ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (232 page)

“Don’t you think you ought to have told me this before we’d gotten married?”

Her words knocked him like they were physical punches, and he glanced up at her. Her face was carefully expressionless, which was both a blessing and a curse. He couldn’t see her hatred from him, but he didn’t know if it was there or not. Somehow that made it so much worse.

Bruce thought about her question, and finally shook his head.

“To be honest with you, I wasn’t going to tell you at all. I thought we could live a normal life together, make memories, have children.”

“Normal?” she said and her voice was higher than a second before. “You think this is normal? With you leaving me every night to head out to the woods and become an animal?”

Bruce shook his head. It wasn’t normal, he knew that.

“And children, what will they be? Bear cubs or babies? Because I’m not ready for that kind of magic.”

“They should be just fine,” Bruce said quickly, trying to defend himself, but she scowled at him.

“Well, that makes it alright then, doesn’t it?”

She was angry now. The fear had been replaced with anger. He was glad it had gone to the next step, but Jenna had never been mad at him before, not like this. She’d been irritated or upset, but never angry.

“I’ll understand if you want to end this,” he said. “I’ll leave, if that’s what you, and you can tell them something, tell them I was terrible.”

The thought of leaving Williamsburg was painful. He didn’t want to leave his life behind, the woman that he hoped would be his wife. But if she didn’t want him, he would leave so that he didn’t hurt her. He would make it safe for her again, and then he would go.

Jenna was quiet for a while, and the silence between them was pressing. It was so heavy Bruce sunk into the chair and leaned his head on one hand.

“I don’t want to lose you,” Jenna finally said. When Bruce looked at her she’d stretched her legs out and she was leaning against the wall with her back. She was still in the corner on the floor, but she wasn’t trying to hide from him anymore. “I just don’t know how I’m going to deal with this. No girl dreams of finding out the man she married has this kind of baggage.”

“I know,” Bruce said. “And I’m sorry I’m not the kind of man that can fit into someone’s dreams.”

Jenna looked at him and her eyes were shimmering again, like she was going to start crying.

“I love you, Bruce. Don’t you see that? Don’t you understand that this,
you
, is what I’ve been waiting for? It feels like it was this unreachable thing, and then suddenly it came true.”

Her voice caught in her throat and tears rolled over her cheeks. “Only to be ripped away again,” he added in a whisper.

“Can I come closer?” Bruce asked. He wanted to hold her, comfort her, at least try and fix what he’d broken. But he didn’t want to scare her, and he didn’t want to force himself on her if he wasn’t what she wanted anymore. She hesitated only a moment before she nodded. Bruce got up and walked to her, moving slowly. She moved to the side and he sat down on the floor next to her, his back against the same wall.

It was cramped in the corner between the two couches, but he didn’t want to make her do something else. Her shoulder touched his, and that was enough.

“It doesn’t have to be different,” he said. “I’m still me, the guy you fell in love with. I just happen to change into something else at night. But I won’t ever be around you when I’m like that. I’m not dangerous and I would never harm you, but I won’t let you see.”

Jenna sniveled. “But I wanted to be a part of your life, a part of all of it.”

Bruce sighed. He had wanted her to be able to be a part of all of it, too.

“Can I ask you a question?” she asked. Bruce nodded and braced himself. He would answer whatever she asked now. No more secrets, no more lies.

“Why did you marry me?”

Okay, except that one. A hollow feeling opened up in his chest when she asked. The truth? He’d married her so that she would be safe, so that another animal wouldn’t be able to get to her. But could he tell her that? Could he tell her that it hadn’t been something he would have done if it was a choice?

He still felt guilty about that, like their marriage was somehow built on false pretenses. But he did love her, and that was going to make up for it. He swore that it would.

“Because I couldn’t stand the idea of losing you,” he said. “When that leopard attacked…” he stopped his sentence because he didn’t know what to say without it being a lie. But she made of it what she wanted to hear, and she put her head on his shoulder.

“This is scary,” she said. But she was touching him, and he leaned his cheek against her hair. He breathed in and felt the tension in his chest, in his stomach like a fist.

“I know,” he answered. Because it scared the hell out of him, too. “But I’ll keep you safe, away from this world. And we’ll be happy together, you’ll see.”

He promised himself he would make sure of that.

“Tell me about the others,” she finally said. Bruce swallowed hard. How was he going to do this? He wasn’t even supposed to mention them, he shouldn’t have. By doing it he’d put his whole Family in danger. But if he lied to her now? He would lose her for sure. He’d just promised that life with him wasn’t going to be bad. He had to follow through now.

“There are just a handful,” he said. “A few misfits that have been chased from their original packs.”

“How?” she asked, and Bruce was relieved that he didn’t have to go into detail about the Family. The last thing he wanted was for Jenna to know about Tara, what she really was, why they’d really been together. He didn’t want a repeat of what had happened four months ago, with the leopard at her throat.

He started explaining to her about the Assassins, because that was one thing she did need to know about, now that she was compromised. And the topic was so much easier than talking about himself, his shifting, or the Family.

“It’s this whole world I know nothing about,” she said after he explained. “I’ve been going through life with my eyes closed.”

“That’s on purpose. Humans aren’t supposed to know about us. There are reasons we stay hidden and try to keep the secrets. Usually when it does happen that a human knows, it doesn’t work well for any of the parties involved.”

The look on her face pulled him up short. “That’s not going to happen with us,” he added quickly. So help him he would keep her safe. She moved toward him more, and he lifted his arm so she could settle against her body. He was going to make sure she was safe, no matter what. As long as she didn’t find out more about the Family, or meet any of them, he might be able to pull it off.

