She put the salve away. “That’s enough for today. We don’t want to do too much at once, but it should start to feel better now.”
He mumbled down at the ground. “Thanks.”
She sat down next to him, and that heavenly glow returned to her cheeks. Her lily-white hand covered his in comfortable companionship. “What’s it been like, out here by yourself all these months?”
“It’s nice. It’s quiet. I like it out here.”
“Do you ever think about going home?”
He stared at her, not understanding. “No.”
“Why didn’t you go home when you…I mean, when you first got hurt?”
He frowned. “I can’t really remember when I got hurt. It’s all sort of confused and mixed-up.”
“You got in a fight. You got into an Alpha challenge with another Bruin—Mattox Farrell. Do you remember that?”
“Yeah. I remember that.”
“You had to run away from Mackenzie Homestead. You were hurt and bleeding. You could have gone home to your family, and they would have patched you up. Instead you stayed in the woods.”
He nodded. It all started coming back. He fought it. He didn’t want it coming back. “I like it better in the woods.”
“I guess you don’t really want to think about that. I just thought you would be more comfortable recovering at home. Maybe you could go there now. I know your mother is anxious to see you again. She told me she was worried about you.”
He gazed off into the woods. “I can’t go back there. I don’t want to be around anybody. You’re different.”
“How am I different? I’m a person, just like them.”
“I want to be around you. The bear wants you—at least, the bear wants the she-bear. That’s what I mean.”
“And what about you? Would you want to be around me if I wasn’t a she-bear?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t be sitting here if I didn’t.”
Briar’s head shot up. Her eyes widened, and she searched his face.
Riskin fidgeted. “What’s wrong? Did I say something wrong? Maybe you don’t want to be around me that way.”
“It’s not that. It’s just…what you said just now. You said you wouldn’t be sitting here if you didn’t want to be around me. That’s such a Bruin thing to say. I didn’t think your Bruin self would come back so fast, but it’s there. It’s right below the surface. Now that you shifted into a man, it will start to come back faster.”
“I don’t know what you mean by my Bruin self.”
“You’ll understand soon.”
He slid his hand out from under hers. “You probably want to go home. You don’t want to stay out here with me.”
She gazed up into his face. Her face gleamed with inner light. He couldn’t stop staring into her clear, bright eyes. “I want to stay out here with you. I don’t want to go home.”
His face moved closer to hers. “You do?”
She nodded. “I’ve been thinking about you ever since we saw you at the swimming hole. I’ve been thinking how I could meet you and help you.”
His face fell. “Oh. I understand. You want to fix me up and put me back together. I get it.”
She snatched his hand and pressed it between hers. “I don’t mean that. I wanted to get near you, to understand you and maybe talk to you if I could get you to shift. I haven’t been able to think about anything else, and then, after we went walking together, I thought….”
A burst of energy seized Riskin by the short hairs. He jumped up. He paced back and forth with both hands flying. “I know. You don’t have to explain it to me. Anyway, you should probably get home. Your family will be wondering where you are.”
The light went out in Briar’s face. “Oh. All right. It’s getting late, anyway.”
She gathered up her basket. The longer he watched her getting ready to leave, the more he regretted suggesting it. He didn’t know how to talk to her so she would understand. He wanted her to stay, but he didn’t want her to stay. He wanted her to see him as a man, but he didn’t want to be a man.
The bear called him back to safety and silence. No one could hurt him as a bear. When he looked at Briar, an ancient hurt from the darkest reaches of history warned him to stay away.
The longer he remained a man, the closer that hurt came to releasing its festering stain on his life. He had to get back to being a bear. That’s the only way he could get rid of it so it didn’t kill him.
Briar got her goods together and brushed the dust off her skirt. “I guess I’ll see you later. Take care of yourself.”
“Hey, Briar.”
She looked up at him with those incredible, vulnerable eyes. Those eyes spoke volumes to his heart and soul. “Yes?”
