Those words leaving his brother’s lips had him growling all over again, because he had tried that talking bullshit people spoke so highly of last night and it had gotten him nowhere.
“Fuck off. How’s that for talking?” Flint swept away from him.
“What’s got you so cranky?” Cobalt trailed after him, at a distance, one great enough that Flint managed to get a leash on his temper and didn’t feel the need to lash out at his brother to drive him away.
“Lack of sleep.” Because he had spent the whole fucking night thinking about Yasmin, and how he could make sure she didn’t end up with another male.
Even when he had known this would happen, that Rath would get him benched because of their bloodline and his ridiculous need to fulfil the duty the pride had forced on them after the Archangel attack close to four decades ago.
He shoved the door of his cabin open. Cobalt followed, but remained at the door, leaning against the frame. Sensible move. Flint didn’t want to lash out at his brother, but he couldn’t quite tame his instincts to fight, not when his blood was boiling, fury stoked by the thought of being relegated to the side lines and forced to watch as three eligible males battled over Yasmin.
Gods, he was beginning to see how Cobalt felt whenever he looked at Ember, staring at the one thing he couldn’t have.
The one thing he wanted above all others.
He didn’t bother changing his clothes as noise coming from the direction of the clearing reached him, remained in the same black t-shirt and dark blue jeans he had been wearing the day before. Forgot all about washing as Rath’s voice rose in the still morning air, telling everyone to calm down.
Forgot his own fucking name as his brother announced there would be a courting.
Cobalt offered him a sympathetic look. Flint growled at him and pushed past him.
The only damned reason he was going to the clearing was because he wanted his fleece back. It had nothing to do with doing his duty or seeing Yasmin again.
Really had nothing to do with seeing her again.
Gods, he needed to see her again.
Was idiot enough to hope that she had changed her mind and Rath was going to look like a fool when she stepped up and made that clear.
He reached the clearing and stopped near the treeline as the sight of Yasmin hit him hard. She stood on the deck of Rath’s cabin beside his brother, a vision with her black waves tangled into a knot at the back of her head and a violet sweater hugging her breasts and waist, paired with the jeans she had been wearing the day before, ones that moulded to her long legs.
Her dark eyes remained fixed ahead of her, not giving anything away as they stayed devoid of emotion. Was she nervous? With so many cougars around, gathered between him and her, he couldn’t sense her feelings.
He drifted closer and swore she glanced at him, but he couldn’t be sure.
Rath definitely looked at him as he gestured for Yasmin to join him, issued the same look of pity Cobalt had given him. Flint was tempted to flip him off, but Yasmin had the whole of his attention as she dutifully stepped forwards, taking her place next to Rath.
“The courting will be a standard three challenge length. First, we’ll establish the leading male and top contender, and then we’ll move on to the challenges to show stamina and agility, followed by strength and skill.” Rath looked from Yasmin to her contenders.
Yasmin looked a little lost as her dark chocolate eyes lingered on Rath, and Flint wanted to growl when he realised Rath hadn’t explained things well enough, had told her some things but not others. There were nerves in her eyes too when she lowered them from his brother and they flitted over the three males assembled before her.
The biggest male, a brunet with shorn hair and a body packed with muscle beneath his dark t-shirt and grey trousers, tossed her a grin that Flint wanted to punch off his face. Mason had always been a pushy bastard, won most of the fights he entered into at gatherings, and had zero inclination to settle down. He wasn’t looking for a relationship with Yasmin, he was looking for a conquest and had done whatever it had taken to ensure that happened—had lied to her.
Flint had half a mind to beat the male into a bloody pulp for that. The other half wanted to beat him into a bloody pulp so he couldn’t court Yasmin out of his hands.
On either side of Mason, two slighter males stood their ground.
Nash, a male with blond hair tied in a topknot and unusual blue eyes reeked of nerves. He was young, and hot-headed, got into more fights than he could win, a slave to his hormones as he wrestled with the early years of sexual maturity.
On the right side of Mason, Deacon acted as calm and collected as Flint expected, no emotion crossing his handsome face as he stared at Yasmin, silver-grey eyes fixed on her in a way that said the older male was enraptured, bewitched by her as much as Flint was. When Yasmin looked his way, he smiled at her, flashing straight white teeth and causing the vicious scar on the left side of his throat to pull on his jaw. The male’s overlong dark hair caught the breeze and he pushed it back from his face.
Yasmin looked away from the male.
Right at Flint.
Her sultry eyes heated and then leaped away, landing on her feet, and he had to steel himself to stop himself from storming over to her and telling her that he wouldn’t let her go through with this.
Fuck, hadn’t his temper where she was concerned, his need to protect her and possess her, brought them to this point in the first place? If he tried to control her, she would only lash out again. It was difficult though, hard to resist the burning need to keep her away from the other males by any means necessary.
He stared at her, willing her to look at him, to give him a sign that she didn’t really want this.
That she really wanted him.
Nash was the first to break the thick silence that had descended on the creek. “I’ll run any distance for you.”
Hardly a challenge. He could run twice the distance Nash could. It wasn’t going to fly. Such a weak offer wasn’t going to get him anywhere.
