He gave Raven a languid nod. “Can’t complain. How’s that brother of yours getting along?”
Raven pursed her lips. “That’s what I came to talk to you about.”
“Is it about that bear he hooked up with?”
Raven nodded. “We need a new bear for the ring. Let’s get her.”
Wyatt didn’t blink. “I would do it, but we can’t yank her out from under your brother.”
Raven’s temper flared. “I don’t see why not. She doesn’t belong here. She’s a bear and we’re panthers. She’s fresh meat as far as I’m concerned. She’d be a lot more use to us in the ring than skulking around some cabin in the woods with my brother’s balls wrapped around her little finger.”
Wyatt indulged in a gentle smile. “I’m not saying you’re wrong. I might even agree with you, but we have to keep our eye on the larger picture.”
“What larger picture is that? Bringing a mint of money into this Moraine is the only larger picture I can see.”
Wyatt shrugged. “I mentioned a little something to Riley the other day. Just dropped a bug in his ear, you understand. He said he would get us all jailed if anyone looked sideways at Melody.”
Raven froze, and her jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”
Wyatt nodded his same casual nod. He hadn’t moved from the counter.
Raven smacked her lips and spun away. “That punk! I’ll straighten him out if it’s the last thing I do.”
She flew past her friends. They didn’t notice her leave. Jordan had his head buried in Onyx’s chest, and Hunter slipped his hand between Ebony’s thighs. They couldn’t help Raven now. No one could help her. She had to do this all by herself.
Chapter 2
Raven stalked through the trees on a beeline for Riley’s cabin. Jailed! What was he thinking, threatening his own family that way? No one—not no one—brought the law onto Midnight Moraine. The Midnight lived by a law all their own, miles from any human habitation. They struck fear into the hearts of human law enforcement for miles around. The police wouldn’t dare come up to the Moraine. If someone didn’t know any better and disappeared on the Moraine, the local cops declared them missing and left it at that.
Now that twerp Riley threatened to jail anybody threatening Melody? Raven would handle this once and for all. This Bruin business went too far. Bringing a Bruin back to Midnight Moraine was bad enough. If he wanted to throw his life and his future away with some hairy monster from the other side of the tracks, let him. Turning on his family, though? No way would she stand by and let him get away with it. She would bring him to his senses if she had to do it by force.
She stormed up to Riley’s cabin, but she slowed down when she saw Melody on the porch. Melody saw her coming, too. The peaceful smile with which she gazed out at the trees vanished. A tight-lipped mask of cold determination took its place.
Raven softened when she saw that face. Ebony was right. Raven went out of her way to make Melody’s life as hard and lonely as possible. Whether Raven agreed with it or not, Melody was her brother’s mate. He cared a lot more about Melody than any other girl Raven ever saw him with. He stuck his toe in the ground and wouldn’t budge no matter what anybody said or did to try to get her away from him.
Raven did her best to smile at Melody. She stopped on the ground in front of the porch steps. “Hello, Melody.”
Melody straightened up in her chair. She put her feet down on the ground from where she had them tucked under her on the wicker chair. She kept her voice low and flat and ice cold. “Hello, Raven.”
Raven was just deciding what to say next when Riley stepped out on the porch. His face underwent a similar change when he saw his sister. The calm contentment disappeared. His eyes glinted in the dim light. “Hello, Raven. To what do we owe the pleasure?”
Raven shrugged. “I…just thought I’d come around and visit you.”
“You’ve never come around just to visit before,” Riley remarked. “You’ve always made it perfectly clear what you think of us and our house.”
Raven looked off to her right. “Maybe that’s why I’m here. Maybe I finally wanted to see it for myself.”
Riley sat down in the chair next to Melody. “Well, here it is. Make yourself at home.” He threw his arm over the chair back.
Raven took a deep breath and climbed the steps to the porch. Riley leaned back and spread his legs in an attitude of complete relaxation. Melody clenched her jaw and stared down at the floor boards. Raven glanced around. She couldn’t decide what to do with herself. What could she do? Should she go inside and give the place her five-star inspection?
