She turned away one more time. “What’s nuts is me caring about you. Nuts is thinking you could ever feel the same way about me. You can’t, so don’t go kissing me or anything like that again.”
He came to his senses in a hurry. He leaned in behind her. “What if I do feel the same way about you, Haven? What if I said I love you more than anything, that I never want to be separated from you? What if we’re mates?”
She turned her head around to gaze up at him. “Are we? Do you feel the same way about me?”
He gathered her into his arms. “Don’t say anything. Just kiss me.”
Chapter 9
Foicks parked his truck down the hill from Farrell Homestead where no one could see it. He turned off the motor, but he didn’t look at Haven in the seat next to him. His fingers rested on the steering wheel.
He barely heard the words coming out of his mouth. “We’re mated.”
She whipped her head around to stare at him. Did he actually say those words out loud? Why did she look so shocked? Didn’t she know it as well as he did?
Her chin sank onto her chest. “What are we going to do?”
He didn’t take his eyes off that spot around the corner. Farrell Homestead was up there somewhere. Star and Brody’s house sat right around that corner, and Josiah and Leda’s house nestled a little farther down the driveway.
Haven could be home in a hop, skip, and a jump, but she didn’t go home. She sat on his truck seat and stared at him like she didn’t know who he was. He couldn’t stand that look on her face, but he had to face the inevitable. She was his mate, and she would get out of this truck in a minute. She would run away, back to her family.
Would he ever be the same again? Would he ever get her back? She would be just across the Peak from him, but she might as well be on Mars for all the good it did him. He couldn’t hold her. He couldn’t claim her for his own. He couldn’t do anything. He was just as useless as if he never found a mate at all.
He let out a shaky breath. “You have to go.”
She flew across the seat to jam her body against his. She snatched his hand. “Why do I have to? Why can’t I come home with you like you said?”
He couldn’t look at her. He couldn’t bear the touch of her hand. What was the point of loving her, of needing her, if he couldn’t have her? “You said not yet, that’s why. We might be mated, but there’s a thousand things we have to deal with before you can come home with me.” He groaned. “I wish I’d never said it.”
She gulped hard. “Why did you, then? Why did you dangle a carrot in front of my face if you were only gonna yank it away?”
His head shot up. His eyes darted to her face. “This is just as hard for me as it is for you. I’m just sorry I said it because now I can’t follow through. I don’t want anything in the world but to take you home and stay there. Holy God, you don’t know how hard it is to sit here with you and hold your hand when I know you’re gonna walk away from me in a few minutes. I would rather die than watch you do that.”
She leaned into him. “I don’t have to walk away, Foicks. I never have to walk away again.”
He turned back to the window and closed his eyes. “Even holding your hand like this hurts. Looking at you hurts. Your body touching me hurts so bad I can’t stand it. I can’t do this.”
She pressed her forehead against his cheek. “Why do I have to leave? Why?”
His voice croaked in his parched throat. “I built up this big ivory tower around fighting the Midnight, and now I have to live in it. What am I supposed to do—turn my back on the whole project? The other members of my group are depending on me. Nobody gives a rip if you and I are mated for life. Even if we are mated for life, someone has still got to go visit the NightShade and explain what’s going on. I can’t leave that to Ash alone. My people would tear me to pieces if I did. They would attack Ash’s gang faster than anything.”
“Can’t someone else lead your faction? Why don’t you hand over the reins to someone else?”
Now that he started talking about it, the words flowed a little better. “First of all, I still believe we should fight these panthers. I might not lead the charge, but somebody’s got to. If I turned away from that now, they would kill me for sure.”
She searched his eyes, but found no answer. There was no answer, no answer anywhere. “So what are we going to do?”
He couldn’t stop his arms surrounding her. He couldn’t stop his lips kissing her. He had to hold her, to claim her, to be with her. What would happen when he left to go visit the NightShade? He couldn’t stand watching her walk home for the night, so how could he bear to leave Bruins’ Peak?
