“How about tell me about it? That would’ve been a good place to start,” he snarled and advanced on her again, hurt at the thought she had kept this from him mingling with the pain caused by the thought she intended to betray him.
“I couldn’t!” she snapped and then her anger deflated and more tears tracked down her cheeks as she murmured, “I couldn’t. She told me not to. I wasn’t to say a word about it or they would kill him. I just had to do what I was told, and I didn’t know it was you and Rune they were after when they told me to call someone and bring them to a place they would give me later.”
His heart tried to soften, but Maverick steeled it, refusing to let her sway him. As far as he knew, this could all be an act and he had to treat it as one. She was still trying to get him to do as she wanted, trying to lure him into a trap.
“You told me you thought hunters had your brother. Surely that counted as telling me?” Maverick glared at her.
“I was afraid to tell you even that much. I tried to tell you about what was happening in a way I felt wouldn’t make them kill my brother. I tried.”
He scoffed at that. “We’re in the middle of nowhere, Winnie. You could have told us. No one would have known.”
“You don’t know that!” she barked, her eyes wild as she looked around her. “They could be listening even now. There are things you can do with phones and electronic devices that turn them into microphones for people to listen to… or they could have a drone. This is Archangel we’re talking about!”
He hadn’t known about the whole listening in through devices thing, but it wasn’t an excuse for what she had done.
“There’s a thing called pen and paper. You could’ve written it down. If you cared about me and Rune at—”
Fire flared in her eyes.
“Don’t! Don’t even talk like that. I was scared, Maverick! I am scared. They have my brother and if I don’t do this…” The fire in her eyes went out just like that, replaced with hurt and despair that tore at him as she whispered, “I’m sorry. I know I’m being selfish. I’m sorry.”
She ran for the door.
No fucking way he was letting her run away from him or from what she had done.
He went after her, caught up with her on the steppingstones and grabbed her when she reached the other side. He growled as he tightened his grip on her arm and yanked her to face him.
“I can’t believe you’d do such a thing to me… to Rune… after everything we did for you!” he snarled in her face, his bear side restless and agitated, pushing for control.
Tears streamed down her face as she yelled, “You think I don’t feel terrible about this? That this isn’t killing me? Rune is like a brother to me and you—”
“Me?” he snapped. “What about me?”
Maverick wanted to know why she had cut herself off, some desperate part of him needing to know how she saw him. As a brother too? Or something else?
“And you…” Her face crumpled again as she tried to twist her arm free, her fight leaving her again. “You’re hurting me.”
“What the hell is going on?” Rune’s deep voice had Winnie trying to look over her shoulder in his direction.
Maverick tugged her back to face him, his fingers pressing into her arm, because he was damned if she was going to look to the black bear for help. She was going to tell him what she had refused to say.
Rune slowed to a walk as he looked at Maverick’s hand where he gripped her arm. “Let her go.”
Maverick bared fangs at him, warning him to back off. Instinct pressed him to fight the male, to lash out at him and unleash the pent-up aggression that was ripping him apart, had him on the verge of doing something wretched, like hurting the female.
Not just any female.
It was Winnie’s arm in his bruising grip.
His beautiful Winnie who had betrayed him and Rune, and was now on the receiving end of his anger.
Rune scowled at his hand and Maverick looked there, saw how fiercely he was holding her, his fingers pressed deep into her skin, bruising her. Gods, he was a monster.
But he couldn’t convince himself to release her.
Pain cleaved his heart in two, cut him up into tiny pieces as he looked into her eyes.
“I can’t believe you lied to me, Bronwyn. Was everything a lie?” he whispered, useless tears threatening to burn the backs of his eyes as he looked down at her, as the anger in her eyes morphed into hurt that echoed inside him.
She knew what he was asking, and some foolish part of him wanted to believe that look in her eyes that said it hadn’t all been a lie—she had meant that kiss.
But he couldn’t.
“Release her, Maverick.” Saint stopped close to him and when he didn’t loosen his hold on her, the big brunet bear grabbed his hand and prised it from her delicate arm. Saint turned to her. “Go to my cabin.”
She shook her head, sending tears tumbling down her cheeks, and fought for air as she looked at Maverick, right into his eyes. Her brow furrowed, despair crossing her honey-coloured eyes again, and then she stormed away from him. His gaze tracked her as she headed up the creek.
His heart hurt for a different reason as she sank to her backside near the water, buried her head in her knees, and shook with each heaving sob that wracked her.
A need to go to her filled him.
Maverick resisted it. She had lied to him. She had lied to all of them. She meant his pride harm and he couldn’t forgive her for that. Nothing between them had been real.
“Want to explain what that was all about?” Rune took a cautious step towards him.
Maverick pulled down a breath to steady the side of himself that wanted a fight and clenched his fists at his sides. “She lied to us. I heard her talking to hunters. They have her brother and did some video call with her before, gave her my number and that’s why she called me. She was going to hand us over to the hunters in exchange for her brother, Rune. Both of us. Back in that hell. She was going to send us back there.”
