by T. S. Joyce
“Pygmy Polar Bear,” Riker amended, and he dodged the watermelon rind Blaine chucked at him.
Hannah studied the sharp lines of Riker’s jaw above her. “Wait, can we be bears?”
“No.” Jenny’s voice sounded sad. “Shifter is genetic. You don’t get turned with a bite. You just bleed a lot.”
Blaine popped a grape into his mouth and drew a knee comfortably up to his chest. “But if I was—”
“Oh, shut up,” Jenny said, laughing. And just like that, the sadness Hannah had imagined was gone.
The shadows of evening had lengthened until they darkened the woods completely, but the moon and stars were bright enough to illuminate the woods. Riker’s fingers brushed through her hair and he smiled down at her with dancing eyes.
The crack of a gunshot shattered the still night and Riker’s body stiffened under her.
A short pepper of gunfire sounded and he pulled her up. His body hummed with tension.
“Is it hunters?” Jenny breathed.
Nostrils flared, Riker shook his head. “Jenny, take Hannah back to your house and stay there until we come get you.”
Fear pulsed through Hannah and dread slammed into her like a derailed freight train. Another rattle of gunfire pierced the night. These hunters weren’t after bears. They were after her.
“Riker,” she gasped.
“I know.” His face was grim with acceptance, strained with fury. “Do as I ask.”
Jenny started to pull at the edges of the blanket as he and Blaine jogged away, but Riker yelled, “Leave it!” Bear or not, even Hannah could hear the alpha’s command in his voice.
“Jenny,” she said, panicked. “They’re here for me. They’ll kill the clan to get to me.”
Yanking her hand until Hannah’s legs pumped through the woods behind her, Jenny said, “You’re one of us now, girl. Riker says to hide, we hide.”
Hannah searched the woods behind her where Riker had gone and she saw him running through the trees. She strained to see him again, but the next movement was that of a giant bear running full speed toward the sound of death.
As long as she lived, she’d never forget hiding in the root cellar of Jenny’s house, huddled against her as tears stained their cheeks. Her hands shook like brush in the wind as she clutched onto Jenny’s, and quiet sobs filled her throat. She’d been stupid to forget the inescapable chains Stone had shackled onto her life.
As long as she lived, she’d never forget the sound of the gunfire echoing through her paradise woods, or the roaring of the bears.
Chapter Fourteen
Bullets whizzed through the air as Riker savaged the men who’d snuck over their fences. No military garb or fancy weapons. This was a low tech, minimally planned maiming mission. If he had any doubt about why these men were here before, their smell of desperation and lack of training put it to rest. They had come for Hannah.
They’d been careful. The clan members of Bear Valley weren’t being ousted. As other clan members arrived, Changed and battle ready, these men looked shocked to their cores that a small army of enraged bears had descended on their little murder party.
Which was why every last one of them had to die. No man could be allowed to leave here and speak of what lived in these remote mountains.
He roared his thunderous rage and slapped his claws down the chest of the man who’d shot Rick. The old guard lay motionless and glassy eyed by the fence, and now, so did his murderer. He hadn’t gotten there in time to help the old bear and crimson coated his vision.
All around him, warfare between man and beast shook the clearing as other shifters made it into the fray. A man sat the fence line, peppering his people with mauling metal. Riker charged, determined to cut down the person responsible for the roars of pain behind him. Lunging for the man, he swatted the gun from his hands and stood to his full height, bellowing so the man would see his death coming. So Riker could witness the fear in his eyes before he slashed him from existence.
Pain ripped through his shoulder, but he was too deep in the blood lust to care about that now.
They threatened his clan’s existence here in the Valley.
They threatened his mate.
He’d kill them all.
****
“Hannah,” Riker bellowed through the woods.
She snapped to attention, ears strained against the soft dripping sounds of the root cellar.
“I heard him too,” Jenny said. “Let’s go.”
Tumbling from the house, Hannah ran for Riker. He stood just outside the porch light and swayed slightly. Blood ran rivers down his arm but that wasn’t what held her enraptured. A mangled, dead looking man lay limp in Riker’s arms.
