“Shoot,” Ivy muttered. “Now that’s really not my place to say anything about. Just… he came to speak with Rath about you, and then Rath might have told me, but don’t let Storm know that because the brothers fight enough as it is and I worry Storm might kill Rath if he learns Rath told me.”
“Told you that Storm feels something for me… is that why he came to see Rath?”
When Ivy nodded, Gabi felt like a fool all over again, and her stomach squirmed, guilt churning in it as she thought about how she had presumed he had been coming to talk to Rath about killing her.
When he had been coming to seek guidance from his older brother because he wanted to do quite the opposite.
He wanted to keep her around.
She sank onto the arm of the beige couch, struggling to process that as relief swept through her, filling her with warmth and light.
She stared at Ivy. Could she have with Storm what Ivy had with Rath? Did she want that? She wasn’t sure what it entailed, but she wanted to be with Storm, wanted to see if this thing between them blossomed into something deeper, something she felt sure it would if they gave it time.
The question was, would he want to be with her after what she had done?
The door opened and she whipped to face it, and her heart shot into her throat at the sight of Rath stood wearing only his trousers, his bare chest covered in blood and scratches.
“Is everyone okay?” Ivy flew to him, her dark eyebrows furrowing as her hazel eyes darted over him. “Are you okay?”
He smiled softly. “I’m fine. The bears are gone, and I don’t think we’ll see them again. Everyone is alright.”
Relief rushed through Gabi and she went to pass him, needed to see Storm was alright with her own eyes and somehow find a way to apologise to him.
Rath grabbed her arm as she tried to pass him, stopping her. “Why did you run?”
She looked up into his bright golden eyes and pushed the words out. “Because I heard Flint say that Storm was coming to talk to you about me, and that he was going to handle the situation with me.”
Rath sighed. “Fucking Flint.”
Apparently, Rath had less qualms about leaking Storm’s conversation with him than Ivy did, because he turned to face her, his expression sober and deadly serious, and spilled everything.
“It isn’t really my place to say.” He sounded like Ivy at first, but as he continued, she could only stand and stare at him. “Storm didn’t come to talk to me about hurting you, it was quite the opposite. He came to speak with me because he’s in love with you, Gabriella, and because of everything that happened in our past and who your family is… well, he’s been going crazy trying to figure out whether it’s okay for him to want to be with you.”
That hit her hard, had her ears ringing as she soaked it in. It also had the churning feeling returning to the pit of her stomach, because Storm probably knew why she had run, and that meant he knew she had thought he was going to kill her.
“I can’t believe I jumped to that conclusion now,” she whispered in a small voice, cursing herself for being so rash and untrusting, for believing Storm capable of wanting to do such a thing to her.
They had argued, but as she had come to know him better, she had started to enjoy that fire between them, had even stoked the sparks on purpose to get him fighting with her.
“It’s understandable after everything you’ve been through and all you’ve seen,” Rath said and then sighed again. “Flint should have watched his mouth or at least chosen better words.”
Gabi looked across the kitchen, towards the far wall, and beyond it to the point where she knew Storm’s cabin was. “I’m not sure Storm will understand.”
“He will.” Rath looked honest enough when she glanced at him. “You might be right, and my brother might be pig-headed, but I’m sure you can convince him to forgive you. I don’t think he’s angry with you. He wanted to see you and make sure you were alright.”
“It probably won’t take much convincing either,” Ivy put in with a smile. “Not if he’s anything like Rath.”
He frowned at Ivy, his dark eyebrows dipping low, but Gabi could see he didn’t really mean it.
She still wasn’t convinced that Storm was going to forgive her though, not even if what his brother had said was true and he was in love with her, like she was in love with him.
“I have to speak with him.” She removed Rath’s hand from her arm and started through the door.
“He won’t be at his cabin. Not yet.” Rath’s words stopped her dead. “Wait here for him to return.”
She looked across at him. “What do you mean he isn’t back yet? You’re back… so why isn’t Storm?”
The answer hit her when worry shone in Rath’s steel grey eyes.
She was out of the door in an instant and sprinting across the clearing, her legs like noodles beneath her as she pushed herself to run. She flew along the route she had taken through the trees, her heart thundering and fear stripping her strength as she leaped fallen trees and ducked beneath branches.
As she hit a small clearing not far from the last of the cabins, noise ahead of her had her gaze jumping in that direction.
Storm limped towards her, supported by Flint and a blond man she didn’t recognise, covered in scratches and bruises, and blood.
But it was the horrific wound over his left hip that had her hand flying to cover her mouth and her eyes widening as she skidded to a halt.
“Storm,” she whispered, every drop of her worry lacing her voice.
His grey eyes lifted to her, and he casually shoved the two men away.
Gabi couldn’t stop herself from running to him and she wanted to cry as he banded his arms around her. “I was so worried.”
“I’m made of stronger stuff than you think.” The bite in his tone had her relief fading away and that guilt returning.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured against his bare chest. “It turns out I was the one who ran away after all… and I’m sorry. You’re hurt because I was stupid and leaped to a conclusion because I was afraid.”
