He couldn’t blame her for being nervous. Knox was throwing off aggression so fiercely that she had to be able to feel it despite the hundred feet or so of space between her and his brother.
Lowe dropped from the deck to join Knox as he strode towards her, placing more distance between him and the cabin.
“What the hell do you want?” Knox growled, the aggression that rolled off him seeming to spark the same feeling in the cougar female.
Her grey-green eyes flashed with defiance as she straightened even more, standing taller as she approached them.
“I think I left my coat.” She was treading on dangerous ground sounding so light and sarcastic while Saint was laid up recovering from serious injuries and what Lowe was beginning to suspect was a broken heart. When she glanced at the cabin beyond them though, her bravado faltered and a hint of fear emerged in her eyes. Her voice lowered, losing its bite as she wrapped her arms around herself, her fingers gripping her green woollen sweater. “I came to see Saint.”
“Come to finish him off?” Knox moved into the path of her gaze.
She growled at him, baring short fangs.
“No,” she bit out, anger turning her eyes cougar gold. She wanted to fight his brother. It would be a mistake. Knox wouldn’t pull his punches this time. That spark of fire was quick to die again, leaving her voice sounding hollow as she said, “I just need to know if he’s all right.”
Lowe scowled at her, crossed his arms over his chest and came to stand beside Knox, forming a wall with his brother.
She growled again as she took a step forwards, clearly intending to go around them. Both he and Knox moved as one, countering her, stopping her from getting any closer to their alpha.
She ignored Knox and looked at Lowe. Why? Did she think he was the easier of the two of them to convince? Or was it because he had been the only one who had wanted to speak out when Saint had dragged her into the Ridge?
He hadn’t agreed with what Saint had done, but that didn’t mean he was going to let her get near his alpha again. Saint was hurting and she was responsible for his pain—both the physical and emotional.
She stood in silence, staring at him, a battle raging in her eyes. She wanted to attack him and Knox to reach Saint. He admired her courage and the depth of her desire to see Saint, but starting a fight wasn’t going to convince either him or Knox to allow her near their alpha. He stared her down, waiting to see what she would do, part of him willing her to make the right choice and back down.
If she backed down, if she shrugged off her pride and showed him that she was sorry about what had happened, asked him nicely if she could see Saint and assured him that she wasn’t out to hurt him, then maybe he would convince Knox to let her past.
“Please. I just want to know he’s okay.” Her voice was barely a whisper, held a desperate note that made him feel she honestly cared about Saint, that she needed to know he was going to be all right.
He stared into her grey-green eyes, seeking the truth there, trying to see if she did feel something for Saint.
His heart said that she did.
He thought about what to tell her, worry rolling through him as he thought about Saint’s condition, together with a spark of hope that she might be able to bring the big bear back to them.
He opened his mouth to speak.
Knox beat him to it. “The state of our alpha is none of your concern, cougar.”
She looked between Lowe and Knox, her expression growing defeated, and he could almost read her thoughts. She believed she wouldn’t be able to convince them to talk about Saint with her, and she looked close to giving up. Lowe willed her not to. Knox was stubborn, but if she was honest with him, if she spoke the truth and told him the reason she needed to see Saint, then his brother would back down.
“I know you’re just trying to protect him,” she whispered. “I just need to see him. If you won’t let me see him, then at least tell me he’s all right. I heard you. You said there’s something wrong with him.”
Lowe softened towards her a little more. A glance at Knox told him his brother was nowhere near being convinced though.
She sighed.
“I swear, I don’t want to hurt him.” She looked them both in the eye and Lowe could see in hers that she was hurting, that she was afraid and it wasn’t because she was facing him and Knox. She was afraid for Saint. “I don’t think I could hurt him.”
“Bullshit,” Knox snarled.
Lowe grabbed his arm when he went to step forwards and Knox levelled a glare on him, fire blazing in his blue eyes.
“Give her a chance.” Lowe looked at his brother. “We’re not getting through to Saint, but she might.”
Her brow furrowed and she took a step towards them. “What’s wrong with him?”
Knox gruffly shoved his hands into the pockets of his heavy black winter coat. “His wounds are healing but he refuses to wake.”
“Maybe it’s just the winter—”
Knox cut her off. “This isn’t that. This is something else. Lowe thinks he’s given up.”
“Given up?” She looked at Lowe, paling now.
Lowe nodded and looked behind him at the cabin and then back at her. “I found him in the snow. I think he was there for hours. It was getting late by the time I came across him. I got him inside and patched him up. He shifted back and I thought maybe he would wake, but he won’t.”
The scent of fear rolling off her grew stronger with each word he spoke, a desperate look mounting in her eyes.
She suddenly rushed him and Knox, shoved past them and made a break for the cabin. Knox growled at her and Lowe tightened his grip on his brother’s arm, holding him back. When Knox looked at him, he shook his head.
Turned and watched her running into the cabin.
“Let her see him.” Lowe glanced back at his brother. “If anyone can reach Saint and bring him back, it’s that female.”
Knox glared at him. “You don’t think?”
Lowe nodded.
“She’s his fated one.”
He looked at his own cabin, a feeling stirring inside him again, flooding his chest with warmth and rousing a fierce need to return to Cameo.
He surrendered to that need.
Knox gripped his arm this time, stopping him in his tracks, his voice dark.
“We’re not done talking.”
Chapter 11
Cameo hugged the cooling cup of coffee to her chest as she leaned against the kitchen counter, staring out of the picture window, watching Lowe. He had been standing outside the cabin in the centre of the clearing for more than an hour now, talking to Knox, and whatever they were discussing, he didn’t look happy.
A little over an hour ago, a woman had appeared from the direction that cabin faced, and Knox and Lowe had spoken with her, had looked as if they were going to run her off their land, but then she had pushed past the brothers and had gone into the cabin.
One of the neighbours that Lowe had talked about?
Cameo’s leg ached, a throb echoing along her bones, but she remained where she was, leaned her hip a little harder against the cupboard and kept staring out of the window. She wanted to know what was happening. She wanted to know what Knox was saying to Lowe to make him keep glancing in her direction.