Azer twisted his head against those penetrating claws, but the cats hung onto his back for all they were worth. He rose on his hind legs and punched his shoulders into the ceiling. He pinned one cat against the roof beam. The panther let out a hair-raising scream, but it couldn’t get away. It bit down on the bear’s shoulder. Azer spread wide his mighty arms and jerked his spine sideways to scrape the pest off.
The beam snapped the cat in half. It ripped the panther’s teeth out of Azer’s skin, but his powerful upthrust crushed the panther across the middle. Its shoulders caved between Azer’s shoulder blades and the solid wood ceiling. The panther rolled off, but it couldn’t move its limbs or back. It lay screeching on the floor, but it couldn’t rise to fight or flee.
The other panther bit into Azer’s flank, but he couldn’t free himself from that with four other cats climbing his legs from every side. He batted one off with a paw, but the others slashed and bit his legs and sides. He bellowed louder than ever, but the panthers’ attack gave their friends the chance they needed to escape that basement. The stairs cleared, and the last remaining spectators ran away into the sunshine.
Azer bowled one panther into the wall so hard he knocked it senseless. He swatted his paw down on another and smashed its foreleg against the floor. The cat darted away and scuttled up the stairs. The last three hung on for dear life, but they couldn’t win with their advantage gone.
Azer spun around to bite a panther sinking its teeth into his hip, but his teeth snapped on empty air. The cat sprang free and fled, and the other two followed close behind.
Azer let out one final deafening roar of triumph. Not one person remained in the basement to challenge him. He swung his heavy head sideways—and stopped. Raven stood in the same place. She stood still and met his beady black eyes with her own direct gaze. So this was it. This was a Bruin, this shaggy killer with blood and brains and flesh spackling his jaws and fur.
She wouldn’t fight him. She made up her mind to keep her human form, no matter what he did. If he wanted to kill her, she stood ready for him. He warned her he would retaliate if she didn’t stop the ring, and she didn’t. Now she had to face the music.
He growled low at her, and his black lips curled back from his teeth. That sound set every hair on end down her back, but she didn’t move. He could smash her with one twitch of his paw, but she wasn’t afraid. He was Azer. She kissed him. She touched him. She would die with that image before her eyes. She wouldn’t pretend she loved him when she wanted to kill him, but she wouldn’t run and hide from him, either.
He looked sideways. Then he gave her another brief glance, lumbered over to the stairs, and scrambled up and out of the house.
Chapter 10
Azer stopped in front of Violet’s house. He eyed Raven sitting on the door step, but he didn’t come through the gate. He hung around in the so-called street for a while. He studied the other cabins and shacks in the compound. What on earth made him think of coming here? He should have listened to Mattox and left Melody alone.
Now he had to face that harpy in the doorway. He couldn’t stay in this house any longer, and he had nowhere else to stay. Maybe Melody would put him up. She wouldn’t be happy when he told her what happened.
He didn’t regret it, though. He would slaughter every man, woman, and child on this Moraine if he had the chance—everyone except Melody, of course. He never met such capricious, heartless, bloodthirsty people in his life. Not even the hunters from Iron Bark could come up with a blood sport like this bear-baiting.
Raven glared back at him. “You might as well come inside and talk to me. I’m not going away.”
Azer didn’t move. Going anywhere near her was the last thing in the world he wanted to do. She was pure poison. He knew it when he first laid eyes on her. He should have listened to his instincts. He should have listened to Mattox. He should have done a thousand other things besides go home with her and kiss her and….well, everything else.
He still stood there wondering what to do next when she stood up and strode toward him. She stopped inside the gate so the picket fence still held them apart. If he thought for an instant she could get near him, he would smash her Midnight head in.
She made no move to cross that fence, though. She didn’t give him her wicked screw-me smile, either. She regarded him with a cool, calculating gaze he never saw in her before. “I’m sorry, Azer. I never should have taken you to the ring. That was my fault.”
He glared at her. “What do you think I’m going to do? I won’t apologize for what I did. I’m not sorry about it. I’m only sorry I didn’t kill more people when I had the chance.”
She cast her gaze down at the ground. “Thank you for not killing me when you had the chance. I know you could have, and I know you probably wanted to.”
“I should have.”
She waited a moment to let his anger cool. “Well, now you know what it’s all about.”
He snorted. “Don’t ever tell me again we’re not enemies. I’ll fight you with everything I’ve got. I’ll do everything I can to destroy you.”
“Then what are you still doing here?”
He shrugged. “I guess I have to say good-bye to Melody before I go home.”
“Go ahead then.”
He didn’t walk away.
“Listen, Azer. I have as much to be mad at you about as you have to be mad at me. Why don’t we call it a draw?”
“A draw! You want to call it a draw after what you did?”
She squared her shoulders at him. “I could blame you, too, if I wanted to. You ruined a very lucrative business. Now, I have to start all over again.”
“I didn’t ruin anything. Do you think I didn’t see how much money you made off that? You made more money on me attacking everybody than you would have made if I had done nothing.”
