Cole jerked awake, sitting up fast. Immediately, Tali was beside him, easing down onto the bed.

“Tali?” he gasped, blinking.

“Hey.” She reached forward, her fingers pressing against the bare flesh of his shoulder. “Lie back, you dummy. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

“You’re here?” he asked, sounding woozy.

“Yeah. I’m here,” she said softly. “As in, physically still part of the material world. Because of you. Because you saved me.”

Tali reached down to him, gently brushing hair away from his face.

“Fuck,” he said, and the confusion seemed to clear in his eyes. “The wolves! Tali, are you—?”

“I’m okay,” she assured him. “Not perfect. But better off than you are. I’m still trying to figure out whether I’ve had a total psychological breakdown or not. But I’m alive. And so are you. Right now, it’s hard to think of much beyond that.”

“Your leg,” he said. Calling attention to her leg—which she’d wrapped up in a makeshift bandage of his old shirts—only brought back the pain she was trying to desperately to ignore. “It’s hurt.”

“It’s okay. I found some pain meds stashed in your bathroom. Took a couple. They’re here, if you need some,” she said, shaking the bottle at him.

She felt calm. Weirdly calm. But her brain hadn’t processed everything that had happened yet and right now…it was enough that she was alive. And Cole was alive. Cole, the man she’d just swore never to see again.

He reached out, gripped her hip, and squeezed. He was there. She could feel his strong touch and it made her heart beat faster.

“Tali, there’s a salve in that drawer over there. Top shelf, on the right. Get it out, will you? Put it on the bites. It’ll help.”

She nodded, and came back with a round tin a moment later. Sitting on the edge of his bed and unscrewing the lid, she wrinkled her nose in disgust. “This smells like death.”

“I know,” he said, taking it from her. “But it’ll help you heal. You’ll still need to get to a doctor, obviously, and get on antibiotics right away. But this will help.” He took her leg in his hands, pulling it toward him.

Slowly he unwrapped the bandages and she heard him suck in his breath at the sight of her mangled calf. She hadn’t been able to look at it, and she couldn’t now, but the expression on his face was enough cause for concern.

“That bad, huh?” she asked, trying to sound jokey, but failing.

He turned away suddenly. “God, Tali. I almost lost you,” he said croakily.

“It’s all right,” she said, pulling his face back toward her, gazing into those blue eyes she could drown in. “I’m all right.”

He nodded and started to work the salve into her wounds. She hissed at the touch, but she tried to ignore the searing pain, tried to remind herself that it was good for her.

“How’s the rest of you?” he asked. “Do you have any more?”

“I think...maybe a couple around my arm and shoulder. Not nearly as bad as the leg. My jacket protected me, mostly.”

He smiled at that. “Good. Thank God you’re such a wimp about the cold and wear a jacket that’s thicker than musk ox skin.”

“Hey,” she said, swatting him on his shoulder that wasn’t injured.

“Still. You’d better let me take a look. Take this off?” he asked quietly, tugging at her long-sleeved shirt but not making any actual moves to remove it.

She nodded and shrugged out of it, now in just a clinging white camisole and her panties.

“Come here,” he said, brushing her hair aside so he could access her arm and shoulder. She felt his hands work her, rubbing the salve over her wounds as gently as he could.

“That was so fucking scary, Cole,” she said, biting her lip. “What the hell was that? Do you think they were….rabid or something? Because then I’d better go…go figure out shots or—”

“No, definitely not. I’d have been able to smell it on—” He stopped, but it was too late. She turned to him and she felt the unspoken words between them lump in her throat.

“Yeah. About that,” she said, ogling him. “What the hell? What the hell?”

He sighed. “I don’t even know where to start.”

She shook her head. “Let’s start simple. Was it some sort of trauma-induced brain meltdown, or did you really turn from a man into a grizzly bear and back again?”

He held her gaze and nodded. “The latter.”

She buried her face in her hands, drawing her bare knees up toward her chin and slumping against them. “I repeat. What the hell?”

He sounded resigned when he spoke again. “I…I’m what’s known as a shifter. I have been, all my life. Everything that happened before I arrived in this town, and everything that came after...they’ve all been tied to that. It’s why— It’s part of the reason why,” he corrected, “I had such a hard time letting you in. Giving you anything. How would one even begin to go about explaining this? But it’s true.”

She just stared at him, wanting to hear more, feeling baffled and captivated all at once.

“I was born to a clan of people like me, who live in the wilds around here. I spent my whole childhood there, raised by an aunt after my parents passed. When I was about eleven, our Alpha, Bannon, died too. It was a hard time for our clan. We’d lost many of our strongest members to a variety of things.

“There are Hunters out there...people whose lives revolve around killing anyone like us. Then there’s disease, territorial disputes, a slew of other dangers. Bannon and his two eldest sons were all lost within a few years of each other. His next oldest was not old enough, by the laws of our clan, to take his place as Alpha. While we waited for him to go through the Rites...some other bears roamed in.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.

“They were led by Ronin, the largest bear any of us had ever seen. He came with his sons and several Betas who were fully grown. Bannon’s last living son was twenty, but clan law stated he could not take up his position for another year. Our elders were in discussion about whether circumstances might warrant a change to that but...it didn’t come to be,” he finished bitterly.

