Briar on Bruins' Peak (Bruins' Peak Bears Book 7)

by Erin D. Andrews

  “The fence.”

  He led her to the edge of the compound. On her way, she passed several adults who glared at the human that walked through. A little boy ran up, kicked him in the shin, and then quickly ran off.

  “Oh! You’ll pay for that. Dirty little shifter.” The human glanced around to see if anyone was harboring the small fugitive, but saw nothing but silent adults. He shook his head and continued on. “That’s the problem with all of you shifters,” he muttered to Tina, though he didn’t look at her. “You all think violence is the only way. You can’t just talk to someone and say what’s on your mind.” He stopped and looked at her with a sneer, then looked her up and down the way so many boys were doing now that her clothes barely covered her. “See, like right now. You want me to tell you how hot you look, but you can’t just ask, ‘Hey, how do I look?’ No, you have to wear these sexy clothes and trick me into saying it.”

  “What?”

  “Oh, don’t play dumb.”

  “My clothes look like this because of the tax. I don’t want to–”

  “Shut up and come with me.” He sighed and shook his head with all the frustration and exhaustion of a tired parent. She walked a bit faster to stay slightly behind him. She didn’t want to be next to him after the comment about her clothing. She had no idea that was how humans saw young female shifters.

  They made it to the perimeter, and she saw a crowd of young shifters digging small holes in a line. Off to the side, two smaller groups were pulling down the old fence and rolling it up. Big trucks with writing and symbols on them sat just beyond the boundary with sleepy drivers inside.

  “Let’s see,” the man in charge said to himself as he consulted his papers. “Tina, today you are assigned to the installment team,” he pointed to a group of shifters standing just a few feet away in the shade. “Your group jumps in after we’ve got the old fence out and the holes ready for the new one. Be careful, and don’t get electrocuted. Or go ahead and fry your brains out. I don’t really care.”

  His job done, he walked over to the other side of the boundary to point and laugh at the young shifters as they struggled with the massive role of fence, the tools meant for digging straight down that they’d never managed before and that twisted in their hands. Tina watched all of this with a horrible sense of dread in her stomach.

  She looked at her group and saw the young boars there. “What’s this all about?” she asked.

  “Well, good morning to you, too, wolf.” The brother boar scoffed at her and pawed the ground with his foot. “Jeez. Why is everyone in this compound so frikkin’ rude?”

  Tina raised her hands in mock surrender. “Good morning, friend. Good to see you. Tell me, what exactly is happening today? I am uncertain as to why we have been called to work this fine day.”

  The boar rolled his eyes and crossed his arms before he could bring himself to answer. “Well, wolf, we’re getting a new fence to make sure none of us ever leave. This new one is able to shock and kill us if anyone tries to climb over it or dig under it. And it’s twice as tall, so the humans need our help. Obviously.”

  He turned away from her and left her to contemplate the massive fence as it was driven in. The boar nudged her with his shoulder and pointed forward in a non-verbal, “Let’s go.” She sighed deeply to herself before moving forward. Not only did she have to pen herself in, she had to be nice about it.

  Most of the workers were given gloves, but a few weren’t. Tina was one of the shifters without gloves, so she and a few others helped to put in the base of the fence poles as quickly as they could so the fence team could drop the posts into their holes and get their hands off the humming metal as fast as they could.

  “Hey!” The boar brother had been zapped on his leg as he worked and spun around to face the humans. “Turn the dang thing off so we can get it up. We can’t do your job and die at the same time, you stupid idiots!”

  The man with the paperwork walked up to the boar so that they were nose to nose on opposite sides of the fence. Both glared at one another for a long moment.

  “You think you can talk to me that way?”

  “Well, if all you’re going to do is threaten my life, I see no reason to be polite.”

