Savior Bear (Bear Creek Protectors Book 5) Read online

  “No, you are not.” He caught hold of her robe and pulled her toward him, slipping his hands beneath the fluffy pink fabric. “You are your own woman and I’m proud of you. You could have taken the easy route and tried to win your mother’s affection.”

  “I could. But who wants easy when they can have messy and complicated?” She shivered as he stroked her soft skin. “That’s what I like about our relationship. There is nothing messy and complicated about it. You are bonded to me, you’ll never run off with another woman or have some secret second life. And I feel the same. Out of all the people in the world, we’re pretty perfect for each other.”

  “Absolutely perfect,” he murmured as he nuzzled her neck, his hands cupping her breasts, while his thumb rubbed her taut nipples.

  “Which is why you know that when I do this…” She placed her hands on his wrists and slid backward, breaking the contact between them. “It’s not because I am not insanely turned on and would love nothing better than to go back to bed with you. It’s because my mom is going to be here in less than half an hour and I need to dress.”

  “Insanely turned on.” He nodded as she left the kitchen. “I will hold that thought all day and make love to you all night.”

  Unless Mrs. Singer allowed him to view the video footage of the explosion and he found out Colm was possibly still alive. Then he might have to put his relationship with his mate on hold, while he went on a rescue mission into enemy territory.

  Chapter Nineteen – Madison

  “Why do I always feel so nervous when I meet my mom?” Madison asked Rob.

  “Because despite what you said about being your own woman, you still want to please her and have her approve of you.” Rob’s eyes widened as she rolled her eyes at him.

  “That was a rhetorical question.”

  “I stand by my answer. It’s natural for you to want to make her proud and have her approve of the life you’ve chosen. Almost every child on the planet would say the same. If they were brave enough to admit the truth.” Rob had reached right inside her head and pulled out her true feelings toward her mom. No matter how many times she professed it didn’t matter that her mom didn’t approve of the life she’d chosen, deep down that was a lie.

  She wanted her mom to look at her just once and see the woman Madison was and be proud.

  “And before you ask, you look incredible.” Rob’s opinion mattered to Madison, even if she knew it was completely biased. A thing she was going to have some fun with.

  “You’re only saying that because you can’t hurt me,” Madison complained in a whiny voice. “I need a real opinion.” She reached for her phone and snapped a selfie. “I’ll ask Maurice.”

  “So Maurice’s opinion means more than mine?” Rob asked, catching on to her playfulness. “Should I be jealous?”

  “Perhaps. Maurice is a man of many talents. He has an expert eye and attention to detail.” She tapped the screen and sent the image of her outfit to Maurice. “His opinion is the one I seek.”

  “In everything?” Rob asked, stealing her phone and holding it up so he could take a selfie of his own. With his lips in a pout, and one eyebrow arched, he snapped an image of himself. “Maybe you should send this to Maurice and see if he approves.”

  Madison tried to get the phone back, but Rob danced around the room, keeping it out of her reach. “Give me back my phone.” She reached higher for it, her hands on his broad chest. If only she had time to rip his shirt from his body and make love to him before her mom arrived, it would be a good way to distract her brain.

  Which was what Rob was doing. Her love for him grew as he dodged out of the way, snapping pouting images of himself as he moved around her apartment.

  “Oh, we have a reply about your outfit,” Rob announced and tapped the screen.

  “Do not read my messages,” she warned.

  “Too late.” He tapped the screen again. “You look gorgeous, daaarrling. And glowing. As if you spent the night in the bed of a man who knows how to worship your body.”

  “He did not!” Madison grabbed the phone, her fingers curling around it as she wrested it from Rob.

  “Your mom is here.” Rob let her take the phone as her expression faltered.

  “Oh, shit.” She straightened her clothes and smoothed down her hair, composing herself as she walked toward the door. Glancing down at her phone, she tapped the screen and read the message from Maurice. “That is so not what he said.”

