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and dashed out of the house. He ran stripping off his clothes and let his bear push out of him in agonizing ferocity. Bear wanted to turn back, claim his mate, but Conner didn’t let him take over. He forced him further into the woods. Leaving his mate behind.
    What he didn’t see is the minute he turned for the door, the eyes of Mackenzie Hayes filled with tears as she ran into her brother’s arms.
     

Chapter 6
     
    Conner ran until even his bear couldn’t go any further. He’d reached a high point on the mountain behind his house where he knew there was a small cave. Lumbering into it, he collapsed against the wall and his bear was more than happy to let him take back over.
    It wasn’t more than a few minutes later when two bears came into the opening of the cave, both looking pissed and out of breath. In a shimmer, Cage and Wyatt were standing in front of him.
    “What the fuck! Why the hell did you just bail?” Wyatt demanded stepping closer to Conner.
    “Do you have any idea what kind of insult you just threw out to Dax and his whole family?” Cage stood with hands on his hips in a very disappointed father pose.
    Conner let his head fall into his hands, how the hell was he going to explain this to them?
    “Your mate, man! You found your mate and she’s a shifter! No awkward conversations, well aside from the one where you explain why you ran out on her. That one might suck just a little bit,” Wyatt offered, looking chagrined once he realized what he’d said.
    Sighing Cage stepped in and sat down across from Conner. “First, I want to tell you how thrilled I am to be sitting buck naked in a cave in the dark, thanks for that. Second, why on earth would you run out on your mate? I understand the timing was less than ideal with all of us standing around staring at you. But we would have given you privacy, a chance to talk. Instead, you ran out without a word. Well besides the ‘mine’, which Wyatt and I totally understand.”
    “I don’t know what you want me to say,” Conner answered, moaning into his hands.
    “Well, try starting with why you ran. Were you embarrassed?” Wyatt prodded, trying to help him explain.
    Shaking his head no, Conner felt the knot in his throat tighten at the thought of being honest with his brothers. Would he feel better or worse if he told them? Would they even understand?
    “Come on man, you can tell us anything. We are both fresh off the bachelor boat too, we know what you are feeling,” Cage encouraged.
    “No, no, I don’t think you do,” Conner said staring at his feet in the dirt.
    “Try us, you might be surprised,” Wyatt said, sitting next to the entrance, joining their naked little conference.
    Conner felt as if his world, that was up until now, a total challenge for him on a daily basis, just explode, or implode, he wasn’t sure. He struggled to keep a hold on his animal and deal with his issues. Now he had another person to consider, a person who the fates had, for some unknown reason, matched with him.
    What if she was awful? Maybe the universe decided he deserved to be tortured by some horrible, shrewish wife for not appreciating what they gave him before? Did the fates do that kind of thing? Punish those that didn’t appreciate what they received? Like a really vindictive Santa Claus?
    “Fuck me, fuck me,” Conner growled into his hands.
    “Dude, seriously, talk to us. I’m sure your bear is thrilled, isn’t he?” Wyatt tried to keep him talking.
    Of course his bear was thrilled, he thought. Bastard wanting nothing more than to run off, mate, make babies, and spend his life licking berry juice off his paws. His priorities were a bit skewed with his human counterpart’s.
    “You guys wouldn’t understand, you can’t,” Conner started.
    “Conner, talk, man,” Cage ordered in his Alpha voice. Sitting in a cave freezing his balls off warranted the use of the timber that would get Conner talking.
    Not being able to resist the instinctual command