Bearing Armen - Book Three

by Brenna Lyons

  Scott turned away, running a hand through his hair, his muscles tensing.

  “When a Blutjagdfrau chooses a mate—”

  “Don’t sweat it.”

  The offhand comment stopped Matt cold. “Scott?”

  He turned, not angry, not frustrated, deadly cold as if preparing for judgment. “I won’t embarrass your precious family, Matt. Don’t worry about that.” Scott strode toward the garage as if the conversation was over.

  Matt ground his teeth, fighting the drive to shake some sense into him—or knock it into him. “After lunch,” he ordered. “We will finish this discussion. No ducking it.”

  Scott stopped walking. He took a deep breath, visibly calming himself. “It’s your game, Matt. It always has been.” He continued on, a plodding pace as if he had to force one foot in front of the other.

  “And you’ll never forgive that,” he whispered.

  They were both trapped, and there was no way out. Until Kaitlyn released him, Tyler would never give Scott permission to roam. Until Scott felt in control of his own life again, there was no chance his son would allow Matt to attempt any sort of reconciliation.

  * * * *

  Scott sighed at the feeling of someone behind him. He didn’t have to look over his shoulder to know it was Tevin; the tang of his Blutjagd announced it clearly enough. Over the months in Armen range, he’d come to regret his ability to recognize people this way. It was different, and it was the final strike with many of the Warriors.

  Great! First Matt and now Tevin. It was probably another friendly warning to cool it with Katie. Just what he needed.

  When he didn’t address his ‘brother,’ Tevin spoke. “I wouldn’t get my hopes up, if I were you.”

  “About?” Though he knew what Tevin meant, playing dumb with him had its own rewards.

  “She considers you an anomaly, a science experiment to study for a while. She may even consider it her duty to help you adjust to life as a Warrior. She’s not going to marry a bastard, you know.”

  “She was conceived before printing, you know.”

  He refused to acknowledge the rest. Tevin was probably right about it. After all, Katie certainly wasn’t making their affair public. Not that Scott was stupid enough to want her to. It all boiled down to late-night fucks between a princess and a bad boy, an itch she probably wanted to scratch before she married, her version of sowing wild oats like any other Warrior did.

  He’d argued many times that he was little better than the blade chasers that got off on bedding Warriors in that respect. Only the fact that he felt more for her separated him from the rest of the thrill-seekers.

  “At least her parents did print.”

  Scott didn’t bother to answer that. It had always been like this with Tevin, as if he believed Scott existed for no other reason than to annoy him, to steal his place in the family. One of the reasons Scott was so dedicated to learning all facets of the Warrior ways was that he lived for the day he’d be able to roam the farthest edges of Armen. The farther from Tevin, the better.

  “I’m the only Warrior in Armen she’s taken a sincere interest in.”

  More like she’s courteous enough not to slit your throat in your own home.

  Scott had watched her interactions with the other Warriors for days; he hardly seemed able to take his eyes off her whenever anyone approached her, though he could barely stand watching her make nice with the other Warriors. More than ever, he was convinced that Tevin was deluding himself. Of course, Scott had questioned his sanity and rationality more than once in the past few days, and pointing out what he believed was true to Tevin would be a waste of time.

  In all honesty, Scott had taken off to his rooms many times, unable to watch her with the others any longer. Perhaps he’d even been hoping she’d come to him all that much sooner if he made an early exit.

  What did he know about how she spent the time he wasn’t with her? For all Scott knew, Katie was making wedding plans with Tevin before she had sex with Scott every night. For that matter, she could be in both beds.

  His hand fisted around the carb he was cleaning at that thought. Scott capped his Blutjagd and forced it back before it could blow, unwilling to let Tevin know he’d struck deep.

  “I’ll have her maidenhead and her agreement to be my mate,” Tevin gloated.

  Relief coursed through Scott so abruptly that he chuckled. Tevin wasn’t sleeping with her, if he believed that.

  “What’s so damned funny?” Tevin demanded.

