Redeem the Bear (Bear Valley Shifters #5)(8)

When he finally pulled away, he whispered, “I wanted to kiss you first.”

A scream tore through the woods, and then another. Smoke touched the sensitive lining of her nose, and Daniel looked in the direction of the cabins with narrowed eyes.

“Come on,” he breathed. “Something’s wrong.”

The screaming turned to roaring as they ran through the woods, back toward the clan. She gasped in horror as they skidded into the clearing. All of the houses were burning, engulfed in giant flames that reached for the sky. And everywhere, bears fought.

A man stood back against the tree line and she recognized him. He was the Long Claw representative that had come to speak with her father and the council two days before.

Daniel’s chest heaved as he panted for breath, but black fury took his eyes as he watched the stranger.

“Run, Corin. Don’t look back, just run west toward Bear Valley. Tell them what’s happened here. I’ll find you if I’m able.”

Her family and friends were out there, being slaughtered. “I can’t leave!”

He spun and gripped her shoulders, then kissed her fiercely. “Do as I say. Go!”

She turned just as his bear ripped from him. Not grizzly or brown bear. Not even a rare Andean graced his family tree. Daniel’s bear was all that remained of an ancient lineage of giant short-faced bears.

She’d always been in awe of watching his animal, but today he’d asked her to run and she trusted him. She looked back in time to see him clash with a grizzly twice his size. He wasn’t big enough to do battle with the adults yet, but he fought the enemy viciously.

Something hit her from the side like a falling brick wall and she flew into the trunk of a tree. Fur and claws flashed before her as her vision cleared, and just as an unfamiliar black bear lifted her paw to end Corin’s life, a mass of fur and muscle hit her from the side and sent the she-bear sprawling.

Daniel!

His eyes were panicked when he swiveled his head to her. Run, his look said as he lunged for the bear who had tried to kill her.

Two brown bears crashed through the woods toward them and Corin lurched upward, trying to clear her head. With an echoing slap, Daniel sent the brown bear’s limp body tumbling down a ravine, and he spun to face the grizzlies.

She owed him. Get to Bear Valley, he’d said. If she could only get help for her people…

Pumping her legs, she pushed faster and faster until the brutal fight disappeared behind her. He was trying to give her time.

As long as she lived, she would never forget the roar of Daniel’s pain as it echoed through the woods.

Corin jerked awake and pain shot up her spine with the motion. She’d fallen asleep against the window of the truck, and now her stiff neck didn’t want to turn to the left.

“We’re here,” Hannah said. Her green eyes were soft and sympathetic, and Corin hoped she hadn’t been talking in her sleep.

Massaging life back into her neck, Corin opened the door and stepped out. “Where’s here?”

“We’re about a quarter of a mile south from where the Long Claws have chosen to do battle,” Riker said.

From the somber tilt of his lips, what he really meant was they were a quarter of a mile away from where he was going to lose some of his people tomorrow. Maybe all of them.

The hummers and jeeps pulled to a stop in a straight line behind Riker’s truck, and the shifters began to unload.

She made her way north through the trees, and Anya followed behind.

“Where are you going?” her friend asked.

“I want to see the battlefield.” Before it was haunted, preferably.

But when she arrived that the edge of a grove of pines, she realized she’d been wrong. This place was already haunted by ghosts. A dark-headed, dark-eyed figure stood across the meadow on the other side, and when she blinked, he was gone.

Shaking her head, she scanned the trees, but no one was there.

“What is it?” Anya asked, catching up. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Corin’s heart pounded against her chest as she compared the shadowy figure with the Daniel of her memories.

As quiet as a breath, she whispered, “I think I have.”





Chapter Four



Back pressed against the rough bark of a lodge pole pine, Brooks stared into the woods before him. Shit. She’d seen him. Running his hand roughly over his hair, he tried to calm his erratic heartbeat.

So what if she’d seen him? Riker had to know the Long Claws were here already. Brooks had wanted to study the battlefield to assess any unnecessary risks in the meadow he’d chosen.

What the hell was that fool woman thinking, coming out here alone? Sure, the alliance didn’t end until midnight tonight, and by shifter law, they couldn’t fight before the battle tomorrow morning, but still. His people weren’t exactly known for minding the rules.

She could’ve gotten herself killed.

Wait. Why the f*ck did he care? If she was dumb enough to go traipsing through the woods on the eve before battle alone, she was beyond his helping.

Why wouldn’t his damned heart stop trying to leap from his chest? When he’d seen her, he had felt…something. The temptation to peek around the tree and see if she was still on the other side of the clearing was so great, his insides were being shredded with every moment that he stood hidden in the shadows of the forest.