Defending the Bear (Blue Ridge Bears Book 2)

by Jasmine B. Waters

  Freya hides away the key to immortality? Kill her before she can reveal its location. You’re trying to recruit soldiers to supplement your armies? Kidnap them and force them into blood sport, that’ll inspire loyalty. You need as many bodies as possible to throw in the path of enemy magic? Make sure the rules don’t allow you to get away with only mildly injuring an opponent.

  We’d fought seven battles thus far, and Luke had won them all. If Luke had fought the way the competition dictated, he’d have joined the ranks of warriors that had successfully completed the test. So far, only two of his matches had actually counted. He’d been forced to kill the combatants who made a direct bid for me, looking to exploit what they perceived as a weakness. Luke never let them get within five feet of me.

  Kent looked unimpressed and gave me a final once-over. “Pretty,” he muttered, before sauntering away again, presumably to go annoy the hell out of someone else.

  “Jerk,” I muttered. “Where does he get off insinuating that sort of thing?”

  “Ouch,” Luke muttered, taking a big bite of ham sandwich. “I didn’t know the idea of sleeping with me disgusted you that much.”

  I could feel my cheeks heat. “It’s not that.”

  “So you do want to sleep with me?”

  “I didn’t say that, either!” I snapped.

  He shook his head, a small smile curling the edges of his lips. “Girls are confusing. One minute you’re terrified of me, and the next you’re turned on. It’s mood whiplash, I tell you.”

  My blush intensified. It felt like I’d suddenly stuffed my head in an oven. “How the hell do you know that?” I hissed.

  He tapped the side of his nose with a sage nod. “Super sniffer. I swear it’s a curse sometimes.”

  I shoved my tray away and left the commissary before I could do something stupid, like kick him in the nuts. Or kiss him. God, I didn’t know what I wanted to do anymore. He was infuriating and too attractive for his own good.

  He followed, leaving his tray on the table but taking the sandwich with him as we made our way back to the room for the night. Adner gave us both a nod as we trooped into the small space and closed the door.

  “You can smell me?” I hissed.

  “Yeah. What’s wrong? It’s not a big deal. I smell everyone now. And you smell great, compared to most people.”

  I wanted to melt into a shapeless puddle of goo on the floor. “I haven’t showered in a week!” I hissed. “And I haven’t shaved in two. I probably reek.”

  He leaned over and gave my shoulder a long sniff. I smacked at his face. “Stop that.”

  He laughed. “Stop freaking out. You smell just fine.”

  I just stared at him. Just like the seeming disregard for one another’s nudity, this was another part of were-animal society that I just didn’t understand. Logically, it made sense. But the part of me that was a socialized, human being was embarrassed about the whole affair.

  “What I wouldn’t do for a bar of soap right now,” I muttered. A shower wasn’t the only thing I’d like, but it was the most pressing.

  Adner chuckled from a little further down the hall. I couldn’t see his expression, but I just knew he was grinning.

  “He is quite correct, Lady Audrey. You do not smell badly. You smell warm, feminine, and fertile.”

  Beside me, Luke stiffened and bared his teeth in another soft growl.

  “Peace,” Adner called, still sounding heartily amused. “I’m far too old to challenge you for your mate. And, even if I could beat you in such a battle, she would not have me. You should know this.”

  Luke paused, considering Adner’s words, and his posture finally relaxed. My mind however was racing.

  Mate. I knew too many were-animals not to understand what they were saying, at least in part. I’d seen the process from the outside before. It had been difficult to understand, the instantaneous connection. On the one hand, it had seemed sort of beautiful, in its simplicity.

  The process of mate selection in several types of were-societies was instantaneous. The connection was forged as soon as you laid eyes on one another. It eliminated human error so to speak, and gave you the best chance for strong children. On the one hand, I was a little relieved. I’d worried for so long that there was something inherently wrong with me. Maybe bad choices were hereditary. I’d thought maybe, despite my best efforts, I was going to end up back in cookie-cutter housing in Alabama, while my husband beat the hell out of me, just like my step-dad had done to my mom.