  “I know, I’d never read your messages unless you asked me to,” Rob said, straightening his suit and tie, and composing his expression into one of distracted indifference.

  “You look smokin’ hot,” Madison told him just as someone knocked on the door. As she reached for the doorknob, she took a deep breath and opened the door, no longer nervous to see her mom. Rob’s distraction had worked, plus also having him close to her, knowing he would stand by her side no matter what made her mom a little less scary.

  Or maybe Madison had grown into a confident woman all by herself and no longer worried what her mom thought or said. She could not hurt her daughter any more than she already had.

  But as she met her mom’s eyes as the door swung fully open, Madison wondered if she might have been a little premature to believe she’d outgrown needing her mom’s approval.

  “Mom.” Madison stepped back and her mom entered the apartment, followed by Joe. “Hi, Joe.” Madison stepped forward and kissed him on the cheek. “It’s good to see you.”

  “Good to see you, too, Madison.” Joe hugged her like a long-lost daughter, and Madison hugged him right back. Yet as she broke away from him, he averted his eyes as if trying to hide something from her.

  “What’s going on, Mom?” Madison asked, her arms crossed as if trying to put a barrier between her and her mother.

  “Aren’t you going to offer us tea?” Mrs. Singer asked. “It’s been a long journey.”

  “Sure.” Madison swung around and walked to the kitchen. Her mom was stalling. Her mom never stalled, she was always there, going for the jugular if she had to. But today, her mom looked softer, even a little afraid.

  “You must be Rob, from the Bear Creek Protectors.” Joe offered his hand to Rob, who looked at it for an instant before he shook it. Something passed between the two men. Were they sizing each other up? Was Joe here to check if Rob was up to the job of protecting Madison? Even though with Evan’s arrest he was a little redundant.

  “Good to meet you, Joe. Can I call you Joe? Madison speaks highly of you.” The edge to Rob’s voice carried an underlying tension.

  “Okay. Enough.” Madison plonked the kettle down on the stove and turned around to face the three adults in her apartment, all who seemed to have secrets, even Rob, who had promised he would never lie to her.

  “Enough of what?” Mrs. Singer put her hand to her head. “Please don’t tell me you are going to have a tantrum.”

  “Mom, I haven’t had a tantrum since I was three years old, if you had been around more, you might have known that.” Madison took a breath and steadied her voice. “I would like to know why you decided to put your hectic schedule on hold to come visit me.” She waved her hand between Rob and Joe. “And I want to know what that handshake was all about.”

  “Madison…” Joe began.

  “And if you tell me it’s all just testosterone-fueled posturing, I’m going to ask you to leave.” She put her hand up as if to silence Joe.

  “I…” Joe looked at Madison’s mom.

  “Don’t take your anger out on Joe,” Mrs. Singer said tartly. “Direct it where you know it’s supposed to be aimed. Me.”

  “Oh, you’ll get your turn,” Madison said acidly. “But right now, I want to know what that handshake was all about.”

  Rob glanced at Joe and then at Mrs. Singer. “Can I speak to you in private, Madison, please?”

  Madison’s eyes narrowed. What could he possibly want to say to her that he couldn’t say in front of her mom and Joe? Then her eyes wi
dened as she glanced at Joe and then said, “Sure.”

  “What’s going on?” Mrs. Singer asked, following them as Rob led Madison to her bedroom.

  “This will take one moment, Mom. You can go and make the tea if you want.” Madison opened her bedroom door, went inside and shut it behind her. “Joe is a shifter?”

  Rob nodded. “And he knows I’m a shifter. That handshake was a shifter version of two dogs sniffing each other’s butts.”

  “Nice imagery,” Madison hissed. “Does my mom know?”

  Rob shrugged. “You said Joe has been by her side for years…”

  Madison pulled back, her eyes growing wider, as if they were about to pop out of her head. “You think they are mates?”

  “Possibly. There seems to be a connection between them. It would be unusual for a man like Joe to stick around one woman like that for so many years if she wasn’t his mate. He’d have gone stir crazy by now and gone to find his mate.” Rob’s reasoning sounded totally and completely plausible.

