Stolen By Her Bear by Felicity Heaton

Chapter 13

Worried didn’t cover how Holly felt as she sat on the red couch in Ember’s lodge, not really paying attention to anyone as they crowded around her. All she could think about was how much blood there had been.

How pained Saint had looked.

How fiercely she ached inside.

“I told you we should have put the bastard down when we had the chance,” Storm growled, long strides chewing up the distance between the wall to Holly’s left and the kitchen to her right as he paced in front of the fireplace.

She curled her fingers into fists, saw Saint all over again, covered in blood, moaning in pain.

“Did he hurt you, Holly?” Rath eased down to crouch before her, his grey eyes holding a wealth of concern. Blood tracked down his cheek from a cut there, and it wasn’t the only one he had.

When Storm, Rath and Flint had shifted back and dressed in clothing they had stashed in the woods, she had seen all the wounds Saint had given them, and it had turned her stomach. She had expected to feel a sense of guilt, or perhaps remorse, because they had been hurt too and she had thought only of Saint, but that feeling hadn’t hit her.

She felt sure she should feel terrible about what had happened to Rath and his brothers, and should feel grateful to them for rescuing her and bringing her home to the Creek.

But she didn’t.

She only felt bad about what had happened to Saint.

She only wanted to see him again.

“Look at her. She’s in shock. Gods only know what that brute did to her.” Flint snarled those words, ignoring his beautiful black-haired mate as she tended to a particularly nasty gash on his upper left arm, just below the sleeve of his navy T-shirt. His grey eyes flashed fire as he shoved his dirty fingers through his short onyx hair, and bared short fangs as he growled. “Storm’s right. We should finish him off once and for all. Look at what he did to Gabi.”

Gabi who had remained with Ivy in Rath’s cabin, the two females waiting there for their mates to return.

“Don’t get me started.” Storm paced harder behind her, the aggression that rolled off him stoking Holly’s own.

Making her want to lash out at everyone.

Fight everyone.

“Storm,” Rath said, his voice calm and even but firm enough to convey a silent order to his younger brother, a demand that he dial it back. His warm grey eyes dropped to Holly again and he placed his left hand on her knee. “You can talk to us, Holly. What happened?”

“I think we can all guess what happened. He tried to take Gabi, Rath, and he was pretty damned clear about what he had wanted to do with her,” Storm bit out.

Holly shot to her feet, almost knocking Rath on his ass, and startling everyone in the room. They all stared at her, expressions blank.

“I need some air,” she muttered and turned towards the door, but Rath was on his feet before she could move a step, had his hand wrapped around her arm.

“You stay. I think we’re the ones who need some air.” Rath gave her a tight smile and then looked at Storm and Flint, and Yasmin. “Let’s give her some space.”

They all filed out of the lodge, but they didn’t go quietly. Storm and Flint held a terse conversation as they walked, painting a horrible picture of bear shifters, and a fire blazed to life inside her again, filling her with a need to go after them and correct them, to argue with them about everything they believed.

Because they were wrong.

Saint had been savage and quick to rage, but he had been gentle with her too, had shown her kindness at times, a glimpse beyond the veil to the man behind the bear. They were wrong about him where Gabi was concerned too, and she wanted to chase after them and tell them everything Saint had told her, wanted to explain what had happened and why Saint had threatened the female. They wouldn’t believe her though. They were hellbent on hating him.

And in a way, she couldn’t blame them. He had given them every reason to think badly of him.

Holly slumped back onto the seat of the red couch, all of her fight leaving her, because no matter what she said to her friends, they would never change their opinion of Saint or his kin.

“Did he hurt you?” Ember sank to her knees before her, her pretty face soft with concern, her black hair tied in a knot at the back of her head, revealing the mark on her nape.

A mark Saint had checked her for.

When he had seen no such mark on her nape, she had sensed the relief in him, and a wicked heat had curled through her as he had stared at it.

Was he all right?

She looked off to her right, at the window. It was getting dark now.

“Answer the question,” Cobalt growled and Holly glared at him. He instantly backed down, the hard edge to his expression softening as he eased down to sit on the coffee table. “Sorry. I’m not trying to be a dick. We’re all just worried about you, Holly. We just want to help you. We all know how cruel bears can be. They’ve been nothing but trouble since we moved into the area.”

