The Winter Bear's Bride (Dubious Book 2) (11 page)

“Analise.”

One word, but it froze Scar in place.

“What about her?”

“Oh, not much…just the fact I found her in the middle of a snowstorm, almost frozen to death.” His mother shook her head, disgust in her eyes. “Never would I have thought a son of mine would terrify a woman so much she would risk traveling in the snow to escape him.”

Analise…in the storm.

Just the thought was enough to make him feel sick. He’d assumed she’d left well before the storm had hit. She’d lived in the circle all her life; she knew the dangers…knew not to travel before bad weather hit. Unless she was so desperate to escape him that freezing to death was an acceptable risk.

He shrugged. “She’s a fully-grown adult. What she chooses to do or not to do is none of my concern. I can’t keep her here if she doesn’t want to be here.”

“Yes, but you made it pretty fucking impossible for her to stay, didn’t you?” Rika snapped, stomping up the steps to loom over him. “You”—she jabbed a finger into his chest—“took her to your bed. Fucked her. Got her with child. And didn’t fucking bond her. How
could
she stay? In the eyes of…
everyone…
she’s not your wife, she’s your
whore.
”

The world lurched at her words, and he felt the blood drain from his face.

“What did you say?”

She looked down at him, her face hard. “That poor girl loved you, and you made her a whore.”

“No, not that part. The part before. That I got her with…” He couldn’t say the word. Just looked up at her mutely. Analise couldn’t be…could she?

Realization spread over Rika’s face and she laughed. It wasn’t a nice sound.

“You didn’t know. Rather than tell you, she chose to run. What does that tell you, Aevar?”

He was so shocked he didn’t even flinch when she used his real name…the name of the boy who had loved Analise Asmundr more than life itself, only to find himself beaten so badly he’d almost died for daring to look at her.

“She hates me.” He groaned, running a hand through his hair to push it back from his face. “And I don’t blame her.”

“Neither do I.” Her answer was short and as sharp as the expression on her face. If he’d been looking for sympathy from his mother, he didn’t get it. “So what are you going to do to put it right?”

“I…” He snapped his mouth shut before he said something stupid that would set her off again. Rika might be seen as a “mere female” by some of the more traditional members of their society, but he well knew she had a tongue on her that could flay a man to the bone with her words and leave him bleeding for days.

Instead, he focused on the problem at hand.

Analise was carrying his child. His wife…no, the woman he loved…was pregnant.

Those two truths hit him one after the other; a double blow that struck him deep down in the center of his soul and stole his breath.

He loved Analise. With all his heart, soul and mind. Warmth spread out from his heart through his chest, warming him through, and his gaze snapped up to meet Rika’s.

“Where is she?”

Rika folded her arms. “What are you going to do? And it better not be some dumb shit or you’ll have me to deal with. Remember, that’s my daughter-in-law and grandbaby…so you’ll have me to deal with if you’re an asshole.”

“And they couldn’t have found a better protector in all the circle.” He chuckled, rising to his feet in one lithe movement to grasp her gently by the arms. Laying a quick kiss on her cheek, he looked down at her.

“You’re going to take me to where she is, and I’m going to put this right.”

One day, she would get out of the
c
ircle. That was a promise, to herself and to her unborn daughter.

Crouching, Analise scooped snow into a bucket to take inside and melt before Rika got back from the village with supplies. It had been a few days since she’d escaped from Scar’s keep and still she couldn’t believe that, in the middle of a whiteout, she’d managed to practically stumble through Rika’s door. She suppressed a shiver as she packed more snow into the bucket, not wanting to think about what would have happened if she’d been on a slightly different heading.

“Someone was looking out for us for sure, baby girl,” she said aloud, only comfortable speaking to her baby when Rika wasn’t around.

The pregnancy wasn’t that far along, so she wasn’t showing yet, and so far she’d managed to conceal her morning sickness from the other woman. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Rika. But to have shared a man’s bed without a mark meant the words of their marriage ceremony were pointless…and a child born to an unmarked woman? He would never claim her as his.

