by T. S. Joyce
You’re texting right now.
She pressed the number eight, a bunch of dashes, and a capital D, then hit send.
The phone rang and she clutched it tighter as she accepted the call.
“You just texted me a picture of a dick,” he said. Was that amusement she heard in his voice?
“Yours is much bigger. I should’ve added at least four more dashes.”
“Jesus, woman. I have no idea how to respond to you most of the time. Look, I’m sorry about earlier,” he said. “This is hard for me.”
“What is the this we are talking about?” she asked. It wasn’t a test. She was really confused about which part was hard. Talking to her or remembering his past? Or maybe it was the aftermath of the battle he was struggling with.
“I want you. I know I’m no good for you right now, but later…I want to make you happy. Hearing your voice is important to me.”
A slow smile stretched her face. “Because you need me?”
The line was quiet and she closed her eyes and pursed her lips, hoping he wasn’t shutting down again.
“Because I need you,” he agreed.
Chapter Twelve
Three days passed with no call from Brooks. It was a slow hell she was spiraling into, overanalyzing their exchange. Maybe she’d made him mad, or maybe he just realized the effort was too much to make with her.
She’d left him three messages on his voicemail and last night, she had even sent him a text, but that had gone unanswered too. Most likely, he just wasn’t that interested. A man so hot and cold couldn’t be, right?
The diner had been busy today, and the last couple of regulars had stayed past closing time. It was dark outside, and the eyelash moon did nothing to alleviate the shadows in the empty parking lot. She always borrowed Chase’s jeep on the days she had a shift at the diner, and after she’d locked the restaurant doors, she jogged across the gravel lot toward the black off-road vehicle. It didn’t have any doors, so she threw her shoulder bag straight into the passenger’s seat.
The hairs rose on the back of her neck, and she turned but couldn’t see anyone there. The one street light on this side of the road was useless outside of fifteen yards. Frowning, she hopped behind the steering wheel and turned the key. The engine stuttered, and she twisted it again. This time it caught and roared to life.
“Thank you,” she muttered.
A meaty hand clamped down on her mouth and yanked her back before she could throw the jeep into reverse. Her scream was muffled behind the palm, and a man whispered in her ear, “You fucked the wrong Long Claw.”
His other hand slid into position on her throat and she thrashed wildly. He was going to break her neck! Biting down as hard as she could, she tasted blood as the man jerked and loosened his grip just enough for her to reach her scrabbling fingers toward the gear shift. Ripping it into drive, she gunned the gas, and the man bellowed in fury as he lost his hold on her. The jeep bumped and rocked as it hit the curb and flew into the grass, and Corin shrieked in terror as he lurched forward and gripped the open frame. Long sandy brown hair whipped in the wind and his eyes were an inhuman copper color.
With one hand on the wheel, she pummeled him with her other, over and over as he tried to hold on to the swerving jeep.
His fingers were slipping, and she jerked the wheel hard to the right. He roared as he went flying, and a grizzly ripped out of him before he even hit the ground.
“Oh, shit,” she whispered, jamming the gas.
Grizzlies were fast and he was gaining on her. As second gear caught and then third, she put distance between them. Fumbling for the phone, she hit Brooks speed dial icon and pressed the phone to her ear. “Pick up, pick up.” She so needed him to pick up this time.
“Corin?” he asked.
“Someone’s after me. A bear. A shifter. He just attacked me!”
“I can’t hear you very well. Someone attacked you?”
It wasn’t the sketchy connection that was the problem. Someone was screaming on Brooks’ end, and a faint roaring sound echoed through the background. “Corin?” he asked low. “What did the man look like?”
“Long hair. Grizzly.” She was gulping air as she stared at the disappearing bear in her rearview.
“Fuck. It’s Mace. Did you get away? Are you all right?” Something crashed in the background. “Corin.” His voice was somber and dark. “I can’t talk right now. Get away from Mace and go straight to Riker, you hear?”
“Yes, yes, I understand.”
“Can you get to Bear Valley?”
“Yes, I got away. I’m going to Riker now. Brooks! Why is he after me?”
