Shockwaves on Bruins' Peak (Bruins' Peak Bears Book 4) by Erin D. Andrews (1)

Chapter 1

Broken glass shattered into an explosion of tinkling shards and crashed to the hardwood floor. A window collapsed into sheets on the front porch at Dunlap Homestead. Screaming voices echoed through the jagged hole, “Leave me alone! Why can't you all just leave me alone?”

Marla Dunlap burst through the door so fast it smashed back on its hinges. The knob jabbed through the other front window and shattered that, too. Plate glass hit the porch and broke into pieces. The upper door hinge bent and snapped, and the door slumped at an odd angle. Its bottom corner dug into the floorboards, and the door leaned to one side.

Marla paid no attention to any of that. She tossed herself into a wicker armchair and buried her head in her hands. She shuddered and struggled to catch her breath. The voices died inside the house, and the bird songs rose from the forest beyond the lawn to take the place of shouts and screams.

Her breath steadied after a few minutes. Just when she started to gain control of herself, a figure appeared in the open doorway. Harmony McGillis studied the broken door before she stepped out onto the porch. She craned her back to compensate for her swollen belly, and her dress stretched tight around her bulging middle. Harmony picked her way through broken glass to sit down in the chair next to Marla. She hesitated a moment before leaning close to murmur in Marla’s ear. “Are you okay?”

Marla dropped her hands and threw herself back in the chair so fast she startled Harmony back. “I was just fine before you came out here and spoiled my whole day. Why do you have to keep nagging me about everything? Can't you see I came out here to be alone?”

Harmony waved her hand over the destruction all around her. “You're still on the porch. This is the main thoroughfare in and out of the house. This is where everybody passes, coming and going. If you really wanted to be alone, you would go to the forest or somewhere like that.”

Marla glared at her. “You think you're so stinkin' smart, don't you? Well, no one invited you to come out here and massage my ego. Go back inside with your friends.”

“They're not friends. They're family, and family takes care of each other. They're your family, too, and they only want to help you, the same way I do.” Harmony laid her hand on Marla’s arm. “We can all see something's bothering you, and we want to make it better if we only knew what it was.”

Marla batted her hand away and snarled through gritted teeth, “The only thing bothering me is that everyone thinks something is bothering me.”

Harmony settled back in her chair and straightened her dress. Her eyes flashed. “You might think I'm still an outsider, but maybe that's why you could believe it coming from me when you couldn't believe it coming from your own family.”

Marla narrowed her eyes at her. “Believe what?”

“I've been living in this house for months now, and I've been keeping track. This is the twentieth day in a row that you've gotten in a fight with someone.” Harmony marked off the list on her fingers, one by one. “Yesterday you got in a fight with Aiken about passing the gravy at the breakfast table, and today you got in a fight with your mother when she suggested you go to the Mackenzies’ for Lyric's wedding. You get in fights with everyone on a daily basis. It only takes the tiniest provocation to set you off. You're walking around on a hair-trigger, and you blow up every time anybody looks sideways at you.”

“I am not on a hair-trigger,” Marla shot back. “This is just your way of nagging me like everybody else.”

“What exactly is it about going to Lyric's wedding that drives you so crazy?” Harmony asked. “Is it going out of the house? Is it being around so many other Bruins all at the same time? Is it the fact that someone is getting married and you aren't?”

Marla rounded on her. “Don't you start on about getting married. I've got enough to worry about with my mother pressuring me to get married, morning, noon, and night.”

“She's not pressuring you,” Harmony countered. “She just asked if you wanted to go to Lyric's wedding. Most people would just say yes or no and leave it at that.”

Marla bristled. “You must think I'm really stupid or something. She's been working on me to get married for years. Her asking me about Lyric's wedding is just an underhanded way of pushing me to find a mate, too. I'm not so stupid I can't see that as plain as the nose on your face.”

Harmony smiled at her. “I'm not saying it wasn't an underhanded suggestion, but it's only natural for a mother to want her daughter to find a mate. You don't have to dignify her underhanded suggestions with more than a one-word response, let alone lose it in front of the whole family.”

Marla smacked her lips. “Do you have to be so all-fired helpful about everything? I don't even know you, and here you come sticking your nose in a private situation.”

“You don't know me,” Harmony conceded, “and that's why I'm trying to make friends with you. We're sisters. If I can help you, I want to do it.”

“We're not sisters,” Marla snapped, “and you can't help me. Just because you married my brother doesn't give you a ticket to invade my privacy. Why don't you go shut your bedroom door and mind your own business?”

Harmony extended her hand one more time toward Marla. “I want to be your friend, Marla. If you're having trouble with something, I want to help you.”

This time, Harmony never got as far as touching Marla before she struck out to fend Harmony off. “You can help me by buzzing off. I don't know how many times and how many different ways I have to say it. Nothing is bothering me except every blamed tramp from town trying to be my friend and dogging after me when I'm trying to be alone.”

The smile evaporated from Harmony's face. “You don't have to get nasty with me.”

Marla bared her teeth. “Apparently, I do, because saying it nicely doesn't penetrate your thick skull. Nothing is bothering me, and if it was, you would be the last person on the planet I would want to talk to about it. I hate you. You're a filthy foundling from town. You ought to go back there and see if you can pick up a best friend from the street corner. That's a little more your speed, don't you think?”

Harmony stiffened. “I hear it coming out of your mouth, Marla, but you don't have to look any farther than this porch to see what's going on inside you. Look at this place. Both windows in pieces and the door broken off its hinges, and this will be the fifth time in two months the boys have had to clean up your mess. If it isn't the house smashed to pieces or food thrown across the room, it's nasty words and your mother in tears. You better clean up your act quick, or your father will send you to live with one of the other tribes. He's told you that a dozen times.”

“He says it,” Marla muttered, “but he never does it and he never will. He'll never send me to live with any of the other tribes. He'll keep his dirty little secret all to himself.”

Harmony lowered her voice almost to a whisper, “Do you mean he wouldn't want the other tribes to know about you? What do you say he wouldn't want them to know? He wouldn't want them to know how messed up you are, or he wouldn't want the other tribes to find out whatever is bothering you?”

Marla's arms flew out at Harmony and she screeched at the top of her lungs. “Are you deaf or something? Nothing is bothering me!”

Harmony didn't flinch. She fixed her eagle eye on Marla and kept her voice cold and calm. “That's your worst fear, isn't it, Marla? You never leave the house, not even to take a walk in the forest. Aiken said you haven't shifted in years. You're totally dissociated from your bear. You don't want to be around Bruins, and you never go to gatherings with the other tribes. You won't look sideways at a man, let alone go out on a date, even though you've been asked by three different eligible bachelors in the last three months.”

Marla shot out of her chair. She leaned her hands on the arms of Harmony's chair and thundered into her sister-in-law's face. Harmony clenched her eyes closed to block out the drops of spittle flying into her face. “Shut up! Can't you just shut up for two seconds? Is that asking too much? I swear to God if you say one more word to me I'll push you down the stairs and break your ever-loving neck. Get out of my face and get out of my life!”

Marla's mother, Beatrice, came to the door. “Marla! What in the world has gotten into you?”

Marla rounded on her with a snarl. “Are you satisfied now, Ma? Is this what you all want for me? You want me to be stark-raving mad, don't you, so you can point at me and say how normal and well-adjusted you all are. Well, I won't be crazy for you. I won't be your dirty little secret anymore.”

“No one wants you to be crazy, Marla,” Beatrice murmured.

Harmony stood up. “It's okay, Beatrice. I'm finished here, and I'm finished with you, Marla. I've been trying for days to get through to you, and you just get nastier and nastier. I don't have any female friends close to my own age on Bruins' Peak, so I tried to be your friend, but I won't try anymore.” Her voice cracked in spite of her brave face. “If you want to be alone and miserable, I won't try to stop you.” She pushed past Marla and disappeared into the house.

Beatrice gave Marla her pained expression. Marla knew that expression. She caused her mother pain on a daily basis. “Oh, Marla! How could you?”

Marla twisted up her face in a mask of disgust and hatred. She rolled every word in her mouth to savor and enjoy them. “It was easy, and I loved every minute of it.”

Beatrice gasped, but Marla didn't wait around to hear any more. She spun on her heel and made for the garden gate. She kicked it open and enjoyed the crunching noise it made when it banged against the picket fence. That was another repair job for Boyd to do to clean the mess that was his little sister Marla Jane.

She scooted through the gate and headed down the big lawn to the shed hidden in the trees. The Dunlaps kept their cars and trucks and heavy equipment out of sight of their manicured Homestead. That's the way the Dunlap tribe worked. They kept the dirt and mess of farming work where it wouldn't disturb their domestic aesthetic.

They did the same thing with Marla. They kept her at home, where no other Bruins would see her explosive outbursts. They surrounded her with a protective halo so everyone outside their immediate circle saw a normal family with no problems. God forbid other Bruins should ever find out they had problems.

Marla was a problem. In fact, Marla was their biggest problem. The more trouble she gave them, the more they fell back on the only solution they could think of: to marry her off.

She pushed her way down the flagstone path to the shed and found the door standing open. She paused in front of her brother Boyd's pick-up truck. The shed gave her a queer, unfamiliar feeling. This was the farthest she'd been outside her own house in she couldn't remember how long. The sad fact remained she had never seen Boyd's pick-up before in her life, and he bought it more than three years ago. That's how long since she went anywhere.

The shed smelled of engine oil and Windex. The boys and their father Jasper kept their vehicles sparkling clean, and the tell-tale spraying noise alerted her she wasn't as alone as she wished she was. Before she could retreat and find another refuge, a big square man came around the end of a tractor down at the shed’s far end. Her brother, Aiken, squirted window cleaner on its windshield and rubbed it off with a green rag.

He looked up. “Oh, hello, Marla,” he chirped. “Where did you come from?”

“From Hell,” she snarled.

His head shot up to stare at her. Then he burst out laughing. “Let me guess. Ma's been at you again.”

Marla let out a shaky breath. “You don't know the half of it,” she muttered. She couldn't exactly tell him Harmony was at her.

Aiken sprayed another spritz of Windex on the tractor windshield. “Well, don't let the suckers get you down. You'll find someone one of these days and get married.”

“I'd rather slit my wrists.”

He studied her. “It's not as bad as you think. It might actually do you some good.”

“Now, don't you start.”

“I mean it. You think you aren't interested, but you might feel differently if you found the right man. You might settle down and be a lot happier.”

Marla's temper flared. “You're just like all the rest. You think because you found a mate and got married, that everyone else has to do the same thing. Did it ever occur to you or anyone else that I don't want to get married—not even to the right man? I can't think of anything I would like to do less.”

“What do you have against getting married? Maybe it's men in general you have something against. Dad thinks you might be a closet lesbian or something.”

“That's impossible. Bruins can't be lesbians.”

“But you'd like to be one if you could be. Is that it? What do you have against men?”

“You are one. You ought to know.”

“You got me there.”

Marla waited, but he didn't move. He just stood there smiling at her. He couldn’t make her madder if he tried. “Don't you have any work to do this morning?”

“I just finished.” He set the Windex bottle on the work bench against the wall. “What are you up to?”

“Just trying to find some peace and quiet.”

“Well, good luck.” He went back to the tractor and popped up the engine cover. He started tinkering with the spark plugs.

Marla glared at the back of his head. “I thought you said you were done.”

“I just want to check something.”

“Can't you check it later?”

“Why should I? If there's a job to do, do it now. That's what Dad always says.”

Marla threw up her hands in disgust. She couldn't relax with him around, and he wouldn't take a hint if she smacked him over the head with a stick of firewood. She whirled away and stormed out of the shed. She couldn't even catch a moment's peace there.

She blew through the door into the bright sunshine, but when she got back to the flagstone path, she faced a new problem. The path led one way to the left back to the house. The other way, the way to the right, wound its way somewhere into the trees. She'd never been that way. She couldn't remember a time when she'd been that way, at least not since she was a little girl riding on her father's shoulders.

She didn't have time to hesitate. She couldn't go back to the house, and she couldn't stay where she was without someone asking awkward questions. She headed right. Trees covered the path and darkened her way. The air cooled under the waving foliage.

Marla stomped down the path in a turmoil of anger and resentment. She repeated over in her mind every word of her confrontation, first with her mother about Lyric Mackenzie's wedding and then with Harmony about their supposed friendship. She argued with them and everyone else ad nauseum about everything they disagreed about for the last several months.

All at once, she stopped dead in her tracks. Moss and grass covered the flagstones at her feet. She couldn't see them well enough to follow them. She had to concentrate to see them at all.

She looked around. Trees surrounded her on all sides. If she focused really hard, she could see the flagstones well enough to find her way back, but that problem paled in comparison to the new danger facing her.

She hadn't been in the forest for years. House walls no longer protected her from shadows and lurking creepers. The forest hemmed her in and clawed at her with its fingernails. Nightmares hid behind every tree and rock.

Chapter 2

Walker Cunningham came out of his back bedroom/office and paused in the living doorway at Cunningham Homestead. His elderly parents and brother, Dax, already sat at the kitchen table. As soon as Walker saw them assembled, he regretted coming out of his room at all.

He could hide in his room. His room protected him from situations exactly like this one. He took refuge in his spreadsheets and his income reports and his personnel time sheets in his room. From his room, he manipulated the Cunningham tribe's finances, their industries, and their investments. Every penny of Cunningham profit sprang from his fingers on his computer keyboard, but his own acumen trapped him in his bedroom so he couldn't come out to face his family.

He took a deep breath. Was he Alpha of his tribe or a mouse, that he should run and hide from prying eyes? He squared his burly shoulders and marched into the living room. His father raised his rheumy eyes when Walker approached the table. “Morning, son.”

Walker pulled out a chair and sat down across from Dax. “Morning, Pop. How are you today?”

Old Kaiser Cunningham let out a long sigh. His voice rose and fell with every breath. “I'm all right. I'm grateful for another day.”

Walker helped himself to a slab of ham and two fried eggs when his mother, Rena, spoke up, “Lyric Mackenzie is getting married on Sunday. Do you need your suit pressed, Walker?”

Walker's fork hung suspended over his plate. Then he let his elbow fall on the table in front of him. He thought fast to come up with some way to get out of going to the wedding. He started talking faster, too. “I forgot about Lyric's wedding. I scheduled that mill inspection for Sunday afternoon, so I guess I won't make it to the wedding.”

Rena’s head shot up and her eyes popped open. “You have to go!” she exclaimed. “It's the biggest wedding since Aiken Dunlap married Laird Kerr's long-lost niece. Every eligible young lady on the mountain will be there.”

Dax interrupted, “I can handle the mill inspection for you. Anyone else could handle it. You don't have to be there for every single solitary thing that happens.”

Walker glared at his brother. “Thanks a lot.”

“And take your elbows off the table, Walker.” Rena pointed at his elbows with her fork. “You should know by now it's not polite. How do you expect to find your future bride if you don't mind your manners?”

Walker wiped his mouth with a napkin and leaned back in his chair. “If she's going to be my future bride, I don't guess she'll mind too much if I put my elbows on the table.”

“Of course she'll mind if you put your elbows on the table,” Kaiser interjected. “You want to marry a woman like your Mama, don't you, boy? Well, she minds. Now don't let me hear you give her any more sass. You'll get your suit pressed and go along to the wedding.”

Walker picked up his fork and bent over his plate. “Yes, sir,” he mumbled.

Rena brightened up. “Ruby MacAllister will be there. She's awful nice-looking, don't you think?”

“She's very nice-looking,” Walker muttered.

Dax leered across the table. “And she just dotes on you.”

“She certainly does,” Rena gushed. “Anyone could see that at Aiken and Harmony's wedding. She followed you around and wouldn't leave you alone, and her father set a huge inheritance on the man she marries.”

“I'm sure Ruby MacAllister would be thrilled to marry Alpha of the Cunningham tribe,” Dax rejoined.

“You won't be Alpha if you don't get married,” Kaiser murmured. “You can't lock down your position until you find a mate. The rest of the tribe won't respect your authority.”

“I know, Pop.”

“Do you think you could see your way to accepting Ruby?” Rena begged. “You said yourself she's nice-looking. What more could you ask for?”

Walker squared his shoulders. “She's not my true mate. I couldn't marry any woman who wasn't my true mate. That would be a disaster, and it would be unfair to the lady.”

“There are dozens of other Bruin ladies you could marry,” Rena went on. “There's Natalie Dodd. She told Harmony straight out she thinks you’re the most handsome man on the mountain. You can't beat that.”

“And rich, too,” Dax added.

Kaiser looked up from his plate. “Who's rich—Natalie or Walker?”

“Both of them. That's what makes it a perfect match. There's Melody Mackenzie. There's Rose Kerr. There's Haven Farrell.” Rena spread her arms to include all of Bruin country. “There are dozens of ladies you could marry.”

Dax grinned. “You could marry dozens of ladies, Walker. Wouldn't that be something?”

“It's not a perfect match if I'm not interested in the lady, and I don't want you matching me up with anybody. I don't have to go to every Bruin gathering that comes along to find my mate. That will happen all by itself.”

“It won't happen if you stay in that room of yours,” Rena grumbled. “Can't you see the way these women look at you? You're tall, handsome, powerful, and you're Alpha of your tribe, but you snub them all. I don't know what's got into you.”

“I'm sorry, Mama,” Walker murmured. “None of those girls turn my head. They're all very nice and good-looking, but I've talked to each of them enough to know none of them is my heart's true mate. You wouldn't want me to marry someone, only to make both them and myself miserable. I'm better off alone until I find the right woman.”

Dax leaned his elbows on the table, but no one bothered to tell him to mind his manners. “Hey, Walker, I've got an idea.”

Walker groaned. “I can't wait to hear it.”

“How's about I take the Land Rover and scout out the Farrells' south boundary? I could run their fence line and make sure they haven't moved any of their posts onto our territory.” Dax’s eyes burned with excitement.

Walker set down his fork. “You stay away from the Farrells'. You don't go anywhere near their south boundary or any other part of their territory. Do you hear me, Dax? Don't make me have to tell you twice.”

Dax leaned back. “I hear you.”

“You hear me, but you don't listen,” Walker growled. “This is the second time I've had to tell you in the last week. You know good and well I'm working toward peace with Brody Farrell, and you undermine my efforts at every turn. You're gonna get yourself in trouble that way.”

Dax gritted his teeth. “You're too soft, Walker. The Farrells are playing you for a fool. While you're making peace, they'll be playing their old tricks and sneaking behind your back.”

“As long as I'm Alpha of this tribe, you'll follow my orders, Dax,” Walker barked. “You keep away from the Farrells until you can get on board with this peace initiative.”

Dax bared his teeth with a wicked glint in his eyes. “You heard what Pop just said. You're not full Alpha until you find a mate.”

Walker puffed out his chest and broadened his shoulders. “Are you trying to challenge me, boy? 'Cuz if you are, you better pack a lunch.”

Dax shrank down in his chair. “I'm not trying to challenge you. I'm just saying…”

Walker's voice boomed through the house. “Well, don't say. If you're not prepared to challenge me in front of everyone, just keep quiet and do as you're told.”

Dax dropped his eyes to his plate. “If I was Alpha, I would attack them point-blank. I wouldn't bother with any peace initiative.”

Walker said nothing, but his eyes flashed at his brother. This open insubordination didn't bode well for his future leadership. He had to nip this behavior in the bud before it blossomed into something too dangerous to control.

Walker kicked himself under the table. His father was right, of course. Walker could whoop any Bruin who looked sideways at him, but he couldn't be full Alpha of his tribe without a mate at his side. He had to find a woman, and not just any woman. Bruins could smell a true match a mile away. Marrying the wrong woman would undermine his future more than marrying no one. Bruins mate for life, and no one trusted a lone wolf.

Walker finished his eggs and ham. Dax left the house while Walker carried his plate, fork and knife to the dishwasher and rinsed his face and hands in the sink. His mother helped his father back to their room. They would stay there for the rest of the day and only come out again for dinner. Kaiser slept most of the time, and Rena took care of him when he woke up.

The less time Kaiser spent outside his room, the more power fell into Walker's hands until he dominated his whole tribe. The more he dominated his tribe, the more tenuous his position as a single man. He couldn't keep his place as Alpha much longer without a mate.

Pretty soon, he found himself alone in the kitchen. The whole house stood silent and barren around him. He could be the last man alive in the world. A motor spluttering in the distance brought him back to the present. He went to the front window and watched Dax fiddling with a derelict car in front of the barnyard. He would never find a better time to confront his brother.

Walker strode through the front door and down the path. Dax looked up and went back to what he was doing, but Walker didn't stop. He marched right up to Dax. Without missing a beat, he grabbed his brother by the back of the neck and yanked him out from under the hood.

Dax let out a squawk. Walker dragged him off his feet and hauled him around the barn corner where no one could see them from the house. He swung Dax around and slammed him against the barn wall. He threw his weight against Dax to pin him against the wall and jabbed his elbow against Dax's throat. “Is this what you're asking for? Is this your idea of a good time? Do you want me to school you like a little girl who can't keep her knickers up?”

Dax choked for air. Saliva foamed between his lips, but he couldn't speak.

Walker bellowed into his face. “If I find out you put one toe in the general direction of the Farrells, I swear to God, I'll skin you alive and leave your bleeding carcass to the rats. Is this what you want? Is this what you're asking for by mouthing off to me in front of Pop?”

Dax grunted. He mouthed the word, “No,” but no sound came out. He clawed Walker's arm, but he couldn't pull it away from his neck.

“You better get yourself in line, son,” Walker thundered. “As long as I'm Alpha here, you'll fall in line or I'll make you cry to Mama about your sore rear end. Is that clear?”

Dax barely squeezed out a nod, and Walker let him go. Dax's feet touched the ground, and his knees buckled under him. Walker caught him under the armpits and steadied him until he could stand on his own.

Walker pushed him away. He growled through gritted teeth. “Now, go back to work.”

Walker waited until Dax staggered around the corner before he let himself fall forward against the barn wall with his head resting on his arm. What was he turning into? He could never bring himself to say boo to his brothers and sisters before. Now that he was Alpha, he had to throw his weight around. He had to make sure no one in his whole tribe stepped out of line. No one else would do that job for him.

He couldn't face walking past Dax again on his way back to the house. He didn't want to go back to the house, anyway. He couldn't bear the awful loneliness. No one talked to him. No one looked at him. He had nowhere to go but back to his room and nothing to do but bury himself in his figures.

Instead, he turned away and headed down the hill into the forest. He hadn't let himself get away in weeks. He needed to clear his head. As soon as the trees closed around him, he dropped on all fours and galloped away as a bear. His paws padded over the moist ground, and his nose caught many fine smells in the woods.

He swept his face back and forth over the path as he ran to catch every scent. He recognized every aroma. He picked out the rabbit's footprint and the chickadee hopping through the leaves. He detected Dax's footprints heading down the mountain to the stream where he went fishing.

He wandered through the woods for days. The bear didn't recognize the passage of time. He slept in his den hidden in the mountains. He hunted and fished for his food. He disappeared from the face of the Earth and lived his life as a bear.

