Bear His Bond: Wylde Den Two (Alaskan Den Men Book 9) (6 page)

He palmed her face and angled her head to where all she saw was his searing gaze.

“It’s because you’re my mate. And if you go out that door and get hurt I’ll fucking kill someone or something. Then probably fucking die in the process.”

His Mate? Oh
.

Eyes wide, her mouth worked but nothing came out. That was a first. Was that a confession of love? A proposal of marriage, as he’d put it? What did she do? What did he want her to say?

Tears burned the back of her eyes, but she fought to keep the well of hope in her heart locked away in case it was only a ruse to keep her here, close to him so he didn’t have a dead tourist muddying up his clean record with Wylde Excursions.

She knew better. She could lie to herself all she wanted, but the man meant every word he uttered. The kind of pain coloring his words was the kind a man buried. A pain that came from deep within, a place he never shared with anyone. She knew because the truth stared back at her. His eyes glowed with that now familiar golden ethereal light, but unlike other times fear mixed in those depths and silently pleaded with her to understand.

“Stay here.” She turned aside and it tore her apart to move that small fraction away from him. She clipped her pistol to her belt, gathered her gear and the case of vials in one hand, and tossed a water bottle his way to land on the couch with the other she tried to force down him to no avail. “You need lots of liquids. I won’t take long.” She couldn’t mate or marry a dead man. She had to do this.

“Like hell. Fuck that. It’ll take a bullet to the head and not the leg to keep me here laid up on the couch like some pussy while my mate puts herself in danger for me.”

She kind of liked his all alpha mode, but that little tidbit stayed with her. He found out and all kinds of things could get out of whack.

“For us,” she corrected, turning to him. He crossed the short distance between them, leaning heavily on the couch and each piece of furniture between them for support. Nothing was holding him back, apparently.

She dropped her supplies and pressed both palms to his cheeks. “You do know you have a fever and you’ve been shot, right? Do you know why you can’t breathe and you’re probably seeing two of me?”

“’Cause you’re tearing my insides to pieces, woman!” A deep growl rumbled through her as he wrapped his arms around her.

“Please don’t go. Rone will be up this way in a day or two to check on the place. He always does. We can hold up until then.”

Tyrone, Rone for short, was Everett’s second eldest brother and the quiet one of the Wylde brothers. She had met him a handful of times at Sunday dinner with their large family. He either stuck to the bar and bakery he owned or spent his time in the woods for the most part. You never experienced a true Alaskan family gathering until you had ten plus werebear shifters in one room with a table full of food.

Waiting wasn’t an option. All the more reason to make sure no one would harm her new friends. Thousands of animals drank from that water too, but how many human shifters used it as well? She didn’t make the connection soon enough. Maybe the sick animals were a byproduct of the ice bears’ real intentions.

Dammit, if one life was lost on her watch she’d never forgive herself.

“You’ve been poisoned. I don’t know the why behind Brax’s actions, but I think I know by what. Have you heard of Silverleaf nightshade?”

His eyes widened. “Son of a bitch.”

“Yeah. That stuff can kill full grown elks and bears. That’s why I need to make sure. If I don’t find out how to help you, we could have a major crisis on our hands.”

Realization of their situation hit and his eyes became razor focused. Anger threatened to take hold, but he tapped it down. She spent enough time around her brothers to know it simmered just beneath the surface and would find an outlet sooner or later.

“Rone has a radio. Getting to his place will be a bitch and slow, but faster than waiting for him. We’ll call in support while you do your testing back at his place.”

“Since you refuse to leave, think you can you make it?”

“If it kills me.”

“Not funny, Ev.”

“Not really laughing, Doc.” He grabbed her arm and spun her around as she reached for the handle.

Momentum carried her straight into his waiting arms. Damn if her hands didn’t land on the firm space his chest took up. Looking up at him wide-eyed, she held his gaze as he lowered his face closer to hers. “We’re not done here. This thing between you and me, we clear this up, figure out what the hell this ice bear is up to and then this,” he waved a finger between the small space separating their noses, “will be addressed.” His tone held no room for negotiations nor did the hard kiss he stole that left her breathless. Honestly, she was kind of curious to find out what he had to say on the topic. For now she’d keep the L word under wraps until she could figure out his game. If he played one. But if he kept looking at her like that, she didn’t know how much longer she would hold out.

Pepper leveled her gaze with his. “Touché, werebear. Touché.”

CHAPTER SIX

Her silence burned. And his treacherous bear drummed up numerous concoctions on how she would refuse them. Smooth.

A mixture of fog from the surrounding mountains and mist from the lake rolled in sometime during the night. Heavy weighted sheets of the stuff collected in the valley like some botched science experiment to create one hell of a freaking wall his senses couldn’t penetrate. Every damn shadow had him on high alert. Why the hell did he agree to risking her safety for a few samples of water? He could have easily come here alone for whatever she needed.

His gaze shot from one side of the tree line to the other. Off in the distance the low call of an elk bull sounded off before everything grew quiet again. Above, endless blue sky woke from the night’s slumber with an array of blue hues.

