Betray The Bear by T.S. Joyce

afterward. She looked quickly at Chase and arched an eyebrow. “I mean, if that’s okay with you.”
    “I’m not your keeper,” Chase said.
    “Yes you are. Riker said so. I’m not supposed to be alone, remember?”
    “Oh, that.” His gaze settled on her but was a million miles away, as if he’d forgotten what a risk she was. “Yeah, that’s fine. You should be training anyway , so have Hannah or Jo bring you by after you finish up at the barn. I’ll match you two up tomorrow if you want.”
    “Sounds good,” Corin said. Her smile faded and she nodded once, as if she were shifting into business mode. “What can I get you to drink?”
    “ Pepsi.” Anya had been craving one since the long hike to Bear Valley.
    “I’ll have water,” Chase said.
    Of course he would. A man didn’t get to look like him by pumping sugar into his blood stream. She felt a little guilty for her choice, but not enough to change it. Surely Chase woul d condition the soda from her in training tomorrow.
    After Corin left to put in the cheeseburger baskets they’d ordered, Anya leveled him a look and said, “Now spill it.”
    Narrowing his eyes, he lifted his chin and asked, “Spill what?”
    “You know a lot about my relationship, or lack thereof, with Nathan. You talked about a woman who hurt you and then left me hanging yesterday. Who was she?”
    He rubbed his hands through his hair roughly and leaned forward. “You don’t want to know about her. It’s a boring story.”
    She canted her head and waited.
    With a put-upon sigh, he said, “Her name was Bethany and she kept walking out on me, driving me crazy and coming back into my life as soon as she thought I was getting over her. She had this sixth sense for when I was happy or in a good place, and she’d come back and turn everything upside down again. We did that dance for a couple of years before she up and left. Joined up with the Raiders and was claimed before I even knew we weren’t together anymore. Makes all this—all that’s happening between us—really scary.”
    The vulnerability in his eyes would’ve brought her to her knees if she were standing.
    “I thought about claiming her. God, it was all I thought about sometimes, but every time I felt serious about it, she just didn’t feel right. Like we didn’t fit and were forcing it.”
    Oh, Anya knew all about not fitting. She’d been trying to fit a square peg into a circular hole for years with Nathan. It had taken her leaving his presence altogether to realize she was better off without him. He would leave scars on her like this woman left on Chase, and all she could hope was that he would look past them. To accept them like she would accept all of him.
    “You don’t have to be scared of me,” she breathed. “I won’t hurt you.”
    Her chest clenched just thinking about bringing the sad look to Chase that he wore now, as he thought about Bethany.
    No matter what, she’d find a way to protect them both from Nathan’s clawed and treacherous reach.

Chapter Eight
     
    It had been four days since she’d gone to town with Chase. Since her heart had decided it was his to care for. Since her life had swung in the complete opposite direction from its previous, and depressing, trajectory. Four days since she’d started living again. But something sat heavily on her mind and she couldn’t trust her own jaded instincts to sort through it on her own.
    Riker had been waiting when she’d arrived at the cattle barns to meet Hannah this morning. He’d been so stoic, but informed her she was finished with her probation and could walk Bear Valley without escorts from now on. Then a small smile cracked his face as his mate, Hannah, jumped in the air and whooped loud enough to echo through the clearing. If Anya were still trying to spy for Nathan, it would’ve been good news for treacherous reasons. As it stood, Riker’s announcement felt like warm acceptance. Bear Valley had been wiggling its way into her