Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume III)

by Sarah J. Stone

  May blinked at him. “You know about that?”

  “Sure, I know about it. What did you think?”

  She turned away, but she couldn’t hide the beautiful pink color flashing over her ivory skin. “Nothing. Come on. I’ll drive you over to Dunlap Homestead myself.”

  “You don’t have to do that,” he replied. “Just show me where it is and I’ll walk.”

  She chopped her hand through the air. “You’re not walking. You’re a guest on Bruins’ Peak. I’ll drive you in Silas’s car.”

  Arryn hung back. “Are you sure he’ll let you?”

  “He would want me to. He wouldn’t want you waiting around here. See? Here are the keys on the hook. Do you have any luggage at all?”

  “Just this.” He swung the backpack over his shoulder.

  She pulled the door open. “Then come on. I’m sure the Dunlaps will give you anything you need.”

  She walked away to the shed off the house. Arryn forced himself to look at the ground so he wouldn’t stare at her while she walked. Her tight jeans displayed her curvy backside, and a frilly, low-cut blouse framed her pristine white cleavage.

  Her sweeping golden hair swished down her back, and her crystal blue eyes burned out of her face. Arryn never saw a woman so white before. Then again, he never saw any woman other than NightShade before. Every blush shimmering across May’s cheeks, neck, and chest under pure white skin. He couldn’t keep his eyes away from her hips and ass swaying right in front of him. Her ass must be just as white under those jeans. Her thighs would melt in his mouth.

  He would give anything to touch that skin, to squeeze it and taste it and experience it with all his senses. That wouldn’t happen, though. She would drop him off at Dunlap Homestead and drive home. Besides, he had more important things to think about right now than some girl.

  God! His blood burned in his veins just thinking about her. No woman ever fired his interest like her. Was it her whiteness he craved? Was she some curiosity to him? She couldn’t be. He connected right away with Silas, too.

  May slid back the shed door. An immaculate silver Lexus parked inside. She popped the door open. “Get in.”

  Arryn stared at the thing in wonder. So this was the kind of contraption these people drove around in. He saw plenty of these in Burkes Road, in Iron Bark, and driving down the highway through the bus window. This would be his first experience riding in one himself.

  The thing looked nothing like the hovercraft zooming around Arion. This thing rolled along the ground on rubber wheels. A round ring in the cabin steered when the driver turned it. Arryn couldn’t see any computer screen inside.

  May caught him examining at the car. “Are you getting in?”

  Arryn sidled up to the passenger door. “Sorry. We don’t have these where I come from.”

  May’s eyes popped. “You don’t have them?”

  Arryn shook his head. “I’ve never ridden in one. Riding the bus here is the first time I’ve been in one.”

  “Well…do you still want to drive?” May asked. “I didn’t mean…I mean, if you still want to walk…I didn’t realize that’s why you said you didn’t want to drive. You don’t have to drive if you don’t want to.”

  “I still want to drive. I’m just curious. How exactly does this thing work?”

  She burst into the most glorious smile he had ever seen. “You better get in and I’ll explain on the way. I’m sure Silas could give you a much more detailed explanation, but I’ll do my best.”

  The door handle jumped open when Arryn touched it. He sat down on the leather seat. May clipped a strap around her shoulder and slotted a key into a hole next to the steering mechanism.

  Arryn watched her every move while she fired up the car and eased it out of the shed. She rolled down the driveway. Once they got onto the open road, she let out her breath. “All right. Well, the thing is, there’s a tank under the car that holds liquid fuel. It feeds the fuel into the engine, where an electric wire ignites a small drop of the fuel. The fuel explodes and drives a piston through a cylinder, and that turns a shaft that turns the wheels. That’s a very simple explanation, but that’s basically how it works.”

  Arryn scrutinized the controls. May turned the wheel, and dials registered the motor’s activity. He wanted to say ‘how quaint,’ but settled on, “Interesting,” instead.

  The NightShade exceeded this primitive technology a hundred years ago. How could everyone else be so far behind? Why didn’t they develop some more efficient form of transportation?