He closed his eyes. Nothing existed but her lips. He had to keep telling himself that until it became true. The delectable aroma of her Bruin skin brushing his cheeks wiped all the worry and tension away. He could touch her. She washed him clean and made him brand new.
She hugged his head against her. Her head rested on his shoulder when she turned her head aside to kiss him. Their lips swam in steaming forests of sweet saliva. What would it be like to go all the way with her, to wander in the woods for days and never come home? They would make their home in the woods. The woods would protect them from all this hardship and torment.
She whispered into his mouth, “Don’t ever let me go.”
His fingers tightened into fists around her shirt. He crushed her breasts into his chest. “I’ll never let you go. I’ll never leave you. I swear to God, I’ll destroy the whole world to be with you.”
Her tongue darted into his mouth. She fondled his hair behind his head and cooled his forehead with her tiny hand. “We’re mated for life. Nothing can separate us now.”
He choked on his ragged breath. “You’re mine. Do you hear me? You’re all mine. No one can have you. You’re mine to protect and mine to love. You might go into that house for a few days, but you’re on loan until I come for you. Understand? You’re mine.”
She sank into his arms. His bulk guarded her from every danger. He could never let himself be a danger to her anymore. He could never hurt her precious heart—not for anything.
Her eyes opened. By degrees, she lifted her head, and her penetrating deep eyes found him there in front of her face. “I better go then.”
He held her even tighter. “Don’t.”
She cradled him in her arms. “It’s all right. I’ll be just as yours there as I am here.”
He laid his head on her breasts. “I need you. God, you don’t know how much I need you.”
She raked her fingers through his hair. “Shh. It’s all right. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”
His head shot up. He knit his brows and hissed through his teeth. “Don’t ever tell me to go away again. I don’t care how mad you get at me. Don’t say that again. I can’t live with that.”
She caressed his cheek. “I won’t say it. I only said it because I thought you didn’t want me, and it hurt so much I didn’t know what to do. I’m here now. I’m not leaving. We’re together, and we’re going to stay that way.”
He clasped her behind the head. “Are you sure? Are you really sure? If you’re not really sure, tell me right now. I can’t let you walk away if you’re not really sure you belong to me.”
She gazed back into his eyes with the same burning intensity. “I’m yours, Foicks. I’m yours forever. I’m not leaving, and I’m not walking away. We’re tied together for life. Nothing can change that now.”
His head dropped into her arms one more time. Her breasts muffled his voice. “Babe.”
She kissed his hair. “Shh. Rest now.”
She combed his hair and laid tender kisses down his neck to the small hairs where his shirt hid his back. She scratched her fingernails over his shoulder blades and massaged his neck. She only whispered, “Shh. Shh.”
He hid his face against her, he didn’t know how long. When he looked up, she was right there, so beautiful and steady and perfect. How had he been living all his
life without her? How could he live without her?
He couldn’t. He couldn’t live without her kiss, without her protecting his battered heart. He wanted to crawl inside her and hide from this mean old world. Nothing made sense if he didn’t have her.
She stroked his cheek and kissed him. “I better go. It’s getting late, and I should have been home hours ago.”
He scanned the woods around the truck. “Will you get in trouble? Will Brody get mad when he sees you walking past? You should be coming from the other direction.”
“If I see him, I’ll tell him about you.”
Foicks’s head whipped around, and he fixed his flashing eyes on her. “You will?”
“He’s my Alpha. He has a right to know.”
Foicks shook his head. “I don’t like him finding out. He’s never been a big supporter of mine.”
“Just because he doesn’t support you fighting the Midnight doesn’t mean he can’t be your friend. You better get used to him. You’re mated to a Farrell, so he’s gonna be a fact of your life for a long, long time.”
Foicks sighed. “I know. I suppose it’s just a matter of facing him and getting all our cards out on the table.”
“That’s why I would tell him right away. He could help us more than anyone.”