He was gentle as he smoothed his hand over her cheek, pushed her back and gazed down at her.
He growled in a low voice, “If anyone was afraid, it was me. You scared the fucking shit out of me.”
He cupped her nape, dragged her against him and held her so tightly she could feel all of his worry in it, and other emotions too, ones that pounded in her own heart.
“I’ve never been so damned scared in my life,” he whispered hoarsely into her hair and clutched her closer to him.
Gabi carefully wrapped her arms around him, pressed her palms to his bare back and held him. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry you ended up having to fight because of me… that you were hurt because of me.”
“I wasn’t afraid of fighting the bear.” He drew back and looked down at her with soft eyes, ones that relayed everything he was feeling to her. “I was afraid I was going to lose you, or that I would never see you again.”
That melted her heart and she saw in his eyes, and heard in his words, that everything Rath had told her was true.
Storm was in love with her, just as she was in love with him.
She didn’t resist him as he dragged her against him and bent his head, surrendered to him as he kissed her and she felt that love resonating inside her.
Pure. Unconditional.
Everlasting.
Flint muttered something to the other man, and she felt them leave as she kissed Storm, swept up in him as all her feelings crashed over her and she felt as if she was drowning in him—in the tempest of their love.
When he finally stopped kissing her, he whispered against her lips, “We’re going to have to discuss a few ground rules.”
“Ground rules?” Gabi eased back and looked up at him.
He placed his arm around her neck and she turned so it rested across her shoulders, and placed her arm around his waist to support him.
“Maybe just one,” h
e said.
“What’s that?” She could comply with one rule, for him, but she might be making some of her own.
“You have to promise me you’ll never run from me again… that rather than turning your back, you’ll take aim and fire on me if you’re angry with me, or want an answer to something, or you’re worried. I want you to lay it all on me and hold nothing back, because I would rather we argued than bottled it up.”
Gabi nodded. “I will, but only if you promise to do the same.”
He stopped and looked down at her again, right into her eyes, his asking if she was serious about this and wanted to fight with him.
She shrugged. “I like arguing with you.”
“Why?” His sandy eyebrows knitted hard above grey eyes that were already showing a hint of gold.
Gabi smiled slowly. “Because then we get to make up.”
He groaned as he started limping again. “I’m sore all over and you’re putting ideas in my head.”
She smacked his naked ass, feeling a bit wicked as all of her worries faded away, leaving just one—Storm’s injuries.
“I like to think of it as an incentive.” She let her hand linger on his backside, was tempted to peek at it as they slowly walked back through the woods. “The quicker you heal, the faster you get to make up with me.”
“I don’t think I can stay mad at you that long,” he muttered and pulled her closer, pressed a kiss to her temple and sighed.
Gabi frowned up at him. “So you are mad at me?”
He huffed, clearly not happy she had caught him out.
“You ran away, and I thought I was going to lose you. I have the right to be a little mad.” He brought his index finger and thumb close together. “Just a little.”
She could live with that. “Let’s get you home and cleaned up.”
She picked her way over a tangle of roots and helped Storm over them too, and as she walked with him, she kept an eye on the wound on his hip. It wasn’t bleeding now, but the lacerations were deep, and they were going to need help healing if he was going to avoid having a scar like the one on his right hip.
They reached the first of the cabins, and she started to wish she had grabbed Storm a pair of trousers before racing headlong to find him. If a woman saw him in all his glory, she was going to have a hard time stopping herself from fighting them.
She looked ahead of her to make sure there were no women between her and Storm’s cabin.
There weren’t, but there was the two men who had been talking about her earlier.
It turned out Storm was more than a little mad.
He growled, the sound purely feline and dangerously vicious, and went after the two men as they looked his way.
“Storm.” Gabi chased on his heels, determined to calm him, because she didn’t want him hurting himself further. “Forget about them.”
He didn’t listen.
He froze her in place as he snarled at the two men.
“Next time I see you near my mate, I’ll fucking kill you.”
She stared at his straining back.
Shocked by the confirmation of what Ivy had told her, but still unable to believe what she was hearing.
She needed to hear him say it to her face, needed to know for sure that she was to Storm what Ivy was to Rath, and that the love they shared was special, stronger because of a potential link between them.
His shoulders stiffened as she let the question spill from her lips.
“Mate?”
CHAPTER 15
Storm pulled the reins on his temper as Gabi’s question echoed in his mind, and the two males made a dash for it, both heading towards their cabins.
He wasn’t sure how he was going to explain it to her, fought for the right words as he stared straight ahead of him, because he had witnessed Rath almost fucking things up with Ivy when he had done a piss-poor job of explaining all about fated mates.
Gabi remained mute behind him, waiting.
He swore it was getting dark by the time he lined things up and turned to look at her, the words balanced on the tip of his tongue.
She stunned him silent.
“Like Ivy and Rath?” Her soft voice, laced with curiosity and caution, wrapped around him, offering him a sliver of comfort he seized.
She knew?
