Montana Wild Bears: Books 1-4 Bundle (BBW Paranormal Werebear Shape Shifter Romance Boxed Set) (40 page)

“You didn’t answer me earlier,” she said, careful to keep the accusation out of her tone. She didn’t have the energy to get angry at him. Not right now. Ryder nodded, his lips growing thin as he pressed them together. She could read him like a book, she thought, and discovering the contrary had been shocking.

“I didn’t.”

“Why not?”

“I wasn’t sure what I was going to do yet,” he said simply. “Even with you here, I thought there might be a way to make my plan work. It would have been harder for me, but if I’d attacked Jackson when Jonah and Julian were close enough, then maybe…” Ryder trailed off, a harshness entering his expression. Jackie twisted around, resting her elbows on his chest.

“You can’t talk like that anymore,” she said sternly. “You’re not going to become some kind of martyr in the name of the clans. I won’t allow it.”

“Oh, you won’t allow it!” Ryder scoffed, smiling. “Well if Jacqueline Arder says so, then I guess that’s how it’s going to be.”

“Yes,” Jackie agreed, nodding. “That whole plan was entirely stupid, just so you know.”

“It worked, though, didn’t it? We’re all here. Julian’s shifting again. Jonah is building a life with a Bitterroot bear. The young bears, our strongest force, are back and all ready to defend their home. The only thing that didn’t work was combining us together as one clan. Everything else worked like a charm.” She still didn’t look too convinced. “We can agree to disagree on that. Just this once,” Ryder said, laying a kiss on her forehead. Jackie smiled to herself, snuggling against him again. Just this once, she wasn’t going to worry about everything. Just this once, she was going to let it all go and just enjoy the moment.

CHAPTER TEN

Jackie frowned, hearing the front door slam downstairs. She quickly sat up on the bed at the sound of familiar voices sharing murmured greetings.

“Jackson.”

“Ryder.”

Heavy footsteps pounded up the stairs, and Jackie jumped up on her feet tentatively, the same scowl planted on her expression. It had been a few days since she spent the night with Ryder. She’d barely managed to keep herself from returning to him every night. The more she thought about it, the more impossible it was to keep away from him. They were mates, there were no doubts about that, and there was nothing more frustrating than staying away from one’s fated love. Still, Jackie wondered and worried. And gnawed on her lip and tossed at night. Had there been too many difficulties between her and Ryder to make it work? Was it meant to fail, no matter how hard they tried to make it work? Doubts bit at her in every direction she looked, but the heated flush that ran through her when the big man pushed the door open and came into view told her at least one thing in clear, bold letters – she wanted him, needed him.

Ryder didn’t say a word, a bright twinkle of mischief in his eyes.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Jackie demanded as Ryder stepped to her still half-packed suitcase, pushing it shut and zipping it up. “Ryder?” she asked, watching him pick up the suitcase. He stepped over to her, and before she could do anything about it, he had gripped her with one arm just under her ass and hauled her over his shoulder. Without further ado, he spun around and headed back for the door, Jackie and suitcase in hand.

“Ryder! You damn bastard! Let me go!” Jackie gasped, bouncing up and down a little as Ryder bounded down the stairs. He answered with only a low chuckle, smacking her on the ass as he jumped down the last two steps of the stairs. To her horror, Jackson and Tess were standing in the middle of the living room, Jackson with his arms crossed over his chest and a wide grin on his face.

“Tess. Jackson.” Ryder said, nodding at his friend and fellow Alpha.

“Ryder. Jackie.” Jackson confirmed back, the twitch of his lip saying that he was on the verge of breaking out in laughter.

“Jackson! God damn it! Would you tell him to put me down!?” Jackie screeched as Ryder was already heading out the door, his mate safely with him.

“Nope. You two have fun.”

Jackie let out an exasperated sigh as Ryder threw her suitcase in his truck and opened the passenger door for her, sliding her into his arms and then placing her gently on the seat. She glared daggers at him, but Ryder’s expression was as determined as it had ever been.

