by Kyrii Rayne
Jake felt a surge of relief. Anna was alive. Two of the hunters had tried to kill her, yes, but they had failed and she had run on. He looked around at the pit and the sharpened sticks, and wondered where she had gotten those ideas from. She had told him she had some forestry skills, but he didn't think that digging pit traps was among them.
This almost looked like some sort of makeshift military camp. But whatever it was, it had kept her alive so far and he was glad as hell to see it. He just wanted to see her safe again, in front of him, in his arms, where he could escape with her out of all of this. But he had a long way to go before that happened.
He suddenly noticed that Darrin had gone pale. “What is it?” he snapped worriedly, looking back at his friend.
“That thing from the clearing, the giant gray bear. The one we couldn't figure out if it’s a shifter or not. I just caught its scent.”
Jake froze, looking around and listening intently. He really didn't want to tangle with whatever that damned thing was.
“No, man, not around us. That's the biggest problem.” He sniffed, and the pointed north. “We need to move. That thing's on Anna's trail.”
They changed back to bear form and ran, crashing through brush, scrambling over rocks and fallen logs, following Darrin's nose while Jake cast around inside of himself for courage. He didn't want to tangle with the thing in question, but he would damn well do so if it tried to do anything to Anna. He had seen it eating human meat. It could not be allowed to go near her.
Startled deer burst from their bowers under the evergreens as the bears bounded past; birds woke and sprang into the dark. Jake's head was spinning with all they had learned and all they had suspected, and he was starting to worry about something. If Anna had fought bear shifters, if bears had fallen into that spiked pit and died, and changed back, then she had very likely seen them change back. Which meant that she knew.
This horrible hunt had just introduced her to the existence of bear shifters in the worst possible way. How am I going to explain this to her now? She might think we're all monsters at this point. How do I prove that I'm not?
He didn't know what he would have done without Darrin's help. Going this alone, he would have ended up running off through the woods from the lodge, no clue, no plan, and not even a nose as sharp as Darrin's to find her scent with. Jake was a bruiser; in his bear form that was most of what he was good for. He could take down a wild boar by himself, but he couldn't find his beloved mate without help.
They ran for it, and Jake could tell when they grew closer to the thing in the forest because its musky spoor was strong enough that even he could track it. It stayed persistently ahead of them as Darrin struggled to keep Anna's scent trail. His heart pounded hard in his furry chest as he thought of the thing closing on Anna. How could he fight it? He would have to find a way. Maybe he could pull a trick from the wolverine shifters and jump on its back from behind. Maybe he could manage to pin its head under water if he got it to one of the streams that ran down the mountainside. Maybe—
The crack of rifle fire brought him out of his reverie. Anna he thought, and tried to push himself faster as they hurried toward the sound.
There were two rifles. One was fired sparingly, professionally, with time between shots. The other was fired in a wild magazine-eating repetition, its bangs echoing off the mountain. And then, over the shots, he heard the dull, angry, deep-voiced roar of a massive bear.
He ran, branches breaking across his chest in the low brush, his breath rumbling in his throat as he heaved his massive body along. He could hear Darrin scrambling along behind him as he put everything he had into getting to the source of the gunfire.
Finally, he burst out into a clearing and saw the massive gray form of the monster bear standing on its haunches at the far end, its broad back to him. Two figures with rifles faced it; he could just barely see them beyond it, revealed in bits by muzzle flash. The creature seemed to shrug off the bullets, its body jerking with each shot that connected but not slowing down. Again, like a shifter; only head shots or being burned up or bled out could put them down for good. But the speed at which it recovered terrified Jake.
He caught Anna's scent, fresh and strong and full of terror, and bounded across the clearing, a bellow of rage caught in his throat. He leaped as best he could, his massive weight smacking the giant in its midback and making it stagger. He wrapped his forepaws around it and bit down, scrabbling at its rump with his rear claws while digging foreclaws into its ribcage to hang on better.