He headed up the mountain toward Bruins' Peak, but he turned off before he got anywhere near Farrell territory. His peace negotiations with Brody Farrell hadn't advanced far enough for him to venture over the boundary without some good reason. He ran around the Peak and headed back south. He didn't turn toward home. He turned down the ridge toward Iron Bark when picked up another scent he didn't recognize.

That scent fired his imagination with images of distant lands and exotic flowers. He ranged all over Bruins' Peak, but he never detected that smell before. It led over the ridge snaking down from the far side of Dunlap territory toward the Cunningham boundary. Whoever left that scent had no business on Cunningham land, but he didn't raise his hackles at the approach of danger.

He slowed to a ramble and put his nose right down against the ground to inhale that scent into his soul. He followed it one step at a time over the ridge into a quiet glade surrounded on all sides by young birch trees. The leaves shimmered golden-green in dappled shade.

He stopped when he spotted a young woman standing by herself. The woman didn't move, but looked all around her at the trees forming a circle on all sides. She held herself still. The breeze moved her straight brown hair against her neck. Her woolen shirt clung to her curves down to her narrow waist, and hip-hugger black pants rounded over her generous posterior to run down her long legs to her bright white sneakers.

He took a step toward her. He stepped on a stick to get her attention, and her head whipped around. He recognized her. It was Marla Dunlap.

Chapter 3

Marla took a few steps farther along the disappearing flagstone walk, but the trees circling closer on all sides stopped her. The forest stared back at her, and its smells assaulted her senses until she couldn't stand it.

The dark, crumbling smell of dead leaves and wet wood flooded her brain with images and confused emotions. She shoved the memories back down where she couldn't see them. She didn't want to think about the woods, but she couldn't escape them. She couldn't bring herself to move forward and she couldn't go back.

The memories brought the bear with them, the bear hibernating in her soul. The bear grumbled in its sleep. She had to kill the memories fast before they woke the bear. She couldn't face the bear. The bear would rend and tear and kill. It wouldn't stop or go back to sleep until it killed the whole world in raging fury.

The trees wouldn't leave her alone. They wouldn't let the memories submerge. The smells nagged the memories awake to bury her under their overwhelming tidal wave. She turned this way and that, but she couldn't see the way out of the woods. She could see only more and more trees hemming her in on all sides.

A snapping twig made her turn on her heel, and she came face to face with the biggest bear she had ever seen. She might be a Bruin, but she hadn't seen many of them in their bear forms. She kept inside where Bruins stayed human. She didn't want to see a bear. She didn't want to think about Bruins as bears.

This bear studied her with his flinty black eyes. His golden-brown hair hung thick and fine around his shoulders and down his back. She didn't recognize him like this. He took a step toward her and lowered his head. He swung his head back and forth and rumbled low under his breath.

She glanced around, but she couldn't see the path anywhere. She had to keep an eye on that bear coming her and keep an eye on the trees at the same time. Her heart thumped against her ribs, but in the end, she fixed her eyes on him. He came closer and closer. He glanced up at her face each time he passed his head to the other side.

He stopped in front of her and barked a low grunt. His shoulder stood almost as high as her head, but he didn't threaten her. He flared his nostrils to catch her scent, and a screaming bolt of fear mixed with excitement sparked a skip in her pulse. Something tingled in her guts. What did he smell when he inhaled her scent like that?

She couldn't remember life as a bear. She hadn't shifted since she was a young girl. Even now, the woods didn't welcome her the way they should.

He came closer, and his big head touched her leg. He rubbed his cheek against her thigh with the rumblings vibrating deep in his chest. She tried to pull away, but he followed her. If she withdrew a step, he advanced a step to meet her.

He lifted his head and touched his wet nose to her cheek. She kept absolutely stiff and still and waited for him to leave. What did he want with her? Something deep in her soul already knew what he wanted. He wanted her, and he wanted her as a bear. If she stood still and didn't change, he would have no choice but to back off. He would leave her alone and she could take her eyes off him long enough to find the path back to her Homestead.

He sniffed all around her face and down her neck. He blew his breath into her face so she caught his scent in return. She couldn't stand it any longer. She clamped her eyes shut and held her breath so she wouldn't smell that unmistakable Bruin smell.

All at once, he wasn't there anymore. She didn't feel his warm breath or smell him—at least not as well as she did a moment before. She squirreled one eye open, and there he was, a few feet away. In front of her eyes, he pushed himself up on his hind legs. His shoulders squared, and his arms hung straight down. His golden fur shrank into his skin, and his face flattened.

She got a good look at him then. His brown hair ran back from his forehead to hang around his ears and neck. The last time she saw him, he wore a full beard down to his chest. Now he wore it trimmed to a neat goatee with muttonchops cutting down his cheeks to his jaw. His chest stretched wide and solid under his T-shirt, and his leather belt sat on chiseled hips to hold his jeans around his powerful legs.

He surveyed her up and down. “You're Marla, aren't you?”

Marla stiffened. “Who are you?”

“I'm Walker Cunningham.”

She looked away. “I don't know you.”

“I know you,” he countered. “I haven't seen you since you were knee-high to a grasshopper, but I recognize you. You look different now.”

She shifted from one foot to the other. “So what?”

“Why didn't you shift just now?” he asked.

“What for?” she snapped.

A touch of a smile played around his lips. “We could go for a walk together.”

She pulled her head down between her shoulders. “I don't want to.”

“Why not?” He couldn’t stop grinning. “It could be fun.”

“Naw,” she mumbled. “I better get home.”

His grin faded. “If you don't want to shift and you don't want to go for a walk, what are you doing out here?”

She shrugged. “I just wanted to get out for a while. I wanted to get away from my family.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” he admitted, “but it works a whole lot better if you shift first.”

She turned her head so she wouldn’t have to look him in the eye. She bit off her words to avoid saying them out loud. “Whatever.”

He hurried to fill the gap she left open. “What's your problem with shifting?”

“I don't shift,” she declared.

“Why not?”

She lost her nerve when he challenged her. She went back to shrugging and looking away. “I just don't want to”.

“That makes no sense,” he countered. “You're a Bruin, aren't you?”

“I don't have to be a Bruin if I don't want to be,” she grumbled. “As long as I don't shift, I'm not one.”

He put his head one side. “You're a strange bird, aren't you?”

She bit back a smile. He had a curious knack of working his way under her skin. “You just said I was a Bruin, so I guess that makes me a strange Bruin.”

He pointed at her. “And you said if you don't change, you're not really a Bruin—although I don't see why you don't want to be one—so I guess that makes you a strange bird.”

“I'm not a bird and I'm not a Bruin.” She confronted him straight on for the first time. “I'm just me.”

He held both hands open. “Okay. I can accept that.”

“So…can I go now?” She leaned in the direction of the path.

He stood back to let her pass. “I'm not stopping you.”

She looked around, but she didn't move. What was wrong with her? She wanted to leave, but she didn't. She kept staring at him in wonder. She couldn't understand him at all. She couldn't understand herself, either.

He took a step closer. His bear presence occupied her very thoughts. “You didn't tell me what you were doing here.”

She took a step back to get away from him. “No, I didn't.”

“Are you lost or something?”

She looked down at the ground. “I can't seem to find the path.”

“I could take you home.”

Her hand shot out. “No!”

His eyes widened. He was too stunned to answer.

“I'm just not ready to go home yet,” she muttered.

“What's going on at home that you want to get away from your family?”

She waved her hand and sighed. “Just the usual nonsense about finding a mate and getting married.”

He broke into a broad smile. “You, too? That's all I ever hear about these days.”

She eyed him closer. “You? I'm sure you don't have any trouble finding admirers.”

He laughed out loud. “That is so sweet of you to say, and you're right. I don't. I just have trouble finding people I admire.”

She snorted. “I'll bet you do.”

“Stop complimenting me,” he exclaimed. “I can't stand praise.”

“I'm not complimenting you,” she returned. “I'm just saying.”

“You're saying I should have a lot of admirers and would have trouble finding people I admire. You must mean I'm admirable.”

She waved her hand up and down. “Well, look at you. You look like an Alpha.”

He threw out his chest. “I am Alpha.”

“You are?”

“I'm the oldest son, and my father is too old to run the tribe, so I'm taking over.”

She regarded him with new eyes. She could believe it. He towered over her with his muscular bulk. He occupied every inch of space in every direction.

“What about you?” he asked.

“What about me?” she shot back. “I'm not Alpha, and I'm not going to be.”

“I don't mean that. I mean what's your shtick?”

She frowned. “Shtick?”

“You're the youngest in your family,” he explained. “What are your plans?”

She shoved her hands into her pockets. “Do I have to have plans?”

“Are you just going to hang around your Homestead, or do you have anything you want to accomplish in life?”

“I hadn't really thought about it.” She glared into the forest in the direction of her Homestead. “To hear my parents talk, there's nothing for me to accomplish in life besides getting married and having a bunch of cubs.”

“Of course, there's something for you to accomplish in life,” he countered.
“You shouldn't get married if you don't want to.”

Her eyes flashed at him. “Who said I don't want to?”

He shrugged. “Nobody.”

She turned the tables on him. “Do you want to get married? You said your parents keep working on you to do it.”

“I want to get married,” he replied.

“So, what's stopping you?” she challenged.

“Finding the right woman.”

She scanned him up and down. “I'm sure you can find a woman. I'm sure you can have any woman you want.”

“I only want one.” He held up his index finger. “The right one.”

Marla softened. “Well, I only want the right one, too, but I haven't found him yet.”

His eyes popped open. “Hey, I've got an idea. How about you and I get married? That would satisfy both our families at once.”

She drew back, tensed to run. “You're feeble. You're too feeble to handle your tribe. Leave the Alpha job to someone who can think.”

“I'm serious,” he exclaimed. “I like you and you like me, so let's do it.”

“What makes you think I like you?” she growled.

“Just the way you keep looking at me like that.” He smiled in spite of her curled-up lip. “Just the way your cheeks turned pink when I said it. You want to marry me, don't you?”

“I want to kick you in the nuts and leave you coughing until you cool down,” she spat. “I'm not marrying you or anybody else.”

“Why not?” he demanded. “You just said you want to get married.”

“I never said I want to get married,” she argued. “I asked who said I didn't want to get married.”

“So, do you or don't you?”

“Sure, but I don't want to marry Alpha Walker Cunningham, so you can put your cock back in your pocket.”

The confident smile melted off his face, and a hard snarl took its place. “You've got a dirty mouth.”

She bared her teeth. “I can get a lot dirtier than that, so stop talking about marrying me.”

He lowered his voice. “Okay. I'll stop. I just thought...”

“Don't think,” she snapped. “Thinking's not your strong suit.”

He clenched his teeth. “You're good at that, aren't you?”

“Good at what?”

His words bit. “Good at driving people away with your mouth.”

“It seems to work.” She grinned a big ugly grin. “I'm doing a pretty good job with you, too, if I judge right.”

His shoulders stiffened. “You won't drive me away that way.”

“How will I then?”

“Just keep telling me you don't want to marry me, but I don't believe you.”

“What can I do to make you believe it?”

He put out his hand and took hers. He rolled her hand in his fingertips. “Kiss me.”

For some reason, she didn't take her hand away. “Kiss my ass.”

“I'd love to. Bend over and pull down your pants and I'll do a lot more than that.”

Marla's cheeks burned. He had a comeback for every snappy crack she made. He tugged her hand and pulled her in closer. His face hung inches away from her. She smelled his bear breath and the dark earthy skin under his shirt. His smell filled her mind with tastes of his body and salty sweat.

His voice hypnotized her. “Kiss me, Marla. Kiss me.”

She couldn't pull away. As his lips grazed her forehead, the blood pulsed behind her eyes. She couldn't breathe. He dominated her being. His lips appeared on her mouth and woke her to heated excitement. Before she could stop herself, he sucked her down into his dark kiss. His lips moved over her mouth, and his tongue touched her teeth. She opened her mouth in astonished surprise, and his tongue slipped in to find hers.

She stared at his enormous face hovering there in front of her. His eyes were half-closed. He wasn't looking at her at all. He was somewhere far away, lost in her kiss. Out of nowhere, his hand materialized against her back, and he pressed her against his rock-hard body. His muscles spoke to soft places on her chest, on her belly, on her legs. He lit every inch of her on fire, all the way up to his warm tender lips filling her mind with their delirious delight.

He noticed her watching him, and his eyes widened to meet her gaze. His kiss subsided, and he explored her soul to discover where she was and what she was thinking. She stared at him in a ferment of confusion, but she didn't respond. She didn't throw her body against his to break herself out of her long torpor. She should, but she didn't. She just stood there and let him kiss her.

He released her mouth and leaned back to get a better look at her face. He drove in to kiss her again before moving back. He delivered one kiss after another, always retreating to gauge her reaction before swooping in again.

He licked her saliva off his lips. “That's why we should get married.”

She pulled out of his arms. “That? That was nothing.”

“Nothing?” he barked. “Is that what I am to you?”

“How could you be something? I don't even know who you are.”

“I told you. I'm Walker Cunningham.”

“Walker Cunningham, Alpha.” She snorted. “I'm so impressed.”

“You liked that, didn't you?” he purred. “It could be like that all the time.”

She shrugged and looked away. “Meh.”

His jaw dropped. Then he closed it with a snap. He set his face in a mask of determination. With one quick move of his hand, he caught her around the back and jerked her against him. He brought his knee up between her legs and hugged her crotch against it. At the same moment, he closed his mouth over hers and devoured her lips and tongue with everything he had.

His other hand circled her neck to demand her for himself. He pressed his knee up hard against her. Her whole being screamed against his hands, but her body responded of its own accord. She couldn't stop her box twitching and the hot nectar seeping from her opening to moisten her panties where he rubbed them into her tissues.

He ran his hands down her back to grab her ass in both big paws. He lifted her up to set her down on his thick thigh. Burning desire took hold of her. Against her will, her hips flexed to rock toward him and hit her crotch against his leg.

He let go of her lips to purr into her ear. “You like that, don't you, baby? Does that turn you on?”

Some supernatural force blew out of the depths of her being and exploded through her arms. Her hands flew out and slammed against his broad chest. She shoved him back so hard he stumbled and almost toppled over on his tail bone. “Get off me! Leave me alone!”

Before he finished catching his balance, she spun around and hurried away through the woods toward home. She had to get away from him fast. Marla staggered through the woods. She couldn't see the flagstone path, but forgotten instincts from her childhood guided her. Home drew her in its direction. She didn't have to see where she was going.

Powerful forces and sensations swept through her. Memories and emotions fought one on top of the other for her attention. The bear growled inside her and rolled over in its sleep. It blinked its eyes and lifted its head to look at Marla.

She ran for all she was worth from that bear. She couldn't let it wake up and take over her life. She would be lost if she didn't find a way to put it back to sleep. She had to get out these woods before all the sights and sounds and smells woke the bear and it started marauding over the countryside.

The bear wouldn't go back to sleep, though. It smelled something it wanted. It smelled something delicious and inviting, something good to eat, something to satisfy its long hunger. It smelled Walker, and it wouldn't go back to sleep until it got him back.

What did he do to her? How could he touch her and kiss her like that? How could he tell how much that touch sparked her sleeping passion? Didn't she do a good enough job at concealing how much she wanted it?

She didn't want it at all. Marla didn't want him or any other man. The bear wanted it. The bear wanted him, and no other. He didn't know what it cost her to keep that bear asleep and oblivious all these years. She did a good job up until now, but she couldn't scream and beat the bear with her fists to bury it in sleep. The bear got up and stretched its stiff furry legs. It started looking around for something.

She panted in the effort of fighting her way up the hill. “Leave me alone! Leave me alone!”

The bear would never leave her alone again. She was doomed. She clawed her way all the way up the hill and came out behind the shed, where metal clanged. Aiken was still at work, so she couldn't go hide in there. She had no choice but to go inside the house. She could only hope her behavior earlier in the morning would make everyone avoid her. She could get to her room in a hurry and stay there.

Walker kept intruding on her thoughts. His presence, his smell, his deep brown eyes and hair danced before her eyes. He moved in on her and kissed her a thousand times, even when he was nowhere near her anymore. He could take what he wanted from her, and he knew it.

Gravitational attraction dragged her kicking and screaming toward him. No amount of fighting and swearing could save her. She hated herself for responding to him, but she couldn't stop her body from reacting to his touch. The bear did it for her. The bear welcomed him in all his infuriating dominance.

She caught her breath behind the shed until she regained her equilibrium. She could face her family as long as she didn't have to face Walker again. She could face anything but him. The bear subsided from her thoughts, but it didn't go back to sleep. Age-old hungers nagged her soul, but at least she could think about something else for a little while longer.

She took a step out into the sunshine. The sun warmed the rose garden and sent the perfume of petals wafting on the breeze. Marla took a deep breath. That scent wiped the other scent out of her mind, and she started to relax.

She got all the way up the path, through the gate, and to the foot of the porch steps when Harmony came out of the house. She glared at Marla and pursed her lips, but said nothing. She walked right past Marla and kept walking toward the woods.

Marla's resentment against her sister-in-law softened. She envied Harmony. Harmony could go out into the woods whenever she wanted. Harmony never had to worry about shifting into a bear. She could mate with her beloved husband. She could give in to her soul's deepest desires without worrying something terrible would happen.

Harmony disappeared into the forest shadows. She didn't go anywhere near the shed. Maybe it was Boyd in there instead of Aiken. Maybe Aiken waited for Harmony somewhere in the woods. They would rendezvous and enjoy each other’s bodies in the joy of union. Wouldn’t that be wonderful, to join with your heart’s mate in the forest without fear or revulsion?

At least now the coast was clear for Marla to crawl in her hole. The front door still hung off its hinge. She peeked through the doorway, but didn't see anybody. She shot forward and raced for the stairs. She flew upstairs and into her bedroom before anybody could see her. She eased her door shut with a click and threw herself down on her bed with her face buried in the pillow.

Chapter 4

Walker didn't bother to shift on his way home. He wanted to cling to the insatiable sweetness of Marla all over him. Her scent hovered in his nostrils. Her ass crushed in his hands, and her delicious box ground against his leg. Even now, his cock swelled against his pants thinking about her.

When had he felt this way about a woman? When had any woman fired his blood this way? Never. His mother wouldn't list Marla Dunlap in the same line-up as Natalie Dodd, Melody Mackenzie, Rose Kerr, and Haven Farrell when it came to looks. No one ever mentioned Marla in suggesting who he ought to marry.

Even so, she struck him as perfect. Every curve of her lips and every slope of her hair around her face matched his fevered dreams. The instant he laid his eyes on her, he knew. She was the one. She was the woman he would marry. She couldn't be anything else. Did she feel it, too? Did she know the minute she turned around and saw him he was her mate?

So many questions pestered him about her. What was her problem with shifting? Why did she react the way she did when she obviously responded to him and his touch? She could have walked away from him whenever she wished, but she didn't. She stuck around and let him kiss her. Wow, did she let him kiss her! Whatever else she was or did, she could sure kiss.

Too bad she didn't let him do anything else, but he could wait for that. He could wait 'til doomsday for what he knew lay beyond that kiss. He could wait for the rest of his life for the right time to take the woman of his dreams.

He paused when he came in sight of his Homestead. Dax still fiddled with his car. That boy could waste years tinkering with a car that would never run again. Walker planned out his approach to the house. He had to keep a lid on his excitement. He couldn't tell anyone about Marla until he got her permission.

He had just about the exact opposite of her permission, but he still floated in a happy daydream about the future. He imagined sitting across the fire from her and looking up from his farm journal to see a contented smile on her face. He would take her by the hand and lead her to their bedroom for the night. The house would settle down to sleep, and they would curl up together in a warm nest of peaceful togetherness.

He shook those thoughts out of his head. He still had the rest of his life to get through, and he couldn’t claim her yet. When would he see her again? How long did he have to politely wait before he could make the next move?

He took a firm hold on himself. Was he Alpha of his tribe or not? He could sit on a secret as big as this until the time came. He could play his cards one at a time to make sure he came out the winner. Nothing could stop him once he set his mind to winning, and the prize made him careful and calculating. No profit or project ever obsessed him like this.

He took a deep breath and set his shoulders before he stepped out of the trees and started toward the house. Dax stole a glance at him from under the car hood. Walker didn't pause to speak to him. He crossed the yard toward the gate when Dax shot out from under the hood. He rushed up to Walker and fell in at his side moving toward the house.

“Where have you been? We've been looking everywhere for you.”

Walker kept walking. “What's up? Nothing serious, I hope.”

“Nothing serious!” Dax howled. “The hunters are invading the mountains. Star showed up a few nights ago with some wild story about Aurora going into town with that friend of hers.”

Walker waved the so-called emergency away. “So, what if she did? She asked me and Pop first if she could go.”

Th story came out all in a rush. Dax kept pace with him no matter how Walker tried to leave him behind. “That friend of hers took her to a bar, and she overheard Bain Campbell talking about laying jaw traps for us in Horner's Gully. Star blew in here talking a mile a minute about Aurora getting into a car crash with Austin Farrell, and Aurora was laid up at the Farrells unconscious.”

Walker faced him. “Is she all right?”

Dax waved his arms in wild circles. “All right! Did you hear what I said? She was at the Farrells! You know what that means.”

Walker forced himself to remain calm. “No, I don’t. What does it mean?”

Dax straightened up. “You weren’t here, so I had to act. I went over there and brought her back, and…”

“You went over there? After I told you not to set foot on Farrell territory?” Walker exploded in his brother’s face. “Are you asking for a whooping, boy? How many times do I have to tell you to stay away from them?”

Dax yelled straight back. “Will you shut up and listen for a second? I brought Aurora back here, but now she's run off again. Are you just gonna stand around and let the Farrells get away with this?”

“Get away with what, exactly?”

“With taking Aurora to their house.”

Walker frowned. Then his face cleared. “They may have been too far away to bring her here, so it sounds like Austin took her to his place. Did you find out about the traps?”

“Is that all you can think about?” Dax thundered. “How can you stand by and let one of them take your own sister to their place? You have to launch an attack to pay them back. You have to forget this peace nonsense and send in the big guns.”

Walker laid his hand on his brother's shoulder. “If you weren't so rabid about getting revenge against the Farrells, I might be able to understand what in the world you are talking about. So Austin and Aurora got into a car crash and she got hurt. He couldn't exactly bring her here with you toting your gun around all over the place and saying you're gonna blow away any Farrell you lay your eyes on. If what you say is true, he would have no choice but to take her to his house.”

Dax smacked Walker's hand off his shoulder. “You're a lily-livered pansy and you always have been. What are you going to do about it? That's what I want to know. You're gonna sit back and let them walk all over us and even schmaltz your sister, and you're not going to do anything about it.”

Walker turned away. “I have much bigger things to worry about than the Farrells schmaltzing Aurora. Don't bother me again unless you have something to tell me about the hunters setting traps on the mountain. I'm going to my room now, and later, I'll go see Star to find out what's going on, since I can't get any sense out of you.”

Dax called after him, “Hey, man, I'm talking to you!”

Walker didn't stop, but bit back over his shoulder. “You just called me a lily-livered pansy. If you don't want to back those words up right now on the front lawn, I suggest you keep out of my way for the rest of the day.”

