“Tell me more about bear life, and the shifter world in general,” I said, changing the subject before we stepped even further into territory I’d rather not. “Were you always a bear?”
“Born and raised. All of us were. In fact, there are only two within our clan who were bitten.”
A shiver slipped through me at the mention of being bitten. I could only imagine how much something like that would hurt.
“Why were they bitten?” I asked, wanting to know why someone would choose such a thing.
While I hadn’t ever given much thought to the supernatural world and all its creatures, I knew becoming a bear shifter didn’t rank high on anyone’s list of popular choices.
“One was willfully bitten to be turned, and the other wasn’t,” Rafe insisted before taking another swig from his jug. He had to be hammered by now. I’d only had one swig and already felt the slight effects of it in my system. Maybe shifters metabolized alcohol faster than humans did, though. “Neither is my story to tell, so that’s all I’ll say. You’d have to ask them.”
I respected that. He wasn’t a gossip.
“And a clan, that’s what you call yourselves?” I asked when silence seemed to drift between us.
Rafe glanced at me and lifted a brow. “What did you think we called ourselves?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “A crew or gang. A pack maybe?”
“We’d never call ourselves a pack. Packs are for wolves and coyotes. Panthers. Shit like that,” he snarled, obviously hating the word.
“Okay,” I breathed, my mind stuck on the fact that he’d said panthers.
I hadn’t thought about there being panther shifters. In fact, I hadn’t thought past the obvious and more popular ones like wolves, bears, and coyotes. It had me thinking about what others there were. Was there one for every animal? Goose bumps prickled across my skin as the probability the world I’d been living in was smaller than I’d ever imagined.
“A crew is what we call a band of mixed breeds who’ve bonded to form a family. There could be a bear, a wolf, a panther, a fox, and a crow all together in a crew. They all belong to each other, but they’re not of the same shifter species.”
I shifted around on the concrete surrounding the pool, my butt growing numb. “Are those common?”
“For one reason or another, their popularity has been growing.” He took another swig from his jug. “Clans are for bears. Flocks are for birds.” He leaned into me as though about to tell me a secret or the punchline to a joke. “Although, some crows prefer to call themselves a murder instead of a flock.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Why, because they’re more grammatically correct than others?” I asked with a snort.
Rafe tipped his head back and laughed. “That or because they think it makes them sound more badass. But I mean, come on. Who’s going to be scared of a bunch of crows? They’re just birds for crying out loud.”
I would. Birds had always freaked me out.
My gaze drifted to the surrounding woods, searching for any sign of them in the trees. Even if there were any, I couldn’t see them in the dark. However, I was able to spot someone walking our way through the distance.
Adrenaline spiked through me as I stared at the approaching figure. Beside me, Rafe set the jug of moonshine down and I noticed his back stiffen.
Crap. That couldn’t be a good sign.
Chapter Four
As the figure grew closer, I realized it was Liam. The closer he came, the more intense everything about him seemed. My breath caught in my throat.
Was he pissed I hadn’t stayed in his cabin? That I wasn’t in bed? Or had something happened?
“I see you’re feeling better,” Liam said in a snippy tone to me as he walked through the gate around the pool. I wanted to look anywhere besides into his eyes, but couldn’t. They were intense pools of honey drawing me in. “Would’ve been awesome if you’d thought to leave me a note. One that let me know where you were headed so I didn’t think something awful happened to you while I was patrolling.”
And that was why he looked so mad. He thought something had happened to me. Oops.
“That probably would’ve been a good idea. Sorry about that. I headed back to Ruby for a minute and then went to look for you. Obviously, I didn’t find you, but I found Rafe.” I pointed to him with my thumb.
Liam folded his arms over his chest. The gesture made him seem even more intimidating. “Who looks like he’s found a jug of moonshine. Great.”
Rafe lifted the jug into the air and flashed Liam a dopey grin. “That I did.”
“How was patrolling? Any sightings?” I asked, hoping to keep Liam from tearing into Rafe about drinking.
