Brew Bear (Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance) (Rescue Bears Book 4) by Scarlett Grove Page A

Bock.
    She couldn’t decide. Just like everything else in her life, the decision seemed like too much for her to do alone. She wanted Drew’s input. She wanted to know that he would give his name to the child. As she lay there, she realized that she wanted Drew to give her child more than just his name. She wanted him to give the child himself. She wanted Drew to give himself to her as well.
    The realization welled up inside her and filtered out through her heart, filling every fiber of her being with awareness. Knowing that she had destroyed the chance of having him in her life cut her like a razor that sliced little nicks into her skin. It stung painfully. She curled up into the fetal position and began to sob quietly. A moment later, she heard her phone ping from the living room.
    After pulling herself out of the bed, Quinn shuffled through the house and picked up her cellphone to read the text message on her screen. It was from Drew.
    “Are you all right?”
    She sighed deeply, wondering how to respond. How could she tell him that she was not all right. She was in excruciating pain knowing that they could never be together again. Her own pain filled her with regret, and the pain she felt through their mate bond made it even worse. If only they could somehow come together and find a way through all this mess, maybe things could be better for both of them.
    Quinn stood there staring at the cellphone for long moments, considering what to say. She couldn’t tell him what she really felt, even though she knew he must feel it too. They both seemed to be in some kind of unspoken agreement that they wouldn’t address their true feelings for each other. Quinn realized that this agreement was somewhat insane and would end up driving them both crazy in the end.
    She sat down on the futon and clicked away from Drew’s text message. She couldn’t deal with him right now, not even to tell him that she was okay. She needed to talk to someone else, someone she wasn’t in a totally fucked up mate bond with. She needed to talk to someone who could be somewhat impartial to the whole mess.
    Her best friend Juliet was living on the mountain. As crappy as Quinn felt about running out on Juliet, it couldn’t even begin to compare with how crappy she felt about running out on Drew. If she could just talk to Juliet and explain to her, Quinn believed that Juliet would eventually forgive her. The two of them were both pregnant at the same time, and Quinn’s heart ached to share the experience with her friend.
    From memory, Quinn typed in Juliet’s phone number and sent her a text message.
    “Hi. This is Quinn. I want to talk to you.”
    Quinn hit send, not knowing what else to say. She put the cellphone down on the coffee table and walked into the kitchen to pour herself a cup of coffee. She was only drinking half-caff since she was pregnant. But she hadn’t been able to kick her coffee habit altogether. She’d heard that a little bit of coffee wasn’t all that bad for the baby anyway. And with everything going on in her life, she needed that special comfort that only came from a rich brew first thing in the morning.
    She sipped her coffee with sugar and cream just as her phone pinged in the living room. She went back to pick up the phone and saw that Juliet had sent her a reply already.
    “I’ll be right over. Don’t argue.”
    Well. That was that then. Quinn didn’t even bother responding. Juliet might be a sweetheart, but when she got an idea in her head, she didn’t back down, especially when it came to her friends. Among their group of women, Juliet had always been the diplomat. She had always been the girl you could go to when you had a personal problem or you needed a shoulder to cry on. Quinn had counted on Juliet for that more than once.
    She sat down to finish her coffee and wait for Juliet, a feeling of relief washing over her. She didn’t realize until just then how very much she missed her. They’d been best