  That nagging worry was gone now. I knew, and don’t ask me how I did, that Luke would never do anything to intentionally cause me harm. I knew the threat he’d levelled at me had been just that, a threat and nothing more, spoken in fear for my safety.

  But there was another, greater part of me that was angry. Furious even. How could he have kept something like this from me, after all we were going through?

  “We need to talk,” I hissed at him, shutting the door behind me to effectively silence Adner’s continued chuckles.

  I advanced on him, and he backed up as far as the room would allow. It didn’t take long to back him into a corner.

  “Mate?” I asked, my voice shooting through a couple of octaves.

  “Audrey, just listen–”

  “No, you listen,” I nearly shouted. “Where the hell do you get off doing this? And stop growling at every male that passes. I don’t belong to you, Luke.”

  “No,” he agreed. “We belong to each other. It’s not what you’re thinking.”

  “Isn’t it?” I asked, throwing my hands into the air. If I’d had a table to flip I would have done it. “I’m not an idiot, you know. I have were-animal friends. I know what being mates entails. It means that we’re connected, and I don’t get a choice in the matter. I am so sick and tired of having my choices taken away from me.”

  Luke scrubbed a hand over his face, heaving a sigh. “I wasn’t looking for it to happen. I didn’t go looking to trap you, Audrey.”

  “But it happened,” I said. “And you never told me. Why?”

  “I didn’t want to scare you,” he said, giving me a hard look. “Like Adner just did. I would have told you when we were safely away from here.”

  I raised a skeptical brow at him. “And what then? Were you going to conk me on the head caveman style and drag me back to your cave?”

  “Drag you, no,” he said with the ghost of a smile. “I’d walk you there, sure.”

  “Please tell me you’re joking.”

  “Nope,” he said, lips popping on the ‘p’. “I live in a cave further north. It’s about three hours away from my sister’s place in Virginia.”

  “But you’d expect me to go home with you,” I accused.

  “I don’t see why that’s so awful,” he countered. “I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, is that so bad?”

  My heart stuttered for a beat before picking up. I hoped he couldn’t hear it. I had to swallow thickly against a knot that had formed in my throat.

  “That’s exactly my problem,” I whispered. “You say you love me. You say that you want a life with me. But you don’t even know me. What’s my favorite color, Luke? Where did I grow up? What are my parent’s names?”

  I let my hands fall limply to my sides. They ached to touch him, to cradle his suddenly stricken face and comfort him. He had to understand, and I thought I was finally getting through to him.

  “I’m willing to find out.” His quiet reply broke the poignant silence a few minutes later.

  “What?”

  “I said I’m willing to find out.” He squared his shoulders. “I want to know you. All of you, not just the parts that are pretty. I want to know the story behind the scars on your knees. I want to know why you hate the dark. I want to know why you flinch away from me.”

  I felt a little dizzy. When had he noticed the scars on my legs? I’d been careful not to freak out around him. How did he know tha
t I hated the dark?

  “It’s not a pretty story.”

  “I’ll deal with it,” he said, offering me his hand. “Can we at least agree to be friendly? I won’t be able to focus out there if I think you hate me.”

  “I don’t hate you,” I mumbled, the remainder of my anger flooding away with the admission. I didn’t hate him. I wasn’t sure I was physically capable of that anymore. But even if I hadn’t been roped into a supernatural marriage of sorts, I didn’t think I could have hated Luke. He was too kind. He was funny and charming when he got the opportunity.

  And, oh boy, was he hot as hell. He was still wearing the armor from the match. He was tall, broad, and in the leather and tunic, he looked like he’d stepped off the cover of a harlequin novel. Shit. I shouldn’t go down that mental rabbit trail. Luke Elmsong wasn’t about to…ahem…put his sword in my sheath any time soon.

  He sniffed the air again, and I flushed with anger and embarrassment once more. “Damn it, stop smelling me.”

  “Sorry. I’m trying to be good, but your arousal is really, really distracting.”

