Page 10 of Luke: The Bears

“I’ll get you home,” he said quietly.

They dressed in silence.

In his truck, halfway to her apartment, he finally broke the silence. “I heard what you said.”

“Okay.”

“You’re leaving. You’ve got plans. I’m not going to pretend that your plans don’t matter, because they do. But tonight mattered, too.”

“I’m supposed to leave next Friday.”

“I’d still like your number.” He handed her his phone and told her the code to unlock it.

Her thumb hovered over the buttons. The smart move would have been to say no and goodbye, but she wasn’t feeling like listening to that part of herself.

She put her number in and saved it. Then set the phone in the cup holder.

At her apartment, he walked her to the door and kissed her cheek. “Sleep well, sweetheart.”

“Good night, Luke.”

His smile was soft, but there was still hurt in his dark eyes. Then he turned and walked back to his truck.

When he backed away and drove off, she walked into her apartment and stood in the darkness. Her plans were already made. But she had a strange, unsettled feeling that the road beneath her feet had forked, and Luke was standing on the path she hadn’t planned to take.

Luke woke Saturday morning, alone in his bed, the scent of Valley in the sheets and on his skin. His bear immediately snarled unhappily.

He scrubbed a hand over his face. How had fate given him his truemate and then started a clock? If he’d met her a month ago, before she’d agreed to follow her boss two hours east, none of this would be a problem.

But he hadn’t met her before, and now he had to deal with the cards fate had given him. His mate wanted to move away and was clearly trying to keep him at arm’s length, her eye on next Friday’s move date.

He just needed to convince her he was worth sticking around for.

Grabbing his phone, he opened a text to her.

Morning, sweetheart. I hope you slept well. I’d still like to take you to dinner tonight.

He stared at the screen for several minutes, and when she hadn’t responded he got up and showered and grabbed an energy drink from the fridge. He wandered out to the back patio, the early morning sunshine filtering through the trees that ringed the cul-de-sac their den had chosen when they’d come to King Lake.

After finishing his drink, and not seeing a reply from Valley, he walked over to Colt’s and found him on his back patio with a tablet, looking over the details for the jobs next week.

“Hey man, how’d things go with your girl last night?” Colt asked.

Luke sat heavily in a deck chair and ran a hand through his hair. He told Colt what had happened, sparing him too many details about the best night of Luke’s life, and the disappointment that she seemed so certain she should leave.

“I’m sorry,” Colt said. He put the tablet on the side table. “She must feel connected to you. The wolves all said that even though their mates are human, they still knew there was more than simple attraction going on when they met. Humans do tend to think of the truemate attraction as love at first sight, and a lot of them seem to think it’s not good.”

Luke hummed. “I want to go see her. Now.”

“I think you should ease off a bit. Don’t be a bulldozer.”

“I’m not trying to be a bulldozer.”

“You’re a bear who found his truemate. To a human, you might come across as not listening to her or not taking into account what she’s planning.” Colt paused, then said, “Before you came along, she clearly had plans set in place to go off on this new adventure with her life. She probably didn’t anticipate finding a guy like you a week before she leaves town.”

“Yeah. But what does that even mean? I’m just supposed to let my mate leave me? Two hours away makes for a freaking terrible long-distance relationship.” And he wasn’t sure his bear could handle it. Knowing Valley was out there, away from him, unprotected, was unacceptable to the protectiveness he already felt for her.

“I just think that you should be a little easy on her. How would you feel if you had made some serious plans for your life, your future, and some female came along and wanted to change everything?”