Walker went inside without seeing his parents. Keeping Marla a secret from them would be easy until he was ready to tell them. He closed his bedroom door and sank into his swivel chair. Piles of paper lay stacked on his desk, but he couldn't bring himself to sort through them or do any work. Marla filled his awareness. He swiveled his chair around and gazed out the window.

She was out there somewhere. Was she dreaming about him right now? Was the memory of him kissing her turning her on right now? Was she as excited about their future together as he was?

He couldn't think like that. He couldn't make up stories about their future when he still had a long way to go to win her. She wasn't his. As long as she kept pushing him away, he had to keep his head screwed on straight.

He didn't hear the knock at his door. He didn't hear a thing until a soft hand touched his chair near his shoulder. “Walker? Can I talk to you for a second?”

He swung his chair around. “Hello, Aurora. I was wondering when you would get back. Have a seat.”

Aurora took the chair closest to the door. She hesitated to say anything. “I need to talk to you, Walker.”

“You can talk to me anytime, Aurora,” he murmured. “You know I’m always here for you.”

She did her best to smile. “I came to tell you, Walker. I’m getting married.”

His eyes flew open. “Married? Who are you marrying?”

Aurora took a deep breath. “Austin Farrell.”

So, Dax was right. There was something going on between Austin and Aurora. “Austin Farrell? What makes you want to marry him?”

“I know you think he’s wild and lawless and trigger-happy,” she breathed. “He used to be that way, but he isn’t anymore. He’s grown up and filled out. He’s Brody’s right-hand man now, and any Alpha would be glad to have him. He helps run his family’s business and he’s…well, if you had seen what I’ve seen, you would know he’s not the man everybody thought he was.”

“You know this is a bad idea, don’t you? Austin Farrell has a bad reputation on this mountain, and for good reason. He’s done some very dangerous things in his time. A lot of people on this mountain will never forgive him, no matter how much he’s changed.”

“I know all that,” Aurora exclaimed, “but he isn’t like that anymore.”

Walker shook his head. “A tiger doesn’t change its stripes, Aurora, and neither does a Bruin. He might behave himself for a little while to get you to like him, but he’ll go back to his old ways. What will you do then?”

Aurora sat up straighter, and her voice strengthened. “That won’t happen, Walker. You don’t know him like I do. He’s steady and reliable, and he helped me out when no one else did. Because of him, the Bruins on this mountain are safer than they would have been if he hadn’t helped me.”

Walker froze. “What did he do?”

“He helped me raise the alarm when Bain Campbell laid those traps on the ridge, and he helped me stop Bain when no one knew where he was. It’s thanks to Austin Farrell we don’t have to worry about Bain anymore.” Her eyes glinted when she talked about Austin.

“He may have done all that, but I’m not convinced,” Walker countered. “He could have done that to impress you.”

“There’s another side to him, a side no one knows about,” Aurora added. “He’s kept it hidden all these years, and he definitely didn’t create that to impress me.”

Walker settled back in his chair to listen. “Tell me about it.”

“I can’t tell you everything. I can just tell you he’s been like this all along.” Her eyes shone, and her teeth flashed through her smiling lips. “It just needed the right combination of events to bring it out. He won’t go back to the way he was before. Brody changed him, and finding a mate finished the job. He’s not a weasel at all.”

“A Farrell and a Cunningham mating could reignite the war between our tribes” he pointed out. “Did you ever think of that?”

“Star is a Cunningham and Brody is a Farrell,” she argued. “The feud is all but ended since you and Brody took over. In a few more years, no one will remember there ever was a feud.”

“What about Dax? He won’t forget about the feud. I don’t know if the Farrells have any relatives who will keep the old animosity going, but I’m sure some of them won’t be so quick to forget.”

Aurora hesitated. Marla came back to his thoughts. Could Aurora feel the same way about Austin that he felt about Marla? Star and Brody went through hell and high water to get together, even when their families would rather cut both their throats than see them together.

So, this was why everyone made such a big fuss over finding a mate. So, this was why Bruins mated for life. Once they found their heart's true match, they didn't deviate. They stuck to that one person through thick and thin.

He would stick with Marla. He didn't care what people thought of her. Whatever bothered her about being a Bruin, he would help her. He would overcome any obstacle to get her and keep her.

Aurora's voice came to him from far away. “Walker?”

“Hmm. I don’t know, Aurora. I’ll have to think about that.”

Trees moving outside his window caught his attention. He planned out exactly what he would do and when. He rehearsed every word he would say to her. He would impress her until she had no choice but to fall for him the way he fell for her.

He jerked out of his trance to find Aurora gone. He gave her no further thought. He fished his phone out of his pocket and started pushing buttons. When he came out of his room, he found Dax sitting on the couch in his socks.

Dax punched the TV remote with his finger and called out when Walker passed. “Whatever you said to her really did the trick. She stomped out of here in a huff.”

Walker ignored him. He kept his mind on his own plans.

Dax jumped off the couch, and the remote fell out of his hand. “Hey, where are you going? What are you going to do about the Farrells?”

Walker let the door slam behind him. He hit the ground running and left the Homestead far behind.

Chapter 5

Marla kept her curtains drawn so her room stayed dark. Images of Gothic horror covered the walls. A skull and crossbones flag hung above her bed. On the opposite wall hung a tapestry depicting another skull with two daggers impaling the eye sockets. Blood dripped from the nose holes and the wide grinning mouth.

Directly across the room where Marla could look on it from her bed, she kept a glow-in-the-dark statue of a monster devouring a gazelle. The creature hung limp and bleeding from the monster’s jaws, while the monster glared out at the world with glowing red eyes.

She stayed in bed with the covers drawn up to her chin, but she still couldn’t control the emotions warring for control of her life. No matter what she did, no matter what magazines she read or what games she played on her phone, she couldn’t stop Walker invading her thoughts.

He walked up to her in the forest, and she melted into his arms. His mouth dissolved her resistance, and his body consumed her against her will. She fell under his weight, and she soared into the skies on drafts of ecstasy.

Every night since she met him in the forest, she dreamed this same dream. She woke in the throes of rapture, and the bear marauded the forests in search of her mate. Marla went through hours of struggle to wrestle the bear back into its dark hole where it wouldn’t bother her anymore.

How long did she have to endure this terrible struggle? Nothing bothered her in all the long years she kept up her fight against the bear. Nothing came close to waking the bear from its slumber, and now nothing would send it back to sleep.

With plenty of kicking and screaming and threats, Marla might get the bear to retreat for a little while. Pretty soon, though, hunger or fatigue would take over. She would fall asleep and dream of Walker all over again. When she woke up, she found the bear stronger and more insistent than ever. The bear needed out. Another few days of this, and Marla would lose the fight. Then what would happen?

Walker wouldn’t leave her alone. He didn’t just come upon her in the forest with his indomitable presence and his intoxicating scent. He walked at her side. He held her hand. He talked to her. When she wasn’t dreaming about him lying on top of her, she dreamed of sitting across the room from him and talking to him about all the secrets haunting her heart. He listened with his wise head on one side, and he always came up with a solution to her problem.

Well, he couldn’t come up with a solution to this problem. He posed the biggest problem she ever faced. He could only solve it by disappearing off the face of the Earth, and he wasn’t likely to do that anytime soon.

Why did she have to meet him at all? Why did he have to touch her and kiss her like that? Why did he have to look at her like that? Why couldn’t he leave her alone like everybody else?

She couldn’t figure out what she felt about him. She wanted to hate him, but he occupied some part of her she couldn’t identify. He wasn’t a stranger, even though she never set eyes on him before in her life. She must have seen him sometime at some Bruin event from her childhood, but she couldn’t remember him. She didn’t recognize him when she met him in the woods.

She knew him, though. She knew him in her blood. When she cast her mind back to the years she spent in hiding from the world, he was there. He filled her days and nights with himself, even when she didn’t know anything was missing. The bear longed for him. Now that the bear knew who he was and what he was, it wouldn’t rest again.

Nothing would ever be the same. Even Marla’s body changed at his touch. He woke her sleeping cells to burnish bright with gold. She suffered insatiable hungers she couldn’t satisfy with food. If she hid in her room long enough without eating anything, the hunger pangs would go away. She would rise into some ethereal haze beyond hunger or thirst, somewhere the needs of her body no longer existed.

She could never get rid of the hunger for him. Her body ached for him every minute of every day. The bear gave her no peace, waking or sleeping.

A knock on her door startled Marla off her bed. “Who is it?”

Beatrice's voice came from the crack under the door. “It's me, Marla. Breakfast is on the table. Would you like to join Aiken and Harmony and me?”

“Go away,” she yelled.

Beatrice's voice came from the crack near the handle this time. Marla could just see her mother moving her mouth around to different places on the door to get her message through. “You'll starve to death if you stay in that room much longer. You haven't come out in days.”

“Go away,” she grumbled. Marla couldn't exactly tell her family she snuck out in the dead of night to stuff herself before hiding in her room again.

She couldn't face her family, even for a fraction of a second, not with Walker hanging over her head. If one of them figured out she met a man, that would be the end of everything. They would never leave her in peace. It would be nothing but marry, marry, marry all the live-long day.

She heard Harmony's voice approaching from down the hall. “Just leave her alone, Beatrice. If she wants to stay in there by herself, let her.” Their voices faded back down the stairs to the living room.

That made Marla madder than anything. So, they planned to leave her alone, did they? Some stranger from town told her own mother to leave her alone? She would show them. She would be stuffed if she let them leave her alone. She would snow them with her unpleasantness and make them lick it up with a spoon.

She tore the door open and ran downstairs after them. Her mother fidgeted around the kitchen. She froze when Marla appeared. Her own mother dreaded her presence. That's how bad the situation got over the last few days. Days? Months was more like it. This terrible situation stretched far into the past so no one could remember a time around Dunlap Homestead when Marla didn't make everyone's lives miserable, including her own. Now, one could remember the happy, helpful little girl she once was.

The front door sat in its proper place on three hinges, and the two front windows glistened in the morning sunshine, all ready for Marla to break again. They mocked Marla. They jeered at her and tormented her to break them all over again. She had to fight hard to stop herself putting her fists through both of them here and now.

Marla sat down at the table. She was the first person there. Her mother finished putting the food in front of her, but Beatrice hesitated to join her until Harmony came downstairs. Beatrice spoke to Harmony but ignored Marla, “How are you feeling today, dear?”

Harmony rested her hands flat on the tabletop to ease her swollen body into a chair. “I'm all right, I guess. I just have no energy at all. I could spend all day in bed.”

Beatrice sat down next to Harmony. “You should stay in bed if you feel like that. You shouldn't strain yourself by going out.”

“I have to get some fresh air and move my bones every day, even if it takes a massive effort. Besides, I feel better walking around in the woods. I guess bears don't get morning sickness.”

Beatrice held out a bowl of scrambled eggs. “Are you eating anything today?”

Harmony waved the bowl away. “Thanks. I'll skip it.”

“You can't grow a baby on fumes, darling. At least have a slice of bacon.”

“I'll have something later. I can usually manage something later in the day. Mornings are harder for me.”

Aiken came in from outside. He washed his hands and sat down. “Oh, hello there, Marla. How are you this morning?”

“I'm just sparkly,” she snarled around the table. “That's how I am. Thanks for asking, Aiken. That's more than I can say for anyone else around here.”

Aiken stared at her and looked around the table at his wife and mother. Then he smirked. “Another glorious day in the life of Marla Dunlap. Well, that's all well and good. How about a half of grapefruit, Sparkly?”

She looked away. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

Aiken took a grapefruit for himself and offered one to Harmony. “One for you, darling?”

Harmony smiled back at him. “No, thanks.”

He settled down to eating. “I'm leaving right after breakfast. I just want to let you know I probably won't be home for dinner.”

“What's going on?” Harmony asked.

“Brody Farrell and I are going back down to the road to try to get rid of Bain Campbell’s truck. His truck is still wrapped around Austin's pick-up by the side of the road for anyone to see. It’s only a matter of time before someone from town comes looking for him. We want to get rid of the evidence before they find out we put him down.”

“Put him down?” Harmony cried. “You mean killed him? Did you really have to do that?”

“It wasn’t me,” Aiken explained. “It was Austin and Aurora that did it, but yes, they really had to. I let him go before, and he kept coming around making trouble. He wouldn’t quit until he was dead. They say he killed himself by accident falling into one of his own jaw traps, and I believe them. Either way, he’s just as dead and won’t bother anybody anymore.”

“If that’s true and he really died by accident,” Harmony countered, “then you shouldn’t have to get rid of the evidence that he died on the mountain. Let them investigate. They can’t touch us.”

Aiken shrugged. “It will just make it easier for us to say we knew nothing about it. It will save us answering a bunch of awkward questions we would just as soon not answer.”

Harmony smacked her lips and set both hands on the table. “It will make us look more guilty than ever when we aren’t. Just leave the trucks where they are, and let whoever wants to ask questions ask them. We have nothing to hide.”

Beatrice groaned. “Can't we talk about something else at the breakfast table?”

“Sorry, Ma,” Aiken muttered. “This hunter business weighs on my mind lately. I won't be able to rest until I do everything possible to protect us from the hunters.”

Marla listened to the interchange. No one gave her a second glance. If she didn't raise Cain, no one would notice her at all. She would fade into the background, and no one would ever guess she carried this secret tucked into her heart. The truth burned through her guts. Walker hung over her shoulder and haunted her every move. She couldn't escape him. He stole the taste out of her food.

If only she could tell someone the truth, the secret wouldn't bother her so much. She couldn't expect Harmony to try again to talk to her and make friends with her. If only she could relive their time on the porch, Marla might have played her cards differently. What she wouldn't give for a chance to confide in Harmony now. Harmony of all people would understand about falling for someone forbidden.

Beatrice cleared her throat. With a great effort, she turned to her daughter. “What about you, Marla? Do you have any plans for the day?”

“No, no plans,” she mumbled.

Aiken interrupted, “She's too busy sparkling.”

Marla rounded on him. “Is that your idea of a joke?”

Harmony put out her hand. “Don't antagonize her. Can't you see she's unhappy?”

“I am not unhappy!” Marla shrieked.

Aiken tossed his fork and knife onto the table and pushed his chair back. “I don't have time for this. Stay here and be sparkling happy. I'm out of here.”

“Please, Marla,” Beatrice sobbed. “Can't we have a quiet breakfast for a change?”

“It's not my fault,” Marla shot back. “He made fun of me. You all heard him.”

Aiken kicked back his chair. “You're a thorn in my side, Marla. It's hard enough working full time with a baby on the way without having to come home to this kindergarten behavior. Grow up, or learn to keep your mouth shut around civilized people.”

He marched across the room toward the front door, but before he got there, someone knocked on the door from outside. Aiken yanked the door open… and stared. A gruff voice rumbled from the porch. Marla recognized that voice. She would recognize that voice anywhere. “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” Aiken replied. “What can we do for you this morning?”

“Is Marla here?”

She jumped up and raced to the door. Beatrice and Harmony came over behind her, and the two of them and Aiken and Marla stared at Walker Cunningham standing on their front porch with a huge bouquet in his hands.

His face broke into a big smile. “Good morning, Marla.”

Beatrice gasped. “What in heaven's name is going on here, Marla?”

Marla stiffened against the shiver of excitement racing through her. He was here. He brought her flowers. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to give you these.” He handed the bouquet across the threshold to her. “And I came to invite you out to dinner at the Coach House tomorrow night. What do you say?”

Aiken clapped Marla on the shoulder and let out a big rolling laugh. “You really know how to make an impression, don't you, Sparkles? Where have you been hiding him all this time?”

Marla's ears burned. “You shouldn't have come here, Walker, and you shouldn't have brought these.” She tried to hand back the bouquet.

He held up his hands. “You keep 'em. You deserve 'em. So how about it? Tomorrow night at the Coach House? I'll pick you up at seven-thirty.”

She burst across the threshold and shoved the bouquet against his chest. “I can't accept these, and I can't go out to dinner with you. I'm sorry. Please, just go away and don't come around here anymore.”

Beatrice let out a broken cry. “Marla!”

“I can't do that,” Walker told her. “You can turn me down now, but I won't forget you. I can't stop thinking about you. I can't rest until I make you mine. If you won't accept these flowers and you won't go out with me, I'll just have to think of some other way to win you over. We belong together, and I'm ready to wait a long time for you to realize that. I'm ready to wait forever.”

Harmony nudged Marla with her elbow. “Come on, Marla. Give a guy a chance.”

Marla swatted her hand away. “Don't you people think I can make up my own mind about what I do and who I spend my time with? I said no, and that's the last word. Now, why don't you all just leave me alone?”

“You gotta admit he makes a pretty convincing case,” Aiken remarked.

Marla shot out of the house. She pushed Walker away from the door. “All of you keep your stinkin' comments to yourself. This is my life, and I'll say what's convincing and what isn't. Go back inside to your bacon and your grapefruit and LEAVE ME ALONE!!”

She swung the door shut in their stunned faces. Luckily, the brand-new hinges held this time, and the latch clicked into place. The windows rattled in their frames, but they didn't break.

Marla spun around. Walker stared at her with wide eyes. She gave him another shove with both hands and sent him stumbling off the porch. “Get out of here, Walker, and don't let me see your ugly face again. I swear to God, if you come around here again, I'll sic my dad and Boyd on you. Take your stupid flowers and your dinner at the Coach House. Get yourself a nice little Bruin girl from the other side of the mountain and forget all about me. That's the best thing you can do.”

She pushed her way past him and ran for the woods. The shed wouldn't hide her from all these competing forces tugging her in every direction. What was he thinking, trotting straight up to her front porch with the biggest bouquet money could buy? What did he think she was, that he could just ask her out like any ordinary girl?

She wasn't any ordinary girl. She couldn't let herself get close to him. She might wish all day and all night she could find shelter in his arms, but that privilege would fall to someone else, someone who deserved his love and attention.

 

She didn't notice the woods swallowing her up. Her heart screamed for relief, for any comfort against this excruciating pain eating her up from the inside, but the world closed itself against her. She could find no resting place in this world. She was outcast, pariah.

She ran all day, she knew not where. The trees stood back and stared at her reckless flight, but she left them behind the moment they noticed her. The woods didn't have a chance to threaten her before they fell away behind her.

The sun dropped away behind Bruins' Peak. When she stopped to look around, she had no idea where she was. The bear in her soul tried to take over and find the way by smell and sound, but Marla wouldn't let the bear out. She screamed down into her being until the bear retreated into the shadows. Marla jumped on the bear's head with both feet to tamp it down into nothing again.

She couldn't live like this. She couldn't be this wretched demon anymore. Tears and saliva stained her face. Broken-off bits of leaf and twig stuck to her damp face and hair, but she brushed them away to see the way ahead of her.

She barreled on without thinking. She didn't care where she went or what she did, as long as she never saw her family or Walker Cunningham or anyone else she knew ever again. She had to erase herself from existence. She had to make herself nonexistent. She had to destroy herself against the cruel world before she let the bear consume her whole life.

She spotted the Peak through the trees and made for it. She would sit on the look-out bench until she calmed down. Then she would decide what to do with herself. She set off through the thicket with fresh hope brimming up in her heart. At least Bruins' Peak was still there, lonely and inviolate. Mackenzie territory stretched dark and brooding on the other side. The Peak didn't care who or what she was. It didn't judge her or pressure her to marry someone she didn't love.

She did love. That was the problem. She loved more than she dared believe. She loved…She couldn't say the words, not even in the privacy of her own thoughts. She had to hold all those feelings down in the rotten depths of her soul where no one would ever see them.

The trees parted, and the first rays of sunshine brightened her face when, all of a sudden, the ground gave way beneath her feet. The blue sky sailed upward faster than she could follow. Branches closed over her head and blocked out the sun.

She landed with a bump in a pile of leaves, and more leaves rained down around her head. She blinked, but her mind rocked in stunned confusion. What just happened? Where was she?

She sat still and looked around at steep walls cut into the clay bank. Even now, she could make out the chisel marks of a shovel in the walls. Someone dug this hole, but she didn't see anything when she moved through the trees.

She wasn't exactly looking for a giant hole in the ground, though. She saw only the Peak and its wide-open space. She didn't look right or left or allow the smells to enter her brain. She'd been locked in the house so long she lost the ability to accept information from her senses and instincts. She didn't even know enough to sense danger when she got near it.

Aiken's words at the breakfast table that morning returned to her. The hunters were setting jaw traps on the mountain, but this was no jaw trap. Someone carved this pit out of the mountain and covered it with leaves to conceal it. Why? She was nowhere near the road where Austin crashed Bain Campbell's truck.

She climbed to her feet and ran her hands over the clay walls. Her fingers dug in slippery slime. She couldn't gain a toehold in this stuff. She would never get out of this pit, and no one knew where she was. She was lost.

Chapter 6

Aiken opened the door and strode down the porch steps to Walker. “Are you all right?”

Walker stared at the place where Marla disappeared. His voice came from a million miles away. “I'm fine. What's wrong with her?”

Aiken threw up his hands in defeat. “Who knows? We've all killed ourselves trying to find out. She just has to work it out for herself. If you're smart, you'll take my advice and forget her. She's out of her mind, and no one can bring her back until she's ready. I never heard of any Bruin going crazy like this and living their lives alone without a mate, but maybe she's one in a million. Maybe she'll kill herself and rid the world of a big problem.”

“Don't say that,” Walker murmured. “Don't say that about your own sister.”

Aiken passed his hand over his forehead. “I'm sorry, man. I shouldn't say it. It's just that we've all had it up to here with Marla and her antics. No one can talk sense into her. She's out of her tree. Don't waste your time with her. Leave her alone.”

Walker stood up straight. “I can't do that. She's my mate.”

“I wouldn't wish Marla on anybody,” Aiken exclaimed, “especially not a guy as steady and solid as you. You're Alpha of your tribe. You need a woman you can count on to stand by you through the long years. Marla can't be that.”

“I can't let her go,” Walker declared. “Whatever is bothering her is my problem now, too. I have to go after her.”

Aiken clapped him on the shoulder. “You're a good guy. I'm sorry you got mixed up in this.”

“Can you tell me anything about what's bothering her?”

“I only wish I knew.” Aiken sighed. “She's been like this for years. She flies off the handle anytime anyone asks her what's the matter. She always says nothing is bothering her, but she stays locked in her room for months at a time, even years. She won't go out, and she can't stand Bruin gatherings. She sees no one.”

“She told me she doesn't shift. What's that about?”

Aiken clenched his teeth. “It only proves there's something seriously flawed about her, that she can't accept her own bear nature. She doesn't go into the woods, either.”

“Well, she's there now. If she doesn't go out there much, she could be in danger. I better find her.” He handed Aiken the bouquet. “You can have these.”

“I'll give them to my mother.” Aiken turned away. “Good luck finding her out there. Let me know if you need help with anything.”

Walker headed toward the forest, but he kept his ear cocked for the sound of the door closing behind him. As soon as he heard the latch slot into place, he hit the ground running. He plunged into the trees, and before the branches closed behind him, he changed into a powerful bear scanning the ground with his nose.

