by Mirajane
But suddenly, we were there. We were on the ground. We were alive and well. It was ok. We were there. Yes… we were there. I was fine. He was fine.
When Tyler’s feet hit the ground, I barely felt it and then we were off running towards the road, me still on his back hanging on. It was crazy how strong and fast he still was with me on hanging onto him that way.
We reached the road and I climbed off his back. “Ok, we made it,” Tyler said. “Are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I don’t know how we pulled that off, but we—“
My sentence was cut off by the loud crack of a shotgun close by. A split second later I saw Tyler’s body lurch forward as the bullet entered his body. He fell against me pinning me to the ground. I landed hard beneath him. He was so heavy that I couldn’t move. I once again felt like I was being suffocated. What was going on? Who had fired that gun? I knew that they were coming. I had to hurry.
Then I noticed that Tyler was not moving at all. And he wasn’t breathing. He was staring right into me, but his eyes were not showing any signs of life. He was gone.
“Tyler!”
I screamed as loudly as I could until I thought my head was going to come rolling off at any minute. I was sure I was about to die myself, both from fear, from the realization that the love of my life was now gone, and that their murderer was now heading towards me ready to take me out.
“Babe! Wake up!”
Tyler’s voice was coming at me. Where? He was gone. He was dead. He wasn’t talking to me. What was…
I was awake now. I was safe. I was not on the road with Tyler’s dead, shot body pinning me to the ground. I was with Tyler in the car and we were driving down the road. His grandmother was in the front seat. I was in the backseat. I had fallen asleep. That was all. A dream…It was all a stupid dream. We’d left that house. We were done with it and on our way to the new place where we could really start having some fun and really enjoy the rest of this Christmas vacation. All of our friends were coming. My family was coming. It was all going to be great.
“Are you ok?” Tyler’s grandmother asked me.
“I’m fine,” I said. “God… just a stupid nightmare. I’m fine.”
“Are you sure, honey?” Tyler asked. “You were moaning like something was definitely wrong with you.”
“Yeah, I’ll be just fine. Don’t worry.”
“Good. We will be there soon,” Tyler said.
I leaned back in the seat and took a big sip of water. I was dying of thirst. I couldn’t believe I had dreamt that there had been a fire and we were trapped in it. I was scared to death that some looney would actually track us down, find us wherever we went, and make it a point to kill Tyler. There were people every bit that crazy. They would find a way. He wasn’t going to die from any normal means, though. I had to remember that. He could only be killed by the Oleander plant. He had to ingest it. That was what the literature I’d read about it had said. Tyler agreed, that was something pretty universally guarded as the secret to killing bear shifters.
I closed my eyes and tried to get some more rest, hopefully without the threat of crazy nightmares. I had to keep telling myself it was only a dream and that Tyler was going to be just fine. He was tough. He was a survivor.
And so was I.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Tyler
“Go for it!” I yelled at the top of my lungs as I threw the football in the air.
The ball was a perfect spiral that came down right where Cam’s hands had been before he got scared and moved them. He would have had the pass and been halfway in the end zone by now if he’d done exactly what I told him. He turned and shrugged at me as the ball bounced off into the snow. I would admit it was harder to catch a football with winter gloves on, but that was the price you paid when you played on a ski resort.
We’d all been there about a day and a half and so far we were having a blast. There had been skiing, some snowboarding, some warm nights in front of the fire drinking eggnog and playing games of poker and gin rummy. We’d also watched several great films in the huge theater they had at this place. It was so much fun. I couldn’t remember a time when I’d had as much fun as I was actually having right now. This was perfect. I’d been a bit worried wondering if everyone would actually make it here and if it would be as wonderful as I hoped it would be. The feedback on the business was actually wonderful and this was exciting for me on the business front now as well.
Cam threw the ball back to me and we got back into a huddle. We were playing against Nia, Heather, and Angie. The other ladies decided to sit it out. My grandmother was taking a nap in her cabin, and I believed that Angie’s parents were also relaxing inside somewhere.
We were all tired of skiing for the time being, so we decided that we would put together a game of touch football in the snow. This was the weirdest idea I’d had. It was almost too cold to play here right now, but we were doing it anyway. And we were having a blast. That was all that mattered. I loved seeing Angie scramble for the ball. She was athletic and very fast. She was also tenacious and would stop at nothing to get that ball or that player down.
I had to laugh when I saw her sprinting down the field to catch a pass or trying to intercept one of mine. I’m not sure whose idea it was to pit the guys against the girls, but it was working out that way and it was quite the game. We were up fourteen to seven. But the girls were poised to take the lead sometime soon, I could feel it.
“Ok, guys we need to do something to surprise them this time,” I said. “We need to throw a hail Mary, but try not to make it look that way. Drake, you go out for the pass and I will try to make it look like I’m going to throw to Cameron. But we will start with a fake hand off to Drake. Got it?”
They both looked at me confused, but then said they had it. If we pulled this off, it was going to be a fucking miracle. I broke the huddle and we went back to the line of scrimmage where the girls were lining up.
