Marek shook his head. "They didn't try to kill me. It was a tranquilizer dart. There are people that want me dead. They want all my family dead, but they're being smart about it. They want to learn more about us, so capturing is better for them than killing. And these people won't care about crossing the line to use our mates against us."
"Mates?" Carson asked.
This was ridiculous. Why was he continuing with this line?
Marek's expression hardened. "Yes. If you agree to stay with me then that's what you will be. My mate." He took a step toward Carson. "I'm a bear shifter, Carson. You deserve to know the truth about me."
She couldn't respond, just put her hand to her stomach. She didn't know why she did that. It must have been instinctive or something. She wasn't thinking about being pregnant.
Was she?
Marek let out a toneless laugh. "That's another thing you should know. Our line is slowly dying. For two hundred years, each generation has produced fewer offspring. My parents' generation had less than a fifty percent chance of conceiving. The majority of the families have died out with them. We are all the hope that our family has, and we have even less of a chance of conceiving."
"So you're trying to tell me that if we are together we won't have children?"
He nodded and she shook her head.
"Marek, I already told you that's not the be all and end all of our feelings for each other. But really, you don't have to spin elaborate tales to send me away. Just tell me you don't want me and I'll be fine with it."
"That's not what I'm trying to do." He sounded frustrated. "I'm trying to be honest with you. You deserve the truth."
"And you think that means telling me some ridiculous story about being a shifter?" Carson shook her head and backed away from him. "I believe in honesty, Marek. Not this nonsense."
"It's not nonsense."
Carson paused, fear filling her. "You need to see someone, Marek. This isn't healthy."
He started to laugh.
"You're delusional if you really believe this, Marek. You should get help."
He stopped laughing. And then he began to remove his clothing. The man was certifiable. Carson took another step away.
But now he stood in front of her, in all his naked, muscle-bound glory. Thunder rumbled overhead and lighting slashed through the sky, spotlighting Marek for a brief moment. Carson glanced up at the sky, worried the storm was getting worse, but when seconds later she looked back at Marek, he was no longer there.
In his place stood a very large brown bear.
Carson's breath caught in her throat.
What the fuck had just happened? Where had Marek gone? And there was a bear a few feet from her. She tried to recall if she'd ever learned what to do if confronted by a wild animal.
Something to do with not showing fear. Don't run? Or did she have to make a big noise and yell at it so it would leave her alone?
Fear filled her veins, tightening her muscles. And then she turned and ran, racing for the house. The bear crashed behind her, close on her heels. And then Marek sprinted past her.
What the fuck?
She cut across the path, heading for the stairs that led to the deck outside her bedroom.
But when she reached the stairs, Marek stood there, blocking her way. Lightning flashed again, bringing his hooded features into stark contrast.
"You had to know the truth." When she began to shake her head, he lifted a hand. "I understand if it freaks you out. If you can't accept it, then I can deal with that. Just don't mention it to the guys. They won't take it well."
"What won't they take well?"
"The fact that I told you the truth about our family."
"Oh, I thought it would be the fact that you were revealing how incredibly insane you are." She spoke coldly, then brushed past him and headed up the stairs.
When she got to the deck she turned around, staring in horror as Marek raced across the lawn, one moment man, the next moment bear.
Shut up.
24. CARSON
WHEN CARSON ENTERED THE HOUSE, she didn't care that the door to the deck slammed shut. She didn't know what the hell was going on. But there was one thing she did know.
She had to get the hell out of this place before she lost it.
She threw her clothes into her bag, stripping off the wet clothes and getting dressed. Her frantic, shaking fingers didn't seem to respond, making it a difficult process. The sodden fabric clung stubbornly to her skin. Frustrated, she ended up tearing the fabric of the tee in the process. In the end, she'd gotten dry and redressed, taking all of five minutes before she grabbed her bag and hurried downstairs.
Rex and Pax were in the living room, strumming their guitars. They sounded like they were bickering over a choice of words. When she barged into the room they both froze, shocked.
It was probably her wet hair, or maybe the crazed look in her eyes. Rex got to his feet. "You okay, Nyx?" he asked carefully, as if he was talking to a snake about to pounce.
"I need a taxi to take me home."
"What?"
"Now. Or I swear I will start walking." Her voice was dead and the expression in Rex's eyes darkened.
He'd sensed she wasn't about to change her mind.
"I'll take you."
"Rex," Pax warned, getting to his feet. "Marek isn't going to be happy."
"Marek doesn't have a fucking choice. The girl wants to leave and I'm taking her home. Tell Marek he can deal with me when I get back."
Carson barely paid attention to the tension in the air as Rex walked out of the front door and across the lawn to the garage. He grabbed a set of keys from a rack just inside the door, then helped her into the first of the three Land Rovers before throwing her bag into the back of the car.
Rex gunned the engine and turned back to her. "Last chance, girlie. You sure you wanna go home?"
Carson stared at him, wishing she could laugh it off and say she'd changed her mind. But there wasn't anything here that she wanted anymore.
