The Bride Hunt Box Set: Books 1-3

by Charlene Hartnady

  “Let her go, Lava,” Inferno groaned as he pulled himself into a standing position. He was nursing an arm, although she suspected that it was his ribs on that side that were the problem.

  Lava laughed, his eyes looked haunted. “What? Are you going to make me?” His jaw tensed. He looked Inferno up and down.

  “Don’t be a dick,” Inferno said. “The female doesn’t want you.”

  “I suppose she wants you and I should just hand her over.”

  Inferno shook his head. “She wants to go home.” He looked at Roxy quizzically. “Are you sure that’s really what you want?”

  Roxy tried to get out of Lava’s hold. “Yes, I need to go and say a few parting words to a certain someone and then I’m out of here.” She’d been wrong about Blaze. She needed to give him a piece of her mind. Get some closure in this messed up situation and then she would go home and lick her wounds. It was funny, she’d been with Ben for eight years and only with Blaze for a couple of weeks, yet, she had a feeling it was going to be way more difficult to get over the shifter king. The thought angered the hell out of her. Blaze should not have that level of control over her emotions.

  “You are coming with me.” Not only did Lava hold on tight, but he picked her up and held her against his chest so that they were face to face. “Kiss me, female.”

  Roxy pulled back, arching her back away from him. Her legs dangled. “No!” she yelled. “Let go of me!” She kicked and squirmed. It was Thunder all over again. The guy was going to plant one on her whether she liked it or not. “Let go.” She tried one last time. “Don’t you dare.”

  Lava wasn’t listening. His eyes blazed. His hold tightened. His eyes were on her lips.

  Roxy sighed. Then she kicked Lava square between the legs. He groaned, his eyes rolled back and he dropped her. Roxy tried to stay on her feet but ended up landing on her ass. She scrambled to her feet and headed towards Blaze’s office.

  Inferno laughed somewhere behind her, the sound quickly morphing into a groan. “Go get him, Roxy. Kick Blaze’s ass!”

  Get him. Hardly. She’d give him a piece of her mind and move on. She wouldn’t cry. She would definitely not shout or rant. She was going to be Miss Cool, Calm and Collected.

  Then she was out of there. She didn’t care about the two-week rule or any of that other stuff. If she protested loud enough, they would have to send her home. She picked up her pace. The thought of seeing Blaze and Sue together was too horrendous to comprehend. She couldn’t deal with it. Wouldn’t. Bile rose in her throat just thinking of how smug Sue would look on Blaze’s arm. She’d love every minute of Roxy’s misery, she was just that kind of person.

  Blaze wasn’t in his office. She went to his chamber. He’d better be there. Thankfully no one tried to stop her or talk to her, or sniff at her. They could probably sense how angry she was. Roxy had never been this mad before.

  The door was at an odd angle. She had to put her back into it to get it open.

  “What do you want?” Blaze growled. His eyes blazed and his muscles bunched. In short, he looked just as pissed as she was feeling.

  “So, you’ve already replaced me?” Roxy put her hands on her hips. “I’ve hardly even moved out and you have another woman all lined up.” She shook her head. “It seems I was very wrong about you. You really didn’t feel a thing for me, did you?”

  “You have no room to talk.” He took a step towards her. “We have one fight and you move in with my brother. My flesh and blood. You couldn’t have the king so what, you’d settle for a prince? I didn’t peg you for one of those gold-digging females. You said you weren’t the type to settle, it seems you lied about that too.”

  “Screw you,” she growled. “A fight… a fight? You make it sound like we had a little spat. You kicked me out. You told me that you felt nothing for me and that I was easily replaceable. You called what we had a mistake.”

  He folded his arms. “The biggest fucking mistake of my life and that’s saying something. I hope that you and Inferno will be very happy together.” He clenched his jaw, the muscles on either side of his neck roped.

