Saved By Her Bear by Felicity Heaton
Chapter 8
Knox was going to take immense pleasure from killing Wade. He barely bit back the growl that rolled up his throat as he crouched in the shadows across the clearing from the group, watching the damned bastard tailing Skye wherever she went. When the male used the excuse of lightening her load to practically fondle her, it took all of his will to stop himself from bursting from the bushes and savaging him.
She managed to escape the male after offloading her bundle of branches and twigs onto him and Knox’s breath hitched in his throat as she ambled towards him, picking up more firewood. His heart thundered as he eased through the shadows, moving towards her, a need to let her know that he was there pounding inside him. She didn’t look at him though and the chance slipped through his fingers as Wade caught up with her.
“Karl says we need more,” he rumbled, almost a purr.
She shrugged but it was stiff, betraying the nerves that Knox could feel in her as she found herself alone with Wade. Her gaze kept sliding to her right, towards the male as she walked with him following far too close behind her. When she lowered into a crouch to gather some broken branches, Wade’s eyes gained a heated edge that Knox didn’t like one bit. The male loomed over her, his dark gaze pinned on her head as he edged towards her.
Son of a bitch.
Every muscle in Knox locked up tight as an urge to launch at the male and take him down blasted through him. He was alone. There was a chance that Knox could kill him before he could get a shot off and before any of the other men could react.
Skye swiftly stood and scowled at Wade as he took the bundle of firewood from her, acting as if he hadn’t been fantasising about grabbing her hair and forcing her to do something.
“This will go a lot quicker if you gather your own.” She waved a hand towards the trees, right in the direction of Knox, and Knox grinned, silently urging the male to do as she bid and head towards him.
“Karl also said I’m not to let you out of my sight.” Wade’s grin was far too twisted for Knox’s liking and he doubled down on willing the male to come his way.
“Then you can gather wood while I help set up the camp. That way Karl will know I’m not going to go running off.” Skye turned on her heel and strode over to the youngest male, Cooper. “Can you be a darling and help Wade gather firewood?”
Knox wanted to growl at him too and at how Skye kept flirting with the male, even when he knew that she was only doing it to keep one of the men sweet and liable to protect her, and to irritate Wade.
He hadn’t missed how satisfied she had looked earlier when she had sparked jealousy in Wade. Knox thought it was dangerous of her. The male looked as if he was searching for any excuse to get his hands on her and she was pressing his buttons, firing him up and pushing him dangerously close to acting on his impulses.
Cooper nodded. “Sure thing.”
Wade glared at Skye as Cooper approached him, the look in his eyes increasing that feeling Knox had in his gut, one that screamed it was only a matter of time before Wade snapped and stopped playing nice with Skye.
She went to Patrick and spoke to him, her air calm and unaffected, but Knox could scent the fear on her. The urge to go to her grew stronger when she wrestled with a large log that looked as if it had been left by the last logging company that had come up this way, or maybe it was one the cougars had discarded when gathering wood to build their cabins. It had been stripped of branches and had seen better days, the underside of it rotten as Skye rolled it. She pulled a face at it and rolled it over again with the help of Patrick, and together they manoeuvred it into position near the fire Karl was stoking.
The light of it was bright in the darkness, stinging Knox’s eyes.
Skye helped Patrick with his boots and offered him something for his feet. Another male she was keeping on her side. He wasn’t sure Patrick would help her if she found herself in a bind, but Cooper would and Cooper seemed close to the overweight male. Knox supposed it was because of their place in the hierarchy of the group. Patrick and Cooper occupied the same lower rung of the ladder, something which was liable to make them have each other’s backs.
She stood and pivoted, relief washing across her firelit features as she spotted that Cooper was already sitting on the smaller of the two logs. Knox loosed a low growl now, keeping it quiet enough that no one would hear him, because he knew why she looked relieved—she had feared she would have to sit near Wade.
She was quick to carry her backpack to the end of the log closest to where Knox hid and sit down on it. Wade cast Cooper a disgruntled look as he was forced to sit with the other men instead of her and for a heartbeat Knox feared he might make the younger male move, pulling rank on him, but then Cooper spoke to Skye.
Knox sank back against the trunk of a pine, settling on his ass, and watched her as she interacted with the males, feeding them and putting smiles on their faces—even Karl’s. His clever little fated female. Her years running the bar had helped her learn how to deal with difficult people, how to keep them on her side and make life easier for herself. He only hoped that knowledge would help her in the hours ahead of her too.
He watched the males, keeping a close eye on Wade in particular, as the night wore on and they all went from talkative to quiet, even contemplative. Karl stared at the fire in the same way as Skye did, a distant look on his face as the golden light flickered over it. Knox slid his gaze to Skye and kept it there, studying her profile as she leaned over and propped her head up on her upturned hand.
It wouldn’t be long now.
He moved to his feet, remaining in a crouch, waiting.
Wondering.
What would Skye think of him after tonight? She had to know he wasn’t going to let these men leave the valley alive. She had to know he meant to kill them.
But she had still led them here.
He tried to ignore the way his stomach squirmed as he thought about what he was going to do. It wasn’t because of what he was going to do. Killing these men wasn’t going to bother him in the slightest. It was because he feared that Skye would run from him, that she would see him in a different light after tonight and wouldn’t be able to handle what he had done to gain her freedom.
Gods, he hoped she didn’t.
He stared at her, watching as her eyes slipped shut and then snapped open again and she jerked upright. An ache formed in his chest, born of a need to go to her and hold her, to feel her in his arms again. He wanted to tuck her close to him and drop his head to her dark hair to breathe her in and know it was really her, and that she was real, not a dream or a fantasy. She was real.
