by Hattie Hunt
“How will you find him?” Leslie asked. “If he’s not picking up his phone it’s because he’s out of cell range.”
“Take a bear who is under his protection,” Earl said. “You’ll find him that way.”
“Take Joe,” Brett said.
“He’s going to want to stay here and defend you.”
“Probably.” Brett smiled and took Ripley’s hand, giving it a squeeze. “Go get this kill order off my head so I can celebrate with my wife.”
Ripley choked out a strangled, sarcastic laugh. Damned bears. Grabbing her backpack from its spot next to the door, Ripley went back outside. She tugged on Joe’s arm, pulling him off to the side.
Earl stepped out behind her, followed by everyone else. Brett crouched down behind them and Juliet followed.
Joe frowned back and forth between Ripley and the strange procession.
“Put your clothes in here,” she said simply.
“What?”
“I need you to take off your clothes.” She gave him a pointed look. “Then, we’re shifting and going to Chuck. He’s out of cell range and you’re the only one who can find him.”
“Oh.” He blinked but made quick work of his clothes, standing gloriously naked in front of her.
Well. That was easy enough. She took in the sight of him as she shoved his clothes into the bag. “I’m going to take that body when this is over.”
Joe’s eyes smoldered. “I appreciate the warning.”
“Good.” She slipped her bag onto her back. Decima, she called. Wanna come out?
I was waiting, Decima answered with a happy gleam.
The shift was simpler this time, more like stepping into a welcoming pool of water. The world slipped into grey.
Joe shifted into a green, smoky bear beside her.
They paused for a moment, both ensuring the other was ready.
And then they leapt.
Joe didn’t know how it happened, but for a moment, he had seen through Ripley’s eyes. Seen the fire fading from his brother. And he knew that Brett was okay. Even now, he could sense something. His bear seemed to respond to the padfoot, to Decima. It occurred to him that they were communicating. They had to be. And it made sense. Ripley Kent was his mate.
Joe smiled to himself, and gave himself over to the call of his alpha.
They covered the distance at an alarming rate, exhilarated in each other’s companionship. The forest melted away behind Joe and Ripley. Even under the duress of their flight, there was something freeing about it. Like a whole new world had been laid bare before them. Walls had crumbled. Not in the least, the bricks and mortar encasing their hearts. Joe’s wall had exploded into a thousand shards. Ripley’s might only have developed a few fissures where the light could leak through. But to Joe, it was enough.
The bear and the dog burst into a clearing, skidding on their paws as they drew up to a stop. Two wolves perked up, ears pricking into sharp points as dark eyes blinked away a sun-induced stupor. A handful of pups scampered around them, pouncing on wildflowers.
Joe rose onto his hind legs and roared, his bottom lip dripping spit and foam onto his chest as the sound ricocheted off the mountain.
Ripley barked twice, once at him and again at the family of wolves. Then she sank down onto her haunches.
The pups skittered back to their parents, tumbling over one another in fright. The large black wolf rose and shook himself, sniffing the air in long breaths. He tail swept over two of the pups and they hunkered down behind his back leg.
The female wolf, slightly smaller and grizzled white, stood up with more grace, stepping over a third pup and approaching Ripley without hesitation.
Decima and Ripley breathed in sharply, ears back, preparing to fight.
The white wolf sniffed once at the bear, and then at them. Then, she nuzzled Decima and Ripley’s muzzle with a low growl of acceptance. The tension in their shoulders melted away, and they nuzzled the wolf back.
Joe dropped down onto all fours, and huffed a low growl before shifting back into his blessedly naked man form. Ripley at least had the gumption to wait until the white wolf had turned her back to turn her head for a full, quick appraisal.
The black wolf shifted into a tall, well-built, naked man with dark hair. Chuck.
Ripley felt her cheeks redden at the nakedness of the man. She didn’t know if she would really ever get used to living amongst the shifters. It never used to bother her. Perhaps she had lived amongst the normal—as much as it could be—for too long.
