His mind whirled through a thousand possibilities, but he discarded them, one after another. For a start, he couldn't get out of this flippin' cage. For another, he couldn't get out of this stinkin' basement. For another and the most important thing, even if he did get out of here, he'd be surrounded by hundreds of blood-thirsty bears. They would tear him to pieces before he got off the porch.
He leaned back against the bars. He would die down here, and that would be the end of all his grand plans. His family would cry a little over him, but these things happen. A man couldn't take risks in life without danger.
Somewhere out of the darkness, a tiny light caught his eye. His raised his head, but his tortured brain couldn't comprehend what he was seeing. That light bobbed and bounced through the dark toward him until it stopped a few feet away. It stayed there for a few minutes. No sound interrupted the tinny squeak of music outside.
All of a sudden, the light shot forward. It came right near him and dropped down to the ground. The light spread out, and he beheld a face above it. It was that girl, the one who brought the basket of food, the one they called Melody.
She put a lighted candle on the floor by the cage. “I'm Melody. I came to see if you're all right.”
He stared at her, still not understanding. What was she? What was she doing here?
She moved the candle to one side. “I see you finished everything I brought you before. I'll try to bring more. I just have to watch out for Walker. He wants to kill you. If he wasn't so busy getting married and sealing his position as Alpha, he would have done it by now. You're lucky you have guys like Mattox and his brothers batting for you. You couldn't ask for better guys on your side. They won't let anything happen to you.”
She watched him and waited for him to answer. The candlelight shone off her eyes and gave her a ghostly glow. He couldn't see much of her now, but he remembered her from this afternoon.
Her wavy, copper-brown hair swooped around her delicate face and shoulders. Unlike the other bears in this nut house, her eyes shone soft and inviting out of her fine-featured face. The men towered over her petite form, but she carried herself with charming confidence. Her curves gave her grace and substance so she looked refined instead of dumpy.
Of every person he laid eyes on in this basement, only she looked at him with any hint of humanity. Revulsion and hatred glared out of her face, just like all the others, but at least she recognized a person inside that cage. If she hadn't brought that basket, no one would help him.
She stuck her hand down her top and pulled out a tiny glass container. She held it out to him. “I brought you some salve for your injuries. It will help take the pain away.” She rolled it in her fingers. “Briar MacAllister made it. She knows all about medicines. Her mother is the closest thing we've got to doctor and nurse and healer around here. Everybody goes to her. Take it. It will help.”
He didn't move. Was she trying to trick him? Maybe she would jab him with the cattle prod the minute he put out his hand to take it.
Melody wrinkled up her nose. “That bucket stinks. I'll go empty it. Maybe you'd like to put this on while I'm gone.”
She set the container on the floor near the bars and disappeared, along with the bucket. She started talking again before she came back into the candlelight. “I wish I could put it inside the cage, but the guys wouldn't dream of it. You'll just have to deal with it until you get out of there.”
She set the bucket back in its place, and this time, she sat down cross-legged next to the candle. She picked up the container, unscrewed the lid, and saw the ointment sitting flat and untouched inside. She frowned. “What's wrong? Don't you want to put it on?”
She smacked her lips when he didn't answer again. She put the lid aside and swirled her finger through the ointment. She put her hand through the bars and extended her finger toward the burn on his chest. He bolted away fast and slammed his back against the bars opposite her.
Melody stared at him with wide eyes. He stared right and left in wild desperation. He plastered himself against the bars as far away from her as he could get.
Melody let her hand drop. She pursed her lips and scraped the ointment back into the container. “I'm trying to help you, but if you won't let me, that's your loss. I thought maybe if I came down here alone, I could get you talking to me. If I can get some information about you, I might be able to convince Walker to keep you alive a little longer. I know it's not much, but every day counts, don't you think?”
She paused, but when he stared at her in wordless animal malice, she humphed. She stuck the salve jar back down her cleavage. She got her legs under her to stand up and leave when Riley blurted out, “Thanks for the food.”
Her head shot up, and she stared at him with her mouth open.
He looked sideways and shrugged. “Thanks for everything.”
The most brilliant smile spread across her face. “Come over here and let me put this on your injuries. I don't like seeing you hurt and in pain.”
He let his shoulders slump. What was the use in resisting? He crossed the cage to sit in front of her. She fished the salve out of her top and started rubbing it into his chest. He closed his eyes. The salve sent a pleasant warmth through him—or maybe that was her touch. He couldn't tell.
She finished with the cattle prod burn and started on his arm. He winced in pain, but the salve really did dull the soreness. He kept his head turned away and his eyes closed. He couldn't look at her. The care and kindness in her eyes, her sympathy with his situation, made his fear and loneliness too excruciating to bear.
They sat in silence for a while until Melody ventured one more question. “What are you?”
“Midnight.”
Her finger stopped circling. “What?”
“Midnight. We're called Midnight.”
She started rubbing again. “That makes sense because you're so black. Do all your people live in Burkes Road?”
“Burkes Road is just the nearest town, kind of like Iron Bark is the nearest town to you. We live in the mountains outside of town. We live on a mountain called Midnight Moraine.”
