The lights were on in the house when Mason pulled up. He couldn’t remember if he’d turned them off or not. As he pulled into his parking spot, he glanced down at the passenger seat for his phone, remembering belatedly that he had left it in the kitchen.

Frowning, Mason opened the door and extracted the crutches. They were too tall to lever himself out of the car with, and he put pressure on his broken foot as he stood up, sucking in a sharp breath. The damn thing was still tender. Shoving the door shut with his butt, Mason hobbled his way to the door.

Bones shot forward with a hiss as Mason raised his key to the lock. He froze, listening. Someone was inside. With a sigh, Mason leaned his head on the door. He didn’t have the energy to deal with whatever that was. Getting back in the car and driving away seemed like a decent idea. Just drive until his foot was healed enough to walk. He could do that.

The hiss turned growl shifted to a gentle purr, and Mason raised an eyebrow.

Emma?

The porcupine nodded.

Shit. What the hell was she doing in his house? He had told her not to come. Then there was the matter of how she had gotten in in the first place. Mason couldn’t picture her breaking in. He must have left the door unlocked.

The shuffling inside stopped. She knew he was there.

With a deep breath, he opened the door. Emma stood in the kitchen, broom in hand. Completely naked except for one of his button-down shirts. Just like in the fucking movies.

Mason hopped his way to the couch with the crutches and dropped his keys on the coffee table, pointedly avoiding her. Not letting himself feel the way the shirt clung to her curves, how the buttons strained against her chest.

“What are you doing here?”

“Mason, I am so sorry.” Emma propped the broom against the counter and took a couple steps toward him, hands outstretched.

“I’m fine. You should go.”

“I—” her hands fell to her sides, fingers playing with the hem of the shirt where it fell over her hips. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“But you’re on crutches.”

“A bear broke my ankle. Barn says I should be fine by tomorrow.”

“Barn.”

“I tried for Leslie, but he answered the door.”

Emma frowned. “You shouldn’t have picked a fight with the bears.”

“Maybe they picked a fight with me.” Mason fell back onto the couch and tossed his crutches to the side.

“You’re mad at me.”

Nope. “Not at you.”

Emma shook her head. “You should be.”

“I’m the idiot. Two weeks in a new town and I fell in love with a fucking bear.” Mason clenched his eyes shut. He wasn’t thinking straight. Why had he said that out loud? He hadn’t even thought it. Not in so many words.

“You aren’t an idiot.” Emma closed the distance between them. Mason looked away, refusing to meet her eyes, embarrassment burning on the back of his neck.

“Obviously I am. You should go.”

“Mason.” She hovered at the edge of the coffee table, fire in her eyes.

Shit she was gorgeous. “Look. I’m obviously causing problems in your clan. You are alpha. You have responsibilities. Taking care of an ignorant porcupine isn’t one of them.”

Mason felt trapped, unable to get off the couch without putting pressure on his foot. Crutches out of reach. Emma’s body so close. Despite himself, need rose in his loins.

“Mason, I need you. I want to be with you. I don’t care about everything else.” Emma stepped forward, straddling his legs and lowering herself into his lap.

Mason sucked in a breath. This was cruel. She needed to leave. He needed her to leave. “You told me you couldn’t be with me a few hours ago. I can’t do this, Emma.”

“I was wrong.”

She kissed him, wrapping her arms around him to pull him in. Mason gripped the edge of the couch to keep from wrapping his own around her. He could taste her. Smell her. Spun sugar and lavender. His sweat pants were barely a barrier between him and her bare flesh, and she rolled her hips against him.

Mason pulled back, shaking his head. “Emma, no.”

Why? He needed to remind himself. She needed a break. He was a rebound. A bear couldn’t be with a porcupine. Mason repeated the list over and over. Still, his body betrayed him. She fit so perfectly on top of him.

“Why?”

Mason’s voice came out in a groan. “I won’t be a rebound.”

“Don’t listen to Jordan.”

“Then what am I, Emma?”

She stopped grinding against him, her hands pulling back to rest on his chest. The sleeves of his shirt were too long for her, and her fingers barely poked out from under the fabric.

Mason watched the fire die in her eyes. He had found the question that she couldn’t answer. The question that he needed answered before he would let himself give in to her. “That’s what I thought.”

“Please, Mason. Let’s talk about this.”

“There is nothing to talk about.” He pushed against her hips with his hands. He needed her to get off his lap.

“Why can’t I just be with you?” Her voiced pleaded with him.

“For the same reason that I got the shit kicked out of me by three bears in your own clan.” Mason leaned to the side, reaching for the closest of the crutches. Finally, Emma removed herself from him. With the release of pressure, his fingertips brushed over the frame and he stretched to pull it towards him.

Emma reached down and picked it up. He was winning. Barely. “I’m really sorry, Mason.”

“All you have to do is tell me where we stand. But you don’t know where that is. And I can’t be with you until you figure it out.” Mason positioned the crutches under his arms and swung himself to the back door, which was unlocked.

“Things are complicated.”

“So you keep saying.” He opened the door and backed up to the wall. “I can handle complicated. I grew up in the city as a porcupine without a clan and two parents who suppressed their spirit animals. Shit don’t get much more complicated than that.”

“But you don’t understand. It’s… different.”

Mason banged the back of his head into the wall. “Then make me understand. Explain it all to me. Every single bit.”

Emma stopped in front of him and pulled off the shirt. He knew she had to do it if she was going to shift, but damn seeing her like that was the last thing he needed. Why couldn’t she just tell him? Fill him in? It shouldn’t be that hard. That was all it would take. One minute of admission and he would take her right there in the hallway, broken foot or no.

But Emma handed him the shirt, which he had to drape over the strut of his crutch. She leaned up, kissed him on the cheek and walked out the door. He watched her put her phone on the ground and then explode into a grizzly bear. Who picked up the phone in his mouth and disappeared into the trees behind Mason’s house.

The walls rattled when Mason slammed the door. He turned back to the kitchen, realizing for the first time that Emma had been cleaning up the casserole when he came home. The dinner they were supposed to have together before she told him she needed a break.

It was ironic, that. Maybe she really meant it. She had made a mistake. Emma had come there to clean up the pieces. Literally. Mason almost laughed out loud.

Perhaps he should have just given in to her. Lord knew he hadn’t had many women in his life and she was—too good to be true. There it was. The truth of the matter. If something was too good to be true, it couldn’t be real.

Mason balanced on one foot and leaned the crutches against the counter, picking up the broom. She had piled the parts of the casserole dish into a pile. A grocery sack full of soiled paper towels sat next to it. The casserole. He still needed to mop, but Emma had managed to clear up most of the mess by the time he returned.

He frowned at the broken pieces, and then swept them into the dust pan. Mason’s foot ached, accompanied now by the unsatisfied need burning in his groin. And the dull pang in his heart. Had he done the right thing? Logic said yes. She had walked away from him. That was the problem with logic though. Just because it was right didn’t mean it was easy. Or what he wanted.