“You are going down,” Angie said to me.
“Oh, I certainly hope so,” I said.
She laughed at me and shook her head, followed by a run through her beautiful mane of hair to hide the embarrassment a bit and a little blush. I loved it. She was so damn beautiful.
“Alright, set… set one… set two… set, set hut!” I yelled loudly.
Cameron snapped the ball to me and I pretended to hand it off to Drake. And while Heather was chasing him and realizing he did not have the ball, I pumped fake towards Cameron who was wide open. Angie and Nia were running over that way, and when they were close enough there, I threw the ball to Drake. He caught it and pulled it in for the touchdown.
“Yes!” I cheered. “We are on the board again.”
I ran and gave my boys high fives all around. We were clocking up some nice numbers here.
“That’s not fair!” Heather whined. “You cheated someway. I’ll figure it out. Did you have two balls or something?”
We all just gave her a weird look. What in the hell was she smoking?
We got back into formation and threw the kickoff to the girls’ team. They made a good run until I gave Heather a one handed touch and she was down. It would have been better if we had some actual flags for the play.
The ladies lined up in a huddle and after a few seconds of coming up with their play, they came to the line. Angie was giving me that crazy ultra-competitive look she got sometimes. I loved that she was an athlete. It was fun. She was as competitive as I was. I had never been much of an athlete when I was younger, but with growing into my own, and the bear powers actually making me stronger overall even in my normal human life, it had all come together. I was actually fairly decent now without having to resort to any supernatural assistance.
The ball was snapped hard and Heather almost dropped it, but she was able to hang on as Angie ran out into the field, hoping to get the ball thrown to them. I wasn’t sure which lady was getting that toss, but I had a feeling it was going to be Angie. I could tell something abo
ut the way she as moving. She was expecting to receive that pass.
And then Heather threw the ball. And it was heading straight towards Angie, but I could tell almost immediately that it was actually overthrown. It was way overthrown and I watched the ball sail directly over her head and into the edge of the woods, about twenty feet from where Angie was actually standing.
Angie turned and stared at Heather. “Really? Wow, you’ve got to stop the steroids,” she teased.
Angie ran off into the woods to get the ball. I leaned back and looked up at the darkening sky. I hadn’t realized it was actually getting that late, almost dusk, but with the bright snow everywhere, it was tough to tell. I wondered what in the hell possessed us all to think it was a good idea to play touch football in the snow on the top of a mountain. We were at such a high elevation, that it was harder to catch our breaths, and it was also so cold that our faces were starting to freeze a bit. Or maybe it was just me.
I stared back towards where Angie had gone into the opening of the woods. She was taking a while. I wondered what was going on. Maybe my imagination was running away with me. I tried to stay calm and keep things lighthearted. I didn’t want to ruin the day by getting a bit worried and then getting everyone else riled up as well. I’d been through enough terrifying things for a while.
“Nice throw, Heather. Angie probably had to run to Antarctica to get it.”
She shrugged. “It slipped out of my hand.”
“Then shouldn’t it have gone a lot shorter?” Drake asked.
“Ha ha…”Heather said sarcastically. Then she gave Drake a lovely finger gesture that he found amusing.
“I’ll take that invite,” Drake teased.
Heather smirked, but I could tell it got a little rise out of her. That was something Drake never would have said a few years ago. It was nice seeing some of my friends coming out of their shells a bit. I wished we all could have been friends and gotten along like this way back then, but I guess time knew what it was doing. We’d all matured so much since then, but sometimes I still looked back on the past and wondered if things could have been different and how we could have made that happen. I wanted desperately to go back and talk to the fifteen year old me.
Then the screaming started. At first I wasn’t sure where it was coming from or who it even was, but then I saw Angie running towards me flipping out coming out of the woods. She was holding the ball, but even in the darkening evening I could see she was terrified.
I quickly ran to her and cut off the distance. I grabbed her in my arms. “What is it?”
“There is something out there… I heard it…” she said.
“Stay here,” I said. I started to walk towards the woods.
“No! Wait!” Angie said trying to hold me back.
“It will be fine,” I assured her.
When I got to the clearing and then stepped into the edge of the woods, I broadened out carefully with my senses. Yeah… I felt it, too. There was something here. She hadn’t imagined anything. She was right.
I looked around accessing my bear eyes. In the darkness I could see so much more than normal, but I did not see anything out of the ordinary. But I knew it was there. I could feel it. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. There it was… that scent… that feeling overwhelming me so swiftly as if the entire world was collapsing around me and holding me tightly. Yes, that was it… I knew it…
A bear. Not just a bear, but a shifter. There was a discernible difference in the scents that I could detect. A shifter. They were here, but where were they? Who were they and why were they lurking in the shadows? I’d only met a few shifters before in my life and they were not the type of people you wanted to cross or even get to know. They were embittered and often just totally nasty assholes. Many of them were vicious killers as well.
