Briar on Bruins' Peak (Bruins' Peak Bears Book 7) Read online

  “Well, I never really had a chance to check. He ran away when I tried to get near him.”

  Virginia nodded, but she kept looking back toward the house. “I can't do anything for him anymore. I wish I could, but I have to watch out for Rhys. He's too strong for any of us now. I have to hurry back.”

  Chapter 4

  The bear growled to himself and kicked over logs in his endless search for that elusive scent. Ever since he left the girl by the swimming hole, his tortured spirit raged stronger than ever against everyone and everything. If he couldn't have that scent, nothing meant anything anymore.

  He moved so far away from thinking like a Bruin he never considered going near Homesteads or people anymore. The thought of shifting no longer entered his head. Sniffing that girl brought him the closest he ever came to a person.

  That scent tormented him, waking and sleeping. He woke up furious that he couldn't find her. He searched all day for some relief and never found it. Food burned a hole in his stomach so he found no peace no matter what he did.

  He hated the world for driving him to this madness. He lived as a bear so long he no longer remembered the original injury that drove him away. That didn't matter. Only his present circumstances bothered him now. He had to find that scent. He had to find it at all costs.

  All of a sudden, he stopped dead in his tracks. There it was. It floated into his nostrils on the wind and sent him into a frenzy. He had to gobble it down with great puffs of inhaled air. He had to track it and attack it and maul it with his jaws.

  He barreled through the woods at top speed. His nose scanned the air for any hint of that scent, that bear scent, but he crouched low with his hackles raised when he spotted that girl among the trees.

  She strolled along the path with a basket in her hand. She swung the basket and moved her head from side to side in the sunshine, but she couldn't have been looking very hard. She didn't see a thing on either side of her.

  She wore the same tight white shirt as before, only dry this time. The elastic bands of her white bra showed through the cotton on her back and shoulders. Her chest sloped down in a graceful curve near her armpits, and her trim waist curved out to her buxom hips under a tight miniskirt. Her bare knees showed above the tops of calf-high, flat-heel leather boots. Her copper hair blew back in the breeze.

  She strolled right past the bear without seeing him. She kept walking around the bend so the wind came behind her. It blew the bear's scent straight at her, but she didn't turn around. She bent down at the base of a tree and took something out of her basket. She set it among the tree roots and walked away.

  The bear cowered in his hiding place. Her rounded ass swayed under her skirt when she walked. Her back got smaller and smaller. He caught the scent of something tasty under the tree, and she didn't come back. He crawled forward and sniffed.

  The juicy, savory smell of roasted meat shot squirts of saliva into his mouth. He detected another scent buried under the meat—something bitter and galling. Not even that could deter him. He snuffled the cloth wrapping aside and swallowed the meat in one gulp. The cloth smelled of her.

  He tiptoed along the path in time to see her place another package under another tree. She walked away from that one, too, and left him to discover it on his own.

  The third time she stopped, she set down the basket and moved away without looking back. The bear snuck closer, but didn't go after the food just yet. What was she up to?

  He hid in the scrub, but she didn't leave. She moved a few paces away, but when he watched her voluptuous backside retreat into the distance, it changed into the brown fur of a golden she-bear.

  She ambled from side to side, always moving away from him. She snuffled here and there. She rooted through piles of leaves and overturned logs with her paw, but she never turned around.

  She wandered this way and that. She walked in a zigzag through the forest until the wind shifted the other way. The wind carried her bear scent straight into his nostrils. Every hair stood on end. He couldn't do anything but move toward her.

  He followed from a distance. He should run away, but he couldn't. Her scent drew him after her on an unerring line. She grunted under her breath in her curious search for something. Nothing disturbed her, not even when the wind blew his scent at her from a few feet away.

  The she-bear paused to drink at a stream. She followed the stream uphill for a few paces and turned. She just happened to turn around right in front of him, but she showed no sign of surprise or alarm at finding him near.