Another tremendous crash sounded, and the roaring became louder.
“Because you’re mine,” he growled, then the line went dead.
Something was really wrong. Whatever Brooks had avoided talking to her about was bad and was now leaking into Bear Valley. That sounded like vicious fighting in the background, and the reasons for Brooks not calling her for three days began to frighten her.
“What’s happening?” she whispered as terror constricted her throat.
That man, Mace, was trying to kill her. Not torture her, or enlighten her of his evil plan like they did in the movies. He’d come to the diner to kill her swiftly. She had fucked the wrong Long Claw? What did that mean? She’d slept with the alpha of the Long Claws, and from what she understood about that clan of savages, the alpha could do whatever he wanted.
She took the corner onto the dirt road that led to Bear Valley going fifty and nearly took the jeep up on two wheels. Fear drove her as she imagined Mace the Grizzly appearing beside her open door to claw her face off if she slowed for even a mile.
As soon as she saw the no trespassing signs on the Bear Valley gates, she slammed on the brakes.
Nick and Brad, the night guards, came running.
“A bear…Long Claw…Brooks’ second came after me at the diner,” she rushed out. “He tried to kill me!”
Brad turned and started relaying her story into a hand held radio.
“We’ll call for back-up and see if Riker wants us to hunt him down,” Nick said as he scanned the road. “Go straight to the alpha’s house.”
Lurching forward on the gas, she took off again. Brooks had told her to go to Riker, and it hadn’t been just because he was her alpha and could protect her. He knew what was happening. She didn’t know how she knew, but every instinct screamed that Riker was privy to what had been going down with Brooks’ clan.
Screw the secrets. Someone was going to explain why she was nearly killed in the diner parking lot tonight.
It was a long drive into Bear Valley and Riker was waiting outside on his front porch when she pulled to a stop in the open field in front of his house.
As she slid from the driver’s side door, he said, “Brooks called. I’ve ordered Chase, Brody and Juan to track Mace down. We have permission to end him outside of Bear Valley property.
“Brooks called?” Two rival alphas were working together, and suddenly, something unsettling dawned on her. “How many times has Brooks called you?”
“I think we should talk. Come on inside.” He led her into the kitchen where Hannah was frying chicken. The pop of the grease and the fragrant smell of the breading filled the open space. The dark colors and natural wood countertops of the alpha’s house had always reminded Corin of a cave. Maybe that’s how Riker preferred his living space.
Riker gestured her to a seat at the table, then sat across from her when she was settled. “I have been talking to Brooks daily since the battle with the Long Claws.”
She’d been waiting for a call from him for days, and Brooks had been calling Bear Valley. He just hadn’t wanted to talk to her. “Is he in trouble?”
“Yes.”
Panic and fear and worry welled up in her, filling her until she was so sick and tired of everything. “Well, fuck, Riker, don’t sugar coat it!”
His eyes lightened and one side of his lip
pulled back in a snarl.
Hannah clucked her tongue once like a warning, and Riker canted his head. “What Brooks is trying to do hasn’t been done before in the history of the Long Claws. He’s trying to bring them under order, under bear shifter law. Not just the laws they choose to abide by when it suits them. He’s trying to right the wrongs they’ve done. With any change like the one he’s trying to enforce, there are those who don’t see anything wrong with their old ways. They enjoy the kill and have been trained to think they should fight and steal land until only Long Claws remain. And they were so close. For hundreds of years, every alpha in their clan has had one thing on his mind. Conquering the other clans. And they had us all whittled down to almost nothing when Brooks took over. Their war with us was supposed to be it. After hundreds of years, they would be all that’s left of our culture.”
“Is Brooks okay?”
“I don’t know. He’s been hurt, and still he’s fighting the ones who oppose him. It’s a daily battle.”
“Why does he call you?” she asked, hurt that he’d been leaning on someone this entire time, and it hadn’t been her.
“For advice. He’s trying to bring the Long Claws under a similar rule that I enforce here. He has no background in anything other than absolute power though, and he has questions. If he loses this fight, the shifters trying to overthrow him will come after Bear Valley. He is all that stands between us and another attack. This time it wouldn’t be organized war. It would be a massacre.”
