Bruins' Peak Bears Box Set (Volume I)

by Sarah J. Stone

  Riskin pouted his lips out and hung his hands by the wrists in front of his chest. “Oh, poor baby! He's too shy! We better wrap him up and take him home and make a little nest in a shoe box for him. We'll feed him on bottles of milk and keep him warm by the fire.”

  Azer exploded with laughter. “I've got a better idea. We'll latch him onto one of the cows, and he can drink milk straight from the udder. He needs his mother to take care of him.”

  Laughter rolled around the table, but Melody crossed her arms over her chest and glared at them all. She even glared at Mattox. “You guys shouldn't torment him like this. He can't defend himself. He's too quiet.”

  Riskin set his fork and steak knife on his plate and wiped his mouth. “That's exactly why he needs us tormenting him. That's the only thing that's gonna snap him out of his stupor.”

  Melody threw down her fork. “Well, I'm not sitting here listening to this. You're supposed to be helping him, not abusing him at every meal. If you can't behave yourselves, I won't eat with you anymore.”

  She stomped out of the room and ran upstairs.

  Riskin put out his hand and punched Mattox in the shoulder hard. The orange juice glass he lifted to his lips knocked in his hand. It splashed juice all down Mattox’s beard and clothes. Mattox set down his glass and set to work mopping up the mess with his napkin when Riskin called out. “Come on, Cinderella. Time to get to work.”

  Riskin and Azer pushed back their chairs. Mattox was still halfway through cleaning himself up by the time they put their dirty dishes in the sink and headed for the door. Lyric carried the platters and leftovers to the kitchen counter to clean up. No one paid Mattox any further attention that morning or any other time.

  Chapter 2

  Riskin came up behind Lyric at the sink and slipped his arms around her waist. He buried his face in her neck and let out a puff of warm air. Lyric kept her hands plunged in the soap dishwater and leaned back against his chest.

  He murmured in her ear, “Hey, baby. I missed you this morning.”

  She rested her head on his shoulder and enjoyed the pleasant, comfortable delirium flooding through her. “I missed you, too. Do you have to leave so early all the time?”

  “You know we have to work ten times harder in the summer than the rest of the year. It's the only time we can get all the work done during daylight hours. I'll make it up to you tonight.”

  He stuck his tongue in her ear, and Lyric hummed under her breath. Her body relaxed into his embrace. She always enjoyed times like these, even though she didn't get as many of them as she’d like. “What are you guys doing today? Is it more fencing and hoof-trimming?”

  “We'll be doing that for weeks to come. There's more than seven thousand hooves to trim and that many fence posts to check and replace. At least we have Mattox unloading the hay in the barn. That gives us time to get out into the pasture and get everything done. We couldn't do it otherwise.”

  Lyric cast her gaze over her shoulder to make sure Mattox wasn't sitting at the table anymore. “I don't know how you can stand to work with that guy. He gives me the creeps. He slips around like a ghost. No one knows when he'll appear out of nowhere, or when he's listening at the keyhole.”

  Riskin stood up straight and laid his hands on her shoulders. He turned her around to face him. “It's only for a little while. In a few weeks, we'll get married and consolidate our hold on the ranch. Your father won't last long, and Azer will take over as Alpha. My parents will stake an investment on the ranch, and we won't need Mattox around anymore. We’ll send him back to his own tribe.”

  Lyric dried her hands and put her arms around his waist. She closed her eyes and lifted her face to receive his kiss. She nestled into his comforting arms. “I can't wait until we're married.”

  “Soon, baby, soon. I wish it was tomorrow, but we just have to bide our time. We've waited all these years. We can wait a few more weeks.”

  “I know. I just love you so much I can't stand to wait.”

  He gave her one last long, lingering kiss. “I better go. Azer would never let me live it down if Mattox was out there working while I stayed in here making out with you.”

  She squeezed him around his ribs. “Don't forget about later.”

  He pointed to her while he retreated toward the door. “It's a date.”