This didn’t bode well for us. What was going on? And I had to ask myself if I wanted to tell the others? I didn’t want to, but of course the only one who would believe me was Angie. The others would think I was crazy, until I showed them but the less they knew the better. I was thinking about their own safety here.
I looked around a few more minutes and then made my way back to the others. I put a smile on my face and scanned the perimeter to make sure that there was nothing hiding in the darkening shadows waiting to surprise us. I was there to protect them all, but I never knew if this thing could leap out and suddenly surprise us. My kind were insanely fast and if evil was their objective, they would not be denied.
“It’s ok,” I said. “Whatever was there is long gone. It was probably a wolf or something. Where there is one wolf, then there are others. We should probably go inside. Let’s eat some dinner. It’s getting cold anyway.”
“Sounds good,” Drake said. “I’m starving.”
We all went inside, but Angie and I hung back behind the group as we headed towards the main cabin where we would spend the evening eating, drinking, and enjoying each other’s company.
“What is going on?” Angie asked me.
Out of earshot of the others, I whispered to her. “There is another shifter around. I can feel them.”
“What? Who? Any idea?”
“Well, it’s not any of us, but it could have followed us up here. This person has to be hiding in the shadows, or for all I know it could be one of the crew.”
“Wouldn’t you be able to sense them?”
“No. I can only pick up the scent if they have transformed into a bear. Otherwise, they are for all intents and purposes human.”
“I see. I’m scared. I could feel that thing out there. I felt those eyes on me. And then I heard a distinct growl. I heard it as close as you are to me. That was when I yelled and started running.”
“Ok,” I said. “Well, if it tries anything, I’m here. Let’s not alarm the others and try not to let it spoil our holiday.”
“I agree,” she said.
I put my arm around her and we walked back towards the lodge.
Even though I was doing a good job of putting everyone else at ease, inside I was not so sure that this was nothing to worry about. This felt too coincidental for this other shifter to not have some sort of an agenda here. The idea that I just stumbled on them didn’t sit well with me.
I had to discover who they were.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Angie
I was still shaken up a little bit by the bear encounter I’d had earlier, but I trusted what Tyler said. He didn’t think we should pack up and leave, as this was sure to freak everyone else out when they’d all come up to the lodge for us anyway. But I couldn’t get the idea out of my head that this was something personal, as if some shifter might be stalking us. I was sure I was just freaked out and putting things together oddly, but the more I thought about Brad and Oren’s deaths, and now we came up here and there was another bear shifter, it all seemed to rub me the wrong way. I was sure that there had to be someone else here who was here as something personal against us. But who was it and why?
I tried to calm my mind and just enjoy the evening. Tyler and I were relaxing in our own cabin after spending the evening with the others. We’d had a blast playing charades, and drinking, and eating pie and other tasty sweets. And egg nog. Oh, so much egg nog. It was wonderful. I loved it.
And now it was nice to relax on the couch with my amazing man. I couldn’t believe we’d only been together for a few days really, and I already felt like I was going to spend the rest of my life with this man. It was just that feeling that would not quit. I couldn’t even begin to consider a life without him. I was sure that we would forever be together and we would make this work.
Tyler was snuggling with me on the couch, his arm around my shoulders holding me softly against him. I loved the embrace. As we sat there both enjoying the whiskey and the sounds of some soft music in the background, I felt so much relief, as if this was exactly what I was meant to do with my life. I was meant to be with this man here and now. It had been an odd, bumpy road for us to ge
t to this place, but now we had found in each other that thing which we needed and we were both happy and truly content.
“You aren’t still freaked out about earlier are you” Tyler asked.
“No,” I replied. “Why would I be? I feel as safe and sound as I could ever feel right here.”
“Good. That is my biggest goal right now, to make sure that you always feel this way,” he said. “I love you, Angie. I don’t think I can ever say that enough, but I’ve always loved you.”
“I love you, too,” I said. “I’m just sorry it took me so long to realize it. I feel like a bit of an idiot that way.”
“Don’t be,” he said. “How are we going to make this work after we go back to our lives after this week? Have you given any thought to that?”
“I have, but I’ve yet to come up with any real ideas.”
“Well, I was thinking that I might rent a place in Columbus, and stay there for a while. I can do most of my work remotely, and I can easily drive or fly in if I need to be in Cinci. Your life is in Columbus, and you are finishing school, so you can’t just up and leave whenever.”
“Ok, that would work, but are you sure you want to go to all that trouble?”
“Of course. It’s no trouble. As long as I get to spend time with you regularly, then it is so worth it.”
He turned my head towards him and kissed me softly on the mouth. His lips were soft and sweet, his kiss gentle, but I could feel the rising passions behind it. It tasted so good that I instantly wanted more.
His mouth opened up slightly as I turned my body towards him and his kiss became fuller, more intense. I knew that he wanted me and I wanted him so much I couldn’t stand it. That desire that I could see reflected in him meant everything to me. It turned me on more than anything else and I couldn’t wait until I got him naked and buried deep inside of me.