He pinned her arms to her sides. She screamed, but his hand muffled the noise. She kicked and flailed, but she couldn't free herself. Panic set in. Before she knew what she was doing, the she-bear took over and Rhys found himself holding a thrashing bear in his arms.
Just once, she managed to wrestle her head out of his grasp. Her elongated snout didn't fit under his hand. She got her mouth clear and let out a powerful roar before his meaty fingers strapped around her muzzle and snapped it shut.
Briar tasted freedom in that flash of movement. She wouldn't give up now. She kicked out her back legs and scratched him down the calves with her claws. He let out a snarled curse, but she kept kicking and scratching with everything she had.
Her claws ripped through his pants and caught the skin. On instinct, Rhys shifted on top of her to fend off her attacks, but he couldn't hold her down like that. She snarled in his face and he snarled back. The two bears snapped and slashed in each other's faces.
Once he took his bear form, he knew much better how to fight. He crushed her into the bed with his massive body so she couldn't get her legs up to kick anymore. She batted her forepaws against his shoulders, but she couldn't do any damage. He knocked her head aside so nothing stopped him from seizing her by the throat.
His jaws clamped down, and the air stopped in her lungs. She went limp in submission when, out of the darkness, Silas's voice called from the hall outside. “Briar! What's going on?”
Briar's heart leapt. Silas! She couldn't speak to call for help, though. She couldn't breathe. Rhys tightened his grip to suffocate her. At that moment, the door swung open. The great weight holding Briar down vanished into the breeze.
Silas paused in the doorway and stared into the darkened room. He came just in time to see a big brown bear dive through the window and disappear into the night. “What the devil is going on?”
Briar rolled off the bed and choked for air. Her hair hung around her face, and blood stained her pajama pants. She could only croak out a reply, “It was Rhys. Rhys attacked me.”
“Rhys! It looked like Riskin to me.”
“It was Rhys. I know Riskin's smell, and that wasn't him.”
Silas smacked his lips. “What would Rhys want here? Riskin must have gotten mad when you didn't come back, and he decided to come and get you. I told you that guy is dangerous.”
Briar sank onto the bed. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking. “It was Rhys. I think I know the difference between them.”
“They're twins. You could have gotten confused in the dark.”
Briar glared at her brother. “First of all, Riskin would never attack me like that. Besides, I got a good look at him in the moonlight. That guy didn't have the scar next to his eye.”
Silas turned away with a shake of his head. “You'll say anything to protect Riskin, even if it means jeopardizing your own safety. What reason could Rhys have to come here and attack you? He's Alpha of his tribe. It makes no sense.”
“He's not Alpha—not yet. Don't you get it? I'm helping Riskin, and Rhys wants to stop me. He wants to stop me bringing Riskin back.”
“Well, you won't bring Riskin back now. As soon as it's light, I'm rounding up the boys. We'll go out hunting him and make sure he never bothers anyone again.”
Briar jumped to her feet. “You can't do that.”
“If he goes attacking young women in their beds at night, he deserves to be put down. We've all tolerated him way too long.”
Chapter 9
Briar sat up in bed. A cold grey dawn spread over the Homestead. Another day like any other, but Briar made up her mind this day would not set the same way all the others did. She couldn't let another day pass with her future uncertain.
Everybody thought Riskin was dangerous, that he would attack anyone or anything in his path. The plain fact remained Rhys was much more dangerous. With Riskin threatening his position, he would do anything to get rid of his brother.
Only one solution stuck out at her. She had to convince Riskin to take up the fight. He couldn't hide in the woods anymore.
She got dressed and brushed her hair. She expected a big confrontation when she went downstairs, but she met no one. Silas must be off somewhere with his buddies getting ready to hunt Riskin down. All the more reason she had to hurry.
She tiptoed through the deserted house. No one saw her leave, but she couldn't help breaking into a run for the woods. She didn't breathe until she made her way all the way back to the trees where she met him.
She didn't find him waiting there. Of course not. He would never wait for her again. She would have to track him down, and she would have to pull a rabbit out of her pants if she ever wanted to get him to shift again.
She got ready to shift to sniff him out when she heard a snort behind her. She turned around to see the bear regarding her with cool eyes. She braced herself to shift again. He wouldn't growl at the she-bear, but to her surprise, he shifted right in front of her. He shook his hair out of his face and smiled at her. He actually smiled at her! “Briar! You came!”
She rushed to him and grabbed his hands. “Of course, I came! Did you think I would leave you alone out here?”
He put his arms around her. “I'm so glad you're here. I thought you were never coming back.”
She held him close. Then she held him at a distance and inspected him all over. “I'm sorry I didn't come before. My family doesn't want me to see you.”
He frowned. “Maybe they're right. Maybe you shouldn't bother with me.”
She waved her hand. “Listen, Riskin. We don't have time for that anymore. This situation has gotten way out of hand. Rhys came into my room last night and attacked me. He would have done something drastic if Silas hadn't…”
“Rhys attacked you?”
