He couldn’t stand it. He had to get off this island. There was no way he could stay here with her. Believing he could deal with it had been a mistake. His bear would not stop forcing images of claiming her into his mind.

His dick was permanently hard. He was with a scared woman and a small child stranded in the cold. It was not the time or place for his libido to be going off the rails.

In the last year, Tate had gone out a few times at his brother Keaton’s insistence. Once, he even took a girl home with him in a drunken haze. It had been meaningless, and he’d regretted it as soon as it was over.

He’d taken all his desire and need and shoved it deep down inside. He’d made his heart hard and cold against the memory of the girl he’d loved so much. He’d forced his bear down, too. Now she was back and he still couldn’t have her. His body and mind were a mess of conflicting emotions. His bear wouldn’t stop scratching and growling. It was worse than the sound of the baby’s crying.

He picked up a brush and dipped it into the hot tar. He ran the tar over the patched hole until it was sealed. Once the tar dried, he could put the boat back in the water and get them back to the mainland. Soon, his brother and cousin would have the evidence against the Glacier Wolf Pack they needed and he would be free of Ella.

At that moment, Tate didn’t know what was more threatening- a blood thirsty gang of criminal wolves, or his own inner bear. He was beginning to think he’d rather take his chances with the wolves.

He stood in the snow and watched the tar dry. It would need at least a day before it would be sealed. The snow wasn’t helping either. Tate puffed out a heavy breath into the frigid air and crossed his arms. He couldn’t just stand around all day. The anxiety was killing him.

Tate rubbed his forehead and glanced back to the cabin. His own little boy was inside that log house. The smoke from the chimneys wafted into the low gray sky. It was also warm in there. He growled and stomped through the thick snow back to the cabin.

Pulling the door open, the smell of frying meat hit him along with the warmth from the fire. He stomped off his boots and stepped inside. Andrew was playing on a blanket on the floor, safely hemmed in from the fireplace. The baby crawled several paces and rolled on his belly with a squeaky toy.

Ella turned to him, her soft hourglass body silhouetted by the glow of the fireplace. There was fish in a pan on the stove and a pot of baked beans. Tate went to the stove and put food on his plate before sitting at the table.

Ella sat across from him, looking him in the eye with a slight smile on her round face. Tate drew back. What? She’d made it clear how she felt about things. He was done. He had to go.

“What?” he finally said, dropping his fork in his plate. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I need to talk to you.”

“Just say it.”

She sighed and looked away and then turned back to him with that same smirk. “About earlier.”

Tate threw his head back and growled, making an exaggerated expression of irritation. He glared at her and gritted his teeth. She frowned, looking put off. He deflated. He didn’t want to upset her. Did he? Damn it. He hit his fist on the table.

“Tate, don’t get so angry.”

“I’m not angry. You haven’t seen me angry.”

“I don’t want to see it either.”

He gave her a blank look and peered into her eyes.

“Why are you so pissy?” she asked, leaning back and folding her arms.

“Don’t you think I want you, too?”

“I know you do. I just don’t understand why it has to be so complicated.”

“It’s not that complicated. You’re the one overcomplicating things, Ella.”

“Maybe I don’t want to be a bear,” she said.

“You don’t have to be. If you stay. My bear is in a frenzy because you left and came back with a baby. He doesn’t want to lose you again.”

“Then we should stay away from each other,” she concluded.

“Those were my thoughts exactly.”

They sat silently for several long moments watching Andrew play on the blanket in his warm little jumpsuit. Ella drummed her feet on the floor and then gave him her smirk.

“The kissing was nice, though,” she said.

“Do you know why it’s nice, Ella?”

“Because we’re attracted to each other and we kiss well?”

“Of course.”

“I just can’t stand the idea of everything being predestined. And that’s why you love me. That’s why you were my friend all that time. It wasn’t just because you, Tate, liked me. It was your bear that wanted us to be friends. It’s the bear that wants us to be together now.”

“How can you doubt our friendship? We’ve known each other for years, Ella. We’ve shared all our secrets. We know each other inside out. In all the time we spent together, can you ever point out a time when it seemed like I was compelled to be with you?”

“I don’t know. What I know is that there was one important secret you never told me. How could you not share that I was your fated mate?”

“I couldn’t. You were so young.”

“We were both young. Not just me.”

“You’re a human. Your parents were strict. I was being careful.”

