Reign: A Royal Military Romance

by Roxie Noir

  He poured it, then emptied in two packets of sugar and what seemed like half a cup of cream.

  “You take any coffee with your milk and sugar?” she teased.

  “Very funny,” he said, tossing his stir stick into the trash. “So, are we still going, or did I show up here at the crack of dawn for nothing?”

  Ariana wavered for a moment.

  “Don’t make me do paperwork all day,” he said.

  “All right,” Ariana said. “Let me go get dressed and collect Theresa.”

  9

  Jake

  He felt better as soon as they got out of town, like he always did. Jake felt at home in the forest, away from people. As soon as they got there he felt his senses sharpen, his ears prick up at every bird call. Over the smell of the road, exhaust and asphalt, he could sense almost everything going on inside the forest: rain, rotting wood, deer and squirrels and black bears, all that life just humming along. He nearly forgot that Ariana had a boyfriend.

  They were on the trail by ten in the morning, which wasn’t bad considering that he’d wanted to get out much, much earlier. The first part was the hardest, so they didn’t talk very much for a while. Jake brought up the rear of their little hiking party. He could have hiked nearly twice as fast, easily — he could have gone cross country no problem if he’d shifted — but he stayed with the girls, not wanting to outpace them.

  After all, he was there to spend time with Ariana. Even if she was taken, he found her totally irresistible. It was pathetic, he knew, but he just wanted to spend time with her.

  For lunch, they found a wide, flat rock and sat down to eat sandwiches.

  “How much further?” asked Theresa. She took a huge bite of her peanut butter and jelly, then chewed hungrily with her mouth open.

  “About three miles,” said Jake.

  “That’s not so bad,” said Ariana. She hadn’t spoken much today, and every time Jake looked over at her, she seemed deep in thought. He could sense that something bad had happened last night, and he just hoped it hadn’t been because of him.

  Of course, that was just his luck. The only girl he’d been attracted to in ages, and she had a boyfriend already. Jake had the vague notion that other women were throwing themselves at him — at least, women were always very friendly to him, something he gathered was not always the case with men — but he had just never felt this for anyone else. Something about her just seemed right in a way he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

  As the two of them brooded, Theresa chatted on. “It’s so pretty out here,” she said. “And we’ve only seen one other hiking party this whole time.”

  “It’s not the most popular trail,” Jake said. He’d already finished his sandwich, and stuffed the plastic bag back into his pack. Leave no trace and all that. “There are some gorgeous waterfalls and cliffs on it, but they’re a two-day hike, easy. Once you have to overnight somewhere, the number of people interested decreases pretty dramatically.”

  “All the better to see Bigfoot,” she said.

  “Sure,” said Jake.

  Jake thought he had a pretty good idea what Bigfoot was, actually, and he knew it was partly his own fault for the three sightings in two weeks. But, on the other hand, he’d gotten Ariana to come to Evergreen, and that wasn’t a bad thing.

  The guy who saw Bigfoot by the lake, well, he was probably just drunk and seeing things in the twilight. It happened, and people got too excited.

  The other two, though. Jake wasn’t the only shifter in the area — there were at least two others, and those were only the shifters that he knew of. In theory, there could be dozens, though he was pretty sure he’d sense a sudden influx of them.

  But one of them, Boone, really liked the area around where the woman had seen Bigfoot. Moreover, it took a little while to fully shift in and out of bear form. Most of the change took place instantly, but the little effects could take a long time — the reason Jake himself had worn long sleeves on Monday. Had she seen Bigfoot, or had it been Boone, mid-shift, not worrying about being seen because there were never people around up there?

  The third sighting had been him. He’d stayed too long in bear form that weekend and hadn’t fully shifted out before getting into his truck and driving back to town, and Dustin had seen him from across that parking lot. He’d thought he was more human-looking than that, but at least Dustin was an old drunk who told too many tall tales and the girls didn’t believe him.

