Taming the Bear Collection (15 page)

      
The problem was, she hadn't planned out what they'd do with him after his capture. Would she bring him to Aster for justice or turn him over to his demon's former lover? Did Abaddon want Leena back or his demon companion? Would he accept it in the form of Forrest?

      
Before she could contemplate it anymore, she felt hot breath on the back of her neck and heard the patter of drool as it hit the ground. She turned to look at Beorn, expecting him to be looking at her. Instead he was looking past her. His eyes had taken on a feral look and his hair stood up even more rigidly than before. He was going to kill, that much was obvious.

      
"Beorn, wait," she whispered.

      
It was too late. The bear was furious. Another shifter had entered his domain and was mating with a female. That kind of sin could not be forgiven, demon be damned. The bear couldn't fit through the doorway, but that didn't stop him. With ease he made his own opening, thundering through the doorway,  tearing an enormous hole as he went. Forrest turned to shield himself, but it was too late. Beorn's monstrous paw landed on his head, slashing his face, neck and chest open.

      
Forrest gurgled a response and fell over backwards, hitting the ground and twitching. Beorn had killed him with one mighty swipe.

      
"What the fuck?" the female screamed, spinning around in fear.

      
"Well, hello there, Eden," Rain said, stepping in and smiling at the traitorous bitch. This was too good to be true.

      
"You!" Eden snarled.

      
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Rain said, pointing at the angry bear still standing next to her.

      
"No," Eden cried, now realizing the gravity of the situation. Forrest was gone; Beorn had killed the alpha wolf dead. "He can't be gone! He promised me so much."

      
Beorn's eyes landed on Eden, who began to shrink back against the wall, trying to escape. Rain stepped forward, grabbed her most hated enemy by the hair and pulled her forward. Before, Eden had simply been a huge bitch who pissed Rain off. Now she was an enemy of the state.

      
She had picked the wrong side.

      
"What the hell were you doing with him?" she demanded.

      
"Doing what wolves are supposed to do," Eden cried out, trying to pull away. She could have easily broken Rain's grip, but she kept stealing glances at Beorn and seemed to think better of struggling.

      
"What do you mean?" Rain asked.

      
"We're not supposed to live in the city," Eden said, tears starting to form in her eyes from the pain of nearly having her hair ripped out of her scalp. "We're supposed to live in the forest, where we belong. We aren't supposed to wear clothes. We're supposed to be wild and free."

      
"There's a balance," Beorn muttered behind her.

      
Rain looked back at him and then turned back to Eden, still pissed. "Why not just leave, then? Why did he kidnap Leena? Why did he want to bring her here so Abaddon would kill us?"

      
"She called him and asked if she could come back."

      
"Bullshit," Rain said.

      
"No, it's true," Eden insisted.

      
"Hawk ran into some of your men in the forest. They said they kidnapped her. Said she was in the cabin. Why?"

      
"I don't know. They all wanted to do what she said. She asked to be left in the cabin alone. She left Abaddon on her own, too. She said he was weak and didn't have the right stuff anymore."

      
The lines were flying out of Eden right now so fast Rain’s head was spinning. They were such quick responses, so precise.

      
"She isn't possessed now," Rain said. "She's safely back at Rowan's house. The demon left her and went to Forrest."

      
"You fool!" Eden cried out. "Forrest wasn't possessed by anything. Leena told him that if he brought her back and did as she said, then he could have everything he ever wanted. He could return to the wild and be what he used to be. You idiot, she's still possessed and you brought her into Bucklin!"

      
“Quiet your forked tongue you foul slut!” Beorn roared. “We don’t need to hear your lies!”

      
Rain felt her grip on Eden's hair loosen and before she knew it the traitorous bitch was falling to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. It all clicked with Rain now, everything. Forrest didn't want to destroy Bucklin and neither did Abaddon; it was the demon in Leena all along. But why?