Sighing, she stood up and rubbed her lower back. Hot tears prickled the backs of her eyes, but she rubbed her back hard and ignored them. She would not cry. Not over him, not over any of this. Not even over the fact her father had survived and was apparently a new man after his brush with death, sorry for his treatment of her.

She snorted, the sound bitter. Yeah, like a leopard—or bear, in this case—ever changed its spots. Her father had probably heard that Scar hadn’t marked her and thought he could get the marriage annulled and sell her off to one of his cronies.

Her jaw set and she straightened her spine.
Not happening.
She was done being a pawn, for any man. Even if she still did love her husband…

Turning, she started to walk back to the cottage, lugging the bucket against her thigh. Her long skirts were pulled up to her knees, hooked into her waistband to stop them trailing in the snow and getting wet, her boots crunching on the new snowfall. The sound took her back to her childhood, running in the snow in her mother’s garden with Aevar, and she smiled, jumping a little to crunch more new snow. It made a better sound when it hadn’t been walked on before. Small pleasures. She could concentrate on them until the rest didn’t seem so bad.

So engrossed in her little game was she that she didn’t notice the two people by the cottage until she was nearly on them.

“Analise,” Rika called out, and Analise looked up, a smile already forming on her face. Which fell the instant she saw the man standing next to her.

Scar.

He’d found her.

Fear held her immobile for a moment, her eyes wide as they roved over him. Seeing him there, the familiar tall, broad-shouldered figure and handsome face, hit her like a punch to the gut. He took a step forward, and the spell broke.

Her heart exploded into action, racing so fast she thought it would burst. Without conscious thought, she turned on her heel and ran. Panic raced through her, the need to escape blotting out all other thoughts. A sob broke from her chest. She needed to run, escape, find somewhere safe for her and the baby.

“No!” Scar shouted behind her, the sounds of pursuit granting her another burst of speed.

The snow was no longer fun. Knee-high, it clung to her legs, hampering her progress and slowing her down. Cutting through the new fall, she reached the trampled path toward the village. The flattened snow meant she could run quicker, her arms and legs pumping the air for more speed.

It didn’t matter, though. Casting a desperate glance over her shoulder, she cried out at the sight of a big white form charging after her.
Scar.
He’d shifted. Another sob was torn from her lips as she tried to get more air into her lungs. She couldn’t outrun him, not as a man and definitely not in his bear form.

She was going to die. Tears filled her eyes, obscuring her vision. She’d run and now he was going to kill her for it. Her desertion had made him look a fool and his reputation would never stand for that.

Hot breath on her neck warned her he was right behind her. In a last desperate attempt to stay out of his reach, she ducked and changed direction, sprinting across new snow. He roared, the sound making her flinch, and he was after her in a heartbeat.

But running through fresh snow took its toll. Her heart ached, her lungs burned and her legs slowed. Not much, but enough she realized she wasn’t going to make it. Never had been. A small hill rose in front of her and she raced for it. If she could just get over the top…

A massive paw swiped through the air, hitting her in the side and tumbling her backward into the snow. It was like being hit with a wall, pain arching through her side and then her whole body as she rolled. Before she could work out which way was up, though, he was over her, massive paws either side of her head and sharp teeth just inches from her throat.

She froze in place, a single tear tracking down her cheek.

“Please,” she whispered, her voice broken. “Please don’t. I’m pregnant. Please don’t hurt the baby.”

She wasn’t above begging, not for the life of her child. There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do to save her daughter. Nothing at all.

****

Analise was so beautiful, she took his breath away.

Scar stood next to his mother, waiting for the moment his wife looked up and he could see her face under the hood of the cloak. It was one he’d had made for her and a thread of pleasure rolled through his veins to see that she’d taken it, something he’d given her, when she left. And there was something else…relief, thankfulness, whatever, all rolled into one that she
had
been wearing it the day she left. It was a thick winter cloak. Without it, she’d never have survived the storm long enough for his mother to find her.