In a fraction of a second, he picked up Marla's scent. It led him through the woods in an unerring line. She wasn't headed anywhere in particular, just away. She staggered right and left. She put her hand against this trunk and tripped over this root. Her sweat dripped here, and that branch brushed her face when she passed.

He couldn't get lost in the magic of her scent now. He had to keep his mind on the trail. He had to find her. Wherever she went, he belonged there at her side. Whatever happened to her happened to him, too. If she faced any danger, he had to protect her from it.

Hunters ranged over these mountains. She could be bleeding to death in a jaw trap right now, but she wasn't headed toward Horner's Gully or anywhere else near Iron Bark. She should be safe on this side of the mountain.

He ran all day long until even his own great strength started to wane. He slowed his run to a fast walk, but he never lost her scent. That scent consumed his whole awareness. Nothing would stop him until it took over his whole life.

He had Aiken's word wishing him good luck in finding her. Aiken wasn't her Alpha, but he gave Walker the green light to go after her. Aiken didn't blink when Walker said straight out that Marla was his mate. He accepted it as a natural fact.

Walker's spirits soared. He had Marla's family's permission to go after her. His love for Marla was out in the open, and no one objected—no one but Marla herself. All he had to do was convince her. If he found out where she was and what was bothering her, he could win her over. He could marry her and seal his position as Alpha.

Hours later, he detected her footsteps falling closer together. She was slowing down. She must be tired. She paused near the tree line heading up to Bruins' Peak. She planned to cross the Dunlap-Mackenzie boundary.

He pushed through the foliage when he caught a different scent, a scent he didn't recognize. So many unfamiliar scents on the Peak couldn't bode well. This scent didn't excite his deepest passions the way Marla's did when he found her in the forest. This scent spoke to his darkest hatred. The bear raised his hackles and growled under his breath

He picked up the scent of danger long before he came to the pit. Blazing adrenaline scorched through his chest. He scanned the underbrush with his close-set eyes, but he couldn't see anything. He inched forward one step at a time when he heard a high-pitched squeak.

In his haste to find Marla, he started forward faster than he should have. His foot slipped in slippery clay, and he almost fell headfirst into a deep pit. He caught himself in time and got his front paws planted on solid ground again.

He peered down the hole into the dark when he saw Marla looking up at him. Clay smudged her cheeks and hair, and her shirt stuck to her shoulders with damp. The pit surrounded her on all sides with vertical walls.

She jumped when she saw him. “Walker!” she cried. “Help me! I can't get out of here.”

He swung his enormous head from one side to the other. He studied the situation from every angle, but couldn't think well enough with his bear brain. He stepped back and took his form as a man.

Marla's face brightened when he leaned over the pit again. Her face split open in a big happy grin at the sight of him. “Walker!”

“I'm gonna get you out of here, Marla,” he called down. “Just hang on.”

He pulled his head back when she called out again, “Walker, wait!”

“What's the matter? Are you hurt?”

She thought fast for anything to say to keep him there. “What are you going to do?”

He looked around. “There's a fallen log over here. I'm going to push it down. You can shift and climb out on that with your claws.”

“Wait a minute!” she shrieked.

“What's the matter? You can climb a lot better with your claws than you can with your fingers.”

She wrung her hands. “I…I can't.”

“You can't what?”

She struggled to get the words out. “I can't shift.”

“Sure, you can. You don't want to spend the night down there. It will be dark soon. This is the fastest way to get you out.” He started to pull away.

“I can't, Walker!” she sobbed. “Isn't there any other way?”

He frowned. “I don't think so. Can't you shift, just this once?”

She looked all around her at the walls hemming her in. He read the answer written all over her face. Whatever her hang-up, she couldn't shift. Some mental block made that possibility out of the question for her.

He looked around again. “Just wait there. I'm going to go back into the woods a little way. Don't worry. I'll be right back. I'm not leaving.”

He could stand there staring down at her upturned face all day, but he pulled away before he got caught in her spell again. Those big vulnerable eyes spoke to his soul. Moving a few feet away from her, even to save her life, cost him more effort than he could muster.

He set off back down the hill the way he came, but he didn't shift. He had to think, and he could only do that as a man. He examined every stick and rock along the way until he found what he was looking for.

He found a spindly pine sapling down in a hollow. It stretched its bedraggled crown to the sun. A dozen needleless branches stuck out of its narrow trunk. He walked around it in a circle. When he came back to the same spot, he shifted. He weaseled his burly head between the branches and set his stout shoulder between the branches.

He leaned his weight against the trunk, but one push tore it out by the roots. As soon as it came out, he shifted back and took hold of the trunk in one meaty hand. He hauled it back up the hill and poked it down into the pit.

“What's this?” she snarled. “I said I can't shift.”

“You don't have to shift,” he explained. “Don't you see? Climb up on the branches, one foot in front of the other. Come on. You can do it.”

She stared at the tree. Her countenance cleared, and she took hold of the trunk. He held it in place while she put one foot on the first branch. Hand over hand and foot over foot, she climbed out of the trap and scrambled up onto the ground.

Walker pitched the tree aside, but Marla got to him first. She threw her arms around his waist. “Thank you! Oh, thank you! You don't know how happy I am to see you.”

He cradled the back of her neck to hug her head against his chest. “I'm happy to see you, too. I'm glad you're safe. You had me worried.”

Marla pulled herself together and pulled out of his arms. “Thank you for helping me. You didn't have to do that.”

He held her back to look her in the face. “I did have to do it. You're my mate, Marla. What happens to you, happens to me.”

She pushed him away. “Stop that. I'm not your mate. You did me a big favor just now, but that doesn't mean…”

He chopped the air with his hand. “You can't deny the truth. You must have sensed it when we met last time. The more I see of you, the more certain I am. You're the one, Marla. You're my mate, and I won't live without you.”

She spun away. “Forget it. I can't be your mate, and I won't be, so put that thought right out of your head. Go home, and forget all about me.”

“I can't do that,” he declared. “I only wish I knew why you're so insistent on denying it. I'm drawn to you, and I'll bet everything I've got you're drawn to me. I'll bet my very life on it. I won't have any other mate besides you. Whatever happens to you, I'm there. I'll be with you, no matter what. I'll weather any storm to marry you. You can't push me away, and you can't scare me off with bad language, so don't even try.”

“You're a fool, Walker Cunningham,” she snapped. “Do yourself a favor and walk away from me. I can't be the mate you want me to be. I'll only drag you down.”

He studied her long and hard. “Why would I be doing myself a favor by walking away from you? What's so bad about you that I would be better off without you?”

She clapped her hands over her ears. “Shut up.”

He took hold of her wrists and tried to pry her hands away. “Why won't you shift, Marla? What's so bad about being a Bruin that you won't even shift to save your own life? I'm not going away, Marla. I'm not going away until I find out the truth. If you really want to get rid of me, you have to tell me.”

Chapter 7

Marla whirled away so fast she jerked her wrists out of his hands. “Don't touch me! No one can touch me. No one can come near me. I can't let myself care about you, Walker. I can't let myself care about anybody, and no one can come near me.”

“What would happen if they did?”

“I'm poison,” she cried, “especially to people I care about. Just ask my family. They'll tell you it's true. I'm damaged goods. The world would be a lot better off without me in it. I only wish I wasn't such a coward, or I would kill myself.”

“You're not damaged goods, Marla,” he murmured, “and if you're poison, I guess I'll die, because I can't stop kissing you. I can't sleep without you next to me. I don't want anything but to be with you.”

“Don't say that,” she moaned. “Don't dream about me. Don't come anywhere near me if you want to live.”

He stiffened. “What do you mean, if I want to live? What could you do to hurt me?”

She bared her teeth and fumed at him. “I'll kill you. I'll kill anybody that comes near me.”

Black fury crossed his face. “You would kill me?”

She pulled back her lips in a horrible snarl. “I'll kill the whole world.”

He squared his shoulders, and his hands balled into fists. A moment later, he recovered and relaxed. He forced himself to shake out his hands. “I don't believe you. I don't believe you could kill anybody.”

She held out her hand to stop him coming closer. “If I don't keep tight control on myself at all times, I'll lose it and I won't be able to stop myself. I'm telling you, I'm the devil incarnate.”

“Convince me,” he insisted. “Tell me what makes you so bad that no one could love you and touch you and cherish you.”

Her hands flew to her face. Something monstrous dragged her down into its gnashing jaws to crush and destroy her. “You don't understand. I already killed one person. I couldn't stand killing another one.”

He stood stock still. “Who did you kill?”

She moaned into her hands. “I don't even know his name.”

He came up behind her, but he didn't touch her. “Tell me. Tell me what happened.”

She hugged her arms around her chest to keep herself warm. Tremors racked her body, and her teeth chattered. “He was a hunter. He was a friend of Morton Campbell, Bain's father. They were all out hunting on the Peak, and I was out walking by myself.”

“How old were you?”

“I don't know. Maybe about seven or eight. They were spread out in a long line with Morton in the middle. Bain and his brother Edward were on one end of the line, and this guy was on the other end. He spotted me first and I didn't see him. I was just walking along, minding my own business. He didn't make a sound to call the others. He just sort of migrated closer to me so I never noticed he was there.

“All of a sudden, something hit me hard from behind. I face-planted into the ground. The next thing I knew, this guy was flipping me over on my back and pinning me to the ground with his body. I started screaming as loud as I could. That attracted the attention of the others.

“They all came running over, and they all jumped on me at once. The men wrestled my arms to the ground, and the two boys held my legs down. I kicked and spit and scratched, but I couldn't fight them off.”

“Four men against a seven-year-old girl? I'm not surprised.”

She talked faster. “They started arguing over which one of them was going to take me first. The guy would first tackled me said I was his and the rest of them could have their turns when he was done. They were going to take turns with me. Morton said when it was all over they could slit my throat and throw me in the ravine. No one would ever find my body, and no one would ever find out. He said no one in town cares what happens to Bruins, anyways.”

“So what happened?”

“The guy who found me got on top of me and started tearing my clothes off. I panicked. I was fighting so hard, I lost all control. I shifted, and I mauled his face off. I grabbed him by the throat and yanked. Blood squirted all over me, but when I tasted it, I went berserk. I kicked out at him with my claws and ripped him open. He went flying off me, and I lunged for the nearest person, which turned out to be one of the boys.

“Morton and the boys went flying off in every direction. They screamed and waved their hands and left me far behind. I was standing there with this mangled body at my feet and blood all over me. I don't know what happened then. The next thing I knew, I was at home and my mother was giving me a bath. The bath water was dark red, but I couldn't stop shaking. I was a mess for days.

“The next morning, Aiken came into my room and told me I didn't have to worry about what happened. Him and Boyd and my dad went down there and found the body. They followed the scent from my clothes and they disposed of the body where no one would ever find it.”

He tried to lay his hands on her shoulders. “Is that all?”

She rounded on him. “Is that all? Isn't that enough? I killed a man in cold blood. I would rot in prison if Dad and the boys hadn't protected me. Now you know, and you'll leave me alone, too. No one will make the mistake of coming near me again. I'll live my whole life alone, the way it should be, and I won't have to worry about hurting or killing anyone else.”

He held her steady. “You didn't kill him in cold blood. You killed him in self-defense. If anyone found out, you would be exonerated. You wouldn't spend a single night in jail. That's why your Dad and your brothers protected you.”

She snapped over her shoulder. “Forget it, Walker. You know the truth. Now go home before you get sucked into this any deeper than you already are.”

He laid both hands on her shoulders and turned her around to face him. “I'm already in this way over my head. I'm just glad I know the truth, because now I can really help you. I'm not leaving you, Marla. You didn't do anything wrong. You did what any self-respecting Bruin would do, and I'm proud of you for it. I'm sure your Dad and your brothers are proud of you, too. You gave that hunter exactly what he deserved. I only wish you could have given Morton and his sons the same treatment. Then they wouldn't be hounding all Bruin kind today.” He chuckled. “I wish I could have seen the looks on their measly faces when you shifted like that. That would have been priceless.”

She clamped her eyes shut. “Don't say that.”

“I'm sorry,” he breathed. “I won't say it again.”

She ground her teeth against the tension racking her body. “I never should have told you. No one can know. It's bad enough I have to live with it every day of my disgusting, sorry life. I have to keep it inside so the filth doesn't spread to anybody else. That’s my only purpose in life. That's the only way I can make my life worth living.”

He folded his arms around her. “You're not filth. You're beautiful and strong and proud. You're a beautiful Bruin woman, and I'm head over heels in love with you, Marla Dunlap. I can't live without you.”

She bit her lip to stop it trembling. “Scream and run, Walker. I care about you too much to screw up your life with this. It's bad enough I have to live with it.”

He breathed into her ear. “You love me. Say you love me.”

She struggled against his embrace. “Leave me alone. Don't come near me. No one can come near me.”

“You're a bear, Marla,” he told her. “You're a beautiful, magnificent bear. Let me see you shift.”

“You'll leave,” she sobbed. “If you see how terrible I really am, you'll leave me behind. I can't be a Bruin. I can't be a bear. A bear is…A bear wants…”

“What? What does a bear want?”

She searched the woods with wild eyes. “A bear wants…A bear…”

He closed his arms around her and murmured in her ear. “I know what my bear wants. My bear wants you. My bear wants to hold you and touch you and please you. My bear wants to claim you for my own and never let you go. Does your bear want that? Does your bear want me as much as I want you?”

She let out a sob. She pushed against his arms, but she couldn't break free. “I can't.”

“I want you, he declared. “I want you as a Bruin, and I want you as a bear. I want us to mate as bears. I want to take you home with me and show the whole world how lucky I am to love you. I want to parade you in front of all the tribes in a long white dress and let everyone congratulate me on my good fortune. I'm the luckiest guy in the world, to be mated to you.”

“We're not mated,” she pointed out.

He cupped her chin and raised her mouth to his lips. “We will be.”

He gave her the softest kiss in the world. A butterfly couldn't kiss her harder than that. She tried to say, “I can't,” but he swallowed the kiss out of her mouth.

“I'm gonna love you, Marla Dunlap. I'm gonna stand by your side, no matter what, and whatever threatens you will have to get through me before it gets to you. I'm gonna protect you against the world, and I'm gonna show 'em all what a blessing loving you can be. You're gonna take your place at my side, and we're gonna run the Cunningham tribe against the world. No one can stop us as long as we're together.”

She gasped for every breath. She couldn't think with his lips so close, so warm, so intoxicatingly soft.

“Kiss me, Marla. Kiss me.”

She didn't get a chance to answer before his mouth closed over hers. His tongue found its way between her lips and drank her sweet wine into his being. She couldn't stop the black hole sucking her in. She was falling, falling. She couldn't fight back. Her mouth yawned open to receive his tongue.

Against all odds, she melted into his arms. He crushed the air out of her lungs so she couldn't breathe. She couldn't move in his overpowering grip. She was his, body and soul. She wanted to run. She wanted to hide. She wanted to fight and kick and tear and hurt, but she couldn't move her limbs. She would never be able to fight back against him. Her destiny locked her to him forever.

The bear reared its head and let out a bellow of raging desire. That bear wanted to devour him. The colossal she-bear Marla worked so hard to keep buried in her being wouldn't lie quietly any longer. She found her mate, and she wouldn't quit until she claimed him.

Marla trembled all over. She worked hard to control herself, but a thousand emotions exploded in her all at once. She raged against her own heart. She didn't want to love him. She wanted to run and hide. She ought to kill herself rather than feel this. He terrified her and consumed her and aroused her all at once.

His arms tightened against her shaking. “You're safe now, Marla. You're safe with me. Whatever happens, you're safe. You can shift, and you won't kill me or hurt me. You can do your worst, and you'll be safe. I'll never stop loving you, no matter what you do. Whatever it is you're afraid of, you won't ever face it alone again. I'll help you deal with it. I love you, and I'll never stop loving you.”

A tiny voice squeaked out of her. “I can't!”

The next minute, the walls came tumbling down. She couldn't hold back the tide any longer, and the bear wouldn't lie quietly in a stupor no matter what she did. The bear rose up in all her primal power, and the surging passion flared in Marla's soul. She hurled herself into Walker's arms, and her mouth groped and mauled him in desperate insistence to grab him and keep him.

Chapter 8

 

He sensed the change, and he met her fast and furious. His hands grappled for any hold on her he could get. He pawed up her arms to her face. He cradled her face in his palms while he mouthed her lips and lapped her tongue. He traveled down her neck to her chest.

She threw her arms around his neck and heaved her breasts into his hands. Her skin prickled with a million pin pricks. She couldn't get enough of him. He massaged her breasts and muffled her ravenous moans with his kisses.

She couldn't keep her legs still. Her thighs slithered again each other on a wet film, but she couldn't reach the ground with her arms around his neck. He lifted her off the ground with his towering bulk. He circled her waist, and his hands inched around her back to grab her ass.

His hands burrowed under her shirt to her breasts. He nudged her shirt over her breasts to bring one sensitive nipple to his mouth. Marla sighed and sobbed in an agony of burning passion. Her crotch ached for something down there. She couldn't keep still, she craved it so.

He sensed it and fell on his knees in front of her. He left her shirt hitched over her exposed breasts. His saliva caught the breeze and froze her nipple to a hard, crinkled lump. He left a trail of saliva around her navel to her waistband.

Her arms followed him down, but when he bit through her pants into her saturated mound, she couldn't remain calm any longer. She threaded her fingers through his hair, and her lips hung open in craven lust.

He clamped his teeth around her throbbing mons while he unbuttoned her pants. He tore at her pants and scraped her skin hauling them over her hips to reveal the ivory triangle hidden underneath. He traced the lacy outline of her panties on his way down. Her pants slumped around her knees, and she kicked them away into the leaves. Her sweet center lay exposed to his attention.

His warm tongue brought the juices flowing from her saturated cavern. Her head lolled on her neck, but his arms held her up so she didn't topple over. He devoured her sugary syrup in gusty lapping strokes.

Marla couldn't contain herself. She rocked against his strokes, and the throaty moans rolled from deep inside her. She hugged his head against her and rode his face to great tumultuous waves of delight. Could pleasure like this exist in the world? Could she let herself experience this?

He grabbed her ass in both hands and held her against his face. The next thing she knew, he snaked one hand around between her pillowed thighs and crawled up into the dark place where they met.

His finger sliding home ignited her raging passion like never before. She screwed down on that probing finger, and her juices surrounded it in delicious, simmering squirts. He stimulated all the pleasure spots along her channel while his tongue carried her into regions beyond anything she ever knew or thought possible.

She accepted that masterful invasion to her natural limit. She let her head fall back and her mouth gape open in lusty cries to encourage him. She wanted it. She wanted him, and she wanted him hard.

He met her mouth with his face all damp and sweet from her juices, and their kiss stirred her to greater ecstasy. He had his arms around her, and nothing could stop him from taking her for himself. In one swift move, he scooped her off the ground. Her legs strapped around his waist and she sat down on his hips. He crawled his fingers up her thighs to the hidden cleft between her legs.

Her passionate longing spurred her to ever greater feats of rapturous delight. She needed this. She needed him and everything he could do to her. She flexed her hips to catch the bulging spike between his legs, and he pounded it up into the nexus where her legs met. Simmering juices dampened her tissues, and her aching genitals quivered open to invite him in.

Walker dragged his lips off her mouth and down to her neck. He bit and nibbled and licked around her neck from one side to the other before diving down to her breasts. He nipped her nipples left bare by her shirt, and she yelped in sweet surrender.

He fought to manipulate her weight hanging off his front. He took one step and gave up the struggle. Her weight pulled him down on one knee. He held her up just long enough to stop her slamming into the ground, and he followed her down to cover her body with his own.

His muscled frame crushed her to the ground, but she welcomed him. She clung to him with arms and legs. She gnawed his ear and kissed his hair where his head nuzzled under her chin. She scratched her fingernails along his back to drag his T-shirt up.

His bare skin sent her into the stratosphere with its burning heat. She yanked the shirt over his head, and his massive chest and shoulders radiated power into the cold, dead corners of her barren life. She sank her teeth into his shoulder. Her sweet tissues sang for blessed union with him.

He dug his feet into the ground to drive himself up between her legs and his spike found her innermost center. He brought the excited cries to her lips, but that didn't satisfy him. Furious lust swept away any careful strategy. His abs clenched in rippling waves against her exposed slit.

How he got his own pants off, she never knew. She didn't care. Only one thing mattered now, and that was their naked skin lying one against the other. She licked the sweat off his throbbing chiseled muscles. She ached for his wicked bulk taking over her body and mind.

A second later, his rigid manhood touched her twitching entrance. Marla went wild. The bear roared in wild, tempestuous desire, and fresh gushes of her honeyed elixir lubricated its passage into her depths. She couldn't contain herself against the crashing waves. She did her best to push against his bulk, but he wouldn't budge. He moved in on her against everything she did. She couldn't budge him an inch.

She never expected his massive organ to split her in half the way it did now. Whatever she expected, this swept away everything she ever dreamed of. It found the burning opening made spongy and soft by her molten lava and plowed straight to her heart.

She screamed once in desperate agony, but the next moment, her desire clamped down on him in powerful surges stroking down his length. Walker groaned against her throat. His muscles attacked her pliant body to penetrate her diaphanous curtains. His rhythm rocked her on seas of hot, juicy pleasure until she couldn't stand it.

She moaned and sobbed, but she couldn't stop herself from plunging down on that dominating tool. It invaded her innermost secrets and laid her bare to his probing treatment. Her essence surrounded him and coated him with ever-increasing gushes of lathering sauce.

His beating shaft forced its way through to her core. It bumped the oozing fountain of her toxic concoction until it bubbled out over her ass at ever pumping stroke. She bleated in ecstatic pleasure at each intrusion. She bounced off his pubic bone to rise into the clouds, only to fall back down for another delirious stroke.

Walker clenched his fists around the skin on her back and pounded her into the ground, but she already traveled far out of reach of any pain or discomfort. His dripping cock rocketed her into sublime, screaming fireworks of rapture.

She barely had time to recover from that when he flipped her over the other way. He rolled onto his back and pushed her up to straddle him. The pleasure of her first climax faded into a distant memory as one peak after another echoed through her being. She rocked her hips against his uplifting shaft, and he touched her innermost territory with his thrusts.

She dug her fingernails into his chest to buck back against his pounding jackhammer, and her inner muscles mauled him to a rubbery pulp. His abs crunched with every pulse of his sex inside her, and he manhandled her hips to impale her on his torturous tool.

Marla threw her head back and screamed to the sky riding high over Bruins’ Peak. Her channel spasmed along his massive length to make him grit his teeth in hideous agony. He arched his back and thrust his hips into the air. She galloped against his endless pumps, but it was already too late. He groaned once, and his chiseled frame thrashed right and left in raging completion. He roared up at her, and his hot injection scorched a path through her insides.

Marla rode that rocket-fueled explosion into outer space, where the cold vacuum soothed her molten fire. His spiky admixture flowed out of her on trickles of juicy goodness. Her nectar gushed around his throbbing veins, and she collapsed across his broad chest in a contented heap.

She rested her head in the hollow of his neck. He held her by the back of the neck while he pumped the last drops of his essence into her glorious cavern. She drifted in a blissful dream, not thinking of very much when his voice against her head broke in on her thoughts. “You’re a beautiful bear.”

