Bearly Hanging On (A Werebear Shifter BBW Romance) (Laid Bear Book 3) by Marina Maddix Page A

on his back and they’d run off into the sunset together.
    But then he remembered her expression after he shifted in front of her. And how she slipped out of his car and ran away from him as soon as she had the chance. But most of all, he remembered her hurtful words. Don’t ever touch me again, freak!  
    That was a pretty clear message to leave her alone. If she wanted to have any contact with him, she surely would have found some way of getting word to him. No, it was obvious she wanted nothing to do with a freak like him.
    His upper lip pulled back in a cynical sneer. He’d just been telling Sandy not to think of herself as a freak, and here he was doing the same.  
    “I’m going to do exactly nothing about it.”
    Sandy gaped at him, letting the ball bounce off her face on the return.
    “You’re shitting me, right? How can you do nothing when your true love, your fated mate is out there waiting for you?!”
    Chet heaved a mournful sigh as he jammed the letters back in their envelopes and handed back the bundle.  
    “That’s the thing. She’s not waiting for me. You didn’t see her face, Sandy. You didn’t hear what she said. You don’t know. If she hasn’t come around by now, I don’t know what else I can do to convince her. I can’t take a mate by force, you know, even if I wanted to!”
    “But have you talked to her since the other night? She might just need a nudge in the right direction.”
    “How am I supposed to do that? Uncle Max watches me constantly and it’s not like I can just call her up. Her grandparents don’t want us seeing each other either. And that’s all assuming she even wants to see me, which she obviously doesn’t. She knows my number, and she could always call at the office. Besides, my ceremony is tomorrow. I heard Aunt Clea making arrangements to ship me home to Malibu the next day. It’s over, Sandy.”
    Sandy’s cheeks grew red with frustration. “How can you just give up on love, Chet? How can you give up on her?!”
    “ WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!” he roared at full volume. He couldn’t take it anymore. Did she not understand that he’d considered every angle of this situation? Did she think he wanted to give up? Didn’t she get it that it killed him inside to realize they could never be together?
    “Maybe your Russian friend can be with whatever guy she wants, but we don’t live in the Soviet Union, if you hadn’t noticed. Let’s pretend for a minute that Crystal did want to be with me — and that’s a big if. What then? We skip town and run away together? Cut off our families entirely? Never be initiated into the clan? Become exiles? Does that sound like a fun life to you, Sandy?”
    “But you’d have each other, Chet. Don’t you see? You can endure anything life throws at you when you’ve found your fated mate. It’s the power of love!”
    Chet rolled his eyes. “This isn’t a pop song, Sandy. This is real life. As much as it kills me to admit it, your dad was right. It would be unfair of me to ask Crystal to give up her life like that. You have no idea how much she loves her grandparents. I couldn’t ask her to turn her back on them. I wouldn’t let her.”
    “But you’re fated—“
    “I know that, but she’s human. They don’t feel it the way we do. She has no clue how rare our connection is.”
    The sound of footsteps padding down the hall caught their attention. Placing a finger to his lips, he pushed Sandy into his closet, faintly amused that he kept his smelly socks and dirty underwear piled up in there. “Grody,” she whispered as he eased the door closed and snatched up his tennis ball.
    As his bedroom door was thrown open, he started throwing the ball at the wall again, his mask of depression not that difficult to put on. Thump-thud! Thump-thud! Thump-thud!
    His uncle stood in the doorway, looking around the room. “Who were you yelling at, Chet?”
    Chet humphed in response. “The universe.” His voice was a cold, deflated