Ash waved his hand. “After you. I insist. You found him. You go ahead and I’ll follow you.”
Abel grinned. He broke into a run toward the noise, and Ash joined him. The joy of the hunt pulsed in his veins. He would shift in a second, and they would run the pig down together. They would flank the animal and share the feast.
Joyous excitement blasted the uncertainty out of his mind. He gave himself over to the hunt. He could still enjoy a bear’s life and leave his troubles far behind.
He caught up with Abel, and they matched each other, stride for stride. Abel flashed him a wicked grin and took a flying jump into the air to shift. At that moment, ten men came flying the other direction to intercept Ash and Abel.
For one flashing instant, Ash recognized Arryn in the lead. The next moment, Arryn struck Abel going a mile a minute. Arryn planted his stout legs into the ground, and Abel bounced off his chest to land flat on the ground.
Ash swerved to miss them and ran into the other men surrounding him. The strangers hemmed him in on all sides. When Ash tried to evade them, they rushed in and grappled him to the ground. Arryn strode through the trees to Ash. Someone else held Ash down while Arryn wound back his leg and delivered a devastating kick to Ash’s ribs.
Ash groaned and doubled over in pain. Another four men joined in. They punched and kicked him all over. Out of the corner of his eye, Ash spotted another three roughing up Abel, but not as bad as they treated Ash.
Arryn did the worst of it. He kicked Ash in the face and pummeled his body. He covered Ash’s arms and legs in welts. If Ash tried to struggle, the men jumped on his arms and legs and held him still while Arryn walked around him in a circle.
Blood flowed from Ash’s nose and mouth. His ribs and back ached beyond belief. He stopped struggling and lay there. The sooner Arryn finished, the sooner they would leave him alone.
Arryn panted between kicks. His buddies’ punches dwindled, and they kept still, too. Ash stared through his swollen eyelids at the fine grain of the dirt in front of him.
Arryn’s face appeared in Ash’s line of sight. Arryn bared his teeth and hissed under his breath. “You pack up your bags and get out of here. Don’t let me see your face on Renegade Ridge again, or we’ll have to do something drastic. Understand? You have a pleasant day now. Don’t get hurt on the way back, okay?”
Arryn vanished. One by one, the hands holding Ash to the ground lifted off. One set of footsteps after another faded into the distance.
Ash stayed where he was until the last assailant disappeared. He rolled over on his chest and coughed. Blood and saliva drooled out on the ground. He curled over on his knees and retched.
Another set of hands touched his shoulders. Abel spoke into his ear. “You okay, man? Come on. I’ll take you home.”
Ash couldn’t answer. He focused all his concentration on getting to his feet. His vision swam, but Abel steadied him. Abel took him on a roundabout route back to the other side of the Ridge. Ash couldn’t climb over the peaks again.
Ash staggered at Abel’s side. The two friends didn’t say anything until Ash caught sight of the Blacks’ house. He summoned all his resolve to form the words. “Thanks, man.”
Abel stopped and stood him up straight. He looked Ash over and shook his head. “They really did a number on you. You better come inside and let Mommy clean you up.”
Ash shook his head. “He’s right. I better get out of here. Me being here is only making trouble for everybody.”
A cloud crossed Abel’s face. “What about June?”
“Me being here is making trouble for her, too, maybe most of all. Arryn’s right. I better go home where I belong. Your Elders will come to their decision, and you’ll let us know what you plan to do.”
“How will you know our decision? Will you send another representative out here?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea after what happened today. Do you?”
“At least wait until the Elders make their decision.”
“No,” Ash replied. “No more representatives. If some NightShade are still this hostile toward us, we better keep to our own territory. I know some Bruins are just as hostile. Our people aren’t ready to negotiate in person. I see that now.”
“How will we know when we are ready?”
Ash tried to smile, but his face twisted in pain. “There’s always the good old telephone.” Ash looked around. “You do have the telephone, don’t you?”
Abel burst out laughing. “Yeah. We’ve got the telephone.”
“Good. I’m grateful for you kindness today. I’m sorry I got you beaten up.”
Abel shrugged. “Forget it. That was nothing. You look terrible, though. I wish you’d come inside and let me see you fixed up.”
Ash turned away. “The sooner I disappear, the better. I’ll see you around sometime. Give my thanks to your parents.”
Ash walked away. He couldn’t look back at Abel standing in front of his house. He wound his way down the path to the little cabin where he spent the night. He gathered up the few possessions he brought with him.
He cast one last wistful gaze around the little room. It wasn’t much, but it still smelled of June. It would always feel like June. Maybe that’s why he had to leave. He couldn’t dwell in her scent and her presence when he couldn’t have her.
The Starks would keep him away from her. Arryn would keep threatening him. They would never back down, so he had to leave. If he and June belonged together, they would have to find some other way to get along.
He threw his jacket over his shoulder and started out the door when he came face to face with June standing in the door.
12. Chapter 11
June stared at Ash. She surveyed the room behind him. The quilt tucked neatly around the mattress. The room looked exactly the way she left it yesterday. She didn’t have to ask. “What are you doing?”
