She found herself inching closer. “I don't want to. I want to see you like this.”
He lowered his eyes. “What do you want to see me like this for? I'm weak like this.”
She shook her head, but she couldn't stop herself from smiling. “You're not weak for being a man. You're strong. You're strong enough for me.”
He met her gaze, and his eyes widened. “Yeah?”
She laughed out loud. “Yeah.”
“Well, if I'm strong enough for you, that's all I care about.”
She tugged him toward the grassy bank. “Come sit down. I want to take a look at your leg and the new puncture on your arm.”
He shook her off. “I don't want to.”
“You don't? Why? Doesn't it hurt?”
“Not as much as it would hurt to let you go right now.”
She beamed back at him. Her skin glowed with pure joy. She wouldn't let him go for anything. “I couldn't stand being away from you. I thought I would die when my dad told me I couldn't see you again.”
His face hung inches away from her. “Did you get in a lot of trouble for helping me?”
“Not for helping you. Just for doing what they told me not to, but there's a lot of other things going on right now. You probably don't know about them. All you really need to know is that Rhys is moving to take over your tribe. You heard him. He won't stop until he gets rid of you. The only way to stop him is to take over yourself.”
A shadow crossed Riskin's face. “I don't want to talk about him right now, not when I have you here.”
“You can't hide from him. He'll track you down.”
“What about your family? Do they know where you are right now?”
Silas's brooding face flashed before her eyes. “No, they don't, but I don't care if they find out. They'll just have to accept the fact that we're…”
“We're what?”
She snatched up his hands and planted a kiss on his knuckles. “That we're together.” She laughed and danced away into the dappled trees. “Come on. Let's get out of here. It's much too nice a day to stand around blabbing about other people's problems.”
He hurried after her. “I thought you didn't want to go for a walk.”
She shifted without answering. In an instant, the woods swallowed up her lilting laughter, and the she-bear scampered away into the trees. Riskin ran after her, and the big male bear covered the distance in a few long strides in spite of his broken gait.
Briar made a playful sideswipe at him with her open mouth. She dodged to get away from him, but he kept pace with her all the way up the hill. He nipped at her heels, and she yelped and jumped clear.
He coiled his legs under him. He braced himself against the pain and leapt to send her bowling over in the dry leaves. They wrestled and snarled in play until Riskin lost steam. He stood aloof and licked his lips, but his hind leg shook from the effort.
Briar looked him up and down. Then she set off through the woods at an easy pace. She climbed all the way up the hill to the top ridge where the swimming hole glistened in the sunshine.
She waded in without a thought. She pretended not to notice Riskin following her. She sank to her shoulders in the sparkling water and came up with her fur dripping.
Riskin paused on the bank to peer left and right. Briar submerged her whole body underwater and snorted through her nose when she came up for air. The spray splattered in his face and made him shy away.
Briar rolled over in the shallow gravel and waved her paws in her air, but he still wouldn't come into the water. He watched from the bank until she came out. She stuck her wet nose in his face, but he only blinked and turned away. She shook the water off her fur and showered him with a million droplets.
He blinked the water out of his eyes and didn't move. Briar looked around and licked her lips. She hopped up on her hind legs and shifted in the blink of an eye. “What's the matter? Don't you want to go swimming?”
He shifted, too. “I don't want to go swimming. I want to talk to you.”
“Okay, but can we at least sit down?”
She collapsed on a sunny bank to dry her clothes. He sat down next to her, but he held back from coming too close to her. She gave him a toothy, happy smile.
He looked her up and down. “You got wet.”
“And you can run pretty well in short bursts. You're a lot stronger than you think you are. If you let me work on your leg, we could make it as good as new.”
He shrugged. “All right. If you have to.”
“Don't you want me to? Don't you want me to fix it up?”
“Sure. I just don't want to spend the time we have together focusing on my leg. We could be doing much more interesting things.”
“Like what?”
He shot a sidelong glance at her shining face. Quick as a flash, he darted in and pecked her on the mouth. The next instant, he retreated and studied the moss covering the rocks under his feet.
Briar stared at him. He kissed her! Her brain screamed the words. He kissed her! Now, he looked down at the ground and wanted her to act like he hadn't. She pressed her lips together. She couldn't let him kiss her like her five-year-old cousin and dig his toe into the ground.
She put out her hand and cupped his cheek against her palm. With slow, steady pressure, she turned his head to face her. He resisted at first, but in the end, he lifted his face to meet her gaze.
She looked down at his lips, those lips that just touched her mouth. They belonged to her now. Nothing could keep her away from them. She guided his mouth to her lips, and her lips came to rest in their destined home.
Her mouth sank against those soft lips. She closed her eyes. Nothing in her life ever tasted so soft and right. Her whole body collapsed into him. Her whole life came to its rightful fulfillment in that moment.
Whatever her family might say or do, whatever his family or the rest of Bruin kind might say or do, she knew now where she belonged and what she had to do. Her future lay with him. Whatever happened, they would face it together.
