Return To The Bear (5 page)

Nathan’s gray fitted shirt had darker spots where the rain had found his shoulders, and his blond hair was damp. She’d never seen a colder expression on another living person’s face. He uncrossed his arms and approached slowly.

The porch stairs creaked under her steps, and she pressed a hand to the small of Hannah’s back, guiding her to the left and out of his path. “Nathan, we’re leaving.”

His gold eyebrows winged up. “Oh, you are? You just decided this? You’re going to leave with my prisoner and I should just let you go, is that it?”

“Yes.”

“You’re mine!” he roared, lunging for her.

She shoved Hannah toward the trees as his stony hand wrapp
ed around the back of her neck.

“What am I suppos
ed to do with you?” he gritted out, his gaze on her lips. “I’ve waited, been patient, and still you undermine me and deny all that I offer you.” His fingers dug into her neck and she whimpered.

“You off
er me nothing but an empty life. If you care about me, you’ll let me go. You’ll let me be happy.”

His grip tightened and his eyes narrowed to furious slits. “Never.” He pushed her back and
slapped her across her face with the back of his hand.

Pain rippled through her
cheek and she crashed backward. He was on her before she even hit the ground. His grip was so hard it would snap her wrist bones, and when she looked into his eyes, nothing was there. The hollowness of his gaze scared her more than anything. “You’re hurting me,” she cried out, struggling against him.

“Can’t you see?” he bellowed. “I never wanted that. I made a place for you in my life so I could take care of you, and this is how you repay me?
You betrayed me.” He lifted her by the arms and slammed her back down.

Stars dotted the edges of her vision, shooting this way and that
, and dizziness made her want to wretch. Warmth trickled down her chin from a burning cut across her cheek, and suddenly, Nathan rocketed off her. The crack of Nathan’s skull against the branch in Hannah’s hands sounded like thunder.

As she struggled to her feet, Nathan’s laughter
conjured gooseflesh from her forearms. “I’ll play your games, Joanna.” He stood, swaying, but stayed upright. “You run, and if I catch you…I’ll kill you.”

Hannah tugged on her arm as Joanna froze under his serpentine gaze.

“Run!” he yelled.

Joanna spun and shoved Hannah forward. “We have to go,” she said through a sob. Her face felt like she’d been hit with a baseball bat, but there wasn’t time to worry about busted lips and egos. There
was a rough mile between here and the pond and Nathan was fast. Much faster than her, and Hannah was limping badly. To give Hannah a chance, she’d have to fight when he got too close. “Whatever happens, don’t look back. Just run along this trail until you reach the green pond. Brody will be there.”
God, please let him be there!

Hannah panted as they ran and her voice sounded strained. “
We’ll go together, just like you promised.” She drove her legs faster and Joanna sped up too, right behind her.

The fear of death did amazing things to one’s body. Adrenaline flooded her system and she ran so fast, she felt as if she were flying. Hannah grunted with every step and
Joanna couldn’t even imagine the pain she was in. Still, she was running for their lives. If they’d met in another life, one that wasn’t about to be cut down so soon, she would’ve liked Hannah. She was a survivor, just like her. Limbs, brush, and leaves whipped by, clawing at her face and legs but she didn’t care.

“Joanna,” Nathan taunted from behind them and a scared sound wrenched from
her throat.

He would kill her this time. He wasn’t bluffing or p
laying anymore. Her time was up and he wouldn’t let her go easily. Death at his hand would hurt, and her tortured ghost would be left with the shades of the Kodiaks to walk these woods unavenged forever.

Hannah slowed, gasping
for breath but they were close.

“Find it in you,”
Joanna pleaded. “We’re almost there.”

Hannah slowed more.

“Brody!” Joanna screamed.

She could hear Nathan now, crashing through the woods behind h
er. He’d be able to see them now, the quarry he hunted. The playful taunts had left him and he panted louder and louder as he drew near. This was it. She needed to turn and fight but they were so damned close. The scent of the algae pond filled her sensitive nose, and she could hear the rain drops hitting the surface of the water.

Hannah tripped and
fell forward on her hands and knees with a scream. That was it. Joanna turned, pulled her father’s knife and crouched in front of Hannah. This was her last stand. “Get up,” she said. “The pond is through there.” She could see it—had made it so close to lose just at the end.