“Ronin became our Alpha instead. Many of us were unhappy about it, but most of our men were too old, too young, or too weak to make any kind of stand against him. Ronin himself was...harsh, but fair. He did not take kindly to dissent. He reveled in power, focused on ruling and siring cubs. It was his sons that were the real trouble. I was twelve when Ronin took over, and his sons were my age. Twelve, thirteen. They were vicious. Twisted. Brutal. They liked causing pain. They were liars, malicious. Utterly vile. But there was nothing to be done about it. Ronin let them run wild, content to bask on his throne, getting his claws into our women and enjoying his undisputed rule.”

He breathed in heavily.

Whatever he had to say, it was clearly weighing on him. She wondered if he’d ever told anyone about this before. The wounds seemed fresh; his hands were shaking, and he turned away from her. His eyes looked glassy.

A pang went through her chest. She slipped her hand in his. His hand was huge, calloused, but his fingers curled around hers.

“Cole,” she said quietly, and shifted closer to him. She pressed against him, her cheek resting against his, her other hand tangling up in his hair. “You can tell me, Cole. I’m here. You can tell me.”

He nodded, but otherwise did not move his position. He couldn’t seem to meet her eyes.

“The young of our clan were all afraid of them, but there was no refusing if they wanted you to be part of something. I tried to fight them more than once, but there were two of them, and no matter what Ronin always came down on their side. I told you I was raised by my aunt. I had a cousin too. Eyva. She was a year younger than me. One day she...went into the woods with them. She didn’t come back,” he choked. “They…they claimed that she fell.”

He pulled back from their cheek-to-cheek embrace then, looking at her with a furious expression. His dark brown eyes glowed gold in his anger.

“It was a lie. I knew it was. They liked causing pain,” he said. “Ronin refused to do anything about it. So I tried to do it myself. I fought them both at once. As hard as I could. I nearly killed Caid then, but the others heard the commotion and put a stop to it. The punishment for attacking his sons should have been death. Ronin wanted it. My aunt couldn’t bear the thought. She pleaded with his mate to sway him against it. Sheena was one of us, and perhaps the only one among us with any sort of hold over Ronin. She’d already birthed him a cub by then. She managed to persuade him to exile me instead. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay. I wanted to stay, and kill them both. But my aunt...she begged me. She couldn’t stand to lose both of us. So I left. I was sixteen.”

“Oh, Cole,” Tali said, tears stinging her eyes. “Oh, Cole. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

She reached forward again, pressing their bodies together, kissing his cheeks, his jaw, his mouth. A dozen fast, desperate kisses, and she could feel tears falling down her face—mixing with his tears.

His hands came up, tangling in her hair, keeping her close as she continued to press kisses to his face and neck. She ached for him, in her chest, in her body, and she wanted him to feel it. He held her so tight, she felt like he might break her, but then he nuzzled into her neck, breathing her in. He was so vulnerable now, and she felt her heart spill open.

After a few moments, she pulled back a bit, cupping his face. “Cole. The…the man you killed… was he one of them? The brothers, who hurt her?”

He nodded and she felt relief flow through her. So it hadn’t been for nothing.

“I spent the first six months after they exiled me in the wilds around town. Spent most of my time as a bear. It’s easier not to think as much when you do that. Easier to find food too,” he muttered. “But it was hard. I’d been so close with Eyva and my aunt. And others. I missed people. So I came into Newcomb as a man. You know this part pretty well. Did odd jobs. Lived in that boarding house. But a couple of years later, Sterling, the oldest brother, came into the Foxhole in his human form. I couldn’t believe it.”

He gritted his teeth.

“I didn’t do anything right away. I couldn’t. He knew that. He must have heard, somehow, that I’d come to live among humans, that I wouldn’t want to cause trouble among them. And I tried not to. I watched him and I seethed, but I didn’t do anything. He watched me back. But then I saw him...he started to chat up a couple of local women. He was handsome enough and looked older than he was. I could see they were taking his bait. I knew he’d hurt them. He’d proven already he had no qualms about hurting his own kind, and humans meant less than nothing to him.

“I tried to get him to leave. Tried to get him to fight me away from town, if that was what he was after. Didn’t work. We ended up fighting right there in the tavern, and I guess you know the rest. At least the fight had scared off the two girls he was with enough to make them leave. But I knew he had a room in town, and I knew he wouldn’t leave before he caused too much damage. I may not have grown close with anyone in this town by then, but the people here had been good to me. I had to protect them. So I did it. I went into his room, and I killed him. I don’t regret it,” he murmured quietly. “I had to, or he would have killed someone else, someone who had no part in any of it..”

Tali nodded and pressed her cheek against his. “I understand, Cole. I do.”

She pulled back and when her eyes met his, he breathed out a heavy sigh of relief.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t try to explain, Tali. Or at least...warn you. I know I should have. I kept telling myself I just wanted one more day before it all shattered, that beautiful thing we had. I wanted to have you keep looking at me with love in your eyes for just a little bit longer. I was scared. Scared of all that fear and disgust. I’m sorry. I know I should have done better for you. After all you’ve done for me, been for me. But I was scared to lose you.”

“I get it,” she said, kissing him softly on the mouth. “Yes, you could have handled it better.” She pulled back and raised her eyebrow at him. “But I do get it, Cole and...I had such a hard time even believing it, that you could ever hurt someone, when I—”

BANG!

They both jumped at the sound of the front door being flung open, and reverberating off the wall.

“Tali!” she heard a familiar voice call. Tali’s breath caught and panic flooded her chest. Hudson Quinlan continued to roar. “Where is she? Is she… Tali!”

“Fuck,” she swore under her breath.