Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume III)

by Sarah J. Stone

  Hunter stood still and stared at the place where Jordan used to be. Cole slapped his shoulder. “Come on!”

  Hunter jerked out of his trance, and he and Cole and Onyx hurried after the crowd. Hundreds of people followed Jordan’s party to Riley’s house. The four marchers climbed the steps, and Riley opened the door for them.

  Most of the crowd halted at the steps. Fevered conversation broke out. Everybody talked at once, but Onyx couldn’t rest. She had to see more. She had to find out what went on in that house. Most of all, she had to get another look at those strange men. She saw one Bruin before when Azer Mackenzie came to Midnight Moraine, but she never saw a NightShade before. She might never see one again.

  She bent low and ducked between the bystanders. She fought her way up the porch and through the open door. Maybe a dozen other people stood around the tiny cabin. They stared in shock at Ash sitting on the couch next to Melody.

  Onyx never saw such a beautiful smile on Melody’s face. Melody beamed at Ash, and they talked in hushed tones. Onyx couldn’t hear what they said, but that didn’t matter. She stared and stared at Abel sitting in a chair across the room.

  Those three occupied every seat in the house. Even Jordan and Riley had to stand while Ash and Melody visited. Melody laughed, and Ash’s cheeks glowed. Abel kept glancing around the room at all the Midnight gawking at him. His eyes flitted over Onyx once. He didn’t see any difference between her and the rest of the rubberneckers.

  She couldn’t stop staring at him, though. She had never seen anybody like him. His skin glowed deep, dark brown, and his eyes bored into anything they happened to land on.

  22. Chapter 2

  Abel noticed that girl in the crowd right away. She stood right next to those two men who wanted to kill him. She must be a friend of the bear-baiters, but she fascinated him in a way he couldn’t explain. She sure was a looker, though. She wore a white T-shirt about ten sizes too small. It stretched tight over her cherry tits, and her miniature elastic shorts left nothing to the imagination over her nice rounded ass.

  What in the name of all that’s holy was he doing even thinking about a Midnight that way? She ought to disgust him, but he had to will himself to look away so he wouldn’t stare at her. The moment he caught sight of her confronting him in the crowd, he fixed his eyes straight ahead. He clenched his jaw tighter than ever against these things. They weren’t even people. No one knew better than he did how vicious and blood-thirsty the Midnight could be.

  The instant he laid eyes on that girl, he regretted coming on this peace mission. He should have stayed on the Ridge where he belonged. Every time he looked around Riley’s living room, he found her staring at him with her big dark eyes. Her straight black hair layered in waves down to her shoulders. It complemented her olive skin to give her a dark halo.

  He gave himself a mental jab to the head. Stop thinking about her! She was nothing. She was the enemy. He could never admire her. All those attractive charms about her, her luscious curves and her pouting lips—they were nothing more than bait to lure him to his doom.

  Thank heaven, the visit didn’t last long. Maybe Ash and Melody didn’t really have much to say to each other. Ash kissed her on the cheek and promised to come back. He stood up, and Jordan and Riley moved in to escort Ash and Abel out of the house.

  That girl stayed behind. A hush fell over the crowd when the men came out, and they split apart like the Red Sea to let them through. Jordan and Riley led Ash and Abel back to the borderland between Midnight Moraine and Renegade Ridge.

  Jordan slapped Ash on the back. “That was great. We’ll have to do it again sometime.”

  “You bet,” Ash exclaimed. “Who were those guys who tried to stop us?”

  Jordan gritted his teeth. “The big fella is my stinking brother Hunter. His friend is my brother-in-law, Cole Archer, and that girl with them is Cole’s sister Onyx.”

  Onyx. Onyx Archer. Abel couldn’t stop repeating that name. So, that’s who she was. She was Jordan’s sister-in-law. All the more reason Abel should put her out of his mind and never think about her again. She was bad news from here to China, and he never even talked to her.

  Ash shook hands with Jordan and Riley. Then Abel did the same, but he only frowned deeper on the way up the Ridge toward home. What was he thinking, letting Ash rope him into this nightmare scenario? Abel ought to have his head examined for ever setting foot on Midnight Moraine.