  “Wow.” Madison walked across the room, her hand over her mouth as her stomach churned and her mind raced. “Do you think that’s the secret my mom’s come here to tell me?”

  “Maybe you should go back out there and ask her.” Rob came toward her. “But let her do the talking. She might not know about shifters.”

  “You think Joe has lived with my mom all these years and not told her?” To Madison, this was incredible. Joe had been living a lie, or at least not living the truth, for decades.

  “Or maybe there was a reason your mom chose Bear Creek Protectors to protect her daughter,” Rob mused. “She knew you would be safer with a shifter, because of their super…senses.” His eyes flicked toward the door.

  “Joe knows that we know.” Madison turned on her heel and marched toward the door. Pulling it open, she went out into the hallway to find out if this was the reason her mom had come here. It all started falling into place. “Right, did you make tea, Mom?”

  “I tried.” Her mom looked down at the disappointing milky water in the cups. “I never was as good at domestic chores.”

  “Domestic chores, it’s a cup of tea.” Madison took a breath. “Why don’t you go and sit down, and I’ll make a fresh pot. Maybe add a couple of cookies to the tray.”

  “I think that might be best.” Mrs. Singer looked at Joe, who raised an eyebrow and inclined his head toward the living room.

  “Let’s get out of Madison’s way.” Joe then looked at Rob. “You should join us, too.”

  “I thought maybe Rob could give us some space,” Mrs. Singer said pointedly to Joe.

  “This concerns him, too.” Joe beckoned to Madison’s mom and she followed him out of the room.

  “It does?” Mrs. Singer hissed at Joe. “Why does it? This is a family matter.”

  “Well, it seems your daughter is more like you than any of us would have guessed.” Joe opened the living room door and they went inside, their conversation hidden from Madison. But not from Rob.

  “What are they saying?” Madison mouthed the words and pointed to the living room.

  “Joe is telling your mom that you know about shifters and that he suspects we are mates,” Rob answered in hushed tones.

  “This is just crazy,” Madison said, turning around to look out of the kitchen window at the city below. “I’m trying to figure out if this is all real or if I was drugged and kidnapped by Evan and this is all a drug-induced dream.”

  Rob leaned over and whispered in her ear, “It’s not. It’s all real. I’m real. The mating bond is real. And I think you are about to find out why Joe has always been loyal to your mom and to you.”

  Madison leaned into him and he dropped a kiss on her head. “That’s why he always took such good care of me. Because of his feelings for my mom.”

  “Hey, no. That’s not how this works. You are an extension of your mom. If she is his mate, then he would care for you as if you were his own. Just the same as if you already had children when we met, I would have cared for them and loved them as my own. There’s nothing forced about it.” Rob’s assurance helped soothe her nerves. She didn’t want the one good relationship in her life aside from Rob to be a lie.

  “I’m scared.” She put her fingers to her temples and rubbed them to ease the tension building there. “This is all so new.”

  “Listen, I’ll be with you every step of the way. Anything you want to ask about shifters and how they think, I’m here, your own walking, talking shifter encyclopedia.” He wrapped her up in his big strong arms and she’d never been more grateful to have a man like Rob in her life.

  With a nod, Madison pulled out of his arms and made the tea. Rob walked in front of her and opened the door as she carried the tray, filled with four mugs of tea and a plateful of cookies, into her living room where her mom and Joe were waiting.

  As soon as she saw Joe and her mom together, she knew they were mates. How could she ever have missed the close connection between them? It was as if she had sleepwalked through her life.

  “So you know about shifters,” Joe said as soon as Madison had set the tray down on the coffee table in the center of the room.

  “Yes.” Madison stood upright. “Since yesterday, when Rob showed me his bear.”

  “And you and Rob are mates?” her mom asked, surprisingly calm.

