Page 17 of Goldie and Her Bears (Dirty Paranormal Fairytale Haremlan 3)

I chuckled and settled myself back on the bed. I grunted against the pain bleeding through my leg as I lifted it to the mattress.

“Careful,” Jasper said.

I glared at him. “I’m trying.”

Once I was situated, I smiled at him. “What else do I need to know?”

He shrugged. “That pretty much covers it.”

“How am I supposed to go to the bathroom or shower?” I asked. “I can’t exactly expect you to carry me all the time.”

“Why not?”

I leveled my gaze on him. “You have things to do outside of taking care of me, I’m sure.”

“That may be, but I’m also not the only one here. We’ll take turns.”

“Oh.” I fell into a small silence as my mind ran circles around his response. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. It was too much. I wanted to avoid overstaying my welcome.

“I’m sorry I’m such a burden,” I said. “I was trying to avoid being more work on you.”

“I know,” he said. “Chase told me about your letter.”

I nodded. “I’m sorry.”

“Stop with the apologies,” he said through a chuckle. “We understand. Kai has a way of forcing people away.”

“He didn’t push you or Chase away,” I said.

“True. But we see through his rough exterior,” Jasper said as he leaned back in the chair.

I nodded, even though he couldn’t see it, and relaxed into Jasper’s bed, letting my thoughts take over. Then my stomach growled, interrupting the silence, and added to my embarrassment.

Jasper chuckled. “I should probably go grab you some food.”

“That sounds amazing,” I said. My mouth started to water in anticipation of more of Chase’s food.

“Be right back.” Jasper stood and walked across the room, keeping his gaze locked on mine for the better part of the trek. Once he was a couple of feet from the door, he turned his attention toward it. He disappeared behind the door, and I laid back against his pillow. I continued to stare at the ceiling, letting my heart slow down and my breathing return to normal.

In some small, albeit counterproductive, way, I was sort of glad my leg got caught in a bear trap. Because Jasper and Kai saved me. Even Chase helped, by the sounds of things. My situation could have been worse. So much worse.

Maybe it wasn’t a mistake coming here after all, and I wanted to make the most of it.

8

JASPER

I half expected Kai or Chase to stop me as I headed for the kitchen. More so Chase. Kai was probably still angry and out of the cabin. Who knew when it came to him? He was such a loner, he almost repelled people. It surprised me that he got along so well with me and Chase. But, then again, Chase was always in-tuned with people. He had a way of making them open up and accept him. He was the last person I expected to be gone. Yet as I rounded the corner that led into the kitchen, I was shocked to find it empty.

With a sigh, I headed toward the fridge for some food. I grabbed out some leftovers and warmed them in the microwave. I’m sure Chase had a good reason not to be here. He seemed so worried about Cassie and wanted to know as soon as she was awake. It wasn’t like him to just up and disappear, but maybe he was smoothing things over with Kai.

As I waited for the food to reheat, I tried to make sense of why Cassie was out in the woods in the middle of the night much less all alone. I thought about the letter Chase told me about. She thought her whole trip was a huge mistake. But why? What could have been so bad that she thought the only way out was sneaking out in the middle of the night?

It bothered me that she left the way she did. After the first time we met, I thought I would never see her again. Then she shows up here, unexpectedly. I thought I was given a second chance. A chance to make things right and give myself a shot at happiness.

Despite everything she upped and left when no one was paying attention. Kai might have been a big part of her motivation in leaving, but I wasn’t convinced he was the whole reason.

I decided that when I brought her the food, I was going to talk to her about it. I needed to be careful though. She was still suffering from all of the blood she had lost. I didn’t want to overwhelm her.

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