Beatrice cleared her throat. With a great effort, she turned to her daughter. “What about you, Marla? Do you have any plans for the day?”
“No, no plans,” she mumbled.
Aiken interrupted, “She's too busy sparkling.”
Marla rounded on him. “Is that your idea of a joke?”
Harmony put out her hand. “Don't antagonize her. Can't you see she's unhappy?”
“I am not unhappy!” Marla shrieked.
Aiken tossed his fork and knife onto the table and pushed his chair back. “I don't have time for this. Stay here and be sparkling happy. I'm out of here.”
“Please, Marla,” Beatrice sobbed. “Can't we have a quiet breakfast for a change?”
“It's not my fault,” Marla shot back. “He made fun of me. You all heard him.”
Aiken kicked back his chair. “You're a thorn in my side, Marla. It's hard enough working full time with a baby on the way without having to come home to this kindergarten behavior. Grow up, or learn to keep your mouth shut around civilized people.”
He marched across the room toward the front door, but before he got there, someone knocked on the door from outside. Aiken yanked the door open… and stared. A gruff voice rumbled from the porch. Marla recognized that voice. She would recognize that voice anywhere. “Good morning.”
“Good morning,” Aiken replied. “What can we do for you this morning?”
“Is Marla here?”
She jumped up and raced to the door. Beatrice and Harmony came over behind her, and the two of them and Aiken and Marla stared at Walker Cunningham standing on their front porch with a huge bouquet in his hands.
His face broke into a big smile. “Good morning, Marla.”
Beatrice gasped. “What in heaven's name is going on here, Marla?”
Marla stiffened against the shiver of excitement racing through her. He was here. He brought her flowers. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to give you these.” He handed the bouquet across the threshold to her. “And I came to invite you out to dinner at the Coach House tomorrow night. What do you say?”
Aiken clapped Marla on the shoulder and let out a big rolling laugh. “You really know how to make an impression, don't you, Sparkles? Where have you been hiding him all this time?”
Marla's ears burned. “You shouldn't have come here, Walker, and you shouldn't have brought these.” She tried to hand back the bouquet.
He held up his hands. “You keep 'em. You deserve 'em. So how about it? Tomorrow night at the Coach House? I'll pick you up at seven-thirty.”
She burst across the threshold and shoved the bouquet against his chest. “I can't accept these, and I can't go out to dinner with you. I'm sorry. Please, just go away and don't come around here anymore.”
Beatrice let out a broken cry. “Marla!”
“I can't do that,” Walker told her. “You can turn me down now, but I won't forget you. I can't stop thinking about you. I can't rest until I make you mine. If you won't accept these flowers and you won't go out with me, I'll just have to think of some other way to win you over. We belong together, and I'm ready to wait a long time for you to realize that. I'm ready to wait forever.”
Harmony nudged Marla with her elbow. “Come on, Marla. Give a guy a chance.”
Marla swatted her hand away. “Don't you people think I can make up my own mind about what I do and who I spend my time with? I said no, and that's the last word. Now, why don't you all just leave me alone?”
“You gotta admit he makes a pretty convincing case,” Aiken remarked.
Marla shot out of the house. She pushed Walker away from the door. “All of you keep your stinkin' comments to yourself. This is my life, and I'll say what's convincing and what isn't. Go back inside to your bacon and your grapefruit and LEAVE ME ALONE!!”
She swung the door shut in their stunned faces. Luckily, the brand-new hinges held this time, and the latch clicked into place. The windows rattled in their frames, but they didn't break.
Marla spun around. Walker stared at her with wide eyes. She gave him another shove with both hands and sent him stumbling off the porch. “Get out of here, Walker, and don't let me see your ugly face again. I swear to God, if you come around here again, I'll sic my dad and Boyd on you. Take your stupid flowers and your dinner at the Coach House. Get yourself a nice little Bruin girl from the other side of the mountain and forget all about me. That's the best thing you can do.”
She pushed her way past him and ran for the woods. The shed wouldn't hide her from all these competing forces tugging her in every direction. What was he thinking, trotting straight up to her front porch with the biggest bouquet money could buy? What did he think she was, that he could just ask her out like any ordinary girl?
She wasn't any ordinary girl. She couldn't let herself get close to him. She might wish all day and all night she could find shelter in his arms, but that privilege would fall to someone else, someone who deserved his love and attention.
She didn't notice the woods swallowing her up. Her heart screamed for relief, for any comfort against this excruciating pain eating her up from the inside, but the world closed itself against her. She could find no resting place in this world. She was outcast, pariah.
She ran all day, she knew not where. The trees stood back and stared at her reckless flight, but she left them behind the moment they noticed her. The woods didn't have a chance to threaten her before they fell away behind her.
The sun dropped away behind Bruins' Peak. When she stopped to look around, she had no idea where she was. The bear in her soul tried to take over and find the way by smell and sound, but Marla wouldn't let the bear out. She screamed down into her being until the bear retreated into the shadows. Marla jumped on the bear's head with both feet to tamp it down into nothing again.
