Bronwyn pressed a hand to her stomach as it churned, as her heart raced and she struggled for air. She had never felt so wretched. So evil. Maverick and Rune were still trying to overcome their past and here she was planning to plunge them back into that hell.
“I thought you’d… I thought things would be better now… for both of you.” She set her mug down, no longer in the mood for coffee.
“This isn’t something we can just put behind us, Winnie.” Rune opened the door and stepped towards it, breathed deep as cold air rushed into the room. His eyes closed and his features slackened, and she ached as she looked at him and realised he needed to feel the air on his face, on his skin, because he needed to remind himself he was free of that wretched place. “I’m coping better than Mav… I think. He matured in that compound… in that arena. Fighting is all he really knows. It’s how he copes with everything. Life has been difficult for him since we left that place.”
He turned towards her, his eyes opening and locking on hers, the look in them stilling her right down to her breathing.
“If you’re here to act on the feelings you have for Maverick—”
“Feelings?” she blurted, tried to line up a denial and faltered.
“I told you, Winnie. I noticed everything about you. I’m not blind. Maverick might be, but I’m not. I always saw the way you looked at him. He’s been through a lot—”
“I know that!” she snapped, her pulse thundering as nerves rushed through her, colliding with fear and shock, and disgust at herself. She wanted to scream at him to stop talking about how much they had been through, wanted to break down and confess the real reason she was here. She wanted to tell him that she would never hurt Maverick, but how could she when she was here to do just that? Instead of everything she wanted to say, she put something out there that she had held locked inside her for as long as she could remember. “You’re right. I have a crush on Maverick. I think I’ve had it since the moment I met him. You can’t tell him. Please, Rune? It’s not the reason I’m here. I swear. I know he doesn’t feel the same way. I’m not even on his radar. I’m just a little sister to him.”
And gods, it hurt to think that, to put it out there and realise it was the truth.
She was always going to be little freckled-face Winnie the Pooh to Maverick.
Rune placed his mug down next to hers. “How long ago did you mature? Two… maybe three years?”
“Three,” she muttered, her heart too heavy for her to put any strength into her voice as she thought about Maverick, as she realised he was never going to look at her in the way she wanted.
“I’ll keep your secret, but in return I want to know something. Is it still a crush or did it become something more when you matured?”
She jerked her head up, her gaze colliding with his. “What do you mean by that?”
Rune stepped towards the door, stopped at the start of the deck, and stared at the world.
“Take a good hard look at your feelings before Maverick comes back and you see him again, and ask yourself something.”
He looked back at her.
“What does it feel like when you find your fated mate?”
Chapter 7
Bronwyn wasn’t sure how long she had been sitting on the top step of the deck, staring at the river and the cabins on the other side—not seeing them. Her gaze was turned inwards; her mind fixated on mulling over what Rune had said and the reason she was here.
She couldn’t do this.
Even when she knew she had to.
Failure wasn’t really an option.
She had to hurt one person she loved or the other.
But how was she supposed to decide between them?
Movement far off to her right caught her attention and her gaze shifted there, locking on the male striding along the pebbly shore on the other side of the creek. Sunlight shimmered across his damp bare chest, the powerful muscles of his arms tensing as he flexed his fingers around the shirt he gripped in his left hand. He didn’t seem to notice her, but gods, she noticed him.
She wanted to growl at the sight of Maverick, wanted to stake a claim on him and drive every female in the vicinity away from him, even the mated ones.
Could Maverick be her one true mate?
His grey eyes remained firmly locked on his cabin as his long black jean-clad legs chewed up the distance between him and it, but as soon as he was in line with her, his head swivelled towards her.
Her entire body seemed to sing in response to him looking at her, had her heart fluttering in her throat as his gaze seared her and her blood heating to boiling point.
Maverick shifted course, not slowing his pace as he strode towards her, every muscle on his torso shifting in a symphony that had her body singing his praises. She had seen him shirtless before, but it had never hit her like this, triggering urges that were strong and startling, came dangerously close to wrenching control from her.
Water surged around his legs as he waded into the creek, not bothering with the steppingstones, making him look like something out of one of her fantasies as he prowled towards her, looking wild and wickedly alluring.
Only he was very real.
She was deeply aware of that as he stopped in the middle of the river, knee-deep in water, and bent over, dunked his shirt into the creek and used it to wash himself off.
Her mouth dried out.
Bronwyn stared hard as he ran the damp shirt over his body, the water glistening as it caught the sunlight, the sight of glittering droplets clinging to his honed muscles sending her temperature soaring. When he bent and scooped water over his head, straightened and ran his free hand over the tousled black lengths of his hair as rivulets trickled over the sculpted planes of his face, she was done for.
Her dreams were going to be seriously different from this point forward, would always start with this moment as it seared itself on her mind.
Maverick waded towards her, picked up pace again as he reached the shore, his clear grey eyes intense as he locked them on her again.
A shiver rolled through her.
