Kaden’s bear arched up as the stench of fear flooded the room. What caused the sudden rush? When they’d shown up at her door, she’d been terrified. But this was new…and different. She was shielding herself from them. What was she hiding? If she didn’t have something against interspecies relationships, then it had to be something specifically against bears. Which didn’t make sense when the Chief of the tribe was a bear.

“Just leave.” Her voice wavered and she couldn’t meet their gazes.

“Camellia, what’s wrong?” he asked softly.

“What’s wrong, kitten? Don’t think us bears can make you purr?” Ari kept his voice husky as he leaned in to her neck.

“Stop…” The word came out as a moan as he kissed her neck. “I can’t…”

“Precious, what’s wrong?” Kaden placed his hand on the small of her back. “Talk to us.”

“I just can’t…not bears.”

She met his gaze, and there was a sadness there, deep in her green depths that pierced Kaden’s heart.

“Please…”

“How about this?” Kaden rubbed his hand along the curve of her back, soothing her. “We’ll leave for tonight. You can have some time to think about this and let your lioness adjust to us as bears. Tomorrow between your classes, we’ll meet for lunch.”

“We’re mates, kitten. You’ll have to accept that.” Ari ran his hand through her long brown hair, tipping her head up as he did, so she had no choice but to look at him. “Bears might be moody, but I can assure you that once you’ve allowed us to claim you, you won’t have any regrets.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t.” Her voice broke as she backed away from them.

Everything within him told him to go to her, to wrap her in his arms and take away whatever weight was on her shoulders. Instead, he fought against the urge and took a step toward the door. “Ari…”

Ari’s jaw tensed, but he nodded. “If you change your mind and want to come to us tonight, we’re in cabin four.” With a final, searing glance, he left.

“Tomorrow will look brighter.” Kaden shut the door behind them and hoped he was right. “Tomorrow, we’ll convince her she’s ours.” He wasn’t sure if he was saying that to convince himself, his bear, or Ari.

Ari rolled his shoulders. “Why the hell are we leaving her tonight? She’s ours, and if we have to fight to prove it to her than we must.” Ari stalked further away from her home before turning toward him. “Damn it, Kaden, you better have a fucking good reason for this!”

“She’s hiding something,” he said, keeping his voice even to keep from further inciting Ari’s temper.

“No shit,” Ari roared.

“She’s not going to let us claim her until she lets go of whatever she’s hiding. Once the bond is in place, there will be no holding back. She has to let it go, or tell us about it before then, but she doesn’t seem ready to do either. So I’m going to have to find out what it is.”

“How do you expect to go about that?”

Kaden continued walking toward their cabin, his thoughts scattering. She could be hiding anything, and that made his job harder. He didn’t have a clue where to start, which meant he’d have to start with a background check like he’d run on one of their employees and work his way from there. They arrived back at the cabin, and he headed for the laptop he’d left on the coffee table.

“I’m grabbing beers, and then maybe you can enlighten me regarding your plan,” Ari called over his shoulder as he headed toward the small kitchen at the back of the cabin. “I doubt I’ll be much help, but you know I’m here.”

“You’ve got enough on your plate dealing with on the community’s security. Let me worry about the past our mate is trying to keep buried.” His laptop chirped as it powered on, and he took the beer Ari handed him. “I’m going to dig into her past until I find whatever it is she’s trying to hide. And when I do, I’m not going to let it stop us from claiming her.”

“She seems pretty adamant that she doesn’t want bears in her life.” Ari leaned against the wall and took a long swig from his beer. “How’s that work with Jase and the other bears in the tribe? Or is it just that our kitten doesn’t want us?”

“I think it’s because we’re outsiders, and she doesn’t know anything about us. She trusts Jase. Maybe he had to earn it.” With the laptop powered up, he set the beer aside and went to work. “I’ve got this, Ari. Go draw up the perimeter plans for Jase and the construction crew. I’ll get you when I find something.” And he’d find something. There wasn’t anyone better at digging up the dirt on people than him.

He was the guy who ran the background checks for all the men they hired—scanning every inch of their lives. They wouldn’t have anyone with a criminal past working as part of their security operations. Too many people trusted their company for them to allow even one person with a sketchy past to slip through the cracks. They didn’t just provide security to shifters, but to some very wealthy and high-placed humans.

Whatever Camellia feared, he’d find it, then make damn sure they protected her. His bear growled, wanting his mate and wanting her safe. Tomorrow…

* * *

The moon hung high in the sky, telling Camellia that the time was right. If she was going to leave Crimson Hollow, she needed to do it while everyone slept. Sneaking out in the middle of the night was the cowards’ way out, but she couldn’t face Jase. He’d want to know why, and what was she supposed to tell him? She made commitments within the tribe, but if they found out what she’d done, she’d be removed from her position anyway. She’d rather leave before they could learn the truth. The embarrassment of them finding out was the least of her problems, it was death she fought to avoid.

