Two weeks later…

“I can’t believe I’m actually finished,” Bella said, staring at her dog-eared notebook in disbelief. She had spent the past two weeks, with Logan’s help, observing the sleepy owls in their native habitat. He even helped her write the paper and now she was done. And it was good. Maybe not an A+ but it would probably get at least an A- and she could live with that.

“You’re like the Jane Goodall of owls,” Logan said with a laugh.

She smiled. “Maybe I’ll be famous too,” she said with a grin.

“Maybe,” he said, sliding his hand over hers and giving her fingers a gentle squeeze.

Bella sighed. “I just want to pass. Fame can come later.”

Logan gave her a sad smile. “I’ll start your fan club right after you leave.”

The silence hung between them like a fog. They finally had to have the talk. The talk that they had been avoiding for the past two weeks.

The two of them kept busy, spending the days and nights observing the owls, writing the paper, falling in love, and having earth-shattering sex in every possible position and in every possible location. But they always danced around the topic of their future together. It was on both of their minds but neither of them were brave enough to bring it up.

Until now.

“I think you should come with me,” Bella said, her stomach rolling with butterflies.

They were sitting on the porch at Logan’s house, relaxing after dinner. The sun was just beginning to dip down in the sky giving the forest a warm inviting glow. Bella’s stomach was full from a delicious meal of venison steaks and grilled veggies fresh from Logan’s garden. If it wasn’t for the sinking feeling in her stomach, it would have been perfect.

“I was afraid you were going to say that,” Logan said with a grimace.

“I think you’re ready,” she said, taking his hand in hers. “Your bear is such a sweetheart now. You can’t let one incident that happened three years ago ruin your future.”

“It wasn’t just a little incident,” he said with his muscles tensing up. “My bear killed a lot of people, Bella. And he enjoyed every minute of it.”

She sighed as she looked up at him. “You know as well as I do that those people had it coming,” she said, feeling the familiar anger rushing through her that she got whenever she thought of the story. She was glad that the people who were cruel enough to do that were all dead. She just wished that Logan could find the courage and the strength to move on.

“You’re going to be fine,” she said, nodding. “I’ll be with you the entire time.”

“And what if you’re wrong?” he asked. “What if my bear loses it again and you’re caught in the middle of it? I’m not willing to risk that.”

“I’m his mate, right?” she said, smiling like she always did when she said that word. She still couldn’t believe that she was Logan’s mate. The feeling was incredible. She could feel the attachment to him getting stronger every day. They were meant to be together. Bella could feel it in her bones. “If I’m his mate would Cliff do anything to hurt me?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head fiercely. “He would rather die than hurt you, and so would I.”

“See?” she said, raising her shoulders. “I’ll be with you guys the entire way. If Cliff starts to get upset, I’ll just stand in front of him and sing softly to him, pet his face, scratch behind his ears like he loves.” She stared into Logan’s worried eyes and pressed her forehead to his. “Logan. It will be fine.”

“It’s not just that,” he said, reaching up and gently touching the long scars that ran down the side of his face. “I look different.”

“You look sexy,” she said, kissing his scarred cheek.

“Bella,” he said, dropping his chin as he watched her. “Even you were terrified of me at first.”

“Because I thought you were a serial killer who kidnapped me,” she said. “Not because of the way you looked.”

“I’d be working with children,” he said, exhaling softly. “They’re already hurt and sick. I don’t want them to be terrified of their doctor as well.”

“Do you want them to be alive?” Bella asked. “You’re the only one who can save them. You have to do this. You have a responsibility to do this.”

He sighed as he looked down at his fidgeting hands.

Logan knew that she was right. He had a responsibility to greatness. He had been the best pediatric surgeon in the country, maybe even the world before the military got their hands on him. There were a lot of children and parents out there who desperately needed his help. He had a responsibility to help them because he could. It would be wrong to let his past and his injuries keep him from the incredible gifts that he was given.

“Let’s start slow,” Bella said, placing a hand on his hard shoulder. “There’s a general store close to where my car is parked. You can try and walk in there first and see how it goes.”

