Safe with Her Bears

by Madeline Hill

  Carter and Max only wanted to prolong her suffering. She felt emotionally unstable in their presence. Confused. Torn. Angry. And frankly, she was far too exhausted to deal with any of that drama. A cold, hard prison bed sounded luxurious in comparison.

  “No,” was the only answer Carter provided.

  The two shifters walked out of the bedroom casually, leaving Jules more frustrated and confused than ever.

  23

  The bacon crackled and spat in the cast iron-pan. Max’s nostrils flared as he inhaled the delicious scent, his stomach growling. Next to him, Carter buttered slices of toast. Another large pan was frying six eggs, sunny side up, and the oven was heating leftover cheesy hash brown casserole.

  They had given Jules her space, and she hadn’t come out of her room all day. Max knew intuitively that this breakfast would draw her out. She had to be hungry, and he knew the best way to get close to people was through their stomachs.

  He agreed with Carter that they needed to explain themselves to Jules. But the question remained: what then? It was a story without a happy ending, he feared, and he dreaded the inevitable moment when they’d have to put their feelings aside and do the right thing. His heart felt immensely comforted to have her safe and near, but in the background of his mind thrummed worry and discontent.

  Carter nudged his elbow and tilted his head towards the hallway. Max glanced over to see Jules emerging from her room. She was groggy, rubbing her eyes, her black hair ruffled and frizzy from sleep. She slowly, somewhat cautiously, approached the kitchen, looking back and forth between the two of them.

  Max’s heart fluttered with want. Even in her tired state, she looked ravishing. Her emerald green eyes glimmered behind her disgruntled expression. He got the impression that her frown was a cover, at least partially. She wanted to be angrier than she really was, deep down inside. Her curious eyes and the soft pink blush of her cheeks betrayed her.

  “What time is it?” Jules asked flatly.

  “Four o’ clock.” Carter grinned as he reached for the coffee pot. “Cup of coffee?”

  “Sure. Who cooks breakfast at 4PM?”

  “Breakfast is good any time of day,” Max replied.

  Carter poured the cup and set it on the thick wooden dining table. Jules took a hesitant seat on one of their do-it-yourself chairs that was just a heavy round block they’d chopped and sanded from a fallen log. She pulled the coffee cup possessively to her chest. Max’s eyes lingered on her breasts under her dirty peach colored blouse.

  “Hey, you’re gonna burn the bacon!” Carter swatted his shoulder.

  “Huh? Oh.” Max tore his eyes away and quickly went to work removing the darkening slices before they went past the point of no return. Carter winked at him and Max shriveled from embarrassment.

  After rescuing the bacon, Max turned the stove off and opened the oven, retrieving the aromatic casserole. The two shifters grabbed plates and began serving out the food, piling on the bacon, eggs, toast, and hash browns. Carter placed a steaming hot plate with mounds of food in front of Jules and her eyes widened. Carter chuckled as he took his seat across from her with his own plate, Max following suit a moment later.

  “Wow, this is—” Jules could hardly speak, her jaw hanging open.

  “It’s not a painting, Jules.” Max smiled. “Don’t just stare at it.”

  She winced, shooting him an angry look that bore just a hint of playfulness. She grabbed her fork and dug in. The next ten minutes were completely silent as the three of them shoveled the steaming food into their mouths. Carter had to get up to refill her coffee twice. At last her plate was empty. A low burp rolled from her throat and she covered her mouth quickly, eyes wide, mortified. Her cheeks flushed a deep shade of red.

  Carter looked at Max and the two shifters erupted into laughter. At first Jules joined in, letting out a few hesitant giggles before stopping herself and narrowing her brows together, frowning.

  “Hey!” she protested, slamming her fist down on the table with surprising strength.

  They tried to suppress their laughter, Max raising his hand to calm Carter.

  “I’m sorry, Jules,” Max said, trying to stifle his smile.

  Jules cleared her throat, cheeks still rosy from embarrassment. “No, I’m sorry. I’m such a pig. I just haven’t eaten all day.”

