Knox battled the urge to cross the short stretch of snow between them and gather her into his arms, shoved his mind back on track, because there would be no holding her close to him if he didn’t get her out of this mess.
He wasn’t sure she would let him hold her even when he did get her away from these males.
That feeling that he was in for it when they were finally together hadn’t gone anywhere. If she didn’t leave because he had killed these males, then she would probably leave because he had hurt her in the past.
If he told her that he had spent the last two years torn between seeing her again and keeping his distance, would it help his cause?
Part of him doubted it. She would probably call him on the fact he hadn’t had the balls to face her. Gods, she would be right about that. Every time he had come close to finding an excuse to head into town so he could see her again, he had lost his nerve at the last second, and in his heart, he knew it wasn’t because she was human and he had felt they couldn’t be together because of that fact.
He had been soul-deep afraid that she would lash out at him.
Or worse.
That she would be with another male, would be happy with him and maybe even married.
He dropped his gaze to her hands and cursed her gloves. If she took them off, would he find a gold band on her finger? He idly rubbed his chest through his black jacket, trying to soothe the ache building there. A woman as beautiful as Skye was bound to have had a few suitors over the last two years, might have even settled down as he feared. If she had moved on, he could hardly blame her for it.
Things between them amounted to one wild night.
Followed by him running out on her before dawn.
Hardly a reason for her to wait for him.
He was man enough to admit that what he had done had been wrong and that she had every right to move on with her life and find happiness with someone else. The bear in him roared in agony at the thought she might have though, paced restlessly and battered the cage of his human form, wanting out, needing to lash out at everything that stood between him and his beautiful fated female.
The compulsion to go to her crashed over him again, trying to tear down his strength, attempting to push him into action. Resisting it became close to impossible as she dozed off, slumping forwards, and Wade slid a look at her. She jerked awake when someone spoke.
Patrick stood and Knox’s senses sharpened, fatigue pushed to the back of his mind as he tracked the male’s movements. He pulled his socks and boots on and headed to Knox’s right.
Towards the trees.
Knox eased backwards, deeper into the woods, and stripped his clothes off, leaving them behind a tree a good forty feet from the clearing. He focused and let the change come over him, wanted to growl in pleasure as fur rippled over his skin and he dropped to all fours, his bear side coming to the fore. Five-inch-long claws burst from his heavy paws as his face morphed, his ears rounding and moving upwards as his nose elongated into a snout and his teeth sharpened. His more animal instincts seized control, the urge to go to his mate almost overpowering him as they dampened his ability to think about actions and consequences and about his plan. It was hard to control himself and stop himself from bursting from the trees as he glanced in Skye’s direction.
He shook out his fur to get more comfortable and lumbered through the trees in the direction Patrick had taken instead, trying to move with stealth, something which was easier said than done when he was a six-hundred-pound bear. He carefully placed each paw, hoping the snow would cushion his weight enough that any branches hidden beneath it wouldn’t snap and alert the males to his presence.
Knox growled low as he caught Patrick’s scent and spied him ahead, still walking into the trees. He glanced at the camp, ensuring no one was looking his way. They were talking again, Karl saying something he tuned out as he fixed all of his senses on the overweight male he was stalking.
Patrick stopped, unzipped his pants, and grumbled something about the cold.
The cold was about to be the least of his worries.
Knox’s upper lip curled back off his fangs as he eased up behind the male, the hunger to strike him down seething inside him, born of a need to not only protect Skye but to protect his brother and Cameo too. This male was a threat to them all.
A threat to everyone at the Ridge and the Creek.
On a low, moaning growl, Knox closed the distance between him and the male.
The acrid scent of fear swamped the air as Patrick locked up tight and started trembling.
The male’s breath stuttered as he slowly turned his head to his right, his brow furrowed and his eyes wide as they edged towards Knox.
He screamed.
Knox rose up onto his back paws, coming to tower at least two feet taller than the male, and roared as he swung with his right front paw. He smashed it into Patrick’s head, delivering a crushing blow that cut his scream off and sent him to the ground on a pained grunt. He struck again, savagely clawing at the male’s grey jacket, raking deep grooves in the material and his flesh to ensure it looked like the animal attack it was. He needed it to look like a regular bear attack to keep Skye safe.
The male unleashed an agonised yell as he desperately tried to fight Knox off.
Instinct seized control, had him slamming his paw into the male’s head again, shattering his skull.
Killing him.
His primal instincts didn’t release him as the male went still.
They had him turning towards the camp as the voices grew louder, as he scented Skye’s fear. His female feared. His female was in danger. It wreaked havoc on him, had his instincts bellowing at him to save her.
On a vicious roar, Knox turned and charged towards the camp.
He thundered towards her, drawn to her, filled with a need to save her. Wade appeared from the gloom and Knox growled as he ran at him, as the male fumbled with his weapon and tried to raise it. He slammed into the bastard, knocking him back into a tree, relishing his muffled grunt as he hit it and dropped to the ground. The urge to finish him off was strong, but the need to reach Skye was even stronger, had him running harder in her direction, determined to save her.