The thing bellowed in shock and outrage and spun around with him hanging on for dear life — Anna's life, for he heard her gasp as he hung on and knew he had gotten there in time. His inner voice broadcasted his rage at the thing as he bit and clawed and hung on: Get away from my mate, you fucking monster!
The smaller bear ran around to put himself between the wrestling pair and the stunned humans, one of whom was a tall black soldier who had already moved to shield Anna when the bear fight started.
He looked stunned, and Jake managed to think past his rising berserk fury and feel grateful that there had been someone with some survival training helping her. But then his attention was completely caught by his foe... or rather, something terrible that came from his foe.
The mind-voice of the creature sounded wrong: ragged and unfocused, edged with pain like broken glass, as deep and raspy as if a mountain spoke. Father... told... Graypaw... humans not mates. Humans meat. Only meat!
That's wrong, you crazy bastard! Who even told you that?
Something strange happened; the creature hesitated. But then it growled and started struggling again, smacking Jake against a thick-trunked pine and making him grunt in pain. He hung on doggedly, unable to reach the bear's neck with his teeth but still able to distract the hell out of it.
Darrin quickly changed back to human form. “Aim for the head!” he told the soldier, and Jake prayed the guy had some bullets left.
Fortunately for him, the soldier decided to aim the rifle at the massive gray grizzly instead of Darrin or Jake. His eyes narrowed over the sight, and then he fired—and blew off one of the bear's ears.
The creature froze, seemingly shocked by the pain, and pawed at its head. A second shot went through that paw—and it panicked. Perhaps it was intelligent enough to understand that a head shot could actually kill it. Perhaps it simply had great instincts. But whatever the case, it suddenly threw him off in a burst of panicked strength, and ran away into the trees.
One more shot holed a tree next to it, and then it was gone. Jake lay where he had fallen for a moment, struggling for breath. Then he got up and shook himself. That was crazy. I'm really glad we got here in time.
“Uh, Jake...” Darrin said in a tight voice. Jake looked up and saw the two humans pointing their rifles right at him now, wariness and fear on their faces. The fact that one of them was Anna made his heart drop into his paws. “Maybe you should change back now, before your girlfriend keeps mistaking you for one of those fuckers who's been trying to kill them?”
“You saying there's a difference?” the soldier asked, deadpan.
“Uh... yeah, we just busted our ass to get over here and save you. You saw my buddy fighting that thing, didn't you?”
“Yeah. But I also noticed he got out of here alive, so it's not like you did much damage.”
Darrin's lips thinned. “Yikes. Tough crowd.”
Meanwhile, Anna slowly lowered her rifle as what Darrin was saying got through to her. Her eyes brightened, even as fear and incredulity mixed on her face. “...Jake?” she whispered.
Jake let himself change back and stand up, his chest heaving and his heart beating hard.
“Baby,” he murmured. “I'm so sorry. I got here as soon as I could. I didn't know... I didn't know he would do this...”
The soldier frowned, but slowly started to lower his weapon, even as he kept it at the ready. Anna slung her rifle and took a step toward him, face pale, her voice trembling. “Th
ey turned... into bears... so do you... Jake... Jake, what the Hell is going on?”
He came over to her and she took a step backward again, and he stopped, longing to close the distance between them but seeing so much fear in her eyes that it hurt. “I'll explain everything, I swear it. Just understand, I came here to help. I had no idea about any of this craziness my father was doing. But now that I do, I'm going to help stop it, and get you out of here. Okay?” He reached out to her, and she stared at him warily. “Come on, baby, please, it's still me. I would never do anything to hurt you.”
She moved toward him slowly, shaking, her eyes full of fear, but she couldn't move that extra few feet into his arms. “They said humans had to be thinned down...”
“My father and his friends have gone crazy. They've been becoming fanatics on us while everyone was wrapped up in things like Helga's illness or my going to grad school. Nobody had any idea.” He moved forward a little, chest hurting from the distance between them.
“Well, I'd sure like to know what the fuck is going on,” the soldier commented flatly, shouldering his weapon.