Beside Chuck, the white wolf shifted into a medium height woman with cascading black hair. Faith.
Ripley took in a deep breath and shifted, mercifully, fully clothed. Joe stepped up beside her and immediately took her hand. She didn’t mind.
“I guess you have news,” Chuck said, eyes lingering for a moment on their clasped hands.
Joe smiled. “We do. We found the cure and it works.”
His gaze narrowed. “How do we know?”
“I’ve seen it,” Ripley said softly. Being surrounded by friends was one thing. Saying this in front of someone she barely knew was another. “The virus is gone.”
Joe took a step forward. “We need the kill order revoked.”
Chuck didn’t respond.
“Mother is going to kill him. Right now.”
Chuck took in a deep breath and turned to Faith.
The woman smiled and stepped up to Ripley, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “Thank you.” She turned to Chuck and nodded. “Go.”
Chuck shifted mid bound into his wolf and disappeared into the trees. Joe pulled Ripley close and planted a fast kiss square on her lips before he morphed back into the grizzly and barreled after the alpha.
Ripley gaped after them, touching her lips with two fingers where she could still feel him. Faith giggled, and Ripley jumped.
“Go!”
Fucking. Damn. Bears. Ripley shifted, stumbling over her own feet as she found her footing. Decima chuckled in her ear as she ran.
Shut up. Stinking padfoot, Ripley growled, phasing through a thick tree.
Decima only laughed harder.
You know, you could help. We have to catch up.
Decima shrugged and power surged into Ripley’s legs. Being on the good side is fun.
Ripley heard the shouting at least a half mile before the three of them exploded into the clearing in a blast of broken branches and leaves. A mob of half shifted and full-out bears froze as Chuck barked sharply and shifted back to human form.
In that moment, Ripley understood why he was alpha. Whatever magick juju between clan members notwithstanding. Even the polar bears backed down, some bowing their heads, a couple shifting back to their naked human forms. His thick muscles trembled with the exertion of the run, and even though he had shifted, his hair still looked particularly wolfish, as did the glare in his eyes. Decima even fell back a little as Ripley shifted back. He was… strong.
“Enough.”
The word echoed off the cabin, the towering mountain, a thousand times from the tree-laden landscape. Ripley thought it might even have resonated in her mind, but she could have imagined that. Though no one else had.
Joe shifted beside her, and Ripley handed him the backpack without taking her eyes off of Chuck. Everything they had worked for rested on this moment. Joe rooted around in the bag until he found his pants and slipped them on. Belatedly, Ripley realized it really didn’t matter. Everyone else, except her and the witches, were completely naked too.
Chuck spun in a circle, arms out to the side, palms up. The circle of shifters backed away as he met each pair of eyes independently. “The padfoot tells me that the virus is gone.”
Cheryl didn’t back away. She challenged him openly, her tone incredulous. “And you believe her?”
“She is the padfoot, Cheryl. Of course, I believe her.”
Cheryl shook her head. “We should rid ourselves of this disease in the only way we know that truly eradicates it from
our midst.”
Ripley couldn’t believe a mother could be so willing to kill her own son.
“You are overstepping your place, Cheryl Elliot. Back down.”
Her ears twitched and flattened back against her hair, and Ripley could see her fighting against the alpha command. “I am protecting our clan. Our town.”
Emma stepped out from between two half shifted polar bears, a determined look set on her mother, her shoulders blooming in the rich gold hair of a young grizzly. “But he’s cured. They saved him.” The hair stood up along the back of her neck, and she looked down the shadow of a snout at Cheryl.
Emma’s eyes flicked to Chuck and he jerked his head in warning. Her bear backed off, but she didn’t step away.
“Cheryl. The order is lifted,” Chuck said. “If you attack now, you will be breaking clan pact. You don’t want to do that.”
A hush rippled over the crowd, and Joe tensed beside Ripley.
