Free Scottish Werebear: A New Beginning: A BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Scottish Werebears Book 4) by Lorelei Moone Page B

She was giving him a second chance, even if he realized the battle was far from won.
    "Thank you. I don't want to use the front door, just in case someone's watching. Meet me out back?" he asked.
    "Whatever you say." With those words, Leah hung up.
    Matt stared at his phone, which had gone dark in his hand. This was it. The moment of truth. Had he learned anything from his time with Jamie? Would Leah accept his apology? Would she accept
him
?
    It took a moment to force himself into action. How ridiculous. This past week, he'd learned that he could fight. That he was at least four times as strong as a normal human man, but the thought of facing this beautiful, fragile creature next door terrified him. Despite all his strength, she could defeat him with just a look, or a word even. For some reason, she had all the power and he had none.
    Still, this was what it meant to be a man, probably. To be faced with something seemingly impossible, and then do it anyway.
    It was now or never. If he didn't follow through on this chance to make things right with her, after having to beg for it, she'd never respect him.
    He ran his hands through his hair, checking himself in the mirror once to make sure he at least looked somewhat presentable, even if he felt like a failure at the moment.
    Matt brushed himself off, put the phone down on the first surface he passed by on the way to the back of the house, and unlocked the French door of the sun room.
    In the still dark backyard, he could still see that everything was how he'd left it. The paving stones waiting to be laid for his new barbecue area, the soil needed to top up the flower beds. All these reminders of projects that suddenly didn't seem important anymore.
    The heavy wooden table which he'd used that night to climb over the top unseen and unheard still stood next to the fence as well.
    Next door, a creaking noise signaled her arrival.
    He took a deep breath and jumped onto the table, then cleared the top of the fence in one swift motion, without looking across first. Seeing her beforehand would no doubt throw him off and ruin his entrance.
    A split second later, he found himself on the moist lawn he'd landed on just over a week earlier. This time, the object of his affection wasn't inside under threat. Instead, she stood right there in front of him, her arms crossed and gaze averted.
    Before he could even say anything to her, so many conflicting emotions filled him, he found it hard to find the right words. These weren't his feelings, not even close.
    That's when she looked up at him and allowed their eyes to meet. No, they weren't his feelings. They were hers.
    He wasn't concerned anymore about losing her, or how scared he'd been about explaining things face-to-face. His fears were nothing compared to what she'd felt all the time he'd been gone.
    The transformation was over before he had the chance to stop it.

Chapter Eleven
    When Matt had just lept over the fence, Leah didn't really want to look him in the eye. It seemed to intimate and made her feel too vulnerable.
    And then suddenly, she didn't have a choice anymore.
    There he was: the impossible. No matter how hard her brain tried to tell her that what she'd seen wasn't real, there stood the bear from that night when everything had changed. Seeing the metamorphosis with her own two eyes answered a bunch of questions and inspired a whole host of new ones.
    "What the...," Leah mumbled.
    The animal which had formerly been Matt looked startled, then immediately changed back into his former self.
    Leah wasn't sure whether to believe what she'd just witnessed or take the easy way out of believing everything Margaret had told her. Stress-induced hallucinations seemed like a more plausible explanation than accepting that a person had actually just managed to shift their entire body-structure around to grow into a huge bear, fur, claws and all, and then back again into a human being.
    "Shit, I didn't mean for that to happen," Matt