  “Huh,” the human man said to him. “That’s interesting. That’s very interesting.” He signaled to his friends off to the side and they flipped a switch to turn off the fence. The electricity switched off and everyone felt the hairs on their arms lay back down on their skin. All of the young shifters stopped and stepped back as they watched the human and the boar.

  The boar glared at the human and waited for him to make the next move, but the man didn’t do anything. Finally, the boar snorted and turned to go, but found he was unable to leave.

  “What’s going on? He looked down and saw that the man had pulled the tail of his shirt through the holes in the fence and tied them. He started to untie it and the human grabbed his hands.

  “Hey, Helen! This kid tells me he’s feeling dehydrated. Could you douse him with some water?”

  “Sure thing.” A small woman climbed down from a truck with a canteen and a big smile on her face. The man stepped aside so that his friend could douse the boar in water, but he never let go of his victim. A little water got on his gloves, and he held up a hand to make sure no electricity flowed into the metal.

  “Hey, man, I’m sorry. I was a jerk. I take it all back.” The boar was now dripping water. His shirt was completely wet and still knotted up in the fence. He kept trying to untie it, and the man kept grabbing his hands and pulling on the boar’s gloves to get them off, and the boar would pull his hands back. Tina walked forward.

  “Please, let him go. Just send him home. The rest of us will finish the fence.”

  “Shut up, you whore shifter!” Tina was shocked by the insult, but she steeled herself and tried again.

  “You don’t have to kill him. He made a mistake. He apologized.”

  The man glared at Tina as he held the boar. “I do what I want when I’m over here on this god-forsaken compound. You got that?”

  She set her jaw and didn’t respond. Instead, she grabbed the boar and pulled him back hard. The man angrily gestured to his friend with the switch, and with a loud hum the current was turned back on.

  To Tina’s complete horror, the current shot through the boar’s body and into her hands, clamping them onto his shoulders. In her hands, he shook and convulsed as the electricity traveled through his wet clothes and into his body. Smoke came from his head, and his voice boiled out of him as he was cooked from the inside out. Tina desperately tried to pull him back – to let go, to do anything – but the shock traveled to her as well, and she was at the mercy of the horrible, uncontrollable force.

  Tina felt her heart stop, and for a moment everything went black. The next thing she knew, she was on the ground as a group of shifters hovered over her. When her eyes opened, they all started shouting.

  “She’s awake! Tina’s alive!”

  “Oh, thank goodness. Oh, Tina. We were so scared.”

  “Yes! We saved her!”

  She put a hand to her pounding heart in her chest. “What happened?”

  The boar’s sister, who was right at Tina’s head where Tina couldn’t see her, filled in the blank. “That man killed my brother.” She pointed straight ahead at the human man who was eating a sandwich just on the other side of the fence. Between the group and the culprit was the dead, smoking body of the boy boar.

  Slowly, Tina rose to stand. Her nerves were a bit jumpy, and her legs and arms made odd motions as she attempted to walk, but she continued. She approached the body and looked down.

  There at her feet was a shell of a creature. It had arms and legs, but they were crumbling as if they were made of paper. The sockets where the eyes had been were now just burnt holes staring up at the sky. The mouth was open in shock and silently screamed up at Tina as she gazed down.

  The others joined her, the victim’s sister included. />
  “What was his name?” Tina asked her.

  “Frank. He was my twin brother. Born two minutes ahead of me.”

  “And what’s your name?”

  The girl looked at her with a stern, serious expression. “Maya.”

  “Maya,” Tina said to her new ally, “I’m so sorry. I tried to save him.”

  “Don’t.” Maya turned to look at the culprits again as they raised their thermoses in a cheer to the fence. “Don’t apologize for what those cretins did. They killed him, not you.” Tina looked over towards the humans with Maya and noticed they were still moving the switch back and forth, back and forth. Were they hoping to kill someone else?

  “Tina,” one male flier asked, “what are we going to do?”

  “You tell me,” she said, turning to the kid. “You’re the one with wings.”