  “You’re awfully damned intent on being her first,” he noted.

  “Of course.”

  He laughed harder. Oh, it was going to be so sweet when his ‘dear little brother’ learned that her hand in marriage was the only prize he had a shot at—if he even learned that before they’d sealed. Tevin may end up a König, but he’d already lost half of the prize he sought to his greatest adversary. The laughter continued at that thought.

  “What the hell is the matter with you?” Tevin shouted.

  “She’s a Warrior. What makes you think she’s going to come to you a virgin?” he taunted.

  “Don’t you know anything about Blutjagdfrau? They don’t have sex until they choose a mate—ever.”

  Scott’s smile faded, and his head spun. “Really?”

  “That’s how Blutjagdfrau mark their mates, and once they latch on, they don’t take ‘no’ for an answer. I hear they’re insatiable.”

  If his mind would have cleared, Scott would have made Tevin swallow teeth. As it was, he couldn’t reconcile anything.

  If Katie slept with Scott, she wanted to marry him.

  No! She intended to marry him. This wasn’t an option plan. Like everyone else, she’d walked into his life and demanded something from Scott. He’d trusted her, believed she didn’t just want something from him, believed she was honestly giving herself to him.

  God, I am the world’s biggest fool. Katie hadn’t even had the decency to tell him what sleeping with her meant. She’d used Scott’s ignorance of the rules against him.

  His grip on his Blutjagd slipped. Scott turned abruptly and stormed toward the house.

  Tevin backed off, his eyes wide in shock, his hand fisting the grip of his sacred weapon, probably believing Scott meant to kill him. Scott ignored him, rounding him without a word. The little twerp was the least of his problems.

  He spied Katie heading for the garage, and his Blutjagd stepped up another notch. How nice of his ‘problem’ to come to him.

  She slowed, then stopped, her smile melting into a look of concern. “Scott?”

  He didn’t give her a chance to question him. “I just came to say goodbye, princess.”

  “Wh—Good—goodbye?” Her eyes pleaded with him for an explanation.

  His gut twisted, and the urge to comfort her assaulted him. Scott pushed it away angrily. “It’s over. You’ve had your fun. Hope you enjoyed it.” He started to turn away.

  Katie grasped his arm, shaking her head. “You can’t just...” she stammered out.

  “Walk away from my precious family? I’m not. I’m going roving like any other Night Warrior. That’s my duty. Do it or die, right?” His head supplied the truth that they still controlled his movements, but for what he intended, he needed solitude. They couldn’t deny him that.

  “But...you—”

  “Or maybe you think I can’t walk away from you? I can and I will.”

  Tears pooled in her eyes, setting off that mad need to hold her again. Scott pulled from her hand with a growl of self-loathing. He was hurting her, and he knew it.

  She hurt me! “I trusted you, and you betrayed me, just like everyone else. You— You should have told me instead of playing with my life.”

  He stormed back to the garage, half-praying she’d let him go and half-praying that she’d come after him, tell him she was wrong, ask him to stay. He nearly roared in frustration as his heart leapt at the idea that she might, because he knew he’d stay. He knew he’d forgive her
anything if he didn’t get away and get his head straight.

  Tevin ducked out of his way. Scott didn’t spare him a glance. He hit the door controls, starting the sliders moving along their tracks, and slid onto his cycle. He cleared the doors and laid on speed, putting as much distance between Katie and himself as possible.

  With every mile, he felt as if his heart was being shredded. It was printing, and printing could be broken. If there was one thing Scott had, it was self-control. It was one of the few things his mother had taught him well.

  The rage and despair built inside him until he felt as if he’d explode if something didn’t give. Scott screamed, venting his grief until his lungs and throat ached—and still he felt no better. It was the madness, his punishment for playing the fool.

  I can beat it. He had money in his pocket and in his account. All he needed were supplies and a quiet place. Nothing else. No one else.

  * * * *

  Katie stood, watching him walk away, her feet rooted to the ground though she ached to follow him.