She finished put the salve on his arm. “Turn around. I want to take a look at your leg.”
He snapped over his shoulder. “Leave me alone.” He slumped back into place. “I'm sorry. I'm a little on edge right now.”
“Did the boys shoot you in the leg? I want to see if the bleeding has stopped.”
“I don't want you looking at my leg. You've done enough for now.”
Melody put the salve away. “Fine.”
“That man who was here with you before, is he your brother or something?”
“Mattox? No, he's my Alpha. He's my sister's husband. The dark-haired man is his brother Brody, and the sandy-haired one is his brother Austin. They're the ones trying to stop Walker from killing you. He's the big guy who got mad when Marla told us who you were.”
He growled through clenched jaws. “I know who Walker is. I recognize him from…”
Melody fixed him with her eyes. “You're bear-baiters, aren't you? You kidnapped Marla and made her fight dogs and stuff, didn't you? She told us all about it.”
“Then you know why he wants to kill me. You should be helping him instead of taking care of me.”
She stiffened. “Is that what you want me to do? You want me to leave you to Walker and stop helping you? That's just great.”
His eyes flew to her face. “That's not what I meant.”
Melody leaned forward. “I'm not so stupid I don't know what's going on around here. Walker's not the only Alpha on the block, and Mattox and Brody are doing everything to save you. You can't ask for anything better than that. I wouldn't have been able to bring that food without Mattox's permission, and Aiken Dunlap, the other man who came, is basically in charge around here. He's second in command to his brother Boyd, who is next in line as Alpha of this tribe. If he decides not to let Walker kill you on Dunlap land, Walker won't be able to do anything. Don't give up hope. Yo
u're not dead yet. We can still get you out of this.”
He hung his head. “I'm sorry, but it sure looks hopeless from where I sit. I don't see anybody standing up to Walker after the threats he made. I heard what he said to the other guy about throwing away their peace agreement.”
“Don't think about that. You'll only get depressed. Let me tell you about what's going on outside. Right now, matches are being made for life out on the dance floor in the marquee. People who hook up tonight could be spending the rest of their lives together. I was sitting on the porch outside, and I saw Laird and Celia Kerr stumble out of the marquee with their arms around each other. They ran off to the field together, and the next thing you know, their Cadillac came bouncing down the driveway heading for home. They've seen it all together in five decades of marriage, and they still run away together like teenagers. Wouldn't it be amazing to love someone that much? Wouldn't life be incredible if you could face it with someone like that at your side?”
She broke off to find him looking into her face. “Do your people really stay together that long?”
“Of course. All of them do. Bruins mate for life. Once they pair off, they don't split up. If one of the couple dies, the other one usually dies very soon after or kills themselves. It happens all the time.”
Riley shook his head and looked down at the floor. “That doesn't happen among my people.”
“How do you do it? Do you mate for life?”
“We have something more like plural marriage. We pair off, but both people can get with anybody else they fancy whenever they want to.”
“Who raises the kids?”
“Everybody raises the kids. My dad brought his second wife and their new kids to live with us, and my mom hooked up with a pair of brothers. They moved in with us, too. My mom had a little boy from one of them—no one knows which brother was the father. We all just lived together in one big house as one big happy family.”
Melody stared at him in shock. “Are you serious?”
“Sure. That's normal for us.”
She shook her head. “That would never work here.”
“Well, the good news is I don't live here. I couldn't mate with one person for life. I can't think of anything more boring.”
She glared at him. “Well, I can't imagine anything better. Your plural marriage system sounds like a recipe for disaster and broken homes. I would never want to live like that.”
He couldn't help but grin. She was feisty. That was for sure. “Okay, Melody. I didn't make the Midnight the way they are. That's just the society I grew up in, and fortunately for both of us, neither of us will ever have to live in the other one's world. You'll go back to your family and find yourself a nice bear boy, and I'll…”
She let the silence linger. “Do you have a sweetheart back home? Do you have someone special waiting for you?”
“No, no sweetheart. I've been too busy lately to think about girls. What about you? Do you have some poor guy breaking his heart over you out there?”
Melody giggled. “No. There are a couple of guys out there my family would like me to get interested in. You saw them—the Dunlap boys. I guess they're the ones who brought you in here.”
He nodded.
“My sister keeps nagging me to talk to them. She wants me to stop thinking about you and enjoy the wedding.”
“Maybe you should. Maybe you should stay away from me.”
“I probably should, but I can't stop thinking about you. You're hurt and alone down here. I can't enjoy the wedding or think about hitting on some other guy. After a while, I just stopped talking to her about you. She doesn't understand, and she was only getting annoyed with me. She wants to leave you to the Alphas.”
“She sounds like a very practical and sensible person.”
“She is. She's Mattox's wife.”
“Mattox is a good man. You're lucky to have him as your Alpha.”
“You're right. He's great.”
“Did he barge into your family and start taking over? Is that how he became Alpha of your tribe?”
