by Kim Fox
Rhett hurried in through the parted crowd with Nathan and Emry following close behind him. Shit. Isabelle was there too.
“What are you doing here?” he asked her as they rushed to his side. He was both elated and furious at the same time. He didn’t want her anywhere near Jacob but he was deeply touched that she would risk her life for him.
Her hazel eyes sparkled as she gazed up at him. “I only want to be by your side from now on,” she said, sliding her hand into his. “Through the good and the bad.”
Tyler squeezed her hand and turned back towards Jacob with a new vigor. The odds had evened out now that his friends were by his side.
“What are you three doing?” Jacob asked, the thick vein in his neck looking ready to pop. “My own horsemen turned against me?”
“I asked you for a raise five times,” Emry said with a slow shake of his head. “And you wouldn’t listen.”
“Yeah,” Nathan added with a smirk. “Tyler here promised us a raise and a dental plan.”
“Fine!” Jacob screamed. “You traitors just made this five times as fun.”
His hands shot out and the bears and lion charged forward. The crowd screamed and gasped as the ground shook from the mighty animals’ massive paws. Tyler stepped in front of Isabelle, never taking his eyes off his brother. The boys could deal with the beasts. Jacob was his.
“Shotgun the light bear,” Emry said as he rushed over and tackled the smaller of the grizzlies.
Nathan cocked his sledgehammer fists. “The big one is mine,” he said, rushing over like a heavyweight boxer. The bear stood on his hind legs and roared as he approached. Nathan wasn’t intimidated in the least. He just stepped in and cracked the bear right on the jaw with a thunderous roundhouse.
“Ah, crap,” Rhett said, following the huge lion with his dark eyes. “I guess I got the cat.”
The lion lunged at Tyler but Rhett was ready. He leaped forward and tackled him away just as the lion’s claws were about to slice Tyler’s stomach open. The lion and skin shifter rolled away, wrestling while the ravens freaked out above their heads.
“Surrender, Jacob,” Tyler said in a steady voice. “I’ll give you one chance.”
Jacob just laughed as he strutted into the center of the square. “I took your leg,” he said with a snarl. “And now I’m going to take your head.”
Jacob lunged forward, catching Tyler by surprise. He didn’t remember his brother being able to move so fast and he wasn’t expecting it. A lot had changed since they last fought hand to hand. Jacob was showing the true speed and strength that a master skin shifter possessed.
A meaty fist flew at his face and Tyler moved his chin at the last split second. The fist missed his chin but the hard knuckles still connected with his cheek.
He grunted as he stumbled backward with white spots filling his vision as his brother rushed forward again.
Tyler got his hands up just in time. Jacob grunted as he smashed his fist into Tyler’s forearm, nearly shattering the bone.
More fists came crashing down on him like sledgehammers. His knees were buckling and Jacob was teeing off on him. Move. Keep moving.
Tyler sprung away, ducking under an incoming roundhouse. He popped out behind him and raised his fists. Everything was so blurry. He had taken a few shots.
He shook his head, clearing his vision and waited for the next onslaught. Jacob rushed forward, straight on. Tyler pivoted to the side and tripped him, letting his brother’s massive weight bring him down. Jacob flew off his feet and crashed onto the concrete. The crowd gasped as Tyler sprinted forward, letting his fists fly. Every punch that he landed on Jacob’s face felt like he was punching a brick wall.
“Watch your foot!” Isabelle yelled from somewhere to his right.
He was too late. Jacob snatched his ankle and yanked him off his feet.
Tyler hit the ground and Jacob pounced on him, smothering him with his enormous weight and tremendous strength. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe.
And then the fists came.
As a master skin shifter Jacob could overpower anyone but what made it worse was that he also knew how to fight.
Tyler felt his bones crack and his skin split open as Jacob held him down and showed the skin shifters of Creston Falls why he was the true boss.
The childhood fights between Tyler and Jacob had always been vicious, but this was no childhood fight. It wasn’t going to end with a scrape or with tears. It was only going to end when one of them was dead.
