by Edith DuBois
James shook his head, dispelling his thoughts. He needed to focus on Marina. He needed to make sure she was going to be okay through this. It was a huge shock for her. He and his brothers would have to tread carefully.
But no matter how much he tried to squash it down, the happiness he felt from Marina’s mating with Johnny persisted.
* * * *
Marina took another step toward the bedroom door, and the board beneath her foot let out a loud, indignant creak. She paused and whipped her head around to see if Johnny was going to run through the door yelling accusations. No sound came from the animal preserve where Johnny had gone to check up on the animals.
James and Jeremiah had left for Bo’s two days ago. She’d talked to them on the phone once, but they’d been so vague about everything, telling her to just enjoy her time alone with Johnny. She and Johnny hadn’t said much to each other, mostly because she refused to talk to him. He’d tried to start a conversation, but she ignored him. He’d thrown a tantrum of course, dropped a few expletives, but then just went about his own business. The first day she’d gone outside to get some fresh air, and he came running out to her. He’d picked her up and carried her back inside while she’d thrashed and screamed at him.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” she’d yelled, trying to get a good hit in, but his body was rock hard, and he had her arms pinned up against her body anyway. “Put me down!” she screeched right in his ear. He didn’t budge.
When they got back inside, she was shaking. “You have absolutely no right to keep me locked up in here. I just needed some goddamn air.”
She ranted and yelled at him for a while until finally he turned to her, glaring, and said, “James and Jeremiah could come back any minute, and they could very well be in bear form. I didn’t think you’d want to be out there when they did.”
“Oh,” she said, her anger fizzling out.
He turned away and stomped out to where they kept the animals. When he came back an hour or so later, she had some dinner cooking in the oven as a sort of peace offering.
“That was nice, Johnny, what you did.”
He’d mumbled some gruff response and then asked what was in the oven. They’d had a sort of shaky peace since then, but she demanded he sleep on the couch. She knew he felt bad about what had happened, but she just couldn’t face going to bed with him.
She was scared of what would happen. When they’d come together on the porch, he’d awoken some sort of animal inside her, and she knew if she let herself give into him, that animal would grow stronger and stronger until it completely took over. Then she’d never get away. And that brought her back to her problem now.
She didn’t know when Jeremiah and James would get back, but she wanted to be well away from here when they did.
Away from the preservation center. Away from bear-shifters and Shoshone curses.
Away from Savage Valley.
After Johnny left the main part of the house, she remembered seeing a laptop on the kitchen table, so she snuck out of the bedroom and opened it up. She did a quick search of a few of the major airlines and clicked on one heading to LA from Denver early the next morning.
She clicked on the “Purchase Ticket Now” button and held her breath, half expecting the computer to blow up in her face or something. But instead, it went to the next page, and she filled in her credit card information. When she clicked the “Confirm Transaction” button, she gripped the edge of the table, holding her breath and staring hard at the computer, daring it not to work.
“Transaction Approved!” popped up on the screen, and her breath came out in a quick rush.
“Take that, you fucking Shoshone curse,” she whispered and wrote down the confirmation number.
As if she actually believed she was stuck here forever. What a ludicrous idea. All she had to do was buy a ticket, get on a fucking plane, and voilà, she’d be out of here for good. Besides, she’d only “mated” herself or whatever to Johnny. If—and it was a very big if—all that magic rigmarole was true, then it probably wouldn’t even work if she wasn’t attached to all three of them.
And she was going to get the hell out of here before the other two did their bear thing and got her to mate them, too. She could not let that happen.
She had a life, goddamn it. She wouldn’t be stuck in Savage Valley forever. She wouldn’t.
Marina let out a small puff of breath. Of course, that wasn’t even touching on the fact that if she did stay, eventually, one day, the Greenwoods would tire of her. She would lose her appeal, and she’d be back to square one.
