Chapter 3
Star gazed through a window into the front yard. Walker and Shaw crossed her field of view with their rifles cradled in their arms. They scanned the surrounding forest for sign of intruders.
Kaiser watched them through another window. He stood back with a sigh. “No sign of them. They must be running scared.”
“Maybe they’re arming, too. Maybe they’re on alert, the same way we are.”
“They wouldn’t dare. They must have gotten word we made an alliance with the Kerrs. Now they’re shaking in their shoes.”
“We haven’t made an alliance with the Kerrs yet.”
“No, but it’s as good as a done deal. The rest is just formality.”
“Yeah, about that ...We need to talk, Pop.”
He didn’t hear her. He yanked the door open and bellowed across the yard. “Get out of there, Dax! Get back to your post.”
Dax appeared from behind the barn. He grinned toward the house. Then he picked up his rifle from on top of the woodpile and went back to pacing back and forth by the fence with his brothers.
Kaiser glanced at Star. “Sorry, honey. What is it you want to talk about?”
“I just want to tell you that...”
He stuck his head through the door again. “Don’t make me come out there, Dax!”
Dax spun around and spread his hands toward the house. He shook his head and waved his hands in a pantomime of innocence.
Kaiser sighed. “I just don’t know about that boy sometimes. Now then, honey. What did you want to tell me?”
Star turned on her heel. “Forget it. I don’t want to tell you anything.”
She pulled the door open and set off running across the yard. She cleared the fence and dove into the trees. Her father’s voice echoed after her. “You can’t go out there. It’s dangerous! The Farrells will get you!”
Star ran full speed up the trial. Her lungs burned and her legs ached, but she pushed herself harder than ever. Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Leave me alone! The phrase kept repeating in her head.
Who did she scream those words to – her family, Hyatt, the Farrells? The Farrells hadn’t done anything to her; especially not … She refused to say his name. She refused even to think his name.
He haunted her darkest dreams. He stalked her when she managed some quiet moments alone; she couldn’t get him out of her head. His words repeated in her mind. Why don’t you sit down and we’ll share it?
Who on this God-forsaken mountain would think of a thing like that? Who in their right mind would think of a Farrell and a Cunningham sitting down on a bench and sharing it? Who ever heard of a Farrell and a Cunningham having a civil conversation like two civilized Bruins?
That would never happen. She hated … him, so why didn’t she just come right out and say his name. Brody Farrell. She hated Brody Farrell.
Those words sounded exactly right in her mind, so why did her heart say, No! Why did she wish so much she’d taken him up on his offer when he made it? She would give anything to sit down on a bench next to a Farrell and have a civil conversation. That would give her hope that the world hadn’t gone completely insane.
She wanted Hyatt and her family and all the rest of the Farrells to leave her alone, but she didn’t want Brody leaving her alone. She climbed up to Bruins’ Peak to get away from all the others, but in her heart, she had to admit the truth. She went up there to find him.
Would he be there again? Did he think about her the way she thought about him? After the things he said, he must hate her as much as she hated him, but she couldn’t believe he hated her. The look in his eyes when she told him about Hyatt made her heart leap at a lifeline she never knew she needed.
Someone cared. Someone understood how she felt about marrying Hyatt. Too bad that someone had to be a Farrell. Then again, she never told anyone before how she felt. She loved Hyatt like a brother, but the thought of marrying him, of spending the rest of her life with him, blocked up her throat with stifled sobs. She couldn’t do it. She wouldn’t do it.
She couldn’t shatter her father’s plans by telling him. She couldn’t unburden her tortured soul to anyone but a Farrell – and not just any Farrell. Brody understood. Brody cared. Brody wanted to help her.
That made her madder than anything, but she couldn’t pin that anger on the people who really caused it. She couldn’t get mad at her parents for pressuring her into this situation. She could only lash out at the one person she knew on instinct could handle her anger without taking it personally. She lashed out at Brody.
What a fool she was not to accept his help. She wanted nothing more than to get down on her knees and beg him to help her, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t tell him her secrets. She had to hate him, to fight him.
What could he possibly do to help her anyway? He couldn’t exactly kidnap her to stop the wedding: a Cunningham accepting help to thwart the plans of Cunninghams? That was a cruel joke.