Foicks nodded. He couldn’t help glancing toward Farrell Homestead. Make friends with Brody? Is that what this whole business came to? “What about your father? Are you going to tell him?”
Her face broke apart in one of those brilliant smiles that cut him to the quick. “If I make it past the Homestead without spilling my guts to Brody, I won’t tell anybody. I don’t want to tell my parents just yet.”
“Why not?”
She darted forward and planted a kiss on his cheek. “I want to keep this excitement all to myself for as long as I can. I want to enjoy the thrill of keeping you a secret. In a few days, the whole mountain will know all about it. I’ll never get this time back, and I want to enjoy it while it lasts.”
He snorted with laughter. “You little schemer, you.”
She grabbed the door handle. “You and me both, baby. Kiss me good-bye. I gotta go.”
He caught her arm and pulled her back. He mangled her mouth one last time. “I won’t say good-bye. I’ll see you later.”
Her lips collapsed against his mouth in one long, passionate kiss. “I love you. Keep yourself safe until you come back to me.”
He did his best to smile when she climbed out of the truck. “I will. I’ll be hanging by a thread until I can taste those sweet lips again.”
She slammed the door. She shot him one more wild grin through the window and dashed into the trees.
Chapter 10
Haven raced up the road and past Farrell Homestead. She didn’t see Brody or Star or anybody anywhere. She skimmed through the trees until she came to her father’s house farther down the Peak.
She flung the door open and headed for the stairs. Her parents and Easton looked up from the kitchen table, but Haven didn’t stop to talk to them. She hadn’t seen Brody, so she didn’t have to tell them. She darted up the stairs, down the hall, and dove into her room.
She slammed the door behind her before she caught her breath. Her heart crashed against her ribs with every beat, and her side pinched from running. She flopped onto her bed, but she couldn’t relax.
She didn’t just make out with Foicks Dunlap in his truck. She didn’t just tell him she loved him and promise herself to him for life. All that happened to somebody else.
Her head spun from the excitement of it all. She still felt his head resting on her chest. She still saw the tiny hairs pointing down his neck to the wide expanse of his back. His kiss reeled through her brain on drunken waves.
He excited her beyond belief. She shouldn’t want him so much. She should stay away from him, but she couldn’t. She would never stay away from him again as long as he lived. She loved him.
She loved him! She wanted to scream and laugh and sob and climax all at the same time. Her whole being exploded with enormous energy. She couldn’t contain it all.
A voice broke in on her thoughts from across the room. “What’s with you? Where have you been all day?”
Haven glanced across the room at her sister Sky. Sky sat on the window seat. Her headphones dangled around her neck and an open bottle of nail polish balanced on the window sill. She wore the toe spreaders to keep her freshly painted toe nails from touching any other part of her feet.
Haven burst out laughing. That laugh grew into a whoop of delight, but she had to swallow it down when Sky frowned. “I’m just happy. That’s all.”
Sky raised one eyebrow and screwed the cap on the polish bottle. “If this is happy, I don’t want to catch it. You look like you just won the lottery or something.”
Haven sat up. She bit her lip to stop herself smiling. “Or something.”
Sky waved her hand over her toenails. “Well, whatever it is can’t be as good as what happened to me today.”
Haven kicked off her shoes. “Yeah? What was it?”
Sky swung her legs off the seat and set them on the floor. She smirked at Haven. “I’m in love.”
Haven’s eyes widened. “Really? Who’s the lucky guy?”
Sky blushed all over. She batted Haven’s question away. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Yes, I would. Come on, girl. You know you’re dying to tell me. Spill it, babe. Who’s the future Mrs. Farrell?”
Sky cackled with glee. She clapped her hands and danced a little jig as well as she could without putting her feet on the floor. She ended up scooting her backside along the window seat and waving her arms and legs around. “You won’t believe it. It’s Ash Dunlap.” She hooted to the skies. Then she clasped her hands over her heart and cast her eyes up to heaven. “Isn’t he magnificent? Did you ever see such a beautiful man? I’m smitten. I’m gonna marry him just as soon as he figures out a place where we can live together.”