She looked up finally, a smile on her face, and his heart stuttered in his chest. She had always been beautiful, right back when they were kids. The delicate promise of beauty in the girl she had been was now fully realized in the slender vision of womanhood before him.

He stepped forward, mouth opening to pour out his apologies and tell her how he felt, but before he could get a word out, fear filled her eyes. All his illusions about how this meeting would go—her listening to his apologies and letting him wrap her in his arms again—were shattered as she cried out and ran.

“Fuck.”

He blinked, totally stunned for a moment, but then his bear roared and kicked him into action. The need to protect burst through his veins as he set off after her, heart pounding in his chest. Snow was treacherous. She could easily slip and hurt herself or the baby.

“Analise…please,” he called out to try and stop her flight, but all the wind returned to him were small sounds of fear and the scent of panic on the air. His soul ached. She was his wife and she was so scared that the mere sight of him had made her run. He’d terrified her so much she thought she had to escape from him.

He ran over the snow, big warrior’s body easily gaining on her before she could hurt herself, but it wasn’t fast enough for the beast inside. The change rolled up before he could stop it, his bear form bursting from his human one between one step and the next in a crack of bones and slide of skin and fur. His paws hit the snow, his speed increasing as he ran the little female down.

He’d almost reached her when she sobbed and ducked, changing direction and sliding under and around him. Spinning his bulk around, he spied her sprinting in the other direction, but then his mother’s fear-filled cry reached him.

“Aevar! The crevasse!” she yelled, pointing in the direction Analise was running.

Utter fear froze the big bear for a moment, then he was running like he’d never run before. Analise was crying, her steps blundering, as though she couldn’t see where she was going. That had to be it because surely she wasn’t so scared of him she would throw herself to her death? Not carrying his child?

“Please…let me make it…” he whispered to any power that might be listening and dug deep. With a feral snarl of effort, he caught up with her, lashing out with a big paw to knock her sideways before she reached the top of the rise and the treacherous edge of the crevasse it hid.

She screamed as she rolled back down the small hill, and he was on her, trying to stop her descent, but his paws weren’t made for this sort of thing. Instead, he hunkered down, his bear form protectively above her as they slid to a stop.

She lay beneath him, her eyes wide and filled with tears as she looked up.

“Please…please don’t. I’m pregnant. Please don’t hurt the baby.”

Her words cut him to the bone. The sharp pain lanced through him and cut off his ability to breathe as surely as if she’d reached inside his chest and crushed his lungs as he realized what he’d done. As he comprehended that he’d reduced her to begging for her—
their—
child’s life.

As if he would ever hurt a hair on either of their heads.

His bear rolled back, folding into his human form without any of the normal complaint until he was braced over her as naked as the day he’d been born. He didn’t care. The cold didn’t bother him and he had the woman he loved to shield from its icy fingers. 

Reaching up, he smoothed her hair from her face, his heart aching again when she flinched at his touch.

“Shhh, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.” Keeping his weight on one arm, he fussed with her cloak, tucking it more securely around her so she didn’t get cold. Her eyes didn’t leave his, her entire body tense and wary.

“I love you.” He didn’t bother with any flowery words, just went right for the truth. More truthful than he’d ever been with her. “I always have, Ana. You have to believe me.”

Her eyes widened as he shortened her name in a way he hadn’t before. Without missing a beat, he tore the scab off the wound in his heart that he’d been carrying for so many years.

“I was a fucking idiot. So many years I was consumed by hatred for you and your father. Convinced that our friendship as children meant nothing to you, when…” He paused and closed his eyes. “I loved you so much, and you stood by and said nothing when he cast me out. His men gave me this”—he motioned to his face—“and left me to die in the snow.”

Her lips parted on a gasp, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, her eyes filled with fresh tears as he spoke again.

“But I should have realized he’d never have let you go. Never have let me stay. I was too much of a threat, even as a boy.” He smiled. “Because I had something he never did…your heart. I’m just hoping the girl you were will let the woman you are forgive me for everything I’ve done. I treated you like shit and I don’t deserve you…but please, let me try and make it up to you. If not for us, then for the baby?”