Briar on Bruins' Peak (Bruins' Peak Bears Book 7)
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Book 1: Shifter’s Heart
Book 2: Shifter’s Love
Book 3: Shifter’s Hope
Book 4: Shifter’s Rose
Briar on Bruins’ Peak
Bruins’ Peak Bears 7
Erin D. Andrews
Copyright and Disclaimer
Copyright © 2017 by Erin D. Andrews
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Website: www.erindandrews.com
Contents
Title Page
Copyright and Disclaimer
Bruins’ Peak Bears
The Hills Box Set (1-4)
Special Invitation
More From The Author
Chapter 1
Briar MacAllister gazed through the living room window at the sun shining on her Homestead, but she couldn't enjoy it. Shadows and strange apparitions haunted every corner of Bruins' Peak. She saw them when she looked out the window instead of the grass, trees, birds, and blue sky.
Her sister May patted her on the knee. “You're not still thinking about Melody Mackenzie running off with that panther, are you? The wedding was six months ago.”
Briar tried to smile at her sister, but she only made a mess of that, too. “I'm sorry. I just can't stop thinking about it. Melody dreamed of meeting her one true mate, and when she did, it turned into the greatest disaster Bruins' Peak has ever seen. What if something like that happened to me? What if I mated with some alien and became outcast from my whole family?”
“That won't happen to you. You're too sensible for that.”
“I had the same ideas about romance and finding happiness,” Briar countered. “I got butterflies in my stomach over Marla Dunlap's dress and the decorations and the cake and everything else. I'm no different from Melody.”
“You might not be any different from her, but the great news is you aren't her. You might have had the same romantic notions about finding true love, but now that Melody ran off with a panther and abandoned her people, you know better. You have her to look at as an example of what NOT to do. You won't make the same mistake she made. You can thank her for that.”
Briar shuddered. “I can't imagine anything worse than that.”
May hugged her around the shoulders. “You're here. You're safe, and you're surrounded by good, decent, honest Bruin guys to mate with. All you have to do is find the one who's right for you.”
“You make it sound so easy. I'm just like Melody. I didn't meet any guy at Marla's wedding that interested me, no matter how nice and handsome and successful they are. What if I don't find a Bruin I can fall in love with? What if I start thinking about finding somebody else?”
May slapped both hands down on her thighs. “Listen to me. You're beautiful. You're smart. You work with Ma to make all her herbal medicines and treat all our sick and injured people. When Ma's not around anymore, people will come to you for help. Any guy would be lucky to catch your eye.”
Briar peered up into her sister's face. “Do you think so?”
“I know so. Now, come on. You've been sitting around this house thinking about this far too much. You need to get out and get some fresh air.”
Briar sank back into the couch. “I don't want to get out.”
May stood up and held out her hand. “You don't want to get out because you're worried about meeting the wrong guy. You think what happened to Melody will sneak up and happen to you without you knowing it. Well, I'm here to tell you that can't happen. The wrong guy isn't lurking around out there in the woods, waiting to nab you. You should go out there and see it's still the same beautiful woods it ever was. It's not dangerous or spooky or threatening.”
Briar looked away. “I never said it was.”
May grabbed her hand and tugged her off the couch. “Come on. You're not sitting in here moping on a day like today. Come on. We're going for a walk in the woods.”
May towed Briar toward the door. “I don't want to go. You go ahead. I've got other things to do.”
May wouldn't let go of her hand. “You're coming with me whether you like it or not. You haven't set foot outside this house since you got home from the wedding. You sit on that couch mooning all day long. You hardly talk to anyone anymore. Everybody can see you're depressed.”
Briar protested and the two young women just started to get into a tug-of-war over Briar's hand when a tall, broad-shouldered young man stepped into the living room from the bedroom adjoining the kitchen. Curly black hair capped his head, and sharp black eyes followed his thumb over his cell phone screen.
He dodged the struggling sisters and made for the kitchen when May caught sight of him. “Help me out here, Silas.”
Silas didn't look up from his phone. “What do you want me to do?”
“Help me convince Briar to come for a walk with me. She needs to get out of the house.”
Silas stuck his phone in his slacks pocket. He wore a crisp ironed white business shirt unbuttoned at the collar. He headed for the fridge and took out the milk bottle. “Go for a walk, Briar. You need to get out of the house.”
Briar rounded on him. “Now don't you start, too.”
“May's right. You need to go for a ramble. Go hunt up some grubs under a log. You'll feel better.”
Briar snatched a cushion from her father's easy chair and threw it at him. “You pig!”
He deflected the cushion. “Go on, honey. Everyone can see you're not your usual chipper self. You're thinking too much, and you're bringing the whole Homestead down. At least go for a walk in the open air. You need some Vitamin D. You're getting pale around the gills.”
