Yet that’s exactly where this war was headed. If it kept going this way, he would lose both his brothers, his whole people, and Haven, too—if he ever had her in the first place.
He threw himself down on the couch. Thinking about Haven exhausted him beyond endurance. Why would she get so mad at him if she didn’t care? He should have paid more attention when he had her standing right in front of him. He should have shown her how he felt about her when he had the chance. Now, she told him to go swim in a mud puddle and leave her alone. She’d never look sideways at him again.
He ought to be happy about that. He ought to be relieved to be free from any potential romance, but he wasn’t. The thought of losing her made him sick to his stomach. He wanted to punish himself for hurting her. He would slaughter any man who hurt her, and now he’d gone and done it himself.
He barely noticed when Ash walked out of his bedroom. He regarded Foicks slumped on the couch, but Foicks didn’t look up. He stared at the carpet. Even breathing cost more energy than he could muster.
Ash cleared his throat. “Did you deliver the message to Mackenzie Homestead?”
Foicks nodded. “They won’t act. They won’t stand up and attack.”
Ash’s eyes popped open. “Really? I’ll go see ‘em myself. Maybe they’ll support my side instead.”
He rushed out of the bungalow, but Foicks didn’t care. If Rex and Mattox wanted to join Ash, let them. What good was any of this without… He couldn’t form the words.
He never thought anything could be as important to him as this war business. Ever since he and Ash first caught Riley Faulkner on Bruins’ Peak and held him captive in the Dunlap family basement, the panthers took up all his time and effort. He never thought anything could be more important than protecting the Peak from the new threat.
How paltry and pathetic the whole thing seemed now! What was the use of protecting the Peak if he couldn’t find some happiness? What was Bruins’ Peak, if not the people who lived there? What was the point of defending the Peak and its Bruin community if he couldn’t call it home?
He never thought he’d be considering his future with a mate and cubs and a job and all the trimmings. He couldn’t stop thinking about that now. He couldn’t think about mating with Haven if he was on his way to war. He couldn’t have both, and he couldn’t be both. He had to choose.
He shook himself out of his stupor when a knock banged on the door. He opened it to find Rhys Dodd standing on the porch. Rhys glanced around the bungalow and frowned. “Are you alone?”
“I am now.” Foicks waved toward the living room. “Sit down. What’s on your mind?”
Rhys followed him, but didn’t sit down when Foicks leaned back in his seat. Rhys clasped his hands behind his back and stood at attention across the room. “I got that stash of weapons Dax told us about. Walker sent over another three thousand shotgun shells, and he said he would give Dax the money for another five thousand when we get ready to march. We’re all waiting for the word from you. When can we get started?”
Foicks held up his hand. “Hold your horses, man. It’s good to have you back on the team, but we’ve got some other issues to contend with before we set off.”
Rhys frowned. “What other issues? Now that we know about these NightShade, we should be rocking and rolling. We’ve got nearly every weapon on the Peak lined up and primed for a fight. What are we waiting for?”
Foicks shook his head. “We don’t know for sure the NightShade will fight with us. We haven’t even talked to them. They don’t even know we exist, and none of us has ever even seen one of them alive. We can’t go putting the cart before the horse without all of us getting our heads shot off.”
“Well, while you’re sitting around putting the horse before the cart, I want you to take another crack at Riskin. I think he’s ready to swing to our side. You should make your pitch and see what he says.”
Foicks’s chin sank onto his chest. “Riskin will never swing. He welcomed you back, but he’ll never join our cause. He might be friendly to you now, but it’s Briar we really have to worry about. She’s dead set against war, and she’ll never let Riskin join us. She convinced her brother Silas to back Ash, too. I’m afraid you’re the only Dodd with the sense to back us.”
Rhys gnashed his teeth. “That girl!”
