Unleashed By her Bear by Felicity Heaton

Chapter 10

Rune seethed as he trekked up the slope, following a narrow animal trail that was new, barely worn in. Callie’s gaze landed on his back for the thousandth time, a brief caress that only made the silence between them more oppressive. She wanted him to shatter that silence, wanted to shatter it too if her heavy sighs were anything to go by, but neither of them knew what to say to each other.

Dark thoughts kept him quiet.

What was the cause of her silence?

He scented the air again, wanting to know if Carrigan was nearby, but only caught the soft fragrance of honeysuckle with a hint of caramel—a scent that had stamped itself on him the moment he had caught it and had realised it was coming from Callie.

A scent he was trying to purge from his memory and eradicate from his lungs, but it was impossible.

It seemed to have left an indelible mark on him, had quickly become a smell he would forever associate with the stubborn, angry wolf behind him.

And she was angry.

So was he, so they had that in common.

He wasn’t sure whether it was the thought of crossing paths with Carrigan again that had him on edge, his mood constantly circling a dark abyss of rage that flooded him with a hunger to fight.

Or whether it had been the shouting match that had come from his cabin this morning, one that had seen him ditching Maverick and Misty and hurrying back to his home.

To intervene.

To protect the wolf.

Gods, in that moment rage had stolen control of him, swift to hijack his body as he had realised that not only Lowe was in the cabin with Callie—Knox had joined them. Knox who had a bad tendency to lash out first and assess the situation later. Sometimes the male was too much like Maverick. There was a fighter locked inside him, a beast that roared to the fore at the slightest provocation, had him itching to bloody his claws.

The thought that the male might paint those claws with Callie’s blood had set Rune on the warpath, had clouded his mind with pleasing images of taking the male down, of putting him in his place and ensuring the younger bear knew not to mess with Callie again.

Knew the female was under Rune’s protection.

The second Rune had realised what he was doing, had found himself standing in the doorway of his cabin about to launch at Knox and fight him, he had shut down the urge to rip him apart.

If only he could purge this restless, seething darkness that easily. His bear side paced constantly, only calmed whenever he made a mental note of how far they had come from the Ridge. That part of him liked the growing distance between him and the other bears—Knox and Maverick in particular.

He just wasn’t sure why.

It had his mind going in circles, swift to skip over any explanation that involved Callie being away from Maverick and even Knox and Lowe.

“How long is it going to take to reach the White Wolf pack?” Callie’s soft voice swept around him, calmed his bear side in a way that aggravated him and made him want to lash out at her.

He stoked his anger, keeping it at a simmer, using it as a shield to prevent her from seeing how easily she affected him.

It wasn’t hard when he thought about the reason she wanted to reach the wolf pack.

He huffed. “Eager to get to Rourke?”

He felt her glare at his back, glanced at her as he reached a flat section of forest and the old track they had used before. She scowled at him, her amber eyes bright with irritation. Good. He didn’t want her getting comfortable around him.

Callie grabbed one of the saplings that was trying to grow along the track and used it to pull herself up the last few feet of the incline. She pressed her free hand into the short grass that had sprung up along the clearing and grunted as she managed to reach the track, bent over and breathed deeply. He was pushing her too hard. He glanced at her ankle, a flicker of concern running through him, vanquished in a heartbeat as he steeled himself.

She straightened and tipped her head up, her black hair falling away from her shoulders as she squared them. Looked him right in the eye. Bold. Brave. When she looked at him like that, silently challenging him, it roused a fierce need to growl and attempt to dominate her.

Rune shut it down, pivoted on his heel and started walking, heading north.

“Do you have a problem with everyone in this world or am I just special?” Callie bit out, making him want to look at her to see that spark of fire in her eyes.

A spark he liked far too much.

“You’re special all right,” he grunted and kept his eyes locked on the distant white peaks of the mountains. “I’m guessing you’re special to Carrigan. Is that why he’s hunting you? Did you have a lover’s spat and you walked out on him? Maybe that’s why you want to get to the White Wolf pack so badly… so you can shack up with another male. Trading up, Wolf?”

She was before him in an instant, her anger hitting him hard as she snarled in his face. “You know nothing about me and my situation, so lay off.”

Rune squared up to her, couldn’t help himself when her eyes were flashing fire and she was throwing off aggression, challenging him, rousing that inferno in his blood that he was beginning to like. “Enlighten me then. You’re not Carrigan’s lover?”

She growled.