“Now, now, baby. Don’t give me that face. I gave you plenty of time. Since you’ve decided to play dumb, I’m going to move things along a bit here.” He smirked, and Jackie felt that familiar heat pooling between her legs, betraying her insolent fury.

“Move things along where, exactly?” she demanded, trying to hold on to her quickly dissipating anger.

“Over to my place, of course. It isn’t proper for a mate to live so far away from her man. And that’s all I’m going to hear about it,” he said. Ryder leant in, and Jackie’s lips met his in a kiss even before she could process what she was doing. Her hands caressed his neck and cheek, loving the feeling of his warmth against her skin. The way his lips lingered on hers – taking but not controlling, urging but not smothering – left her a burning, wanting mess of tightly wound desire. He never failed to have that effect on her, no matter how infuriating he was. “How about we get home and then you can yell at me as much as you want? As long as you’re naked, anyway. And I prefer screaming, but I’m a flexible man. Whatever you want, baby,” he said with a wolfish grin, closing the door and heading around the truck. Jackie groaned, letting her head fall against the headrest. She tasted him in his mouth, and her body thrummed with need.

Fine, so
maybe
things could work out. Or even if they didn’t, she at least deserved the chance to find out, right?

***

Jackie nuzzled against Ryder’s strong form, enjoying the sensation of his tight abs under her fingertips as she lazily tracked the lines on his body. True to form, they had hardly left the bed at all in the last day. He’d moved her into his cottage as if he owned her, and to her surprise, she didn’t find herself minding it one bit. Last time, it had been her who made the decision to give their love another chance when she showed up at his door in Bitterroot. It was only fitting that he would return the favor now, washing away her doubts and fears with well-met kisses and dizzying pleasure.

He cradled her, his hands stroking her body like he couldn’t get enough of her. She had no doubt that that was exactly how he felt.

“What do you want from life?” Ryder asked with a low voice, stirring Jackie from her revelry. She looked up at him, leant against the stacked pillows, his ruggedly handsome face wearing a solemn expression. She cocked a brow at him, but he didn’t crack a smile this time.

“What do I want?” she echoed, letting the thought roll around in her head. There hadn’t been a lot of times in her life when she had known exactly what she wanted. Maybe at the moment, but not in the long-term. She had thought she already had everything she’d wanted when she had got pregnant and lived up in Bitterroot with Ryder, but as with all things too good to be true, it had been torn out of her hands at a moment’s notice. Things like that made a girl reluctant to dream.

He must have seen the shadow fall over her features as he kissed her lightly on the lips, just a gentle brush to bring her out of her dark thoughts.

“I want… safety. Love. Heat and trouble, but not more than I can handle. A family.” At the last words, her voice cracked. She suppressed a sigh as Ryder embraced her tighter, as if trying to squeeze all the pain right out of her.

“That sounds like everything I could give you,” he noted solemnly. Hot tears pricked at her eyes and made her throat feel raw. It had been so long since she had believed that there could be a chance of happiness for her and Ryder. And yet, here it was, dangling right in front of her and waiting to be grabbed with both hands.

“What do you want?” she asked, batting the tears away.

“You,” he said simply, pushing up her chin to meet him in another one of those toe-curling kisses that took the breath out of her lungs. She melted against him, every ounce of the fight she had had within her and the bitterness that she had held onto for so long wafting away like so many bad dreams at the break of dawn. Jackie bit her lower lip, remembering what Tess had told her when Ryder had left after carrying her to Jackson’s cabin. Her injuries had healed quickly, surrounded by so much werebear magic. Tess’s words had said still hung with her, though.

“You know, Tess said there’s more than one way of bringing two clans together,” she said, trying to keep the hesitation out of her voice. Ryder cocked a brow at her, brushing a lock of hair from her face and tucking it behind her ear.

“Through marriage, you mean?”

She nodded, her body buzzing with sudden excitement.  Ryder chuckled, a deep rumbling noise. The corners of his eyes crinkled a bit in amusement.

“How did you guess?”

