by Stella Night
He strained his ears, desperately trying to hear the sound of Aurora’s voice over the chaotic din of battle raging around him. He managed to hear something faintly. Almost a whisper compared to the madness of the fight.
Bishop was taking her out of the valley. Dylan couldn’t let that happen. If he managed to get out of the narrow valley, it would be much harder to track them down before something terrible happened to Aurora.
Dylan spotted his brother in bear form, thrashing a bigger, more powerful bear. People always misjudged Xander on his size, but the man knew how to fight. Dylan shifted back into human form and got his attention.
“I’m going after Aurora,” Dylan shouted.
Xander nodded, then ducked back from a wild swing of his opponent’s massive paw. Xander seemed to smile. Even in bear form his personality shone through. Then he gutted his attacker with a smooth, almost lazy counterattack.
Dylan shifted back into beast mode and charged off in the direction of the woman he loved. If anything happened to her, he could never forgive himself. He could only hope that he wasn’t too late to save her.
Chapter 14
Rory was being dragged along through the dense forest. She’d gotten separated from Dylan during the fighting, and something hard had knocked her down. Her head collided hard with a rock on the forest floor.
When she looked up, dazed and woozy, she’d seen Bishop towering over her. Then he’d grabbed her and spirited her away. She was too weak to fight back. Too weak to shift. Her head was starting to heal, but it was going slowly. Bishop must have given her a concussion if it was taking her this long to recover.
“You’re not going to get away with this,” Rory said.
“I already have. Your boyfriend won’t be able to save you.”
Rory laughed, showing humor she didn’t entirely feel. “Then you really are a fool if you think that. You think your friends can really stop a man like Dylan?”
“They don’t have to stop him. They just had to buy me enough time to grab you, which I did. Whatever happens to them now is none of my concern.”
“You really are a monster. And why are you doing this? Is this really all about ruling the Stone Bear Clan?”
“That’s a part of it, yes.”
Rory’s lips curled up in disgust. “So that’s why my father had to die? Some stupid power struggle? Because you’re too much of a pussy to face my father directly?”
Bishop stopped moving and shook her so hard her teeth rattled in her skull. “You’d be wise to watch your tongue before I cut it out of your head. I only need you to be my mate. Whether you can talk or not is of little concern to me.”
“What the hell is wrong with you? Ruling the clan isn’t worth killing for.”
“You have no idea what’s going on. This is bigger than just the clan. This is personal, too.”
“Oh yeah? How?” Rory asked.
While she was curious to find out what was going on with Bishop, Rory’s questions served a different purpose. Anything she could do to slow him down meant she was one step closer to getting rescued.
Bishop didn’t seem to catch on to Rory’s plan. Bishop already thought he won, and she hoped his arrogance would be his undoing.
Bishop looked down at her, with his amber colored eyes. Those eyes burned with years of suppressed anger and resentment. Rory thought she was looking into the eyes of a madman. And that’s exactly what he was. He had already killed her father, and he had tried to take her as his mate by force.
Rory had no idea how many men had just died in the battle behind them in Bishop’s name. Bishop didn’t even care. The only thing that seemed to matter was his goal of taking over the clan. He was a psychopath, and she could only hope to keep him talking long enough to thwart whatever foul plans he had in store for her.
“You really don’t know?” Bishop asked, wonder in his voice. “You don’t know how much I’ve loved you, all these years?”
“I knew you had a crush on me, but that’s it.”
“It was more than a crush, Rory. I’ve loved you ever since we were children. We used to spend all our time together. Even back then, I knew we were fated to be together forever. You would be my mate and I would be yours.”
“We were friends when we were little kids. But that’s all we were.”
“We would’ve been more than that, but everything changed when Dylan showed up one summer. He ruined everything.”
“Dylan has nothing to do with this. I never loved you.”
“Deny it all you want. But I saw the way you looked at Dylan the first time he showed up. All wide-eyed like a lovesick schoolgirl. You used to look at me that way. The day he showed up, you never looked at me like that again.”
“I never looked at you that way. You’re crazy.”
“I may be crazy, but it’s because I’m crazy in love with you.”
“Whatever you think you feel, it’s not love. Infatuation maybe. Jealousy. Some sense of entitlement. But it’s definitely not love. Can’t you see that?”
“All I see in front of me is the woman I’m fated to be with forever. No matter what obstacles stood in my way, I never let anything stop me. When I asked your father for your hand in marriage, he said no. So I took him out. And I knew you would never agree to be with me on your own, so I framed you for his murder so you would be forced to rely on me to clear your name. And then of course, there was Dylan. But I got him out of the way, too.”
“He’s not out of the way. He’s still alive and he will come for me. It’s just a matter of time.”
