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Luther shook his head. “I guess it’s a good thing I have the alpha’s sister to vouch for my good character, then.” His voice trembled as he tried to hold back his emotions, since he realized he couldn’t be sure if his fated mate had even bothered to speak up for him at all. Not that he could have blamed her if she didn’t, since they barely knew one another.
“This is only going to make the tension between Angel Fire and the mining corporation worse,” Espie said, more to herself than to him. Biting her lower lip, she scowled deeply. “Maybe this will finally force the mining company to move to a different part of the mountain,” said Espie, sighing anxiously. “They don’t seem to get that they’re encroaching on our sacred territory.”
“Hey, are you forgetting that I work for that mining company?” Luther interjected, unable to completely mask the anger that was brewing just beneath the surface. His inner bear was practically fuming, and more than ready to storm over to the clan’s meeting to give all of them a piece of his mind. “Look, Espie, I had nothing to do with the deaths of those men, I swear. I’m not that stupid.”
A rush of anxiety washed over her face, and she took a step back from him. “But you’re on our side as a bear,” she said, her arms falling to her sides when he didn’t respond right away. “Right? I mean, you have to understand why we oppose them. That mountain that you’re mining belongs to the clan –”
“Espie, I’m not getting into this with you,” Luther muttered. When she opened her mouth to argue, he shot her a hard look. “If you have an issue with what the miners are doing, you need to take it up with the guys who wear the suits. We’re just trying to earn a living and take care of our loved ones as best we can. Nobody deserves to get hurt over it; not David, and not your man, either. It’s a real shame about what happened, but there’s nothing we can do to change that. But I don’t think that it’s right that the locals here are forming lynch mobs, either.”
“They’re angry!” she shouted, her voice shaking with frustration. “This is their home. This is my home, and the miners are ruining it!”
“Are we?”
“Stop counting yourself as one of them,” she snapped. “You’re a bear first. You’re my mate first. If you had nothing to do with the murders, you need to take my side on this.”
“That’s an unfair ultimatum.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“Espie –”
“If I’m supposed to be yours,” Espie told him, lowering her voice just as her eyes began to fill with tears, “and you’re supposed to be mine… If we’re fated, and we both know in our souls that we are, then you have to be on my side with this.”
She flinched back when he tried to take her by the arms again, and Luther studied her with a sigh.
“It isn’t that simple.”
Espie blinked back her tears and sniffled once to keep her nose from running. Then she crossed her arms and said, “Then I guess we don’t have anything to talk about.”
She bit down hard on her lip to keep it from trembling, then turned and went back to her brother’s truck in a flurry of unrestrained emotion.
“Espie, don’t be like that,” Luther called after her, and his inner bear practically roared in his desire to chase after her. It took her just one second to buckle herself in, and then she was racing out of the parking lot.
Luther hated to see her go. She had every right to be upset with him; he’d been an ass about keeping in touch with her since their amazing night together in her cabin, but he hadn’t meant to avoid her. Life had gotten in the way, and he’d let time slip by without even realizing it.
It was more than that, though. Violet was still getting used to her new life in Angel Fire, and she needed more of his time than usual. And since he wasn’t someone who enjoyed chatting and said very little on the phone, he’d simply avoided doing either. But Espie was his fated mate. She deserved the moon on a silver platter from him, and he hoped that all the work he was doing would one day allow him to provide that for her.
Luther knew he needed to do better. He understood Espie’s point; he knew if he’d ever hoped to become a member of her clan, someday he would have to earn their trust. But he didn’t see that happening anytime soon after the way that things had gone south that morning. The deaths were simply bringing an already too full pot to a boil, and the two of them needed to be united on any and all issues -- but it just wasn’t that simple.
He was a miner. He didn’t owe the corporation any allegiance, but damn it, he and his work crew were brothers. He couldn’t just turn his back on them during this rough patch with the community.
Still, he owed it to Espie to try harder. She was his fated mate. It all came down to that. She was his other half, his soulmate, his person. He owed it to her, and he also owed it to his daughter, who was probably growing quite impatient after waiting so long for him to get in the truck with her. She was probably eager to dive into the fruit snacks he’d bought for her.
So Luther would make more of an attempt to work on his relationship with Espie. He had to, or he was going to lose everything he had struggled for his whole life to find.
As he settled into the driver’s seat and looked back over his shoulder, Violet didn’t look impatient. Instead, she had a curious look in her eyes.
“Is she a good one, Daddy?”
Luther laughed. “Yeah, baby, she is. One of the best. She may even be a keeper.”
