Bear my Fate (Hero Mine Book 1)

by Harmony Raines

  “That sounds like Gareth.”

  “You didn’t answer my question.” Eva took a step forward. “You offered to help. Does that mean you will help me steal back the Dragon’s Tear? Or are you stalling?”

  He sighed and looked away. “I’m not stalling. It’s probably too late. Gareth will have given it to the Council. Once they have it, I couldn’t get it back.”

  “Then I’ll go on my own. This Council shouldn’t be too hard to find,” She met his eyes, and wanted to drown in them as they softened in pity. She didn’t need pity, she needed someone who was willing to help her. She should have known better than to expect that; all her life she had been alone. Never settled, never accepted.

  Eva looked away, not wanting him to see the emptiness inside her. She didn’t need more of his pity. “Why am I even doing this?” she asked aloud, and her shoulders slumped.

  Because she holds the answers, the voice reminded her.

  “And so do you,” she replied.

  “And so do I what?” Dirty Blond asked.

  She turned back toward him and dropped the tip of the sword, pointing it to the ground. “Nothing.” She shook her head. “Are you going to warn them I’m coming?”

  “Nope.” He closed the space between them. “Because you aren’t going.”

  “I am,” she said defiantly. “I need it, I need answers.”

  “Answers to what?” he asked, and then he lifted her hand and touched her cheek, static electricity passing between them, but she didn’t pull back. It was like an electrical circuit, they completed each other.

  In her head, her sixth sense hissed and growled, like a cornered animal. Eva ignored it; she was tired of listening to it. Tired of being told what to do, while it kept its secrets to itself. Dirty Blond offered her sanctuary, it was in his eyes as he gazed at his fingertips stroking her skin, and she didn’t need to ask if he felt it too.

  He dropped his hand to his side, with some reluctance. “You didn’t answer me.”

  “What was the question?” He fogged her brain, made her vulnerable. And she wanted to be vulnerable, to let her guard down and let him in. Her sixth sense thrashed around in rage at that thought.

  He is what we fight, he is what your ancestors fought. If you give in to him, you will betray them all.

  Did she care? He stepped away from her, and she felt the loss of his body heat, of his closeness. She’d always longed to be close to someone, to be a part of a family, a real family.

  Your mother is your real family, this is just some shifter, who wants to bend you to his will. He is the enemy, her sixth sense shouted. Wake up, before you lose yourself to him and his monstrous ways.

  What monstrous ways? He changed into a bear, what was wrong with that?

  You are a Night Hunter, sworn to take down any unnatural creature. Vampire, degetty, shifter, they are all unnatural, all inhuman. They are yours to slay. Pick up the sword, strike him down. Now while his defenses are down. While he is under your spell.

  What spell?

  Love, lust, whatever these creatures feel. You are his mate, I see it now, I see it in his eyes. He won’t hurt you, he can’t hurt you. Pick up the sword, put it through his heart.

  He can’t hurt me?

  No, you are everything to him. He would tear down a mountain for you.

  Eva looked at the man before her. He had to help her. Couldn’t hurt her.

  “They have my mother. They want the Dragon’s Tear; in return, they will release her.” She took a firm grip on the sword and then said, “I’m going to get that Dragon’s Tear. There is nothing you can do to stop me.”

  He shook his head. “Are you always this stubborn?”

  “No. But then I’ve never had anything to be stubborn over.” She moved close to him, using her body to tease him, her breath caressing his skin as she whispered in his ear. “Will you help me?”

  He turned his head, their lips only inches away. He ran his tongue over his lips, inching forward, wanting to taste her lips. He was mesmerized by her, and she used it to her advantage. “Say yes.”

  “Yes.” He leaned in closer. “I give you my word and we can seal it with a kiss.”

  She slipped her hand in his. “Let’s shake on it instead.”

  He chuckled as he took her hand, pulling back, his pupils dilated as he looked at her. “I’ll have that kiss before this is over.”