She couldn't live like this. She couldn't be this wretched demon anymore. Tears and saliva stained her face. Broken-off bits of leaf and twig stuck to her damp face and hair, but she brushed them away to see the way ahead of her.
She barreled on without thinking. She didn't care where she went or what she did, as long as she never saw her family or Walker Cunningham or anyone else she knew ever again. She had to erase herself from existence. She had to make herself nonexistent. She had to destroy herself against the cruel world before she let the bear consume her whole life.
She spotted the Peak through the trees and made for it. She would sit on the look-out bench until she calmed down. Then she would decide what to do with herself. She set off through the thicket with fresh hope brimming up in her heart. At least Bruins' Peak was still there, lonely and inviolate. Mackenzie territory stretched dark and brooding on the other side. The Peak didn't care who or what she was. It didn't judge her or pressure her to marry someone she didn't love.
She did love. That was the problem. She loved more than she dared believe. She loved…She couldn't say the words, not even in the privacy of her own thoughts. She had to hold all those feelings down in the rotten depths of her soul where no one would ever see them.
The trees parted, and the first rays of sunshine brightened her face when, all of a sudden, the ground gave way beneath her feet. The blue sky sailed upward faster than she could follow. Branches closed over her head and blocked out the sun.
She landed with a bump in a pile of leaves, and more leaves rained down around her head. She blinked, but her mind rocked in stunned confusion. What just happened? Where was she?
She sat still and looked around at steep walls cut into the clay bank. Even now, she could make out the chisel marks of a shovel in the walls. Someone dug this hole, but she didn't see anything when she moved through the trees.
She wasn't exactly looking for a giant hole in the ground, though. She saw only the Peak and its wide-open space. She didn't look right or left or allow the smells to enter her brain. She'd been locked in the house so long she lost the ability to accept information from her senses and instincts. She didn't even kno
w enough to sense danger when she got near it.
Aiken's words at the breakfast table that morning returned to her. The hunters were setting jaw traps on the mountain, but this was no jaw trap. Someone carved this pit out of the mountain and covered it with leaves to conceal it. Why? She was nowhere near the road where Austin crashed Bain Campbell's truck.
She climbed to her feet and ran her hands over the clay walls. Her fingers dug in slippery slime. She couldn't gain a toehold in this stuff. She would never get out of this pit, and no one knew where she was. She was lost.
Chapter 6
Aiken opened the door and strode down the porch steps to Walker. “Are you all right?”
Walker stared at the place where Marla disappeared. His voice came from a million miles away. “I'm fine. What's wrong with her?”
Aiken threw up his hands in defeat. “Who knows? We've all killed ourselves trying to find out. She just has to work it out for herself. If you're smart, you'll take my advice and forget her. She's out of her mind, and no one can bring her back until she's ready. I never heard of any Bruin going crazy like this and living their lives alone without a mate, but maybe she's one in a million. Maybe she'll kill herself and rid the world of a big problem.”
“Don't say that,” Walker murmured. “Don't say that about your own sister.”
Aiken passed his hand over his forehead. “I'm sorry, man. I shouldn't say it. It's just that we've all had it up to here with Marla and her antics. No one can talk sense into her. She's out of her tree. Don't waste your time with her. Leave her alone.”
Walker stood up straight. “I can't do that. She's my mate.”
“I wouldn't wish Marla on anybody,” Aiken exclaimed, “especially not a guy as steady and solid as you. You're Alpha of your tribe. You need a woman you can count on to stand by you through the long years. Marla can't be that.”
“I can't let her go,” Walker declared. “Whatever is bothering her is my problem now, too. I have to go after her.”
Aiken clapped him on the shoulder. “You're a good guy. I'm sorry you got mixed up in this.”
“Can you tell me anything about what's bothering her?”
“I only wish I knew.” Aiken sighed. “She's been like this for years. She flies off the handle anytime anyone asks her what's the matter. She always says nothing is bothering her, but she stays locked in her room for months at a time, even years. She won't go out, and she can't stand Bruin gatherings. She sees no one.”
“She told me she doesn't shift. What's that about?”
Aiken clenched his teeth. “It only proves there's something seriously flawed about her, that she can't accept her own bear nature. She doesn't go into the woods, either.”
“Well, she's there now. If she doesn't go out there much, she could be in danger. I better find her.” He handed Aiken the bouquet. “You can have these.”
“I'll give them to my mother.” Aiken turned away. “Good luck finding her out there. Let me know if you need help with anything.”
Walker headed toward the forest, but he kept his ear cocked for the sound of the door closing behind him. As soon as he heard the latch slot into place, he hit the ground running. He plunged into the trees, and before the branches closed behind him, he changed into a powerful bear scanning the ground with his nose.
In a fraction of a second, he picked up Marla's scent. It led him through the woods in an unerring line. She wasn't headed anywhere in particular, just away. She staggered right and left. She put her hand against this trunk and tripped over this root. Her sweat dripped here, and that branch brushed her face when she passed.
He couldn't get lost in the magic of her scent now. He had to keep his mind on the trail. He had to find her. Wherever she went, he belonged there at her side. Whatever happened to her happened to him, too. If she faced any danger, he had to protect her from it.
