Devoted to the Bear (9 page)

A snuffling sound vibrated against her back and when she turned
her chin, the other two bears sniffed her as if they were making sure she was all right. Riker emitted a low growl but it lacked heat.

“Hannah, are you okay?” Blaine asked, daring a look over the edge.

“Jenny. She’s hurt.”

“I know. She’s going to be fine. D
aria’s taking care of her.”

Her lip trembled and a warm tear
of relief tickled her cheek. Her voice was shaky when she whispered, “You found me.”

“We wouldn’t have if you weren’t smart about it. We got your messages,
but they were jumbled. Once we figured them out, they led us right to Murphy’s car and Cameron and Brody changed to follow your scent trail. Riker decided to follow Murphy’s on a hunch and it led us here. He circled around the valley and took the easy way up. I have to call this in.” He pulled at a radio at his shoulder. “Dispatch, we’ve found the missing woman. Her kidnapper appears to have fallen down a cliff. We’re unable to get to him to administer first aid at this time. Can you send an ambulance to Forrester’s Bend as soon as possible? Tell them to follow the tire tracks in and we’ll be waiting for them by the cruiser.”

“Sure thing.” Static crackled. “Sending an ambulance
and back up now.”

Blaine holstered his weapon and looked at the bears. “
The three of you need to start making your way back to the valley. You need to be far away from this crime scene when they get here, and Hannah’s going to have to make a statement. We may have to take her back to the station, I don’t know yet. I’ll bring her back as soon as I’m able.”

Riker tucked his chin and bumped his enormous forehead softly against her chest.
She gripped the fur under his ears and held him. He smelled all animal, but the look in his eyes was equal parts frustration and worry.

“I’ll be home soon,” she said. Tears still blurred her vision but she didn’t care.

She was alive, Jenny was alive and Stone’s curse had been broken.

It was times like these Riker wished his bear would allow a beer. He paced the porch of his house, agitated into a frenzy and desperate to see Blaine’s patrol car pull into the clearing. It had been hours. Hours since he’d had only moments to convince himself his mate was still alive and okay, but he’d seen her face. She’d been scared and trau
matized, and even though steel ran through her blood, Hannah wasn’t invincible. Every struggle at the hand of Stone and his men took a horrible toll. How could it not? What she’d endured was horrific.

With a growl, he hopped the stairs and
stalked to the edge of the woods. Jogging down the trail, he plastered a smile on his face and greeted the people he passed. Some of them stopped and asked about how Hannah was doing, but he cut conversation as short as was polite. He didn’t know any more than they did. She lived, but that was as far as his knowledge went.

He’d wanted to shred Murphy and bleed him
slowly. His animal had set that as a basic requirement, but Blaine had convinced him they had to be smart about it. Murphy’s death had to look like self-defense from Hannah, not some bear attack they’d be helpless to explain.

It had been a long journey back to Bear Valley
with Cameron and Brody, thinking and worrying about his mate. That had been way too close. He’d almost lost her, and the cold feeling he got at skirting fate made his stomach drop, like he’d fallen from the highest point of a jarring roller coaster.

He loved her. Those words didn’t even cover the array of consuming feelings he harbored for Hannah. If she even knew how deeply his devotion
ran, it would probably scare her. As it should. It scared him sometimes how much he’d give to see her happy.

Jenny’s house came into view. Small and homey, she’d been so happy when she’d married Blaine and picked it out. Her rank was high in the pack as the alpha’s sister, and she could’ve chosen one of the bigger homes near his, but she hadn’t wanted that. She’d wanted a smaller home farther from the middle of the valley to spend her days with Blaine in. He couldn’t blame
her now that he imagined Hannah picking one for them someday. The appeal of living utterly alone in the woods with his mate was seductive.

The door was rounded on the top,
in true cottage fashion and he smiled as he wondered if Hannah would like one similar someday. He knocked and Jenny answered, an icepack held firmly to her head.

“You got your ass kicked by a human,” he said through his most irritating smile.

“Jerk,” Jenny muttered, then stepped aside and let him pass. “I get my scull bashed in and you come here to give me grief. Unbelievable.”

“I actually came to check up on you.”

Her eyes narrowed. His cunning sister rarely missed a thing. “You came here because you’re going stir crazy waiting for Hannah to come home.”

He collapsed onto the biggest couch, still too short by far, and dangled his legs over the edge. Crossing his hands over his stomach, he watched the whirling fan. “I nearly lost you and Hannah today.” His voice was gruffer than he’d intended. “That can’t happen again.” He turned his head and leveled her with his gaze.

