Betray the Bear (Bear Valley Shifters #4)(24)

This country was beautiful. Rugged and wild, dangerous to those who didn’t respect it. The mountain peaks stretched up in the background as they left Bear Valley behind, and she had this odd feeling of homesickness all the sudden. Just for a moment, then it was gone. She wanted to laugh at her silliness, but then Chase would ask her what she was thinking, like he always did, and she didn’t know how to explain something so confusing.

You could have this for always, horny inner bear whispered, waggling her eyebrows. Oh, now she was giving life advice? Anya wasn’t about to allow herself such impossible hopes from the creature that excelled only in diddle advocacy, and hid from everything else.

Nathan could ruin everything.

No. He wouldn’t because she wouldn’t let him. She wasn’t the same weak mewling woman anymore. Anya would see him at the end of the week with nothing to report, and that would be that. She’d say her goodbye. In fact, she’d already prepared her speech. It started with f*ck and ended with you.

Even horny inner bear approved with a slow clap.

After twenty minutes of smooth highway driving, Chase pulled the jeep into the old diner parking lot and cut the engine. As the dust settled around them, he leaned over and unbuckled her seat belt.

“I’m having fun with you,” he said. His hand cradled her cheek and she leaned into his touch. “It’s been a while since I’ve done this.”

“Dated?”

“Yeah. That and more.”

Lightly, she demanded, “Explain the more.”

“I like you.”

“Me, too,” she admitted.

“Oh yeah?” he asked through a smile. “You like you too?”

“Shut it. You know what I mean.”

“Say what you mean.”

“I like you, too. A lot,” she whispered. “So much it scares me.”

A deep rumble sounded from his chest, more contented sound than growl, and she melted against him as he trailed kisses behind her ear. Someday, she’d look back on this moment and remember it as the best day. It was pretty extraordinary knowing that she was living her best day right now.

“Stay there and I’ll help you down,” he rumbled against her ear.

He unbuckled and jogged around the front of the jeep, then offered his hand like he’d done at the fence yesterday.

“You’re confusing,” she said, stepping down.

“How?”

“You order Jo to beat the tar out of me in the training arena, but then you go out of your way to pamper me outside of it.”

His eyes hardened and he looked away. “I’m sorry you see it like that. It has to be that way though. I like to take care of you and make you happy, but someday, you might need to be able to protect yourself when I’m not around. You won’t learn that with pampering, Anya. I have to be hard on you, and you have to get hurt to know your limits.”

“Why were you telling Jo to hit me yesterday before the fight even started though?”

He held open the diner door and gestured her inside. The diner was sixties themed—checkered floors, red booth cushions, barstools and tattered print posters of old cars and milkshakes. The pies in a glass display case on the counter smelled divine, like blackberries, flour and sugar granules.

Chase waited for Anya to take a seat, then sat across from her, and she wondered at his formal manners and where he’d learned them. Sometimes he was rough around the edges, a spitting, cussing, bare-knuckle boxing sort of man. Then sometimes, when they were alone, he was quite dignified.

“You’re a submissive bear,” he observed.

She cocked her head, confused. Any shifter could tell she was submissive.

“You asked why I let Jo hit you before the fight. It’s because you wouldn’t have engaged seriously with her if you weren’t riled into doing it. Next time it will be easier. I think you should come back out tomorrow. I have drills I want you to practice to learn balance, and you should start conditioning with my evening class. They are more at your level.”

“My level? You mean pathetic and amateur?”

He snorted and fingered a plastic menu. “You did well enough, but you don’t need those sorts of compliments from me. With work, you’ll do just fine.”

She didn’t need those compliments, no, but they sure as hell made her glow from the inside out like a brush fire. “I like that you don’t treat me like I’m unimportant or weak.”

“You aren’t either of those so I have no reason to. And if you’re referring to how Nathan treats the woman in his clan, he’s wrong. Always has been. What happened to you should’ve never been allowed.”

“The entire clan thinks Bear Valley is full of evil people. Nathan could have them provoked and ready to fight at a moment’s notice.”

Chase cast a troubled glare out the window, and the muscles in his jaw clenched.

Dropping her chin to her chest, she whispered, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you mad. I just wanted you to know how it is over there.”

“Doesn’t make me mad. Just worried about our future.” He eased her chin up with his fingertip until her eyes met his. “I think maybe we should call a meeting with Riker so you can tell him what is happening over there, in detail. That way, he can make more educated decisions about our future, and about the future of the Long Claws. I like a good fight, but we don’t want this war, Anya. We’ll suffer huge losses on both sides and there’s already so few bear shifters left. We can’t afford to wipe out half our damned species over Nathan’s bad leadership.”