Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Bear dropped him and kicked the body furiously—how dare this fucker touch what was his? How dare he hurt the woman Bear loved? How…fucking…dare he?
“Bear…my Bear!”
A soft, broken voice somehow penetrated the Rage that had enveloped him. The red haze cleared somewhat and he blinked and saw that Aleena was still bound to the wooden cross.
“My Bear,” she said brokenly. “He…he’s dead. You can stop—you killed him.”
Bear looked down at the male at his feet and saw that his eyes were rolled up and his head was tilted at an unnatural angle.
As for the other male, he had scooted himself into a corner of the small, dark room where he was mewling in pain and clutching at his still bleeding side.
The immediate threat was over. Now it was time to take his bride and see to her wounds.
40
ALEENA
Aleena had never seen such a terrifying display—not even when the shabby man had attacked her in the alley. Bear’s face had become a twisted mask of rage and he’d killed one man and mortally wounded another in the space of less than three minutes.
Yet when she called his name, it seemed that her voice penetrated the Rage and his eyes went slowly back from bloody red to golden.
“My Bear,” she called again and he blinked and looked up from the carnage he had created to focus on her.
“A-leena?” He said it like her name was a word in a foreign tongue. But every second he was looking more like himself. “Aleena—sweetheart!” He came striding forward.
“My Bear—you came for me!” Aleena might have been shamed to be half-naked in front of him after what the males had tried to do to her, but she was too grateful to see him to care about her partial nudity.
“Did they hurt you?” He cupped her face gently in his big hands, turning it from side to side to see the extent of her injuries. “Gods, I can see that they hit you. But did they…”
“They didn’t change the color of my eyes.” She looked up at him, letting him see that her pale purple eyes remained unchanged. “Though Grindelia told them to.”
“That bitch!” Bear said thickly. He was already working on the ropes that bound her ankles and wrists to the wooden beams. He sucked in a breath when he saw the bruises and raw, red marks on her skin where the rough fibers had scratched her and bitten into her flesh.
“I’ll punish them all!” he growled, more to himself than her. “Nobody hurts my wife and gets away with it!”
“I’m cold,” Aleena whispered. The skin of her bare breasts and chest had broken into gooseflesh. She tried to cover herself with her newly freed arms but she couldn’t hide her shame completely.
“Here, baby.” Rapidly Bear unbuttoned his dress uniform shirt. Pulling it off, he bared his broad chest and draped it around her. The satiny fabric was warm from his body heat and smelled of his spicy, comforting scent. Aleena drew it close around her as he finished unfastening her ankles. Then he lifted her into his arms, cradling her to his broad chest protectively.
Though she was warming up, Aleena was beginning to feel faint for some reason. It was as if now that the worst was over and she was safe in Bear’s arms, she could finally relax and her body had decided to check out for a little while. She could feel consciousness leaving her. But there was something she needed to tell her husband before she was completely lost.
“They wanted me to renounce you,” she whispered to Bear as he held her close and looked anxiously down into her face. “But I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t…do it. I swear it, my Bear—I never renounced you.”
And then darkness ate the world around her and she knew no more.
41
BEAR
“You cannot do this! You simply cannot burst into another man’s house and take his daughter!” Sir Greggor blustered as Bear carried Aleena’s limp form through the living area where Sir Greggor and his wife and daughter were standing together.
“She’s my wife and you were holding her captive and torturing her!” Bear growled. He looked anxiously down at Aleena. She was still breathing—she just seemed to have fainted from the shock. He didn’t blame her but he wanted to get her someplace safe so he could examine her.
“Torturing her? What are you talking about?” Sir Greggor demanded.
“What I said. When I went into your back room, Aleena was tied up, half-naked, and two men were about to fucking assault her!” Bear snarled.
Even now, the memory of seeing the woman he loved tied and helpless, about to be raped, made the Rage start to come over him again. He fought it off grimly—he needed to get Aleena out of here, not give in to the berserker fury that wanted to consume him.