by JL Madore
I wanted to smack the smarmy smile off her face. "Bull. Bruin would've told me."
She slung the shoulder strap of her purse over her head and then straightened it across her cleavage. "Stupid Mundie-girl. You don't know a thing about Bruin or what he'd endure for someone he loved. Is that how you justify hurting him?"
"I can't help where we are. This situation has been tough on both of us."
Katsu's cool façade slipped as her eyes narrowed. "You have no fucking clue. Imagine being rejected by the one person the gods say he belongs to—finally belongs to—after a lifetime of having no hope. He suffers day and night, so aroused that his skin burns on his bones and his cock feels like it will explode if he doesn't find release. The entity inside him, his bear, breathes in your scent and rages to claim you with a savagery that threatens the man's very sanity."
"There's no way he'd tell you that."
She rolled her eyes. "He's not the first Were to be branded by the Fates, Mundie. Bonded males are dangerous men until a mating occurs. Until then, his animal side will gain dominance until his humanity gets eaten away, bit by bit. When that happens, there's nowhere you'll be safe and Bruin knows it."
"And I know Bruin would never hurt me."
Her gaze narrowed. "No. He'd put himself down before he let his bear ravage you."
My mind spun. I fought the urge to lash out at her, to tell her to shut up, to tell her she didn't know shit . . . but it was me who knew nothing. "If this is true, why didn't he tell me?"
Katsu shook her head and pulled the handle for the interior washroom door. "You really don't know him at all, do you?"
Before she pulled the second door open, I stopped her. "Why tell me any of this?"
She sighed and shook her head. "Because I do know him."
Bruin stood directly across the hall from the washroom, shoulders stiff, and hands at his sides. He looked like the weight of two worlds pressed down on him and I knew if anyone even looked at me sideways, they'd be face-planting onto granite tiles.
As I followed Katsu out of the ladies room, he stepped away from the wall with a heavy exhale. He looked from me to her and back. "You girls finished freshening up?"
Katsu swung her hips as she stepped into the hall.
Bruin bent his head and nuzzled my cheek, the light scruff of his jaw prickled my skin, a soothing balm on raw nerves. "You okay? You look pale."
I forced my shiny lips to lift. "Fine."
In one coordinated move he reached across my shoulders and squeezed. "It's not too late to back out, baby. We can Flash to the Gate and be home in a matter of minutes."
Home? I looked up into the expectant faces of my security detail. Cowboy and Rue had the mic communicators down and had squared off, facing opposite directions of the hall. Mirrored sunglasses made it impossible to tell where they were looking, but as each Mundie passed, their heads turned.
Katsu occupied herself by checking the polish on her nails. She could probably see trouble coming in the reflection of the luster. What was her game?
Bruin would be impotent if I left. How could he not tell me that? Why hadn’t I asked more questions? I'm a journalist for shit's sake. Was I that self-centered that I just looked at the end of the bonding cycle for what it meant to me?
"Mika?" Bruin's timbre rang deeper than usual. "What is it?"
"Nothing." I rubbed my forehead. Did I have any Advil in my purse? "Let's get this over with."
After a moment, Bruin stopped us in front of the elevators. "Okay, you're in meeting room 317, third floor, left out of the elevator, fourth door on the right. Savage is up there with Kobi and Sin and everything is secure. Remember. Just like we planned. You're in. You make your statements, log in your files and photos and then we make tracks."
I nodded.
He kissed my throbbing temple and whispered, "I'm with you, baby. If you get one of your feelings, give me a nod and we're nothing but dust trails and vapor. Got it?"
I blinked back the sting behind my eyes and pushed the button for the elevators. "Bruin, if everything goes well here, could we make one quick stop?"
His scowl deepened. "What quick stop?"
"To see Meg at the hospital. Paige will be there and I need to talk to her."
Bruin shook his head. Once Katsu stepped into the elevator, he pressed his hand on the small of my back and we followed. "You can call them when we get back."
"They know I'm in town today. It would seem very suspicious if I didn't visit. Might even start them asking questions." I could tell by his body language, Bruin didn't like being manoeuvred any more than I did. I laid my hand flat on his stomach. "Look, if anything hinky happens, you can Flash me out of there in a blink."
