Yawning silence answered him. He raced all around the waterfall. “Star! Where are you?”
He couldn’t wait anymore. He ran back to the site of the landslide and bellowed down the ravine. “Star! Star!”
He held onto a tree branch and leaned as far as he dared over the precipice. The mountain crumbled away to nothing below him. A few pine trees stuck their crowns up over the edge of a sinkhole far below, but he couldn’t see or hear any sign of Star.
If she got caught in that landslide, the wave of mud and water would sweep her down the mountain. Who knows where she wound up? He had to find out. If it took him the rest of his life, he had to find her.
He set off back up the path until the slope lessened. Then he struck off into the thickest woods. He traversed the sodden hillside until he made his way to the bottom of the wash-out. Sure enough, it ended at the edge of a sheer rock drop-off. The pine trees he saw from the path above blocked his view of the bottom.
He wrapped a thin branch around his wrist and hung over the side. “Star! Star!”
An excited cry answered him from far below. “Brody! I’m down here! Help me!”
Brody’s heart leapt. She was all right. “I’m coming. I’m going to get you out of there. Are you all right? Are you hurt?”
“I’m okay. I’m just freezing.”
“How deep is this hole you’re in?”
“I can’t see the top. It’s beyond the trees.”
Brody surveyed the surroundings. How could he get her out without falling in himself? “I should go back and get Walker. He can tow you out.”
“Don’t leave! Don’t leave me here.”
He couldn’t turn his back on that voice. “I don’t even have a rope. I don’t have anything.”
“Please, Brody. Don’t leave me here. I’ve been here half the night and I’m soaked to the skin.”
“All right: just let me take a look around and I’ll see what I can find.”
He didn’t like what he saw. The few tree branches around him would never reach the bottom of that pit. He dared not go down after her or they would both get stuck down there. No one knew where they were. He might have to leave her alone and go for help.
He scouted farther afield until he came back up to the landslide. A bunch of trees toppled over in the deluge, and their roots stuck up in the air in big rats’ nests of sopping roots. That gave him an idea.
He tore at the roots until his hands ached. He tried to break them off, but they flopped and bent in circles. In the end, he had to bite them off with his teeth. He broke off half a dozen and twisted them together until he formed a crude rope. He could only hope and pray they would support Star’s weight.
He broke off more and more roots until the rope grew in length. He trailed it over the side of the pit, but Star couldn’t even see it through the trees. Brody ranged farther and farther into the forest to find more exposed roots. By the time the rope got down to Star, the sun disappeared behind the mountain and the shadows slanted away into darkness.
“I can reach it, but I don’t think I can hold it. My hands are shaking too much. I’m...I’m freezing.”
“Tie it around your waist and I’ll haul you up.”
A moment of silence followed. “Okay. I’m ready.”
Brody tied the other end of his rope around a tree still rooted into the ground. He hooked it around his own waist and heaved. The rope stretched and strained. It twisted, and droplets of water squeezed from its length. Would it hold?
He braced his legs against the soft ground and walked backwards. He leaned his weight against the rope. Inch by inch, he strained it backwards until he could go no further. Then he started in a circle around the tree. He wound the rope around and around that tree to take in the slack.
Star moaned and groaned below, but her noises got closer and closer. Brody dared not hope. Turn by turn, he took in his rope. He bit his lip and crossed his fingers that the rope would hold just a little longer when her head appeared over the top of the pit.
Brody burst out laughing from pure relief, but they weren’t home yet. Star scrabbled in the crumbly hillside, but she couldn’t make her frozen fingers obey her. The long night exposed to the weather without warmth or shelter robbed her of her strength.
Brody wound the rope around the tree two more turns before he trusted himself to let it go and run to help her. He hitched her under the arms and hauled her out. She collapsed in his arms and couldn’t move.
Brody untied the rope from her waist and cast it away. He hugged her, but she laid limp and shivering in his arms. She couldn’t move her lips to return his warm kiss.
