This time she stayed awake in his arms, not wanting to sleep since last time that had caused drama. Should she explain the Taylor thing now?

Maybe not. She didn’t need him acting jealous and messing everything up. She’d explain when things calmed down. He got up to clean up and then came back to her in his boxers. She loved the feel of him spooning behind her and didn’t want to sleep anyway if it meant missing this awesome snuggling.

His body was large enough to wrap around her from all directions. She felt safe and warm and finally at home for the first time in her life. She could sort of understand how he had felt so different after their first time together. She’d been too absorbed in the physical side of it, too busy trying to figure out if it was really happening, to truly feel the connection between them.

But this time she had. It was in the way he touched her, loved her. It was as insistent and sweet as his presents, his sending of flowers. But much more private and personal, something for them and them alone.

He snuggled against her with a little sigh and she loved how adorable he could be despite his size. He wasn’t a larger than life snowboarder to her anymore. Now he was just hers. At least it seemed to be that way. They’d said it multiple times between them as they’d made love.

And she knew now that was exactly what they’d done. If you could tell how a man felt about you by the way he loved you, then Ryan was definitely into her. Intensely so. She stroked his arm lazily and just enjoyed the quiet sound of his breathing, the feel of his chest rising against her back.

“I’m ready to tell you my secrets,” he said. “If you’re ready to be mine.”

She nodded, a little thrill of anticipation moving through her. But she wasn’t afraid. Whatever he had to tell her, it couldn’t be that big of a bomb. “I was always ready. Even when I was pissed at you, I never could think of anyone else.”

“That’s because you were meant for me,” he said in a growly voice. “Meant for my bear.”

She froze and went rigid. Did she seriously hear what she thought she just heard? “Your what?” she asked, trying to keep her voice neutral, trying not to show the panic she was starting to feel.

“My bear,” he said softly, keeping her tightly against him as if he was worried she’d run away. “I… I can turn into a bear. I’m a shape shifter.”

Her eyes went wide and she was glad he was at her back and couldn’t see her. “Oh. Right.”

“Do you have any questions?” he asked.

Her heart thumped in her chest. He wasn’t right in the head. She’d known it was too good to be true. Him being fully healed, him being suddenly in love with her. She believed that he wasn’t making up the bear story. She knew without a doubt that he felt what he was saying was true. There was a depressing amount of sincerity in his words. But it wasn’t possible, right? Which was more likely? That Ryan had some serious effects from a traumatic brain injury that should definitely have caused some issues, or that humans really could turn into bears and she’d just been unaware of it all these years?

Sadly, her heart knew which was more likely, as much as she wanted to believe the opposite. “Can you transform into a bear and show me?” she asked quietly, knowing he couldn’t, but wanting desperately for the opposite.

His voice was slightly pained. “I can’t. Not unless you agree to be my mate. If I show you and you refuse, then they would wipe your memory.”

“Who?” she asked, feeling a chill run through her at how deep his delusions went.

“The people who run bear society.”

She let him keep his arms around her and didn’t make any sudden moves. She could feel how tense he was. Feel him trembling slightly as he waited for her make up her mind. But what could she possibly say? She couldn’t possibly agree to a man who thought he was a bear. Plus, that would only lead to him doing an embarrassing attempt to shift into something that wasn’t possible.

She would save both of them the trouble. But right now, she just wanted to lay in his arms. She didn’t want to ruin the moment, even though now she wasn’t sure how injured he was in his mind. How much of what was between them was because of his accident and how much was real love.

She should have known it would end up too good to be true. No one changed their mind that instantly. Not after months of ignoring someone. She felt tears wet her cheeks and hoped he wasn’t looking. But when she couldn’t keep back a small sniffle, she saw him peek his head over to look down at her.

The stricken look on his handsome face nearly killed her. “What’s wrong?”

She swiped at her nose clumsily and pulled the blanket up over her. “I don’t know.” What should she say? She didn’t want to freak him out. Should she just tell his brothers tomorrow? They might be as unaware as she was that there were still some issues with his head. “It’s just a lot to take in.”

“I know,” he said, pulling her close to him. He felt so strong, so real, so there. Nothing made any sense. But how was she supposed to believe he was a bear when he wouldn’t even show her?

“Do you want me to show you?” he asked. “I can. You just have to promise you’ll accept me. I don’t trust the people who will get involved if you don’t.”

She shook her head. Her heart broke at what she would have to say, but she said it anyway. “No, don’t show me. I don’t think it’ll make a difference.”

