Chapter 13
Briggs paused in the living room doorway. Cece sat on the couch, wrapped up in blankets and staring at her phone. She’d been avoiding him all morning, and his bear was growing more agitated by the hour. Before he could speak, she said, “I love you too, but being around me is dangerous right now.”
His bear surged forward immediately, and hot jealousy flooded through both of them.
Our mate loves another! This is all your fault. You made her cry.
Briggs winced as his bear’s roar vibrated through his skull.
It’s okay, buddy. Shh, it’s okay.
She loves another!
She’s not our mate. You only feel this way because of magic.
His bear’s roar was even louder this time, and Briggs gripped the door frame. Shit, that was the wrong thing to say.
A woman’s voice said, “Cece, you’re our best friend, and we hate that you’re alone.”
His bear relaxed, and Briggs couldn’t deny that he felt the same swooping relief. She was talking to a friend, not her mate.
“I’m okay, Kinsley,” Cece said.
“Bullshit, you are,” a second woman said. “We can tell you’ve been crying.”
Cece sighed as guilt rolled through Briggs. “Last night was just a bad night. But I promise I’m okay today.”
“Please let us come hang out with you for a little while.”
“It’s freezing in my house,” Cece said. “Trust me, you don’t want to visit.”
“Cecelia,” the second woman said, “we can layer. Please let us come over.”
“No,” Cece said. “I won’t put you at risk, so stop asking, Maisie.”
“I’m really mad at you,” Maisie said.
Cece smiled. “No, you love me.”
“We do, even if you suck right now,” Kinsley said.
Cece laughed, and the sound made his bear push forward, growling happily.
“I love you both very much,” Cece said. “You know that, right?”
“Yes,” Kinsley said.
“Did you convince your hot polar bear bodyguard to go to bone town with you yet?” Maisie asked.
“Oh my God, Maisie. No. I told you I can’t do that with him. Besides, he hates me,” Cece said.
His bear whined unhappily, and Briggs didn’t even have it in him to soothe the beast. Cece thought he hated her?
Can you blame her? You’re an asshole to her all the time.
He ignored his inner voice as Kinsley said, “Impossible. Everyone loves you, Cece.”
“Trust me, he can’t stand -” Cece’s eyes widened when she glanced toward the doorway and saw him. “I have to go, ladies. I love you.”
She ended the video call, clutching her phone and staring at him. “Were you spying on me?”
“No,” he said. “Are you ready to go grocery shopping?”
“I was thinking I could go by myself,” she said. “Give you a break from um… me.”
His bear whined again, the damn thing nearly pouting because Cece thought he hated her.
“You don’t have a car.”
“The grocery store is within walking distance,” she said.
“Are you forgetting what happened the last time you walked home from the grocery store?” he asked.
Her face went as white as his bear’s fur, and her lips pressed together in a thin line. He was upsetting her again, but Christ, she couldn’t possibly think he’d let her go anywhere alone, could she?
“My job is to keep you safe,” he said. “You don’t go anywhere without me.”
“Right,” she said. She threw back the blankets, revealing her flannel pajamas that he was starting to find weirdly sexy. “Give me fifteen minutes to get ready.”
He stepped back, giving her plenty of space to move past him. His bear huffed unhappily at the sadness he could smell on Cece.
She’s sad because of you. Fix this, his bear growled.
He waited until Cece was upstairs, and he heard her bedroom door shut. He pulled out his phone and hit Hudson’s number.
It only rang twice before Hudson answered. “Hey, Briggs. What’s up?”
Hoping like hell Hudson would agree to his plan, Briggs said, “Hey. Are you busy this afternoon?”
Cece stared out the window as Briggs drove toward the grocery store.
The silence was thick and awkward, and just like most of last night, she kept reliving their conversation at dinner.
The disgust and worse, disappointment, in Briggs’s face when he found out she wanted to go to Alaska to see polar bears was seared into her brain.
There’s nothing wrong with your plan.
Up until last night, she hadn’t thought so, but now she was questioning her motivations. Did it make her a bad person? She’d never even thought to consider a polar bear’s feelings before.
Girl, it’s a moot point. You have less than five hundred bucks in your chequing account and twenty-seven dollars in your savings account. You won’t be taking a trip to Alaska to see polar bears anytime soon. So stop obsessing over it.
Her inner voice made a good point. She would stop obsessing over it. It would be at least another two years, maybe more, before it was even a possibility.
