Grizzly Love (5 page)

While it didn’t hurt that he so quickly rejected her, it did fuel her irritation. Especially when he uttered that and turned to walk away.

Don’t you fucking dare walk away from me, you bastard.

Ignoring their audience, she strode after him, determined to not let Frederick escape, although he tried with his long-legged stride to get off the tarmac.

She caught up to him and grabbed him by the arm. “You will not run away from me, Freddie. Not anymore.”

He tore himself from her grip and rounded on her, blue eyes blazing. “You shouldn’t have come here. You don’t belong here.”

“What else did you expect me to do? It’s been what, over three years since you came home. Three!”

“I had shit to do.”

“Liar. You were given options to visit in between tours. Tours I might add you volunteered for. You could have come for a visit at least. Or how about something even more simple like a phone call or even an email? Something. Anything.” She couldn’t help the way her voice rose as she hammered at him, her irritation simmering over. Long past the point of tears, his coldness toward her didn’t allow her to feel any hurt.

“I’ll admit I might have acted a little aloof.”

She snorted. “A little? We’re married, Freddie. Married as in me and you forever.
A couple
, except in this case it seems there’s just me.”

“This really isn’t the place to have this discussion,” he muttered, shooting a dark look behind her.

Jess could just imagine the avid gazes and ears trained their way.

“Funny, but in the last few years, there’s never been a time or place to talk because someone’s been a chicken.”

“I’m not a fucking coward.” He took a menacing step toward her, his gaze mean and ugly.

How did it come to this? How did the boy who used to love me in college turn into this jerk?

“If you’re not a yellow-bellied canary, then stop avoiding me. Stop hiding from our marriage.”

“But that’s just it,” he yelled. “I don’t want to be married. How much more blatant can I be?”

She expected the verbal slap, but it still stung when it hit. She didn’t let anything show. The tears she’d once cried over him were long dried. “Oh, I’d say your actions have spoken quite clearly on the subject. Yet, the fact remains, we’re mated, for life.”

“So then die.”

Now that stole the breath from her. No matter she’d jokingly thought of killing him, she’d never meant it. However, the way Frederick said it, the venom in his words, the hate in his eyes… What had she done to earn such hatred?

He was the one who’d wronged her. How dare he try to make her feel guilty?

“I wouldn’t give you the satisfaction. God knows I regret tying my future to yours, but what’s done is done. And just so you know, once I’m done here, hunting down this Naga creature, like it or not, you’re coming back to Kodiak Point, and you will stay there until you give me a child.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Oh, you’re going to whether you like it or not.”

“Gonna tie to me a bed and seduce me? How kinky,” he said with a sneer.

She couldn’t help a shudder at the thought of him touching her. Husband or not, she would never abase herself that way. “No. I have no intention of ever letting you back in my bed. I will, however, set you up with an appointment with a sperm bank and harvest your little soldiers. Once you’ve donated some viable specimens, you can leave and do whatever the hell you like, but at least I’ll have something out of this poor excuse for a marriage.” A piss-poor plan, but the only option she’d come up with if Freddy wasn’t willing to try and make things work.

“I won’t do it.”

“Like I said,” she replied over her shoulder as she walked away from him, back to the Humvee, “you won’t have a choice. I’ll knock your ass out, pump you full of Viagra, and hook you to a milking machine if I have to. But one way or another,
husband,
I will get something out of this farce of a marriage.”

With that final threat, she stalked away, feeling his gaze burning between her shoulder blades, the hate almost palpable.

But she wouldn’t allow it to weaken her. Couldn’t give in to the wobble in her knees or the tightness in her chest.

I did it. I took control of my future.

Problem was, the outlook appeared even bleaker than she expected.

And lonely.

It didn’t take a genius to see the reunion between Jess and her husband wasn’t going well. Not well at all.

Whatever fear Travis had harbored of them seeing each and flying into each other’s arms evaporated the instant they laid eyes on each other.

The acrimonious tension between them could have been cut with a knife.

Travis didn’t even realize he was walking toward Jess and Frederick until Boris stopped him, a hand on his chest.

“Don’t do it, cub.”

