by Zoe Chant
Raising his voice, he called to the assembled bears, "You hear that? This wasn't just me. You threw me out. They took me in." His glance took in all the rest of the Circle B bears, including Alec. Charmian had arrived at some point when Gannon wasn't looking and was helping him to his feet, the rifle slung over her shoulder.
"I know I won the fight, and that should make me the new Guardian and the alpha of Zeus's clan," Gannon went on. "But I don't—"
Daisy put a fingertip to his lips, stopping him. "Don't step down," she said softly.
He frowned down at her. "I don't want to be alpha. I don't want to be the Guardian, either. All I want is to live in my cabin and be with you."
Pleasure flushed across her face, a brief and blinding smile. But then she said quietly, "Gannon, think about it. They don't understand the modern world. It's going to roll right over them and destroy them. Someone has to lead them into a new future. Maybe that's us."
"I don't want to be alpha," he repeated stubbornly. Then he felt that unfamiliar feeling that meant he was smiling again. "But maybe I can be something else."
The assembled bears were still hushed, watching him, waiting. Even the Circle B bears had the same expectant look. Axl was no longer looking at him with challenge, only curiosity.
"I don't want to be your alpha," Gannon told them, raising his voice to be heard throughout the assembly. "But I will be your Guardian. I love these mountains as much as you do. I want to protect them."
He looked down at the top of Daisy's curly blond head, as she leaned against him with her arm around him.
"But the world is changing. There are more humans than ever before. They know about us now, which means we can't hide like we used to. Some of us might have even found our mates in humans. Some of us ..." His gaze went to Sofia, kneeling beside her medical kit. "Some of us want to do something different with our lives than just be bears in the woods. As your Guardian, I will protect you, but not in the old ways. I'm going to be your go-between with the human world."
The dead silence was broken by low growling. Several of the bears got up, turned around and walked away, showing with their backs what they felt about that plan.
But most of them didn't. They looked unsure, Gannon thought. But all the old traditions taught them to respect the Guardians. Even if he was going to have to say things they didn't want to hear, they would still listen, because of who and what he was.
And he thought that the more intelligent among them probably had already begun to realize the truth for themselves. They knew that humans were increasingly hard to get away from, with their logging trucks and their off-road vehicles, their airplanes flying over, their hunters and hikers. Humans were everywhere now. Generations ago, a clan might have gone their entire lives and never seen a human. Now, they had to work hard at staying out of sight. Gannon remembered what it was like.
Suddenly, one of the bears shifted and stood up. Gannon forced himself to keep his spine straight and not back down. It was Trent, the alpha who had taken over his clan after he was driven out.
"What about the loggers?" he snarled. "That human woman, the one in your arms, was with them—"
"No!" Gannon declared over the top of him, tightening his arm around Daisy. "She came to try to stop them. Humans aren't all the same, and they don't all want the same things. If you ever left your woods, you'd know that."
Trent lowered his head, and a growl rumbled through him. "The Guardian is supposed keep the old traditions. You're talking about changing us!"
"The world is changing!" Gannon roared back. "You can hide in the forest until it destroys you, or you can let me show you how to move forward! Those are your only choices!"
He sensed that he was teetering on a critical tipping point. Some of the bears were looking approvingly at Trent; others looked torn. This could still go either way.
Daisy would say that he had to convince them with words. But these were shifters, and very traditional ones at that. Words only got them so far. He'd never have been allowed to stand up here and talk to them like this if he hadn't beaten Zeus. Strength was what they respected.
"Do you want to challenge me, Trent?" he demanded, and felt Daisy stiffen in his arms. Carefully, he put her behind him. "You saw me take down Zeus. Do any of you want to have a go at me? I'm right here."
For a dangerous moment, he thought some of them might taken him up on it. He could sense Trent's angry bear right below the surface. He was tired and hurt from his fight with Zeus. He didn't think he could beat Trent right now, let along fight more than one of them.