Chapter 4

“Show me your world,” Jenna said. It had taken her a whole week to get used to the idea of being married to a shapeshifter. It wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind – marriage was always something she’d wanted to do, something the girls in town always talked about as they grew up.

And now that her big moment had come, it was a hell of an anti-climax to think that she really didn’t know her new husband at all.

He’d spent a week sleeping on the couch when he was actually home. She knew he went out most nights. She wondered how it would have worked for them to sleep in the same bed as a couple. He would just never be there, and what was the point of that?

They’d been married a week and she felt further from Bruce than she’d ever felt in the five years of friendship they’d shared. Jenna had thought about leaving him – the idea of breaking off their marriage, of losing the man she loved just as she finally had him, mad her sick. So if she wasn’t willing to let him go despite his preternatural issues, then she was going to have to deal with it.

And she’d decided that the only way she was going to be able to do that, was to get so involved in his life that it became normal to her. After all, it was normal to him, so it wasn’t impossible.

“You’re sure you want to know?” Bruce asked. He eyed her like she was going to say no, but she was sure this was what she wanted. She wanted
him
. All of him. Unfortunately that meant she had to take him with his… abilities. But everyone had faults, right? She bit her nails, and she left her dirty clothes on the floor sometimes. And she was fussy about the toilet seat.

She was aware it wasn’t exactly the same thing, but it was the concept that counted. It had to be. Otherwise, if she thought about it too intensely, she was going to run from the cabin screaming.

She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, trying to keep all the parts of her together. She nodded.

“If we’re going to be together, I want to know who you are. I want to know everything about you. Besides, it would be good for me to know what to expect, so little surprises don’t keep popping up.

They both knew the ‘little surprise’ she was referring to wasn’t so little at all – the moment she’d found him in the woods as a bear and watched him shift back to human form.

That had been enough to scar her emotionally, but she was strong. If she could make it through the death of both her parents and a life in the mountains, she could make it through this.

“I want to know who you are. I want to see what your life is like,” she said.

Bruce swallowed and turned his eyes away, fiddled with sleeve of his jacket, ironed out invisible creases on the bed, looked anywhere but at Jenna.

“What do you have to hide?” she asked.

He finally looked at her and his eyes were very dark. She thought about all the times she’d thought he looked rough and wild, and she started to understand why.

“I just don’t think it’s such a good idea. I’ve spent my whole life hiding for a reason. People just don’t like what they see when it comes down to shapeshifters. No one likes the idea of brushing shoulders with wild animals, with abominations. To be honest with you, I wasn’t even going to tell you.”

That made Jenna angry. She was upset about the fact that he was willing to keep secrets from her. Secrets that weren’t small.

“Well,” she said and her voice was hard. Good. “It’s not like that worked out for you. I know now, so we need to take the next step.”

“I just don’t want you to see me as a monster,” Bruce said and when he looked at Jenna again his eyes were softer, his face was set with lines of worry. The anger melted away when she saw him, and she leaned toward him until her forehead rested on his shoulder.

“Maybe if I get used to it, if I get to know it, it will just be another part of you, another part that I love.”

It would take time, she knew, but she wanted that with him. He took a deep breath and she could feel him shudder, the weight of what was happening rippling through his body. Or maybe it was something else, like the bear that he had inside of him. She suddenly wasn’t sure.

“I want to meet your pack,” Jenna said after a moment of silence.

Bruce’s head snapped up to her and the atmosphere in the room changed. It became intense and in a way threatening. Jenna felt like she wanted to cower away from Bruce, shrink back in on herself, but she fought the urge.

She asked for this.

“You can never, ever meet the pack,” he said, and his voice was very low and it sounded like a growl rolled from his throat.

“I just want to get to know you better, get to know your life,” Jenna said. She realized she was leaning back, away from Bruce, even though she’d tried not to change her position.

“This is dangerous, Jenna. This isn’t a game, and if they see you…” he closed his eyes and took a deep breath like he was trying to calm himself down. “I can’t introduce you to them.”

Jenna nodded, but she was upset. She’d done her part. She was reaching out to him. She was asking him to show her his world. She could have kept running when she’d seen him. She could have alerted the village. She could have decided to leave him, and maybe one day married someone else. Someone normal.

But she didn’t. She’d chosen to stay by his side. That was what she’d promised at the altar, wasn’t it? That she would stick by him through thick and thin? Well, this was a very good test of her vows to him.

And he was just locking her out, pushing her away.

“Look, why don’t we go out to the café for supper?” Bruce asked, and his voice was light. Jenna could almost feel his effort to bring everything back to normal again, feel him pushing against the atmosphere so that it would let up.

She was relieved that he’d done that – he was scary in a way – but she wasn’t happy. He was shutting her out.

“I’m trying my best here, Bruce,” she said.

He nodded. “I know. But let’s just take this one day at a time, okay? There’s no need to rush into family meetings and reunions and things. Let’s just keep it simple.”

Right, like life with him was going to be simple. She wanted to argue, but instead she just nodded in agreement and they got ready to go.

The night was beautiful when they walked back to the cabin. The meal had gone well, there had been villagers stopping by congratulating the happy couple, there had been friends giving them warm smiles. It had felt the way that it should have been. The way that Jenna imagined it would be when she was married.

But the thought of Bruce as a bear lingered at the back of her mind and tainted the whole night with a shadow. As they walked hand in hand down the winding road that led home, she looked up. The moon was almost full, and there were so many stars it wasn’t necessary for any artificial light.