Bearing Armen - Book Three

by Brenna Lyons

  She wrapped her arms around his neck, nodding in relief.

  “Tell me. You have to tell me everything. After that, we’ll call Corwyn.”

  She shook her head. “No. He’ll...he’ll...” Alyssa didn’t know what he’d do, and she didn’t want to find out.

  “He’ll protect you as you should have been protected in our world.”

  “Promise me. I don’t know much, but I know you’re supposed to keep your vows.”

  “I’ll take a blood oath on it, if you want me to. Bear will protect your rights, and so will I.” His eyes widened. “Tell me when he’s here.”

  “I don’t—”

  “I will not make you do this twice.”

  “All...all right.”

  “You’ll tell us?” he asked.

  “Yes. I’ll tell you.”

  * * * *

  Daniel resisted the urge to pace the floor. Alyssa’s nerves were strung tight enough; he wouldn’t make it worse if he could help it.

  When the knock came at the door, he didn’t jump up. Instead, he kissed Alyssa’s hair and rose slowly, padding to it on bare feet.

  Bear looked grim, more serious than Daniel had seen him in months, hunting or playing. “She’s told you?”

  “Enough. I waited for you to get the full story. I...don’t want to make her do this twice. Not for me.”

  “Good choice. May I?”

  Daniel waved him in, locking the door behind them.

  Alyssa’s eyes darted from Bear to the kitchen, and she looked ready to bolt.

  Daniel returned to her side, drawing her to his chest and offering the comfort of his arms. “I told you. You have nothing to fear from us. You should never have had to fear Warriors.”

  Bear’s eyebrows rose at that. “Fear? Who did you fear?”

  Alyssa took a deep breath and began calmly. “Tim Ar—”

  “No,” Daniel interrupted her. “Start at the beginning. Start with Tom.”

  “But, I didn’t—” She halted, swallowing hard. “I guess I did, at first. Warriors aren’t... But, that’s not true of all of you, is it?”

  Bear looked to Daniel in confusion. “Aren’t what?”

  Daniel forced the words out through gritted teeth. “Stable men.”

  His cousin settled into the easy chair, leaning forward, his elbows on his knees. “Go on. Tom saved you.”

  Daniel grimaced at the false calm Bear was offering. He was simmering beneath the surface, his Blutjagd burning lightly.

  Alyssa took a calming breath. “He escorted me back to my hotel. Said I shouldn’t be alone while I was so upset. On the way, we stopped for drinks. I probably drank too much, but when you’ve just been attacked by a mythical creature...” She darkened considerably.

  “Perfectly reasonable choice, actually,” Bear inserted. “Scott drank half a bottle of Beam after his first beast.”

  “Ouch,” Daniel commented, visualizing a hung-over Warrior. It wasn’t a pretty visualization.

  “Anyway,” she hedged. “He took me to my room and...”

  “You had sex,” Bear interjected, probably hoping to save her embarrassment.

  “Slow down, Bear,” Daniel requested. “You forgot a step.”

  His cousin shot him a look of confusion that melted into horror.

  Daniel nodded once. “Tell us, Alyssa.”

  “He started touching my hair, leaning close to me, telling me about your...drives.”

  “What about our drives?” Bear asked, red-faced.

  “How you need sex to stay sane and—”

  Bear shot to his feet, and Alyssa pulled her legs up, all but vaulting from Daniel’s arms. Daniel shot a look that he hoped promised death at him, soothing her. Dear Ani, didn’t Bear have more sense than that?

  Bear stared at her, his fists unclenching. “She really fears us, doesn’t she?”

  “Acutely.”

  “My apologies,” Bear stated, regaining his calm. It seemed he was too disconcerted to maintain a Blutjagd anymore.

  “Do you want me to do this alone and give you the highlights?” Daniel offered. “If you’re going to do that every time she—”

  “There’s more? Like that, I mean?”

  Daniel nodded. Alyssa sank further into his embrace, holding her breath.

  Bear dropped into the chair again, shaking his head. “No. I better hear this from the source.”

  “Go on,” Daniel instructed.

