“Yes you will,” he said and it was a sure thing. Not sarcasm, not resentment. Just a fact. A fact that made her happy.
Chapter 3
“Have you thought about it?” Tara asked Bruce. They were alone on the plateau, and it felt like a small, cramped space. Not the wide open platform underneath the stars that it really was. There wasn’t space enough for the two of them with Tara’s roiling energy filling up the space and making it feel like there were a thousand other creatures crawling in the dark.
Bruce nodded. He sat next to Tara, and in human form she was small. Her thick black hair was pulled back from her face, revealing sharp, hard planes. Bruce wondered if it had to do with who she was, or if it was genetics.
“Well, that’s settled then. We’ll have to tell the Family.”
He took a deep breath and blew it out again, billowing his cheeks. Telling the Family the moment they’d decided it seemed rushed. Deciding to be together in the first place just seemed wrong. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, all politics and smooth moves. But Tara turned to him and her eyes were the color of the sky.
“It’s going to do us good,” she said. All of them. Tara had asked Bruce to stay behind after the last meeting. When it had just been the two of them, she’d stepped right up to him so that they were chest-on-chest, and her power had danced along his skin like a hot air.
“I like you,” she’d said. “I’ve watched you, and you have power. A lot of it.” Of course it wasn’t even close to hers, but it was second in the pack. The rest were below him when it came to power. “I think we should unite our powers."
He’d blinked at her. He understood what it was that she was saying, but the way she’d said it had sounded like a business proposal.
“You mean a relationship?” he’d asked, and she’d nodded matter-of-factly. It wasn’t that he didn’t think she was attractive. She was beautiful. But it was in a way a tigress was beautiful. Or a python. Beautiful but deadly. You rather admired it from a distance.
“I’ll have to think about it,” he’d said, and he’d done that.
He’d gone to ask Jenna about it. Because she was the only person he cared about in every way, and he wanted to know that she would be okay with it if he tried to love someone else.
She’d been distant. Stand-offish even. And it had hurt, but it had pushed him over the edge. If she didn’t care that he was with someone else, Tara was a good bet. She was strong. She was powerful. She would give him power, more than he already had. And the Family would be better equipped to defend themselves against the Assassins if they ever found them.
“Don’t you think we should get to know each other?” he asked. She laughed, and for the first time he paid attention to it. She didn’t laugh very often. Her stern face was the one he was accustomed to. But when she laughed her features lit up, and the person she would have been if she was human, if the wereleopard didn’t rule her so much, showed. Her laugh danced around him, prickling along his skin, and he was reminded of her power.
No matter how beautiful she was, he would always be reminded of her position. She kept smiling, and her eyes were bright and alive. Her teeth were pointed and it was scary, but she was feminine.
Her face changed, and she leaned forward, her face inching closer to his. He didn’t move. He didn’t know if it was because he was scared to, or because he wanted this. It was strange territory for him. He hadn’t had long term relationships. His experience with women was dismal. And Tara was his alpha.
When her lips touched him, energy washed through him and his own power rose, answering her call. The air around them seemed to come alive, vibrating across his skin and passing through to her body. He knew she could feel it too. It was intoxicating. It sucked him into a vortex of power and magic, and when she finally broke the kiss he was panting.
“Oh my god,” she breathed, and it was one of the few times she was caught off guard. It could have been romantic. It could have been special. But Tara put her business face on again, and the heat that built between them drained away until it was just the normal, suffocating energy that hung around them.
“I would like to come down to the village with you,” she said. Her voice was soft but her eyes were alert and watching his face intently.
“Why?” he asked. In all the years he’d been in the Family, none of them had ever cared about the village. As long as no one there knew about them, they didn’t matter.
“If we’re going to be together I think it would be good to see these humans you’ve grown so fond of. Besides, I haven’t been down to the village in years.”
He shook his head, but he didn’t protest. Tara narrowed her eyes at him, and he knew that somehow this was a mistake. Being with her as a woman might have been fine, but as an alpha, as an animal, Bruce wasn’t the dominant. And he realized just a little too late that it was something important. Something he should have been aware of.