“Well, Tess is a smart, sensible woman who is a lot less stupid about these things than we are. And she’s a romantic. I can tell from a mile away. Why else would she stay with that grouch of a brother of yours? Ow!” Ryder’s teasing was cut short by Jackie jabbing him in the chest. Jackie was flipped over on her back so fast that she barely had time to gasp. Ryder hovered above her, his lips just inches from hers. “Now, now, Jackie. Didn’t we talk about behaving before?” When Jackie started to snap something back at him, he kissed her, and all her smart retorts melted into a moan. Her eyes shot open as he pulled away, leaving the kiss lingering between them.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, already feeling the familiar throb in her core, telling her that she was more than ready to ravage and be ravaged by her big, sexy mate.

“What do you think about it, though? Marriage? We tried once, and we got caught up in telling our people, our families. Your family knows, and my lieutenants… well, they can guess. How about you become my wife, Jackie?”

Her breath caught in her throat, leaving her staring at him in wide-eyed wonder. She couldn’t say it was a complete surprise. After all, she had been steering him in that direction, whether she was ready to admit it or not. It had been a whirlwind few weeks, from thinking that Ryder was a murderous wretch, to having him save her and reveal that he was being a selfless man all along. A reckless one, maybe, but still an Alpha more than willing to put his clan’s safe future ahead of his own wellbeing. And when he’d told her that he considered it his personal failure that she had lost their cub, it had just about made her break down from the guilt and shared pain. Something tugged at her heart strongly, and she wrapped her arms around him, basking in his warmth. The tears she’d got so good at keeping down were building up again.

“I don’t want to hurt you again, Ryder,” she whispered, hiding her face in his chest. He pulled her up into his lap, his strong arms cradling her against him. Her hair fell on her face and shoulders, concealing her tear-blurred eyes. Not only had she almost destroyed herself when she left last time, but she’d nearly dragged him down with her. Having that kind of control over someone scared her. But she knew that he held the same sway over her.

“It doesn’t matter what happened in our pasts,” Ryder whispered, his heart pounding against his chest now and filling Jackie’s ears with its demanding rhythm. “We’re mates. No one else can make you happy. No one else will make me happy, Jackie. If our fate is to face hardships, then I want to do it by your side. We’ve been running away from this for so long, but I know there’s nowhere to run. We’ll never be satisfied without each other.”

His words were an echo of what she had known within herself for a long time but struggled to ignore from time to time. This knowledge was what had kept her coming back to him, over and over again.

Why do you want to test fate again? You know you can’t survive without him…

She found herself nodding, her whole body trembling because of what she was going to say.

“Yes,” she said, quiet at first. She raised her face and looked at Ryder, his blue eyes glimmering with hope for the first time in far too long. “Yes, Ryder. You’re right. I can’t be without you. I’ll marry you.” Her last words were muffled by the almost violent kiss that Ryder laid on her lips. Jackie giggled through fevered kisses.

Maybe, just maybe, they
could
be happy. Even with everything that had happened. 

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“Ryder, are you sure they’re going to be here?” Jackie whispered from just behind Ryder’s shoulder. He nodded shortly, keeping his eyes on the dirt road leading down to the valley they were in. If he strained his ears, he could hear faint sounds of his werebear brothers all around him, waiting. So quiet that, you could get the slightest of hints that there was anyone around at all only if you knew what to listen for. They were all scattered in ditches and hidden within running distance – two powerful clans of the most rugged, battle-ready werebears that Montana had seen in a very long time, ready for anything. And this time, they were the ones hunting.

The path they were gathered around led down from a difficult backwoods trail that came down from Bitterroot Mountains. They were upwind and had taken every precaution. Now, all he had to do was wait and hope to the spirits that the reconnaissance had been right. He reached his hand back and squeezed Jackie’s delicate palm in his, enjoying the feeling of her engagement ring on her finger. She’d been adamant about coming with them. Not that he would have dared told her to stay home when they were heading into what could possibly become the bloodiest battle Montana shifters had seen in centuries.