Foicks fixed his eyes on Rhys. “I understand how you feel about her. She supported Riskin to push you out, but if you have any sense in you at all, you’ll keep your feelings hidden.” Rhys pursed his lips and turned away, but Foicks’s nerves went on high alert. “I mean it, brother. If you so much as look at Briar the wrong way, you’ll turn every soul on this mountain against you. She’s the power behind your tribe, and she’s pregnant with her first child. You can’t touch her.”
Rhys spun around. He growled through clenched teeth. “I won’t touch her, but I’ll never stop hating her. I’ll hate her ‘til I die for what she did to me.”
Rhys stormed out. Foicks cocked his head to listen to Rhys’s retreating footsteps. Rhys might be one of Foicks’s strongest supporters, but his interest in swinging Riskin to the war faction didn’t bode well. Anybody as blood-thirsty as Rhys couldn’t see the larger picture.
The earth’s gravity dragged Foicks down into the couch. He couldn’t summon the energy to lift his arm, much less organize these maniacs to fight. He started to understand guys like Brody and Mattox and Riskin. They wanted to stay home and enjoy the comforts and joys of their families and mates. What could be wrong with that? Isn’t that what every Bruin wanted?
Why should Foicks deny himself the same pleasure? Why should he sacrifice himself so everybody else could live the dream? Why did he have to sit alone, without one true friend in the world?
He only wanted one, and not just any one. He wanted Haven. He wanted her to sit down next to him right now and give him some hope that he was still Bruin in his heart. He could still feel as long as he could feel something for her.
What if she really was his mate for life? How could he leave her behind to go off to fight and die on Midnight Moraine? What if he gave up all his plans and she turned out not to be his mate after all? He could never live with himself.
Chapter 6
Haven sat down at the kitchen table next to Lyric Mackenzie. “How are you doing, girl?”
Lyric touched a tear out of the corner of her eye. “Oh, you know, I’m okay. It’s hard, you know, but I’ll get through it. It’s my papa I’m really worried about. He worked so hard to come back to us after all these years being drunk and gone all the time. He hasn’t been back a year, and now both Melody and Azer are gone.”
Haven squeezed her hand. “How will you run the ranch, now that Azer is gone?”
Lyric shrugged. “I guess Mattox will have to hire somebody in to help him. He can’t do everything alone.”
“What about you? Can you handle all the housework by yourself without Melody?”
“Oh, I can handle it. I handled it alone for ten years when Melody was still here. I won’t be able to ride around the ranch the way I used to, but what’s life for if not for overcoming challenges? It’s just so darn lonely around here now, you know?” Lyric’s voice cracked with sobs. “I know I’ve got Mattox and Papa, but it’s just not the same. I always thought I’d have Melody and Azer around me all my life. Now, I’ll never see either of them again.”
Lyric pressed the corner of her apron against her eyes. She held her body stiff and straight, but she couldn’t stop her shoulders shaking. Haven hugged her while she cried.
All of a sudden, Lyric sat back and sniffed. Wild rage blazed in her face, and she snarled through her teeth. “I wish I didn’t have to run this ranch so I could fight these Midnight myself. I would show them what a Bruin is made of. I wish Mattox would fight them and bring Melody and Azer back. I would blow away these so-called mates of theirs and drag my brother and sister back here by force.”
A door slammed. Haven jumped out of her seat and whirled around to find Ma
ttox standing in the doorway. Haven’s heart leapt into her throat, but Mattox only sidled into the kitchen and leaned on the counter. “Don’t worry, Haven. I’ve heard it all a dozen times before. She’s told me the same thing to my face.”
Haven sank into her chair. “Sorry, Mattox. I didn’t mean to cause any problems between you two.”
He pulled an apple out of the pantry and took a bite. “You didn’t cause any problems. Just about every other Bruin on this mountain has, but not you.”
Lyric jumped out of her chair. “So why can’t you be a man and solve them? Are you just going to take this lying down? Are you going to let these Midnight do whatever they want with no threat of retaliation?”
