Page 6 of Bear's Rejected Love

“It’s not unheard of.”

“But out there, in the world, not in a clan. They really let them in here, just like that?”

“Yes. Other shifters as well. There’s not just bears here.”

Tabitha looked like she might fall over. He wanted to offer an arm, a hand, a kind word, but he had zero right. He had to stand there and just look at her, still half in disbelief. She was flesh and blood and she was beautiful and real.

He never thought he’d see her again.

“Can I help you finish unpacking?”

She bit down on her bottom lip, backing away from him like he was some kind of predator, or some kind of evil shadow blackening her life. Her eyes glistened and she looked like she was in danger of bawling and falling apart. “I’d like it if you would just leave, please.” She clearly had no desire for him to see that.

He had an entire life story to explain to the girls, two sweet teenagers who trusted him and for some reason, never wanted to live with anyone else even though he was the last person they should have gravitated to. They’d never looked at him like a dad. He wasn’t honestly sure what they saw in him. Anyone could tell that behind the bones and flesh, he was a broken thing. After the lab, the girls wanted to be safe. They wanted to be protected. He would do that with his last breath. Always. Maybe that was it?

They deserved honesty from him, and they’d get it.

He nodded at Tabitha and didn’t offer anything more. She didn’t want it and she certainly didn’t want him. The whole thing might call for endless patience and gentleness, but that was more Sam’s style and not his. He could cultivate those things for his son and for the woman he’d wronged, but he didn’t expect that any amount of waiting was going to fix this. They were here and they were safe. They’d come for that and certainly not for him.

There was no forgiveness in his future.

Chapter 3

Tabitha

“The school is ridiculous, I’m not going.”

“Up.” She prodded Corbin’s shoulder. “Yes you are.”

He twisted his head and looked at her through heavy lidded eyes. “I’m not, Tabby Cat. Deal.”

Tabitha Catherine. That name was her mother’s smart idea. Unlike most shifters, they’d had tons of pets growing up. Other animals were wary of shifters, sensing the animal in them—a bigger, larger, more violent, predatory animal. Her mom always had a way with cats. She’d loved them in any color, any size, any temperament. Her mom used to tell her that she’d had the name picked out long before she knew she was having a girl. Tabitha Catherine. So she could call her Tabby Cat for short.

Her throat closed up and she was once again in danger of bursting into tears. She missed her mom fiercely. More than anything. She wouldn’t have come here if her parents were an option.

“Please don’t call me by my first name or any nicknames. I’m mom to you.”

“Okay, brah.”

“No. Definitely not brah or bro. Mom. And yes.” She held up the tambourine she’d kept since Corbin was a baby and brought it up to his face. “You are.” She gave it a violent jingle that made him sit bolt upright and cup his hands over his head.

“Oh my god! You know I hate that thing!”

“I do, Corby. And you’re going. Please get up and get ready.”

“I hate it. I’ve been there for three days and it’s just a bunch of crap I learned when I was four years old. Makes sense because they use the place as a daycare, where the older kids have to help look after all the little brats running around.”

“Corbin James.” Her voice held a strong note of warning. “This is our home now. Please make an effort to get along and at least pretend to be nice. These people have given us a home of our own. They’re going to share clan supplies like food and money. Truth is, we’d be completely screwed if they hadn’t agreed to let us stay.”

“What you really mean to say is that if I wasn’t such an asshole in the city, we could have stayed and been fine.”

“No,” she sighed. “And I’d prefer if you not use that word.”

“I’d prefer if you hadn’t dragged me to the ass end of nowhere.”

“I’m tired, Corbin. I can’t deal with this now,” she sighed, once more feeling like she’d somehow failed him. As a mother, she’d done her best to be the parent and the role model and the unbreakable one that Corbin could always depend on. Now, she took down that parental mask and stopped pretending and just looked at her son with the naked truth written all over her face.

He just glared at her, his eyes filled with teen resentment.