And it looked like it was going to be Tyler.
He tried to get up but he was so dizzy and the fists kept coming. Everything was happening so fast. Isabelle was screaming over them, punching Jacob’s back while he rained shots down onto Tyler’s head and body.
Every few seconds Tyler would catch a glimpse of Rhett on the back of the lion or Nathan landing a jab on the grizzly bear’s nose. The second bear was on top of Emry.
Jacob stood up and pushed Isabelle away with a stiff shove. She flew to the ground and the sight enraged Tyler. Adrenaline and pure fury surged through his veins as he climbed up to his feet. That was the last time his brother was going to lay hands on his woman.
He lunged forward on shaky legs but Jacob was too fast and too fresh. He just stepped to the side and cracked Tyler on the jaw, sending him tumbling to the ground again.
He saw Rhett as he hit the pavement. The lion was on top of him and his cousin was fighting for his life, and losing.
“Give me your sword,” Jacob said to one of the guards in the crowd. The guard hesitated and Jacob knocked him out with one punch. He reached over and grabbed the sword from his belt and spun back around to Tyler.
Tyler spat out a wad of blood as he pushed up to his knees, watching his brother advance. Jacob was spinning the sword in his hand with a satisfied grin on his face. “I’m glad that train didn’t get you,” he said as he raised the sword above his head. “This is way more fun.”
Isabelle screamed as he swung the sword over his head, ready to deliver the killing blow. A flash of gray flew through the air and tackled Jacob to the ground just as he was about to bring the sword down.
Tyler gasped as the sword clanked onto the pavement. Jacob screamed as Izzy bit down on his shoulder and shook her head. Where the fuck did she come from?
Tyler grabbed the sword off the ground and struggled as he climbed up to his feet. Jacob threw Izzy off and cursed as he touched his bloody shoulder. “Fucking mutt!” he screamed as he stood up. “I’ll kill you for that!”
Izzy was hunched down, growling at him with thick red blood dripping from her mouth. Jacob turned in a fit of rage to grab the sword and froze with wide eyes when Tyler was standing there, holding it to his throat.
“You’re done, Jacob,” Tyler said between deep breaths. “Give it up.”
Blood was pouring out of the wound on Jacob’s shoulder. He looked furious as he glared at Tyler. “All this over a stupid girl,” he hissed. “We could have ruled this place together, brother.”
“Jacob,” Tyler said, tightening his grip on the sword. “Get on your knees.”
He wasn’t listening. “This is what I think of your girl.”
Tyler took a sharp intake of breath as he saw the two grizzly bears and the lion shake off Rhett and the Chevy brothers and start heading towards Isabelle.
“Release them!” Tyler yelled, squeezing the handle of the sword. “Jacob!”
His brother’s golden eyes were shining brighter than ever. He was beyond help. He was beyond deranged.
Isabelle let out a chilling scream and Tyler closed his eyes as he thrust the sword into his brother’s heart. Jacob’s mouth opened as a whimper escaped his throat.
Tyler took a deep heavy breath as he twisted the sword with a grunt. His brother’s golden eyes faded as he gave Tyler one last smirk. He ripped the sword out of his chest and the master skin shifter fell to the ground, dead.
Tyler dropped the bloody sword, spun on his heels, and
hurried over to Isabelle. The bears and the lion were standing still. Rhett, Nathan, and Emry’s eyes were glowing white as they channeled the animals now that they were no longer being guided by Jacob.
“It’s over,” Isabelle said, throwing her arms around him and digging her face into his chest. “It’s finally over.”
The crowd was cheering around them as Tyler hugged his girl. His heart sank as he glanced back at his brother’s dead body lying on the ground.
He didn’t feel like celebrating.
But he took a breath of relief. It was finally over.
ten
“Here’s a good one,” Tyler said, tossing the apple from hand to hand.
“It was,” Isabelle said with a smirk. “Until you put your dirty fingers all over it.”
Tyler grinned as he bit into the shiny red apple with a crunch. He took another bite and then tossed it to Izzy who gobbled it up in less than three seconds.