  Carter grinned. “A woman’s gotta eat. Especially after everything you just went through. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

  The side of her mouth turned up into a faint smile, but as quick as it appeared, it vanished again. She took another sip of coffee and looked pensive as she set it down again.

  “So what am I doing here, really?” she asked, her eyes searching theirs for answers. “Why haven’t you arrested me yet?”

  “Well, Jules,” Carter started.

  Max leaned forward. “We didn’t want things to end the way they did.”

  She raised her eyebrow. “End the way they did? So, you want to apologize? Patch things up? Feel better about yourselves, ease your guilty conscious before you ship me off to prison?”

  Max’s stomach soured. He was the one in bandages because of Jules, yet she expected him to apologize. Her eyes widened as she noticed his clenched jaw and the frown on his lips. She looked down at her coffee cup sheepishly.

  “It’s not about that,” Carter said. “We just wanted to explain ourselves.”

  She crossed her arms obstinately. “Fine. Explain away.”

  Max pushed his chair out and collected the empty plates, tossing them into the sink. He sat back down with a heavy grunt, Jules’s eyes studying him.

  “You know we’re shifters,” Carter explained. “One thing that happens in every shifter’s life is that fate brings us together with a mate.”

  “Oh, really?” Jules’s voice was laced with sarcastic interest.

  “Yeah. It’s not like with humans. Each human couple varies in compatibility. People fall in and out of love all the time. People get married and then divorced, and then married again. If you break up with someone, it hurts, but you know you’ll eventually meet someone else and love them just as much, if not more.”

  Jules scoffed. “Well, that’s not a very romantic way of looking at it.”

  Carter shrugged. “Humans like to pretend that there are soul mates out there for every person, but realistically it just isn’t the case.”

  Max eyed his friend cautiously, hoping that Carter wouldn’t get lost in one of his diatribes and just start blabbering on and on.

  “But for us shifters, there are soulmates,” Carter continued. Max tried to keep his face stoic and unreadable, not wanting to give Jules the impression that he doubted Carter’s words. “Only we don’t call them soulmates. We call them fated mates. Fate binds us with a person. It can be a werebear or a human. And that person becomes our mate for life. After that, there is no one else for us. Ever. It’s over. The end.”

  Jules sighed, rolling her head from side to side to work out the kinks. “That’s nice.”

  “You’re our fated mate, Jules.” Carter leaned forward, staring at her intensely.

  Her eyes widened, lips parting as she tried to register what he said. Then she laughed. “Our? You mean, both of you?”

  Her eyes met Max’s and he felt the heat from her gaze. He looked away, clearing his throat.

  “Yes, both of us,” Carter answered. “It’s rare, but every now and then, fate will bind the same mate to more than one shifter.”

  Carter looked at Max and nodded with a smile. “It makes sense. Max and I have known each other all our lives. We grew up together. We’re best friends, and we’ve never been apart.”

  Jules’s eyes darted back and forth between them. She gripped her coffee mug tightly. “So… how do you know I’m your mate?”

  Carter shrugged. “It happened instantly. We were given your photograph by our chief ranger. As soon as I saw your face, I knew.”

  There was a glimmer of recognition in Jules’s eyes. Her foreh
ead wrinkled, gears grinding in her mind. She seemed to have lost the attitude, the mocking tone in her voice. “Well… I don’t know what to say.”

  Max inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with the bacon-scented air. “Because of all this, we acted like idiots. We were supposed to go out and do our jobs. Find you and arrest you. But—” He rubbed the back of his neck, shoulder still bristling with spikes of pain. “We just… couldn’t.”

  “It was my idea,” Carter added. “I went undercover because I wanted to meet you. I wanted to talk to you and get to know you. I wanted you to see me as just a normal person, for a little while, anyway.”

  “Just a normal, everyday werebear shifter,” Jules corrected with a shy smile.

  Carter grinned back, nodding. “Yup.”