He flipped me an exasperated look. "If we can Flash. The whole reason we brought the trucks was because if Abaddon or Scourge attack, they'll likely have a Pulse to block a quick escape. Let's just finish here and get back to Haven."
We made our way out of the elevator and up the hall to the ACA's meeting room. "We're working on compromising remember? I swear, we'll be fast. It's important to me."
Bruin's phone rang and he shifted to get it out of his pocket. "Yeah."
As he scowled at the framed photo of Queen Elizabeth II hanging on the wall and listened, he rhymed off a series of nods and mhmms. As he wrapped things up, he looked at me, one eyebrow lifted. "Sure, D, we're heading over to Vancouver General in a bit, but we're only there for ten minutes, tops. I'll have Cowboy wait in the lobby. . . Thanks man, you rock."
When he hung up, I kissed his tattooed palm. "I'll thank you properly later."
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Back behind the wheel, with our armed contingent squished in the back seat, I hit my indicator. As Kobi's Escalade turned in front of me, we left the hospital parking lot. "I told you we'd be fine."
Bruin unsheathed his gun, checked the safety and laid it flat on his thigh. "It was a bad call, Mika, even if things went off okay. We took a strategically unnecessary risk."
"It was ten minutes to check in with my boss and to visit a friend who got knocked unconscious and nearly suffered brain damage. Because of us, I might add."
"Bad things happen to good people all the time. We can't change that."
I followed Kobi close as he turned at a set of lights and headed out of town a different way we came in. "Think what you want. You could have at least let me hit the bathroom before we left. No assassins were jumping out from behind tacky pink curtains and yet somehow peeing got deemed an unnecessary risk too?"
"We could have Flashed to the Gate and saved the stress on your bladder."
I snorted and stroked the metal dash. "And leave my baby in the hands of your warriors?"
Now it was Bruin's turn to roll his eyes. "I wanted you out of the line of fire. All those people, rooms, entrances and exits—it was a logistical nightmare."
Of course, it was. As annoying and rigid as Bruin could be, it was kinda hot when he talked all military. "You met with Detective Delgato. If you ask me, it was win-win."
He held up the small Ziploc bag Detective Delgato had given Cowboy while we were upstairs. There were two little pills, one orange, one blue, and a little glass vile grouped in the corner seam. "In another twenty minutes, we'll be at the Haven sanctuary and you can pee there."
"And what if I can't wait twenty minutes?" I scissored my legs, pressing my thighs together. Twenty minutes. Twenty . . . minutes. All I could hear in my head was Grandfather saying, 'You best go before we leave, Rabbit. It is a long time before we stop.'
I adjusted myself in my seat and gripped my leather-bound steering wheel tighter. With a sidelong glance, I noticed Bruin's chest bouncing. Bastard. "This is so not funny."
"Then pull over and I'll walk you to that stand of trees."
"Yeah, it's not quite the same for girls." I glanced down at my new leather flats and rolled my eyes. "I'll wait."
Bruin's chest bounced some more.
As we turned and headed west
out of the city the setting sun blazed on my horizon. Perfect. Another day done and now it was burning white spots into my retina. I closed my eyes, but the silhouette remained. Great, now I'm blind and I have to pee.
"So, Bruin, how did your fitting go with Iadon yesterday?" Katsu flashed me a smile in my rear-view mirror. "When I had breakfast with Lexi this morning, she said you looked amazing."
Really? Breakfast with Lexi. Bitch.
"Good." Either unaware of Katsu baiting me or ignoring it, Bruin produced a pair of sunglasses and handed them to me.
"I swear Iadon could put Armani out of business," she said. "And the way he sews the little designs for detail, it's incredible."
"Embroiders," I said, passing two motorcyclists parked on the right shoulder.
"I'm sorry?" Bruin said, turning to me.
I lowered my visor and squinted into the highway ahead. "The little designs he sews on the cuffs and lapels of your wedding jacket. It's embroidery."
Katsu laughed. "How sweet, Bruin, the Fates paired you with the next Martha Stewart."
