Outlaw of the Bears (Wild Ridge Bears Book 2)

by Kimber White

  I kept Anya behind me, gripping her hand as I walked forward and faced my former clansmen. No. Not former. Words couldn’t change who I was. With a swift vote, they’d dismantled the James Clan. I saw a few members of my crew mixed in with the others. Jaxon Lord had absorbed most of them. He stood at the head of the group, his jaw hard and his eyes glinting in the morning sun as I faced him.

  Jaxon was the closest thing I had to a blood brother. My banishment had hit him the deepest, and he’d fought the hardest to keep it from happening. He swore if I ever found my way back, he’d restore my crew to me. Even now, I saw pain etched across his face as he held his ground with the rest of the clans.

  “What do we do now?” Anya whispered behind me. Fear quickened her heart and I squeezed her hand to try and reassure her. I needed time alone with her too. I’d wronged her by not telling her what I knew about Simon. Even now, I felt her heat as she scanned the crowd, trying to guess which one he was.

  If Jaxon had been my biggest advocate, Simon had been my biggest detractor. He stood to the left of me, his back straight and his eyes flashing. I was glad to see none of my former crew had joined his ranks. Perhaps there was a glimmer of hope if things went my way. But, to my knowledge, no bear had ever come back from a banishment. On the other hand, I didn’t know if anyone had ever tried.

  “You’re not welcome here anymore,” Simon said, stepping forward. I kept my breath even, not wanting to transmit anything to Anya. There would be a time and place later to tell her about him. If she called him out now, I’d lose whatever control I had over the situation. She didn’t know him like I did. He’d kept his focus on me, but as he stepped closer, he finally looked at Anya. It was just a tiny glimmer, a flickering near his eye. But, he recognized her. The son of a bitch recognized her.

  “I had no choice,” I said, hating that my voice still sounded ragged. But, every man here could see the truth of what I’d endured. Arkady’s blood and my own caked my skin. I’d probably bear the jagged scars of his teeth and claws across my neck and chest for the rest of my life.

  “You have something to tell us?” Rafe McCormack stepped forward. Next to Jaxon, Rafe had been my closest ally before my father’s betrayal. I nodded.

  “I know it may no longer be my right, but there are things happening in the south you need to know about. I’ve risked my life to bring you information that concerns all the North American clans. If you’ll hear me out, you’ll understand.”

  “We owe him nothing!” Simon shouted. Jax growled and put a hand on his chest.

  “That’s not for you to decide alone. We do things by vote around here. I vote we hold a clan meeting. We listen to what Cullen has to say. Everyone here can see he nearly died to get here. He’s standing there with polar bear blood on him. You all know the scent. I for one am pretty damn interested to hear what the hell a polar bear was doing this close to Wild Ridge.”

  “Oooh,” Anya whispered. “I think I like that guy.”

  I tried not to smile at her. Jax’s lips twitched. Of course he heard every word she said.

  “I vote we meet at the longhouse at noon. That’s four hours from now,” Rafe called out. There was a grumble through the men. But, they all nodded. Only Simon stood still. Even he couldn’t dispute the numbers. So, it was decided. They’d let me stay here at the airfield until then.

  With that, the clans dispersed, leaving Anya and me alone.

  There wasn’t much time. In four hours, I’d have to beg for my life again. Anya’s too. No matter what, now she knew how dangerous it would always be for her trying to live without clan protection. What happened with Arkady would happen again, over and over. Hell, I wasn’t entirely sure Simon himself wouldn’t try to challenge me before I tried to leave Wild Ridge again. God, I never wanted to leave Wild Ridge again.

  When the other bears left, Tobias’s plane also left carrying Connie with it. I had just enough time to thank her for her help. Anya hugged her then grew quiet as we watched the plane disappear into a dot on the horizon. We walked toward the hangar together. It wasn’t much in the way of accommodations, but it would give us shelter before I faced the clans again.

  Most of what Connie told her, I’d heard as well, through my fevered dreams. Anya filled in the rest.

