Bear Brother (Bear Lodge Shifters Book 2)

by Kyrii Rayne

  He was looking back at her quietly, and she glanced away, wrapping her arms around herself.

  “I don't think the mess with the lost Lodge member has anything to do with that, though. We've been working to socialize this guy for about a month now. He's not in contact with any of the bad guys. He's pretty much a victim himself. And usually he's fine. He doesn't mess with anyone, he doesn't pick fights, he doesn't get nasty. But he just took off.”

  “Bored? Horny?”

  Definitely horny. But no idea if that was the reason for his running this direction.

  “Maybe. No real idea. Anyway, the guys are tracking him down the mountain while Helga and I try to head him off if he gets too far ahead of them.”

  “Sounds like a decent plan. But you're going to need to cover a lot of range, and that will be where me and my trail cams come in.”

  Helga sipped her tea.

  “This isn't bad. Look, Mark, if you wish to assist us in intercepting our stray member, I'll compensate you for your time. The men keeping an eye on our rogue members are well taken care of, and I'll happily offer you the same deal.”

  “Keeping me quiet with money again?”

  He shook his head mockingly at her.

  Helga chuckled. “More like, keeping you potentially interested in working together more in the future. It's not a good economy out there. You have skills. When you use them to aid us, I feel obliged to give you something in exchange that is worth your time.”

  His smirk faded, and he shrugged. “I guess that makes sense. But don't expect to be able to buy my trust.”

  “No sir. All I am doing is buying the time to earn it.”

  Anna smiled a little as Mark looked mildly impressed and nodded. He came over and offered Helga his hand to seal the deal.

  “All right, then. Let's use the trail cams to keep watch for your boy, and I'll keep in regular contact until we catch up with him.”

  Helga stood up and shook hands with him.

  “A pleasure doing business with you again.”

  She and Helga got a room in town, and that afternoon she enjoyed a crackly three-minute call with Jake before his limited service cut out. No sign or scent of Graypaw yet that wasn't at least hours old. He was headed to Jackson as fast as his paws could carry him.

  The news, and the shortness of the call, left her troubled and lonely. She and Helga had a simple dinner of sandwiches, and the old shifter turned in early, leaving Anna alone with her thoughts. She didn't like that at all after the first hour, so she decided to go have a drink. She left the hotel and went down to the nearest bar for a boilermaker and whatever kind of overly greasy pub food they had on offer. She settled on chili cheese fries, and nibbled them at her corner table while men in leather jackets and ten-gallon hats eyed her up now and again as they talked to their buddies at the bar.

  Her phone rang; she recognized Mark's number and picked up immediately. “Mark?”

  “Everything's set up. The trail cams are rearranged and are feeding directly to my laptop. You and the old lady still up?”

  “Well, I am. She has to sleep a lot these days, especially when the weather's cold.”

  “Well, she is about a gazillion years old, sweetheart. Can I meet you somewhere?”

  She gave the bar's name. He grunted something about it being a redneck paradise, but in spite of this showed up not ten minutes later, dust on his boots and fatigues and his own jacket slung around his shoulders. A few people glanced up as he came in, but quickly went back to their own business.

  He slid into the seat across from her and looked at the fries. “Those look good. Any pork in them?”

  “Nah, this is beef chili country, try some.” She slid the plate across and he dug in, forking up a few fries and a bite of chili.

  “Mmf. Not bad. Gotta remember this place.” He raised the fork illustratively. “Now you have to tell me, seriously, is Helga holding out on me?”

  “For all I know, Helga is holding out on me,” she deflected quietly. “But look. When she says that this probably isn't a big deal as long as we find the guy before he attracts too much attention, she's telling the truth. I know the guy. If he gets violent it will be because someone attacked him or tried to trap him. That's it. He's not exactly a menace.”

  He stared at her a moment, chewing slowly, then sat back. “Okay. So, what is he?”

