“If you were a shifter, you’d be a leopard.” He traced another shape into her freckled skin.
“Or perhaps a cheetah,” she said, her full, petal-pink lips spreading in a happy smile. “Not a scary bear.”
“Never a bear,” he agreed, his mind skittering away from the thought of her with silver eyes.
“Never?”
Gooseflesh rippled across her back and arms, so he pulled the blanket firmly over her to keep in the warmth. The snow had stopped, but the sun had gone down and taken its warmth with it.
“I let Tessa Turn me, and it has been my biggest regret. I had to hide what I was from the people I loved the most.”
“Your family?”
He nodded. “My mom called me the day I registered with the Gray Backs. One of her friends had told her that her youngest son was a bear shifter. She should’ve heard it from me.”
“Was she upset?” Georgia asked, her strange-colored blue and gold eyes filling with sympathy.
“She cried on the phone for a long time. It was after Tessa had left me—after she died. Mom guessed what had happened right away and knew it was Tessa who Turned me. I’d written all these letters, hell bent on sending them to her and Dad someday because I was too chicken shit to admit out loud I’d given up being human for a woman like Tessa. I felt weak. Ashamed. They’d set this incredible example of a loving, healthy relationship, and I’d ignored all of that when I chose someone like Tessa.”
Jason pressed his lips against her shoulder. Georgia’s skin was soft as silk, so he let them linger there before he said, “I want to take you to my hometown for the holidays. We have a while yet, but I want my family to meet you. They’ll love you.”
“Jason?”
“Yeah,” he murmured, brushing a strand of that long, curly hair away from her heart-shaped cheeks that had gone rosy as the night had worn on.
“What if someday I asked you to Turn me?”
“I won’t.”
“But what if it’s what I wanted? What if I wanted your claiming mark?”
Jason sighed and lay down beside her. When she was nestled against his arm, he stared up at the cedar rafters above them. “I want to give you everything you want, Georgia. I want you to be happy. I want to be the one who makes you smile the most, but a bear isn’t something I can give you. Everything started going wrong when Tessa marked me. I don’t want you trapped in the same life.”
Georgia kissed his chest and snuggled closer to him, quiet and thoughtful now. Minutes passed before he realized her breathing had changed. It had deepened to the slow and steady rhythm of sleep. He pulled his eyes away from the rafters to look at her face. A tear track was still damp on her nose, and a tiny drop of moisture sat on his arm.
He brushed her heartache away and sucked it from his thumb to taste her tear. He deserved the pain it caused him, but he wouldn’t take his denial back.
He wouldn’t curse her like Tessa had done to him.
That’s not how love worked.
Chapter Nine
Jason followed Georgia’s laughter. It tinkled like a bell, echoing off the dilapidated wooden walls. Gray and splintered, the stairwell didn’t put him off—not if Georgia was laughing. If she was happy, everything was okay.
He raced up to the next landing and caught his first glimpse of her. Just a twitch of her hair as she disappeared to the next set of stairs. Damn, she was fast.
“Catch me if you can,” she sang.
Breathing hard, he leaned over the railing and looked up. The tower they were in seemed to stretch on forever. He frowned, but Georgia giggled again, and the sound warmed his heart.
She peeked her head out, waiting for him around the next corner, and just as he caught up to her, she took off again. He was tired and slow. Where had his shifter speed gone?
He climbed and climbed, always missing Georgia by inches. He just wanted to hold her and feel her laughter vibrating against his chest.
She skidded to a stop at the top landing. A wall had been cut out and a jagged walkway led to nothing. Beside the hole in the wall sat an ax, silver and shiny, sharp blade gleaming in the muted light.
Georgia turned, her eyes scared. She wore a white dress that whipped around her legs as she backed onto the platform.
“Georgia, don’t!”
She took another step back, and the fear in her eyes made way for sadness. “I trust you,” she whispered.
He lurched forward as she fell off the edge. Skidding on his stomach, he reached for her hand but only brushed her fingertips. “No!” he screamed as she fell down to oblivion.
And just before she disappeared, she opened her mouth and screamed as her skin melted away from her face and her bones turned to ash.