Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume III)

by Sarah J. Stone

  She strode up to him and murmured into the night. “Would it be so terrible if I did? He's a nice enough guy, don't you think?”

  “Is that all you care about—that he's a nice enough guy? You should know better than that.”

  “You and Daddy always wanted me to find a mate, and now I have. I thought you'd be happy about this.” Even as she spoke those words, she knew she'd made a mistake.

  “Happy about this? How could I be happy about you wanting to mate with someone from God knows where? What's going to happen? Are you going to leave home to go live with him? He's said enough times he doesn't plan to stay here.”

  “Well, I don't exactly know what's going to happen. We haven't exactly…”

  “Don't tell me you haven't even talked to him about this.”

  “Of course, I haven't talked to him about it. Neither of us wants to get involved.”

  “Then how can you talk about mating with him? You're dreaming.”

  “Why can't I dream? Why can't I think about mating with another bear? Why do you have to go and ruin everything?”

  Arryn spun away. “That's it. I'm going to talk to Daddy about this. We'll send this Ash Dunlap character on his way. You won't get any closer to him.”

  She flared up at him. “You can't do that! You can't send him away.”

  “Watch me.”

  She flew back along the path into his face. “How can you do this? Where's your hospitality?”

  “Forget hospitality. Someone else can look after him. He won't go hungry around here.”

  “You leave him alone, Arryn.”

  He stabbed his finger in her face. “You'll have to leave. You'll have to disappear somewhere you won't see him again. That's the only way to stop you getting in over your head and dragging all the rest of us down with you.”

  She stood back and crossed her arms over her chest. “I won't do that. I've started taking care of Ash, and I'll keep doing it. Besides, there's no one else to take care of you and Daddy since Mommy died two years ago.”

  He shook his head and turned away. “We'll stop you. We'll get the Elders involved if we have to. You're not going to endanger the whole Ridge with this.”

  She got ready to blow up at him again when another voice broke out of the dark. “There you are. I was hoping I would meet you out here.”

  June whirled around. “Ash! What are you doing out at this time of night?”

  He strolled down the path. He surveyed her, and then Arryn. “Is anything wrong?”

  “Nothing at all,” June replied. “What did you want to meet us for?”

  Hysterical laughter exploded out of him. “You won't believe it. I just met a Midnight guy down the hill, and he wants to make peace, too. He told me all about what's happening with them. They started to change when Riley brought Melody back here to live, and now a bunch of Midnight are mating for life. Can you believe that? I never would have believed it. It's such a stroke of luck. Now we have someone to negotiate with.”

  “Wow!” June exclaimed. “That is amazing. How did you find him? What are you going to do next to bring the Midnight around?”

  Arryn's deep rumble cut Ash off before he could answer. “That's it! I've stood by for this peace nonsense one minute too long. You're not making peace with the Midnight. You're undercutting our whole decision-making process. What are you trying to do—get us all killed?”

  “Hold your horses, champ,” Ash replied. “I've made my intentions clear from day one. I told you I would find a way to make peace with the Midnight, and now I have. If you want to fight them, that's your problem, not mine.”

  “How could you negotiate with him?” Arryn thundered. “Don't you have any respect for our people? You know we haven't come to any decision about making peace or war, and now you go off and preempt us. Do you know what the rest of the NightShade will do when they find out what you've done?”

  “I have no idea what they'll do,” Ash replied, “and frankly, I really don't care. I'm not representing the NightShade. I'm not even representing the Bruins. I'm representing myself, and I want to make peace. If you don't like it, you can stick it.”

  June chuckled in spite of herself, and Ash glanced over to smile at her. Arryn saw that smile pass between them, and he barreled between them. He charged at Ash so fast he bumped into his chest. “Get away from my sister! Don't ever let me see you looking at her again. Do you hear me? Get out of here. We don't need you around ruining our lives. Get out of here and go back where you came from before I…”

  “Stop it, Arryn!” June screamed out, but it was too late. In a flash of fur, Ash shifted. His jaws split apart, and his teeth stabbed between his lips. His whole face peeled back to let a tremendous roar explode out of his chest. He reared back, and both arms flew out at his sides. His fingers curved into claws.