  “He's the subject of one of Anthony Matson's experiments, like we were. But in his case, well, among other things, the guy grew up in a cage. So, we've been trying to help him sort life out. You know, teach him things. Talking, reading, tying shoes, whatever.”

  His brows drew together slightly.

  “That's messed up. It's good you're helping the guy, but I thought you'd be working on your master's thesis.”

  She blushed, looking down, and took a swallow of her beer.

  “Yeah, me too, but right now this is more important. This guy has nobody but the four of us to help him out, and Helga's health keeps getting worse.”

  His face fell. “Yeah, I noticed. It's too bad. Truth is I kind of like the old lady. Except that you know, the thing about those rich old Lodge guys, is that rich old guys don't like taking orders from women. Now that she's getting sick, well... that's probably part of why Matson thought he could pull his crap with hunting humans and performing experiments. Good thing he was wrong. But now... well, as she gets worse, that's a power vacuum. Those are never good, sweetheart.”

  “She keeps pushing more responsibility on Jake and Darrin. I think she's hoping they will take over.”

  He scoffed quietly. The lanky blonde server came over and he ordered three fingers of good whiskey. When she was gone again, he said, “Not saying that those two aren't good guys, but they're young. They're not part of the old establishment there, and I'm sure some people are gonna point out these things to challenge them. The question is, can they get the guys that are left to listen to them?”

  She poked worriedly at her food, and he sighed. “Look, sorry sweetheart, but I'm just preparing you. These are the reasons I don't trust the Lodge. Not because I don't trust you, or Darrin, or Helga, or even your man, no matter who his dad was. But because this kind of crap happened right under Helga's nose. If she's not in control of her organization, and she passes it on to other people who aren't in control of it, what happens when another bear shifter decides to pull something nasty on the local humans?”

  “No, I get it,” she replied finally. “You're right, it's a worry. I can't just ignore that because it's uncomfortable to think about. There are political problems with the Lodge, whether Helga feels like she can handle seeing them or not.”

  “Yeah.” He sniffed and ate a few more fries. “So, you and Jake. That's still a thing, then.”

  “Yeah, it is. Looks like you may have been wrong about this one.”

  He gave her a hard look with a little heat behind it.

  “Time will tell, baby. And he'd better not screw up. I don't give a damn how much power the guy has if he messes you up. I'll be all over him.” His eyes glittered. “And then I might just make you a better offer.”

  Oh God, there it is. Mark's paranoia about Jake wasn't just a matter of trauma or species paranoia. He was jealous. Now and again he had made that very clear, and here it was again. “I—”

  “I'm just saying.” His gentle tone told her he was letting her off the hook... again. “But I don't like seeing you hurt. If I think I can head it off, I will.”

  She swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded. “Thank you.”

  She got a little too drunk that night. When she slept in the room's second bed her hand kept reaching across the mattress, to the empty space next to her where Jake should have been.

  Chapter 8 - Ran All Day

  Hiking to Jackson from the Lodge was a three-day affair for humans. For determined bear shifters, it was a single long day and night's run. In Jake and Darrin's case, only hunger caused them to pause for a break — and by then, the sun was setting aga
in.

  “He stopped near here for a while,” Darrin puffed as he fished out a few energy bars and tossed one over. “Not sure why, but there's a ranger's station over that ridge. It's the nearest thing of interest.” He unwrapped the snack and bit off half the bar, chewing hard and swallowing with some difficulty. “Maybe we should check it out.”

  “Yeah, maybe.” Jake wasn't tired physically — his bear-shifter strength prevented it — but emotionally he was feeling worn out. Tonight, Anna would sleep alone, while he crashed through the brush between here and Jackson and prayed that Graypaw didn't wander in front of any security cameras before they got to him. It depressed him a little to think about.

  He unwrapped the energy bar and shoved the whole thing in his mouth, chewing until his jaws hurt.

  Darrin glanced at him. “You holding up?”