A flash of gray showed through the trees and a battle cry screeched from her throat. Something hit her sideways, hard, and she scrambled to make sense of the blue fabric that brushed her face. She was encircled in a strong embrace, then
thrust upward. Brody’s powerful strides pounded the earth beneath them, and as they reached the pond, he slid against the damp ground on his knees. He wrenched the knife from her hand and ripped open her shirt, exposing her breasts. Before she could struggle or jerk away, he ran her blade in three swift cuts from sternum to arm. Then he flipped the knife and pressed the hilt against her hand.

P
ain seared through her arm as warmth ran rivers down her bare chest. “Why?” she breathed, hurt that he’d let her spend the last moments of her life in such pain. His eyes, more brown than green today, were so intense she couldn’t look away if she tried. His dark hair was wet, and tiny droplets of moisture dripped from the ends. His mouth was parted slightly, and he panted as if he’d run a long way.

Ripping his shirt open, he said, “You want me, cut me.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Do it now!”

Unthinking, unfeeling, terrified, she checked her wound and mirrored his cuts across his chest. Blood poured from him and his lips crashed against hers. He gripped her hair, held her to him and she melted against him. His tongue stroked hers once, then he pulled away.

“No!” Nathan bellowed from across the pond
, shocking her back to reality. He stood, heaving breath that fogged in front of him like a raving beast. His eyes were soulless and kindled with rage.

“Hannah?” she called.

“I’m here,” the woman said from behind.

Confused, Joanna turned to find her held behind a tall man with eyes as bright as blue morning snow.
They were wide, and surprised, and he was staring at her breasts. No. He was staring at the bleeding cuts Brody had made into her flesh.

The shifter
ghosted a glance to Brody, then slowly back to Nathan. “This woman is mine now, a part of my clan. She’s been claimed by one of my people.”

“She’s my mate.” Nathan’s dominance cracked against the clearing and the air filled with the smell
of a lightning storm. The hair on her arms electrified, and she was horrified to realize the same power was coming from behind and beside her. From Brody and Riker.

Brody stood, pulling
her with him. “I don’t know how it’s done in the Long Claw Clan, but she has the right to choose.” He pulled the collar of his shirt to the side, exposing the bleeding wounds. “She’s made her choice. It’s not you. She’s mine now, a member of Bear Valley under Riker, my alpha.”

Nathan shook with fury, his body vibrating under the weight of his infinite rage. “You’ve just brought war upon yourselves.”

“No,” Riker said. “You brought war when you broke your peace treaties and murdered your allies.”

A ripping sound rattled the space behind her and she turned to see Riker stand on his hind leg
s, at least a dozen feet tall. A fully muscled, scarred, infuriated grizzly, whose murderous glowing gaze was honed on Nathan. He roared long and loud, followed by three short bursts.

Brody
gripped the back of her neck and forced her to look at him. “I need you to run now. Go west until you find the truck. Take Hannah. If the Long Claws get through us, you change and fight them. Keep her safe, do you understand?”

She gripped his hands, wishing she could keep them
against her skin forever. “I understand.” Her voice came out very small, and shook like a grass fire.

“You’re strong,” he breathed, his gaze dipping to her lips. “You can do this.”

“I won’t let you down.”

His smile was slow and disappeared as fast as it came. “I knew you wouldn’t.”
He kissed her once more, and a growl trickled from his throat, which turned into a roar as he grew upward and thick fur sprouted from his skin. He was a heavily muscled grizzly, lighter in color than Riker but just as scarred, as if he’d been in many battles. His hard gaze left her and focused on Nathan.

“Holy. Shit s
nacks,” Hannah breathed, her horror-filled gaze glued across the pond.

A flash of snow white fur said it was past time to go. Joanna had to trust that
Brody and Riker were strong enough to take on Nathan and the Long Claw guards who were no doubt storming the woods. She grabbed Hannah’s hand, but the woman pulled back.

“He’s a…that’s a…”

“We have to go now,” Joanna said, pulling her arm harder.

“You
didn’t tell me he was a freaking polar bear!”

“Move your feet, Hannah, or we’ll be caugh
t in the middle of a battle we don’t want to be. Move!”

Brody and Riker
charged past them, their thick bodies lithe and powerful, flexing great girths of muscle with every step.