  The car trundled through the woods, and May turned onto another road. She drove around Bruins’ Peak without going anywhere near the main highway toward town. She cast one glance toward him and spotted him looking at her hands on the wheel. “I’m really sorry about before. I wouldn’t have suggested driving if I thought it would make you uncomfortable. I thought you would be more uncomfortable walking. I thought…”

  “You don’t have to apologize. I’m grateful for your kindness—both you and your brother. Ash told me you people were nice, and he was right. I’m glad I came to your house to ask directions. I hope I can repay your hospitality sometime.”

  “Don’t do that. We’re all happy to welcome you. We’ve been dying to meet your people ever since we heard about you from Azer.”

  Arryn looked out the window. “I don’t suppose I’ll get a chance, but if it’s possible, I want to visit the Mackenzies. I want to thank them on behalf of our family for Azer saving Hazel.”

  May’s head whipped around. She stared at him so long she almost drove off the road. “Hazel? Your…Is Hazel your…?”

  “She’s my little sister. We all thought she was dead. We’re all in awe of what Azer did, and very, very grateful.”

  May returned her attention to the road. “I didn’t know she was your sister.”

  “How could you know?”

  “Do you have any other family?”

  “Just my daddy and my sister June. That’s Ash’s new mate. That’s one of the messages I’m supposed to deliver to his family.”

  May gulped. “Ash is married?”

  “What about you?” Arryn asked. “Do you have any other family besides Silas?”

  “Oh, tons. I’ve got my dad and my ma. My oldest sister Claire lives with her husband’s tribe. There’s Shaw and Dana and their little girl. There’s my sister Briar. She’s mated to Riskin Dodd now.”

  “Ash told me about him.”

  “He did? What else did he tell you?”

  Arryn gave her a sidelong grin. “He told me about your brother, too. He told me Silas was a man I could trust, that if I needed any help, I should ask Silas.”

  “You can trust Silas. He’s a brick.”

  “Too bad about him and Shaw, though.”

  “Forget Shaw,” May snapped. “The NightShade must have a lot of Alpha challenges going on.”

  “Nope, none at all.”

  “What!? None?”

  Arryn shook his head. “We don’t have Alphas. We’re a collective. We have a centralized council of Elders who make all the decisions. Sometimes two men will get in a fight over a woman, but never over any decision-making. The Elders decide everything so the rest of us don’t have to.”

  “What happens if you disagree with something the Elders say or decide?”

  “You just have to go along with it. My daddy and I wanted to make war on the Midnight. After they took Hazel, we wanted to go in there guns blazing, but we didn’t. We waited until the Elders made their decision, and when they voted for peace, we went along with it.”

  May clucked her tongue. “That would never happen here.”

  Arryn laughed. “I know. Ash told me all about the conflict between the war faction and the peace faction. How’s that going so far?”

  “There are a few troublemakers,” she admitted, “but most everybody has settled down now.”

  “By troublemakers,” he murmured, “I assume you mean Rhys Dodd. Ash told me to watch out for hi
m.”

  “Well, he probably didn’t tell you about Shaw. He supports Rhys, so just be careful around him. Okay?”

  Arryn smiled at her. “Okay. Thanks for the warning.”

  42. Chapter 3

  May’s heart pattered sitting next to Arryn in the car. She kept tightening and loosening her fingers on the steering wheel. She summoned all her willpower to keep her eyes on the road. Whenever she looked at him, she wanted to keep looking and looking and never stop looking.

  She had to think of something to talk to him about before she lost control of herself. “So tell me about Renegade Ridge.”

  He shrugged and looked out the window. “There’s not a lot to tell. We live in houses like everybody else.”

  “But you don’t have cars.”

  “There are no roads on the Ridge. We would have nowhere to drive them.”

  “What about when you come to town to do your shopping?”

  His voice floated from far away. “We don’t come to town, and we don’t do our shopping. We stay on the Ridge. No one ever leaves it. We raise all our own food. We cut all our own fuel from the forest. We’re completely cut off from everyone and everything.”

