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

face away. “Sorry.”
    He huffed a short laugh and tossed the rag into the corner, then pulled her chin until her gaze met his. “Sorry for bleeding? Hardly something to apologize for. Did it hurt?”
    “A little. It felt much better than it hurt though.”
    “Good. Next time it will hurt less.”
    It was sad that he could still pretend she wasn’t dying in a few hours. “Dawn, remember?”
    “Corin,” he growled. “If you mention dying tomorrow again, you’ll regret it.”
    Oh, she believed him. The scary glint was back in his eyes, and they were lightening by the second.
    “I need to take you back to your people before my second wakes up. He’ll…”
    “Kill me if he finds me here?”
    Sadness slashed across his eyes as he dropped his gaze to her lips. “I should’ve killed you the moment I saw you in my camp. Now I’ve ruined us both.”

Chapter Eight
     
    The tri p through the Long Claw camp had been terrifying enough when everyone was asleep, but now, as the moon sat lower in the sky, the rustle of shifters in their tents made Corin’s heart want to leap from behind her sternum and flee her body.
    She followed Brooks as he ’d demanded, but damn, she was panting in fear.
    “They are just switching out the guards,” he murmured when she caught up. Her legs bounced this way and that like yarn.
    “What’s wrong?” he asked, his frown of disapproval evident in the moonlight.
    She’d been fucked too thoroughly, that’s what. “Uh, just nervous.”
    He wrapped his warm, strong hand around hers and tugged her forward. Now, he might have just been helping to increase their pace by dragging her through the wilderness, or he might have been making sure she didn’t trip and fall into a smelly bog, but right now, she was going to pretend he cared. Because that’s what people who did what they just did in his tent back there did. They cared.
    He doesn’t care about anything or anyone , her subconscious argued.
    Fuck you, subconscious. He just gentle-diddled her, so at least he could be soft with a woman who needed it. It counted.
    He has killed countless innocents at the order of the Long Claw alphas. And now he’s the one giving the order to kill all of your friends.
    She scrunched her face at her subconscious’ arguing skills. She was way out of her league with that one. And what did that say about the fact that she’d just slept with him? She’d picked the alpha of the Long Claws as her very first sexual partner. Hannah had definitely not sent her here to seduce Brooks. Corin was supposed to talk to him, and she’d slept with him instead. And instead of making him promise to end the war like a proper seductress, she’d just moaned his name a lot. She definitely didn’t deserve having any babies named after her for this colossal mission fail.
    Weaving through the tents, she was relieved when they came to the last group of them. Almost safe. And when they passed the quiet shelters, her throat seized a little less. Now she could breathe easier.
    Maybe she could go back to Bear Valley’s camp and pretend none of this ever happened. She could tell Hannah she’d just bumbled through the woods all night, lost, and never found Brooks. Hannah was human and wouldn’t have the instinct for deciphering if she was lying or not.
    Geez, she was supposed to feel like a goddess right now. She’d finally had sex, and with the man she had always thought about when she touched herself. Even if Brooks didn’t remember how good and decent he used to be, how had he known to kiss her like Daniel? And how did his fingers instinctively slip into the strange position they used to hold hands as children? Her pointer and middle intertwined with his ring and pinky. Comfortable and intimate all at once. She’d stumbled upon something she never thought she would be lucky enough to have.
    So w hy was she swan diving off the cliff of self-loathing into low self-esteem bay?
    You shouldn’t love him. He’s cruel and