Bears of Burden Complete Series Box Set

by Candace Ayers

  Martha glared at Wyatt over my head and then looked back at me. “I’m coming down with you two. Start down without me and I’ll catch up when I have my bag and clothes.”

  I didn’t look back at Wyatt. I just nodded and pulled my knapsack on with shaking hands. I was close to sobbing and throwing myself on the ground. The heartache I was drowning in was too much. Actual physical pain radiated from my chest and I rubbed at the spot.

  Sarah caught my hand and squeezed. “It’ll be okay.”

  I tried to smile but a tear fell instead. I helped her get her pack on and then we headed down the mountain, without looking back.

  “As much as I need this spa day, you need it just as bad. Have you seen your hair yet?”

  Maybe I would smack her after all.

  24

  Wyatt

  “We’re going to check the traps and see if we can’t catch some fish. You interested in coming?”

  I looked up at Bill, surprised to find the man standing in front of me. I hadn’t even heard him approach. “Nah. I’m good here.”

  He shook his head and chuckled. “Yeah, I can see that. When’s the last time you bathed, son? You smell like a wild animal.”

  I looked down at myself and shrugged. What the hell did it matter? “I’m good, Bill.”

  He clamped his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “Are you sure you want to be here instead of chasing that girl of yours?”

  I growled and he held up his hands. “Forget I said anything. We’ll be back at the campfire in a few hours, probably.”

  I watched him go and winced as my bear retreated farther into me. He was a moody sonofabitch. It’d been two days since we’d watched Georgia go and he was throwing a tantrum. He didn’t get it. She’d known about what I was. The worrying I’d done had been for nothing. She’d known and she was still okay with leaving me.

  I swore and stood up, ready to pace a canyon in the mountain. My bear wasn’t the only moody asshole. I felt like screaming at anyone who approached me. I’d lost any semblance of professionalism. When the men suggested we stay a day longer, I’d just nodded. It was better to be away from town, anyway. Away from prying eyes and Georgia’s scent. Away from anyone who could take one look at me and see what a sorry excuse I was.

  I sat back down and held my head in my hands. I went back and forth between feeling angry enough to chase Georgia down and shake her and feeling devastated enough to forget who I was and just cry. She’d knocked me on my ass. Not that she gave a shit.

  I kicked my pack away from me and groaned. I was going insane. My bear didn’t care about any of it. He just wanted to go to our mate. He wanted to grab her and scoop her up and do anything she wanted him to. He was a soft piece of fluff, that was for sure. He didn’t care about who was right and who was wrong. It was simpler than that for him. There was no gray. Just mate.

  For the millionth time, I wondered if she was already gone. Had she already left Burden? She’d probably run back to the city as soon as she could get a ride. I didn’t know how it felt for a human to walk away from her mate. Was she was hurting like I was, or did she just consider it another failed attempt at romance. Maybe she was fine.

  Deep down, I knew through the mate bond that connected us, she wasn’t fine. No matter how much I didn’t want it right now, the bond was there and I could feel a constant ache from her end. I hadn’t known that it was her pain and not my own at first. It was only when my own feelings swung towards anger and betrayal that I noticed that the pain stayed constant, like a mourning cry that never ceased. She was hurting. It never wavered. It never faded.

  The realization was enough to take me to my knees. My mate was hurting. But she wasn’t my mate. There’d been a mistake. At least that was what I told myself again and again.

  Then again, we’d bonded. I stood up and resumed my pacing. I knew the story about Thorn’s Mom. Her mate had abandoned her and she’d gone crazy. She had slowly withered away and eventually, it killed her. By the time she went, she was barely a human anymore. I wondered if that would happen to me. Was that what I had to look forward to? Losing my mind, and slowly dying? Mom would have to bury me. Would she survive the loss of her mate and her only son?

  The pain rippled through me until I shifted and sank down on all fours. My bear refused to run, refused to do anything. He just sat there, staring at the ground.

  “Good to see one side of you has sense enough to be depressed about this shit.”

