Redeem The Bear (9 page)

“Say it,” he gritted out. “Say my name and I’ll reward you.”

“Brooks,” she murmured.

He pulled out of her and she gasped
at the unexpected emptiness she felt inside. That was the worst reward of all time.

He dropped to his knees and gripped
her hips, pressed her back against the tree and pressed his mouth onto her sex.

“
Oooh,” she said in a shaking voice. Never mind. This was the best reward ever.

His tongue dipped languidly inside of her, over and over and the soreness there melted away.
She had already been close, and her knees grew weaker as he kissed on and on. He held her steady in place, as if he’d known her reaction would be to go limp as mud at his capable touch. Cocky genius.

Was she supposed to watch his head bobbing sensually between her thighs? Was she supposed to close her eyes and enjoy the waves
of pleasure he was bringing her? She should have studied up. Arching against him, she gripped a low hanging branch above her and bore more of her weight as the first moan of ecstasy left her lips. He was so damned good at this.

Tiny patterned whimpers escaped her as the pressure built and she came even harder than the first time, pulsing around
his clever tongue. Shaft in hand, he was stroking long and slow, and now a single dewy bead of cum sat at the top, glistening in the moonlight.

He kissed between her thighs
once more and stood on steady, powerful legs.

“Are you
growling at me?” he asked, raking his teeth against her neck.

Was she? Indeed she was. That was a first. “I wanted to do that.”

“Do what?”

“Stroke you.”

“Submissive bear, so bold to growl at a dominant,” he murmured.

She couldn’t tell if he was angry or amused and his face gave away nothing. Slowly, he lifted her hands back to the tree branch above her
, then slid inside of her. “I was taking care of myself so I’d be close when I took you, Corin. So it wouldn’t hurt as much.” He thrust hard and she gasped.

His hands found her backside and he pressed her against him with the next thrust. It hurt compared to his tongue, but still felt right. Felt good.

“Don’t growl at me again, Corin, or I’ll punish you.” Another thrust and another. Then three short bursts and warmth shot into her as he groaned and bucked erratically.

She came again, enco
uraged by his own throbbing release. “Brooks,” she whispered as she tipped over the edge.

“Good girl,” he
rasped, and she nearly glowed under his compliment. He didn’t seem the type to give them lightly.

He clutched her chin and kissed her hard and short
as he pulled out of her. “Put your clothes on. Dawn will be here soon.”

Dawn. The word had become synonymous with death and the bottom dropped out of her
stomach. Brooks and his tender affection had been a beautiful distraction from the end, but there was no more avoiding it. No more hours left to ignore the bloody fate that was coming.

“You won’t stop this war? You won’t save all of these people?” she asked as her last hope lay in the coming sunrise.

“It’s beyond me now,” he said, void of emotion. “If that’s what you came for, your mission was doomed before you even met me.”

She swallowed
back crippling emotion as he plucked his pants from the grass and disappeared around the tree.

A night with her enemy hadn’t saved her
people.

A night with
Brooks had only proved that her Daniel really was dead.

Brooks didn’t offer his hand
this time as he led her toward the meadow separating their camps. The moon hung low and it illuminated the gently waving grass in an eerie glow. Corin balked as Brooks took his first step into the field of whispers.

“I don’t think we should go through there.” Her instincts were screaming
to back away slowly.

“Why?” he asked in a hard voice.

“It’s haunted.”

His face morphed from interested to completely closed off. “Spirits don’t come around creatures like me, Corin. Come.”

Creatures like him? Dark? Soulless? What did that even mean?

“Why did you choose this place?” The first tendrils of suspicion touched her heart. “What does it mean to you?”

A cold smile crooked his lips but failed to reach his eyes. “I fought Bear Valley for my first battle in this meadow. The souls you hear whispering against your neck? They are the unsettled ghosts of my people and yours. We lost that battle, but today will be different. This is the place I choose to end Bear Valley, where my battles began.”

Horrified, she shook her head in denial that he would plan this.
The second she thought she knew him, thought he had a heart somewhere in his dark, echoing chest cavity, his words pulled the hope right from her. Seething that she’d been so stupid, she brushed by him.

“I can get back to my people just fine from here.”

She wasn’t going to look back, no matter what. He could watch her go all he wanted. The wind picked up and lifted her hair and she covered her ears as the whispers began again.

Corin, Corin,
the wind hissed, and she froze as terror seized her muscles. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. How were the voices inside her head?

Sh
e could tell the exact moment Brooks stepped into the meadow behind her, because the ghosts quieted like they’d never even been here at all. Brooks scooped her up like she weighed nothing and strode with long, steady strides until they reached the other side.

His black eyes smoldered like a fire just gone out. “You’re good, Corin. They wouldn’t reach
out to you if you weren’t. Not even I could taint you. Run.”

