Redeem The Bear (6 page)

Closing her eyes, she tried to match
Brooks’ voice to Daniel’s but failed. They were too different. Maybe he really wasn’t who she thought he was. Confusion swirled around in her head until she was dizzy.

Silence stretched on
and on, and finally Brooks said, “Dawn.”

“Dawn,” Riker agreed.

Shuffling leaves said Brooks was leaving, and a tiny sigh of relief escape her lips.

Seconds passed and a hand clamped on her shoulder. Corin gasped, but it was just Riker’s furious face that was thrust inches from hers.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Hiding?” she squeaked.
Obviously. She was crouched in a bush that looked suspiciously poisonous. Her skin itched all over just thinking about it.

Gently pushing her forward, he said, “Come on.”

“At least he didn’t know I was here—Brooks.” The name sounded foreign on her tongue.

She turned around and
swallowed a scream as two glowing eyes stared at her from the shadows.

“Yeah, he did. Any shifter with decent h
earing would’ve known you were here. You were panting like you were having a panic attack.” Riker stepped in front of her and led her farther away from Brooks and his eerie eyes. “You need to get ahold of yourself, Corin. Even now, your heartbeat is going fast enough to make you pass out.”

Why did Ri
ker have to walk so damned fast? It was dark and she couldn’t see very well, and the breathing trouble he had so insensitively pointed out was making her even dizzier. “I’ll have you know, I don’t swoon, if that’s what you are implying.” She tripped over a branch and went sprawling face first, and right before she hit the ground, an arm snaked out and wrapped around her middle, saving her from a fern to the eye.

Gasping, she was jerked backward and set upright.
Brooks’ eyes, intense and as dark as the sky above, devoured her. His eyebrows lowered slowly as his eyes drifted to her lips. He seemed confused when his gaze lifted to hers again.

If she didn’t talk now, she’d never get a chance again. “You can kiss me. You’ve done it before.”
Part of her wished he would, because then she’d know for sure. Part of her was terrified of him leaning down and brushing his lips to hers. Every fiber of her being knew with certainty that he was dangerous.

Drawing air through his teeth, his expression turned pained and he flinched away from her like she’d burned him. “Don’t.”

He turned and strode for the woods, then cast her a dark glance over his shoulder. Pausing, he turned and canted his head as his dark eyebrows furrowed. He looked lost.

She ached to reassure him and took a step forward.

Holding his ground, he shifted his weight like he was about to bolt at any moment.

His warmth beckoned
her, and she took another step toward him.

His dark eyes darted over her shoulder, and in
an instant, he changed completely. No longer was he confused or apprehensive. His focus was drawn inward and he straightened his spine. A cruel smile transformed his face into something unfamiliar. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

That one careless sentence
broke something hopeful in her. He would see her tomorrow—on the battlefield. His threat wasn’t even veiled, and he chuckled darkly as he walked away. The sound bounced off the trees and chilled her blood.

Breath lifted the fine hairs on the back of her neck and she spun. Riker was staring at her like he’d never seen her before. “I couldn’t figure out whether I need
ed to protect you, or give you two some privacy. What the hell was that?”

Sadly, Corin looked at the grove of trees Brooks had disappeared behind. “I think I loved him once.”

Corin couldn’t sleep.

How could she
when in a few short hours, she was going to draw her last breath out in that meadow? She was so scared, her hands trembled more with every passing minute. Thank goodness everyone seemed to be asleep and not as witnesses to her freak-out.

All alone. That’s how she felt. No one else even seemed nervous about tomorrow
as they slept soundly, and she was wide awake and chugging breath like a spooked racehorse.

A shadow passed in front of her tent and she
propped up on her elbows. Should she wake Chase? He was asleep beside her, big spooning Anya. And Brody was an arm’s length away too. The slow zip of the tent door had her reaching out, hovering the palm of her hand over Chase’s shoulder.

Hannah poked her head in.

“Holy shit,” Corin breathed. Her heart was still trying to wiggle its way out of her throat, but at least Hannah probably wouldn’t try to kill her the rest of the way.

The alpha’s mate gestured her outside and quietly, Corin ducked out of the tent flap,
then slowly zipped it back. The sleeping shifters inside could thank her in the morning when they weren’t covered in blister bugs and ants.

“What’s wrong,” Corin asked as soon as they were a safe distance away.

“I’m pregnant.”

“I asked what’s wrong, not what’
s awesome.” She pulled Hannah in and squeezed her until one of the little human’s vertebrae cracked. Oops. Right. Tone down the bear hugs. “Congratulations,” she whispered, pulling back. “Wait.” She wicked a tear away from Hannah’s cheek and frowned. “Why are you crying?”

“I’m pregnant
, and the father of my baby is about to go to war.”

Corin gusted an exhale and pulled her in again. Resting her chin on Hannah’s shoulder, she said, “
Yes, but he’ll be fine. Riker is stronger than anyone. He’ll make it.”

“What if he doesn’t
though? And what about you and Anya and Joanna. Chase and Brody? My child can’t grow up without a support system. I need all of you.” Hannah’s shoulders shook, and she buried her face against Corin’s shoulder.

The
tragic truth of it was that, no, they probably wouldn’t all be together after tomorrow. They couldn’t expect one hundred percent Long Claw losses and zero percent Bear Valley deaths. It wasn’t the way war worked.

Everything was so sad. Her budding friendship with Hannah had started right before fate would rip them apart. Meeting Brooks and realizing a
destiny worse than death had found Daniel. All of the loss that would come tomorrow. It was all so overwhelming. What words of encouragement could she give Hannah? She had little hope herself.