  “Carter also thought we could help you,” Max said. “He didn’t believe you were really capable of … you know.”

  Jules’s face darkened.

  “I wanted to learn the real story,” Carter continued. “The real reason you were out transporting drugs. I wanted to learn who made you do it. Then maybe we could get you—”

  “No one made me do it,” Jules said sadly, eyes averted. She shrugged, defeated. “I’m not some sweet little angel who was forced to do bad things. It was my choice.”

  Carter’s jaw clenched. He exhaled a hot plume of air. “It doesn’t matter now. That was just my thought process at the time.”

  Jules bit her bottom lip, her soft features weighing down heavy. “So what does this all mean? What happens now?”

  Carter looked at Max expectantly, as if waiting for permission. Max just pursed his lips. He couldn’t give that to Carter. Not yet. Not ever.

  Carter tore his eyes away, disgruntled. “I don’t know.”

  “So were you ever going to arrest me or not?” Jules asked, her eyes searching theirs.

  Carter rubbed the scruff on his chin. “We’ve been flip-flopping, honestly.”

  Max couldn’t help but chuckle at Carter’s honesty. Jules, however, was not amused.

  “So my fate is completely in your hands,” Jules said, eyes dark. “And you don’t even know what you’re going to do with me?”

  Carter and Max shared a guilty look.

  “We have a duty,” Max answered slowly. “It’s our moral duty to bring you to justice.”

  Jules’s face paled, eyes glossy with a mixture of shock, anger, and hurt. Max’s heart wrenched, not wanting to cause her any pain, but knowing that it would be unavoidable.

  “But at the same time,” Carter butted in. “We want to have you. To keep you. We don’t want to let our mate go. It’s selfish, I know, but our feelings for you are just so strong.”

  He reached out his hand and placed it over Jules’s, and she quickly pulled it away, her face conflicted. Something seemed to dawn on her. Her eyes narrowed and her mouth flattened to a stern line. “What about me? What makes you think I even want the two of you back? You think you can just claim me as your mate forever without even asking me if that’s what I want?”

  Carter glanced at Max with a crooked smile that said, “Are you kidding me?”

  Jules crossed her arms and frowned, looking like a rebellious child.

  “Jules,” Carter said softly. “You’re right. Of course we can’t force you to do anything. We never would try to. But, if we feel this love so strongly, then it’s practically a given that you feel the same way.”

  Jules shook her head, brows furrowed. “That’s awfully presumptuous of you.”

  Carter grunted, frustrated. “Don’t pretend, woman. You know how you really feel. Don’t hide it. Hiding your true self is the worst affront to nature.”

  Max put his hand on Carter’s forearm to calm him. The last thing they needed to do was get into an argument with her and push her even further away.

  Her jaw dropped, not expecting an angry outburst from Carter. Then her features hardened. She pushed her chair away from the table, stood and turned towards her room. “Thanks for the dinner. Or breakfast, or whatever it was,” she said before disappearing into her room.

  24

  Jules shut the door behind her, her mind swimming. She stumbled over to the bed and collapsed on her back, the springs creaking under her weight. Her belly was full and her head felt heavy and slow.

  She couldn’t believe what Carter and Max had just told her. She didn’t know what she was expecting from them, but it definitely wasn’t that. Were they serious? Did they really think she was their fated mate, whatever that was supposed to mean?

  As much as she loathed it, she couldn’t deny the steady thrum of longing that had existed inside her, from the very first moment she’d set her eyes on Carter, and then Max. It wasn’t just lust. Yes, they were two incredibly gorgeous, virile men that turned her insides to mush and her panties into a sopping wet mess every time they glanced at her. But there was something deeper. It was something she couldn’t put her finger on. It felt like intuition, but less vague. It felt solid, like it wasn’t just a hunch. It was fact.

  It was as clear and obvious as the sky was blue, and water was wet. She loved them. That’s why she’d been so hurt when she found out they’d lied to her. That’s why it felt like her own insides had been torn apart when the bullet sliced into Max’s flesh.

