Rancher Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Romance (Bear Haven Book 2) by Terry Bolryder Page B

she almost seemed to glow in her anger in the moonlight. “No one gets to own me. Not ever again!”
    “Bonnie, wait…” Jesse said, fighting his bear out of worry for her. “I—”
    “No,” she said, putting up a hand. “You claim me without me knowing, and then you ply me with gifts all day, thinking that will make it okay? Then you have the nerve to get mad at me for dealing with my ex in a way I thought would help us move on, even though you had no right?” She closed her eyes in pain. “I said I loved you. I didn’t say we were together. So I’m not yours.”
    “Yes you are,” he said, stepping forward. “Whether you like it or not.”
    She stamped on his foot, and he yelped in pain. “No, you don’t, you big beast. And you’d do well to stay out of my way while I’m here. We’re done.”
    Jesse felt horror shoot through him. The rational side of him warred with the wounded animal that just wanted to run around roaring its pain. He looked to his brother for help, but Shane just shook his head, as lost as Jesse.
    “What a mess,” Shane muttered, putting up a hand to stop Jesse as he moved to follow Bonnie. “Let her go for now. She needs to calm down. You both do.”
    Jesse made to follow her again, despite that, but Bonnie turned one last time and gave him the finger.
    “I’m done with you, and Seth, and every other man who thinks he can make decisions for me,” she spat, turning on her heel. “Maybe I’ll go to town, find someone who can treat me as an equal.”
    Fear shot through Jesse. He knew the men in town, and he didn’t want Bonnie anywhere near them. “Wait.”
    “No,” she said. “I’m done waiting. I’m going to live, dammit. Whether anyone wants me to or not.”
    He felt slightly proud of her, even as he felt like he was up to his neck in quicksand with no way out.
    Instead, he had to stand there and watch as his angry mate stomped her way back to the lodge and went in the front door and up the steps.
    Then a door slammed loudly.
    She was gone.
    He sank onto his knees, running his hands through his hair. Now that he was starting to calm, he could see it all more clearly. How ridiculous he’d been. The fact that Bonnie didn’t know they were mated because he hadn’t told her.
    The kiss still didn’t make sense, but he should have waited and asked, not listened to the animal inside him.
    Shane exhaled in disappointment. “I really don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing that she has such an effect on you. My calm little brother, going crazy over a she-cat.”
    Jesse’s eyes snapped to his. “What do you mean? How do you know?”
    “I guessed. She’s shifter and I can’t scent her. Only cats have that ability.”
    “Then how can I scent her?” Jesse asked.
    Shane shrugged. “That I don’t know. So what are you going to do?”
    “Go after her?” he said. “Stop her from going to town?”
    “You can try,” Shane said. “But she’ll just call you controlling. Might be best to just go keep an eye from a distance. Let her ask you for help if she wants it.”
    “Yeah, but how do I keep from killing someone?”
    Shane looked up at the lodge where Bonnie was coming out, arm in arm with someone else. “Well, luckily, looks like she’s not going alone.”
    Right, because she was going with Seth. To a bar, mostly likely.
    Jesse shoved his face into his hands, utterly lost.
    Before meeting her, things had been calm. Help with the ranch, run his restaurants. Now it felt like something traumatic every single day.
    Yet he wouldn’t change a single thing about it even if he could.
    “Look, I know she makes the bear in you wild,” Shane said. “And knowing how I feel about my mate, I know you’re going crazy inside. But you gotta calm down if you want to go after her. You gotta act like you don’t care. Which will be the hardest thing ever. But right now, the more you push, the more she’ll run. She’s been pushed around her whole life, if what I’ve heard