  “Not so well,” Jake admitted finally. “I'm not so worried about Gray starting anything, but all he has to do is run into some jackass who picks a fight with him, and all Hell will break loose. It won't even be his fault, but... well... the guy looks like a Cro Magnon in jeans and hits like a truck. He's hard not to notice. If the police get in any way involved...”

  “I get it. We'll just have to find him before anything like that happens.” Darrin was silent for a moment as he walked up to the ridge top several paces away and peered down at the ranger station below. The station lights were flickering on down there, casting a glow that Jake could see where he stood. “Yeah, this is where they have the trainee barracks. Though I think everyone's gone home for the weekend.”

  “Home. To Jackson.”

  They looked at each other.

  A few minutes later they were creeping around the ranger station grounds, avoiding the security cameras while Darrin tracked the place with his nose. “Okay. Okay, I have Graypaw, and I think I have what he's following. You are seriously not going to believe this, either.”

  Jake snuffled, aware of his brother's heavy scent, and also the smell of a dozen trainee Rangers and their instructors. Male, female, young to middle aged. Some perfumed, one guy with an inexplicable passion for fancy body spray.

  “What is it?”

  Darrin matter of factly followed the scent out to the parking lot, and looked around. “It's a girl. Human woman, on the young side, probably one of the trainees. Likes lemon shampoo, smokes a little pot. And your brother's been following her scent around like a bloodhound on a trail.”

  Jake blinked in astonishment. “A girl. He's... he's run away, he's headed for Jackson... he really is doing all of this because he's chasing some human girl's scent.”

  “And why not?” Darrin smirked slightly. “Didn't you follow your nose when you met Anna?”

  “She was in some of my classes! We met completely normally!”

  “Huh, weird. That almost never seems to happen anymore.” Darrin shoved his hands in his pockets as he looked toward the parking lot entrance. “Well, if we follow the road, we should reach Jackson before sunup.”

  “That's cool, but you know that means that Gray may already be within town limits.” Jake swallowed, worried as hell about what that could mean.

  “Yeah, I get that. We'll just have to hope the ladies are having better luck finding him than we are.”

  “Yeah. Let's just do that.” Jake pulled out his cellphone. The ranger station had its own tower, and he quickly got a signal.

  The phone rang five times before Anna picked up. “Sorry, had to go outside. Jake?”

  “Hi baby.” He felt himself relax some just hearing her voice.

  She sighed with relief.

  “Hi yourself. It's good to hear from you. Are you okay? Did you find him?”

  “No, but we know what he's after.”

  He told her about the ranger station, and the way they had followed both Gray and the woman's scent out to the parking lot.

  Anna gasped. “Oh wow. He's... then he really is looking for someone.”

  “Yeah, baby, a very specific someone. No wonder he was so interested in finding out about sex and relationships.”

  “I can't believe this. Who is it? Do we know anything about her?”

  “Just that she's a trainee ranger and likes lemon shampoo and pot. Apparently, she's on the young side.”

  “I really, really hope she's on the open-minded side too,” Anna breathed. “Could this really be his mate? A human? Gray's mostly bear....”

  “Well, it looks like no matter what my father intended, he's also a man.” And somehow that made Jake feel better. It would have been very different if he had discovered Gray was just after some female bear who had gone into season early. This in itself could help Gray tie himself to humanity more firmly than all the fork-holding lessons in the world... if the poor beast didn't scare the girl off the moment that he approached her, of course. “But here's the thing, baby. We're at the highway at this point, the ranger station access road connects to it. By now there's a pretty good chance that he's reached Jackson, or will within the next hour.”

  “Hooboy, that could be problematic. Helga's konked out and Mark already knows something's up.”

  “Mark? Oh crap.”