Cheryl straightened, squaring her shoulders. She met Chuck’s gaze with fire, blinked, and then bowed her head. The universal sigh of relief was tangible.
As if on cue, Juliet and Brett appeared from behind the cabin, hand in hand, tentative smiles on their lips. All tension in the clearing vanished in a show of disappearing bears as a swarm of shifters pulled the couple into a thick hug.
Cheryl reached her hands out to the two closest to her, holding them back. She looked once more at Chuck, but he had started towards the witches without a backward look.
Then her eyes turned to Joe and Ripley. “You smell like dog.”
Decima lurched forward, so close to the surface that Ripley was sure she had sprouted hair. Joe certainly had, his shoulders bulking up, hair standing on end.
Joe put an arm around Ripley and pulled her tightly against his side. “Take a big whiff, mother. I’m not letting her go.”
Decima growled, and Ripley was only half sure the sound hadn’t actually escape her lips.
“You would betray your family for a mutt?” Cheryl’s eyes blazed.
Anger sizzled in Ripley’s chest, and Joe’s arm tightened. She could almost hear the words in his touch. Let me handle this. He stepped into his mother’s space, towering over her by a full head. He glanced pointedly at the place where Brett and Juliet were accepting congratulations, and then to the two Whiskeys and Chuck on the porch. Then Snow. And Barn.
“You are the one who has betrayed this family.”
The two bears standing next to Cheryl flinched as she slapped Joe square on the cheek. The sound resonated across the clearing, drawing the attention of everyone else.
“How dare you,” she spat.
Joe hadn’t so much as twitched at the contact, and he continued to look down on her, even as she fumed in his shadow.
His lack of reaction disoriented Cheryl more than anything, and she looked around for support, finding only gaping shock. She stumbled back a step, and then straightened, pulling herself up to her full height.
“So be it. You are no longer my son. Don’t come home. You are not welcome there.” And she spun on her heels, smacking the two bears on the back of the head as she did so. “Come!” The bears scrambled after her, and the trio disappeared into the woods.
The following silence lasted two breaths before it broke into a mix of appalled discussion and continued celebration. Joe watched after his mother until she had vanished completely from sight. Then he turned Ripley to face him, meeting her eyes for a second and then tucking her into a protective embrace.
The desperation in his grip told Ripley the hug was as much for her as it was for him, and she gripped him tightly, willing him to understand how much he meant to her. She could barely wrap her head around what had just happened. Did he really just give up everything for her? It wasn’t possible.
Yet, she knew it was. It always had been, if she would have just let him. And if that didn’t make her feel like a piece of shit.
“I love you, Ripley Kent.”
Piece of shit times two. Ripley couldn’t bring herself to say the words. Not yet. Even if, deep down, she knew they were true. She settled on pulling him in for a kiss and hoped that would be enough. For now.
A chorus of cheers and laughter erupted from behind them, and Ripley tore herself away, heat rising so quickly in her cheeks she was sure she had actually caught fire. Joe laughed. A real laugh, straight from his belly and his heart. Then he scooped Ripley off the ground and spun her around in a circle.
She struggled against his grip, which was so tight she didn’t have a chance of breaking free, until finally she settled on pounding on his chest with her fists. “Put. Me. Down,” she growled. “You stupid. Fucking. Bear!”
Joe laughed again and let go of her legs, swinging her down to the ground. She bent over, breathing hard, hands braced on her knees. And realized she was laughing.
Brett hooted, and then catcalled. Ripley caught a glimpse of Juliet punching him in the shoulder before she found herself nuzzled into Joe’s side again and being pulled into the party.
Ripley learned one thing very quickly: bears knew how to have a good time. Emma and a handful of others disappeared almost immediately, and as Ripley heard her truck rumble to life, she twisted around half in anger, half in panic. It wasn’t actually her truck. Joe gripped her hand, stalling her flight, and with a nervous glance over her shoulder she hoped to god that Tuck was off duty and home. Or at least that he would understand, given the situation.