Something inside Holly snapped.

“They’ve been nothing but trouble?” She frowned at Cobalt, refusing to back down when his grey eyes narrowed on her, cougar gold emerging in his irises as his fair eyebrows pinched hard. “You know we could have avoided all this if we had just been good neighbours and offered to keep the noise down?”

Cobalt blanched, his face going slack. “What do you mean?”

“Saint took me because he was angry. Rath refused to keep the noise down and his pride couldn’t sleep. Apparently winter sleep is very important to bears. He asked Rath, only wanted to help his pride, and Rath said no or something.” She didn’t have the full details, wished she did now because Cobalt was starting to look more than shocked.

He looked guilty.

It hit her.

“You told Rath to refuse him. Who else convinced Rath to be an asshole to Saint?” Holly stood again, couldn’t remain sitting as the fire inside her blazed hotter still, stoked to an inferno by the thought that Cobalt had been responsible for what had happened to her. “I knew Rath wouldn’t have been so inconsiderate.”

Cobalt squared up to her. “He got what was coming to him, Holly. He tried to kidnap Gabi. He almost killed Flint.”

“I’ll admit, one of those was unprovoked, but Saint was on edge because of the recent fight with the hunters and Gabi is human, so he thought she was a hunter… and I don’t think I need to remind anyone that Flint picked that fight.” Her blood was boiling now, and while part of her was bone-deep aware that standing up to Cobalt like this was a recipe for disaster, the rest of her couldn’t back down. “And you picked this fight with him when you told Rath to refuse Saint. Rath should have known better. He’s lived here long enough to know that Saint’s blood runs a little hot and his bear side is quick to come to the fore when he’s angry about something. We all have moments where our instincts seize control and we do something stupid. Bears are no different.”

“Saint.” Cobalt looked down at her, towering a good foot taller than her, just as Saint did.

Only when Saint tried to intimidate her like this, she didn’t feel afraid of him.

“You keep using his name, Holly,” Cobalt drawled, a calculating edge to his grey eyes as that shimmer of gold in them brightened. “You best friends with the bear who abducted you now?”

“No,” she bit out, maybe a little too quickly judging by how Ember’s eyes widened slightly. She shook her head. “I’m not… but he didn’t hurt me. Okay? He didn’t lay a finger on me. As soon as he cooled down, he realised his mistake. He was sorry about it. He’s sorry about everything he’s done wrong and maybe if you gave him the chance, he would apologise about it.”

“Oh, so he was the perfect gentleman?” Cobalt arched a blond eyebrow at her, ignoring Ember as she wrapped her hands around his arm, clutching it through his black cable-knit sweater, trying to make him back down. “He kidnapped you. He took you hostage to upset us all.”

Holly kept her mouth shut when words bubbled up, ones about the fact Saint hadn’t really meant to take her. He had wanted to take Ember. Telling Cobalt that would only push him off the rails.

“Cobalt.” There was black magic in Ember’s whisper, a spell that seemed to blunt the edge of Cobalt’s mood as he looked at his mate.

He sighed and backed off a step, and then another, giving Holly space.

When he was in line with Ember, he turned and raised his hands, framed her face and murmured throatily, “I just keep thinking about… What if he had taken you?”

Holly was relieved she hadn’t mentioned that had been Saint’s plan now.

Cobalt dipped his head and captured Ember’s lips, his kiss sweet at first, but as Ember tiptoed and pressed her hands to his chest, it turned passionate.

Feeling that the two of them weren’t going to stop anytime soon, Holly backed towards the door, surrendering to her growing need to be alone with her thoughts.

Ember cracked her eyes open and looked at her as she kissed Cobalt, worry in her gaze.

Holly shook her head and smiled. “I’m really tired. Just want to be alone for a bit.”

Ember looked as if she might try to convince her to stay in the cabin, but Cobalt growled against her mouth and pulled her closer, banding his arms around her curvy waist. Distracting her friend.

Holly hurried from the cabin, grimaced as the cold hit her. She rubbed her arms through her long-sleeved T-shirt, trying to keep the chill off them as she strode through the woods, her heightened vision making the path as clear as day to her. She didn’t slow until she reached Cobalt’s small territory. The snow had piled up in the clearing, but the storm had swept it away from the front of the raised L-shaped cabin.

