by Zoe Chant
"I have a suggestion," Remy said. "My clan runs a cattle ranch in the mountains. What would you think about going there? You'd be perfectly safe. No one's going to bother you with a whole clan of grizzly shifters to protect you."
She looked up in surprise. "Why didn't we go there in the first place?"
Now it was his turn to look away from her. "I ... kind of ... had a fight with my alpha. A bad one. I'm not sure how welcome I'd be. But I don't think they'd turn you away if you were in trouble. My cousin Axl is the county sheriff—"
"I told you, Remy: no cops. My family—"
"Hey, hey." He quieted her with a light kiss. "Axl won't make it official if you don't want him to. He's a good guy. Helping people is his business. And you can't really ask for a better protector than a sheriff who's also a bear shifter."
"I couldn't ask for a better protector than you," she said. "What's going to happen to you if you go back?" She didn't belong to a clan herself, except for the loose-knit Silver Hill shifter community. The only clan she'd spent time with was the Black Wings, and she couldn't imagine Creed dealing sympathetically with a member of his gang who'd fallen out with the rest of them.
Remy hesitated. "I don't know. I'm honestly trying not to think about that too hard. But Alec, my alpha, is a good man deep down, even though he can be stubborn as hell. He might throw me out, but he's not going to turn you away. Axl will talk him into it if nothing else."
"I'm not going there if you can't be with me."
"Look, how about this," he said, tapping his fingers on the edge of the table. "I'll call my brother. His name's Cody, and he gets along with everybody at the ranch, even when we aren't getting along with each other. I'll just ask him what kind of mood Alec's in, and how much help we can expect from the rest of the clan."
"I don't want you to get your whole clan involved in my problems. I never even meant to get you involved."
"Saffron." He touched her chin and tipped her head back to look up at him. His vivid gray-green eyes were as serious as she'd ever seen them, and through the animal in her, she could glimpse the animal in him, looking just as serious. "I was involved the moment I met you. We all are. You're my mate, and that means you're part of my clan, even if they don't know about you yet. Clan always helps clan."
"Creed's clan is very different," she said bitterly.
"We're not the Black Wings. And my clan has each other's backs, no matter what."
"If you're sure."
"I'm sure." He drew her up, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her into his lap, resting her weight on his uninjured leg. He kissed her slowly and tenderly, then rested his forehead against hers. "They will accept you," he said gently, "because you are a part of me, and I am a part of you. As soon as they look at you, they'll be able to tell you're my mate. Even if they're angry at me, even if they hate me, I'm still one of them. And so are you."
One of them. Her heart fluttered. Since she'd met Remy, the lonely and hopeless existence she'd envisioned as Creed's mate had faded away like mist in the sun. Instead her life had been filled with light and hope, even when they were desperately running for their lives. And now he'd given her the promise of a new home in a new place where the Black Wings couldn't touch her. She was afraid to believe him, and yet she couldn't help it.
One of them.
One of you.
Chapter Seven
I'm still one of them ... unless Alec decides to exile me. But he didn't say that to Saffron.
Would his alpha really be that angry—that petty? Deep down, Remy didn't think so, but he couldn't be sure. Alec was a good man, as Remy had told Saffron. But he was also a very stubborn man, one who hated to apologize or back down from a fight. Not too long ago, Alec had nearly forced his own brother to walk away from the clan rather than accepting Axl's challenge to his authority.
Still, Remy couldn't believe that Alec would turn away a woman in such desperate need as Saffron. Alec was hot-tempered, obstinate, and could be very set in the old traditions of the mountain bear clans, a traditional mindset that he'd inherited from his parents. But he wasn't the kind of person who would abandon a young woman to face a dangerous enemy on her own.
Remy's own welcome back at the clan was considerably more doubtful.
Putting it off wasn't going to help, though. Right now, keeping Saffron safe was the most important thing, and she'd be safe at the ranch—or, at least, safer than she would be anywhere.
"Where'd my phone get off to?"
