change everything.”

He jerked his head. “I get it.”

“And I’m going alone to the doctor’s office. We’re not together. Since I’m going through the pregnancy and delivery on my own, you’re not going with me like we’re a couple.”

“I’m your guard right now.” His voice was clipped. “I have to go with you.”

“You can follow me, like the last guard did.”

His chest rumbled with a growl, but he didn’t argue any further. I think he realized I wasn’t playing around. He’d kissed me, and it was even better than I would’ve imagined, but our situation was still the same.

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