He chuckled and rocked her back in the chair to kiss her. She settled into his arms, and their lips slithered around each other in a delicious dance. Ebony put her head on one side and collapsed into his kiss. Her head spun, and that fizz of excitement coursed through her being.
Tonight they would spend their first night in their own bedroom, in their own house, where no one could interrupt or disturb them. They spent countless hours in the glade since they first mated, but nothing could compare to a house with four walls around them.
This house would take the place of the glade, and it was all theirs, right in the heart of Midnight territory. She wouldn’t have to travel across the Moraine to find a private place to let her passions go with him. She had that, right here in her own home.
The more time she spent with Melody, the more they talked about Bruins’ Peak, the better Ebony understood just how radical the concept of mating for life could be. Bruins had this private intimacy with their mates all the time, day in and day out, their whole lives. No wonder the Midnight resisted mating for life. It threw the whole Midnight way of thinking on its head.
Ebony’s eyes snapped open. “Did you mean what you said about making peace with the Bruins?”
He stroked her hair back and nodded. “I mean it, especially now that we’re getting a baby that’s half and half. We can’t fight each other. We’re related now.”
“Who will carry the message? Who would dare go back there?”
“It will have to be someone the Bruins already know,” he replied. “You and I could never go. Two Midnight they’ve never seen showing up on their doorstep would be a disaster. That’s why I suggested Riley. I thought maybe he and Melody could go together. The Bruins would listen to them, but they both refused.”
“Who would you send, then?”
“I have no idea. I suppose I have to think about it some more before I decide. I sure wish Azer was here.”
Ebony rested her head on his shoulder. “We’ll never see Azer and Raven again.”
“No. We won’t.”
She let the silence lengthen. Ever since Jordan represented mating for life on Rocky Point and won the fight against Hunter, he took more and more of a leadership role all over the Moraine. People came to him to settle disputes, especially anything concerning couples mated for life and their hostile relatives, ex-lovers, or even estranged friends.
Jordan’s word carried the weight of law on Midnight Moraine now. If anyone challenged someone else for a mate or even a piece of meat they both wanted, Jordan could stop the fight with one sweep of his hand. He would order the combatants apart, and they obeyed him no matter how murderous their fury. He could pry their jaws apart with his bare hands, and no one dared stand against him.
The Midnight hadn’t had a real Alpha in centuries. They never needed one before. No one ever called Jordan an Alpha, but he was one, whether he liked it or not. Sometimes Ebony didn’t like to talk to him at all. When he stared off toward the distant peaks and his brow furrowed in deep thought, she kept silent and waited. She walked at his side and didn’t attract his attention. He had enough on his mind these days.
Now he had to think about making peace with a bunch of Bruins sworn to wipe the Midnight off the face of the earth. How could he do that?
All of a sudden, his head whipped around. He glared at her with his piercing eyes. He darted forward and kissed her.
Ebony gasped. “What was that for?”
“Get up.” He shoved her off his lap. “Get off me.”
She jumped to her feet. “What’s wrong with you? What did I do?”
“We’ve got something to do. We don’t have time to mope around here. Come on.”
He grabbed her hand and started forward so fast she had to hurry to keep up. He stopped at one of the bedroom doors. Ebony froze. She glanced up at Jordan to find him grinning down at her. “This is the last surprise.”
She peered into the room. Light flooded through the windows and struck a bright white square on the floor. A braided rug covered the bare floor, and a vase of wild violets sat on the windowsill to catch the light. A slight breeze billowed through the open window to ruffle the curtains.
She studied Jordan’s face one more time. He jerked his head toward the door. “Well? Aren’t you going inside?”
She took a step, but she couldn’t go any further. She’d never seen a room like this before. A carved wooden wardrobe stood in one corner, and two small tables flanked the bed. A threadbare old quilt covered the bed, but its colors still shone in the sunshine. Its age gave the room a comfortable, lived-in feel. A woven wicker armchair hid behind the door. Three hooks stuck out from the wall above it.
