Fealty Of The Bear (9 page)

Muriel was radiant. A tight purple dress clung to her curves and black strappy heels added inches to her toned legs. She’d left her dark hair down and wavy, and played up the bright green in her eyes with dark eye make-up.

Pride surged through Logan as he walked Bron’s meadow with her on his arm.

Her affection made him feel like a better man. It made him want to work to be the mate she deserved.

His life had been lonely before, but he hadn’t realized it. That was just the way it was for his kind, and now, even though he wouldn’t be an official member, he would be a part of Muriel’s clan. A part of life here.

Working with Bron and Dillon was demanding, but it was the most satisfying kind of work when, at the end of the day, an alpha he respected so much would clap him on the back and tell him he’d done well. And Dillon joked a lot and gave him hell, but secretly, Logan looked forward to his habit of saying
see you tomorrow
at the end of the day.

Tomorrow. There was a tomorrow for him here in Joseph, in the shadow of the Seven Devils Mountains. A future with friends and Muriel, here among people who were like him.

No more running or hiding from what he was, and no more feeling hunted.

He was proud of the obstacles he’d overcome to be here.

Muriel balked as they crested the hill. Logan watched her face as she took in all of the shifters in Bron’s clan, gathered quietly, awaiting…her.

“What’s going on? I thought it was going to be a small gathering.”

“I know how much you stood to lose by choosing me,” Logan said low. “I couldn’t stand the thought of me being the one to hurt your chances at happiness. I want you to have your clan, and for us to be accepted. They’re gathered here for us because I’ve met them all and asked them each to be here for you. Because I love you. Your pledging ceremony will be in front of every person who will be a part of your life, Muriel. Just like you deserve.”

Her eyes rimmed with shining tears, and in the moonlight, he could see her trembling smile.

“I love you too.”

It was the first time those words had touched her lips, and they left him stunned. After all of the fighting and hiding, this woman had seen the grittiest parts of him and still loved him. He swallowed hard. “I’m glad, because I have something to ask you.”

“What is it?”

He knelt slowly and pulled the small diamond ring from his pocket.

“Oh my gosh,” she whispered as twin tears slipped down her cheeks. Her face crumpled as she looked at the ring, and a soft sob wrenched from her throat.

God, he loved her. He
loved
her. She was everything he wanted. “I know this is a human tradition, but you already bare my mark, and I want to claim you in every way possible. I want you bonded to me for always, Muriel. But it has to be your choice, not just one of convenience. I know what being forced into a decision cost you last time. I want you to choose me back because you feel the same.” He inhaled a long, steadying breath. “Muriel, would you do me the great honor of being my mate, and my wife?”

She ghosted a glance to her people, waiting quietly for her answer as he was. A tiny nod, just a lift and fall of her chin, and his heart hammered against his sternum.

“Is that a yes?” Samantha called from the front of the crowd.

Muriel laughed thickly. “Yes. I choose you back.”

He lurched forward and lifted her up to the deafening applause and cheers of the clan. Hands clapped them on the shoulders and arms hooked around their waists as their people reached them, but Logan couldn’t take his eyes away from his mate. She was crying, but it wasn’t from sadness like how he’d found her in the linen closet.

This was different.

She was different.

They weren’t tears of insecurity or shame she dashed away from her cheeks, but those of happiness.

He lowered her slowly and tasted her mouth. She giggled as she was pulled away and into Samantha’s embrace. Bron was there and Dillon, shaking his hands and giving him rough hugs, and he and Muriel were passed through the clan one by one.

And with every face he saw, every
congratulations
he heard, he felt more a part of the magic of this place.

He’d found Muriel and she’d looked past all of his faults and given him the best gift of all.

She’d given him a home.

Hells Canyon Shifters – Book 3

Avenge the Bear

Coming November 2014

KDP All-Star Series – Bestselling Series

Bear Valley Shifters - Complete Series - Available Now

The Witness and the Bear (
Book 1
)

Devoted to the Bear (
Book 2
)

Return to the Bear (
Book 3
)

Betray the Bear (
Book 4
)

Redeem the Bear (
Book 5
)

For exclusive sneak peeks and new releases, sign up for T. S. Joyce’s Bear Shifter Romance Newsletter
HERE
.

THE WITNESS AND THE BEAR

(Bear Valley Shifters, Book 1)

Read on for a sneak peek of the thrilling first book in the bestselling Bear Valley Shifters series.

Chapter One

Today was as good a day to die as any.

Jimmy’s fingers dug into her shoulder as he shoved her out the window. “Hannah! Stop fighting me. If you don’t run now, it’ll be too late.”

