by Jessica Sims
I opened my mouth to protest, but he continued on, his voice dropping low. “You even risked your life to save mine, when it could have killed you.”
Sudden tears pricked at my eyes. If this meant that I’d lost him forever, I’d …
I’d do it again. Over and over again.
I loved Beau with all my heart, I realized. I wanted to always be at his side, and protect him when I could. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.
He wasn’t listening. “You’re the one person in the world that I can’t bend to do my will,” he said slowly. “And that’s why I can’t let you go. I refuse to accept that you want to break up with me.”
I stared at him in surprise.
He continued, “The Alliance is a dangerous place for a human—everyone plays rougher, and there’s a code you can’t even begin to comprehend. It’s too dangerous for you. The past few weeks have shown me that.” An anguished look crossed his face. “And I can’t change you even if you asked me.”
I nodded. “I’m immune,” I said softly.
His fingers continually stroked my hand. “Everyone warns me that I shouldn’t bring you further into my world, further into the Russell clan. But all I can think of is that I need to marry you to keep you safe—”
My heart leapt in my chest, and the heart monitor at the side of the bed beeped loudly. “You want to marry me—just to protect me?”
His grim face lightened a little. “Actually, I want to drag you back to my cabin, lock you away, and never let you out into the world again. I want to keep you at my side so I can watch over you always, and kiss you every time you walk past me.” His expression relaxed, changing to something more sensual, and his voice dropped into a husky whisper. “I want to smell every time that you think of me, and I want you to think of me several times a day.”
My mouth went a little dry. “Can we have tub sex again?”
He laughed and pressed a kiss to my knuckles. “We can definitely have tub sex.”
“It wouldn’t be so bad, then,” I mused, and I was rewarded with a brilliant smile. “But that’s the wrong reason to marry me. I don’t want you to marry me just because you want to protect me, Beau. And I can’t stay with you in the woods.”
His smile dropped away, and he looked devastated. He reluctantly let go of my hand. “I understand.”
“Wait,” I said when he pulled away. I grasped the front of his shirt. “You don’t understand. I want to marry you, you dense, overgrown cat. I love you.”
Beau hugged me tight. “I love you, Bathsheba. Will you marry me? Join the Russell clan and be my mate?”
It was hard to talk around the emotional knot in my throat. “I can’t live in the woods and hide away from the world,” I warned. At his puzzled look, I said, “I need to run Giselle’s business.”
The lines were back around his mouth, but he was listening. “Go on.”
I continued, my courage bolstered. “I feel responsible for Giselle’s death. If not for me and you and Jason, she’d still be alive.”
He raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“And think of the database,” I said, warming to my subject. “Every paranormal for six states around is logged into that database. Not just Alliance—werewolf, vampire, and even some fey. Midnight Liaisons can be a common connection for all the paranormals in the area. We can connect couples, or families. And what about bodyguards? Or business transactions? There’s so much we could do. A social network for the Alliance would be a terrific way to keep people connected, and the office can help people set up profiles and regulate traffic,” I said, getting excited. It was a brilliant concept.
“We’re getting married before you go back to that office,” he insisted. “You’re mine and no one else is touching you. Ever again.”
“All right,” I said, thrilling at the thought. The heart monitor beeped again.
“We’re marrying tomorrow,” he commanded.
I shook my head. “Let’s wait a week. I’d like to be able to stand upright for my wedding without medical assistance.”
“A week,” he declared. His face broke into a smug grin, as if he’d just been handed a crown and a scepter.
I asked the last thing that was bothering me. “And my being human won’t be a problem with your position in the Alliance? You won’t get kicked out of your leader spot?”
He shook his head. “If anything, we’re starting a trend. All of my brothers are out prowling the streets looking for naked blondes to jump out of windows and flatten grizzly bears.”
I swatted his arm and winced at the pain. “You’re an ass. I couldn’t possibly have flattened him.”
Beau’s lips twitched. “Just a little. Sara’s calling you Bathsheba Bear-Slayer.”
I laughed, even though it hurt. My hand clasped his and I looked into at his smiling gray eyes. “I’d rather be Bathsheba Russell.”