  He smiled at her and quickly shifted. The humans immediately sat up and paid attention.

  “You can’t do that! Shifter! Back in your human form, now.” Despite the boss’ yells, the flier, now a blue jay, stayed in his animal shape. He flapped his wings to up above the fence and then dove across the space, flying right through the open windows of the truck.

  As the humans swatted at the bird and attempted to catch it, other fliers joined it. Eagles, herons, love birds, swallows – they swarmed the workers. Some nearby adults saw the melee and quickly joined, doing everything they could to attack the humans in animal form.

  Tina motioned to her fellow wolves and got them over to a small opening where the new fence hadn’t be set properly. They each shifted and slipped through the slim hole, each taking a position near the human crew until they formed a perfect circle. Tina gave a nod, and the wolves slowly began to move in.

  As a wolf, Tina felt her rage and adrenaline pump like never before. She lowered her head and let out a long, soft growl. Her ears laid back against her head, and her tail lowered to let her enemies know she was aiming straight for their necks.

  “Wolves! We gotta get outta here!” The humans scattered but weren’t able to run in a straight line with the birds all over them. The boss of the group started to get away but hadn’t counted on a shoelace one bird had picked apart. His other shoe found it and pulled, sending him sprawling out on the ground. There, in the dirt, he came face to face with the same snake that had taught Tina and her peers all about amphibians.

  The rattle on the snake’s tail shook, and the human’s face fell. “No, please.” She struck and let the venom pour from her fangs and into the bridge of his nose. She held on as he thrashed through the poison and let herself be tossed around by his death throes. By the time he stopped, her back was broken and the two died together.

  Tina moved closer to the small woman who had doused the young boar. She saw her approach as she took cover under a small tree. “Back off, you dirty shifter.” Tina didn’t listen, she just kept advancing. “You kill me and you go to jail for the rest of your life. They won’t even bother putting you to death. They’ll just let you rot in the president’s jail.” Still, Tina moved closer. The human pushed back against the ground until she was pressed tightly up against the tree bark. She turned her face and closed her eyes.

  “Oh, just get it over with.”

  With a loud bark, Tina leapt through the air, jaws open.

  Chapter 15

  A Glimpse of the Past

  “Have a seat.” Gus motioned to the chair in front of him, and Grey sat. Gus looked around the office, confirmed that no one else was there, and then stood to close the door.

  The mole took a moment to click off a couple of switches, then reached under his desk to find something. “Whoa!” Grey cocked his head but didn’t say anything. “Careful there, boy, don’t knock into that desk!” As soon as he said it, Gus, slammed against his desk as hard as he could, then waited a moment. Finally, he sat down and folded his hands on top of it.

  “Um, what are you doing?”

  “I’m afraid you bumped into my desk and broke my intercom system,” Gus said. “And that’s a shame, because now I have no way of recording this conversation or letting anyone else listen in on it. Please be more careful next time.”

  Understanding, Grey nodded slowly. He started to ask why the mole wanted privacy, but something in him told him to just wait a moment. The mole watched him for a long moment, then slowly opened a drawer.

  He rummaged around for a moment, stopped to glance around the office yet again, and finally produced a small photo.

  “That,” he said, sliding it across the desk, “is your mother. That was back when the first of the Bachmanns came to power.”

  Grey grabbed for the photo. In it, he saw his mother as a teenager, only a bit older than he was at the moment. She had a big smile on her face, a wrench in her hand, and was standing with several friends. Grey looked at the faces next to her a little closer.

  “Wait,” he said, pointing. “Is that you?”

  Gus blushed just a little and looked down. “I had a big crush on her. You’ll have to forgive me. She was something. Beautiful, smart, caring. She helped everyone. No one more than my family.”

  “What happened?”

  “Well, when the original president took over the state, she ordered that all shifters be detained. No one took animal form for almost a year for fear that they would be arrested on sight. Now, what that president didn’t know was that she was friends with several female shifters, your mother included.”