  His words echoed in her mind. How had she betrayed him? How had she played with his life? What did he think she should have told him?

  Scott left on his cycle, racing away at break-neck speed. She ran a shaking hand through her hair, left loose just for him, her heart hollow and emotions disconnected.

  Fury gathered speed, eclipsing all the scattered emotions vying for her attention. Katie stomped back toward the house, muttering curses in every language she could remember, and since she knew ten of them, she would have enough to reach the house, easily.

  “I don’t know what he said,” Tevin started in.

  “This isn’t a good time,” she snapped, going for the direct route with him instead of being gracious for once. Gracious was about a mile past her limit at the moment.

  “But—”

  “Back off,” she warned him. Katie broke into a trot, slowing to a walk again as she pushed through the doors, not bothering to close them behind her.

  Matt looked up from the phone, his face pale.

  Katie didn’t give him time to tell her what she already knew. Of everyone she could conceive, she wanted to talk to her mother and the Stone entity in her head least of all. “Tell my mother to fuck off,” she informed him, knowing full well that nothing resembling that would be passed along. That was fine with her.

  She kept moving, not entirely certain where she was going and why anymore. She’d pack. She’d leave. As long as she was on the road and not here, she had to feel better.

  Her heart ached at the memory of Scott on that same road, headed anywhere she wasn’t, just as she was forced to do now. She wanted to cry—or to scream.

  “Kaitlyn, wait,” Tevin called out, his hand closing on her shoulder.

  Or to hurt someone! She whirled around, drawing her right blade with a scream of frustration, knocking his hand away and planting the killing edge at his throat.

  The room went silent, and the tension forced her fury higher. Her hands shook. Tevin ground his teeth, his eyes narrowed, barely breathing.

  “Do not touch me,” she ordered.

  He pulled his hands up and back in a sign of surrender.

  She tried to force her hand back, but the need to hurt him wasn’t abating. He had no right to touch her. He wasn’t her mate. He had no right...

  Bear’s attack came without warning. His left arm circled her body and his right hand closed around her wrist. She thrust her elbow toward his head an instant too late. Bear was already in motion. Her feet left the floor, and her twin twisted behind her. The air left her lungs in a rush as she crashed to the floor beneath him, leaving her momentarily unable to push him off.

  She closed her eyes to the chorus of angry shouts surrounding her, pushing in on her until all she wanted was silence and darkness.

  “What the hell have you done, Tevin?” Tyler roared.

  “It wasn’t me, grandfather! Scott—”

  Katie pulled against Bear’s hold with a scream of rage made ragged by her brother’s weight pinning her down. She let the full depth of her Blutjagd light, frantic to end Tevin’s comments any way it took. How dare he speak Scott’s name!

  Corwyn was ready for her reaction. His grip tightened, and he drove his body onto her with the lesser, but still formidable, force of his own Blutjagd.

  It suddenly seemed that every Warrior of Armen was around her, some lit, some not, all shouting.

  “Shut up,” Bear thundered over them. “All of you, shut up.”

  Silence reigned, only the ragged breathing of a dozen or so people breaking the stillness.

  His voice gentled. “I’m here, Kates. Let it go, now. By Dobler, let it go.”

  She forced it back, realizing the futility of fighting her twin. He had the upper hand, he knew her style better than anyone in the world, and she didn’t want to hurt Bear. Tevin was the one she wanted to kill.

  “Better,” he soothed her, not relaxing his hold or his bloodlust, though she gasped for breath beneath him, her ribs aching. “Now the blade.”

  Katie dropped her weapon, sobbing as someone eased it from her reach, then unsheathed the other. For the first time in her life, she didn’t care if she ever saw them again.

  Bear released her wrist, stroking her hair, easing off her slightly to let her breathe, his longer body half over and half beside hers. His Blutjagd faded. “Where is he?” he asked, not raising his voice despite the tension he transmitted in his tone.

  “Scott?” Tevin asked in seeming shock.