Deacon cleared his throat. “I’ll base jump and not open my chute until I’m under three hundred metres.”
That sounded like suicide to Flint, or a cunning way to get himself into Yasmin’s presence when he shattered every bone in his body. Mason looked as if he might accept that and dare him to do it, and Flint held his breath, couldn’t stop himself from taking a step towards them.
“I’ll base jump and not open my chute until I’m under two hundred,” Nash said and both males looked at him as if he had gone mad, or didn’t have a clue how a courting worked.
Killing yourself in the dare round hardly got you into the top contender position.
Mason still looked as if he was going to accept it. Bastard.
But then the big male spoke, his voice a deep growl.
“I’ll fight a grizzly with one hand tied behind my back and without shifting.”
Both Deacon and Nash looked ready to dare him to do that, the calculating look in their eyes revealing they were hoping battling the wild animal would end with Mason being injured so severely he would be removed from the running.
Flint panicked.
Stepped forward and hollered.
“I’ll walk buck naked into the bear pride village and pick a fight with one.”
Everyone whipped to face him.
Yasmin’s eyes flew wide. “Flint, no.”
“You can’t partici—” Rath started.
“We dare you.” The three males spoke over his brother, that calculating look in all their eyes now, especially Mason’s.
He wanted to see Flint fall at the first hurdle, wanted him out of the way so there was nothing stopping him from winning and seducing Yasmin, luring her in with his lie that he could be committed to her, wanted more than one moment with her.
Saw her as more than a conquest.
Yasmin stepped off the deck, shirking Rath’s grip as he tried to stop her, and shoved through the crowd towa
rds Flint. Everyone watched her, the crowd curious and the contenders looking ready to cut him down as she approached him.
“Don’t do it,” she whispered, genuine fear colouring her dark eyes, lacing her sweet citrus scent.
Damn, that only made him want to do it even more, because it revealed something to him.
She cared about him.
“You’ve gone mad,” she bit out, but there was no anger in her eyes, only that fear.
It lingered, grew stronger as he stared at her in silence, battling for the words.
“Maybe I have,” he murmured huskily as he lost himself in her beguiling eyes, in how good it felt just to be stood this close to her, looking at her. “Maybe the fever has gotten to me too, because I need to do this.”
“You don’t have to.” Her dark eyebrows furrowed, and she looked as if she wanted to reach for him, wanted to touch him, but then her eyes slid to her left, towards where the crowd were stood, the contenders at the front now, all of them watching her.
“I do,” he countered. “I was chosen and I can’t back down now. I won’t pay the price for pulling out.”
Her eyes settled on him again, a flicker of confusion in them, and he couldn’t bring himself to tell her that if he did, he would have to stand by and watch as the other males wooed her.
He didn’t think he could bear that.
So he would face an angry bear instead.
CHAPTER 9
Flint had lost his mind. It was the only explanation. Yasmin stared after him as the crowd dispersed and he walked away, heading in the direction of his cabin, the early morning mist swirling around his ankles.
She turned as someone came up behind her and looked up into Rath’s grey eyes. “You have to stop him.”
Because she knew how violent, and how powerful, bear shifters were and that Flint was going to end up getting himself killed.
And it would be all her fault.
“I can’t do that,” Rath said, a wealth of emotions in his voice that flitted across his face, concern at the front of them all.
He was as unhappy as she was about what Flint was going to do. He had to stop his brother. He just had to. Flint hadn’t listened to her, but perhaps he would listen to his family.
“You can’t let him go through with it, Rath. The bears will kill him.” When she got no response from Rath, she turned to Cobalt, imploring him with her eyes. “Please, Cobalt. Speak to him. He listens to you.”
Cobalt snorted at that. “He won’t listen to anyone right now.”
“Gods, someone has to stop him.” She threw her hands up in the air, frustration getting the better of her. It bled out of her a moment later, a cold sort of resignation sweeping in to replace it, together with a sense of hopelessness. “I’ll stop him if you won’t.”
“He won’t listen to you, either.” Cobalt looked beyond her, over her head, towards the woods. “I like the idea of my kid brother getting beaten up as much as you do, Miss Goddess, but talking isn’t his strong suit and listening doesn’t rank much better… and whatever you say, whatever any of us tries to tell him, he isn’t going to change his mind.”
She wasn’t going to accept that. “Look, Flint told me he was just swept up in the madness, the fever, whatever that means. Surely that’s reason to stop him? He doesn’t know what he’s doing!”
Rath shook his head, his tone grave. “It’s quite the opposite, I’m afraid. He knows exactly what he’s doing and why he’s doing it.”
She didn’t understand.
He sighed, scrubbed the nape of his neck, and glanced at Ivy before settling his grey eyes back on her. “Flint thinks my falling in love with Ivy and mating with her, and Storm running off with Gabriella, and some of the other male cougars forming a bond with a female, is a sort of madness that’s sweeping through Cougar Creek.”
Yasmin couldn’t breathe as that hit her, sent her mind spinning and thoughts splintering. She turned and stared towards Flint’s cabin, shock rolling through her.
“He only wants a fling,” she whispered, trying to convince herself that Rath was wrong about his brother. “He made that pretty clear.”