Liam ground his teeth together while staring at his little brother before shifting his attention to me and answering my question. “No sightings. Nothing to report. Coyotes are sneaky though and they can’t be trusted.”
A shiver crept up my spine. Suddenly, I was on high alert. My gaze darted toward the edge of the woods that surrounded us, searching for any sign of coyotes but finding none.
“We’re prepared,” Liam said, having caught my moment of worry. “They’re not getting through.” His confidence put me at ease.
Rafe took another swig from his jug. “They might not come because they might not care that Corbin guy is gone. Maybe he was an ass.” He shifted to look at me. “Was he an ass?”
I cracked a grin at the serious expression on his face. “Yeah. They pretty much all are.”
“Seems to be a thing with coyotes,” Rafe insisted with a nod.
“He was one of them. They’ll come looking for him. And when they do, we need to be ready,” Liam said before he nodded toward the jug of moonshine. “Not drunk off our ass.”
“I’m not,” Rafe grumbled. “I’m buzzed. There’s a difference.”
“Well, what you need to be is sober. Why don’t you head back to your place and sleep this off? You can patrol once you’re sober again. I don’t want you out there after you’ve been drinking.” Liam’s voice was firm and filled with authority. It caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end.
“Yes, alpha,” Rafe sneered as he stumbled to his feet. He scooped up the jug and backed away from us, heading toward the opening in the fence. He bowed to me before he headed through it. “This is me turning in for the night. See you tomorrow, Tris.”
I smirked at him. He was a card. “See you tomorrow.”
Liam moved to sit beside me. He crossed his legs beneath him instead of taking off his boots and putting his feet in the water. Silence bloomed between us until it was deafening.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, finally breaking up the silence as though he couldn’t stand it any more than I could.
“Better.” A gentle breeze kicked up, sending a few strands of my hair free from my bun. They whipped across my face before I could tuck them behind my ear. “A lot better. I felt awful. But now it’s like nothing happened. Like I wasn’t sick at all. It’s crazy.”
“It’s magic. Mystic magic.”
“Or, it could just be because I slept for a full twenty-four hours,” I said.
Liam nodded. “That could be part of it, yeah.”
“So, you’re sure no one came to look for Corbin or me while I was out?”
He shook his head. “We didn’t find anyone on patrols. There weren’t even any new campers to check-in. Just the typical crowd for gem mining during the day.”
“I guess that’s a good thing,” I said, trying to decide how to say what I needed to next. I just decided to go with it. Time was ticking. “My best friend from back home, Penny, left me a voicemail while I was knocked out. She said Ezra—who I think is the leader of Corbin’s pack—invited her to a party at his place.” I cringed at the thought of her being anywhere near them. Again, I wished I’d told her about Corbin. About everything. “She isn’t answering my calls or responding to texts. I think she might be in trouble and I need to help her. I have
to go back to Opal Pine. Not only to make sure she’s okay but also to help any of the others Ezra might be holding captive.” My tone was firm, as though there wasn’t a thing in the world he could say to change my mind.
There wasn’t. Determination flowed through me, steady and strong.
When Liam didn’t speak, I steeled myself, knowing he was probably about to protest my decision. His eyes cut to me and narrowed, letting me know I’d been right.
“You can’t go back,” he said.
“I have to. Penny will die if Ezra invited her to the party to lure her in so he could bleed her.”
“You can’t go back,” Liam insisted with so much force my breath caught in my throat and my heart skipped a beat. His words were more of a growl than anything and his eyes were bright like his bear’s. “You can’t.”
My teeth ground together as I held his stare. Who did he think he was telling me what I could and couldn’t do?
“The hell I can’t,” I spat, uncaring that my words made his eyes brighten even more. I wasn’t scared of his bear. Not in this moment. “You don’t own me, Liam. You don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do. I’m not part of your clan.”
