The Bear's Arranged Mate: A Bear Shifter Romance Novel (5 page)

“You
what
?” Patrick flared again. “Explain yourself, Caroline!”

Caroline’s expression was as stoic as ice, and twice as cold. She raised the rifle menacingly and licked her lips. “Why don’t you explain yourself to me?” she said viciously, and there was something utterly threatening in her tone. “The Greybacks and the Clawgroves are families of liars. Cowards in the extreme. Why don’t you tell them, Senator?”

“What’s she talking about?” Connor turned to his father, who only shook his head.

“Tell them about Samson Greyback!” Caroline snapped again.

Patrick lowered his hands a look of resignation crossed his eyebrows as he looked at his feet. He looked suddenly older than either Connor or Sarah had ever seen him, a man at the end of his tether who had held onto secrets for so long they’d grown old with him. He looked up at Caroline with an almost pitiable expression.

“Your father, Samson, was one of my greatest friends. He was a noble and an erudite, a gentleman who was respected by both houses. He was my friend,” Patrick stated flatly.

“And then, you killed him,” Caroline said fixedly.

Both Connor and Sarah turned and gawked at the Senator, but there was nothing in his body language to indicate he was in any mood to disagree. “The peace between the houses has existed for so long. I think, for some of us, it was difficult to imagine what it had been like during the Great Wars. We grew complacent, I think… I never wanted to hurt him.”

“We found his grave,” Sarah said, and saw Caroline’s chin flinch toward her, “tell us what happened.”

“The lineages have always been kept strong through leadership. It was me, on behalf of the Clawgroves. Your parents on behalf of the Greybacks. But Samson… he wanted more.”

“He was your friend!” screamed Caroline again, leveling the rifle, but this time Patrick made no show of fear or of trying to plead for his life.

“Yes he was. And one night he transformed, let himself become fully a Bear, and he…” Patrick choked on his words, “he went after the heir of the Greybacks, knowing full well that his offspring would become the leaders if she were out of the way.”

All eyes suddenly focused on Sarah.
The heir of the Greyback Tribe.
“No,” she mouthed.

“Samson looked for you, and when he couldn’t find you he killed your parents. The elders of the Greybacks and the Clawgroves convened, and they sentenced Samson to death. It was the only way to appease the truce – a life for a life, in order to maintain the strength of both houses. We took a vow that night, never to let the truth be known.”

Connor spit onto the ground, his brown hair a mess and his eyes gleaming underneath. The fine ridge of his nose pointed toward his father. “You executed him, and then buried the evidence in the history of the Tribes. But something like that doesn’t stay buried. You didn’t count on his daughter finding out the truth.”

“But I did,” Caroline sneered, “and I’ve waited a long time to avenge my father.”

What happened next was like a simultaneous moment in Sarah’s mind. She saw Caroline raise the barrel of the rifle to her shoulder and her finger test the trigger. At the same time Connor’s muscles contracted as he prepared to jump into the line of fire, and Patrick stumbled backward on the fountain, instinctively moving into Form as he did.

Sarah sprinted forward, and time seemed to move as if underwater. Each movement like a delayed after-image as she bore down on Caroline. The rifle ejected a bullet and she could feel the shockwave of it, and the deafening impact against her eardrums. What Caroline hadn’t counted on was her cousin running straight toward her, however, and the two women ran hard into each other.

Sarah gasped as the butt of the rifle hit her in the solar plexus, but knew that if she went down now it would be the end for all of them. With her outspread legs she kicked hard at Caroline’s knee cap and hit something hard. Caroline screamed and fell backward and the rifle skidded across the flagstones.

“You little bitch!” Caroline screamed, her short black bowl cut hugging her scalp like a helmet

Sarah choked, trying to gasp for air as she held her side.

“Get away from her!” she heard Connor holler, and the sound of something heavy and metal whistled past her head and buried into the doorframe next to Caroline’s head. The small hatchet rung loudly even as it vibrated in the wood.

Caroline scowled defiantly, but Connor was already one step ahead. In seconds he had transformed into a Bear, and his long lanky brown body was tumbling toward her. His huge teeth snarled in front of a pink tongue that was like an entity entirely separate and discrete. As though rage, like a hungry organ, had tasted its way into him.              It was too much for her to handle, and Caroline swore and scrambled through the open door into the interior of the chalet. Sarah looked up and regained her breath, and saw that Connor was perched above her protectively.             

“I’m okay,” she gasped, but he refused to leave her side and only emitted a low growl.

Back toward the fountain, she saw another dark shape, twice as large and black, almost the same color as her hair. Flanking her, Connor followed his mate to the edge of the concrete and sniffed at the dark hair of his sire. Patrick had probably anticipated the rifle shot, and had preemptively transformed into his Bear – but the transformation hadn’t been complete by the time the bullet hit, and she felt under the giant pelt and saw there was a pool of blood forming, leaching between the cracks of the stones.

“He’s… hit. I don’t know how badly,” she said desperately, and Patrick’s dark black eyes turned toward her with a grunt. He looked at Sarah and then at Connor, and let out a small bear-like growl.
What’s done is done
.

“You stay here,” she said to Connor, standing up and rubbing the fur between his ears, and then reclaiming the Glock that Caroline had given her, “stay with your father. I have to finish this.”

She hobbled toward the door frame again and saw Connor try to follow her, but waved him back.
I know we promised we’d be together, every step of the way. But right now Patrick needs you. And Caroline is my responsibility… I don’t want you to see what I have to do
, she thought.

*

She picked up the automatic rifle off the stones and checked the chamber. There was one in the barrel, and three left in the magazine. She was well-armed, if it came to a fight with her cousin – but she knew that she was hopelessly outmatched. Even with the handgun and the rifle, Caroline still had the advantage.