Hannah turned off the heat on the stove, and leaned against the counter. She looked positively green and unsurprised as she crossed her arms over her chest, like the gesture would protect her from the truth of Riker’s words.
Corin dropped her face into her hands and rubbed her bleary eyes. What Brooks was trying to do was huge. It seemed impossible that he could bring about such change to his heartless people.
“This is your fault, you know?” Riker said.
When she looked up though, he didn’t seem mad. On the contrary, a small smile crooked the corner of his lips. “He wouldn’t be trying to force a permanent alliance with us if you hadn’t reached him.”
Corin stood and swallowed hard. “And if he dies for his cause, that will be my fault too.”
Chapter Thirteen
Corin had called Brooks twice more this morning to no answer, and at this point, she was sick with worry. She couldn’t eat, couldn’t stop wringing her hands and halfway through her work day in the fields, Juan had given up on her being any help at all and sent her home. Get some rest, he’d advised.
Yeah right, rest. She hadn’t been able to sleep since Riker told her Brooks was in danger. He’d made it sound like it was Brooks versus the entirety of the Long Claw Clan. She’d seen them on the battlefield. They were some scary bears.
She had to do something. Go to him and help him fight, talk them down, something. Riker seemed to admire him, so maybe he would sanction a small group to go with her to help if she begged. Yes! This was genius.
Emboldened with a plan, she pulled on her best sneakers and her good luck holey jeans and a red sweater. Red would definitely get Riker riled up. Wait, that was bulls. Whatever, red for war, because action was better than waiting for Brooks to lose, and then absorbing the Long Claw’s wrath afterward.
Chin high, she marched her brilliant little self straight toward Riker’s house with the intention of not taking no for an answer. She would simply annoy the shit out of him until he gave in.
In the open field near his house, Hannah waved. “I was on my way to come get you.”
“You were? Why?”
“Riker asked me to. More like told me to because he’s being a moody dick today.” She fell into step next to Corin. “He woke up in a foul mood, then told me I was being emotional, then I had to viciously fight the urge to pee on his cereal, and now he makes me his errand boy while everyone is inside for some big meeting.”
“Wait, big meeting about what?” Corin began to jog through the waving grass.
The lawn was littered with pickup trucks and SUV’s she didn’t recognize.
When she turned around to see why Hannah wasn’t answering, the alpha’s mate had a big goofy grin on her face. “I love love,” she murmured. Was she crying? Jesus, maybe Riker was right about her emotions. They were swinging left and right like a pendulum.
Taking the porch stairs two at a time, Corin threw open the door. The living room was full of strangers. She didn’t understand. A tall, elderly woman nodded her head and moved gracefully to the side.
Brooks stood with his hands behind his back, talking quietly to Riker across the room. His dark eyes were somber and the set of his lips grim. He stood rigid and tall, looking the warrior even now among the soft hum of easy conversation. He was the most beautiful sight she’d ever laid eyes upon.
His gaze slid to hers, and she weaved through the crowd, faster and faster until he opened his arms and caught her. Words weren’t important right now, only touch—only being in his arms and feeling the solid thump of his beating heart against her chest.
He was all right, and here with her, and all of the horrible things she’d imagined were happening to him dissipated into a fog of relief.
“Mine,” she whispered against his neck, and he squeezed her until her tender back screamed from the treatment. She didn’t care though. She wanted to feel him.
Her eyes burned with tears and she buried her face against his neck, burrowing into him as he lifted her feet off the ground.
“What are you doing here?” she asked as he set her down.
Easing back, he wiped a pair of tears away from her cheeks and shook his head like a part of him had thought he would never see her again. His dark eyebrows were knitted as if he were in pain. “Corin, I want you to meet my council.” Turning her, he placed his hands on her shoulders and pulled her back against his chest.
Six Long Claws intermingled with Chase, Juan, Brody and Cameron.
“Nice to meet you,” she breathed, wholly intimidated by the sheer size of the strangers. They were probably all grizzly bears.
