Return To The Bear by T.S. Joyce Page B

washed her hair in the sink to avoid wetting her bandages, Brody had left the room. She stared at the door, waiting, until almost three in the morning, but it seemed he’d begged a bed from one of his friends.
    He was completely unreadable. She clung to the memory of him kissing her near the pond, of him claiming her for both alphas to see, of the concern in his eyes when he’d told her to run and protect Hannah. That man clashed with the cold and distant man who had dined with her tonight. The one who let his bear rule completely. Why would he allow that? She was just a person, not someone to get defensive around, but he’d been more ready to fight in the safety of the hotel room than earlier with Nathan. Why? What was it about her that made him shut down?
    Imagined shortcomings rattled around in her head until she fell into a fitful sleep in the early hours of the morning. A knock on the door early the next morning woke her. She held her hand up against the dim sunrise and tumbled from bed, careful of her new injuries. If she was lucky, they’d be well on their way to healing by tomorrow. But for today, she felt like road kill.
    She’d washed out her jean shorts last night, but the rusty colored blood stains were now a permanent fixture. No help for it, she pulled them on. Her sleeping shirt mostly covered the unsettling pattern anyway.
    When she opened the door, Hannah stood outside with a bag of some sort of fragrant rolls that smelled like sausage. “I brought Kolaches and orange juice. Were you still sleeping? It’s nearly eight.”
    “I didn’t sleep much last night.”
    “Oh, I get it, winky winky. Brody is dominant so he’ll need a lot…of…” Scanning the room, she asked, “Where is Brody?”
    Joanna shrugged miserably and sank into t he chair she’d sat in when she had dinner with a freaking grizzly bear instead of a man. “He left while I was washing up last night and never came back. I think he’s mad at me.”
    Hannah sat across the table and the paper bag crackled as she pulled two sausage rolls free. “Well, he’ll get over it. Pairings are hard and you two didn’t know each other beforehand. You’ll just have to work out the kinks as you go.”
    “It feels like more than that. He was half changed from the moment I woke up until he left.”
    A single clucking sound came from behind Hannah’s teeth as she pushed a napkin with breakfast toward her. “Ridiculous man.” Her face looked better this morning. Less swollen, though it had taken on a purple tinge around her left eye.
    “Why did Dunn hit you?”
    “Was Dunn my guard?”
    She nodded and bit into the juicy roll. Around the bite, she said, “Yeah, he’s a dick for sure, but I’ve never seen him beat on a woman.”
    “I kneed him in the groin. Twice.”
    Joanna choked on her meal, washed it down with orange juice and laughed. It felt good to smile. She finished off the rest of her food and leaned back, then pulled the oversized shirt she’d slept in above her bandages to check that they weren’t oozing. Still white and pristine. Whoever the Daria woman was who took care of her injuries, she was a miracle worker. “Where’s Benson?”
    “It sounds so strange when you call him that.”
    “Should I call him alpha? Nathan likes for people to address him as alpha.”
    Hannah pulled a face and swallowed her last bite. “Nathan sounds like a douche wagon. No, I call him Riker. In fact, most of his close friends call him by his last name.”
    Joanna didn’t point out that she didn’t exactly fall into that category, and from the waves of anger that had rolled off his skin in the truck yesterday, she probably never would.
    “I have to tell you something,” Hannah said, ripping up the corner of her napkin, “and it might upset you.”
    “Tell me.”
    Wetting her lips with the tip of her tongue, Hannah glanced up. Trouble swam in the green pools of her eyes. “Some of your people died yesterday.”
    “They weren’t my