  She clenched her eyes shut, trying to will away the unwanted realization.

  It didn’t matter, anyway. Max said himself that it was their moral duty to turn her in. He was right. She was a bad person who needed to be put behind bars. She’d never done any good for society. She only helped to perpetuate suffering and addiction. She clenched her full belly, a stomach ache brewing. She couldn’t tell whether it was from the food or from anxiety. Probably both.

  Thoughts drifted to her father. Cradling her in his lap. Telling her she could be anyone she wanted to be. A doctor, a lawyer, an astronaut. What would he think of her now? She remembered being little, nuzzling her small face into his prickly chin as his low voice rumbled fatherly love. He would’ve done anything for her. With him around, Jules felt unstoppable. She felt safe, secure. She felt like she could take on the world. But then all her strength was ripped away in a single moment and tossed to the wind, like shingles on a roof during a hurricane.

  She felt tossed away, too. Twirling, tumbling, directionless. Latching on to the wrong people. Making the wrong decisions. Trying to steer the ship of her life but unable to keep away from the rocks.

  It was no excuse. She had made her bed. Now she had to lie in it. Her heart ached, and she wished she could go back in time. Do it all over again, but better. Be a stronger person. Someone her daddy would be proud of.

  Her eyes burned with tears. You’re so weak... so weak and stupid, Jules. Her chest heaved with a sob. She turned her head and buried her face in her pillow, not wanting the shifters to hear her crying. If either of them touched her right now, she wasn’t sure whether she’d attack them, or crumble in their embrace... she simultaneously wanted them to disappear from her life forever, and to come wrap their strong arms around her, protect her, comfort her, and accept her for who she was.

  Sweat poured from Carter’s forehead as he heaved forward, swinging the heavy ax until it split the wood clean through with a sharp cracking sound. He leaned over and picked up one piece, still thick, and placed it on the tree trunk. The blade of the ax made a clean split down the middle. He let one piece drop to the ground, then swung again and divided the remaining wood.

  Then he stopped for a breather, standing up straight and wiping the sweat from his brow. The golden light heated his skin, turning it bronze in the sunset. He felt bathed in the warm rays, covered in gold like he’d been touched by Midas. He flexed his muscles and smirked. In his peripheral vision he spotted a dark-haired figure, sitting on the front steps of his cabin.

  His heart sped up in his chest. He squinted through the harsh rays. Jules’s eyes were wide, staring at him. Her eyes raked up and down his body, caressing his rippling muscles.

  Carter d
ropped his ax and stepped forward boldly, flattered to know she’d been eye-fucking him this whole time. He’d been showing off without even realizing it.

  “Finally decided to come out of your cave, huh?” he joked.

  She smiled with a blush of embarrassment. As Carter approached, he noticed her cheeks were puffy, her eyes red.

  “Is everything okay?” he asked.

  She looked down reflexively, avoiding his eyes. She stretched, trying to appear casual and nonplussed, but Carter knew better.

  “It was getting stuffy in there,” she said, her voice scratchy.

  He took a heavy seat next to her on the steps and his mind flashed back to a similar scene a couple of days ago, when the two of them sat together on the steps on the old dilapidated cabin. The sun was setting then, too. Conversation was sparse, and all they could do was look at each other and smile, each fighting internal battles over their mutual lust.

  “I’m glad you came out,” he said simply, smiling. He rested his forearms on his knees and hoped he didn’t reek after breaking a sweat.

  Jules’s black hair glinted gold in the subdued haze of sunset. Her porcelain skin glowed. A shy smile tugged at her lips, but she still wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Where’s Max?”

  “He went into town to pick up some groceries,” Carter answered.

  “I never would’ve thought grizzlies buy their food at the market,” Jules joked. Her demeanor teetered on warm and inviting, but she still looked straight ahead.

  “A diet of salmon and berries gets boring after a while,” Carter smiled.

  She smiled back. His hips touched hers and he felt so close to her, yet so distant at the same time.