“Good. Because you’re probably going to want to kill me when you hear what I propose next,” he said somberly. “It involves Sara.”
As soon as I was released from the hospital, a meeting was set up between the Russell clan and the Anderson wolves. The location was a neutral patch of land not owned by either party. The cause for the get-together? An exchange of women: Sara for Savannah.
I rode with the Russell clan in their convoy of trucks and SUVs. Sara sat with me, remarkably calm. Since I’d last seen her, she’d dyed her short, shaggy hair bright blue, and she wore a ragged old concert T-shirt that I didn’t recognize. It made her look younger, but it also made her look a bit tougher. Or maybe it was the events of this last week that had finally hardened her. I wanted to hug her close, but I knew she didn’t want that. This was her battle, and I couldn’t fight it for her.
This was the only way to resolve the impasse without destroying both groups of shifters. It was the exchange or war.
I held my sister’s hand as we lined up at the meeting site. Beau stood at the front of the clan. Ramsey stood next to him, his immense form nearly dwarfing the rest of us in shadow. Sara and I hung back, the only women among nearly a dozen men.
The wolf pack loped out of the woods in wolf form. After they circled the group once, they broke apart and transformed to their human forms. Naked.
To a one, they were all handsome. I hadn’t seen any ugly shifters (except for Garth) but they looked hard. And they eyed Sara with far too much attention.
One stepped forward, his face bearded and lined with years of hard living. “You brought the wolf girl?”
Sara tensed beside me.
“We brought Sara with us, yes,” Beau said. “Where’s Savannah?”
The lead werewolf glanced at Sara and me, shielded by a wall of Russell clan members, then raised a hand in the air. After a moment another man emerged from the woods, his arm around a young, dark-haired woman’s shoulders.
“That’s Savannah,” one of the Russell brothers murmured for my benefit.
Her clothes were muddy and she squinted at the sunlight as if she hadn’t seen it for a few days, but she looked whole and healthy. And she didn’t seem upset, which was good.
When Savannah got closer, she broke free from the man at her side and staggered, as if recovering. Then she gave him an enquiring look, as if seeking permission.
How odd.
Then she ran for the Russell clan, and was enveloped by the warm hugs of her cousins.
“She’s all yours again,” the werewolf leader drawled. “Give us Sara.”
My sister looked at me and squeezed my hand, letting me know it would be all right, and I squeezed hers back. I was so frightened that something would go wrong. That this would be the last time I would ever see her.
Then Sara stepped forward, a dainty, blue-haired figure among a horde of towering men. I pushed forward, determined to keep my eyes on her.
The werewolf leader sized her up, and his nostrils flared as he checked her scent. Then he smiled wide. “Hello, baby doll. We’re gonna treat you real nice.”
“I’
m going with you of my own free will,” Sara pointed out. “A trade is a trade.”
The werewolf nodded.
“All right, then,” Sara said, and I heard the slight wobble in her voice. “I’m now part of the wolf pack.”
Silence fell.
Then Ramsey stepped forward and dropped one huge hand over her shoulder, nearly covering it.
“In accordance with the law of the Bjorn and the were-bear clans, I claim this woman as my mate.”
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My sister cast me worried looks on the entire drive to the meeting grounds, her hands clutching mine. I kept my expression serene, knowing Bathsheba was looking for any sign of fear, and then she’d insist on me not doing this.
And then Savannah would probably die and I’d be responsible, and the wolves would keep hunting me for the rest of my life. I’d have to keep hiding the monster I’d become. Keep bathing in perfume to disguise my scent with other shifters. After six years of hiding, I was so very, very tired of living in fear—of waiting to turn the corner and have the world come crashing down, of making the wrong move and ruining everything once again. I knew I’d messed up Bathsheba’s life as well as my own. There was nothing I could do about that now.
But I could do something about Savannah’s life. So I smiled and watched the scenery with interest, hoping Bath didn’t notice how sweaty my palms were.
We pulled up at an abandoned tract of land. Tall weeds overgrew the property and the barbed wire fence was falling down in several places. When I got out of the car, I smelled the faint scent of wolves. The back of my neck prickled and my mouth began to water with fear, two signs that I was close to changing into wolf form. I clamped the thought down and bit the inside of my cheek hard, struggling to maintain control. Now was not the time.
