Hunting Party (Bear Lodge Shifters Book 1)

by Kyrii Rayne

  “We talk restitution, and I help you get... wherever it is you want to go.”

  “Restitution. That's nice. I could live with that.” He leaned back, folding his arms, eyes hard but with a faint gleam of curiosity in them. “But I think I'm going to stay in Jackson for a while. Someone has to keep an eye on you people.”

  Helga seemed a little taken aback, but finally nodded resignedly.

  “You do that. You will soon learn that we of the Lodge are not your enemies.”

  “I hope so.”

  *****

  Anna and Mark did have that lunch together at the restaurant before he left on the helicopter back to Jackson. He dug into his steak and mushrooms, and shrugged, munching.

  “All right, so the damn bears make a good steak.”

  She smiled a little and chewed a bite of her burger. Swallowed.

  “You don't still think that all of the bear shifters are dangerous to humans, do you?”

  He looked at her, and then shrugged and answered bluntly,

  “I don't know yet. Maybe they aren't. I hope they aren't. But I'm going to keep an eye out. If people start getting hurt again because of those bears, I'll be back with a damn sniper rifle.”

  She reached over and touched his arm, feeling it tight as steel cable under his black turtleneck.

  “Mark, you won't have to.”

  He looked down at her, and smiled lopsidedly, his fingers touching the back of her hand briefly before he went back to eating his steak.

  “I hope you're right.”

  Jake was subdued that night, standing before the picture window in their suite and staring out at the starlit falls. She came up behind him in a spa robe, hair still wet from her shower, and rubbed her hand up his back.

  He turned to look at her, and slipped an arm around her.

  “So the Lodge is yours now.”

  “Ours,” he replied almost reflexively. “If... if you want things that way.”

  “That actually sounds kind of appealing,” she admitted softly. “Can I think about it?”

  It almost had sounded like a proposal, but she didn't know how werebears did these things.

  “Yeah, if I get to work really, really hard on persuading you.”

  He kissed the back of her neck, and she smiled and turned into the circle of his arms.

  She felt the tension in his chest as he held her, and slipped her hands through the gap in the front of his robe, gently caressing the whole, muscled flesh that lay where a wound had gaped hours before.

  “What is it?”

  “My father. Graypaw. It's all so... screwed up. It keeps coming back to bother me. I'm sorry. I may be distracted for a while.” He raked a hand back through his hair, and she caressed him soothingly. “I've got you and Darrin and Helga to help me sort it, but it's still just such a mess.”

  “It's okay. This whole anti-human family thing, finding out Graypaw's your brother, and the fact that your Father's probably not going to make it... it would mess anyone up for a while. I'm going to have some problems for a while too. All of this just happened. But just... don't shut me out because you're going through it, okay?”

  He smiled softly and nodded.

  “Okay.”

  Anna stared out at the falls with him, snugged against his chest. Life had thrown her more than a curveball this time. It had changed on her entirely. But as she looked up at him, and leaned in to kiss him, she thought that in spite of all the fear and conflict and horror, she could salvage something beautiful from it all. As long they stayed together, and fought for each other, she knew now that the two of them together could overcome anything.

  The End

  I Hope that you enjoyed

  ‘Hunting Party’

  You’ll find a preview of the next book in the series

  ‘Bear Brother’

  after the About the Author section of this book.

  About the Author

  Kyrii Rayne has always been fascinated by the paranormal – by the possibilities hidden in the world around us. She enjoys writing stories that explore those possibilities – and the challenges they bring to the lives of her characters, especially when it comes to finding love.

  She lives in Australia, and travels a lot – and always listens to the old folk tales everywhere she goes – there are story ideas everywhere!

  Connect with Kyrii on Facebook at

  https://www.facebook.com/Kyriirayneauthor/

  Sign up for Kyrii’s newsletter to make sure that you are the first to know when she releases a new book!

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  https://news.kyriirayne.com/subscribe

  sign up, and receive ‘Jake’s Secret’, the prequel to the Bear Lodge Shifters series, for free when you do!