  She didn’t know what to say. She never imagined she’d be sitting next to someone from a world like that.

  “Do you know I’m the first person ever to leave Renegade Ridge?” he went on. “I couldn’t do that without the Elders’ permission. If I wasn’t here to represent the NightShade, I would never have left. No one ever leaves.”

  “How awful!” she cried. “How can you stand it?”

  “It’s not so bad, really,” he breezed. “You sort of get used to it.”

  “Do you have electricity? Do you have phones and electric lights and all that?”

  He didn’t turn around from the window. He talked to something out there, beyond sight. “No. We don’t have electricity. We don’t have TV or computers or any of that.”

  “How do you cook? How do you do…everything?”

  “At my house, we cook on an open fire in the fireplace. We heat water there for washing and bathing. My friend has a cook stove in his house, though. That’s the most technology we have. We use lamps for light at night.”

  May’s heart thudded in her chest. Here was a relic out of the ancient past. No wonder he didn’t want to get in the car. “I’m so sorry to hear that. It must be a hard life.”

  “It’s a good life,” he replied. “At least, it would be if we didn’t have to worry about the Midnight. That’s the only really bad thing.”

  “How many families live like that up there? How do you raise your food? I suppose you have to cut all your wood with axes. You wouldn’t have chainsaws or lumber mills or anything.”

  He didn’t answer. Her cheeks burned, and her pulse pounded so hard against her throat she struggled to breathe. She never met anybody like him before, but he didn’t show the same interest in her. He looked out the window and didn’t answer her questions. Maybe his life embarrassed him compared to the affluence of Bruins’ Peak. This trip must be a real eye-opener for him.

  “Tell me more about Ash and your sister. How did they wind up together?”

  “Oh, it happened in the usual way, if you know what I mean. I caught them looking at each other—that way, you know. I didn’t want to believe it. He said he would leave in a little while to come back home, so it seemed hopeless. I didn’t want my sister marrying an outsider, but there was nothing anybody could do to stop it. I even tried to fight him, but Bruins are much bigger than NightShade. I didn’t stand a chance.”

  “So what convinced you in the end?”

  “He committed himself to the NightShade. He decided to stay on the Ridge so June could live near her family. That’s what convinced me. We’ve been friends ever since, and I couldn’t be happier to have him in our family. He’s a rock solid guy, is Ash Dunlap.”

  “Wow.” May sighed. “I wish I could find a mate like that. I wish I could fall in love with someone enough to do something like that.”

  Arryn’s head spun around. “You do?”

  May glanced over at him, and for one instant, their eyes locked. May’s heart skipped a beat at what she saw. His eyes sank their tentacles far down into the depths of his soul. His skin shone clear and warm and bright all around his eyes and mouth, and his wide nostrils flared when he looked at her. His eyes skated down to her lips and snapped back up to her eyes.

  A bump startled May out of her trance. She whipped around to see the grassy verge beyond the ditch running into the car’s front bumper. She yanked the wheel and hit the brake with all her might to stop the car before it nosed into the ditch.

  The car lurched to a stop. May braced both arms against the wheel. She gasped for breath, but when she saw no damage done, she bowed her head. “I’m really sorry, Arryn. I’m not usually this bad a driver. I…I guess I’m a little distracted.”

  “That’s okay.” He smiled at her and leaned across the seat. “Are you all right?”

  She let out a long sigh. “I’m fine. I guess we ought to get going. You want to get to Dunlap Homestead.”

  She put the car in gear when he touched her arm. “Thank you, May.”

  Her gaze gravitated back to his face. “For what?”

  His hypnotizing features hovered before her. His voice glided into her ears. It flowed over every obstacle in a smooth, unbroken tide. “For everything. I never got a chance to thank Silas for helping me. Maybe you could thank him for me.”

  “Of course, I will,” May panted. “I’ll tell him what you said. I’m sure he would help you any way he could. We both would.”

  His breath hit her face. She got a good lungful of his scent. He smelled of pine boughs and vanilla. She understood that scent. She understood the bear underneath his skin.

