I dropped my arm, and we all turned to find her coming down the cabin stairs, dressed in leggings and a t-shirt. She’d showered and no longer carried our scent.
Fuck, I hated that she could just wash it away. Her not being bonded to us hit extra hard this morning.
She’d gained some needed weight over the last month on Ravik’s care mandate, but she still looked so small. And terrified.
Forgetting Takoda, all three of us rushed forward to check on her. I placed my hand on her hip to steady her, and Zion took her hand in his to rub it against his chest.
“Bell…” Ravik stopped and started, trying to find the words to reassure her.
“I can’t do this,” she said before he could. She was visibly trembling. “I have no excuse for not going to see them. They’renot going to understand. They’re going to hate me. And I know I deserve them hating me for being so weak….”
We had her encased in a three-way hug before she could finish that bullshit thought—lending her our strength, wishing we could be inside her head to calm her down.
She let out a shuddering breath. “I’m so ashamed. And this is going to break me.”
“It won’t,” Ravik vowed.
“If you want, I’ll talk to them as soon as they get here,” Zion offered. “Explain your emotional turmoil to them so you won’t have to.”
Bell just shook her head. “I’m such a coward. Such a mess.”
I couldn’t stand seeing her in so much pain.
“Fuck this noise.” I stepped back from the group hug to clutch her small hand in mine. “I will take you out of here. My truck’s right up the road. We can hop in it and be gone before your daughters arrive.”
“Just try it, Uncle Walker,” Takoda threatened behind me. “I will end you where you stand if you attempt to take this opportunity from Holly.”
I turned to roar, “It’s not an opportunity if she’s goddamn traumatized, you selfish prick!”
“Boone, don’t yell at him like that, please.” Bell brought her other hand up to lay it on the back of mine. “I don’t want this to ruin your family. This is all my fault.”
“First Father, if you’re serious about this restarting-a-maul-in-your-sixties business, you need to control your third,” Takoda said to Ravik, his tone hard.
And Ravik took a strong step forward toward me…
In order to stand by my side.
“Boone’s right,” he said, facing down his know-it-all birth son with me.
Zion flanked my other side. “We’ll be doing what’s best forourmate—not for yours.”
“What?” Takoda shook his head at his fathers like he was calculating the price of retirement homes for early-onset dementia. “She’s not your mate. You haven’t even bitten her.”
Did I say Ravik and Zion were good at keeping my temper on its leash? Their rage flared, making mine burn even brighter.
A horn beep cut off whatever answer they would have given him for denying Bell her status as ours.
And all three of our heads snapped up when we saw a truck and what looked like a brand-new Nakumara Journey minivan careening down the little road to screech to a halt by the unphased horse Takoda had ridden in on for his goddamn perimeter check.
We all moved into position in front of Bell to form a protective wall.
Takoda must have sent out a mental maul bond flare that we were in a standoff because five more guys came tumbling out first.
Noelle’s maul—a full Ayaska doctor named Ash, a Kodiak named Cody (okay), and Takoda’s brother, Mak—fell in on the asshole Mountie’s left side. And the rest of Holly’s maul—Ash’s older brother Hawk and the Viking-looking blond who’d turned out to be a Barrington—fell in on his right.
“Alright, six against three,”I sent down the bond.“Let’s crack open this can of bear-grade whoop ass.”
I balled up both fists as Ravik told Zion not to be afraid to bear out if he wasn't comfortable throwing down.
