Yes, she recognized the voices in there. She caught Ebony’s high soprano singing to the skies and Onyx’s mellow alto moaning and whining. Mixed up with them, Raven heard Hunter grunting, “Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, baby,” and Jordan’s guttural growling. Wet skin slapped against wet skin, tore free, and slapped again.
Raven hurried away. She didn’t have to guess what was going on in that room. Hunter and Jordan were getting their post-ring tensions worked out with Ebony and Onyx. Maybe afterwards they would switch partners and do it the other way around.
Raven rushed down the hall and knocked on her uncle’s bedroom door, but she already knew he wouldn’t be there. The young people wouldn’t get it on in their room with their father in the house. Wyatt must be outside somewhere.
Raven banged through the back door on a collision course for Wyatt’s workshop. She found the shop door pushed back and the radio blaring. Wyatt’s legs stuck out under a restored hot rod. The body glistened with fresh, cherry-red paint. Her other uncle Caleb sat on a beat-up bar stool in front of the tool bench. He polished a copper spring with an oily rag.
He looked up when Raven rushed in all out of breath. He resembled his brother to a T, only he kept his grey hair buzz-cut around his Dumbo ears. “Hey, baby. Where’s the fire? All your friends are in the house.”
“I know where they are,” Raven snapped. “I’m not here to see them. I want to see you and Wyatt.”
His milky eyes widened. “What for?” He burst into throaty, choking laughter. “You don’t want a couple old coots like us.”
“No, I don’t. I want you for a piece of serious business, if you can manage that for half a second.”
Caleb wiped the silly grin off his face. “Sure thing, baby. You name it.”
Raven paced around the workshop. “You know that bear boy that showed up in town?”
Caleb frowned.
Raven waved her hand. “Never mind. Wyatt knows all about it. He saw this bear boy at the ring today. Caused a terrible scene and hurt some people. He got mad about us baiting that black cub and lost his cool. He killed Sloe Archer.”
Caleb’s face cleared and he nodded. “Yeah. I heard about that.”
“He’s staying out here on the Moraine. He’s been staying at my mama’s house.”
Caleb knit his brows. “Who? Sloe?”
“No, dumb-ass. The bear.”
“So what do you want from us?”
“I want you to catch him and throw him in that locking freezer unit behind Papa’s shed. We’ll keep him on ice until we finish with the cub. Then we’ll make a mint off him, too. It’s the perfect set-up.”
Caleb broke into a grin. He started laughing and choked instead. “Sounds perfect, baby. Where do we find this bear boy?”
Before she could answer, Wyatt rolled his floor trolley out from under the hot rod. He sat straight up and confronted Raven. “You don’t seriously expect us to go after that thing, do you? Are you out of your tree? You saw him at the ring. Anyone would take their life in their hands looking sideways at that thing. He’s a maniac. He’s a flippin’ force of nature. He’s an act of God.”
Raven whirled away. “Oh, come on, Wyatt. Where’s your sense of adventure? I’ve got the whole thing planned out. I’ve got him all set up at Mama’s house. I’ll go into his room in the middle of the night and make him putty in my hands.”
Caleb gurgled between coughs. “Putty in your hands. That’s priceless.”
“Once he’s good and soft—or hard, as the case may be—I’ll suggest we run off somewhere in the woods. He likes the woods. I’ll tell him I know a secret place we can fool around away from the house so we don’t disturb anybody.”
Caleb rubbed his hands together with devilish glee. “Disturb anybody! That’s a good one.”
“When he comes out of the house, you two can jump out and grab him. You can tie him up and throw him in the freezer unit.”
Caleb exploded in strangled laughter. “Perfect! When do we start?”
Wyatt climbed off the trolley. “Hold it right there, Cochise. You don’t really believe this is going to work, do you? What if he shifts? Not all of us put together can stand against him. You saw that at the ring. He’s…he’s…”
“Yeah, you already said he was a force of nature and an act of God and all that gobbledygook. Just hear me out. If you get the jump on him, you can hit him over the head with a pipe or whatever you want to do to knock him out right away. He won’t be able to shift then. Once you get his senseless carcass into the freezer, he’s ours. The unit is strong enough to hold him even if he does shift.”