Ebony took another step. She came to a halt next to the bed and ran her fingers over the quilt. Its beaten cotton fabric sank under her touch, as soft as silk. Two white pillows rested against the headboard. That’s when she spotted an envelope on the bedside table.
She picked it up and sat down on the bed. She flipped back the flap and slipped out a folded sheet of paper. She stared down at it. Someone scratched a single heart on the paper—nothing more.
Just then, a shadow fell over the room. The light darkened. Ebony jerked around to see Jordan standing at the window. He shot the curtain closed to cast the room in dim shade.
She stared up at him, but he didn’t smile. His face smoldered above her. He walked around that perfect bed to stand in front of her. She couldn’t take her eyes off his face. He lifted the paper out of her fingers and set it on the table.
She couldn’t believe the man standing over her. Who is this man? She didn’t recognize him, so tall and powerful and sure of himself he could carry the Midnight on his shoulders.
His hands closed on either side of her face, and he lifted her mouth to his lips. He stroked back her hair and kissed her forehead, her eyes, her cheeks, her ears. She sipped those delectable kisses. She could never get enough of them. She adored this man in all his splendor. He held the world in his hand. He could do anything.
He stood up straight and swam in her eyes. “Do you like your new house?”
She could only nod. No words could do her feelings justice.
“Do you like your new room?”
She cast her eyes down to the floor and nodded. Why did she shrink from him, now of all times?
He cupped her chin to raise her eyes to his face. He studied her mouth and her skin. “What’s wrong?”
She blinked, but she couldn’t stop her eyes misting over. “I never thought…” Her voice broke. She couldn’t continue.
“You never thought what?”
She swallowed hard. “I never thought we’d have a place as good as the glade, but this is so much better. I don’t know…I don’t know what to do.” He bent over her, and their lips met. She broke away from the seal of his mouth. “I’m just so happy. I don’t know if I can contain so much happiness.”
He breathed into her mouth and into her cheeks and hair. “It’s okay. If you can’t contain it, this house can. This house can contain anything you want to bring to it. This house is you and me. It’s everything between us.”
The End.
Book 10: Haven
Sarah J. Stone
Chapter 1
Haven Farrell flattened herself against the wall, but still clusters of people crowded into the little chapel on Bruins’ Peak. People Haven hadn’t seen in years came out of the woodwork to pay their last respects to Addison Dodd. This chapel wasn’t built for the hundreds of people now gathering from all over the mountain. It barely contained Addison’s closest family.
Everybody wanted to come forward to shake hands with Riskin Dodd, the tribe’s new Alpha. He sat in the front pew with his mother Virginia, his sister Natalie, and his wife, Briar MacAllister. One person after another bowed over Riskin, pressed his hand, and murmured in his ear. He gave each person a slight nod and maybe a few words in polite reply. He reminded Haven of the Godfather, with his gold cuff links and his immaculate black woo
l suit. He greeted everyone with the same quiet complacency. No one could ask for a better Alpha.
Virginia dabbed tears from her eyes with a white handkerchief. A few women cast sidelong glances at her, but no one disturbed her grief. She had enough to worry about without a couple hundred people offering to do things for her.
Virginia kept her other hand hooked through Briar’s elbow. Briar’s pregnant belly stretched under her somber funeral suit. She couldn’t be far off her time now. Riskin and the three women sat side by side in front of the closed coffin, but of the four Briar represented the Dodd tribe’s future. Strong and steady, she carried her pregnancy with quiet grace. She would hold this family together against hardship and change. Even more than the Alpha himself, she laid the foundation upon which everyone else could build their lives.
Several dozen other Addison families packed the chapel. Haven, her sister Sky, her parents Josiah and Leda Farrell, and Haven’s younger brother Easton all got to the chapel early, but it was already standing room only. More people arrived all the time. People paid their respects to Addison, offered their services to Riskin, and went out again. A gentle buzz of conversation came through the door from outside every time some new family entered.