She searched the man’s face but it was swollen and disfigured. It wasn’t until she took in his blood crusted hair and the gray temples that she recognized him.
“Jeremy?” she whispered.
Riker grunted, pushed through the house and dropped him heavily onto the couch.
“I-I don’t understand. What’s he doing here?” Something wasn’t right. Why was Jeremy storming the Valley with armed gunmen? He was part of this place.
“I found him in the intruder’s car. He’s been tortured. I’m guessing he tried to fight it, but he eventually led them here. Jenny, bring me towels.”
“Blaine?” the trembling woman asked.
“He’s fetching Daria. Your man is fine. Hannah.” His eyes searched hers, breaking her heart with the sadness that pooled there. “I don’t think he’ll make it. I brought him here—.” Shaking his head, he ran a hand across the back of his neck. “I brought him here so you could say goodbye.”
Eyes wide, she lowered her gaze to her mangled protector. “Did you lose people?”
“We can talk about everything tomorrow.”
“Did you lose people, Riker?”
His throat worked as he swallowed, Adam’s apple bobbing out of sight and back. “Two.”
Lungs constricting, she rasped, “Who?”
“Rick and Nate. They were guarding the fences. By the time we got there, it was too late.”
Sagging to her knees beside Jeremy, a sob wrenched from her throat. The curse hadn’t lifted at all. It had only become more potent while she’d assumed safety in the Valley. Three more men dead because of her. She fluttered her fingers over Jeremy’s hair line because it seemed like the only place on him that wasn’t injured.
“Hey kid.” Jeremy’s hoarse voice sounded pained.
“What have you done?” she asked.
“Messed up.”
“Did Stone’s men do this to you?”
“They picked me up two days after I set foot in New York. Wednesday.”
Wednesday. He’d been in the hands of those monsters for a week. How he was still talking, she couldn’t even fathom.
“I had them convinced I’d die before I gave you away and I thought they’d let me do it. They gave me some drug instead though. I couldn’t think straight. I don’t remember, but I must’ve told them about this place.”
Warm tears made twin tracks down her face. “Stay with me. We’ll exact revenge together.”
“Aw, kid,” he wheezed as he lifted a finger to her moist cheek. “I can’t go this one with you.” His breathing slowed, became labored. “You smell of bear. Tell me what Riker means to you.”
“He’s my mate.” She wiped her tears with the back of her hand. “I love him.”
“Good. I need to talk to him alone then.”
She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t swallow, couldn’t stop the tears from their freefall. Standing, she gave Riker room to kneel beside Jeremy’s crumpled form. Her mate cast her a somber glance over his shoulder. “I’ll come get you when we’re done.”
Shoulders shaking with the sobs that wracked her body, she turned once at the door.
“Be good, kid,” Jeremy breathed.
By the time Riker found her, cradling the tiny calf in its pen outside, Jeremy was already gone. Others h
ad gathered outside Jenny’s house, but Riker led her through the mourners and back through the woods to his home. His eyes were filled with hurt, closed off as if he was pulling away from her but she understood. He was alpha and he’d just lost people because of her.
“I have to take care of some things. I’ll be back by morning.” The bleak set of his mouth didn’t lift in his usual goodbye smile as he shut the front door behind him.
Alone in his room, she curled up on the floor and wrapped her arms around her stomach. Knees drawn to her chest, she wept for all she’d done.
****
Three days had passed and she’d barely seen Riker. He was elbow deep in funeral arrangements, fence repair, alpha meetings, visiting the injured, and defensive strategies. He had to douse the flames she’d caused and when he sank into bed in the middle of every night, she could feel it wearing on him.
Sunday morning, she awoke to an empty bed.
Riker sat in the chair against the wall, watching her with stormy eyes, hands fisted in front of his mouth.
“Morning,” she said with a tentative smile.
“My people are taken care of. I’m taking you back to the city.”