  Alyssa didn’t relax her position. “He started to kiss me, and...” Her brow furrowed. “And he kept saying I was made to be his mate. I thought it was an inventive come-on line, and it worked.”

  “So, he asked you to...go to bed with him?” Bear asked delicately.

  “No. It just sort of happened. We were kissing and then we were... Well, you know what I mean.”

  Bear met Daniel’s eyes. “And you were drunk. Tom got you drunk first?”

  “Yes.”

  Bear didn’t need to state the obvious. Tom had convinced her to willingness. “Go on.”

  “I woke up in the morning: hung-over, aching, and—”

  “Aching?” they asked together.

  A lover must always be treated kindly and with respect. What did Tom do?

  “He... He was rather vigorous, much more than I was used to at the time.” She cleared her throat. “Tom was still there, and he was still telling me that he’d do anything to make me his bride.”

  Bear winced. “He told you that you would be? He didn’t ask you to be?”

  “Not then. He was adamant that it was going to happen, though he conceded that it wouldn’t be that day.”

  “Why did he concede?”

  “It may have had something to do with me telling him to leave. He... It’s safe to say that he made me really uncomfortable. It just sounded...”

  “Insane?” Bear offered.

  “Yes. Insane. So, I asked him to leave. He scowled, but he left.”

  Daniel couldn’t bear it; he had to say something or he’d lose his mind. “You told him to leave you alone? That you had no intention of sealing printing with him? And he pursued you further?”

  She tipped her head back and nodded, her eyes pleading with him. “Three days later, he showed up here to—”

  “Here? At this house?”

  Bear motioned for him to calm down. “We already knew he came here,” he reasoned.

  “I know. I just...” Hadn’t realized he’d shared that bed with her? Why the hell did that hurt so much? It shouldn’t.

  Alyssa shifted, looking toward Bear again. “He told me that he needed me, that having me would keep him sane and—”

  “He wasn’t sane then,” Daniel grumbled.

  Bear sighed. “Do you want me to do this and give you the highlights?” he asked pointedly.

  “Hell, no.”

  “Then shut up. Go on, Alyssa.”

  “Well... Um... I admit I was unsure. The idea that he needed me to—”

  Daniel’s Blutjagd ignited and Bear shot him a look of warning.

  “—stay sane bothered me on a lot of levels, but there was something sad and poignant about the situation. I told him we’d discuss it. I didn’t want to dismiss him without giving him a chance to explain. It was so vital to him. I should... I felt I should at least hear him out.”

  “Did you?” Bear asked. “Did you discuss it?”

  “No. We didn’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Tom... He had a way of avoiding discussing it with me by seducing me. He was so good at it, I was fired for missing work.”

  Silence fell so completely that Alyssa’s nervous wiggling was the loudest noise in the room.

  Bear cleared his throat. “How long did Tom Armen spend in your home?”

  “Three days. When I got fired, he convinced me to head off to the country with him for a few weeks.”

  “Convinced?” Daniel croaked.

  “He...um...did have a way about him.” She looked away, biting her lower lip.
>
  Daniel pressed her cheek to his chest, offering the circle of his body as protection. “You have nothing to be ashamed of,” he assured her. “I told you that we consider convincing a woman taking away her right to choose freely.” He found he couldn’t continue.

  Bear steered the conversation back on course. “Tom took you to the cabin in Utah, and you sealed.” His cousin’s eyes narrowed as Daniel’s Blutjagd spiked. “On second thought, tell me about the seal.”

  Alyssa fisted her hand against Daniel’s chest. “I don’t really remember it. I mean... I know when it happened, but I don’t really...”

  “Don’t what, Alyssa?” Bear prodded her.

  “Remember...agreeing to it.”

  Daniel fought back the urge to put his fists through something. This house meant too much to her to destroy it in anger, and he would show her self-control if it killed him. She’d had too little of that from Warriors so far.

  “Did Tom ask you?” Bear continued, trying to dissect precisely what his crime had been.

  “I imagine so. He asked every time. He pleaded with me, actually.”

  “Every time? Every time, what, Alyssa?”

