Saved by her Bear (Black Ridge Bears Shifter Romance Series Book 3) Read online

  Everyone’s feet probably felt cold but she kept that to herself.

  “We really should take a break, Karl.” She stared at him, unwilling to back down this time. “Everyone is cold. Tired. You want to screw up and get yourself killed? Because that’s how it happens. You get tired and too cold. Your mind gets sluggish. You make mistakes. One mistake up in these valleys and you’re dead. I’ve seen it happen.”

  She snapped her mouth shut as hurt rolled through her, tried to steel herself against the memories that rushed into her mind, but knew she had failed when Wade looked as if he wanted to come to her and Karl looked as if he might back down.

  Skye turned away from them and kept walking, not caring if they followed her. She needed a moment alone. She sucked down a breath and held it, clenched her fists and tried to purge the pain, tried to shut it down and shut out the memories that tormented her. She hadn’t thought about that day in over ten years, and she didn’t want to think about it now.

  She breathed through the hurt, slowly vanquishing it as she focused on the present, denying the past. She needed to keep her head on straight, couldn’t afford to get swept up in her past and the pain that waited there, letting it distract her. She needed to heed her own advice.

  One mistake and she would end up dead, not because of the valley, but because of the men. It would only take one error on her part and Karl or one of the others would kill her. Right now, she was valuable and she had to remain that way if she wanted to live.

  And God, she wanted to live.

  Chapter 7

  Skye followed the boot prints Knox had left her, shutting out the weak part of her that wanted to feel his arms around her, ached for him to hold her as he had that stormy night in her bar.

  She frowned as another beam of light crept up to meet hers, looked across at the man who fell into step beside her, and breathed a little sigh of relief when she saw it was Karl and not Wade.

  “We will rest for the night. You’re right and the trail isn’t going anywhere.”

  She nodded and returned her gaze to the snow as they entered a clearing, and her eyebrows knitted as she saw he was right.

  The trail wasn’t going anywhere.

  “I think it ends here.” She hurried to the final set of clear boot prints, ones that tracked north. “The wind must have blown snow over the rest of the trail.”

  She looked at Karl. He scowled at the last set of prints, looking far from happy about that, and didn’t take his eyes off them as she shone her light around the rest of the clearing.

  “The trail is still heading in the direction of the cabin I know.” She hoped that would ease his mood, because he looked ready to lash out at someone in a fit of anger, and she didn’t want it to be her. “This will be a good spot to rest for the night. Not as sheltered as I would like, but we can build a nice big fire and there’s a few logs we could drag around to use as seats.”

  “What’s wrong?” Wade’s voice cut through the darkness and she swung to face him as her entire body tensed. He flinched as the beam of her flashlight hit him in the face.

  “Sorry,” she muttered and lowered it. “Just a little jumpy. Thinking about wolves.”

  His hard features softened at that and she looked away from him and busied herself with finding some dry wood under the trees that bordered the clearing.

  “I’ll help.” Cooper came over to her and she thanked him with a smile, which set Wade off again.

  “I’ll help her. You and Patrick clear the snow away so we can make a fire.” Wade stormed towards her.

  She tensed again as he reached for her, might have flinched a little as he grabbed her backpack rather than touching her as she had expected, because he frowned at her, his dark eyes glittering with irritation. Because she was afraid of him and not the others? They had guns, sure, but none of them were giving her heated looks and none of them were looking for excuses to touch her.

  He helped her out of her pack and set it down beside a tree on a clear patch of ground.

  “Thanks,” she mumbled, not meaning it. “Can you look over there to see if there’s any dry wood?”

  He looked as if he wanted to say no, but then he walked away from her. She tried to work her way in the opposite direction to him as she gathered branches and twigs, anything she thought might burn, but he foiled her by stopping a good fifteen feet from her and then turning back and following her. By the time she had an armful of wood, he had caught up with her.

  “Here, let me take that.” He smiled at her as he reached for the wood she had bundled up in her arms and she wanted to tell him no, but he was taking it from her before she could find her voice. His hand brushed her chest as he took the branches, adding them to the pile in his arm, and his gaze leaped to hers and then dropped to her mouth.

  “I’ll get some more.” Skye was quick to pivot on her heel and hurry away from him, her heart thundering and fast breaths fogging the air in front of her face. She slowed as she heard him talk to Karl and realised he wasn’t following her.

  She glanced back. Cooper had cleared a decent-sized hole in the snow and Patrick had pulled one of the fallen logs out from the trees. The large man was kicking snow away from the area between the log and the fire, clearing down to the dirt, and Cooper moved to help him. Skye took a moment to breathe, steadying her nerves again.

  Wade didn’t give her a chance.

  He dropped off his load and came back to her. “Karl says we need more.”

  She bet he did. She shrugged and was deeply aware of Wade as he tailed her, sticking painfully close to her heels. For the first time in her life, she bent with her knees, making sure she didn’t give him any ideas. She gathered more wood and he took it from her when she stood.