With a sigh, Jenny tenderly lowered herself onto the love seat and took up a comfortable looking position that mirrored his own. “It was partly my fault. Murphy left us a note in the bottom of her box of belongings and she panicked. I should’ve been helping her lock up the house, but I thought there was no way anyone would make it all the way to your house without being caught. She just seemed so scared and I wanted to calm her down.”

“You can’t take Murphy’s blame.”

“I heard she was alive. That you got there in time.”

He nodded. The smiles and polite answers were necessary with his people. With Jenny, it was different. If he didn’t want to talk, he didn’t have to.

“If you really want to know her,” Jenny said, adjusting the icepack a few inches higher, “then you should ask her about the box from her old life. Hannah is a tough one to read sometimes, but I learned more than I did in weeks just by watching her and listening to her when she went through her old things. She has this entire history we haven’t been privy to. One she hides because I think it hurts her to think about it. It should’ve been you going through it with her last night.”

Would Hannah be mad if she knew he’d seen her bear picture in his office and then went through her belongings scattered on his bedroom floor. He agreed with Jenny. It had been eye-opening, but perhaps he should’ve waited for
Hannah to be there with him. Her things were just lying there, begging him to look at them though. He’d been desperate to be close to her and that was the only way he could think of.

“Did I ever thank you?” He clasped his hands behind his head as confusion flitted across Jenny’s face.

“For what?”

“For p
ushing Hannah into the ring and pitting her against Merit. For knowing more about what I needed than I did at the time. Take your pick.”

“Benson
Elden Riker, I think that’s the very first time you’ve thanked me for anything.”

Uncomfortable with the amount of emotion charging the room, he stood and sauntered to the door. “I’m glad you didn’t die,” he said in a brusque tone, then shut the door behind him.

****

Hannah was exhausted down to her marrow. She’d stilled in the front seat of Blaine’s cruiser, afraid if she moved at all, it would expend every last morsel of energy she possessed. Her eyes had dragged closed on two different occasions, but she couldn’t just fall asleep
bouncing against the cold window. The shocks in this car sucked balls.

For hours, she’d answered questions and filled out paperwork and overthought every answer until her brain felt like one of those red
slushies she always bought at the movie theater. When she’d struggled to put together a coherent sentence, Blaine had stepped in and saved her from his deputy’s relentless questions. He’d already started putting together a file on Murphy and after several phone calls, he’d assured her Murphy’s department would be conducting an internal investigation on him and his known associates at the precinct. Apparently, no one had known he and Stone were half siblings. And Blaine was going to pick up Murphy’s letter to her tonight and bring it back to the station as evidence. They would compare his handwriting and try to prove he was hunting her on Stone’s behalf, out of a personal vendetta that had nothing to do with his position on the force.

At least she wouldn’t have to testify.
Another benefit of her tormentor falling down the side of a cliff. And most importantly, Riker wasn’t going behind bars again. A call to Murphy’s precinct said they didn’t even have paperwork on Dane or his accomplices, much less the mystery proof Murphy had promised.

When Riker had sa
ved her in New York, she’d had this nagging feeling this wasn’t over—that she wasn’t finished fighting for her life. But with Murphy gone, something loosened inside of her. For the first time in a long time, she felt a huge weight lift. Stone was still alive and vengeful, but all of the major players had been cut out of the game. Stone was just a leader without a clan now.

She finally felt it, that safety she’d been yearning for.

“Are you cold?” Blaine asked, turning down the air. “You’re shivering.”

Oh. She hadn’t noticed. Maybe she was in shock, or perhaps she was just so tired, her muscles were
spasming. She didn’t feel cold. “I’m fine.”

“When Jenny says she’s fine, that’s usually a good sign she isn’t fine at all.
Usually about then she starts throwing the good plates against the wall.”

Hannah laughed. She couldn’t help herself. The vision of Jenny and all of her fury leaching out from her tiny frame would be a show she’d pay to see. “I’m just ready to see him.” She hadn’t meant for her voice to sound so desperate, but the thought of Riker farther than an arm’s length
away from her chilled her skin.

“What is going on,” Blaine drawled, leaning over the steering wheel as they rolled into the clearing in front of Riker’s house.

A crowd had gathered and they faced the car like they’d been waiting. No one seemed to be talking, only watching them.

“I don’t know,” she breathed.

