Redeem The Bear (2 page)

The thought sent a surge of pride through him. He was a part of the most powerful bear shifter clan in the world. He scanned the arena where the entire
community was gathering in the early morning light. He was about to take his shot at leading them into war.

The caller blasted a long, haunting note on a horn to bring in the stragglers. Alpha challenges we
re mandatory for every able member. In challenges of the past, there had been merriment and bets being placed, raucous discussions over predicted winners and cheering when the caller announced the first pair of challengers. Not this time. Now, the clan was still in deep mourning over their late alpha. This challenge wasn’t supposed to happen. It was just part of the aftermath of losing Nathan. Now, no one muttered much over a whisper if they spoke at all.

A hundred
bear shifters waited somberly around the edges of the arena fence as the first challengers stepped in the ring. Omar and Chris Reed were first. Brothers who had been drawn together, but anyone with instincts for battle could tell who would win this one. Chris was smarter, but Omar had the brawn and the ruthless savagery to match his size.

Two brown bears burst from the pacing men and the caller was barely out of the way before the
y crashed against each other, locked with ripping claws like they would kill each other. Maybe they would. More tragic things had happened in the pursuit of alpha than two brothers warring to the death for the title.

Brooks leaned against the fence railing, scratching his bottom lip with the corner of his thumbnail as he stud
ied how Omar moved. He jerked his head to the left when he was about to rake a claw out, and his shoulders tensed when he was about to lunge.

When Chris lay in a tattered pile in the mud, Omar shifted back into his human form and yelled a victor’s cry. Merit, the woman who had come from the Long Claws to become one of Nathan’s mates, kissed him soundly when Omar returned to the fence. She had apparently picked her next target in Omar.

Greta and April stood somberly to the side, a fog of misery around them as if they didn’t want to be here, watching the challenges. Both of Nathan’s mates were dressed in black from head to toe, and Greta seemed to be sniffling. She had been inconsolable at the funeral. Those two were good examples of how a proper mate should act. Not like this Merit woman who was now looking around with her chin lifted primly in the air, as if the somber congratulations and slow applause were for herself.

Brooks made a single click against his teeth and looked away. He had no respect for alpha chasers, and less for a woman
who latched onto another when her lover was barely cold in his grave.

His gaze landed on Greta again and he shook his head slowly. If he were interested in a mate, he’d take one of them just to ease their plight. They would be moved out
of their roomy house and cast to the outskirts of the clan without Nathan here to garner respect.

Nathan’s appetites had been too many to foist upon one ma
te. Or at least, that’s what he had told Brooks when he’d had too much to drink one night. The late alpha didn’t have friends. He had picked Brooks solely for his size and battle readiness, but sometimes he thought if Nathan hadn’t been alpha, and if his bear hadn’t glutted on the power from it and pushed the humanity from him, they would’ve gotten along fine. Instead, the relationship had only existed on mutual respect, one warrior to another. He had talked about the need for several mates to continue his lineage, but it was all bullshit. Nathan had been looking for something. He’d been searching for someone to fix whatever was broken inside of him.

Brooks didn’t need anyone to fix him. If he needed something done, he’d do it his damned self. That’s where Nathan had failed. He’d chased women, mates, and lost sight of the Long Claw’s future.
Brooks would cut off his arm before he let what happened to Nathan happen to him. Women muddied the mind.

He dragged his gaze back to Merit, who now had her
dress hiked up her thighs. Omar had her backed against a tree and was pumping his load into her as she moaned loud enough to be heard over the roaring bears now battling in the arena. No one seemed to notice or care that the almost mate of the late alpha was getting thoroughly fucked where everyone could see.

“Brooks and Darren,” the caller yelled out.

Inhaling deeply to wipe the sight of Merit and Omar from his mind, he closed his eyes and opened them slowly, focusing on Darren. He was big, and a good fighter, but Brooks’ bear was secure in his impending victory. He had yet to find a match for his animal, and Darren wasn’t going to be the first.

