Montana Wild Bears: Books 1-4 Bundle (BBW Paranormal Werebear Shape Shifter Romance Boxed Set) (37 page)

“Hey.”

“Don’t you know that it’s dangerous to wander these woods alone, Miss? Better allow me to escort you,” Ryder said, flashing a grin. Her core throbbed, but she quieted the hunger in herself. No matter how weak she felt around him, he still had plenty of explaining to do for the things he had done recently. But it was oh so hard focusing on that when all she could see when she looked at him was the man who would never harm her or her loved ones, even if she had proof of the contrary from just a short while ago.

Ryder snaked an arm around her waist and turned her around smoothly, walking her back in the direction she came from.

“Where are you taking me, Ryder?” Jackie asked cautiously, nevertheless going along with him.

“Don’t you worry. I have nothing untoward in mind. Unless that’s what you want, of course,” Ryder said with a wink. Jackie liked the feeling of his hand on her back, the warmth emanating from his palm heating her insides. Staying levelheaded around him was going to be no easy feat.

They walked in comfortable silence, the tension from earlier having seemingly vanished without a trace. She easily fell into step with him, the man confidently leading her through the forest (and further away from the small Bitterroot encampment, she noticed). Jackson had urged her to stay safe, the Alpha as if knowing that she was going to find Ryder no matter how hard she tried not to. As much as her older brother’s extreme carefulness usually irked her, she knew he only wanted what was best for her and his clan. It had been a heavy blow for Jackson to see Ryder as the enemy, and no longer as the boy who he had grown up and learned how to be a bear with. In a lot of ways, Jackie had thought that Jackson’s loss of a friend was as painful as the bloody mess that had followed.

Jackie gasped when the thick snow-covered trees cleared, and she was greeted by the sight of a babbling waterfall, falling into a small pool surrounded by rocks. She knew the place well, yet she had had no idea that he was leading her there. Jackie looked up at Ryder, a wide grin on her pink lips. He smiled back, taking his hand off of her and giving her some space.

“I thought this might be a good place to talk,” he offered quietly as Jackie breathed in the crisp, fresh air, which seemed to wipe the cobwebs from her mind.

“A romantic, aren’t you?” she teased, drawing a smirk from the big man.

“Only when it suits my purposes,” he noted. She quirked a brow at him, putting her hands on her hips.

“I thought you weren’t planning anything untoward, Ryder Hunt!” At that, he just shrugged nonchalantly and padded deeper into the clearing.

Jackie followed him, stopping at the edge of the waterfall. She felt as if someone was watching them, but a cursory glance around her revealed nothing. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, but she attributed it to being with Ryder again. It seemed he needed to do little aside from showing up to get her giddy with excitement. Ryder looked around himself with an air of discomfort, but when she met his gaze, it passed as quickly as Jackie’s had. He’d brought them to the place they had shared their first kiss at when they were still teenagers. The whispered implications were not lost on Jackie.

“So why did you bring me here, Ryder?”

“It’s just about the last place where anyone would know to look for us, I think. Hard enough being us without someone constantly keeping watch, don’t you think?” He winked at her, and she felt the familiar tug of need for him.

She could imagine each curve of muscle on his body so clearly, imprinted on her brain from countless heated nights. A flash of lust flew through her, safe in the knowledge of their solitude. It would be so easy… just reach out and touch him. Kiss him. Love him. So easy, yet so impossible. She broke the eye contact, looking down at the bubbling water as it disappeared into the rocky crevice below. Ice was beginning to form around the pool, but it would be a long time until it froze. They’d often come here, hiding away from their responsibilities and just being together. Even as teenagers, they’d hidden away their love as much as they could, ever fragile as it was.

“I can’t believe you’re doing it all just to get Cabinet,” Jackie blurted after a bout of silence. She looked up, pleading in her blue eyes. She couldn’t fathom that he had become what everybody said – cruel, callous, angry. That simply wasn’t the man she knew, and the more she thought about it, the more impossible it seemed. Even more so now that she had spoken to him, and the initial flash of disbelief and outrage had passed. Ryder inhaled deeply, looking away from her. He seemed to study the waterfall, and the silence between them was deafening, so loud that even the sound of the water couldn’t drown it out.

