Redeem the Bear (Bear Valley Shifters #5)(16)

“Why are you here?”

“I want to know you really aren’t him before I die tomorrow.”

“You’ve already accepted your death?”

She lifted her chin and tried to steady her trembling breath. “Yes.”

Brooks canted his head, glowing eyes slanting as if he were trying to figure her out. “Good. There will be less fear at the end then.”

“Not true. I’m still scared. I don’t want to die. I haven’t even lived yet. I haven’t found a mate or had a cub. I just found friends, but now they’ll be taken from me.”

“Who are you?”

Tears stung the backs of her eyes and she blinked them away. She couldn’t be weak in front of him. A soulless man like him would shred her at the first sign that she wasn’t strong. “I’m Corin Dunbar, Bear Valley shifter and one of the last of the Kodiak Clan.”

A sharp inhalation of breath broke the silence that stretched between them and he shifted his eerie gaze to the dark lantern. “The Kodiaks are all dead. We killed them.”

“No, the Long Claws killed them. You are Kodiak.”

“Stop it,” he growled low.

“Your name is Daniel Butler and your parents were June and Wade Butler. Your mom used to make cherry pies and cool them on the windowsill, and we’d steal them and eat them in the woods. We grew up together, our families were friends, and so were we. And in our eleventh year, we became more. You kissed me the day the Long Claws came and burned our houses and killed our families.”

“Stop it, Corin.” He was shaking and she could see the whites of his teeth contrasting against the dark as he gritted them.

“You’re an ancient bear, and so was your mother, June. You didn’t understand teasing, but I didn’t mind. I understood you. You held my hand and ignored the other girls, and when you were fourteen, you went in front of the Kodiak council and asked them to approve a pairing with me. We were promised. As good as mated.”

“Stop it now!” he barked out, but she was too far in.

“You were it for me, Daniel. I’ve never been with a man because no one compared to you. I love you. I always have.”

He grabbed her arm so fast, she closed her eyes against his fury. He would kill her now and she’d let him because she couldn’t lift a hand against the man she loved. He had changed and darkened, and still her heart had hope that the boy she knew was in there somewhere.

“You’re hurting me,” she whispered as a tear slid to her cheek. His hands were steel upon the fragile skin of her upper arm and still, he squeezed tighter.

“Good. I’m not this Daniel * you think I am. I’ve never heard of this story in my life, and I don’t have time or patience to deal with your insane assumptions. The treaty is through, it’s past midnight, and I have every right to kill you where you sit.”

His hand gripped her tighter and she swallowed a whimper at the pain.

“Do it then. Kill me. You’ve sentenced me to death tomorrow anyway with your stupid vengeance over your horried alpha. A man who hurt women, and belittled them. Are you like him then? You’ll take a harem of mates and make them each feel worthless and unloved? That’s what Nathan did. Anya and Joanna are my friends, and they’ll always be scarred because of his poisonous treatment. How many people do you think Nathan killed? Hmm? How many innocent families did he kill as they slept in their beds? And the alpha before him? And before him? And for what? What glory have they gained, Brooks? They all went mad and burned anyone who got too close to them on their way to hell. And now you’re alpha. Congratu-f*ckin-lations. You’re king of the murderers now. So f*cking kill me, king. Kill an innocent woman who did nothing but mistake you for a better person, and be just like the others.”

Searing rage blazed in his silvery eyes, and they churned like storm clouds. She flinched away from the blow that was coming, but he yanked her against him and his lips crashed onto hers like a cannon blast instead.

His hands gripped her hair painfully and everything hurt. She felt too much as she melted against him. His skin was like lava against hers, scorching her, and her lips were swollen and throbbing as he moved against her.

It wasn’t the gentle kiss of Daniel, the boy who had loved her.

This was the desperate kiss of a man losing the battle for his soul. The kiss of a stranger who was stronger than he realized and more loved than he would ever know.

Angry that he’d blotted out the sweetness of Daniel’s remembered affection, she threw her arms around his neck and pressed against him until there was no end or beginning. She bit his lip as punishment, but his growl only deepened her desire. Opening her mouth, she allowed him to taste her.

His tongue stroked against hers, and he released her hair and gripped her waist. It was dizzying to be sitting in a position one second, and a different the next. Suddenly, she was straddling his lap, and even through his cotton pants, his erection pressed against her, hot and hard. Pulling her against him, he rocked and she moaned at the feel of him between her thighs. So close, but not nearly enough.

His skin was fevered under her touch and she explored every taut curve of his sculpted chest. He hissed as her fingers brushed the top of his pants, and he threw her onto the air mattress beneath him. Pulling her hands above her head, he held them there until she was completely at his mercy. His jaw worked as he plunged his tongue against hers, and she arched her back to get closer to him. Lowering himself onto her, aligning their hips, he met her the next time she swayed against him.