  “You are such an asshole and so blind its crazy. The only reason I stayed and agreed to Inferno’s harebrained scheme was for you… you!” She screamed and pointed her finger at him. Damn, she was ranting. Roxy took a couple of deep breaths. “I was an idiot. The plan was to make you jealous, to force you into admitting that you… never mind, it doesn’t matter. I hope that you and Sue are very happy together. She’s not a very nice person so she’ll be perfect for you. There is no way a woman like her can ever love someone other than herself so she’s absolutely perfect when it comes to your rubbish terms.”

  “She is perfect for me.” Blaze seemed to relax. “More than perfect. She was exactly what I had in mind from the start. She’s the type of female I reminded myself I needed when you left last night. When I said I would replace you, it was with a female like her that I had in mind.”

  Stop wobbling lip. Eyes, don’t you dare cry. Don’t you dare! Roxy swallowed thickly and nodded. “I’m going now. I can’t believe I was so wrong about you.”

  “You weren’t wrong,” Blaze said, his eyes were focused on her, they were so intense that she couldn’t look away. “I was the one that was wrong. Sue came here. I let her in. I was so fucking angry with you.”

  Roxy wasn’t sure she wanted to hear this. She looked away, focusing on a broken table instead. It was in about eight pieces with wood chips lying all around it. There was also a massive hole in the wall, chunks of rock and a pile of sand on the floor below.

  “Sue left Lava as soon as she found out I had renounced you. She came to proposition me.”

  Roxy snorted. “I believe that.” Roxy kept on hearing the other woman’s words running through her mind.

  Blaze didn’t react to her outburst. “She wanted her and I to make a go of it with me.”

  “I get the picture.” No way, she couldn’t hear this all over again. Sue’s bragging had been bad enough.

  “Hear me out,” he paused. “I gave her the terms, only, I was way blunter than I had been with you. The terms were harsher. She agreed to everything. I could see that she was perfect… way more interested in being a queen than in the other bullshit.”

  “By bullshit, you’re referring to love. Not just love between the two people in the relationship but between a family. I’m done with this whole thing…” she began to walk to the door. “I can’t believe that you want a person like that anywhere near your kids… even worse, she would be a contributor to their DNA. I’m not saying this to try and change your mind about us. I—”

  “You’re right.” Blaze clutched her hand as she tried to walk past. “You were right about everything. I do have feelings for you… strong feelings. I thought I could push them aside. I thought I could continue with my plan and bring a female like Sue onboard… it had been my plan from the start. Having her here in my chamber… hearing her talk...” He ran a hand through his hair. “I realized that it’s not what I want. I realized what an idiot I had been. It was only once I gave her the terms and she accepted so wholeheartedly… unlike you did… It took me a while to figure out but I finally realized how much I fucking love you.”

  Roxy pulled her hand away. “Why did you agree to her staying on then? Why did you fuck her if you love me so much? Let me guess, it took screwing her to realize that you actually want me.”

  Blaze folded his arms, he clamped his mouth shut and gave a shake of the head, like he was pissed at her for being upset that he had slept with another woman.

  “If you really did love me, if you knew my feelings for you, then you must have realized why Inferno was fighting. I would never mess you around like that. I was trying to buy us time, trying to get you to stop with the denial. I couldn’t think of anything else at the time. Coal and Julie were a bit busy having a baby. I didn’t want fights to start breaking out but I couldn’t just leave… and do you know why I couldn’t just leave?” She pau
sed. “Because I was crazy enough to believe in us… but I can see that you don’t feel the same.” She laughed, sounding a tad hysterical. “I know you don’t feel the same because you would never have jumped into bed with Sue if you felt anything for me, even the tiniest little thing. You didn’t believe in us.” She said the last more for herself than for him. Her stupid sixth sense was still telling her that they belonged together. She was crazy. So gullible and stupid.

  Blaze shook his head. “I didn’t believe in us. I’m sorry, I should have.”

  “I don’t see how we can be together.” It hurt her so badly to say it, but it was true. It felt like he had cheated on her even though they had technically broken up at the time. Blaze wasn’t capable of love. He couldn’t be. She couldn’t be with someone like that.

  “I met a female a few years ago on one of the stag runs.” Blaze’s throat worked. “We clicked. I spent every minute with her that weekend. I did something we’re not supposed to do, I made arrangements to meet with her on the next run… and the next… and the next…” He rubbed a hand over his chin, the stubble catching.

