Page 6 of Bearly Taken

Well enough to know what she hadn’t said when she ended our conversation.

Why hadn’t she told me she was pregnant?

Because I claimed her, and left her.

Because it hurt her when I did.

Because she’d been waiting for me to come back for her—and I hadn’t.

I hadn’t known how.

I’d always been told that bears didn’t stay, but I was confident that if I went back to her, I wouldn’t be able to leave.

Forcing myself to take in a slow breath, I closed my eyes.

I needed a plan. I’d always needed a plan.

My plan to avoid ruining her life by coming back for her was simple—do not return to Cub Lake.

But I was back.

And I sure as fuck wasn’t leaving.

Now, I needed to prove that to her. And figure out how not to ruin her life while I did.

I wanted to be involved in my son’s childhood. I wanted to watch him grow up, and to be a better dad than my own father had been.

To do that, I needed to really be her mate. The way the werewolves and other supernaturals were with their mates. She deserved that, and much more.

But if I wanted to get there, I had to focus on her first. My son was small—small enough that he would forgive me for not being there.

Wren was the one I had to prove myself to.

So I spent the rest of the night creating a plan, rereading our messages, and making a list of everything I knew about my mate.

She was the love of my life—and I was going to make myself the love of hers, if it killed me.

three

WREN

I forcedmyself to act as if everything was normal and I’d gotten my usual amount of sleep, when I got out of bed with my 3:30 AM alarm.

I’d spent the last few hours of my night staring at the ceiling, trying to stop myself from hoping that Reed was there to stay.

He was going to leave again.

Hell, our text conversation had probably already sent him running for the hills.

I checked my phone for the dozenth time, to see if he’d messaged me again.

He hadn’t.

Of course he hadn’t.

I shoved my phone in my bag and put my cheery face on as I pulled a sleepy Parker out of his bed, buckled him into his infant car seat, and lugged the heavy little guy out of the house. My shift at the diner started at four, which meant dragging my poorbaby out long before he was ready to wake up. He was used to it, though, and slept through it like a champion.

Putting my keychain between my teeth the way I always did, I tugged the front door open and stepped outside, grabbing the crazy-heavy car seat’s handle once again.

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