  “Most people think Bigfoot is an ape,” said Theresa. “Gigantopithecus, to be exact.”

  “And that’s some sort of giant ape?” Jake asked. Though he’d been hearing about Bigfoot for years now, he’d never heard this particular theory.

  “They allegedly went extinct a couple hundred thousand years ago,” she said. “But their range was over a lot of Asia, and there’s no reason to think they couldn’t survive in the Himalayas, and then cross the Bering Land Bridge to the northwestern U.S. at the same time humans did.”

  “There’s also no real reason to think they did,” Ariana said. It was the first time she’d spoken in nearly an hour. She seemed better, having eaten lunch.

  Theresa just rolled her eyes. Jake got the feeling that they had this conversation a lot.

  “The Himalayas?” he asked.

  “It’s a mountain range in Nepal and Tibet,” said Theresa.

  He and Ariana exchanged a look, and he thought he saw a smile begin around her eyes.

  “He knows what the Himalayas are,” she said.

  “Oh, sorry,” said Theresa. “Yeah, the Himalayas have the Yeti.”

  “Have you ever been there?”

  “Not yet,” said Theresa.

  “That’s a pretty tough one,” said Ariana. “We’d have to have pretty good evidence to get on that plane. Trekking through the Himalaya is a lot more serious than staying in a lodge in a cute Pacific Northwest town and going backpacking for a night.”

  “Did you know the people who lived there actually evolved so that they could get oxygen out of the air better?” asked Theresa.

  The three of them rose and strapped their packs on again, the girls taking the lead.

  “It’s because they live at such high altitudes,” Theresa was going on. “Sixteen thousand feet at least...”

  Jake was glad when the trail got too steep for Theresa to impart facts and hike at the same time.

  Finding the log book and taking a picture of the names inside was almost too easy. They were done by five in the afternoon, long before the sun went down, so the three of them had a leisurely dinner of freeze-dried food reconstituted with water from a creek. The girls set up their tent and got their sleeping bags situated inside, while Jake put out his tarp and laid his sleeping bag on top.

  “You didn’t bring a tent?” Ariana asked.

  “I’ve got another tarp if it rains,” he said.

  “What if there’s a bear?” she asked. “I saw that poster on your office door about grizzlies in the area.”

  Jake grinned. I’m the problem, he wanted to say.

  “You think your tent is gonna protect you against a grizzly bear?” he asked.

  Both the girls were very quiet for a moment.

  “There’s been one confirmed grizzly sighting in the past hundred years,” he said quickly. “It was from a helicopter in an area even more remote than this. They don’t like people. I don’t think you need to worry about them.”

  Both girls relaxed a little.

  “Now, mountain lions....” he said.

  Ariana picked up a pebble and threw it at him. “Don’t tease us,” she said.

  Jake grinned again. “But it’s so easy,” he said.

  She stuck her tongue out at him.

  “Your biggest threat is probably raccoons,” he said. “They love human food, and half of them are rabid.”

  “Can they get through tent nylon?” asked Ariana.

  “Less likely,” said Jake. “They’re smart, though, and they’ve got those creepy lit
tle hands.”

  “They’re so cute though!” interjected Theresa.

  Jake shrugged.

  “So, are you from here?” asked Ariana after a long pause.

  “Not originally,” he said. “I’m from Alaska.”

  She whistled, low. “I thought we were far from civilization now.”

  He laughed. “We’re only two and a half hours from Seattle,” he said. “That’s practically inside the metro area.”

  “Why’d you move here?” she asked. “No lumberjacks in Alaska?”

  He shrugged. “Alaska gets old after a while,” he said. “Even in the cities, it’s hard to get out. The roads are snowed over most of the year. It’s a weird place to be. Washington state is much better.”

  These were all compelling reasons, but not the real one. The truth was, he’d left Alaska on bad terms with his shifter pack, but he couldn’t tell the girls that, obviously.

  “Do you miss it?”

