Back in front of the window, I tossed the towel to the floor and dried the melting snow with my feet. The water that had already been puddled there went with it.
She hadn’t noticed anything yet.
Maybe I?—
Her icy nose bumped my pocket, and when she looked up, her eyes were inquisitive.
My chest squeezed.
“I was going to wash them,” I lied.
I wasn’t going to wash them.
I was going to sleep with my nose buried in them like the fucking creep I was.
Her expression said she believed me as much as I did.
We both knew I was full of shit.
She slipped across the living room and into the bathroom. I saw the entirety of her smooth, sexy back and ass before she shut the door behind herself.
And locked it.
I bit back a curse.
Before I knew what I was doing, I had the fabric pressed to my nose again and was taking another hint of her scent.
I definitely needed therapy.
Then again, I hadn’tplannedto find her car on fire in front of my house. My beast had been mourning losing her for the last few days. I’d assumed she would’ve already been forced to mate with her alpha, and had refused to let myself intervene. Artie was convinced the arranged mate bond would be good for her.
What would I have even said if I tried to break up the wedding, anyway?
I didn’t have a family to offer.
Bear shifters didn’t stay with their mates after claiming them with a bite and knocking them up in the process. Supposedly, we couldn’t handle commitment. As soon as we had gotten what we wanted—sex—we got tired of it and left our own fucking children.
I wasn’t about to do that to a kid.
Especially not my kid.
Or Madi’s.
Some of the grizzlies in town were trying to be better, but there was no way to know how long that would last.
It made more sense for her to be with the alpha.
Or it would’ve.
But she was running away from him.
She’d probably run right into the arms of some yeti bastard in the Canyon.
My nostrils flared.
The beast within me roared.
How was I going to let her go?