He squared his shoulders. “I need to leave now. It’s better for everyone.”
She gasped. “You’re leaving? Leaving—for real?”
He nodded. He gritted his teeth and kept his eyes fixed on a spot above her head.
June flew at him. She screamed out loud and hit him with her fists. “Don’t you dare leave! Don’t you dare! What are you trying to do to me? How could you say you felt the same way as me, and now you’re leaving? Do you know what you’re doing to me? Do you?”
He grabbed her by the wrists and wrestled her hands away. “Cool it, you. Haven’t you done enough to destroy my life?”
June tore herself out of his grip. “Destroy your life! I never did anything to you. I cared about you. I’m such an idiot. I should have listened to Arryn when he told me to stay away from you.”
“Arryn!” Ash bellowed at her. “Take a good, long look at my face right now. Do you see what you did to me? Is this your idea of caring about me?”
She stared at him. For the first time, she saw the dried blood around his nose and the split above his eyebrow. One fat lip pouted away from his mouth, and dark bruises discolored his fine skin. “What happened to you?”
“What happened to me?” he roared. “Arryn. That’s what happened to me. He says if I don’t leave Renegade Ridge, he’ll do worse next time. I never should have given you the time of day.”
June fumed under her breath. “That…I’ll rip him a new rear end for this, that son of a…”
“Will you cool it?” Ash thundered. “I’m leaving. It’s all over between us, and it never even started. It was a bad idea, so just forget it.”
Her jaw dropped. “How can you say that? You said you feel the same way about me. That makes us mates for life.”
“I do feel the same way about you. Dear God, I only wish I could get you to leave this Godforsaken mountain. I would take you so far away we would never see any of these people again. I should take you and run for it, the same way Azer did, but I’m too chicken-livered for something like that.”
June winced. “Don’t talk like that. There must be a way.
”
“Don’t you get it?” he yelled. “Do I have to draw you a blamed map to make you understand? If it comes to a fight between me and Arryn, I could wind up having to kill your brother. Is that what you want? This is the second time I should have torn his throat out and left him bleeding on the forest floor. He knows he can’t match me, so he had to ambush me with a bunch of his other stinkin’ friends. I can’t keep doing this. If he comes after me again, I have no choice but to fight back. I’ll kill him, and where will that leave me?”
Her lip quivered. “What are we going to do?”
His shoulders slumped. He cast his eyes to the ground. “There’s nothing to do. I have to leave. I can’t let anything happen between me and Arryn or any other NightShade. I came over here to find out about forming an alliance with your people. That’s not going to happen, so I have to leave before things go south in a hurry.” He snorted. “Like they haven’t already.”
“Do you really have to leave?”
He raised his eyes to her face, and their eyes met. “I don’t want to. You have to believe me. I don’t want to leave you. I would give anything to…Aw, what am I saying? I could never stay here with you, and you could never leave with me. It’s hopeless.”
She put out her hand. “Don’t leave, Ash.”
Faster than lightning, he rushed at her and threw one arm around her shoulders. “It’s gonna be okay. I don’t know how, but it’s got to be.”
Her arms closed around him. As long as she had him here, in her arms, everything would be all right. She had to keep him here at all costs. Her lips brushed his ear. “I can’t do this. I can’t let you go.”
He kissed the side of her head and buried his face in her hair. “Hold onto me. Don’t let me go. Make me stay here with you.”
She broke away to stare into his eyes. “Do you really mean it?”
His deep eyes burned before her. “How can we? We can’t. It wouldn’t work.”
He could say that, but standing so close told a different story. His eyes searched her soul, and she caught her breath at what she saw. His lips cast their magic spell on her. She should pull away. She should let him go while she had the chance.
She’d missed her chance to let him go. She understood that now. She looked down at his mouth. His lips twitched. His tongue passed behind his teeth. He stood so close, so inviting. Did he feel that charge between them? Was she only imagining it?
Warm air whistled through his nose, and he relaxed down his chest. He would pull away in a second, and nothing would remain between them. He barely spoke above a whisper, but his voice squeaked from the strain. “I better go.”
June nodded. She felt nothing but his arms around her. His body breathed so full and soft and comfortable in her embrace. She could never tear her arms away from him. She had him in her grasp. She wouldn’t let him go for anything in the world.
He leaned forward and gave her a peck on the lips. He moved back to the same place where he looked her in the eyes, but the deed was done. He’d kissed her. They exchanged a very different look. Neither of them could talk about leaving, or letting go. They were mated for life.
He kissed her again. He tried to pull back, but her lips caught him. A little peck wouldn’t do. It would never do again. She hugged him closer, and their lips entangled in all their flaming passion. The tension holding them apart dissolved into nothing.
He crushed her neck in his powerful arm. His lips tore the breath out of her lungs. She met him in all her mounting excitement. This was it. She was kissing him at last.
She never knew she could feel this way about anyone. No man sparked her fire like this. She slipped her arms under his to hook her hands over his shoulders. She wrestled him closer. She mauled his mouth in greedy desire, and their tongues met.
