by T. S. Joyce
“Wait. Go, like, traipse through unfamiliar woods, and find the Long Claws? Somehow live through all of them as I search for Brooks, and then sit down and have a chat about how he’s being a murderous dick-face and to stop this war.” Maybe Hannah’s pregnancy hormones were making her bat-guano crazy.
Hannah’s eyebrows winged up like Corin had guessed exactly right. “I’ll go with you.”
“The answer to that is hell no. Neither one of us is going on a suicide mission before the battle even begins. No.”
Hannah’s eyes went wide like an orphaned kitten, and Corin crossed her arms.
“Nope, not going to happen. We’re not putting you or your baby at risk. If we did survive it, Riker would kill me upon return for putting you in danger. And then Chase the Grumpy Sasquatch would use my bones to pick his teeth. No.”
“Okay, so you’ll go alone.”
Corin narrowed her eyes. She was being out-negotiated by a human. Part of her wanted to stomp her foot like a petulant child, and part of her wanted to congratulate Hannah on her cleverness.
As if she spied her weakness, Hannah continued in a rush. “You could stop an entire war, Corin. Think about it. One hour of fear—”
“Terror,” Corin corrected.
“Of terror, then all of your friends could live happily ever after and everyone would write ballads about your bravery, and we’d all sing them around a campfire during the harvest moon—”
“Stop it.”
“I could pay you in hugs and gratitude,” Hannah pleaded. “I’ll name my child after you.”
“And if it’s a boy?”
“Corn?”
“Hannah, you aren’t naming your kid Corn. That’s not at all flattering, and it circles us back around to Riker killing me.”
Hannah clasped her hands in front of her, like she was about to drop on her knees and beg.
Geez, she was good. “Okay. Just…stop talking. I’ll do it.”
“You will?”
“Why not? I’m going to die tomorrow anyway,” she grumbled. “What’s a few hours early in the grand scheme of things? Oof,” she wheezed as Hannah hugged her. “Okay, now please go back to your mate and get some sleep. I’ll come find you when I get back.” If I survive.
“I’ll distract Cameron. He’s on sentry duty.”
“Great.”
Thank God Corin had slept in her clothes, battle-ready like Riker had ordered because his tenacious mate was already dragging her arm in the direction of the meadow and chattering happily on about the probability of Corin getting into werebear heaven.
“See you in an hour,” Hannah whisper-screamed as Corin sidled around a giant booby-trap of brambles.
Unless Hannah conjured the ability to talk to corpses, she definitely wasn’t going to see her in an hour.
This was so stupid. Of all the idiotic things she’d done, and there had been many, this had to rank up there with the worst of her plans. She stuck a fork in a socket when she was younger, just because her parents told her not to, and this was even dumber.
She’d seen Brooks across the meadow, back when she still thought Daniel was a ghoul waiting to greet her soul on the other side when she keeled over tomorrow, so the Long Claws camp must be somewhere behind it.
At the edge of the clearing, she almost convinced herself to walk all the way around it. The moon was full and heavy above her, and it lit up the wild flowers and waving grass that would tickle her hips if she trekked through it. It was beautiful, magical even.
Brooks should’ve chosen an uglier place for this battle. Perhaps it was just in his nature to destroy beautiful things. He really was a Long Claw.
It would add an extra half an hour at least if she skirted the field, so she clenched her hands and stepped into the tall grass. Treading carefully, she maneuvered a straight line across. When she reached the center, the wind picked up, lifting her hair. She froze as it sounded like someone was whispering right behind her, but when she turned, no one was there. Chills ran in waves across her skin and her instincts told her not to turn away from the sound. But she had to if she was going to escape the meadow.
Spinning, she ran as fast as her legs could carry her and with every frantic step, the whispering intensified. The wind felt like fingers against the back of her neck and she swallowed a scream as fear pounded through her. When she reached the edge of the meadow, the wind died down and the voices stopped.
Panting, she searched the field with wide eyes. What had just happened?
Spirits didn’t rest well in these woods, but why? Was it her presence that angered them? Or was it something more?
