Free Bear Valley Valentine: Valentine's Day Paranormal Romance by T. S. Joyce

death you are going to leave. Tell me you’ll stay with me just like we are, and that you won’t ask questions or need to know too much, and I won’t mention this again. We can go on just like we are.”
    But…that didn’t sound right. With a frown so deep it made her forehead ache, she shook her head. “That’s not what I want. I don’t want a half-relationship with you, Colin. I want all of you, just like you can have all of me.”
    “You’re sure?”
    “Yeah. Let me in. Trust me like I trust you. It’ll be better for both of us that way. I don’t want a relationship built on secrets where I have to look the other way when you avoid my questions. Spill it, Cross. Do it quickly, and then it’ll be done.”
    “Swear you won’t leave until you let me explain.”
    “Okay.” She crossed her arms over her chest. A chill seeped through her sweater dress. Shrugging, she said, “Explain.”
    “Swear first.”
    “Holy crap, Colin. Whatever it is can’t be this bad. I’m in this. I’m here. I’m yours. Explain to me why you live up here all alone and where your scars came from. Explain the people in that photograph. Give me something. You’ll hurt me if you give me nothing.”
    He hitched up his eyebrow and waited.
    “Geez,” she muttered. “I swear I won’t leave.”
    “Okay.” He drew a lungful of air. “Before I do this, you should know I keep my mind and would never, ever hurt you. Not even a little. It’s still me.”
    She pulled the sleeves of her sweater over her hands and shivered. The temperature had to be dropping. No, it wasn’t that. She was scared. She just didn’t want to admit that Colin was setting off warning alarms to clang against her skull.
    “I have to tell you something first,” Colin whispered. “Because if I don’t say it now, I might not get the chance to later. Hadley…” He lifted glowing eyes to hers. “I love you.”
    Those words, more important than any others she’d heard in her life. He did care about her like she cared about him. “I love you, t—”
    As the words left her lips, Colin gritted his teeth like he was in pain and hunched inward.
    Then he exploded.
    The force of whatever he’d done pushed her backward, and she landed hard on her rear.
    Colin didn’t exist anymore, and in his place was a giant grizzly bear.
    “Oh, my God,” she whispered in horror. “Colin? Colin?” she asked again, louder.
    The enormous creature was covered in dark fur, and scars crisscrossed his body, making his fur look uneven in patches. Impossibly long claws sank into the earth as he approached with powerful steps that rattled the ground beneath her.
    She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Her Colin was gone. He was gone! And in his place was a predator with his glowing eyes.
    Tears streamed down her cheeks as she waited for him to kill her. Why else would he have brought her up in the mountains where no one could hear her scream?
    Panting, she froze completely as he placed his paws, each the size of her head, on either side of her hips. She didn’t know what the animal saw in her expression, but she could read his as clear as day.
    It was the first time she’d ever seen true sadness in an animal’s eyes before.
    Inhaling deeply, like he was committing her scent to memory, Colin-the-Grizzly slowly lowered his head against her stomach and just rested it there.
    She wouldn’t touch him. Couldn’t. She was frozen fast. Perhaps she’d die here, just like this, scared of the one she loved. As suddenly as he’d changed into this thing, he spun and strode with long, forceful strides into the woods.
    Sobs wracked her body as she lay there. She drew her hands over her mouth to stifle the sound of her weakness, but it didn’t help. Curling into a ball, she squeezed her eyes closed and wept for all she’d lost—for all he’d lost, too.
    She hadn’t fallen in love with a man at all, but something entirely different.
    She didn’t know how long she lay like that,