She waded through the snow, legs growing colder and stiffer by the second. It was slow going, sapped her strength as she kept her gaze locked on the front of the cabin, her thoughts on getting inside and warmed up.

And being alone.

She had never needed to be alone more than she did at that moment.

Her feet were numb by the time she reached the steps. She kicked the snow off each wooden board, working her way up to the deck. When she reached it, she glanced out at the clearing and paused to take in how beautiful it was with the snow glittering in the slender moonlight and the stars sparkling above the mountains.

Only for some reason, it wasn’t as beautiful as it had been when she had admired the view before.

She looked off to her left, up the valley.

Towards Black Ridge.

A need to keep on walking, to go back to that place, flooded her but she forced herself to go inside instead. The air was chilly inside the cabin. She kicked snow off her boots and removed them, winced as her feet touched the icy floorboards and hurried to the fireplace on the right of the open-plan room.

She busied herself with making a fire, letting her mind empty as her hands went to work, purging everything the brothers had said about Saint and his kin, and how tense she had been when they had been crowding around her. Cobalt was bound to report everything she had said to Rath, and she only hoped it might go some way towards making her alpha see that Saint wasn’t a bad bear. He just had a bad tendency to let the bear in him take the reins when he was angry and made poor decisions while his more animal side was in control.

She slowly relaxed by degrees, and by the time she had lit the kindling and the first flame caught and began to spread, she was beginning to feel at ease again.

Holly pushed to her feet and wriggled her toes as they steadily warmed, stared at the flames dancing across the logs and lost herself a little in them. In the silence. It was bliss.

She pulled down a deep breath.

Smelled cedar and snow, and wanted to growl. She lifted the left side of her T-shirt, pressed the material to her nose and breathed deep of that earthy scent. Her eyes slipped shut, calm flowing through her to chase the chill from her skin and the ache from her heart.

Saint.

Tears lined her eyelashes as she saw him fighting, as she saw him take a bad hit and watched crimson roll down his side.

Holly opened her eyes, not wanting to relive that moment, and hurried from the fire, heading for the sleek, modern kitchen. She opened the cupboards, looking for hot chocolate.

And found Cobalt’s whiskey.

Well, it would certainly warm her up.

She grabbed it instead and a glass from another cupboard, and carried them to the grey couch that faced the fireplace. She sank into it, uncorked the bottle and poured herself a glass. Sniffed it and grimaced as her nose stung. She had never been one for drinking, but she had never been one for a lot of things before.

Like feeling attracted to someone.

Wanting someone.

Holly shuffled into a more comfortable position on the couch and tucked her feet beside her. She stared at the fire as she nursed the glass of whiskey, sipping it, and then sighed as she clutched it to her chest. Her thoughts turned to Saint again. She was sure she should be glad to be home with her pride, but she missed the brute.

She worried about him.

For the first time in her life, she had found a male who had awoken feelings in her, needs that had been strong.

Were still strong.

She mulled over everything the brothers had said about him, trying to see in him what they did and weighing it against what she knew herself.

What she felt.

Was she like those people who fell for their captors, because they had grown accustomed to them and had been shown glimmers of kindness by them?

Saint had been kind to her at times, but she hadn’t exactly been held by him long enough to grow accustomed to him at all or view him through rose-tinted glasses. He had his rough edges, could be savage just as the brothers had painted him.

Holly sipped the whiskey again, enjoying the burn.

Thought about her time with Saint.

Right back to when he had grabbed her in the woods.

She could have escaped him then if she had shifted. Some part of her was deeply aware of that. Why hadn’t she? She frowned as she remembered why. She hadn’t wanted to shift. Something about Saint had made her not want to fight him.

Something about him had made her feel other things too.

Wicked things.

And things that had been frightening at the time.

Like an uncontrollable need to dominate him.

And a powerful desire to protect him.

That need had been unmistakable when the brothers had attacked him, when she had seen him desperately fighting them and had felt sure he had been afraid of losing her. A need had run through her.

A need to shift and defend him.

Holly poured another glass of whiskey and thought about how the brothers acted around their females. How Ember acted around Cobalt.

She swallowed it in one gulp as something dawned on her.

There was one reason she might be feeling possessive and protective of Saint.

The big gruff bear might be her fated mate.

Holly set the glass down and stood.

She needed to know for sure.