  Lyric finished the dishes and put the kitchen in order. She took off her apron, but when she went upstairs to her own room, she found Melody reclining on the bed. Melody flipped through bridal magazines, and her eyes widened when Lyric appeared

  Melody held open the magazine she was reading. “Take a look at this dress. Don't you just love the way the bodice swoops down between your cleavage? I would love to get married in a dress like that.”

  Lyric flopped onto the bed with a sigh. She didn't give the magazine so much as a sidelong glance. “Can't we please talk about something other than wedding dresses for a change? You don't know how sick I am of everything wedding-related.”

  Melody took the magazine back and studied the pictures. “You're getting married in four weeks. How can we talk about anything not wedding-related?”

  “I'm sick of all the planning and preparation. I'm sick of it all. I wish Riskin and I were already married so we could get on with our lives.”

  Melody closed the magazine with a sigh. She rolled over on her back and gazed up at the ceiling. “Weddings are so romantic. I wish I could meet my heart's true mate and get married and live together always. I can't imagine anything more romantic in the world.”

  Lyric humphed. “You wouldn't think it was so romantic if it happened to you. You would think it's just an ordinary part of life, like cleaning the toilet.”

  Melody shot up. “Don't you dare spoil this for me. You've been a downer for as long as I can remember. I mean, look at this room of yours. You never had a romantic bone in your body since the day you were born.”

  Melody swept her hand over Lyric's room. Posters of young women barrel racing, pictures of horses and hikers cresting mountain peaks, and Lyric's own saddle and riding boots decorated the room. No pink frills or princess trappings for her.

  Lyric saw the same accouterments Melody did. “What's wrong with my room? You don't expect me to make my room into a fairy grotto like your room, do you? I can't stand all that fantasy stuff.”

  “Come on, Lyric. You're marrying your childhood sweetheart. Can't you at least put a little effort into make the wedding nice? You haven't picked out your cake or the decorations or anything. You can't leave everything until the last minute.”

  Lyric threw up her hands. “Childhood sweetheart, my eye! Marrying Riskin is no more romantic than marrying Azer. I've known him all my life. Okay, so I like him a lot and everything, but he's been working on the ranch so long and living in our house, he might as well be another brother. I never thought about marrying anybody else.”

  Melody's hands flew to her heart. “Don't you see how romantic that is? You guys were destined for each other. You've been drawn to each other all your lives, since you were little kids. It's like something out of a storybook.”

  Lyric turned away. “You live your whole life in a storybook, Melody. One of these days, you're gonna wake up and realize life is not a storybook, and it's not a fairy tale of finding your heart's true mate, either. Guys are just guys. They're people, just like women. We live together, we have children together, we grow old together, and we die. Life is about the nuts and bolts of getting a family fed and clothed and out the door to work every morning. That's all marriage is ever about.”

  A cloud crossed Melody's face. She scowled at Lyric. “I won't let you spoil this for me, Lyric. You've always been a tomboy who never cared about anything but running the ranch. You worked as a cow hand after Mama died. You're upset because you had to give up running the ranch and take over the house.”

  Lyric turned softer eyes on her little sister. “I won't say you're wrong. I liked punching cattle a lot more than cooking in the kitchen three me
als a day and waiting on men like a servant. I wish I was out in the barn unloading the hay instead of paying Mattox to do it, but that's not going to happen. Somebody's got to run the house, and if I went out to work with the guys, we'd have to pay someone else to cook and clean. This is my way of contributing to the family business. Once I marry Riskin, the ranch will be a lot more successful and we won't need country cousins to make the ranch work.”

  Melody sat bolt upright on the bed. “That's exactly why you need one day out of your practical life to be a beautiful princess. This wedding is your one chance, maybe in your whole life, when you don't have to think about running the ranch and telling everyone to wash their hands before their eat. This is the one day out of your life to make your fairy tale dreams come true.”

  “I don't have any fairy tale dreams, so I don't want them to come true.”

  “Well, you should. You can't live your whole life as one long ugly nightmare.”