And he hated her for it.
He hated her for hurting him.
He had trusted her and she had betrayed him.
Saint glared at her. “Last night, when I brought up hunters, she looked afraid when we talked about the Archangel HQ in Vancouver. Do you think she knew her brother is being held there?”
Maverick shook his head as he remembered how she had reacted. She had been distraught and now he knew why. She thought her brother was being held there, tortured and experimented on by the hunters.
“She mentioned a cell. Told me that they had shown her brother in one being hurt by a hunter. She was told to call a number and lure them to the hunters, and told not to reveal what she was doing.” Maverick huffed as he looked at her, some of his anger abating as she remained with her head buried in her knees as she clung to them. “She claims that she wanted to tell us and she said as much as she could. Made up some crap about drones and thinking Archangel were using her devices to spy on her.”
“It’s possible.” Saint worried his lower lip with his thumb as he frowned at the pebbles. “They could have access to her phone.”
“She has a laptop too. Mentioned she saved the video on it.” Maverick looked over his shoulder towards the cabin. “It’s on the coffee table.”
Saint nodded and crossed the creek, leaving him alone with Rune.
Maverick dragged a hand down his face. “I can’t believe she did this to us.”
“I know you’re angry. I’m angry too… but…” Rune looked off to his left, towards Winnie, the hard edge to his expression softening as he gazed at her. “Maybe go a little easier on her? I mean… If she’s telling the truth about the video and the hunters… It’s her brother, Maverick. What would you do if someone you loved was being held by hunters?”
Maverick hardened his heart, refusing to soften like Rune was. He couldn’t forgive her as easily as the black bear. He wouldn’t. Her lies and betrayal had cut him too deeply.
�
��She’s been playing me from the start,” he growled and glared at her. “From the second I picked up that phone. All those smiles. Those soft looks. That kiss. It was all a fucking lie… an act.”
“Winnie kissed you?” Rune’s face blackened.
“Last night, when she was drunk… which was probably just another act. She knew exactly what she had been doing… how to make me do whatever she wanted.” And it hurt. He was a no-good son of a bitch who got angry too easily and liked fighting far too much, but he wasn’t a liar.
He stared at her, feeling as if he no longer knew her. The Bronwyn he had known wouldn’t have done this to him. She wouldn’t have manipulated someone in such a wretched way, using their feelings against them.
“Maverick,” Rune started, stealing his focus away from her.
Maverick frowned when his friend looked torn about something. “What?”
Rune scrubbed a hand over his close-cropped brown hair, heaved a sigh that stretched his black T-shirt tight across his chest, and then dropped his hand to his side.
“I shouldn’t say this. It really isn’t my place… but Winnie has always had a crush on you.” Rune glanced at her, a distant and troubled look in his eyes. “And I think it became something more over the years. She loves you, Maverick.”
He could only stare at Rune as those words hit him, as a chill skated down his spine and his mind emptied. Winnie was in love with him? He found that even harder to believe than the fact she had lied to him and had intended to lure him back into the hell of the cages.
Every smile, every look, she had given him over the last few days played out in his mind, from last night to the moment he had set eyes on her again. And then he went further back, recalling the way she had looked at him from time to time when they had been together at the compound.
Remembering how hurt she had looked when Andrew had insisted they went back to Whistler, refusing Saint’s offer to join his pride.
He searched for something to say, his thoughts twisting and tangling, that knot in his chest pulling tight again.
Rune sighed. “I’m not happy about what she did, but imagine how it’s been making her feel. I know Winnie… We both do… This is probably destroying her.”
Maverick knew it was. He could feel it in her even at this distance. He could sense how carved up she was by what she had done, by how angry he was with her, and by the thought of her brother in the hands of the monsters at Archangel.
Her shoulders shook as she cried and he looked away from her as she lifted her head and checked her arm. Guilt churned his stomach, had him avoiding looking at her and Rune. He had been rough with her, blinded by anger, and gods, if she hated him now, he deserved it.
Saint returned with an open laptop in his hands. “You might want to see this.”
His alpha turned the device towards him and Rune and pressed a button, and Maverick forced himself to watch the video, to listen to Winnie as she desperately tried to convince the hunters not to hurt her brother. The pain in her voice, her obvious distress, cut him up inside and had his gaze shifting back to her.
He exchanged a look with Rune, deeply aware of what he needed to do.
“I’m coming with you,” Rune said.
“If you’re going, then I’m going too.” Callie came up beside her mate, her amber eyes bright with a need to fight. When Rune gave her a black look, she smiled sheepishly. “I might have been listening in.”
“You’re not coming with us.” Rune held his hand up when she went to protest. “It isn’t that I think you’re not strong enough… It’s because I can’t lose you. I can’t risk you, Callie.”
“Neither of you are coming.” Maverick shook his head when Rune turned a scowl on him instead. “Someone needs to stay here at the Ridge. If she’s right and Archangel can track her devices, then there’s a chance they know where she is. They know where we are.”
