Free Heart of the Bear (Hells Canyon Shifters Book 5) by T. S. Joyce Page A

one between a human and a shifter, besides Samantha, and she’s never talked about it to me.” He dragged his brilliant green eyes to hers and looked lost for a moment. “For me, it means I’m yours.”
    “Then why did you leave me last night? If I’m yours, then why did you treat me like you regretted being intimate with me? Why did you treat me like some sleazy one-night stand?”
    “God, is that what you thought? Rae,” he drawled, pulling her against his chest until she could feel his heartbeat against her cheek. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t regret. That was me freaking out about what I’d done to us. You’re human, with a life outside of Hells Canyon, and I’ve been hurt. Miranda leveled me to nothing when she left, and I never thought I’d put myself out there with a woman again. And then you came along, and it all happened so fast I panicked. I told Logan I needed time to figure stuff out, but it was because I wanted to have a decision made about you. I’m in this. Every time I think about you leaving, it rips me up.”
    “Are you still scared of me?”
    “Hell, yeah. I’m terrified. I can’t even remember being scared about anything, but you have me shaking in my fucking boots, Rae. You have me now—all of me. You can hurt me.”
    “Is this all just the bond talking, or do you really care for me? I can’t tell what is real and what isn’t right now.”
    “The bond isn’t controlling my actions or my thoughts. It’s just my bear choosing you. Trusting you. It opens me up to wanting to be with you, but the rest is all me.”
    She inhaled a deep, steadying breath. Her heart clenched with the admission she was about to give him. “You said you knew I couldn’t have babies yesterday, but we maybe need to discuss that again before we do whatever we are talking about doing here. There will be no family with me, Jesse. I don’t know where we are headed, but I can’t give you that. Not ever.”
    Pushing her shoulders back until he could look at her, he said, “I heard what you said about that when you were in Muriel’s house holding that little baby. Yesterday, I was talking about our inability to breed because we can’t. Humans and bears don’t work. I didn’t know you were talking about struggling with infertility.”
    “When I told you Matt deserved better, and that you didn’t understand, this is what I was talking about. He wanted kids. We both did, but I was always going to be empty, so I let him go. I like getting his Christmas cards. I know how stupid that sounds, but it makes me feel like I did the right thing. It makes everything I went through feel worth it.”
    “God, woman.” Jesse adjusted her hips so she straddled his lap. He ran his hands through her hair slowly, searching her eyes with a look of such reverence. “You care so much about other people. Do you want a family, Rae?”
    Her throat was closing in on itself, making it hard to talk. “More than anything.”
    He brushed away moisture from her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs and massaged the back of her neck with his long fingers. “Then you’ll have one. Maybe it won’t be the one you imagined, but we’ll build one if you want to.”
    “Jesse,” she whispered. “That’s a huge promise to make someone you just met.”
    “Bullshit. It’s different for us now, Rae. If you’ll stay here with me and give us a chance, I’ll give you anything. I’ll do anything to make you happy. If it’s a family you want, we’ll build one.”
    “How? You said it yourself. We can’t have children. Even if I could, we can’t breed, right?” Another obstacle, and now a family felt even more impossible if she chose to stay with Jesse. But looking into his eyes, seeing how affected he was by her heartache, it was hard not to consider how happy she could be here in Hells Canyon with him.
    “I don’t know yet. I don’t have all the answers you need, but I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you have the family