He’d shake this off like he did everything else—it was just taking longer.

His legs trembled and his heart felt like it wanted to either come to a full stop or explode from the strain of his efforts. She didn’t understand the metabolism of his heritage. Fear for him drove her out here and his fear for her wouldn’t keep him pinned down for the world.

Her silence carried a heavy weight, and he flirted with the idea of slinging her over his shoulder and going cavemen. She would be mad as a hungry grizzly, but at least she’d be alive.

Maybe he should have kept his confession to himself, but she had a way of riling him up that not even his brothers could provoke from him.

He took another step and then another, shoving down the bolts of white hot pain that blazed up his left leg every time his foot connected with the solid ground. He’d found another staff to serve as a cane, but at this point, nothing really helped.

He pushed harder and worked to steady his trembling heartbeats, but it didn’t seem to work.

“You grit your teeth any harder and they’re gonna crack.”

Everett tore a hand through his hair and squinted one eye closed as a drunkard would to help counteract the seesawing motion of the ground.

He ached to reach out and pull her in close, but she kept a solid three paces in front of him since stepping off the back porch thirty minutes ago. “She speaks,” he worked out between stiff lips. “I wondered if it was present company that had your tongue on hold or just enjoying the walk.” He tried to crack the tension, but she didn’t bite. And nothing about the walk in the early morning light spoke of tranquility. Normally at this hour robins and hares would be out foraging for berries and little insects to feed on. Instead, everything was quiet, even his little minx.

“I’m just focusing. Shh.”

Maybe. But he knew her better than that. When something weighed on her mind, she fell quiet. If he could figure a way to get her to talk, maybe he could find out how to smooth over any rough edges his confession created. Otherwise, the walk to his brothers would be very long and painful.

Everett took a couple of deep breaths. Sunlight twinkled between the branches to softly stroke along her exposed shoulders and kissed the lobes of her ears. The effect settled in his mind and worked like a painkiller.

But he couldn’t fight back the anger as it slipped deeper in his gut and wrapped around his insides until he could barely breathe. Brax, the fucker, had almost taken her away from him yesterday.

He wanted blood. Today he and his brother would put a stop to him and whatever the hell he had up his sleeve. One way or the other. He’d sensed a shift in the ice bear’s attitude toward the den members months ago at the onset of winter. When he disappeared three months ago, none of them knew what to what to make of it. The second he showed his face, filled with scars and strange bruises, to Adam a couple weeks back, he and his brothers knew something was up. His explanation of a tussle in a bar up north didn’t fly then and made lesser sense now.

He frowned. “Let’s pick up the pace.”

She had the ends of that damn scarf of hers wound tight around her fingers and her glasses perched slightly off-kilter. A vision of adorable geeky beauty. He wanted to smile but couldn’t find the energy.

Pepper pegged him with a curious, worried expression. “You sure?” Though his command grated on her judging by the way her steps faltered, she didn’t miss a beat and kept up with his longer, lopsided strides.

He reached for her hand and gave her fingers a light squeeze.

Sweat dripped down his back and his hold slipped on his wooden cane, forcing him to refocus and tighten his grip. Erratic heartbeat after erratic heartbeat had him breathing heavier than usual, but they didn’t have time for him to stop and rest.

He hunched over briefly and stumbled over an unexposed root that poked out of the heaving ground that wouldn’t stay still no matter how many times he blinked.

He grimaced.

“We have to stop, you can’t go any further. I’ll go ahead and get the samples. You stay here and rest.”

“No.” He gathered the last of his strength and she slipped beneath his other arm and helped steady him. “We go together or we don’t go at all.”

“That’s not an option, Ev.”

“Exactly. Now let’s go, Doc.” Her back grew rigid, but she didn’t press him for more. Thank God. He didn’t have the strength to argue with her and walk at the same time.

The small trail through the tall grass rounded a bend that cut through the trees and came to the open field hugging the lake. Unease settled between his shoulder blades as though someone watched.

“We’re here.”

“Grab what you need, and be quick so we can be on our way. We’re way too exposed out here.” Every word came with a struggle. He grunted as he pulled to a stop and narrowed his eyes on the horizon where the trees still stood in deep shadow, the fog impenetrable. If it really turned out to be Silverleaf nightshade Brax laced the bullet that pierced his leg with, it wreaked havoc with his heightened senses big time.

Glass rattled. “Shit.”

He bit out a curse. Damn, he didn’t mean to spook her. His heart hammered in his chest and his mouth grew dry.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. You don’t need to be nervous,” he rasped, unable to swallow. Black spots clouded his vision as he lowered himself to his good leg to try to rest before the even longer hike to his brothers through the back woods that connected the Wylde territory and land his brothers owned.

“I know. I know. It’s just I don’t have many bullets left and what if, you know…” She slid those sexy black-rimmed glasses up the bridge of her nose for the fifth time in as little minutes. It drove him mad and made his finger itch to pluck them off her face and kiss her silly.

