Betray The Bear (6 page)

“Now why the hell would Nathan send a helpless little thing like you into an enemy clan?” His hand snaked out so fast she gasped, and he gripped her upper arm, then let it go. “You have no muscle at all. Let me guess your bear.”

“Stop it.”

“No, I want to guess, and if I get it right, you tell me why you’re really here. Because, sugar, we both know it ain’t for sanctuary. You might have the others fooled, but not me.” He stalked her, backed her into a tree and put his oversized hand next to her face, trapping her in place. “And when I find out the real reason you’re here, you’re going to wish Riker threw you out of this place to begin with. Koala bear.”

Her
inner bear awoke enough to snort in offense. “No, Sir, I’m not a koala bear. Are there even koala shifters in existence?”

“Probably.” His back was to the moon and his face
was in shadow, but an eerie glow illuminated his face in a soft light. His eyes were striking when he was angry, but frankly, he was scaring the shit out of her. She pressed further back into the tree as her breath hitched in her throat.

“You aren’t a brown bear, that’s for damned sure, and as submissive as you are, I bet you aren’t even a black bear.” He canted his head and dragged his gaze down her body.
“Panda bear.”

“You’re just trying to bait me, sir, and it won’t work.”

“Does your mate require you to call him sir?”

She pursed her lips and looked away. Her relationship with Nathan was none of his damned business. “I’m an Andean bear.”

Chase pulled away like the tree bark had burned his palm. His eyes filled with such anger before he spun around and stomped around a fallen, moss covered log. Her mouth fell open. What did she do? He was the one who wanted to know what kind of bear she was. Perhaps he was mad she’d ruined his game. He didn’t get to guess, so he wouldn’t win any information from her.

She gripped the handle of her luggage and struggled to keep up with him. When the path he blazed intersected with a worn trail, the going got easier but she really wasn’t feeling well now.
“Wait up,” she panted. He was almost over a hill and she didn’t want him disappearing again.

He didn’t slow so
she began to jog. The suitcase hit every pebble and dirt clod on the path and bounced back and forth, making it nearly impossible to control. No muscle. Well, she hadn’t exactly been required to do anything physical before now. She was mate to the alpha for crying out loud. And Nathan wasn’t known for putting his women through battle. That wasn’t her job. Her job was sex and baby making, and someday when she got pregnant, her job would be to raise his cubs. It was the duty of every bear shifter. It’s not like there were thousands of them left. They were a dying species, so no, her focus hadn’t been on hitting the gym. It had been on pleasing her alpha, as was required of any community courteous shifter. This big dumb imbecile could judge her puny arms all he wanted to, but he was wrong and his priorities were backward.

“Over here,” Chase called from the front porch of a small home off the beaten path.

The idiot had let her pass the house by a lot before he let her know she’d gone too far, so she gave a pathetic sounding growl and made a wide circle, dragging her suitcase through the dirt with as much dignity as she could muster. She was pretty sure both of the wheels were broken.

A far cry from the immaculate stone walkway to Nathan’s house, the
path to Chase’s house was designed to break her ankles. She wanted to stomp up to his smug frame, all leaned up against the porch, watching her embarrass herself with his unreadable, disturbingly alluring expression, but she’d seriously injure herself if she tried.

By the time she reached him, she was worked up in a way she hadn’t been in years. Anger was the biggest emotion, followed by hurt, denial, sadness, and fear, all jumbled inside of her like some horrid witch’s brew. Her emotions were swinging far and wide in this new place. No, that wasn’t it. She was worked up because she wasn’t under the disapproving glare of Nathan. And this Chase character seemed to find amusement in her anger, not the urge to dominate her. The want to kick his smiling face shocked her. He could’ve at least offered to help carry the
suitcase, and if that was too much, he could’ve walked at a slower pace.

“I’m hungry,” she declared.

“You’re also bossy and entitled. You should’ve eaten on your way in.”

This drew her up short. Usually she was very amenable
, but this man was bringing out the worst in her. “I’m not usually so demanding. I’m sorry. You are being kind to offer me a place to stay—”

He snorted.

Clearing her throat, she continued. “I’ve had a long, and quite frankly frightening day, and I haven’t eaten in a while and I let my hunger speak. I shouldn’t have.”

She swayed as the house seemed to slant and Chase grabbed her elbow.
“Dammit, lady, don’t you pass out on me.” He dragged her bodily through the front door and helped her to a wooden bench in the entryway.

“Give me a minute,” he muttered.

Clenching her fists against the shaking, she steadied her breathing. Cold sweat dotted her brow, and her skin felt clammy. The dizziness had passed, but in its place was an uncomfortable buzzing feeling. Her bear was fully awake now and in fight or flight mode after he’d grabbed her, and the sensation made her body feel detached and hard to control.

“Here,” Chase said, handing her a tin cup of what looked and smelled like beef stew.

“Thank you.”

His look darkened. “Riker would split me open if I let anything happen to you before he could figure you out.”

“Right. It isn’t for me. Got it.” She spooned the first bite into her maw and suppressed a groan. It was so good, she wanted to hug the heated mug to her chest. Within moments she had inhaled half of the meal.

“When was the last time you ate?” he asked in a very grumpy tone.

“Last night.” No wait, she hadn’t been able to touch dinner because Nathan had just dropped the spy bomb on her. “No, sorry. It was lunch yesterday.”

“Stupid,” he muttered as he walked away.

Anger cracked against her like a resounding battle slap and she stood. “I’m not stupid. I’ve got myself in a stupid situation but everyone makes mistakes. That doesn’t mean I’m less intelligent though, Chase.” She flung his name like a curse.