If she hadn’t already been in love with him, she might have fallen for him in this moment. Heck, she thought she might have fallen in love with him all over again her heart was beating so fast, her palms damp and nerves rising as he closed the distance between them.
He ran a hand over his hair again, squeezing more water from it. She followed a rivulet that ran down his neck and over his collarbone, and then darted down the broad slabs of his pectorals.
“You settle in all right?” His deep voice rolled over her, swept her away and had her gaze leaping back up to meet his.
She forced a nod. If he was expecting her to be able to make small talk while he was standing half-naked before her, he was going to find out very quickly that she was incapable of speaking right now. The sight of him was addling her mind, had her gaze constantly dropping to take in his glorious bare torso. She wanted to growl at just the sight of him, was battling a fierce need to stand and bare fangs as some deep primal instinct roared at her to dominate him.
To push him into reacting.
Heat rolled through her as she mulled over what Rune had said to her again and studied how she felt as Maverick towered before her, so temptingly close to her.
“Got everything you need?” He slung his wet shirt over his shoulder and held it there, his biceps tensing and his corded forearm flexing as he gripped it.
She nodded again.
Was sorely tempted to shake her head and tell him she didn’t have everything she needed.
Because she didn’t have him.
And gods, she needed him.
“Not very talkative today. Thoughts got your tongue all tied up?” He eased another step closer, concern emerging in his eyes as he ran them over her.
“No.” She pushed that word out. “Yes. A little.”
Not a lie. She was thinking about him, about the wicked urges he ignited in her, and it had her speechless.
When he looked as if he might leave, she panicked and went from not being able to talk to not being able to shut up in the blink of an eye.
“Rune dropped by. He brought me coffee, which I badly needed, and said his mate might have something I could wear when the air is chilly.” She picked at her jeans and tried not to lower her gaze to his chest, but her eyes betrayed her, swiftly took in the broad slabs of his pectorals and the way his abs flexed with each breath before leaping back up to meet his. “He mentioned you’d gone running.”
Maverick almost smiled. “Yeah. I had too much energy. Needed to work some off. I wanted to drop in on Misty too.”
Bronwyn growled.
It came out of nowhere.
Startled her.
And Maverick too judging by the way his grey eyes widened slightly.
Because she had threatened him.
Because he had mentioned a decidedly feminine name and the look in his eyes had been warm, affectionate, and her bear side had immediately grown restless, thoughts that he might have a female triggering a need to fight that went beyond a primal need to dominate him. She wanted to fight him, to make him submit to her and admit that he belonged to her.
“Misty is a black bear.” Maverick said each word slowly, as if he was choosing his words carefully, or maybe he was just feeling her out, studying how she responded to that.
“Like me?” She was a black bear.
Maverick was a grizzly.
Not that it mattered.
Her fated mate could be anything from a human to a fallen angel.
“Not like you.” Maverick came and leaned against the post of the railing beside her, a smile in his eyes but not on his lips. “Misty and Brook are the animal sort. They’re sisters that Rune took in as cubs, raised them when their mother was callously shot by hunters while sleeping in their winter den.”
“That’s terrible.” Her brow furrowed, her heart going out to the twin bears as the raging need to dominate Maverick swiftly faded, a calm replacing it as her bear side settled, satisfied that Maverick hadn’t been with another female. “Hunters suck. All kinds of them. Just like Rune to take on being their father though.”
“He does make a good dad.” Maverick finally smiled, his whole face lighting up with it, and her heart skipped a beat as it hit her and had desire pulsing in powerful waves through her. “Always taking cubs under his wing.”
She smiled too, but it wobbled as nerves got the better of her, as she looked into Maverick’s eyes and wondered what he had made of her outburst. She had threatened him, over a female, something she had never done before. Could she blame her overactive hormones? She was still riding out the effects of maturing, finding her balance. It seemed like a reasonable excuse to her.
Maverick twisted and planted his back against the post, so close to her that her arm would brush his hand if she leaned a little to her left. He crossed his feet at his ankles and sighed as he stared across the river, towards the five cabins situated there.
His scent swirled around her, rich and earthy, cedar laced with a faint undernote of smoke. Her gaze drifted to him again, drawn to him against her will, and she gazed up at him, heat blooming in her veins as her senses locked onto him. The temptation to lean towards him and close the distance between them down to nothing was tremendous, almost hijacked control of her. Fear of what might happen held her back.
What if she made a move and he rejected her? What if she brushed his skin with hers and he only looked horrified? Nerves were swift to rise inside her as she lowered her gaze to his arm, as she battled to find the courage to do something and fought to hold herself back at the same time. She stood on a precipice, afraid of what might happen if she tried to turn their friendship into something more. She didn’t want to ruin things between them.
She looked up at his face, her eyes tracing his profile, putting every sculpted plane to memory all over again.
When they reached the strong line of his jaw, she couldn’t help but notice the tiny number and letter inked on the back of his neck.
223-B.