At twenty-four, Brooks had
waited until he was seasoned in the arena, until his bear was full-grown and mature enough to win this fight. He’d waited until his gangly legs and arms had been layered with muscle. Brooks had waited to challenge for alpha until he knew he was ready, not just physically, but mentally as well. If he won here today, he would lead his clan into battle, then in the aftermath, he’d bring it back to its former glory.

He didn’t give a shit about rank, or the power
it would afford him. His challenge stemmed from the simple fact that he had been born with an innate need to lead people. Suppressing it for the past ten years had been hard, but this was it.

He stepped into the arena and pulled his sh
irt over his head, preparing his inner bear for the bloodshed that would occur here today.

His time was now.

Corin Dunbar shouldered her duffle bag and closed the door to the small cottage behind her. It was barely light out, but she was accustomed to waking early to work at the old diner in Sheridan. Four shifts a week there and on her days off, Juan supervised her early mornings in the wheat fields. Even if she wasn’t headed off to war, she wouldn’t be able to sleep late if her life depended on it.

She was a morning person and usually
jovial, but by tomorrow, her friends would be maimed and killed. She’d be killed. Her headspace was filled with fear and anticipation, leaving no room for happy thoughts and musings on what a beautiful morning it had turned out to be. Inhaling the moist, earthy air, she stepped onto the path that would lead her through the woods and toward the alpha’s house.

She’d volunteered with
her friend, Anya Bure, to load supplies in preparation for the trip deep into the mountains. Her wet hair bumped against her shoulders with each step, and she bit her lip as she checked off everything she’d brought once again to make sure she didn’t forget anything. The mental list was short. She only needed to get through today, because tomorrow morning would likely be her last on this earth.

She was a realist, and also a black bear on the small side. She’d fight for her people against the Long Claws, but she’d be one of the still mounds on the battlefield come tomorrow. Training had helped to strengthen her, and taught her how to fight, but what chance did she have against a brown bear? None in the world, that’s what.

Maybe when she died, she would finally be reunited with
him
again.

Tears had long ago dried over the loss of her childhood friend. No, h
e had been more than that. They had been promised. And not the archaic promise of binding two children too young to know better together. They had picked their path, she and Daniel, and the Long Claws had shredded both of their futures.

Now Daniel was nothing but bo
nes in a shallow grave, and she would soon join him at the claws of the same murderers who had killed her entire clan. Anger simmered in her blood. Now, they would hurt the life she’d pieced together after they had demolished her birth clan.

She would die tomorrow, but she’d take every Long Claw she could down with her into the bloody beyond to protect her friends here.

Doves cooed from the branches above, telling the forest the time for morning had come. The first streaks of pink light brushed the horizon. She stopped and watched the edges turn orange. After she was gone, the sun would still rise and the doves would continue greeting the dawn. Life would go on, just not for her and countless others who would fall tomorrow. She was just a small part of this world. She would need to remind herself of that when the fear got too great. Everyone died. And she’d been spared ten years ago from a battle she hadn’t seen coming. One of the only survivors from her birth clan, she’d had ten years to live a full life where her people’s had all been cut short.

She’d escaped her fate for a decade.
It was sad how the Long Claws had come back to collect her last breath like death reapers.

In
the clearing ahead, the bustle of activity was dizzying. Like angered ants around an abused mound, Bear Valley shifters moved this way and that, loading hummers, pickup trucks and jeeps. Someone had attached a flatbed trailer to Riker’s jacked up truck, and Anya nodded her head in greeting from the other side.

“Hey you,”
Anya called, then winced.

Jogging, Corin
took a box of water bottles from her hands and settled it onto the trailer. “Did you not take your herbal tea this morning?”