She spotted a rocking chair across the porch. She perched on the edge of the seat. “Listen, Riley, I just spotted Onyx Archer down the way and she…”
He cut her off with a voice that could slice through marble, “Is that what you came around here to talk to me about? You’ve been on my back to hook up with Onyx Archer for ten years. You know I’m with Melody now. You’ll never quit until you get me back with some Midnight girl. Well, it ain’t gonna happen. Just drop it. I’m mated to Melody, and I’ll never get with any other woman as long as I live. Accept it, and don’t mention Onyx Archer to me again.”
Raven stiffened. “I wasn’t going to say that, but now that you brought it up, I might as well tell you I don’t understand all this mating for life stuff you keep talking about. What am I thinking? I’ve told you before. This is malarkey. Midnight don’t mate for life. You want to shack up with a Bruin? Hey, I won’t try to stop you, but spending the rest of your life with her and only her? Midnight don’t play that way. You know it as well as I do.” She swept her hand across the Moraine. “Do you see any other Midnight mating for life? Do you see Mama and Papa and all our relatives mating for life and hiding out in tree holes with their one true loves? Of course not. We’re fluid. We’re not bears. We’re Midnight. When are you gonna come to your senses?”
Riley put his head on one side. “You’re right. I don’t see any other Midnight doing it. That doesn’t mean I can’t. I’m breaking the mold, and this is where I’m going to stay.” He put his arm around Melody and hugged her against his chest.
Raven glared at them. “Wyatt says you threatened to sic the law on us if we tried to come between you.”
Riley’s head whipped around. His upper lip curled back from his teeth. “I said I would have you jailed if you touched Melody, and I meant it. That goes double for you, Raven, so get this through your head. I’m out of the ring. I won’t get you any more bears. I won’t try to stop you running your ring your own way, but you’ll do it without me and you’ll do it without Melody. No one is coming anywhere near her, and nothing’s going to happen to her. If anything happens to her, if any Midnight so much as bares their claws at her, I swear to God I’ll bring this whole place crashing down around your ears. You know I can do it, so don’t push me.”
Raven narrowed her eyes at her brother. “You’ve lost your mind. You know that, don’t you?”
He squeezed Melody’s shoulder and gazed into her eyes. “Maybe, but I’m doing it. I’m mated for life, and if Midnight don’t mate for life, I guess that means I’m not Midnight.”
“You’re Midnight, Riley. You’ll always be Midnight.”
Riley stood up. He strode to the edge of the porch and stared into the forest. “I’m not Midnight if it means going back to the old ways. I’ll only be Midnight if we can find a new way to mate. I’ll never leave Melody, and if anybody hurts her or even scares her, they’ll pay the price. I’ll make sure of it.”
Without another word, he tripped down the steps and disappeared into the forest. Raven stared after him. Then she peered around to find Melody staring straight into her face. Melody didn’t flinch or look away. She fixed Raven with a gaze just as direct and unwavering as her brother’s. What in the name of all that’s holy was going on here? How could this fluffy chick turn Raven’s brother against her? How could he turn his back on his whole people and their way of life?<
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Melody didn’t move. Raven fidgeted. She came here to turn her brother back into the hard, calculating warrior she remembered, and she couldn’t back down now. Now all his hardened fighting spirit turned on the people he should be trying to protect.
Raven couldn’t let this furball stare her down, either, but she found herself getting more and more uncomfortable. She took one more look at Melody. Melody wasn’t afraid of her at all. For the first time in her long conflict with Melody, Raven understood the terrible truth. Melody could defeat her in a heartbeat. If the two shifters came to blows, Melody could smash Raven’s back with one strike of her hand She could snap Raven’s spine with one bite of her powerful jaws.