“I never said I owned you. And, I’m not trying to control you, Tris.” He flung his hands in the air as though I were the most frustrating person in the world. “All I’m saying is that it’s too dangerous for you to go back. You’re not mated to someone of this clan. You haven’t been turned by one of us either. It’s too dangerous for you to toss yourself at the coyotes’ feet.”
“I wasn’t about to toss myself at anyone’s feet, thank you.” I glared at him. “But I have to go. My friend is in trouble. There could also be others in trouble too. This all needs to end. The abductions. Girls being bled. They need to know I’m the Mystic so they’ll stop hunting. And I need to make sure Penny is safe.”
“I’m not budging on this,” Liam insisted. “You’re not going. It’s too dangerous. They obviously have no clue how the Mystic’s magic works. They could bleed you still. You could get hurt. Hell, you could be bitten and then you’d be claimed by them. You’d be a coyote and there wouldn’t be a damn thing I could do to stop it. You’d be theirs. I can’t let that happen. Not after the way Corbin treated you. Not after what they intended to do to you without knowing for sure what you were.” His jaw tensed and his eyes grew wild as his bear surfaced.
My heart skipped a beat. Not because he seemed so pissed, but because he cared about me. We’d only just met, but it was clear he cared about what happened to me. It went beyond my being the Mystic.
“I can’t just sit here though. You don’t understand,” I whispered. I grabbed my phone and tapped on my photos, searching for a good one of Penny. Maybe if he saw her face, saw that she was a real person, he’d understand. A picture of the two of us, our arms tossed over one another’s shoulders as we smiled for the camera, filled my screen. I angled it so he could see. “This is Penny. She’s my best friend. We’ve known each other forever. This picture was taken a few months ago. My mom’s current boyfriend had slapped my ass while I bent over to grab a soda from the fridge and said some pretty crude things to me. I’d left and went to Penny’s house like always. She made her usual offer to go kick his ass, but I declined and we headed to the store at ten o’clock at night for junk food instead. We went back to her mom’s house and watched comedies and pigged out all night. She’s more than my best friend, she’s like the sister I never had. I can’t leave her with Ezra. I can’t let him hurt her.”
I held the phone out to him for a few seconds longer, watching as his jaw tensed and his eyes continued to flare with his bear. When he didn’t say anything, I brought my cell back to my lap and gazed at the picture. My teeth sank into my bottom lip.
“Penny means everything to me. She’s always been there for me—through all the crappy boyfriends my mom brought home and every other sour lemon life tossed my way. I know you don’t understand, but I have to go. I have to make sure she’s okay,” I said without looking up from our picture.
“I do understand,” Liam said finally. I glanced at him. His features had softened, his bear drifting further from the surface. “I can imagine how hard it is for you knowing your friend, and potential others, might be in danger, but I can’t let you go back to your hometown. It’s just not safe, Tris, not with you being the Mystic and unclaimed.”
“Then claim me.” I sounded frantic. I could hear it in my tone. “Call a clan meeting. Shout it from the rooftops. Draw up the damn papers and point to where I need to sign. Do whatever needs to be done to make it official because I need to go. If being claimed is my safest option, then do it.”
Liam blinked. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“Uh, yeah. I think I do.”
I didn’t. Not really. However, asking to be claimed seemed like the only option because Liam was right, I couldn’t confront Ezra or anyone from his pack while being unclaimed and the Mystic. It was too much of a risk.
“You don’t,” Liam insisted. “You’re asking me to give you a bear. To put one inside you. Once it’s done, it can’t be undone. It’s for life. It’s not a decision to be made without thinking through the consequences fully.”
I swallowed hard. Crap, I’d thought to claim me meant something else. I knew better though. I blamed my current lapse in judgment on the all-consuming worry I felt for Penny.
“Is it hard to control?” I asked, surprising even myself. “Having a bear inside you all the time, I mean.”
“Sometimes. It all depends on the bear’s temperament, though. There’s no guarantee which yours might have. For some, their bears reflect their human character, for others, it’s the opposite.”
