Redeem the Bear (Bear Valley Shifters #5)(21)

Frightened, she looked around but they were alone in the woods. “Run from what?”

“Run from this war. Go get in one of those jeeps and leave this place. Swear to me you’ll leave.”

“And leave my people?” She shook her head, sad that he didn’t really know her at all. “I can’t.”

“Did you come to me tonight to beg for me to end this? Is that the only reason?”

“No.” Her lip quivered and she bit it hard to hide her weakness. “I came because you’re mine. You stood in front of the Kodiak council and asked for me. I know we were just kids, but it was real. You’re different now—empty. It makes me hate the Long Claws for whatever they’ve done to you.”

“I’m not him,” he growled low.

“You saved my life once at the cost of your own. I can’t ask you to do it a second time, but I can’t leave my people.” She wrapped her fingers around the necklace that clung to her throat beneath her shirt. She rarely thought of it anymore because it was just a part of her. Something she’d worn in memory of a past she would never get over. With a firm tug, she broke the thin chain and held it between them. The gold medallion shone in the moonlight and as it twisted in her grip, the script D blurred. “You gave this to me for my thirteenth birthday.”

His eyes went wide and his mouth hung open like his words had left him as he stared at her offering.

“It’s yours again. I don’t want it anymore. It’ll only serve to remind me of how I lost you a second time, and it’s too much.” Setting it gingerly into his open palm, she blinked back the moisture building in her eyes. “I can’t run.”

Turning, she left him there, and like in the meadow, she didn’t look back.

****

“It’s time,” Mace said in a somber voice.

The tent flap fell back into place, and Brooks was left alone again. He hadn’t slept. How could he after she gave him the necklace? The necklace that he’d dreamed about for years. Was it Corin’s face that was supposed to be on the woman he could never quite remember?

A headache was building behind his eyes, and he rubbed the bridge of his nose. There was something there, on the frayed edge of his memory, but damned if he could reach it.

And now, he would watch Corin die before he ever figured out the mysteries she had brought him. He cast a despairing glance at the crumpled rag, stained in her virgin’s blood.

I trust you, she had said.

A lot of good that did her. She was going to die at the claws of his people and he couldn’t do a damned thing about it. She was good, pure, and he didn’t deserve her trust. Whatever she thought she saw in him was misguided.

“Shit.” He slammed his foot into his boot and stood, locking his fingers behind the back of his head. What was this feeling? This niggling, irritating, bad feeling. Guilt?

He didn’t feel guilty. That wasn’t his thing. That wasn’t an emotion the Long Claws knew. He felt strong, powerful, murderous—all of those things, but not guilty. Guilt was a sign of weakness.

She made him weak.

She had come to him needy, and begging to be touched. Giving in was so stupid. He’d never made love to a woman before, only f*cked them, and whatever she’d done, whatever magic she’d pumped through his veins as she whispered his name against the tree, had broken something inside of him he didn’t want damaged. Now, he had all these feelings.

He’d spent hours trying to decipher whatever mysterious code she was hinting at. Trying to see if this Daniel was buried deep inside of him where he couldn’t find him anymore.

He was Brooks, alpha of the most fearsome bear shifters in the world. Not some * named Daniel who gifted gold necklaces. Fuck ’em and leave ’em, but never give them gifts. He didn’t identify with the man she wanted him to be. Part of him hated that he didn’t. And the bigger part of him hated her for making him feel this way.

Brushing the tent flap aside, he went out to meet his people, to lead them into war and avenge Nathan’s death. After today, there would only be one clan of shifters, and it was his.

There was no room to let a woman muck with his head right now.

****

In front of Corin, Riker balked at the sight of the meadow. Frowning, she asked, “What’s wrong?”

“This battlefield. I’ve been here before, a long time ago.” His face paled as he looked frantically around.

“Brooks said he chose it because it was the first time he battled Bear Valley. He said the Long Claws lost.”

Riker already knew about her visiting the enemy. She had come clean the moment she stepped into camp to find Hannah waiting.

He wasn’t mad. On the contrary, he just seemed relieved that she’d made it back in one piece. Though inside, she felt shredded into a million tiny shards, but her alpha didn’t need to know that.

“I dreamt of this place not long ago,” he breathed. “The oracle was here, and Hannah…”

“Hannah’s fine. She’s not fighting today and the medical area is off limits. She’s safe, Riker. It was just a dream.” Why didn’t she feel as sure as she sounded? This place had magic, she just couldn’t figure out if it was good or bad yet. Maybe it had touched her alpha too.

A horn sounded across the haunted meadow. The waving grass didn’t look as scary in the red and gray light of dawn, but she wasn’t naive enough to think the ghosts had fled this place. They were waiting quietly to welcome their fallen brothers and sisters across the veil.