“Careful of who, me or my parents?”

“Both.”

“You didn’t trust me.”

“I didn’t trust you?”

“No.” Andrew began to cry, and Ella stooped to pick him up. “You treated me like a fragile child. The fact that I’m your fated mate is what drew you to me in the first place. It’s the only reason a fourteen-year-old girl and a seventeen-year-old boy became friends at all.”

“We both played baseball.”

“Oh please. I was JV girls and you were varsity boys. We didn’t even ride the same bus to games.”

She had a point about the secret he’d kept from her. He didn’t go out of his way to make friends with freshmen girls when he was a senior. He wouldn’t even date a girl that young. His friendship with her had been motivated by the fact that he’d known she was his mate from the moment he’d laid eyes on her curvy, petite form.

“You’re right,” he said. “I shouldn’t have kept it from you. It was disloyal.” He hung his head, finally saying the words he’d held inside for so long.

Her face brightened and she sat down with the baby across from him at the table.

“I’m surprised you finally admit that,” she said. “It helps.”

“Helps?”

“It just makes me feel better to hear you admit that.”

He looked over at her and his son. He’d barely held him since he’d found out he existed. His heart hurt.

“Can I hold him?” he asked.

“Yeah.” She stood and handed him the baby. His tiny form and light weight wriggled in his arms. He’d held baby animals and baby relatives, but this was his own baby. His own flesh and blood. His son. Andrew had his green eyes, and Tate’s heart melted.

He held the child close and rocked him in his arms. The top of his head smelled like milk and powder. A soothing warmth flowed over his skin and his bear calmed within. He made a happy face at the baby and Andrew giggled and drooled, showing tiny new teeth.

“He’s so freaking cute, I don’t know what to do,” he joked.

“I know, right?” Ella laughed. “He looks so much like you. I can’t believe it.”

“He does kinda, doesn’t he?”

“Of course.”

“He looks a lot like you, too,” Tate said. Ella smiled at him. His affection for her poked through the fog of his anger and frustration. He did want them to be together, a family. The way it should be. He couldn’t help that he was a bear shifter and not a human. He couldn’t help that his kind knew who they belonged with from the day they were born.

He wished he could make everything right. Go back to when they were kids and trust her with the truth. She could have handled it. He knew that now. He understood that keeping it from her was a betrayal. He understood why she’d left him.

And he was beginning to understand why she had kept the baby a secret, too. She couldn’t face him. Right now, he could barely face himself. He was so conflicted. He had no idea what to do or how to proceed.

Was he a bear or was he a man? Who was in control? What voice should he listen to at the end of the day? How could he balance his animal and human nature to give his woman exactly what she needed? He could never answer all those questions on his own. He needed help. Even from his jerk-off brother Keaton or his clan leader brother Brock. Even his mom and dad could help him.

They were all back on the mainland while he and Ella were stranded out on the island in the middle of a snow storm. He’d have to figure it out on his own or it was going to be another long, cold night. He thought of sleeping in the cave again and shivered.

It wasn’t as if he couldn’t sleep in the cave in the cold. Regular bears did it. Tate was a shifter. That meant he was a human and had human taste. He preferred to stay warm. If he wanted to be warm tonight, he’d have to wrangle his bear into control enough to be around Ella. Holding the baby was definitely helping.

“I don’t want to sleep in the cave again tonight. My back still hurts.”

“Are you sure it’s not from pulling the boat up on land using ropes, pulleys, and a bear?”

“It might be partly that.”

“You’re perfectly welcome to share the bed with me,” she said, her eyes twinkling. Why was she doing this to him? He’d asked for it, though. The thought of sleeping in a bed was definitely appealing. The thought of sleeping in the bed with her…

“I might just do that.”

“Do you think you can handle yourself?”

“I can try,” he said. He could already feel his bear rearing its head.

“If that’s enough for you,” she said.

The sun had fallen and the world was deep in darkness. He pulled the CB radio from across the table and took another bite of his fish. Tate knew a little bit about CB radios, but not much. If the electronic components had been shorted by the water, it wasn’t going to work again.

“I’m going to put this near the fire to dry out.” He stoked both fires. And yawned. It had been a long ass day for him. Ella was right, his bear had done a lot of physically grueling work, and he needed a rest.

“I think I’ll turn in if that’s okay with you,” he said.