Darrin spoke, regret in his tone. “Yeah, well, I'd love to say that we have time for that right this second, but we've got a problem. Those gunshots are going to draw the other hunters. I am gonna suggest we kick on.”
The soldier turned to him, his mouth working. “Fucking werebear.”
“I prefer Darrin. Hi.”
The soldier stared at him, his eyes measuring. “Mark. You got a plan?”
“We have a friend we can call, but in this terrain we'll need to be right up on the cell phone tower for me to be able to phone out reliably. They installed it in an old fire tower that's maybe two miles up that way.” He pointed, showing Mark his compass. “We can shelter there, get word out and wait for the cavalry.”
Jake was still staring pleadingly at Anna. She finally sighed and moved forward, just close enough for her to timidly stroke a hand down his arm.
“Please, baby, at least give me a chance to prove myself. I came here to help you survive. Let me do that.” He brushed his fingers down her hair and she trembled, tears coming to her eyes.
“I'll try. I... oh God, just... you have to let me know what's going on, and you have to do it soon. I don't think I can handle much more of this...”
Another forced march, this time in human form. He stayed close to Anna, the quiet joy of being with her and seeing her alive and unhurt mixing with the anger and fear he felt at how these bastards had scared her and driven a wedge between them. I will make you pay, Father, he thought bitterly... and then something brought him up short. That thing's mindvoice. Graypaw. It had called itself Graypaw. And it had said that its father had told it that humans were not mates, but food.
A creeping suspicion set the hairs on the back of his neck to prickling, and he did his best to push it aside and focus on Anna, and the need to keep watch as they hurried along.
Chapter 10 -
Family Monsters
Jake was back with her. Jake had found out what had happened, opposed his father, searched for her, and found her just in time. He had saved her. He had done everything he could have possibly done to gain her trust back.
But Jake was not human.
As they hurried along, he breaking trail for her and reaching to help her up over a few of the steeper spots, she tried to relax and get used to the idea that her lover was back with her, and doing his best, and that was what mattered.
She tried to remember that even if he had just turned into a giant bear on her, he had done it struggling to save her life.
But even as she did her best to focus on those thoughts, and her feelings for him, the little seed of fear and suspicion the night had planted in her head gave rise to different sorts of thoughts entirely.
He's one of them. He's one of them. These bizarre people who turn into bears. What is he? Where did his people come from? Are they safe?
She looked at Darrin, who hiked along near Mark and talked communications technology, getting stilted, guarded answers in return. He seemed safe enough — almost nerdy, in fact. Kind of harmless, though he was clearly just as competent in his own way as Mark.
But the others. Those men in the pit, that thing that had torn Tori apart... monsters. And so was Jake's father.
She smelled a sharp scent up ahead, and pointed.
“Hey guys, that's a patch of Rocky Mountain Juniper. If these guys can really track us by scent, we should go through there to throw them off.”
Jake looked impressed, and glanced at the others. Darrin smiled ruefully. “Good plan. Smell's gonna overload my nose too, but I'll recover.”
“Do lots of mouth breathing, buddy,” Jake joked thinly.
“Ha, ha.” They plodded through the stand of juniper bushes, which wound up the mountain for perhaps a quarter mile. It was slow, smelly going, and by the end of it Darrin was squinting and coughing, and Jake's eyes were watering.
“God, I hope that really did it,” Anna commented in quiet dismay, and Jake waved her off.
“We'll live, baby. It really will throw the others off, that's what's important.”
She felt guilty, but given that their getting away was the whole point, not much. She wondered about Jake more and more as they plodded along. Had he been born with that strange power? Was he bitten when he joined the Lodge, like some of the werewolf legends? Was he one of many, or were these beings rare? Her head spun with questions.
“So who all are you planning to call once we've got cell service again?”
Mark still sounded very skeptical. He had kept a wary eye on Jake and Darrin since their arrival, and had barely relaxed at all in their presence during the hike. Instead he kept his rifle handy. Which she could understand. If she hadn't known Jake, and cared for him as much as she did, she would have reacted to the two of them with wariness at best.
