Unbearable: Russet Falls Series (22 page)

The hair on Zane’s bear stood up
and he growled low in his throat. Gabby was unconscious on the ground and she
was being guarded by two black bears. He could hear her heart beating, so he
knew she was okay, but he wanted to rip the two bears to shreds.

He heard Michael’s low growl too,
but this growl was different. He was warning Zane not to do anything stupid.

It was hard to stay in touch with
his humanity while in bear form, but he would try his best. He had no idea how
the Cruentus had infiltrated their new security system, but when he had learned
that Drake had been involved, all the puzzle pieces began to fall into place.

The Cruentus had meticulously
planned their attack, and they would have killed half the tribe if it hadn’t
been for Grayson. As much as Zane hated to admit it, Grayson had saved them
all.

But there was no time to think
about Grayson now. There were still a few lingering members of the Cruentus,
and Zane, Michael and Quentin were here to finish them off.

Zane ignored his urge to help Gabby
and instead charged the other bears. He thought of nothing but the attack, and
he let his animal instincts take over as he scratched, bit and clawed, using
his predatory skills to destroy his enemy. He could feel Michael and Quentin
working beside him, and Zane thought of nothing else but destroying his
opponents so he could get to Gabby.

When it was clear that Zane and the
others had succeeded in defeating the Cruentus, Zane was finally able to look
around him. The wreckage from the fight was bad, and Zane knew they would need
to hurry to clean it up. That’s when he noticed Gabby begin to stir.

He wanted to go to her, but he knew
she wouldn’t recognize him, and even if she did, she would want nothing to do
with him.

Quentin was licking some minor
wounds, and Michael was circling the area.

Zane heard a twig crack, and then
someone had Gabby by her neck, dragging her up to her feet.

Zane roared loudly, but the saw the
flash of metal in the moonlight. The man, who was clearly a shifter, pressed
the blade to Gabby’s throat, causing her eyes to bug out of her head as she
screamed.

How the hell had they missed
someone?

“Stay back!” the man shouted, his
eyes flashing wildly. He waved the knife at the bears, and then pressed it back
to Gabby’s throat. “We haven’t failed yet. I could be the most rewarded of all
if I bring her back to our clan.”

Not thinking clearly, and only
concerned for Gabby, Zane moved cautiously towards the middle and then swiftly
shifted into human form. He heard the angry growl of Michael, but he didn’t
care.

“Take me!” he urged, moving slowly
towards the man, hands held in front of him in a gesture of surrender. “Take me
instead.”

Gabby was wide-awake now, and she
looked frantically from Zane, in his human form, to the other bears.

The man who was holding the knife
to her neck seemed frozen, not expecting this development.

“Take me,” Zane said slowly. “I
could serve you far better than her,” he explained, nodding at Gabby.

“Stop,” she said weakly, and Zane
could hear how tired and spent she was. “Don’t, Zane. It’s fine. I’m tired.”

She was giving up. How could she
give up?

“No!” Zane said loudly, but Michael
growled even louder; it was an order.

“She’s worthless,” Zane said,
knowing it was anything but the truth. He didn’t care if he was killed at this
point, and he didn’t care if Gabby never spoke to him again. It was his fault
she was even in this mess and it was time for him to step up and rise to the
occasion.

“Zane. Please,” she pleaded and her
captor looked back and forth between her and Zane, unsure as to what to do.
“Just go. They will always keep coming back. Don’t you get it?” Her eyes were
flat and he could feel her exhaustion. “I’ll go with them. That way none of you
will be bothered again.”

Michael paced angrily behind them,
but Zane held up his hand to stop Michael.

Let Michael try following an order
for once.

Zane stepped closer. “Take me,” he
said firmly. “Release her, and take me. You can do with me as you like, but
take me.”

The man’s eyes darted back and
forth contemplating his decision. There was no one else for him to consult
with, and Zane could see the wheels in his head spinning.

Finally, the man slowly released
Gabby and stretched out to grab Zane.

Then all hell broke loose.

The house was quiet, and Gabby
found it ironic that she now hated the silence of being alone. She slowly made
her way down the stairs, wincing from the pain. She walked past the mirror in
the hall, purposefully not looking. She knew there were ugly bruises smattered
across her face, jaw and collarbone, as well as slashes and cuts lining her
arms.

She situated herself on the couch,
feeling so much older than her age. Lucy had called twice, but she had put her
off, explaining that she wasn’t feeling well. She knew Lucy didn’t quite
believe her, but at least she respected her wishes.