Hannah’s eyes were wide as she watched her mate, but they were out of time. Gripping her shoulders, Joanna spun the woman and shoved her toward a trail.
“Run and don’t slow down.”

Roaring filled the air, and clawed slaps echoed through the woods. There
would be more bears joining Nathan soon. Joanna could hear them and her heart sank with the realization that it was Brody and Riker against a Long Claw army. They would die in these woods and it was her fault.

It was in the middle of her epic bout of self-loathing
when she heard the crashing of the trees up ahead. She skidded to a stop, pulling Hannah back with her just as thirty bears charged through the woods around them. She ducked as a charging, red-furred bear leapt over them, shielding Hannah, but the woman only pulled her forward.

“They’re ours,” she said simply, and began running again.

Ours? It hit her then. Even if she died here today, she wouldn’t pass into the next realm as a Long Claw. She was a Bear Valley shifter now. Even if it was only for the last few minutes of her life, it counted—it mattered. Brody had gifted her a new clan as his last deed before he went to battle.

A row of trucks and vans were parked along the main road just outside of Long Claw territory and Hannah led her to a jacked up black one with mud all over the tires and doors.
Just as she opened the creaking door a voice rang out.

“You thought you were home free, didn’t you, Joanna.” Blake walked out of the woods behind them, glaring at her with such hatred in his eyes.

They’d almost made it.

Pulling the picture of her family from her pocket and tugging her father’s knife from her back, she handed them to Hannah, closing her fingers over her treasures. “Give these to Brody if he makes it.”

“What are you going to do?” Hannah asked, eyes wide and frightened.

“I’m going to protect you.” She pulled her shirt over her head and shimmied out of her jeans. “Get
in and lock the doors, Hannah. No matter what you see, don’t get out of that truck. Okay?”

She nodded slowly, her eyes
brimming with moisture. Hannah was worth saving just for that caring gesture. Joanna wouldn’t die unloved after all.

“No matter what,”
Hannah said, her voice dipping to a ragged whisper as she cupped her hands over the old picture and blood covered blade.

Hannah scrambled into the cab of the truck, and pressed the lock button. The click made the abandoned road feel so lonely.

Blake changed into a massive black bear, the same as her animal, but bigger. Joanna closed her eyes and let her beast out, bellowing with the pain of the change and the anger of having come so close to freedom, only to have Blake snuff it out. She’d go, but she wouldn’t do it graciously and she’d fight tooth and nail to bring Blake into the afterlife right along with her. She stood on her hind legs and curled her lips away from her teeth, promising his death.

Blake
charged.

Engaging in a violent smattering of bites and slaps, Joanna jerked back and circled Blake. Her hackles rose in a strip down her spine, making her skin tingle. Lunging, he raked his claws down her chest, drawing blood, and red rage burst through her veins. With a short bellow, she tackled him, clawing and scrabbling as they tumbled end over end down the hillside beside the road. He would come for Hannah the second she was incapacitated, so she had to injure him enough that he wouldn’t be able to get into the truck. Hannah should leave, let Riker and Brody and their soldiers defend her, then meet up with the survivors later. She couldn’t tell her that though.

Relentlessly, she stayed on Blake, even as he slashed her with his six inch claws. Even as he sank his long, penetrating teeth into her shoulder. She ripped and shredded and bit, shaking her head until his flesh tore free.
The anger in his eyes faded to defiance, and she knew she had him. She just had to hang on long enough.

Her body was shredded, a dozen ga
shes through her skin seeped into her matted fur, and the puncture wounds at her shoulders ensured she didn’t use her arm properly, but it was almost done if only she could endure his scratching claws against her stomach. Sinking her teeth into his throat, she held on as he furiously bucked. His roar of death rattled her eardrums, but still she clung to the fading pulse at his neck.

“Joanna. Jo,” Brody said from above her. “He’s gone. Let him go.”

How long had she lay like this? Blake’s heart had stilled and she’d remained attached, afraid if she let go, he’d come back for her and Hannah. Maybe she’d stayed on him for minutes. Perhaps an hour. He was growing cold and stiff beneath her.

Brody’s clothes likely still lay in
strips near the pond, and his skin was streaked with dirt and blood. His shoulders heaved, and with every breath, his abdominal muscles flexed. Her gaze teetered between the intensity of his gold flecked eyes and his taut stomach and chest.