He spun and glared at her lips with the most peculiar look on his face. “Not you, lady. Your mate is stupid. He’s put you up to whatever you’re doing here, at the risk of your own life, and he sent you to an enemy clan unprepared and
hungry. Nathan is a jackass.”

She felt the need to defend her alpha. He had
his faults, and he was a mega-prick for sending her here, but loyalty was deeply ingrained in her. And Nathan had made her happy once—for a day at least. She stood. “You don’t know him.”

“So
, let me get this straight. You’ll defend a man who is making you risk your life right now? You’ll defend a man who didn’t care enough to feed you. And if, by some slim chance what you say is true, you’re defending a man who threw you away because you couldn’t have a child.”

“Wouldn’t you?” she
yelled as tears burned her eyes. “Wouldn’t you throw me away too? He isn’t generally cruel to his mates, Chase, but if I can’t perform my one duty to him, of course he was going to toss me away eventually. Any alpha would do the same. Any man, would do the same.”

He looked disgusted and shook his head slowly. “
Your one duty? You have a sad opinion of yourself, lady. No man would do this. Only a coward would. And your mate is the biggest coward I’ve ever seen.”

Her opinion of herself was none of his damned business and contrary to what Chase seemed to believe, he didn’t actually know everything.
“Oh, because you’ve actually seen Nathan.”

He rushed her and slammed his hand against the wall beside her face. “I’ve gone to battle with him, woman. I watched Brody beat the shit out of your precious alpha, the one who is
supposed to be the strongest alpha in all of Long Claw history. I watched him run away as his troops died for him.”

That was news. His account didn’t match Nathan’s battle story at all.
“Well, what kind of coward would sneak onto our land and attack us without warning?”

He huffed a laugh and gave a careful-now look
as he backed away from her and crossed his arms. “We attacked because Nathan was harboring and abusing our alpha’s mate. You met her tonight. The one who defended you? She spent three days locked in a cabin, mishandled by one of your people, while your mate tried to figure out how to use her in his war. Joanna saved her, but just barely. Your mate isn’t a man, Anya. He’s a monster. Best you don’t defend monsters to me.”

Horrified, her mouth hung open and
twin angry tears streamed down her cheeks. “It isn’t true. Take it back.”

“I have no reason to lie. Ask Hannah tom
orrow if you don’t believe me.”

He disappeared into a room down t
he hall and she sat heavily onto the wooden bench, the stew in her clenched hand nearly forgotten.

Nathan told her Bear Valley had attacked him unprovoked. That they were evil and that’s why he was training his bears for war. He said Bear Valley needed to be snuffed out because they had no moral fiber anymore and were tainting their kind.
Nathan’s scars, ones that she had pitied and nursed, weren’t because of something bad done to him. If what Chase said was true, they were from his own horrible decisions.

She felt sick and set the stew beside her with a clunk.

If what Chase said was true, what else had Nathan lied about?

Chase’s house was all
beiges, wood floors, and sparse furniture. He seemed to like simple and clean, or maybe his life required less housework, Anya didn’t know. She didn’t really know anything about him, other than he was very handsome in the light of the bedroom as he helped her put fresh sheets on the guest bed.

She’d expected him to dump the armload of linens onto the springy mattress and leave in a huff, but instead, he nodded his chin to the other side of the bed and together, they adorned the bed in silence.

The man was intimidating, seeming to take up much more space than he actually did. What was his role in this community? He was having dinner with Riker, so he must be important, but he had rinsed her dishes and lugged her suitcase to her room unbidden like some middle-of-the-clan member.

He didn’t act right. None of them did.

Straightening, he nodded toward the hallway. “Bathroom is that way. I have work early, so you’ll need wake up at six.”

The room didn’t have an alarm clock
, but she didn’t want to bother him anymore. He looked tired and withdrawn.

“
See you in the morning,” he said quietly, then walked out the door.

“Chase?”

He peeked his head around the corner. “Yeah?”

“Why do you live in a house with two bedrooms?”

His gaze dropped to her sneakers, and when he met her eyes again, his face had closed off. “I’m a light sleeper. If you try to leave this house in the night, I’ll hear you.”

With that he left
, and the hallway light flickered off. She peeked her head out just as he disappeared into a bedroom at the end of the hallway. Only the bathroom separated them.

She was sleeping in the same house with a man who wasn’t Nathan. Okay, so she’d never actually lived with Nathan
, or even slept overnight at his place for that matter. He didn’t like being touched in his sleep so she wasn’t allowed, and she lived with his other mates in a house near his. This was new and scary territory, and the most unsettling thing about it was the zing of adventure that had trilled up her spine as her fear faded away. Oh, Chase would probably maim her when he found out his suspicions about her were warranted, but he wasn’t a cruel man.

A cruel man wouldn’t help her put sheets on the bed.

Since she was going to be here indefinitely, she unpacked her suitcase into a small chest of drawers and lined her sneakers and flip flops against the wall near the door. After stowing her suitcase in the closet, she shut the door and shimmied into her pink and black flannel pajama shorts and a dark T-shirt. With her toiletry bag in hand, she padded down the hall to the bathroom, turned on the light and screamed.

Chase
was braced against the sink, brushing his teeth, but stood ramrod straight when the light flickered on.

“What are you doing brushing your teeth in the dark?”
she asked, trying to convince her heart not to actually leap out of her throat and onto the tile floor.

He shifted his weight and crossed his free arm over his chest, but not before
she saw the marks. Long jagged chunks had been taken from the flesh under one of his arms. Even though the edges had healed and looked to be more than a month old, the middle had no skin to cover it.

Horrified, she yanked his hand away and studied the injury. “Who did this to you?” she breathed.

He shrugged away and scowled at his reflection in the mirror, then spat foamy toothpaste into the sink and rinsed his mouth. “None of your business.”