  “Yes.” Madison pressed her lips together as she tried to contain all the questions that were spinning around in her head, needing to be answered. But one burned brighter than the others. “And you and my mom are mates, too?”

  “Madison, I know this is hard for you to understand…” Mrs. Singer began.

  “Which part? That you and Joe are mates and he can turn into what? A bear?” Joe nodded. “Or that you’ve only chosen to tell me now because of Evan.”

  “I never wanted to hurt you,” her mom insisted. “We never told anyone. Joe didn’t even tell me until he knew for sure my marriage to your father was over for good.” She put her hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have…”

  “Yes, Mom, you should have. You should have told me this years ago, you should have acted on this years ago, you might have been happier. But you kept it quiet for what? Your career?” Madison asked.

  “No, oh, no, we kept it quiet to protect you,” her mom insisted.

  “Protect me? From what? The arguments between you and Dad? The nights I’d sit at the dinner table with two adults who could barely look at each other, let alone talk to each other? Please don’t tell me you stayed in an unhappy marriage because of me.” Madison had always presumed it was because of her mom’s career. She hated the thought that her mother and father had endured such unhappiness for the sake of their daughter.

  “It was my idea not to tell you about Joe,” her mom admitted, although it didn’t answer the question she’d been asked. Typical politician.

  “Your mom didn’t want to hurt you, since we became close. I always thought she was mistaken, and you would be happy your mom had found a man who would love and cherish her for the rest of her life.” Joe looked Madison squarely in the eye. “I always figured you would understand that love is stronger than anything in the universe.”

  “I might not have then,” Madison admitted. “Until I met Rob, I truly don’t think I knew what love was. You were my mom, but you never loved me.”

  Mrs. Singer looked down at her hands clasped in her lap. “You’re right. I never showed you I loved you.” She placed her hand over her heart. “I felt incapable of love. Being a parent just never came naturally to me. I tried, but it…” She shook her head. “I’m sorry. In some way I blamed you for my unhappiness. I hated my marriage and after I gave birth to you, I suffered from what I now know was postpartum depression . But I was too stubborn and pigheaded to seek help. I saw it as a weakness. I was worried that it would make me look inferior in the eyes of others.”

  “Weakness. Mom, you needed help. There is nothing weak about admitting that,” Madison told her mom.

/>   “It’s hard, being a woman in a predominantly man’s world. You have to be smarter, harder, work more hours, make more sacrifices. And one of those sacrifices I made was you.” Her voice caught in her throat. “I’m sorry. I can’t turn back time.”

  “Your mom did what she thought was best,” Joe added. “She stayed with your dad because she didn’t want the story dragged through the media. She didn’t want your world torn apart.”

  Madison opened her mouth to speak, she wanted to yell at her mom and ask her if she realized how unhappy this had all made her. But then she realized her mom had paid a high price, too. Her mom had done what she thought was the right thing for Madison. By trying to shield their daughter from the outside world, her parents had lived a miserable life. Only when Madison had left home and made her own life had they finally lived their separate lives.

  “My work, I know it got in the way of our relationship. It took over my life. I wanted to do good, but I think where my own family is concerned, I made some grave mistakes. Your father and I never really fell in love, we just kind of gelled, and then the gel fell apart at the height of my career. He stayed because I asked him to. Because we still shared a common goal in making the world a better, safer place and giving you a stable home life.” Her mom glanced at Joe. “But it was a mistake. I see it now.”

  “But you’ve found love now. With Joe.” Madison sighed, her hands clutched together as she tried to reconcile her mom’s words with her own memories of her childhood.

  “Love.” Her mom smiled sadly. “Yes. Although even that does not come without regrets.”

  “You are mates?” Rob asked.

  “We are,” Joe confirmed. “However, I never told Connie about my feelings. Not until her marriage ended. I knew she wanted to show the world a united front. She wanted to protect Madison from the trauma of having her parents’ lives dragged through the dirt.”

  “And Evan’s father?” Madison asked. “He is the reason you wanted to come and see me.”