“You look weary,” she said.
“I just don’t see how the humans are of any consequence,” Bruce said. “I have a routine there. They don’t ask questions. I’m not new anymore. I’m scared bringing in a foreigner is going to kick up the dust again and make me a point of focus.”
“And so? It will be good that the most attractive bachelor in town is finally taken.”
Bruce wasn’t sure, but it sounded like possession creeping through. And with a sense of possession always came jealousy. This was a fact that counted for animals too. Mates, food, it all fell under the same idea. He sighed and agreed. If he could do it right Tara and Jenna would never meet.
Friday. That was when Tara wanted to come to Williamsburg. Bruce told her he would say she was from Rhodestown. She was happy with it. He had one day to prepare the village for her arrival and he had no idea how to do it. He realized that they were his people. They’d become a part of him during the past couple of years, and he didn’t want her to meet them.
He didn’t want his human life and his preternatural life to mix. Williamsburg and its inhabitants had become like family in a way, and it was like bringing the snotty new girlfriend to a family gathering. The fact that he thought about Tara as the ‘snotty’ new girlfriend already said a lot.
And how was he going to prepare them? The only person Bruce could really warn beforehand was Jenna. She deserved that much. He couldn’t stop her from meeting Tara. He’d thought about it, and he knew that it would be impossible. The town was too small, news traveled fast and Jenna would never be the only person not to know what was going on.
He walked to her cabin just after dawn. The air still held hints of the night, and the air was crisp. He had goosebumps on his skin, and at the same time he was sweating. He’d never been nervous to talk to Jenna. Being with her was always easygoing. Comfortable. She was the one person he could be himself around.
Well, almost.
But having said that, he also had never introduced a new girlfriend to Jenna. And somehow that seemed wrong. He didn’t want to do it. He lifted his hand and hesitated to knock. If she answered he would have to talk. And he would have to tell her. And everything they’d had before was going to disappear, and they were going to go into a new chapter where Jenna was just another woman in town.
The door suddenly opened, and he stood there with his fist in the air. Jenna nearly bumped into him and made a small yelping sound.
“Sorry,” Bruce said. “I was just about to knock.”
“You have great timing,” she said and her eyes smiled. He loved her eyes, green and powerful. And soft. All at the same time.
“Or not,” he said. “You nearly ran me over, there.” She laughed and her laugh was wholesome. Real. He couldn’t help but compare it to Tara’s laugh, and notice how different it was.
“Right, you’re a block of a man. Do you want to come in?”
Bruce nodded and stepped through the door. The moment he did he regretted it. He’d been in the cabin a hundred times before, but now it seemed small. Tiny. Like he was just to
o big to fit into it. He struggled to breathe, and forced himself to suck in a deep breath.
“What is it?” Jenna asked.
“Well, I wanted to talk to you. You know I was here the other night, talking about the woman I met?”
Jenna nodded and looked down at her hands.
“About that,” she said. “I—“
“I’m not finished,” Bruce said, cutting her off. He couldn’t have interruptions, not now. He needed to get it out as quickly as he could so it would be over.
“Please, Bruce,” she said, but he shook his head. He was determined to carry on with his sentence. Jenna let out a groan of frustration, and took a step forward. The sudden closeness took Bruce’s breath away. Before he could think, before he could do anything, Jenna put her hand on both sides of his face and kissed him.
He froze for a moment. This was the last thing he expected. Her lips were hot on his, hot but gentle. He didn’t move, and finally she let go of him and broke the kiss.
“Sorry,” Jenna breathed and wiped her mouth. Bruce lifted his fingers to his lips where she had been a few seconds ago. “I just… I know it’s probably too late. I just wanted you to know.”
Bruce’s head spun. His body felt like a million small explosions danced on his skin.
“I’m sorry,” Jenna said again when he didn’t answer. He shook his head, finally dropped his head, and cleared his throat.