“I’ll see you again, won’t I? You’ll come back soon, won’t you—to work on my leg, I mean?
Her face broke open into that life-giving smile of hers. “Of course. I’ll see you back here again tomorrow at the same time. How about that?”
Something happened to his face, his head, his whole being. It hurt worse than anything he ever experienced, even when he first left the Mackenzies. At the same time, some kind of joy too strong to comprehend pierced his tough hide and flowed toward her.
His cheeks hurt, and his lips stretched over his teeth. He was smiling! He actually smiled at her. “Yeah, that would be great. I’ll see you here tomorrow.”
She bounced away down the path. “Bye.”
“Bye.”
He watched her out of sight. He stood rooted to the spot long after she disappeared. The pain got all mixed up with the joy exploding out of his heart, and he remembered.
Lyric.
Lyric hurt him. Lyric hurt him a lot worse than Mattox did. Mattox left Riskin bleeding and barely able to walk, but Riskin carried a much deeper and life-destroying pain away from Mackenzie Homestead.
Lyric.
She stabbed him in the guts and twisted the knife while she laughed in his face. She threw ten years of love and support and hardship in his face like so much trash. She ground her heel into all his hopes and dreams. She left him penniless and devastated in every possible way, and she rode off into the wild blue yonder with somebody else.
In a fraction of a second, Riskin spun on his heel and shifted. The bear wiped his mind clean of all thoughts, good and bad, but the bear couldn’t wipe Lyric out of his past. He never gave Lyric a second thought in a year in the woods. Now, he couldn’t stop thinking about he,r even as a bear.
He had to get Lyric out of his mind. He had to wipe out the damage she did to his life. He trotted some paces away, but the memory tormented him so much he raised the hair on his neck and growled at the danger it posed to him. What could he do? How could he protect himself from this?
That scent, that healing scent caught his nose. He whirled around the other way and raced back to the tree. He snuffled along the ground until he found the spot Briar sat next to him. He thrust his nose into the moss and inhaled a lungful of that scent.
Ah, that was so much better. That scent and nothing else eased the pain. It left him clean and new and unscarred for the first time since he could remember.
Chapter 7
Briar skipped through the forest on feet as light as feathers. She swung her basket and smiled from ear to ear up at the sky. She did it! She got through to Riskin! She got him to shift!
Her stomach fluttered with excited butterflies at the way he looked when she turned around and saw him standing there the first time. Sure, his sandy hair needed cutting and tumbled over his face. His old flannel shirt and filthy jeans hung off him in tatters. No one could expect anything less. Mattox must have cut him up pretty bad, and Riskin hadn't changed his clothes in a year.
Still, the light of intelligence and connection shone through. Nothing could rob him of that. His green eyes met hers like he knew her all his life. Some cosmic force worked her hands of their own free will so she couldn't stop herself from touching him.
Did he feel i
t, too? Did she excite him as much as he excited her? What did it all mean? She couldn't remember feeling this happy even before the Dunlap wedding disaster. She couldn't wait to tell her family.
She skipped so fast she almost broke into a run. She had to get hold of herself. She had to keep calm and not let her emotions run away with her. Even so, she couldn't stop making a million plans. If he let her come this close now, she could have his leg cured in no time. She could borrow some clean clothes from Silas and...
She burst through the front door in search of the first person to whom she could break the news. She spotted May at the kitchen counter. “Guess what, May? I did it! I got through to Riskin Dodd. I gave him some food and I got him to shift into a man and I worked on his leg and it's pretty bad so I'm gonna meet him again tomorrow and I put some witch hazel salve on it and got some of the infection drained and…”
May stood stock still. She stared straight in front of her and didn't say anything. Briar broke off. This wasn't the reception she expected. She opened her mouth to ask May what was wrong when a creeping sensation prickled down her neck. She turned around to see what May was looking at.
There was Silas standing in the door. He glared at Briar, his face as black as thunder. He heard every word she just said.