Haven kept a close watch on the people coming through. After they did their polite duty, every last one of them cast a furtive glance around the chapel. What were they looking for? Haven could think of only one thing. They were looking for Rhys, Riskin’s twin. Rhys controlled the Dodd tribe before Riskin returned from the forest and won the Alpha position from him.
Now the question hung on every lip. Would Rhys return to his father’s funeral? Would Riskin drive him away? Would the two fight again? One family after another came through, but Rhys never appeared.
The chapel got so crowded Haven couldn’t move a muscle. Bodies packed the little building. No one could lift their arm to scratch their face. Haven’s father Josiah waved toward the door. Haven watched for a gap in the crowd and ducked out of the chapel. The rest of her family filed out behind her into the warm spring morning.
Haven and Sky breathed a sigh of relief, and Haven looked around for her friends. Her heart sank, though, when she saw what was going on. The funeral attendees grouped into two loose factions. A no-man’s-land of empty ground separated them. Foicks Dunlap wandered through one group, shaking hands and chatting up his friends, while his brother Ash cruised through the other group.
Haven didn’t have to hear what they were talking about to understand. Everybody understood. Foicks wanted to make war on the panther shifters who operated a bear-baiting ring in the town of Burkes Road. Ash wanted to make peace with them to stop them catching any more Bruins.
The two brothers worked through their separate factions to drum up support for their causes. They encouraged and planned with their staunch supporters, and they did their best to win over anyone who didn’t subscribe to one faction or the other.
Every now and then, some person crossed the no-man’s-land to talk to the other party, but not very often. The two groups stayed separate. Not even a major development like Dodd Alpha dying could bring them together.
Haven’s father Josiah smacked his lips at the scene. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
“We can’t leave yet,” Sky remarked. “We just got here, and we’ve still got the reception to get through.”
He waved his hand over the crowd. “Look at this place. It’s ready to blow up in our faces, and I don’t want to be anywhere nearby when it does.”
Haven felt the same way. Almost every man on the mountain carried a gun. If these two factions came together, they would do so in a hail of gunfire and clouds of powder smoke. How did Bruins’ Peak turn into such a hotbed of conflict and ill feeling?
Just then, Foicks spotted Haven. His eyes lit up, and he smiled. He broke off his conversation with Dax Cunningham and strolled over to her. “How are you doing? I haven’t seen you around for a while.”
Haven blushed and screwed one foot into the ground. “I’ve been around, just not in the places you’ve been, I guess. What are you up to, besides storming the castle?”
His cheeks turned pink. “Oh, you know, just working with Boyd and Aiken in the greenhouses. That keeps me busy most of the time. How about you?”
“Yeah, you know, just keeping busy. I’m supposed to be studying economics so I can go into Brody’s business, but I don’t think I like it very much.”
“Yeah? What would you like to study?”
“I don’t know. I might like to study medicine like Briar, or maybe horticulture like your family. I don’t really know.”
“Well, you’re young yet. That’s the good thing. You’ve got lots of time to figure it out.”
“Yeah, I know. It just seems like everybody wants you to figure it out right now.”
He nodded. His eyes kept finding their way around her face, down to her body and back up. “Horticulture’s not all that interesting, anyway. I don’t think I want to work in the greenhouses.”
“Why not? It sounds interesting to me.”
“I think I’m more interested in engineering. I’m going to ask Barton Kerr to show me how he built that wheel generator of his. That’s the sort of thing I’d like to do.”
“That does sound interesting.” Haven’s face fell. “Isn’t Barton in your brother’s group?”
Foicks looked around. “Oh, yeah. You’re right. I didn’t think of that. I guess I better not ask him then.”
Haven kicked herself. She shouldn’t have mentioned that, but she couldn’t help worrying about it. Bruin wouldn’t even help Bruin with the most basic project nowadays if someone belonged to the wrong faction. The issue polarized the whole mountain.
Foicks shrugged the matter away. “Would you like to come around and see the greenhouses sometime? You could decide for yourself if it’s something you’re really interested in pursuing.”
