Knox grunted. “Can’t really blame her. If what you told me is true, then she’s been through a lot.”
“You didn’t see the photograph. What they did to her brother—” Lowe growled, couldn’t bring himself to say any more than that. The thought of Cameo ending up like her brother, the fact she feared that would happen to her, roused a darkness inside him that had his bear side roaring for freedom, urging him to head out into the forest and hunt the male down.
Knox clasped his shoulder through his thick winter coat. “We won’t let that happen to her, Lowe. She might be worried about getting us involved, but we’ll stick to our guns. Whatever shit she’s in, it ends here.”
Lowe turned and dragged his brother into a tight hug. “Thanks.”
Knox patted his back and then twisted away from him, jerked his chin towards Saint. “We should probably let him rest. I’ll get washed up and changed, and then I’ll come back and check on him.”
“I’ll get the fire going again.” Lowe glanced at Saint one last time to check on him and then headed back downstairs, crossed the room to the log burner and busied himself with building the fire up.
His brother’s weary sigh filled the silence as he came down the stairs, as he moved to the deck and out into the crisp morning. Lowe glanced at him. He could feel how worried Knox was and he knew it wasn’t only about Saint. Knox was worried about him too, but he didn’t need to be. This thing with Cameo wasn’t going to end the way his brother thought it would.
At least he hoped it wouldn’t.
He closed the door of the log burner, stood and walked to the door of the cabin and out onto the deck. Knox paced back and forth on the compacted snow in front of the steps, the worry Lowe could feel in him only increasing.
His brother stopped just below him, ran a hand over his brow and then tugged his black woollen hat down again. His blue eyes held a flicker of concern as he looked back at the cabin, up at the loft bedroom.
“What’s wrong with him?”
“I don’t know.” Lowe shoved fingers through his ash-blond hair and walked to the steps. He sighed. “It’s like he’s just given up or something. He shifted back last night and I want to take that as a good sign, but…”
Knox suddenly pivoted on his heel to face the woods.
Lowe had sensed it too.
Scented cougar.
His mood took a dark turn as the female Saint had taken from the Creek stepped out of the woods, her purple woollen hat and scarf brightened by the sunlight. Rather than turning tail and scurrying back to the Creek, she strode forwards, attempting to look brave as she tipped her chin up. It might have worked, but Lowe could scent that she was afraid.
He couldn’t blame her for being nervous. Knox was throwing off aggression so fiercely that she had to be able to feel it despite the hundred feet or so of space between her and his brother.
Lowe dropped from the deck to join Knox as he strode towards her, placing more distance between him and the cabin.
“What the hell do you want?” Knox growled, the aggression that rolled off him seeming to spark the same feeling in the cougar female.
Her grey-green eyes flashed with defiance as she straightened even more, standing taller as she approached them.
“I think I left my coat.” She was treading on dangerous ground sounding so light and sarcastic while Saint was laid up recovering from serious injuries and what Lowe was beginning to suspect was a broken heart. When she glanced at the cabin beyond them though, her bravado faltered and a hint of fear emerged in her eyes. Her voice lowered, losing its bite as she wrapped her arms around herself, her fingers gripping her green woollen sweater. “I came to see Saint.”
“Come to finish him off?” Knox moved into the path of her gaze.
She growled at him, baring short fangs.
“No,” she bit out, anger turning her eyes cougar gold. She wanted to fight his brother. It would be a mistake. Knox wouldn’t pull his punches this time. That spark of fire was quick to die again, leaving her voice sounding hollow as she said, “I just need to know if he’s all right.”
Lowe scowled at her, crossed his arms over his chest and came to stand beside Knox, forming a wall with his brother.
She growled again as she took a step forwards, clearly intending to go around them. Both he and Knox moved as one, countering her, stopping her from getting any closer to their alpha.
She ignored Knox and looked at Lowe. Why? Did she think he was the easier of the two of them to convince? Or was it because he had been the only one who had wanted to speak out when Saint had dragged her into the Ridge?
He hadn’t agreed with what Saint had done, but that didn’t mean he was going to let her get near his alpha again. Saint was hurting and she was responsible for his pain—both the physical and emotional.
She stood in silence, staring at him, a battle raging in her eyes. She wanted to attack him and Knox to reach Saint. He admired her courage and the depth of her desire to see Saint, but starting a fight wasn’t going to convince either him or Knox to allow her near their alpha. He stared her down, waiting to see what she would do, part of him willing her to make the right choice and back down.
If she backed down, if she shrugged off her pride and showed him that she was sorry about what had happened, asked him nicely if she could see Saint and assured him that she wasn’t out to hurt him, then maybe he would convince Knox to let her past.
“Please. I just want to know he’s okay.” Her voice was barely a whisper, held a desperate note that made him feel she honestly cared about Saint, that she needed to know he was going to be all right.
He stared into her grey-green eyes, seeking the truth there, trying to see if she did feel something for Saint.
His heart said that she did.
He thought about what to tell her, worry rolling through him as he thought about Saint’s condition, together with a spark of hope that she might be able to bring the big bear back to them.