Between one thought and the next the sensation of an army of ants crawled up my neck. Was it just my urge to kill Katsu? Maybe. Traffic was light, the road two lanes both ways. An RV and a sports car drove side by side on the horizon ahead of us, and there were a couple of cars going the other direction. I checked my rear-view. The Escalade covering our butt was slowing and the two motorcycles we just passed were on the road and accelerating. Hard.
I rolled my neck trying to ease the sensation. Nope. My early warning system had definitely been activated. "Cowboy, have a look behind us. Do those bikes look familiar?"
Bruin stiffened. His comm beeped and he snapped down the arm. He listened to the voice on the other end and cursed. "Sin's having car trouble. He's falling back."
He pointed to two silver SUVs with tinted windows cresting the hill in front of us.
Cowboy shifted around behind me, drew his guns and lowered the window. "Car trouble, my ass. Not with those bikes moving up on our six. We've got two more coming straight at us."
Bruin swung around. "Watch your flanks, Mika. Don't let them crawl up our sides."
Duh. "Having to pee doesn't make me stupid."
The motorcycles raced up both sides of the truck before I could do anything. I gritted my teeth. The images in the side-view mirrors showed two guys riding bitch leaning toward us pulling semi-automatics out from behind their drivers. I slammed on the gas and cut off the access to the shoulder.
I swerved a few times forcing the bikes to stay back. "What are your rules of engagement in my world? Can I flatten them?"
"Go for it." Cowboy said.
Katsu took her chop-sticks out of her hair and started waving the ends toward the bikes. "They've got a Pulse blocking us. I can't affect them directly."
"What's the code for the gun safe, Mika?" Bruin asked, fingers poised over the keypad.
I told him and while he pulled out some extra firepower, I returned my gaze to the horizon. The two SUVs swung crisscross on the road in front of Kobi and blocked our path. The time to make a move quickly circled the drain. "Okay, what am I doing?"
Bruin tapped his comm. "Kobi's running juggernaut. We're going to hit that blockade and plow right through. Ready?"
I gripped my steering wheel. "Ready as I'll ever be."
The explosion boomed louder and threw chunks of automotive debris farther than any dick-flick action movie I'd ever seen. Focused on the bumper of the Escalade in front of us, I tucked in tight and prayed the front ends of the two vehicles would swing wide enough to let us pass. If we all ended up crushed and tangled together, it would be a massacre.
Thankfully though, after the scrape of steel on steel died down we were still moving away from the mangled roadblock.
"Where to next?" I asked, adrenaline burning through my veins.
Bruin scanned the upcoming traffic and pointed to the landscape off to the right. "Off-roading, baby. Kobi, we're veering into that farmer's field coming up on the right."
I frowned. "Uh . . . Bruin? There's a four-foot culvert between the field and the highway. At this speed, you're going to wreck my undercarriage and break my axel if we try to cross it."
Katsu leaned into the front between the seats and waved her chop sticks, mumbling a few words. "I got it covered, Mundie. I was getting bored anyway."
Bored? Just up ahead of the lead car, a simple wooden platform spanned the ditch.
"Great job, Kat honey," Bruin said, then froze and looked at me. "Fuck. I'm sorry."
Pain like I'd never felt before seared my chest. On a surge of hostility, I cranked the wheel, bit my tongue and ignored my urge to explode into a fit of hormones. Honey? Good thing the bitch had retreated without comment or I might have lost hold of the wheel.
"Shiiiiit," Cowboy drawled, "this farmer's is going to be madder than a wolverine caught in a piss fire. Open the sunroof, Mika." The southern Were-wolf squeezed his shoulders in between the front seats and through the rectangular opening in the roof.
That's when the tat-a-tat of gunfire started.
"Hey, they're shooting my truck!"
"You said the truck's bullet proof. Cowboy isn't," Bruin said. "What's the worry?"
"It's my truck." I snapped, banking right and bouncing over rows of summer wheat. "And these bumps aren't helping my bladder any."
Bruin handed another gun up to Cowboy.
Rue leaned out the window and targeted the bikes.
Cowboy's laughter carried on the breeze. "What do I get if I wrap this up before Mika pisses her pants?