  “Witches or something,” Anya said. “They took my nephew. They tried to save my sister.”

  I nodded. “There are stories about women like that. In most of them, they’re enemies to the shifters I know.”

  Anya’s face fell. “If Avery’s baby was a shifter, you don’t think they hurt him, do you?”

  I shook my head. “If it hadn’t been important to try and save him, they wouldn’t have come at all. I wish I had more answers for you. And I should have told you about Simon. I’m sorry for that. The only thing I can say is that I was just as shocked as you were.”

  She sat on a bench against the wall and drew her knees up to her chest. “He was that tall, blond one, wasn’t he? With the cold blue eyes. The one who tried to turn us away.”

  I nodded. “How did you guess that?”

  She shrugged. “Just something about him. Are you going to tell the others?”

  I let out a hard breath. “I have to.”

  “Cullen, what if he wants to hurt that boy? I mean, if he’s out there. If he’s still alive.”

  I sat down next to her and gathered her hands in mine. “I don’t think he will. We’ll have to hear the truth from Simon. He too has to answer for what he did. As hard as he seemed to you, and he is … Simon isn’t like Arkady. I haven’t always agreed with him, but Simon is fiercely protective of Wild Ridge. He’s a strong leader. We sometimes come out on opposing sides, but Wild Ridge is as important to him as it is to me. I don’t know what happened, but I don’t think Simon forced himself on your sister. I’m willing to at least hear his side of it. Then the clans can decide what to do.”

  “She asked for him.” Anya’s voice was small. “Dr. Putnam told me that. Connie said the same thing. She wrote his name down on a piece of paper and made them promise to try and find him if anything happened to her. Neither of them did. I’m grateful for Connie’s help, but she didn’t carry out my sister’s last wish. Maybe that’s what I’m supposed to do. Don’t get me wrong. I want to gouge his damn bear eyes out. He left her unprotected. I get that now. He had to have known that she couldn’t have his baby without the right kind of help. God, it tore her inside out.”

  “Shh.” I pressed my forehead to her. “Don’t think about how she died, Anya. Think about how she lived. I didn’t have the honor of knowing her. But, she’s part of you. Something tells me that’s exactly what she’d want.”

  She kissed me. My heart soared, and for a moment, I could forget all of the ominous things that might yet happen. But, for now, my Anya kissed me. I just hoped she could forgive me too.

  “I need you,” I whispered against her cheek. “I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next couple of hours. If it doesn’t go my way, we have hard choices to make. But for now, I just want to be with you. I want to make you mine. Will you have me? Will you forgive me?”

  Anya smiled and kissed me again. She ran her fingers along the healing scars where Arkady’s bites were deepest. “I don’t understand it. But I trust it. I trust you. Whatever happens, we’re stronger together than we are apart.”

  I took her then. I hoped soon I’d have time to savor her. For now, it was a quick coupling with clothes cast aside in haste. Anya turned and offered herself to me. I leaned forward and nipped her shoulder as I entered her. She was open and ready for me from the very first stroke. Her walls clenched around me and I came quickly along with her. I told her the truth. I needed her. I drew strength from her that I badly needed. There was something else as well. I’d told her the truth. The men of Wild Ridge weren’t like Arkady. We didn’t take women by force. Still, I needed to claim her again on my home soil. Let the world know who Anya belonged to. Let them also know I belonged to her as well.


  Then, it was time to face the clans. I wanted Anya to stay behind, but she wouldn’t hear of it. “We’re stronger together, remember?” she said. She exasperated me. She infuriated me. She stirred my blood. I took her hand in mine and we headed up to the mines.

  Anya marveled at the sight of what Wild Ridge was all about. We’d built a haven here nestled in the high hills of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We each had a lucrative copper mine. We sustained ourselves.

  “Do you live down there?” she asked, pointing to the village deep in the valley. I took her hand and moved it to the north, pointing her index finger to a large cabin cut into the hillside. She gasped.

  “It’s not finished,” I said. “But that’s my house. With any luck, it’ll be yours as well.”