One by one they approached and offered their names, then shook her hand. When the last, the woman who had smiled at her, introduced herself as Bethany Miller, Corin said, “I thought the Long Claw alphas didn’t have councils.”
The woman nodded. “Brooks is trying to bring about a more promising future for our clan.”
“But on the phone, I heard fighting.”
Bethany smiled sadly at Brooks over her shoulder. “The fighting ended yesterday. Your clan took out the last of the resistance early this morning.”
“Mace?” Corin’s voice came out a squeak. Last she’d heard, Chase and the others had gone after him, but she had spent most of the night imagining Brooks’ second sneaking into her window and snapping her neck in her sleep. She shouldn’t be, but she was glad the boys found him, and even gladder he was dead.
“We’re here to sign a permanent alliance with Bear Valley,” Brooks whispered against her ear.
Her stomach danced and pooled with warmth that spread to her limbs at his nearness. He gripped her shoulders as her knees grew weak, like he had known she would go down like a felled log without his support.
Turning her head, she whispered, “How long are you here for?”
His eyes darkened and he glanced up. “Riker, will you excuse me? Now that the papers are signed, I have something I need to take care of.”
A slow, knowing smile spread across Riker’s chiseled jaw. “We’ll show your new council to their sleeping quarters. If you find yourself so disposed, I’d like to invite you for dinner here at six. Corin, you’re invited to join us as well.”
An invite to a fancy alpha party with all of the big shifters of Bear Valley and the Long Claws? Hell yes, she was coming.
Hannah stood with her hands clasped in front of her mouth like she was hiding a balmy grin as Brooks steered Corin out the front door.
His hand brushed the s
mall of her back and she repressed a shudder under his seductive touch.
“I was worried about you,” she admitted. “I was on my way up here to ask Riker if there was anything I could do to help you.” Sliding her hands around his waist, she snuggled against his side, but he winced.
“How far away is your place?” he asked, sounding distracted.
“Half a mile. Are you okay? You smell like blood.”
“Fine. I just need to sit down for a little while.”
He walked with perfect posture, and not so much as a limp, but a muscle twitched in his jaw, and he was clenching his teeth.
Baffled, she waved at Shane as he passed on his way home after working at the barns.
Brooks didn’t look hurt at all, but he smelled off. She had scented it when she’d hugged him in Riker’s house. No amount of cologne could cover the smell of blood. Not when it was this thick.
Easing away from him so she wouldn’t hurt him more, she slipped her hand in his like when they were children and asked, “Will you talk to me now?”
He cast her a dark warning glance and grabbed a black duffle bag out of the front seat of a black SUV, then slung it over his shoulder.
“Brooks, please let me in. Tell me what has been going on so I don’t have to fabricate all of these horrible things in my mind. My imaginings are always worse than the truth.”
He ran a quick hand over the designer scruff on his jaw. “Take me to your place and I’ll talk on the way.” His look was so far away as he walked beside her, and he seemed to struggle to find words. Finally, he said, “The day I stopped the battle, it wasn’t easy. I saw you—your bear—and I remembered you. Not everything, just enough that the past and present clashed and made me feel unsteady. It was hard to stay in the moment when I looked at you. A cream colored black bear.” He huffed a quiet laugh. “How could I not remember you?”
“I was fighting confused, blinded by worry for you, and I saw Riker through the masses, fighting for his life, for his people. He had been right to try and stop the war. I was wrong. I changed into my human skin, and yelled for my people to stop, but they couldn’t hear me. Or maybe they couldn’t understand me in the throes of bloodlust, I don’t know. Every time a bear got too close, I changed back and fought, and when I had a moment again, I tried to stop it. I kept yelling for Riker to stop his people, every chance I got to turn human, and he seemed to understand. We changed back and forth, man and beast, trying to survive the thick of it long enough to stop the slaughter. Eventually others tried to help, and just when we were making progress, I saw you streak toward the woods after Merit. I couldn’t get to you fast enough. My people still needed me and there were so many still fighting, and I couldn’t get through them.”