  Why was he telling her all this? Now that it was too late. Roxy folded her arms across her chest and listened anyway. It wouldn’t make any difference.

  “I started going into town just to see her. I’d sneak away. It was completely against every rule in the book. I fell in love with her.”

  Roxy chewed on her lower lip. Was he trying to torture her?

  “I began to make elaborate plans. I was willing to do anything and everything to have her.” He paused. “I was even willing to give up the throne. Mating with a human was forbidden back then. My people began to talk amongst themselves. The other kings caught wind and called me out on it.” He licked his lips. “I wanted to try and keep my throne with her at my side but I needed time to convince the others, I needed time to find a way to make it happen. I went to see Terry-Ann. That was her name.”

  Roxy nodded, despite her rampant emotions, she found herself wanting to know what happened. Maybe knowing this about him would give her closure and help her forgive him and move on in the long run.

  “We agreed that I would be gone until the next stag run which was almost five months away. In that time, I would come up with a plan to ensure that we could be together. Failing that, I would leave my people, give everything up in order to be with her. It was difficult parting with her. Five months is a long time for lovers. I missed her every day. I already considered her to be my mate. There was no way for us to communicate during that time. I struggled through each day without her.” He paused. “About three months into our separation, two warriors from one of the other kingdoms took human females. It seemed that the time was right to introduce Terry-Ann as my female. It would be difficult for the others to stand against me. I was so excited. I couldn’t wait a second longer. I left for Walton Heights immediately to give her the good news. If they had done it, then so could I. It was the break that we had been looking for.”

  Blaze’s jaw tightened. He grabbed a handful of hair and tugged.

  “What happened?” Roxy asked.

  “She scented of another male. My Terry-Ann, my female had rutted with another male in my absence. She was shocked to see me. She swore that it had been a mistake, that it had only ever happened once but I could see that she was lying. Even if she wasn’t, she was mine and I was hers. I couldn’t come to terms with it. I had been willing to give up everything for her. My whole life, my family, my kingdom, everything… and she couldn’t stay faithful for a few months.”

  “I’m sorry that happened to you.” Her heart ached for him. “It doesn’t change things though. You gave up on us too easily. I feel like you betrayed me. I can’t be with you, Blaze.”

  “I didn’t give up on us.” He stepped forward and took her hands. Roxy wanted to pull away but she couldn’t. “As soon as I realized what a fool I was and how much I loved you, I told Sue that it wasn’t going to work. She spent the next few minutes trying to change my mind. All I could think of was you. I thought it was too late though. I thought you’d moved on.”

  Roxy tried to pull away but Blaze held on. “Why did you have sex with her? That’s the part I’m struggling with. Especially after you were betrayed. You wouldn’t kiss me yet you kissed her. You gave up on us so easily.” She took a deep breath as she realization dawned. “Oh god… you didn’t kiss her, did you? She lied about everything. You didn’t have sex with her either.” Roxy paused, her mind racing. “She’s such a bitch.”

  Blaze smiled. He shook his head. “I never kissed her. I wouldn’t rut that human if she was the last female on earth. She’s crazy. She tried to kiss me. Tried being the operative word. I was so busy devising a plan on how to get you back that I wasn’t paying much attention to her. I pushed her away and asked her to leave. She went on about us and how well we would work together… I just kicked her out.” He squeezed her hands a little tighter.

  “Here I was telling you that you had such little faith in us and I’m guilty of the same thing.” She put a hand over her mouth for a second. “I believed everything Sue said. I should never have done that. I’m an idiot. I—”

  “Stop.” Blaze looked her deep in the eyes. “I’m an idiot too. We’re both idiots. It’s what emotions do to a person, but I wouldn’t have it any other way because I love you, Roxy. I’m sorry it took me so long to realize it. I’m sorry I made you go through all this. You were right, I was scared shitless of getting my heart broken again.” He sucked in a deep breath. “Especially considering that my feelings for you way surpassed anything I ever felt for Terry-Ann. I’m sorry I was so quick to believe the worst but given my history, I hope you’ll understand where that stemmed from.”