Briar caught her breath. She never heard that sharp edge in his voice before. It set her blood on edge. “Yes. He opened my window and snuck into my room in the middle of the night. I don't know what he would have done if Silas hadn't come in.”
Riskin gritted his teeth, but said nothing. He glared into the trees.
Briar started talking faster. “Listen, Riskin. I've been thinking. You can't hide out here in the forest anymore. You've had a good year of peace and quiet to get over your hurt from the Mackenzies, but that's all over now. Rhys will never leave you alone until he kills you, and he'll never leave me alone, either.”
“Well, what am I supposed to do about it? He's got my whole family wrapped around his little finger. He'll have half the Alphas on the mountain gunning for him in no time.”
“Your only chance is to take the fight to his doorstep. You have to turn the tide and attack him.”
“Attack him? You saw him the other day. He had me down in nothing flat.”
Briar shook her head. “You're just out of practice. If you go on the offense, you'll have a better chance of beating him. Your only hope of survival is to beat him in an Alpha challenge.”
“I could never beat him in an Alpha challenge. Besides, even if I won, I couldn't become Alpha of my tribe.”
“Why not? If you beat him, everyone will have to acknowledge you.”
“Not necessarily. If the tribe and the other Alphas support him, not even beating him in an open challenge will put him down. The others would back him and drive me off. You know that.”
She shook those objections out of her head. “At least try it.”
He turned away. “I don't think so. I already failed one Alpha challenge. I'm not ready to risk my life in another one.”
She pressed his hands close to her heart. “You lost that challenge a long time before you got into a fight with Mattox. You lost that challenge when you lost Lyric. That won't happen this time.”
He looked up into her face. “No?”
“No. You won't lose me. I'll support you. I care about you. I....” She stopped without letting the words out.
He studied her face. He looked down at her mouth where the words hung unspoken. He inclined his head towar
d the woods. “Come out with me. Come for a walk with me.”
She found herself inching closer. “I don't want to. I want to see you like this.”
He lowered his eyes. “What do you want to see me like this for? I'm weak like this.”
She shook her head, but she couldn't stop herself from smiling. “You're not weak for being a man. You're strong. You're strong enough for me.”
He met her gaze, and his eyes widened. “Yeah?”
She laughed out loud. “Yeah.”
“Well, if I'm strong enough for you, that's all I care about.”
She tugged him toward the grassy bank. “Come sit down. I want to take a look at your leg and the new puncture on your arm.”
He shook her off. “I don't want to.”
“You don't? Why? Doesn't it hurt?”
“Not as much as it would hurt to let you go right now.”
She beamed back at him. Her skin glowed with pure joy. She wouldn't let him go for anything. “I couldn't stand being away from you. I thought I would die when my dad told me I couldn't see you again.”
His face hung inches away from her. “Did you get in a lot of trouble for helping me?”
“Not for helping you. Just for doing what they told me not to, but there's a lot of other things going on right now. You probably don't know about them. All you really need to know is that Rhys is moving to take over your tribe. You heard him. He won't stop until he gets rid of you. The only way to stop him is to take over yourself.”
A shadow crossed Riskin's face. “I don't want to talk about him right now, not when I have you here.”
“You can't hide from him. He'll track you down.”
“What about your family? Do they know where you are right now?”
Silas's brooding face flashed before her eyes. “No, they don't, but I don't care if they find out. They'll just have to accept the fact that we're…”
“We're what?”
She snatched up his hands and planted a kiss on his knuckles. “That we're together.” She laughed and danced away into the dappled trees. “Come on. Let's get out of here. It's much too nice a day to stand around blabbing about other people's problems.”
He hurried after her. “I thought you didn't want to go for a walk.”
She shifted without answering. In an instant, the woods swallowed up her lilting laughter, and the she-bear scampered away into the trees. Riskin ran after her, and the big male bear covered the distance in a few long strides in spite of his broken gait.
Briar made a playful sideswipe at him with her open mouth. She dodged to get away from him, but he kept pace with her all the way up the hill. He nipped at her heels, and she yelped and jumped clear.
He coiled his legs under him. He braced himself against the pain and leapt to send her bowling over in the dry leaves. They wrestled and snarled in play until Riskin lost steam. He stood aloof and licked his lips, but his hind leg shook from the effort.
Briar looked him up and down. Then she set off through the woods at an easy pace. She climbed all the way up the hill to the top ridge where the swimming hole glistened in the sunshine.
She waded in without a thought. She pretended not to notice Riskin following her. She sank to her shoulders in the sparkling water and came up with her fur dripping.
Riskin paused on the bank to peer left and right. Briar submerged her whole body underwater and snorted through her nose when she came up for air. The spray splattered in his face and made him shy away.
Briar rolled over in the shallow gravel and waved her paws in her air, but he still wouldn't come into the water. He watched from the bank until she came out. She stuck her wet nose in his face, but he only blinked and turned away. She shook the water off her fur and showered him with a million droplets.
He blinked the water out of his eyes and didn't move. Briar looked around and licked her lips. She hopped up on her hind legs and shifted in the blink of an eye. “What's the matter? Don't you want to go swimming?”