  Ash didn’t notice Abel’s reserve. “Can you believe it went as well as it did? No one dared stand against us. Do you know what this means? It means peace is really possible. As soon as the bear-baiters get it into their heads we’re stronger than they are, they’ll back down. You watch. This is the beginning of the end.”

  Abel didn’t reply. He didn’t even hear. His mind twisted and turned on a thousand complications.

  Ash prattled on to himself, “We’ve got to go back. We’ve got to do it again. We’ve got to show them we’re not afraid. We’ve got to keep sticking their faces in the fact that we’re friends until they accept it as inevitable.”

  Abel shook himself awake. “I’m not going back. You can go back, but I won’t.”

  Ash whipped around. “Why not? This is the best thing that could happen!”

  Abel chopped his hand through the air. “A Bruin and a NightShade walked through the streets on Midnight Moraine. So what? What did it accomplish in the end? The Midnight are still our enemies. Those two men wanted to kidnap me and kill me. I saw them eyeing me at Riley’s house. They would have done it, too, if Jordan’s people hadn’t protected me.”

  Ash shrugged. “Well, yeah. There’s bound to be some stick-in-the-muds who want to drag everybody else down. You can’t pay any attention to them.”

  Abel rounded on him. “You better pay attention to them. They won’t back down, and you’re in as much danger from them as I am. If you go back to Midnight Moraine, they’ll find a way to nab you. You would need the whole peace faction behind you even to set foot on their territory.”

  Ash gasped. “What’s gotten into you? I thought you were down with all this peace stuff.”

  Abel turned away and started walking. “Maybe peace isn’t such a great idea after all. Did you see the way they looked at us? The only way to get through to people like that is to fight them head on.”

  Ash hurried after him. “Don’t say that, man. Don’t give up when we just won a major victory!”

  “A major victory? Is that what you call it? Well, you keep on with your major victories. I won’t try to stop you, but I am never going back to Midnight Moraine. Never.”

  Ash strode at his side. “That’s okay, man. I won’t try to convince you. We made our point. We don’t have to go back now. Jordan wants to do the same thing with us. He wants to come up the Ridge to visit us and show everybody that he means peace.”

  Abel slammed his arm against Ash’s chest to stop him in his tracks. “You are NOT bringing a Midnight up the Ridge! I don’t care if he’s the most peaceful man on the planet. He’s not setting foot on the Ridge. Do you hear me? If he comes near the Ridge, I’ll rip his throat out with my bare hands. You see if I don’t.”

  Ash’s eyes widened. “What is the matter with you? Jordan has done more to stop the bear-baiters than anybody. He’s working night and day to make the Midnight peaceful. You know that.”

  “He’s still Midnight,” Abel countered. “If he found out about Arion, we’d be in deep water. Don’t you understand that? You can’t bring him up.”

  “I have no intention of bringing him up. I only mentioned that he wants to. He wants to show us he’s our friend.”

  Abel whirled away. He had to get ahold of himself. “I knew this peace business was bad news. I never should have helped you in the first place.”

  “How can you say that?” Ash asked. “I just said I won’t bring him up, and I never asked you to help with the peace process in the first place. You can side with Ezra and Arryn for war and you’ll still be my friend
.”

  Abel grunted something under his breath, but he didn’t look at Ash again. He marched up the Ridge toward his own house. Ash fell behind and let him walk away. Abel didn’t want to see or talk to Ash right now. He didn’t want to see or talk to anybody.

  How could he explain his thoughts and feelings when he didn’t understand them himself? His own mind disturbed him much more than anything Ash planned to do. What if Abel got mixed up with some Midnight down the mountain? What if he let slip about Arion? No wonder his people never left the Ridge. If anyone put the NightShade in danger right now, it was Abel himself.

  23. Chapter 3

  Onyx paced around the compound for hours after Jordan and Riley left with Ash and Abel. They disappeared into the forest. Onyx hung around until Jordan and Riley came back alone.