Saffron, still sitting on his lap, reached down to extract it from a pocket of the jeans that were currently around his ankles, and handed it to him. "I can go outside, if you'd rather have privacy for this."
"No, stay here." He didn't like the idea of her being outside all alone.
"Okay, but I can at least let you talk to your brother without me hanging on your shoulder." She kissed him lightly, then got up and took the pot of blood-stained water and the cloth.
Remy held the phone up to the ceiling. Reception was shaky, but there was some. His finger hovered over Cody's preset for a moment or two before he clenched his teeth and pressed it.
The phone rang, and Cody's sleepy voice said, "Remy? Hey!"
"Aww, shit, I forgot it was the middle of the night." He'd been so wired that he hadn't even thought about how late it was.
"No, no worries, it's all right." Cody interrupted himself for a yawn. "Right now I'd rather hear from you, man. We were all worried when you ran off like that."
"Who's we, exactly?"
"Well ... okay, me and Axl, mostly. Alec is still stomping around the ranch like a bear with a toothache. He'll calm down and come around; I think so, and Axl agrees. You might want to stay away for a little longer, though."
"I can't," Remy said, his stomach sinking. "Something's come up."
"Remy." Cody lapsed into his disappointed-big-brother voice. "Please tell me you're not calling from jail."
"Nothing like that. It's much better than that. Well, parts of it anyway." He couldn't stop himself from grinning. "I found my mate, Cody."
There was an excited whoop from the other end of the line. "Really? That's fantastic! Tell me about her."
"She's amazing," Remy said, smiling across the room at Saffron, who smiled back. "Her name is Saffron, and she's gorgeous and brave and smart. I think you guys will love her."
"Er, Remy, about that." Cody's voice went sober. "I'm happy for you, man. No, I'm thrilled for you, and if you think I'm not going to be the best man at your wedding, then you're gonna have to challenge me right now. But I really don't think now is the best time to come back. Especially with a mate. You know how weird Alec can be about that. Axl had to challenge him directly for the right to bring Tara to the ranch, remember? If you want him to get over the fight you guys had, I don't think coming back with a mate is going to help."
"I don't have a choice. She's in trouble, Cody. I'm not leaving her to face it on her own."
Cody sighed. "What kind of trouble?"
"There's another shifter clan, a big one. You know those clans that run whole towns in some places? This is one of those. And their alpha has claimed her for his own." He tried to give Saffron a reassuring look, but she still looked anxious. "I haven't had the misfortune to meet the guy yet, but from what she says, he's a mean one. One of his guys took a shot at us earlier today. A little higher and to the left, and we wouldn't be having this conversation." His thigh cramped, as if to remind him of its recently traumatized condition.
"Great," Cody said. "Tara was running away from somebody too, remember? Can't anyone in this clan find a mate who's a nice small-town girl with no skeletons in their closet?"
"Saffron is a nice small-town girl," Remy said. Saffron winked at him.
"I'm sure she is, but ... damn it, Remy. I can just picture the look on Alec's face if you show up at the ranch with a girl who's going to get us into a war with another clan."
"You wanna talk to her?" Remy asked. He wasn't above playing dir
ty. One of Cody's defining features was, had always been, his softheartedness. He was always the one who'd stay up through the night nursing a sick calf, or carefully move baby birds' nests so the tractor didn't run over them. If he just got to know Saffron a little, there was no way he'd be able to turn her away.
"Can't say no, can I?"
"You're on speakerphone now," Remy said, hitting the button. He set the phone on the table and beckoned Saffron.
She came over and put a hand on his shoulder. Leaning down, she said, "Hi, Cody. I'm Saffron, but I guess you know that already."
"Hi, Saffron. I hope you know what you're getting into, dating this dimbulb loser."
Saffron smiled. "He seems all right to me."
"Hey, I'm his big brother. If I didn't give him shit, who would?"
"I'm glad Remy has a clan that cares about him," Saffron said, her blue eyes sad in the candlelight.