But he couldn't show them that. The important thing was not to show weakness.
Something brushed his hand. Daisy's tiny fingers slipped into his and squeezed. Startled, he looked down at her, and saw her smiling up at him.
No. It was important not to show weakness ... but that wasn't the only important thing. He'd believed so once, and that was how he'd lost control of his clan.
Other things mattered too. Compassion. Intelligence. Cleverness. Loyalty.
He looked across the yard and saw that Remy had stripped off his shirt, revealing his tattoos. Cody was tensed in a half-crouch. They were getting ready to shift if they had to. If he needed backup, his new clan had his back.
"I'm not going to challenge you, not unless you choose it," he told Trent. "I don't want to be alpha. Keep the clan, I don't care. But this is our future, I'm telling you. Humans and shifters, working together. There are just too many of them. We can't hide from them, and we can't win if we fight them. We're either going to be destroyed by them, or learn to live with them."
He raised the hand that was holding Daisy's, and used their linked fingers to gesture to the ranch.
"Look around you. This is what it looks like when humans and shifters fall in love and make a home together. It's not terrible. It's not a violation of everything we believe in. It just means having to learn some new things. And, with me as your Guardian to show you the way, I can help you do that slowly, without being overwhelmed. If some of you want to stay in the woods, that's okay. You'll have the rest of us to deal with the humans for you. But if you want to go out there and see what it's like in the human world and maybe seek your mates there, then you can do that too."
He was winning them over. He could tell. They were already looking less skeptical and more interested. Finding mates was one of the difficulties of living in the deep woods. There were so few other shifters there.
"You're a fool," Trent snapped. But it wasn't a challenge. He was the one backing down now, turning his back. He shifted. With an imperative look over his shoulder at his clan—Gannon's former clan—he started to walk away.
Some of them fell into step with him immediately. Others looked at Gannon, confused and torn, especially Sofia. Gannon realized that he was forcing them to choose between their alpha's orders and the new future he was showing them. And that was exactly what he didn't want to do, because the whole point was that the two didn't have to be in opposition.
"Go with your alpha," he told them. "All of you, go back to the woods with your alphas. We don't have to decide anything tonight. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to come to each of your clans and talk to you. And meanwhile, I—" He stopped, and amended it. "—we are going to work to stop the logging. Hopefully that'll show you that I'm telling you the truth. Brute force isn't going to solve our problems anymore, but working with the humans might be able to."
Some of the looks he got were hopeful, some were skeptical, and some were downright hostile, but no one challenged him. One by one, the bears began to drift off into the woods. Several of them came forward and nudged Zeus's unconscious bulk until they got him to shift into his human shape. Once he was draped over the back of one of the larger bears, they all ambled away across the yard.
Sofia was among the last to leave. She smiled at Daisy before she shifted and expertly looped the strap of her medical case over her shoulder. Then she trotted off after the rest of her clan.
"You're hurt!" Daisy exclaimed as he sagged onto her. "I thought that was all his blood!"
"No, some of it's mine." He mustered a smile down at her. Alec, he noticed, was no longer in the yard; Charmian had quietly gotten him into the house while the bears were distracted.
There was a sudden thump as Cody jumped off the barn roof. This seemed to galvanize the other Circle B bears into motion. One by one, the rest of the clan came toward Gannon and Daisy. All of them looked a little unsure.
"I swear to you, nothing's changed," Gannon said, looking back and forth among them. "Not with us."
"You and Alec—" Remy began, then hesitated. Axl's expression was forbidding, almost hostile.
"I need to talk to Alec," Gannon admitted. "I need to make things right with him. But for us, I just want things to go on the way they've been. Can't it?"
Cody laughed suddenly, making everyone look at him in surprise. The tension in the yard seemed to break in that moment.
"I never thought you'd be a talker," Cody said when he'd stopped laughing. "But you are, aren't you? All that grunting and those one-word conversations we used to have—is that over now, or what?"