      
She turned to Beorn, tears starting to gather in her eyes. "She’s not fibbing, Beorn! She’s telling the truth! We have to get back! We have to go back now, before it's too late!"

      
Beorn’s expression changed from unchecked rage to concern as he studied Rain’s face. Slowly he began nodding his head solemnly in agreement. He had no love for the wolves of Bucklin, but surely even he didn't want to see the end come like this. "Let's go," he agreed. "You too, alpha bitch. On your feet. Everyone has some explaining to do. Hopefully, we're not too late."

      
In a flash all three had shifted and were exploding out the door, running as fast as they could towards Beorn's cabin.

      
Bucklin had invited the enemy right into its heart, and the enemy was going to break its heart from the inside out.

TAMING THE BEAR PART 3

Chapter 19

      
Rain glanced to her right as she pumped all four legs as fast as she possibly could. She could feel the saliva in her mouth gaining consistency, going from the clear drool of any normal creature to the white lather one gets when they’ve exerted themselves to the point of exhaustion. It felt disgusting as it flew out of her mouth and landed on her fur, but right now was not the time to be worried about such things; her home was in danger.

      
To her right was her rival and enemy Eden. Eden was running frantically too, but her eyes kept darting to the left and right. Rain knew she was looking for the first opportunity to break off and escape. She had betrayed not only her pack, but every pack in Bucklin. Aster would not look kindly on this betrayal. The sentence might have been lighter on her had they managed to capture her accomplice: alpha wolf Forrest. But Beorn had gotten the jump on him and had been able to kill him with a well-placed claw swipe to the head.

      
It should have bothered Rain more that she had witnessed the death of an alpha she knew so well. Death and murder were not subjects to be taken lightly, but they were operating under the law of the jungle now. It was kill or be killed and Beorn had to strike first. They were still under the impression that Forrest was possessed by a demon and wouldn’t be an easy target to take down. His death and Eden’s subsequent reaction had blown all that out of the water.

      
Maybe Aster would be lenient on Eden since she had tipped them off to Leena’s true nature. At the same time she had switched packs and joined up with the rebel Oakdale pack that sought to break away from Bucklin. If they had quietly excused themselves from city life and retreated to the woods there might not have been an issue; instead, they had decided to entrench themselves in a plot to bring down the entire city.

      
Eden could plead ignorance all she wanted, but Forrest had known what he was doing when he brought the matriarch of Satan’s Angels back to Bucklin and started a kidnapping plot. Was Abaddon in on it? Did he know about the kidnapping? Was he using it as an excuse to attack the city?

      
All these questions flew through Rain’s mind as she ran, distracting her from the task at hand. It was hard enough to think clearly when shifted to wolf, but at the moment her wolf was worked into a blood frenzy, wanting to punish those who threatened her territory and her mate’s territory.

      
She hazarded a glance to her left, her eyes falling on the gigantic brown bear that ran beside her. She hadn’t even coupled with Beorn yet, but her wolf was already very fond of him. The human Rain was also pretty damn fond of him; after all, he was everything she had ever wanted in a mate: strong, confident, determined and in touch with the beast inside. He wasn’t domesticated like the other wolves in Bucklin; he was a wild animal who also happened to be a man.

      
Her wolf had immediately latched onto him and claimed him as her own. Beorn didn’t believe in claiming, but by his bear’s reaction when he thought Forrest and Eden posed a threat to Rain was enough to let her know those were just empty words. While he might not have claimed her in the truest wolf sense of the word, he had staked a mental and emotional claim on her. This pleased Rain to no end, but at the moment she couldn’t get caught up in such sentimental garbage.

      
She looked back to Eden, who was still nervously glancing back and forth while running. The bitch really didn’t want to go back to Bucklin with them; she was looking for any opportunity to get loose.