"Yeah, well, I want you to know that whatever goes down with his alpha, you're more than welcome as far as Big Brother is concerned. At least as far as I have a say in it."
Remy leaned toward the phone. "Where did my brother go, and who replaced him with this huge sap?"
"Funny. So, do you guys have a safe place to stay right now?"
"Sort of," Remy said. "We're at a cabin that belongs to a friend of Saffron's family."
"Where is it?"
Remy's eyebrows went up. "What, are you coming here?"
"Thinking about it," Cody said. "If you guys show up at the ranch with me, and maybe Axl too, we might have a better shot at talking Alec down. Present a united front and all of that. I don't know which side Gannon will come down on; he's always been closer to Alec than to any of the rest of us. But I can guarantee where Axl will stand, because of Tara. And I'm on your side, bro."
"There shouldn't be sides. I don't want to cause a rift in the clan."
"If there's going to be a rift, it's been coming for awhile," Cody said. "None of us liked Alec driving you out. We all thought he was mellowing after he gave in and let Axl move in with Tara, and then that blow-up happened with you. None of the rest of us are happy about it. I think we've all heard about clans that were dragged down by a bad alpha, and we don't want it to happen to ours."
"Alec isn't a bad alpha. He really does care about us, maybe too much. He's just hardheaded. The fight was my fault as much as his."
Cody snorted. "He may be the greatest alpha who ever lived, but he's still being a dick about this, just like he was a dick about Tara. Hopefully, we can all help him realize that before he does anything unforgivable. So tell me how to find that cabin of yours."
Remy looked up at Saffron. "Your cue."
She smiled and bent over his shoulder, her hair swishing against his ear, and gave Cody directions. "The road is pretty bad. We had trouble making it up on Remy's motorcycle."
"Yeah, there's a tree down and some washed-out places," Remy put in. "That truck of yours can probably handle most of it, but you might want to bring a chainsaw."
"Will do. See you guys tomorrow. And Saffron?"
"Yes?" she asked, resting her chin on top of Remy's head.
"Take care of this guy. Remy, don't do anything I wouldn't do."
Remy laughed. "See you tomorrow."
He hung up, and grinned up at Saffron, who laced her arms lightly around his neck. "So," Remy said. "That's Cody."
"I like him," she said, and kissed his forehead. "You can tell by his voice that he's someone who smiles a lot."
"Yeah, Cody's great. He's really the one who holds us together. I think we'd all have fallen apart a long time ago if not for Cody smoothing things over when the rest of us got our hackles up at each other. A strong alpha can hold a clan together even through disagreements, but healthy clans need their peacemakers as well."
"How many of you are there?"
"Five," Remy said. "There's me and Cody, and our cousins Alec and Axl. And the fifth one is Gannon. He's not related to any of the rest of us. He just showed up one day, and Alec said he could stay. They hit it off from the beginning, I think because they're both much too serious and like to glower at people."
Saffron giggled. "What about this Tara person?"
"Oh, right! I guess there's six of us now. Tara is Axl's mate. And you make seven. Our clan is getting bigger all the time."
"Do you think your alpha will accept me?"
"I don't think he'll have a choice. You heard Cody. We all went through this already once when Axl brought Tara back, and I think if Alec puts his foot down about you, he'll have a mutiny on his hands."
He just wished he was that sure about it himself. Nothing made Alec double down on a bad decision like being backed into a corner.
"I don't want to cause any problems."
"You didn't. None of this is your fault. Not a single thing about it." He reached up an arm to pull her down against his shoulder, and she leaned into him, arms wrapped gently around his neck.
"Thank you," she whispered. "For letting me in, and for offering me a place to stay. For ... all of this."
"You're worth it, Saffron. More than worth it. You're my mate. Part of me." He took her hand and placed it over the claiming mark on his neck. A frisson lifted the hairs on his arms when her skin brushed it. The mark had healed already, as much as it ever would, but the tender new scar was hyper-sensitive to the touch. Or, no—to her touch. The claiming mark was the outward manifestation of the bond they shared.