  She scowled at him. “This will go a lot quicker if you gather your own.”

  She motioned towards the trees, trying to shoo him away.

  “Karl also said I’m not to let you out of my sight.” Wade grinned at her, a salacious one that turned her stomach.

  “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.” She stomped back to the other two men and paused by Cooper before Wade could say anything. “Can you be a darling and help Wade gather firewood?”

  He nodded. “Sure thing.”

  The young man strode towards Wade and she could practically feel Wade glaring at her back, ignored him as she turned to Patrick.

  “Here. Let me help.” She shuffled with her feet, clearing the snow from around the fire Karl was building. She glanced at his work. A good fire. The man was more capable than she had thought given he was clearly a city guy. She smiled at Patrick. “Let’s haul that other log in here too. Then there’ll be plenty of space for all of us to sit.”

  And she would be picking the smaller of the logs, one that was only big enough for two, and she would make damned sure that Wade wasn’t the other one sitting on it with her.

  She went with Patrick and wrestled with the other log, one that weighed far more than she had anticipated. It took them close to ten minutes to wrangle it into the clearing. She wiped her brow to clear the sweat away as she fought to catch her breath.

  Patrick looked as tired as she felt as he sank onto the log.

  She checked the fire again. Karl had it going already, the flames catching swiftly despite the slightly damp wood. She turned back to Patrick.

  “You should take your boots off and put them near the fire. Your socks too.” She stepped over the log and went to her pack, grabbed it and carried it back to him. He bent to untie his boots and she opened her pack, rifled through it and found what she was looking for. A spare pair of socks. She offered them to Patrick. “They’ll be too small, but hopefully you can keep most of your feet covered with them, your toes in particular, while your socks dry.”

  He gave her a grateful smile and took them, tugged them on over his toes and managed to make them reach his heels. She took his boots and placed them by the fire and d
raped his damp socks over them.

  Skye breathed a sigh of relief when she glanced at the smaller log and found Cooper already sitting there, bent over his pack. She hurried over to it and planted her ass beside him, tossed a smile at him as she reached into her backpack and found a protein bar. She opened and nibbled it as she stared at the fire, enjoying the warmth of the flames as they chased the cold from her hands and feet and her face.

  “Do you have any more of those?” Cooper nodded towards the bar in her hand.

  She glanced at his pack. “There’s no food in there?”

  “Your food looks better,” he muttered.

  She looked at the others and caught them all looking at her hand, even Karl. Her gaze locked with his across the fire and then he looked at the flames. She imagined all of them were hungry by now and decided it wouldn’t hurt to curry a little favour.

  Skye pulled the pan off her pack and set it down on the dirt beside her. She dug through her pack, finding two cans of beans she had been saving for an emergency and emptied them into the pan. Cooper’s gaze drilled into her as she kneeled and held the pan over the fire, gently warming the beans. When they were bubbling and hot, she sat back on the log, tipped some of the beans into one of the cans, some into the other, and then grabbed some of the plastic cutlery she always kept in her pack. She placed one spoon in one can and one in the pan.

  She offered the can to Cooper. “Share it with Wade.”

  She stood and rounded the fire, and held the pan out to Karl.

  “I’ll split it with Patrick.” He took it with a nod, genuine warmth in his eyes, and she went back to her seat.

  She ate her beans in peace, relishing the satisfied noises Cooper and Patrick, and even Karl made as they ate their share. When she was done, she used snow to clean out the pan and noticed that Karl didn’t stop her as she went searching for more clean snow. She scooped some into the pan and hurried back to the fire, and set it over the flames.

  By the time it was boiling, the men were done with the beans. She added some coffee grounds to the water, swirled it and then emptied some of it into the only two metal cups she had, reserving enough for everyone.

  Skye offered the first cup to Karl and then showed she knew exactly how their little group worked by offering the second one to Wade.

  He tried charming her by offering it back to her, but she held her hand out to stop him.

  “I’ll have some when you’re done.” She went back to her seat.

  It didn’t take them long to pass the cups back. She filled them again and gave one to Patrick and one to Cooper. Cooper was quick to drink his and offer his cup back to her with a smile that earned him a black look from Wade.

  She poured the rest of the coffee into the mug and set it down beside her to cool while she washed out the pan and placed the empty food cans in a plastic bag and sealed it. Bears weren’t awake at this time of year, but it was better not to risk attracting them.

  She settled down and sipped her coffee, listening to the murmured conversation and trying to stay awake. As silence slowly fell and the night wore on, she grew increasingly aware that Knox was out there somewhere. Watching her?

  Waiting to make a move?

  That should have had her on high alert, but fatigue washed over her and her eyelids grew heavy. No matter how hard she fought it, she slowly sank forwards, sleep overcoming her. She would just rest her eyes for a moment.

  “Need to drain the snake,” Patrick muttered, his voice rousing her.

  But only for a heartbeat.

  She began to doze off again.

  Jerked awake as a harrowing scream echoed around the forest.

  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.