Pain singed her chest and she waited until she was sure her voice wouldn’t quiver with emotion before she spoke. “Which city?”
“New York.”
“They’ll kill me.”
“Stone has one strong-arm calling the shots for him while he rots in prison. He’s promised a ceasefire on my people if I bring you to him. If I don’t—.” His shoulders lifted to his ears and he looked away.
None of this made any sense. Riker wouldn’t hurt her. He loved her. Even if he hadn’t said it yet, she felt it when he touched her. When he looked at her. Fear pumped through her veins at the thought of losing her sanctuary, but was her life more important than the people who lived in Bear Valley? After all of the loss, that answer was easy. “Okay. I’ll pack my things.”
“Already done.” He twitched his head toward her duffle bag on the floor beside his feet.
His cold distance hurt. Of course he’d trade her for his people. That’s what made him a good alpha. She’d watched him at Rick, Jeremy, and Nate’s funerals. The fury he kept in check. The heartache that played across his face when he tossed dirt onto their coffins. She didn’t know how he’d done it, but he’d completely detached his heart from hers over the past three dreary days. She almost wished she knew his secret so she wouldn’t hurt so damned much now.
Hannah showered and dressed, leaving her damp tresses to dry as they might. Bag shouldered, she turned for the kitchen where Riker sat quietly at the dining table. He wouldn’t look at her. Breakfast consisted of a hastily peeled banana and by the time she sank into the passenger seat of a black pick-up truck that sat in front of the house, the people of Bear Valley were up and about, starting their days.
The truck handled the washed out dirt road much better than Jeremy’s old station wagon had. Riker looked stoically at the road in front of them as he drove, like she didn’t exist at all, and the pain in her chest expanded with each passing turn.
On a trail beside the road, Jenny walked hand in hand with Blaine, focused somewhere in the woods. Her husband’s face grew hard as Jenny frowned at the truck and asked him a question.
Hannah lifted two fingers in a silent goodbye, and as they passed, Blaine wrapped his arms around his wife’s waist, stopped her from charging the road.
“What the fuck, Riker?” Jenny yelled, struggling against him.
Riker lifted hooded eyes to the rearview mirror, and his jaw clenched.
A chestnut colored bear burst from the woods behind them, but Riker was going too fast for her to ever catch up. Hannah watched her slowly disappear in the side view mirror as her heart shattered all over again. She hadn’t even got to say goodbye to the friends she’d made here.
Biting her lip against the urge to cry, she sank lower into the passenger seat and stared out the window. Bear Valley had only been a stopping place on the way to her demise, and she regretted the day she’d stepped foot on this land. Pissed at the tease of a future, she crossed her arms over her chest and squeezed her eyes closed against the want to scream at Riker and blame him for giving her happiness right when she’d been prepared to die. Two weeks ago, she would’ve gone to Stone’s men if it would’ve saved Jeremy and Jimmy, but now, happiness had softened her, made her selfish. Made her want to live.
Fucking Riker and his abundant affection. The warmth of his touch had come just in time for her to die and the unfairness of it all was too much. And now she’d spend the last of her days in silent misery because the man she loved was working so hard at pulling away from her. Oh, she understood it. He was angry with the hell she’d brought to his peaceful valley, to his people. And now he was distancing himself so it wouldn’t hurt to let her go.
As if he needed to fill the silence, Riker turned up the volume on the radio to level deafening, and proceeded, for the next three hours it took to get to the airport, drowning his apparent discomfort in old country songs.
Pulling into an airport parking garage, he parked and paid and held out his hand as if he were silently offering to carry her bag. No fuckin’ thanks. “You know, you don’t have to accompany me. You could give me the address and save yourself the plane fare.”
“Part of the agreement was that I’d accompany you there.” Apparently giving up on carrying her bag, he dropped his hand to his side and took off for a ramp that would lead them inside. The rolling animal noise that trailed him infuriated her even more.
“Growl all you want, Riker, but you don’t have to be here, so keep your shitty mood to yourself. I want to enjoy my last few hours of life and you’re sucking any peace I might have away from me.”