She came up to the Peak, but her heart sank when she saw the bench empty. He wasn’t there. He didn’t care about her. He was miles away. He was busy getting his family Homestead battened down for a Cunningham invasion. He was planning all the best ways to kill her and her loved ones.
She threw herself down on the bench and buried her face in her hands. What was she going to do? She couldn’t go on this way. She couldn’t carry the weight of her secret alone. He wasn’t here. She had no choice but to go home and confront her parents with the truth. They wouldn’t listen. They would keep pushing her to marry Hyatt. She might as well put Brody Farrell and all his maddening complications out of her mind right here and now. The less she thought about him, the better.
She hoisted herself off the bench with a heavy heart, but when she turned around, her nerves prickled. Something was out there, in the trees. A branch swayed. The birds fluttered into the air over the spot, and a figure emerged from the shadows.
Her spirits soared. It was Brody.
He eyed her from the tree line. His jaw jerked with nervous tension, but he kept his thumbs hitched in his pockets. Was he just going to stand there and stare at her? Didn’t he want to come out and talk to her? He couldn’t be afraid when he believed the Peak belonged to the Farrells.
At last, he made up his mind and came toward her. Swallowing her pride and going to meet him in the trees never crossed her mind. She couldn’t admit to herself or to him that she really wanted to see him.
He made the decision for her. He stopped in front of the bench. He shot her a quick glance. “Are you all right?”
She nodded, but her hands shook. She bit her lip. “You?”
He nodded, too. His eyes skated over the countryside. “So...uh....you’re here.”
She nodded again. She couldn’t stop herself nodding like a fool. Her heart pattered like a hummingbird in her chest. “I didn’t think you would come.”
“Is that why you came? Do you want to be alone again? I’ll leave you alone if that’s what you really want.”
She put out her hand. “No! I mean, I was hoping you’d be up here.”
He settled down and looked straight at her. “I was hoping you would come back. I didn’t think you would, but I kept watch just in case.”
“You did?”
“Sure. I thought you might change your mind and want someone to talk to.”
“You’re the only one I can talk to. You’re the only one who knows what’s going on with me. Everybody else thinks I’m cool with marrying Hyatt.”
“You’ll have to come clean sooner or later.”
“Yeah; I’m thinking hopefully later.”
“The sooner the better, you’re killing yourself holding this in.”
She tried to smile, but her face twisted up into a mask of anguish. “Do you really think so?”
He took a step closer. “Sure. Just look at you. The sooner you get it off your chest, the sooner you can stop worrying about it. What can they do to you? They can’t force you into a loveless match.”
“No, they wouldn’t do that. My father dotes on me. He only wants me to be happy. He thinks I’ll be happy to marry Hyatt, since we’re so close. He thinks he’s doing me a favor – and himself one, too. He thinks it’s a win-win for everybody.”
“Has he said anything to the Kerrs yet? Do they know he wants this match?”
Star shook her head. “He’s too busy preparing for....”
His eyes snapped to her face. “Let me guess. He’s preparing to fight the northern peril.”
“How can you joke about this? Our families are at each other’s throats. They’ll be slaughtering each other in a few days if someone doesn’t step in.”
“Who would that someone be?”
“I don’t know. I wish Forsyth Mackenzie was still alive. I can’t think of anybody else both sides would listen to.”
“I forgot about him. Too bad he died of a heart attack last year, and his son Rex, the new Mackenzie Alpha, is a drunken gambler. I can’t think of anybody else that could do the job.”
“You should see my father and brothers. They patrol the Homestead day and night, and they have booby traps set up all around the place. I might as well be living in a maximum security prison. They didn’t want me to come here today.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing compared to what my brothers have going on. They’re preparing for World War III.”
“Would you get in trouble for talking to me? My father would flip if he knew you came within spitting distance of me.”
“My parents already know I met you up here last time. I asked my father about our southern boundary.”
“What did he say?”
“He said our southern boundary is Craven Creek.” He held up his hand to stop her arguing. “It doesn’t matter. Let them think what they want to think.”
“So what did they think when you said you met me up here?”
“They just kept going on ‘bout how you were dead wrong about our boundary. That’s as far as it went, except when I told them about your family wanting to marry you off to Hyatt, my father said....”
“What? You told your family about that? How could you tell them?”
“I’m about to tell you. When I told them, my father said...”