I winced. I didn't want to be the Ursa known for wetting her pants. "Undying devotion."
One of the bikes jostled along my side and caught a rut. As it went over I banked left and bounced over the sucker like a speed-bump at Walmart. Cowboy returned fire and Bruin and Rue fired their weapons in intermittent bursts.
The constant pop and ping of bullets hitting steel made me cringe. "Get them the hell away from my truck you guys."
Kobi swerved onto a dirt lane between two fields and I followed.
The second bike zoomed up the crack of my ass. I slammed on my brakes and giggled at the cathud of Ducati versus tailgate.
Bruin got a crack shot off at the driver of one of the SUVs and sent the vehicle careening into a rolling spin. Over and over it tumbled, like a kid rolling down a hill. Just one left. Bruin cursed as a couple shots bounced off my driver's window. "What the hell are you doing up there, Cowboy, waving to the crowds? This isn't a fucking parade, Wolf."
After another couple minutes speeding through farmer's fields, Cowboy's assault on the front grill of the second SUV ended with a pop and hiss. Steam blew out the seams of the hood as the last of the attackers fell behind. "Oh, and I got all gussied up and everythin'."
Geisha-bitch got us back on the highway and we hung a hard right. Two minutes down the road I saw exactly where I needed to go. In a screeching halt my truck kicked up gravel and I took the shoulder. I threw the truck into park and tossed Cowboy my keys.
On an awkward hop and run I reached down and pulled off my shoes. As I ducked behind the bushes I pitched those leather flats as hard as I could at Bruin's stupid, gorgeous head. "If you think I've forgotten you called her honey, think again, Bear."
When the world came back in focus sometime later, I found myself standing knee deep in the stream, tossing food for the fish. It was early evening and though my stomach had been growling like a bear since we returned to Haven, I couldn't bring myself to go back to Jade's and face Bruin. Honey. He'd called Katsu, honey.
Yeah, and then I'd reacted badly and stormed off. Again.
As each handful of kibble rained down, gaping mouths broke the surface and gobbled up the feast. I'd gathered quite a ravenous crowd.
"Are you well, Rabbit?" With his hand firmly curled around his walking stick, Grandfather stepped from the treed path on the far bank of the stream and lowered himself to sit on an old stump. "Have y
ou and your bear quarreled again?"
I tossed another handful of food and watched it disappear into the frenzied mouths below. "Fighting is all we do. Did he send you?"
Grandfather shook his head and propped his hands over both his knees. "Reign mentioned Bruin was shredding himself in the gym. I thought you might need a friendly ear."
I sighed. "He said something that upset me and I insulted his pride . . . again."
His sad smile crinkled the weathered lines next to his eyes. "I see. It is not my place to interfere, but an old man can take liberties, I think. Pride and honor are fine qualities in a man. When the world turns on him, those are the things he has within his control. Bruin carries himself with an abundance of both."
"I know."
The wind picked up, my hair flinging wild. I drew a deep breath and faced Grandfather's censure "Grandfather, I apologize. It's not your fault I'm angry."
"So, tell me, child? What troubles you?"
"Is it totally selfish to want things to go back to the way they were before I met Bruin?"
"Selfish, no. Naïve perhaps." He bowed his head and fished in the pocket of his vest for the rabbit skin bag that held his old, bone pipe. With slow, deliberate actions, he retrieved his pipe, pinched the ground tobacco out of the baggie and pressed it deep into the bowl with his thumb. When everything was to his liking, he sealed the bag and found his lighter. After a few short puffs, he raised his dusky stare to meet mine. “Do you remember when you were small and you left your baby goat in the outdoor pen after dark?"
"Yes."
"When he got taken away by the Great Grey Owl, you stomped your feet and demanded he be brought back. This is much the same thing. No amount of demanding will change what the two of you have set in motion. Release where you thought you were, accept where you are now, and decide where you are headed from here."
"But where am I headed?"
He shrugged and exhaled a puff of smoke. "The future reveals itself one moment at a time, child. The truth is, your destiny with Bruin has only begun to unfold. Only the Earth Mother knows the entirety of what is to come. Bruin is an honorable man, Mika. You could do far worse than to be loved for a lifetime by him."