His head fell sideways under her hand. His mouth fit over hers in a tighter locking grip. His lips burst to life, and he mouthed over her in mounting heated energy. His mouth opened once...then again. His tongue touched her lips to knock at the door.
Briar's mouth opened at that touch, and his fiery tongue dashed in to lick her blood to boiling lava. Her body stretched to its tensest limit. His arms closed around her.
Heaven above! What was happening? She already knew. She changed in his arms. She became. She exploded into life. She met her highest completion in him.
Their tongues touched, withdrew, and touched again to slither around and under and between two sets of teeth. Their lips sipped and tasted and investigated until someone pulled away. Who pulled away first? No one cared. Pulling away couldn't separate them. They would always be together like this, even when they came apart.
Chapter 10
Briar laced her fingers through Riskin's hand. She leaned back against his chest and let the sun sparkle off the swimming hole against her eyelids. “I wish it was like this all the time. I wish we could make it last.”
His lips brushed her ear. “It can be like this all the time. We can stay like this.”
“How?”
“We could stay out here. We don't have to go back.”
“You know that wouldn't work. Where would we live? What would we eat?”
“We could hunt—or I could hunt for both of us. I've lived out here long enough to know where to find food.”
“I suppose you've got a den somewhere.”
“Sure do.”
“Where is it?”
He chuckled low. “Wouldn't you like to know!”
“Yes, I would. I wouldn't ask if I didn't want to know.”
“I'll show you.”
She turned around to face him. “You understand we can't stay out here, don't you? Even if I come with you to your den, we can't stay out here forever. Life won't leave us alone. We have to g
o back and solve our problems before they come looking for us.”
He threaded his fingers though her hair to bring her close enough to kiss. “If they're our problems, we'll solve them.”
Briar got lost in his kiss. She could almost go along with the plan to stay out here forever. Why should they go back? Why should circumstances beyond this ridge interfere with their happiness?
His kissing got stronger, more insistent. He sucked the breath from her mouth until she panted for air. His hand tightened behind her neck and tugged her head back by the hair until her lips broke away.
He didn't stop. He nibbled down her neck. His fist in her hair dragged her head back. His lips left tiny pinpricks of fire down her throat until he came to her shirt. He sank his teeth into the skin of her chest. He bit down through her shirt until she mewed in aching delight.
She laid her hands on his shoulders, but his other arm circled her waist and squeezed harder than she could stand. How could he do this? Where did he get this strength? Their sweet company unleashed some hidden underground reserve in him that tumbled over her in monstrous tumult.
His arm crushed her ribs and lifted her off the ground. He held her head back and didn't try to kiss her again. He chewed down her front and lifted her off the ground.
His mouth found the luscious orbs of her breasts. He mouthed them through the cotton until his teeth tormented the nipples erect. Briar seethed in his arms, but she couldn't break free. He ceased to be some broken relic of the past. She couldn't mistake him anymore for a wounded, helpless stray.
He was huge. He was mighty. He was right there, and he had her. She could fight back, but she didn't want to. She wanted him to scoop her up in his arms and shatter her world to pieces.
All at once, he set her down and pulled away. Her skin sobbed for his hands, but he turned away. “We shouldn’t do this.”
Briar sucked in her breath. “Don’t you dare stop now!”
He looked up at her. “Do you want me to? I thought maybe…”
She grabbed his hands and guided them back to her body. “Of course, I want it. Can’t you tell?”
A light came on in his face. “Okay. I thought…”
“Don’t think.” Briar grabbed him and kissed him again. “Just… just keep going.”
He surrounded her with his big arms, and his heat enveloped her in that lavender bubble of delicious delight.
He cradled her head in one hand, and the other rubbed her back warm and relaxed and supple. He held her against his kiss, and his tongue explored her thoughts. He drew her between his knees until her body rippled against his massive bulk to excite her frayed nerves.
Before she could get worked up again, he pulled back once more. “Wait a minute.”
Briar sobbed in aching agony. “Wait! What are you waiting for? Can’t you see I’m dying for you over here?”
He kissed her hand. “Not like this. I don’t want to make you mine like this, on the ground in the middle of nowhere. Come with me to my den. We can be together there, and we don’t have anything to worry about.”
She looked around. Nothing but the stream and the swimming hole saw them. The birds fluttered overhead through the broad sky. “What do we have to worry about here?”
He stood up. For just a moment, he towered over her. He gazed down on her from high above where she knelt at his feet. In that moment, she beheld all his overpowering dominance written on his face. He had her. He could do what he wanted with her. He could take all the time in the world to make sure he took her in just the right way, the way he wanted to.
She almost broke down crying then and there. Dear God, how she wanted him! She wanted him right now. She would beg and kiss his feet if he asked her to, but he only lifted her to her feet with a gentle kiss on the lips. “Come with me. It’s not far.”
She could only let him lead her away, through the woods. He crossed into Dodd territory. She noted landmarks, but she could only guess where he was taking her. At long last, she spotted a clearing ahead with a tiny house tucked under the trees.
He paused at the treeline and pushed her forward. “Take a look.”