Frightened, she looked around but they were alone in the woods. “Run from what?”

“Run from this war. Go get in one of those jeeps and leave this place. Swear to me you’ll leave.”

“And leave my people?” She shook her head
, sad that he didn’t really know her at all. “I can’t.”

“Did you come to me tonight to beg for me to end this? Is that the only reason?”

“No.” Her lip quivered and she bit it hard to hide her weakness. “I came because you’re mine. You stood in front of the Kodiak council and asked for me. I know we were just kids, but it was real. You’re different now—empty. It makes me hate the Long Claws for whatever they’ve done to you.”

“I’m not him,” he growled low.

“You saved my life once at the cost of your own. I can’t ask you to do it a second time, but I can’t leave my people.” She wrapped her fingers around the necklace that clung to her throat beneath her shirt. She rarely thought of it anymore because it was just a part of her. Something she’d worn in memory of a past she would never get over. With a firm tug, she broke the thin chain and held it between them. The gold medallion shone in the moonlight and as it twisted in her grip, the script
D
blurred. “You gave this to me for my thirteenth birthday.”

His eyes went
wide and his mouth hung open like his words had left him as he stared at her offering.

“It’s yours again. I don’t want it anymore. It’ll only serve to remind me of how I lost you a second time
, and it’s too much.” Setting it gingerly into his open palm, she blinked back the moisture building in her eyes. “I can’t run.”

Turning, she left him there, and like in the meadow, she didn’t look back.

****

“It’s time,” Mace said in a somber voice.

The tent flap fell back into place, and Brooks was left alone again. He hadn’t slept. How could he after she gave him the necklace? The necklace that he’d dreamed about for years. Was it Corin’s face that was supposed to be on the woman he could never quite remember?

A headache
was building behind his eyes, and he rubbed the bridge of his nose. There was something there, on the frayed edge of his memory, but damned if he could reach it.

And now, he would watch
Corin die before he ever figured out the mysteries she had brought him. He cast a despairing glance at the crumpled rag, stained in her virgin’s blood.

I trust you
, she had said.

A lot of good that did her. She was going to die at the claws of his people and he couldn’t do a damned thing about it.
She was good, pure, and he didn’t deserve her trust. Whatever she thought she saw in him was misguided.

“Shit.” He slammed his foot into his boot and stood, locking his fingers
behind the back of his head. What was this feeling? This niggling, irritating, bad feeling. Guilt?

He didn’t feel guilty. That wasn’t his thing. That wasn’t an emotion the Long Claws knew. He felt strong, powerful, murderous—all of those things
, but not guilty. Guilt was a sign of weakness.

She made him weak.

She had come to him needy, and begging to be touched. Giving in was so stupid. He’d never made love to a woman before, only fucked them, and whatever she’d done, whatever magic she’d pumped through his veins as she whispered his name against the tree, had broken something inside of him he didn’t want damaged. Now, he had all these
feelings
.

He’d spent hours trying to decipher whatever mysterious code she was hinting at. Trying to see if this Daniel was buried deep inside of him where he couldn’t find him anymore.

He was Brooks, alpha of the most fearsome bear shifters in the world. Not some pussy named Daniel who gifted gold necklaces. Fuck ’em and leave ’em, but never give them gifts. He didn’t identify with the man she wanted him to be. Part of him hated that he didn’t. And the bigger part of him hated her for making him feel this way.

Brushing the tent flap aside, he went out to meet his people, to lead them into war and avenge Nathan’s death. After today, there would only be one clan of shifters, and it was his.

There was no room to let a woman muck with his head right now.

****

In front of Corin, Riker balked at the sight of the meadow. Frowning, she asked, “What’s wrong?”

“This battlefield. I’ve been here before, a long time ago.
” His face paled as he looked frantically around.

“Brooks said he chose it because it was the first time he battled Bear Valley. He said the Long Claws lost.”

Riker already knew about her visiting the enemy. She had come clean the moment she stepped into camp to find Hannah waiting.

He wasn’t mad. On the contrary, he just seemed relieved that she’d made it back in one piece.
Though inside, she felt shredded into a million tiny shards, but her alpha didn’t need to know that.

“I dreamt of this plac
e not long ago,” he breathed. “The oracle was here, and Hannah…”

“Hannah’s fine. She’s not fighting today and the medical
area is off limits. She’s safe, Riker. It was just a dream.” Why didn’t she feel as sure as she sounded? This place had magic, she just couldn’t figure out if it was good or bad yet. Maybe it had touched her alpha too.

A horn sound
ed across the haunted meadow. The waving grass didn’t look as scary in the red and gray light of dawn, but she wasn’t naive enough to think the ghosts had fled this place. They were waiting quietly to welcome their fallen brothers and sisters across the veil.

