Bruins Peak Bears- Complete Series, page 177
part #1 of Bruins Peak Bears Series
Grace woke her from her reverie by tugging at Natalie’s clothes. “Is it ready yet?”
Natalie smiled down at her. “Almost.”
“What’s taking so long?” Grace asked.
Natalie laughed. “My brain isn’t working, but I’ll get it done now.”
She finished cutting the tomato and folding the lettuce against the bread. She sat Grace at the table and set the sandwich in front of her. Natalie returned to the kitchen to get her own sandwich when her brother Rhys walked through the front door.
He took one look at the sandwich and grinned at Natalie. “Is that for me?”
She smiled back at him. “This one’s for me, but if you ask nicely, I might be convinced to make one for you.”
He lifted her hand and pressed it to his heart. “Please, oh, please, Natalie darling, would you pretty please make me a sandwich just like that?”
She laughed and pushed him away. “Cut it out.”
He leaned against the kitchen counter and chuckled. He cast a glance toward Grace eating at the table. “It’s awfully quiet around here. Where is everybody?”
Natalie set the sandwich on a plate and handed it to her brother. “Briar went down to her parents’ house, and I don’t know where Riskin is.”
Rhys took an enormous bite of sandwich and mumbled with his mouth full, “What did she go home for?”
“Her father’s dying. She wants to help her mother and Silas deal with everything.”
Rhys froze with a lump in his cheek. “You don’t say.”
Natalie cocked her head. “What’s wrong?”
Rhys set his plate down. He finished chewing and wiped his wrist across his mouth. “If Don’s dying, that means Silas will be taking over as Alpha.”
Natalie stiffened. “Don’t tell me you’re gonna make trouble for Silas again. Don’t tell me you’re gonna drag this Peak back into conflict and war, just when we got all our problems worked out.”
He shrugged. “What do you think is gonna happen? Silas will be Alpha, and I’m Riskin’s second. We’re bound to butt heads.”
“Only if you want to. If you accept him and support him, you wouldn’t have to butt heads.”
“How can I accept him and support him when we’ve always been enemies? We’ve been against each other from the beginning, ever since…” He broke off.
Natalie chopped her hand through the air. “You don’t have to say it. You’ve been enemies since Briar helped Riskin challenge you as Alpha.”
A black cloud crossed Rhys’s face. “It isn’t only that. Silas backed Ash Dunlap to make peace with the Midnight when I wanted war. Then he sided with that freak Arryn Stark and turned the whole mountain against me.”
“He never turned the whole mountain against you,” Natalie countered. “You and Shaw did that all by yourselves. You refused to listen to reason when Arryn negotiated the alliance with the other Alphas.”
“They never should have made the alliance,” Rhys grumbled. “They should have thrown that NightShade out on his ear.”
“That’s none of your business,” Natalie snapped. “You’re not Alpha anymore. Riskin won in a fair fight. When are you gonna realize that?”
He spun away and headed for the door. “Never. I’ll never rest until I stop them all.”
Natalie caught his hand and held him back. “You can’t fight everybody. When are you gonna put all this hatred and conflict behind you? Make peace with Silas for everybody’s sake.”
He glared at her under his heavy brows. “You’re one of them now, aren’t you? You supported me when I was on top, but now that I’m on the bottom, you turn against me. You’re just like all the others.”
She tried to draw near him. “It’s not like that, and you know it. I couldn’t turn against my Alpha, but I never stopped caring about you, even when Riskin took over. He’s done everything he could to help you. He made you his second when the rest of the Peak wanted him to discipline you. You should be grateful to him, and if you don’t know how much I love you, me telling you won’t make any difference.”
He yanked his arm out of her grasp. “I don’t need love. I need blood. I’ll challenge Silas.”
“And then what? What will you do if you win?”
“I guess if I win I’ll be MacAllister Alpha.”
Natalie stared at him. “You couldn’t be MacAllister Alpha. You’re not even part of their family.”