“If I was, I’d be one of a whole bunch of them. The bastard has a harem at his pack.” The fury, the fight, that had been in her words suddenly died and she rubbed her right arm as she glanced away from him, looking beyond him towards the start of the valley where the trailhead was. “I can’t go back there. I won’t go back there.”

The desperate note her voice gained awakened something dark and fierce inside him, birthed a desire to fight Carrigan for her sake too. He wasn’t a white knight, but he wanted to kill the wolf.

For her.

To set her free.

He stared at her, studying every subtle shift of her expression, every emotion that flitted across her eyes, his senses locked on her to detect even the faintest change in her mood. Hurt. Fear. Desperation. It was all there for him to read, none of it hidden from him. Whatever had happened to her at Carrigan’s pack, it had shaken her. Had Carrigan been the one to abuse her?

“You said you were between packs. Was Carrigan’s pack your original one?” He hadn’t known how badly he needed to know the answer to that question, needed to know more about her, until it was out there, hanging in the air between them.

He willed her to answer him.

She shook her head. “No.”

She wrapped her arms around herself, stiffened as she noticed what she was doing and dropped her arms to her sides. Rune got that. She didn’t want to look weak in front of someone else. She didn’t want to appear vulnerable.

Callie turned away from him and pulled her hood up, covering her raven hair. She jammed her hands into the pockets of her top as she walked, her limp still pronounced, following the track north towards the glacier and the pass.

Rune stared at her back, fighting the urge to ask her whether Carrigan had been the one who had touched her without her consent, scarring her deeply. He sighed, his shoulders heaving with it under his fleece, and went after her. He easily caught up to her but remained a few steps behind, keeping an eye on her, monitoring her mood with his senses, aware that she didn’t need him pushing her right now.

Judging by the anger he could still feel in her, and the hurt, her mood was treading as dark a path as his was.

When they reached the end of the broad section of track, she glanced at him. He pointed towards a smaller path that branched off it, cutting across the thin grass and greenery to the trees that hugged the side of the mountain. She took it, her shoulders heaving in a sigh as she followed it up the steady, gentle incline.

She picked her way across a stream that washed part of the animal track away, tumbling down from the mountain towards a steep drop somewhere off to his left. There was a waterfall there, small but beautiful at times depending on how much rain they’d had, a place where he had often gone to sit for a time and be alone. The sun filtered through the trees into a pool at a certain time of day, making the water sparkle, and it was peaceful.

“My original pack was down near Revelstoke.” Callie’s voice broke into his reverie, drawing him back to her, and he held his tongue, aware she was fighting with herself, wanted to get the words out but was finding it difficult. If he talked, she would clam up again, and gods, some foolish part of him didn’t want that. He wanted to know her story. Her shoulders shifted with her sigh—a sigh that wasn’t melancholy. It reeked of hurt, tinged with betrayal. “Carrigan was doing business with my alpha and he expressed an interest in me. Edward handed me over as if I was his property and not a living being with my own free will.”

“Son of a bitch,” Rune growled, unable to hold his anger back as he looked at her, as he felt the hurt that had caused her and knew in his gut how betrayed she had to feel.

The thought of someone treating her like that had his bear side roaring to the fore, had him restless with a need to turn around and track Carrigan down to kill him, and then head to Revelstoke to deal with Edward. His blood burned with the urge to surrender to that need, to give himself over to it, had his fangs descending and pushed him dangerously close to shifting.

But then Callie stopped and looked over her shoulder at him.

Her bleak expression, the hurt and fear that shone in her amber eyes, stilled the turbulent emotions sweeping through him, had sudden calm washing through him instead as he stared into them.

The urge to hunt Carrigan down transformed into a powerful need to get Callie to the White Wolf pack as soon as possible, ensuring she was safe.

Made him realise what a monumental dick he had been, thinking only of how he felt, not even pausing to consider how she felt. Her desires, her fear and her desperate need to reach the safety of the White Wolf pack hadn’t even factored in when he had made his decision to force her to trek to the next valley. He had thought only of what he had wanted, had viewed her as a path to getting the revenge and closure he needed.

Placing her at risk.

Rune growled and silently vowed that nothing would happen to her. They couldn’t go back now. Getting back to Black Ridge for the keys to Maverick’s truck and then getting to the trailhead would take too long and place even more people in danger. They had to keep going forwards. As much as he hated it, he had to trust that Rourke could keep her safe.

He looked ahead of her, to the point where the pass was. It was still a long way away, but they could make it. He could get her to the White Wolf pack before Carrigan found her. He could make things right.

As soon as she was safe, he would find Carrigan and deal with him.