Don’t do what? Smash that smug prick’s face off the pavement until he gave Jess the respect she deserved? Don’t switch shapes so he could go grizzly on his ass? Maybe rip an arm off and beat him with it?

“He’s an asshole,” he stated.

“Yup. But he’s her asshole, and by the looks of it, she’d got it under control.”

Yeah, by all appearances, Jess told Frederick an earful, and judging by his glower, Frederick didn’t like it. However, it was the narrowed evil expression that crossed his face as Jess walked away that Travis truly didn’t like.

“I don’t trust him.”

“Even if your reason isn’t sound, I’d have to agree. The boy is emitting some seriously bad vibes.”

Boris stringing more than a few words together? Travis shot him a look. Frederick, the dark raven, must have really set off the big moose’s danger radar.

“Why do I get the impression you know something I don’t?”

“I know lots of things you don’t. It’s what makes me superior to you.” Boris shot him a smug look.

As if Travis would let it slide by. “You might know secrets and have a rack big enough to hang a full load of laundry, but my penis is bigger.”

It didn’t rile the big guy as expected. On the contrary, Boris shook his head. “First off, boy, it’s not length that counts, but thickness. Second, technique always trumps length, and third, if you haven’t figured out it’s all about the honey you can eat, then you ain’t doing it right.”

“I eat honey.” Just not in a while.

Okay, so Travis’ reputation as a ladies man was a tad exaggerated. Travis boasted a lot, but in truth, he’d not been with many women, especially not once he met Jess, and none in the past few years. It just seemed like cheating somehow.

He knew he loved the doc.
She’s my woman.
And one day, when he could get over the little hump of a problem with her being married and all, he wanted to be able to tell her with a clear conscience that even when they’d not been together he’d stayed true.

Not that he’d admit that to Boris.

He’d mock him. Take away the man card the guys had only recently given him–and which Travis had laminated.

Predators didn’t admit to feelings. Flirts didn’t admit they went home Friday and Saturday nights from the bar alone.

And, it seemed, women could get away with pointing out the obvious.

“Hey, Jess, want me to sting your asshole hubby with a few scorpions?” Layla asked, her freaky purple gaze dancing with mirth. Her lips twisted into a smirk. “Maybe get one to crawl into his bed and prick a certain sensitive part?”

Travis wasn’t the only one to cup his groin.

A laugh bubbled from Jess. “What and finally give him the size he’s always longed for? Screw that. He’s not worth the bother.”

Well, at least the doc wasn’t pining over him. Yet, Travis couldn’t help but wonder if it was a front. Rejection, even if expected, in such a public way, had to hurt.

So when they grabbed their luggage and piled it in the back of the Humvee and the Jeep, which also rolled onto the tarmac to join them, Travis made sure to sidle close enough to Jess so he could whisper. “He’s an asshole. Say the word and I’ll kick his ass.”

For once, she didn’t pretend to not hear him. Her gaze actually met his. “Thanks. It’s nice to know not all men are jerks.”

Not exactly a declaration of love—or a demand to make her a widow—but at least she saw him and recognized Travis was different. In a good way.

As they piled into the two vehicles, Jess in the Jeep away from her estranged husband, taking a spot in a back seat with Gene, Travis opted for the Humvee, hoping to get a sense of the guy he considered competition.

Say it like it was, more like an impediment, one he still wasn’t quite sure how to overcome.

At first glance, Frederick appeared physically impressive, but Travis wasn’t a little guy. So when it came to muscles and size, they were on par. Coloring wise, they were polar opposites with Frederick boasting dark hair, blue eyes, and a deep tan from his time in the sun while Travis sported more of a light gold on his skin with golden highlighted hair—his ma’s words, not his—brown eyes and a much nicer demeanor.

Or at least a less abrasive one.

Brody kept trying to get a conversation going with the guy, only to get nowhere.

“How big is the camp nowadays?” Brody asked from the front seat.

“That’s restricted information.”

“Who’s in charge?”

“I’m not at liberty to say.”

“When’s your posting expire?”

“None of your fucking business.”