He shifted, too. “I don't want to go swimming. I want to talk to you.”
“Okay, but can we at least sit down?”
She collapsed on a sunny bank to dry her clothes. He sat down next to her, but he held back from coming too close to her. She gave him a toothy, happy smile.
He looked her up and down. “You got wet.”
“And you can run pretty well in short bursts. You're a lot stronger than you think you are. If you let me work on your leg, we could make it as good as new.”
He shrugged. “All right. If you have to.”
“Don't you want me to? Don't you want me to fix it up?”
“Sure. I just don't want to spend the time we have together focusing on my leg. We could be doing much more interesting things.”
“Like what?”
He shot a sidelong glance at her shining face. Quick as a flash, he darted in and pecked her on the mouth. The next instant, he retreated and studied the moss covering the rocks under his feet.
Briar stared at him. He kissed her! Her brain screamed the words. He kissed her! Now, he looked down at the ground and wanted her to act like he hadn't. She pressed her lips together. She couldn't let him kiss her like her five-year-old cousin and dig his toe into the ground.
She put out her hand and cupped his cheek against her palm. With slow, steady pressure, she turned his head to face her. He resisted at first, but in the end, he lifted his face to meet her gaze.
She looked down at his lips, those lips that just touched her mouth. They belonged to her now. Nothing could keep her away from them. She guided his mouth to her lips, and her lips came to rest in their destined home.
Her mouth sank against those soft lips. She closed her eyes. Nothing in her life ever tasted so soft and right. Her whole body collapsed into him. Her whole life came to its rightful fulfillment in that moment.
Whatever her family might say or do, whatever his family or the rest of Bruin kind might say or do, she knew now where she belonged and what she had to do. Her future lay with him. Whatever happened, they would face it together.
His head fell sideways under her hand. His mouth fit over hers in a tighter locking grip. His lips burst to life, and he mouthed over her in mounting heated energy. His mouth opened once...then again. His tongue touched her lips to knock at the door.
Briar's mouth opened at that touch, and his fiery tongue dashed in to lick her blood to boiling lava. Her body stretched to its tensest limit. His arms closed around her.
Heaven above! What was happening? She already knew. She changed in his arms. She became. She exploded into life. She met her highest completion in him.
Their tongues touched, withdrew, and touched again to slither around and under and between two sets of teeth. Their lips sipped and tasted and investigated until someone pulled away. Who pulled away first? No one cared. Pulling away couldn't separate them. They would always be together like this, even when they came apart.
Chapter 10
Briar laced her fingers through Riskin's hand. She leaned back against his chest and let the sun sparkle off the swimming hole against her eyelids. “I wish it was like this all the time. I wish we could make it last.”
His lips brushed her ear. “It can be like this all the time. We can stay like this.”
“How?”
“We could stay out here. We don't have to go back.”
“You know that wouldn't work. Where would we live? What would we eat?”
“We could hunt—or I could hunt for both of us. I've lived out here long enough to know where to find food.”
“I suppose you've got a den somewhere.”
“Sure do.”
“Where is it?”
He chuckled low. “Wouldn't you like to know!”
“Yes, I would. I wouldn't ask if I didn't want to know.”
“I'll show you.”
She turned around to face him. “You understand we can't stay out here, don't you? Even if I come with you to your den, we can't s
tay out here forever. Life won't leave us alone. We have to go back and solve our problems before they come looking for us.”
He threaded his fingers though her hair to bring her close enough to kiss. “If they're our problems, we'll solve them.”
Briar got lost in his kiss. She could almost go along with the plan to stay out here forever. Why should they go back? Why should circumstances beyond this ridge interfere with their happiness?
His kissing got stronger, more insistent. He sucked the breath from her mouth until she panted for air. His hand tightened behind her neck and tugged her head back by the hair until her lips broke away.
He didn't stop. He nibbled down her neck. His fist in her hair dragged her head back. His lips left tiny pinpricks of fire down her throat until he came to her shirt. He sank his teeth into the skin of her chest. He bit down through her shirt until she mewed in aching delight.
She laid her hands on his shoulders, but his other arm circled her waist and squeezed harder than she could stand. How could he do this? Where did he get this strength? Their sweet company unleashed some hidden underground reserve in him that tumbled over her in monstrous tumult.
His arm crushed her ribs and lifted her off the ground. He held her head back and didn't try to kiss her again. He chewed down her front and lifted her off the ground.
His mouth found the luscious orbs of her breasts. He mouthed them through the cotton until his teeth tormented the nipples erect. Briar seethed in his arms, but she couldn't break free. He ceased to be some broken relic of the past. She couldn't mistake him anymore for a wounded, helpless stray.
He was huge. He was mighty. He was right there, and he had her. She could fight back, but she didn't want to. She wanted him to scoop her up in his arms and shatter her world to pieces.
All at once, he set her down and pulled away. Her skin sobbed for his hands, but he turned away. “We shouldn’t do this.”
Briar sucked in her breath. “Don’t you dare stop now!”
Briar on Bruins' Peak (Bruins' Peak Bears Book 7) Page 6