“Corin, if you could save us from this war, would you?”

“Of course.” It was an easy promise.

“How far would you go to stop it?” Hannah asked in a careful tone.

It was a strange question, but okay. “Probably death without torture, but not prostitution.”

Hannah eased back and quirked
one eyebrow. “That was supposed to be a rhetorical question, but thank you for your honestly. So prostitution is a hard no?” Her eyes danced in the flickering light of the campfires with an edge of humor. She looked as if she were hatching up a plan.

“What do you need?”

“You know the alpha of the Long Claws, right?” Hannah asked.

“Uh, no. I thought I did, but he’d basically a demon walking around in a body that looks like a boy I used to know.”

“Riker said you shared a weird moment with him.”

“Weird, yes.”

“I have no right to ask you, but if I don’t, we’ll never know if this could’ve been stopped. Go talk to him.”

“Wait
. Go, like, traipse through unfamiliar woods, and find the Long Claws? Somehow live through all of them as I search for Brooks, and then sit down and have a chat about how he’s being a murderous dick-face and to stop this war.” Maybe Hannah’s pregnancy hormones were making her bat-guano crazy.

Hannah’s eyebrows winged up like Corin had guessed exactly right. “I’ll go with you.”

“The answer to that is hell no. Neither one of us is going on a suicide mission before the battle even begins. No.”

Hannah’s eyes
went wide like an orphaned kitten, and Corin crossed her arms.

“Nope, not going to happen. We’re not putting you or your baby at risk. If we did survive it, Riker would kill me upon return for putting you
in danger. And then Chase the Grumpy Sasquatch would use my bones to pick his teeth. No.”

“Okay, so you’ll go alone.”

Corin narrowed her eyes. She was being out-negotiated by a human. Part of her wanted to stomp her foot like a petulant child, and part of her wanted to congratulate Hannah on her cleverness.

As if she spied her weakness, Hannah continued in a rush. “You could stop an entire war, Corin. Think about it. One hour of fear—”

“Terror,” Corin corrected.

“Of terror, then all of your friends could live happily ever after and everyone would write ballads about your bravery
, and we’d all sing them around a campfire during the harvest moon—”

“Stop it.”

“I could pay you in hugs and gratitude,” Hannah pleaded. “I’ll name my child after you.”

“And if it’
s a boy?”

“
Corn?”

“Hannah, you aren’t naming your kid Corn. That
’s not at all flattering, and it circles us back around to Riker killing me.”

Hannah clasped her hands in front of her
, like she was about to drop on her knees and beg.

Geez, she was good. “Okay. Just…stop talking. I’ll do it.
”

“You will?”

“Why not? I’m going to die tomorrow anyway,” she grumbled. “What’s a few hours early in the grand scheme of things? Oof,” she wheezed as Hannah hugged her. “Okay, now please go back to your mate and get some sleep. I’ll come find you when I get back.”
If I survive.

“I’ll distract Cameron. He’s on sentry duty.”

“Great.”

Thank God
Corin had slept in her clothes, battle-ready like Riker had ordered because his tenacious mate was already dragging her arm in the direction of the meadow and chattering happily on about the probability of Corin getting into werebear heaven.

“See
you in an hour,” Hannah whisper-screamed as Corin sidled around a giant booby-trap of brambles.

Unless Hannah conjured the ability to talk to corpses, she definitely wasn’t going to see her in an hour.

This was so stupid. Of all the idiotic things she’d done, and there had been many, this had to rank up there with the worst of her plans. She stuck a fork in a socket when she was younger, just because her parents told her not to, and this was even dumber.

She’d seen Brooks across the meadow, back when she still thought Daniel was a ghoul waiting to greet her soul on the other side when she keeled over tomorrow, so the Long Claws camp must be somewhere behind it.

At the edge of the clearing, she almost convinced herself to walk all the way around it. The moon was full and heavy above her, and it lit up the wild flowers and waving grass that would tickle her hips if she trekked through it. It was beautiful, magical even.

Brooks should’ve chosen an uglier place for this battle. Perhaps it was just in his nature to destroy beautiful things.
He really was a Long Claw.

It would add an extra half an hour at least if she skirted the field, so she clenched her hands and stepped into the tall grass.
Treading carefully, she maneuvered a straight line across. When she reached the center, the wind picked up, lifting her hair. She froze as it sounded like someone was whispering right behind her, but when she turned, no one was there. Chills ran in waves across her skin and her instincts told her not to turn away from the sound. But she had to if she was going to escape the meadow.

Spinning
, she ran as fast as her legs could carry her and with every frantic step, the whispering intensified. The wind felt like fingers against the back of her neck and she swallowed a scream as fear pounded through her. When she reached the edge of the meadow, the wind died down and the voices stopped.

Panting, she searched the field with wide eyes. What had just happened?

Spirits didn’t rest well in these woods, but why? Was it her presence that angered them? Or was it something more?

Thoroughly frightened, she sniffed the air and identified the sce
nt of campfire smoke, fur, leftover food, and the faintest smell of Brooks or Daniel, or whoever the hell he was. He must have come through here when he came back from Bear Valley’s camp. Following it, she found the first smattering of tents, interspersed through the quiet forest. She jumped when she saw a sentry leaned up against a tree, but relaxed when she realized he was snoring softly. Winding through the slumbering camp, careful not to step on any limbs, she tried to follow Brooks’ scent, but it became too muffled with all of the other shifters’ smells.

A murmured sound, like someone talking low, drew her attention, and she angled her direction toward a large tent with a light on inside.

From the shadows, a man and a woman were getting it on. Wait. No, they were fighting.