Even if life on the road was grueling, even if she did sometimes regret that she would never have a family of her own, and even if she did envy her sister’s newfound happiness with her fiancés, Marina knew buying into that kind of life was dangerous. On the road and on the stage, she knew where she stood and knew who she was. Maybe it wasn’t perfect, but it was safe, and Marina had always looked out for herself first. She’d had to.
After donning several layers of warm clothing, she called for Roy. She sat on the floor and held him, rubbing his belly and kissing his face. “I know I said I wouldn’t leave you, Roy, but I can’t take you out in the snow right now. I can’t take care of you at all, really.” He licked her ear, and she clenched her teeth. She would not cry. “I’m going to leave you here, boy, but it’s only because I know the Greenwoods will take good care of you. They’re good men, pretty boy.” Marina gasped as the truth of the words struck her. She’d said them almost in passing, but hearing them aloud, she knew how much truth they held. The Greenwoods would take care of her puppy.
And if she stayed, they would take care of her, too. Even when they didn’t love her anymore. Even when she turned on them and became the ugly person she knew she was. They would stay with her because that was the kind of men they were.
Marina didn’t deserve that. And men like that deserved so much more than Marina could give in return. “You’ll be happy with them,” she whispered into Roy’s fur. “At least one of us should, so you have to stay.” Thinking about leaving the Greenwoods had her so confused. She felt something sharp in her chest when she tried to breathe, so she kissed Roy on the top of his head and buried her face in his fur for a moment, pushing all the confusion and the hurt away.
Then she gently shoved him out of her lap and stood, looking out the window. The ground was still mostly white, but patches of earth were peeking through. Nobody had driven on the tiny dirt road leading to the center since the snowstorm, but most of the snow had melted away from the road anyway.
“Bye, Roy,” she said, picking up her bag of belongings that she’d brought and then slipping out the door before he could dart through. As she walked off the porch, he scratched and whimpered, but she ignored him. She kept walking, not worrying about Johnny being able to see her because he was in the back part of the preserve. When she stepped off the porch, the late afternoon light washed across her face.
She took a deep breath, steeling herself for the trek, and then headed for her aunt’s house. She was taking the Escalade. She was leaving. She didn’t know if her label would take her back before she’d completed her time away. She didn’t even know if they wanted her. But even if they didn’t, she would find her way back to the stage. If nothing else, she was a survivor.
And she would never look back.
Chapter Eleven
Marina glanced in her rearview mirror for what had to be the hundredth time since pulling out of her aunt’s driveway thirty minutes ago. She’d been there for almost two hours, packing as much as she could into the Escalade, but she was too nervous. Leaving a good portion of her belongings behind, she’d told Aunt Agnes she’d pay to have them shipped to her but that she had to get out of there as soon as possible.
“Honey,” her aunt had said, “what’s going on? Is everything okay? You look a little flustered.”
“Aunt Agnes, I can’t even begin to expla
in what’s going on.” She’d paused in her packing, ran over to her aunt, and squeezed her tight. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to tell you. I can’t tell you anything, but I have to get out of here. I have to get away.” She’d felt the panic begin to rise again, so she turned away and threw stuff into suitcases.
Ethel Rose was in her case in the front seat, and for some reason the guitar was making her more nervous than calm. Every time she glanced over at the scuffed case, something in her gut clenched. She chanced another peek, and the result was so violent that she gagged.
She should be completely excited about returning to LA, not plagued with doubts and misgivings. With a frustrated grunt, she let go of the wheel with one hand, twisted over, and snatched up the case. It was heavy when lifting with one arm in such an awkward position. She tried to toss it into the back, but it got stuck. She looked away from the road to see what was impeding it. She tugged and lifted until it was above the seat, and she shoved it in the back.
When she returned her attention to the road, a red fox sat serenely in the middle of her lane. She slammed on the brakes and swerved into the opposite lane. The vehicle teetered and fishtailed for one harrowing moment, but then the wheels straightened, and she was on her way again. Cursing and thanking her lucky stars that no one had been approaching, she looked in her rearview to make sure she hadn’t hit the fox. It remained sitting in the middle of the road, tail curled around its legs as it watched her drive away.