She kissed his temple and the side of his face. He tilted his head back so her lips could find his. Soft lips. Wonderful lips. They tasted of lip gloss, and of her.
His cock stirred with interest.
Saffron broke the kiss, and smiled when she looked down at his lap. "Rising to the occasion already, are we?"
"Hey, I guess he figures that if my pants are off already ..."
"He?" she repeated, laughing. "I don't know how I feel about that."
"Not my fault. Sometimes it feels like it has a mind of its own."
"As long as you don't name it." She laughed that soft, melodic laugh that he'd already learned to love. "Okay, wait. Tell me it doesn't have a name. Please."
He couldn't resist teasing her. "Do you want to give it one?"
"Little Remy?" she suggested, and wrinkled her nose. "Ugh. No."
"Don't you mean Big Remy?"
"No, doofus, that's you."
"While we don't always see eye to eye, I think Big Remy and Little Remy agree on one thing at the moment."
"Ugh, we are not calling it that!" she protested as he pulled her back down.
"You're the one who suggested it," he pointed out between sips of her delectable lips.
"I regret it already."
He cupped one of her breasts through her purple blouse, and nibbled his way down the soft skin of her neck to the claiming mark, healed now to a small silvery scar. When he flicked his tongue over it, she gasped and shivered. "Whoa, that's very .... whoa."
Remy raised his head long enough to say, "I hope 'whoa' is a good reaction."
"It is, it's just startling. So sensitive." She placed her hand on his neck and brushed her thumb across his. A jolt of arousal raced through him. He wondered if the mark would grow less sensitive in time, or if it would always be like this, a direct conduit to his mate.
"Are you hungry?" Saffron asked, kissing his neck lightly.
"I am, but right now I'm hungry for something else even more."
She smiled, her eyes darkening with arousal. "Smooth talker."
"Sorry, us Circle B Ranch bears are just plain-spoken country boys." He slid his hands under her blouse, wrapping them around her waist. "What you see is what you get."
"Mmmm." Her eyes flicked downward, to the visible erection tenting out his boxers. "I like what I see."
Remy grinned and unbuttoned her blouse, sliding the folds of purple cotton off her smooth, pale shoulders. Her breasts were gorgeous, creamy mounds spilling out of the containment of her bra. Candlelight bathed her s
kin in honey-gold tones. He reached behind her, unfastened the bra, and felt the answering response in his cock as her large breasts swung free.
She looked down at him, face framed by hanging sheets of brown hair, glazed with the soft gold of the candlelight, as he sucked and nibbled at each erect nipple in turn. When he looked up again, she'd tipped her head back in bliss, eyes closed.
She was so beautiful. Even in his dreams, he'd never dreamed of this.
He unfastened her jeans and pulled them down, followed by her underwear. Rousing herself as if from a trance, she leaned down to strip off her socks and shoes, and then she stood naked before him in the candle glow. She smiled and stretched, clearly enjoying his reaction to seeing her.
"I could watch you all day," he admitted breathlessly.
"I hope watching isn't all you were planning on doing."
"Not by a long shot." He leaned forward and reached out to gather her to him, pulling her forward with an arm around her lush buttocks.
Sitting down gave him easy access to her breasts, but he had to bend forward and lean down to touch his lips to her pussy. She gave a soft gasp and spread her legs a little. He parted her folds, finding her warm and wet and ready. His cock throbbed between his legs, achingly hard. Little Remy, he thought, and choked on a soft laugh with his tongue buried in her.
He sensed the slight change in her posture as she looked down at him. "Something funny down there?"
"Tell you later," he managed.
She rested a hand on his head, brushing it over the stubble of his buzz-cut hair. He circled her folds with his tongue, feeling her reaction in the small movements of her body. She was so responsive, her body jerking all over when he hit the right places. He teased her erect clit with his tongue, toying with it. Her small quivers let him know when he'd found the exact speed she liked best.
He teased a finger around her dripping wet entrance, and she made a soft sound deep in her throat; her hips jerked. "Remy," she gasped.
