Page 34 of Goldie and Her Bears (Dirty Paranormal Fairytale Haremlan 3)

“Am I dead?” I asked aloud.

Jasper shook his head, jaws still clenching. I couldn’t tell if it was me he was angry with or not. Part of me didn’t want to care either. “Far from it.”

“Then I want you to take me home,” I said. “Tonight. I don’t want to spend a second longer in this place than absolutely necessary.”

“You can’t,” Jasper said, barely above a whisper. “You have to stay off your leg.”

“I don’t give a shit! I want to go back to a life where things made sense,” I said. “I want to go home and let the memory of this night fade away until it is nothing but a vivid dream. I want to forget about everything about this place.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way,” he said.

He was starting to aggravate me with his resigned tone. I wished he would just talk to me and face the truth instead of hiding behind it.

“That’s it?” I asked. “Really?”

He barely met my gaze. “What?”

“That’s all you have to say to me?” I asked. “After everything I just witnessed? After what I had gone through… and after sleeping with you!”

“What good is anything I have to say going to do?” he asked.

I shrugged. “It’s better than whatever this is.”

“You’re upset. You had something very traumatic happen to you. My words aren’t going to help you. I’m trying to take it easy on you since you’re still recovering and had lost a lot of blood. You could be going into shock again, which wouldn’t be good.”

“Well, at least that would make more sense and give me a way out,” I muttered.

“You truly don’t want to be here that badly?” he asked.

I shook my head. “All I know is from the moment I stepped foot out of my door to take this stupid trip, I’ve taken nothing but a series of wrong turns. I was glad to see you again. Now I’m wondering if things weren’t better off with me not seeing you ever again.”

“Is that really what you believe?” he asked, still keeping his voice reserved.

I sighed. “Nothing about this place makes sense. I don’t know what to believe. I just want to go home.”

He nodded.

“Where were you all this time?” I asked, not bothering to mask my accusatory tone.

“I was going to grab your things from your car like I had told you I was going to do,” he said.

“Where are my things now?” I asked. “Are they inside?”

I didn’t think to look for them when Jasper was carrying me out. Hell, I didn’t think of them at all when he was gone. I didn’t make the connection.

“In the woods,” he said, nodding in what I assumed was the direction.

“Getting ruined?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I was a bit more concerned about you and your safety than the condition of your things if exposed to the weather.”

“If you were so concerned for my safety, you should have brought me with you. Or took Kai with you at the very least. He’s completely out of his mind.”

He sighed and stood from the swing and refused to meet my gaze. “I understand.”

I watched him walk off the porch and head into the woods without another word. His hands were shoved into his pockets, and he kept his head down as his form faded into the shadows of the trees. I sat on the swing, cold, listening to the soft rain as the tears continued to pour from my eyes.

It wasn’t long before my crying turned into sobs. All I wanted to do was get away, and I was forced to stay in the one place I couldn’t leave, surrounded by monsters, and unable to walk because I got my leg caught in a bear trap.

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