Anya
had been maimed by the last alpha of the Long Claw Clan. Claw marks drifted across her neck and tapered off in her cheek. It should’ve looked gruesome, but the scars made Corin admire her friend even more. Thanks to her shifter healing, Anya looked like a warrior now. The mouse she’d been when Anya first came into the training ring the first day Corin set eyes upon her didn’t exist anymore. Now, Anya seemed fearless.

Hannah, Riker’s human mate, frowned and hefted another box of waters to the trailer. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

Crap, they were holding up the line. Corin pulled Anya by the elbow off to the side and Hannah followed.

“I’m fine,”
Anya said unconvincingly.

Tears were already welling up in her eyes and Hannah frowned at Corin.

Shrugging, Corin asked, “Is it too soon to be putting a strain on you?”

“It’s not the scars,” she said through a trembling smile. Slowly, she slid the collar of her shirt to the s
ide to reveal three fresh cuts—a mate’s mark.

“Holy hell balls,”
Hannah whispered as a grin cracked her face wide open. She shoved the shirt out of the way further, exposing Anya’s entire shoulder.

Corin hugged her, hard. Her heart was filled to bursting with happiness for Anya. She’d been misused under the care of the Long Claws and was told she was the mate of the
domineering alpha. He’d tried to kill her when she wouldn’t betray Bear Valley and in the midst of the chaos, Anya had found an inspiring love with Chase—with her true mate.

Anya was claimed.

Suddenly, the war seemed even more tragic. Chase was leading the bears to battle with Riker, Juan, and Brody.

“When?” she breathed against her friend’s neck.

“Last night.” Anya’s voice hitched and she eased back to wipe tears.

“He was so quiet
yesterday, and it was only our second night back in Bear Valley after Nathan died, and I thought maybe he was still mad at me for the betrayal. But he led me into his bedroom and the ceremonial knife was sitting on his dresser. He just kept watching me in the mirror, like he was afraid of my reaction, and I just burst out crying. Chase looked terrified. I think he was scared of cutting me after what Nathan did. He said he didn’t want to hurt me anymore, but he wanted to claim me as his mate before we went off to war. He said if we lived two days or sixty years, he wants me for always.”

“And then he cut you?” Corin asked. This was the most romantic thing she’d ever even heard of.

“Well, eventually he did.”

“He boned you good first, didn’t he?” Hannah asked, grinning.

Anya laughed thickly and nodded. “We made love, yes. He was so tender with me and couldn’t seem to stop looking at me, and we cut each other as he said the sweetest things.

“What did he say?” Hannah breathed.
Her eyes were wide, like she was watching the end of a good romance movie.

“That’
s just for me to know, you nosy human.” The smile drifted from her face as realization seemed to dawn on Anya. “I’m claimed,” she uttered, reverently.

“Congratulations,” Hannah said, hugging her up tight.

Corin wiped moisture from her eyes with the back of her hand and waved to Chase, who was watching them with a worried furrow to his brow from Riker’s porch.
She’s okay
, Corin mouthed.
She’s happy
.

Relief flittered across his
features, and she thought about Daniel. About how he should’ve been here to give her marks like Anya’s. The Long Claws treachery had touched all the lives here, from the scars on Anya’s face, to the worry Chase would always carry about how his mate was adjusting after abuse, to Hannah’s kidnapping, and Joanna’s years of mishandling at the hands of the rival alpha.

Now, the brutal clan would try and annihilate Bear Valley entirely.

“Go see your mate. He’s worried,” Corin said, smiling when Anya glowed under the new title.

She and Hannah watched her jog up the porch stairs. Chase took her in his arms like he hadn’t seen her in weeks and Corin’s heart thudded painfully as she remembered the kiss she and Daniel had shared before he died. Dragging her eyes away from them, she smiled at Hannah. She didn’t know her
very well, though she liked the alpha’s mate a lot. When she and Anya had started hanging out after training sessions with Chase, Hannah had always made sure to include her in invites to Riker’s house and went out of her way to talk to her in passing.