Isabelle smiled as she watched her man reach up into the tree for another. It was a perfect autumn afternoon in the Creston Falls apple orchard. The air was crisp and cool as they walked down the orderly rows of trees, filling up on the sweet, ripe apples.
It had been three perfect days since Tyler ended Jacob’s tormenting rule once and for all. The town had cheered when he died and it had been a constant party ever since. Bands were playing in the streets and there was food and dancing and drunken kissing. It had felt like an enormous weight had been lifted off of the community.
And it was all thanks to Tyler.
As happy as everybody was, no one was as happy as Isabelle. A constant warmth was radiating through her body. Her heartbeat raced, drumming in her chest every time she looked at her man. It was so different with Tyler, so easy, so fucking perfect.
The good times were occasionally overshadowed by a regretful sadness when she thought back at all of the wasted years. They could have spent the past several years together, happy like this. They would never get those years back but that was all behind her now. She had a bright future to look forward to. A future with her man.
Tyler’s shirt inched up his stomach as he reached for an apple high up on the tree and Isabelle moaned as she caught a delicious glimpse of his flexed abs.
Rhett had lent them his house while he was being held. He was still awaiting his sentence. The four horsemen: Nathan, Emry, Wallace, and Rhett, were all charged with abusing their power. The skin shifters of Creston Falls had lived in constant fear for almost a decade and they weren’t satisfied with only Jacob paying. His right-hand men had to answer to their crimes as well.
“How about this one?” Tyler asked as he plucked off a big, plump apple. Isabelle groaned as his shirt fell back down, covering her sexy view of his shredded stomach.
“It looks good,” she said with a smirk. “But can you shine it up with your shirt first?”
Tyler shrugged and wrapped it up in his shirt, polishing it carefully for her. Isabelle smiled as his shirt rode up his stomach and she could admire his abs once again. “A little bit more,” she said, grinning as she enjoyed the view.
They sat in the shade of a towering apple tree as the sun glimmered through the leaves, washing down on them and warming them up. A large apple fell beside them with a heavy thud as Isabelle sat in his embrace eating the deliciously sweet apple that he had picked for her.
Could life get any better?
“Remember coming here when we were kids?” she asked, biting into her apple with a crunch.
His muscular arms squeezed around her. “How could I forget?” he asked. She could hear the smile in his voice. “We had our first kiss right over there.”
“You remember?” she asked, turning around while her cheeks flushed as red as her apple.
“Of course, I do,” he said, his amber eyes warm and loving. “It was the best moment of my life. Up until now.”
Isabelle inched her chin up and kissed his sexy lips. “I love you,” she said.
“You taste like apple,” he answered, licking his lips with a chuckle.
She turned back and squeezed his hard, muscular arm as she looked at the farmhouse in the distance. It didn’t bother her that he didn’t say it back. She had heard enough I love you’s from his lips over the past three days to last a lifetime.
“We haven’t talked about the future,” she said, gazing at the peeling paint on the farmhouse in the distance.
Tyler kissed the top of her head. “I’ve been enjoying the present too much to think about the future.”
But it was bothering her. She needed to know what his intentions were. She was falling deeply, deeply in love with him already and she didn’t want to slip further down if this was only a fling for him. This is Tyler. Stop being so worried.
She tossed the half eaten apple onto the ground and settled back in between his legs, stroking her fingers up his real leg and his prosthetic one. “The town wants you to stay and lead them,” she said, holding her breath. “What do you think of that?”
“What do you think of that?” he repeated.
Isabelle took a deep breath, smelling the earthy smell of the soil mixed with the flowering scent of the orchard’s flower blossoms. “I want you to do whatever makes you happy,” she said. “As long as I get to come along.”
He wrapped his arms wound her shoulders and hugged her. “I couldn’t be happy if you weren’t with me.”
She placed her hand on the back of his and smiled. “So let’s stay together,” she said.
“Okay,” he whispered. She turned around with her elbows on the ground between his legs and gazed up at him with a grin. “I don’t have a ring,” he said, reaching up and plucking a thin branch off the tree. “But I’ve waited so long for this moment and I don’t want to wait another second.”