“Local community leader. Her name is Helga. She'll probably want to talk to you when this is over, maybe make some kind of reparations.”
“Reparations? You mean like a bribe to keep quiet?” He sounded coldly incredulous. “How about we call the National Guard instead?”
“Because the National Guard would either think you're nuts, or worse, they'll send people, and either my father will pull strings or pass out bribes, and they will turn around and go home again.” Jake's voice was flat. “And even if humans did finally realize we exist, as a group? What do you think are the chances that it wouldn't turn into a race war?”
Mark went quiet for a while as he walked.
“You keep doing what you've been doing, I've got no problem with you. But this bullshit with kidnapping people has to be answered for. I'm gonna make sure.”
“Me too.” Jake sounded both angry and resigned, and Mark looked at him in surprise.
“You'll go that far against your own Father?”
“My Father's dead. The guy he was when I was younger is gone. Whoever this is who has taken his place, I don't know him, and I don't like him. Besides, he tried to kill my girl.” He exchanged soft looks with Anna, who blushed slightly. “I take that sorta thing pretty seriously.”
“You better, she's a great girl.”
There was an unspoken challenge in Mark's tone which Jake didn't seem to catch, but Anna did. It said that if Jake did screw up, he would be watching. Anna blinked, and looked back over the last day mentally, and swallowed. She had seen some signs. But now she was sure. Mark was quickly going from seeing Jake as a potential threat to her, to competition. He seemed very even-headed about it, very in control, as he was with everything. But she saw the gleam in his eye and heard the shift in his tone, and knew. There could be some trouble there.
“Helga won't let this go. She lost her mate a long time ago, but she never stopped caring about humans, and she won't let Anthony get away with perverting the Lodge like this. Nobody sane here is going around saying we should hunt humans. I like venison, damn it. I didn't come up here to take a trip to crazy town.�
� Darrin scowled, hands shoved in pockets.
Mark's frown eased off a little, and he nodded.
“Okay. I'll play it your way for now. But if she decides to let those bastards off with a slap on the wrist, I'm gonna be watching.”
Anna moved a little ahead of the group, her head pounding a bit from all the grumbly male head-butting. But then Darrin stopped in mid-sentence and darted ahead of her, gesturing silently for her to stop. He sniffed, tilting his head slightly. His brows drew together.
“Shit. It's the hunters. And that thing.”
Mark swore and unslung his rifle, and she did the same, hastily checking her magazine. She had panicked in the last fight and fired too many; she was down to a handful. She would have to aim a lot more carefully.
Jake shifted back into bear form and lumbered forward, moving gently around the two slightly startled humans and heading to Darrin's side. He stayed in human form, presumably to talk to them.
Darrin said in a low tone, “Okay. There's a fire road up that ridge and I think that's where they are. Let's see if we can spy out what's going on.” He pointed in the right direction and they headed that way, staying downwind.
Anna gripped her rifle and kept half an eye on the giant bear keeping himself between her and the danger up the ridge. She or Mark could have shot him in the back right now, but all he thought was to protect her. She wondered why they were approaching the group instead of running away from it. But then she realized - Darrin was in hunting gear.
His thought process out here would be in how to track, and control interactions with what they were tracking. If it turned out to be a small group of hunters and they got the drop on them, well then... that ended the conflict a lot more decisively than hiding out in a fire tower waiting for this Helga woman to send help.
Darrin seemed to know the woods around there very well. He led them to a stone outcropping across from the ridge, and they all clambered atop it to peer over the edge at the fire road.
Four bears circled the giant gray creature they had seen before, fighting with it. Beyond them, a large truck sat, its towing rig connected to a large wheeled cage that sat open and facing the fight. They clawed and lunged at the gray one, moving cooperatively to try to drive it back toward the cage. But the creature fought hard, and kept trying to lunge past them for the shelter of the woods. One of the bears took a direct hit from Graypaw's massive claw and went flying, blood spattering the tree beside him. The other three bounded in and did their best to pin the creature down. Bellowing and roaring shook the air.