Bear To The Bone (Bear Claw Security 1) by Terry Bolryder Page B

him.
    When he did, he placed a sweet kiss on her forehead, holding her face in both of his hands. “You’re the best, Carrie. I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have you as a friend.”
    Right. A friend. And that was probably all she’d ever be to this beautiful boy who seemed to have no trouble moving in and out of her life.
    As she walked him downstairs and sent him back out to face the world with a sandwich in his hand, she couldn’t help wondering about the boy with the cuts who healed a little too fast.
    Was there more to him than even she knew?

5
    “ I ’ve always envied that ,” Cage said as he waited at her kitchen table and she got the first aid kit to take care of his hand. “Your ability to go away in your mind.”
    “I was thinking of the first time I had to really take care of you. You know, after what the Aces did.”
    He ran a hand through his hair. “Man, I was such a bad kid. You wouldn’t believe the things I did to piss them off. I think that was the day I kicked my dad’s bike.”
    Her back tightened. “I hate them for what they did to you. For what they did to so many people in this town.”
    “And you hate that I’m with them,” he said.
    She nodded. “Maybe not for the reasons you think. But yes, I do hate it.” She brought the first aid kit over and sat in a chair across from him, opening it. She tore open a packet of antiseptic and rubbed it gently over the cut on his hand. “I mean, what was the point of ten years of loneliness if you could have just been here the whole time?”
    “The point was growing up,” he said. “Making a way for myself. I have my reasons for being here, Carrie. I can’t make it all plain to you yet, but I will at some point. I promise.”
    “Right,” she said. “Just like you couldn’t tell me what you were doing in the military.”
    “Well, I couldn’t tell you where I was,” he said. “Government secrets.”
    He’d been part of a Special Forces unit of shifters, and he’d felt himself improving every year. He’d never seen it as a bad thing to be apart from her, as he’d thought he was becoming a better man for her every year. Someone who would finally be worthy of her.
    “I have special experience,” he said carefully. “And a green beret.”
    She grinned at him. “Special Forces. I knew it.”
    He nodded, then grew serious. Her wary face as she cleaned his small wound and then dressed it with gauze and wrapped it with tape pulled at the tenderness inside him. Tenderness that had always been reserved for her.
    In his life, he’d had to be a monster. A monster made of steel, who didn’t feel or hurt and who got things done.
    With her, he was human. The only monster that existed was the one inside him. The growling, fur-covered bear who would do anything to protect her.
    The bear that had come out when he’d sent Harv flying with a punch much harder than he’d intended.
    “I can’t believe your hand isn’t more messed up from that punch,” she said, rubbing her thumb softly over his knuckles before releasing him.
    Her touch sent electric shocks through him, up his arm.
    The effect of a mate. He’d known since he was a cub. Maybe not when he’d first met her, when she’d saved him from the trap. Then, he’d just known there was something special about her that meant he could never forget her. He hadn’t known about fated mates, which was when a shifter found someone truly meant to be with them forever. The perfect fit, the one that made the animal in them peaceful as long as they were safe.
    “So have you been in the army this whole time?” she asked. “I assumed you’d do a typical enrollment and then get out and go into the public sector.” She folded her hands in her lap. “Though I’m sure you’d be good at anything.”
    “Thanks,” he said, unsure how much he should tell her. The thought of Pete’s threats against Carrie if he suspected anything about Cage being there were still fresh in his mind. He