He opened his mouth to speak.
Knox beat him to it. “The state of our alpha is none of your concern, cougar.”
She looked between Lowe and Knox, her expression growing defeated, and he could almost read her thoughts. She believed she wouldn’t be able to convince them to talk about Saint with her, and she looked close to giving up. Lowe willed her not to. Knox was stubborn, but if she was honest with him, if she spoke the truth and told him the reason she needed to see Saint, then his brother would back down.
“I know you’re just trying to protect him,” she whispered. “I just need to see him. If you won’t let me see him, then at least tell me he’s all right. I heard you. You said there’s something wrong with him.”
Lowe softened towards her a little more. A glance at Knox told him his brother was nowhere near being convinced though.
She sighed.
“I swear, I don’t want to hurt him.” She looked them both in the eye and Lowe could see in hers that she was hurting, that she was afraid and it wasn’t because she was facing him and Knox. She was afraid for Saint. “I don’t think I could hurt him.”
“Bullshit,” Knox snarled.
Lowe grabbed his arm when he went to step forwards and Knox levelled a glare on him, fire blazing in his blue eyes.
“Give her a chance.” Lowe looked at his brother. “We’re not getting through to Saint, but she might.”
Her brow furrowed and she took a step towards them. “What’s wrong with him?”
Knox gruffly shoved his hands into the pockets of his heavy black winter coat. “His wounds are healing but he refuses to wake.”
“Maybe it’s just the winter—”
Knox cut her off. “This isn’t that. This is something else. Lowe thinks he’s given up.”
“Given up?” She looked at Lowe, paling now.
Lowe nodded and looked behind him at the cabin and then back at her. “I found him in the snow. I think he was there for hours. It was getting late by the time I came across him. I got h
im inside and patched him up. He shifted back and I thought maybe he would wake, but he won’t.”
The scent of fear rolling off her grew stronger with each word he spoke, a desperate look mounting in her eyes.
She suddenly rushed him and Knox, shoved past them and made a break for the cabin. Knox growled at her and Lowe tightened his grip on his brother’s arm, holding him back. When Knox looked at him, he shook his head.
Turned and watched her running into the cabin.
“Let her see him.” Lowe glanced back at his brother. “If anyone can reach Saint and bring him back, it’s that female.”
Knox glared at him. “You don’t think?”
Lowe nodded.
“She’s his fated one.”
He looked at his own cabin, a feeling stirring inside him again, flooding his chest with warmth and rousing a fierce need to return to Cameo.
He surrendered to that need.
Knox gripped his arm this time, stopping him in his tracks, his voice dark.
“We’re not done talking.”
Chapter 11
Cameo hugged the cooling cup of coffee to her chest as she leaned against the kitchen counter, staring out of the picture window, watching Lowe. He had been standing outside the cabin in the centre of the clearing for more than an hour now, talking to Knox, and whatever they were discussing, he didn’t look happy.
A little over an hour ago, a woman had appeared from the direction that cabin faced, and Knox and Lowe had spoken with her, had looked as if they were going to run her off their land, but then she had pushed past the brothers and had gone into the cabin.
One of the neighbours that Lowe had talked about?
Cameo’s leg ached, a throb echoing along her bones, but she remained where she was, leaned her hip a little harder against the cupboard and kept staring out of the window. She wanted to know what was happening. She wanted to know what Knox was saying to Lowe to make him keep glancing in her direction.
They were talking about her. She knew it. Was Knox trying to convince him to make her leave? She set the coffee mug down and rubbed her right arm as she thought about having to leave this place. Would Lowe listen to his brother? She doubted it. Lowe wanted to keep her here, and she was beginning to feel it wasn’t just because he wanted to help her. This attraction she felt wasn’t one-sided. Lowe liked her too.
Cameo looked around her at the cabin.
This hadn’t been part of the plan.
While she could probably continue her job as a ranger if she lived in a place this remote, it would be difficult. She would have to spend her working days living somewhere closer to where she needed to be, which would only leave the days she wasn’t working for her to live here. Would that be enough to make a relationship with Lowe work?
She cursed.
She was getting way ahead of herself as always, planning things ten steps ahead, filling a mental binder with every little detail of how her life would work if she lived with Lowe.
She wasn’t even sure that he wanted more than a fling.
She wasn’t even sure she wanted more than that.
Her heart called her a liar. She did want something serious with Lowe. She was just scared of it happening. Her last serious relationship had been with Karl and that hadn’t exactly ended well for her. What if she fell in love with Lowe and he broke her heart? What if it turned out he was as controlling as Karl had been and tried to make her quit her job and do whatever he said she should do?
It was enough to have her taking a mental step back from Lowe, put fear in her veins and doubts in her head.
She was rushing things, and it wasn’t like her, but something about Lowe made her desperate. A little wild. A lot reckless. It was like he brought out a side of her that she had never realised existed. A side that was possessive and also protective, urged her to seize him in both hands and not let him go.
