Bloodrunner Bear (Harper's Mountains Book 2) Read Online Free

orders all the time, Aaron. Don’t act like me caring is me being weak.”
    He inhaled, then blew out an irritated sound. “Aric has mind control abilities.”
    “What,” Harper drawled out. “You’re shitting me.”
    “I shit you not. He made a woman tell me her baby was still in a burning house, and then he was in my mind telling me…” He made a ticking sound behind his teeth and winced as he slathered his burn with medicine from the kit. “Forget it.”
    “Telling you what?” Harper lowered the lid on the toilet and took a seat on the porcelain thrown. His queen. “Tell me now, or I’ll bug you all day.”
    “Don’t you have better stuff to—”
    “No, Aaron! I don’t. My job comes second to you and the boys. It’s different for me now, and I’m going through all these protective instincts I have no idea how to control, so spill it or I’ll make it my mission to pry it from you.”
    “He was telling me to kill you.”
    Harper’s mouth dropped open. “W-what?”
    “Yeah. He can control what the animal inside of me says. In Bear’s voice and everything. And for a second…for a second, it felt like a real good idea. He told me I should kill you and take alpha.”
    “Jesus.”
    “Jesus has nothing to do with Aric, Harper. Should I quit? He’s been working night shifts at the station for years and has seniority. What do you want me to do?”
    “Firefighting is your livelihood. If you give it up, what will you do?”
    Flounder. Spiral. Lose his purpose. But Harper didn’t need to know how much leaving his career would demolish him, so he shrugged and leaned against the counter, eyes passive like he didn’t care either way.
    Harper knew him, though, and her sense of awareness had heightened since she’d become alpha. She bit her bottom lip and then told him, “Don’t quit. You aren’t a runner, and Aric doesn’t own Bryson City.”
    Aaron snorted. “Just Asheville.”
    “Bullshit,” Harper said, looking none-too-impressed. “He is king of one coven of eight vamps, not a million. They’re small-time. Find a way to work with him, Aaron. You need some kind of tentative alliance. Aric won’t convince you to hurt me. He can’t. You’re stronger than him.”
    As she made her way to the door, Aaron hoped with everything he had that she was right, because hurting Harper would be like ripping his own heart out.
    “Oh,” she said, turning at the door. “Wyatt needs another fight.”
    Aaron groaned and rocked his head back. “He can have Second, Harper. I just got him back as a friend. I don’t want us to keep bleeding each other.”
    “Look, I get it. I do. But this is how new crews work, and both of your bears need to establish a pecking order. Right now, you two are both dominant enough to run your own crews. You wanted under me, so this is the gig. You fight, you establish a Second, and then we move on.” Her eyes softened as she leaned on the doorframe. “Look, Wyatt’s bear is struggling. He’s used to being alone, and his control is slipping. I really think it’s because of the crew being unsettled still. It feels too chaotic for him. It’s hard for me to watch him go through this.”
    “Because you love him?”
    “Yeah. I love him more than anything. And I love you, you big dumb oaf, and I don’t care who is my Second so long as it gets worked out, okay?”
    As he’d been watching Harper and Wyatt for the last few weeks, something inside of him had been shifting. He’d never wanted anything serious with anyone, but maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if a mate could help him feel settled, like Alana had done in her coffee shop.
    Maybe a fight would distract him from the confusion surrounding the pretty woman with the crooked smile. “Fine,” Aaron muttered to Harper. He tossed the unused bandages back into the first aid kit and pulled his shirt off as he followed his alpha outside because, apparently, he wasn’t done fighting for the day.
    Alana’s kindness had been