Chills swept through her. She was reminded of Reba, the fox she’d seen at Michelle’s engagement party.
It couldn’t be the same one. No way. Jeremiah said she was at the center. If she was out, then that meant…
Her phone rang, making her jump.
Johnny’s name was displayed on the screen. “Crap, crap, crap,” she muttered to herself. If he was calling her, that meant he knew what she’d done, probably his brothers as well.
They’d be coming after her. All she had to do was make it out. Then they couldn’t touch her. They’d be stuck, and she’d be free.
Over the next few minutes, her phone didn’t stop ringing. All three of the Greenwoods called her. She refused to answer. She would give them absolutely no chance to persuade her. A minute or two passed with no new calls, so when her phone rang again and Michelle’s number popped up, she got a weird feeling.
She sighed and grabbed her phone. At least she could tell her sister where she was headed, and then maybe when Michelle next saw the Greenwoods, she could tell them that she had gone.
“Michelle, I don’t want you to freak out, but—”
“Where the goddamn hell are you?” An angry male voice boomed out of her phone.
“James?”
“Damn right it’s James. You tell me where you are right this instant, Marina Andrews.”
“I can’t believe you called me from my sister’s phone. You’re being ridiculous.”
“I’m being ridiculous?” he shouted. “I’m being ridiculous. You have no idea what you’re doing. Get your ass back to this house.”
“No!”
“Right this minute, Marina!” She half considered hanging up. She didn’t feel like dealing with his bullshit anger. It wasn’t like she’d ever see him again. She was already gone. But whatever, might as well get this over with. She also didn’t want any sappy e-mails begging for her to come back or whatever.
“Look, James. I know that y’all thought I was gonna be your mate or whatever, but I’m not. Okay? You have to get that through your thick skulls. I’m. Not. Your. Mate. I’m Marina Andrews. I have a career in country music. And you know what? I’m a pretty big deal. I’ve toured Japan and Australia. I’m famous. That’s reality. We don’t live in a world where some bogus Shoshone curse or whatever is gonna change that fact. I’m sorry if it’s hard for you to accept, but I’m gone. I’ve already left Savage Valley. I’m almost to the airport, in fact, so don’t even bother trying to come after me. You won’t make it.”
Well, that last part was a bit of a stretch, but it might help to keep them from trying to follow her, so she shrugged off the little painful tug she felt. On top of that, it was difficult to maintain the cavalier tone in her voice, but she thought it would be easier on them, in the long run, if they believed she never really cared about them. Better to just break things completely off than to let them see how much her heart twisted with each word.
For a long moment there was nothing from James’s end of the line.
Then he chuckled. “You’re lying, Marina.”
“No I’m not,” she said. “I mean it. I’ve toured Japan. Twice actually.”
“I’m not talking about Japan.” His voice was low and dangerous. “You aren’t almost to the airport. In fact, you haven’t even made it twenty miles from the center of Savage Valley. I know this because less than three days ago, that was as far as I could get. Listen to me, Marina. You need to turn around and come back. It’s dangerous for you to be out there. Nighttime is coming. You’ll be stranded, and if I or my brothers have to come after you, you’re gonna get the hardest spanking of your life. Do you understand me?”
Marina rolled her eyes. “I’m not a child. No man is going to spank me for disobeying his orders.”
The Escalade made a beeping noise.
“What the?” she whispered.
“Marina, what’s going on? Where are you?” His voice lost its hard edge, and he sounded genuinely worried.
“I have to go, James. Tell your brothers…” She didn’t know how to finish that sentence, so she said, “I have to go. Bye.” Then she ended the call.
A beep came from the dashboard again, and the “Check Engine” light flashed.
“What the hell?” A few moments later the beeping grew more frantic, and she felt the Escalade shudder around her. Then the engine turned off.
It just stopped.
