Bloodrunner Bear (Harper's Mountains Book 2) (16 page)

“But not everything.”

Aaron shook his head slowly and rolled onto his back, pulled her hand onto his chest. “I got better, but I never got control over my bear like I should’ve.”

“Do your parents know?”

A nod. “My dad does, but not my mom. It would hurt her and make her feel guilty. My dad thinks those years Changing in the cage made my bear too wild. Too big. It gave him a chance to overpower what I could control because I stayed scared when I was locked up. I stayed hurt and trapped, and I was just a kid. It stifled my human side, so when Bear wants to take over, I still have a hard time staying present.”

“But you did tonight. I gave you my back, and you didn’t bite me.”

The smile that spread across his face was slow and easy. In a whisper, he said, “That’s why what we did just now is such a big deal. I was still here with you. I could stop him.”

“You loooove me,” she sang as she tickled his ribs.

He laughed and sat up in a blur, taking her with him. He settled her over his lap and kissed her, held her wrists so she wouldn’t tickle him anymore. Little distractor.

And slowly, he released her and slid his arms around her back, hugged her tightly against his chest. Burying his face into her neck, he inhaled deeply, as though he was committing her scent to memory. “I love when you smell like me.”

“You or Bear?”

“Both.” He sucked on her neck. “Bite or no bite, you’re mine, Alana.”

She eased back and traced the healed claiming mark she’d given him. It shone silver here in the flickering glow of the firelight. She thought of her poster of him, and of how she’d followed him as he’d grown up. Of how she felt that bone-deep connection before they’d even met.

Alana kissed his lips softly, then murmured, “Bite or no bite, you were
always
mine.”

“Aaron.”

“Mmm,” he murmured through the thick layers of sleep.

“Aaron?”

Aaron opened his eyes in the dark, his ears prickling as he listened. Alana’s arm was draped over his waist, completely limp like she was still asleep.

“Aaron, wake up.”
It was Alana’s voice.

He sat up quickly and stared down at her. It was hard to tell in the dark, but her lashes looked like they were resting on her cheeks.

“Bite me. I’m ready.”

A snarl rattled his throat, and his instincts blared. He froze with the feeling that something invisible and terrifying was in the room with them. For a moment he was in the cage again, but the bars slipped away just as fast as they’d appeared.

“Bite me, Aaron. I’m ready,”
Alana repeated again, her words tumbling over each other, repeating in quick succession.

Aaron shook his head hard to dislodge the remnants of whatever dream was fucking with him.

“Aaron.”

“Stop it.”

“Please. Please do it now. I’m ready.”

He clutched his head. “I said stop it!”

Alana startled beside him, rested her hand on his leg. “What’s wrong?” Her voice sounded…different.

“Help me!” Harper screamed from outside.

Aaron scrambled from the tangled bedsheets. “Did you hear that?”

“Yes,” Alana said in a horrified voice. “Was that Harper?”

“Shit. Stay here.” Aaron didn’t bother with clothes, just bolted for the door.

“I don’t want to stay here.” Alana’s voice rang with a hollowness he couldn’t understand.

Maybe she was right, though. He couldn’t leave her unprotected. He pulled her hand behind him and bolted out onto the front porch. It was then that the woods rattled with a dragon’s roar, and the night sky was blocked out by something massive. Harper’s fire blasted down into the trees some distance away, and the glow lit up the dark night. The smoke was choking, but Aaron pulled Alana behind him and sprinted for the woods.

“What’s happening?” Alana asked.

“War,” he said. His body felt strange, as if it was being called into the battle.

“Aaron, hurry!” Ryder yelled in a frantic voice.

He pushed his legs harder, faster, and Alana ran behind him, spurred on by the fear he could smell wafting from her skin. Ahead, the stars were blocked out by bats. Mother fucking vampires. Aaron ripped a limb off a tree and splintered it in half, handed the sharpest one to Alana. “Don’t let them near your throat.”

Fuck, he didn’t want to bring her any closer to whatever was happening in the woods, but a pained scream from up ahead froze his blood. No time. No time at all to hide her somewhere safe. They would come for her if he left her unprotected.