  “We... Every time we made love. We’d start and... He’d tell me how much he needed me to agree, how his sanity was only in check—”

  Daniel tensed, and she snapped her eyes to him.

  “For me,” she gasped.

  He loosened his grip, chastising himself for frightening her. Gods, but she’d never known a moment of sanity from Tom. Daniel pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Go on.”

  “He’d ask me to seal while we...we were...”

  “Intimate,” Daniel offered.

  Alyssa nodded.

  Bear rubbed at his forehead, no doubt suffering the same sort of tension headache building steam in Daniel. “He’d ask you when you were aroused? While you were at the edges of climax?”

  She paled.

  “Gods, no,” Daniel pleaded.

  Bear cut in. “When he sealed, what do you remember about it?”

  “It was like any other time...at first. He was whispering to me, and I came. The most incredible look came over him, and he came after me. He was so—”

  Daniel snapped. “Can’t you see, Bear?” he growled.

  “Yes. I do.”

  “Dear Ani! She probably screamed out as she came, and he—”

  “I know!” Bear looked completely rattled.

  That settled Daniel. The last thing Alyssa needed was two furious Warriors. “Tell us. Please, Alyssa.” He had to hear the rest.

  “Tom told me that I’d agreed, that the biological tie had been forged between us.”

  Bear groaned. “He told you that you had no choice?”

  She stammered for a moment, stopped, and began again. “Killing him? Oh, that’s a wonderful choice.”

  Daniel was relieved to hear the sarcasm in her tone, though he disagreed with her determination. In Tom’s case, killing him then would have been best for all involved.

  “I did li—No, I did love him. I just wasn’t ready to commit to something lifelong with him yet. But, killing him because I wasn’t sure?”

  Daniel stared at Bear, at a loss for words. Surprisingly, Daniel recovered first. “He offered to have his family kill him to play on your emotions?” He probably handed her the phone to do it.

  “His family? No. He handed me his...sacred weapon and—”

  “Dear Gods.” His stomach lurched, threatening to empty.

  “But, baiting... Do you call it baiting?”

  “You were not baiting,” Daniel started in, at the edges of control. “He actually accused you of—”

  “Daniel,” Bear warned. He sighed. “Now, Alyssa. You were not baiting. If Tom told you that you were, he lied to you. Did he tell you that?”

  “He... No. He said something about making promises you don’t intend to keep...or might not keep. It was more inferred, I guess.”

  “He probably did say it with that in mind. I can’t fathom what he was thinking. But, you have to see how wrong it was of him to ask you to kill him, Alyssa. We’d never ask a woman to do that, especially not to her own lover.”

  Daniel sighed in gratitude that Bear hadn’t called Tom her husband.

  “I thought it was overly harsh, but your lives are harsh. Your punishments—”

  “Are supposed to prevent things like this from happening.” Bear visibly calmed himself. “If you’d have mentioned any of this to his family, they would have killed him without question. No wonder Tom was off his game. It must have been increasingly clear to him that he couldn’t hide what he’d done in close proximity to his family.”

  Daniel contained the explosion, but he couldn’t control the tremor in his voice. “Tom deserved to die. What reason could he possibly have to...” He choked, touching her womb tenderly, the answer all too clear to him.

  “His son,” Bear agreed solemnly. “It had to come down to a choice between Alyssa and his son.”

  She sobbed, burying her face in Daniel’s chest. “After everything, he didn’t choose me.”

  Daniel grumbled several harsh curses. He suspected that it had never been Alyssa and had always been about Tom’s son, but he couldn’t prove it.

  But, more than that, it was better to remain silent and let Alyssa hold to whatever thin threads of trust remained that Tom had harbored kind feelings for her but loved his son more. She deserved to believe he’d loved her; she deserved that love.

  In the meantime, there was something he had to ask, the choice Tom hadn’t wanted her to have. “You still have the choice, Alyssa. Tom lied and schemed to get into your bed, to seal, and to plant his son.”

  Bear started to protest, but Daniel cut him off.

  “It’s not too late, if you want to terminate. Honor demands that we allow you to.”