  “We’ll see,” she said. Although something told her—and it wasn’t her sixth sense, which had gone silent—that he was right. Before this was over, she would owe him more than a kiss. Much more.

  Chapter Six – Jack

  Great work, he told himself. Her hand was still in his, and he was tempted to take her sword off of her, put her over his shoulder, and carry her back to the house where he would keep her prisoner until he could talk—or kiss—some sense into her.

  He breathed in her scent and closed his eyes. He couldn’t do that to her. Not because he was sworn to protect his mate and never hurt her, but because if he took away her freedom, if he stopped her from rescuing her mom, he would break the trust that a relationship was built on. The trust that surpassed the mating bond, the trust that a man and a woman must have, if they are going to spend the rest of their lives together.

  And they were going to spend the rest of their lives together. She just didn’t know it yet.

  “I’m Jack Loveson,” he said. “And you are…?”

  “Eva. Evaine Doe.”

  “Evaine Doe. That’s a strange last name.”

  “Is it?” She frowned, her stance becoming defensive.

  “You don’t want to talk about it.”

  She sighed, but her body stance stayed the same. “There’s no mystery. I’m like a Jane Doe. Only my parents, or whoever dumped me outside a hospital when I was a baby, wrote my first name on the box.”

  “Wait, but it’s your mom you are doing this for?” he asked, surprised. “Does that mean you looked for her when you were old enough? Or did she come find you?”

  “No.” She shrugged. “I never knew her. I never found her. The first time I set eyes on her was yesterday, after I was taken to this warehouse, and she was there.”

  “How do you know she’s your mother?” he asked.

  “They showed me the results of a DNA test,” she said sarcastically.

  “Great, well, in that case, I’ll go ask Gareth for the Dragon’s Tear and we’ll go get her.” He held out his hands in exasperation. “Really, how do you know?”

  Eva turned away from him, and he waited for the lie she was about to tell him. He understood, she didn’t know him, couldn’t feel what he felt, and didn’t owe him the truth. It still hurt; they were bonded, he couldn’t hurt her, couldn’t lie to her, and he had kind of expected the same in return. But then he was influenced by his parents and the way they behaved toward each other. The relationships could not be compared. His parents were both shifters, and so were true to each other in all ways, the bond strong in each of them.

  “She looked like me… I just knew. Don’t you think you would know your parents? Even if you had never met them before?” Then she turned and looked him in the eye, daring him to argue with her, daring him to tell her that was not a good enough reason to risk your life.

  He let it go. “Come on, let’s get inside. You look as if you need to eat and sleep.”

  Eva sagged, as if his words made her realize just how exhausted she was. Her dark hair, almost black, hung around her face, concealing her features, but he could make out the dark circles under her eyes, and the pinched look to her face. She reminded him of Helena, their witch, when she had put too much energy into a banishing spell. Jack thought once more of that big degetty Gareth was planning to sell. It annoyed the hell out of him that the druid was going to make a pile of cash from selling a degetty that Helena might come up against one day, and nearly kill herself breaking the binding spell to send him back to the Underworld.

  That wasn’t a bad idea, he mused as he led
Eva back to the house. They might just as well do it now, go to Gareth’s house, get the Dragon’s Tear, if it was still there, and then send the caged degetty home. If they were going to piss off Gareth, and the Council, they might just as well do the job properly.

  Except there would be repercussions. If those repercussions were aimed solely at Jack, he would say do it. But the Council would know he could not act alone, he didn’t have the magic. They would blame Helena, who was always loyal to Jack and the squad. He didn’t want to bring that down on her; the ripples would spread out, and hurt her coven. As the head witch, ruler of the coven, they would defend her, as would the elemental spirits linked to it. The same Elementals who had chosen Helena as the coven leader, and whom they obeyed when they were summoned to help with strong magic.

  No, Jack could not make war with the Council. This was the quietest, most peaceful time in the history of the Council. Jack was not going to be the one who ended it. If there was trouble between the different factions in their community, another group would take advantage of it. Such as whoever wanted the Dragon’s Tear.

