RANCHER BEAR’S BABY(51)

I withheld judgment because of the pain etched across his face. He brushed Mason’s hair off of his forehead and his frown grew even more severe.

“I went looking for her, in hopes of finding a child who could be my ticket to a huge inheritance. I know now how misguided I was. I honestly didn’t have a clue until I saw him. I realize now that everything I was doing was for the wrong reasons.” He met my eyes. “I’m going to make it up to him. I’m going to be the best father a little boy-cub could ever dream of. It’s different now. I’m different. When I saw him, I didn’t think about the ranch. I just saw this little bear who smelled like me and who made my heart feel like my body was too small for it.

“And then there was you. As soon as I saw you, Sammie, I knew I’d been stupid to ever wonder if Mallory could’ve been my mate. As though I could come face to face with my mate and not be a hundred percent certain. But, hell, I didn’t know what it actually felt like to meet a mate. That there’s no way I could be anywhere near her and not notice, because the feeling would be so indescribably all-consuming. That every part of my mind, body, and heart would buzz with hyper awareness. That I would want to be near her every second of every day. That I would have a constant and overwhelming need to possess her completely. That I would think of nothing but claiming her so I could shout it to the world, tell everyone, that this amazing woman is mine. I didn’t know. Until I saw you”

I sucked in a breath. As much as I wanted to hear what he was saying, I didn’t. I had to leave. I couldn’t stay. I had to make sure Mason was safe and go back to work.

“I know that the feelings are slower for you, probably. I just wanted you to know.”

I looked at him with tears in my eyes. “I have to leave, Lucas.”

Panic filled his face. “Why?”

“I have a job, a life, outside of this. I have an apartment in Cheyenne. I have family that I haven’t seen in months. I have to make sure the man who did that to Aaron and Mallory pays for it.”

“You don’t want to stay with us?”

My heart felt like shattering glass. “I have to go. Tomorrow. I have to.”

He looked like he wanted to argue, but I turned away and faced the wall. Mason rolled over and I got a knee in the back, but I ignored it. I couldn’t help the tears that fell from my eyes. I knew Lucas could tell I was crying, but I couldn’t help it.

He rested an arm on my hip and left it there even after I’d stopped crying and as I fell asleep.



I left the next morning after quietly kissing a sleeping Mason on the forehead. He was warming to his family so well and so quickly that I wasn’t worried about him being okay. He’d probably need therapy after what he’d endured, but he was going to be okay. He had a top-notch support system. I left him in bed with Lucas and crept out of the house. I was on the road back to Cheyenne before the sun had come up over the mountains.



I walked around in a daze the first day. With the exception of the calls I made to my boss, letting him know I was back in town, and to the pizza shop closest to my apartment, I couldn’t stop the tears. My emotions were a mess. I had cried more in the last two days than I had in the previous five years.

I knew that what I had done was necessary. I had a meeting with my boss bright and early first thing the next morning and we were going to go over what to do about the man who’d killed Aaron and Mallory. I had to get it together and make sure that their killer wasn’t running free. I had to. Mason deserved as much from me.

Sleep didn’t come easily. I would eventually doze for a while only to be awakened with dreams of Lucas and Mason fresh on my mind. My heart ached. I desperately wanted to go back to them and pretend like nothing was happening outside of Long Ranch. I was a U.S. Marshal, though. I had a job to do.

The meeting with my boss went like shit. He saw right through the concealer I’d layered over my under-eye bags, and my bloodshot eyes. If that wasn’t bad enough, when he told me there was nothing we could do about Wesley Butler, I’d lost my cool. Unless Mason had witnessed it and could actually point Wesley out in a line up, saying that Wesley was the man who’d killed his mother, there was nothing we could do. Our jobs were done with him. The case would go back to the FBI who would try to catch him at something else. Without witnesses, we didn’t have a case, and now that Mallory and her boyfriend were dead, the original case we’d had against him was thrown out.

It wasn’t pretty, but yes, I had a serious freak out. After seeing how unhinged I became about the case, my boss refused to let me come back to work until I’d been cleared by a psychologist. It pissed me off because I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that if I had to stay at home all day long with just my sadness and heartbreak over leaving Lucas and Mason, then my freak out today was nothing. I was going to absolutely lose it. I was also furious. Wesley Butler got off scott-free.