Haven shot bolt upright. “But I’m mating with…Foicks.” Halfway through getting these words out, she realized she was about to reveal her secret, but she couldn’t stop herself. The words came out by themselves.
Sky’s beatific smile melted off her face. “You what?”
Haven brushed the hair out of her face. “I shouldn’t have said that. Forget I said anything.”
Sky kicked the toe spreaders off her feet and stormed across the room. “Don’t you even think of mating with Foicks. Don’t you go anywhere near him. That man is dangerous. You know that.”
The old joke came back to Haven, but she couldn’t laugh at it right now. “He’s not dangerous. He’s a man, just like Ash. Besides, we’re already mated. I couldn’t go back on that if I tried.”
Sky gasped. “Don’t tell me you’ve done it with him already.”
“I didn’t have to do it with him. We just kissed…and stuff in his truck.”
Sky’s arms shot out, and she spun away. “You’re not mating with him, and that’s final. He’s tearing Bruins’ Peak apart, and now you’re helping him. You’re just as bad as he is.”
“Hold on there, sister. Let’s not turn this into a shouting match.”
Sky chopped the air. “Don’t give me that sister crap. You want to drag us all into war and destruction. You’re enemies of all Bruin kind. You’re just as evil and depraved as Foicks.”
Haven stared at her. “How can you say that about your own sister? I’m not evil. I could say the same thing about you and Ash.”
“Don’t you dare say anything against Ash,” Sky snapped. “Ash is the greatest thing that ever happened to this Peak. He’s fighting to save all our lives. If he kills Foicks and all his people, he’d be doing us all a big favor.”
Haven gasped. “If that’s the way you feel, maybe you think he should kill me, too.”
Sky’s eyes flashed. “If you support Foicks, maybe he should. He’s trying to save us from Foicks’s war.”
“If Foicks goes to war
against the Midnight,” Haven replied, “he wouldn’t be saving anybody from it. It’s not like any unwilling people will go with him to Midnight Moraine. Only he and his people would go.”
Sky jabbed a finger at her. “You see? He’s a war-monger and a blood-thirsty murderer. Ash is our savior.”
Haven chuckled. “I wouldn’t take it that far.”
“I would,” Sky returned, “and you’re just as bad as he is. You want to get us all killed? That’s just great. Ash and I will fight you with everything we have.”
“That’s the kind of attitude that’s tearing Bruins’ Peak apart, not anything Foicks is doing. Besides,” Haven went on, “I don’t exactly agree with everything Foicks says and does. I can still love him and find happiness with him.”
Sky held up her hand in front of Haven’s face. “Don’t you talk to me about Foicks Dunlap. That man is dead to me, and if you go anywhere near him, you’re dead to me, too.”
Haven held out her hand. “Come on, Sky. Don’t let this come between us. I’m happy for you and Ash. Can’t you be happy for me, too?”
Sky set her hand on her hip. “If you don’t give that man up for the sake of all Bruin kind, then we’ve got nothing left to talk about. I won’t have anything else to do with you as long as you live.”
Haven’s eyes widened. “You want me to give him up? You want me to turn my back on my life’s mate? You know I can’t do that. I would never ask you to turn your back on Ash.”
“You’ll give him up, or you can kiss your sister good-bye. It’s me or him.”
“You can’t do that, Sky. You can’t turn your back on your own sister over something like this.”
“I’m not turning my back on anything. You are.”
Haven stood up from the bed. She took a step toward her sister and spread her arms. “Come here. You know I love you more than anything.”
Haven walked right into a maelstrom of flying teeth and claws. Sky shifted so fast Haven didn’t have a chance to stumble backward to get away before the howling she-bear flew at her face. Sky thundered in rage and slashed Haven’s arm up the inside.
Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume II) Page 54