“I can’t tell you, Jackie. For all our sakes, I have to keep this with me. Whether I want to or not,” he said, a harsh note of remorse in his voice. It only served to flame Jackie on.

“Can’t tell me what? Ryder, you’ve put your clan in danger. You’ve threatened and attacked my brothers. If I hadn’t arrived when I did, you would be nothing but an unfortunate footnote in history – the blood-crazed Alpha who ruined his clan. Is that what you want?” The questions came piling out, her disbelief forming into words she hadn’t expected to utter when they had come to this place that was so sacred to both of them. Her heart ached as she watched him square his jaw, the softness that had been in his eyes just a second ago retreating into the darkness. It left nothing but eyes as icy as the water below them.

“This was a mistake. I’m sorry for indulging you on this. Stay away from me, Jackie, or I will have to do something we both might come to regret,” he said, a threat in his low voice. Without looking at her, he spun around and rushed back into the forest, leaving Jackie staring after him in stunned silence. Her eyes were wide, watching his back grow ever distant from her until he disappeared into the white woods completely. Again, she felt sick to her stomach, bile scratching her throat. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and swallowing the pain of having been wrong. Maybe she didn’t know him. Maybe it had all been make-believe and she had seen what she wanted to see in him, and everyone had been right all along. Ryder Hunt was nothing but a retch and a bastard.

Her muscles went slack, and she thought she would collapse into a pile on the snow. Instead, a primal growl shook her from her revelry, her skin pimpled with goose bumps at the sound. Her eyes shot open, and the sight before her made her take a quick step back, teetering dangerously on the edge of the rocky cliff. Three large, snarling wolves were stalking to her, their heads slightly lowered and their manes bristling. Her stomach dropped.

“What the hell,” she hissed, the adrenaline kicking in. There hadn’t been any wolves in Cabinet for a very, very long time. Not since the bears settled in. The looks in the shining, amber eyes that glared at her told her that these were no ordinary wolves. And they were there to do more than just hassle her a little.

The shift took her violently just as the largest of the three wolves was beginning to pounce. His black and gray coat shimmered like the grayest dust as he leaped through the air, growling loudly. Jackie landed on four feet, baring her teeth the moment her paws touched the snow. She snapped at the wolf that had sunk its teeth into her flank, spinning desperately to throw it off. Any wolf or simple wolf shifter would have cowered in fear at meeting a werebear, but these wolves didn’t hesitate for a moment. Before Jackie could brush one of them off, the other two were on her. Their jaws ripped at her and whenever she managed to kick one off, another would latch on somewhere else. She could taste the blood in her mouth, and she couldn’t tell whether it was hers or theirs. It was all a blur of fur and paws. Jackie roared, all rage and pain.

I won’t make this easy for them.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Ryder was making his way back to the Bitterroot encampment when a roar shook the forest, seeming to make the woods tremble in the face of the pure anger in the voice. He froze for just a fraction of a moment and then, he whipped around and started running towards the waterfall. His clear blue eyes shifted dark brown before his body caught up with him.

Jackie!
Ryder’s body tensed, each muscle on edge as he gave control to the bear. In the span of a few steps, he had turned into the giant, powerful beast that struck fear into anyone who met him on the battlefield. His small round ears were perked, and he greedily huffed in air, trying to find out as much as he could before he got to the waterfall. The noise was coming from there, and he knew it couldn’t be good. Luckily, he had no time to worry. The bear was in charge, and the bear only cared about action, not worrying.

He plowed into the pile of brown and gray fur with all the rage of a protective mate. The first body that he met was a gratifyingly small carcass of a wolf, ripping it off of Jackie’s back and flinging it down the rocky outcrop. He could hear a yelp, a sickening thud and a splash. Grim satisfaction washed over him, the taste of copper on his taste buds. Jackie had managed to get a hold of the neck of one of her assailants, the wolf whining pitifully while the third tried to bite and claw at her eyes, staying out of the reach of her paws. Ryder’s huge body burst towards the third wolf, the biggest of the three, but he dodged Ryder quickly. Smaller and much more agile, the wolves always had the advantage of speed on their side.