She didn’t know what to think. She pushed the door open and surveyed the little shingle cabin. “What is this place?”
“I told you. This is my den.”
She looked over the whole thing. She looked over the bed made up with clean wool blankets. She looked over the stone hearth swept clear of ash and cinders. She swept her eye over the butcher-block kitchen counter hung with shining copper pots.
Two chairs flanked a scrubbed wooden table under the window. A hope chest stood at the foot of the bed. Ropes of garlic hung from the rafters.
She turned all the way around to look at Riskin standing in the door. Already he looked different. He stood taller. His shoulders jutted out from his body at a sharper angle. His eyes registered everything with quick understanding. The fog of confusion and animal instinct drifted away and left him crisp and clear and sharp as a razor. “Did you build this house?”
He stepped in to her side. “Actually, I found it like this when I was about fifteen, and I made it my den. I came to live here after I left the Mackenzies. I kept it up for a few weeks, but after a while, I just stopped shifting back into a man so I sort of let it go. I'm sorry it's not as clean as it could be.”
“It's clean, all right. Where did you sleep when you came here as a bear?”
“On the hearth. For some reason, it made me more comfortable than sleeping in a cave.”
She looked all around in wonder. So, he wanted some semblance of home. He didn’t go completely wild. Even as a bear, he wanted a house. He wanted people. He just never wanted to go near them. That hurt too much. “But where did this cabin come from? If you didn't build it, someone else must have.”
“It's Vaughn's. I think he built it for Scotia. He never told anyone it was here. No one knew about it until I found it.”
Vaughn's? That name drifted to Briar out of the distant past. Vaughn? Vaughn Dodd was Riskin's uncle, his father Addison's older brother. Vaughn fell in love with Scotia Kerr, but he died suddenly and Scotia disappeared. She tried to kill herself so she wouldn't have to live without her mate.
So, Vaughn planned to bring Scotia here. He planned to live here with her, but he died instead and his younger brother took over as Alpha of the Dodd tribe.
That old story brought Briar back to the present. History didn't repeat, but it rhymed. Right now, Rhys thought Riskin was dead, or as good as. He planned to make Riskin just as dead as Vaughn so he could take over as Alpha in Riskin's place. He wouldn't rest until he made sure that happened.
Briar traced her finger over the table. “This place is amazing.”
“It sure is nice. You can see how much attention he put into every detail.”
“Did you think about bringing your mate back here?”
“I never planned to bring anyone here. I never thought I'd leave Mackenzie Homestead. That just goes to show what happens when you make plans. I haven't given a second thought to finding a mate since I left.”
“Did you ever bring Lyric here?”
“Are you kidding? We worked day and night for ten years keeping the Mackenzie ranch going. I never even told her about this place. I would have been ashamed to bring her here.”
“Ashamed? Why?”
“I always wanted everything to be perfect for her. I never thought she wanted to see a place like this, much less sleep in one. She worked from before dawn until late at night keeping her father's house in order while Azer and I ran the ranch. She never had time for anything else. I wanted to give her everything—luxury and an expensive wedding and all the trimmings. I never wanted her to soil herself in some cabin in the woods.”
“What about me?”
“You're different.”
“How?”
He turned around, and the light coming through the window caught his eyes. “You belong to the woods. You're a bear. I could never imagine Lyric as a b
ear.”
“She is one.”
“Do you know something? I never saw her shift in the whole time we were together. We never went out to the woods together. We were both too busy. Somehow, it just didn't seem right.”
She drew close to him and threaded her arms around his waist. She inhaled his woodsy smell. It fit so perfectly in a place like this. “I like you as a bear.”
He bent down to kiss her. “I like you as a bear, too, but I like you in this cabin just as much—maybe better.”
“We could be bears in this cabin.”
He shook his head. “We'll be bears outside. I'll take you to a nice cave I know if you want to be bears. If we're here, I want us like this, like…”
“Like what?”
He drew her toward the bed. “Like man and wife.”
Chapter 11
Riskin’s words sizzled through Briar’s being. He sat down on the blanket and pulled her between his knees. Molten fire burned up her thighs to the hidden garden between her legs. His fingers scorched her hand.
She knew exactly what he would do to her on that bed, but his eyes held her so she couldn't get away. She tumbled toward her destiny. Her body responded to him in ways she couldn't believe. Her whole skin burst into furious passion at the thought of touching him.
Like man and wife. Those words said everything she needed to know. They were man and wife already. Their fate brought them together at the swimming hole. They belonged together when she brought him food and medicine. They both should have known that when they went for that first walk in the woods as bears.
Part of her knew. Part of her had to come and find him. Silas and her father and everybody else could order her not to. They couldn't order her not to be his mate. They couldn't order Briar and Riskin to separate their lives after Fate decreed them together.
He towed her closer until her chest rested under his chin. He gazed up into her eyes, but the wary uncertainty vanished from his eyes. They pierced her heart in all their Bruin intensity. This was his moment. He came back. He came back from the brink to claim her.
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