Page 52 of His to Defend

It was really starting to get annoying.

Ignoring his pain, Ryker landed another shot and then another.

It was after dinner time when Nina finally left Ella’s cabin. She’d heard enough from the women. Seen enough.

And still, nothing made sense. At least not in a real way. Ryker was still gone.

She picked her way down the trail back toward the Den and the refuge of her room. She needed to be alone to process everything on her own.

“I’m sorry.” Natalia jogged up next to her. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“You didn’t.” Nina shook her head. It wasn’t Natalia who had hurt her. It was her brother. She’d just spent the last twenty minutes telling her how much Ryker obviously cared about her—how much he loved her, in fact—but how he couldn’t allow himself to hurt her and a bunch of other bullshit that had only frustrated her. If everything the women had said was true and they were bonded in a way that couldn’t be broken, then how could he have left?

“I’m sorry Ryker hurt you.”

Nina stopped in her tracks and looked at the other woman. “Are you? Because it seems to me like you encouraged him to leave.”

Natalia took a step backward and shook her head. “No. It was Liam.”

“Liam?” Nina nodded. “Right. Your brother.”

“Yes, I told you, he—”

Nina held up a hand to stop her. She couldn’t hear any more. She couldn’t stand to hear about how Liam had shown up and convinced Ryker that what he had with Nina was wrong. She couldn’t hear how Natalia sat back without doing anything to stop it, actually encouraged it. And she really couldn’t stand to hear about how little she actually meant to Ryker for him to be able to leave her so easily without even trying to talk to her about it.

“Nina,” Natalia tried again. “I don’t think you understand. I mean, it’s not as simple as you think.”

That was it.

“Enough.” She forced the word out through clenched teeth. “I’m not going to pretend that I know anything about shifters or clans or your code or whatever else it is that you’re going to throw out as an excuse as to why Ryker left me without a word. And you know what,” she continued. “I don’t care.” Her voice shook, but she kept going, the emotion needing a release. “You know what else I don’t care about? I don’t care about any of the reasons that you or anyone else can give me about why he left without saying good-bye. Unless it comes from him, I don’t care. Because as far as I’m concerned, he wasn’t trying to protect me by leaving me the way he did. And if he cared about me at all, he’d know that. If we’re really fated or connected or even just regular in love, then he’d know how much he hurt me. And I may not be an expert on love…” Nina took a breath and forced herself to keep the tears at bay until she was done saying what needed to be said. “But I do know that when you truly love someone, you don’t leave them.”

Natalia looked as if she might say something else, but Nina wasn’t interested. She turned on her heel and ran in the direction of the Den.

Thankfully, the other woman didn’t follow her and a few minutes later, Nina was finally alone in her room.

She collapsed on the bed and let herself cry.

Although she hadn’t meant to take her anger out on Natalia, she’d meant everything she’d said. It was crazy, but Nina didn’t care about the shifter thing. If anything, it made sense and answered some questions she had about Ryker—and the others, if she were honest—but it wasn’t a deal breaker. How could it be? It was part of him.

And if he were only there, she could tell him that to his face. But he wasn’t.

He’d run away.

And the only reason he could have ever run from her was if none of it was true and they weren’t fated after all.

Everything the women had told her made it sound as though when you were fated there was nothing you could do about it. That the attraction would drive you crazy until you gave in to it. That once a bear found their fated mate, there was nothing—nothing—that could keep them apart.

But Ryker had left.

“We can do this all day,” Luke said. They’d been going round and round for almost thirty minutes, both of them landing as many punches as they were taking. “If it makes you feel better, by all means. Hit me.” He wiped his face and presented it once more to Ryker, who cocked his fist, ready to oblige.

But at the last minute, he dropped his arm and stared at his feet. “Fuck it.”

“Oh yeah?” Luke said. “You sure? You’ve had enough?”

“It’s not helping.” Ryker sat heavily on a nearby fallen log.

“No shit.” Luke sat next to him.