Back inside the dining room, she crept slowly toward the main doors, keeping her footsteps soft and trying not to make a sound. Caroline was on the run now which made her even more dangerous. She heard a snap and threw herself flat against the floor – something whizzed above her head and she looked and saw a dagger protruding from the leg of the dining table.

A flash of black out of the corner of her eye.
You missed, now I’ve got you
, Sarah thought to herself, scrambling to her feet and following into the next room.

There was another sound, but this time it was louder, and Sarah barely had time to straighten herself against the doorframe as a gunshot splintered into the wooden frame. She turned back and leveled the rifle toward the tall spiral staircase that led to the second and third levels. Caroline had made it to the second floor and Sarah let out a shot. The force of the impact of the gun butted against her shoulder heavily and she gasped in pain.

“Missed,” she grumbled, and ran for the staircase.

She didn’t really want to hit Caroline, but the wild woman would probably only be taken one of two ways – either with a wound deep enough to keep her from being a threat, or a death-shot.

Please don’t let it be the latter
, Sarah pleaded, to whatever ancestor was listening to her prayer.

By time she reached the second floor, she was breathing hard, but the adrenaline in her veins was still pumping strong, and she knew she had to make the most of it if she had any chance of capturing Caroline.
If she gets away now, I’ll have to live the rest of my life in fear.

No, what Caroline really wanted was to hurt Patrick. She’d shot him, but she needed to do more. It was the threat of losing his heir that would sting him the most. It was the worst thing that could happen to any father – the loss of a child. Likewise, she figured, the worst thing that could happen to a child was losing their parent. Caroline wasn’t wrong in feeling the way she did – what they had done to Samson, to her, was wrong, invariably.

Why have things come so far
? she wondered hopelessly.

“I have to protect Connor,” Sarah  said, spinning left and right, her eye trained down the sight.

Another two shots from Caroline’s sidearm ricocheted off the banister, and Sarah ducked again. Too close. She wouldn’t get many more lucky breaks. The next shot that went off would hit one of them – deep in her heart Sarah knew it was most likely her, and the thought of such an imminent death caused a fresh surge of adrenaline. She had no wish to die, but neither could she permit Caroline to get away with hurting Connor.

“Caroline, please stop!” she shouted.

There was no sound.

“I know you’re hurt… I know you want vengeance, but it’s in the past. We all have to bear things, we all have to
do
things, we don’t want. But it’s for the good of the family, for the good of peace. You taught me that!”

“I was wrong, Sarah,” a cold voice replied, but Sarah couldn’t tell where it was coming from. She checked the railing with her rifle. Still no movement.
If I know Caroline, she’s trying to flank me so that she can sneak up behind.

“No you weren’t. I wasn’t sure I wanted this either, but it’s different now… I love Connor,” she said, and covered her mouth. She hadn’t meant to fall in love with him, and to say it out loud suddenly made it real for her. It only cemented her need to protect him from her cousin.

“Love!? You don’t understand love, Sarah. I loved my father, but he was executed… worse than that, he was erased! The Greybacks and the Clawgroves are poison, cancer! I’ll wipe them all out… even you, if you stand in my way.”

“I won’t let you hurt anyone else,” Sarah said.

“You may not a choice in that matter,” Caroline said. “If it comes down to it, can you really press the trigger? I trained you to be strong, and I’m glad to see I wasn’t misguided in that endeavor. But you and I both know, you’re not a killer.”

“I won’t let you hurt Connor.”

“Connor! He’s just a boy! You only met him a few days ago! You’ve known me your whole life! Can you really choose sides like that so easily?”

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. “You taught me to protect the people I love… I’m trying to protect you, Caroline. Come out… no one has to die. We can start fresh… that’s what you told me this was supposed to be, this marriage. A fresh start. I thought you meant a fresh start for me, but it’s not just about me anymore. It can be a fresh start for all of us.”

Sarah could sense Caroline sneering. She was too lost in her own hate – something that had been stirring and brooding for generations. She had even tried to bind that hate into Sarah, and failed. Her hands tightened on the grip of the rifle as she tried to sense the presence of footsteps.

“There is no fresh start,” Caroline replied, and there was a definitive edge to her tone, like everything had already been decided, “there’s only this.”

Sarah sensed rather than saw Caroline who came up behind her, using the shadows of a bookshelf to hide her approach. As she turned, she saw her cousin’s face catch in the light coming through one of the windows. It wasn’t the face she had recognized as her cousin – it had changed, been warped. Or perhaps
this
had always been the real Caroline, a vixen with a bone to pick. Her face snarled as she leaped  toward Sarah, and a dagger was raised in her hand.

It all happened too suddenly for even Sarah to comprehend.

A shot rang out through the chalet and both women fell against each other and were still. Sarah opened her eyes. The beam of sunlight through the window arched down and lit up an area of the carpet next to them. Caroline, on top of her, let out a sigh, and Sarah pushed her off.

A deep gaping wound in her tank top near her heart was already red with blood and Sarah started crying when she realized whose blood it belonged to. Caroline opened her mouth and a trickle of dark arterial blood sputtered out of the corner of her lips, and her eyes were wide. It was the first and last time that Sarah ever saw fear in those dark lupine eyes.

“There’s… only…. this,” Caroline repeated and closed her eyes.

“No,” Sarah wept, her hands pulling at her cousin’s shoulders, and she leaned down on Caroline’s stomach. The tears wouldn’t stop, and she bawled, her whole body shaking with the tragedy that had been waiting all her life to catch up with her.

It wasn’t until Connor found her moments later and wrapped his arms around her that she was able to blink away the tears, though her eyes were still red.

“I… I didn’t mean to-”

“Shh…” Connor whispered in her ear, “it’s all over now. You did what you had to. She would have killed you. All of us.”