Two rows of Bear Valley shifters lined this side. Some looked pale and shaken, but most looked ready. Riker had made his speech this morning and even Corin had accepted her fate. The fear had gone as she walked be
hind her alpha. She would fight here today for the good of her people. She’d go to battle beside an alpha who deserved her fealty.

Chase
, Juan, Cameron and Brody flanked Riker, and Anya and Joanna stood stoically beside her in the second line. She was proud of her people and she would be honored to fight and fall beside them.

Movement across the meadow drew her gaze, and she lifted her chin as the Long Claws approached the edge of the tall grass.

She didn’t have to count to know Bear Valley was outnumbered. Brooks had called in the smaller Long Claw clans and now three rows of savage fighters faced off from the other side. Her heart broke as she looked at the faces of the people she cared about beside her as they accepted their fates.

The sound of a truck revved through the clearing
, and a trio of SUV’s pulled up edge of the tree line. Shifters piled out and began to take up the thin right side of Bear Valley’s fighters. A barrel-chested man approached and shook Riker’s hand. Her alpha’s eyes were wide and questioning.

“My name is Darren Lang. I’ve gathered as many displaced shifters who survived the Long Claws
’ attacks as I could. Heard you were fighting those gnarly bastards today and thought you could use a hand.” He nodded his head toward the new shifters. “That right there is all that’s left of Blood Den and Ridgeback. Even have a few Kodiaks in there. We’ll follow your lead.”

Riker was still shaking his hand slowly. “I appreciate it more than you’ll ever know.”

“Aw, don’t get sentimental on me,” the old timer said. “If Bear Valley folds, what chance do the rest of us have?”

None. No bear shifter was safe from the Long Claws
’ reach if Bear Valley lost today.

Stretching her neck, Corin tried to identify any of the new shifters as Kodiaks she knew, but didn’t recognize any of them. Perhaps they were from before her time.

Another horn blasted and a giant, long legged bear with a shortened snout stepped through the Long Claw line. Brooks.

All around her, bears ripped from her friends and she cast Riker a
final glance before she changed into a small black bear with cream colored fur. Anya was an Andean bear with long scars that stretched from her black furred neck to her milky colored face. The last gift Nathan had given her before he died. Joanna was a large black bear, with lips curled back and a low rumble vibrating in her throat. In front of her, Riker, Chase and Brody looked fearsome as some of the largest grizzly shifters in the world, scarred from their many battles together.

Fight beside Anya and Joanna. Protect them and they’ll protect you
, she chanted to steady her pounding heart. She wasn’t alone.

Brooks’ great body shook with every powerful step he took and his lips curled back in a snarl. He stood to his full height with eyes only for Riker
, and his challenging roar echoed through the valley.

Snarling, Riker stepped forward and reared up to his twelve foot height. His answering
bellow was so loud, Corin flattened her ears.

Anya ghosted her a glance and took off beside her. The ground shook beneath their feet as they rushed into battle.
Joanna led them behind the first line of defense toward the edges, and Corin pushed her paws faster, digging her claws into the soft earth as she tried to stay with her comrades.

Brooks clashed with one of the Bear Valley grizzlies, but in the vicious fight, she couldn’t tell who at just a glance.

She didn’t slow as she spied a black bear running at her with murder in her empty eyes. The smack of their bodies as they crashed into each other was as loud as thunder, and she clawed viciously at her enemy’s neck. There wasn’t time for fear or hesitation here, not when every move meant life or death. Protecting her vitals like Chase had trained her to, she ripped and slapped and bit until the she-bear was beneath her. Everything was red as Corin thought about all the Long Claws had cost her. Her family, her friends…Daniel.

A roar of pain sounded beside her and Anya was pinned. With one last jerk of her head,
Corin ripped the bear’s jugular, then tackled the small grizzly tearing into Anya. She couldn’t see Joanna anymore in the fray. Raking a claw down the brown bear’s back, she sank her teeth into his shoulder and was backhanded to the ground. Anya had recovered her footing and fought like some wild thing as a sun bear charged Corin.

Without time to recover from the dizzying s
lap she’d taken to the face, Corin ducked and flipped him over her back. Before he righted himself, she lunged and raked her six inch claws through his tender stomach, which he had failed to protect.

Pain seared through her as a claw grazed her back, and when she turned, a giant grizzly was already on her. Shit. He had five hundred pounds on her and the advantage of surprise. Ducking the next blow, she ran under him and barely missed a claw to her back end. His teeth sank into her back leg, and enraged, she turned and
lashed her claws across his eye.

With a roar of pain, he lurched backward and she latched onto his throat. Time stretched on as he struggled,
abrading her thick flesh with desperate claws. The second she let go though, she’d be done for.