Rhys gave a hysterical laugh. “I know. Isn’t it perfect?”
Natalie’s chin sank down on her chest. “Don’t do this, Rhys. Make peace with Silas and leave well enough alone. I’m begging you. Bruins’ Peak has suffered enough conflict already. Let everything go back to the way it was before.”
“It can never go back to the way it was before,” he growled. “I was Alpha the way it was before, and that can never happen as long as Riskin is alive.”
Before she could say more, he raced out the door on his way to wreak havoc and mayhem. The door slammed behind him, and the windows rattled in their frames. Natalie took her sandwich to the table and sank into the chair opposite Grace. This was exactly what she didn’t need right now, on top of her own problems.
Across the room, her tablet cheeped its notification. Max must be trying to contact her again, but she didn’t go get it. She had to think before she talked to him again.
Grace eyed her across the table. Natalie shrank before the girl’s all-seeing eye. She dreaded what Grace would say about her exchange with Rhys. “Did Daddy and Uncle Rhys get in a fight?”
Natalie sighed. “That was a long time ago. They aren’t fighting now.”
Grace didn’t take her eyes off Natalie’s face. She didn’t believe a word Natalie said. “But Uncle Rhys is fighting with somebody else.”
“That’s his business. If he wants to make a mess of his life, no one can stop him.”
Grace went back to eating her sandwich. Natalie’s tablet gave another demanding beep, but Natalie didn’t get up or check it. She refused to have her life ruled by a machine, and whatever Max had to say could wait until Natalie figured out what to say back.
The tablet chirped one more time, but Natalie munched her sandwich like nothing ever happened. “Don’t you want to check your computer?” Grace asked.
Natalie giggled. “What are you worrying about that for?”
“You almost always answer your computer when it calls you. You say someone is calling you.”
Natalie blushed. No one could put one past this little shark. “Yeah. Someone is calling me, but I don’t have to answer if I don’t want to.” She could think of only one person trying to call her.
“What if they get mad and don’t want you to talk to you anymore?”
“Then I’ll get someone else to talk to. Now, let’s stop talking about my computer and figure out what we’re going to do for the rest of the day. What do you feel like, and don’t tell me you want to read books all afternoon. I know. Let’s go for a walk in the woods. We could go swimming, or fishing, or tracking. What do you say?”
Grace hopped up off her chair. “Goody! Let’s go.”
“Hold on, Pumpkin. I’ve got to clean up the dishes.”
“Uncle Rhys didn’t clean up his dish,” Grace pointed out.
Natalie snorted. “No, he didn’t. Funny how he always seems to leave it for someone else to do.”
She washed the dishes and put them away. She walked out onto the veranda with Grace, and she had never been so happy to leave her computer behind with its three unanswered messages.
Chapter 4
Silas put his phone on mute when he went back downstairs. The whole house loomed silent all around him. He stole down the hall to his parents’ bedroom, but what he found there didn’t surprise him.
His father Don lay flat on his back in bed. Already the old man’s skin shone white and deathly against the pillow. The sun streaming through the windows only made him look more like a corpse.
Iris sat on a chair by the bed. She rocked back and forth the same way she did in the kitchen. She knit her fingers together in her lap, and a subtle moaning sound came from deep in her throat. She never took her eyes off her husband’s unresponsive face.
As Silas watched, the old man took a deep breath and let it out. Then he went back to not breathing for a long time before doing it all over again.
Briar stood in a corner by the closet. One hand covered her mouth, and she stared at her parents in wide-eyed horror. No one would recognize the two powerful Bruins who controlled a tribe together for over fifty years.
Silas eased around the room and took Briar by the arm. He led her out to the living room and shut the door behind her. “Leave them alone for a while. There’s nothing you can do in there, and staring at them will only sap your nerves.”
“There must be something I can do,” Briar fretted. “I can’t just stand by and wait for them both to die.”