“Jo,” he said again. “Change back.”

Her name, shortened and delicious sounding on his lips, brought her back little by little. She gasped and released Blake’s neck. Her jaw was sore and she scrambled backward, away from the limp body. Closing her eyes, she tucked her bear back inside of herself. The storm clouds had opened up and rain came down harder. It washed red streams down her skin.

“Jesus,” Brody whispered. “How far out is Daria?” he asked Riker, who leaned ins
ide the truck where Hannah was.

She hadn’t even noticed him or the other shifters who were standing in on the roadside,
somberly pulling their clothes on. Surprised, she counted them. If the numbers didn’t match the force of bears she’s seen in the woods, it was close. Their losses had been few.

“Half an hour from the hotel,
” Riker said over his shoulder.

Her skin was on fire and aching sorene
ss surrounded her stomach, legs and shoulder. Brody stood there, hands outstretched like he wanted to touch her as badly as she wanted him to. Why didn’t he? His expression was hard, and a deep rumble emanated from his chest. The two shifters closest to her moved away, but another man approached.

“We need to get you back to our healer, Daria.” He spoke to her but his
earnest blue eyes were on Brody. “My name is Cameron. I’m second in this clan. I swear, we won’t hurt you. We need to leave now though.” He cleared his throat. “You bear our mark.”

Confused, she frowned and tried to stand. The sound from Brody’s throat intensified and he scooped her up, folding her into his arms like she weighed nothing. “My mark,” he
corrected Cameron in a gravelly, inhuman voice.

His hands were firm and warm against her skin, and he pulled her close, tucking her against the impossibly hard planes of his chest. Rain pattered against her relentlessly
, collecting in the bowl of her arms against her shredded stomach. Everything hurt.

Brody
carried her to the big black truck, probably Riker’s, and pressed her against it, effectively shielding her from the other shifters’ curious glances. He dropped his forehead to her cheek and his body began to tremble. “Where are your clothes?”

“Here,” Hannah said, flapping grass and sprinkles of mud from her
damp jeans. “Put her in the back with me and I’ll help her dress.”

Brody snarled and Hannah shoved him hard in the shoulder. “Cut that shit out, Brody. I’m no threat to her. She saved my life.” She opened the back door and jabbed her finger at the seat, winged her eyebrows
into irritated arches and waited.

“Sorry,” Brody muttered. He sounded s
urprised. Setting her gingerly onto the back seat, he held out a hand to help Hannah in, then closed the door when she was settled.

From the driver’s seat, Benson watched Brody saunter around the front of the truck with an expression that said he thought he had lost his damned mind.

Brody cast a dark gaze back at Joanna and slammed the passenger side door. And still, Riker stared.

“We’re alive,” she said lamely. She didn’t mean to say the words out loud, but she really didn’t think they were going to make it out of there. She hadn’t been off of Long Claw land in
two years, and even though she was only about twenty yards outside of Nathan’s territory, it still counted.

“About that,” Benson said, pulling onto the paved road. “You couldn’t warn me you were about to claim a mate in the middle of Hannah’s rescue?” He was yelling and the cab filled with the lightening smell she’d scent
ed near the pond.

“It was a last minute decision,” Brody muttered, staring out the window. He looked relaxed, but his hand was clenched against his thigh.

Hannah was trying her best to pull Joanna’s jean shorts over the cuts Blake had made in her legs without touching her burning skin. Bless that woman.

Joanna frowned and fingered the long cuts Brody had made against her torso. “What did you do?”

Brody slid a narrow gaze back at her and then faced forward again.

She dropped her voice lower and asked Hannah, “What did he do? What do the cuts mean?”

“Lean back.” Hannah zipped her jeans like she was incapable of using her fingers and snapped the button. “He’s claimed you.” She lifted her fists near her head and waved them around with a bright smile stretched across her ruined face. “Happy mating daaay.”

“Hannah,” Benson warned.

“Which is bullcaka, by the way,” Hannah continued, “because that was the least romantic mating party ever. We could’ve celebrated with everyone back in Bear Valley. Did you even know he was going to cut you?”

Joanna shook her head. She definitely had not been mentally prepared for him to shank her in the middle of Long Claw territory, no.

“Nice,” Hannah muttered, gathering her shirt to pull over Joanna’s head. “Nicely done, Brody.”