Karl dodged to his right as Knox closed in on him, swift to place trees between him and Knox.
Ahead of him, the clearing came into view.
He growled as Skye kicked off only to be collared by Cooper, the one male Knox had been sure would be on her side. Cooper pulled her back to him, his green eyes wide, his face ashen as he stared into the woods in Knox’s direction and reached for his rifle. She struggled, desperately trying to break free of him, fear written in every line of her beautiful face as she clawed and kicked at Cooper.
Knox roared at the bastard for holding her against her will.
And charged at him.
Chapter 9
Sheer terror ripped through Skye as a deep growl echoed through the night followed by an agonised yell. She shot to her feet, suddenly very awake, her heart pounding at a sickening pace in her throat and her legs trembling beneath her as she stared in the direction Patrick had gone.
“What the fuck is that?” Wade whipped towards her, his eyes wide. “A wolf?”
She shook her head and tried to find her voice, but the words wouldn’t come as a shiver bolted down her spine and another bellow of pain tore through the forest. Oh God. Her breaths came faster as she dropped and fumbled with her pack, her hands shaking so badly that she struggled to get the top open.
“What is it!?” Wade took a hard step towards her and her head snapped up.
“Bear.” That word burst from her lips. “A bear. It’s a really fucking angry bear.”
Just as those trembling words rushed from her, another vicious growl sliced through the darkness, making the hairs on her nape stand on end and her heart miss a beat.
“Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.” Cooper wasn’t helping her nerves.
“Shut up!” she snapped at him, fear getting the
better of her, and cursed when she fumbled with the canister of bear spray she had found and it tumbled from her grip to roll across the dirt to the snow. “Damn it.”
“Wait here. Keep an eye on her. Do not let her leave,” Karl barked and Cooper tensed, his entire body locking up tight. Karl looked at Wade. “Grab your gun.”
“You kidding me?” Wade bit out. “Patrick is dead. You wanna end up like him too?”
Karl levelled a black look on the man, one that had Wade falling silent and easing back a step as he looked away from his boss. “I said grab your gun.”
Skye wanted to tell them not to be so crazy, but she held her tongue, denying the urge to press them to forget about trying to help their friend. If the bear killed them too, she would only have to deal with Cooper, and she was ninety percent certain he would let her go.
Her rough breaths filled the silence as Wade grabbed his assault rifle and followed Karl into the trees. The darkness swallowed them and she listened hard, fearing the bear would sneak up on her and kill her next. Beside her, Cooper was looking twitchy again, his green eyes darting over everything.
“We should move,” she whispered, too scared to speak any louder in case the bear heard her. “This fire is dampening our vision. We won’t see the bear coming—”
“Karl said to stay here.” Cooper’s voice gained an uncharacteristically hard edge and she glanced at him. He glared at her. “We’re not going anywhere. The fire will deter the bear. You said that.”
“No, I didn’t! I said that the fire would deter wolves. I really fucking doubt that the angry bear out there in the woods is going to care that there’s a fire blazing a few feet from us!” She strained to hear what was happening, the hope that she could convince Cooper to move and possibly mount an escape lessening as the seconds ticked past. Her gaze flicked to the cannister she had dropped, a weapon that would probably work better against the bear than the guns the men were toting, and she took a step towards it.
“Stay there,” Cooper growled.
She turned on him. “I want that bear spray. You all have guns. I deserve to be armed too.”
It turned out Cooper was more loyal than she had given him credit for, because when the bear roared and she heard a pained grunt coming from the direction Wade and Karl had gone, she tried to make a break for it.
Only Cooper lunged for her and grabbed the back of her jacket, his fingers closing tightly around the collar of it to stop her from swiping the cannister from the ground and escaping. Damn it.
She twisted and wrestled with him, trying to break free as her pulse jacked up, as adrenaline flooded her veins and every instinct she possessed screamed at her to get away from him and run for it.
Cooper refused to release her though, dragged her closer to him as he leaned to his left and grabbed his rifle. Skye stilled as the bushes swayed and rustled, her heart close to stopping as her gaze whipped in that direction and she watched with dread as heavy footfalls reached her ears.
No. She wasn’t going to die here. She wasn’t.
With renewed vigour, she twisted towards Cooper and kicked at him, battered him with her fists as a desperate need to escape flooded her, because that wasn’t Wade and Karl thundering towards them.
That was a bear.
Cooper lifted his rifle.
The bear roared and charged at them as it burst from the bushes.
She grunted as Cooper threw her to the ground at his feet and aimed his rifle, covered her head and curled into a ball as fear got the better of her, locking every muscle in her body and shutting down her mind. Cooper fired several rounds towards the woods and she caught a glimpse of an enormous grizzly coming right at her before it shifted course on an angry groan and ploughed into the scrub, heading to her right.
Skye stared at where it had been, her ears ringing, numbness sweeping through her as she kept replaying the few seconds where the bear had been charging towards her.