Thoroughly frightened, she sniffed the air and identified the scent of campfire smoke, fur, leftover food, and the faintest smell of Brooks or Daniel, or whoever the hell he was. He must have come through here when he came back from Bear Valley’s camp. Following it, she found the first smattering of tents, interspersed through the quiet forest. She jumped when she saw a sentry leaned up against a tree, but relaxed when she realized he was snoring softly. Winding through the slumbering camp, careful not to step on any limbs, she tried to follow Brooks’ scent, but it became too muffled with all of the other shifters’ smells.
A murmured sound, like someone talking low, drew her attention, and she angled her direction toward a large tent with a light on inside.
From the shadows, a man and a woman were getting it on. Wait. No, they were fighting.
“Merit, I said no. It isn’t going to happen with me, so get the fuck out of my tent.” That was Brooks’ voice.
Corin jogged to the tent, low to the ground, and crouched beside it. Merit was in there, trying to seduce Brooks, and something ugly and green reared up inside of Corin. She wanted to kill Merit. She wanted to kill everything.
The shadows only made her seethe with deepening anger as Merit straddled Brooks. “Come on, baby. It’s the night before battle and I know how you dominant males are. You need release. Can’t you smell me? I’m coming into heat and you can have me. All of me.” She pulled her shirt over her shoulders and tossed it against the tent wall right near Corin’s face. Skank.
Merit shrugged her shoulders and slid more firmly over Brooks’ hips. “I want you to come inside of me,” she purred, leaning down to kiss him.
He angled his face away and lifted his hands like he didn’t want to touch her. “I said no. I watched you fuck Omar in front of everyone at the alpha challenge. You’re an alpha chaser, but I’m not your ticket. Go find someone else.”
A tiny furious sound wrenched from Merit’s throat. “I can’t find another alpha. The Long Claws killed them all.” Pushing him hard in the chest, she stood and stormed out of the tent.
Brooks grabbed Merit’s discarded shirt, and his knuckles came so close, Corin could’ve reached out and touched them through the thin nylon fabric of the shelter.
“Merit,” he called.
The woman turned, all raven hair and red lips as a faint glean of hope shone in her eyes. “Yes?”
“You forgot your shirt.” He tossed it to her and she gave off an angry screech before she stomped off.
Corin pursed her lips so she wouldn’t laugh out loud. Merit had always been a spoiled brat.
Brooks crossed his arms over his chest and watched the dark-headed seductress leave. The blue moonlight spilled over the tense muscles in his arms and stomach. Praise the Lord, the man slept without a shirt on. Shadows hid indentions and valleys down his flexed torso and warmth collected deep inside of her, spreading until she felt drunk with it.
His nostrils flared and he asked, “What are you doing here?”
His cold, ebony gaze slid to her and she froze, like doing so would make her invisible.
Dark eyebrows winged up as he waited for an answer. He could definitely see her.
“I was in the neighborhood?”
The muscle under his eye twitched once. “Wrong answer.”
Chapter Seven
Brooks yanked Corin by the hand a
nd shoved her into his tent. With a quick look around, he ducked inside and zipped the flap behind him. His was a tent mansion, and Corin could stand to her full five foot five inches inside. A flap that would’ve separated the main room from the bedroom was drawn back and tied to the wall, making the space feel even bigger.
A lantern sat on a small table, but Brooks doused it and cast the entire shelter into darkness.
Unable to see, Corin lifted her hands and her fingertips brushed the hard, smooth plane of his torso. With a small, audible gasp, she froze, unable to move, unable to take her hand away from him.
He didn’t move either and they stood like that as seconds drifted by, connected only by the palm of her hand. His warmth pulsed against her and seemed to seep into her arm until the chill of the night was forgotten.
As her eyes adjusted, she could make out the outline of his face, but not his expression. Probably best, since his words came out growly and inhuman. “Get your hand off me.”