That possessive and protective streak roared to the fore as four men and a woman strode into view from the direction of the woods and Lowe and Knox turned to face them. Both brothers took a few steps towards them and held their hands up, a clear indication to the newcomers to stop where they were.
Who were they?
More neighbours from the south?
She didn’t like the way the men gestured at each other, their motions screaming of aggression. The woman she had seen speaking to Lowe and Knox appeared on the deck of the cabin.
A man with blond hair stepped up beside one who had hair a shade lighter, closer to the colour of Lowe’s, and stared Knox down.
They were going to fight.
Cameo couldn’t stop herself from hobbling to the door and opening it, her heart racing as she thought about the men coming to blows, thought about Knox and Lowe involved in a brawl against four men. She wasn’t sure what she intended to do, but she had to do something.
She stepped out onto the deck and limped forwards.
The second she clutched the post that supported the overhanging roof, Lowe looked across at her.
“Cameo, go back inside,” he hollered and then turned on the men and said something she didn’t hear.
Cameo looked to her right, at the ash-blond man who was staring in her direction too now. Lowe had been speaking to him. The man looked as if he was on the verge of throwing the first punch, which had Knox closing ranks with his brother and saying something to him.
Lowe flicked her another worried look.
Cameo forced herself to take the hint and go back inside, even when what she really wanted to do was storm over to the men and make them leave. She glanced back at Lowe as she reached the door and her heart shot into her throat as he peeled his black coat off and discarded it. The urge to make him stop flooded her, had her pivoting back to face him.
Things looked as if they were going to come to a head when the woman on the deck of Saint’s cabin hurried down the steps and pushed past Lowe and Knox, coming to stand in front of them. She argued with the four men, looked for all the world as if she was going to be the one to fight them.
If she did, she wouldn’t be alone.
Lowe stepped up beside her and said something to the men, but it didn’t defuse the situation. Were they arguing about the woman being on their land, with one of them?
One of the men, the tall one with dark hair, stepped forwards too and spoke to the woman with a gentle look on his face. Her slight shoulders shifted in a sigh and she said something back to him, and then tensed and spun on her heel to face the cabin.
Cameo looked there too.
Her eyes widened as a big man stepped out onto the deck, his presence seeming to defuse the situation, taking everything from a raging boil to barely a simmer as everyone looked at him.
Saint, she presumed.
She grimaced as her leg hurt and bent to rub just above where the ache was worst. Maybe standing on a deck in the cold wasn’t the best medicine for her injury, but she hadn’t been able to go back inside when Lowe had looked ready to fight. She glanced at him and frowned. Everyone was dispersing now, and the woman was going with the group towards the forest.
Lowe strode towards her, concern etched on his handsome face as he pulled his coat on and his pace picked up the closer he got to her. He swiftly took the steps up onto the deck and cupped her cheek, a tender gesture that flooded her with warmth and made her realise he really did have feelings for her and they were running along the same lines as hers were for him.
His hand was cold as he smoothed it across her cheek, as he angled her head back and looked down into her eyes, his blue ones warm with concern. “You okay?”
She nodded. “Just a little sore.”
He cast a worried look at her leg. “You’re sure you don’t want to—”
“No. I’m fine here.” She almost cursed when that came out sounding desperate, scared.
He smiled softly. “Almost sound like you don’t want to leave this place.”
It wasn’t the place she didn’t want to leave—it was him. He st
ared down into her eyes, a sharp edge entering his as they stood in silence, and she had the feeling he was trying to glimpse things she wasn’t ready for him to see yet.
She searched for a change in topic, glanced beyond him when the intensity of his gaze began to fluster her, and found it as the big brunet man she believed to be Saint finished buttoning a checked fleece shirt and stepped off his deck.
Heading in her direction.
“What was all that about anyway?” She looked back at Lowe.
He huffed. “Holly lives with our neighbours, but she’s taken a shine to Saint, and she came to see him without telling her friends. They were worried about her.”
“Is that Saint?” She jerked her chin towards the man marching towards them.
Lowe turned and didn’t look happy to see the man closing in on them. He pressed his hand to her waist and eased her back towards the open door.
“You go on inside. Get warmed up.” He frowned when she stood her ground.
She wanted to meet the man who owned this place and she had the feeling he wanted to meet her too. Going inside wasn’t going to stop this man. She could see it in his dark eyes as he turned a frown on her.
“Knox said we had company.” Saint’s deep voice rolled over her like thunder, a hard edge to it as he slid Lowe a look that told Cameo he wasn’t happy about it.
The second he placed a booted foot on the stairs that led up to the raised deck, Lowe turned on him and pressed a hand to his chest, stopping him. Something passed silently between them as they glared at each other, their faces stern and eyes dark.
Cameo had the feeling she wasn’t the only one with a deep protective streak.
Saint gave Lowe a hard look and tried to pass him, but Lowe didn’t let him. The man’s dark eyes shifted to her and he frowned, narrowing them on her. It didn’t go down well with Lowe.
Rescued by her Bear (Black Ridge Bears Shifter Romance Series Book 2) Page 11