  Her next question hung in midair as Jaxon called down from the longhouse. We used it as a sort of company store and meeting place. Neutral ground for all of the clans. I led her up the front steps of the log cabin. We had a conference room in the back. Only the heads of the clans met us inside. All the rest of the men stayed behind in the valley. Jaxon walked in behind me. His face betrayed nothing.

  I took my seat at the end of the table and Anya sat beside me. No one questioned her presence and I didn’t know what to make of that. Surely everyone here knew what she was to me. Claiming her without clan approval didn’t help my case, but at least they showed her the respect she deserved.

  I’d hoped Jaxon would run the meeting. With my men, he headed the largest clan now. But, our past alliance counted against him. Bo Calvin did most of the talking.

  “This isn’t a revote,” he said. My heart sank. “But, out of the respect we held for you, we’re willing to hear you out. What’s so important you risked coming back here and bringing your Anam Cara with you.”

  My heart swelled inside my chest. I put a hand on Anya’s leg under the table. There wasn’t time to tell her, but just the fact the clans recognized her as mine meant everything to me. But, it wouldn’t be enough to save her if they turned us away again.

  I laid out my case. “Russian clans have moved into Blackfoot, Indiana. The place is crawling with shifters of all kinds. I don’t know what draws them. But for about a decade, there’s been a clan there picking off Anam Cara and shipping them back to their motherland against their will.”

  A rumble went through the group. Rafe let out a growl and his skin rippled. Clan wars had been started over less. “I challenged their Alpha and brought him down,” I said.

  Jaxon’s eyes widened. “You did it alone?”

  “Yes!” Anya answered for me. I put a steadying hand on her shoulder but she wouldn’t be silenced. “I’m new to this. But Cullen’s actions have to count for something. He was willing to die to protect me and other women like me. He had no help from any of you. Would anyone here at this table have the balls to do the same?”

  Simon growled. A rumble simmered through the group. I pressed my fingers against her shoulder. Calling out their manhood probably wasn’t the best strategy, but she made her point. Jaxon covered his mouth and coughed. His eyes twinkled with mirth and my heart lightened. His vote alone wouldn’t be enough, but it meant everything to me that he would still give it.

  “It’s not enough!” Simon thumped his fist against the table. “Everyone here is grateful for what you’ve done and appreciates the risk you put yourself in to bring us this information. But, this is a clan matter now. It doesn’t erase what’s happened. The James clan is still no longer part of Wild Ridge, and you know fully why.”

  I hung my head. “I don’t ask for me,” I said. “If it were just me I wouldn’t have come at all. I didn’t plan it. I didn’t mean to find Anya. But everyone here knows that’s exactly how it works. Fate brought us together, and I have to wonder why. There’s some bigger plan at work and I played my part in it. I regret nothing. I don’t even regret you banishing me. If you hadn’t, I never would have been in Blackfoot to find her. In that sense, my father’s betrayal brought me my greatest joy. I would change none of that. But, if you turn me away again, you won’t just hurt me. You put Anya at risk too. Her family has already paid the ultimate price for failings of men at this very table.”

  Every man straightened his back. I was walking on very thin ice and I knew it. It was one thing for Anya to call out their manhood, for me to do it could lead to another Alpha challenge I knew I couldn’t win.

  But, I told the story. I looked Simon straight in the eye and said her name. “Simon, are you going to sit silent? Anya is sitting right in front of you. She means something to you. Her face is one you recognize.”

  “What? I haven’t … I don’t.”

  Anya took Avery’s necklace from around her neck. She slid it across the table so it landed right in front of Simon. “You knew my sister,” she said. “Her name was Avery Parker. And I think you have more to answer for to this tribunal than Cullen does.”

  All hell broke loose. Simon rose to his full height and growled. He picked up the necklace and his bear rippled through his shoulders. Bo lost control of the meeting. He slammed his fists against the table, but it was too late. To his credit, Simon looked ashamed. He sank into his chair, color drained from his face. He clutched the necklace and held it to his forehead. Then he slammed his own fist against the table and locked eyes with me.