Briar spun away. “Leave me alone. I am not pale around the gills, and I am not depressed.”
“You're in shock over what happened to Melody,” May added. “We all are. That's why we're trying to get you moving forward with your life.”
“I am moving forward with my life. I'm just reevaluating my ideas about marriage. I'm thinking maybe finding a man and riding off into the sunset isn't the best thing after all.”
“Maybe riding off into the sunset isn't,” Silas remarked, “but what could be wrong with finding a man? Ma's been working on you for months to find a match.”
“All the more reason I should think twice about doing it.”
May flapped her hands. “See what I mean? She's traumatized or something. Come on, Silas. You come with us. You can help me wrestle her out the door.”
Silas took his phone out of his pocket. “I'm not going anywhere. I've got work to do this morning.”
“You always have work to do,” May grumbled. “That's all you ever do anymore. You're as bad as Briar, with your n
ose stuck in your phone all the time.”
His thumb started its incessant circling over the screen. “When you've got three businesses to run and two dozen employees under you, you'll have to work all the time, too.”
“Well, no one asked you to start three businesses,” May argued back. “You do it because you like it. I guess you don't really want to have any time off.”
“You're right. I do like it, and I'm gonna keep doing it. Nothing succeeds like success.”
“Don't you care at all about your little sister turning into a hermit before your very eyes?”
Silas looked up from his phone. He glanced back and forth between his two sisters. “Of course, I care. What makes you think Briar even wants me to come with you? Last I heard, she didn't want to go with you herself.”
May rounded on Briar. “What about it, Briar? Will you come if Silas comes with us?”
Briar caved. “All right. If it means that much to both of you, I'll come.”
May turned back to Silas. “See?”
He shrugged. His eyes migrated back to his phone. “Well, I don't know....”
Just then, a couple came down the stairs from the upstairs apartment. Dana MacAllister balanced a laundry basket against her distended pregnant belly. She gave her sisters a hug and carried the basket out of the house.
Shaw Cunningham stood a few inches taller than Silas. His shoulders bulged under his denim jacket, and his beaten cowboy boots scuffed the carpet. He wore a crushed felt cowboy hat and a scruffy beard covering half his face. He scanned Silas up and down in his immaculate business clothes. He glared at him across the kitchen counter.
Silas glared back for a moment. Then he lowered his eyes and put his phone away. “I think I will come with you, May. Come on, Let's go.”
Silas led the way outside. The sisters followed, and the trio headed down the path into the woods. May pressed ahead to walk at Silas's side. “Why do you let Shaw intimidate you like that? You should stand up to him. You can't let him drive you out of your own house. That can only end one way.”
“I don't let him intimidate me. The simple fact remains he's bigger and stronger than I am. If I ever challenged him, he would drive me off. I would have to walk away from all my businesses. I would have to walk away from Ma and Pop and you girls and everything. Better to leave it as it is.”
“If you leave it as it is,” May replied, “he'll take over as Alpha when Pop dies. You don't want that. You can't let him rob you of your rightful inheritance.”
“Rightful inheritance has nothing to do with it. We're Bruins. The Alpha position goes to the strongest. Shaw is stronger than I am, so he deserves to be Alpha. Look at Mattox Farrell. He took over his wife's family. Everyone acknowledges he's the best man for the job.”
“Well, Shaw isn't Mattox Farrell and he's not the best man for the job. You are.”
Briar broke in on their conversation from a few steps behind. “May's right. Shaw taking over the MacAllister tribe would be a disaster for all of us. You have to beat him, Silas. You have to be Alpha.”
“What's so bad about Shaw? He's all right. He's the same kind of Bruin as the rest of us.”
“Oh, come on, Silas!” May exclaimed. “You know he's just about the worst man we could get as Alpha. He's a brute. All he cares about is throwing his weight around the place. He doesn't have your business savvy. He doesn't have your sense of planning for the future. I don't think he even knows how to use a computer. Besides, he hardly ever bathes.”
“Well, none of that matters in an Alpha challenge,” Silas replied. “He could tear me apart. That's all that matters.”
“Not always,” Briar added. “If you gathered the support of the rest of our tribe, he wouldn't be able to attack you. You don't have to be physically stronger than him to take over as Alpha. All you really need is a majority of our tribe backing you. If people see our future lies with you and they are willing to stand up to Shaw and say it out loud, you could challenge him without fighting. You could still win.”
Silas cast a glance over his shoulder at his younger sister, and a gleam danced in his eyes. He didn't say anything, but all three siblings knew Briar was right. Raw muscle only carried a potential Alpha so far in the political world of Bruins' Peak.
Silas turned his back on Briar and kept pushing his way uphill into the forest, but Briar watched her brother from behind. Silas didn't normally sell himself short when it came to meeting a thorny obstacle head on. He could fight with the best of 'em, too, because he fought with his brains, not just his muscles.