He inspected her all over, but he could find nothing wrong with her but being very cold. Her lips turned blue, and her whole body quaked with shivers: she was on the edge of hypothermia. He had no time to waste. Night would fall soon, and he couldn’t take her home like this. She could freeze on the way.
He hoisted her up in his arms and set off at a fast run up the hillside. She weighed him down, but he kept trucking back up the path. He leapt over the wash-out and carried her into the cave. He laid her down on their pine needle bed.
Star convulsed from head to toe. Her eyes pleaded with him to help her, but there was nothing more he could do. He kissed her blue lips. “Listen to me, Star. You have to shift. Can you do that?”
She blinked. Then she clamped her eyes shut and focused all her attention inward. Her cold-befogged brain couldn’t find the well-known pathway it used to travel to take her to her bear form.
Brody stepped back. “Watch me.”
With a twitch of his eyebrow, he shifted. His heavy brown form loomed over Star, and he sniffed her. He grumbled in her ear and spoke to her in the language they used to use when they wandered the forest together.
She closed her eyes, and the shivers died away. She went very still and silent. Her glowing skin turned ashen grey. Brody watched her with his small black eyes. His nostrils flared. The bear couldn’t understand death.
A massive shudder rocked her body. Her clenched fingers relaxed, and her hands dropped to her sides. Her head lolled to one side, and she lay still. Brody nudged her with his snout, but she didn’t move.
Then, all of a sudden, she contorted sideways. Her neck bent forward, her shoulders swelled and hunched, and thick fur grew out of her skin. Her hands gnarled and formed into clawed paws, and her face stretched out into a snout with a black nose.
Brody rumbled deep in his chest. He walked in a circle around her. Then he let his weight fall on the floor. He curled himself around her and rested his chin across her furry neck. He let out one long sigh of contentment and closed his eyes.
Chapter 13
Star woke to sunshine brightening the cave, but she didn’t find Brody next to her. She fell asleep with the deep sense of rightness of his huge body next to hers. Her fur and his heat warmed her exhausted body. Everything led to this moment.
She sat up and found her clothes dry and waiting for her. Brody must have done that, but where was he? She sat up and got dressed when he walked into the cave. “You’re up. How do you feel now?”
“Just fine. Where have you been?”
“Hunting. I thought you’d be hungry.”
“I just hope it's not salmon.”
“Salmon: You don’t like salmon?”
“I hate it. I never touch it in any form.”
“What kind of Bruin doesn’t like salmon?”
“The 'Star Cunningham' kind of Bruin; you can eat it yourself. I’ll go hungry.”
He sat down next to her and brought out a bundle wrapped in newspaper. “In that case, you’re in luck. It’s not salmon. It’s salami and cheese, with a side of canned peaches.”
“Where did you get that?”
“I went home. I raided the pantry.”
“Did you parents see you?”
“My Ma gave me the peaches. I told her I was staying out here for a few days, which isn’t exactly a lie. For some reason, no one says
a word about me being under lockdown anymore or me running off in the middle of the night. No one says a word about any of it.”
“That’s odd.”
“Anyway, I think we better take you home today.”
“Why? I like it out here. Let’s stay a little longer.”
“I can’t. I promised your parents and Walker I would bring you home.”
She rounded on him. “How could you do that? You know they only want to keep us apart.”
“You might find out they feel differently, now that I found you when none of them could. Anyhow, I made a promise and I have to keep it.”
She snatched the parcel out of his hands and tore it open. “If I wasn’t so hungry right now, I would kick you seven ways from Sunday. You know I ran away to be with you. I don’t want to go back.”
“Your mother was in tears when I saw her last, and she begged me with tears in her eyes to find you. Your father looks like he hasn’t slept in a week, and even Walker said please when he asked me to help find you.”
Star cocked her head. “He did?”
“They’re really worried about you. At least just show your face so they can see you’re all right. Then we can leave together. We’ll go to the Mackenzies. Our tribes can get in touch with us there if they want to, but we can’t leave them hanging like this. It wouldn’t be right.”