“I’m barging in on you because I wanted to tell you that she’s coming to Williamsburg tomorrow night,” Bruce said. He watched as Jenna’s face drained of color.
“Oh my god,” she said, raising her hand to her mouth.
“Yeah… I just wanted to show Tara what it was like where I lived. Thought it might be good for her to meet the people I see every day.” Bruce’s sentence tapered off toward the end. How was he supposed to explain this? It was all a lie.
Jenna’s eyes had changed to a dark, almost evergreen, and her cheeks were flaming. She reddened the longer he looked at her.
“I’m such an idiot,” she said, so soft it was almost just a breath. But he heard her, and he wanted to make it right. But how could he? He was taken now. And Jenna had told him too late.
“I have to get going. I’m going to be late for work,” he said. She nodded without saying anything, and he backed out of the door. She didn’t make eye-contact even though he wanted her to. Somehow this felt like goodbye. When she shut the door, he turned and walked away.
It wasn’t just that Jenna was too late. It had been five years. But even if she’d told him from the start, made a move to kiss him when he’d just arrived, he wouldn’t have been able to be with her. He would have treated her just the same as he’d been treating her until now. Because the fact was that he wasn’t just a man. Magic was a part of his life. Power and hierarchy and a battle that humans knew nothing about was a part of his daily life. He was a bear, and he couldn’t tell her. She would die for his secret, and she was too precious to him to risk telling her what he really was.
So he had to grin and bear tomorrow night, introducing Tara to the woman he’d held close to his heart for five years, and he was going to have to accept the fact that he would never be with her.
Tara came down from the mountain before sunset. She looked good. Bruce didn’t know where she’d gotten the clothes, but she looked modern. Modern and curvy and beautiful.
She wore dark blue jeans, a red top that made her ebony hair look almost black as night, and her blue eyes looked like ice. When she smiled it wasn’t a warm, friendly smile. It didn’t reach her eyes, and it reminded him who she was. A cold person, doing this for the sake of politics, not the warm woman she was pretending to be.
He received her at the foot of the mountain, and she walked to him and smiled. Her animalistic pointed teeth were gone, flat like any human’s. When she stepped closer to him he could fee her power, hot and heavy and he knew that her illusion of reality was just that – an illusion.
She stepped up to him, and hovered his lips just over his. Her power prickled on his skin. He waited for the connection, for her to push her lips down on his. But she didn’t. Instead he jerked her head back and her eyes changed. The color bled out of her eyes until they were so light they were almost white, and her pupils were pinpricks of black swimming in the middle. Her leopard eyes.
Bruce saw the animal slide behind those eyes, felt it crouch beneath her skin.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. He was suddenly weary. As a bear he was bigger and stronger than she was, physically, but her power was second to none.
“You’ve been with someone,” Tara said. Bruce started shaking his head, but caught himself. She would be able to smell a lie.
“I smell her on your skin,” Tara said again. “A human.”
Bruce fought the urge to roll his eyes.
“It was a misunderstanding,” he said. “Nothing happened and it’s sorted out.”
Tara narrowed her eyes at him, but she bought it. It was the truth, after all. She could smell it on him. She nodded slightly. When she turned so that they could make their way to the Inn, Bruce steeled himself for a night he would probably regret. It had already started.
The Inn was busy as always. The place was packed with Friday night regulars, and it was loud and inviting. The music was turned up and the chatter and laughter of people sharing lives they all already knew with each other was like a vibration in the air.
Bruce stepped inside first. He held Tara’s hand. This wasn’t a case of leadership, it was a case of protection. He was still acting as her second even though he was in front. If something waited for them he would take the first blow.
And he did it gladly. It was in his nature. Doing it the other way round to play the gentleman for a woman he disliked more than he was attracted to would have gone against his grain as a bear. As a human he might have sent her into the fray first.
Some of his friends looks up when he walked in and they cheered and lifted their beers. They’d been drinking since much earlier. On Friday’s they got off before sunset.