Hunters ranged over these mountains. She could be bleeding to death in a jaw trap right now, but she wasn't headed toward Horner's Gully or anywhere else near Iron Bark. She should be safe on this side of the mountain.
He ran all day long until even his own great strength started to wane. He slowed his run to a fast walk, but he never lost her scent. That scent consumed his whole awareness. Nothing would stop him until it took over his whole life.
He had Aiken's word wishing him good luck in finding her. Aiken wasn't her Alpha, but he gave Walker the green light to go after her. Aiken didn't blink when Walker said straight out that Marla was his mate. He accepted it as a natural fact.
Walker's spirits soared. He had Marla's family's permission to go after her. His love for Marla was out in the open, and no one objected—no one but Marla herself. All he had to do was convince her. If he found out where she was and what was bothering her, he could win her over. He could marry her and seal his position as Alpha.
Hours later, he detected her footsteps falling closer together. She was slowing down. She must be tired. She paused near the tree line heading up to Bruins' Peak. She planned to cross the Dunlap-Mackenzie boundary.
He pushed through the foliage when he caught a different scent, a scent he didn't recognize. So many unfamiliar scents on the Peak couldn't bode well. This scent didn't excite his deepest passions the way Marla's did when he found her in the forest. This scent spoke to his darkest hatred. The bear raised his hackles and growled under his breath
He picked up the scent of danger long before he came to the pit. Blazing adrenaline scorched through his chest. He scanned the underbrush with his close-set eyes, but he couldn't see anything. He inched forward one step at a time when he heard a high-pitched squeak.
In his haste to find Marla, he started forward faster than he should have. His foot slipped in slippery clay, and he almost fell headfirst into a deep pit. He caught himself in time and got his front paws planted on solid ground again.
He peered down the hole into the dark when he saw Marla looking up at him. Clay smudged her cheeks and hair, and her shirt stuck to her shoulders with damp. The pit surrounded her on all sides with vertical walls.
She jumped when she saw him. “Walker!” she cried. “Help me! I can't get out of here.”
He swung his enormous head from one side to the other. He studied the situation from every angle, but couldn't think well enough with his bear brain. He stepped back and took his form as a man.
Marla's face brightened when he leaned over the pit again. Her face split open in a big happy grin at the sight of him. “Walker!”
“I'm gonna get you out of here, Marla,” he called down. “Just hang on.”
He pulled his head back when she called out again, “Walker, wait!”
“What's the matter? Are you hurt?”
She thought fast for anything to say to keep him there. “What are you going to do?”
He looked around. “There's a fallen log over here. I'm going to push it down. You can shift and climb out on that with your claws.”
“Wait a minute!” she shrieked.
“What's the matter? You can climb a lot better with your claws than you can with your fingers.”
She wrung her hands. “I…I can't.”
“You can't what?”
She struggled to get the words out. “I can't shift.”
“Sure, you can. You don't want to spend the night down there. It will be dark soon. This is the fastest way to get you out.” He started to pull away.
“I can't, Walker!” she sobbed. “Isn't there any other way?”
He frowned. “I don't think so. Can't you shift, just this once?”
She looked all around her at the walls hemming her in. He read the answer written all over her face. Whatever her hang-up, she couldn't shift. Some mental block made that possibility out of the question for her.
He looked around again. “Just wait there. I'm going to go back into the woods a little way. Don't worry. I'll be right back. I'm not leaving.”
He could stand there staring down at her upturned face all day, but he pu
lled away before he got caught in her spell again. Those big vulnerable eyes spoke to his soul. Moving a few feet away from her, even to save her life, cost him more effort than he could muster.
He set off back down the hill the way he came, but he didn't shift. He had to think, and he could only do that as a man. He examined every stick and rock along the way until he found what he was looking for.
He found a spindly pine sapling down in a hollow. It stretched its bedraggled crown to the sun. A dozen needleless branches stuck out of its narrow trunk. He walked around it in a circle. When he came back to the same spot, he shifted. He weaseled his burly head between the branches and set his stout shoulder between the branches.
He leaned his weight against the trunk, but one push tore it out by the roots. As soon as it came out, he shifted back and took hold of the trunk in one meaty hand. He hauled it back up the hill and poked it down into the pit.
“What's this?” she snarled. “I said I can't shift.”
“You don't have to shift,” he explained. “Don't you see? Climb up on the branches, one foot in front of the other. Come on. You can do it.”
She stared at the tree. Her countenance cleared, and she took hold of the trunk. He held it in place while she put one foot on the first branch. Hand over hand and foot over foot, she climbed out of the trap and scrambled up onto the ground.
Walker pitched the tree aside, but Marla got to him first. She threw her arms around his waist. “Thank you! Oh, thank you! You don't know how happy I am to see you.”
He cradled the back of her neck to hug her head against his chest. “I'm happy to see you, too. I'm glad you're safe. You had me worried.”
Marla pulled herself together and pulled out of his arms. “Thank you for helping me. You didn't have to do that.”
He held her back to look her in the face. “I did have to do it. You're my mate, Marla. What happens to you, happens to me.”
Bruins' Peak Bears Box Set (Volume I) Page 47