Page 18 of Honey for the Bear

I keep walking, even though I don’t know where I’m going.The farmhouse feels too small, too suffocating, and I can’t stay there, not after what I saw.

Not after him.

Cameron.

The image of him—his massive bear form, bloodied and snarling—flashes in my mind, and I shake my head, trying to push it away.But it lingers, clinging to me like a shadow.The thing is, it’s not the bear that scares me.

It’s him.

Or maybe it’s the fact that I thought I knew him.

I stop at the edge of the clearing, leaning against a tree and pressing my hand to my chest, trying to calm the frantic rhythm of my heart.The air is cool against my skin, but it does nothing to quiet the storm inside me.

The truth is, I don’t know what to feel.

He lied to me.He kept this huge part of himself hidden, and now that I know, I can’t stop wondering what else he’s been hiding.What else he’s been running from.

Yet…

I can still see the way he looked at me last night, raw and vulnerable, like he was terrified of what I’d think.Like he was bracing himself for me to scream, to run, to hate him.

But I didn’t.

I wasn’t afraid of the bear.I wasn’t even afraid of him.

I was afraid of how much I still wanted him, even after everything.

“Hannah.”

The sound of his voice cuts through the quiet like a blade, low and rough, and I turn slowly to see him standing a few yards away, half-hidden in the shadows of the trees.

For a moment, neither of us moves.He looks wrecked—his clothes rumpled, his hair mussed, and his eyes… God, his eyes.They’re stormy and dark, filled with something I can’t name, something that makes my chest ache.

“What are you doing here?”I ask, my voice sharper than I intend.

“I needed to see you,” he says, taking a cautious step forward.“I needed to make sure you were okay.”

I let out a bitter laugh, crossing my arms over my chest.“You mean after you turned into a bear in my backyard?Or after you ran off without a word?”

He flinches, his jaw tightening, and for a second, I feel a pang of guilt.But then I remember everything he’s kept from me, and that guilt twists into something harder.

“I’m sorry,” he says, his voice quiet but firm.“I should have told you.I should have been honest with you from the start.”

“Yeah,” I say, my voice trembling.“You should have.”

He takes another step closer, his gaze searching mine.“I was scared, Hannah.Scared of what you’d think, scared of losing you.”

“You don’t get to decide that for me,” I snap, the words tumbling out before I can stop them.“You don’t get to lie to me and then act like it was for my own good.That’s not how this works, Cameron.”

“I know,” he says, his voice breaking.“I know I screwed up, okay?But I was trying to protect you.”

“Protect me from what?”I demand, throwing my hands up.“From you?Because that’s what it feels like.Like you’re so afraid of what you are that you’ve convinced yourself I should be afraid, too.”

He doesn’t respond, his hands clenching into fists at his sides, and the silence between us feels heavy, suffocating.

“You don’t get it,” he says finally, his voice low and rough.“You don’t understand what it’s like to have this… thing inside you.To know that if you lose control, even for a second, you could hurt the person you care about most.”

My chest tightens at his words, and for a moment, I almost soften.Almost.

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