Up ahead, another wall of flame illuminated the woods. He could see them now. Wyatt’s bear was clawing and biting viciously at the swarming bats, and Weston and Ryder were fighting human, armed with sharpened wooden stakes. Fighting thick purple smog. Fighting vamps they couldn’t get their hands on.

The bats flew around Weston and Ryder and then up into the sky above them. Aaron could see it coming, and as horror spread its black tendrils through his body, he tried to scream out—tried to warn then. The massive cloud of bats circled above like a giant fist slamming down.

“Come on!” Weston screamed into the abyss as he bunched his muscles to fight.

He disappeared in the smoke.

“Weston!” Alana screamed.

Much closer than Aaron, Ryder was running for him. “No, don’t!” Aaron yelled as Ryder disappeared into the smog. He had to help them, had to reach them. Had to save them from the hell they were in.

Twin screams of pain lifted the hair on his body, and like a vacuum, the smoke and bats fanned from the woods. Weston was on the ground, not moving. And when Aaron skidded to a stop near where Ryder sat hunched over, Weston’s eyes stared vacantly up at him, already dimming from the lack of life.

“No,” Alana murmured in a broken voice. “Where’s Harper. Harper!” she screamed as she fell to her knees and cradled Weston’s head in her lap. Alana sobbed Harper’s name over and over as if the Bloodrunner Dragon could bring Weston back to life.

Ryder’s shoulders shook, and his lungs rattled when he inhaled. He was twitching oddly, and just as he fell backward, Aaron caught him. Blood poured from the side of Ryder’s lips. Aaron wanted to retch when he saw the gaping wound in his stomach. “My b-brother. Blood brother.”

“No, no, no, shhhh,” Aaron said rocking him. “It’s gonna be okay.”

“Avenge my brother.” Ryder looked over at Weston’s blank stare and huffed a pained breath. And then he went limp in Aaron’s arms, his eyes locked on the Novak Raven.

“Ryder,” Aaron choked out, his eyes blurring with tears. “Ryder, please don’t go.”

Alana was doubled over in pain, keening and wailing, tears staining her cheeks as she looked to Aaron to do something.

Stunned with the deep agony that was ripping his heart open, he turned to where Wyatt had been fighting. He was nothing but a pile of matted fur. Aaron listened over the breeze for the sound of a heartbeat, a breath, anything. Nothing but dead silence filled his head.

The blood chilling
squeak-squeak
of bats sounded louder and louder, and above, the night went dark. Not a single low-lying storm cloud showed through the thick vampire smog. Aaron looked over in horror at Alana, and he knew she could see it in his face. He’d failed. Failed to protect his crew, and now he was going to fail to protect her.

He’d pledged his life to save her, and now they were out in the woods without a crew and too many enemies. It was all he could do to tackle her and cover her with his body when the bats reached them. He could feel them—the scrabbling fingers and claws of cold, dead hands.

“Hold on baby,” he said as pain slashed at his back. The vampires yanked at her, and Alana’s weight shifted out from under him with such power, he could barely hold onto her arms.

“Aaron, help me!” she screeched, terror punching out every syllable.

He couldn’t see anything but her forearms and face in the thick purple smoke, and immovable hands were pulling hard on his body, prying him and Alana apart. He needed to Change. Needed to let Bear have his body so he could save her, but he couldn’t let go or she would be in the air where he couldn’t reach her. She was helpless, no weapons, no defenses. His feet made deep rivets in the snow where the vampires were dragging Alana, stretching her between them, hurting her.

Tears streamed down her face. “Please, Aaron…don’t let them kill me.”

In one last move of utter desperation, he yanked himself forward and sank his teeth deep into her arm. He bit down until blood streamed into his mouth. Until she howled in pain. Until he scraped bone with his canines because he had to make sure to give her the bear.

There was the claiming mark Bear had wanted to give her so badly.

Please let this work. Please let her be a fast first-time Changer.

Alana screamed as her hands ripped from his grasp.