A number given to him when he had been captured and had entered the hunter compound.
She swallowed hard at the reminder of what he had been through, lifted her hand and placed it over her own number as guilt churned inside her again, the peace she had been feeling shattering as reality came flooding back in.
She wasn’t here as his friend, or to see if they could be something more.
She was here to hurt him. To betray him.
Her gaze dropped to her knees as shame rolled over her, as a desperate need to confess everything surged through her, battering her resolve, pulling her between admitting the reason she was here and keeping silent to protect her brother.
Maverick’s gaze landed on her. Seared her. Worsened the ache in her chest and her stomach as it lingered.
“It’s nice he has Callie now.” Those words were quiet as they left his lips, a distant edge to them that had her wanting to ask what he was thinking and gave her the impression his mind was traversing the same route as hers had been.
What it would be like to have a mate of her own.
But there was something else she sensed in him that had her asking a different question, a tension that had an obvious cause, at least to her.
“He’s not going to just forget about you, Maverick. Having a mate doesn’t change someone that much. You’re his best friend.”
He huffed and cast a look at her. “That obvious, huh?”
To her it was.
She nodded and gave a small shrug. “I’d be feeling the same way if my brother found his mate… or maybe I feel that way already. He spends so much time in Vancouver these days.”
Maverick’s gaze lingered on her face as she looked across the creek, her chest hurting as she thought about her brother.
“You should have come to live here instead. Been worried about you for twenty years, thinking I’ll never see you again, and now here you are.” He planted his hand on the top of her head as she looked up at him, warmth in his grey eyes as he looked down at her, and she frowned as he ruffled her hair. “I missed you, Bronwyn.”
Shock and heat rolled through her as she saw in his eyes that he meant that, that he had been thinking about her while they had been apart and that he had missed her.
He stilled, his hand lingering in her hair, his eyes locked with hers.
She tried to think of something to say as he shifted his gaze to his hand and then back to meet hers, an awkward look blooming in his eyes, as if he had just realised what he had done and what he had said.
Felt that he had said too much.
When he hadn’t said nearly enough.
She needed to know how he felt about her, needed to know if he would ever come to look at her as a woman, someone he could love, or whether he would always view her as a sister.
“I better hit the shower.” He backed away from her, his hand slipping from her hair, and turned before she could stop him. “Swing by later. We’ll talk about your trouble.”
Bronwyn stared at his back as he hurried across the steppingstones, making a fast exit.
The trouble she really needed to talk about was something she couldn’t discuss with him.
Rune was right.
Maverick was her fated male.
Chapter 8
Maverick had been on edge since he had made the mistake of going to see Bronwyn. He should have continued to his cabin and cleaned himself off and dressed, should have done any number of things differently rather than going straight to her. The way she had looked at him, openly eyeing his body with a flicker of heat in her eyes, had set his blood on fire and roused a wild need inside him, one that had threatened to steal control of him more than once.
That hunger had only worsened when he had touched her hair. The feel of the silken strands against his palm was branded on his mind now, had been filling his head with thoughts of sifting h
is fingers through the gold and chestnut strands. How would she have reacted? Would she have welcomed his caress?
He swigged his beer—his second of the night. The first he had downed in a heartbeat, needing to take the edge off. A shot of whiskey had preceded that beer. Drinking wasn’t going to solve anything though. He still couldn’t stop thinking about her, couldn’t shut down that part of his mind that was fixed on her, or the part of him that was constantly waiting for her to make an appearance.
Rune was saying something, and he tried to focus on his friend, tried to pay attention to the conversation he was supposed to be having with him and Callie, but the whole of him was locked on the world around him, his senses stretched as far as he could reach them.
Waiting.
His heart drummed hard; a pounding beat that filled his ears and echoed nerves he couldn’t shake.
Callie swept her hand over Rune’s shoulder, fingers lightly stroking his muscles through his black T-shirt. The two of them were dressing like a couple these days, preferring a matching jeans and T-shirt combo.
Rune glanced down at her legs. “I’m still calling that a crime against good jeans.”
The wolf looked down at her black denim shorts and pulled a face. “I like them. It’s not like it’s the only pair of jeans I had.”
“I bought them. I should get a say in their fate,” Rune grunted.
Callie rolled her amber eyes, sighed and looked at Maverick. “What do you think of them?”
Maverick held his hands up. “I have no opinion. I don’t want to get into a fight tonight. No way I’m looking at your legs.”
“You wouldn’t cut your jeans into shorts?” She glanced at his legs, earning a growl from her mate.
“Gods, no.” Maverick frowned at her and took another long pull on his beer. He tended to feel the cold, preferred to keep himself wrapped up, even in summer. Shorts were out of the question.
“Amen to that.” Rune tilted his beer towards Maverick and tapped it against his bottle.
Callie pulled a face. “You two are far too similar at times. You’re sure you’re not brothers?”
Awakened by her Bear (Black Ridge Bears Shifter Romance Series Book 5) Page 6