The terse answers didn’t deter Brody, nor did he lose his genial smile, a smile Travis knew all too well. It was the one that looked pleasant on the outside but meant he was about to throw a punch—in this case a verbal one.

“Listen, asshole, I understand you’ve got some kind of issue about your relationship with Jess, but I’m going to tell you right now that you better get over it.”

“My relationship with my
wife
,” said with an unmistakable sneer, “is none of your fucking business.”

“Now see, this is where I’d have to disagree,” Brody replied, his tone still low and even. “The doc is a member of my clan, and as such, her protection and well-being are my business.”

“You her boyfriend?”

“No, I’m happily mated. And if you’re implying Jess has been stepping out, then I’m going to have to disabuse you of that notion. The doc has been nothing but true to her vows, unlike someone else.”

“I made a mistake.”

“In not being discreet about cheating?”

“No, by getting married in the first place.”

“Regret doesn’t give you the right to fuck her over.”

If Travis weren’t getting an evil glare from Boris to keep his mouth shut, he might have said something, or fist pumped. Brody wasn’t letting the prick off the hook.

“Not my fault her kind doesn’t believe in divorce.”

“Is that why you’re staying out here? Hoping to make her a widow?” Brody never came right out and said it, but one could almost read his implied threat—
Hey, I can kill you if you’d like.

Bless his mate, Layla, for not having a filter on her speech at all. “If the big bird wants to die, I could arrange something. I like Jess. She deserves better than you.”

That finally rattled their driver. His jaw tightened. “You can’t threaten me. I’ll report you, and friends in the military or not, you won’t get away with it.”

Boris leaned forward and rested an arm across the back of the driver’s seat. “Boy, I’ve gotten away with more killings than I can count. Don’t dare me. And don’t ever threaten us.”

A tic along the side of Frederick’s jaw showed him struggling with his temper. “What do you want from me?”

“A solution to the doc’s dilemma.”

Um, hello, Travis had a solution. She needed a new mate.

Problem was, despite their threats, everyone let her current husband live. Worse, they’d given him food for thought.

What if they scare him into trying to patch things up with Jess?

Rawr.

Such a sad sound from his bear.

Even though he didn’t utter it aloud, Boris, his best ol’ pal, must have sensed his unhappiness, as he nudged him and whispered a cryptic, “Don’t worry.”

But Travis did worry. He worried he was about to lose his hawk to an undeserving raven.

He had to do something. But what?

He knew what his ma would do, bake him in a pie, but Travis didn’t have a recipe. Nor did he know what Jess wanted yet.

And to him, that was most important of all.

Still simmering from her confrontation with Freddy, Jess was glad she had another option for a ride, even if it had no top and the dust at times made her blink away tears.

Since two of the base soldiers took the front seat, she and Gene were perched in the back row, the wind stealing sound as they whipped along the roads, the façade of buildings flashing by.

In this part of the world, a person couldn’t ignore the exoticness. It didn’t just come from the locale with the lack of green spaces, the arid air, or blinding heat of the sun. The buildings were so much different from the vinyl siding or wooden shingle or logs she was used to back home.

Out here, things were made of sand or rock, cemented together, often whitewashed to keep the abodes cooler from the blazing sun.

The people were different too, the women covered head to toe, with only dark eyes peeking through narrow slits. The men, on the other hand, sported a variety of garb, from westernized style, shorts, track pants, and T-shirts, to army fatigues and robes.

Given she’d not donned any headwear, Jess couldn’t help the feeling she shone like a beacon with her wild red hair whipping in the wind, and her pale white skin an invitation to sunburn.

Good thing she’d slathered herself with SPF 50 before they landed. Freckles she could handle. Appearing lobsterish, not so much.

Once they hit the edge of town, they picked up speed. It gave them an advantage as they took the lead on the mostly empty road and thus did not have to inhale the dust of any vehicles in front of them.

In an effort to focus on something other than her confrontation with Freddie, she tried to take in the things around her.

Their military escort was a pair of young recruits, boys, still wet behind the ears and very much human, which surprised her. She’d assumed this military camp, which catered to shifters and acted as a special unit, wouldn’t have regular humans among their ranks. It seemed she’d surmised wrong. It made her wonder how well it worked.