  “It doesn’t matter. What’s done is done where Cullen is concerned. A banished clansmen has no one to speak for him. Without that, he has no power here. Yes. I may have things to answer for, but none of that changes things for you. You have no one to speak on your behalf. No one.”

  The air in the room shifted. The outside door blew open and a shadow fell across the table. A presence I hadn’t felt in almost thirty years rumbled along my spine.

  “I speak for Cullen.” Her voice boomed against the walls. It was deeper than I remembered. She was still glorious. Her black hair hung past her shoulders with a new gray stripe at the crown. Her eyes flashed dark as she strode into the room.

  “Who the hell is that?” Anya gripped my shoulder.

  “Anya, meet Fiona Bertrand. My mother.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Anya

  Fiona Bertrand didn’t walk so much as she glided. When Cullen rose to stand at her side, he topped her only by a few inches. She had to be at least six foot three. She had long, strong fingers and pale white skin. Her eyes went from blue-green to black and back again. The Wild Ridge clan leaders all scrambled to their feet to show Fiona the respect she’d earned. I knew instantly they were not accustomed to being in the presence of a full-blooded she-bear. Hell, who was?

  She wasted no time getting to her point. “Have you all forgotten the pact my clan made with Wild Ridge a generation ago? Without it, none of you would have survived. My son has shown his loyalty to these clans with every breath he takes. His father is worth nothing, but I knew that from the beginning. But Cullen? He’s one of the best of you. If you turn him away, you weaken yourselves and betray the pact you’ve forged with one of the most powerful clans in North America. It sounds like that’s the last thing you need, especially now. You can’t even seem to keep polar bears out of Indiana. Indiana!”

  “Mom,” Cullen whispered. He made a slashing motion across his neck. I covered my mouth to keep from smiling.

  “Fiona. Ms. Bertrand.” Bo Calvin stood. He at least had the decency to look uncomfortable. “We all appreciate the sacrifices Cullen made. But bear law is bear law. Hank James tried to give our lands over to outsiders.”

  “Bear law,” she spat. “You mean man bear law. So you literally threw the baby out with the bathwater. You made a mistake. Everyone at this table here knows it and now you just want to save face. Well, you’ve saved it. Cullen’s paid the price. He didn’t have to come here. Hell, it looks like he almost died doing it. No offense, son, but you look like hell.”

  Cullen spread his hands wide and shook his head. Fiona was on a roll; even he seemed to know better than to stop her.

  “So decid
e what direction you want to go, boys. But do it quick. It sounds like we’ve all got threats coming from all directions. We fight stronger together than we do apart. There’s not one of you who can argue with me that my son is an asset to Wild Ridge.”

  “He has no clan.” One of the men in the corner practically whispered the statement. I think Cullen told me his name was Rafe.

  “The hell he doesn’t,” Fiona said. “It’s standing right in front of you.” She leaned over and took my hand in hers. Fiona’s was warm and strong and an electric current seemed to run between us. The woman crackled with raw power.

  “He took an Anam Cara without clan approval,” Bo said. Simon at least had the decency to look ashamed. His own sin had yet to be fully revealed.

  Fiona laughed. “So in one breath you say he has no clan. In the next you say he needed clan approval. Well, all of that’s a moot point now anyway.”

  “Why?” Cullen asked. A tremor ran through me, starting at the point where Fiona still held my hand. A dark knowledge passed from her to me. She gave me a slight wink of reassurance as the breath went straight out of my lungs.

  “She’s already pregnant,” Fiona said. She moved to stand beside me and slid her hand over the small of my back. “You turn her away now, you sign her death warrant. Cullen’s too because he’ll die trying to protect her. None of you want that on your conscience. So do the right thing. Have your vote. I’ve got a plane to catch.”

  ***

  Things moved quickly after that. The clansmen erupted in shouts. Bo banged his fists against the table trying to restore order. But, the tide had turned in our favor. Cullen looked ghostly white. His eyes shone as he stepped around me and drew me to him.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” he whispered.