Silas put his arms around her. “I’m sorry. I wish I could tell you something you could do, but there isn’t anything. We’ll just have to wait.”
She leaned her head on his shoulder. “I can’t. I’m sorry. I know you’re right, but I can’t just do nothing. Ma raised me all my life to do something to help people. Now, I can’t help the people who need it most.”
“You can help them. You can be here. You don’t have to do anything else. You being here is the best thing you can do for anybody, including yourself. You don’t have to save everybody all the time.”
Briar nodded, but she struggled to get her emotions in check. “I know. I’m trying, but it’s hard, you know?”
“You’re upset. We all are, losing Pop and now Ma, too. Just relax here and feel it. It’s okay. No one expects you to keep it all together here. You’re with family.”
She brushed the hair out of her eyes. “I’m worried about Grace. Natalie took care of her for four hours this morning, and then I got your call. I’ve been here ever since, and Natalie has been taking care of her all that time.”
Silas cocked his head. “So what are you asking me?”
“Could I bring her here? She’s never been left alone this long, and Riskin is gone in town, too.”
Silas pushed her away. “Sure. Go home and get her. You can tell Riskin what you’re doing so he doesn’t worry.”
“I don’t know if he’ll be there.”
Silas pulled out his phone. “Would you like me to call him and explain the situation?”
Briar’s hand shot out. “No! Don’t do that. I’ll take care of it. Thank you, Silas.”
“Don’t thank me. This is your home. You belong here as much as I do, and if bringing Grace here will ease your mind, then by all means, do it.”
She planted a quick kiss on his cheek and raced out of the house. Silas milled around the living room for a while, but the pall of death hung over the house. He didn’t want to stay here himself, not with two people dying in the other room.
Briar’s car crossed his field of vision as it headed down the road. Who knew when she would get back with Grace and infuse this place with some much-needed life? He could go to his room and have a cyber-chat with Penny. His chest burned with excitement just thinking about it, but uncertainty and conflict surrounded her in his mind.
He had no idea what to say to her, even when he could think of thousands of different scenarios he’d like to play out with her. He wanted her, and he didn’t want to want her. He wanted more than anything to talk to her, to ease his mind, but he didn’t want to talk to her.
He never found anything he didn’t want to talk to her about before, but he couldn’t talk to her about his father dying. She wouldn’t understand about Bruins and Alphas and mates dying at the same time. Whatever else he did, he couldn’t let her find out he was a Bruin, but how could he love her without her finding out?
The whole situation left a bad taste in his mouth. He wished he never started talking to her in the first place, but he couldn’t get out of it now. He cared too much. He depended on her. He needed and craved their charged exchanges like he needed food and air.
He couldn’t hang around dwelling on these things, though. He had to clear his head. His whole tribe depended on him. He strode out the front door and down the path toward the trees. The woods invited him to shift and disappear.
The bear didn’t know anything about computers. It didn’t know anything about some words on a computer screen. The bear didn’t know anything about Penny and never would. Only Bruins mattered, and Penny wasn’t one.
The bear’s power surged in Silas’s veins, but before the woods swallowed him up, voices startled him coming from the other side of the barn. He veered off and stole around the corner to listen. His blood ran cold at what he heard.
The first voice he recognized as Shaw’s. “No, I said! I don’t care what you say. I won’t do it.”
Silas froze in his tracks when he heard the other voice answer Shaw. Silas would recognize that voice anywhere. It was Rhys Dodd. “How many times do I have to tell you? You can’t lose. Just make the first move, and I’ll do the rest.”
“What are you gonna do?” Shaw shot back. “You’re gonna attack him and challenge him for his job? Forget it. I’ve made my peace with him. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll do the same thing.”
“I’ll never make peace with him,” Rhys snarled. “I’ll fight him tooth and nail, and if you’re too chicken-livered to attack him, I’ll do it myself.”
“I won’t do that. I’m married to his sister.”
“That never stopped you before.”
