Free A Siren for the Bear (Sarkozy Brothers Book 1) by Meredith Clarke, Pia Milan Page A

arms across her chest. "Talk." She spoke the word firmly. It annoyed her that he was making assumptions about her potential reaction.
    Whatever he wanted to say, it couldn't be all that bad.
    He cleared his throat and stepped away, out of her grasp. "You need to know the truth about who I am." He paused and looked at her. "About what I am."
    Then she stiffened. "Is it because of your gypsy heritage? Is that what you're worried about telling me?"
    He shook his head.
    She knew now it was a waste of time to urge him on. He'd speak at his own pace and she let him. His struggle was real; she could see it in the vein at his temple, in the tightness of the muscles in his neck.
    He looked at her. "My family is old; the line goes back more than a thousand years. Yes, we're gypsy, but we're more than that. Or worse than that, depending on how you look at it." He let out a cold laugh, turning to stare off into the trees.
    The rain was abating, softening as it hit their skin.
    "We're from the Carpathian Mountains. It's not our origin that's a problem though. It's our species."
    "Species?" Carson shook her head. This was beginning to sound crazy.
    Marek growled, the sound so reminiscent of what she'd overheard when he'd been talking to Sara that she shivered.
    He met her eyes, his spine tense. "I'm descended from a very rare line of Carpathians. Our family has always had the ability to shift."
    "Shift?" This was getting weirder and weirder. Then she stiffened. "Marek, I can see you're having doubts. You don't have to make up wild stories because you want to back away from this relationship. I understand if you want to change your mind."
    He was shaking his head now, his skin flushed. "No. That's not what I meant. I owe it to you to tell you the truth about who I am. Being with me can be dangerous."
    "Dangerous?" Carson asked. Then she gasped. "Someone did try to kill you."
    Marek shook his head. "They didn't try to kill me. It was a tranquilizer dart. There are people that want me dead. They want all my family dead, but they're being smart about it. They want to learn more about us, so capturing is better for them than killing. And these people won't care about crossing the line to use our mates against us."
    "Mates?" Carson asked.
    This was ridiculous. Why was he continuing with this line?
    Marek's expression hardened. "Yes. If you agree to stay with me then that's what you will be. My mate." He took a step toward Carson. "I'm a bear shifter, Carson. You deserve to know the truth about me."
    She couldn't respond, just put her hand to her stomach. She didn't know why she did that. It must have been instinctive or something. She wasn't thinking about being pregnant.
    Was she?
    Marek let out a toneless laugh. "That's another thing you should know. Our line is slowly dying. For two hundred years, each generation has produced fewer offspring. My parents' generation had less than a fifty percent chance of conceiving. The majority of the families have died out with them. We are all the hope that our family has, and we have even less of a chance of conceiving."
    "So you're trying to tell me that if we are together we won't have children?"
    He nodded and she shook her head.  
    "Marek, I already told you that's not the be all and end all of our feelings for each other. But really, you don't have to spin elaborate tales to send me away. Just tell me you don't want me and I'll be fine with it."
    "That's not what I'm trying to do." He sounded frustrated. "I'm trying to be honest with you. You deserve the truth."
    "And you think that means telling me some ridiculous story about being a shifter?" Carson shook her head and backed away from him. "I believe in honesty, Marek. Not this nonsense."
    "It's not nonsense."
    Carson paused, fear filling her. "You need to see someone, Marek. This isn't healthy."
    He started to laugh.
    "You're delusional if you really believe this, Marek. You should get help."
    He stopped laughing. And then he began to remove his