She sat bolt upright, but he couldn’t hold her in place anymore. She rolled off him to sit on the cold hard ground. She tugged her shirt down over her breasts. The ground sapped her heat and left her chilled. “I’m not a bear.”

His head cocked to one side. “What?”

She wedged her feet under her and got up. “I’m not a bear. Thanks for getting me out of that pit, but I better go now.”

He caught her hand. “Wait a minute. I’ll come with you.”

She peeled his fingers off her hand. “Go home. I don’t want you coming with me.”

His hand on her arm stiffened. “What’s wrong, Marla? You’re not running away, are you? We’re mated. You can’t run out on me now.”

She pulled her pants up and ran her fingers through her hair. “Thanks for a good time, but I can’t mate with you. I’ll see you around sometime maybe, if you go to Lyric Mackenzie’s wedding or something, but I don’t usually go to those kinds of things, so maybe not.”

She started to walk away. He got on his feet like lightning. “Don’t you even think about walking away from me, Marla, not after what we just did. We’re mated for life now. Wherever we go, we’ll go together. You can’t walk out on that.”

She gave him a wan smile. “Go home, Walker. You don’t want to mate with someone like me.”

“I already did,” he shot back, “and I’m not going home unless you’re coming with me. You told me what happened. I must be the only person outside your family who knows the truth, and your secret is safe with me. I’ll make sure nothing happens to you, but you have to trust me. You have to accept me as your mate. You can’t run away every time something happens.”

“Trust you?” She shook her head. “I can trust you, but you can’t trust me. Believe me, you’ll thank me for this someday.”

“I’ll thank you for being my life’s true mate” he countered. “I won’t thank you for turning your back on me when you need me the most and I need you. I love you, Marla. I’m gonna love you for the rest of my life. I’m gonna spend the rest of my life working to deserve your love, and I’m gonna put all those old demons to rest, once and for all.”

Marla chuckled. “You don’t love me, Walker. You can’t. No one can. I’m unlovable. I’m one of those people who belongs alone.”

“Do you love me?” he demanded. “Just look me in the eye and tell me once that you don’t love me. Go on. Say it. I challenge you to say it with a straight face. Come on. Say you don’t love me.”

She did her best to smile. “Whatever I feel for you doesn’t matter. We can’t be together. We can’t be mated and I never should have let you believe we could be.”

He grinned in spite of himself. “You can’t say it, can you? You do love me. You can’t admit it out loud, but you do love me. I’ll never accept that you don’t.”

“Whatever I feel about you is my own problem.” She waved him away. “Go home. You’re much better off there than with me.”

“What’s the matter, Marla?” he called out. “Are you afraid of loving me? Are you afraid you’ll hurt me by loving me?”

She turned on him with her hackles raised. “Will you stop saying that? Can’t you see you’re only making it worse?”

He stood his ground. “Saying what—that you love me? Of course, you love me. I’m your mate. The same as you are mine. We’ll love each other forever. Nothing can change that now.”

She rushed at him in a rage. She beat her fists against his chest. “I’m a blithering idiot for loving you. What am I saying? How could I love you? How could I care anything for you at all? I keep telling you I’m incapable of loving anyone, but you won’t listen. I’m a slab of marble. I’m an ice queen. Forget about loving me and me loving you. That’s nothing but a waste of time. Now, go home and leave me alone. I don’t want to see you again.”

She gave his chest one final thump with her fists to make her point before she turned on her heel and raced away. She burst out of the trees into the sunshine on Bruins’ Peak. She ran past the look-out bench and down the other side of the mountain into Mackenzie territory.

Chapter 9

Walker took his time going home. He stopped just inside the tree line, in the same place he observed Dax just a short time before. Dax wasn’t working on his car now. Where was he? Was he making trouble for the Farrells again?

Walker kicked himself for not beating Dax within an inch of his life the last time he disciplined him. He gave that boy far too much rope. That’s why he took so many liberties with his Alpha brother. Walker should have given him a lesson he would never forget. That’s the only way to make him behave.

He took a lot longer this time making up his mind to venture out of the trees to his own Homestead. His father would give him no help at all. His brother Shaw moved in with his wife’s family, and now Aurora was as good as gone, too. Walker faced a future alone with Dax. The sooner he reined Dax in, the better.

He hesitated to go out there, though. A thousand thoughts and impressions swirled through his mind. Now, he knew what Marla’s dilemma was, so that explained her strange behavior. She never got over killing that hunter, even though she was well within her rights to kill not just him, but all the men with him at the time. They attacked a seven-year-old girl on Bruins’ Peak. They would have raped her and cut her throat. They were the lowest of the low, and they deserved to die a long, painful death. That’s the least they deserved.

Walker knew one more thing, too. Marla was his mate. No one could question that now. They’d done it under the open sky. He’d pumped her full of his seed, and she climaxed all over his rock-hard shaft. She loved it. She didn’t want to love it, but she did. She accepted his attentions willingly. They were mated. She might not want to love him, either, but she did.

That’s what scared her so much. She didn’t want to let herself go. She didn’t want to let anyone in. She had to keep her defenses up to protect herself. She’d been doing the same thing for almost fifteen years. She couldn’t just drop it because he came along and told her to.

This project was going to take a while. He had to work on her, to convince her to let her guard down. It would take a while, but he would do it. He would stop at nothing to bring her home.

Half a dozen times, he made up his mind to go out there. He would talk to his father. He would break the news to his parents he was mated to Marla Dunlap. Then he would talk to Jasper Dunlap and try to get his permission to marry his daughter.

He rejected those plans one after the other. None of them got him anywhere closer to Marla. Those were the easy paths, the paths he knew would offer him no challenge at all. The one big challenge remained unsolved. He had to convince Marla, and he could only do that by chipping away at her granite defenses. He had to keep meeting her and loving her and being there for her, no matter what, until she realized she couldn’t live without him any more than he could live without her.

One of these days, she would wake up and realize the truth. Until that day, he had to lay low. He had to keep not only the secret of her past, but the secret of their love. If he blabbed all over the mountain that he loved her and nailed her in a glade on the Peak, she would run screaming for the hills. He might never see her again.

He finally made up his mind. He would go inside and go straight to his room. He wouldn’t see or talk to anyone until he was certain he could keep this to himself for the long haul. He faced the Homestead, took a deep breath into his chest, and squared his shoulders when a twig snapped behind him. He turned around ready to fight, but his hands fell to his sides when he saw Aiken Dunlap coming down the hill toward him. “I thought I’d find you somewhere around here.”

“I found Marla, but I couldn’t convince her to come back with me.” He waved over his shoulder. “She went down Mackenzie country just a little while ago.”

“She’s not down Mackenzie country,” Aiken countered. “She’s gone.”

Walker’s head shot up. “What do you mean—gone?”

“She came back to the house for about five minutes. She went to her room, and five minutes later, she came back out. She walked straight past her mother and out of the house. She’s gone, and she won’t be coming back.”

Walker thundered in his face. “What?”

Aiken nodded. “Ma got worried when she saw Marla acting funny. She asked me and Boyd to follow her. We tracked her scent all the way down the mountain to town, but we lost her there.”

Walker frowned. “What did she go to town for?”

Aiken shrugged. “No one knows. She’s on a tear. She does this sometimes, but she’s never gone as far as town before. She hates going out of the house. I can’t remember the last time she went anywhere around Bruins, much less humans. She hates humans the worst. Now she’s surrounded by them.”

“Do you have any idea where she went?”

“We followed her scent as far as Park Street, but we lost the scent in the middle of a big crowd of people. That’s why I’m here.”

Walker rubbed his chin. “I could track her, but I’ll probably have the same trouble you did. If she’s gone, there’s not a lot I can do about it.”

“I didn’t come to ask you to track her,” Aiken returned. “We could do that, but she won’t come back with us. It has to be you.”

Walker’s eyes widened. “Me?”

Aiken nodded. “You’re the only one who can get through to her now.”

“What makes you think I can make any difference?”

“Come on, man” Aiken chided. “I’m not blind. We can all see she responds to you like no one else. You’re her mate. You’re the only one who can bring her home. Please find her. She doesn’t handle humans well.”

“I know,” Walker murmured. “She told me.”

Aiken’s eyes flashed. Then his shoulders slumped. “I’m glad it’s you. I’m glad she has someone to lean on. She’s had a hard time these last few years.”

“She won’t lean on me. She won’t let me get anywhere near her.” Walker gazed into the distance. “She’s running scared.”

“Then you have to find her,” Aiken told him. “You’re the only one she can trust, and you’re the only one who can get through to her. Find her. Please. We’ll do anything.”

Walker straightened up. “You don’t have to do anything, Aiken. I’ll find her. I’ll do it for her. I’ll do it because I love her and I want to bring her home.”

Aiken let out a shaky sigh. “I knew you would.”

“Go home, man,” Walker told him. Tell your father I’ll find her and I’ll bring her home safe. She’s safe with me.”

Aiken turned away. “I know she is. She’s safer with you than she is with anyone else.”

Walker stayed where he was until Aiken turned a bend in the path and vanished up the mountain in the direction from which he came. Walker strained his ears to catch any sound of Aiken’s footfalls receding up the mountain. Only when he satisfied himself that Aiken was well and truly gone did he turn back to the Homestead.

He took a deep breath. Then he started walking. Once he started walking, he didn’t stop. He strode straight up the walk, through the gate, and into the house. He didn’t look right or left, and he didn’t see a soul on the way.

He played out in his mind exactly what he would do, and in what order, before he entered the house so he wouldn’t hesitate once he got inside. He went straight to his room, stuffed a few things into a bag, and walked straight back out again. He marched to the barn and slid the door back. He left a wide opening for himself. He went to his pick-up, opened the door, and slid into the driver’s seat. He tossed his bag onto the passenger seat and fired up the engine.

Still, he saw no one. Where was Dax? He didn’t care anymore. He clipped his seat belt and hit the gas. The truck trundled out of the barn, down the driveway and onto the road. He didn’t turn off on the highway to Iron Bark, though. He took a side road around the mountain and drove up a forgotten track he never took before.

He parked the truck right out in front of Farrell Homestead. He looked all around him. He’d never been there before in his life, and he hoped he never came there again. The place gave him a strange feeling, but that could just be that it was so unfamiliar.

He paced up the walk to the front door and gave it a knock loud enough to wake the dead. Walker Cunningham knew how to make an appearance. That was for sure. As he expected, the door jerked open, and a big man with black hair and sharp whiskers filled the doorway. His eyes blazed, but when he recognized Walker, he stuck out his hand. “How ya doin’? What brings you over this side of the mountain?”

Walker shook Brody’s hand. “I’m sorry, man, but I have to leave.”

Brody started. “Leave? Where to?”

“I don’t know,” Walker replied, “and I don’t know how long I’ll be gone, but it could be quite a while. That’s what I came here to tell you. I won’t be Alpha of the Cunningham tribe anymore. Dax will take over.”

Brody froze.

Walker nodded at his reaction. “Dax will throw away all our efforts to bring peace to our tribes. He’ll restart the Farrell-Cunningham war, and I won’t be here to stop him.”

“Are you sure you really have to do this? Are you sure you have to walk away from everything we’ve worked so hard to accomplish?”

“I’m sure.” Walker squared his shoulders. “I have to leave. I only came here to tell you what’s going on so you’ll be prepared. Dax is a fool. He doesn’t see which side of his bread the butter is on. He’ll kill anyone that gets in his way in the name of seeking revenge against the Farrells.”

Brody nodded. “All right. I can handle that.”

“It’s not forever,” Walker added. “The war will end eventually. You and Star started that, and nothing can stop it now. You just have to handle Dax with care.”

“No problem.”

Walker turned away. “I better go.”

Brody took a step out onto the porch. “Let me come with you. Whatever you need to do, you’ll get it done better with someone to back you up.”

“Thank you,” Walker exclaimed. “I’d like to accept your offer, but this is something I have to do alone.”

“You let me know if you need anything,” Brody added, “anything at all.”

“I will.”

Chapter 10

Marla glanced up and down the street before she ventured out in the open. She didn't see a Bruin anywhere in sight. The coast was clear. She headed around behind the supermarket to the alley where she could slip along unseen. She ducked into the bus station and went up to the counter. “A one-way ticket on the northern line.”

“What destination?”

Marla shifted from one foot to the other. “Oh, I don't care. It doesn't matter.”

The clerk behind the counter peered over his glasses at her. “Young lady, I can't give you a ticket if I don't know what destination you want to go to. How far are you going?”

Marla studied the signboard over his head. She had no idea how far away the different stations were, so she picked the name at the bottom of the list. With luck, that would be the farthest away from Bruins' Peak. “I'll take Burke's Road.”

He handed the ticket across to her. “The bus leaves in half an hour.”

“Thanks.”

Marla shouldered her bag and headed for the waiting room. Still no Bruins around. She would get on the bus and get away clean, with no one knowing where she went. They wouldn't be able to track her on the bus. When she got to Burke's Road, wherever that was, she would catch another bus going somewhere else and disappear.

While she waited, she studied the other people in the waiting room. On one side of the bench where she sat a fat old man snored with his hat pulled down over his eyes. He sat up straight, but his great mass propped him up so he didn't fall over. On the other side, a skinny teenage girl with blood-shot eyes stared into space. She didn't look right or left at anyone or anything around her. Across the room, a young man held his shoulder bag across his lap. He smiled at Marla.

So, these were the dreaded humans. They looked pathetic. They couldn't harm a fly if they tried. If Marla left Bruins' Peak, these would be her people. She would live with them and talk to them on a daily basis. She might as well be human herself.

So much the better. She hadn't shifted since the incident with the hunters, and she hoped she never shifted again as long as she lived. She would pass for human and no one would know the difference. Most humans didn't know Bruins existed. If they met a young woman at a bus station, they assumed she was human like themselves. Humans were stupid like that.

A whistle sounded. The fat man started awake and heaved himself off the bench. He waddled toward the door, where people from another part of the bus station formed a line to board the bus. Marla joined them. The girl continued to sit and stare into space, oblivious to everything.

Marla handed her ticket to the driver and climbed on board the bus. She found a seat for herself and gazed out the window. So ,this was it. She was leaving Bruins' Peak behind forever.

The bus driver got into his seat and started the engine. The bus eased out onto the street and rolled out of town. Marla's spirits soared. She left her secret behind on the Peak. Wherever she went, no one would ever know what she'd done. They would never find out who she was or where she came from. She could make up any story she liked about herself, and they would believe it.

The bus's wheels ate up, miles and miles of highway. The farther behind her Bruins' Peak dropped away, the more she relaxed. Why hadn't she run away years ago? Why did she torture herself all these years trying to keep up appearances?

Overwhelming love for these pathetic humans filled her soul. They would accept her as no Bruin ever could. They would embrace her and take care of her. They would blot out her past and help her build a new future. No hunters existed in that future. They wouldn't come after her or threaten her. They would protect her from the Bruins of the world.

A few hours after the bus left Iron Bark, someone stood up in front of her and headed down the aisle. It was the young man with the shoulder bag. He smiled at Marla on his way to the bathroom behind her. Brilliant green eyes glittered under his shock of black hair. He looked skinny to Marla after the burly Bruin men she knew, but he wasn't skinny. His shoulders cut lean and strong under his shirt. He moved with an easy grace she never saw among Bruins.

He passed by her, and a few minutes, he came striding back against the swinging vibration of the bus underfoot. Instead of continuing on to his seat, he turned in next to Marla. “Is anyone sitting here?”

She looked up in surprise. She wasn't expecting this. “You can see there isn't.”

He smiled down at her. “Do you mind if I sit down?”

“Go ahead.” He lowered himself into the seat. He still clutched his bag against his front. “What's in the bag?”

“This?” He held up the bag, but he didn’t let go of it. “It's just my wallet and phone and a few papers.”

“They must be important papers,” Marla remarked.

His head shot up. “What makes you say that?”

She nodded toward it. “Just the way you hold it like that. You haven't let go of it since you got to the waiting room in Iron Bark.”

He tossed his hair out of his eyes. “You're right. They are important.”

“What are you doing with them?”

“I'm taking them home to my father in Burke's Road.” He stuck out his hand. “I'm Riley Faulkner.”

Marla couldn't help but smile. She shook his hand. Talking to humans was a lot easier than she thought it would be. If they all acted like this, she could be happy where she was going. Her future brightened before his eyes. “I'm Marla Dunlap.”

“Nice to meet you, Marla. Where are you going?”

“I'm going to Burke's Road, too.”

His eyes widened. “What are you doing there? Are you visiting someone? I know everyone in Burke's Road. If you're related to anyone there, you're probably related to me. Wouldn't that be something?”

“No, I'm just passing through on my way somewhere else. I'm not related to anyone there. I'm not related to anyone outside Iron Bark.”

“Are you sure?” He pointed at her. “You're not my long-lost sister or something?”

She laughed. “No, I'm nobody's long-lost sister. I'm a free agent.”

“Good. You had me worried there for a minute.” He settled into his seat. “I shouldn't be talking to you, anyway, but I wouldn't want to wind up kissing you or something and find out later you were off limits.”

She stiffened. “Don't worry. You won't wind up kissing me or anything like that.”

“No? Why not?”

“I'm not that kind of free agent. I only meant…”

He cut her off in the nicest possible way. “I know what you meant, but I wouldn't mind kissing you, anyway. Any man would be happy to kiss you.”

Marla blushed and looked out the window. She had enough to forget with Walker haunting her memories without jumping in the deep end with some guy she met on the bus. “I don't think so.”

He gave her the same congenial smile. “That's okay. I won't try to kiss you if you don't want me to. Let's talk about you going to Burke's Road. What are you leaving Iron Bark for, if your family is all there?”

She shrugged. “I just need a change of scene. I need to get some fresh air.”

“You can get that in Burke's Road. It's nice there.”

She turned in the seat to face him. “What's it like?”

“The town isn't anything to write home about, but the mountains around it are stunning. That's where most of my relatives live. They hunt and fish and farm for their living. They live in big clan groups around the mountains.”

She found herself smiling back at him. “That sounds nice. Living with family is nice.”

“But not for you, right?”

“I'm just saying it's nice when families stick together. My family is like that, too.”

“You gotta have family. You've got nothing if you don't have your family.”

“So, tell me about yours.”

“There's my father and my mother.” He pointed one way and then the other. “There's me and my three brothers and my two sisters. There's my grandmother and grandfather and a whole passel of cousins and other relatives. There's no end to the Faulkner family.”

Marla laughed out loud. “Sounds familiar.”

So, these humans had their own families, too. Maybe she could get herself one, too. She could find herself a human mate. She could have everything she had on Bruins' Peak without the troublesome fact of her own Bruin nature bothering her conscience.

She cast a sidelong glance at Riley. He wasn't half bad to look at. In fact, he was a lot better than half bad. His lean, angular frame exuded power and mystery. She didn't understand every pore and sinew of him the way she understood a Bruin like Walker. Walker was her own kind. She knew every thought running through his head. She knew what motivated and excited him. She would never understand Riley that way. He was alien. He could talk to her for the rest of her life and she would never comprehend what he was thinking or what motivated him.

He obviously liked her, too. He kept smiling at her, and his green eyes flashed when he glanced down at her mouth. The blood flushed his cheeks, and his tongue moved behind his teeth. What would kissing him be like? What would his body feel like, all naked and smooth against her skin, with his muscles rippling against her?

The thought of exposing herself like that to a human gave her a secret thrill. Her father and brothers would blow their lids if they ever found out she shared her body with a human, let alone mated with one of them. Bruins didn't do that. Bruins stayed with their own kind.

She would be outcast if she mated with Riley. She could never go home. She would never see her parents or her brothers or any other Bruins again for the rest of her life. Isn't that what she really wanted? What was she running away for, if she wanted to see Bruins?

Riley broke in on her reverie, “What are you thinking about?”

She gazed out the window and whispered under her breath. “I'm thinking about my family back in Iron Bark.”

“Do you miss them?”

She shrugged. “I miss them, and I don't miss them.”

He showed his bright sharp teeth when he smiled. “I know what you mean. Family is a bear, isn't it?”

She snorted. “You said it.”

The bus stopped in a wayside station. People got on and people got off. Riley waited in silence until the bus started moving again. “Are you hungry? I have a sandwich here in my important bag. We could share it.”

She held up her hands. “I wouldn't want to take the food out of your mouth.”

“You won't be. I have some money. I can get more at the next station.” He took out a sandwich wrapped in a piece of cloth. He broke it half and handed over one part to Marla. “I hope you like pastrami.”

“I love it,” she exclaimed. “It's my favorite.”

“Good,” he returned. “I like a woman with an appetite for flesh. I can't stand women who eat spouts and tofu and salad.”

“I like salad, too,” she added.

“That's all right, as long as you eat your pastrami.” He took a bit of his sandwich and tucked the cloth back in his bag.

She watched his every move before she took a bite. The meat squirted its juice into her mouth. “Did you make this at home?”

“Yep. It's homemade pastrami.”

“It's delicious.”

“I told you we do a lot of hunting and farming, so we cure all our own meat. It's better that way.”

“My brothers do that, too.” Pain stabbed her heart. When would she see Boyd and Aiken again? When would she taste Aiken’s homemade sausage again?

“It sounds like you and I have a lot in common.” He jerked his head sideways. “How about you come with me when you get off the bus in Burke's Road?”

“Come with you?” She backed into the corner of her seat. “I don't think so.”

“You said you don't have anywhere else to go,” he pointed out. “Even if you get on the next bus out of town, you'll need a place to spend the night. At least let me offer you a bed for the night.”

“A bed with you?” She hooted with laughter. “Dream on, honey.”

He grinned. “Just remember you suggested it, not me. You could stay at my old aunt's house. She lives right next to the Burke's Road bus station. I'll stay somewhere else. You'll be perfectly safe.”

“How far away from Burke's Road are we?”

He checked his watch with a flick of his wrist. “It's one-fifteen now, and the bus gets in at three.”

“Then I have some time to think about it before I decide. I'll keep an eye on you to see if you behave. Then I'll make up my mind.”

He laid his hand on his heart and closed his eyes. “You'll find me a model of chivalry, Ma'am.”

“You better be,” she warned. “I'm not as helpless as you think.”

“I don't think you're helpless at all.” He grinned. “I think you're very helpful.”

“You better believe it,” she snapped.

“Great,” he exclaimed. “Now tell me about you.”

“What about me?” she countered.

“What's your shtick?”

She froze. “What?”

“What do you like to do with yourself?” He encouraged her with waves of his hand. “What do you hope to accomplish in life? I want to know everything about you.”

She turned back to the window. “I don't have any shtick.”

He didn't say anything for a while. Why did she react that way to such an innocent question? Anybody could ask that question. She didn't react that way because she didn't have any reasonable answer to a simple inquiry about her life. The question reminded her of Walker.

Where was he right now? Was he finding out she ran away? Was he finally accepting the fact that he couldn't mate with her after all? Was he grieving her loss, or was he secretly relieved to be unsaddled with such a troublesome burden?

