Page 20 of The Cowbears of Curvy Bear Ranch

His tone turned dark. “You have no idea what you just did to him. When he came back from the war, he wasn’t doing very well. You’ve stripped away any progress he’s made and now I have to deal with thefallout.”

“I…Ididn’tknow.”

“Of course you didn’t. You abandoned him the second he said he wanted toleave.”

“Heleftme.”

Mack crossed his arms over his chest. “You left each other. He doesn’t want to have anything to do with you. So good luck with the kid and get the hell off myproperty.”

Every muscle in her body tensed with fury. “I don’t care what you think. I’m going to talktohim.”

She stomped around him toward thehouse.

Mack called, “He’s not inthere.”

A series of crunching footfalls sounded just behind her. She spun to find Mack a couple of feet from her. “Are you going to follow me around the ranch? I already told you, I’m notleaving.”

Behind her, a gravelly voice spoke, “I gotthisMack.”

A spark of recognition shimmied through her. She slowly turned to find Brady standing on the porch. He’d changed into worn jeans and tan chaps. A Stetson cowboy hat covered his eyes. His rugged good looks awakened every inch of her femininity. God, he could be so distractinglyhandsome.

Mack grumbled. “You’d better not hurt him or there will be helltopay.”

Brady strode down the steps. “I can handlethis,Mack.”

His brother glared at her before trudging off throughthesnow.

Her heart skittered in her chest. She struggled with the right words to use to explain why she needed him, but simply settled on, “Your son’s dying and you’re the only one who cansavehim.”

* * *

Brady’s jaw dropped.Had he heard her right? “What didyousay?”

“Your son’s dying of leukemia and he needs a bone marrowtransplant.”

He took a step back and searched her face for any indication of a lie. Nothing. But could he really believe her after all this time? She’d been lying by omission about having a son, so she could easily be lying aboutthistoo.

She wrapped her arms across her chest. “Don’t you have anything to saytothat?”

He lifted his hat off of his head and brushed his hand across his hair. “Honestly, I’m not sure I can believe anything you say anymore. How could you keep such a huge secretfromme?”

“I was scared. I didn’t think you’d want him. You didn’twantme.”

“What are you talking about? I did want you. I wanted you to wait for me to come back from the war. I wanted to…” He stopped. He couldn’t confess that he’d wanted to ask her to marry him that night. But she’d been so angry that he’d been too afraid that she’dsayno.

“I knowyou’remad.”

“Furious.”

“Okay, furious. I get that and you have every right to be. I should have told you. But I’m asking you…” her voice cracked. “I’m asking you to help him. Not me, him. He’ll die without a bone marrow transplant and I’m not amatch.”

“Whynot?”

“I don’t haveshifterDNA.”

He drew back. “You told the doctor that your son… our son… is a shifter? Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to reveal that kind ofinformation?”

“I was careful. I talked to some of the park ranger shifters in Yellowstone and one of them recommended Dr. Landry. She’s working on creating cures specifically for shifters. We tried traditional chemotherapy but it didn’t work. We tried other methods, but they also failed. Trust me, if you weren’t my last hope, I wouldn’t even be hererightnow.”

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