She ripped a bite of salami off the roll.
“Whatever we do, we can’t leave a mess behind us. We have to stitch up all the loose ends so we can get away clean.”
“What about you? What loose ends will you have to stitch up? If your family doesn’t know where you are, you’ll have to confront them before we leave.”
“If I left our territory, I would have to confront them, but I don’t think I’ll have to do that. I think we can find a different solution.”
“What solution is that? And don’t even mention the name Kerr or I’ll scream.”
“This has nothing to do with the Kerrs. It has nothing to do with anybody but you and me.”
“What do you mean?”
“My father told me I was in line to take over for him as Alpha when he steps down.”
Star’s head whipped around. “What about Mattox? Isn’t he the oldest?”
“He’s the oldest, but he’s not the strongest or the smartest. I could defeat him in a challenge, but it won’t come to that. He already knows I’m stronger, and he won’t challenge me when the time comes.”
She stared at him. “You’re serious, aren’t you? You’re really gonna be Alpha of the Farrell tribe.”
He nodded.
“Then there’s nothing left. There’s no hope of us being together. Your tribe will never consent to you mating with me.”
“Once I’m Alpha, my tribe won’t have anything to say about it. My word will be law. I’ll tell them to make peace with the Cunninghams, and they’ll have no choice but to do it. I’ll take whoever I please as a mate, and none of them will have the strength to oppose me. There’s only one minor detail to attend to, and it’s all over.”
“What detail is that?”
“I need to somehow get you parents' consent.”
“They’ll never give that.”
“You might be surprised, but we’ll never know if we don’t go back and face the music. So finish up your salami and let’s go. I don’t want to spend another day out here with you until I’m sure you’re mine.”
“You know I’m yours.”
“I mean officially.”
She took another bite and wrapped up the salami. She stowed the parcel in the hollow under a rock before she hurried after him into the clear sunshine. “You’re suicidal, going back to my house without some kind of weapon. You know that, don’t you?”
He took her hand. “If I’m going to hell, let’s go there together. What do you say, honey?”
She fell in at his side. “I’ll go wherever you go. Besides, if they decide to blow your brains out, I’ll have to step in and save your hide the way I did before.”
He chuckled. “I’m supposed to be protecting you, not the other way around.”
She laughed and turned up her face to kiss him, but before she could say anything, a blast of gunfire shattered the quiet woods. Star jumped three feet in the air, and when she came down, Brody let go of her hand and darted forward to block her path. There, coming down the path toward them with their shotguns aimed, were Austin and Mattox Farrell.
Austin took one look at Star, and the cheery, maniacal grin usually plastered across his pointed face evaporated into a grotesque mask of murderous hatred. He saw nothing but a Cunningham when he looked at her. She was prey. He bared his teeth and swept his gun up to his shoulder.
At his side, Mattox ran faster than his bulky form had a right to move. He compressed his lips, and his eyes glinted in the sun. Whatever Austin told him to encourage him to go out hunting Cunninghams in the mountains, he had swallowed it: hook, line, and sinker. The same lust for blood and destruction driving Austin infected Mattox’s suggestible brain. He acted as Austin’s second body. What Austin thought and decided; Mattox did.
Star didn’t have time to get mad before Mattox leveled his shotgun at her and fired. Buckshot pocked a tree trunk by her head and sent her ducking for cover, but Brody didn’t hesitate. Before the pellets stopped bouncing, his bear hit the ground with all four paws running. He charged his brothers with a thunderous roar, and his bulk blocked them from shooting at Star.
Austin balked. He remembered the bite Brody gave him at the Meadow, but he didn’t back down. He took aim at his brother, and his finger tightened on the trigger, but Brody was too fast. He left the ground and sailed through the air, a ball of furry ursine destruction.