  I shifted back as soon as I realized Thorn was standing a few yards away from me. Yet again, I hadn’t heard nor smelled anyone approach. I grabbed shorts from my bag and pulled them on. “What are you doing here?”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. “You look like shit.”

  I shrugged. “So I’m told. Shouldn’t you be at home enjoying your mate?”

  “You don’t get to sound bitter and jealous when you have a mate of your own who’s sitting in my kitchen crying her eyes out. You fucking dumbass. All that talk about wanting a mate and knowing that you’d accept her with open arms when she came along and then you pull this shit?”

  I hit my chest and stepped closer to him. “I did accept her! She didn’t accept me. She left!”

  He just rolled his eyes. “I never knew you were such a selfish fuck, Wyatt. I thought you were one of the only ones of us who didn’t have his head so far up his ass he couldn’t see the rest of the world. I was wrong. Here you sit, knowing your mate is in pain, and still you put your own shit above her. You let that woman leave and you’re as good as dead, man. You need her.”

  I rolled my eyes. “She doesn’t want to be here. She hated it. This is where I live. This is my life. She hates it, completely! She wants to be in the city. What can I do with that? Someone fucked up. The universe messed up when assigning mates. The two of us were never meant to be.”

  Thorn threw his hands the air. “I came to try to talk some sense into you, but clearly you’re beyond that. You’re stupid enough to claim she isn’t your real mate after you marked her. That’s beyond what I can help with. You’ve been my best friend for as long as I can remember, Wyatt, but this is the first time I’ve seen you act so cowardly. The woman tried to fit in with you. Yeah, she is a city girl, yet she tried to do this wilderness shit. What’d you try for her? Is she just supposed to change everything about herself to suit your needs, yet you get to just go on as usual, la-de-dah, ‘cause heaven forbid you make sacrifices for her? You don’t want a mate, you want a fucking ball of clay, ready to be molded to whatever it is you need.”

  I charged him before I knew what I was doing. My shoulder hit him square in the chest and we both went flying backwards. It’d been ages since we’d fought but neither of us took long remembering how to inflict pain on the other. It was only after I took an elbow to the head that I flopped back on my back and stared up at the bright sky.

  “I’m lost, man. We don’t fit. We couldn’t be more different.”

  He punched me once more in the side and then leaned against a tree trunk. “Maybe you need something different, man. You spend almost every waking hour on this mountain. You’re more bear than man. Maybe you need to be reminded that you’re not just some wild animal, living out on his own. Maybe, just maybe, you need to join the human race more. And if anything, that woman will make sure you live your life to the fullest.”

  I looked over at him and rubbed my hand down my face. “What’s she been doing?”

  He growled. “She’s gotten my mate shitfaced for the past two nights. They danced on my fucking bar. Hell, she had half the women in town dancing on my bar. She refuses to listen to the jukebox and plays hip hop. I’m losing my mind. When she isn’t drinking herself silly, she’s sobbing. In my house. With my mate. I haven’t gotten close to Allie in days. You need to get it together and come get your mate from my house. She’s driving me insane.”

  I closed my eyes against the wave of pain that hit me. “She has a tendency to do that to a man.”
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br />   25

  Georgia

  I tipped the bottle of champagne and looked around the salon. Every chair in the place was full and music was pumping through the speakers. Cups were emptying at a steady pace, and requests had quickly gone from simple blowouts and highlights to rainbow colors and wild haircuts. Inhibitions were gone. Brandi and Samantha had their hands full with over half the women in Burden wanting to branch out and get in touch with their wild sides.

  I’d needed to get out of Thorn’s house, so I’d organized a salon party. Crying on his couch was getting to both him and me, and Burden was sorely lacking in the party department, so I’d waged a party march on Brandi and Samantha. I’d needed to get my hair fixed anyway. I looked back at Brandi and smiled.

  “I’ve decided. Cut it to here and add some highlights. Why not?” I thought of Wyatt’s sun-kissed hair and hiccuped out a sob. “Forget the highlights.”

