Redeem the Bear (Bear Valley Shifters #5)(14)

“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.