  When he doubled forward again, he brought his gaping wide mouth down at Arryn's neck. The NightShade reacted faster than thought. In an instant, a compact black bear twisted his head around to combat Ash's threatening jaws. What Arryn lacked in height and weight, he made up for in pure animal ferocity.

  The two bears faced each other, and their thunderous bellows rocked the mountain to its roots. Ash towered over Arryn and menaced him with his fangs. Arryn's lips shivered in rage. He darted under Ash's chin to nip at his neck.

  June screamed out one more time, “Stop it!” Neither shifter paid any attention to her. How could this happen so fast? How could she stand by and watch her brother threaten her…? She couldn't think those words right now. They made no sense, but what could she do? Her every instinct told her to protect Ash, even when he held all the advantage over his smaller adversary.

  Arryn stood his ground, but he dared not attack a bear so much bigger than himself. Ash drowned out his roars with his own earth-shaking voice, and when Arryn still didn't back down, Ash charged him and knocked him over on his back.

  Ash bumped Arryn's head out of the way with his snout, and his mouth touched Arryn's neck. June clamped her eyes shut. She couldn't watch, but Ash didn't bite. He only held the smaller bear still until Arryn stopped struggling. Arryn’s limbs slackened, and he threw his head back in submission.

  Ash stepped back and changed. Arryn lay sprawled on the ground for a moment. The black bear rolled his eyes around in their sockets. When he saw Ash standing nearby with his arms hanging at his sides, Arryn twisted over on the ground. The black bear flipped his legs under him and rose to his feet. He shook himself and turned his back on Ash.

  Ash and June watched him, but Arryn made no more move to attack. He couldn’t. Ash dominated him and forced him to back down. Arryn had nothing to do but leave. Arryn took one more look back over his shoulder. Ash didn’t move. He said nothing until Arryn disappeared into the deepest shadows.

  June’s shoulders slumped. She loved her brother, but he could drive a saint to distraction. No one knew that better than she did. She looked over at Ash. “You okay?”

  He narrowed his eyes at the spot where Arryn disappeared. Then he shook himself out of his reverie and faced her. “You?”

  “I’m all right,” she replied. “You did well to keep yourself under control like that. You could have killed him.”

  “I wouldn’t do that. I didn’t come here to kill anybody—not him or the Midnight or anybody else.”

  “Thank you. I’m grateful to you. I’m sure my Daddy would be, too, if he knew.”

  “Don’t tell him.”

  June’s head shot up. “Why not?”

  Ash shrugged. “I don’t want you grateful to me. I don’t anybody grateful to me, especially not anybody in your family.”

  “Why not?” she asked. “You deserve it after the way you acted. You shut him down without violence. Most bears…well, I don’t know how it is with Bruins, but most NightShade lose their heads when they shift. If someone threatens them, they fight to the death—no ifs, ands, or buts.”

  He nodded. “It’s the same with us, but I couldn’t kill him. I could
n’t even hurt him. He’s your family. You offered me hospitality, and he…”

  Ash broke off. June waited for him to say something else, but when he didn’t, she peered through the dark to catch any hint of his face. “Ash?”

  His eyes burned into her in the dark. He answered in a whisper. “Yes?”

  “Do you think…?”

  He took a step closer and breathed into her face. “Don’t. Don’t even say it.”

  June’s heart pounded in her brain. She couldn’t take her eyes off the silvery light glimmering on his cheekbones. “I have to. I have to know.”

  “Shh. You know we can’t.”

  She gasped in spite of herself. He stood so close and warm and alive. His presence seared adrenaline through her heart. “At least just tell me the truth. I have to know. If I know the truth, I can leave it alone and walk away. I can’t live with this hanging over me and not know. Is there any chance? Is there any chance at all? Could we ever…?”

