Redeem The Bear by T.S. Joyce Read Free Book Online

impossible for anyone to back out. You brought this on yourself.” Brooks turned and strode away.
    “No,” Riker said. Brooks turned and narrowed his eyes , waiting. “You Long Claws have had this coming for a long time. You’ve killed too many of our kind to go unpunished. I don’t want this war because there are so few bear shifters left and it’s a waste of life. Don’t get it confused though, Brooks.” Riker’s voice dipped dangerously low and took on a gravelly tone. “I’m not scared of war with a clan who deserves to fall. I just believe more thought should be put into annihilating half of our species in one fucking morning. Tomorrow you’ll all die, and justice will finally be served to all of the clans you’re people have destroyed. You’re a new alpha, and you have come into this leadership at a dire time for your people. Is vengeance more important to you than the survival of your clan? If so, continue on this path. Or you could become the alpha that Nathan and all of the other Long Claw alphas before you failed to be. You could lead your people into peace. This time, right now, is where you choose what kind of leader you’re going to be. You’ve seen it. Long Claw alphas go mad, and their term is short. You have such a need to kill as many as possible, to acquire as much land as you can, and for what? So you can leave your legacy as the greatest murderer? So you can outdo the murderers before you? Your bear will buckle under that kind of power and blood lust in three years, tops. Why don’t you surprise us all, and be better than the alphas before you.”
    Corin was shaking so bad, she tried not to touch the tree. The waves of dominance that snaked through the woods made it hard to stand upright, and any movement would give away her position now. The men had moved too close for her to escape unnoticed.
    “What kind of leader would I be if I didn’t avenge the fallen alpha before me?” Brooks asked in a cool, steady voice.
    Closing her eyes, she tried to match Brooks’ voice to Daniel’s but failed. They were too different. Maybe he really wasn’t who she thought he was. Confusion swirled around in her head until she was dizzy.
    Silence stretched on and on, and finally Brooks said, “Dawn.”
    “Dawn,” Riker agreed.
    Shuffling leaves said Brooks was leaving, and a tiny sigh of relief escape her lips.
    Seconds passed and a hand clamped on her shoulder. Corin gasped, but it was just Riker’s furious face that was thrust inches from hers.
    “What are you doing here?” he asked.
    “Hiding?” she squeaked. Obviously. She was crouched in a bush that looked suspiciously poisonous. Her skin itched all over just thinking about it.
    Gently pushing her forward, he said, “Come on.”
    “At least he didn’t know I was here—Brooks.” The name sounded foreign on her tongue.
    She turned around and swallowed a scream as two glowing eyes stared at her from the shadows.
    “Yeah, he did. Any shifter with decent h earing would’ve known you were here. You were panting like you were having a panic attack.” Riker stepped in front of her and led her farther away from Brooks and his eerie eyes. “You need to get ahold of yourself, Corin. Even now, your heartbeat is going fast enough to make you pass out.”
    Why did Ri ker have to walk so damned fast? It was dark and she couldn’t see very well, and the breathing trouble he had so insensitively pointed out was making her even dizzier. “I’ll have you know, I don’t swoon, if that’s what you are implying.” She tripped over a branch and went sprawling face first, and right before she hit the ground, an arm snaked out and wrapped around her middle, saving her from a fern to the eye.
    Gasping, she was jerked backward and set upright. Brooks’ eyes, intense and as dark as the sky above, devoured her. His eyebrows lowered slowly as his eyes drifted to her lips. He seemed confused when his gaze lifted to hers again.
    If she didn’t talk now,