Betray the Bear (Bear Valley Shifters #4)(11)

“Oh, that *,” Joanna whispered.

The big man crossed his arms beside them and his face darkened. The openness was gone, and now it was replaced by suspicion that caused a tiny pain in her chest she was helpless to sort out.

“What’s going on?” a man with a bottled water in his hands asked as he strode toward them. This must be the alpha.

“Riker, this is Anya,” Joanna introduced her. “She was thrown out of the Long Claws and has come seeking sanctuary.”

“The Long Claws?” Chase asked. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Chase,” Riker warned. “Why were you thrown out?”

Everyone quieted, as if they were hanging onto her words and she stuttered. “I-I…”

“You-you what? Came here to spy, that’s what.” Chase’s voice sounded venomous and he took a step toward her.

“Stop it,” Joanna said, shoving him in the shoulder.

Anya’s eyes flew wide. “Joanna,” she admonished. The woman was going to get herself flogged.

Chase didn’t even growl at her and Anya couldn’t stop reeling. The rules she’d known didn’t apply here in this upside down place.

As close to honest as she could manage was best, so she lifted her chin and inhaled. “I haven’t given Nathan a cub, and he said he has no use for me anymore.” Shame flamed her cheeks at the truth of it and she added, “I haven’t had a heat in a year and a half. The alpha of the Long Claws can do better than a sterile mate.” Nathan had said this over and over as she’d pleaded with him yesterday, but his repeated words made her want to curl into a ball and cry. But instead, she held Chase’s gaze and his eyes seemed to soften. Not much, but enough that she saw it.

“You’re Nathan’s mate?” Chase asked.

Kind of? She was feeling confused on what she really was to him but she nodded. Nathan called her his mate, so it must have been so.

“Fan-f*ckin-tastic. Get out. Go back to your mate and tell him you couldn’t dig up any dirt here.”

“He’ll kill me if I go back.” Her voice shook because the words sounded so right. Nathan really would kill her if she failed.

“Sounds like your problem,” Chase said. “Not ours.”

“Chase, that’s enough.” The clearing filled with the crackle of power so electric, the downy hairs on her arms rose. “Sit down.”

Chase turned his head but his eyes never left her. His arms flexed over his chest, puffing out the intimidating mass of muscle there.

“Now,” Riker said.

Gaze lingering on her, the giant man sat much more gracefully into the chair than she would’ve expected from the behemoth.

“Surely you know war with the Long Claws is imminent, and we just received a visit from your mate yesterday. We can’t be too careful who we allow near us right now or it could get our people killed. You are more dangerous than you know, even if your reason for being here is pure. Joanna left Nathan two months ago and he’s only become more desperate to make us pay. Now you’re here. Does he know you’ve come to Bear Valley?”

“Probably. He’s killed off most of the other clans who could offer me sanctuary.” The admission was genuine and made her heart pull away from Nathan a little more. Sometimes, he was a monster. What did it say about her that she’d ignored his cruelty all this time? What did it say about her that she was lying to these people he intended to destroy now? Nothing good.

“I’m sorry, Anya. You’ll have to find shelter elsewhere. I feel for your plight, but my people come first.”

A woman rushed from the fire and slid her arm around Anya’s shoulders. “Riker, you said the same thing about me when Jeremy brought me here. She’s in trouble. It’s written all over her face. Look how scared she is. Joanna, can you vouch for her?”

“She was nice to me when I was with the Long Claws,” Joanna said. “Nathan is awful and putting her in his path would be cruel. Every shifter is important, right? That’s what you say at the meetings, but you’re throwing one away by putting her on the street. I can watch her during the day. We can put her on probation until she proves she can be trusted. If she slips up at all, she’s gone.”

The woman beside her smelled human. “She can run cattle with me and Jenny when Joanna is in meetings too.” A human was trying to save her. Today was the strangest day she’d ever had.

“And what do we do with her at night?” Chase asked, bitterness heavy in his voice. “Just let her tramp around the clan collecting data to foist off onto her mate the first chance she gets? Hell no.”

Riker splayed his legs and crossed his arms, stared at her until she looked down at her feet. He seemed to be actually considering letting her stay. “You can watch her at nights,” he said so low she thought she’d misheard him.

“Who?” Chase asked.

“Everyone is newly mated here but you, Chase,” Riker said, twisting to look at the man.

Chase sat rigid in his chair and even in the dark, she imagined she could see red creeping into his cheeks. The smell of anger was thick and heavy on the breeze. “I don’t give a f*ck if everyone is mated here but me. That is my choice, and I shouldn’t be punished for it.”

The word punished stung her feelings, but she couldn’t figure out why.