What she wanted to do was rush forward and hug him until he pried her off like a barnacle, but then she’d be no better than Merit. If didn’t want her touch, he didn’t deserve it. She dropped her hand and a poignant pain slashed through her chest at the loss of the connection. He might not be the boy she’d known, but her heart still yearned for some kind of softness from him.
His eyes shone bright and silver in the dark and she repressed a shudder. Backing away slowly, she tripped on the air mattress and fell onto the rumpled comforter that smelled like Brooks.
He crouched where he stood, apparently unwilling to come any closer. “Do I scare you?” A smile laced the words, like he reveled in her fear.
He’d be able to hear a lie. “Sometimes.” Even to herself, her voice sounded frightened.
“Why are you here?”
“I want to know you really aren’t him before I die tomorrow.”
“You’ve already accepted your death?”
She lifted her chin and tried to steady her trembling breath. “Yes.”
Brooks canted his head, glowing eyes slanting as if he were trying to figure her out. “Good. There will be less fear at the end then.”
“Not true. I’m still scared. I don’t want to die. I haven’t even lived yet. I haven’t found a mate or had a cub. I just found friends, but now they’ll be taken from me.”
“Who are you?”
Tears stung the backs of her eyes and she blinked them away. She couldn’t be weak in front of him. A soulless man like him would shred her at the first sign that she wasn’t strong. “I’m Corin Dunbar, Bear Valley shifter and one of the last of the Kodiak Clan.”
A sharp inhalation of breath broke the silence that stretched between them and he shifted his eerie gaze to the dark lantern. “The Kodiaks are all dead. We killed them.”
“No, the Long Claws killed them. You are Kodiak.”
“Stop it,” he growled low.
“Your name is Daniel Butler and your parents were June and Wade Butler. Your mom used to make cherry pies and cool them on the windowsill, and we’d steal them and eat them in the woods. We grew up together, our families were friends, and so were we. And in our eleventh year, we became more. You kissed me the day the Long Claws came and burned our houses and killed our families.”
“Stop it, Corin.” He was shaking and she could see the whites of his teeth contrasting against the dark as he gritted them.
“You’re an ancient bear, and so was your mother, June. You didn’t understand teasing, but I didn’t mind. I understood you. You held my hand and ignored the other girls, and when you were fourteen, you went in front of the Kodiak council and asked them to approve a pairing with me. We were promised. As good as mated.”
“Stop it now!” he barked out, but she was too far in.
“You were it for me, Daniel. I’ve never been with a man because no one compared to you. I love you. I always have.”
He grabbed her arm so fast, she closed her eyes against his fury. He would kill her now and she’d let him because she couldn’t lift a hand against the man she loved. He had changed and darkened, and still her heart had hope that the boy she knew was in there somewhere.
“You’re hurting me,” she whispered as a tear slid to her cheek. His hands were steel upon the fragile skin of her upper arm and still, he squeezed tighter.
“Good. I’m not this Daniel asshole you think I am. I’ve never heard of this story in my life, and I don’t have time or patience to deal with your insane assumptions. The treaty is through, it’s past midnight, and I have every right to kill you where you sit.”
His hand gripped her tighter and she swallowed a whimper at the pain.
“Do it then. Kill me. You’ve sentenced me to death tomorrow anyway with your stupid vengeance over your horried alpha. A man who hurt women, and belittled them. Are you like him then? You’ll take a harem of mates and make them each feel worthless and unloved? That’s what Nathan did. Anya and Joanna are my friends, and they’ll always be scarred because of his poisonous treatment. How many people do you think Nathan killed? Hmm? How many innocent families did he kill as they slept in their beds? And the alpha before him? And before him? And for what? What glory have they gained, Brooks? They all went mad and burned anyone who got too close to them on their way to hell. And now you’re alpha. Congratu-fuckin-lations. You’re king of the murderers now. So fucking kill me, king. Kill an innocent woman who did nothing but mistake you for a better person, and be just like the others.”
Searing rage blazed in his silvery eyes, and they churned like storm clouds. She flinched away from the blow that was coming, but he yanked her against him and his lips crashed onto hers like a cannon blast instead.