He laid his staff down and moved in closer. “Let me help.” Everything became blurry and he shook his head to clear the cloudy images.

“No. You come in contact with this water anymore and I’ll be lugging your dead ass up the hill. Not a good idea. The mist off the water is already affecting you.”

“Not really. I’m okay. Scout’s honor.”

“Let me get the test tubes filled and labeled then we can go.”

Pepper set out three empty containers followed by three more containing a yellow solution that bubbled when moved. A purple one that turned blue when it came in contact with the water she dripped into it and a clear one that turned black when it came into contact with the same water. To him it all looked like a collection of magickal potions rather than what a wildlife vet would keep on hand.

“I didn’t know you could test on the go?”

“Normally we can’t but my mom and I created a portable system that can help test if water is potable for humans to consume. One time, outside Vancouver on the U.S. side we ran into a case where several animals died. It could have all been prevented if we could test the water right then and there. A bunch of government red tape and paperwork. So, Mom devised a concoction from plants and herbs that helps me do on the spot testing for contaminants or poisons. You’d be surprised by what the natives in Africa use to clean wounds and purify water.”

The soft tone of her voice lulled his eyelids closed. She carried on, but his brain checked out as her sweet voice carried on the soft current of cool air coming off the water. She talked when she was nervous. He smiled.

Dew coated the grass where he reclined. Small shallow breaths came and went until his eyes drifted shut. Ten minutes. That was all he needed.

“Everett, wake up. Wake up, dammit.” Fear in Pepper’s voice lured him from the blackness that cocooned around him, locking him in place. Roars rattled in his head but his body refused to respond.

Fire stung his cheek and his eyes shot wide. Stark light drove spikes deep into his pupils.

“What the hell, Pepper.” He sputtered and choked as she poured some kind of nasty-tasting liquid down his throat.

“Swallow. All of it.”

She poured. He worked his throat. That or drown.

The more he drank the less he felt like a jackhammer replaced his heart and the clearer his mind became.

“You weren’t breathing. God, Everett, you stopped breathing. Get up. We have to move you away from the water. The mist from the lake is poisoned. I thought you could hold out, but it’s stronger than yesterday.”

Something more than just sweat coated his skin. “Step back from the water.” If it did this to him, what would it do to her? Every time she touched him, fire breathed over his skin as if someone poured gasoline from head to toe and lit a match.

What the hell was going on? He inhaled and nearly vomited from the vileness that oozed down the back of his throat.

“You have to move now, Everett. The medicine I gave you isn’t strong enough. You need more and if we stay here you’re going to die. Do you hear me? Die—I can’t do that. Let you die.”

Medicine? It was more like acid.

“What did you give me?” He gritted through the pain and forced himself to his knees. There were a few things that could kill a werebear. Not many knew their weakness, and the bitterness coating his tongue she’d given him something herbal.

“Fireweed and yarrow, now can we move?”

How the hell did a wildlife vet know the healing powers of that combo? She never ceased to amaze him. Ever.

His eyes watered from the burn and it took every ounce of strength inside him to pry his eyelids open.

He nodded. He could work through the fear he saw in her eyes later. Maybe convincing her to stay wouldn’t be so hard, after all.

“Come on, aren’t you a fucking dominant alpha grizzly?” Arms braced beneath his arms, she hastily lifted. Bless her for trying. No way his sweet little human could lift him.

Everett swung his gaze around to her and despite the waterworks trying to fight off the poison eating at his eyes, he smiled and pumped his chest a couple of times to try to ease her worry.

“Yes, you’re a regular king of the jungle.”

He pulled his shirt off as she poured fresh water over the soft material.

“Woods,” he corrected as he wiped his face, breathing a little easier.

“Whatever. Let’s boot scoot.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Pure adrenaline and a side dose of her juju flushed his veins and he hauled himself to his feet. “What the hell just happened?”

“You passed out. The heavy dose coming off the water hit you like a ton of bricks. But get this, I found something.” She talked as they gathered her things and started out toward his brothers and out of the fucking death trap. Excitement worked into her energy. It gathered behind her eyes and spilled over through every part of exposed skin she touched on him. It spiked as though someone juiced his adrenal gland, and he lost his footing momentarily.

No. Fear flooded him. But so did excitement. It warred, clashed, mixed until it bubbled inside him and he wanted to jump for joy one second and run the next. Why didn’t he see it sooner? God, he was the biggest idiot. Normally a mate needed his bite before they could exchange the healing energy of an alpha werebear. Or see inside each other’s thoughts.

Could it be? No. He scrubbed a weak hand over his face. He had to be delusional. His parents said that the magick of Draeonians had been so strong between them that a bond formed before his father had claimed his mother. With his bite it forged a connection so strong it allowed her to shift with his father on command instead of after birthing the first shifter blood child. But a bond like that between mates had only happened once in the last five generations in their bloodline. Could it happen again so soon, and to him of all grizzly shifters? Twenty-four hours ago he didn’t even want a mate, much less a true mate like Pepper.