Maybe he had some other reason to avoid challenging Shaw right now. Maybe delaying worked better with his long-term plans. That calculating foresight matched better with Briar's idea of her brother. Planning and strategy won the day with Silas MacAllister. When the time came, he would squash Shaw like a bug and the whole tribe would be better for it.
The three siblings worked their way uphill onto the tableland adjoining MacAllister territory and Dunlap territory. Silas pressed ahead, and in the end, he broke into a run. “Last one in is a rotten egg!”
Before the words got out of his mouth, he stripped off his shirt to reveal the new wing tattoos covering his shoulders across his back. He tossed the shirt over a tree branch, kicked off his pants, and dove head first into the swimming hole tucked between two hills.
Chapter 2
The bear stuck his nose through the bushes and sniffed. A smell caught his senses, but he didn't dare take another step. He recognized that scent from other places in the woods, but never so strong as now.
He heard voices out of sight. He ought to run from them, but the voices got all tangled up in his mind with that scent. He pushed his way through the bushes to get a better look. That scent dug into his skin and dragged him out against his will.
The sun flickered between the tree branches and struck his eyes. He blinked and squinted with just his shaggy head out in the open. In the distance, the stream sparkled in the sunshine. The voices echoed off stone walls, and water tinkled and splashed along with the voices.
The bear caught sight of two girls frolicking in the swimming hole. Where the water tumbled over mossy rocks, another brown bear stood ankle-deep in a pool. That bear stared into the depths and didn't notice anyone watching him.
All at once, the bear in the stream pounced. He plunged his muzzle into the water and came up with a glistening fish clamped in his jaws. He carried it in triumph to the bank, crouched down, and started eating it.
One of the girls waved her arms. “Yay, Silas! Good catch!”
She stumbled out toward the bear bent over his catch. He raised his head and growled a warning.
“Come on and share,” the girl chided. “I'm hungry.”
The sun flashed on the girl's dripping wet skin. She wore no clothes, and her burnished red-brown hair hung down her back. She skipped over the gravel, and halfway up the bank, she shifted into a gleaming she-bear.
She ambled over to her brother and sniffed the fish, but he only growled and bared his teeth. She licked his snout once and opened her mouth to take a bite when he launched himself off the ground to tackle her.
The she-bear tumbled backward with a squeal, but the male jumped on top of her growling. He opened his mouth and pretended to bite her, but he never closed his jaws. She did the same thing and batted him with her soft paws. Neither of them extended their claws to scratch.
The she-bear brought her legs up against her belly and kicked the male away hard. He rolled along the gravel and launched himself onto his feet. He came up tall and menacing, but instead of joining the attack, he stopped.
A moment later, a handsome, naked young man stood in place of the bear. “I don't want to play anymore. I have to get back.”
The she-bear rose on her hind legs and shifted into the naked woman. “What about your fish?”
He waved his hand. “You can have it. I'm going home. I've been out too long as it is.”
The girl glanced at the fish
. Then she hurried after him. “Don't leave yet, Silas. We're just having fun here.”
He plucked a white shirt off the tree branch. “I know. You two keep playing. I have to go check on my parts delivery.”
He wiped as much water off his arms and legs as he could before shrugging into his clothes. The girl glanced back and forth between him and the other girl in the pool. “Aw, come on, Silas. I'm just starting to enjoy myself. I didn't want to come out here, but now that I'm here, I don't want to leave.”
He smiled at her and set to work buttoning his shirt. “You stay here. This is the best thing for you right now. You don't want to sit around the house all day.”
“You'll be sitting around the house all day.”
He chuckled. “You're starting to glow like you used to, Briar. You should come out here every day. You should take this place like medicine for what ails you, but I've got too many things going on to hang around here.”
Briar's shoulders slumped. She cast one last nostalgic glance at the swimming hole and picked her shirt off a rock nearby. “Oh, all right. I guess I'll go back, too.”
“You don't have to.”
She tugged the shirt over her head. “Come on, May. Let's get going. I have some mint to dry for Ma when we get home.”
May came out of the pool, and the two girls got dressed in time to catch up with Silas. He already shouldered his way down the path, and his hand went to his pocket to find his phone.
Briar paused right before she turned into the bushes to scan the pool. “I wish I hadn't stayed away from this place so long. I should have come here a long time ago.”
The bear in the bushes took one more step to break into the open. He didn't mean to, but something in that young woman's longing glance dragged him out. Her voice and her hair and her eyes spoke to some forgotten part of him. They made him want her to see him.
Her eye caught the movement, and she stopped in the act of turning around. “Hey, look. There's a bear over there.”
The others turned around at the same time. The old sizzle of danger stood the bear’s hair up along his back when they looked at him, but not that red-haired girl. Her eyes calmed him more than anything he ever knew.