Caleb nodded his idiot agreement. He was all ready to ride off into battle for Raven’s sake, just the way she knew he would be. Wyatt was another matter. He shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t like this.”
She had no choice but to turn on her niece’s charm. She kissed him on the forehead. “It’s all right, Wyatt. I’ll be there. I won’t bring him out until he’s nice and ready for you. He’ll be so crazy over me he won’t know what hit him.”
Wyatt frowned. “Are you sure?”
“Bring Hunter and Jordan with you, if you’re worried about it. The four of you should be able to handle him.”
“Six big Midnight couldn’t handle him at the ring.”
Raven shrugged those concerns away. “That’s ‘cuz he was already raving mad. He saw them coming, and he had them cornered in a tight spot. They were already scared stiff of him, and he knew it. He won’t know this time. He’ll be taken completely by surprise.”
Wyatt’s chin fell onto his chest. “All right, darling. We’ll do it.”
Raven brightened up. “Think of the profits. We’ll put out word on the grapevine that we’re baiting the same bear from today. All the same people will come to see him. We’ll charge ten times as much at the door and we’ll charge a book fee to place bets. It will be a bonanza.”
Caleb’s eyes lit up, and even Wyatt raised his head. “Yeah?”
She slapped him on the back. “Yeah. Now I gotta go. See you later.”
Chapter 12
Azer lay on his bed in Violet’s house, but he couldn’t sleep. He stared at the starry sky through the window, but the old hurt between his legs changed. He spent the rest of the day hiding from Raven at Melody’s house, but he didn’t tell his sister why. He let her believe he wanted to hang out with her.
Toward dinner time, little Chase ran over to invite Azer to come eat at Violet’s. He said his mama would be offended if Azer didn’t come. Melody agreed. She said Azer had to stay at Violet’s house instead of her place. Melody told him he would be rude not to go, that Violet would take it personally, and Melody already had enough trouble getting along with Violet without that.
Azer slunk back to Violet’s house with his tail between his legs, but at least he didn’t see Raven at dinner or any time after that. He started to relax, but the ache in his heart wouldn’t go away.
What was happening to him? He could push her away all he liked. He couldn’t stop her from infecting his heart and soul. He’d crossed a line and he couldn’t go back.
How could a Bruin fall for one of these cats? He couldn’t look Melody in the face. He cursed her and said a lot of stupid things about her when she ran off with Riley. Now here he was, doing exactly the same thing with Raven.
He couldn’t let this happen. He couldn’t mate with one of them, especially not with Raven, not after the things she’d done and said. He cursed himself ten times worse than he ever cursed Melody. He was a rotten piece of filth for caring about Raven. He ought to be whipped and scourged for touching her, but he couldn’t stop himself.
He couldn’t feel the same arousal or excitement he felt last night. His whole body smarted with bruises and bloody welts where her breasts brushed his chest, where he nuzzled her ears and her hot breath sizzled through his hair.
He could only stare out the window and wonder. How did he get into this situation? Where did he go wrong? He retraced
his steps from the moment he stepped off the bus. What could he have done differently so this never happened?
He couldn’t see anything he could have done differently. He was just standing there in the bus station door, and Raven hit him like a ton of bricks. How could he know then she would blast his world apart and change him forever?
One thing he knew. He couldn’t get out of it now. He was up to his neck. The quicksand closed around his chin and threatened to pull his head under. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t stay here, and he couldn’t go back to the Peak this way. He could never look at another woman without thinking about Raven.
The black square of door eased open. An inky shape glided into the room. He didn’t have to turn his head from the window to know who it was. “You shouldn’t have come.”
She sat down on the edge of his bed. “I had to. I had to see you, even if it’s just one more time before you walk out of my life forever.”
He kept his head turned so he wouldn’t see her hair framing her delicate features. Even her voice hurt. “We can’t keep doing this. You know there can never be anything between us.”