Bishop chuckled cruelly. “Clueless Rory. You still have no idea. I’m not talking about right now. I’m talking about when Dylan went off to the military.”
Rory’s flesh went cold. “What the hell are you talking about? What did you do?”
Now Bishop laughed openly and mockingly. “It was so easy to play Hunter against Dylan. I sent your brother a letter, telling him about you and Dylan.”
“So that’s how he knew about us?” Rory asked. “But still, that wasn’t you doing anything clever. Hunter was the one who got upset about Dylan and me dating.”
“Oh, he was upset alright. Especially when I told him how Dylan was fucking a bunch of other girls while he pretended to love you.”
Rory shook her head in disbelief. She couldn’t believe that Bishop had been meddling in her life for so long, and she’d had no idea. Now all the pieces were falling into place.
She never understood why Hunter would have a problem with her being with Dylan. They’d been the best friends. They trusted each other with their lives. There was no reason Hunter couldn’t trust Dylan with the life of his sister. Now it all made sense.
Her brother had been fed a lie by someone the family had trusted. Of course he was pissed off at Dylan. Of course he told Dylan to stay away from her.
A strange mixture of emotions flooded through her. On the one hand, she was happy to know that her brother didn’t disapprove of her and Dylan on principle. He only disapproved because of a lie. At the same time, it saddened Rory to know that her brother had died believing a horrible lie about his best friend.
There was no way to take back the things Bishop had done to her family. The man had been working against them for so long, and the worst part was that he’d been successful.
“You disgust me,” Rory said, and spit in Bishop’s face.
She had a moment of satisfaction when she watched his arrogant grin slide from his face. The moment was short-lived. He slapped her across the cheek, rocking her head to the side. The woozy feeling came back and she almost fell to her knees.
“You will never speak to me that way again. I killed your father. I tricked your brother. And now you are mine, with no one in the world to stop me anymore.”
Something blurred in the corner of Rory’s vision. A dark shape slammed into Bishop’s body and he tumbled to the ground.
The air shimmered in front of her. The massive brown bear that had knocked Bishop
over materialized into Dylan. It felt like something out of a dream.
Dylan knelt down in front of Rory and gripped her shoulder.
“Dylan,” she said, her voice shaking. “Thank God.”
“Are you okay?”
“No. I don’t know if I’ll ever be okay again.”
Dylan’s eyes narrowed with concern. “What happened? What did he do to you?”
Rory shook her head, fighting to control the emotions choking her. Tears rolled down her cheeks and a sob tore at her throat.
“He did everything. It was all Bishop this whole time. Not just my father, but what happened between you and Hunter, too.”
“I don’t understand. How could he be involved with that?”
“I’ll explain later,” she said. “Just get that son of a bitch. He needs to pay for what he did.”
***
Dylan didn’t completely understand what Aurora was getting at, but he trusted her. The events of the last hour had changed his perspective on her. The threat of losing her again brought everything into focus.
Dylan would never let a petty squabble get in between them again. He loved her, truly and deeply, and part of being in love with somebody was believing in them. So when she said that Bishop had something to do with Dylan’s fight with Hunter, he believed her.
And if that was true, Bishop had a hell of a lot to atone for. He hadn’t just killed Aurora and Hunter’s father, a man Dylan loved like a second father. But Bishop had also had a hand in Hunter’s death. Dylan still believed that argument had contributed to Hunter falling in battle. He had blamed himself, but now, Bishop was to blame.
And on top of all that, Bishop had stolen the last four years of Dylan and Rory’s life. They could have been together. They could have already pledged themselves as mates. They might have even had children already.
A violent rage throbbed inside of Dylan like the beating of an evil heart. Things could have been so different these last four years. Dylan wouldn’t have had to suffer the way he had suffered.
Now it was Bishop’s turn to suffer.
Bishop was just getting to his feet, still recovering from the vicious tackle that had dropped him to the ground. Dylan stalked over to him with murder in his heart.
“Bishop, you’re a lying, murderous traitor to your clan. Her family trusted you, and you betrayed them. Now you’re going to die.”
“I did what I had to do,” Bishop said. “We can’t all be the big hero like you, Dylan. Things always came easy to you. I had to fight for everything I got.”
“You never fought for shit. You just waited like a snake in the grass, waiting to strike when no one expected it. There’s no honor in that. You’re a coward and a poor excuse for a man.”
“Don’t stand there and lecture me. I know what you did when you went off to war. I know you’re a killer.”
“Yes, I’ve killed people. I was doing what I had to do to survive. I did it to protect all of shifter kind. My sacrifice kept all of us safe. Even people like you.”