Gabby flipped Alicia’s TV on, but
her mind kept drifting back to
that
night. It had been a week, but it
felt like yesterday. She tried not to see the faces of the Cruentus or the
other violent events she had witnessed.

She blinked her eyes rapidly,
trying to erase the images. Fragments of her recent conversations with Michael
floated around in her mind. After the Cruentus had attacked, everything had
made sense.

Finally.

Drake had been the missing link.
Not only had he been aiding the Cruentus in their quest to obtain Gabby, but
also he had been helping the Atrocitas kill the Virtus cubs. It turned out that
Drake hated Michael so much that he was willing to work with
both
enemy
clans to bring down Michael and the Virtus.

Luckily, or unluckily, Grayson had
shown up at Alicia’s that night and he had been able to warn the clan of the
Cruentus attack, but not before Alicia nearly lost her life.

Alicia was temporarily living with
the healer in the clan, and hopefully she would be well enough to return home
in a few weeks. Her body had been severely injured, and Gabby felt sick over
the role she had played.

She had truly come to feel like one
of the tribe, and she knew now with certainty that she was one of them. They’d
rallied around her to protect her, and she had never before felt such a sense
of belonging. No matter how she ended up here, this was where she would stay.

A knock at the door startled her,
and she hobbled to her feet, not expecting anyone. Perhaps it was Grayson? He
had been dropping by nearly every day to pick up one thing or another for
Alicia.

Gabby felt a tidal wave of emotions
when she pulled open the door.

Zane stood before her, looking
worse for the wear too, though he somehow still managed to look handsome.

“Hi,” he said softly.

“Hey.”

There was a long pause, and the air
was heavy with many unspoken things.

“Look, I was just dropping by to
pick up something that Michael needed.” He nodded towards the back of the
house. “It’s in Alicia’s office. It’s a bright blue folder.”

“Sure, okay,” she said slowly,
pulling the door open for Zane.

He stared at Gabby, his eyes
unreadable, and then he entered the house. He walked back to the office, and
Gabby slowly followed. Zane emerged a second later, holding a bright blue
folder in his hand.

“Well, I guess I’ll be going,” he
said awkwardly.

“Zane. Wait.”

He turned around before he reached the
front door.

“What you did for me,” Gabby began,
feeling herself choke up. This was the first time she had seen Zane since that
night and she needed to thank him. He had put himself on the line for her. He
had offered his life to spare hers.

Fortunately, it had never come to
that, because the moment he had surrendered, Michael and Quentin had sprung
into action, taking down the shifter who had been moments away from killing
Gabby. Of course, Gabby had gotten caught in the middle, adding to her injuries.

“It was nothing,” he said, shaking
his head. “Don’t mention it.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Gabby
argued. “You saved me. You offered your life for mine.”

All week she had thought about
Zane’s offer. Day and night she thought of Zane and what he had done for her.

She had tried to reason it away,
tried to act like it meant nothing.

But she couldn’t.

Gabby took a step closer to him,
her heart hammering away wildly in her chest.

Always with Zane.

Always.

Her heart seemed to know what her
mind didn’t.

“You offered
your
life for
mine
,”
she repeated. “That is not
nothing.
”

Zane shook his head. “Gabby.
Don’t,” he said hoarsely.

But she wasn’t afraid anymore.

She stepped closer, taking his
large hand in her small one.

“Zane,” she said quietly. “I choose
you.”

“What?”

“You,” she said a small smile on
her bruised lips. “I choose you.”

Comprehension dawned on Zane’s face
and he shook his head. “You don’t want that,” he said roughly. “You made it
perfectly clear.”

“I was wrong,” she admitted. “I
can’t imagine being with anyone else.”

“But—but—what I did to your
father.” The words seemed too much for him. He hung his head in shame.

“You said it yourself—you were
young; you didn’t know what you were doing. And what you did for me last week,”
her voice trailed off, “You don’t ever need to prove yourself to me again.”

Zane stared at her, disbelieving,
and Gabby did something she had wanted to do all week.

She closed the gap between them;
gingerly wrapped her injured arms around Zane’s neck and pulled him down to
her.

“Kiss me,” she whispered.

And Zane obliged, kissing her
softly at first, before gently pulling her even closer to him as heat flowed
from his body to her own. The kiss deepened and deepened, until they were one
and Gabby didn’t know where her body ended and Zane’s began.

She was his and he was hers.

Mates
.

After all the warring over borders,
Gabby had found a love that knew no boundaries.