  For a long moment, she didn’t answer. To his surprise, Daniel found the thought of her choosing to abort painful, but he had told the truth. Honor and duty demanded he offer it in light of Tom’s crimes.

  “No,” she whispered. “I don’t want that. I want to keep my baby.”

  Daniel let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “I’m glad.”

  Alyssa met his eyes, seemingly fascinated. “You are?”

  “I am,” he replied. “More than I can say.”

  Bear cleared his throat. “I can see how stressful this is for you, Alyssa. I do have to ask you about how your baby was conceived, about your life with Tom...and about Tim Armen. After that, I’ll let you rest.”

  Chapter Forty

  April 1, 2050

  Daniel chuckled, wrapping his arms around her. “Tease me much more, and we’ll both be late to work,” he vowed.

  “Promises. Promises,” she sighed but with a look that announced she wouldn’t be sorry in the least to be late.

  He kissed her, testing her resolve. As he guessed, Alyssa didn’t draw away and protest the lack of time.

  Warriors don’t punch time clocks. Who would really care if he hit the streets a little after sunset?

  Alyssa pressed to him, pulling at his clothes.

  Screw it. Daniel raked one hand through her hair, nearly groaning that it had grown long enough to wind his fingers in.

  A knock at the door broke them apart. Alyssa looked past him, frowning, most likely doing the mental math that all of her friends were already at work.

  “Bear,” he grumbled, coming to the obvious conclusion.

  “Corwyn? Why would Corwyn be here?” Her eyes narrowed, and she smoothed the white men’s shirt she wore self-consciously.

  “He wants to talk to me. He sent an IM to my phone earlier, saying he would contact me this evening. I’d forgotten about it. I thought he was going to call, but...” Daniel headed for the door, buttoning his shirt.

  “What does he need to talk to you about?” she asked nervously.

  He shrugged. “No big deal.” If it were, Bear would have said so. “I’ll get it. Grab you
r stuff, and I’ll drive you to work.”

  Daniel opened the door, tucking his shirt tails back into his jeans hastily. “Be just a—” Oh, gods!

  Tim Armen’s shock was unmistakable. He ranged his eyes over Daniel’s rumpled appearance, his jaw tightening and eyes hardening in preparation for a knock-down fight; his Blutjagd rose steadily in confirmation of that assumption.

  Daniel’s rose in response. If it wasn’t for Tim’s mishandling, Tom might have been a decent husband to Alyssa. If not for his intemperate response to Tom’s death, Alyssa might not be terrified of every Warrior on Earth save Daniel. If any single member of their household, especially Tom’s father, had taken the time to explain their world to Alyssa in her two months with them, she might have trusted them enough to report Tom’s crimes to them. At the very least, she wouldn’t have felt isolated, inadequate, responsible for her own fate, trapped, and threatened.

  “Tim,” he forced out, reminding himself to leash his temper.

  “I’m looking for Alyssa.”

  “She’ll be out in a minute.”

  “So, I gathered,” he growled, shooting another look at the sloppy tuck job.

  Daniel smoothed his shirt without looking at it, daring Armen to make a comment about the situation.

  Armen made as if to barge into the house, and Daniel blocked him.

  Tim’s Blutjagd hiked up another notch. “What the hell do you think you’re—”

  “Alyssa hasn’t invited you into her house.”

  “She’s family,” he protested.

  Daniel ground his teeth at that. How dare Armen claim her as family, after the way she was treated!

  “She is my daughter-in-law, Hunter.”

  All that reminder did was fuel Daniel’s hatred of the man...of both men. “Some husband,” he grumbled. “And, last time I checked, Tom was—”

  Armen fisted his hands, lit up as if for serious battle. “You dare insult—”

  “Oh, that’s right,” he snapped. “You’ve always thought Tom could do no—”

  The crash of glass brought them both around. Alyssa stood, surrounded by a puddle of juice and the fragments of one of her grandmother’s glasses. Her shoes and maternity jeans were liberally dotted. Her eyes were wide and locked on Armen. She paled, her mouth opening as if she meant to speak, then closing again.