“Well, you can’t complain. We’re running a business here. At least we still have the cub. You get mad and run home to your family. We’ll run the ring again after you leave, and we won’t have to worry about you losing your temper.”
He gritted his teeth. “You’re a sick piece of dirt. I wish I never met you.”
“Well, I don’t wish I never met you. I’m glad I met you, even if it’s just to make a few extra bucks.”
“I should have seen you coming a mile away. I should have run for the hills rather than touch you.”
She winced. “Was it that bad?”
He closed his eyes and groaned. “You’re not the person I thought you were. I thought you were nice, but I can see you’re just as bloody-minded as the rest of your rotten people. I hope you die up here. I can’t believe you would be so cruel as to treat a little child like that.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. That cub is money in the bank—nothing more.”
He brought his face close to hers. He didn’t yell the way he did at the ring, but his face smoldered with black rage the way it did then. “Are you saying you would put me in that ring, too? Is that all I am to you, too? Am I money in the bank—nothing more?”
She couldn’t look him in the eyes. She fidgeted from one foot to the other.
He glared at her for one long, terrible moment. Then he smacked his lips and turned away. “I thought so. I’m going home. I’m going home to join Foicks Dunlap. We’ll make war on you. I might be only one man. I might not be able to bring you down on my own, but you can’t stand against all of us working together. We’ll make you regret the day you ever sent Riley to Bruins’ Peak.”
He started to walk away. Raven jumped into his path. “You can’t seriously mean that, Azer. You can’t seriously plan to make war on us.”
“Why not? You’re making war on us.”
“No one has gone back to Bruins’ Peak since Riley came back with Melody. You know that. We haven’t touched one of your kind since Marla.”
He swept his arm sideways and pointed behind him. “What do you call that cub? Do you really think you can torture her like that, and then
stand here and say to my face you never touched one of my kind?” He snorted. “You’re not as smart as I thought. Either you’re lying to my face, or you’re pulling the wool over your own eyes.”
She darted in front of him again. “You can’t make war on us, Azer. You’d be making war on…on me.”
How long would she keep blocking his path before he lashed out at her? He fought every instinct to keep himself under control. His face contorted in monstrous rage. “On you? What do I care about you? You’re the ringleader. You’re the mastermind behind this whole sick project. Don’t tell me you’re just an accountant. You’re pulling the puppet strings on the whole thing. I saw that for myself, and do you know what? You’re proud of it. I saw the way your face shone when those men thanked you and congratulated you and pointed you out to their friends. None of this would be possible without you.”
“Azer…”
He chopped the air to cut her off. “And to think I touched you. I kissed you. I could scrape my lips off with a sharp knife to get rid of your poison. I ought to kill you myself right now. I ought to rid the world of your filth while I have a chance.”
Raven froze on the spot. “Do you want to kill me, Azer? Is that what you really want?”
He closed his eyes and turned away. He compressed his lips together to stop them trembling. “I can’t. That’s the worst part. I actually started to care about you. I could do something terrible to myself for that, but I couldn’t hurt you. I’m a waste and a failure. I’m ruined.”
She came up behind him. He didn’t have to turn around to know what she was doing. Her hand hovered inches away from his back, but she wouldn’t cross the line.
His voice grated in his throat. “Don’t touch me. Don’t you ever touch me again or, I swear to God, I’ll…”
She let her hand fall, but she didn’t back off. Her presence burned a hole in his back. He would give anything to walk away from her right now, but that heat, that diabolical energy pouring from her into his back wouldn’t be denied. He hated himself for standing there. He hated himself for pouring out his heart to her. He ought to hate her, but he couldn’t. Hating himself was easy. He couldn’t hate her, not even after everything she’d done.
She let out a shaky breath. “If you really feel that way, you probably should leave.”
He didn’t turn around. He kept his back turned to her, but he wouldn’t walk away. He couldn’t. He could do just about anything, but he could never walk away from her. The dreadful reality sunk into his head. She caught him in her web. She tied him up. Now she would stalk him until she killed him. Not even knowing that could wrench him away from her.
He didn’t leave. He kept standing there. Even with his back turned, he was with her. He could survive anything as long as he was with her, somehow, some way.
She crossed the last frontier holding them apart. She rested her head against his back. She started to slip her arms around his waist. He choked out, “Don’t,” but his voice cracked with buried emotion.
She did it, anyway. She hugged him from behind and pillowed her forehead on his wide shoulder. He clamped his eyes shut against the overwhelming tide sweeping through him. He couldn’t let this happen, yet he stood powerless before her, before all of this.
She untangled her arms from him and stood back. She took hold of his shoulders and pressed them to turn him around. He fought with all his might to resist, but instead of breaking away, he found himself falling, falling around in a circle to face her.
His voice broke from his parched throat in a pathetic sob. “Oh, God, don’t do this to me. Don’t you know what you’re doing to me? Leave me alone, for God’s sake.”
She pushed one shoulder and pulled the other. “Turn around, Azer. Turn around and look at me.”
He kept his eyes closed. His face spasmed in a mask of anguish. He couldn’t look at her.