“It wasn't like that. He didn't barge in. It happened gradually. My brother Azer is…well, let's say he's not as strong as Mattox. Everybody agrees Mattox is the best person to lead our family.”
“So what will Mattox do when he finds out you came down here alone? He made it pretty clear you weren't going to come near me without him guarding you.”
She shrugged. “Maybe if I tell him about the Midnight, he'll let it go.”
“What do you want to know?”
“I don't really want to know about it, but the Alphas want to know about your bear-baiting operation, what you plan to do and how you plan to do it.”
“Let's not talk about that.”
“What's the matter? Is it really horrific?”
“I just don't want to scare you away. If you heard what happened to Marla, you know all you need to know.”
“She says you had some papers for your family business. Was that related to the ring?”
He nodded. “My father and my uncles found out there were bear shifters living near here. They came up with the idea of running the bear-baiting ring.”
“Have you caught any other Bruins besides Marla?”
“No, she was the first, and I only got lucky with her. I didn't have to do anything but flirt with her on the bus and she walked right into my aunt's house.”
Melody growled under her breath. “That's my friend you're talking about.”
“You wanted to know. Her session in the ring was so successful we decided to step up our plans to capture more bears.”
“Bruins.”
“Whatever.” He started to gush. “You wouldn't believe how much money we made in twenty minutes. No one could resist that kind of easy profit.”
“So that's what we are to you. We're nothing but dollars and cents.”
He recovered and moved closer to her. “I'm sorry. I don't feel that way about you. I never really talked to one of you before now. After we started doing it, my whole family got involved. We all work together on this, and my job is acquisitions. My sister Raven does the accounting, and my uncles do the logistics.”
Melody humphed. “And now, now that you have talked to one of us, will you stop?”
He dropped his eyes. He couldn't look at her and talk about bear-baiting at the same time. He couldn't think about this gentle little person as a bear in the ring, but that's exactly what she was. Her scent floated into his nostrils. She would never be anything but a bear.
“Are there a lot of Midnight on Midnight Moraine?”
“Thousands of them. They live together in big extended clan groups. Maybe, besides the mating for life thing, we're not much different from you after all.”
Melody looked away. “Some of the Alphas are worried we'll have to go to war against you, to stop you invading our territory.”
Riley stiffened. “Is that what they say?”
“Of course. We can't have you coming onto our land, kidnapping our people, and dragging them off to a horrific death in your bear-baiting ring. What did you think would happen when we found out what you were doing?”
“I never thought it could lead to all-out war. I don't think anyone in my family has considered that possibility.”
“What difference does it make? You won't stop trying to catch more Bruins. You'll keep right on with your plans until we have no choice but to retaliate.”
“I never would have done it at all if I thought it could lead to war. None of us want that. This was nothing more than a way to make a quick buck. All Midnight know we couldn't stand up to you in a war.”
“Then why do you do this? Why do you deliberately provoke us like this?”
“I told you it wasn't my idea. I just went along with it. I'm pretty sure the rest of my people would stop if they thought it could lead to war.”
Melody brightened up. “The only way they could find that out is if you told them. Maybe that's the missing piece of the puz
zle.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that's what we'll use to convince the Alphas to let you go. We'll tell them you'll inform your people what we just talked about. You'll tell your family we're arming for war if they don't stop this bear-baiting business right away.”
A light came on in his head. “Do you really think that will work?”
“We can only try it.”
Chapter 8
Melody jumped up. “I'll go tell Mattox right now. He'll be thrilled. Then it will only be a question of convincing Walker.”
Riley's hand shot out and closed around her wrist. “Wait a minute, Melody.”
“I can't wait. I have to go now. The sooner I tell him, the sooner he can get the other Alphas backing him up. The more Alphas support the plan, the better chance they have of stopping Walker before he kills you.”
He wouldn't let go of her wrist. “Don't go yet, Melody. Talk to me some more.”
She paused. “What do you want to talk about? This is the break we've been looking for. This is the reason I came down here in the first place.”
“I know. I just don't want you to leave yet. It gets awfully lonely down here in the dark by myself.”
She wilted. His hand on her arm gave her butterflies in her stomach. His whole being oozed sexual power. His smooth dark skin made her mouth water and filled her with intoxicating dreams of touching him and tasting him. She never beheld a more magnetic, irresistible man in her life.
A bubble of excitement burst between her legs. Adrenaline coursed through her veins. She couldn't escape the thrill of doing something forbidden. “All right. I suppose I can stay a little longer.” She sat down in the same place with her legs folded under her dress. “I like talking to you.”
His eyes widened. “You do? It's not too horrific for you?”
“Let's not talk about the bear-baiting anymore. Tell me more about your family and your people. I don't know anything about any other shifters. What's it like being a panther?”
He gazed into the dark. “It's like being pure silken midnight. That's all I can tell you. It's like being flowing black satin, sliding over the ground with no effort. I fly through the treetops, jumping from branch to branch. When I see something I want like a deer or a pig, I fall out of the trees on top of it. It's a great life. No one can see you at night, and no one bothers to look up during the day.”
Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume II) Page 5