Her eyes widened, his words lost on her as the bear behind him did the damnedest thing.
It rose onto its hind legs and transformed into a man.
A man!
A very naked man.
The huge brute stood even taller than the black-haired one, had glacial blue eyes that held no trace of emotion as he stared at her. The scar she had seen on the bear was there on him too, darting from his left temple up to the crown of his head, and there was a notch missing from his ear on that side. He looked like a fighter, was bigger than the other man, his muscles heavy and hard, making him look as if he would have enough power in one punch to knock a man out.
Or kill him.
Skye looked from him to the kitchen counter, to the half-empty bottle of whiskey that stood off to one side, close to the left wall.
She was either dreaming or really drunk. But she swore she hadn’t touched a drop since the night they had arrived. Maybe it was the shock of everything making her see things.
“Fuck,” Knox muttered and then glared over his shoulder at the two men. His jaw flexed and he gritted, “You two get to clean this mess up while I clean up your damned mess.”
What did he mean by that? What mess had the men made? Her eyes slowly widened further as Knox pulled her onto her feet, as he helped her to the front door, shielding her gaze with his hand. Stopping her from looking at the bodies that littered the lodge.
Was he talking about Cooper? The man—bear—whatever he was had killed him, making a mess.
Or was he talking about the fact that same man—bear—whatever he was had transformed before her eyes?
Oh God.
She looked at Knox as they stepped out into the chilly air, a thought hitting her hard. The idea that had pinged into her head only grew clearer, gripped her more fiercely and made her want to put a voice behind the crazy notion, when the two men in the lodge behind her spoke to each other.
And one of them muttered, “How was I supposed to know Knox had a human with him?”
A human.
“Either I’m going crazy… or you can all…” She didn’t want to say it. She wanted to just pretend none of this had happened. She wanted to go on with her life as it had been. Only she couldn’t. There was no burying her head in the sand and forgetting what had happened and the things she had seen. She needed to know. “You can all turn into… bears?”
Something else hit her as Knox’s face crumpled and he reached for her and then dropped his hand to his side and stepped back from her, a hurt look entering his eyes. That same look he’d had just minutes ago, when she had thought he was going to dump her.
“This is the reason you left that night.” She closed the gap between them, unwilling to let him place any distance between them again, whether it was physically or emotionally. They had brought down their walls, shed their armour over the past few days and she was not going back to a hollow life without him. She wasn’t going to let him give up on them. She wasn’t going to run, even when he clearly expected her to, had braced himself for just that several times since that bear had barged into the lodge. She lunged for him and seized his hand, some desperate part of her pushing her to hold on to him, to make him see that she wouldn’t let him go. She couldn’t. She needed to know the truth though, sought it in his eyes. “This is why you left me, isn’t it? Because you’re like that man… those men… you can turn into a bear.”
His throat worked on a hard swallow and she cursed the bleak look that entered his eyes, one that left her cold inside and had her feeling he was drawing away from her, desperately bringing up barriers to protect his heart.
Because he was convinced this was it for them.
Well, he was wrong about that.
He hadn’t taken the time two years ago to find out whether she could live with the truth about him. He had convinced himself that she couldn’t. He had given up before he had even tried. And that look in his eyes told her that he had spent every day of those two years building on that foundation, constructing and cementing his belief that this thing between them could never work.
He was wrong about that too.
“Prove it.” She released his wrist and stepped back to give him room.
His blue gaze darted between hers and she knew what he wanted to ask her. He wanted to ask her not to do this, because he was scared. He was soul-deep terrified that she would run from him the second she saw him as a bear. He had feared that for two years.
Now, she was going to prove to him that he was wrong about her. Fear had made him weak. It had coloured his judgement and had made him ruin something that could have been amazing, tearing it all down before it had even got started.
When she realised he wasn’t going to do it, she squared up to him again.
Looked him deep in the eye.
“You told me that we don’t belong together even if the universe said we do.” She searched his eyes, catching the barest hint of hope in them. Her brow furrowed and she reached her hands up, framed his face with her palms and kept his gaze on her. “Do you remember what I said?”
He nodded. Swallowed again.
But just as he had that night, he didn’t say a word.
“I’m getting a say in this Knox, whether you like it or not… because this… this second chance we’ve been given… this is the universe telling us that we belong together. You can be scared. I am too… but I’m not the sort of woman who gives up when things get a little scary. When shit gets real, Skye Callaghan doesn’t run, Knox. She fights.” She brushed her thumbs across his cheeks and sighed. “When shit gets real for you, Knox Grayson… You’re a fighter too.”
She dropped her hand to his chest, placing it over his heart.
“I know you, Knox, better than you think I do. I know that deep in here, you want to fight. You want this as much as I do. I’m not running. Am I?” She smiled for him. “You expected me to run and I haven’t. I won’t. But I need to see the truth about you, Knox. I need to see it with my own eyes.”
His face twisted and he looked away from her. He blew out his breath and his shoulders sagged, all the tension draining from him as he closed his eyes.
Nodded.
He stepped back from her and stripped his shirt off, followed by his black pants, stood before her naked and very distracting, and sighed again. The look he gave her offered her one last chance, an out she could take if she wanted it.
She gave him one in return. A look that demanded he get on with it.
Her mind struggled to compute what she was seeing as fur swept over his body, as it morphed into that of a bear, the whole process happening in only a few seconds. She stared at the big grizzly before her, and as the initial shock of seeing him transform from Knox into a bear slowly subsided, she realised something.
“You’re the bear from the woods.” She stared into his eyes, recalling how those same dark eyes had locked with hers that night. “You’re the one who killed Patrick and then charged towards me. At the time I thought I was going crazy, because you looked so desperate to reach me.”
Before she could find the courage to run her fingers through his fur, he shifted back, becoming Knox again. A terribly naked and tempting Knox.
“I was desperate,” he whispered and reached for her, touched her cheek again and lowered his hand to her neck. He slid it around her nape and held it as he stared deep into her eyes and husked, “I was so scared you were going to get hurt. I wanted to get you out of there and I couldn’t stop myself… When I’m in my animal form, instinct can take over, the logical human mind falling away as the animal one takes control. I couldn’t stop myself from trying to reach you.”