Bearly Consenting: Russet Falls Series (16 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Nervously, Avery led Drew into the kitchen, hoping that her
friends would be on their best behavior, but that they would also act like themselves.
She desperately wanted them and Drew to get along.

Molly and Lindsay were out on the small deck that was just
off the kitchen. Avery gave them a big grin, knowing Drew couldn’t see it, and
then she opened the screen door and she and Drew stepped onto the deck.

Avery turned back around and took Drew’s hand in her own.

Her heart beat faster.

“Drew, this is Molly and Lindsay.”

“Hi,” he said easily, reaching out to shake their hands.
“Nice to meet you both.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Molly said.

“Likewise,” added Lindsay.

Avery could see from their faces that they instantly
approved.

Not that it would have mattered, but Avery was worried that
Drew might arrive in a business suit, and she had fretted that Molly and
Lindsay would have been intimidated.

But Drew looked casual and relaxed, and he had just a bit of
a five o’clock shadow, which Avery found incredibly sexy.

Drew turned to Molly and smiled. “So, you must be Avery’s
friend from college.”

“Yes, I am,” she said, smiling over at Avery. “I’m the one who
convinced her to come to Portland and move in with me.”

Drew laughed. “Then I should be thanking you.”

Molly blushed.

Drew turned to Lindsay. “And I believe we’ve crossed paths
at work.”

Avery was shocked to see Lindsay’s cheeks flushed. Lindsay
was never embarrassed.

“Yes,” she said quietly. “I mean, I wasn’t in a meeting with
you, but we did some business with your office.’’

Drew laughed again. “Lucky for you. I’m sure the meeting was
incredibly boring.”

“Can I get you a beer?” Avery cut in, as Molly took a sip of
her beer. She hadn’t even offered to get Drew something.

“Sure,” Drew said, “Thanks.” He squeezed her hand and Avery
took a deep breath to steady herself as she headed into the kitchen to get the
beer.

This was real and really happening.

Drew was meeting her roommates and so far they seemed to be
getting along just fine.

She grabbed herself a glass of wine while in the kitchen and
took Drew’s beer out to him. He took it from her and then wrapped his arm
around her waist and pulled her to him.

It felt so
normal
.

As if they had been doing this for years.

It almost felt like no time had passed and for a moment,
Avery was so happy that she thought her heart might explode.

They sat on the deck, eating chips and guacamole as they
talked about the new restaurants popping up over the city and the new buildings
that were springing up downtown.

Avery slipped inside to check dinner.

She had kept it simple—they were going to have fajitas, and
all the fixings were already chopped. All she had to do was cook the chicken.
She worked quickly, catching snippets of the outdoor conversation and she
relaxed further as she heard her friends’ laughter ring out.

It was a warm night, so they were going to eat at the small
table, which barely fit on their cramped deck, but the tight quarters made
everything feel cozy. Avery took out the food, brought out some plates, and
refilled everyone’s drinks.

They dug into the food, and Drew looked over at Avery
impressed.

“You made this?”

“Yes. Do you like it?”

“It’s delicious. You had me thinking that you couldn’t
cook.”

“Molly is the real cook around here,” Lindsay piped up. “But
Avery’s not too bad either.”

“Gee, thanks,” Avery laughed. “There are a few dishes that I
do well. This is one of them,” she told Drew. “After you have a few more
dinners over here, I’ll have exhausted my culinary skills.”

Drew laughed again, and Avery hadn’t seen him this relaxed
since they had re-connected.

Well, that was a lie. She had seen him relaxed when they had
been together in bed, doing all of those amazing things that made her blush.

The conversation continued seamlessly through dinner, and as
Drew helped Avery clear the plates and bring them inside, she couldn’t have
felt better about Drew and her friends meeting.

“I really like Molly and Lindsay,” he said, placing a dish
in the sink.

“They really like you too,” Avery agreed, drying her hands
on a dishtowel. She could just tell from the way her friends were acting.

“Don’t lie,” Drew teased, “You were worried, weren’t you?”

“Maybe just a lit—“ Avery stopped mid-sentence, because Drew
was frowning and digging in his pocket for something.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, answering his phone. “Hello?”

Immediately his face changed, and Avery could see him go on
guard. She could literally see the bear in him come to the surface.

For whatever reason, Drew was on the defense.

“Yes, I remember,” he said, tightly. He was completely on
edge now, and Avery wasn’t sure why.

“No, that’s not necessary. As I explained, I have a business
to run. I couldn’t just up and leave my office.”

Drew literally winced as the person on the other line said
something, and then Avery understood.

The wince was his bear having to obey.