His voice was low. “What do you mean?”

She sniffled. “I don’t think I can be with a bear.” She hesitated before the word bear. She hated having to resist him at a moment like this, after what they had just shared. Maybe when he didn’t believe he was a bear anymore, they could reexamine things. Her heart was still in shock at how things had changed.

“I really didn’t think you’d reject me,” he said scornfully, tugging his shirt on. “Don’t you believe me?”

She frowned. “I believe that you believe you.”

His expression darkened and he pulled away. “But you think I’m crazy.”

“No,” she said. “You hit your head. Hard. It makes sense that certain things would be wrong.”

He stood and started pulling on his clothing. She could tell she’d hurt him and she wanted to pull him back.

“I hate this,” he said. “I mean, I don’t blame you, but I have no way to show you unless you accept me. And you aren’t going to, are you?”

She just looked at him, searching her heart for the right thing to say. Apparently anything would have done, because the silence seemed to slay him.

“It’s fine,” he said, holding up a hand. “I get it. It’s all about the sex for you. Anything else is too complicated.” He started to put on his socks and shoes.

“Where are you going?” she asked, suddenly panicked that he was going to leave while he was still angry.

“I’m going for a walk,” he said. “Then I’m going back to my room. Then I’m going to spend the night trying to figure out how I’m going to cope now that the one woman I want doesn’t want me.”

“It’s not that I don’t want you,” she said. “That’s not it.”

“But you don’t believe me,” he said. “You don’t trust me when I say this has nothing to do with my head.”

She frowned. How could she answer that?

“It just proves that all this time, you were chasing me but you didn’t truly know me. As for the change in my feelings for you, it’s not as drastic as you think,” he said. “You made me feel so strongly that I run all the way to Australia.”

“That’s not exactly the kind of feeling I wanted to inspire,” she said.

He flinched. “Well, being rejected by you after giving you all of me wasn’t something I wanted to feel.”

“It’s not my fault you think you’re a bear,” she snapped out, sitting up and pulling the sheets around her protectively.

He took an angry step forward, jabbing a finger in her direction. “I don’t think I’m a bear, I am a bear. And I have no way to prove it to you because no matter what I’ve tried to do in the past week to show you how much I care, you still don’t trust me. I wouldn’t lie to you, Kylie. I couldn’t.” He patted his chest. “The bear inside me knew you were mine before I did. He’s smarter than me. He doesn’t want to let you go.”

Tears pricked her eyes but she let anger take them over. “He’ll have to,” she said. “Because I can’t be with a man who thinks he’s a bear.”

With that, he turned on his heel and walked out into the night, slamming the door behind him. Kylie fell against her sheets and sobbed. For once, she had no idea how to make things right. She wanted to go after him but there was nothing more she could say.

There was no way he was actually a bear.

---

Kylie rose early and checked to make sure Ryan wasn’t outside. She knew he wouldn’t be here to go snowboarding, but it had snowed heavily over the night and she was eager to go up and find some pow. She could get off the lift pretty well on her own, link turns, and get up when she fell. Ryan hadn’t said there was anything wrong with snowboarding alone, and she often saw solitary riders.

If there was ever a day for solitude and peace, this was it. She could hardly wait to get up into the mountains, clear her head, and let the cool air wipe away the stress of last night.

It had been half wonderful, half nightmare. Despite what he seemed to think, it had never been her wish to reject him. And it had never been about the sex, though that was wonderful. It wasn’t like she’d wanted to just keep things simple. Wanted to just be another fan girl trying to screw Ryan Hart.

No, what they had was so much more than that.

Up until the bear thing.

She got ready quickly and was pulling her gloves on and heading for the lift when she looked up to see Ryan talking to the lift operator. He was facing away from her so she flashed her pass at the operator and skated to stand in the loading zone, waiting for the lift to pick her up. Just as the chair arrived and swept under her legs, picking her up, Ryan turned around to look at her, eyes wide.

He stepped forward, but the lift was already carrying her away. He looked angrily at the lift, like he meant to follow her, but he didn’t have his board on him, so he just moved out of the way and stared helplessly as she was lifted up and away from him.

She watched him for a moment, just standing there with folded arms, and wondered if he’d follow. Would he be paranoid that something could happen? He needn’t be. People did this alone all the time. And she couldn’t think if he was there. Definitely didn’t want him there today.

And she didn’t want to be with anyone else either, because she didn’t know whom she could tell without invading Ryan’s privacy.