“Meaning if they’re an ass as a human they’re nice as a bear?” I flashed him a smirk, hoping my question lightened the mood. Things were getting too deep, and deep conversations bothered me as much as silence, especially with him.
Liam grinned. “Sometimes.”
“Okay, so that isn’t happening. Neither is becoming mated to you,” I said, steering the conversation back on track.
Liam’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “That last part wasn’t even a thought.”
“Geez, you sure know how to make a girl feel great about herself,” I teased.
His gaze dipped to the pool water. “I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. It didn’t come out right. All I meant is that you don’t have to sleep with me or anyone in the clan, not unless you want to.” His eyes lifted to find mine as a lopsided grin pulled at his lips, and I felt my cheeks warm.
Was he flirting with me?
“Nope,” I said, hoping the topic got dropped. “But I’m still going home. I have to.”
“You’re adamant.” Liam sighed. “Maybe not the smartest, but adamant. Determined.”
“Thanks.”
“I can’t change your mind about going, can I?”
I shook my head. “Not even a little.”
“Okay. Then I’ll go with you.”
“I can’t ask you to do that,” I said, even though there was a slight sense of relief trickling through me from his offer.
I didn’t want to go back to Opal Pine alone, especially not to face coyote shifters. However, I also didn’t want to ask anyone to come with me because I’d be putting them in danger. I’d already endangered enough people lately. Surely, I’d met my quota for the year.
“You didn’t,” Liam insisted. “I’m telling you I’m going with you. I’m not asking either.”
I wanted to argue with him but the firm tone he used and the glint in his eyes let me know doing so would get me nowhere. We were similar in that way.
“Okay.” I gave him a small smile. “We need to leave soon, though.” The longer we waited, the more danger Penny and the others Ezra might be holding could be in.
“First, we need a plan. Coyotes are smart, quick, and versatile,” Liam said. “We have to be smarter. Faster. And more versatile than they are
so we come out on top.”
“Noted. Any ideas?” I asked as my stomach twisted with nerves. I tried to ignore it.
Part of me thought I was being stupid for even thinking of going back to Opal Pine—that it counted as teasing death—but a larger part of me knew that I’d never be able to live with myself if I didn’t go. I had to know that Penny was okay.
I shifted my attention to my phone, my thumb swiping through more old pictures. My stomach knotted. Without thinking it through, I tapped out another text to her. It didn’t send. My phone seemed to have no service suddenly. I held the button on the side until it switched off. Stupid thing was always glitched. When I turned it back on, it made a noise letting me know the text went through but it also pinged with a new voicemail. I tapped to open it. Penny’s voice filled my ear, causing the skin along the back of my neck to stand on end.
“Tris, where are you? I thought you’d be here. You’re not. Corbin isn’t either.” Her words were slow and slightly slurred. “I’m not feeling very well. I swear I haven’t had that much to drink. I’m just… I don’t know…” Her voice trailed off. I pressed my phone to my ear harder, holding my breath so I could hear what was going on in the background. Liam shifted beside me, listening to the message too. “Are you ready to get out of here? We can go somewhere else or I can take you home,” someone said.
Ezra. I knew that voice.
“I don’t know,” Penny said. She sounded messed up. Drunk. Or drugged. Had Ezra slipped her something? I wouldn’t be surprised.
A muffled sound floated through the line and then the message cut off.
I glanced at Liam, ready to reiterate my need to go back to Opal Pine.
“I heard it all. He has your friend, and it sounds like he drugged her,” he said, a frown twisting at his lips.
“I need to leave. I need to get to her before it’s too late.” I made a move to stand but Liam reached for me. His hand gripped my wrist gently.
“You can’t jump in your Jeep and head to her, Tris. We have to be smart about this. You have to remember these are coyote shifters we’re dealing with not humans,” he insisted. I knew he was right, but the urgency to get to her ate away at me. “We need a plan first.” His voice was calm and steady. It irritated me.
CAPTURED: GEM CREEK BEARS, BOOK TWO Page 3