“Tell yourself whatever you need to. Whatever helps you sleep at night. But we both know the truth. If I’m a bad man, you’re worse. You really think Rory will be better off with you than she would be with me? We’ve both got blood on our hands.”
“You and I are not the same. You killed because you wanted to. I only killed because I had to.”
“I don’t believe you. I think you like the killing. And I’ll prove it.”
“How?”
Bishop spread his arms wide, opening his body up in a vulnerable position. “With me. You want to kill me right now, don’t you?”
“Absolutely,” Dylan said. “You deserve to die for all the things you’ve done. But that wouldn’t be murder. It would be justice.”
“Perhaps I deserve to die, but that’s not justice. You don’t have to kill me. Take me in. Arrest me and turn me in to the Society. That would be justice. Or you can show me and Rory exactly who you really are by killing me.”
Dylan looked over at Aurora, feeling the weight of Bishop’s accusations. Dylan did want to kill the man standing before him. He wanted it as much as he wanted air. But Dylan hated the idea that he was just a killer.
It was an issue he’d wrestled with ever since he’d come back home. That he wasn’t good enough for Aurora. That Hunter had been right to tell him to stay away from her, even if Bishop had somehow been involved in that decision.
Aurora shook her head. “He’s just trying to save his pathetic life,” she said. “He’s a liar and a manipulative bastard. You can’t let anything he says get to you. I say you give him what he wants. Kill the fucker.”
Dylan turned back to Bishop. The man had a triumphant smirk on his face, like no matter what happened next, he won either way. Dylan needed to wipe that smile off his smug face.
Dylan swung his fist into the other man’s head with a loud crack. Bishop crumpled to the dirt like a rag doll. Dylan whipped out a pair of handcuffs and bound Bishop’s hands behind his back.
Aurora came to stand beside Dylan. “Why didn’t you kill him? I hope it wasn’t to spare my feelings. I want you to know that I don’t think of you that way. You’re not a murderer or a killer. You did your duty in battle. There’s no shame in that.”
Dylan looked down into her eyes, a feeling of warmth spreading through him at her words. “I appreciate you saying that. I really do. But I didn’t do it because of that. I know I’m not a killer. It’s something I struggled with for a long time, but Bishop helped put things in perspective. I’m nothing like him, and I never was.”
“No, you are not. You’re a better man than he could ever hope to be.” She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him. A warm tingling radiated over his lips where they met hers.
“But if that wasn’t the reason, then why did you let him live?”
“I need him to tell everyone the truth about what he did to your father. So we can clear your name.”
“So you did it to protect me, huh?”
“You know I’ll always protect you.”
“I like the sound of that.”
***
Dylan and Rory dragged Bishop’s unconscious body back to the site of the battle between the Sin Eaters and Bishop’s men. None of Bishop’s crew were still standing. Some of them lay dead in the dirt, while others had been bound and gagged.
Xander and the Sin Eaters were standing in a loose circle around the detained men. Dylan’s brother seemed to be reenacting some particularly interesting part of the battle. He was bobbing and dodging with his fists raised.
“So I asked that asshole, ‘what’s your favorite pastry?’ Then I slashed him across the face, and said ‘Bear claw, bitch!’”
“You didn’t say that,” Gideon, a tall man with shaggy blond hair, said. “You can’t talk in bear form.”
Xander shrugged and rolled his eyes. “Freaking tigers, man. No sense of humor.”
“I have a sense of humor. You’re just not funny.”
Xander grinned and shot Gideon the finger. “What about this? Is this funny?”
Everyone laughed except Gideon.
“What?” Gideon asked. “Why is everyone laughing?”
Dylan dumped Bishop’s body in front of the blond man and clapped him on the shoulder. “Gideon.”
Gideon turned to Dylan and they embraced, slapping each other on the back as they did so.
“It’s good to see you, old friend,” Gideon said.
“I’m glad you all showed up,” Dylan replied.
“I’m glad you called. It’s been too long.”
Dylan nodded. “Sometimes it’s hard to see you all. Too many bad memories.”
“You mean Hunter and Dimitri?” Gideon said.
“Yeah,” Dylan said. He took Rory by the hand and guided her to stand next to him. “Speaking of which, this is Hunter’s sister, Aurora.”
Rory raised her hand in greeting. “Hi everyone.”
The other members of Dylan’s old squad gath
ered around. Dylan pointed at a wide muscular man with tanned skin. “This is Diego. He’s a jaguar.”
The man nodded.
“That’s Scarlett,” he said, gesturing towards a small, but deadly looking woman with cherry red hair. “She’s a gray wolf.”
“And this is Gideon, a Maltese tiger.”
Gideon smiled wide, showing a lot of teeth. “I can see the family resemblance.”
“Thank you all for helping us,” Rory said. “You saved our lives.”