Betray the Bear (Bear Valley Shifters #4)(16)

“You don’t have to—”

“Tea,” she demanded impatiently. She needed to escape this room right now, and she wasn’t going to lie in bed all night wishing she would’ve made the damned pain-killer for him. Could he make it himself? Yes, but for whatever pig-headed reason, he wasn’t.

Leaning back on locked elbows that thrust his hips enticingly forward, he sighed, his abs flexing with the motion. “In the cabinet near the fridge.”

Ripping her gaze away from the mounds of abdominal muscles begging to be petted, suckled and licked, she fled the room and found the kitchen.

Nathan, Nathan, Nathan, she silently chanted.

Chase, Chase, Chase, inner horny bear answered.

What was wrong with her? One day away from the Long Claws and she’d turned into an argumentative, bold and shamelessly sassy woman, and now her panties were wet for another man? She’d lost her damned mind.

She poured water into a black tea kettle Chase kept on the stove, then turned the heat up. Sure, she liked sex and she liked it regularly, but that didn’t excuse her wanton thoughts. And sure, she hadn’t really been satisfied by Nathan in a while, and granted, he was trying his damndest to find an excuse to banish or murder her, but falling for the first man she met outside of the clan was amateur hour. And Chase wasn’t even all that nice. Good to look at? Hell yes. But he was moody, hot and cold on a constant loop, and every time she opened her mouth she pissed him off.

A little gasp escaped her. Maybe her heat was finally coming on. That would explain the hormone surge in the bathroom and the crotch gawking in his bedroom. That must be it.

She pouted out her lips. She should feel relieved, but now Nathan would have a chance to get her with cub. Then she would never be free of him. Her eyes flew wide at the thought. Was that the plan now? To escape him somehow? Everything seemed clearer, her future more open now that she was away from him. She revisited her earlier plan on fleeing. She could go to Alaska maybe. She had always wanted to go to Jamaica or England. She hadn’t been anywhere but wherever the Long Claws took over and settled.

“Stop it,” she muttered. Her place was with her alpha. She could almost hear her parents rolling over in their shallow graves as she entertained thoughts of abandoning her clan.

“Stop what?” Chase asked from behind.

The tea kettle whistled, and the chair he pulled out from under the oak dining table screeched across the wood floor. She hunched her shoulders against the noise.

“Nothing.” The lid made a popping sound as she pulled it from the square tin that held seven tiny homemade tea bags. She grabbed two and unfolded their strings, then poured hot water into a mug and dipped them.

When she set the mug in front of him, he grabbed her hand and leaned forward. His eyes burned into her, daring her to pull away. “Tell me you aren’t spying on us for Nathan.”

She stood frozen, afraid of telling him, afraid of not telling him, as confusion swirled round and round in her head. This was the moment she could end her ties with Nathan, denounce him and move on. But then he’d kill her. And there seemed to be an even worse option now. Worse, he’d hurt the people here. She didn’t understand their ways, but it didn’t mean they were worth annihilating.

“I swear,” she whispered.

She’d hate herself forever for siding with a monster.

She deserved Nathan.





Chapter Five



The work day had drawn to a close and Anya was exhausted. Who would’ve ever in a million years thought cattle took so much effort? She’d always imagined cows were just released into a field to munch on grass, but that wasn’t even close. The head of the cattle barns, Shane, had ordered them to round up the calves and yearlings to work. Which sounded simple enough, but she’d never ridden a four-wheeler before and ‘working’ them meant wrestling them to the ground and castrating the little bulls, then driving the rest into shoots to deworm and dehorn the ones that needed such attentions. She was filthy and her clothes were stiff from the sweat she’d perspired today. And the smell that clung to her skin was definitely bovine in nature.

“Hannah?” Anya asked. “Would it be against the rules for me to visit your healer?”

“I guess I could take you by Daria’s house right now. Are you hurt?”

“No, not me. Well, I do have some questions I couldn’t ask the Long Claw healer on account of Nathan finding out everything that went on there. But also, I need a few ingredients for a balm for an injury Chase sustained. If she doesn’t have them, maybe she could point me in the right direction on where to get them.”

“Oh,” Hannah said with a frown.

Anya was still desperately trying to wrap her head around the fact that Hannah was human, and the only mate of the alpha of Bear Valley, but she had been really nice and patient with her all day. Anya liked her. It was easy to see why she and Joanna and Riker’s sister, Jenny, were so close.

A little pang of sadness washed through her when she thought about not being here to build a bond with them. She might’ve liked life here if she’d come to Bear Valley under different circumstances.

“There’s Jo,” Hannah said, waving to the woman jogging toward them.

With the rhythm of Joanna’s gait, her dark hair swung from side to side. She squeezed Anya’s shoulder and fell in step beside them.