"Take me home," she said softly.
Rex nodded and did as she asked, shoving earphones into his ears before pushing buttons on the steering wheel that controlled the iPod. Clearly he didn't want to talk, and she didn't blame him.
She was ruining everything for them. All these past weeks of practicing, and she was running, only days from the kickoff of the tour.
As they headed out of the gates to the Sarkozy land, Carson rolled down the window. The rain had stopped, and she wanted one last whiff of the fresh mountain air before she left forever.
Then, she frowned. She could have sworn she'd heard something echoing through the hills.
The sound of a bear's agonized growl.
She shook her head and rolled up the window, refusing to allow her mind to play tricks on her.
Bears indeed.
25. MAREK
MAREK RACED THROUGH THE TREES, pushing himself hard enough for his muscles to burn. He'd fucked up. He'd taken a chance on her and told her the truth, but she'd thought he was mental.
He ran for miles, trying to burn away his hurt.
Was it because she couldn't handle the truth? Or was it because she couldn't believe that he really cared so deeply for her. He'd come to terms with his likelihood of never having children, which meant a relationship with a human woman would be that much easier, considering she wouldn't bear his children, wouldn't have to go through the reality of their transformation when they came of age, wouldn't have to see her children become bears.
The curse was actually working for his benefit.
Or so he'd thought.
The look in her eyes when he'd spilled his guts had hurt him deeply. But he couldn't blame her. Humans found such truths hard to swallow. It would take time and he'd rushed her.
He reached a rise and paused to study the canyon below. Trees filled the valley, part of the Klamath National Forest. His territory.
When the needle plunged into his shoulder, he was too shoc
ked to think straight. When the pain stabbed through him, he let out a roar, the sound filling the valley and echoing back to him. Then he turned and ran, tugging the needle from his flesh. Some of the liquid had already seeped into his muscles, but he hoped he had enough time to get back to the lodge.
He crashed through the trees, destroying a number of saplings. But his mind was focused on getting home. If he collapsed here, they'd come for him, take him away the way they'd taken Aleks. He'd disappear the way his brother had, without so much as a farewell.
He was close to the house when he fell, rolling over and over, realizing only then that the bear had retreated and only the man remained. He lay there staring at the black sky, sucking in breath after breath. The trees were falling, closing in on him, and he grunted.
No. They wouldn't have him. Not if he could help it.
He rolled over, pushed himself to his feet, and lurched forward, racing to the house. He burst on to the lawn, letting out a warning growl that ripped through the trees.
A yell from the other side of the property confirmed that Greg had heard his alert and security was coming. Marek hit the ground two feet from the stairs. Hands rolled him over, and people were talking to him, urging him to answer.
He opened his hand and let the dart fall to the ground.
Faces swam around him, but there was only one thought in his head, even as he fell into unconsciousness.
Carson wasn't there.
26. CARSON
THREE WEEKS LATER, THINGS HAD finally gotten back to normal in Carson's life. So normal she'd be forgiven for thinking the whole Ursus Major episode had ever happened.
Kat slapped her tablet down on the counter in front of Carson's mug of coffee, pointing at it with one manicured fingertip. "They postponed the tour," she said, as if it meant something.
Carson rolled her eyes. She'd been too busy preparing new songs for her channel to pay much attention to what the band was up to.
Rex had dropped her off without a word, only waiting at her door until she was safely inside. And that was the last she'd heard from them. A portion of her salary had been paid into her account, but as yet, she hadn't received any communication regarding the dissolution of the contract.
Which was strange.
And now that the tour had been postponed, with no date suggested, Carson was forced to wonder what that meant. Other than the fact they'd need a new lead vocal to replace her and more time to practice again.
Interestingly, she'd heard not a word from Marek. Not that she expected to, either. Just every now and then, she felt a strange twinge in her stomach, a rise of nausea that made her thoughts turn to Marek and his crazy claims.
She was staring at the article, scanning it for any information about Marek himself, when her gaze settled on the band's name.
"Ursus Major," she said under her breath.
"What?" asked Kat. From the sound of her voice, she was tied up like a pretzel doing some yoga thing she'd been into lately. She'd been seeing someone lately, but had been tightlipped about it. And Carson wasn't one to pry.
Carson cleared her throat and spoke louder. "Ursus Major. I was wondering what it meant."
"Have you not heard of the internet," Kat said in disgust. "Anyway. Don't waste your time. It means 'big bear' or something close to that." There was an odd tone to her voice, a hint of accusation that made Carson certain that she was imagining things. Kat had been nothing but supportive ever since she'd returned.
Carson stopped listening, even as Kat continued talking about constellations and Greek history.
Big bear?
She sucked in a breath as a wave of nausea threatened to take her out.
Had Marek been telling the truth?
27. MAREK
WEEKS HAD GONE BY WITHOUT a word from Carson.
During this time, Marek had been bed-bound, as they waited for the poison to filter through his body. Whatever the Legion had used this time, it'd been potent, and not something they could easily obtain an antivenin for.