  Lyric shot off the bed with an exasperated gasp. “I'll tell you what, Melody. You care a whole lot more than I do about making this wedding a beautiful fairy tale come true. You can plan the wedding. Make it as big and frilly and beautiful as you want. I'm finished with it. I don't want to see another picture of a cake or a flower arrangement as long as I live. You plan everything and leave me alone.”

  Chapter 3

  Mattox slammed his hay hooks into the next bale and pitched it off the truck to the pile on the barn floor. When he made the pile as tall of his head, he climbed down and hooked the bales into a neat square stack in the barn hay rick.

  He worked steadily, hour after hour, without a break. Sweat ran down his temples and disappeared into his thick beard. He never slackened his pace for a moment, not even when his nose detected a Bruin scent. He didn't have to turn around to know who it was.

  He knew that scent from those times he went into the house for meals and to sleep. Sometimes he picked up that scent in the barn or in distant parts of Mackenzie country, but it always drifted on a faint breeze out of the distant past. He never found it anywhere near as strong as in the house.

  He kept his eyes down, even when he turned her way to go back to the truck. Lyric was out of bounds. Everybody knew she was marrying Riskin Dodd in a few weeks. She stuck with Riskin and Azer when it came to keeping Mattox under their heel. None of them would ever change. They would never loosen their grip on this ranch.

  Mattox made up his mind within hours of coming to live at the Mackenzies' to ignore Lyric. She didn't exist for him. She made his meals and changed his bedding. That's as far as he could reasonably consider her. Azer and Riskin existed for him. She was an extension of Riskin, nothing more.

  He treated Azer and Riskin as his new Alpha—his combined Alpha. Azer would take over as Alpha when old Rex Mackenzie finally kicked the bucket, but Riskin acted as his right-hand man. No one could piss up a rope without their approval, and they stuck together like two peas in a pod. You ever saw one without the other, and neither of them made any decision without the other’s support.

  Riskin marrying Lyric proved that more than anything. Once they got married, Riskin would inherit Lyric's share of the Homestead. He would claim as much ownership of this ranch as Azer himself. They would close this ranch up like a box turtle, and no one would ever get a toe in the front door.

  Lyric frowned at Mattox from the barn doorway with her arms crossed over her chest. She paced back and forth and glanced out the door toward the house, but she didn't leave. Mattox kept silent and went on with his work. He waited for her to leave.

  No sound disturbed the barn but his gasping, panting breath when he bucked the hay bales off the truck and heaved them into the hay rick. When he came back to the truck a second time, Lyric whirled around to glare at him. For a fraction of a second, he locked his eyes on her before he walked straight past her and climbed up the flatbed again.

  Lyric scowled. Smoke billowed out of her ears, but Mattox knew better than to say anything. If he learned one thing in six months on this ranch, it was to keep his mouth shut.

  He never mentioned any of the gross irregularities he noticed in Azer and Riskin's management of the ranch. He never criticized them in any way. He never engaged anyone in conversation—not even Melody, who did her best to make him welcome. Conversation with any of these people led nowhere and could only get him in trouble.

  He couldn't help but notice, though. Melody was nice enough and pretty as the day was long, but she couldn't hold a candle to her sister. Anybody with two eyes in his head could see Lyric was unhappy. She stood alone on the front porch and gazed out toward the pasture in the late afternoon between cleaning up lunch and making dinner.

  She watched the men driving cattle in their trucks and on horseback. She came to the corral fence at branding time and discussed the herds with Riskin at the dinner table. She knew as much about the ranch as the guys, but they did their best to ignore her.

  In spite of himself, Mattox found himself watching her when she didn't know he was there. He watched her sad eyes trace the outline of the far distant hills, and she shaded them from the sun to admire the sunset fading over the horizon. She wanted to be out there, riding the ranch and doing the dusty work. That's what she was made for, not scrubbing dirty pots and pans.