She wondered if the bear thing really had happened because of the accident, or if he’d always just thought something like that. She should ask his brothers. But she hated the idea of going behind his back. She also hated the idea of walking away from him.

Was the bear thing really possible? The more she considered it, the more a part of her wanted to just believe it. Just believe and accept him and see what happened.

But she’d been too practical her entire life to give in to something like that. All she knew was that something had to give, and she didn’t know what.

When she reached the top of the lift, she looked down and didn’t see him on any of the chairs. A few other boarders or skiers, each solitary since it wasn’t likely many people had work off to ride in the middle of the week, but no Ryan.

Perhaps he really had written her off. Not that she wanted him to follow her. It was just a little odd that he hadn’t.

She got of the lift and did her new tactic of just crouching onto her knees immediately and scooting off the runway so that no one would have to worry about running her over. She scooted to the side of the hill and looked longingly over at the trail she and Ryan had often taken to the pow.

She was sure it was deep and gorgeous there today, and would feel like snowboarding on the softest marshmallow. But she also knew that it wouldn’t be smart to go there alone. So she buckled in, marveling at how easy it was getting, and then scooted to the drop off for the main bunny hill. But then she hesitated and pulled out the map she’d left crumpled in one of her jacket pockets in case she and Ryan had needed it.

She grinned, thinking about how bad he was at figuring out directions, and then rested her chin on her glove while she looked it over. There was a snowboard park not far from here, on the other side of the lift. Ryan had never taken her there before, and she hadn’t wanted to argue, because she thought it probably made him miss doing tricks and she didn’t want to encourage him doing anything that could get him hurt. But now…

Now there was no reason she couldn’t head over and see what kinds of tricks the casual boarders here were doing. She scooted along the edge of the hill to the other side of the lift, and stood to carefully take the cat track down to the other hill. When she slowed, she unbuckled one foot and skated the rest of the way. When the hill got steep again, she sat and buckled in. There was a nice place among the trees where she could sit and look straight down at the park. She was a little proud of herself for finding it.

She didn’t have to wait long for a boarder to come along. He was tall and made easy turns until he was at the top of the park.

Kylie slowly made her way through the trees, thinking she could probably see even better from near the bottom. The snowboarder didn’t even stop as he reached the top of the ramp leading to a kicker, a wide, straight jump that would kick the rider super high into the air over the snow below. Dangerous, super high jumps. But this rider was experienced, and flashed a smile that matched the snow in its whiteness as he bent his legs and went up the ramp. When he took off he threw his head back and spun in the air like he was weightless, turning and rotating, as time seemed to pause.

His muscular body righted itself just in time to stomp the landing and the boarder made a hard turn to come to a stop not far from her. She crouched among the trees, hoping he hadn’t seen her.

It was one of the hottest things she’d ever seen, and she realized why when the boarder took off his helmet and shook his head as he readjusted the fit of his goggles.

It was Ryan.

Doing tricks he had no business doing while he was recovering from a head injury. Anger blazed through her as she unbuckled her board, shoved it upright into the snow, and stomped out of the trees to face him. He looked up at her with mild surprise.

“Kylie? What are you doing in the park?”

She wrapped one hand around her waist and jabbed the other in his direction. “I’d say the bigger question is what are you doing risking your health doing tricks like that?”

He looked around them with a somewhat bored expression. “The park is empty. No one can see.”

She threw her hands up. “Who cares if they can see? I can see!” She closed the space between them, yelling all the way. “How could you do such a thing? To your family, to me!” She jabbed him in the chest and he raised an eyebrow as he looked down at her. As if he was vaguely amused by her anger.

Well sure, she was small. She couldn’t scare him. But she’d be damned if she sat back and watched while he risked hurting himself and went against his doctor’s orders. “How could you be so ridiculous?”

“Excuse me? I’m ridiculous?” He folded his arms and stared back at her. She could feel the anger reverberating through him and took a step back. “Why do you even care?”

“Because I care about you, that’s why!” she said. “I love you, dammit. My only mistake was falling in love with someone who thinks they’re a damn bear!”

“I am a damn bear,” he said, taking another step forward, bumping her slightly back. “My only mistake was falling in love with someone who thinks I’m broken.”

“I don’t think you’re…” She paused, trailing off. Did she? No, if she looked at him, she really didn’t think he was. She just didn’t know what to think. At this point, believing he was a bear was almost easier than believing all of the other things she’d have to believe if he wasn’t. “I don’t think you’re crazy. And I hate that word.”