In the end, all they could do was wait it out.
The first few days had been okay, manageable since he'd been unconscious most of the time. But as Marek had grown stronger, his bear had rebelled, pushing through, wanting out.
Marek had finally emerged from his coma, every muscle and bone in his body on fire. The pain had lasted days, with waves of inconsistent agony, holding him deep within its grasp for minutes or hours, he could never tell.
Only last week had the worst of the pain abated, allowing him to begin physical therapy, allowing him to get vertical for the first time since he'd collapsed in front of the house.
His grandfather hadn't been impressed.
With Marek or his cousins, or with Beta Ops.
To say that Aleksander Sarkozy had been furious would have been an understatement. Marek's grandfather, and patriarch of the Sarkozy bears, was the current Alpha, head of the U.S.-based family. The bears weren't the only Carpathian bear pack, but they were powerful enough to demand the respect of the rest of the packs.
He'd been kind and supportive but firm, making the trip all the way to Klamath to ensure that Marek obeyed his command. The old man was the only reason Marek hadn't taken off as soon as he was able to walk.
And his problems weren't the only ones to consider.
The guys had decided to postpone the tour on the off-chance that she would change her mind. They were not in the mood to look for another lead singer, and from the way they felt, they'd rather cancel the tour altogether than go without Nyx.
Nyx.
They came to visit him from time to time, to sit beside him, filling him in on what was happening, even when he had his cell and his laptop at his side. Mostly they wanted to come so they could glare at him accusingly as they left.
And it wasn't because they thought he'd been reckless getting himself shot. No.
Rex had been pretty vocal about his disapproval.
"You don't bring a girl like Carson into the mix without treating her well. If you didn't want to hurt her, you shouldn't have fucked her."
Yeah, Rex could be crass. But he was right.
What he didn't know was that Marek had been playing for keeps. It was just that Carson hadn't believed him. Or she hadn't wanted to believe him.
Either way, she was still gone.
And she wasn't coming back.
His fist clenched at his side.
She wasn't coming back unless he did something about it himself.
The door opened and Lukas walked in.
"Hey, brother." Marek's cousin, Lukas Sarkozy, came to sit in the chair beside the bed. "We got the results back from the lab."
"And?" Marek asked, his voice rumbling with irritation.
Lukas gave him a hard look. "The formula was the same as what they'd used outside the hotel. But it wasn't a tranquilizer."
"It wasn't?" Marek echoed, but he'd already known this. No tranquilizer would have him flat on his back for weeks, especially with only a third of the contents in his bloodstream.
"The dart was just a delivery system, a way to inject you with the poison more efficiently." Lukas' green eyes fairly glowed with anger. At who, wondered Marek. The boy had his own problems to deal with. Ones that Marek still had to get him to reveal. Being the big brother had been a little difficult, what with being unconscious then incapacitated for days.
But their problems with the Legion took priority over everything else they faced.
"So they've stepped up their operation." Marek sighed and leaned back against the pillows.
"They're now out to kill."
Marek looked at Lukas. "They must have a reason to move from abduction to outright killing within months." Marek frowned, his mind racing through possibilities. "There must be something they know that we don't."
Lukas nodded. "They haven't cared about wiping us out. They know our line is dying. We're killing ourselves anyway, so why should they bother to do the dirty work?"
"U
nless their research came up with something we don't know." Marek's voice was hard, angry. The Legion always seemed to be one step ahead of them. "They know something. So it's time to step up our game." Lukas met his gaze. "Get word to Delta Ops. We're going to go about things as normal until we figure out what they have on us. In the meantime, tell Delta to apprehend one of them."
Lukas nodded approvingly. "Retire or capture?"
"Interrogation."
28. CARSON
SHIMMYING THE SILK DOWN HER hips, Carson swore loudly enough to have Kat poke her head into her room.
"What's cooking?"
Carson grumbled, scraping her hair from her face with her fingers. "I think I've been pigging out on too much ice cream."
Kat made a face, folding her arms as she leaned against the threshold. "Heart troubles will do that to a girl."
Carson had told Kat the bare minimum of her breakup with Marek. Kat had insisted she go back and make up, and had only let up when Carson had threatened to move out.
Desperate times.
Carson glared at her. "I need to find something else to wear and you aren't helping."
"Well, you could use the band outfit I got you?"
She was already heading for the closet to dig out the leather pants and jacket that Carson had flung into the darkest corner on her return.
Carson was shaking her head. "That is so not the type of clothing for this gig, and you know it. Adam will throw me off stage."
"No, he won't. Wear that burgundy peasant blouse over it, that should soften the badass chick look enough for Serendipity."
Kat had a point. And Carson had no choice. Not really. Other than heading out now and buying new clothes, that was.
And there was no doing that, not when she preferred to shed the excess pounds first, before spending money on new clothes. The money from Ursus Major was still sitting in her bank account and she refused to use it. Not until the contract stuff was sorted out.
A Siren for the Bear (Sarkozy Brothers Book 1) Page 7