“What exactly do you expect me to do?” he shot back. “You want me to gun down the whole Midnight people to bring Melody and Azer back? Use the brains God gave you, girl. Even if by some chance I got close enough to kill Riley and Raven, that would kill Melody and Azer, too. They’re mates for life, all four of them. Melody and Azer would die just the same as you would if someone came in here gunning after me. It’s a no-win situation.”
“What are you going to do?” Lyric demanded. “Are you just going to carry on your business like nothing ever happened? How can you be so hard-hearted?”
Mattox’s face fell. He held out his arms to Lyric and folded her against his chest. “Listen to me. Losing Melody and Azer hurts me as much as it hurts you. This is the greatest disaster this tribe ever faced. I would do anything to change it, but I can’t. They’re both consenting adults, and they mated for life. Your family wouldn’t have chosen me for your mate, but that’s the way it happened. My family and the Cunninghams never wanted Brody to mate with Star. I can think of a couple dozen other couples no one wanted to mate, but we don’t decide who we mate with. It just happens to us.”
Lyric sobbed against his heart. “I know. Believe me, I know. I just miss them so much. I would do anything to get them back. I wish you’d never let either of them go.”
“They would have gone on their own if I hadn’t let them,” he murmured.
Lyric broke out of his arms and wiped her face. “I’m sorry about this, Haven. I know you didn’t come here to listen to me blubber.”
“That’s okay,” Haven replied. “I came to comfort you, and I hope I can do that. You have every right to be upset. You’re just lucky you have your mate with you. Some people aren’t so lucky.”
Lyric froze. “What do you mean?”
Haven shifted in her seat. She hadn’t meant to say that. It just sort of slipped out by itself. “Well, you know, I only meant you’ve still got your mate.”
Lyric frowned. “You don’t have a mate.”
Haven waved her hand. “I know. That’s what I mean. At least, that’s what I think I mean.”
Lyric only frowned more. “You’re not making any sense.”
“I know I’m not.” Haven turned away. “I don’t know what I mean. I don’t have a mate, and I’m not going to have a mate.”
Lyric blinked at her. “Are you interested in somebody? Is that what you’re trying to say?”
“Who me? No, I’m not interested in anybody. I was just saying.”
Lyric sat down and started talking again about Azer and Melody, but Haven didn’t hear her. Her mind whirled through so many complicated possibilities. What was all that blather about having a mate? She wasn’t thinking of mating with anybody.
She talked to Foicks Dunlap at Addison Dodd’s funeral. That’s all. She talked to Foicks at Marla’s wedding, too, and nothing came of that. She talked to Ash and Jana and Silas and Dax and a dozen other guys, and she never mated with them, either. Talking didn’t mean anything.
She hadn’t just talked to Foicks at the funeral, though, did she? She kissed him behind the house. She tried to kiss him outside the Mackenzies’ house, too, but that didn’t go too well.
Whether she kissed him or talked to him or even just looked at him, something colossal changed at that funeral. If she ever faced a situation as dire as this one the Mackenzie tribe faced right now, she would want her mate at her side.
How could Foicks be her mate? She told him she wanted nothing to do with him, and she meant it now more than ever. This Midnight conflict tore Melody and Azer away from their family. It tore Bruins’ Peak apart. Maybe the Bruins would never be the same.
Foicks and Ash bore the responsibility for that. They polarized the whole community so everybody had to take sides. She hated Foicks for that. She would never mate with him, no matter how much she liked him.
She couldn’t help envying couples like Lyric and Mattox. They had each other. They could shelter in each other’s arms and weather any storm. Who’s arms could Haven shelter in? How could she shelter in Foicks’s arms when he was the storm from which she needed shelter?
Her mind roiled in turmoil. Nothing made sense anymore. All these political machinations nagged her brain to a confused muddle. Only one thing bubbled to the surface. She didn’t want Foicks running halfway across the country. She couldn’t face a world without him in it.
What if he got himself killed over there? What if he left like Azer and never came back? She couldn’t live with that.
This was the greatest disaster she’d ever faced, too. She should never have kissed him. She should never have talked to him. She should have gotten interested in Ash instead. Then she would have nothing to worry about.