Raven didn’t want to tangle with a she-bear. She sat perfectly still and returned Melody’s steady gaze, but in her heart, she quaked to her roots. Was that the reason Melody didn’t get too close to any Midnight? Maybe she worried she would have to kill someone Riley cared about.
Who could that be if not Raven? Raven spoke the loudest about getting rid of Melody. She threatened to throw Melody in her bear-baiting ring so Riley could cruise the ranks of eligible Midnight maidens the way he used to. Raven knew dozens of Midnight girls crying in their pillows since square-cut, handsome Riley Faulkner hooked up with Melody Mackenzie from Bruins’ Peak.
All these weeks, when Melody stared down at her breakfast plate and wouldn’t look anybody in the eye, Raven thought Melody was scared. She thought the Midnight intimidated Melody when all along it was the other way around. Melody didn’t have to worry about any paltry little Midnight. Ten or fifteen of them would have to work together to bring Melody down. Even then, they would take their lives in their hands and most of them would walk away injured beyond redemption.
Holy Mary! How could Raven miss this? How could she let her guard down around this danger? Well, she wouldn’t make that mistake again. Now, more than ever, she had to find a way to get Melody off the Moraine. She had to figure out a way to kill this threat before it destroyed the whole Midnight way of life.
She didn’t mean to walk away without saying anything. She meant to take a discrete leave. She meant to smile and show Melody Raven was at ease around her. She didn’t realize she ran off until she found herself halfway back to the compound. Now she’d stuck her foot in it. Melody would know she rattled Raven by staring into her eyes.
Raven set off walking back to her own house. She spotted Ebony, Onyx, Hunter, and Jordan come out of Wyatt’s house. Where were they headed? To some hidden tryst in the forest, no doubt. All the other Midnight youth on the mountain enjoyed each other’s company and no one tried to stop them. Everyone on the Moraine basked in life’s pleasures—everyone except Raven. She had to work and slave and scheme to hold the whole show together. No one else would do the job.
She turned her steps into the garden and found her mother Violet sweeping the kitchen inside. Violet looked up when Raven walked in. “There you are. Don’t come back through my door if you can’t make an effort to be civil. I don’t want to argue about that girl anymore. You might not agree with your brother’s choice, but she’s family now and you’ll treat her as such. Do you understand me, young lady?”
“I don’t want to argue about that girl anymore, either, Mama. I just want to know if you know where I can find Papa.”
Violet blinked. She opened her mouth and closed it. This wasn’t the response she expected. “Well, I…I’m not sure. I think he’s down in the breeding pens.”
Raven walked straight out the door she just entered. “Thanks, Mama.”
Chapter 3
A young man stepped through the door at the Burkes Road bus station. He squinted into the sun. Azer Mackenzie kicked the dust off his boots, but he couldn’t take a step in this place without it clinging to everything.
He didn’t see a hotel or a restaurant anywhere. The town looked exactly the way Marla Dunlap and Walker Cunningham described it. He would just have to accost some stranger on the street and start asking awkward questions. These people probably didn’t know panther shifters infested the mountains around their town. They wouldn’t know that any better than the people of Iron Bark knew Bruins infested the mountains around their town.
What could you say to a little old lady pushing a trolley down the sidewalk? “Excuse me, Ma’am. Can you tell me the quickest way to the deadly panthers’ lair?” Yeah, that would work out real well.
He might ask for a place to spend the night, though, and maybe a hot meal. She might even take him back to her house. Then he remembered another detail Marla told everybody about her ordeal. Riley Faulkner, the man who kidnapped her, offered to take her to his aunt’s house. The aunt kept a house in town, and the bear-baiters used the basement for their rings.
Azer would have to tread lightly here. Who in this town right now were panther shifters themselves? Was that little girl skipping rope in her front yard really a panther? What about the man laying bricks to repair the broken-down chimney? Ask the wrong person the wrong question, and he could wind up dead.