  She let out a quick bark of recognition and kept right on walking. She climbed over a boulder and startled a rabbit out of its hole. She let out a snort of surprise and bolted after it.

  Curiosity overcame the bear's reserve. Before he knew it, he jumped forward to join the chase. He came in sight of the female in full pursuit, and his mind blazed to life. He flanked the rabbit and drove it sideways. It dodged the other way. The she-bear skidded in the soft leaf litter and regained her footing. She moved left while the bear moved right, and they moved in for the kill.

  She pounced on the rabbit. She slammed down one paw on its back, but it slithered out, right into his grasp. He drove his open mouth down on top of it and crunched.

  The warm blood trickled down his throat and satisfied an ancient hunger he never knew was there. He lifted the rabbit in his jaws and pranced around in a circle to show it off to his…to the she-bear.

  She turned her head aside and blinked. When he came back and dropped the rabbit in front of her, she sniffed it and licked the side of his face. She tried to nip the limp rabbit, but he growled at her.

  The she-bear crouched down and grumbled under her breath. She darted her snout up under his chin and licked him again. He nosed the rabbit and growled, but when she made another bite at it, he didn't try to drive her away. He tore off a tuft of fur and sneezed. Then they both sat down on the ground and ripped the rabbit to pieces.

  The she-bear finished eating first. Without waiting for him to finish, she got up and walked away. He wolfed down the last bites and hurried to catch up with her, but she showed no sign of seeing him.

  She wandered all over the woods in a circuitous journey with no particular destination in sight. Sometimes he trotted at her side. Sometimes something distracted him so he fell behind, but he always came back to her. He sniffed her ears until she swung her jaws around to snap at him.

  All at once, she stopped. She hunted around at the base of the tree. The male hung back. That tree smelled of people. The same basket sat among the roots.

  The she-bear tipped the basket over and pushed open another cloth-wrapped package with her nose. The male hung back and wouldn't come near it until she nosed something savory toward him. He sniffed the same laced meat he ate at the other two spots.

  She nibbled off a corner and moved it closer to him. She nudged it right under his nose where the delicious scent rose into his nostrils. He couldn't resist. He bent down and took a bite.

  The juices filled his mind with thoughts of home. He moved closer, and his shoulder touched hers. He leaned his weight against her and rumbled low in his chest.

  The next instant, the saccharine-sweet smell of rose perfume stung his eyes. His big head whipped around, and he found himself sitting right next to the red-haired girl. She didn't look at him.

  She picked up a glass container from the basket's spilled contents. She twisted off the top and help it out to the bear. “This is witch hazel salve. It's really good for wounds. Let me put some on your leg. It looks like it hurts when you walk on it.”

  She swirled her finger in the salve and moved her hand closer to him. The bear jerked away from her with a toothy snarl and vanished into the woods.

  Chapter 5

  Briar froze with her hand on the door knob. “What's going on here?”

  People crammed the living room. Her mother Iris, Silas and May sat in the MacAllister living room.

  As soon as Briar walked in the door, Iris stood up
to confront her. “We know you went out to meet Riskin Dodd. You don't have to deny it, Briar.”

  Briar squared her shoulders. “I won't deny it. I went to give him some food, and I took him some medicine, too. His injuries have never healed.”

  Silas got up from the other side of the room. “I told you to stay away from him. I warned you not to go near him, but you did it, anyway.”

  She rounded on him. “You don't have the authority to order me to do anything, Silas.”

  Silas's shoulders swelled to twice their normal size. “Oh, yes, I do. You just watch and see if I have the authority or not.”

  “Someone's got to help him. His own family doesn't even care about him anymore.”

  “And with good reason,” Silas replied. “He's too far gone to bother with.”

  “Really, honey,” her mother added. “Don't you think you better pay attention to some normal Bruin instead of some madman from the hills?”

  “I'm not interested in Riskin as a mate. I just want to help him.”