The male would never bother her again.

Rune would make sure of it.

Made it an oath.

A promise he would keep even if he had to sacrifice his life to achieve it.

“Does Rourke know about this?” Rune closed ranks with her, his senses stretching around them as he fought the urge to press her to keep moving.

She needed a break.

She surprised him by shaking her head and continuing along the path, only to pause at another stream. She stooped and scooped up water, drank it and then looked at him.

“Why doesn’t Rourke know about what happened to you?” He watched her, mesmerised by her graceful movements as she carefully scooped up another handful of water and sipped it.

She lifted her head. Shrugged.

“Why would he? I’ve never met him.”

He frowned at that. “You don’t know Rourke?”

Callie shook her head again. “No. I heard about his pack, about how he takes in wolves who no longer have a pack and takes care of them. I thought maybe he could protect me. He’s my only way of getting rid of Carrigan. Rumour says he’s helped other wolves like me.”

Rourke the white knight.

Rune wanted to growl, leashed the urge but failed to shut down the sharp change in his mood judging by how Callie eyed him and looked ready to fight him again. He wasn’t angry at her. Not really. He was angry at someone he had never really met, had only seen from a distance.

Irritated because she held the male in such high regard, talking about him as if he was some kind of wonderful saviour and the only one capable of helping her.

“I’m helping you, aren’t I?” he bit out, unable to hold those words back, putting them out there in some needy and feeble attempt to make her think of him in the way she did with Rourke.

She scoffed and turned on her heel, giving him her back.

“You’re using me as bait. I’m not an idiot, Rune. You have some unresolved business with Carrigan, and you’re hoping he catches up with us so you can have your shot at him. What I don’t understand is why you don’t just wait here for the wolf and his men.” She glanced over her shoulder at him, hitting him with a hard look that had him feeling like a dick all over again, and walked away from him. “Why bother pretending to take me to Rourke?”

That stung.

Had him taking fierce strides towards her, closing the distance between them down to nothing.

“I might be using you as bait, you’re right about that, but I’m not planning to place you in danger. Waiting for the wolf here would do just that… especially if he has men with him like you say he does.” Rune caught her arm, closed his fingers around it when she jerked it forwards, trying to break free of him, and spun her to face him. Her gaze clashed with his, the fire in it warning him he was treading on thin ice. He couldn’t back down. The inferno in his blood raged too fiercely to be tamed, pushed him to make her see that she was wrong about him. “I’m leaving a scent trail for the bastard to follow, one that will lead him to the White Wolf pack, and hopefully it’ll take him long enough to catch up with us that I’ll have time to convince Rourke to team up with me to take Carrigan down.”

Her eyes darted between his, her black eyebrows rising slightly as she searched them. “What if Carrigan catches up with us before then? Have you thought about what happens then?”

Rune growled, “I’ll deal with him alone if that happens.”

She laughed at that, ripping another snarl from him, this one born of the fact she was mocking him, truly thought he was incapable of protecting her.

“Really?” She squared up to him, her breasts dangerously close to pressing against his chest. “I can fight. You’ll need me to fight too. The last time I saw him, Carrigan had ten of his best wolves with him.”

Rune forced a huff from his lips, tried to ignore how close she was to him, how her heat warmed his thighs and chest, and her scent tormented him, flooded him with an urge that shook him.

He wanted to drop his lips to the smooth column of her throat and kiss it, ached to hear her moan in pleasure as she arched into him, seeking more.

What was it about this female that had him firing on all cylinders, willing to push aside his hatred of wolves to embrace the feelings she awoke in him, the needs she unleashed?

He stared down into her eyes, bewitched by the fire in them, by the strength that shone in them and the determination that tugged at a part of him, had him almost relenting because that part of him wanted to see her fight.

He bet she would be majestic.

Captivating.

He shut that side of him down. It wasn’t going to happen. He had made a vow to protect her and he wouldn’t fail, not this time.

But eleven wolves would be difficult to deal with alone.

He drew down a deep breath, denying the voice in the back of his mind that whispered at him, trying to convince him to let her fight. It wasn’t going to happen. Just the thought of her in the thick of a fight against eleven male wolves had his fangs dropping and his bear side pushing for freedom, attempting to force a shift as his primal instincts roared at him to protect her.

If only the thought of her fighting unsettled him this much, the sight of her up against Carrigan and his men would send him into a rage so dark she might end up caught in the crossfire.

He couldn’t bear that.