Gannon smiled. It was getting easier and feeling more natural to smile now, as he started getting used to it. "I can still be quiet," he said. "I like being quiet. But sure, I can talk a lot when I have something to say."
Cody shook his head and turned away, still grinning. "The cattle are pretty spooked. I'm gonna go calm them down. Who's with me?" he asked over his shoulder.
After some hesitation, the others went with him, Saffron included. Tara hung back. "Are you okay?" she asked Daisy quietly, reminding Gannon that she was a human too—the only other one in the yard right now.
Sometimes humans understood each other in unique ways—just like shifters knew things about each other that humans might never understand.
"I am." Daisy smiled. "You said you have internet here, right? I think in the morning, I'm going to want your help in looking up all the information on the illegal logging that's going on over there. I can reach out to my contacts, too."
Tara's face brightened. "Your memory came back!"
"Most of it." She leaned against Gannon, fitting against him perfectly. "I don't know if I'll ever be quite the person I was before, but that's okay. I like the person I am now."
"So who are you?" Tara asked, her eyes sparkling. "I'm dying to know."
Daisy laughed. "I'm Jennifer Lennox, but I use the name Daisy Lennox professionally. As best I can remember, I'm a freelance journalist who investigates and writes stories about businesses that are behaving unethically. That's why I was investigating the logging operation."
Gannon could feel all of this swishing right past him. He understood some of it, but not all of it. It looked like he still had a lot to learn about the human world himself.
And who better than his mate to teach him?
"And do you prefer to be called Jennifer or Daisy?" Tara asked.
"Daisy," came the firm response. "Whoever I once was, I'm Daisy now."
Tara hugged her, brushing up against Gannon in the process. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Daisy—again! I have to say you're just as nice now that you have your memory back as you were before."
"I'm not that different, really," Daisy pointed out. "I just feel like I'm more me."
"Hey!" Axl waved to her from across the yard. "Tara, we could use some help getting the calves back into the barn."
"Duty calls," Tara said with a smile, and hurried off, moving in a slightly ungainly way because of her pregnant belly.
Axl vanished back into the barn.
"Isn't he worried about his brother?" Daisy murmured. "If my brother had been mauled by a bear—not that I have any brothers, at least I don't think so—I'd be going out of my mind."
Gannon looked down at the blonde top of her head. "That's not our way," he explained. "We heal fast, anyway. Alec's probably already back on his feet."
He didn't think his voice had given anything away, but Daisy wasn't just anyone; she was his mate, with a unique ability to see into his heart. She tipped her head back and looked up at him. "What's the matter?"
"Alec's not going to be happy with me for fighting Zeus."
"Why not?" Daisy asked, confused. "You won."
"Yeah, but it was his place as the alpha to defend his clan. I wasn't supposed to step in."
"What's the alternative?" Daisy demanded, the ever-practical human. "Let Zeus win and take over? I don't think that would've made anyone happy."
"It's not rational. It's instinct. Alec might want me to leave. I don't know how he's going to react."
Daisy took his hand again, lacing her fingers through his. "Well, if he does, I'm going with you. After giving him a piece of my mind first. And I bet Charmian will make him regret it. That woman doesn't seem like a person who lets anyone push her around." She rubbed the back of his hand with her thumb. "Are you badly hurt?"
"Not really. It's already healing."
"Still. You should wash off the mud, at least." She smiled. "And maybe put some pants on. Not that I mind, but you're going to make Charmian yell at you again."
They walked into the house hand in hand. Charmian was putting away first-aid things that were spread all over the living room. "How's Alec?" Gannon asked.
"Awake and grouchy," Charmian said. "He's upstairs in the master bedroom. I expect he'll want to talk to you."
"Guess so." In spite of putting on a brave front for Daisy, he really wasn't looking forward to it.
But Daisy offered him a supportive smile, and he reminded himself that she was with him, no matter what.