  “How could we?” The words rushed out of him, but he kept his voice low. “How could it ever be possible? We’re both better off apart. You know that as well as I do.”

  “But you want to, don’t you? You want to as much as I do. At least just tell me that.”

  “Shh,” he hissed through his teeth. “Don’t talk like that.”

  She crossed the last inch holding them apart. “Just tell me the truth. You feel the same way I do, don’t you?”

  “You know I do. How can you even ask that? I’m going crazy over here. I don’t want to do this. It takes all my strength to hold on.”

  A thrill rocketed June to heaven. He said it. He felt the same way.

  Before she could answer, his chin sank on his chest. He started to turn away. “I better go. We shouldn’t even be talking about this.”

  She had to stop him walking away. She couldn’t let him slip through her fingers when he just admitted his feelings. “How could this happen? How could we be mates if it isn’t possible?”

  “We aren’t mates,” he replied, “and we’re never going to be. I’ll go home and you’ll stay here. We’ll both take mates from our own people. That’s all there is to it.”

  A strangled cry broke out of her throat. She didn’t mean to call him back, but he stopped. He turned around to gaze at her.

  They stood in silence so long June nursed a tender hope. He didn’t walk away. Could he possibly change his mind? Did she even want him to? He complicated her life beyond anything she could understand. She shouldn’t want him. She should want a NightShade man who understood her and all the NightShade’s ways.

  She didn’t know what to do. She wanted him to walk away, but seeing him walk away tore her heart out. To her surprise, he strode up to her. “Don’t.”

  “Don’t what?”

  “Don’t…don’t let this bother you. I can’t stand seeing you upset about this.”

  She swallowed hard. “I’m not upset. I’m just confused. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Neither do I,” he replied, “but we can’t do that.”

  She studied him. He stood right in front of her. Her heartbeat calmed down. She could relax, now that he wasn’t walking away. “Are you sure?”

  His shoulders stiffened. “Sure, I’m sure. Aren’t you? You know we can’t…”

  “I know, but if we both want to, that must mean we’re…”

  A short click in his throat stopped her. “We can’t be. We just can’t be.”

  June squared her shoulders. No more half-truths. No more cut-off sentences. “Just say it. Say we can’t be mates.”

  “Fine. We can’t be mates.”

  June wouldn’t let him go so easily. “You said you feel the same way, so we already are. We don’t know what to do about it, but we want to be together. That means we belong together, one way or the other.”

  He hung his head and turned away. He just wouldn’t admit the truth. “What are we going to do?”

  “I know what I’m gonna do.” She found his hand in the dark. She squeezed his fingers and gathered that hand into her grasp. It closed around her heart the way it did in Ash’s cabin. It belonged there, and it would stay there, even when he walked away.

  His hand softened at her touch. His whole being relaxed into that simple gesture of togetherness. His head started to turn. His body migrated toward her. The world turned on its axis and brought them closer together.

  All at once, Ash jerked away. He tore his hand out of her grasp, and he lurched away into the forest. He whispered once, “We can’t.” Then he was gone.

  9. Chapter 8

  Ash lay in the big bed in his cabin. Light streamed under the eaves to brighten the room, and sunbeams winked through gaps in the log walls. Birds singing and squirrels chattering outside, but his mind turned on June.

  He didn’t want to get sucked into this, but it happened against his will. He could say a million times, to himself and everybody else, that he wouldn’t mate with her. She was right. It already happened, and they hadn’t even kissed. He hadn’t put his arms around her. He hadn’t touched her except to hold her hand.

  He heard wild tales of Bruin romance around the Peak, but never anything like this. He heard about couples making out in cars or mating in the woods as bears. He never heard of any couple mated from holding hands. Holy smokes! He’d hardly even done that. It happened from him just looking into June’s eyes.

  All the stories he ever heard from his earliest childhood came back to him. So many Bruins said their mating happened long ago, long before either person was even born. It happened in the dawn of time.

  Could June live her whole life on Renegade Ridge, just waiting for him to show up? This couldn’t be real. What if he never came to Renegade Ridge? What if Foicks came instead? Would Foicks be mated to June right now, and Ash mated to Haven Farrell?