She bent over him, and her hair swung forward toward his face. Her voice whispered its hypnotizing message in his ear. “Don’t say that, Azer. I can’t stand thinking that.”
Before he knew what he was doing, he turned his head to look at her. That’s when he knew, beyond doubt, he was finished. Once he looked at her, he couldn’t look away. He kept his voice low and steady, even when every word twisted the knife deeper. “You know it as well as I do. We’re blood enemies, and we always will be.”
She shook her head. Her hair brushed his face. “We can’t be. We couldn’t kiss like that if we were enemies.”
He closed his eyes. He couldn’t turn away, as much as he wanted to. “That doesn’t matter. We’re against each other, and we’ll keep fighting each other until we destroy each other. In a way, we already have.”
Her throat seized up with a little choking sound. “For God’s sake, Azer, don’t say that. I can’t stand it if we’re against each other. I only want to be near you, to touch you and kiss you. I don’t want anything else.”
His hands lifted off the bed by themselves. By themselves, they brushed the hair back from her face. “Are you going to stop bear-baiting? Of course not, and I’m not going to stop trying to stop you. Whatever Foicks thinks, we’re fighting a war already, and you and I are on opposite sides. Not all the kissing in the world can bring us together.”
She pushed past his hands and landed a kiss on his lips. “We can’t be. We can’t be.”
She pressed both hands on his chest and laid her breasts across his body. Her soft weight came to rest on top of him, and her lips collapsed in two beautiful pillows on his. A sweet pineapple smell filled his nostrils. The whole universe thundered in his ears. It commanded his arms to rise, to close her against him. He couldn’t stop it, no matter how much he hated himself for doing it.
She leaned farther forward. She fell into his arms under the unstoppable compulsion drawing them together. Her hair washed over his face so he couldn’t see her anymore. He didn’t have to. She was here, in his arms.
His heart ached, but he couldn’t fight it anymore. It hurt too much. He would rather die than live without this. He closed his arms around her and hugged her to him with all his might. He dreamed her kiss and her smell and her delicious breasts against his chest. They would kill him. They would batter him until his heart couldn’t bear the strain. He would die in her arms, and that’s all he would ever ask for.
She kissed him faster, harder. Her lips demanded he respond. She worked his mouth open and delved inside with her cat tongue. Her legs dropped between his knees, and she scraped her crotch against his hips.
The blood screamed in his veins. His prick swelled against that hard nudge. Everything about her burned. He couldn’t breathe with her mouth sucking the air out of his lungs. He whined for mercy, but he couldn’t stop his hips flexing toward her to drive his cock between her legs.
Her head shot up so fast his lips popped. She caught her breath, and the faint light coming through the window sparkled in her black eyes. She whispered into his mouth. “Azer! I need you right now. I don’t care what it costs. Let’s sneak out of here. I know a place in the woods we can go. We’ll be alone and we won’t disturb anyone in the house.”
His finger followed her cheekbone to her chin. “You don’t mean…?”
She nodded. She looked down at his mouth and kissed him again. “We have to. I need you so bad right now. Come on. You want to as much as I do, don’t you? Just this once. We can be out there in a few minutes. No one will know. We’ll run out there and run back. You’ll be back long before morning.”
He didn’t bother to whisper anymore. “We can’t do it once. Bruins mate for life. You know that. If we do it once, I’ll be bonded to you for life. Aw, what the heck. I already am, and we haven’t even done it.”
She whispered faster, “If you’re already bonded, then it won’t make any difference if we do it.” She jammed her hips forward to crush his prick with her mound. “Come on, Azer. I need you. Can’t you see I’m dying over here? You can’t kiss me like that and expect to walk away. Give it to me just once. That’s all I ask.”
He let out a shaky breath. “I need you, too, but that doesn’t mean….”
She silenced him with another kiss. That kiss went on and on. Her tongue touched his mind. It lit him on fire. His heart sobbed at that kiss. Would he ever experience a kiss like that again? His whole body ached for her. She clung to him, not a fraction of an inch away. Why couldn’t he have her? He was already as good as dead. Why shouldn’t he have this, too?