Finally! She sees the light. Now, let’s talk about how awful you are for wanting Briggs to shift so that you can see a polar bear without spending a bunch of money on an Alaskan trip.
She groaned inwardly. She did not want to think about that at all.
It made her feel horribly selfish and like a terrible person.
Not only because Briggs saw through her so easily, but also because she would use him that way.
Between wanting to fuck him to strengthen her magic and now this, she was starting to wonder if she was even a good person at all.
You want to fuck him for other reasons, too.
That didn’t make her feel any better. Sure, she missed sex, and she’d been going through a dry spell in her dating life, but hoping that Briggs would be a better lay than her last dating app hookup, who’d squeezed her tits a couple of times, slobbered into her mouth, and then asked her to pee on him, was still just her being selfish.
You wouldn’t have to worry about your size when fucking him.
She wanted to believe it wouldn’t be a worry, but she knew herself too well to guarantee that.
She was more self-conscious about her weight than she liked, thanks to her last boyfriend.
Darren hadn’t seemed to care about her weight one way or the other when they first started dating, but not six months later, he was making snide comments about getting her a gym membership.
The night he acted as if she’d nearly killed him when she’d straddled him had effectively destroyed any feelings she had left for him.
And given her a new complex about being on top during sex.
She sighed inwardly, shifting in her seat and avoiding staring at Briggs, who, even driving the biggest truck she’d ever seen, was uncomfortably close. It would just be her luck that she’d brush up against him, and then they’d be arrested for public sex in a vehicle.
If she thought Briggs hated her now, being arrested for having sex with her would probably result in her seeing his polar bear up close and personal right before he tore her head off with his giant paw.
Her stomach clenched up tight. She’d already felt bad that her magic was the only reason Briggs was attracted to her, but realizing that he hated her made her feel a thousand times worse.
“I don’t hate you,” Briggs said.
She jerked wildly before staring at him. Holy shit, was she thinking out loud?
“What?”
“I don’t hate you,” he repeated, his ham-sized hands gripping the steering wheel, and his gaze fixed on the road ahead of them.
“You were spying on me,” she said.
“I overheard part of your conversation,” he said.
Just her luck, it would be the most embarrassing part.
“Anyway, I don’t hate you.”
“Right, of course you don’t,” she said as he pulled into the grocery store parking lot.
He parked and shut the truck off before turning toward her. “I overreacted last night, and I’m sorry.”
“Oh, um… okay, thank you.”
He just nodded before staring moodily out the windshield. Still feeling bad, she said, “I didn’t mean to offend you, and I’m sorry that I did.”
“Thanks,” he said.
“I thought about what you said, and I won’t go on that polar bear tour,” she said. She immediately felt good about her decision, even though it was the death of a decade-long dream, but Briggs had made some really good points last night, even if he was a little harsh in expressing them.
Still, she felt a deep sadness at losing her chance to see a polar bear in person, but she would mourn that loss when she was alone.
He sighed. “Look, go on the tour if you want. It isn’t any of my business, and I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“I’m good with my decision not to do it,” she said.
“I can smell your sadness,” he said.
“I’m sad because I miss my friends.”
His look clearly suggested he knew she wasn’t being entirely truthful, but screw him. She didn’t owe him an explanation for her sadness, and it wasn’t her fault his stupid shifter abilities gave him access to her every damn feeling.
“Fine, whatever,” he said. “I’m still not shifting for you.”
Her depression was chased away by annoyance. “You made that clear last night.”
She opened the door and climbed out, walking quickly across the parking lot, but Briggs caught up to her in seconds thanks to his stupid long legs.
“The odds of someone attacking you in the grocery store are slim,” he said, “but you stay by my side the entire time. If I tell you to get down or to get behind me, you do it immediately, no arguing. Are we clear?”
She nodded, and he scowled at her. “I’m serious, little witch.”
“I won’t leave your side or argue,” she said snottily.
He made a low growl that she ignored. Still annoyed, she grabbed a grocery cart and pushed it into the produce section. Her food budget was tight, and she had to be careful about what she bought. She hoped Briggs was good with cheap meals that relied more on beans for protein than meat.
She dropped some bananas into the cart and moved on to the apples. She was tired of eating the cheapest fruits and veggies, but if she ever wanted to get the damn furnace replaced, she needed to cut costs wherever possible.