And that was the last she thought about it until a cup of dark, homemade drink had been pressed into her hand with a wink from Emma sometime later. They made the rounds, exchanging thanks and appreciation with the bears and Chuck. He was joined shortly by Faith who appeared, fully clothed, with a rucksack slung over one shoulder and three naked, rambunctious boys in tow.
Faith gave both Ripley and Joe a quick hug and then disappeared into the crowd, leaving the rucksack with Chuck. He looked after her with a sly smile, then emptied the clothes onto the porch, picking out a pair of pants and throwing the rest inside. Ripley imagined the three boys took after their father. She had to suppress a giggle at the thought.
Leslie and Alma bickered good naturedly in the kitchen, Alma chewing on bites of cake in between surly looks at her granddaughter, who just shook her head and rolled her eyes. When Joe and Ripley approached, Alma lifted what was left of the demolished cake in offering, and they shrugged it off.
Without hesitation, Joe pulled Leslie into a deep hug. “Thank you. For everything.”
When they pulled apart, Leslie straightened her wrinkled blouse and waved a hand dismissively. “Just another day.”
Alma snorted and shoveled another bite of cake into her mouth.
Eventually, the crowd thinned and the closest members of the clan found themselves hunkered around a small fire in the middle of the yard. Juliet sat next to Brett, her arm looped through his, her head on his shoulder. They bobbed back and forth as Barn sang another of his songs, contented smiles on their faces.
It was Snow who finally called a halt to the festivities, levering herself up off the grass and making a universal shooing motion to the group. “Well, I don’t know if the rest of you noticed. But today, there was a wedding.”
A string of enthusiastic, liquor heavy cheers trampled her words. She ahemmed, and continued. “And I think it is about time we let them get to their marital duties.”
Hoots and catcalls followed as she shooed them all away. Joe stood and clasped his brother’s hand. “It ain’t much of a honeymoon suite, but I hear there is a nice little bunker behind the cabin.”
Brett pulled his brother into a hug, and Ripley thought she saw a tear drip from one eye. In her turn, she pulled Juliet into a hug as well. Something told her they were going to be close. And she was okay with that.
And then to her surprise, Brett hugged her too. Ripley didn’t know much what to say to that, which turned into a mumbled, “Have a good night.”
And then her and Joe were alone, standin
g next to each other by the dying fire. She kicked her hip into his, and shot him a sultry look. “I also know of a nice place to hunker down for the night.”
Joe took her hands in his. “Does that mean you are staying?”
Ripley shrugged. “How about we make a bet on it?”
His eyebrows creased in tempted question. “Oh yeah?”
“Beat me to the cave, and the answer is yes.” She raised an eyebrow. “I win, and don’t have to answer.”
“You’re on.”
She was shocked Joe had the presence of mind to remove his pants before he shifted.
Ripley watched as her bear galloped off into the trees. She dumped the rest of her beer over the fire and muttered to Decima.
Make sure he wins.
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About the Author
Hattie Hunt is the collaboration between two authors, S.M. Blooding and Alivia Patton.
* * *
Alivia Patton lives in a castle with her knight in shining armor. Assuming there are castles in Montana and her husband slays dragons while she isn’t looking. Citing a decided lack of medieval grandeur in Montana, Alivia spends her time dreaming of adventures in the Welsh countryside while wearing an epic cape that blows just right on the cliffside winds. Or, writing books while playing keyboard Jenga with three cats and the dog. Her husband does, occasionally, slay dragons.
S.M. Blooding lives in beautiful Montana with her Darling Dork, his two part-time girls, and their cat, Tesla. She enjoys writing and creating with her wonderful husband and dreaming about Alaska. She's dated vampires, werewolves, sorcerers, weapons smugglers, U.S. Government assassins, and slingshot terrorists. No. She is not kidding. She even married one of them.
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