      
Rain had caught her and Forrest fucking like there was no tomorrow. Had they become a mated pair, or was that just the kind of promiscuous sex a lot of alphas engaged in? ’Rain imagined Eden was the Oakdale pack’s personal whore, passed around between the alphas and betas like some kind of party favor. It would have been an absurd notion for anyone else, but Eden was so power hungry and Rain’s opinion of her was so low it was plausible.

      
On the flipside Rain hadn’t even consummated her brief relationship with Beorn yet. That’s all this was supposed to be: a purely carnal relationship. But in the short time they had spent together Rain had grown rather fond of the giant bear and it appeared he felt the same about her—at least she hoped he felt the same about her. If he still just intended to use her as a hump and dump, she knew it would hurt. Still, there was something in his eyes when he looked at her. Plus she had managed to nearly pull his meaty cock right off his body with her mouth yesterday, so she had that check mark in her favor.

      
She glanced back at Eden one more time. The self-proclaimed “alpha bitch” was beginning to slow down. She was panting and she was frothing at the mouth, but she should be in better shape than what she was displaying. She was up to something; that was really apparent to Rain now.

      
Rain slowed her own pace and growled at Eden, catching her attention. Surprisingly Eden had the gall to return the snarl and growl. Beorn skidded to a stop and turned towards them both, rising up on his hind legs. The sun was blocked behind his massive frame as he bellowed a warning roar in Eden’s direction. She wasn’t going to fuck with either one of them today.

      
Eden’s tail tucked between her legs and she began to back away, her ears immediately falling to her head. Submissively she began to yip at Beorn, trying to get him to stop his intimidating stance. Mercifully Beorn listened, returning to all four legs before turning to run into the forest.

      
Rain waited for Eden to pass in front of her. She wasn’t going to let this bitch out of her sight. One wrong move and Eden would be gone, as well as their proof regarding Forrest and Leena. They needed their prisoner more than ever.

      
Eden started with a trot before breaking into a full run as Rain followed. She was bracketed completely between the bear and the wolf now, nowhere to run or hide.

      
Rain’s wolf wanted to pounce on her enemy and end it all with a well-placed snap to the throat. That would be the best and most satisfying conclusion. It disturbed Rain how much she truly wanted to end Eden’s existence once and for all.

      
She had been a thorn in Rain’s side for a long time. She’d always wanted Rowan and was jealous that he was turning his attention to raising a young one like Rain. Then when Eva showed up, Eden had turned on her, trying to force her to be subservient to Rowan. She even stood up and tried to face him down after the incident where he killed the Cedarville sheriff, but luckily Aster had intervened. It was rare that he showed his dominant alpha in public, but when Aster did everyone backed down.

      
Did she want Forrest to usurp Aster as head honcho in Bucklin? Or were they truly going to run away forever?

      
Still Rain’s wolf was completely bothered by the mere thought of Eden existing and she wanted to end that problem really quickly. She was Rain’s chief female rival for position in the Dawnguard pack and she had already tried to imprint herself on Rain’s mate.

      
While she was going to town on Beorn earlier, she could smell the faintest hint of Eden on him. The ballsy bitch had rubbed all over her man, trying to get him to leave Rain and join her. Why would she even try to seduce Beorn if she was with Forrest? Unless the Oakdale pack wanted the strength and power of the mighty bear on their side. That had to be the reason.

      
Suddenly Rain’s eyes were snapped forward to Beorn in the front. He had skidded to a halt and the hair was standing up all over his body. He let out a mighty roar as Eden also skidded to a halt.

      
Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. As Eden turned her attention toward Rain and began to snarl and snap it hit Rain. They were being ambushed. She sniffed the air and realized they were not alone; there were at least four other wolves in the area.

      
You bitch,
she thought in between the anger and rage that filled her wolf’s brain.

      
If Eden was truly on their side, then why would she set up this ambush? Forrest wasn’t controlled by the demon, but there had to be more to the story than Eden had let on. Was the Oakdale pack working in concert with the demon? They weren’t unwitting pawns like Eden had led them to believe; they’d been in on this plot the entire time.