“Brucie!” Murphy called out in a sing-song voice. “About time you rolled on by, this beer right here had no idea what to do with itself.”
He held up a pint. But then Tara stepped through the door, and the place fell quiet. Everyone stared. The atmosphere was thicker than the smoke that hung in the air, and faces everywhere were turned to Tara. The only thing still going was that radio, and it felt like suddenly it was turned up so much louder.
“Well, this is just lovely,” Tara said and her voice was cheerful and bright. Different from the commanding voice she used when she was addressing the Family. Different from the demanding voice she’d been using on Bruce.
“This is Tara,” Bruce said, speaking into the silence. He felt her power push against him from behind. This had better work or there would be a hell to pay. He would have to leave his people if it meant they suspected something.
Somewhere in the back someone wolf-whistled. Tara giggled like Bruce had never heard before.
“Now boys, I came with someone,” she said and wrapped her hand around Bruce’s arm. When there was still no reply she put on an even thicker accent. “Can a girl from Rhodestown get a drink? Or does Williamsburg’s fellas really just live from the water from the mountain spring?” She pushed her hip out to the side and planted a hand on it.
“I’ve heard rumors, you know.”
Murphy pushed the pint of beer he’d held up to Bruce toward her.
“Can you hold your liquor?” he asked, looking her up and down. She did look small. She had a narrow frame and with her hair all blown out and pretty clothes she didn’t look half as wild as Bruce knew she could be.
“Oh, I can hold whatever you can give me,” she said and winked at Murphy. Somehow that broke the atmosphere. They laughed. Men nearby clapped Bruce on the back. Some women glared at her and her easy ways with men.
And then, at the very back, Bruce saw Jenna. Her eyes were on Tara, not
on him, and they were filled with envy. Not jealousy, envy. She wished she had what Tara had.
Bruce sighed. If Jenna only knew how beautiful her own honesty and purity of heart was.
Tara had walked over to the bar and grabbed that pint. She lifted it to her mouth like a seasoned drinker and took a sip. Bruce knew she could go all night. Were-creatures couldn’t get drunk. Their quick repair systems and natural immunity against human ills meant that alcohol just didn’t have an effect. She could sit her drinking all night. So could he.
He just didn’t know if he could stomach it.
Jenna walked up to him and he wanted her to rather stay put. He shook his head ever so slightly, hoping she would get the hint. If she saw it she thought nothing of it. Instead she stood right in front of Bruce.
“You haven’t introduced me to your lady friend,” she said loud enough to be heard over the music. Bruce opened his mouth to answer, but Tara was suddenly next to him, and both hands were free.
“This is her, isn’t it?” she said, and the laughter was out of her voice.
Jenna frowned slightly, a question in her eyes, and looked at her.
“I’m Jenna,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you. The women around town have been wondering for years who was finally going to tie this free spirit down.”
It was a sweet opening line. Maybe jealousy was in there, but it was generous. Bruce wanted to hug Jenna and thank her for being nice about it. But Tara stepped closer to Jenna, close enough that they were almost chest on chest. She was taller than Jenna, but not by much. But her air was intimidating, and Jenna swallowed. She didn’t step back.
She should have.
“Tara, honey,” Bruce said, but Tara shot him a look that surpassed humanity. It was an animalistic stare that would have gone accompanied with a snarl if they’d been alone. He snapped his mouth shut and waited.
Her eyes hadn’t changed their color yet, but he could see the animal slide behind him when she looked at him, and he was scared for Jenna.
“Listen here, country girl,” she sneered. Her voice was so low only Jenna and preternatural creatures were sharper hearing could keep up with the conversation. Bruce’s skin broke out in goose bumps. Tara’s voice crawled over his skin like tiny ants and he could smell Jenna’s fear in the air.
BAD BOY ROMANCE: DIESEL: Contemporary Bad Boy Biker MC Romance (Box Set) (New Adult Sports Romance Short Stories Boxset) Page 74