  Iris shook her head and turned away. Silas moved in. “You've talked of nothing but Riskin since we saw him by the swimming hole. He's turning into an obsession with you, and now you deliberately went and visited him when I told you not to.”

  “Since when do you tell me what to do? You're my brother, not my Alpha, and even if Pop did tell me not to visit Riskin, I would probably still do it. Since when has anyone in this family turned their back on a Bruin in need? Isn't that what you've been trying to teach me all these years, Ma? He's the one you should be trying to help, not Bass Cunningham and all the others who can take care of themselves.”

  “I haven't been teaching you to put yourself in danger, honey. That Bruin is dangerous. I talked to some people about him since you started getting interested in him. He's attacked several people, including his own mother.”

  “He attacked you, too, Briar,” Silas put in. “You can't deny that.”

  “I don't deny it. That only proves how bad he needs help. He's hurt, not only in his body, but in his mind. He only needs kindness to get through to him. Isn't that worth the risk?”

  “It's not worth your safety,” her mother replied. “From now on, you stay away from Riskin Dodd.”

  “I'm sorry, Ma. I just can't do that.”

  Silas surged forward. He pointed in Briar’s face and thundered down at her. “That's it. You disobeyed me, and now you're disobeying Ma. This whole Riskin Dodd thing has gone too far. You stay away from him. Do you hear me? I forbid you to see him again. You're not to go near the parts of the forest where you might find him unless one of us is with you. Do you understand me?”

  Briar's hackles raised, and her hands balled into fists. “How dare you talk to me like that? Who do you think you are? I'm not yours to order around. I'll go where I want and do what I want. You go back to your room and play with your phone, boy. You keep your opinions about my life to yourself.”

  Silas chopped the air with his hand. “As long as I'm living in this house, I'll have something to say about anything you do that affects this family. You're playing with fire, going around that Bruin, and you know it. You're risking your life, and that affects me and everyone else. You just heard Ma say you shouldn't see him again, and you threw her words right back in her face. Now you'll hear it from me. If you don't back down and do as you're told, I'll have no choice but to discipline you.”

  “Discipline me?” Briar laughed in his face. “I'd love to see you try. You're too worried about getting a smudge on your shirt to lift a finger around here. You don't do anything except mess with your phone from morning 'til night, and you think you can come along and discipline me? Since when are you Alpha around here?”

  “I'm all the Alpha you ever need to know about, girl. Go upstairs, and if I find out you visited Riskin again, there’ll be trouble. Understand that right now.”

  Before she could catch herself, she overreacted. The she-bear exploded out of her with a tremendous bellow, and she flew across the room at him with slashing claws and spit foaming on her lips. She launched herself at his head, and he barely got his arms up in time to jam her jaws away from his face.

  Her teeth clamped around his starched sleeve, but she didn't reckon on his hidden strength. She knew her brother was strong, a lot stronger than he looked. She never considered how strong he really was.

  With one massive eruption of his arms, he sent her sprawling across the room. Iris shrank back, and May jumped off the couch, but Silas already shifted and charged across the room to attack Briar.

  She landed against her father's easy chair. He hit her with all his weight before she rolled to the floor. In seconds, he weighed her to the ground and flattened her under a bundle of muscle and fur.

  Briar spat and roared and slashed and bit, but he overpowered her without even breaking a sweat. He knocked her head aside with one sweep of his neck and closed his teeth around her cheek. He pinned her head to the floor and held her there until she stopped thrashing.

  Iris moved in. “Children, children. Let's not have any fighting in the house. Come on, Silas. Let her up.”

  In an instant, Silas's weight lifted off her. He tugged his sleeves down to his wrists and smacked his lips over the hole in the fabric. He gritted his teeth and growled down at Briar. “Go upstairs.”

  Briar scrambled to her feet and ran for the stairs. She didn't look back, but slammed her bedroom door and threw herself on her bed.

  What was the matter with her? Why did she let Silas or anybody else rattle her about Riskin? She never fought with her siblings before. They always stayed close no matter what.

