Billionbears' New Honey: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Mail-Order Bride Menage Romance by Anya Nowlan Page B

children fight amongst themselves, especially over a woman!
    Danni was just glad there was no family drama with Rush and Rhett. But she did find herself wondering what their family would be like – would they welcome her if things got serious? Would they be nice, or judgmental like her own mother? Danni hoped their mother would be like Mama Dean – warm, nurturing and a real spitfire!
    “Rush and Rhett Dean, eligible billionbear bachelors, duped by a devil woman! I can see the headlines now!” Mama Dean said woefully.
    That stopped Danni dead in her tracks.
    Rhett and Rush… Dean? Oh no…
    The color drained from her face and she saw a frown reflected on Mama Dean’s features as she glanced at Danni. Quickly, Danni set back to work on the hairdo, trying to hide her surprise.
    “I’m sure she didn’t mean to lead them on,” Danni said with a small voice, the words almost breaking in her throat.
    “Please! My boys are spittin’ images of each other! Twins! Sure, they look a bit different now, but still so obviously cut from the same honeycomb! It’s not possible that a girl wouldn’t recognize it! No, she has to be up to no good. I can feel it in my bones. Oh, why couldn’t they just go for a nice girl like you, Danni? Why does it always have to be the nasty ones that cling to my baby boys,” Mama Dean lamented on the verge of tears.
    Danni felt the same way, close to breaking down in sobs. All the happiness that had been bouncing around inside of her and making her bounce right along with it seemed to be sucked out of her, leaving only guilt and discomfort. She had never meant to hurt anyone. It was supposed to be fun and easy but now she was being shown what it looked like from the other side. She’d been dating both of them at the same time and while they were looking for a bride, she’d just been… having fun?
    Mama Dean thought she was the kind of girl Rhett and Rush should get together with, but at the same time she was the very same woman causing Mama Dean all her heartache.
    Danni wanted to kick herself.
    She finished up with Mama Dean, mostly nodding through the rest of their conversation and trying to engage as little as possible. When the matronly mother bear left, Danni locked the door behind her and slumped against it, sliding down onto the floor with her hands clenched around her.
    What have I done?! I didn’t want to hurt anyone… And now I’m breaking Mama Dean’s heart… Oh, Danni, you knew it was too early to go for anyone…
    She rested her head against her knees, keeping the sobs back. She was too confused to really think. All she knew was that she couldn’t see the Dean brothers again. Not if it meant hurting someone as badly as she’d been hurt just recently. It became clear as day to her again that fun with no strings attached couldn’t work – someone always got hurt.
     
    ***
     
    “I think you broke those two,” Cerise said matter-of-factly, sipping on her latte.
    Danni picked at the rhubarb pie listlessly. A little bit of her twinged at Cerise’s words – she didn’t need the confirmation. She knew she’d done wrong. Both in letting her relationships with Rhett and Rush go as far as they had, as well as ending them so abruptly. She’d sent Rhett a message over SassyDate that she couldn’t see him anymore and told Rush as much when he showed up at the salon the next day.
    Now, several days had passed and Danni was still feeling no better about the whole thing. She’d hoped that some wave of clarity would wash over her, making her feel good about letting the Dean boys go and not stringing them along anymore, but that satisfaction was nowhere to be found.
    “I think I broke me too,” she admitted.
    It sounded ridiculous, but that was how she felt. With Rhett and Rush, she’d felt so… whole, so right. Like all the good and bad decisions in her life had been leading up to her meeting them and getting to know them, and now that was all for naught and her future had