This small, isolated community that had been her haven, no longer made her feel safe. She grabbed the backpack she’d packed, slipped it over her shoulder, and tipped the letter to Jase she’d written against the candle centerpiece on her table. It didn’t explain everything, simply apologized for running out on them. She glanced around her house and tears prickled her eyes. The memories she’d made here would be carried with her for all of her days. There had been times of joy and times of grief. But there had been more happy moments than sad ones. She had made some of the best friends she could have ever asked for. While they all knew she had something in her past that had brought her there, none of them had pressed. The only person who knew her story had been Granddad. As the Chief, she’d been forced to tell him in order to join his tribe, and even then she’d told him as little as she could. In fact, she’d left out the fact that the man she’d shot had been a bear. True to his word, as far as she knew he’d never told anyone, not even Jase.

She stepped out into the cold night air, shut the door behind her, and stood there for a moment. Taking a deep breath she opened up her senses. No one was about, so she stepped off her porch and headed away from the town, toward the road. She couldn’t take her car because starting the engine would wake the entire tribe. But that meant she’d have to hoof it to the road and hope that someone passing through in the middle of the night would pick her up. If not, she’d have to make her way nearly twenty miles to the next small town before she could hitch a ride. Truckers would be her best bet to put some miles between herself and the bears.

In case anyone might have been moving about inside one of the houses and happened to look out the window, she kept to the trees. A branch cracked nearby, and she scanned the grounds. It was doubtful any animal would venture this close to the compound, not with all their scents lingering. They were predators and any creature that strayed near was fair game.

“Going somewhere, precious?”

She spun toward the voice with such force that she nearly dropped the bag slung over her shoulder. “Ahh…”

Kaden stood steps in front of her, blocking her path. “You weren’t running out on us, were you?”

“No, ahh…” She couldn’t think as he closed the distance between them. Her lioness darted forward, purring with great excitement. Mate. She shook her head at her lion. He can’t be.

“Than what were you doing out here at this time of night?” He pulled the bag off her shoulder and unzipped it. “Couldn’t sleep so you thought you’d take your clothes for a walk?”

“I ahh…” She was beginning to sound like a broken record, but she didn’t know what to say to him. Her lioness just wanted him naked, and that made it harder to think straight. “Kaden, please.”

“Please what, precious? Press you against that tree and have my way with you until you’re screaming my name for the whole tribe to hear? Or maybe you’d prefer to be naked, riding me, as the moonlight shines down on us like a spotlight?” He pulled her close to him, pressing her against his body so that she could feel how ready he was for her. “Your lioness wouldn’t be growling like that if you’d only give in to her.”

“I just can’t.” She forced herself to back away from him.

“Because of your secret.” He advanced on her, closing the distance that she had just created between them.

“I have no secret.”

“Oh, precious,” he said silkily. “There’s no need to lie to me, I know all about it.” He took her hand in his.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” A shiver of fear ran up her back. If she screamed for help would Jase or one of the guards get to her before he had a chance to kill her? Even if so would Jase order her death to revenge one of his species? Which would be quicker and painless?

“Kitten, we know about the man you killed.” Ari strolled from the shadows. “The bear.”

Kaden’s gaze locked with hers. “That’s what you’re hiding, isn’t it?”

Shock quivered through her. “How?” She tried to keep them both in view as she braced herself for the attack. At that moment, she didn’t believe it mattered they were mates. Bears stood up for each other, no matter what. She’d killed one of their kind, and to honor him they had to kill her in return.

“Kaden’s the best there is.” Ari’s voice held a hint of pride. “He can find dirt on anyone, and he knew you were hiding something. After we left, he went to work finding yours.”

She squared her shoulders. “Go ahead.”

The guys shared a look before Kaden asked. “Go ahead with what?”

“Aren’t you going to kill me?” She forced herself to keep her eyes open. If they were going to kill her, she refused to cower in fear. She had always suspected that one day someone would find her and end her, just as she had ended that man’s life. As time went by, she’d gradually stopped looking over her shoulder, waiting for someone to jump out of the trees. But now that they were here, she was both scared and somewhat relieved. She’d no longer be living in fear that someone would find out.

Ari’s gaze narrowed. “Kitten, why would we kill you?”

She glanced at Ari to see if he was being serious or if he was just provoking her. “It’s what bears do.”

“Who told you that? Jase is a bear, but he didn’t hurt you when you told him, did he?” The last question came out more as a growl, as if Kaden thought Jase might have hurt her.

It only served to confuse her more. It was almost like he cared for her, but he couldn’t. Could he?

“Jase doesn’t know, does he?” Ari touched her shoulder, but she still remained silent. “Fuck.”

Camellia’s gaze slid away. “I told no one except the police officer who questioned me after…” As the emotions ran through her from that night, she sank down onto the cold ground. “He told me to run, to leave Boston and never look back. That if the bears ever found me, they’d tear me limb from limb for what I did. So please…just get it over with.”

“Kitten…” Ari squatted next to her. “We’re not going to hurt you.”

“But I killed one of your kind.” She looked at Ari, unable to believe he wasn’t about to rip her head off. All these years she lived in fear of this moment. She didn’t want to draw it out any longer than necessary, and she sure didn’t want them to lie to her just to keep her guard down. She wasn’t going to fight them. She had killed one man and that was enough of a burden to live with. She couldn’t do it again, even if it meant her own demise.