  They had reached the edge of the trees, and he had one more warning for Eva. “Before we go in, there is something you should know.” He was surveying the clearing, making sure no one had followed her here. It all looked peaceful, and he could not scent any strangers. Although his senses were so caught up in Eva, they weren’t exactly trustworthy right now. “Don’t eat my brother’s cooking.”

  “Why? Will he try to poison me?” she asked warily.

  “No, although it might taste like it.” He grinned, looking down at her, the desire to kiss her still strong. “It doesn’t taste good. And that’s me being polite.”

  “Oh.” She looked disappointed.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll fix you something else. Say you don’t like whatever he’s cooked.” Jack turned back to the house. This was his home, his brothers were inside, and he was about to walk in there with Evaine Doe, Night Hunter.

  Trouble would follow, and they would stand by him, and fight with him to the death, to protect his mate, a woman he didn’t know. This was not how he had expected to meet his mate. For some reason, he thought fate would be kind, send him a female shifter, with whom he could run and hunt, and get to know, before they settled down and had a family.

  Instead he had a female Night Hunter, who had secrets she didn’t want to share—and a thing for killing his kind. “You’d better leave your sword just inside the door.” He looked around at her when she didn’t answer. “I give you my word, while you are under our roof, no one will harm you.”

  “You speak for your brothers too? Or are we not going to tell them what I am?” she asked.

  “They know already.”

  “How?” she asked.

  “We had a visit from another druid, he told us you were a Night Hunter.”

  “But they don’t know what I look like. So how…?”

  “I told my brother Kurt, I’d met my mate tonight.” He shrugged. “Sorry, it’s a fate thing. And I’m not going to be able to hide my feelings toward you. I’ll get … jealous when other people are around you.”

  “We didn’t meet at the gully. How did you already know I’m your mate?” she asked.

  “I caught your scent, where you fought the degetty, and I knew. Kurt picked up on me acting weird.”

  “You knew I was here, didn’t you? Earlier, when you left the house, you picked up my scent.”

  They were at the door now. “I can’t lie. I scented you. I waited by the stream for you to make a move. I could have overpowered you at any time. But I figured you would be more likely to open up if you thought you were in control of the situation.”

  Eva planted her hands on her hips. “You played me.”

  “Would you rather I’d attacked you?”

  “No. Yes. Maybe.” She wiped her hand over her face. “You know what? I don’t care anymore. I’m tired, and I ache in places I never knew I could ache.”

  Jack slipped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close to him, burying his face in her hair. “I swear to you, I will be by your side every step of the way from now until the end of our days. All you have to do is trust me.”

  Eva relaxed into him, her body giving in to the protection he offered, submitting to him. She took in a shuddering breath, and he didn’t need to see her face to know she was crying. Jack held her, while she let out her pent-up emotions.

  “I’m just a bank clerk, you know? I’m not a Night Hunter. I’m girl who has no home, no family, and no prospects. I’m no one. So why me?” Her words tumbled out of her mouth.

  “Evaine Doe. That is who you were. Not who you are. You are my mate. I give you my home, my family will protect you, and you will find your place in this world.” Jack rubbed her back, just as his mom would when they were children. He wanted to comfort her and soothe her. He also wanted to tear down walls and rip the world apart to find the people who would hurt his mate.

  That was for tomorrow. Tonight, they needed to eat, and sleep, and make a plan that wouldn’t leave them all dead. Or worse.

  Chapter Seven – Evaine

  His house was warm and inviting, the smell of food made her stomach growl. Why had he told her not to eat? Was he playing with her, just as he had played with her earlier?

  “I know, it smells good,” he said with a lopsided grin. “You want to go for it, I’m not stopping you, I’m just trying to save you from finding out the hard way.”

  She smiled, and shook her head. “My stomach says you are making it up and I should take a chance.”