Isabelle sat up with her heart pounding. She stared at him with wide eyes as he twisted the branch into a tiny circle that was just the right size to fit on a finger. He held it up, squeezed between his finger and thumb. “Isabelle,” he whispered. “Would yo-”
“Yes!” she cried out, lunging forward and wrapping her arms around him, nearly tackling him to the ground.
“Let me finish,” he said, laughing as she climbed off of him.
“Okay,” she said, smoothing her hair back and then waiting eagerly with her hands folded in her lap.
He smiled as he tried again. “Would you, throw this stick in the garbage for me?”
“No!” she said, swatting him playfully as he laughed. “That’s not what you were going to ask!”
“Okay,” he said, his face serious and his voice steady. “Isabelle, would you be my wife and mate?”
She pinched her mouth closed, fighting back happy tears. “Yes,” she whispered, nodding her head. “I would love to be your wife and mate. That’s all I ever wanted.”
Tyler let out a breath of relief as he took her hand in his and gently slid the scratchy wooden ring down her ring finger.
“We’ll keep this one in place until we can get to a jewelry store,” he said with a smile.
“No,” she said, looking down at the wooden ring. “I like this one.”
Her heart was pounding in her chest and she was so full of energy that she wanted to run screaming through the orchard. She was actually going to marry Tyler. At one time she was convinced that she would never even see him again and now he was all hers. She couldn’t believe it.
“Look at you,” he said, with a grin. “You’re a ball of energy.”
She was. Running through the orchard was one way to release it all but she could think of a funner way. She glanced around at the empty orchard. There was no one around. Only Izzy but she was curled up under a tiny apple tree sleeping.
Isabelle looked down at the branch on her finger and smirked. “Do you have any more wood for me?” she asked, sliding her hand up his muscular thigh.
He grinned that sexy grin of his. “Keep touching me like that and you’ll have a whole tree.”
“Excellent,”
she said, licking her lips as she pressed her palm on his hardening erection. He groaned as his big cock hardened to a rock under her touch. She slid her palm up his impressive length, feeling a warmth settle in between her legs.
Tyler rolled his head back and groaned as she reached his belt buckle and began fumbling with it. “You mean I don’t even have to wait for the honeymoon?” he asked in a low raspy voice. “Lucky me.”
Isabelle licked her lips as she unbuckled his belt and slid down his zipper. He arched his hips off the ground and she tugged down his shorts and boxer briefs, letting his gorgeous cock spring free.
She moaned, licking her lips once again as she admired it. Tyler always had a beautiful dick, from the thick hardened shaft to the smooth head; seeing it always got her going.
He groaned loudly as she squeezed his straining shaft and took him into her wet mouth. Fuck, he tasted good. Her greedy lips tightly encircled his cock as she swept her tongue along the soft skin of his swollen head.
“Oh, Isabelle,” he moaned as he threaded his strong fingers through her blonde hair.
She picked up the pace, stroking him with a fast, steady motion, sliding her grip up and down his hot flesh. She could feel her heartbeat hammering in her chest as her pussy ached with the need to be touched.
He reached over her, grabbing her ass as she sucked him harder. She grunted on his cock as he squeezed her cheek, giving her a taste of his power. It only stoked the flames of her arousal, getting her wetter.
“Get naked for me,” he whispered in a raspy voice. “I want to see my new wife’s sexy body.”
Isabelle slid her tongue over the tip of his cock one last time, drinking in the salty sweetness of his pre-cum. She stood up with her pussy throbbing and grinned as she watched her man stroke his massive dick with long, slow strokes. He stared hungrily at her as she glanced around the orchard, making sure no one was watching.
“Off,” he grunted, his hand moving up and down his shaft with a steady, confident grip.
Isabelle listened to her man and quickly unbuckled her shorts and panties, wiggling them down her thighs. She pulled off her shirt and quickly unclasped her bra, sliding it down her arms and letting it fall to the ground.