  Here is your preview of

  Bear Brother

  Bear Lodge Shifters– Book 2

  Kyrii Rayne

  Chapter 1 - The Lodge Mother's Request

  “You realize how crazy this whole idea is, don't you?” Darrin walked quickly beside Jake as they made their way down the hall to Jake's room at the Lodge. Polished wood gleamed at them from every direction, from the carved railings to the knotty pine paneling, but Jake's eyes were blurry, and the familiar sight didn't charm him with its mix of grandeur and homeliness this morning. The two had been up early for a walk, leaving Jake's mate Anna sleeping off their latest night together back in his room. Now, though, the elder in charge of the Lodge was calling for them, and it was time to go wake her up.

  Jake, newly in love and easily distracted by thoughts of Anna, smiled slightly at the mental image of her softly rounded body tangled nude in the sheets where he had left her sleeping.

  He almost missed what Darrin said next. “Sorry, what?”

  Darrin snorted and rolled his eyes. He knew what was up, and rarely missed an opportunity to tease Jake about it. The two were as close as brothers, though they had only known each other for a few years. They were both members of the Lodge—the youngest, in fact, and dark-haired, with brown eyes and a preference for dark clothing and boots.

  But aside from that they looked little like each other. Jake was a broadly-built, towering mass of muscle with a boyish face and puppy eyes. Darrin was smaller, urbane and intense, built for running computer companies more than for beating ass. He walked faster than Jake as they moved, and then had to trail back to him, which he did almost unconsciously, hands behind his back and face thoughtful as he spoke.

  “Graypaw is the result of one of your father's experiments, Jake. When I say he's not safe, it's because he tried to kill us more than once. Don't you remember? Just last month? Running for our lives through the woods because your dad and his friends wanted to hunt humans, and your girlfriend was one of them? And they sent Graypaw after us? Remember that?”

  Darrin chattered rapidly, gesturing nervously with one hand.

  “How could I not?” Jake's voice was grim.

  The whole hideous misadventure had nearly taken his Anna from him just a few weeks after they had first met, and the day after they had gotten together. He would have had to live with the anguish of losing his true love, barely before he’d had a chance to truly know her.

  And it had been his father's doing.

  His father, Anthony, had been a bear shifter, like himself and Darrin. He had lost his mind gradually from the loss of his own mate, and along with some of his associates in the Lodge, had grown entirely alienated from human beings.

  He had started deranged experiments to interbreed with bears instead of humans, resulting eventually in the birth of the monstrous Graypaw. A month ago, he had organized a hunt of captive human beings on the Lodge's sprawling Wyoming land, using Graypaw like a hunting-dog after getting him used to eating human meat.

  The whole nightmare had come to a head in a decommissioned fire tower they had taken refuge in, and it had ended in Anthony's mortal injury. Jake still wrestled with his feelings over all of it, taking comfort only in his ability to keep his mate safe in t
he midst of the chaos.

  “Look,” Jake said in a heavy voice. “Helga is the lodge mother, still. I know you didn't think much of her taking Graypaw in, to try to rehabilitate him, but I want to give her a chance before I start second-guessing her.”

  “If you say so. But you don't sound very confident yourself.”

  “I'm not. I saw Graypaw hunting humans. I saw him charge Anna. Yes, I know my father never allowed him to learn anything besides killing human beings, and it isn't fair. It makes Graypaw a victim too. But that doesn't make him any less dangerous if what Helga is trying doesn't work.” He stopped at the door to his room and went quiet, knocking gently. “...Baby?”

  “I'm up,” came the muffled, sleepy mumble from beyond the door.

  He smiled in spite of the grim conversation.

  “Okay. Darrin's here. Helga wants to see us all. How long do you need?”

  “Five minutes?”

  He turned to Darrin.

  “Ten minutes.”

  Darrin shrugged and nodded, leaning against the wall.