  “But your head is saying he promised to protect me, and watch my back.” He raised his eyebrows in question. “Which is going to win?”

  “Hey, you out there talking to yourself?” Kurt asked, entering the hallway, plate of food in his hand. “Oh, hell. This is her?”

  “Yep.” Jack nodded. “This is Eva. Eva, this is my brother Kurt.”

  “Eva, good to meet you.” He looked guilty as he glanced down at the plate in his hand. “Jack warned you about the food, right?”

  “He did.”

  “Good, so you know what you are about to see didn’t happen.” He opened the front door, and went outside. When he returned a few minutes later, his plate was empty. “There. All gone.”

  “That bad?” she asked with a frown.

  “Oh yeah,” the two men said in unison.

  “But we love him, and so we eat it, or get rid of the evidence,” Kurt said. “There’s a lot of it. Some kind of casserole. Had these big fat dumplings on the top. Nearly choked on it. I don’t know how you are going to get out of it, man.”

  “I am going to insist that the only person who is cooking for my woman, is me,” Jack said assertively.

  Evaine had never been anyone’s woman before; she’d never been anyone’s anything. The thought made her warm and tingly. Not what she needed. She had to be cold, and hard, focused on what she needed to do to help her mom. Yet it was impossible not to get swept along by Jack’s easygoing manner. He spoke to her as if he had known her since forever, as old friends, who were easy in each other’s company.

  It would be so easy to let go, and fall into the trap of letting her guard down. Eva was tired of keeping it up, of keeping a barrier between herself and the outside world. She had been self-reliant all her life, and now there were other people who were claiming parts of her. First her mom, and now Jack.

  “OK, here we go,” Jack said, and took her hand, leading her into the sitting room.

  She tried to hang back, getting thrust into the middle of a family was alien to her, but Jack was not letting her go. Eva glanced around, taking in the wooden furniture, handmade, if she wasn’t mistaken, not the cheap, assembly required, stuff she had bought for her latest apartment, but then she never bought anything to last.

  When she moved on, Eva found it easier to leave her furniture behind and buy new. She told herself it was cheaper than paying for it to be moved, but deep down sh
e knew it was a reflection of her whole life. Don’t get attached, you never knew when your stuff was going to get chucked into a trash bag. That was the life of an orphan who never caught a break. You just start thinking you had a home, and then you got thrown out with the trash, moved to the next foster home, and the next.

  “Hey. You look beat. Sit down, I’ll bring you some coffee.” He studied her critically. “We should get something to put on that cut too.”

  She put her hand up to her forehead, and touched the dried blood there. Eva took a moment to remember where she had gotten it. The degetty. Had that happened today? The room crowded in on her, the air sucked from her lungs, and she sat down heavily in a chair, her hands curling around the intricately carved armrest.

  “Eva?” His voice was filled with concern, but he seemed so far away. Eva was being pulled backwards into darkness. She didn’t want to go, she wanted to stay here with Jack. His hand touched hers, and she jerked upright. “Eva, you OK?”

  “Yeah.” She touched the cut on her head again. “Just a little woozy.”

  “Kurt!” He turned, yelling for his brother. “Kurt, can you bring Eva some coffee? Maybe put something stronger in it.”

  Kurt appeared behind Jack. “Here. Are you OK, Eva?” He passed her a mug of coffee.

  “Thanks,” she said, her teeth chattering.

  “OK, honey, I think you are going into shock.” Jack was kneeling down beside her. “Kurt…”

  “I’m on it.” Kurt crossed the room, picked up the phone and dialed. “Hey, Helena, we could use your help. Something for shock. No. Not one of us.” He looked at Jack, who nodded. “It’s the woman from the gully. The one who Gareth set his degetty on. Bump to the head. No, not too bad. OK, thanks.”

  Too many people knew she was here. Too many tongues to tell on her. “I’m OK,” she said, taking a sip of the coffee in a bid to look normal. The caffeine hit her hard, her head buzzed, and she felt nauseous. “I just need something to eat.”