  Every night on his way upstairs to bed, he passed the old photographs that hung on the stairwell wall. He gave those photographs nothing more than a passing glance, but that's all he needed to see more than they revealed. Lyric sat deep in her saddle with her tight jeans hugging her hips and a dusty old hat stuck on her head. Her plaid shirt and cowboy boots showed a lot more of her than her faded house dress and apron ever did. Her sandy blonde hair flew in the wind, and she narrowed her eyes in concentration to aim her swirling lasso at a charging steer. That's where she belonged, not stuck inside the house all day.

  Mattox had to keep his head down not to see that steer-roper standing in the barn door right now. He only looked at that photograph once, but he saw her all the time now when he looked at Lyric. He couldn't see anything else.

  He hopped off the flat bed and strode over to the hay rick for another round of heaving bales when she startled him out of his reverie by jumping into his path. “How long have you been out here this morning?”

  He started back in surprise. “What?”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “You heard me. When did you come out here this morning?”

  He dodged around her and hooked the first bale. He muttered under his breath and buried his answer under a gasp. “I don't know.”

  She paced back and forth beyond the bale pile. “You started unloading this truck today, and you're almost finished. It's not even ten o'clock, so you must have been out here long before daylight. The guys think you were asleep in your room past the call for breakfast, but that's not possible. You've been out here working the whole time, haven't you? Admit it.”

  He didn't say anything. He hid his face behind another hay bale so she wouldn't see his cheeks burning red. Why did she have to go sticking her nose in his business? Was she trying to trap him, to get him more hot water? He had to get rid of her.

  Azer and Riskin never paid any attention to what Mattox did. They gave him whatever job they didn't want to do, and they never noticed how fast or how well he did it. That's the first mistake he noticed they made in running their own ranch. They didn't know or care whether the job got done or how well it got done. They only cared about getting as far away from Mattox as they could to focus on their own priorities.

  Lyric surprised him out of his boots by noticing he'd almost finished bucking the hay in a few hours. That job would have taken one of the guys several days to complete, but he never pointed that out to them. He flew low under their radar. The less they thought about him and the less they noticed him, the better for everybody.

  Now, here she came, noticing him. That’s the last thing he needed in the world. She would run straight to Riskin and tell him…what? She’d embarrass Riskin and Aze
r by pointing out to them Mattox was doing his job? Not likely.

  Lyric knit her brows at him. She set her jaw in fierce determination. That steer-roper in the photograph wouldn't back down once she set her mind to finding something out. She paced back and forth again for a minute. She looked all around the barn. “Where's Riskin?”

  Mattox grunted under his breath.

  Lyric waited, but when he didn't say anything, she humphed. When he came back to the flat bed, she threw her hip out sideways and gave him a twisted grin. She leaned against the truck. “Why don't you take your jacket off? You'd be a lot cooler.”

  He pretended not to hear. Pretty soon, she would get bored and go off somewhere else. So she wanted Riskin. She could see plain as day Riskin wasn't here.

  “Why do you always wear that jacket? It's blasting hot out there, and you're dressed up like something out of the deep woods. You'd get a lot more work done if you were cooler.”

  He jumped down in front of her. For the first time, he squared his shoulders and looked her straight in the eye. “Did you come out here to talk about my jacket?”

  She took a step back in alarm. He'd never spoken to her that way before, direct and to the point. She looked right and left. “I'm just saying you'd be cooler.”

  “Yeah. I'd be cooler. Riskin isn't here. He's out in the north pasture, running the fences. You won't find him here talking about my jacket.”

  He went back to the hay rick. That should get rid of her if nothing else did. She didn't leave, though. She just stood there staring at him.

  She could have knocked him over with a feather when she said, “Do you have a sweetheart, Mattox?”

  He didn't look up. He couldn't. He wouldn't look at her for all the money in the world. What in God's name did she want to know that for?

  She turned her sad eyes to the country outside the door. She roamed there in her dreams. “Do you know what my sister Melody says? She says every Bruin has one true mate they're destined to marry. Bruins mate for life. She thinks Bruins marrying is some kind of fairy tale come true. She thinks I'm living a fairy tale by marrying Riskin.”