Redeem the Bear (Bear Valley Shifters #5)(26)

****

“Fuck!” Brooks chucked the cell phone into the wall, and it shattered into a rain of jagged plastic pieces.

He hadn’t been ready to call her yet. His head was too messed up, and he was right in the middle of the biggest overthrow in the history of the Long Claws. The war hadn’t ended in the meadow. It had migrated to Wyoming and his people were bleeding each other, bleeding him, for the changes he was trying to enforce.

Changing hundreds of years of murderous tradition was only won in blood. Corin would hate him if she knew what was really happening here. She didn’t want him to kill? He’d killed five of his own people in the last week. Five f*cking souls as dark marks against his newly sensitive soul, and he wanted to bury himself in a cave and never come out again. If he stopped though, the Long Claws would go after Bear Valley again and his new and utterly inconvenient set of morals wouldn’t allow him to live with himself if he didn’t die trying to save them.

His people weren’t requesting a war on a neutral field where Riker and his fighters would stand a chance. They were rioting to attack Bear Valley while it thought it was at peace, like they had done to the lesser clans. Like they had done to his people, the Kodiaks.

He didn’t have time to allow thoughts of Corin to mess with his head. He needed to be fully in this war with his people, not immersed in flashbacks from his past.

But he’d been slipping and forgetting why he was doing this. She made him want to be good, and he was so damned tired. Her voice was all he needed to remember himself. That was what he had told himself. But now the burning desire for more of her battered the walls he’d had to erect to survive the past month.

Corin had no idea how dangerous she was.

Blood trickled down his stomach in a warm stream and he pressed an already soaked towel onto it to staunch the flow.

Riker had said he could be good enough for her.

And dammit, Brooks was probably going to die trying.

****

Corin narrowed her eyes at the broken necklace that sat in a pile of crumpled gold links on her dresser. She’d considered sending it in to have the chain repaired, but it didn’t feel right wearing Daniel’s necklace anymore. Her feelings were so jumbled about him now.

He was alive and dead all at once.

The broken links seemed fitting now.

Foregoing any jewelry, she sat on her cushy mattress and pulled her hiking boots on over her wool socks. Her cottage was small, basically just an open room. Kitchen, living room, and bedroom all in one. Efficient and cozy.

And lonely.

Damn Brooks for making her feel like she wanted more.

She had painted the place in lavenders and creams, and the whitewashed furniture matched her usually happy demeanor, but lately it didn’t seem to fit her. Lifting her shoulders to her ears, she studied her home. Nothing seemed to fit anymore.

Even the yellow wildflowers that sat in the vase on her two chair dining table seemed irritatingly happy.

With a dark glance over her shoulder, she opened the door and tripped over a box on her small front stoop.

Barely catching herself on the edge of the doorframe, she stared at the little box in shock. A pink Post-it square clung to the cardboard. Crouching down, she plucked the note off and read it.



This was delivered to the front gates for you.

Be patient with him.

-Benson



Eyes wide, she studied the woods but she was alone. When had Riker brought this? It was the crack of dawn.

“Be patient with him?” she murmured as she pulled at the tape.

Inside was a brand new cell phone, still in the box. But when she opened it up, the battery was charged and the home screen had an icon that said Brooks in the upper left corner. What the hell? She poked it and brought the phone to her ear.

Brooks picked up on the first ring. “You got my gift.”

“Yes.” A smile took her lips. He’d sent her a gift. This was about as unpredictable as he could get. “I was trying to figure out how you were going to call me again when you didn’t know my work schedule.”

“I know your work schedule, too.”

“How?” she asked.

“Marta told me.”

“Oh. Wait, when did you talk to Marta?”

A growl echoed through the other end. “You ask a lot of questions.”

“That’s what you do when you talk to someone on the phone. Regretting sending me this gift yet?”

“No. I never regret my actions.” His voice was quiet and confused, like he couldn’t tell she was teasing.

“I’m joking,” she said.

“What are you doing right now? And what are you wearing?”

“Whoa, kinky, okay. Hot pink negligee—”

“Corin,” he growled. “Not like that. I really wanted to know…forget it. This is stupid.”

“Be prepared to be very attracted to me.” She sank into the worn hammock overlooking the side yard. Juan was going to maim her for being late to work preparing the wheat fields for winter, but so what? “An oversized Domino’s Pizza T-shirt, jeans with holes in the knees, and, are you ready to be really turned on? Hiking boots,” she purred seductively.

A deep chuckle reverberated through the speaker, and the sound warmed her despite the early autumn chill on the breeze.

“Were you hurt the other day, when you called me?” she blurted out. Not knowing had been keeping her up at nights.