She tensed again as something else crashed through the bushes, her gaze zipping there and her breath hitching in her throat. It leaked from her as firelight chased over Wade as he emerged from the forest, his assault rifle gripped tightly in his hands as his gaze swung in all directions.
“It was a bear! A fucking bear!” Cooper’s voice shook as the end of the barrel of his rifle dropped, falling to rest on the dirt near Skye’s feet.
She was quick to sit up and shake off her fear now that Wade was back and looking as if he wanted to come to her.
“A big bastard too.” Wade turned in all directions again and the light from the fire caught on the blood that tracked down the side of his head. “Smashed me into a tree. Came running towards here like it was on a fucking mission.”
His gaze slid to her and lingered, the hard edge to his eyes softening.
“You okay?” Wade’s brow furrowed and he grimaced, removed his left hand from his rifle and lifted it. He gingerly pressed his fingers to the wound on his forehead. “Shit, that hurts.”
“I thought bears slept through winter?” Karl strode towards her, looking like a man on a mission, and she shuffled backwards, fearing he would lash out at her because the bear had frightened him.
She had seen plenty of men act like that in the past. Some men reacted to being scared by something with violence, as if fear was a weakness and they didn’t want anyone to think them weak, so they lashed out at everyone who was near them.
Normally picked on the weakest person in the area to make themselves look strong.
Skye swallowed her fear and gripped the log as her back hit it. She pulled herself up onto it and refused to let him intimidate her, stared him down as she pulled her shit together.
“It must have been disturbed. Bears sleep through winter, but we’re not exactly being subtle.” She dusted her black jacket off and glared up at the blond man next to her. “Cooper shot up that tree pretty good a few hours ago. It might have been enough to disturb the bear.”
Cooper’s wide green eyes swung down to her. “You mean that thing has been tailing us all this time?”
He looked ready to lift his rifle again and as much as she wanted to defuse the situation and calm him down, she was too damned tired and shaken.
Wade scowled at Cooper. “If it has, it’s your fault.”
Cooper glared right back at him. “You’ve always had a problem with me. You blamed me for losing track of that cheating bastard’s parents and now you want to blame me for a bear being on our tail.”
Cheating bastard?
“Yeah, well, I’m not the one who let them slip away.” Wade strode over to him and butted chests with Cooper, glowering down at him. “We had the woman where we wanted her. She would have talked if we had gotten our hands on her, but now she’s in this godforsaken shithole wilderness and we’re getting nowhere. You fucked us. We’ve got no leverage.”
Skye stared up at them, her mind spinning. Had they wanted to use the woman’s parents as leverage to make her talk? What was it the woman had done? Was the cheating bastard Knox or some other man?
“Wade,” Karl barked and when Wade looked over his shoulder at him, Karl slid a pointed look at Skye. “I don’t think this is something we need to discuss right now.”
Because he didn’t want her to know what was happening. What did it matter? If she didn’t manage to get away from them, she was toast. She supposed that if she did get away from them and managed to reach the authorities, she would have a lot of dirt she could give them on Karl and his buddies.
“What happened to Patrick?” She looked from Karl to Wade and the grim looks on both of their faces told her that whatever had happened, it hadn’t been pretty. She swallowed hard. “Is he…?”
Karl nodded.
Cooper sank to his backside on the log beside her, the butt of his rifle dropping to the dirt by his feet, and hung his hands between his knees as he stared into nothing. “Shit. Shit.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face and growled in frustration as he shoved it into his hair an
d then smashed his fist into his leg.
“I’m going to kill that fucking bear,” he snarled, tears shining in his eyes, and then his rage dropped away and he buried his face in his hand again, and whispered, “Shit.”
Skye’s brow furrowed as she looked at him, as polar emotions pulled her in two. She was relieved there was one less of them to stop her from escaping now, and one less of them for Knox to potentially deal with, but at the same time she felt bad that Patrick was dead and that Cooper was clearly hurting, grieving for his friend.
She placed a hand on his back and moved it in gentle circles, trying to comfort him, and felt like a bitch because part of her was hoping that bear would come back and take out another one of them for her or at least give her a chance to escape.
Cooper angled his head towards her and looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “You think it’ll come back… like it’s going to keep following us? It’s going to kill us all, isn’t it?”
“Shh.” She kept rubbing his back and smiled for him. “It’s long gone. You scared it away. It’s not coming back.”
That lie tasted bitter on her tongue as she kept on smiling, covering her fear, hiding how shaken she was as her mind kept replaying how that bear had charged towards them.
She couldn’t shift the feeling that had come over her when she had locked gazes with it in the moment before Cooper had shot at it. It was ridiculous of her, but in that heart-stopping moment, she swore it had been charging towards her.
She swore it had looked desperate to reach her.
“We’re moving. Now.” Karl’s barked words snapped her out of her thoughts.
She stared across the fire at him, her hand stilling against Cooper’s back.
“It’s safer by the fire though, right?” Cooper sounded uncertain as he glanced at her.
Saved by her Bear (Black Ridge Bears Shifter Romance Series Book 3) Page 7