  “Of course,” he said. He did: he missed the endless rugged wilderness, being able to be a bear for a week or more, feeling like he had the entire state to himself. He missed his parents, he missed having a whole community of other shifters around who understood him. “But the tradeoff is worth it, I think.”

  Theresa yawned, then stood. “I’m gonna turn in,” she said, and walked toward the trees. “Man, am I gonna be sore tomorrow.”

  She crunched off into the woods about ten feet, and Jake politely looked down into the fire. Ariana looked up, where she could just see the stars through the tops of the trees.

  “You know any constellations?” she asked him.

  Jake’s heart beat faster. Was she intentionally replaying the scene from before, in the tent in his office?

  “Sure,” he said, and pointed. “You know Orion’s belt, right?”

  “Show me,” she said.

  Jake stood and moved his log next to hers. She leaned her head into him, suddenly so close. She smelled like shampoo and sweat, a soft earthy smell. For one moment, Jake closed his eyes and let her scent wash over him, feeling like everything was right with the world.

  “Okay,” he began, leaning toward her and pointing. “Orion’s belt is right there, those three stars — the last one is behind that tree — and if you follow it, you can see—“

  He was cut off by a scream.

  Both of them jerked their heads toward the direction it had come from — the same place Theresa had disappeared to.

  They heard a strange, half-strangled sob.

  Ariana jumped to her feet, then froze. She couldn’t move, not even to go help Theresa. What if it was a bear, or a mountain lion? She didn’t stand a chance against either of those, she thought, and she’d only be getting herself hurt in the process.

  Still, she had to do something, and she took an uncertain step toward the forest, her heart beating almost out of her chest.

  Then, suddenly, something happened right behind her. There was a noise like fabric ripping, and then, before she could even look, something huge and furry blasted past her. Ariana took a step away and tripped over the log she’d been sitting on, hitting the ground hard.

  Theresa screamed again, and Ariana scrambled to her feet, then ran toward it. The hell with self-preservation. She batted her way through ten feet of dark forest, barely able to see anything as her eyes adjusted to the moonlight.

  Suddenly, her foot hit something soft and heavy, and she squinted down, desperately trying to make out what it was in the dark. Something light and hard to move — Oh, Jesus, it was Theresa and she was just lying there, either passed out or dead.

  A terrible noise sounded in front of Ariana and she looked up, blinking, willing her eyes to adjust faster.

  Then, everything snapped into focus. The noise was a mountain lion, hissing and growling at a huge, dark shape, fully about to strike.

  Is that Jake? Ariana wondered. Is he fucking insane?

  The dark shape growled, and Ariana could finally make it out: a bear.

  A very large bear. Her panic told her it was a grizzly bear, even though she knew that was stupid. Hadn’t Jake just told her they hated people?

  The lion went for the bear, swatting at it with one huge paw. It connected, but the bear shrugged it off.

  Ariana had had enough. She grabbed Theresa by her arms and pulled, adrenaline pumping through her body.

  If I get her back to the fire, maybe I can fend them off, she thought desperately. Theresa was totally limp, and Ariana knew she was probably scratching the other girl’s back on the ground, but felt it was justified.

  Just as she was almost back to their little campsite, the warm glow of the fire nearby, she saw the bear stand on its hind legs and roar. It had to be eight feet tall, at least, and Ariana thought her heart might stop in terror.

  With one final, huge tug, she pulled Theresa into the circle of firelight, and then dragged the other girl next to the fire, still on her back. She knelt next to her, trying to remember the one day of first aid she’d taken as part of her job training, two years ago.

  Okay, uh, fuck, is she breathing? Does she have a pulse? How do I give mouth to mouth or what if her neck is broken Jesus I think I probably made it worse—

  She put one trembling hand to Theresa’s neck, felt around for a moment, and was rewarded with a strong, steady pulse.

  Ariana nearly cried with relief, then looked at the rest of the other girl’s body.

