A Siren for the Bear (Sarkozy Brothers Book 1) (11 page)

She faced him, folding her arms across her chest. "Talk." She spoke the word firmly. It annoyed her that he was making assumptions about her potential reaction.

Whatever he wanted to say, it couldn't be all that bad.

He cleared his throat and stepped away, out of her grasp. "You need to know the truth about who I am." He paused and looked at her. "About what I am."

Then she stiffened. "Is it because of your gypsy heritage? Is that what you're worried about telling me?"

He shook his head.

She knew now it was a waste of time to urge him on. He'd speak at his own pace and she let him. His struggle was real; she could see it in the vein at his temple, in the tightness of the muscles in his neck.

He looked at her. "My family is old; the line goes back more than a thousand years. Yes, we're gypsy, but we're more than that. Or worse than that, depending on how you look at it." He let out a cold laugh, turning to stare off into the trees.

The rain was abating, softening as it hit their skin.

"We're from the Carpathian Mountains. It's not our origin that's a problem though. It's our species."

"Species?" Carson shook her head. This was beginning to sound crazy.

Marek growled, the sound so reminiscent of what she'd overheard when he'd been talking to Sara that she shivered.

He met her eyes, his spine tense. "I'm descended from a very rare line of Carpathians. Our family has always had the ability to shift."

"Shift?" This was getting weirder and weirder. Then she stiffened. "Marek, I can see you're having doubts. You don't have to make up wild stories because you want to back away from this relationship. I understand if you want to change your mind."

He was shaking his head now, his skin flushed. "No. That's not what I meant. I owe it to you to tell you the truth about
who
I am. Being with me can be dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Carson asked. Then she gasped. "Someone
did
try to kill you."

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.

W
HEN
C
ARSON
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.

M
AREK
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 shocked 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.