Woodcutter Werebear (Saw Bears Book 2) Read Free

turned down the music and smiled. “You mean where do we live? I’m going to keep you safe, remember?”
    She cast her shocked gaze out the window to the blurred greens and muddy browns that passed by as Kellen hit the gas on a straightaway. “If my mate found out I was living with you—”
    “He’s not your mate, Beautiful. Best you stop calling him that.”
    “Do you think…” Skyler inhaled deeply and organized her thoughts, then tried again. “Do you think you’re my mate?”
    “No! Because again, you didn’t choose me. I’m not taking you away from that prick so you can be some sort of sex slave for me, Skyler. I’m taking you so you can get a break from your life and see there is more out there than some asshole with a temper problem. You gotta job?”
    “Not anymore.”
    “Let me guess. He doesn’t want you to work because he claims he wants to take care of you.”
    Bingo. Fuck, this strange-talking, sexy stranger was hitting the nail on the head at every turn. She narrowed her eyes at him. “How do you know so much about the psyche of a man like Roger?”
    “You don’t want to know.”
    “Yes, I do.”
    Kellen looked over at her once, twice, confusion pooling in the deep chocolate brown of his eyes. He cleared his throat, as if the thought of speaking about himself made him uncomfortable. “Roger doesn’t want you to work because he wants to keep you dependent. He cut off your money. The best remedy for that is to take your independence back.”
    “I don’t even know what job I would do.”
    “What did you do before Roger?”
    “Don’t laugh, but I was a skydiving instructor.”
    “Why would I laugh? That’s awesome.”
    She waited for him to take it back or tell her he really thought it was stupid that she’d take such a risk at her job, like Roger had done, but Kellen didn’t.
    Instead, he asked, “So, did you jump out of planes with your students?”
    “Sometimes I did, and sometimes I instructed them before they went up with other teachers. I was part of a team. I loved—” Her voice caught suddenly, and she swallowed her heartbreak down. “I loved flying,” she said on a breath.
    His startled eyes landed on her, then he directed his attention back to the road. “Did you have sex with him?”
    The question was so inappropriate and unexpected, she gasped. “Kellen, you shouldn’t ask things like that.”
    “We’re friends now, Skyler. I’m going to be your friend, and friends can talk about this stuff. Did you have sex?”
    A flash of red anger blasted through her, and she clenched the strap of her purse to keep from verbally reaming him. “Not that it’s any of your business, but no. I’ve been putting him off. I told him I didn’t want to until the ceremony. That’s why… Fuck.”
    “That’s why he pushed you?”
    She didn’t answer. Couldn’t. Shame heated her cheeks as she remembered how hard he’d tried to get her to sleep with him before she’d screamed at him. That’s what got her the black eye. She had dared to tell him no, and she’d gone farther and yelled at him as she denied him. Men like Roger didn’t take rejection well.
    “No ceremony. No sex. No mark. No mate. You’re a free woman, Skyler. You can pick whoever you want. You can sleep with whoever you want. You can work wherever you want.”
    “Kellen,” she whispered, heart in her throat. “You make it sound so simple, but it isn’t for me.”
    “Tell me the consequences of not being with that man. Make me understand.”
    “I’ll be banished from my people. They won’t offer me protection, and I’ll be alone. It’s dangerous for people like me. We survive best in pairs and groups.”
    “Why is it dangerous?”
    “Humans finding out what I am, for one. And two, my people are at war. They always have been, I guess. If I don’t have the protection of my people, I’ll be picked off by our enemies. They’ll spit on my carcass and never think twice about my death.”
    “That