“He’s my Alpha,” Shaw replied. “He wasn’t before. I thought I had a good chance of beating him down, but he won. He’s only gotten stronger since then, and he’s got the whole tribe behind him and the rest of the Peak, besides. What do you think is gonna happen if you try to challenge him for leadership of someone else’s tribe? You’ll bring the whole Peak down on your head.”
“Will you listen to yourself? Nothing matters but winning in a fair fight, and you’ll be Alpha if we win.”
“It won’t be a fair fight if we team up on him” Shaw pointed out. “One of us would have to fight him, and neither of us is strong enough to take him alone. You know that as well as I do. I’ve made peace with him and all the rest of the MacAllisters, and he’s been good to me ever since. I won’t destroy the family going against him now.”
Rhys lowered his voice to stop anyone hearing him. He would never guess his old enemy listened from a few feet away. “Don’t you want to be Alpha? Don’t tell me you want to lick someone else’s boots the rest of your life.”
A hint of a sharp edge snuck into Shaw’s voice. “Is that what you’re doing, licking your brother’s boots?”
Rhys growled through gritted teeth. “Don’t you talk about my brother.”
“You see how it is? You’re not the only one who knows what side his bread is buttered on. I’m doing this for Dana and my baby boy.”
“Oh, really?” Rhys sneered. “I thought you were doing it for yourself. I thought you were doing it because he’s been so good to you.”
Shaw didn’t rise to the bait. “Silas is a good Alpha. The MacAllister tribe couldn’t do better. If Silas doesn’t get married and have children of his own, my son stands a good chance of becoming Alpha in his own right someday.”
“You really are thick-headed, aren’t you?” Rhys spat. “If you win, you will be Alpha. Nothing will stop you and your line from controlling this whole tribe. How can you turn your back on that?”
Shaw’s voice dropped a register. “You heard what I said. I won’t fight him, and neither will you as long as I have anything to say about it. Don’t come around this Homestead again if you’re gonna talk like that. The whole place is on a hair-trigger as it is with Don dying. We don’t need you making it worse with that kind of talk.”
Silas heard footsteps heading straight for him, but they stopped before they got to the corner. “Hey!” Rhys snapped. “I’m talking to you. Don’t you dare walk away from me.”
“We’re finished here,” Shaw returned. “You heard what I said. Don’t come back here again. If you make trouble for Silas or any of the MacAllisters, I’ll fight you myself. I’ll defend this tribe with my life. I don’t care who you are or what happened between us before. All that’s over with. Now, go home and don’t show your face to me again.”
This time, nothing stopped Shaw’s footsteps coming toward Silas’s hiding place. Silas didn’t stick around to hear any more. He turned on his heel and set off running for the trees. The foliage closed around him, and he disappeared over the mountain.
Halfway up the slope, he dropped onto all fours, but he never stopped running. He took a leap over a fallen tree trunk, and his hands hit the ground. His fingers curled inward, and his nails lengthened into claws. His legs straightened and kicked against the soft loam.
Shaggy brown fur grew all over his skin, and his face stretched into a dark snout. In the blink of an eye, a big brown bear charged through the forest, but he never slowed his pace. He didn’t pause to amble on his way. He didn’t enjoy the scents of fallen leaves or tear open rotten logs in search of something tasty to eat.
Burning determination drove him up and up, over the mountain to the other side. He didn’t stop running until he came to the very pinnacle of Bruins’ Peak and raced down the other side. The sun vanished behind the rocky outcrop, and the shadows lengthened into evening before he eased to a fast walk.
Still, he didn’t turn aside or hesitate. Only one thought nagged his mind. He had to stop his enemy. He had to cut off Rhys’s advance and defeat him. If Silas couldn’t attack Rhys head on, he had to find another way to hem him in and block his retreat. He had to make his move now, before it was too late.
His bear brain didn’t understand his father dying. He knew only the quick, bold moves of danger and protection. He had to act.