  I groaned. “Don’t tell me that we’d need to have sex to help you concentrate.”

  “I’m willing to give it a go,” he said, and flashed me a Cheshire grin.

  “Buy me dinner first,” I grumbled.

  “Only the finest of beef jerky for my lady when we arrive home,” he said with a mocking attempt at solemnity.

  “You’re incorrigible,” I said, shaking my head in half-hearted disapproval.

  “You love me.”

  And I did. Damn it all, but I really did love him. When the hell had that happened?

  ***

  The boar kept charging. Luke had cut it from throat to belly and still it charged. It had gored him. Luke’s massive bear form swayed dangerously. His blood spilled onto the dry earth and began to pool, staining the ground an ugly red-brown.

  We’d argued again on our way to the field. Luke had three matches to go before he could win the challenge, and we would be allowed to leave. He wanted me to stay back. We’d seen one too many human women mutilated for him to feel safe letting me join the battle.

  But what Luke didn’t know, and that I had been unable to communicate to him during our heated arguments, is that I was far from helpless. The moment I’d gotten out of my stepfather’s house, I’d signed up for self-defense. I’d spent years as an undergrad signing up for mixed-martial arts classes. I was decent enough with a training sword. I wasn’t efficient with a spear, but I at least knew how to wield it.

  I wasn’t a helpless, little girl. I would never be a helpless, little girl again. So, I couldn’t just stand back and do nothing as the boar hit him hard in the flank, rolling him to the ground. Luke let out a terrifying bellow and struggled to make his back leg cooperate.

  The injured boar let out a squeal and charged again, ducking its head low to avoid Luke’s swinging claws. It aimed straight for his jugular.

  “No!” The strangled cry escaped me before I could stop it. This couldn’t happen. He couldn’t die. Not while I was here to stop it.

  I didn’t know if I could beat it, but I had to try. I only had to buy Luke a few minutes. I gritted my teeth and broke into a dead sprint, covering the distance between myself and Luke in about ten seconds, and the distance between myself and the boar in twenty.

  I spun the spear into its ready position and jabbed it into the boar’s side. It squelched sickeningly as it entered the flesh, and a fresh gouge of blood poured from the animal. I wanted to puke. When would this end? How much blood could possibly be left in its body at this point?

  It spun to face me, and I got a good look at its tusks for the first time since our opponent had changed to his animal form. They were curved, razor sharp, and coated with gore. One upward thrust of a tusk into my thigh, and I’d be a goner. I wondered if there was enough human left that he’d just stop at killing me. I’d heard that pigs would eat just about anything. Did that mean Luke might find this guy chomping on what was left of me?

  I skipped back a few steps as it advanced on me, swatting at it with the spear. It butted the shaft aside and lowered its head, preparing to charge, this time at me. I had to act. But so little of what I’d learned actually applied in this wretched place.

  How did I use the attacker’s mass against him? I didn’t have any leverage, and no human limbs to grab onto. How did I intimidate something with an animal’s power and a human consciousness? What good would screaming do? The audience would happily watch me be disemboweled for their entertainment.

  There has to be something. I screwed up my face trying to remember. The boar scuffed the dirt with its hooves, panting heavily. I could practically see the wheels turning behind his eyes. First, it would deal with the annoying human with the stick, and then it would kill its opponent, who had yet to regain his feet.

  Wait. Eyes. The pig didn’t have most of the same weaknesses that a human body did, but it still had eyes.

  I gripped the shaft of the spear more tightly and let out another loud cry, charging the boar before it could charge me. The first thrust of the spear only gouged a furrow in its snout, but the second thrust found its mark, digging into the gelatinous membrane of its eye.

  It screamed. A high, keening noise escaped the boar. It was the worst sound I’d heard yet in the arena. Tears gathered in my eyes. This is what I’d gone to college to escape. I’d wanted a good life. I’d never ever wanted to see suffering again. But what choice did I have? In this arena, you played by the rules or you died. It was as simple as that. There was only one thing I could do to stop this madness, and unfortunately, it wasn’t going to help this creature.