  She put on a brave face and told them all she wasn't interested in Riskin as a mate, but in her heart, not even she believed that. She didn’t want to be attracted to him, but her bear soul couldn’t help it.

  He was crazy, wasn't he? He didn't shift. He lived his life as a bear in the woods. He would probably stay that way forever. What was the point of getting attracted to him if he wasn't capable of leading a normal life?

  The she-bear didn't care if he could or not. Those few minutes they spent together in the woods imprinted him on her soul. His smell and his presence occupied her every thought. If he couldn't live in the world of houses and people, she would go to him. They would live together as bears. They would always have that, and they would always be happy together.

  How could she even think of him like that? Where was the romance in this tragic story? He was too scarred and traumatized ever to recover. She ought to walk away from him and find herself a successful, well-groomed guy like her brother. No one could ask for anything better.

  Lots of Bruin girls had their eyes on Silas. Handsome, rich, savvy, influential—that's the kind of mate Briar always dreamed of marrying. She dreamed of it, right up until yesterday when she met that battered old bear at the swimming hole.

  A soft knock resounded on her door. May came in without waiting for an answer. Briar buried her face in her pillow. “Leave me alone. I don't want to talk about it.”

  May sat down on the bed next to her. “Don't worry about Silas. He'll be all right in a few hours.”

  “All right! Do you think I care if he's all right? What about me? Doesn't anybody in this stupid house care if I'm all right?”

  May rubbed her back. “We all know you're going to be all right, darling. There's nothing wrong with you. He didn't hurt you.”

  “He's a pig and I hate him.”

  May clucked her tongue. “You shouldn't stand up to him like that, sweetie. He's a lot stronger than you.”

  “He's not my Alpha.”

  “He's stronger than you and he can put you down without lifting his little finger. That makes him all the Alpha you need to know about.”

  “I don't care. I don't care what he says. I won't stop seeing Riskin no matter what anybody says.”

  “He's got a lot more important things to worry about right now than Riskin Dodd. You should be more careful.”

  “A
ll he cares about is his stupid companies. That's all he ever thinks about.”

  “You're wrong, darling. Didn't you see those men who came to see him this morning?”

  Briar flipped over fast. “What do you mean?”

  “You must have seen them in the living room.”

  “I saw 'em, but…” she trailed off.

  May nodded. “Foicks Dunlap, Azer Mackenzie, and Dax Cunningham came to see him yesterday. They want Silas to join them in making war against those panthers from Burkes Road. They want to invade the country and destroy the bear-baiters in their own backyard.”

  Briar blinked. “I didn't…”

  May cut her off, “Then this morning Ash Dunlap, Kelso Cunningham, and Barton Kerr came around to see him. They're trying to get Silas to side with them to seal a peace agreement with the panthers to stop the bear-baiters coming into Bruin territory. Everybody's coming at him from every direction.”

  Briar opened her mouth, but no sound came out. How could she miss this? How could she become so blind to these movements happening right under her nose?

  “And do you know something else?” May went on. “Both groups visited Shaw, too, but at different times. They're both working Silas and Shaw. No one knows which of them will take over as Alpha after Pop. They both want to make sure the new Alpha sides with them.”

  Briar couldn't speak above a whisper. “I didn't know.”

  “Silas is trying to run his businesses while all these competing forces are pulling him in every direction. You've been so wound up thinking about Riskin you didn’t even notice.”

  Briar looked up at her sister. “If you're right, that means…”

  May stood up. “Do me a favor. Don't get into any more fights with Silas. He has no choice now but to prove himself as Alpha. If he loses, Shaw will kill him. Just support him. Take him as your Alpha and do what he says. He doesn't need you worrying him right now.”

  May let herself out and eased the door closed. Briar slumped back on her bed. May was right. She couldn't keep wondering if there is any hope for bringing Riskin to his senses. If he wouldn’t come around, she should walk away from him now and concentrate on potential mates. She should build a real life with someone else.