Bella remembered the rude rednecks inside who kept staring at her ass. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if Cliff ate them.

She was pretty certain that Cliff was back to his old self. She hadn’t seen an ounce of aggression in him the whole time she had been here. He was like a big cuddly teddy bear around her.

“He has been very calm lately,” Logan said, rubbing his chin. “Ever since he met you.”

“It’s going to be fine, Logan. You can’t stay out here forever.” Bella was his mate and he was her man, and she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, in the comforts of society. Not out here.

“Please, Logan,” she said, kissing his cheek. “Try it for me.”

He finally raised his eyes after thinking about it for a minute. “Where is this general store?”

* * *

“You’re alive?” the old man behind the counter said, lifting up his trucker hat and scratching his thin hair. “I thought the wolves would have eaten you by now.”

Bella frowned at him. She was back in Dark Creek Swamp at the general store with all of the slimy worms, moldy cookies, and not to mention, the old pervy men.

“And I thought you would have been closed by the FDA for uncleanliness issues,” she said, cringing as a mouse ran across the floor.

The two old men were still hanging out in the back of the shop, still staring at her ass.

“The monster didn’t swallow you up?” one of them asked. He was wearing a Mariah Carey t-shirt and a Coors Light trucker hat with his ugly mullet hanging out of the back.

“What monster?” Logan asked, walking in through the door. He was so large that he had to duck under the low frame.

Bella smiled from ear to ear as she watched the three men’s eyes widen to the point of pain. Let’s see what happens when they stare at my ass now.

The man at the cash register gulped as he looked Logan up and down. “I heard stories about you,” he whispered as he stared at him in shock.

Logan grinned, looking like he was going to have some fun with them. “They’re all true.”

“Nah,” the Mariah Carey fan said from the back. “You’re not him. The real beast is nine feet tall.”

“And he has sharp claws and jagged teeth,” his friend added.

“And he eats city girls for dinner,” the other one said. “This is not him. She would never have survived out there with the real beast.”

“Maybe he is out there,” Logan said with a grin. “Or maybe I’m a beast in human’s clothing.”

“No, you’re not,” Bella said, hooking her arm around him and pulling him toward the door. “You’re the sweetest guy I’ve ever met.”

“You didn’t buy anything,” the man said with a frown. “Do you need any worms?”

“Yes,” Bella smiled, pulling Logan to a stop. “We’ll take them all.”

They were on their way back to civilization and Bella was planning on releasing them back into the forest on her way out.

She was taking one of the forest’s creatures with her forever so she thought she could offer Mother Nature a trade. A bunch of worms for Logan and his bear. It seemed like a fair trade.

“Why did you buy those?” he asked as they walked back to her car. Her trunk and back seat were packed with their stuff.

“I don’t know,” she said, lifting up the bag and looking at the worms slithering through the damp soil. “I wanted to return them to their real homes.”

Logan wrapped a muscular arm around her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. “Thank you,” he said, squeezing her tight. “Thank you for bringing me home too.”

“Thank you for coming with me,” she said. “It wouldn’t feel like home without you.”

Bella climbed into the car and slapped the bag of worms onto Logan’s lap when he was seated beside her. “How did it go in there?” she asked. “How did Cliff react to those guys?”

That was the real worry. Would Logan’s bear get that bloodthirsty reaction again when he was around people, wanting to kill everything in sight? Or would he return to the kind gentle bear that he was before the military got to him?

“He was more interested in the dusty boxes of cookies,” Logan said with a look of relief on his face. “The men didn’t bother him at all.”

Bella squealed in delight and reached over the console to hug him with the stick shift digging into her ribs. “I’m so happy,” she said, her cheeks burning from smiling so wide. “Ready to go home?”

Logan swallowed her hand in his huge palm. “Home is wherever I’m with you,” he said with a sexy smile.

He finally looked ready. Ready to leave the lonely forest. Ready to move on.

“Let’s go get my life back,” he said, holding her hand.

Bella smiled and drove them both back to civilization.