Page 4 of Bear's Rejected Love
“Yeah,” Roan choked out. “Thanks for this.”
“All shifters are welcome here. The situation might be a bit weird at first, but I’m sure it will work itself out.” Roan wasn’t so hopeful, but from his wide grin, Sam thought Tabitha’s appearance was wonderful—as far as the clan alpha was concerned any new blood was good for their little town. “Want me to check on the girls?”
“Yes. Thanks. I told them I was popping out for half an hour. I didn’t say anything else, I want to talk to them when I get back home.”
“Of course. I’ll stop by for an hour.’
“I won’t be that long.”
Sam’s expression blanked out. “Oh. Sure. I’ll make it brief then and let them know they can come over to our place if they need anything.”
“Thank you. Honor’s cutting a tooth, I’m sure. The girls spoil him rotten and they’re both so patient, but they’re still just kids never mind that they had to grow up fast in that lab.” For a moment he almost laughed at the absurdity of the situation, here he was, a man through his own devices and circumstances never really wanted to be a father, now a father figure to three—and of today, a biological father to one. But instead of laughing, his face held its usual neutral expression. Years in the lab had taught him not to show any feeling, and while he felt, he still treated it like something that had to be concealed.
Behind them, Tabitha got out of her car and walked around to the back. She started in on the boxes, handing off a few to Corbin. He was wiry and so tall and thin because he’d hit his growth spurt before filling out, but he was strong. He took two massive boxes and walked up the porch.
The door was unlocked. He balanced the boxes, flung it open, and headed in.
“Our boys weren’t too keen on being here when they first arrived either,” Sam said. He managed to keep what he felt out of his voice and off his face. Roan appreciated the effort. Sam knew almost nothing about the situation, except that Tabitha was Roan’s one time mate and that he hadn’t seen her in fifteen years, and she’d shown up with his son in tow desperately looking for a place to raise a shifter. That’s all Sam needed, but it was obviously enough to make Roan look like a piece of shit.
He was a piece of shit.
“When my boys arrived, they were closed off, but in this place, it’s hard not to find peace and happiness. It might be hard for a few weeks, even a few months, but he’ll come around.”
“You noticed the burning scowls and simmering anger too then, huh?”
“Teenagers have wild hormones, Roan.”
It wasn’t any use telling Sam that he already lived with two teenagers. The girls weren’t like other kids. After spending years in that lab as children they acted more like adults, and he had to sometimes practically force them just to do silly kid stuff, which was why he didn’t want them to feel like they had to watch the baby. Honor had been unexpected. Silver, the panther he’d been in the lab with, and her mate, Domhnall, had hired a PI to find shifter kids out there who needed help. He hadn’t just found them two youngsters—wolf shifters who needed parents. He’d found another baby not long afterward. Anyone in Greenacre would have happily taken on that child, but Silver put his name forward without his knowledge. He’d been pretty pissed when she’d told him that she’d already talked to Sam and Lily about his willingness to take the baby. She’d made it sound like he wanted a child. Like he was missing a piece of himself without one. He’d argued vehemently that he was not in any place to be raising a kid, let alone a baby, but she’d given him a verbal smackdown that shut him up pretty damn quick when she pointed out that the girls would love a baby. They were great with hers. She thought they needed a little brother, that the love and emotion locked up inside of them, not to mention the horror and trauma they’d endured, would be greatly helped by caring for another.
He hadn’t seen her point. He’d still argued against her. In the end, like Silver often did, she’d won out and Honor came to live with them. He’d been in the household for just over three months and Roan had to admit now how right Silver was. The girls had always been unnaturally quiet and still, locked up inside themselves like living statues. They’d been held in the lab with him and Silver, that facility had near enough destroyed him, so he couldn’t imagine what it had been like for them to have spent their entire childhood being experimented on. They were kind and gentle, and on the surface seemed happy enough, but anyone could see there was something they were still going through, and it was hell.
They’d changed so much since Honor’s arrival. They smiled. They laughed. They ate more. They sang.
His heart wasn’t so hard these days either. It was hard to disappear into yourself when a one-year-old demanded your attention.
“Yeah.” He’d been sitting there staring out the window, saying nothing. “Thanks again.” He took the keys Sam handed over and slid out of the truck.
Both Tabitha and Corbin were inside the cabin. He could hear their voices coming from inside.
He felt something close to panic twist his stomach. It snaked up, spreading through his chest. When Tabitha stepped out of the front door, that sensation turned into straight adrenaline, dumping into his bloodstream, cutting off his oxygen.
They’d never wanted to be mates, but it was how things were done in their clan. They’d been told they were fated by their alpha. He didn’t want to believe it, he didn’t want anyone to be beholden to him, least of all the woman he’d always admired and loved with every breath he took and every beat of his heart. The moment their lips had met, he’d known what a bad idea it was, he felt as if he was falling and falling further towards her. He couldn’t stop himself on their only night together, neither could she, they were hungry for each other, years of pent-up emotions. But it was wrong. Tabitha had deserved more, he would only bring her pain and so he had taken the coward’s way out.
She’d always been pretty, but instead of aging gracefully like walking into a quiet sunset, the years had turned into a stunning bombshell of a woman. She clearly didn’t have much money, but she didn’t need designer clothes, surgeries, or fancy haircuts. She was prettier because she was so natural. She could never be called plain, even without a stitch of makeup and looking exhausted from driving all the way across the country in a car that looked like it wouldn’t make it five miles. How had she held it together? Wild hope didn’t count? How had she held her whole life together, raising a child alone, over the past fifteen years?
The look she shot him when she noticed him watching her said absolutely fine, you asshole. The way she snapped her gum as she walked down the steps and charged to the car, tossing back her hair, hit him hard. She might have come seeking refuge for herself and her son, but it was a last resort. Her pride hadn’t been broken. She’d always had a gritty, tough as nails undercurrent running through her veins. Life hadn’t beaten it out of her. She hadn’t arrived with her tail between her legs, begging. She’d come with her head held high, to collect on a debt he absolutely owed her.
Tabitha bent into the back of the car and came up with a huge box. He walked over, ready to take it from her, but she rolled her eyes and her jaw clenched. “Corbin’s in the house. You need to go talk to him.”
“And say what?”
“I don’t have the first clue. Maybe say nothing. He’s the one who wants to say something to you. I can tell.”
“He probably wants to inform me that I’m an asshole and that I’m not going to win any father of the year awards, ever.”
Tabitha’s jaw unclenched and she blew a bubble with her gum. Spearmint. Just like she used to chew. As his best friend’s little sister, the girl he’d lived with for years after he moved in with her family, she’d always been off limits. It shocked everyone when their alpha announced that they’d be mates. She was twenty-two. He was twenty-four. He was freshly back from college after earning a business degree. He’d come back because Denver never left, and he was his best friend. Because Denver’s parents were like his own. He’d tried not to notice how Tabitha had grown up while he’d been gone. How she’d sprouted lush curves, but had kept her cherubic face and somehow that combination was so damn potent he couldn’t stop noticing her.
She was still so alluring that she boiled his blood and made him rock hard in his jeans. It was about as inappropriate now, as ever wanting her had been.