Ryder roared ferociously, the mountains echoing back his call with amplified force. As loud as Jackie had been, he was three times that. No one messed with an Alpha’s mate and got away with it. He glanced at Jackie, and seeing that she had pressed the wolf to its side, he made a point to direct his attention back to the wily shifter. Jackie’s coat was matted with blood, and she had an ugly cut on her cheek and down her shoulder, but she could handle that. He knew well enough not to doubt that. The more he looked at the dark wolf, the more familiar he seemed. They circled one another, the wolf careful not to leave his back to either of the werebears. His maw was contorted in a snarl and the row of bright white, jagged teeth had the slightest sheen of pinkish red on them – Jackie’s blood.

Ryder edged closer and closer, the wolf reluctant to leave without his companion. The howls of pain coming from the floored beast cut to Ryder’s bone, but he felt no remorse. Whatever Jackie decided to give him, he deserved it. The dark-coated wolf snapped threateningly at Ryder, posturing though he must have known that he had no chance against two bears. One female with three wolves could have been an unfair fight for the bear, though Ryder’s guess was that they had underestimated Jackie. She would have taken down two before she buckled. When the wolf had crept too close to the cliff wall lining the waterfall, Ryder saw his chance.

He charged, incredible speed bringing him on top of the wolf before he could jump to the side. Ryder clenched his teeth around the spine of the wolf and held on tight, ignoring the shifter’s thrashing. The ragged dog squealed as Ryder pressed down on his spine, dangerously close to breaking it. He closed his eyes as the wolf clung to his cheek and ear, rapping at them in desperation. He knew exactly what he wanted to do with the wolf. Ryder squeezed him against the wall until the beast wheezed for breath, crushing ribs. Then, he flung the wolf after his companion. Right down the cliff. The splash and thud that marked the wolf’s landing in the water filled the Alpha with a twisted sense of retribution.

He whipped his head around to check on Jackie, only then noticing that the yowling and whining had stopped. Jackie was down on her knees in the snow, gasping for breath with her head lowered.  In front of her lay the limp, quiet body of a big, strong man. Ryder stepped closer, pressing down the adrenaline and forming it into a tight ball in the center of his abdomen. He could shift out only, when the bear was convinced there was no immediate danger. As soon as he got back into his human form, he crouched down next to Jackie, making her look up at him with a hand under her chin.

“Jackie, are you alright?” he asked sternly. Her blue eyes shimmered with shock, and her breath was quick and ragged. She had a bad cut on her face and a deep gash going down her shoulder and ending somewhere on her stomach, the fabric of her jacket growing darker and darker on that spot. Ryder’s lips thinned into a line. She was ashen in the face.

“Jackie? Baby, talk to me,” he said, putting an arm around her shoulders. She glanced down at the sprawled out form of the dark-haired man, laying on his stomach.

“Who are they?” she asked flatly, shivering a little. Ryder exhaled deeply and scooped her off the ground, standing up with her in his arms. She protested meekly, but he hushed her quickly. Ryder stepped over the body of the man and treaded towards the forest, determination shining in his eyes.

So spring comes early this time…
he thought somberly, cradling Jackie against him. He could feel the blood pooling against him from her wound. It wasn’t life-threatening, and she was just slightly rattled, but Ryder knew what all of this pointed towards. He’d just been lucky that this time, they hadn’t managed to take his mate from him before he had a chance to do something about it.

“Ryder, who were those wolves? What the hell are they doing in Cabinet? And I can walk, you know,” she snorted after a while, her hands clinging around his neck.

“Yeah, but I bet you don’t want to,” he replied softly, keeping his senses sharp. There was no guarantee that there weren’t any other mangy wolves around, just looking to screw up his afternoon further. He’d hoped this day wouldn’t come quite this fast, and the implications hung above him in bleak colors. “And I’ll tell you as soon as we get to Jackson’s. No arguments,” he warned, knowing full well that she was about to disagree with him. Jackie didn’t say a word, but Ryder could see from the corner of his eye that she was frowning at him. At least her fury had lit up her cheeks with pink again. She always did look the best when she was at her angriest.