His other arm snaked around her waist. He lifted her against him, and a squirrely thrill shivered down her body. It sparkled out the soles of her bare feet. Her legs glided one against the other under her dress.
Their tongues dipped and dove under and over and around each other. Sweet release set her whole body on fire. She couldn’t keep away from him. She had to seize him in all his foreign curiosity. She had to discover him and make him her own.
She licked his saliva inside his cheeks. His hand crept lower to her hip. Her skin yearned for him. She pressed her breasts into his chest. His jacket fell to the ground, but nobody noticed that.
Birds chattered all around them. The forest went on about its business with Ash and June twisted into a tight ball of their own. She existed only for him. Was this real? Did she really have him in her arms right now? Yes! Nothing could be more real than this man—this sturdy, steady man.
The forest smiled on them. The forest understood they belonged together. That eternal forest would never try to keep them apart. The forest brought them together stronger than anything.
If everything else fell apart, they could always run off to the forest. They could always take refuge in some den where two bears could sleep in comfort. The prey in the trees would feed them. They didn’t need all the rules connected with their people.
She stroked up and down his back. She sensed him under his shirt. His being spoke to her of skin and hot blood. His fists tightened in her clothes. Was he thinking the same thing?
He split his mouth away, and when he looked into her eyes, she understood exactly what he was thinking. He nodded down at her mouth, but the nagging questions, the thousand distractions—none of them anymore.
He jerked his head toward the cabin, but he didn’t have to ask the question. He set her on her feet and headed for the door. She followed him inside, and he closed the door on the world.
13. Chapter 12
June waited for Ash to lock the door. The room looked so different, now that she knew what was about to happen. The quilt on the bed, the wash basin by the door, even the sun cutting through the logs meant something altogether new.
She entered that cabin a free young girl. She would leave it a fully mature she-bear with a mate. Never again would she be Daddy’s little girl. She wouldn’t mother her brother and sister and father again. She had her own family to think about.
Ash strolled over to her in no particular hurry. Was he bidding farewell to childish things and saying hello to adulthood? He stopped in front of her, but he didn’t reach out. For one long moment, they gazed into each other’s eyes.
They didn’t have to rush anymore. They didn’t have to hide or wonder. The time had come. The unbridgeable gap between the past and the future stretched out before them. They would cross it together and never go back.
They both put out a hand at the same instant, and their fingers entwined. June smiled, and he nodded. He understood. Nothing remained to be misunderstood.
This moment fulfilled the oldest reality among their people. Male and female came together and bonded for life. Heart married heart. They completed each other. It all started here, in this primal union of one body with another.
He drew her closer, and she fell into him. His fingers laced through hers, and they both held on tight. Nothing bad could happen as long as they held onto each other. He pulled her against him, and their arms took hold once more.
He didn’t kiss her right away, not the way he kissed her outside. He kissed her on the forehead, and his breath warmed her all over. She leaned into him and rested her head on his chest. He hugged her in both arms and rocked her back and forth.
They could dance and sway like this forever. They didn’t have to do anything more. They were mated. They could do it anytime, and they would be just as mated. Nothing could stop that now.
June didn’t want to wait any longer, though. She waited this long, and now she knew. She wanted him, and she wouldn’t live another day of her life without him. This cabin was their own place. No one could stop them. No force on Earth could stop them.
He cupped her chin to raise her face to him. When his lips closed over her mouth this time, his intoxicating heat filled h
er all over. Her flesh burst into flame, and sticky wetness sizzled between her legs.
His arms smashed her against him, and his lips demanded her now. She eased up against him, and his energy seeped into her quivering body. He wanted her, too. He swept her across the floor and sat her down on the quilt.
He dropped on his knees between her feet, but he never let go of her mouth. He nibbled her lips and left her breathless. She didn’t know what to do with herself. Her sensitive crotch rubbed the quilt in niggling desire. Any touch sent her over the edge.
He shoved his body between her legs, but her dress got in the way. He caressed up her calves to push the thin cotton over her knees. That tiny exposure exploded through her in wild torrents of steamy delight. Her thighs melted before him. She didn’t resist when he parted her legs to nudge between her knees.
He kissed her all the time. He never stopped gnawing her lips and probing his tongue into her mouth. He cradled her head in his hand, and she sank into his grasp. He could do what he wanted with her and she would sigh in rapture.
Her vision lost focus. He stared into her eyes, but she saw a double image. Her whole being softened into liquid pleasure. She wilted at his touch, and her joints turned to jelly.
He pressed his hips between her legs to drive them farther apart. He didn’t get close enough to touch her inflamed petals, but that didn’t matter. She rocked and heaved against his solid frame.
She passed her hands up and down his chest. His muscles strained under his shirt, and the squishy desire between her legs cried out for him. She ached for him to touch her raw nakedness.
He tried to hug her, but he couldn’t exactly reach her when she sat on the bed. He sank farther down, and he draped his two arms around her hips. He hugged her off the bed so her sweet mound rubbed his chest.
She couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore. She moaned against him, and her spine arched to reach him with every inch of her body. Her breasts collapsed under his chin. She embraced his neck to get him as close to her as possible.
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