  They didn’t notice her stalking them. They shook hands before they parted to go to their own homes. Now what was Onyx going to do? She turned this way and that, but she couldn’t figure herself out.

  What was bothering her, anyway? So she saw a Bruin and a NightShade up close for the first time. Big deal. They looked about as different from Midnight as Midnight looked from humans. That shouldn’t make such a big impression on her.

  She hated to admit it to herself, but she didn’t care about Ash. She only cared about Abel. It wasn’t just his black skin and fierce eyes that caught her attention, so what was it?

  His eyes danced across her face more than once at Riley’s house. Every fleeting glance sent squiggles of adrenaline shooting through her. He excited her a lot more than Hunter ever did. What was she doing even thinking of him in that way? She would never see him again. She would never meet him in the forest and wrap her body around his. She would never engulf his black self into her deepest secret hiding places. She would never…

  Shut up! Get those thoughts out of your head! She couldn’t let herself get interested in a NightShade, of all people. He was less than human. He was cattle. He was dirt. Isn’t that what the Midnight always said about those ignorant mountain people? The Midnight could bear-bait them without a twinge of conscience because the NightShade didn’t feel and think and act like real people. They were vermin.

  Abel wasn’t vermin, though. He was a living, breathing man full of muscle and blood and spit and cum. He was every bit a man as any Midnight she ever laid eyes on, and she wanted him.

  No, she didn’t! She didn’t want anybody. She was Midnight. She was fluid. She skipped from tree to tree and from man to man. She never had anything to do with all that mating for life tripe, and she wouldn’t start now.

  She couldn’t get her mind off Abel Black, though. His dark face hovered before her eyes. His body rumbled under his rough clothes. His fingers and his feet whispered their secret maleness into her soul so she couldn’t block it out. What would he taste like? What would he look like when he bent over an exposed female body?

  Would he rage through his gritted teeth when he exploded in ecstasy? Would his shoulders flex when he held her down on the ground to drive his…Dear God, what was she thinking? She set off through the compound. She had no idea where she was going, but she couldn’t stand around here all day. She would drive herself crazy.

  She had to find somewhere to go. She had to find someone to talk to, about anything but this. She wound her way through the houses, but nowhere offered her any refuge.

  Where was he right now? Was he back home with his family in their dirt hovel on the Ridge? Was he thinking about her? What if she found a way to see him again? What would he say? Would he turn away from her the way he did at Riley’s house? Would he stare straight ahead like she wasn’t there like when he first saw her in the street?

  Why would he do anything else? He probably didn’t see her in the street at all. He didn’t know she existed. She was the last thing in the world he would think about. Anyway, she would never see him again. She would never go up to Renegade Ridge. That was for certain, and he would probably never come back down here.

  She passed her own house and caught sight of Wyatt Faulkner’s house. Of course! She would go see Hunter. He could take her mind off anything. She strode up to the door and found it standing open, so she let herself in. She tiptoed down the hall to Hunter’s room and pushed the door open. Was he inside?

  He glanced up from the magazine he was reading in his armchair. He smiled and set it aside. “Hey, baby. That was some spectacle we just witnessed, wasn’t it?”

  He welcomed her sitting down on his lap. He cradled her back in one arm and raised his face to receive her kiss. She hugged his head against her chest. “I don’t want to talk about that. Let’s pick up where we left off.”

  She covered his mouth with her lips. He held her in his firm embrace. His solid bulk sank back on the chair under her weight. He brushed one hand up her leg to the tight seams between her thighs, but she didn’t respond to his touch the way she wanted to. She pressed her breasts against his chest, but the old excitement didn’t light her fire the way it used to.

  She wound her hips in circles on his lap. His prick hardened under her ass, but no wriggly thrill went her flesh at that firm point digging into her. She let out a long breath, but she couldn’t relax into him.

  She squirmed back and forth. She couldn’t get comfortable. She hopped off his lap and paced around the room. She looked out the window. Then she turned back to the door.

  Hunter frowned. “What’s going on? Do you want to do it or not?”