  Roxy was too stunned to say anything.

  Blaze must have taken that the wrong way because he gave a small anguished growl and put his hands on her hips. “Please say something.”

  Roxy swallowed hard, trying not to cry. This time from happiness. “Um…” She licked her lips. Her eyes were filling with tears so she blinked.

  “About the note you left…shit Roxy, I hope you keep baking for me. I really hope so.”

  “No, you don’t.” She gave a half laugh. She’d left a note and the diamond earrings. The note had said that she wished he’d given her a chance to keep practicing making those chocolate chip cookies because she would’ve made the perfect batch one day. Even if it took ten years, twenty, she’d keep trying. She’d persevere. She wished that he had felt the same.

  “I don’t need a perfect batch of damn cookies, what I need is you. Although, I sure as hell hope you keep trying because that will mean that you are here, at my side. I promise to eat them all. Every last crumb, just tell me you’ll stay.” He looked so anguished. “I will never give up on us. We are meant to be, Roxy.”

  “You’ll eat every single cookie?”

  He smiled. “Every last fucking crumb. I swear.”

  “Now you’re talking like a crazy person.”

  “I believe in you, Roxy. I believe in us. I’m sorry I—”

  “Shhh.” she put her finger to his lips to shut him up. “I should never have believed that bitch, Sue. I’ll keep baking for you, even though I wouldn’t recommend you eat any of it. I love you, Blaze.”

  He smiled so broadly. His eyes lit up. Blaze put his arms around her. “Can we kiss and make up now?”

  “I thought you’d never offer. I—”

  “That was really touching,” a booming voice came from behind them.

  Roxy gasped and turned. It was Lava, his dark brown eyes looked black. “With all due respect, my lord, get your hands off my female.”

  “Fuck!” Blaze growled. “Inferno lost?”

  Roxy nodded and Blaze laughed. “Serves him right. Roxy wishes to be with me—”

  “I don’t give a fuck.” Lava clenched and unclenched his fists. “You renounced her, I won her fair and square.”

  “I love Blaze. We had a misunderstanding.”<
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  Inferno shook his head. “I won you, female, you must come with me.”

  Blaze huffed out a breath. “Don’t do this.”

  “I want my two weeks. I want my chance to change her mind.”

  “You heard us talking. You won’t change my mind,” Roxy spoke softly and carefully. Lava’s chest rose and fell in quick succession. Sue had done a number on the poor guy. His eyes had a wounded look. “I love Blaze.” As she spoke, he pulled her back against his chest. His warmth seeped into her. She couldn’t believe that he’d admitted to loving her, that Sue was lying… okay, that part was more than believable. “I love Blaze. It’ll be two wasted weeks.”

  “There is a stag run next week,” Blaze said. “Do you want to give up a chance to go on the run, for a female who wishes to mate another male because, make no mistake, I plan on mating this female as soon as possible… either today or one minute after the two weeks with you expire. She is mine.” He growled so hard his chest vibrated.

  “It’s not fair. I want another female in return.”

  “I can set you up with someone,” Roxy said.

  Blaze shifted behind her. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

  “Lauren, she’s my best friend, she would love you. You’re exactly her type.”

  Lava narrowed his eyes. “Is she curvy and lush like you?” He glanced at her boobs.

  Blaze growled.

  Roxy nodded. “Lauren has more curves. She’s very pretty.”

  “I’m interested,” Lava said as he looked over her shoulder at Blaze. “I wish to meet this female. If I like her, I want her to take part in the next hunt.”

  “I can’t promise—”

  “Why not?” Roxy knew she was being a bit bad asking but she had a feeling that Lauren and Lava would be great together. It wasn’t great that Lava was a bit on the rebound but it might just work.

  “I can’t just pull strings. Lava can’t have special privileges.”

  “You’re the king, that must come with some perks. Help Lava out. He had to deal with Sue. He just won me and lost me in a matter of a half an hour and I may or may not have kicked him in the balls.”