Her voice rose to a shriek. “You told them? How could you betray me like that?”
“Betray you? What are you talking about?”
“You’re the only person in the world I’ve told anything about it, and now you go and blab to your family – the Farrell family – my most closely guarded secret? You prick! I’ll kill you. Don’t you dare come near me again. I’ll crush your nuts with a meat tenderizer.”
“Now just hold your horses, slick. I never....”
“How can you be such a peckerhead? So now the whole rootin’, tootin’ Farrell tribe knows every detail of my personal life. You whoreson! I’m never talking to you again.”
Brody froze. “You better take that back. I was only trying to help you. You don’t have to pull out the nasty names.”
She flew at him with both fists and pounded them against his chest. “You're a liar! You scum! You rat! I’ll kill you.”
He grabbed her wrists and wrestled her away. She thrashed and punched, but he held her at a safe distance. When she tried to wrench her hands free, he wouldn’t let her go. “Hey! What’s the matter with you?”
She fell to wordless roaring. She couldn’t reach him to pummel him with her fists. That made her madder than anything.
She hurled herself at him with all her strength, but she only succeeded in wheeling aside. When she stumbled off balance, he let go of her wrists and let her spin wide.
Star rounded on him with her hackles raised, but before she could launch herself at him again, her body shimmered. Her shoulders hunched, and her mouth yawned bigger and more terrible to let that enraged bellow burst from her lungs.
Her shoulders swelled to twice their normal size, and her whole body doubled over. Her hair blew back from her face, and her skin darkened to dusky brown fur. She landed forward on her hands, but they weren’t hands anymore. Raking claws scratched the rocky soil, and her powerful shoulders extended into massive legs.
She opened her mouth to let out another deafening roar, and the transformation was complete. A massive brown bear stood where willowy Star Cunningham had been just a few seconds before.
She coiled her legs under her to spring. Her fangs glistened in the sun, and her small black eyes burned in her face. An instant later, she left the ground, and all her muscular bulk flew through the air toward Brody.
She would have flattened him if he hadn’t dodged out of the way at the last second. Star sailed past him and landed a few feet away, but she recovered in a heartbeat. She pivoted and came at him again, but he retreated to the far end of the bench. She bent her head between her shoulders and thundered her challenge to him.
In the blink of an eye, Brody shifted, too. His shoulders spread out across his wide back. His T-shirt split down his spine, and dark brown fur sprouted all over his skin. He raked his claws through the air in Star’s direction and shivered the mountain to its foundation with his ear-splitting roar.
For a brief moment, they matched each other in volume. Brody dropped down on all fours and walked sideways around Star. He bellowed into her ear and twisted his head on his burly neck. She arched her shoulders at him and thundered sideways at his broad back.
He stood a good foot taller than her at the shoulder, and anybody could see he outweighed her by hundreds of pounds. She had to crane her neck to yell up at him, and he looked down on her when he looked at her at all. She was well and truly outclassed. She could get as mad as she wanted, but her bear instincts would never let her attack him. He could devastate her with one swipe of his paw. No one knew that better than she did.
She didn’t stop bellowing, and she didn’t back down. He slashed at her with his teeth, but he pulled back within inches of cutting her with his bite. She growled and tossed her head. She lashed, but she didn’t dare nip. She could lose her temper with him, but if she provoked him into losing control, he wouldn’t stop until he killed her. Once he started, she couldn’t stop him.
They bellowed and threatened for five full minutes until Brody lost his patience. He stood up on his hind legs and stretched out his forefeet toward her. He towered over her in all his monstrous bulk. He raised his voice and thundered to the skies.
Star didn’t dare rise on her back legs to confront him. She stayed on all fours and returned his bellows, but he’d made his point. He would dominate. He outweighed her, and he could crush her any time he chose.
Her thunderous rage gradually diminished until she grunted up at him. He gave her one or two more pointed roars before he dropped back down on all fours. The minute he did that, Star took a step back. Her shoulders straightened, her skin lightened, and her face collapsed inward. Her dark hair hung down to her shoulders, and her arms stretched thin and shapely to her painted fingernails. She was herself again.
Brody matched her, movement for movement. He pulled his head back on his shoulders, and his spine straightened to let him stand upright. His hips narrowed, and his chest lay bare to the sun.
***END OF PREVIEW***