Poor Walker! It wasn't his fault Marla was untouchable. He couldn't know when he got interested in her what a chore he took on his shoulders. Now, he knew. She was somebody else's problem. Once she got away from Bruins' Peak, her troubles would evaporate. She wouldn't have to worry about anybody finding out she was really a Bruin. Years would pass, and eventually she would forget entirely how to shift. She would become human after all.

Riley cleared his throat. “Earth to Marla.”

She smiled at him. He was her future—him or someone a lot like him. “I'm right here.”

He leaned closer. “I've been looking for you.”

Her head shot up. “For me? You don't even know me.”

“I mean, I've been looking for someone like you.” His eyes sparkled, and his voice rippled out of him in a steady stream. “I'm surprised no fine-looking guy has snapped you up before now.”

“What makes you think they haven't?” she shot back.

He fixed her with his unflinching gaze. “You wouldn't be on this bus, going far away from home, if they had.”

“What about you?” she countered. “Have you got a fine-looking girl waiting for you at home? Does she know you're hitting on strange girls on the bus home?”

He held out both palms. “Who said anything about me hitting on you?”

“Come on, Riley,” she chided. “We both know where this is going. You're putting the moves on me.”

His hand fell over hers. He picked it up and pressed it between two warm palms. “Of course, I'm putting the moves on you, Marla. You're the most beautiful woman I've met in a long time. You're much nicer than the girls I meet in Burke's Road.”

“Cut it out,” she teased. “I'm sure you have girls falling all over you.”

“I'm not interested in them,” he insisted. “I'm interested in you.”

She tried to take her hand back. How could she have this same conversation with two different guys so close together? She never wanted to be a beautiful woman, to attract all these men's attention. She would prefer to be just average so she could blend into the background.

He leaned closer. She smelled his alien scent. The excitement of doing something forbidden with one of these humans thrilled her to burning arousal, but his scent didn't speak to her heart the way....She shoved that thought out of her mind. She couldn't think about that now. This was her future happening right now.

His green eyes studied her mouth. “You're delicious. Delicious Marla. I want to take you home with me. I want to taste you.”

She shrank back in her seat. “Riley, I....”

He held up a hand to cut her off. “Don't say it. Don't break my heart.”

“I was just going to say…”

She never got a chance to say anything before he kissed her, only once, a delicate little kiss, just to test the waters. The next moment, he leaned back in his seat with a self-satisfied smile. “I'm sorry I don't have any more pastrami for you. Maybe when we get home, I'll rustle up some from my aunt's fridge.”

“Home?” She shook her head. “Your home. Burke's Road isn't my home, and it's not going to be.”

“Of course not. That's what I meant.”

He didn't make any further move toward her for the rest of the bus ride. He engaged her in casual conversation about the ins and outs of family life until she relaxed back into her seat. She laughed at his jokes and answered his questions. She told him all about her family back in Iron Bark, but always leaving out the one crucial detail of them being Bruins. That fact would never see the light of day.

A few hours later, the bus hissed to a stop in the little town of Burke's Road. Riley carried his bag in both hands and climbed down into the dusty street. His eyes squinted into the sun, and his hair gleamed shiny black. Every nerve stretched taut, and he flared his nostrils to catch every smell.

Marla stepped down next to him and set her bag strap over her shoulder. This was the end of the line. She had to go into the station to find out what buses left this one-horse town to the next stop on her journey.

Riley interrupted her thoughts. “So, what did you decide?”

She turned around to face him. “About what?”

“About coming to my aunt's house.” He jerked his thumb behind him. “Do you want to stay there, or is this good-bye?”

She swept the town with her eyes. Not a single café, hotel, or store broke the continuous line of Victorian houses lining the streets. If she didn't go with him to his aunt's house, she would be knocking on doors in search of some other place to stay tonight. It was either that or camp out on a bench in the bus station waiting room.

How did it come to this? How did she go from being a pampered Bruin princess to a nameless hobo in middle America? She had nothing to eat and just enough money to buy another bus ticket. “All right. I'll go with you.”

He broke into a broad grin. “You won't be sorry. It's a nice house, and I know my aunt will love you. She'll give you a home-cooked meal, and you can take a hot shower and change your clothes.”

He cast his eyes at her bag. She didn't even have a change of clothes. He could see that. He only said it to put her at ease.

He set off down the street, but he always checked over his shoulder to make sure she kept pace with him. He scanned the town, but no other people accosted them. The whole town slept in the mid-afternoon sun.

He turned a corner and opened the gate of a trim little house with gingerbread trim around the roof and lace curtains fluttering in the open windows. Marla's heart went out to the place. It reminded her of Dunlap Homestead. He opened the door and led her into the carpeted hall. “Just wait here, and I'll go get my aunt. Have a seat in the living room if you want. Then I'll get you something to eat.”

He hurried away and returned a minute later.

“My aunt isn't here right now, so we can make ourselves at home. What do you want to do first? Do you want to eat, or do you want to go to your room?”

She thought it over. “I guess I'd like to go to my room. I never thought sitting on my backside in the bus all day could be so exhausting.”

He laughed and led her down the hall. He opened a door under the stairs and stood back. “There you go.”

Marla stared through the opening. A rickety wooden staircase disappeared down into pitch dark. “What's this?”

He motioned her through the door. “This is the room you asked for. It's the basement.”

She stared at him. His eyes flashed under his black bangs, but that congenial smile vanished into an ugly mask of pure malicious hatred. She couldn't speak.

“Go on,” he growled. “Get in there. This is what you wanted, and this is what you got.”

“But I...”

She never got a chance to finish the sentence before he grabbed her by the back of the neck and hurled her through the door. She hit the stairs on her side and tumbled down into the dark. He slammed the door, and the golden square of light shut out.

Chapter 11

Walker parked his pick-up in the supermarket parking lot and shut off the engine. He left his bag on the seat and set off down the street toward the far end of town. When he came to the road leading up to Bruins' Peak, he took a deep breath and smelled all the smells of the town.

He didn't dare get down on his hands and knees and smell the pavement with so many humans around, but he didn't have to. He caught Marla's scent even here. She didn't have a car, so she must have come into town on foot. Aiken said he and Boyd tracked her to Park Street, and he picked up the trail here, where she must have entered the town.

He set off in the direction of town. Where could she have gone? Everywhere he went, he smelled her. She went behind the supermarket. She went down the alley. When she came to Park Street, she paused. Her scent mingled with a thousand other smells. Bodies surrounded her on all sides—human bodies. He ventured out into the middle of Park Street, and there the scent died, just the way Aiken said it did. He couldn't follow it any further.

He peered into every face in the crowd. How could a Bruin want to leave the Peak to come here, to be surrounded by humans? Marla must be truly desperate to leave her Bruin nature behind. Where would she go? What would she do?

She wanted to get away from the Peak, and she wouldn't stay in Iron Bark where dozens of Bruins could recognize her on sight. She must have left town. She either caught a ride with someone, or she…

He went back to the supermarket, down the alley…and stopped. There was the bus station. She took a roundabout route to avoid being recognized. He crossed the street and went into the station. Her scent came stronger here, especially near the counter. She bought a ticket. She left town by bus, but going where?

He moved into the waiting room and strolled between the benches until he found one that smelled the strongest of her. He sat down in the next seat and inhaled a deep breath of her scent. He closed his eyes and drifted away to that glorious day in the woods when she sat on his hips and rode him to her screaming climax. That scent spoke to his blood, his cells. He swam in delightful pools of her sweet scent.

He shook himself awake. Sitting here dreaming about her wasn't getting her back. He stood up, but when he headed for the door, he detected another scent. He smelled that scent before, but where? He rifled his encyclopedic memory for it. It sparked a nagging warning of danger approaching.

He left the bus station and went back to his truck. He got out his bag and went down the street to the bank. He withdrew several thousand dollars from his personal bank account and headed back to the bus station.

Marla was on the run. She would go as far away from Bruins' Peak as she could get. How much money did she have? How far could she go? He couldn't track her scent on the bus. He would have to use his brains to figure out where she went.

He glanced both ways to cross the street when a strong hand clamped down on his shoulder and yanked him back onto the curb. He spun around with his hackles raised when he came face to face with Sheriff McPherson. “What do you want?”

“I'll ask the questions here, Mister,” he snapped. “I just spotted you, so I came to ask you about Bain Campbell.”

“What about him?” Walker shot back. “I don't know anything about Bain Campbell.”

“Have you seen him at all in the last few days, or maybe in the last week?” the Sheriff asked.

“I haven't seen him in months,” Walker replied. “I don't associate with him. Why don't you go look for him at his house?”

“I already did that,” the Sheriff countered. “No one has seen him in days. The last anybody knew, he was on his way up to Bruins' Peak, but he never came back. Would you know anything about that?”

“I don't know anything about it,” Walker snapped. “I never even knew he was on the Peak, but if he was, he was on private property.”

“Whether he was on private property or not, his disappearance is my business and that makes it your business.” He jabbed Walker in the chest with his forefinger.

“I can't help you. I gotta go.” He turned away.

The Sheriff grabbed Walker by the shoulder again. His hand crushed Walker's shoulder in a powerful grip. “You're not going anywhere until you answer my questions.”

“I can't answer your questions.,” Walker insisted. “I'm in a hurry here.”

“Then I suggest you answer my questions in a hurry,” the Sheriff boomed, “and then you'll be free to go. You wouldn't want me to think you're making yourself scarce because you had anything to do with his disappearance, now would you?”

Walker smacked his lips. “What do you want to know? I haven't seen Bain Campbell.”

The sheriff glared at him. “You people have a bone to pick with the Campbells, don't you? Are you sure he didn't meet with an accident?”

“Who cares if he met with an accident?” Walker sneered. “Personally, I hope he did meet with an accident.”

As soon he said it, Walker regretted losing his cool in front of the Sheriff. The Sheriff pulled himself up and glared at Walker. “Now, I know you had something to do with Bain disappearing. I think you better come down to the station with me. We can have a talk in my office.”

Walker's shoulders sagged. “Listen, Sheriff. Everyone knows there's no love lost between the Bruins and the Campbells. The hunters have been after us for years. If Bain Campbell came up to Bruins' Peak, he was up to no good. I'll do what I can to help you find him, but I can't promise you'll find him alive and safe.”

“If you really expect me to believe you had nothing to do with bushwacking him in the middle of the night, you better come with me. I know you're a crackerjack tracker. You can help me find out where he went and what happened to him.”

Walker took a deep breath. The sooner he helped the Sheriff find Bain, the sooner he could get on his own way finding Marla. “All right. What do you want me to do?”

The Sheriff nodded over his shoulder. “Come back down the block to my car. Bain's friends say he left the Beater the other night on his way up Road X10.”

“What was he doing there?”

“Who knows?” The Sheriff pulled open the door. “Get in the car.”

The Sheriff held the squad car passenger door open for Walker to get in. At least it wasn't the back door. Walker put on his seat belt, and the Sheriff started driving out of town, back toward Bruins' Peak where Walker just came from. This could take a lot longer than he anticipated. By the time he got back to the bus station, Marla could be long gone.

The Sheriff drove out of town and circled the Peak. He turned off onto Road X10. They hadn't gone very far when they came across two trucks stuck together on the side of the road. The Sheriff parked, and the two men got out.

The Sheriff inspected one truck and wrinkled up his nose. “This is Bain's truck.”

“Who does the other truck belong to?” Walker asked.

The Sheriff cocked his head. “I was hoping you could tell me that.”

Walker shrugged. “I don't recognize it, but that doesn't signify. I don't know every car and truck on the Peak. It could be anybody's. There's nothing to say it even belongs to a Bruin. It could be an outsider. It could be another hunter. Maybe Bain came up here with one of his friends and they crashed into each other.”

The Sheriff smacked his lips. “Come on, Cunningham. You know you're making up stories to excuse your own people. Someone crashed this truck to stop Bain from reaching the Peak.”

“Well, I don't recognize it. Can't you run the plate number through your database?”

The Sheriff pulled out his phone and twiddled with it for a minute. “This truck is registered to Austin Farrell.”

“That explains why I didn't recognize it.”

“Why is that?”

“Because the Cunninghams don't have anything to do with the Farrells,” Walker explained. “I've never seen any of their cars before. What was Austin Farrell doing out here, crashing into Bain Campbell's truck?”

The Sheriff walked in a circle around the two wrecked trucks. Walker followed a step behind him. The Sheriff kept going, but Walker stopped next to the passenger door of Austin's truck and stuck his head through the rolled-down window. A powerful Bruin scent came from inside that truck, and not a male one, either. Walker knew that scent like the back of his hand. It was Aurora.

The events of the last few days flooded back, and he remembered Aurora trying to talk to him about Austin. He was on another planet during that conversation. He heard her now for the first time. She wanted to marry Austin Farrell. She came to him for support, and he gave her the cold shoulder.

How could he turn her down, after everything he went through with Marla? Star married a Farrell. What could he possibly say to object to Aurora doing the same thing? Austin wouldn't be his first choice for Aurora's mate, but Fate didn't ask his opinion. Fate didn't ask his opinion about Marla, either. She wasn't his parents' first choice of mate for him. The rest of the Cunningham tribe would raise their eyebrows in surprise when he brought her home as his bride. None of that mattered. Only the heart mattered.

Austin and Aurora crashed Austin's truck to stop Bain setting traps on the mountain, and they made sure Bain Campbell never came down from Bruins' Peak to bother anybody else again in his whole sorry life. So much water under the bridge, and Walker was slacking on his duty as Alpha not to deal with it when it happened. Brody Farrell and Aiken Dunlap dealt with it in his place by warning the other tribes the hunters were on the mountain. Well, Walker wasn't Alpha anymore. All those problems rested on someone else's shoulders now. He only had one problem, and that was getting Marla back.

The Sheriff shoved his phone back in his pocket. “Austin Farrell must have whacked Bain. Come on. Let's go up to their Homestead and we can question him.”

“Come on, Sheriff. You don't know anybody whacked Bain. There's not a drop of blood or a body in either truck. That means Bain walked away from this wreck. Wait a few days. Bain will turn up in town in a day or two with some other wild story about how evil and dangerous the Bruins are, and everything will go back to normal.”

The Sheriff gave the wreck site one last inspection. “I suppose you're right. Let's go.”

The two men got back in the car. Neither said a word on the way back to town until the Sheriff parked the squad car on the corner again. “Am I free to go now?”

“You can go.” He wagged his finger at Walker. “Just make sure you stay out of trouble.”

“I always do. All Bruins do.”

The Sheriff threw the car into gear and grumbled under his breath, “Yeah. You people are too clean.”

Walker got out and shut the door behind him. He waited until the squad car rolled away before he took his bag under his arm and headed for the bus station.

Chapter 12

Marla sat on the cold ground in pitch darkness. How many days or weeks passed since Riley Faulkner threw her in this basement? She had no idea. Every now and then, a square of light opened in the ceiling. Riley came down the stairs to deliver a tray of food, but he didn't speak to her, and he retreated through the door quickly as he came.

That first night he threw her down the stairs, she landed unconscious at the foot of the stairs. She didn't wake up until he returned hours later. He punched her in the head a few times to make sure she didn't fight back. He dragged her across the basement and shackled her to a post with an iron ring around her leg. He left her there and only came back to feed her.

She followed the chain connecting the ring on her leg to the post. She couldn't budge it, no matter how hard she tried. She groped all over the basement floor she could reach, but she already knew she wouldn't find anything that could help her escape. A guy like Riley wouldn't make a mistake like that.

Whoever he was, he planned this. He spotted her at the bus station, and he stalked her and trapped her like a spider stalking a fly. He probably noticed how sheltered and gullible she was from the moment she sat down in the station waiting room.

What a fool she was! She didn't even know how to use the sense God gave Bruin kind to sniff out danger. She should have picked up the danger in his alien scent, but she didn't know how. Years shut up in the house took their toll. She might as well be human, for all her Bruinness helped her out in a situation like this.

Would she ever get out of this basement? Would she ever see her family again? What did Riley have planned for her? Would he keep her captive, or did he have something more sinister in mind?

How could she fall for his shallow flattery? How could she let him kiss her? If only Walker was here, he would know how to help her. She wouldn't let herself fall apart thinking about him. If only she could live the last few weeks over again, what a different choice she would make.

All at once, the door flew open. The tell-tale square of light appeared, and a man ran down into the darkness, but he didn't drop her tray in front of her and disappear. He stayed longer, and sounds came to her from across the basement.

The next minute, a thousand blazing lights blinded her. They banished darkness from every corner. Marla covered her face to protect her stinging eyes. Voices boiled on every side of her.

When her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw for the first time where she was. Flood lights glared down in a circle from the ceiling. The ring of bare dirt underneath her ended in rough wooden walls hemming her in. They rose to a balcony overhead, where people hurried back and forth beyond the light.

Riley came through a door in the wooden wall. He struggled to control a dog at the end of a chain. The animal lunged off its feet at Marla, jibbering and snarling and foaming at the mouth. It choked itself on its collar and dragged Riley forward one step at a time.

He managed to wrestle the dog and clip its chain to a ring screwed into the wall. He went through the door and came back with another dog. He brought in three dogs and chained them all inside the ring where they could bark and slather and strain to get at Marla.

She shrank back against her post, but she couldn't stop staring at the spectacle unfolding before her. Men leaned over the balcony to point and stare at her. They shouted to each other and waved money clutched in their fists.

After he finished fighting the dogs into position, Riley appeared in the upper seats among the crowd. The men mobbed him with fresh shouts. They waved their money in his face. He found a place for himself and started holding court. One man after another came to him to place bets. The noise rose to a deafening pitch. More men rushed in from outside, and every one of them wanted to place a bet with Riley. They jabbered and pointed down at Marla and the dogs.

Marla's heart pounded. The dogs' barking sent her into a panic, but she couldn't get away. She struggled to her feet with her back plastered against the post. Her eyes darted around the ring from one face to another, but she couldn't find one hint of sympathy in that crowd. None of them would help her. What did they want from her? What would become of her when this was all over?

When she turned around again, she saw Riley coming back through the door. Three men followed him, each carrying a long pole in his hands. The dogs settled down at their presence, and the men arranged themselves in a line in front of the dogs. They faced Marla and aimed their sticks at her.

Dozens of feet stamped in the upper balcony. Voices screamed and shouted and cheered. Marla couldn't make out a single intelligible word, but she couldn't take her eyes off the men in front of her. She clung to the post for any scrap of stability. She couldn't breathe. Her heart fluttered against her chest.

Riley and his friends moved in. Marla searched their faces and saw nothing but cruel hatred. All at once, Riley darted forward and jabbed his stick at Marla. The stick poked her thigh, and something sharp embedded in the tip punctured her skin. She screamed, but he moved faster than she could react. He slipped back into his place before she could move.

Pain seared her leg, but she was too terrified to move. The men in the upper balcony cheered. Another man came forward along with Riley, and they threatened her with their sticks from both sides at the same time. This time, sheer panic took over. Marla rounded on Riley and batted his stick away, but the other man darted forward and jabbed her before she could swing around to protect herself.

Next, all three men came at her at the same time. They didn't employ any special strategy. They just poked and jabbed and attacked from every side at once. No matter which way she turned, they harassed her until she couldn't turn anywhere. She just stood in one place and bellowed at them in rage and terror. They stabbed her with their sharp points in the ribs, in the neck, in the legs and belly. She bled from dozens of punctures.

Riley and one man kept up the barrage of jabs while the other got out the first dog. The dog fought hard to get at Marla, but the man held him back. He let the dog inch forward until he came level with Riley.

Marla snarled back at the dog when Riley gave her a vicious jab. His stick slid past her face, and the sharp tip scratched her cheek. She shrieked, but he already moved way where she couldn't get to him. At the same moment, the man with the dog let the animal lunge at her. Its jaws clicked within a hair's breath of her face before he dragged it back out of the way.

Marla went wild. She ran for the door, but the chain caught her leg and sent her pitching over on her face. The men in the stands exploded in gusty cheers. Money passed from hand to hand. One voice touched Marla's ear, and its meaning wormed into her brain. “Shift! Shift!”

She scrambled back to her post and sandwiched her back against it. She glanced around at a thousand faces when that voice came back to her. “Shift! Shift! Come on! Let me see you shift!”

Her petrified mind gradually accepted the startling reality. That voice came from outside herself. She didn't want to shift. Someone was telling her to. She blinked. The voice came again from her right. When she looked in that direction, she came face to face with Riley. He jabbed his stick at her chest and shouted over the noise. “Shift! Shift!”

What was he talking about? Shift? She couldn't. How could he know about shifting, anyways? He was human. Humans didn't know about Bruins, but there he was, shouting, “Shift! Shift!” at her. What did he mean? He couldn't mean shift in that way. If he didn't mean it that way, what way did he mean?

He stabbed his stick at her, and his friend on the other side matched him stroke for stroke. The dog slathered and roared against its collar. The men in the crowd pointed and screamed and wiped tears away from their eyes.

Riley kept up his shouting. “Shift! Shift!”

Through the fog of fear and rage and pain, a distant thought fought its way to her consciousness. He wanted her to shift. That was the only explanation. Somehow, some way, he found out who and what she was. Maybe he knew who she was when she sat down in the bus station waiting room. That must have been where he saw his chance to capture her.

He knew she was a Bruin. He knew she could shift into a bear, and that's what he wanted her to do. All this jabbing and stabbing and provoking her with dogs—all of it was designed to get her to shift, to fight them off as a bear. They were bear-baiting.

Chapter 13

The knowledge of what these men were trying to do scared Marla more than anything else they did. They would do anything to make her shift, just to see what she would do. Maybe seeing her shift into a bear excited them in some way. That didn't matter. She couldn't shift. She had to keep a lid on her fear before it took over. She couldn't let what happened before happen again. She couldn't know what she would do once she shifted, and she didn't want to find out.

She clamped her eyes shut. Riley and his companion still stabbed her with their sticks, and the other man let the dog come close enough so its saliva spattered her face, but she wouldn't shift no matter what they did. The crowd leaned over the balcony. They signaled the men on the ground to do this or that. They shouted to escalate the fight to make her shift.

All of a sudden, the shouts of “Shift! Shift!” stopped. Marla peeked through her clenched eyelids to see Riley toss his stick on the ground with a muttered curse. The others dropped back, and the man hauled the dog back.

Riley kicked his stick out of the way and rushed Marla with his hands outstretched. She barely had time to bring up her hands before his fingers closed around her throat. He smashed her back against the post and knocked the daylights out of her.

The next thing she knew, she was flat on her back looking up into his snarling face. His lips quivered around his bared teeth, and his black hair hung sweat-drenched over his eyes and forehead. His hair waved with some hidden motion.

That's when she realized she couldn't breathe. He gripped her around the neck and banged her head against the ground hard enough to shake his hair out of place. Through it all, she caught a feeling of his muscled body on top of her.

She couldn't hear anything over her pulse pounding in her ears. His two friends stood back out of the way, and the crowd waved and gesticulated from the upper seats, but she hovered in eerie silence. She watched the scene from far away. She couldn't even feel the pressure of his hands crushing her windpipe.

His lips moved. He was still shouting, “Shift! Shift!” into her face. What was wrong with him? Didn't he know she wouldn't shift to save her own life? She couldn't. Whatever he did to her, she had to remain in control, inviolate. She had to maintain herself. She left her Bruin nature behind, and she wouldn't let these creeps force her back to it. The bear curled up and snorted before it went back to sleep.