The car rocked once as it came to a stop and Hannah opened her door. She closed it behind her quietly, afraid to break the spell. Riker stood atop the stairs, hands held behind his back and his chin tilted proudly. He didn’t move, but his eyes swam with some emotion she couldn’t fathom. She approached slowly, and as she reached the bystanders, a woman pulled her into an embrace, then passed her to the man beside her. By the fourth shifter, she hugged them back and tears of agony and joy streaked down her face. Pain for what she’d been through, and undiluted happiness for such a homecoming.

“Welcome back,” an elderly woman said, hugging her up tight.

Well-wishes murmured through the crowd and some of Riker’s people, her people, had moisture rimming their eyes to match her own. She was muddy and cut up and they didn’t care. They were concerned that she was home, and that was all.

The lump in her throat grew until it was impossible to swallow and a sob escaped her as Cameron held her tigh
t. “Thank you for coming for me,” she whispered.

He passed her to Brody. “I wouldn’t be here if you
two hadn’t helped Riker today.”

Brody squeezed her shoulders and offered his hand, then esco
rted her up the stairs to Riker, who was staring down at his people like he couldn’t be more proud of them.

“I know the mating ceremony is usually a small gathering,” he called out. “It’s meant to be a celebration for the closest friends and family but Hannah and I would like you all to be there.
” He placed his hands firmly on her shoulders, and drew her back against his chest, uniting them as a single front. “You are our friends. You are our family. We’ll hold it near the fields on the summer solstice at eight o’clock in the evening. Please invite anyone who isn’t here today. It will be a ceremony to celebrate my mate, but it will always serve to unite us and commend how far our clan has come.”

“In other words,
” Hannah called, “it’ll be a party and everyone is invited.”

Laughter filled the clearing and Riker chuckled deep, vibrating strokes against her ear, right before he nibbled on it and nearly buckled her knees.
“Let’s go get you cleaned up.”

Well, that sounded like not that much fun.

“So I can get you filthy again,” he rumbled.

There, that was more like it.

“You need me?” Daria called from the onlookers.

Riker’s hand pressed against Hannah’s
lower back, steering her toward the front door. “Not this time. I’ll take care of her.”

Daria gave her a knowing smile and winked, and Hannah’s cheeks heated with a burning blush.
She lifted her chin to see if Riker was embarrassed too, but his hooded eyes gave away no emotion as he opened the door. In fact, he seemed to be doing a fantastic job of avoiding her gaze altogether.

The door clicked closed, and the lock followed and she frowned at his shaking hand. She opened her mouth to ask
what was wrong, but his lips crashed onto hers with the force of an avalanche. His hands were everywhere, tugging and pulling until her clothes sat in a trail against the tile floor. Her skin was cold where his hands weren’t, but burned like fire where his fingertips touched her. She yanked on his shirt until it joined hers on the ground beside them. His hair was mussed from the movement, but somehow Riker still managed to have that just out of bed look that drove her crazy.

A helpless noise wrenched from her throat as she fumbled with the zipper of his jeans, and he backed her into the wall and intertwined his fingers with hers, then pulled her hands above her head. “I thought I lost you,” he said against her lips.

Sorrow filled her just thinking about it. Just the idea that she and Riker wouldn’t be walking the same plane of existence made her close her eyes against the pain.

“You’re alive because you’re clever.” He kissed her, sucking gently on her bottom lip. “My
sensible…” Kiss. “Selfless...” Kiss. “Brave mate.” He rocked his hips against hers, the bulge of his erection hard as stone through the fabric.

Releasing her hands, he splayed his fingers against the wall on either side of her face and she tugged his jeans down the rest of the way. His boxers followed and she marveled at how strong and masculine he was outside the confines of his clothing.
Running her palms down his chest, then down the prominence of his abdominal muscles, she clawed her hands and scratched lightly across his hips. His breath caught and he leaned forward to taste her again. With his palm, he cupped her sex and drove two fingers into her.

“No,” she pleaded. “Here.” She dragged a long stroke
against his cock and pulled the head into her, then pressed against him until his jaw muscle twitched and his eyes rolled closed. Driving into her slowly, he didn’t open his eyes until she’d taken all of him.

Desperate, she hooked her knee up and tilted her pelvis
until his soft skin touched the moisture he’d conjured. His abs flexed with each slow thrust and he kissed her hard, lunging his tongue into her mouth in a delicious reflection of the penetration that had her yearning for more of him. A soft rumble filled his chest and he pulled her other knee up as she held onto his neck. Her breasts bobbed softly against the hard planes of his chest as he walked them into the bedroom.