  “Look, I know you've got to be all kinds of mixed up over your dad's involvement in all of this, but believe you me, if I was in your position, I would remind Helga that I own the damn property the Lodge meets on, and that I don't feel like providing room and board for—”

  “You know, even if I really did have the authority to do that, I wouldn't.” Jake folded his arms, leaning against the opposite wall. “Yeah, now that Dad's dead, I’ve inherited the physical Lodge building and the land. You think that suddenly makes me a big shot among the Lodge members... not so much. Helga might be sick, off and on, but she's still the oldest and most powerful bear shifter among us.”

  Darrin held up his hands in a conciliatory gesture.

  “I get it, I do. I mean, you know me, Helga's family. I pretty much do what she asks most of the time, risky or weird or whatever.” Including quietly spying on the Lodge members who had gone anti-human and had decided to arrange a people hunt. “But Jake... Graypaw is a monster. She'll never get that thing to play well with others no matter how hard she tries.”

  Jake looked up at the paneled ceiling and swallowed.

  “Graypaw is also my half-brother,” he pointed out quietly, and Darrin drew a slow breath and lowered his hands.

  “I know, man, and that's screwed up. But you can't expect any loyalty from him, and he doesn't deserve any from you. You and me, we count as family way more than that...”

  “I know, and we do. But like I said. I'll give her a chance to work with him and see what happens.”

  “Why?”

  “Anna talked me into it, mostly.” He rubbed his face. “I think the fact that Graypaw is chronologically two years old, and has the social experience of a shut-in, makes her feel kind of bad for him. Which is a little ridiculous since he tried to kill her, but that's Anna for you.”

  “Hey, if she didn't have a big heart, she probably wouldn't bother with you,” Darrin pointed out, and Jake growled, half-irritated.

  He and Anna were pair-bonded by instinct and fate, and unlike bear shifters, she’d had a choice to accept or reject him despite that. But she had chosen to stay with him, even after their association had led to her being dragged into the world of the Lodge, and then unexpectedly endangered. His joy over this choice had supported him through the madness and death of his father, and all the other crazy fallout from that experience. He didn't like even Darrin making light of it.

  Darrin caught on immediately.

  “Sorry.” He paused, checking his smartphone briefly. “Those private investigators I have following the Lodge exiles need to check in more often. This is making me nervous.”

  One of the first actions Helga had taken upon discovering the human hunts and the experiments with Graypaw was to exile all members involved. Any bear shifter who hunted humans, or aided those who did, was exiled, and then watched. The technologically and socially savvy Darrin had been placed in charge of the ‘watching’ part, and as with the rest of his business and Lodge duties he was hyper-responsible about it.

  “You know, Darrin, sometimes no news is good news,” Jake reminded him, but Darrin just shook his head.

  “A bunch of old, rich bear shifters with too much pride and a lot of hate aren't going to take an insult like being exiled lying down. I have no doubt that they're gonna make a real mess of things for us at some point. The key is to find out when and where ahead of time, so we can be ready for them.”

  Jake let out a grunt of vague acknowledgment, trying to fight a surge of apprehension. The last thing the Lodge needed was outright war with a group of exiles. But Darrin was right. The half-dozen who had been forced out of the Lodge for their horrific “hunt” would have to be watched closely, because one day, they would seek some kind of revenge. It wasn't an if, it was a when. At least the group was vastly outnumbered by the saner bears of the Lodge. He could take comfort in that, and in Darrin's competence… maybe even in his paranoia.

  “You've got a point.”

  “Glad you see that. Some of the Lodge members don't seem to get it at all. Maybe they missed that whole part about how the human-haters weren't above turning on their fellow bears' human relatives.” Like Anna.

  Jake squeezed his eyes shut and nodded.

  “They want things to go back to normal. Boozed up parties at fireside after the moose hunts, things like that. They didn't see what my father and his associates were doing. They didn't suffer from it. So it's easy for them to minimize it.”

  “They shouldn't.”