She made a weak effort to fight back, but he overpowered her with his strength. That lanky body held more power than anyone could see from the outside. She tried to pry his fingers off her neck, but they wouldn't budge. She punched his ribs, but solid muscle stopped her even making a dent. Her efforts only encouraged him to beat and strangle her harder. Without the bear fighting for her, she was weak and powerless.

Blood red haze filled her eyes so she couldn't see. Throbbing agony building in her chest changed to hopeless despair. This was it. This was the end of her life. She would die here at the hands of these ruthless bear-baiters. No one on Bruins' Peak would ever find out what happened to her.

She sent a silent prayer to anyone listening to keep her family safe from people like this, and she blew a tender kiss to Walker. She blessed him for loving her in the short time they had together. He gave her such pleasure as she could ever hope for, and he promised to love and protect her. That was more than she deserved, after the way she treated him.

In that moment, she loved him more than life. He was her heart's mate. She would die, and she would never love another man. He was everything she could dream of in a man. He was Bruin through and through, and he worshiped her in all her bearness. She was enough for him. He didn't care what she'd done to any hunter. He wanted her to be a bear, and he loved her as a bear.

All of a sudden, the crimson cloud of blood blinding her evaporated in a torture of gasping for air. From a great distance, she heard the thunderous noise above. Riley still lay on top of her and pinned her to the ground with his weight, but he wasn't looking at her. He stared up into the stands.

No men leaned over the balcony to shout at her or wave their money around. People ran in every direction. The door in the ceiling flapped open and slammed shut before the next person yanked it open to rush through it.

Her lungs wouldn't work properly, but at least she could draw a little air into her body again. She coughed and rolled sideways when she saw an enormous shape moving through the stands. Something golden loomed high over the parapet. She could just make out the outline of a huge bear marauding and mauling its way through the crowd. It was Walker.

He slashed hither and thither with his claws. Anyone who tripped and stumbled in the mad rush to get out of the basement fell to his massive crunching jaws. He plowed his way through waves of fleeing men and left bodies strewn in his wake. Marla stared up at him. Was she dreaming? Was he some angel come to carry her away to heaven? Was she hallucinating in her fear and oxygen-starved state?

Riley shifting on top of her snapped her out of her trance. He was still here, so this wasn't over yet. He glanced down at her, and their eyes met, but she felt no more fear or hatred for him anymore. Walker was here. He was raging through the stands to kill and maim any of these people he could get his teeth around. He ripped out throats right and left. He tore flesh from bone.

Why was she lying here, flat on her back, with some puny human's fingers around her throat? Why was she lying here helpless while Walker delivered the heaven-sent revenge against these heathens? She was a Bruin. God gave her the strength and power to fight and kill and attack, and that's exactly what she would do. She didn't have to wait for someone else to pay these men back for what they did to her. If Walker could fight bear against human and use all his monstrous power to crush them under his paw, she could do the same thing.

She relived the scene when the Campbells attacked her in the forest. She might as well be back there, fighting for her life. The bear reared out of her darkest soul and roared to the skies in raging fury.

The hunter's body fizzed against her, and she sensed his excitement. His crotch swelled against her legs, and his sweat stung her nostrils. Her very fear excited him more than anything.

Her fear and helplessness shuddered and blew away in the wind. They left only cold, crystal-clear rage in their wake. She inhaled a deep breath, and Riley flew back from her to let her lungs expand the rest of the way.

In the blink of an eye, the bear exploded against him and she was on her feet in all her Bruin glory. Her four clawed feet hit the soft earth. Her fur flew back when she lunged straight for Riley with her jaws open to crush his bones to powder. With one snap, the chain holding her leg to the post broke. It didn't check her flight in the slightest.

Riley stumbled back, but Marla was on him like a shot. She bounded across the ring to rip his throat out when he flipped over. He scurried across the floor to the three dogs chained to the wall. With one flick of his fingers, he unhooked one dog from its chain. He grabbed the dog's collar and shoved it toward the bear raging toward him. “Sic 'em!”

The dog flew off the ground with a roar. It sailed toward Marla with its teeth bared, and she bellowed at it in holy fury. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Riley ducking through the door to freedom. She rose on her hind legs to close with the dog. She lowered her head to drive her nose under its jaw, and her teeth clamped around its throat. One powerful twist of her head, and the dog slumped to the ground in a bloody twitching mess. Marla headed for the door, but it was too late. Riley was gone.

She lumbered around to face the other two dogs, but they cowered back against the wall. They smelled their comrade's blood seeping into the ground, and the men weren't around to help them. They no longer smelled fear to give them so much courage. Marla growled at them once, and they flattened themselves against the floor.

The door swung open, and Walker came through it. Blood stained his hair and shirt, but he smiled when he saw the bear with gore dripping from her jaws. He stopped still to regard her. The bear grumbled under her breath and nudged the lifeless body at her feet.

He took a step forward and put out his hand to stroke her bloody muzzle. “Beautiful bear. My beautiful Bruin.”

She muttered to herself, but she didn't shift back. She sniffed his hand with warm puffs of air in and out of her wet nose.

“You did it,” he exclaimed in a whisper. “You shifted. I knew you could do it. How does it feel? Pretty good? You're beautiful like this. You're beautiful when you're raging and killing. I love you more than ever.”

She leaned back, and her back straightened. She pulled her head down between her shoulders and stood up to take her shape as a woman. She searched his face. “You came.”

He held out his hands to her. “I wouldn't leave you here. I've been looking for you. I wish I could have come sooner, but these people cover their tracks pretty well. I had to search every station between here and Iron Bark. I only found you because I smelled that guy around the pit trap where I found you before.”

“What guy?”

He pointed to the door. “That one that just ran away?”

“Riley? His name is Riley Faulkner.”

“His scent was all around that pit trap where I found you. I smelled it in the bus station, too, and I followed it here. That's how I found you.”

“How did he get up on Bruins' Peak?” she asked.

“I don't know how, but they must know all about Bruins. They must know we can shift into bears, and they want to capture us alive so they can bring us back here for their bear-baiting.”

“And I walked here of my own free will.” Marla kicked herself. “I'm an idiot.”

He shook his head. “You couldn't know they were coming after us. No one could know.”

She stared down at the floor. “I'm sorry I gave you so much trouble.”

He waved her apology away. “Forget it. If that's all the trouble I get from you, I'll be happy.”

“Listen, Walker, I…”

He cut her off, “Don't say it. You're safe. We're getting out of here, and those people won't stop us. We'll make certain of that.”

“I wasn't going to say that. I was going to say…I mean, I want to… I want to…” She couldn’t go on.

He took her hand while he waited for her to make sense.

She gathered her courage to look him in the face. “I'm trying to say I want to be your mate, Walker. I am your mate, and I'm proud of it.”

He inched closer. “Yeah?”

She smiled. “Yeah.”

He towed her to him by the arm, and his arms closed around her. She buried her face in his chest and took in a deep breath. That scent meant home. It meant love and safety. She could hide in that scent forever.

He kissed her hair. “I love you. I always have, and I always will.”

“I love you, Walker Cunningham. I'll love you for the rest of my life, and nothing will ever separate us again.”

Chapter 14

Walker offered Marla his hand to lead her off the bus. She set her foot down on the pavement outside the bus station and looked around the town of Iron Bark. “This old place again?”

Walker chuckled. “We won't stay here long. This isn't home. Home is up the mountain.”

She gazed down the street. “I wonder what will happen when we get home. Everyone will make a big deal about me coming back.”

“It doesn't have to be that way,” he suggested.

She shook her head. “I would have to at least see my parents and tell them I'm home. When they hear about us mating, my mother will probably cry. Dad will want to have a party and all that.”

“You can't blame them for that,” he argued. “This is their dream come true.”

“What about you? You getting married is your parents' dream come true, too.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, but it's different for me. I don't think Dax will be happy to see me back. I'm sure he's been enjoying himself as Alpha in my absence.”

“What will you do about it?”

“I'll have to work that out when I get home.” He tugged her hand. “Come on. I don't want to hang around this town. I've had enough of humans for a long, long time.”

He led her through the alley, but when they got behind the supermarket, he startled her by pushing her back against the cinder block wall. He breathed into her mouth and his hands ranged over her body. “Hey, baby,” he murmured. “Let's get a hotel room before we go home.”

She tried to get her thoughts in order, but his touch set her soul on fire all over again. “What? You just said we should go home.”

He leaned closer. “This could be our only chance to catch some time alone before everybody finds out we're together. What do you say—just you and me? No one has to know.”

She gasped for breath. “You're crazy.”

“Crazy for you.” He bent his knees and pushed her up against the wall with his bulk. He crushed the air out of her lungs, but she had enough to think about with his manhood swelling against her wet crotch. He lifted one leg out of the way and set her thigh on his hip so he could drive between her legs. “Come on, baby,” he purred. “You know you want to.”

She looked around. “Here?”

“Not here. In a hotel.”

“Are you sure that's a good idea?” She fought to breathe. “What would our parents say?”

“We've already done it once,” he pointed out. “We're mated.”

“That was different,” she argued. “That was in the forest.”

He chuckled. “I know it was different. I couldn't get enough of you back then. I want to take my time over you this time. I want to have all the time in the world to inspect every inch of you without having to worry about my parents in the next room.”

“I don't know,” she hedged

He cooled down and let her leg ease to the ground. “If you're not sure, we shouldn't do it.”

“I want to do it,” she explained. “I just don't know about doing it in any hotel room. It seems so…so seedy.”

He folded her in his arms. “I just can’t keep my hands off you.”

“We’re alone now,” she pointed out. “What are you going to do when we get around other Bruins?”

He squared his shoulders. “I won’t lose control, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

She shot him a wicked grin. “Will you be able to keep your hands off me then?”

He closed his eyes and bowed. “Of course. I’ll be the perfect gentleman.”

“Gentleman? You?” She guffawed.

“I’ll even keep my elbows off the table if you tell me to.”

“I don’t care about that.”

He gave her a loud smack on the lips. “I knew you were the right woman for me.”

She shoved him back. “Elbows on the table is one thing. Aiken puts his elbows on the table all the time and drives Ma to distraction. Coming onto me in an alley behind the supermarket is another. What if someone saw us here? Bruins have a reputation in this town for clean behavior.”

His smile faded. “You’re right. We should keep clean. That’s why I suggested the hotel room.”

“That’s what I’m talking about. Just imagine how the tongues would wag when anybody found out a Bruin rented a hotel room for the afternoon for a quickie.”

Walker snorted. “Right again, Clouseau. When did you get so smart?”

She eyed him. “This getting a hotel room business is kinda out of character for you, isn’t it? I never pegged you for that kind of guy.”

He shrugged. “I’m not, but then again, getting together with the woman of my dreams is kind of out of character for me, too. Well, if we’re not going to get a room, let’s get out of here.” He took her hand again and led the way to the supermarket, where he found his truck still parked in the parking lot.

They got halfway across the parking lot when a bulky man came out of the supermarket. Marla sensed Bruin, and when she looked that way, she saw her brother, Aiken, coming toward her. He slowed his pace when he spotted Marla and Walker crossing the parking lot hand and hand.

He looked Marla up and down. Blood still stained her T-shirt, and pinprick dots of blood spotted her arms and pants. “Are you all right?”

She squeezed Walker's hand. “I'm just fine. How are all the folks at home?”

“They're fine. They're just worried about you. That's all.”

She moved closer to Walker. “Well, you can tell them I'm all right.”

Aiken hesitated to walk away. “Are you coming home?”

She glanced at Walker. “I guess I have to.”

“Marla will not be going home,” Walker declared. “I'd appreciate it if you would tell your parents. She's coming home with me.”

Aiken's eyes popped open. “She is?”

Marla rounded on him. “I am? When did you decide that?”

“Just now. You don't have to go home and face a big to-do about the prodigal returning. You're coming home with me—to stay.”

Marla's face burst open in a brilliant smile. On impulse, she lifted Walker's hand to her lips and kissed his knuckles.

Aiken stared at them. “Well, I guess I'll have to tell 'em. I'm glad to see you safe, Marla, and I can see you're happier than you've been in a long time.”

She beamed from ear to ear. “I am. I'm going where I belong.”

“Good.” Aiken turned to Walker. “By the way, Cunningham, I thought you'd like to know your sister, Aurora, is mated to Austin Farrell.”

“Yeah, I know,” he muttered. “I have to talk to her about that.”

“You'll find her up on the Peak,” Aiken went on. “They just moved up to Star and Brody's old house in the no-man's land between Farrell territory and Cunningham territory.”

Walker frowned. “Is that so?”

“Didn't you know?” Aiken frowned. “Maybe you're not supposed to know. Maybe I shouldn't have told you.”

Walker relaxed. “It's all right, man. I don't mind them living up there. I just have to go see Aurora to tell her it's all right. I made a mistake not telling her before, and I have to put it right.”

“I don't want to put a damper on your homecoming,” Aiken added, “but your brother, Dax, has been making trouble for the Farrells again.”

“I know that, too, but thanks for the warning.” Walker growled under his breath. “I'm sure I've got a fight waiting for me when I get home.”

Aiken nodded. “All right. Will I see you around, Marla?”

“I'm sure you'll see plenty of me. Hopefully, you won't have occasion to curse my name the way you have been these last few years.”

“I never cursed your name, little sister.” He shifted to the other foot. “At least, not very often.”

“It's okay, Aiken,” Marla exclaimed. “I know I made your lives a living hell these last few years. I can only apologize by saying I made my own life much worse than I made yours. I'm sorry I was rude to Harmony, and maybe when Ma finds out I'm getting married, she'll forgive me.”

Aiken smiled on her. “You don't have to apologize that way, darling. You can apologize by being happy. That's all any of us ever wanted for you, but I can see you've got that now. You run along home to Cunningham Homestead, and I'll spread the word. Dad will probably want to come and have a talk with you, Walker.”

Walker held out his hand. “I'm sure he will. You tell him he's welcome whenever he pleases.”

Aiken shook his hand and set off to the other side of town. Walker unlocked his truck, and he held the door open for Marla while she got in. He closed it for her after she settled into the seat. He got into the driver's seat and turned the ignition.

The truck rumbled out of town, up the road and into the mountains. Bruins' Peak stuck up over the trees. Marla was never so happy to go back there. The mountain welcomed her home into its loving embrace. She didn't have to go back to Dunlap Homestead. She was going somewhere beyond her wildest dreams, somewhere everyone accepted her and where she could shelter in the arms of the man she loved most in the world.

Her happiness evaporated when he pulled up in front of Cunningham Homestead. A dozen cars cluttered the yard and driveway. Dax moved from one vehicle to the next and spoke to the people inside. He carried his shotgun over his shoulder and wore a pair of pistols holstered on his hips for all the world to see. “What's going on?”

Walker kicked the brake pedal and skidded to a halt. He threw the gear shift up into Park and swung his door open. “You stay here. I'll sort this out right now.”

He stepped out of the truck and headed straight for Dax. Dax froze when he saw Walker coming. Someone spoke to him from a nearby car window, and he bit back a muttered answer before coming to meet Walker.

Walker waved to the cars blocking the driveway. “What's going on here, son?”

Dax fidgeted with his gun. “How ya doing, Walker? I didn't expect to see you back so soon.”

Walker’s voice rumbled deep in his chest. “You obviously didn't expect it, or you wouldn't be getting up to no good while I was away. I asked you what's going on here. I better get an answer the next time you open your mouth, or things are going to turn nasty in a hurry.”

Dax swallowed hard. “These are the cousins from over the ridge. You know Marty and Kelso and Bass.”

Walker cut him off before he could go any further, “Yeah, I know who they are. What are they doing here loaded down with guns? No, wait. Don't answer that. You're on your way to the Farrells'. Am I right?”

“You can't let the Farrells creep up on us, man,” Dax wheedled. “They're our enemies. Nothing can change that. We're on our way to attack them, the way we should have done a long time ago.”

“They're your sister Star's family,” Walker shot back, “and your sister Aurora's family. Both of them are married to Farrells, and Star's son Hector is a Farrell. That makes them our relatives.”

Dax waved his hand. “That doesn't matter. You're not Alpha anymore, Walker. You left. You abdicated. That makes me Alpha. These men follow my orders, not yours.”

“I'm Alpha as long as I say I am.” Walker chopped the air with his hand. “I'm ordering you, as Alpha of this tribe, to send your cousins and your buddies home. No one is attacking the Farrells today.”

“You can't do that,” Dax argued. “You're an outsider now. I decide what we do, and I say we're attacking the Farrells.”

Walker glared at him with smoldering eyes. “Would you kill your own sister and your own nephew in your crazy lust for Farrell blood?”

Dax drew himself up. “I'll do a lot more than that before I quit as Alpha, and you can't stop me. You have to get my permission even to live in your own parents' house. So, what are you going to do about that?”

“Is that the way you want it?” Walker thundered. “Do you really want to face me in an Alpha challenge? Do you really like your chances against me?”

Dax looked around at his friends. No one moved a muscle. “You can't do this, man. You can't run off wherever you want, whenever you want, and then waltz back in here and take over like nothing happened.”

“I was getting my mate,” Walker explained, “and now I've brought her home. I'm here to stay, and you can't beat me, Dax. Do yourself a favor and stand down. Send your boys home before they wind up mopping up your blood off the lawn.”

Dax bared his teeth, and his fingers tightened around his shotgun, but he didn't move.

“I challenge you, Dax Cunningham. I challenge you as Alpha of this tribe. We've got enough witnesses here, and may the best man win.”

Chapter 15

Dax twitched. His eyes darted this way and that. What he would do? He couldn't be so foolish as to try to beat Walker in an open fight. No one could beat Walker, and he dwarfed Dax by a mile. Anyone could see that. Marla made the mistake of underestimating Dax's ego investment in the short time he acted as Cunningham Alpha. He couldn't back down from that.

Walker didn't flinch. He kept his eyes locked on his brother's face and waited for Dax to make the first move. Dax bit his lip. Then, with a roar, he flung his shotgun aside and reared up over Walker's head. His shoulders dropped, and a giant bear took the place of the man.

Walker took a few rapid steps back to get out of his way, but Dax advanced on his brother with his foreclaws outstretched. He bellowed in Walker's face to make the mountain ring. In the blink of an eye, dozens of men jumped out of their cars to watch. They formed a ring around Dax and Walker, and some of them shouted encouragement to one or the other.

Walker recovered in an instant. He twisted his head around on his neck, and his teeth stretched out of his mouth into dripping fangs. He let out a roar to answer Dax's challenge, and his towering bulk rose to meet his brother.

The two bears closed in match aggression. Dax hugged Walker against him and drove his gaping jaws in on Walker's throat, but Walker hurled his greater bulk against Dax and knocked him off his feet. Dax's jaws closed on the rough fur around Walker's throat, and when he staggered back to catch his balance, his teeth combed through the fur and did no damage.

Marla clenched her fists in her lap, but she dared not move from the truck. Walker had to handle this all by himself. If he hoped to live in this tribe, he had to establish once and for all whether he was Alpha. If he didn't settle this now, Dax would never stop causing trouble.

As soon as Dax lost his footing, Walker rushed him. He gave Dax one more shove with his powerful arms and sent his brother barreling over backwards. At the same moment, Walker dropped onto all fours and came down hard on Dax's chest. He opened his mouth and closed his jaws around Dax's face.

Dax roared once, but his roar changed in an instant to a terrified whimper when Walker’s jaws closed around his head. Walker clamped down hard to crush Dax’s head in his powerful bite. Dax cringed against the inevitable, but at the last second, he swept his hind legs up with a swift kick out. He raked his razor-sharp claws against Walker’s vulnerable belly.

Walker screeched in pain, and in the instant when his jaws opened to release Dax’s head, Dax planted his hind legs against Walker’s chest and flung him end over end, over his head. Walker careened through the air and struck the side of a nearby car. His weight caved in the car door, and he slumped to the ground.

The instant he hit the ground, he leapt to his feet. He twisted around and lunged for Dax again, but even Marla, sitting some distance away in the passenger seat of the truck, could see blood trickling from his fur. He snarled a terrible challenge at Dax, and his lips quivered with feral rage.

Dax rounded on him, and he met Walker head on. Walker propelled himself forward with all four legs. His jaws gaped in slathering fury to rip Dax to pieces, but Dax wouldn’t back down. He’d come too close. He wouldn’t let go of the Alpha position without coming close to losing his life into the process.

Marla’s knuckles whitened on the car door. If only she could do something to stand by Walker right now, she would kill and main and shred. He helped her enough when everyone else lost hope in her. She would stand by him now if she thought it would do any good. A woman helping him now could only hurt him, though. He had to walk away from this challenge with his authority unquestioned if he walked away from it at all.

The harder Dax fought, the stronger Walker’s authority would be when he won—if he won. What if he didn’t win? What if Dax won? What would become of Bruins’ Peak then? What would become of her? She dared not think about that.

Dax flung himself against the mighty Bruin attacking him. He fought with the best of them. Marla had to give him that. No one could accuse him of lacking strength and courage to face a bear like Walker. Any sensible Bruin would back down before provoking that raving maniac, but Dax held his own. Not even Walker could rest assured of an easy victory.

The moment Walker closed with him, Dax used his advantage once again. He couldn’t match Walker for size and weight, so he used speed and agility instead. When Walker tried to overpower him by main strength, Dax kicked and bit and wrestled him one way and then the other. He smashed Walker against the cars. When Walker pinned him to the ground, Dax drove in with his teeth and claws to mangle any sensitive part of his brother’s body.

Walker took time to adjust to this strategy, but when he did, Dax couldn’t stand against him. Walker got Dax down on the ground after wrestling him onto his back, but Dax wriggled free of his crushing jaws to flip over on his stomach. Walker tried harder than ever to bite him, but everything he could get hold of came up tough and thick and protected.

When he clamped down on the back of Dax’s neck, he got a mouthful of fur and not much skin. The skin folded away from the muscle with the soft jugular safe underneath Dax’s chin. If Walker mouthed his shoulders or head, he could make no headway or cause Dax any pain at all.

Walker thundered his rage and frustration, but he couldn’t do anything to make Dax roll over and expose himself. Dax roared back a loud, mocking laugh. He could sit here all day and never move. He held Walker in the hollow of his paw.

That’s when Walker changed his strategy. He climbed off Dax and left him alone. With excruciating slowness, he walked around in a circle to Dax’s head. He stood right in front of Dax and glared down into his brother’s black eyes.

Dax had no idea what to make of this. He stared up at his big brother—his Alpha. In that moment, everyone watching knew the truth. Continuing the fight only prolonged the inevitable. Walker Cunningham was Alpha of his tribe. Dax couldn’t best him. No one could, and everybody knew it.

Walker grunted once. Dax didn’t twitch a hair. He could only crouch and await his fate. He put up a good fight, but it was all over now. He might as well slink off home and behave.

Walker waited, but Dax didn’t move. All at once, Walker attacked. He rushed in on Dax faster than thought. Dax saw him coming and rose on all fours, but he couldn’t match Walker’s surprise attack. He reacted just a fraction of a second too late, and that’s all the time Walker needed to throw him on the defensive.