Knox battled the urge to cross the short stretch of snow between them and gather her into his arms, shoved his mind back on track, because there would be no holding her close to him if he didn’t get her out of this mess.
He wasn’t sure she would let him hold her even when he did get her away from these males.
That feeling that he was in for it when they were finally together hadn’t gone anywhere. If she didn’t leave because he had killed these males, then she would probably leave because he had hurt her in the past.
If he told her that he had spent the last two years torn between seeing her again and keeping his distance, would it help his cause?
Part of him doubted it. She would probably call him on the fact he hadn’t had the balls to face her. Gods, she would be right about that. Every time he had come close to finding an excuse to head into town so he could see her again, he had lost his nerve at the last second, and in his heart, he knew it wasn’t because she was human and he had felt they couldn’t be together because of that fact.
He had been soul-deep afraid that she would lash out at him.
Or worse.
That she would be with another male, would be happy with him and maybe even married.
He dropped his gaze to her hands and cursed her gloves. If she took them off, would he find a gold band on her finger? He idly rubbed his chest through his black jacket, trying to soothe the ache building there. A woman as beautiful as Skye was bound to have had a few suitors over the last two years, might have even settled down as he feared. If she had moved on, he could hardly blame her for it.
Things between them amounted to one wild night.
Followed by him running out on her before dawn.
Hardly a reason for her to wait for him.
He was man enough to admit that what he had done had been wrong and that she had every right to move on with her life and find happiness with someone else. The bear in him roared in agony at the thought she might have though, paced restlessly and battered the cage of his human form, wanting out, needing to lash out at everything that stood between him and his beautiful fated female.
The compulsion to go to her crashed over him again, trying to tear down his strength, attempting to push him into action. Resisting it became close to impossible as she dozed off, slumping forwards, and Wade slid a look at her. She jerked awake when someone spoke.
Patrick stood and Knox’s senses sharpened, fatigue pushed to the back of his mind as he tracked the male’s movements. He pulled his socks and boots on and headed to Knox’s right.
Towards the trees.
Knox eased backwards, deeper into the woods, and stripped his clothes off, leaving them behind a tree a good forty feet from the clearing. He focused and let the change come over him, wanted to growl in pleasure as fur rippled over his skin and he dropped to all fours, his bear side coming to the fore. Five-inch-long claws burst from his heavy paws as his face morphed, his ears rounding and moving upwards as his nose elongated into a snout and his teeth sharpened. His more animal instincts seized control, the urge to go to his mate almost overpowering him as they dampened his ability to think about actions and consequences and about his plan. It was hard to control himself and stop himself from bursting from the trees as he glanced in Skye’s direction.
He shook out his fur to get more comfortable and lumbered through the trees in the direction Patrick had taken instead, trying to move with stealth, something which was easier said than done when he was a six-hundred-pound bear. He carefully placed each paw, hoping the snow would cushion his weight enough that any branches hidden beneath it wouldn’t snap and alert the males to his presence.
Knox growled low as he caught Patrick’s scent and spied him ahead, still walking into the trees. He glanced at the camp, ensuring no one was looking his way. They were talking again, Karl saying something he tuned out as he fixed all of his senses on the overweight male he was stalking.
Patrick stopped, unzipped his pants, and grumbled something about the cold.
The cold was about to be the least of his worries.
Knox’s upper lip curled back off his fangs as he eased up behind the male, the hunger to strike him down seething inside him, born of a need to not only protect Skye but to protect his brother and Cameo too. This male was a threat to them all.
A threat to everyone at the Ridge and the Creek.
On a low, moaning growl, Knox closed the distance between him and the male.
The acrid scent of fear swamped the air as Patrick locked up tight and started trembling.
The male’s breath stuttered as he slowly turned his head to his right, his brow furrowed and his eyes wide as they edged towards Knox.
He screamed.
Knox rose up onto his back paws, coming to tower at least two feet taller than the male, and roared as he swung with his right front paw. He smashed it into Patrick’s head, delivering a crushing blow that cut his scream off and sent him to the ground on a pained grunt. He struck again, savagely clawing at the male’s grey jacket, raking deep grooves in the material and his flesh to ensure it looked like the animal attack it was. He needed it to look like a regular bear attack to keep Skye safe.
The male unleashed an agonised yell as he desperately tried to fight Knox off.
Instinct seized control, had him slamming his paw into the male’s head again, shattering his skull.
Killing him.
His primal instincts didn’t release him as the male went still.
They had him turning towards the camp as the voices grew louder, as he scented Skye’s fear. His female feared. His female was in danger. It wreaked havoc on him, had his instincts bellowing at him to save her.
On a vicious roar, Knox turned and charged towards the camp.
He thundered towards her, drawn to her, filled with a need to save her. Wade appeared from the gloom and Knox growled as he ran at him, as the male fumbled with his weapon and tried to raise it. He slammed into the bastard, knocking him back into a tree, relishing his muffled grunt as he hit it and dropped to the ground. The urge to finish him off was strong, but the need to reach Skye was even stronger, had him running harder in her direction, determined to save her.
Karl dodged to his right as Knox closed in on him, swift to place trees between him and Knox.
Ahead of him, the clearing came into view.
He growled as Skye kicked off only to be collared by Cooper, the one male Knox had been sure would be on her side. Cooper pulled her back to him, his green eyes wide, his face ashen as he stared into the woods in Knox’s direction and reached for his rifle. She struggled, desperately trying to break free of him, fear written in every line of her beautiful face as she clawed and kicked at Cooper.
Knox roared at the bastard for holding her against her will.
And charged at him.