My sister scanned the woods, her brow wrinkling, and I knew she didn’t realize they were here. Every shifter in the area did, though. The posture of her fiancé, Beau Russell, changed from easy to alert. A few of the other Russells closed ranks around me, and a massive shadow loomed over my shoulder. I didn’t have to glance backward to see that it was Ramsey.
They surrounded me like Fort Sara. As if it would do any good.
Then Beau stepped forward and my shadow was gone, the two men standing side by side, waiting for the wolves to emerge. I bit my cheek harder.
After a few minutes, they appeared. The weedy grass led to taller bushes in the distance, which led to a thick stand of trees. I had guessed that was where they were hiding, and I was correct. I hadn’t anticipated them appearing in wolf form, though. The smell of them filled my nostrils, overpowering all other scents and bringing with them a wealth of bad memories.
I crouched low in the kitchen, raising my arms over my head. “No, please, Roy … I’ll be good.”
“It’s because I love you that I have to teach you a lesson,” Roy said, snapping the belt over my head and lashing my arms and shoulders.
I whimpered in pain, knowing he would hit me harder if I screamed and alerted the neighbors. Roy wanted me to be strong. The beatings, he told me, were to condition me to pain.
I huddled smaller and waited for him to be done with his lesson. But then the belt caught me across the mouth and my mouth filled with blood. I spat it on the floor, then looked up to see that Roy was changing, his nose becoming to a wolf’s snout, his arms covered with hair …
I shivered and pushed the horrible memories aside, my entire body tense. Wolves pushed out of the woods, two … three … six … seven. Beau had told me that the Anderson wolf pack had eight male wolves and one female, so two were missing. I craned my neck, looking for them until I heard Bathsheba’s gasp. Her gaze was on the pack, and I looked back to them. They had stopped and now were crouched, changing back to human form. As I watched, one naked man rose and stretched as if he had not a care in the world. He looked over at me and winked, unconcerned that he was naked.
My sister averted her eyes.
I stared back at the man. How the hell had he shifted so very fast? My own shift was always painful and drawn out, leaving me aching and heaving. This man acted like he’d woken up from a pleasant nap.
As the others quickly changed, they lined up behind the other man. He stepped forward and looked at Beau. “You brought the wolf girl?”
I tensed. Roy had always called me “girl” too … just before he beat me. Was I going to be just a nameless, faceless creature to abuse? Again? The skin on the back of my neck rippled and I bit down on my cheek again, willing my body under control.
“We brought Sara, yes,” Beau said. “Where’s Savannah?”
The lead werewolf glanced back at me. I remained where I was. I wasn’t moving forward until I had a nod from Beau or Ramsey. My stomach churned hard, and I forced myself to relax my sweaty hand so I wouldn’t accidentally squeeze the hell out of Bathsheba’s fingers.
The lead wolf raised a hand in the air and motioned someone forward. I heard the rustle in the woods, then a man about my age and a young, dark-haired woman emerged. She smelled like the wolves and her clothes looked borrowed, but underneath I could smell the faint scent of cougar.
“That’s Savannah,” someone murmured to my sister. As the only human at the parlay, she missed the subtle signals that put the shifters a page ahead of her.
Savannah slowly moved forward. One of the Russells breathed out hard, and I wondered at the angry sound. Savannah gave the wolf shifter at her side a long look, then rushed toward us.
The Russells enveloped her in warm hugs, patting her on the back and clapping her shoulder, but their expressions remained grim. A short distance away, Beau looked furious. Savannah’s smile was wide and she wiped relieved tears from her eyes. Her scent was heavy with wolf—one wolf in particular. And noticing her calm demeanor I realized why the Russells were mad.
Savannah was no longer in heat. That meant …
“She’s all yours again,” the Anderson wolf leader drawled. “Give us Sara.”