“Fine,” he said. “I won’t use it. But here’s the thing, sweetheart. I’m not risking anything, because as a bear shifter, I heal faster than any human. Most shifters too, since I’m an alpha.”

She swallowed. Well, that much made sense. He reeked of alpha, whatever that really meant.

He bore down on her, crowding her with his height, his strength, his scent. The adrenaline that was still washing through her after watching one of his incredible jumps in person.

“So yeah, that’s right. As much as you want to think there is, there is nothing wrong with my brain. Or my body. I just have to lie low while I heal as much as the world thinks I should, because as you’ve just proven, people respond badly to finding out about bears!” He was yelling, not at her, but over her. When he realized it, he threw up his arms and then started stomping away. “Fine, I give up.”

Her heart beat hard as he took a few steps away. “Don’t give up,” she said.

“What?” he asked, turning slightly to look at her. He was wearing a light blue snow coat today, that’s why she hadn’t recognized him from a distance.

“Don’t give up,” she said. “Help me understand.”

He took a deep breath and seemed to let some of the anger seep out of him. “I don’t know how.”

“Show me,” she said. “I’ll accept you.” She knew it sounded weird and unbelievable, but she honestly didn’t see how she could live without him. What could it hurt to see if he could really be telling the truth? He’d never lied to her, that much was true.

He frowned and kept his helmet under his arm as he looked out over the snowy mountain. “You are so far under my skin,” he said. “When I’m not with you, I can’t think about anything but whether you’re safe. I want to protect you. Want to hold you. I want you to accept me, all of me. But I just don’t know if I can risk it. If anything happened to you…”

She took a step forward, but he took a step back. “You wouldn’t let anything happen.”

He shook his head. “That’s why I can’t show you.”

“I’ll accept you,” she said.

“You don’t know that.”

She let out a frustrated sigh. “What do I need to do? Bring up Taylor?”

Jealousy flared in his eyes. “You wouldn’t.”

“Why not? Because you’re just willing to let me walk away and not risk it, and risk me going back and finding Taylor instead?”

“Never,” he growled, unzipping his coat as he walked back quickly to gain distance from her.

“I mean, he may not be as good as you, but—”

With a fierce growl, Ryan transformed into a huge, hulking bear. Kylie gasped and tripped over her own feet in an attempt to scramble back. What the hell just happened? One minute he was there, the next there were torn snow clothes on the ground around him, and he was taking great lumbering steps toward her.

She scooted backward, away from him, as he approached. Her heart raced, even as she looked up and noted that the bear had ice blue eyes, so like Ryan’s. It hadn’t been like in the movies with werewolves. No popping, no agony, just there and then changed, like a mist had moved over the scene and obscured it for a second until the animal had replaced the man.

She didn’t know what to say, what to do. She should be relieved that it meant he wasn’t still injured after all. That it meant he really was probably as into her as he’d said. After all, he didn’t lie to her. He hadn’t tried to lead her on back when he’d been not interested.

But how did she deal with the fact that he really was a freaking bear? She’d been ready for basically anything but that. He stayed ten feet away from her, looking wary. She took another scoot back, she couldn’t help it. He frightened her somehow.

He walked forward, but she kept scooting back. She couldn’t stop. Then he ran toward her and caught the scruff of her jacket in his large mouth. She screamed and struggled but heard his voice, only a little gruffer than usual, come from the monster holding her. She calmed.

“Ryan?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said. His voice was muffled through a mouthful of down coat. He started dragging her gently toward the trees from which she’d come.

“Wait, put me down.”

“No,” he said. “I can’t risk you not accepting me, there’s too much at stake for both of us.”

“I’m not rejecting you,” she said. “It’s just a lot to take in.” She reached back, trying to pull her hood free from the mouth of this giant, talking bear. A talking bear!

“Ha!” he replied. “You think I don’t know that? That’s why I won’t risk it.” He poked his head out of the trees, made sure no one was on the slope, and ran across it, pulling her gently along with him like she weighed nothing. It wasn’t uncomfortable. He was holding just the right spot and she slid lightly over the snow. They crossed through another patch of trees and he swung her up onto his back and told her to hang on. She did. This one was bear that there was no point arguing with.

She honestly didn’t know which was more stubborn, man or bear. But she was glad he was stubborn, if it meant he was willing to fight for them. To give them a chance. She was glad she’d gone to the park that day. When he came to a little cabin that she’d never noticed at the side of the mountain, he stopped and let her get down. Then he transformed into a fully naked man and opened the door, sweeping a hand in front of him for her to go inside.

So she did.