  His eyes skated around her face. “You’re very beautiful, May. I’ve never seen a woman with skin as white as yours.”

  “You’re very beautiful, too.” Somehow those words didn’t embarrass her. They sprang from her endless fascination with every detail of his being. “I’ve never met anyone like you.”

  He eased an inch closer. Their lips twitched just inches apart. “Will I see you again, May? Will we see each other after you take me to the Dunlaps’?”

  “We can see each other anytime you want to,” she replied. “There’s nothing stopping us. I’m sure the Dunlaps won’t mind. Anyway, I can introduce you to the Mackenzies. Lyric is a friend of mine, and her husband Mattox is a really nice guy. He’ll be happy to meet you.”

  His head dodged to one side. He wound his mouth closer to hers and instantly pulled back again. “Would you do that? I appreciate it. I need all the help I can get around here.”

  “Just let me know when you want to go over there. I’ll take you.”

  For some reason, neither of them said anything after that. They sat in the two front car seats and examined each other at close range. Saliva jetted under May’s tongue when she looked at his full dark lips. Mmm-mmm. His teeth flashed white beyond them and his tongue slithered wet and red behind his teeth. What would happen if she kissed him right now?

  She glanced up at his eyes. He looked down at her mouth, and his lips quivered. He glided his tongue one way and then the other to taste something. His shoulders swelled and fell with his breath, and his nostrils flared to pick up her scent. She fascinated him as much as he fascinated her.

  An invisible barrier crumbled between them. They both wanted to get closer, but they didn’t. Just sitting there by the roadside in Silas’s car answered all the questions May ever thought to ask. Arryn was interested in her. He was just as interested and attracted to her as she was to him. What would happen next?

  May blinked first. “You better get going.”

  “Yeah.”

  She put the car in gear and revved off the verge onto the road. The car purred around the corner, and she headed up the hill toward Dunlap territory. “I meant what I said before about introducing you to th
e Mackenzies. You call on me if you need any help at all.”

  His voice tickled her insides to delicious excitement. “Thank you, May.”

  She couldn’t look at him again. She had to drive. Just drive. Don’t do anything else.

  “I don’t know how much free time I’ll have, though,” he went on. “Ash wants me to talk to all the Alphas together in a big meeting. He wants me to negotiate an alliance between the Bruins and the NightShade.”

  “I don’t know about that,” May replied. “We don’t have a centralized decision-making power like you. It’s every man for themselves out here, and you’d have to get up pretty early in the morning to get the Alphas to agree on something like that. Half the Bruins want to wipe the Midnight out, and the NightShade want peace. The Alphas might turn against you when you tell them the news.”

  “Well, I can only try. It’s just an idea.”

  “It’s gonna take a major negotiation just to get the Alphas into the same room with each other, much less come to an agreement.”

  He grinned at her. “Then I guess I’m gonna be here for a while. That means I’ll definitely be seeing you again.”

  May braked in front of the Dunlaps’ house. Hot blood scorched her ears and neck. She couldn’t look at him when he smiled like that. She threw open her door. “Come on. We’ll get you settled in.”

  She knocked on the front door before he made it out of the car, and Harmony McGillis appeared in her bathrobe. Her long hair matted around her head, and a plump baby boy huddled in her arms. The boy whimpered and grizzled against her shoulder. “May! What are you doing here?”

  “Sorry to bother you, Harmony. I didn’t mean to come over unannounced. Silas called Aiken earlier and couldn’t get hold of him. This is Arryn Stark. He’s the visitor from the NightShade on Renegade Ridge. He says Ash spoke to Aiken about him coming to stay with you.”

  Harmony looked back and forth between Arryn and May. She hugged the little boy closer. “I’m sorry, May. I know I look pretty scary right now, and I’m sorry I can’t give you a better welcome, Arryn. I’ve been up all night for three days since Jace got sick, and Aiken is away. He never said anything to me about anybody coming to visit, but then again, he probably didn’t want to worry me with this going on.”