Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 81208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“We shouldn’t be eating breakfast with Goldie, though. At least not before we’ve made her ours.”
“Hunter,” Evan warns.
“Ignore my brother.” Robert turns off the stove.
“This is where you’ve ended up by ignoring me.” Hunter waves around the room. “You think that centuries of our family have survived by having breakfast dates? No. We meet our mate, and we claim her. That’s the way it’s always been.”
“Claim?”
“It’s okay, Goldie,” Evan says. “Hunter’s a traditionalist. He wants to live like our forefathers with no regard that we’re living in the twenty-first century and the world has moved on.”
“The outside world has moved on, Evan. But in this house and in our clan, things should stay as they’ve always been.”
“I won’t take a woman to my bed unless she wants to be there,” Evan says exasperatedly. “That might be your thing, but it isn’t mine.”
“You think Goldie wouldn’t want to be there? She practically threw herself at Robert.”
“But not at us. There are three of us, and we don’t get a hall pass just because our brother has.”
Hunter thumps the table with his fist, and the mugs rattle. “I’m a bear. I don’t need a fucking hall pass. I see my mate, I take my mate, and I claim her. That’s how it is. Why am I being forced to sit here and make small talk over porridge? I don’t fucking understand.”
Hunter’s eyes flash gold, and I push my chair away from the table. His gaze is wild and feral.
Is he going to turn into a bear now? Facing Robert’s changing arm was frightening enough. Coming so close to Hunter in his bear form would be terrifying.
Is he going to take me upstairs and force me to have sex with him? Is that what claiming is?
“It’s okay,” Robert says. He stands next to my chair and puts his hand on my shoulder. “No one’s claiming anything around here. Do you understand me?”
“No one made you the fucking boss,” Hunter growls. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this. It’s my birthright.”
“We’ve all been waiting a long time,” Evan says. “But that doesn’t mean we need to rush. Goldie deserves some time to get to know us, some time to adapt and accept. She has a choice.”
“NO,” Hunter growls, his eyes flashing like lightning. “She doesn’t have a choice. From the moment she was born on the bear moon, she was ours. Why are you pretending any differently?”
“Because you’re scaring the living daylights out of her,” Evan says. “Look.”
Hunter fixes his eyes on me, running them over my face and down to my hands, gripping the chair back. My knuckles are white, and my heart is beating hard enough to feel in my throat. Hunter’s expression doesn’t change, though. There’s no softening of his eyes or relaxation of his features. There’s no empathy for how I’m feeling at all.
“She has to accept that this is her destiny,” he says. “There’s no choice in this for any of us. I wish it were different, but it isn’t, and it can’t be. You’re just lying to her and setting up false expectations.”
I glance at Evan and Robert, searching for their reactions. Guilt is clear as day on their faces.
No choice.
Hunter has said it, and Robert and Evan have shown that they believe it to be true. They can pretend to take the softly-softly approach, but they agree it’s going to end the way Hunter says.
Born on a bear moon. I’ve never heard of it, but apparently, it’s going to have a fundamental impact on the rest of my life.
I’m not used to having no choice. I’ve lived my whole life on my terms. My parents wanted me to join the family business, but I followed my passion to set up my own. My father wanted me to marry his business partner’s son, whom I’d known all my life, but I moved out so that I could choose my own partner. I’ve battled hard to be my own person, and now these men are telling me it was all in vain.
Fuck that.
“Let me tell you something,” I say, pointing a finger at Hunter. “No one around here is claiming shit from me. What I’ve got to give is given on my own terms. Do you understand me?”
Hunter leans forward and is about to retaliate when Evan stands, his chair spinning backward noisily over the tiled floor. “Hunter. At this rate, you’re going to make Goldie hate you. Is that what you want?”
Hunter makes a grumbling sound in his throat, but he doesn’t reply. I guess Evan hit a nerve, and Hunter’s considering what it might be like to be the only brother who’s excluded.
That’s if he doesn’t decide to use his strength and determination to bend me to his will. I feel sick for getting turned on at the thought. My mind is telling me no, but my body has always had other ideas when it comes to dominant men.