He took hold of her arm and pulled her to his cabin, because he was damned if he was going to do this with an audience.
Or while he was naked.
When he closed the door behind her, Gabi looked down at him and then she was moving, filling the kitchen sink with water and gathering towels from his small bathroom.
He watched her, curious as she spread some of the towels out on his wooden floor.
“Stand on them.” She pointed to them and went to the sink to test the temperature of the water.
He dutifully obeyed, stepping onto the soft towels and watching Gabi, using the time to gather his thoughts again.
She made it damned hard as she wetted a face cloth, came to him, and started carefully brushing the damp material over his right arm, cleaning from his neck down to his hand.
“You know about Ivy and Rath?” His voice sounded tight, so he cleared his throat as she nodded and glanced at him, her blue-grey eyes warm as they leaped between his and his arm.
“Ivy told me some things about how they’re mated.” No trace of nerves laced her voice. It was steady, smooth compared with his. “She said it’s like a soul mate. Cougars have someone who is special to them.”
He tried to focus on how to explain what she was to him as she moved to his other arm, but the sight of her taking care of him, the way he could see the love in her eyes and feel it in her careful touch as she washed him, had his focus slipping to her instead.
She lifted her gaze to meet his again. “She told me about it when I said I could feel you were in pain, and afraid.”
Her eyes dropped back to her work as she carefully cleaned his hand, taking her time about it, paying close attention to each of his fingers.
He curled them around hers and she glanced at him again, and then away.
“Ivy said it was because we were fated, and I’m special… and that you feel drawn to me because of it.”
He could see where this was going. “What I feel for you has nothing to do with the fact you’re my fated female.”
She nodded. “I know. Ivy said… well, Rath told me as much.”
He huffed at that and made a mental note to have a word with his brother later. “What else did Ivy tell you?”
“Nothing really. Rath came back and I found out you were hurt.” Her eyes drifted up to his again and he could feel the fear that coloured them in her emotions.
She had discovered he was hurt, and she had come running to him. Gods, that had warmed him, had soothed his aching soul and made him see that she wasn’t going to run from him again.
It had made him see that she loved him.
In turn, that had made him want to cement the fragile bond between them and turn it into something unbreakable.
That need grew stronger whenever he sensed a male passing the cabin, had him twitchy and on edge, wanting to growl and snap at them to drive them away from his Little Bird.
Gabi rinsed out the cloth in the sink and came back to him, her gaze searing his chest as she worked to clean the blood and dirt from it.
She glanced down at his left hip, and her eyebrows furrowed.
“It looks worse than it is. It’s not deep,” he whispered, wanting to alleviate her worry. “It’s already healing. Just needs a little TLC.”
Which she seemed to have ample supply of as she smoothed the cloth over his skin, so gently he barely felt the brush of the material. He felt the love behind her actions though, and damn, it melted his heart and had him falling even more in love with her.
When she dropped to her knees before him, it grew impossible to focus on what they had been talking about. His mind raced forwards as she swept the damp cloth over his thighs, he
r offer of make-up sex spinning through it. He steeled himself, because now wasn’t the time for such things. There was too much hanging in the balance.
“Little Bird, you’re making this hard,” he groaned as she cleaned the inside of his left thigh, mopping up the blood.
She flicked a pointed glance at his semi-erect cock. “So I can see.”
He didn’t find that funny.
He caught her under her jaw and lifted her head, and she obeyed his silent command and rose onto her feet. He held her jaw, shifted his palm to her cheek to keep her eyes on his, and gathered the words.
“There’s more to being mates than you know,” he husked and wanted to eat her whole as a thoughtful furrow wrinkled her brow.
“There is?” She lowered the cloth to her side and raised her free hand, placing it over his. “You going to tell me?”
He averted his eyes and sighed as he looked out of the window. “I had wanted to do this my way. I had this whole thing planned. I was coming back to tell you we were going to go away, to Vancouver, and stay in a suite with a view and a big bed, and maybe a hot tub, and when you were madly in love with me, I was going to tell you about fated mates.”
She arched an eyebrow at that. “When I was a sure bet?”
He shrugged. “It sounded like the best way of doing things… I didn’t want to scare you away.”
She pursed her lips and then smiled. “Well, I already know about fated mates thanks to Ivy, and you already made me madly in love with you, but I’ll take you up on the suite with the view and the big bed, but only if you get one with a whirlpool bath.”
Gods.
He couldn’t stop himself from swooping on her lips and kissing her, worshipping her as her words rang in his ears and he felt like the luckiest bastard in the world because she loved him.
Madly apparently.
She clutched his biceps and kissed him back, rose on her toes and moaned as she took control of it, sending him spinning out of his mind. His body got the wrong idea, shot hard as steel as he gathered her to him, leaping forwards again to that make-up sex.
He groaned and forced himself to break the kiss, and focused to get his body back under his control, because now really wasn’t the time. He still had so much to tell her about what it meant to be a fated mate.
Captured by her Cougar (Cougar Creek Mates Shifter Romance Series Book 2) Page 12