She laid her cool palms, one on either side of his face. She lifted his face to hers. He barely got out that tragic word, “Don’t,” before her lips closed over his mouth.
Chapter 11
The moment their lips met, the dam broke. He didn’t open his eyes. His emotions whimpered out of his throat and his breath wheezed through his lips, but he couldn’t stop himself kissing her.
Their lips locked in some cosmic union no one could control. The cataclysm knocked Raven off her feet. She threw her arms around his neck for support, and his muscled arms flew around her waist to hold her against his chest.
He chewed her lips off and jammed his tongue down her throat. His hands grappled with every part of her at once. He pawed under her shirt and down to her ass. He lifted her off her feet to crush her against his rock solid bulk.
She didn’t have to pretend. She didn’t have to pretend to pretend. His words rocketed through her brain. He couldn’t hurt her. He knew he should hate her and fight her and kill her, but he couldn’t. He knew he should keep away from her, and yet here were his hands groping her and lighting her fire all over again.
The worst part of the whole thing was she felt the same way. When he said those things, they stabbed at her heart. She shouldn’t care about him. She should want to see him dead and bloody and devastated, but she couldn’t. Could she really see him stabbed with knives and ripped apart by dogs in the ring?
She couldn’t deny that kiss, those hands, that tongue. She screwed enough guys in her time to know what it felt like. This wasn’t even on the same planet with those pathetic kindergarten games. This was…this was something she couldn’t describe. She couldn’t comprehend it.
What was he doing to her? That throbbing need between her legs couldn’t hold a candle to the maniac passion blazing through her heart—not for sex, not for a stiff prick to mess around with and make her blow. She didn’t want that—at least, not only that. She could get that on any street corner on this Moraine.
She wanted him. She wanted his hands and cock and tongue, but she wanted so much more than that. She wanted his heart. She wanted to hear him say those words all over again. She wanted to hear him admit, against all his inclinations, that he cared. He cared enough to leave her unharmed when he marauded through acres of Midnight, killing everything in sight.
She longed for that break in his voice when he moaned, “Don’t.” He knew he couldn’t resist her. He couldn’t resist her any more than she could resist him.
His hands tightened around her ass. He picked her up so her head hung suspended over his. Her black hair hung around his face with their mouths joined in that heavenly kiss.
He let her grind down his chest until her delicious tissues came to rest on his bulging crotch. He plowed his hips into her quivering mound. He pried her butt cheeks apart to spread her legs.
Her thighs wrapped gently around his hips. Her whole being wept to touch him, to drink him into her and never let him go. How could she want any man so bad? How could her heart hurt at the thought of letting him walk away? He was no bear. He could never be money in the bank to her. Never!
His mouth ripped away from hers, and his face plunged into her neck. He nibbled down her neck and up behind her ear. She rested her head against his face and closed her eyes. The catastrophic waves crashed over her. Her breasts beat into his face where he nuzzled her chest. He mouthed her nipples through her shirt until she moaned in his ear.
Gravity pulled her to the ground. Her feet found the solid Earth, but the damage was done. She craved him and his masterful touch, his unchained passion. She hungered for every part of him, even his tortured, brutal heart.
He planted his lips on her mouth one more time and held firm. He didn’t jaw side to side or lick her saliva out of her cheeks. He just froze there with his lips tied up in hers. He held her tight and wouldn’t release her.
She hung off his neck. She couldn’t let go if she wanted to. She couldn’t run the risk of him walking away or turning his back on her again. She had him. She had to keep him, no matter the cost.
All at once, his hands let go of her body. He p
ushed both her shoulders away with a rough shove. He blurted out, “I can’t do this,” and walked away without looking back.
Raven stared at his back disappearing into the trees. He headed for Riley and Melody’s house. Would he come back to her mother’s, or would he take refuge with people he knew would protect him?
How could he want protection from her? He hit the nail bang on the head, and he didn’t even know it. He asked her point blank if she intended to throw him in her ring.
She whirled back the other way. She couldn’t let the sun go down on that kiss. She had to do something. She had to get him out of her mind, out of her heart, out of her body. Even now, his hands left a permanent imprint on her flesh. They excited her even when he wasn’t touching her. They changed her whole being so she couldn’t resist him.
Was this what Riley meant about mating with Melody for life? Could the same thing possibly happen to her, too? She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t care about him or anybody else. She couldn’t let him turn her away from the whole Midnight way of life. Keep your eyes on the prize. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. Don’t change your plans for anybody. Forget it ever happened.
She marched straight past her mother’s house. She wouldn’t get anywhere in there. She never did. Besides, his room was still in there. The quilts and pillows would still smell like him. She couldn’t trust herself not to migrate back there.
She had to get away from him, and she couldn’t do that as long as he kept hanging around the Moraine. He said he was leaving. She couldn’t let him do that. She had a business to run. She couldn’t let anything take precedence over that.
She strode up the path to her uncle Wyatt’s house and barged right in. She didn’t see anybody in the living room or kitchen, but she heard squeaks and yelps coming from Hunter’s room. She pressed her ear against the closed door.
Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume II) Page 31