Chapter 7
Walker Cunningham shook hands with Foicks on the porch at Cunningham Homestead. He clapped Foicks on the back. “You let me know when you’re ready for the next shipment of ammo. I’ll make sure you have enough before you go anywhere.”
Foicks gazed up into his face. “Thanks. You don’t know how much your support means to me.”
Walker waved him toward his brown pick-up parked beyond the yard. “We can’t let these people get the jump on us. Once we have the NightShade behind us, we’ll hit ‘em with everything we’ve got. We’ll either destroy them or scatter them so they never bother us again. Now, go home. We’ve got a lot of planning to do before we make our move.”
Foicks dashed through the gray drizzle and waved good-bye from the gate. He jumped in his truck and steered for home. He knew Walker’s support and good sense would kick-start his enthusiasm. The whole Midnight project spread out clear and bright before him. All he had to do was carry out his plan.
He steered behind Dunlap Homestead and parked in front of the bungalow. He was almost glad to see Ash’s truck and Jana’s Rav 4 already there. Better get it out in the open first thing. Then they could all get busy.
He barged right in and found his brothers in the kitchen. Foicks actually smiled at Ash. “Hey, man. I’m glad you’re here. I’ve got something to say to you, and the sooner you hear it the better.”
Ash’s eyes widened, but Foicks gave him no chance to respond.
“I’ve decided to go see the NightShade on Renegade Ridge. I’m going to get them to stand with us against the Midnight. I’m going to find out what weapons they have, if they have any defenses set up, and how ready they are to fight the panthers.”
Ash dropped the sandwich he was eating. “You’re going to Renegade Ridge? I’m going with you.”
Foicks gulped so hard he choked. “No, no, no, no, no. You can’t go. I’m going alone. Both of us together would only confuse them.”
Ash squared his shoulders. “If you think you’re going over to Renegade Ridge to talk weapons and defenses and fighting, then the NightShade will darn well hear that some of us want peace. Don’t think you can go there alone and promote your own agenda without considering my people, too.”
Foicks held up both hands. “You can’t do this, man. You can’t force yourself in on my project. I’m going, and I’m going alone. That’s the bottom line.”
Ash snorted. “That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? You want to show the NightShade what a big man you are. You want them to believe you’re in charge, that you’re some kind of
Alpha when you’re just a kid from the back blocks.”
Foicks’s temper flared. “You dimwit! What do you think you are?”
Jana stepped between them. “Cool it, both of you. You can’t be in the same room without getting in a fight. That only proves neither of you should represent Bruins’ Peak to anybody.”
Foicks jabbed his finger over Jana’s shoulder into Ash’s face. “You better back off before you wind up in trouble.”
“Last I checked, it’s you that’s in trouble,” Ash shot back. “You think you can run around telling everybody the Bruins want to make war on the Midnight? I’ll do whatever I have to do to let them know not everybody agrees with this war.”
Foicks’s arm shot out. He aimed a fist at his brother’s face to smash some sense into his pretty-boy features. Ash punched out at the same moment, but Jana lashed out faster than the eye could see. He brought up both hands and knocked both their hands aside in one fell swoop.
Foicks spun around to face Jana, but Jana let both his hands fly a second time. He slammed both big palms on his brothers’ chest and sent them sprawling backward. Foicks and Ash slammed into opposite kitchen walls.
Foicks came up foaming mad, but when he saw Jana’s face, he thought twice. Jana turned one way and then the other to confront his brothers. “Both of you better take a massive chill pill, and I mean right now. Neither one of you is coming near the other unless you want to go through me first. Do you want to test your claws on me, Foicks? Huh? How about you, Ash? How do you like your chances?”
Neither brother moved. Neither of them wanted to be anywhere near Jana when he looked like that.
He snorted in their faces. “That’s what I thought. One of you’s more spineless than the other. Neither of you deserves to represent our people to the NightShade. I hope to high heaven the NightShade never see your faces.”
Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume II) Page 52