The call was tribe business, and that could only mean one
thing right now.

Ryker had to be on the phone.

“It’s not that easy for me to drop everything and return,”
Drew said, his tone slightly angry.

Avery reached out and squeezed his hand. The last thing Drew
needed to be doing was infuriating the alpha.

Drew met her eyes and she instantly saw his bear retreat.

He seemed calmer, more focused.

Drew took a deep breath, still keeping his eyes locked on
her.

“I can come Friday evening. Does that work?” he asked.

There was a long silence and Avery decided that Drew
wouldn’t go alone. She would return back to Russet Falls with him.

“Fine,” Drew said tersely. “See you then.”

He punched the end button and looked at Avery.

“Ryker,” she said flatly.

He nodded.

“I’m going home with you.”

Drew’s eyes hardened and he shook his head vehemently.
“Absolutely not.”

Stunned, Avery blinked. “Drew, I want to help,” she said
slowly, “I want to be there for you.”

“I know you mean well, Avery. But you just can’t. I don’t
think it’s safe and I want you here, in the city, with your friends. You are
safer here.”

“Russet Falls is my home, too,” she argued. This was not how
she expected this conversation to go.

“Avery. Please. This isn’t up for discussion.” His voice had
an edge to it that Avery didn’t like.

“Why? Why can’t I go home with you? Did Ryker mention
something else? Why does it seem like you are hiding something?” She didn’t
mean to sound like a suspicious girlfriend, but she couldn’t understand why
Drew wouldn’t want her support.

“Please,” he said, this time angrily. “Nothing good can come
from me going home, and if there is something going on, especially with all
that crazy talk of a bear princess, than I can only imagine what our tribe is
planning.”

That momentarily stopped Avery.

“I can hold my own,” she said softly. “Don’t forget that I
grew up in that tribe too.”

Exasperated, Drew ran his hand through his hair and paced in
Avery’s small kitchen. The happy, carefree mood of the evening was gone, and
suddenly it felt like the walls were closing in around her.

She closed her eyes, taking deep breaths, trying to stop the
panic that was slowly rising inside of her.

“Avery?” Drew’s voice came, alarmed now. “What is it?”

She took another deep breath, trying to calm the storm that
was churning inside of her. She had been so afraid to move forward with Drew,
and suddenly she felt like she was being left in the cold.

“Avery?” This time his voice was louder.

She opened her eyes and looked at him. “When I told you that
I was all in Drew, I meant
all in
. You don’t get to pick and choose
which moments that I can support you, and which moments that I can’t.”

“It’s not about that,” he said, getting frustrated again. “I
know that you took a leap of faith to be with me, and I’m trying to do
everything in my power to honor that because it means the absolute world to me.
You are
the
most important thing to me. And I am doing this for your
protection.”

Avery looked at him skeptically.

“Something inside of me is telling me that this isn’t right.
Call it my weird bear sense, or whatever. But Ryker calling me is
bad news.
And I will be damned before I involve you.”

Avery understood what he was saying, and a small part of her
was touched.

But she wasn’t budging.

“I see what you’re saying,” she said slowly, “but you can’t
control that. If I want to go home, then I absolutely can.”

Drew’s face hardened. “So, what does that mean? You’re going
to suddenly go home now this weekend.”

Avery shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Don’t do this, Avery,” he warned. “You are putting yourself
in danger.” He paused. “And it’s not good for us.”

“What does that mean?” she hissed, as she heard Lindsay and
Molly get up from the table outside. “Because I won’t listen to you, I’m
damaging our relationship?”

“Hey guys! Everything okay in there?” Lindsay called out,
approaching the screen door.

“Everything is fine,” Avery called back. “We’ll be right
out.”

“Yes,” Drew said, not missing a beat. “You putting yourself
in danger,
does
damage our relationship. It’s reckless.”

“Wow,” Avery whispered, reeling from his words. “I had no
idea that wanting to be there for you and wanting to support you was that
detrimental to us.”

“Damn it, Avery! Don’t put words in my mouth! That’s not
what I said, and you know it.”

Avery felt her eyes fill up with tears, which embarrassed
her. She didn’t know why she was so hurt by Drew’s reaction, but she was. She
didn’t know why he wasn’t letting her be there for him.

Perhaps it would be dangerous, but it couldn’t be that bad.
And it was still her home.

“Maybe you should leave,” she said softly, looking at her
hands. Uttering the words absolutely killed her, because the last thing she
wanted was for Drew to leave.

She expected Drew to push back, but instead he nodded.

“Maybe.”

He quickly went out to the deck.