Saint growled at that. “No one is raiding my pride. I’ll alert everyone, including the cougars, and if Archangel dare come here, they’ll be coming to their deaths.”
Maverick looked off to his left, to Bronwyn, the need to go to her too strong to deny now. Nerves had him pulling down deep breaths as he walked away from the others, heading for her. If she lashed out at him, he wouldn’t try to stop her from hitting him. He deserved her wrath.
And if she hated him now, he deserved that too.
He still couldn’t believe that she loved him.
Had loved him anyway.
Before he had shown her what a monster he was.
She lifted her head as he neared her and looked at him. He cursed himself as he saw the fear in her reddened eyes, saw the hurt he had caused her, and looked at her arm. The bruise on it was already dark, clearly marking where he had gripped her too tightly.
She looked there too, skimmed her hand over it and pulled the sleeve of her purple sweater down, covering it as she sighed.
He halted near her and willed her to look at him, but she kept her eyes firmly locked on the pebbles.
Maverick swallowed hard and wrestled with himself, trying to find the right words to say to make everything better, even when part of him felt nothing he could say would be adequate to make her forgive him.
He heaved a sigh when nothing came to him and sat beside her instead, bent his knees and rested his forearms on them.
Stared at the water.
And then at her.
She glanced at him, the fear gone from her eyes, but the hurt lingered.
“I’ll help you,” he husked, holding her gaze. “We’ll get your brother back.”
Her face softened, a light entering her honey-coloured irises as she looked at him, pushing out the hurt.
He looked away from her, because he didn’t deserve that look. She was looking at him as if he was a saviour again, when he had proven himself a monster. She knew him now. There was no more hiding things from her. She knew the kind of male he was, the things he was capable of, and she would distance herself.
And he couldn’t blame her.
He stiffened as she pitched towards him and leaned her head against his bare arm, her hair soft and teasing his skin as her warmth seeped into him.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I never wanted to hurt you.”
His heart drummed a sickening rhythm against his chest as a feeling ran through him, one that felt impossible even when the evidence of it was right there before him.
She wasn’t going to distance herself.
“Was any of the last few days a lie?” His voice sounded tight in his ears, strained as he waited impatiently to hear the answer to that question.
She gave a small shake of her head, rubbing against his arm. “No.”
He felt her nerves.
Or was that his nerves?
“When you… ah… kissed me…” He couldn’t bring himself to say anything more than that.
She lifted her head and gazed up at him, her eyes soft and warm, filled with affection and a hint of fear.
Did she really love him?
There was one way of finding out.
He cupped her nape.
Pulled her to him.
And kissed her.
Chapter 12
Bronwyn was spinning as Maverick kissed her, unable to keep up with what was happening. One moment it had looked as if he would never want to talk to her again and the next his mouth was on hers. She wasn’t sure what to make of it. She wasn’t sure what to make of him.
Part of her was angry with him for the way he had held her, bruising her, but the rest of her was angry at herself. He was right. She should have trusted him. She should have found a way to tell him what was happening rather than bottling it up, living in ridiculous fear of the hunters somehow discovering she had warned him. Maverick was strong, capable, and if anyone could find a way to help her without giving away that he knew what the hunters were up to, it was him.
Instead, she had lied to him and he had every right to be angry with her about it, to
hate her for what she had done and what she had been planning to do.
He drew back just as she began kissing him, desperate to lose herself in it and put everything behind her, to forget their argument and that sense she had come close to destroying her chances with him.
His grey eyes dropped to her arm and the black slashes of his eyebrows furrowed as he stared at it, his gaze drilling into the spot where he had gripped her.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, his voice scraping low, filled with the hurt that shone in his eyes as he lifted them from her arm to lock with hers. “I’m… I’m no good for you. I think I just proved that… showed you what a monster I am… and… I hate it.”
He looked away from her and sighed, his broad bare shoulders heaving with it as he gazed off into the distance, an air about him that she didn’t like. His thoughts were treading dark, despondent paths. It wasn’t the first time he had been like this around her. Several times over the last few days he had withdrawn from her like this, bringing up an invisible barrier between them, and she knew why.
Maverick was struggling to see his worth, to believe he deserved a better life than the one he’d had back at the compound, where they had made him feel he was a beast, a male only good enough for the cages and entertaining others by spilling blood and taking punishing blows.
She looked at his hand as he placed it gently on her arm over the bruise, his profile still to her, a faraway look etched on his handsome face.
Bronwyn placed hers over it as she thought about what Rune had told her, held back a melancholy smile when Maverick tensed and glanced at her, a shocked edge to his eyes, one that told her he couldn’t believe she would touch him like this after what he had done.
How little he thought of himself.
How had she failed to notice it before?
Maturing in the compound, in the arena, had done some serious psychological damage to Maverick, and that look in his eyes said he knew it. He knew what the cage had made him and he believed he would never overcome it.
Awakened by her Bear (Black Ridge Bears Shifter Romance Series Book 5) Page 10