  The door clicked, and swung open. Anna walked out looking a little sleepy still, her green eyes a touch dull and her honey-colored hair a little mussy. She wore an inch-thick sweater and jeans over her lushly curvy frame, and came over to kiss him before even bothering to push the door shut. Her mouth clung softly to his for a moment, and Jake had to push down a surge of desire. Business first.

  “Hi, baby,” he managed.

  “Hi yourself.” She turned a smile on Darrin, and then looked between them while resting her hand on Jake's broad chest. “Okay, so where are we going, and is there food involved? I'm starving.”

  “Helga's chambers, she wants to talk to us about Graypaw now that she's had a month to work on him.”

  “...Huh.” She rubbed the corner of her eye and then slipped her arm through his as they turned to walk back down the hall. “Any idea why now in particular?”

  He could feel her body tense slightly when Graypaw was mentioned, but only slightly. She was brave by nature, and she’d had a month to recover from her ordeal. He felt a surge of pride in her.

  “Uh, she mentioned some kind of breakthrough, but not what. I think there will be breakfast involved at the meeting.”

  Jake's own stomach growled. If there was one thing bear shifters had a weakness for besides their mates, it was food. He had never been at a Lodge meeting without a decent spread, except at his father's funeral.

  Helga Thorsdottr's meeting hall was the heart of the lodge. It had been designed to her specifications, and built for her by Jake's father back when he was sane and happy, with his mate beside him. It had a high, vaulted ceiling like a church, all in carved wood, and a massively built long table dominated its center, attended by dozens of massive chairs. A round fireplace under a broad funnel-shaped chimney crackled near one end of the table, and along the sides heavy couches provided seats away from the table. A single, high seat, padded with velvet pillows and furs, sat at the far end of the room, with a carved footstool to get to it.

  Various members of the lodge sat at the table, munching from platefuls taken from a buffet set to the side, or lounging on the couches chatting quietly. Most of them were older men or women, a few with their human mates with them. A small crowd had gathered near the high seat, both because Helga sat there as was customary, and because she had company with her today.

  Helga was tall and regal, a heavy wool smock of dark blues draping her slightly bent frame. She kept a hea
vily carved wooden staff handy by her seat, and wore a cloak of white bearskin over her shoulders. Her long braids mixed gold and gray, and her eyes were a pale color somewhere between blue and silver. Her handsome Nordic features were lined and a little sunken from her health issues. Even bear shifters felt the touch of advancing age eventually, even if it took them over a century.

  Many strands of amber and bone beads glittered around her neck, and she smiled a little when she saw Jake and the others, giving them a nod. Jake returned it absently, his eyes locked on the figure crouched at her feet.

  He was huge, massively muscled and full-bodied, with heavy features that stopped just short of being ugly, thick dark hair falling shaggily to his shoulders and strangely shy brown eyes. He was so tall that even Jake came up to his shoulder at best. His hands were huge and callused, with sprigs of dark hair on the backs, and black nails. His teeth were a little yellowed and slightly sharp-looking. His hair had an odd sheen to it, the ends ticked in silver, like the fur of a—

  —Grizzly.

  Jake knew grizzly bears. He became one when he shifted. It ran in his family. Himself, his father... his brother. He heard Anna gasp beside him as she realized as well. Darrin fidgeted uneasily.

  “That can't be—!” his buddy whispered under his breath.

  The figure straightened from his crouch, the jeans covering his lower body straining to contain his tree-trunk legs. He looked around nervously at the staring bear shifters, and then glanced up at Helga, who nodded at him and smiled.

  Graypaw had been an animal, and a crazed one at that, barely brought under control by Helga's powers and persuasion. He had never been able to shift, or behave in any way that was even vaguely reminiscent of a man. He’d had mind-speech of a sort, for communicating with his fellow bear shifters, but it had been so edged with pain and madness that Jake winced just remembering it.

  So who was this, straightening up to tower over them, chest heaving slightly and eyes nervous, his huge, dark-nailed hands held carefully and nonthreateningly at his sides? Who was this, trying on a tiny smile?