Sawman Werebear (Saw Bears #4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

touching her. Bear shifters needed touch and affection. Even bachelor groups hugged and clapped shoulders often. Touch was necessary to reassure himself that everything was right in his world. And right now, Everly was it. She was everything he focused on, everything he thought about. He had to fix her because no one could fix him, and it couldn’t be the same for another. He had to do something good for someone who needed it because no one could ever right the wrongs done to him.
    Trembling like leaves in a stiff breeze, her hands were clenched in front of her stomach.
    He wanted to kiss her knuckles and make her fear go away. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “I won’t let anything bad happen to you.” Besides the bear someone had put in her.
    Whoever had done this hadn’t even had the decency to explain what was happening to her. Women didn’t make good bears if they were too submissive. And shy, rambling Everly wasn’t a personality he would’ve ever chosen to Turn. She was at risk of her bear pushing for control and slowly taking her mind until she was nothing but a bear in a human body. The only reason that hadn’t already happened was because her bear seemed to be completely submissive. So submissive, she hadn’t even made an appearance yet. Six months of seizures, which meant Everly had been bitten a half year ago. The first Change was usually instant after the bite, and here she was, still unaware of what had been done to her after all this time.
    The urge to take care of her was overpowering. He’d never felt like this before about anyone, human or shifter. He cared about the women in the Ashe Crew, Brooke, Skyler, and Danielle, and would die for them if it ever came to it, but this was different. He wanted to make Everly okay again. He wanted to know everything about her. Wanted to find what made her tick, and he wanted to be the first one to meet her bear.
    And dammit, he wasn’t going to let her go crazy. He wasn’t going to just sit by while she seized until her repressed bear killed her. He’d never be okay again if that happened. Not after the trauma that had scarred him inside and out when he was sixteen at the hands of Reynolds and his team, but maybe life would be more bearable if he saved Everly. Already, he’d gone two hours without Changing, just because his need to care for Everly was greater. Everly Moore. Ever. He did remember her from Boomer’s Grill. She spoke of herself as if she was plain, but she’d been wrong. She was sick now and looked gaunt, but not even that could hide how beautiful she was. He’d watched her work at Boomer’s, talking too low to customers, who in turn asked her to speak up. She’d lowered her gaze time and time again to anyone who tried to hold eye contact with her. The Ashe Crew had been talking about new machinery for their logging business up in the mountains over lunch, but Brighton had watched Everly serve tables and wondered what kind of life had made her try to be invisible like that. He liked to be invisible sometimes, too. He hadn’t recognized her at the café because she looked so different now, but months ago, he’d asked to eat at Boomer’s Grill the next time they were in town just so he could watch her again.
    The way she looked now was her bear’s fault. No, not her bear’s. The blame rested solely on the asshole who put that bear inside of her, then walked away.
    He could see the house now, so he cradled her closer and picked up his pace. A tear ran down the corner of Everly’s eye, and he thumbed it away, hating himself for causing it.
    “I’m not like that,” Everly murmured. She lifted her water-rimmed eyes to his. “I’m not like you. I can’t change into a bear or anything else. I’m just plain Jane. I’m just me and nothing special. Nothing scary. You have that thing tucked up inside of you, but I don’t. You were wrong.”
    Brighton’s lip twitched with how much he wished it was true that she was still human. It