  “Yyyyeah. Helga managed to hire him to keep an eye out for a 'lost Lodge member' and described his human form. He's using trailcams and his computer to keep an eye out for anything strange. But he doesn't know it's Graypaw, and once he figures that out—”

  “Uh huh, you don't even have to finish that sentence.” Jake felt sick. If Mark was tangled up in this now it meant nothing but trouble once he found out about Graypaw. “Look, Darrin and I will get there as soon as we can. Hopefully either we'll sniff Gray out or Helga will make contact before Mark's trailcams pick anything up. Otherwise—”

  “We'll have to talk fast, and well. I'm no Darrin, but I'll try to persuade him.” She sounded quietly uncertain.

  “Just do your best, baby. I'll be back with you as soon as I can. I love you.” His heart was beating fast.

  “I love you too.”

  She hung up and he turned to Darrin.

  “Mark knows a lot of what's up. He is using trailcams to watch the outskirts of town. We need to get there, pronto. Right now, if he sees Gray running around in bear form on his cameras....”

  “Holy crap. Yeah, say no more. Let's go.”

  Darrin sank back down into his bear form, and Jake followed suit.

  Soon enough the two of them were running down the access road, toward the highway, and Jackson beyond. Hopefully they would get there before dawn — and before Mark saw something he shouldn't.

  Chapter 9 -

  Monster Sighting

  Anna sucked air and let it out in a whoosh, looking around. It was barely four in the morning, way too early to be dragging Helga out of bed. She knew she couldn't sleep, though. She honestly wished she could just go out there into the dark outside town and look for Gray herself. But she had neither the right powers nor the right equipment. Just the right heart for the job.

  Gray. Did you find someone special to you, like Jake found me? Is that really what this is all about? I wish I could find you, Gray. You're not ready for this yet. You need time, and we need to help you. I don't want you to watch the girl you risked everything to find run away from you. I don't want to watch you suffer alone because you simply didn't know how to act.

  You deserve a chance at happiness after everything you have gone through—

  Her phone buzzed and she put it to her ear without looking at the screen. “Jake?”

  “We've got trouble, sweetheart.” Mark's voice was hard and all-business... which meant he was terrified underneath it. She had heard this particular tone before, and her heartbeat only picked up as she listened to him. “Trailcams picked up a gigantic grizzly headed this way. I'm not sure, but it might be that same thing that Jake's dad set after us.”

  She hesitated. “Are you sure?”

  A long silence. Then he snapped.

  “God damn it! 'Gray' as in 'Graypaw'. You were ho
lding out on me! Helga said she was going to try and rehabilitate that thing. That man-eater has gotten loose, hasn't he? He's gotten loose, he's headed straight here to feed on human meat and you're trying to reel him in before he can!”

  She exploded. “Damn it, Mark, that isn't it at all! Look, where are you? The trailer?”

  “Yeah. Look, I'll pick you up. Just you and me. I don't feel like censoring myself in front of any bears right now.”

  “Fine.” She felt like drain cleaner was running through her veins. Damn Mark and his misguided outrage. There were six genuinely villainous werebears out there on the streets right now, and he could have chased after any of them. But instead he insisted on watching the Lodge, and misinterpreting everything that happened there in order to excuse his hatred of them.

  When his truck pulled up, she yanked open the passenger door and jumped in, her jaw set, saying nothing. He pulled out while she was still fiddling with her seatbelt. “Anna, what the Hell is going on?”

  “Helga spent two months trying to sort out Graypaw. Find out what was done to him and undo it. We have been helping her for the last month. And it's been working.”

  “You're shitting me.” He pulled out onto the street and headed for the edge of town and his trailer. “That thing? It was a man-eating bear! It acted like it was rabid.”

  “He was shell-shocked and brainwashed, is what he was. Anthony raised him in a cage. I just spent about five weeks busting my ass trying to help him sort out how to do stuff like hold a coffee mug or talk to someone without freaking them out.”

  “How? He's a bear. How could he — I think I'm missing something here,” he admitted finally, with a sigh.

  “Helga coaxed him into taking the shape of a man finally. That's why there's a big guy who doesn't really get things like shoes and hard currency wandering around out there.”

  His jaw dropped, and he coughed. “She got him to turn into a guy? I thought he couldn't even do that.”