“Me too.” He grinned at her, but the grin died at the somber look on her face as she carried on watching the news. “How long are you going to punish me for, Pip?”
The question had been on the tip of his tongue for the past two weeks, but he’d held it. She’d been working through some shit—shit she’d refused to share—but it had put enough distance between them to make it feel like they had the Berlin Wall separating them.
He hated it.
Hated the distance.
Hated how alone he felt, even though the bond was alive and well, throbbing with power, so strong was their connection.
He wasn’t sure why she was fighting it or why she felt like she had to.
It hurt him, but he felt like he’d had no choice but to let her come to terms with it. It was his fault she was feeling like this. The least he could do was give her time to heal.
“I don’t know, Major. Maybe when I stop feeling like I’m not the mate you want.”
He blinked at her. “Are you crazy? Is that what this is about?”
She scowled at him. “Of course it is. Why the hell did you think I was mad at you?”
He shrugged. “Because Juanita came to the clubhouse, because you had to heal her, and because I helped the convoy that took her to the airfield and helped her escape.”
“You really think I’m that fucking petty?” she snarled at him.
It was on the tip of his tongue to say, ‘aren’t most women?’ But he didn’t have a death wish. Instead, he sighed and said, “Look, let’s not get into this. Let’s just deal with the facts so we can move on. I miss you, honey. I miss my mate.”
She clenched her jaw. “How do you know I’m your mate, Major? How do you know, really? Are you sure I’m not just what your Bear wants and really, you want her?”
The venom she put in the word ‘her’ had him cringing.
“I thought this was behind us,” he told her softly, stepping closer to the bed.
“I thought so too, but I can’t get it out of my head. What you told me... It was like, the Bear wanted me but you didn’t.”
“The Bear is me,” he clarified, a little confused at how she was painting them as two separate entities.
“The Bear is a part of you,” she corrected.
He scowled at her. “I think I know what the beast is to me, dammit. I’m nothing without the Bear and he’s nothing without me. Don’t you get that? And don’t you get that without you, neither of us can exist?”
She swallowed at his earnest tone then lifted her hands and covered her face. “I just...” She broke off. “I’ve loved you for so long, Major. I feel like my heart is breaking every day because you can never love me as much.”
He froze at her words, then as heat swelled through him, he ignored the distance she’d been putting between them and strode over to the bed. Before she could do so much as squeal, he’d climbed on top of her, satisfied when she parted her legs to let him lie between them. He framed her face after he pulled her hands away and stated, “My love wasn’t forged when yours was. I will always regret that you recognized me first and that we wasted so many years when we could have been together. But, I refuse to waste more time, more of our lives together, over shit that doesn’t matter.
“Because, baby, nothing matters apart from me and you. Do you understand that? Juanita was a crutch. She helped me through a shitty phase in my life. She helped me fucking survive long enough to meet you. Be grateful for that. Be thankful that I met her, because I didn’t like the path I was going down before I met her.
“Now, don’t misunderstand that. I did think she was my mate, because I reacted positively to her. But the connection between you and me is like an atomic bomb in comparison to what I experienced with her. You have no need to be jealous because I am yours. Do you understand me?”
Her bottom lip quivered, and her eyes were frosted with tears as she stared up at him. For endless seconds, she sat there in silence, and then she nodded.
He let out a quivery breath that brushed her lips, then ducked his head, and before his lips connected with hers breathed, “I love you.”
And as he took her mouth as he should have done weeks ago, he was thankful— thankful for this woman in his arms and thankful for the family he had to support him.
With Martinez on his way out, most of the current threats toward the MC would die a slow death. That meant Christie, whenever she decided to pop the cub out, wouldn’t have to do so amid open warfare, and Annette, when her time came, would equally be as free to give birth in peace.
Their world was changing now they were finding their mates. He was one of the lucky ones. He just prayed the rest of his Clan could find theirs, because once they did, he’d have a damn laugh watching them fall on their asses trying to figure out which way was right and which was left to make that all-important woman happy.
Because though they were mates, they were still females, and still from fucking Venus.
The End
Also by Becca Fanning
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Shifter Royal Dynasty
Dynasty (Free Prequel)
Legacy
Prophecy
Destiny
Big Easy Bears
Politics (Free Prequel)
Brock
Jules
MC Bear Mates
Growl (Free Prequel)
MARS
MUNDO
KIKO
Justiss and Graver
Shifter Football League
Gabriel
Kenny
Dustin
Bear Shifter Romance Novel Standalones
Made Bear
Bear Fallout
Battle-Scarred
Bear Shifter Romance Novella Series
120 Proof Honey
Daxton
Knox
Amir
Beck
Slade
Bear Dating Agency
Dietrich
Kurt
Hart
Reinicke
Bear Ranchers
Riding Bearback
Saddled Bearback
Dancing Bearback
Spurred Bearback
Bucking Bearback
Bearly Saints
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Bartholomew
Big Paw Security
Bearly Tamed
Bearly Protected
Bearly Sheltered
Bearly Mended
Bearly Apart
Bearly Together
FisherBears
Hook, Line and Sinker
Bear Anchor
Leeward Bear
Grit And Growl
Road Bears
Bear Patches
Bear Leather
Bear Chopper
Bear Burnout
Adam
Sam
Winston
Ian
Joel
Rodeo Bears
Edward
Owen
Colby
Jacob
Holden
Secret Baby Bears
Alec
Rock
Jackson
Clay
Rust
Star Bears
Breakwater: Leo
Breakwater: Rick
Breakwater: Custer
Breakwater: Hyde
Breakwater: Dom
Bear Shifter Romance Novella Standalones
Bearly Christmas
A Voice Like Honey
The Honey Pot
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