His hands gripped her hair painfully and everything hurt. She felt too much as she melted against him. His skin was like lava against hers, scorching her, and her lips were swollen and throbbing as he moved against her.
It wasn’t the gentle kiss of Daniel, the boy who had loved her.
This was the desperate kiss of a man losing the battle for his soul. The kiss of a stranger who was stronger than he realized and more loved than he would ever know.
Angry that he’d blotted out the sweetness of Daniel’s remembered affection, she threw her arms around his neck and pressed against him until there was no end or beginning. She bit his lip as punishment, but his growl only deepened her desire. Opening her mouth, she allowed him to taste her.
His tongue stroked against hers, and he released her hair and gripped her waist. It was dizzying to be sitting in a position one second, and a different the next. Suddenly, she was straddling his lap, and even through his cotton pants, his erection pressed against her, hot and hard. Pulling her against him, he rocked and she moaned at the feel of him between her thighs. So close, but not nearly enough.
His skin was fevered under her touch and she explored every taut curve of his sculpted chest. He hissed as her fingers brushed the top of his pants, and he threw her onto the air mattress beneath him. Pulling her hands above her head, he held them there until she was completely at his mercy. His jaw worked as he plunged his tongue against hers, and she arched her back to get closer to him. Lowering himself onto her, aligning their hips, he met her the next time she swayed against him.
He tightened his grip on her wrists, but she didn’t care. She was too far gone now. If she couldn’t have Daniel’s warm love, she’d take Brooks’ cold bed as a consolation prize. Her time had run out, and if she was going to experience the adoration of a man, it had to be now.
Releasing her hands, Brooks unbuttoned her jeans with practiced fingers and slid them down to her knees. Pulling his pants beneath his hips, he pressed the head of his cock against the wetness his touch had conjured between her legs.
“No,” she murmured against his lips. “I want more.” More than just a quickie fuck in the tent of her enemy. More than pants-still-on-one-minute-anger-bang where she couldn’t feel all of his skin against hers.
He drew back and smoot
hed the hair out of her face with rhythmic, gentle strokes as he stared at her, his silvered gaze half vulnerable and half dazed with lust. He was beautiful like this, uncertain and open. “You said you haven’t been with another man. It’s your first time?”
“Yes. I want you to be gentle. Touch me. You don’t care about me, I know. Just…” She inhaled deeply and rested her hands on his heaving chest. “Pretend.”
He pulled away from her fingertips and angled his head like he wanted to look away but couldn’t. “I can’t do this. Gentle…that’s not me. This is your first time and you shouldn’t be fucked, Corin. You should be with someone who feels something for you.”
His admission that she meant nothing was like the lash of a whip against her insides. She clenched her jaw so her lips wouldn’t tremble. “You took that away from me when you decided to follow through with this war, Brooks. If I’m not with a man now, I’ll never have the chance. I die at dawn.”
“Maybe you won’t.” His voice had a tinge of desperation.
“So you’ll allow some of Bear Valley to live? Your people will allow that?”
“No.” He slid off of her and gave her his back as he ran his hands through his dark hair. “I’ve never been with a virgin and for a reason, Corin. I’m not starting with you.”
“Because you have to be gentle?” She didn’t understand.
He stood and strode for the door of the tent.
“Coward,” she accused. Standing, she kicked out of her jeans and threw them at his back.
Turning slowly, his eyes were narrowed to dangerous looking silver slits. “Don’t call me that.”
“What, you’re afraid you’ll feel too much?” She hated him. She loved him. “Afraid if you allow yourself to touch me like you really want, you’ll be weaker for it?” She needed him. “Hurt me then.” Lifting her chin bravely, she pulled her shirt over her head. “I have no time left, and I want to be with you. If you have to hurt me to do it…”
Dropping her chin, her boldness washed right out of her. She didn’t really want him to hurt her. That sounded awful and degrading, and if he was monster enough to only have sex rough, then maybe she didn’t want this before she died. Maybe she’d be better off never knowing what she was missing.