And then she was gone.

Alana dropped to her knees, and pain shot up her leg as she landed hard on a rock. She wanted to wince and remove herself from the ache. She wanted to run because she could still feel those cold claws scrabbling at her skin. But she couldn’t move. Those vampires had been cowards, never showing their faces, killing the people she loved with no honor.

Aaron sat on his knees, clutching a branch in his lap, staring off into the woods as though he’d just lost everything. And he had. Weston and Ryder were limp beside each other. Wyatt lay unbreathing and alone on the edge of the tree line. Harper was gone.

Why had they dropped Alana? They’d had her, and she was what they wanted, right? She’d been the target in town, and they’d worked to pry her from Aaron’s desperate grip. So why wasn’t she airborne right now?

Power pulsed inside of her, and she closed her eyes as pain rippled through her like an earthquake. Gasping for focus, just so she wouldn’t disintegrate with the agony in her middle, she clenched her fists. It was so hard. What was happening to her?

The bear.

Warmth ran down her forearm in a stream and dripped from her knuckles.
Pit pat, pit pat
. It felt like fire where Aaron’s teeth had ripped into her. A fire that was spreading through every cell with terrifying speed. She was dying.

Aaron
. She tried to say his name as the fear pulsed against her chest.
Help
. Those bats would be back. She grunted in pain as another wave of bone-deep pain ripped through her. Something was inside of her, growing, pushing against her skin, against her soul. She wasn’t alone in this body anymore.
Aaron
.

It took a monumental effort to turn her face toward her mate. He was so close, right beside her, but he wasn’t looking directly at her. Unblinking, he was looking at her cheek. What was wrong with him?

It was then that she saw it—her reflection in his eyes. She was staring up at him, terror written into every facet of her face, tears streaming down her cheeks, and her eyes…they were blazing gold, just like Aaron’s. Just like her maker.

Weston’s dream had come to fruition.

It wasn’t just her that she saw there, though. Someone stood behind her. Someone in the shadows, just a smudge she couldn’t make out. Fear trilled up her spine as she noticed something else.

Aaron’s pupils were dilated so big his eyes were almost black.

Aric.

Alana blinked hard and forced her eyes to Ryder and Weston’s corpses. This wasn’t real. It wasn’t. She blinked hard, and a soft snarl vibrated up her throat. Ryder and Weston’s bodies flickered like an old lightbulb about to burn out, then solidified again. With a grunt, she narrowed her eyes. “This isn’t real,” she choked out.

Ryder and Weston disappeared from the woods completely, and when she looked over at where Wyatt had died, he wasn’t there either. There was nothing here but quiet woods. No death, no blood save her own.

“A life for a life,” a familiar voice said from behind her. The snow crunched as Aric stepped around her. She could see everything now. Every shadow the moon cast, every leaf, every whisker on Aric’s unshaven chin. Another growl rattled her chest.

“This is bullshit,” a man said from the tree line, and then she could see them, too. There were others. Eight of them, at least. “The rules say we have to avenge our queen. How the fuck does having a human Turned into a shifter satisfy the Rule of Vengeance?”

“Her humanity was stolen, forced by our hands, and now we don’t have to go to war,” Aric said in a voice that ended in a terrifying hiss.

“I want him,” the man said, stepping forward, his long nail jammed at Aaron. “If you can’t make the proper decisions for our coven, Aric, I will. The bear dies. Look at his neck. You’ve already marked him for death anyway. Give him to us, and we’ll leave this place satisfied.”

Alana was shaking now, completely out of control of her body as something deep within her pushed to escape. “Touch him,” she snarled in a voice she didn’t recognize, “and I’ll fucking kill you.”

“Oh, she believes that,” the man said, laughter in his tone.

“Raif,” Aric warned as the man paced closer.

“Aric, did you hear the honest notes in her voice? Look around, sweetheart!” he yelled at her. “It’s you and your brainless boyfriend, out in the deep woods and at our mercy. No one is coming for you. Your crew is fast asleep in their beds with Aric’s soothing visions dancing in their heads.”