  Fortunately, she’d gotten used to my sudden outbursts of tears. “Honey, we don’t have to cut it so short. I can just trim off the burned bits.”

  I shook my head. “I want a change. It’s new and improved Georgia now. All-new, all-improved. Starting with the hair.”

  Sarah looked over at me. Another woman was brushing some sort of soothing avocado mask over her skin. Her eyes watered and she drained her cup. “We should open some sort of women’s-only salon bar. Just us, drinking, having fun, and getting beauty treatments. Maybe talking shit about the jackass men in our lives. This is good for us. Letting it all out.”

  I hadn’t even begun to let it all out. Not yet. I had stuff eating away at me that I was saving for the next guy who tried to play around with my heart. If there ever was a next guy. I couldn’t even imagine another man right now without my heart throbbing in agony. “I’ve figured it out. I’m going to be a lesbian from now on. Forget men. Forget Wyatt.”

  Cheers rose and then tapered off as they realized I was crying again. Allie came over from where she’d been getting a blue streak put into her hair.

  pea-brain. He can’t actually let you walk away. He marked you.”

  I waved my hand and settled back into my chair. “I don’t want to talk about him. I just want Brandi to cut my hair off and then we’ll all go to The Cave and drink some more and I’ll find myself a girlfriend to settle down with. No more letting my heart take walks on its own. My heart is grounded and that’s final.”

  She laughed. “Okay. We’ll do it your way for a little while longer.”

  We all continued to drink, continued to bitch about men, and continued to make rash decisions about our hairstyles. Much needed change was in the air.

  By the time we got to the bar that night, we were already drunk and feeling more than a little crazy. Abram, looked up at us from behind the bar with wide eyes and held up his hands.

  “Ladies, please, keep it together tonight, okay?” His eyes landed on me. “You have power, Georgia, and I’d appreciate if tonight you used it for good instead of evil for a change.”

  I laughed and hip bumped Allie. “Did you hear that? I have power.”

  She grinned at the older man and patted his cheek. “We’ll be good, Abram. I promise that no one will break anything tonight. Isn’t that right, Ronnie?”

  The quiet woman blushed and licked her lips. “It was an accident. I slipped off the edge of the bar. I had to catch myself on the light.”

  I threw my head back in a fit of giggles. She had really let loose. I was hoping she did again tonight. She deserved to have fun. “You did what you had to do, girl.”

  We got set up at a couple of tables in the back and the night went much like the past two nights had gone. Laughing and drinking and talking turned to dancing and more laughing. I knew I was avoiding an issue that I’d have to deal with eventually, but for one night, I wanted to feel okay.

  I slipped behind the bar and turned the country rock music off before replacing it with a dance mix. Some of the cowboys in the back grumbled until they noticed all the women swarming to the dance floor. Before too long, it was an all-out bash.

  I spotted Allie on the dance floor, and headed in her direction when a warm hand wrapped itself around my wrist. I stared in momentary confusion, before recognition set in. “Cowboy!”

  He pulled me into his body and hugged me. “Pretty lady. I was hoping I’d run into you tonight.”

  I hated the way my body cringed at his touch. He wasn’t the man my body craved, and the little bitch would accept no substitutes. I blew out a rough breath and ran a hand through my new chin length hair. “Here I am. What are you doing here?”

  He shrugged. “I had the night off and thought I’d drive down to see what was happening.”

  I nodded. “Well, it was good to see you. I’m having a girl’s night or I’d hang more.”

  He looked disappointed, but smiled. “I’ll be sticking around tonight. Find me.”

  I headed back to our empty table and sat down. The girls were all on the floor, dancing, but I suddenly didn’t feel like it. I felt more like crawling into bed and yanking the covers over my head. I’d been forcing everyone to party with me, trying to forget that I felt like there was a bottomless pit in my chest, but the tactic was losing its effectiveness.

  The system I’d been using since I was young had failed me. I hadn’t been able to keep Wyatt at arm’s length and instead I’d fallen hard for the man. Everything about me had changed in a matter of days. Apparently, the men in my life weren’t any different, though, because it had only taken Wyatt a couple of days to be finished with me.