The second Dax rose off the ground, Walker hit him with all his weight. He knocked Dax over onto his back and tackled him, but he didn’t go for the throat the way he did before. At the last instant, he dodged. He swooped in low and closed his jaws around the tender muscle connecting Dax’s foreleg to his chest. His fangs met and ripped.

Dax screamed to wake the dead. Marla heard the muscle tear, and Walker came up bloody all over his face and muzzle. He didn’t bother to roar at Dax again, but dove in low under Dax’s forelegs. He wrenched his neck around sideways and took another bit out of Dax’s side. With another powerful twist of his head, he ripped another bloody hole in Dax’s belly and jumped clear.

Without Walker there to hold him down, Dax twisted away and up onto his feet. Walker paced back and forth some distance away and didn’t reengage. He didn’t have to. He’d done his job. Dax limped away with one forepaw against his chest. He wouldn’t put any weight on it. Blood spattered the ground wherever he stepped.

Walker shifted first. The big golden Alpha bear stood up straight, and his bulk dwindled to the sturdy man Marla loved so well. He scanned the onlookers. “All you men pack up your stuff and go along home. There won’t be any attack on the Farrells today, or any other time as long as I’m Alpha.”

No one opposed him now. No one said a word. They climbed into their cars and trucks. One by one, they drove past Marla, down the driveway, and disappeared until only Dax remained.

Dax limped a few feet farther away and turned to look back at Walker before he shifted. He clutched his wounded arm over his wounded side, and he hunched over in pain when he tried to walk. He coughed once.

Walker jerked his chin at his brother. “Clean yourself up before you show yourself to Mama and Pop. Don’t let them find out we were fighting.”

Dax lowered his eyes. “Yes, sir.”

“When you finish cleaning yourself up and changing your clothes,” Walker went on, “I want you to pack up all your guns and bring them to my office. I want a full inventory of your ammo stocks, and you’ll turn in your keys to the barn lock-up.”

Dax’s eyes widened. “What for?”

“I’ve schooled you more than once about antagonizing the Farrells,” Walker snapped, “and you didn’t listen. Now, you’ve challenged me in front of the whole tribe for Alpha, and you lost. You’ll turn in your guns and relinquish your keys until you’re ready to fall in line with my authority. You won’t get your guns or your keys back until you show me you can behave and follow my orders, and if you ever mouth off to me again even once or call me lily-livered or even suggest I attack the Farrells or turn my back on this peace initiative, you’ll never get them back—not ever. Do you hear me?”

Dax flinched, but he turned away with a murmur, “Yes, sir. I’ll have the guns and the keys in your office in a few hours.”

“Make sure you bring them all,” Walker called after him. “Don’t forget I know where you keep your secret stash.”

Dax cast a frightened look over his shoulder before he slunk away—not to the house, but to the barn.

Walker stood in one place with his shoulders squared and his rippling muscles throbbing. He cast a sweeping glance over the barn yard, the garden gate, the corral—he was master of Cunningham Homestead. No one could dispute that anymore.

At last, he let out his breath and strode back to the truck. He slid into the driver’s seat and turned the ignition. He smiled across at Marla. “Everything’s under control now.”

“You were pretty hard on him, weren’t you?”

“You bet I was,” he spat. “I should have been a lot harder, after the things he’s done, but I couldn’t exactly kill him outright. If he wants to behave, he will. Otherwise, I’ll have to get really tough on him.”

He threw the truck into gear and drove the rest of the way up the driveway. He parked in the barn and helped Marla out. He took her by the hand and led her up to the house. He held the door open for her, but when they walked in, Marla stopped dead in her tracks.

Star stood in the kitchen. She took one look at Marla and turned on Walker. “Are you back?”

“I’m back. I just had some business to attend to, but it’s taken care of now. What’s going on? What brings you over the mountain?”

“Pop is sick,” Star replied. “Mama called me this morning. She can’t get hold of Aurora, and she didn’t know where you were. I’m the only one she could get hold of.”

Walker set his bag on the kitchen table. “So Pop is sick. What’s wrong with him?”

Star shook her head. “I don’t mean he has a cold or anything like that. He’s sick. He’s fading. Mama thinks he won’t last much longer.”

Just then, Rena Cunningham came out of the bedroom adjoining the living room. One look at her pinched, worried face said it all. Rena took a closer look at Marla. “Walker?”

“Morning, Mama. I think you know Marla Dunlap.”

“I know her.” Rena sighed. “I’m sorry I can’t welcome you with more cheer, Marla. I’m a little tied up at the moment. Maybe Star can get you a glass of iced tea.”

“You leave Marla to me, Mama,” Star replied. “You concentrate on Pop.”

“Has anyone gone to find Aurora?” Rena asked. “She should be here.”

“I haven’t had a chance to go find her,” Star replied. “I’ve been trying to get hold of Shaw. Once I’ve done that, I’ll hunt up Aurora.”

Rena wandered back to the bedroom. Walker spoke to Star in hushed tones, “Is it really that bad? How could he turn so fast?”

Star nodded. “It really is that bad. I’m afraid Mama is right and this is it.”

“Then we better get Aurora,” Walker declared. “Aiken says she’s up at your old house.”

“Austin told Brody he was taking over the house,” Star replied, “but no one has gone up to see them.”

Walker tugged Marla by the hand to the hall behind the living room. He guided her down the hall and into a large bedroom. A colorful floral quilt spread over a bed hung with gossamer curtains, and posters of horses and landscapes hung on the walls. Marla inspected the room. “Is this your room? It looks like a girl’s room.”

“This is Aurora’s old room.” He looked around. “I guess she’s not using it since she moved out with Austin. You can use it until we make it our own.”

Marla sat down on the bed. “If this isn’t your room, which is yours?”

“My room isn’t anywhere you would want to stay. It’s a man cave, and it also serves as my office. We’ll stay here together. Feel free to change anything you like. You can take those pictures down and put up whatever you want.” He headed for the door.

“Are you going to see your father now?”

He propped his hands on either side of her hips and leaned in to kiss her. “I’ll see him later. Right now, I have to go see Aurora.”

“I’m sure she’ll want to come as soon as she hears about your father.”

“That’s not why I have to see her.” He hung his head. “I owe her an apology, and she won’t come down to see Pop until she hears straight from me that she has my approval to marry Austin. I did wrong not to give it to her before. She shouldn’t have to live another day without it. I can deliver the message about Pop at the same time.”

“Let me come with you,” she urged.

He held out his hand to stop her. “Sorry. I have to do this on my own. Make yourself at home here—and I mean, make yourself at home. You’re gonna be here for a long, long time.”

She put out her hand to take his. “You promise?”

He stared at her in blank astonishment. Then he dove onto the bed and covered her with his bulk. His lips devoured her mouth, and he surrounded her face with his big hands. He kissed her and probed her mouth with his tongue, and his muscled body spoke to her every pore of the years to come.

“You’re never going to leave this house. This is your future. We’re together now, for life. In a few days, the whole mountain will know we’re mated. Then no one will question. No one will wonder. We’ll have a big Bruin wedding with all the tribes invited, and this will be the first Cunningham wedding with the Farrells in attendance. You’re all mine, and wild horses couldn’t drag you away from me now.”

She swam in his eyes and read her future there.

He leaned back. “Just do me one favor. Don’t say anything about us getting married to my Mama. Don’t take her attention away from Pop until we know what’s going on with him. If he recovers or if he dies, Mama will find out about us soon enough. Just leave her alone for a little while longer.”

“Okay. I’ll go along with whatever you think is best.”

He pushed himself off the bed. “See you in a little while. You can take a shower in the bathroom down the hall, and you’ll find some clean clothes in the closet. I’m not sure how close you are to Aurora in size, but they’ll make you presentable until we can find some other clothes for you. If you need anything to eat or drink, just ask Star.” He closed the door, and his footsteps vanished into the house.

How strange it was to find herself in someone else's house. She never called another house home in her life. She never realized until now how oppressive she found her family's presence, their expectations, their conversations—everything about them grated on her last nerve. They knew too much about her, and she knew too much about them.

Would she get aggravated by the Cunningham's idiosyncrasies after thirty-odd years? Would Walker turn into a brute with whom she couldn't stand to be in the same room?

Her dream came back to her. She’d been here before in dozens of dreams. This was the place she came when she dreamed of Walker. He kissed her and hugged her and protected her here. He talked and listened to her, and no problem she faced was too hard for him to solve. Whatever bothered her, he took it seriously.

She would always have something to talk to him about. Bruins didn't split up. A Bruin couldn't just decide one day to quit a marriage. Bruins worked it out. They depended on each other and supported each other.

Marla saw it time and again. Her parents and grandparents did it. Her aunts and uncles did it. Everyone on Bruins' Peak did it that way, and she would do it, too. For the first time since she could remember, she was happy to be a Bruin, looking forward to the rest of her Bruin life. She was glad to do what every other Bruin on the mountain was doing and would do until the end of time.

Aurora's room surrounded her in a peaceful glow. It offered her sanctuary like her room at Dunlap Homestead never did. The bed didn’t call on her to cover her head with the covers and hide from life. She met Walker here, and their love bolstered her courage to face life straight on.

The whole room smelled of Aurora, but that didn’t bother Marla. The Bruin smell no longer meant pain or danger to her. She and Walker would make this room their own. Their own smell, their combined smell, would invade every corner of the room until everything smelled of them. The bed would smell of their lovemaking. Their clothes would smell of each other. When Walker left home, she could bury her face in his pillow and be with him.

She started to study the room with fresh eyes. She planned how she would decorate it, and she wouldn't put up Gothic horror like she had at her parents' house. She would tell Aiken to burn everything in her old room, especially the statue with the glowing eyes and the gazelle's blood dripping from its jaws.

How could she ever look at that thing all day long? How could she find comfort in it? She used to love that statue. She thought of herself as the sacrificed gazelle and the monster devouring it all at the same time. She was the monster who destroyed her vulnerable, beautiful self.

She shuddered when she thought of it now. She hated it and never wanted to see it again. She regretted that she would carry that image in her mind for the rest of her life. She could only console herself with the fact that she didn't have to be that monster anymore. She could be the gazelle, and she wasn't dead. She could bound away on springy legs and escape to a vibrant life far away from murderous monsters.

She studied Aurora's posters. What a different life Aurora led, that she could surround herself with these magnificent landscapes, waterfalls spraying rainbows over forests, and fairies and unicorns decorating the countryside. Marla's life could have been that way if she hadn't met those hunters.

Well, Bain Campbell might be dead but Riley Faulkner wasn't. He and his bear-baiting friends still stalked Bruin kind. In a few days, the whole mountain would learn the news. The Bruins would look out for pit traps, but they couldn't stop Riley coming after them. The bear-baiters would change their strategy and come after their prey some other way.

 

 

Chapter 16

Walker closed the bedroom door with a soft click. He kissed the door before he hurried away to the kitchen where Star waited for him. Star jerked her chin at him. “So…Marla Dunlap, huh?”

Walker sidled up to the kitchen counter. “Don’t say anything to Mama just yet. If Pop really is dying, I don’t want to make this about me and Marla. Just leave it alone until we know exactly what’s going on.”

“You got it, Champ. Your word is law around here. You know that.”

“It is now.” He nodded toward the door. “I’m going up the mountain to see Aurora.”

“Great,” Star exclaimed. “Thanks. I didn’t feel right about leaving at a time like this.”

“I have to talk to her and Austin, anyway. I’ll bring them back with me.”

“Them?” Star’s eyes popped open. “Both of them?”

“Austin is Aurora’s mate. Everybody knows that.” He stood taller. “As long as I’m in charge around here, he’ll be just as welcome here as you are at the Farrells. I don’t see any reason why it should be otherwise. The Farrells aren’t our enemies.”

Star threw her arms around him. “Thank you so much, Walker. I knew we could count on you.”

“You tell Brody I said the same applies to you two,” he added. “If Pop dies, I expect him and Austin at the funeral with all the rest of our relatives. We’re not holding the Farrells at arm’s length anymore, especially with two sisters married to them. I want Hector to consider this place his second home. I’m sure Mama will want to have him around, too.”

“What about Dax?” she asked.

“Dax won’t cause you any further trouble. You can take that to the bank.” Walker headed for the door. “I’ll see you in a little while. Do me a favor, will you? If Marla comes out of that room while I’m gone, make her welcome.”

She beamed at him. “You bet I will.”

“Thanks.”

He shut the door behind him and set off at a run through the woods. He headed up the hill, out of Cunningham territory, to the no-man’s land on Bruins’ Peak. Down the other side, he slowed to a walk when he came to the clearing set among the trees.

Smoke curled out of the chimney and gave the little cabin tucked in a corner of the forest a cozy appearance. No one could ask for a more inviting home. Austin and Aurora would be happy there. Only one tiny cloud hung over the place. Would they welcome Walker?

If they didn’t, he had no one to blame but himself. He really stuck his foot in it by ignoring Aurora when she relied on him to come through for her. He let Brody down, too. He blew a lot of hot air about making peace with the Farrells, but when the hammer came down, he didn’t follow through.

He would have to keep a firm control of himself from now on to make sure nothing like this would ever happen again. If he wanted to take the next step and invite the Farrells to Cunningham Homestead, he would have to keep a tight leash on his tribe. He had to be on his game at all times to quell any sign of dissent as soon as it appeared.

He crossed the clearing, but he hesitated to knock on the door. Why hadn’t he come up here years ago to give Star and Brody his blessing? He hadn’t visited his nephew Hector. Where was his head?

He rapped on the door with his knuckles. Austin pulled it open and fixed his gaze on Walker, but he couldn’t think of anything to say.

Walker took a deep breath. “Howdy-do, Austin.”

Austin shifted from one foot to the other. “Howdy, Walker. To what do we owe the honor of a visit from you?”

“Can I speak to you and Aurora for a minute, Austin? I understand if you don’t want to let me inside. I’ll just say what I have to say from here and leave you to yourselves.”

Austin moved aside. “You’re welcome here, Walker. We’ve been worried about you.”

Walker stepped into the cabin. The only light came through the door, so Austin left it open. One look around showed Walker the little room that made up the whole house. Aurora sat in a rocking chair by the fire.

“Walker’s here to see you.” Austin called out.

Aurora started to get out of her chair. “Walker! You didn’t have to come all the way up here. I would have seen you the next time I came to the Homestead.”

Walker held out his hand. “Don’t get up for me, Aurora. I didn’t come here to inconvenience you two in any way.”

Aurora sat down. She glanced at Austin, who spoke for both of them. “What did you come here for?”

“I came to tell you,” he began, “I’m sorry for not giving you the green light to get married when you came to visit me in my room. I’m sorry I left you hanging so long, and I’m glad you went ahead without my say-so. I wish I could do that conversation over again, but I can’t. I can only tell you it’s all right now. You two belong together, and you won’t get any more resistance from me or any other Cunningham. I’m verbalizing my authority, and anyone who gives you trouble will answer to me, including Dax.”

“Thank you for saying so, Walker. That means a lot coming from you.”

He took a deep breath. “And now that I’ve got that over with, I have to tell you Pop’s on his last legs. Mama thinks he won’t live much longer. Star is contacting Shaw, and I’m here to bring you down to the house.”

Aurora’s head shot up. “Pop?”

Austin picked her jacket off the hook by the door. “You better go then. I’ll catch up with you later.”

Walker faced him. “I want you to come, too, Austin. You belong with Aurora, and you’re just as welcome at our Homestead as she is.”

Austin’s eyes popped open. “Are you sure? I don’t know about that.”

“I am,” he declared, “and I told Star that Brody will be welcome at our Homestead, too. You boys are family now. You have as much right at our family gatherings as any other Cunningham, and I want you around.”

Aurora studied his face. “Is there anything else you want to tell us, Walker?”

He blushed under his sideburns. How long had it been since he really blushed like that? He couldn’t hold back the brilliant smile spreading across his face. “I’m getting married. I’m marrying Marla Dunlap.”

Aurora jumped up and hugged him. She laughed to raise the rafters. “I’m so happy for you! I’m sure Mama is thrilled, too.”

He dug his toe into the floor. “Actually, she doesn’t know. I don’t want her distracted from Pop right now, but you two might as well know. I want you and Brody and Hector at the wedding. I want all the Farrells there.”

“You probably don’t want Ma there,” Austin replied. “She would have nothing nice to say about any Cunningham, and she would probably find a way to ruin it for everyone.”

“I’ll leave that for Brody to deal with. Your mother has no reason to come to my wedding or Pop’s funeral. If he decides to leave your mother at home, I won’t stop him. Dax is another story, though, and I’ve brought him into line. You can come with me now, and you’ll see for yourself he’s as meek as a kitten.”

“If anything ever happens to you,” Austin warned, “he’ll be in charge. He’ll ruin everything all over again.”

“Nothing is going to happen to me,” Walker insisted. “I’m gonna live a long, happy healthy life with my wife and children in our family Homestead, and Dax will get married and either move away with his wife’s tribe or build himself another house, and all our kids will grow up together with no memory of any feud or war.”

Austin kissed his fingertips and pointed them toward the ceiling. “From your lips to God’s ears.”

Walker headed toward the open door. “So, let’s go. Let’s go down to the house.”

Austin and Aurora exchanged glances. “I guess there’s nothing stopping us.”

Austin helped Aurora into her jacket, and he slipped into his own leather jacket. Walker surveyed the cabin and clearing while he waited for them outside. The place fell into disrepair when Star and Brody moved away, but already he noticed the signs of a hammer here, an axe there, and fresh firewood stacked against the wall. A thick haunch of venison wrapped in a burlap sack hung from the woodshed ceiling. A bucket dripped by the well.

A pang of jealous nostalgia stung Walker. He would never get a chance to bring Marla to a place like this. They would never br free to live and mate in his den. Starting today, they would be stuck at the Homestead in the middle of a million domestic and political details of running a tribe and family.

Maybe Marla didn’t want to live in a den, anyway. She enjoyed the comforts of a warm house. Still, a newlywed couple could do a lot worse than live in a place like this. Austin and Aurora certainly made it comfortable, and they were both happier than he’d seen them in years.

Austin and Aurora came out holding hands. “We’re ready. Let’s go.”

Walker led the way down the mountain, but Austin stopped when Walker set off across the yard toward the house. Before their eyes, Dax came out of the barn in a clean shirt and pants with his hair wet and combed back from his face. He went into the house. “Maybe this isn’t such a great idea.”

Walker motioned them forward. “It’s got to be done. Someone has to be the first to cross the line, and there’s no time like the present. I just had a serious talk with him, and he won’t bother you. You have my word on that. I mean, I had a serious Bruin talk with him, if you take my meaning. I’d be surprised if he says a word to you.”

Austin followed behind him. “All right. If you say so, I guess it can’t make the situation any worse than it already is.”

They headed up the steps, and Walker held the door open for them. They found Star and Marla in the kitchen. Dax stood a few feet away in the living room. He kept his arm over his stomach. Walker could make out a swath of bandages under his shirt. They wrapped around his neck, ribs, and shoulder, but other than that, no one could tell there was anything wrong with him.

Star hugged Aurora. Then she hugged Austin. “You don’t know how good it is to see you here.”

“We’ll get Brody,” Aurora told her, “and the spell will be broken.”

Walker put his arm around Marla’s shoulders. “How is Pop?”

“No change since you left,” Star replied. “At this point, it’s just a lot of waiting around.”

“Is there anything we can do for him?” Aurora asked.

Star shook her head. “No one can do anything for him anymore. If he makes it, it will come from him.”

Walker turned to Dax. “Aren’t you going to say good morning to your sister and brother-in-law? Where are your manners?”

Dax shot a glance at Austin and Aurora. Then he lowered his eyes. “Good morning, Aurora. Good morning, Austin.”

Aurora went up to him and snuck her arms around his middle. “It’s good to see you again, Dax.”

He winced when she squeezed him, but he didn’t resist. “It’s good to see you again, too. I’m glad to see you happy and healthy.”

Austin walked over and stuck out his hand. “It’s good to see you again, too, Dax.”

Dax shifted from one foot to the other. He glanced at Walker, who glared at him from across the room. At last, Dax accepted Austin’s hand and shook it. “Thanks, Austin.”

Aurora let him go, and the three of them migrated over to sit down on the couch. Star joined them. Walker led Marla away to their room. Just before she turned into the hall, Marla heard Aurora and Star talking about Kaiser Cunningham. Star related in detail everything that happened since their mother raised the alarm.

On the other side of the living room, Dax and Austin sat near each other in uneasy silence. Then Austin's voice drifted to Marla's ear, “Is that your car out front? Are you working on it?”

“I've been working on it for over a year, but I can't get it to run.” Dax sighed. “I guess Walker is right and I should scrap it.”

“What's wrong with it?” Austin asked.

“I keep getting condensation under the distributor cap,” Dax complained. “It’s all these cold, wet mornings we’ve been having. I can’t get the blasted thing to start.”

“I had that problem,” Austin told him. “I replaced it with a special fitted distributor cap. That solved the problem for good.”

“I tried that,” Dax replied. “I spent nearly $800 dollars on a new, special custom distributor cap, but it still won’t start.”

“Maybe there’s some other problem,” Austin suggested.

“I’ve checked everything,” Dax exclaimed. “I can’t figure out what it would be.”

“Maybe I could take a look.” Austin laughed. “There’s not a jalopy on this side of the Mississippi that’s ever been able to beat me.”

“Geez, would you?” Dax asked. “I’m tearing my hair out over this.”

“I’d be glad to,” Austin returned. “I like working on cars. Don’t you have any other vehicle to drive?”

“Sure, I’ve got a dozen others I can use if I want to go somewhere. It’s the challenge of solving the puzzle that I like. I get hold of a problem and I don’t let go until I solve it.”

“I’m exactly the same way. What say we take a look after lunch?”

Walker escorted Marla the last few steps down the hall. Before he ushered her into Aurora’s bedroom—their bedroom—she caught him listening to Dax and Austin talking. A hint of a smile played around his lips.

He closed the door behind them and sat down next to her on the bed. “So, that’s it. That’s the beginning of the end.”

Marla sighed. “It’s thanks to you this is even possible. Without you, Austin wouldn’t have come. Without you, Dax wouldn’t have spoken to Austin at all. He might even have made more trouble. You made sure that didn’t happen, and you made sure you could leave the room without fear of one of them blowing up.”

“Brody and I have worked long and hard to make this happen. I won’t let my kid brother ruin it for everyone.” He put his arms around her. “I just want to know if you’re okay with this.”

She snuggled into his arms. “I’m more than okay. I’m perfect. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

He kissed her. “I dreamed of this moment. This is the answer to all my prayers.”

“I never believed this was possible,” she murmured. “I would have lived my life differently if I thought this was possible.”

“Now you know. You can start doing it now.”

“I can't wait,” she exclaimed. “I can't wait for it all to happen for us.”

“Me, either.”

She sank into his kiss, and they fell back on the bed. His mighty arms surrounded her with contentment and peace. His arms extended to all Cunningham Homestead and the whole world. Bruins’ Peak was their world—it was all the world that counted.

 

***THE END***