The energy locked up in his muscles burst forth. He knocked her aside leaping out of bed. “All right. Come on. Let’s go.”
For some reason, she didn’t appear at his side. She didn’t grab his hand and dash headlong into the night. His hand touched the doorknob when her voice shot out to stop him. “Azer.”
He looked around and spotted her still sitting on the bed. He held out his other hand to her. “Come on. Let’s go.”
She sat up straight. She folded one leg under her and took a deep breath. “Don’t go out there.”
Chapter 13
Azer stared at Raven with his hand still extended. “What are you talking about? You just said we’d go out there.”
Raven squared her shoulders to face him. All of a sudden, her shoulders slumped and her chin fell onto her chest. She groaned out loud, and her hands lay useless in her lap. “Don’t go out there, Azer. If you never believe a word I say from now on, please, please don’t go out that door.”
He blinked. “Why not? Don’t you want to do it with me anymore? Shoot, you can turn on a dime, can’t you?”
She raised her eyes to his face, and her voice quavered. “I can’t let you go out there. I had it all worked out, but I just can’t go through with it.” She ended in a little pathetic sob. “I thought I was doing the right thing. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I never felt this way before. I don’t know what to do. I’m a mess.”
His hand dropped to his side. He stared at her with his mouth open, but he couldn’t answer.
The words tumbled out of Raven’s soul. “You’ll never forgive me. I know you won’t. You already think I’m the devil incarnate. Maybe I am. I don’t know who or what I am anymore. I only know I can’t let you go out there.”
He turned all the way around to face her, but his arms still hung dead and loose at his sides. “What are you talking about, Raven. What will happen if I go out there? Are you worried about us doing it? Is that it? Do you think I’ll hurt you or something? If that’s the case, why did you suggest it in the first place?”
She held out her trembling hand to him. “Come over here, Azer. Come and sit next to me. Even if you don’t want to have anything more to do with me, at least sit down here. I need you here, just a little while longer. Then you can leave.”
“I thought you wanted to leave. I thought you wanted us to leave together.”
She covered her face with her hands. “I did. I mean, I planned to, but now I don’t. Don’t you see? I was going to catch you. I thought the bear-baiting was good, that the bears were just animals bringing in a hefty profit. I was going to do that to you, too. I got my uncles and my cousins to wait for you out there. I was going to take you out there. I was going to come in here and get you excited and tell you to come out there with me, that we would run off somewhere and do it in the woods. Don’t you see? Then, when you ran out of the house, they would jump on you and beat you up and throw you in the lock-up. We would use you in the ring after we finished with the cub. We had it all planned out. I had it all planned out.”
His eyes glowed in the dark, but he didn’t say anything.
She dared steal a glance at his face, but his expression made her look down at her hands again. This was the end. Once he found out the truth, he would leave. She would be lucky if he didn’t kill her first. “I wanted to. I wanted to see you in the ring. We would make a stack of cash off you. That’s all I wanted.”
A shudder went down his frame. “So, why didn’t you? Why did you stop me?”
Her voice whined. “I couldn’t. I couldn’t watch you walk out that door. I don’t know what happened to me. I started kissing you. I started telling you I needed you, that I couldn’t keep away from you and all that. I didn’t realize until I said those words that they were true. I couldn’t let you turn into a bear in the ring.”
He towered over her. “I am a bear, Raven. The sooner you understand that, the better.”
“I know!” she cried. “Don’t you think I know that? That’s how we got into this mess in the first place. I couldn’t watch you die in the ring. I wanted to. Oh, Lord, how I wanted to!”
He snorted under his breath. “That’s just great. Thanks a lot.”
She cradled her head in her hand and groaned. “Can’t you see I’m trying to make sense of all this? You keep saying over and over that we’re enemies, that we can never be anything else. We can’t be. I can’t live if you’re my enemy, Azer. I don’t care if you walk away from me right now. Just don’t be my enemy.”
Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume II) Page 32