He turned blazing eyes on her but she didn’t care. He should hear how she felt. It wasn’t fair for him to just dump her and not feel the guilt that should accompany the betrayal.
“And I know why you’re really taking me all the way there, you pompous dick face. You’re afraid I’ll run and your people would be at risk of another attack. You don’t know me at all, do you? I wouldn’t save myself to hurt them. I’m done running. I was done before I came to you, but Jeremy wanted to see if you could keep me safe as a last resort. Stupid him...” A sob tore at her throat. Quieter, she said, “Stupid him for not giving up sooner.” He’d still be alive if he had.
Angry at the hot tears that threatened to spill, she sidled past him and marched up the ramp.
The line to check in was everlasting, or perhaps it just felt that way under Riker’s eternal silent treatment. She wanted to sing just to fill the heavy void, but she already look half-crazed with her wild hair, cry-reddened cheeks and puffy eyes. Singing would only earn her more worried stares from passersby.
Ignoring him as best she could, she pulled her shoes off and dropped them in the plastic bin with her duffle bag. Ticket in hand, she stood like a starfish while a TSA agent waved a metal detecting wand over her. Unwilling to wait for Riker, she found her terminal and watched the planes take off and land through the giant windows until her flight was called. Determined not to check on his whereabouts, she filed onto the plane and shoved her duffle bag in the bin above her seat, before sinking into the cushion nearest the window.
Riker followed minutes later, but she’d already faked flight terror and begged a plastic cup of scotch on the rocks from a kind stewardess.
“Hannah,” Riker warned as he sat beside her.
“Piss off,” she murmured, and tipped the cup until every last drop spilled against her tongue.
Tasty, it was not, but if Riker was determined to ruin these last few hours of freedom for her, she wasn’t doing this sober.
Chapter Fifteen
Hannah hadn’t got half as schnockered as she’d hoped to by the time the plane landed, and it was all thanks to Riker telling the stewardess she should cut her off like she was some misbehaving alcoholic.
She stormed to
the rental car he paid for and slunk into the back seat, as far away from him as possible.
The car rocked as he sank behind the wheel and she threw a death glare at the back of his head. His fingers gripped the wheel and his shoulders moved under the weight of his ragged breathing.
“You forget how to drive?” she spat out.
“It was for your own good. You need to be able to keep your head.”
“For what?” she exploded. “For the torture that’s coming for me? They’re going to bleed me, Riker. I wanted to go in with a little liquid courage and you couldn’t even allow that.”
“I know you think I’m betraying you,” he gritted out.
“No, I get it. I do. You have your people to take care of, and if it’s a choice between them or me, it’s an easy call for you to make. I understand it, truly I do. What I don’t understand is why you can’t let me have a drink or twenty if I want before I go. You forget, Riker. I’ve been tortured by these people before. I’m not naive about this.” She leaned back and crossed her arms, glared out the window. “I know exactly what kind of hell is coming for me.”
“I should’ve let you drink.”
“No shit. Too late now, garcon. Chauffeur me to the drop off place and let’s get this sweet ass goodbye over with.”
“Are you hungry?”
“Last meal time? Fine. If you’re buying, I want a steak dinner. A nice one.”
His eyes captured hers in the rearview. “I didn’t bring anything nice to wear to a dinner like that.”
She glared.
“Right,” he said. “Doesn’t matter.” Pulling into traffic, he yanked his cell phone from his pocket and hit a speed dial number.
“Hey, it’s me. I have her at the airport. We’re still on for the drop point we discussed at eight tonight?” A muffled voice answered and Riker shook his head like her future tormenter could actually see him. “No, I said I wouldn’t involve the police. No wires, no weapons. I just want this done and my people left alone.”
As he disconnected the call, Hannah’s heart sank. He’d planned this out with the men who had ruined her life, killed people she cared about. He’d worked with her murderers and the betrayal stung like a burn she’d never felt before. She’d trusted him, loved him and he was handing her over like she was worth nothing to him.