Cobalt muttered, “What he says and what he wants are two opposite things, and it seems Flint is finally realising that. You made him see it by accepting proposals from other males.”
There was a bite in his final words that lashed at her, cutting her as deeply as a physical blow as his resentment swept over her.
She pivoted to face him. “I was just angry with him trying to control me. Can’t we put an end to this? Can I really not pull out?”
Rath shook his head. “You’re free to pick no one at the end, but not even I can end it before it reaches its natural conclusion.”
He didn’t seem happy about that, or with her. His words hadn’t lashed at her as Cobalt’s had, but she could read in his eyes that he was angry with her, blamed her for the mess his brother was about to get himself into.
“If I had known Flint would offer to do something insane… if I had realised what this stupid courtship entailed… I never would have agreed to it.” She took a step towards him and clenched her fists at her sides to stop them from trembling. “Can’t you just make Flint not do the dare?”
“I can’t do that either.” Rath’s sombre tone and the way his eyes drifted towards Flint’s cabin said that he wanted to do it, because he was worried. That only worried her even more, left her feeling that Flint was doomed. “If Flint pulls out, he’s forced to watch the rest of the courting from the side lines.”
Damn.
She knew in her heart that was something Flint couldn’t do, that he would sooner fight the bear and lose, even get injured or come close to dying, than pull out and let the other males proceed to court her when he could only watch.
Which told her something.
Cobalt and Rath were right, and Flint was more serious about her than she had thought.
Hell, he was probably more serious about her than he had thought. Which couldn’t be right.
She needed to speak with him.
Before she could move a muscle, Rath said, “Give him some space.”
Damn him. She needed to see Flint, had to speak with him. Rath gave her a hard look, one that warned her not to do it, that he was serious about leaving his brother alone to prepare for the coming challenge.
He was right. Flint didn’t need her throwing him off his game when he was trying to mentally prepare himself for fighting a bear. He didn’t need her filling his head with doubts or trying to stop him. He needed her support.
Gods, it was difficult though.
Rath held his arm out as he took hold of Ivy’s hand, gesturing towards his cabin. “Let’s all get a coffee and talk more about this.”
Yasmin forced herself to nod and trailed after him as he led the way with Ivy pinned to his side. She stared at their joined hands, at the possessive way Rath linked his fingers with Ivy’s and held it tightly, and an ache bloomed in her chest, the need to see Flint growing stronger.
As they reached the deck, Ivy looked up at Rath. “Are you sure it’s okay for him to go poking the bears after what happened?”
What happened? Yasmin needed to know, because she didn’t like the sound of that.
“It’s probably a bad idea,” Cobalt put in. “Storm got them pretty riled up and they’ll be looking for revenge.”
Gods, no.
Flint wasn’t just going to fight a bear. He was going to fight a bear that was in a bad mood, one that wanted vengeance and was liable to see Flint as a path to gaining it, as a way of hurting Storm and his other brothers.
“He’ll be fine.” Rath didn’t sound sure as he entered the cabin, Ivy and Cobalt following him.
Yasmin made a decision.
One that was going to make them even angrier with her but one she had to see through.
She quickly leaped from the deck and ran in the direction of Flint’s cabin. She had to speak with him, couldn’t let him do this. Somehow
, she would convince him to forget the stupid dare.
She would convince him to wait out this courting. For her. She would still be there at the end of it, waiting for him.
She wouldn’t choose anyone.
She would choose him.
She spotted the rustic cabin through the thick trees. It had seen better days, the logs green in places, with moss growing across the roof shingles. Her heart hitched as Flint moved past the downstairs window in the gable end, and she pressed forwards, her strides determined as she prepared herself. She could do this.
She would make him change his mind.
Yasmin stepped up onto the worn deck beneath the roof trusses that formed a sort of porch and hesitated at the door.
It opened before she could decide whether to knock or just plough into his home.
“Go away.” He didn’t close the door in her face as he turned his bare back on her, which was a positive sign.
He wanted her to come in. Cobalt was right about his brother. What he wanted and what he said were often the opposite of each other.
She stepped into the snug, homely cabin, instantly warmed by the log burner that stood against the left wall, facing a couch that had an elegant hurricane lamp stood on a small wooden table at the other end of it to her. A moose head stared at her from its mount to the left of a door in the wall opposite the fire, behind the couch. Someone had put a hat on it. A deerstalker. They had put a tobacco pipe in its mouth too.
Yasmin glanced at Flint. Had he been the one to turn a moose into something akin to Sherlock Holmes? Perhaps it had been one of his brothers. Although out of the ones she had met, Flint seemed the most likely culprit. She was sure there was a wicked sense of humour buried somewhere in him.
Somewhere.
There wasn’t a hint of it today though.
Flint prowled around the small space, rubbing a towel over his damp black hair, mussing the thick locks. His eyes were gold as they landed on her, and he sighed as he dragged them away.
“There’s coffee if you want some.” He paused and then looked back at her, his eyebrows rising and softening his expression. “I don’t have any herbal tea.”
Courted by her Cougar (Cougar Creek Mates Shifter Romance Series Book 3) Page 8