She pulled onto the shoulder and coasted. A minute or so later, the SUV rolled to a complete stop.
“Fuck.” She looked at the blinking dash and all the stuff piled up in the car. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” She looked at her phone. She couldn’t call her sister to come pick her up. James would most likely answer the phone again. And if they’d gotten to Michelle, they could probably get to Aunt Agnes. There was nobody to help her. She was on her own.
“Damn it,” she muttered, opening the car door. The late afternoon sun shone down on the snow-covered ditches, and a chilly wind scratched across the skin of her face. No other vehicles were on the road, so she hopped out and shoved at her bangs, thinking. She looked back in the direction she had come from and blinked.
“Nope,” she said and then closed the door to the Escalade, locking it behind her.
She couldn’t go back. She wouldn’t give up. She had to get out of Savage Valley. There was no such thing as a Shoshone curse. She wasn’t mated to a bear-shifter. She would leave this crazy place.
These were facts. And as she began walking away, they echoed in her head. Each time she took a step, each time she moved her feet further down the road, she repeated these facts.
She couldn’t go back. She wouldn’t give up.
Her feet trudged and stomped down the road.
She had to get out of Savage Valley.
* * * *
“Goddamn her stubborn ass!” James shouted, throwing the phone onto the bed. They were at the Ashleys’, but he and Johnny closed themselves in one of their studies to discuss Marina while Jeremiah made a few calls to see if anyone had seen her. James ran his hand through his hair and grabbed a handful of strands, tugging at his scalp, trying to relieve some of the fast-growing tension in his skull.
“Let me guess. She didn’t believe you,” Johnny muttered.
James would have berated him for letting his guard down, but to be honest, he never suspected Marina would pull a stunt of this magnitude. She didn’t understand the danger. So many things could go wrong. She was nearing the Edge, and once she hit it, th
e protection of Savage Valley was weaker. Wild animals, poachers, and whatever other things that went bump in the night were out there. He couldn’t imagine her spending some of the night by herself. They had to go get her.
“Okay, here’s what we’ll do,” he said when Jeremiah came back into the room.
“I just spoke with Caleb Kinman,” Jeremiah said, his face white and drawn.
“Good, we can use his help. His and the Sheriff’s. We should probably see if any of the other bear-shifters would be willing to help. No telling what Marina will do once she realizes she can’t leave.”
“No,” Jeremiah said, swallowing and choking on the word. “He just got a call from a couple tourists heading into town from Denver.”
“Can’t this wait? We need to go after Marina. We can’t leave her out there.”
“They said they saw a bear. They said it looked big enough to be a grizzly.”
“What?” James froze. He knew there hadn’t been any grizzlies in Colorado since the ’70s, but still, wild bears so rarely wandered this close to Savage Valley. “Fuck, and they definitely saw a bear?”
“Caleb says they slowed down to look but didn’t stop for pictures because it was so big.”
James started pacing again. “Could it be one of us?”
“I don’t think so. Both of the Kinmans are at the Sheriff’s Department. I know the Carsons will still be at the bank. The Strongs, no. Noah doesn’t really do much since Bo stripped his brother’s shifting abilities. That only leaves the Ashleys and…” Jeremiah motioned toward the door, indicating the three bear-shifters and Michelle on the other side, all four waiting in silence to hear the Greenwoods’ decision.
“Shit!” James cursed. “You think it could be wild?”
Jeremiah nodded.
“Okay,” he pressed his fingers to his temples and stood still for a moment. “Johnny,” he barked out.
“Yeah?”
“You and Jeremiah split up. Head through the forest. Look for tracks, a scent, any sign of this bear. We haven’t had a wild bear in years. It should stick out like a sore thumb. Take the Ashleys as well. That’s our number-one priority. I’m going to take the Jeep and head out of Savage Valley toward Denver. We at least know she went that way. Hopefully she has stayed on the road, and I can pick her up and bring her ass in. If not, I’ll shift and we’ll meet up and look for her together in bear form.”