A soft growl sounded from Aaron as Raif stepped closer, but his eyes stayed vacant.
Wake up, Aaron!

Aric stepped in front of her, blocking her view from the dark-eyed vamp who wanted Aaron’s neck.

“I am King of the Asheville Coven, and this is my ruling.”

“It’s not how Arabella would’ve done—”

“I’m not Arabella!” Aric yelled, his words snapping with power. “Have you forgotten what she did to our coven? She dragged us through the mud. She tainted everything we stood for.”

“And what are you doing, Aric? Letting the Bloodrunner Dragon live, letting her mate live, letting her entire fucking crew live. You’re a vampire!”

“Who believes in the preservation of life.”

“Weak!”

“Smart, and you better fucking stand down Raif, or I will pluck your head from your shoulders, and we’ll just see if it grows back. It’s not like the old days when we could kill and get away with it. There are laws now, ours and humans, to contend with. I’m trying to protect this coven from any more loss. I’m trying to protect us from war. The Rule of Vengeance is satisfied. Her Change was forced. Listen to that growl in her throat. Listen! She isn’t human anymore.”

A long feral hiss sounded from Raif. Alana should be terrified right now. She should be plotting ways to run and drag Aaron with her, but something deep inside of her thirsted for blood and revenge. It thirsted to step in front of Aaron and protect her mate instead of giving these assholes her back. And that something was a snarling beast who wasn’t afraid of anything. She gripped tighter to the sharp, splintered branch Aaron had given to her. He held one, too, but he wasn’t breaking free from Aric’s hold on him. Not like she was.

It must be the new bear in her middle and the need to Change. She wanted to retch at the wave of pain that blasted through her. Fucking Aric. He was keeping her from Turning.

Bats exploded into the air, and in an instant, she was released from Aric’s mental talons. The second she could move, she reacted on instinct, adrenaline and rage in its purest form. This body was powerful, and so fast. She could see him, Raif, in the middle of the bats. There was a soft blue outline she hadn’t been able to see when she was human, but the bear had different vision. Just as Raif stretched his claws out for Aaron, she pulled her mate out of his reach, then braced her feet against the snowy ground and blasted upward on tensed muscles. The limb made a sick, slick sound as it slid through Raif’s ribcage and into his heart. His mouth twisted in a screech of pain as she snarled, “Told you I’d fucking kill you.” Raif ignited into flames and exploded into trails of sparks and ash. She released him as the burn touched her palm, and as he hit the ground, he disintegrated to nothing but a Raif-shaped pile of ruin.

Chaos broke loose, but this body was faster now. She could see things coming and react just in time. Bats, smoke, the sound of their fury, the roar of the wind they kicked up. Standing protectively over Aaron, she gave the beast her body. With a monstrous snarl in her throat, Alana charged Aric and ripped his arm backward just as smoke trailed from his body as he tried to escape. Too slow, and Alana needed him to let go of whatever hold he had over the Bloodrunners. She thrashed her neck, clamping her teeth as hard as she could onto his forearm. Aric grunted in pain, she could hear the effect of Aric’s distress. He’d lost his grip on Aaron’s mind, because the soft growl in her mate’s chest turned feral, and the instant popping of bones echoed through the dark woods. The night echoed with his roar, and then he was with her, biting, slashing, maiming. Aric ripped away from her jaws, and from his body, bats exploded, flapping in a sickening, squeaking cloud toward the tree line. Back to back, she and Aaron fought as vampires dove at them and then away again in a constant, calculated attack.

Behind them, Harper’s roar shook the earth. Now they’d done it.

They’d awoken the dragon.

Pain slashed across Alana’s back and neck, but she and Aaron just had to hang on a few more seconds. Help was coming. She could hear the beating of Harper’s wings, could feel the furious wind she created. Another grizzly bellowed a battle cry, and a giant snowy owl dove into the smoke, followed by a massive raven.