That pretty girl crossing the street in front of him looked exactly like Riley Faulkner. Of everyone in this town, he could believe she was really a panther. She even moved like a cat. Her jet-black hair hung in loose layers around her delicate face. Her curves swayed when she walked, and black tights gripped her shapely legs. He couldn’t see her ass from the front, but he could imagine it bouncing in the sunshine ever time her heels struck the ground. Her choice grapefruit tits showed round and firm under her woolen top. One stray lock of hair rested on her collarbone. Yum.
She walked right up to him. “You’re new in town, aren’t you?”
He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Just off the bus. Is it that obvious?”
“I know everyone in this town, and I’ve never seen you before. Are you just passing through?”
“No, I’m here for a day or two, maybe longer. I don’t know. We’ll see how it goes.”
She eyed him up and down. Her eyes lingered on his chest hidden under his leather jacket and his belt holding up his khaki denim pants. Her pupils dilated when she traced the tight spot where his seams met between his legs. She measured his hands where his thumbs hooked in his pants pockets and the broad expanse of his shoulders inside his sleeves. She appraised his short, sandy hair and his clear, sharp brown eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to find my sister. She just moved here, and I want to talk to her.”
The girl’s eyebrows flew up. “Your sister! What did she move here for?”
“She married a local guy, and he got her to come back with him to live near his family.”
The girl stared at him in astonishment. “Who’s your sister?”
“Melody Mackenzie.”
The girl gasped, but she instantly recovered. She stuck out her hand. “I know your sister. I’m Raven Faulkner. Riley Faulkner is my brother.”
Azer shook her hand, but he didn’t smile. “I’m Azer Mackenzie. Maybe you can tell me where to find Melody.”
“I can tell you where to find her. I can even show you. They live not far away from my house.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “If you’re his sister, you must be one of those…”
She waited for him to finish. “One of those what?”
“One of those panthers.”
She leaned back and straightened her spine. “I am one, and you must be one of those bears. We’re called Midnight, but don’t say that too loud around this town. Where are you staying?”
He looked up and down the street. “Well, I hadn’t actually figured that out yet. I can’t see anywhere to stay and I…well, if you don’t want anyone in this town knowing about you, maybe you can recommend somewhere to stay. I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes.”
She waved her hand. “You better come up to Midnight Moraine with me. You’ll be closer to your sister there, and I can find a place to put you up.”
His eyes widened. “Really? Maybe that’s not suc
h a good idea.”
“Of course, it’s a good idea. What are you going to do—camp out on a bench in the bus station? Come on. You’ll be more comfortable there than anywhere in this town. You can take my word on that.”
He frowned. “I’ll be surrounded by…Midnight, as you call ‘em.”
“That’s right. What did you think would happen when you came to see your sister?”
“I guess that’s what I expected. I just never thought I’d be…you know, staying in one of their houses.”
“What about your sister? Would you be more comfortable staying in her house?”
“Riley probably wouldn’t appreciate that.”
“Why not?”
“Because he had a bad time on Bruins’ Peak. He won’t want a Bruin under his roof any better than I would want to be there.”
Raven laughed in his face. “He’s got a Bruin under his roof, chump. He’s mated to one of them, and he sleeps with her every night.” Raven got serious. “Listen. I guess you’re worried because you’re one of those Bruins who tried to kill Riley when you caught him in your territory. No one will hold that against you. You want to see your sister? You won’t be any safer than you are with me. I’ll find you a place to stay so you’ll be comfortable. No one will bother you. I promise.”
Azer hesitated. She sure was something to look at, but he couldn’t let appearances deceive him in this place. He had to keep alert at all times. She was a panther. She was a female version of Riley, and that meant danger. She was his natural enemy.
He couldn’t stop looking at her, though. How could this dark pretty girl be dangerous? Her dark eyes sparkled up at him with inner light. He wanted to discover the source of that light, to find out how she knew that secret hidden under the surface. He could only find out by going with her. “All right. I’ll come with you.”
Raven brightened up. “Great! Just let me check something.”
Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume II) Page 26