  “Gone,” Katie gasped out, drained by her Blutjagd, possibly poisoned with adrenaline as her mother once was, her muscles going lax in exhaustion. “He’s not coming back.”

  Bear pressed his forehead to the back of her head, taking several deep breaths. “It will be okay,” he whispered. “No one will touch you. We’ll go away. I promise. Just you and me, Kates.”

  She closed her eyes, imagining she could hear Scott’s cycle, praying he would come back to her.

  “Tyler,” he called, his voice only a fraction louder than before. “We need a cabin. Now.”

  “Matt, get the keys to cabin number five,” Tyler ordered in a voice no louder than Bear’s.

  A mad cabin. Katie gave up all pretenses and started crying, letting her brother hug her to his chest.

  Chapter Thirty

  November 9, 2049

  Scott ground his teeth at the knock on the door. He’d known the Warriors would find him eventually. It simply annoyed him that they wouldn’t leave him alone—and amazed him that they’d bothered to knock.

  He didn’t answer. Let them come or let them leave. It made no difference to Scott. It was unlikely that they’d go away, but the last thing he wanted was to invite their interference.

  The lock clicked, and the door swung open. Matt strode in. He scanned the room with a scowl, then stared at Scott, sighing deeply. “Something you want to talk about?” he asked in a conversational tone, as if they were discussing the weather or stocks instead of Scott taking off on the princess.

  Scott stretched his bare feet out on the bed, scratching at the four-day’s growth of beard on his chin. “There’s nothing to talk about. Once I break printing, I’ll start doing my job.”

  Matt pulled a chair from the table and settled in it. “Why are you doing this? If you’re printing, you love her. Why would you throw that away?”

  “Other Warriors have broken printing.”

  “When a woman refuses him. Kaitlyn hasn’t refused you. Right now, she’s off in a cabin, stripped of her weapons, under her brother’s care—suffering because of your choice. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

  Scott rubbed at the constriction in his chest, fighting the need to scream again, forcing slow, deep breaths when his body fought him. He didn’t want to scream again. He didn’t want to cry. When he did indulge in either of those things, it only left him feeling weaker and more miserable, so why would he?

  “It does make a difference. Why ar
e you doing this? Why are you hurting her, if you love her? Why are you hurting yourself? Explain it to me, because it makes no sense.”

  Scott couldn’t find his voice. The only clear thing to him was a mindless rage. Scott didn’t want the confusion. He didn’t want the pain. He wanted to be numb. The bottle of Beam beckoned.

  Matt was in motion before it was halfway from the bed to Scott’s mouth. He snatched it away, pitching it against the far wall of the cabin before the chair he’d been using hit the floor.

  “It’s not against your precious laws to drink,” Scott grumbled. “I checked.”

  “A Warrior never hides in a bottle. Even when his mate dies, he doesn’t. You are at your lowest point when you battle the madness. The beasts know it. If you meet them in that state, it’s a death sentence.”

  The thought was strangely appealing. Dying would solve all of his problems from breaking printing to escaping the Armens.

  “Scott, you need—”

  “I don’t care.”

  “What?” Matt’s anger faded.

  He laughed, though it felt like his heart was being ripped out. “Enemies cut your heart out,” Scott whispered. That was family for you. That described anyone you let close in life.

  Matt fisted his hands. “That probably sounds pretty damned appealing to you right now. Cut out your heart so you don’t have to feel. Just wait for a beast to—”

  “Why wait? Just call Jordan and Tevin. They want to kill me, anyway. Let’s get this over with.”

  “No one wants to kill you,” he snapped.

  “You’re not that stupid.”

  Scott closed his eyes, too tired to argue, but visions of Katie were waiting to torment him. He opened them with a sigh. Lack of sleep was going to drive him insane before the rest had a chance to. Every time he nodded off, he woke hard and wanting, on the brink of release he couldn’t claim.

  Matt stared at him, seemingly shocked. “Even if it’s true, there are plenty of people who want to accept you, if you let us.”