Redeem the Bear (Bear Valley Shifters #5)(6)

“Where are you going?” Riker asked, resting his hands on his hips. “You’ve got a seat up front with Hannah.”

Lamely, Corin took one look behind her to see if perhaps he was talking to someone else, but no, he was staring at her with those inhumanly lightened eyes. He was a lot more terrifying than he probably knew.

“Sorry,” she said.

“For what?”

Taking up space in his truck? For assuming Hannah had reneged her earlier offer? For breathing the same air space as the most influential alpha in the history of Bear Valley? She didn’t know. Apologizing had always been her go-to response. A little gift from her inner bear’s crippling submissiveness.

He canted his head and nodded once to his truck. “Load up. The supplies will hold. Thanks for the help.”

Thanks for the help? No one did more for this clan than Benson Riker, and he was thanking her? This morning was just getting stranger and stranger. “You’re welcome. Anything you need, just ask.” With a shy smile, she sidled the trailer and hopped into the open passenger side door.

Hannah sat in the middle of the front bench seat, while Chase, Juan and Brody sat in the back. Joanna and Anya sat comfortably on their mate’s laps, talking easily over a map of the Big Horn Mountains.

When she pulled the door closed, Riker slid behind the steering wheel and turned the engine. Hannah patted her leg once and they were off.

Away from Bear Valley land.

Away from the safety of home.

Away to war.





Chapter Three



Corin was drowning. Six hours of jouncing around back roads and forest paths in a truck full of the most dominant bears in the entire clan, and she was seconds away from asking if she could ride in the bed of the truck with the tents.

Somewhere around hour four, Hannah had reached across her lap and hit the window button, like she could feel the weight of their bears too, even with her less sensitive human instincts. The crack of power made Corin’s blood hum and the hairs on her arms stand on end, even with her head hanging halfway out of the window, gasping breaths of fresh mountain air like a landed fish.

Riker stared at the road ahead with a hard, unreadable expression, but Hannah looked like she was trying not to smile.

“You look terrified,” the alpha’s mate observed.

“I am,” Corin admitted.

Anya reached forward from her seat in the back and squeezed her shoulder once. “The boys won’t hurt you. They’re just all riled up for battle.”

“You want to sit on my lap?” Juan offered. “I’ll make you forget all about these *s.” The brute even waggled his eyebrows when she turned to see if he was serious.

“Your bear is part of the problem,” Corin deadpanned. “You know that, right?”

His dark eyes danced with humor. “Not my bear. He’s docile as a kitten.”

“A tiger. Is that what you mean? You have my bear wanting to change and run for the woods.”

“Corin,” Chase admonished her. He kissed Anya’s forehead and leaned back against the headrest, closing his eyes. “Surely, I’ve trained you better than this.”

Crossing her arms, Corin huffed a breath and leaned against her chair. “You didn’t train me to party with grizzlies, Chase. And furthermore, I’m thinking the only way I’ll survive this battle is if I find a squirrel to fight.”

Brody snorted and she scrunched her face. She’d been serious. “I’ve gone to battle with Long Claws before, and from what I remember, they’re all giants. I’m doomed.”

Riker growled and she hunched her shoulders. “Corin, you go into a battle thinking like that, then yeah. You’re as good as dead.”

“Riker,” Hannah scolded.

“No, she should get her head right before we do this. Find your inner beast, Corin. How old were you when you fought the Long Claws?”

“Fourteen.”

“Shhhit,” Juan drawled from the back. “How did you get away?”

Corin balked against the question. She didn’t want to revisit that day. It had tainted her nightmares for years and now the people she respected the most would witness her breakdown. “I can’t.”

“How, Corin?” Riker demanded.

“A boy saved me.” The words sounded strangled in her throat, like there was a noose around her neck.

“Every shifter seems giant to a fourteen year old,” her alpha said in a gentler tone. “You aren’t that same little girl anymore. You’ve trained and become strong. Don’t let them mess with your head before you even see them.”

Hannah grabbed her hand, and Corin watched the passing ponderosa pines out the window.

“Say what’s on your mind,” Chase rumbled from the back.

Corin hadn’t the foggiest idea who he was talking to, so when no one answered, she scanned their waiting faces. “Me?”

“Yeah, you. Say what’s on your mind.”

“Okay, it’s easy for you guys to say don’t let them in my head. You’re a dozen feet tall and have won fights against them. My bear is half your size, and I watched them slaughter my people.” Shit. “Well, there it is. I saw it happen, but what could I do against so many? I ran as the boy…my boy…fought them off me. He died…f*ck.” Her shoulders sagged and misery tightened her throat. “He died for me. Almost all of them did.”