I fought the sick feeling in my gut and gave my sister’s hand a squeeze, and then released it. I stepped forward, past the Russells, past Beau and Ramsey, and approached the naked pack of wolves. All of them were tall and muscled. The leader had a beard and a rather stern face. The others were younger, but I was still the youngest—and smallest—one. The leader’s gaze was assessing as I approached, studying my figure, my face, testing my scent on the air. I knew what he was looking for.
He was judging me as a potential mate.
The skin on my back bunched and rippled, and I inhaled sharply. The scent of wolf was almost overwhelming, and my legs were cramping up. Shit! I bit my cheek so hard that I drew blood. I would never take another wolf as my mate. I’d die first.
“Hello, baby doll. We’re gonna treat you real nice,” he said in a mild drawl, clearly sensing my nervousness. His gaze was oddly hypnotic, and I avoided making eye contact. An alpha could control the wolves in his pack, couldn’t he? I felt that strange thread of compulsion and I wasn’t even officially in his pack. It frightened me.
I didn’t dare look back at the Russell clan. Instead, I took another step toward my new “family.” I tried not to shudder. “I’m going with you of my own free will,” I announced, using the phrases we’d decided on to bring the plan into action. “A trade is a trade.”
The werewolf alpha nodded at me.
I turned back to Beau. “A trade is a trade, right?”
He nodded at me, his body tense. Beau didn’t take his eyes off me. “Agreed.”
“All right then,” I said, hating how small my voice was. “I’m now part of the wolf pack.”
The alpha smiled, a possessive, smug look. My entire body tensed as I waited for the plan to kick in to motion. Waited for rescue.
Behind me, heavy feet stepped forward. A large hand clasped my shoulder and yanked me backward a
gainst a massive, firm body. Ramsey said, “In accordance with the law of the Bjorn clan and the were-bear clans, I claim this one as my mate.”
The wolf leader’s face flickered with confusion, then contorted with rage. “What the fuck is this?”
I quivered, flinching at the alpha’s rage. Normal anger scared me, but the alpha’s rage made my entire being shiver. It affected the other wolves, as well—they shifted anxiously on their feet.
Ramsey’s arm looped over my chest, protecting me.
The wolves frowned and muttered, exchanging glances. The bearded alpha gritted his teeth and glared at me and Ramsey. A low growl formed in his throat. “This is a trick.”
Ramsey’s arm tightened, and I squeaked when I realized his protective hand had accidentally cupped one of my small breasts. I didn’t think he’d realized it either, and his hand shifted lower.
“Not a trick,” he growled back, the rumbling in his throat much deeper than the alpha’s wolf-like growl.
My mouth filled with saliva again. God. Not now. I couldn’t go wolf now.
The alpha’s eyes flashed with anger, anger that he focused on me. “She don’t look excited to be your mate, Bjorn. She looks scared.”
Uh oh. I put on my chirpy smile and gave Ramsey’s hand a little pat. “I’m just surprised that my Huggy Bear decided to declare our love openly. He’s kinda private.”
Someone snickered. I felt Ramsey’s arm tighten on me, and he leaned down and kissed my temple. The oddly tender gesture threw me for a loop.
The wolf leader didn’t look convinced. “You two aren’t a couple,” he declared. “This is bullshit.”
“We are too,” I blurted, desperate. I turned in Ramsey’s arms and looked up at him. He stood at least a foot and a half taller than me, and weighed twice as much. I grabbed the collar of his shirt and tugged him downward, then planted my mouth on his.
I felt a tremor of surprise rip through him but ignored it, kissing his hard, unyielding mouth. I had to make this look as real as possible so I slid my tongue against his lips, coaxing them apart, and then sucking on his lower lip. Ramsey hesitated a moment, and then I felt his big hands cup my ass, pulling me closer against him, and his tongue flicked against mine. I made the kiss deeper, wrapping my legs around his big torso like I wanted to ride him, making small noises of pleasure in the back of my throat for the audience’s benefit. Ramsey’s sharp inhalation took me by surprise a moment before his tongue stroked deep against mine. Startled, I broke off the kiss and stared up at him. His brown gaze met mine and he gave me another light kiss, as if reluctant to let the contact end. It sent a shiver all the way through me, the way he was looking at my mouth.