"I left another pair of spare jeans in the guest room," Charmian said, very pointedly.
Gannon managed a smile. "Yeah, think I'd better wash some of this mud off before I put them on."
"And blood and bear saliva," Charmian said. "I had to get Alec cleaned up too. You both look—well, you like you fought a bear."
"Fought a bear and won," Daisy said loyally.
Gannon grinned, making Charmian look at him funny. She wasn't used to it. They'd all have to get used to it now, though—he had a lot more to smile about, these days. He bent down and kissed Daisy. "I'm gonna take a shower and go talk to my alpha. Why don't you get some sleep."
"I'm not even remotely sleepy," Daisy protested.
"It's almost morning anyway," Charmian said. "Can you cook? I was just about to go start whipping something up to feed a bunch of bear appetites. After the night we've had, I think we could all use pancakes, don't you?"
"I ... don't quite remember," Daisy admitted. "I'd like to learn, though."
"It's an old Tanner family recipe. Alec taught me." Charmian gave Gannon a quick smile, and urged Daisy into the kitchen. "C'mon, I'll teach you too."
Leaving his mate in the hands of her new clan sister-in-law, Gannon went into the downstairs bathroom and stepped into the shower. He turned it up as hot as it would go, wincing as the scalding water stung his cuts and scrapes, and watched mud swirl down the drain, letting his mind go empty.
He was tired. Very tired. It had been an incredibly long and stressful day, and he had a feeling there were even more stressful days ahead of him, no matter how things worked out with Alec. Stepping into the role of Guardian wasn't going to be easy, especially the way he envisioned it, serving as a bridge between the old and the new ways.
But he also felt a growing anticipation and satisfaction. He didn't want to completely give up his isolated life on the ranch, but now he had a new sense of purpose. He would be helping not just his old clans, but all the backwoods clans of the mountains, giving them a boost to move into a rapidly changing world.
It was time. They couldn't stay the same forever. The future would either change them or steamroll over them and leave wreckage behind, and Gannon planned to make sure t
he changes were good ones, as far as he could.
And, just as his clan couldn't stay rooted in the past, he couldn't spend the whole night standing in the shower and letting the water sluice over him. He turned it off and leaned a hand against the wall of the shower enclosure for a minute before stepping out.
His reflection in the mirror caught his attention. For a long time, he'd avoided mirrors, not wanting to look at the scar on his face. Now he looked himself in the face and saw nothing ugly there. The scar was a sign that he'd survived. If his fight with Zeus today left scars, they would meant the same thing. He was a fighter and a survivor. And that was okay.
He scraped back his long wet hair and tied it out of his way with a hair-tie that he found on the edge of the sink—probably Tara or Saffron's, since Charmian had short hair—and then put on the jeans that Charmian had left for him. When he stepped out into the living room, the women's voices could be heard cheerfully chatting in the kitchen. A delicious frying smell filled the air, making his stomach rumble. His body needed food to help the healing process along.
He wasn't going to eat until the business with his alpha was settled, though.
Barefoot, he padded up the stairs. If he'd felt like he was invading Alec's space earlier, the sense was even stronger this time, knowing Alec was in residence. Gannon approached the bedroom with the care of a man walking into a literal bear's den. He tapped on the door.
"C'mon in," Alec's voice said. He sounded a little more hoarse than usual, but otherwise okay.
Gannon pushed the door open. Alec was propped on pillows, naked to the waist (and probably below), with a blanket across his lap. He looked a lot better than he had outside, though still tired and weak. The many bite and claw marks had closed up, leaving a network of dark purple lines on his skin. Some looked like they'd leave scars.
"You're gonna be starving," Gannon said, nodding to the healing injuries.
"I'm already starving," Alec grumbled. "Is that food I smell?"
"Charmian and Daisy are making breakfast." Gannon cleared his throat and shoved his thumbs through the loops on his belt. For a minute or two, there was an awkward silence between them, both of them avoiding each other's eyes.