“I’m sorry but I have to leave,” he apologetically told her
friends. She listened as they sadly said goodbye and thanked him for coming
over.

Drew took her hand, and she looked into his eyes, trying to
understand.

“This doesn’t change how I feel about you,” he said in a
husky voice, his eyes burning with love and desire for her.

Before she could protest, or argue, he released her hand and
hurried down the steps.

She wanted to call out after him, but she couldn’t.

She didn’t bother to look out the window and watch him
leave.

Molly and Lindsay came inside, carrying the remaining
dishes.

“Well, that stinks,” Molly complained, dumping the dishes in
the sink. “I was sorry to see him leave.”

Avery turned to look at her friends, but no words came out.

Instead, she burst into tears and fled the kitchen.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Avery pulled out her desk drawer to check her phone for the
hundredth time, only to see that there had been no texts or no missed calls.

She shouldn’t be surprised.

It had been two days like this, and she didn’t know why she
was still torturing herself by constantly checking her phone.

She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t heard from Drew, but at the
same time, he hadn’t reached out to her either.

Her students were gone for the day, and as she locked up her
classroom, she found it hard to believe that there was only one more week to
the school year.

She thought of what Drew must be doing now, and she figured
that he must be wrapping up at work and getting ready to head to Russet Falls.

Over the past two days she had been debating on whether or
not to actually show up in Russet Falls. She went back and forth between
wanting to support Drew and wanting to piss him off.

Both of those choices resulted in her going to Russet Falls.

But she never called her mother to suggest that she might
visit, and she realized now that she wouldn’t be going.

Drew made it abundantly clear that he did not want her
there, and she didn’t want to face the possibility of rejection by showing up
and having Drew turn her away.

The very thought alone made her tear up, and she swiped the
wetness from her eyes.

Maybe she would go home, open a bottle of wine, and sit out
on the deck and drink it. That would be a welcome way to start her weekend.

She thought of how wonderfully Wednesday night had started
out between Drew and her friends, and her heart ached when she thought of how
it all went terribly wrong.

Were her and Drew even still together?

She couldn’t fathom the possibility of them being over so
quickly. Not when she had finally come to terms with pursuing a relationship
with him.

Drew had told her that he still cared for her just before he
left her house, so why hadn’t he called?

“Of course you could have called him,” she muttered to
herself as she got into her car.

Great. Now she was talking to herself.

She was only a hop, skip and a jump from getting a boatload
of cats and living the rest of her days as a crazy cat lady who mumbled to
herself.

She debated calling Drew on the entire drive back to her
house, but by the time she arrived home, she still hadn’t made a decision.

Molly and Lindsay weren’t home, and she hadn’t told them
about what happened between her and Drew, but obviously they knew that
something was wrong when she ran to her room in tears.

Part of the reason she hadn’t told them was that it was
difficult to explain what had actually happened—of course her friends didn’t
know her history, and how she had grown up in a clan of werebears.

They would have her committed if she told them that.

On the other hand, she also hadn’t told her friends because
she didn’t want to rehash it, or analyze it, or anything else they would want
to do.

She hurried up to her room, changing out of her work
clothes, and putting on yoga pants and a simple cotton shirt. She checked her
phone again, feeling like a needy and desperate girlfriend.

And then it hit her.

Drew might have told her not to come, but she wasn’t just
going to sit home all weekend while he went back home and left her guessing.

Drew seemed to be shutting her out, even though she was
staying behind just like he wanted, so what was the point?

If he wasn’t going to call her, then she might as well give
him a good reason for not calling.

She scribbled a note to Molly and Lindsay. She didn’t want
to call them, because she didn’t want to have to try to explain, or have them
question her too much.

In her room, she threw together a bag and was back out at
her car less than a half hour after arriving home. She would have to fight a
bit of traffic out of the city, but she should be in Russet Falls a little
after eight.

She called her mom to give her a head’s up, and once again
her mother was ecstatic and surprised.

“Does this have to do with Drew?” her mother asked
suspiciously.

“Mom, please don’t.”

“I’m just wondering what is going on with the two of you,”
her mother said.

Avery sighed. “I’m wondering the same thing too, Mom. When I
know, I’ll let you know.” She paused. “And yes, it does have to do with Drew. A
lot can happen in seven years.”

“Yes, it can,” her mother said wisely, “but you two are cut
from the same cloth. No one can ever understand your upbringing or your family
like Drew. And the same goes for him.”

Her mother had hit the nail on the head.

No matter what, and no matter what had happened, the clan,
whether they liked it or not, anchored them.

It was something they would always share.

Avery hung up with her mother, feeling more determined than
ever to help Drew and make him realize that they were stronger together.