He struck Austin right in the chest and sent the gun flying out of his hands. Austin didn’t have time to shift before Brody drove in at his throat with bared fangs. He bit and slashed to rend flesh from bone, but at the last second moment, his brother’s scent drifted into his nostrils. The light of reason eked into his bear brain. It cast the faintest glimmer through the tempest of rage and blood. Brody bent his great head to one side and ripped open Austin’s shoulder instead of tearing out his throat.
Austin shrieked in pain, but Brody didn’t wait. He launched himself off Austin and hurtled toward Mattox. Mattox saw him coming, and the veil of suggestion Austin wove over his eyes faded just long enough for him to see the truth barreling down on him. He dropped his gun, but Brody was already flying through the air with his mouth open.
He landed with his forepaws on Mattox’s shoulders. For a long, tenuous moment, the two brothers grappled, man and bear. Mattox did his best, but he couldn’t fend Brody off. He was just too strong.
Brody opened his jaws to their widest limit and bit down on Mattox’s face. His massive mouth surrounded Mattox’s whole face as if to swallow him whole, but when he closed his jaws to crush Mattox’s head, he left imprints of his fangs on Mattox’s scalp without breaking the skin.
Mattox screamed inside Brody’s mouth, and his knees buckled under him. He went down on his knees, and the bear bore him down to the ground. Mattox crumpled into a heap with Brody still clinging to his shoulders.
Brody let go of his brother’s head and reared back. He took a deep breath and let out an earth-shaking bellow right in his brother’s face. Mattox cringed and whimpered in terror. He didn’t try anymore to fight back.
Across the path, Austin hugged his injured arm against his chest. He crawled through fallen leaves to retrieve his gun, but he made no move to shoulder it again. He couldn’t with one mangled arm. “You did it again. You bit me.”
Brody wheeled. A moment later, he stood on his own feet and fixed his flashing eyes on his brother. He strode over to Star and took her hand once more. “This is my mate. If you shoot at her, you’re shooting at me. If you attack her, you’re attacking me and you get what you came for.”
Austin limped over to Mattox and helped him to his feet. “You can’t do this, man.
We’re your brothers. Blood should be thicker than water. That’s what Dad always says.”
“Blood is thicker than water, and blood ties me to Star. I’ll kill you both if you ever threaten her again. Never separate a Bruin from his mate. That’s what Dad always says. I’ll defend her with my life, and neither of you has the strength to defeat me. You better run while you have the chance.”
“We won’t run from you,” Mattox replied. “You’re our brother, no matter what. If you take Star as your mate, we’ll accept her.”
Austin punched Mattox in the shoulder. “We will not! Don’t tell him that. He’s tearing our family apart taking her for a mate.”
Mattox rounded on him. For the first time in his life, he stood up to Austin. “You’re the one tearing our family apart. You did your best to kill her, and he almost killed you instead. You’ll accept her if you know what’s good for you. He won’t let you off so easy next time.”
Austin grumbled, but Mattox didn’t back down. Austin cast a glance toward Brody holding hands with Star. “All right, man. I won’t make any more trouble for you.”
Brody didn’t budge. “Do you accept her as my mate?”
Austin wheedled. “She’s a Cunningham, man. Don’t you know what that means?”
Brody bristled. “If you want to walk away from here with your life, you’ll accept her. If you don’t, I’ll never rest until I kill you.”
Austin shifted from one foot to the other. “All right, man. You win. I accept her as your mate.”
Brody relaxed. “Good.”
Mattox walked up to Brody and stuck out his hand. “I’m sorry, bro. I really am. That was a stupid thing to do. You had every right to kill us both, and you didn’t. I won’t forget this.”
Brody clasped his brother’s hand. “Thanks. I know you didn’t really mean it. He probably filled your head full of all kinds of crazy ideas.”
Mattox shrugged. “Don’t pay any attention to him. He won’t bother you again.”
Brody’s eyes glittered. “No, he won’t.”
Mattox jerked his head backwards. “Are you coming home now?”
“Not just yet. We have some unfinished business to attend to at Cunningham Homestead. Tell Dad and Ma I’ll be home soon.”
Bruins' Peak Bears Box Set (Volume I) Page 16