  He couldn’t think like that. All those cosmic permutations only confused him more. June said she was confused, but at least she had the guts to admit the truth. She came right out and said they were mates. Ash couldn’t do that. He could only bleat, “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t,” to everything she did and said.

  Well, Ash’s dad always told him there’s no such word as ‘can’t’. He could mate with June if he really wanted to. He didn’t want to. That was the problem. He wanted to fall into a hole and disappear, but that wouldn’t happen. He mated with her. That was the cold, hard fact.

  He couldn’t lie here fretting about it, either. He better face the firing squad and get it over with. He swung out of bed. Once he put his feet on the floor, the day’s momentum kept him going. He got his clothes on with no trouble. He could still manage that much, thank God.

  He soaked his head in the washbasin by the door and ran his fingers through his hair. He fished his toothbrush out of his jacket pocket and brushed with plain water. He slung his jacket over his shoulder and headed out of the cabin when he remembered.

  He went back inside and made the bed. He put the whole room in order before he left. He made the room the way it looked when June first showed him in. Only then did he take his jacket and start down the path again toward the Starks’ house.

  He hadn’t gone more than a few paces when he met a young man coming the other way. Ash recognized him as the young man who raised the alarm about the Midnight coming into NightShade territory.

  He stood taller than Ash by a head. Though not as tall as Arryn, this kid carried a lot more muscle around his shoulders. His stout legs gave him a solid air. Like June, he sprouted straight up out of the Ridge itself. The rocks and stones and trees flowed in his veins.

  His deep brown skin shone in the sun, and he showed all his teeth when he smiled. These people never smiled by half. They gave their whole selves to their smile. No one could fail to like them when they smiled like that. Ash liked the kid from their first meeting.

  The kid stuck out his hand to Ash. “Howdy.”

  Ash shook it. “Howdy. Lovely morning for it.”

  The kid laughed out
loud. “You sound like my daddy.”

  Ash blushed. For some reason, he still held the kid’s hand in his own. He couldn’t explain why he kept thinking about this young man as a kid. He couldn’t be far off Ash’s age.

  He pulled his hand free. “I’m Abel Black.”

  Ash brightened up. “Oh! You must belong to Noah Black, the guy who…”

  “That’s right,” Abel interrupted. “I’m here to take you to breakfast.”

  Ash stopped. “I’m supposed to go to the Starks’.”

  “Not anymore,” Abel told him. “You’re coming to our house. It’s all arranged.”

  “Is something wrong with the Starks’?” Ash asked.

  “Nothing wrong, except maybe you,” Abel replied.

  “Me!”

  Abel nodded, but he wouldn’t stop smiling. “Arryn complained to Ezra about you hitting on June. He says you two are getting a little too cozy for comfort. Ezra doesn’t want you around June anymore, so he’s sending you to us for meals.”

  Ash stared at him. “That can’t be right.”

  “Well, it is. You won’t go around June anymore, so you better come with me.”

  “But I wasn’t hitting on her,” Ash protested. “I was just…you know, talking to her. I was trying to be polite after they offered me hospitality. That’s all.”

  Abel laughed out loud. His voice rippled over the mountains. “Talking to her, were you? Well, that’s enough, I guess. You’re going home in a few days, anyway, ain’t ya? Leave it alone. Our food is every bit as good as June’s. Just don’t go making eyes at my sister. That’s all I ask.”

  Abel strolled into the woods still chuckling. He left Ash no choice but to follow, but Ash’s guts twisted in knots. He wasn’t allowed to see June anymore. Arryn complained, and now he got Ezra to separate them.

  How could Ash let this happen? The Starks offered him hospitality. They fed him and gave him a bed, and he had to repay them with this. He told himself not to get involved with June. Now he couldn’t be more involved with her if he tried.

  He didn’t mean to get involved with her. He should have left Renegade Ridge the first time he laid eyes on June. He never should have come in the first place.