The sickening slice of their corpse claws slashed into the skin of her back. Harper blocked out the sky and lit up the woods with a long line of dragon’s fire. One of the vamps shrieked in pain, and there were less of them now. Less bats, less smoke, less neon blue shadows ducking in and out of the fight.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the vamp coming. Alana turned and hooked her powerful claws around the back of his head, slammed him down on the ground. She hated this creature. Hated him with every fiber of her being because they’d come here to Harper’s mountains to hurt her, and to hurt the man she loved. They’d made her think Ryder, Weston, Wyatt, and Harper were dead. They’d forced her to hold Weston’s body and watch Ryder’s last breath.

Her dark fur was smattered with mud and blood, and her six-inch claws raked across the vampire’s face as he struggled and screamed under her. She could smell it now, gas, and when the sound of a firestarter echoed above her, Alana clamped her teeth around the vampire’s neck and threw him skyward. She watched in satisfaction as Harper blasted a ball of fire onto him.

And now they were fleeing—bats and smoke filtering through the woods like a storm cloud being drawn away from them. Harper chased them, lighting up the woods as she beat her wings furiously over the top of them.

Alana paced, unable to follow them because she couldn’t leave Aaron. She didn’t know why she couldn’t put distance between them. She wanted to chase the vampires, to kill every last one of them, but she was tethered by something invisible to the dark blond bruin behind her.

“Alana,” Ryder said in a soothing voice from a low branch in a tree. He was sitting there, naked as the day he was born, his legs dangling over the edge and a look of worry furrowing his ruddy eyebrows.

For some reason, her name on his lips in that tone pissed her off. She would not settle down right now. Those vamps had almost taken everything from her. Ryder hadn’t seen what she had. She’d watched him die! Just the memory of Aric’s death vision nearly doubled her over in agony.

Unable to control her emotions in this new body, Alana inhaled and roared at Ryder, then turned on Aaron. His animal was massive, a few feet taller than hers at his hump, and her paws sank into his titan prints in the snow. He backed up slowly, his bright gold eyes locked on her. She wouldn’t hurt him, though. He was hers, didn’t he know?
Mine. My mate, my Aaron. Mine to protect.
She’d come so close to watching that asshole Raif kill him. She wanted to squat on his disgusting ashes, but needed to touch Aaron more right now. With a heartbroken sound deep in her throat, Alana ran her head down the side of his jaw and came to a halt at his shoulder, buried her face there so she could block out the rest of the world. So she could remind herself he was warm and still breathing.

He smelled of fur and Aaron, and when he rested his chin across her back, she wanted to cry, but didn’t know how to in this body. And then the pain was back, as if imagining her human form had brought the end to her Change. This one was slower and hurt badly. Her bones broke, her muscles reshaped, and when at last she lay panting in the snow, every inch of her skin felt like it had been ripped from her body.

Alana looked up at the clouds above, at the snow falling down. She hoped it covered Raif’s ashes completely so Harper’s woods wouldn’t be tainted. Her skin prickled with cold.

And then Aaron—her Aaron—was there. “Baby,” he murmured, wrapping her up in his arms. No longer were his pupils blown out, but he had long claw marks down the side of his face. More scars. He’d told her once scars were a part of this life, and there was no use trying to hide them. He’d said they were a reminder of what happened and what was to come.

Shivering, she looked down at her forearm at the deep, ragged bite-mark that had already sealed up. There was that shifter healing. She was Changed. It had happened so fast she couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that, just moments ago, she’d been a massive, battling bear.

“You saved us,” Aaron said, rocking her. “I couldn’t get him out of my head, but you did. You saved us.”

Ryder was there, and Wyatt and Weston now, too, kneeling around her as Aaron lifted her off the ground and into his lap. How was he so warm?

“My body hurts.”

“The first Change is the worst,” Weston murmured.

“Your dream came true,” Alana squeaked out through her tightening vocal chords.

He searched her eyes, then nodded. “Yeah. I’m sorry.”

Her smile dislodged a warm tear from the corner of her eye. “I’m not.”

Harper landed hard between the trees and shrank into her human form, her eyes wide and on Wyatt. “Is everyone okay?”