Briar fidgeted. The room hung heavy with the storm about to break. In the end, she had no choice but to turn around and face her brother. “Listen, Silas, I know what you're going to say, bu…”
“You know what I'm going to say because I already said. I told you not to go near Riskin Dodd. I told you twice and even ordered you to keep away from him. This is the second time you deliberately threw my orders back in my face.”
Briar took a step toward him. “Yeah, but…”
“You think since I'm not your Alpha I don't have any right to tell you what to do. You might be right about that, but there's a very simple solution to that problem. I'm going to get Pop. He'll tell you the same thing, and you won't be able to defy him.”
He started to walk away. Briar darted forward and grabbed his arm. “Don't do that, Silas. Can't we talk about this?”
He stared down at her hands around his arm. “Now, you want to talk about this? You're spending way too much time worrying about Riskin Dodd. You said you only wanted to help him, but you're acting like you're mated to him or something. What do you think Pop is going to say about that?”
“What would be so bad if I was mated to him? At least I'd be mated to a Bruin and not a…”
Silas's eyes popped out of his head. “You can't be serious! How can you let yourself get attached to that…that fruit loop? He's not in his right mind. You should know that by now.”
“He is so in his right mind. There's nothing wrong with him. I talked to him just now. The longer he stays a man, the more right his mind comes. He's just been a bear too long. He's confused. He's hurt. He's…”
Silas waited for her to continue. “Are you hearing yourself right now? Do you hear how ridiculous this sounds? You're going after a crazy bear, and you want to fix him up and make him your pet. You want to mate with him? No way! I'm going to get Pop.”
Briar threw up her hands. “Fine. Go get Pop. Tell him all about it, and I'll tell him all about it, too. We'll see who's right and who's wrong.”
Silas stormed out, and Briar threw herself on the couch to wait. May sat down next to her, but she kept her voice low. “You shouldn't have done that, Briar. You shouldn't have defied him like that.”
“If he thinks he's gonna order me around like my Alpha, he better pack a lunch. Pop never ordered me around like that, and neither will he.”
Just then, Silas returned with Iris, their father Don, Shaw Cunningham, Dana, and even their much older sister Claire and her husband Hollan Kerr. Everybody started talking and firing questions at once.
“Is it true you visited Riskin Dodd against your brother's orders?”
“So what if she did? Where's the harm in it?”
“Who gave you the authority to order anybody around?”
“She only wants to help him. That's what she told us.”
“She thinks she wants to mate with him. She just admitted it.”
“Mate with him? That's a different story altogether.”
Briar sat still, but the noise didn’t die down. The commotion escalated to a fevered pitch until old Don MacAllister raised his hands for silence. He faced Briar. “Whatever you did, you shouldn't have done it without my permission. You understand that, don't you?”
Briar fiddled with her fingernails. “You're right, Pop. I'm sorry about that.”
“I'm sure I would have given you permission to help that bear if you asked for it, but there are larger issues at work now. I wish you could keep helping him. I'm sure he's a nice boy, but I have to tell you now you're not to go near him again.”
Briar's head shot up. “But why? How can you forbid me to go near him when I just made a huge breakthrough in getting him to shift?”
Don shook his head. “Like I said, there are larger issues at work.”
“Like what?”
Don shrugged. Silas answered for him. “Rhys Dodd came over earlier. His father Addison is sick. He's going around all the Homesteads, meeting and greeting all the Alphas and potential Alphas. He’s consolidating his power by sealing alliances with the other upcoming Alphas.”
Shaw Cunningham broke in, “That's not all. Rhys is joining Foicks Dunlap and Azer Mackenzie. He wants to attack the panthers, and he came over to add his voice to the others. He wants both of us to join them.”
Briar leapt off the couch. She whirled one way to face Silas. Then she whirled the other way to face Shaw. “You can't do that! You can't seal an alliance with Rhys. Don't you get it? He's trying to supplant Riskin as Alpha. Riskin is the older brother. He should be Alpha of the Dodd tribe, not Rhys.”