  The thought gnawed at me until I couldn’t sit still. I got up and headed towards the exit. I needed fresh air and a break from myself.

  “Hey, you heading out?” The cowboy caught me again when I was a few steps from the door.

  “Just getting some air is all.” I had hoped to slip out alone, but damned if he didn’t follow me out. I stepped down from the porch and gazed up at the vibrant stars.

  “You okay?”

  I didn’t look back at him. “Yeah. Just thinking about how pretty it is around here.”

  “You thinking of staying?”

  I sighed while I pondered that. A part of me did want to stay. At least for a little while. I liked the women I’d met. I missed Allie when we didn’t live nearby. But, then there was Wyatt. I didn’t know if I could run into him and not die a little each time. “I don’t know.”

  He grabbed my hand and tugged me around to face him. He was too close. “Come here.”

  I pressed my hands against his chest and pushed away. “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Sure, it is.”

  I was just about to tell the guy, in no uncertain terms, to get lost when a vicious sounding roar echoed from behind us. I looked back and saw the massive sun-streaked bear coming our way.

  The cowboy broke away from me and backed up. “Run!”

  I couldn’t help but think that he had the right idea.

  26

  Wyatt

  I was going to kill the slimy asshole who’d touched my mate. I was going to rip his arms off and beat him to death with them. I charged towards him, happy he’d run. My bear loved a good chase. He’d tried to kiss Georgia, even though she’d been pushing him away. He was as good as dead.

  Georgia stepped into my path as I neared and I almost ran her over. When I snarled down at her angrily for getting in my way, I watched her eyes become saucers before rolling to the back of her head. Her mouth fell open and she toppled backwards, flat on her back.

  Fuck! The woman fainted more than anyone I ever met. I shifted and scooped her into my arms. “What am I going to do with you, sugar?”

  “You hurt her again and I’ll skin you alive, Wyatt Drexel.” Allie had come out and was glaring at me. “She’s good here. If you run her out of town, you’ll have every woman in Burden to answer to.”

  I rolled my eyes. “She’s not going anywhere.”

  Allie’s face lit up. “Good. Tell her th
at we gals voted her in as our official party planner. She can’t leave.”

  I didn’t care much for their parties and to hear Thorn tell it, he’d rather they didn’t exist. I nodded to Allie, though, and turned to head home with my mate.

  I heard Thorn lecturing Allie before I made it out of range. “You can’t just stand there and talk to a naked man like that. You’re mine. You’re not supposed to look at other men.”

  Allie laughed. “Calm down, you big ol’ bear. Seeing and looking are two different things. Let’s go inside and see if we can’t find an empty bathroom. Hows about that?”

  I held Georgia tighter to my chest and hurried home. I had a lot to say to her and I was betting that none of it was going to be easy. That was one thing I could bank on with my feisty little mate. Nothing about her was easy. Nothing would probably ever be easy.

  I made it to my house and toed open the door before kicking it shut and then settling on my couch with Georgia held tightly in my arms. “Wake up, sugar. We need to talk.”

  She moaned against my bare shoulder, sending tingles of pleasure coursing through me. “Wyatt.”

  I held her tighter and cursed myself for being a giant fucking blockhead. I’d gone to Mom’s house after leaving my group on the mountain in the capable hands of Bill. Martha was still visiting Mom, and the two of them supported Thorn’s argument, reiterating just how selfish I’d been.

  I knew I was wrong and I couldn’t imagine there being a worse thing to be wrong about. I’d hurt my mate.

  “Wyatt?” Georgia’s voice was confused and weak as she lifted her head. “Wyatt? Where are we?”

  I pressed my lips to her temple. “My house. You fainted so I brought you here. How do you feel?”

  She groaned. “Like I drank too much. Clearly, way too much. This dream feels entirely too real.”

  “Sugar, you’re not dreaming.” I stroked her hair. “I came to talk to you and saw that piece of shit trying to put his hands on you. I’m not finished with him yet either.”