  I shoved the rest of my weight against the spear, and it dug even further into the socket, gouging the eye out completely and penetrating further, into the boar’s brain. I knew when I’d struck home, because the pig’s body slackened, falling to its side. Its legs twitched spasmodically, still not aware that its brain was dying.

  I knelt on the ground next to it. It looked smaller in death. Maybe we all did. Maybe it’s the final cruelty belatedly heaped onto us as we depart. We don’t even have the dignity to look as formidable, strong, or kind as we were in life.

  I couldn’t believe that only a few days ago I’d thought Luke the fool for leaving the humans unharmed as we fought. If it was faster, why not do it? We didn’t have to kill them. Now, I understood better. He had to appease his conscience somehow. Maybe it seemed more just to him, to hurt and kill the ones who had the desire and capability to fight.

  I stroked the bristly snout of the boar. I wished he’d had the ability to shift back before he’d died. I wish I could have gotten a better look at the man I’d been forced to kill. I could have memorized his face, and committed the grizzly hole in his eye to memory as a fuel to feed the rage that had kindled in my chest.

  I had no desire to fight for a God who not only condoned, but cheered, this heinous competition. I was going to make this whole barbaric practice end, once and for all.

  And there was only one way to do that. I slid the boar’s remaining eyelid closed gently. I swallowed back the lump in my throat. I dried my eyes on the sleeves of my tunic. Then I slid my fingers gently through the blood that dripped from the boar’s gaping stomach before the rapacious earth could swallow any more of it.

  I got shakily to my feet. I carefully drew the blood across my face, not in a wide swath as Luke did after every kill, but into thin deliberate lines. I drew the Tiwaz rune from memory. It resembled nothing more than an up facing arrow, but the crowd recognized it for what it was. The rune of Tyr. One of several victory runes painted onto Norse Warriors faces as they went into battle.

  The sigil was met with cheers and whistles from the assembled crowd. Most importantly, the two men who’d sat in the top box, watching idly as men fought and died for their sake, were looking now.

  Glad I’ve finally gotten your attention, I thought venomou
sly. But outwardly, I thrust the blunt end of my spear into the dirt and knelt, keeping my eyes on the enormous, dark-haired, brute who had to be Thor. Equally as massive was Tyr, who was only distinguishable from his brother in the absence of his right hand.

  “What is your name, lady?” Thor boomed. God, even his voice was big. It rolled over the stadium like the thunder he was notorious for. I could feel it vibrate in my chest, like the beat of a sub-woofer. His grey, storm-cloud eyes appraised me and did not seem to find me lacking.

  I should have found it flattering. It wasn’t every day that a genuine God looks at you with anything more than indifference. But I’d have traded it all to be back in the woods, being eaten alive by mosquitos and jumping at every snap of a twig. The only fire left in my blood was for the man I could feel at my back.

  His gloved hands came down on my shoulders. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to still my trembling limbs or if he was trying to keep himself upright. His blood soaked into the back of my tunic and slid off of my armor in warm rivulets. I needed to get him back to the barracks and wrap his wounds.

  “Audrey.” My voice rang with more authority than I’d ever commanded before. It was a bitter irony that I’d find my power here, in a slaughterhouse like this one.

  “Rise, Audrey, with the blessings of Thor. You shall henceforth be known as a shield maiden in service to the Aesir, for your bravery this day.”

  He didn’t expect much of humans, did he? I’d killed one man, made our fourth kill in this competition. I’d barely done any of the hard work. And yet, I was now a shield maiden, a warrior-woman worthy of standing with the big were-boys.

  I forced a smile. “You honor me, my lord.”

  “When you complete your challenge, I will grant you one request. What do you desire, Lady Audrey?”

  My smile broadened, and my voice came out a little sultrier than I intended when I spoke.

  “A bath in your private chambers would be most welcome, my lord.”

  Luke’s hands tightened on my shoulders, and I could feel the rage radiating off of him. I patted his hand gently, willing him to let me explain later.