Betray the Bear (Bear Valley Shifters #4)(25)

“I’ll do it.” It didn’t feel like betraying the Long Claws if it would save the people Nathan was throwing into harm’s way. “Whatever you and Riker need, I’ll do it.”

“Hi, Chase,” the waitress said through a friendly smile.

“Oh, hey,” Chase said. “Corin, Anya. Anya, Corin. She’s one of ours.”

Anya tried to keep a stoic face, but for heaven’s sake—Corin was a bear and working with humans. She held out her hand for a shake and gaped.

Corin giggled. “The uniform is kind of lame, but I make good tips most days.”

“Sorry, I’m not staring at your uniform. Human jobs just aren’t allowed where I come from. Everything is just so different around here.”

Corin looked around and leaned forward. “You have to be careful with talk like that around here, in case someone hears you.”

Panicked at her mistake, Anya said, “Oh, I’m so sorry.” Chase rubbed his boot against her sneaker under the table and she inhaled slow, calmer already. “I forget about having to be careful.”

Corin shrugged and said, “It’s okay. No harm done this time. I saw you fighting Jo yesterday. You did pretty well if it was your first time. Jo’s intimidating.”

“You were one of the people training?” Anya asked.

“Yeah, I go to Chase’s class after I finish in the wheat fields. Though, we’re about to harvest so I won’t be able to come for a while after Wednesday. Are you going back at the same time tomorrow?”

Corin was pretty and looked younger than her by a couple of years. Or maybe she just looked younger because of her innocent, wide eyes. Her hair was nut brown and her hazel eyes looked like the type that changed colors with the clothes she wore. In the pink, checkered apron, they looked mostly blue. She had one of those easy smiles Anya wanted to answer with one of her own, just to encourage another.

“Yeah, I think I’ll go at the same time. I’m working cattle with Riker’s mate, Hannah, during the day, but I’ll come by afterward. She looked quickly at Chase and arched an eyebrow. “I mean, if that’s okay with you.”

“I’m not your keeper,” Chase said.

“Yes you are. Riker said so. I’m not supposed to be alone, remember?”

“Oh, that.” His gaze settled on her but was a million miles away, as if he’d forgotten what a risk she was. “Yeah, that’s fine. You should be training anyway, so have Hannah or Jo bring you by after you finish up at the barn. I’ll match you two up tomorrow if you want.”

“Sounds good,” Corin said. Her smile faded and she nodded once, as if she were shifting into business mode. “What can I get you to drink?”

“Pepsi.” Anya had been craving one since the long hike to Bear Valley.

“I’ll have water,” Chase said.

Of course he would. A man didn’t get to look like him by pumping sugar into his blood stream. She felt a little guilty for her choice, but not enough to change it. Surely Chase would condition the soda from her in training tomorrow.

After Corin left to put in the cheeseburger baskets they’d ordered, Anya leveled him a look and said, “Now spill it.”

Narrowing his eyes, he lifted his chin and asked, “Spill what?”

“You know a lot about my relationship, or lack thereof, with Nathan. You talked about a woman who hurt you and then left me hanging yesterday. Who was she?”

He rubbed his hands through his hair roughly and leaned forward. “You don’t want to know about her. It’s a boring story.”

She canted her head and waited.

With a put-upon sigh, he said, “Her name was Bethany and she kept walking out on me, driving me crazy and coming back into my life as soon as she thought I was getting over her. She had this sixth sense for when I was happy or in a good place, and she’d come back and turn everything upside down again. We did that dance for a couple of years before she up and left. Joined up with the Raiders and was claimed before I even knew we weren’t together anymore. Makes all this—all that’s happening between us—really scary.”

The vulnerability in his eyes would’ve brought her to her knees if she were standing.

“I thought about claiming her. God, it was all I thought about sometimes, but every time I felt serious about it, she just didn’t feel right. Like we didn’t fit and were forcing it.”

Oh, Anya knew all about not fitting. She’d been trying to fit a square peg into a circular hole for years with Nathan. It had taken her leaving his presence altogether to realize she was better off without him. He would leave scars on her like this woman left on Chase, and all she could hope was that he would look past them. To accept them like she would accept all of him.

“You don’t have to be scared of me,” she breathed. “I won’t hurt you.”

Her chest clenched just thinking about bringing the sad look to Chase that he wore now, as he thought about Bethany.

No matter what, she’d find a way to protect them both from Nathan’s clawed and treacherous reach.





Chapter Eight



It had been four days since she’d gone to town with Chase. Since her heart had decided it was his to care for. Since her life had swung in the complete opposite direction from its previous, and depressing, trajectory. Four days since she’d started living again. But something sat heavily on her mind and she couldn’t trust her own jaded instincts to sort through it on her own.