  She came back toward him, but she only planted one kiss on his mouth before she jerked away. “I do want to do it.”

  He stared at her crisscrossing the room in tense agitation. “What’s wrong with you? Come here.”

  She threw up both hands. She didn’t understand what was wrong with her, so how could she explain it to him? Why didn’t she sit down on his lap again? She knew exactly what would happen there, and she wanted it. She wanted it more than anything, but she couldn’t go back.

  She heard her voice chattering and not making any sense. “I was just wondering about those guys Jordan brought down here. What’s he up to? He knows some Midnight want to kill Bruins and throw NightShade in the ring. He must have made them some wild promises to get them to come down here.”

  Hunter rested one elbow on his knee and held out his hand to her. “Come here, baby. Come here and let me taste your sweet little…”

  She smacked her lips. “I mean, isn’t it bad enough the place is falling into ruin after the ring collapsed? What’s he trying to do to us?”

  “Forget those guys.” He lurched out of his chair and grabbed her wrist. He fell back into his seat and pulled her toward him. “Come here. Let Papa take your mind off all that. We’ve got better things to do.”

  His thick arms surrounded her. He cupped both her butt cheeks in his hands and buried his face in her stomach. He exhaled through her shirt and crept his mouth down her belly to her shorts. He nosed into her mound, and his fingers snuck around her waistband. He slid her shorts down, and his lips touched her bare skin.

  From a great distance, she understood his warm face creeping lower and lower toward her soft flesh. She understood all the juicy wetness he would give her. He wouldn’t stop until her screams ripped the world apart.

  All of a sudden, she leapt clear. “Oh, my God, I can’t, Hunter! I’m sorry. I just can’t.”

  He threw himself back in the chair. “What in the world is wrong with you? What did you come in here for if you didn’t want to do it?”

  “I do want to do it!” she shrieked. “I want to do it more than anything. Don’t you understand that?”

  “Well, why don’t you? Don’t you see what you do to me?” He grabbed a handful off his hard cock bulging inside his pants.

  “I want to, but I can’t!” she wailed. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I can’t do it. I…I just can’t.”

  He stared at her with his mouth open. “Don’t tell me. Don’t tell me you of all people have fallen for this.”

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sp; She sank down on his bed and buried her face in her hands. “Please, Hunter, don’t look at me like that. I can’t stand it. I haven’t fallen for anything.”

  He shook his head and looked out the window. “You want to mate for life, don’t you?”

  In a second, she was on her feet. “No, I don’t. That’s the last thing I want.”

  He wouldn’t look at her. “Who is he? Who’s the lucky guy?”

  She dashed to the door and tore it off its hinges getting it open. “There is no lucky guy. I’m not mating for life, and that’s final.”

  She raced out of the house, out into the glorious sunshine, but she couldn’t stop now. His words pounded in her ears. Who is he? Who’s the lucky guy?

  Only one face popped into her mind when she heard those words. His black skin and dark eyes bewitched her until she could think of nothing else. This couldn’t be happening. She couldn’t think about him that way.

  Why, oh, why, couldn’t she fall for a nice Midnight guy like Hunter? She slept with him practically every night for months. They had a lot of good times and faced who knows how many obstacles together. Hunter was her kind of guy. She never wanted any man the way she wanted him. Life would be so simple if she could only mate with him.

  She had to do something with herself. She wouldn’t mate for life—not with Hunter Faulkner or anybody else. She would stay fluid. If she couldn’t do it with him, she would find somebody else. She dashed down the compound to another house she knew. She didn’t waltz in the front door like she did before. Wyatt and his family knew all about her and Hunter’s escapades. This was a whole different ball of wax.

  She knocked on the door and waited until a young man came out. She knew him perfectly well. He was Kingston Dunn. He frowned at Onyx, and she gave him her most disarming smile. “Is Damian home?”

  Kingston pointed across the yard. “He’s out in the shed.”

  He shut the door in her face. Onyx took a deep breath and turned her back on the house. Her reputation as a fluid Midnight maiden preceded her. Those Midnight who already mated for life wouldn’t have much to do with her these days.