Haven brightened up. “Could I really? That would be great. Would your family allow it?”
“I’ll have to ask Aiken, but I’m sure it will be okay. If you do like it, you might even like to come work there.”
Haven couldn’t stop beaming. “Then we’d be working together.”
He burst into a brilliant smile. “Yeah.”
Haven’s father turned around and touched her sleeve. “Come on, Haven.”
Haven smiled at Foicks. “It was really nice to see you again.”
Foicks turned to Josiah and stuck out his hand. “Good morning, Mr. Farrell. I was just about to ask you if…”
Josiah chopped his hand through the air. “Save your dogma for your disciples, boy. I’m not interested in your childish little war games.”
The smile evaporated off Foicks’s face. “I was just about to ask you…”
Josiah swept the surroundings. “Do you think I can’t see what’s going on here? You and your brother want to turn Bruin against Bruin until we’re all at each other’s throats. Your stupid conflict is causing a lot more problems than the panthers ever did.”
Foicks stiffened. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Mr. Farrell. I was just suggesting to Haven that she might like to…”
Josiah yanked Haven away by the arm. “Don’t let me see you anywhere near my daughter. You’re the last man on this Peak I would want her having anything to do with.”
Foicks turned away. Josiah dragged Haven toward her family. She wrenched her arm to get away, but he only tightened his grip. “Don’t, Daddy! We were just talking.”
He gave her another yank. “Come on, I said. We’re leaving, and you are NOT getting mixed up in all Foicks Dunlap’s crazy propaganda.”
Haven’s arm hurt too much to fight back. She stumbled after him toward her mother. “Ow, you’re hurting me.”
She bumped into the back of her father when he came to a sudden halt. Right in front of him, the Dodd family came out of the chapel. Riskin blocked out the doorway. His piercing eyes took in the whole scene in a second. A hush fell over the crowd.<
br />
Riskin handed his mother and then Briar down the chapel steps onto the grass. The silent crowd parted to make way for them. They walked across the yard to a streamlined vintage Ford Falcon standing next to the chapel. Riskin held the doors open for all three women. Then he got into the driver’s seat, fired the engine, and cruised away.
Josiah let go of Haven’s arm and sighed. “Well, we’re too late. We have to go to the reception now.”
Already, families and relatives got into their cars and trucks. The fields around the chapel emptied faster than they filled up, and everybody drove away to Dodd Homestead.
Haven buckled her seat belt in her father’s Suburban. She couldn’t decide if she was happy about going to the reception or not. She wouldn’t mind another chance to talk to Foicks, but the way things were going, she didn’t want to get caught in the middle of any drama. Even her father broke out of his usual mild-mannered gentility over this.
Like most Bruins, Haven wanted a quiet, peaceful life. No one on Bruins’ Peak was getting that right now. If Foicks wanted to fight the panthers, or his brother, or anybody else, she didn’t want to talk to him at all.
He sure was nice, though. He grew up fast these last six months or so. He changed from a gangly teenager into a powerful young man. He shot up as tall as his brother Jana. They towered over most of the Alphas on this mountain, and Foicks’s shoulders just wouldn’t stop growing outward. His back spread to a sharp defined triangle of solid muscle. He would be enormous when he shifted.
The way his brown eyes sparkled when he blushed made Haven’s heart skip a beat. He tossed his straight chestnut hair out of his eyes when he talked, and a day’s growth of stubble covered his face.
The Suburban pulled up in the field outside Dodd Homestead. Dozens of vehicles of every kind lined up in rows on the grass, and everyone headed for the main house. Excited conversation flew thick and fast. The cloud lifted off everyone’s shoulders. This place had enough room for everybody.
Long tables lined the entry and kitchen of the Dodd’s house. Food piled every spare inch of every table. Jellies, cakes, cookies, sandwiches, cold meats and cheese, chips and dipping sauce—you name it, it was on those tables. People grabbed the plates piled near the door and helped themselves on their way inside.
Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume II) Page 49