“Riskin can't be Alpha. You know that,” Silas told her. “Riskin is out of his mind. He hasn't set foot on his family Homestead in months—maybe even years. He's not fit to lead a tribe. Rhys will do a much better job. He's steady and reliable. He never went crazy and ran off to the woods.”
Briar spun around in a complete circle. Her hands flew out to her sides. She didn't know which way to turn. “You can't do this. You can't support Rhys against Riskin.”
Don held out his hands. “Now, settle down, honey. We only want what's best for you.”
Briar sailed away from him to cross the room. “I won't let you do this. I don't care what you say or what you do. You can order me around 'til you're blue in the face. I'll never stop helping Riskin, and I won’t stand by while Rhys cheats him out of his rightful inheritance. He was born to lead his tribe, and that's exactly what he's going to do.”
She bolted out of the house. She covered the distance to the woods in a heartbeat and plunged into the trees. What came over her? How did Riskin become so important to her so fast?
She had to find him. She had to tell him what was going on. She had to bring him back. How did she know he belonged at the head of his tribe? Weren’t her father and her brother and the rest of their family right? Wasn't he crazy and unreliable and beyond redemption?
She had to find him. She had to get him functioning so he could take over as Alpha. Maybe it made no sense. Maybe she was just as crazy as Riskin, but she had to try.
She found Riskin waiting for her in the same place. He searched the trees for any sign of her coming back until she materialized in front of him. She burst into that same radiant smile when she saw him in his human form.
Even at that distance, the bond between them brought them together. They couldn't fight it. Their arms extended to embrace each other. Their fingers yearned to touch each other. Nothing in the world could be right until they came together.
Briar walked faster until she broke into a run. Riskin's smile broke out as laughter, and he started toward her. Whatever were they thinking to believe they could exist apart?
Briar put on a burst of speed. Nothin
g could keep them apart now. Just a few more steps, and she would fall into that fated embrace. She crossed the last few inches, and his arms closed around her when a roar shattered the peaceful forest.
Briar jumped a foot in the air, but instead of tearing herself out of his arms, she leapt into them for safety. Riskin's arms closed around her on instinct, and he hugged her against his chest. They turned toward the sound when a massive bear lumbered out of the forest.
Briar didn't recognize him, but before she could react, Riskin sank his two fists into her arms and shoved her away with all his might. She staggered back, tripped, and sprawled on the grass. Riskin launched himself at the bear, and the thunder coming out of his mouth changed to a guttural bellow of rage. “Rhys!”
Like lightning, Riskin's shaggy brown hair flew back from his face. His bared teeth elongated into fangs, and his shivering lips turned black around his gaping deadly jaws. His shoulders hunched and expanded into two mountains of Bruin muscle. The ragged, scarred bear Briar spotted at the swimming hole smashed into his brother with all his force.
They didn't listen when she called out “Stop!” They couldn't hear her over their monstrous growling and bellowing. Riskin got the upper hand early through sheer berserk rage. He knocked Rhys flat on his back and drove in for the throat, but Rhys didn't come out to the forest to go home defeated.
The minute his back hit the ground, Rhys twisted sideways. He rolled on his side and took Riskin with him. Riskin's jaws closed on the rough fur around Rhys's neck. He came up with a mouthful of fur and not much else.
At the same moment, Rhys sank his fangs into Riskin's foreleg. Riskin leg buckled under him, and his wounded hind leg didn't help, either. He couldn't hold himself up, and his weight fell down on top of Rhys.
Rhys took advantage of his brother's weakness by kicking out with his back feet. He slammed into Riskin's bad leg and made him yelp in pain. At the same time, he gave a mighty wrench and flipped Riskin over. In a fraction of a second, the tables turned with Riskin on his back and Rhys on top.
Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume II) Page 17