Rune stared at her, charting the sculpted planes of her face, the delicate blush of her lips, the gentle slope of her nose, ending with losing himself in the striking amber of her eyes. He couldn’t let her fight. He wouldn’t. He would protect her to the best of his abilities, would harness the side of himself that had been born in the cage, allowing no one to reach her.

He would keep her safe.

He had failed in a mission like this one before, what felt like a lifetime ago, but this time he would succeed. No one would touch Callie. No one would hurt her.

“You can’t fight.” He released her arm and walked past her, battling the rage that simmered in his veins, constantly pressing him to find something to fight in order to unleash the aggression building inside him.

“I can!” Callie snapped, stoking the heat in his veins back into an inferno.

Or maybe it wasn’t rage that burned in his blood.

Maybe it was something far more dangerous.

Rune looked back at her, a wave of heat rolling over him, tightening his muscles and making him deeply aware of the beautiful, fierce female standing before him.

A female he had offended.

He shook his head.

“I didn’t mean it like that, but I get why you think I did. How many males throughout your life have told you that you can’t fight?” When he asked her that, the look she gave him said it had been a lot. Male wolves were overbearing, had a bad habit of holding females back and treating them like life was still as it was centuries ago. Bears knew better than to oppress their females like that. His breed had learned the hard way that you didn’t tell a female what to do or try to hold them back. “I’m not one of those males, Callie. I know you can fight… but I’m not going to let you. I just can’t.”

She looked as if she wanted to make him explain himself.

“It isn’t going to happen.” He put force behind those words, needing to make himself clear, and saw it in her eyes the moment she realised why. He wanted to huff at that flicker of fear, wanted to growl and roar Lowe’s name, sure it had been that male who had told her about him in his absence. He sighed instead. “Lowe told you to keep out of my way when I’m fighting, didn’t he?”

Lowe had probably only wanted to protect her by giving her a head’s up about Rune’s temperament, but it still irritated him.

She shook her head, rubbed her arm and then let her hand drop to her side. “It was the other one. The asshole.”

According to Callie, most of the bears in his pride were assholes. He figured she meant Knox. An image of how shaken she had looked when he had heard the ruckus in his cabin and returned to it flickered across his mind and the urge to fight Knox returned. Rune shoved it aside.

“Then you know that whatever goes down, you’re not fighting. You’re staying the hell away from it.” He knew the moment he had royally screwed up with her, saw the darkness invade her eyes as her lips flattened and her scent gained an acrid note.

“You’re just another overbearing male after all… thinking you can push me around and dictate what I do. Well, you don’t own me and you certainly don’t control me. You can’t make me do anything,” she bit out and strode past him.

Rune caught her arm again and twisted her to face him as he growled at her.

He meant to say something, wanted to defend himself and force her to agree to keep the hell away from the fight when it went down, only he was lost for words as her eyes met his. Anger shone in them. That fire he admired. She was a fighter. She was strong.

Stronger than Grace had ever been.

A flash of that delicate, pale-haired female overlaid onto Callie, and a need to tell her that he was sorry swept through him, together with all the rage and the grief that had consumed him in the months after he had failed her.

Rune reached his free hand up, aching to touch her face, to feel the warmth of her skin against his fingers again. He ached to hear her voice, to have her tell him that it wasn’t his fault, that he hadn’t failed her. He had fought as hard as he could, but it hadn’t been good enough.

He hadn’t been strong enough.

“Rune?” That soft voice wasn’t the one he had wanted to hear, but it had warmth curling through him to melt the icy sludge in his veins, had light chasing back the darkness that had filled him, and pulled him back to the present.

To a beautiful wolf.

“What’s wrong?” All the fire that had been in Callie’s eyes was gone now, a softness replacing it that tore at him, threatening to rip down his strength and have him succumbing to the pain that blazed in his soul.

Rune turned away from her and ran a hand down his face. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

He walked for a few steps and then stopped and looked back at her.

“I can’t let you fight. If I see you fighting, I’ll lose my shit, and you’ll be in even more danger.”

He thought about Grace, locked in that cage, fighting for her life.

Thought about how powerless he had been to help her.

About how he had failed her.

He couldn’t let that happen with Callie.

“Rune.” Callie reached for him.

He pivoted on his heel. “Keep moving.”

Rune tried to ignore the way she said his name, how it stirred something inside him whenever it fell from her lips, spoken so softly.

A warmth he hadn’t felt in a long time.

No.

A warmth he had never felt before.

One that set him on edge.

One that felt dangerous.

He couldn’t give in to it.

No matter how tempting it was.