Another tremendous crash rattled the room. Stone’s men were coming in sooner than later and the men protecting her were sitting ducks to the hell on the other side of that door. Jeremy watched her with an eerie glow to his dark eyes. Fluorescent lights and dingy walls had that effect on him. Braced against the door, he snarled, “Get out of here!”

“And what about you?” she snapped, lunging for the window and gripping the edges with straining fingers. “Huh? They’ll kill you! There is no end to their reach. They’ll keep coming until I’m dead and I’m tired of running. Just let them have me.”

Defeated. After the last time they’d found her, she’d skimmed the insanity train. Paranoia ruled her life. And not the I-smoked-a-joint-and-now-the-government-is-after-me kind. This fear didn’t end with the high. It stretched on and on until she would drown in it. Burn in it. Fall into the darkness wider than the known world and tumble forever, hitting every rock crevice on the way down until her mind was shredded. She was so damned tired of it.

“I’ll never forgive you,” Jeremy said. His cold eyes threw ice that pierced her heart. Gray hair cropped short, wrinkles that textured his face, and most of them were probably from trying to keep her safe for the past year. Witness protection gone horribly wrong. He’d given too much for her to give up now. He knew it, and begrudgingly, she knew it too.

“Jimmy,” she breathed, tears burning her eyes.

His grip on her shirt tightened and he shook his head, slow. Bright blue eyes filled with sadness so deep, she didn’t know how he could draw a breath. Jimmy and Jeremy wouldn’t come with her this time. Their last stand would be here, in this filthy apartment in Ashland, Oregon.

Crash.
Plaster spewed from the walls and ceiling and Jimmy shoved her out onto the fire escape. “Climb down and run. Don’t stop until you know they aren’t following. Take this.” He shoved a Glock into the palm of her hand, the metal cold against the perspiration of fear. “Shoot ‘em if you’re cornered.”

Jeremy flew backward with the force of the next blow and Jimmy shoved her in the back. She fell forward, catching the grate with her knees and crying out at the sudden pain. Gunfire peppered the tiny space and she tumbled down the stairs, caught herself on the railing at the bottom and shot one last look to the window, then pounded the pavement with the soles of her sneakers.

Jeremy who’d given up his life as a civilian to protect her. Jeremy, who’d calmed her fears when Stone’s men got too close. Jeremy, who’d become more like father figure than friend. He was trapped in the middle of the rattling explosions.

A sob wrenched from her throat. The last good parts of her would die with him. His death was on her. She’d made the choice to testify against Stone and his men, and that decision had caused an earthquake that rippled through her life and killed people she cared about. If she lived a minute or a decade, she’d never curse another person with her love.

A hand reached out from the darkness and wrapped around her throat like a manacle. She tried to scream but her wind wouldn’t come through his crushing grasp and as the man emerged from the shadows, the flickering street light illuminated a long scar across his forehead.

Spinning, he slammed her against a brick wall hard enough to rattle her skull and blur her vision. Sparks whipped this way and that through the edges of her vision and warmth trickled down her neck. Yanking her long, honey colored hair out of the way, the man grunted a satisfied noise and the crack of metal on metal was deafening as he cocked his gun.

Definitely one of Stone’s enforcers. No one else would be interested in the scar that marked her.

Gravel met the flesh of her cheek as he slammed her to the ground, and when his weight disappeared, she rolled over. No way was she going to die with a bullet in her back. The least this asshole could do was look in her eyes when he pulled that trigger. Gunfire had tapered off from above, and the apartment behind his shoulder had gone dark. Her breath trembled, filling the night air with the traitorous proof of her fear. Heart hammering against her sternum, she glared at the sneering man.

“Go to hell,” he said, lifting the barrel.

“You first,” she snarled, pulling the trigger on the Glock Jimmy had gifted her.

His gun discharged at the exact same moment as hers, and pain ripped through her, shredding her insides until there was nothing left. The man sank to his knees with a shocked look as his unloaded weapon clattered to the cracked pavement. She struggled to breathe as he brought searching fingertips to his chest and pulled them back crimson.

The last thing she’d do on this earth was rid it of an evil man. Pride surged through her as he fell forward. Her hand lay limp in front of her, smattered with blood. It felt detached from her body. Everything did. Nothing worked except her lungs, dragging air in, and pushing it out, and even that small movement was failing.

The man’s eyes dimmed until the dark orbs saw nothing at all. Her lungs rattled with every breath, but she smiled despite the pain. Stone won the war, but at least she’d go out on this tiny victory.

Her vision shattered inward and she winced at the blinding pain.

Nearby, an animal roared loud enough to rattle her bones.

If it was her death the creature sought, he was too late.

She was already gone.

THE WITNESS AND THE BEAR

Available Now

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