  That’s when she realized that Theresa had a lot of blood on her, and she had absolutely no idea where it was coming from. How much blood was a lot, and how much was too much? How could she possibly get help for her, ten miles into the wilderness?

  Jake. He was gone, and God only knew where, but he probably had some sort of signaling device in his pack. Wasn’t that was forest rangers did?

  But as Ariana stood, she heard another noise in the forest, where she’d come from, and she looked up only to see the huge bear, facing her, just barely in the forest. Inside her, something snapped, and she looked around, furious now.

  She grabbed a log that was mostly in the fire. It burned her hand, but Ariana didn’t even feel the pain as she stood and ran toward the bear, shouting at the top of her lungs, some sort of primal scream.

  The bear turned around and ran, and Ariana stopped at the edge of the circle of firelight. She dropped the log, her hand red. She could feel blisters forming as she stood there, wondering what the fuck she was supposed to do next.

  A minute later, mostly back in human form but still a little furry, Jake walked naked into the circle of firelight to find Ariana rummaging through his pack with one hand.

  “What are you looking for?” he asked.

  “Your radio, or a phone or a beacon or something,” she said, without turning around.

  He took the pack from her, unzipped an outside pocket, and pulled out a flare gun.

  “Give it to me,” she said, and turned to look at him for the first time. She recoiled.

  “WHAT THE FUCK?” she shouted.

  “Is Theresa okay?” he asked.

  “Why are you naked?”

  He stood and walked to the other girl, flare gun still in his hand. She had a pulse and she was breathing, though it looked like she’d lost a lot of blood. Gently, he turned her over, and then he saw it: a set of claw marks down her back, onto her butt.

  “Oh shit,” said Ariana. The wounds were caked in dirt and leaves. “Oh god, I dragged her through the forest.”

  “It’s okay,” said Jake. “I think you helped stop the bleeding.”

  “We’ve gotta call someone,” she said.

  She seemed to have forgotten that Jake was still furry and naked.

  “We can’t,” he said. “The best we can do is get her to the lake. It’s only about two miles that way.”

  “We can’t hike cross-country at night,” she said, clearly beginning to panic.

  “There’s a rough trail,” he said. “It’s not marked, because it’s not maintained, but it’s there
.”

  Ariana shook her head, firmly. “No way. Maybe in the morning, but I’m not risking all three of our lives.”

  Jake reached out and grabbed her wrist, gently.

  She seemed to remember that he was naked and furry, though slightly less furry than before.

  “I need you to trust me,” he said.

  “Tell me what’s going on,” she said.

  “You’re not going to believe me.”

  “I promise I will.”

  Jake paused for a second. It was an emergency, but he was about to seriously break shifter code. Outsiders weren’t supposed to know. They just weren’t.

  “I can turn into a grizzly bear,” he said, looking her right in the eyes.

  She stood and walked away.

  “Fine, don’t tell me,” she said. “But I think this is fucked the fuck up, just so you know.”

  “I swear to God,” he said. “Look, I haven’t shifted all the way back yet.”

  She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms.

  “Are you some kind of government experiment gone wrong?” she asked.

  On the ground, Theresa moaned a little and fluttered her eyelids.

  “We’ve gotta go,” Jake said. He pulled his change of clothes out of his pack and pulled them on. Ariana seemed much happier when he was dressed.

  Then, he picked Theresa up, gently, put her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, and set out for the trail. Ariana was right behind him.

  It felt like they were hiking all night, but when they reached the lake, it was still full dark. She realized it couldn’t be later than one in the morning, and she realized they’d still have to spend the night there.

  Jake set Theresa, now fully awake, down very gently on the ground, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. She laid on her stomach, the scratches on her back angry even in the moonlight.

  “I usually get a bar or two here,” he said.

  Ariana sat down beside Theresa on the muddy ground and put her arms gently around the other girl’s shoulders.

  “You’re gonna be okay,” she said.

  “It was just there,” she said. “I was peeing and there was this enormous cat just there,” she said.