“But what do the marks mean?
” She’d asked for sex. That was claiming and she was pretty sure no sex had happened at the pond.

It was Benson who answered. “It means your bound, Joanna. You and Brody are together, mated now. He’s claimed you and by cutting him back, you accepted. And are you in heat?” His voice was growing louder again, filling the cab of the truck until she wanted to put her hands over her ears.

She crossed her legs self-consciously. “Yes.”

Her voice came out a squeak and Benson’s angry eyes jutted to the rearview mirror. He turned to Brody and gripped the wheel until the poor thing look strangled. “Are you fucking kidding me, Bannister? You scooped a ready female out from
under the main alpha of the Long Claw Clan? In front of him? You were the one saying no war until we were ready. Just an hour before, you were telling me about the need to wait, to fight them on our own terms. And instead, you single-handedly caused an unplanned battle with the Long Claws. The freaking Long Claws, Brody.”

Hannah snorted. “Okay, I changed my mind. That was totally romantic. He cut you in front of an alpha polar bear. That’s sexy.”

“Hannah!” Riker yelled.

“Riker,” she screamed back. “You weren’t there. You didn’t see what she did, what she risked for me.
She faced down an alpha to save a stranger. The blood she’s spilling now was supposed to be mine. If Brody wants her, let him have her.”

“I don’t want her,” Brody said so quietly
, Joanna almost missed it. The only sound in the truck was the shifting of the automatic transmission.

“What?” she asked, her heart constricting until she felt like it would
implode in her chest.

“That was our deal, remember? You brought us Hannah,
and I claimed you. My debt is paid.”

“Except I didn’t know your customs.” Anger heated her cheeks until they burned and she
ignored the pain in her stomach. She leaned forward and clutched the back of Benson’s seat. “I thought I’d asked you for sex, Brody. To make me undesirable to Nathan. That’s what claiming means to the Long Claws. I didn’t know by cutting you back I was tying myself to you forever. You didn’t explain anything.” Panic seized her throat, making it hard to speak and her voice sounded strangled. “You were supposed to release me after this was done, but you’ve marked me, tethered me, and now you don’t want me? Then you shouldn’t have cut me! I left that place to find someone to love me. Not someone to tolerate me for the rest of my life.”

“So, you started a battle with the Long Claws over a woman you don’t want?”
Riker’s voice was low and dangerous.

Hannah sucked her lips into her mouth and pressed a towel against
Joanna’s middle. Shocked by the pain, she yelped and jerked away as her tattered skin seared. Faster than she thought possible, Brody grabbed Hannah’s wrist and relieved the pressure. Riker snarled and yanked the truck off the road, skidding through the mud until they lurched to a stop.

Brody’s eyes were wide, unblinking. “Don’t hurt her anymore,” he choked out.

“She’ll bleed out,” Hannah said, yanking her hand from his grasp.

“Get out,”
Riker snarled as he threw open his door.

Brody did.

Joanna checked the road, but the only other drivers were the shifters of Bear Valley and they had pulled over behind them. Besides Hannah, there were no humans to see Brody and his alpha take a furious naked walk to the edge of the woods. Riker changed first, then Brody, and their bears locked in violence before they even made it past the first row of lodge pole pines.

Hannah crawled into the passenger seat and popped open the glove box. Shuffling papers sounded as Joanna pressed her face to the window glass and watched the raging fight. “They’ll kill each other.”

“I could’ve sworn Riker left a first aid kit in here. Gum?” She twisted in the seat and offered her a piece of spearmint smelling chewing gum.

Shaking her head, she pointed out the window. “Did you hear me? I said they’re going to kill each other.”

Hannah snorted. “Let ’em. Ridiculous alpha bears need to fight and bleed to let off steam. Better than them changing in the truck.”

Well, true but…
she scanned the woods out the window but couldn’t see them anymore. The lightheadedness she’s attributed to shock swirled out of control, spinning the earth on his axis. Cold sweat dampened her forehead and neck and her head fell forward. She was going to be sick. “Hannah?”

The ma
te of the alpha was smacking gum and rifling through the glove box still. “Yeah?”

“I don’t feel well.”

The edges of her vision collapsed until there was nothing but darkness and a single pinpoint of light. Her body seized and she fell backward against the seat, and even the tiny ray of misty gray light disappeared.