Redeem the Bear (Bear Valley Shifters #5)(7)

“Who was your clan?” Joanna asked quietly.

“The Kodiaks, back when they numbered in the hundreds.”

Anya already knew all this. She’d been the first person Corin had been comfortable enough with to share the story. Her friend rubbed her shoulder soothingly from the back seat.

Tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, she said, “It’s hard not to be afraid of the people who took everything away.”

“That won’t happen this time,” Riker said, pulling his eyes away from the road long enough for her to see the promise in his gaze. “We won’t let it. You’ll be on the second wave and we’ll try to pull the brown bears to us. You find black bears or Andeans your size, do you understand? You engage to the side of the battle, not in the thick of it. When you win your first match, your adrenaline will kick in and your training will come back to you. You and Joanna and Anya stick together, help each other and protect each other. Tell me okay, all of you, so I know you understand.”

“Okay,” she, Joanna and Anya said in unison.

Corin swallowed hard as she watched Riker’s rigid profile. He didn’t want this war. The realization hit her like a wrecking ball. He’d led the clan through more winning battles than any shifter on earth, and he was balking against fighting the Long Claws.

“You know they have to be stopped,” she whispered. She wished she could swallow the words back down again because they were so out of line, but they were out there, hanging in the thick silence of the cab.

“I know. I just don’t want to lose our people to stop them.”

“If we don’t, there’s no one left to stand between them and the extinction of every non Long Claw bear shifter in the world. They’ll demolish every last bear, and then they’ll eat themselves from the inside out until our kind is extinct.”

Rocking against the divots in the washed out mountain road, Riker ghosted her a glance. “We’ll stop them, Corin.”

He looked tired, battle-weary already. It was impossible to tell the toll the clan members and friends he’d lost through the years had taken on his soul, but she wasn’t the only one who needed to get her head on straight.

No one spoke after that, and for the next hour, they were connected only by matching lurches as the off-road tires hit gaping potholes. She couldn’t guess at what thoughts made the others so somber, but for her, it was memories of the day she’d lost everything to the Long Claws playing over and over on a loop.

“Did you hear?” Daniel asked. “They’ve approved us for a match.”

His excitement was catching and Corin leaned against a stately spruce. “You sure you want to be tethered to me forever?” she asked, teasing.

Daniel was tall, with dark hair and patient eyes the color of coffee. Some people found it unsettling that his eyes were black as pitch, but she saw the adoration in them when he looked at her. Like now, as his gaze dipped to her lips.

The smile fell from his face as he frowned. “Don’t talk like that, Corin. I would be honored to be mated to you when we get older. You know that.”

And she did. They’d been friends since they were cubs, and when the other girls their age had started paying attention to how Daniel was changing for the better, he seemed to only have eyes for her. She’d never felt threatened for his affection.

He linked his hands in hers and rested his chin on top of her head.

“You’re so serious,” she murmured. “I was only joking.”

This was usually the fastest way to get a rise out of him. He didn’t understand jokes like the others, but she didn’t care. His mind just worked differently than the other kids. She understood him, even if they didn’t.

“Oh,” he said, easing back so she could see the confusion swimming in his shadow colored eyes. There it was, that tentative smile that told her he knew he was being teased.

Ducking out from under him, she laughed and ran toward a deer trail that led away from her parents’ cabin. His chuckle followed her as she bolted. Faster and faster she ran until she was sure she’d lost him. Spinning, she heaved breath as she searched the woods. Nothing stirred, save the leaves above in the gentle breeze.

She’d finally bested him.

“You’re always running from me, Corin,” Daniel said from behind her, startling a giggle past her lips. “Are you sure you’re not the one who doesn’t want to be tethered to me?”

His hands rubbed down the back of her arms, and she shivered under his touch. He made her feel…everything.

Turning, she lifted her gaze to his and allowed him to see the genuine happiness in her eyes at him touching her. He’d only recently grown comfortable enough to hold her hand. He didn’t do well with touch. She’d never even seen his parents hug him, though they seemed to love him a great deal.

“I’m yours for always,” she said, lifting up on her tiptoes and brushing her lips against his.

It was her first kiss, and she didn’t know if she was doing it right, but when she pulled away, his eyes were wide with surprise and a silly grin stretched slowly across his mouth. He brushed her hair from her cheek, settled it behind her shoulder, then slowly lifted his palm to cradle her cheek. The pad of his thumb brushed a gentle stroke as he leaned down. His eyes closed just as his lips touched hers again. The kiss could’ve lasted minutes, or maybe hours. She didn’t know. Time left her.