  “My mom knew President Evelyn Bachmann?”

  Gus nodded. “She knew her very well. Your mother’s family had raised her just down the street. Back then, the Bachmanns weren’t nearly as wealthy as they are now. Evelyn had just loved your mother, doted on her every moment. But as she rose to power, she turned on shifters first, convincing the humans that we were dangerous and that only she and her family could protect them.”

  “What did my mother do?”

  “She was one of the first to suggest that shifters offer to work for humans. It was meant to be a gesture of friendship. Even as a very young woman, she understood that it was difficult to hate the shifter who babysat your children or helped you grow a little food. It worked. At least, it did for a while.”

  “My family,” Gus continued, “was the first to be offered a chance to work directly with the Bachmann family. My father was so proud. He had one of the first messenger jobs. Then this office was created, and he was asked to run it. Now I handle everything and take care of him.”

  Gus smiled, but Grey had a hard time seeing any happiness in that smile. “What happened? Why did the shifters and the humans separate?”

  “The change got worse. The climate got hotter, the food all got harder to grow, the water started to dry up. We went from having big, beautiful rivers to just little trickles that threatened to disappear at any moment. Before the big well-digging machines came around, humans and shifters alike were reduced to drinking mud.

  “Despite our hard work, the shifters were made into a symbol of negative change, a horrible future. No matter what we did, the humans and the Bachmanns pushed us away and kept us at arm’s length. President Evelyn passed a decree that any shifter could be made to work for free at a human’s command and that pay could only be earned at the palace or from other shifters. That threw everyone into poverty. Your family was spared as mine was, but most shifters weren’t so lucky.”

  The two new friends sat quietly for a moment, thinking about a past that would never be fully recovered. Finally, Grey asked “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because,” Grey said, putting his soft, fleshy hand over Grey’s hard and rough one, “I want you know that you come from brave and resolute shifters. You have social change in your blood. I see the way Harper looks at you. Be brave for her. The two of you could really do something.”

  Grey sat back in his chair, exhausted. He could picture his mother standing over him, one hand on his shoulder and smiling the way she always had when she’d needed to be brave. Gus reached un
der his desk and felt around for a moment, then clicked on a switch.

  “Well, Grey, you have your instructions. Keep your head down, say as little as possible, and just keep doing your job. I trust you can handle that?”

  “Of course. Thanks, Gus.” He made sure to speak clearly and with enthusiasm so that anyone listening would feel confident that everything was clicking along. He stood and walked out of the office, leaving Gus behind.

  As Grey walked, he saw security guards ducking and running through the halls. Several LEOs with massive, black guns crossed his path. He stopped moving and listened to what they were saying, but they spoke in so much secret code and so many acronyms that he was unable to gather any details.

  He saw a fellow flier across the hall from him started to walk towards her, but was stopped by yet another group of gun-toting officers. He quickly ran across before another group could appear.

  “Hey,” he said quietly, “what’s going on?”

  She grabbed his arm. “It’s the compound. All the shifters who had to work today went crazy and started attacking the humans in charge. The president has ordered an attack.”

  “No!” He started to run after the soldiers, but the woman grabbed him and held him with a surprising force.

  “You can’t go,” she told him. “You have to stay here. It’s the only way you’ll survive.”

  “But my dad!”

  She shook her head. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I don’t know what to tell you.” She turned to watch the soldiers drive away down the mountain, then wiped a tear from her cheek. “I had better get going.”

  “No, wait!” Grey grabbed at her, but she shook him off and clicked away on her high heels. Grey stood in the empty hallway and listened to the sound of motors roaring down and away toward his home. He knew he could shift and fly over to the compound, but the sight of watching his only remaining family be killed stopped him. What could he do? If he fought them, he would be murdered as well.

  He thought of his mother and her attempts to make peace. He thought of Harper and Gus. He looked to the exit full of security checks and then back to the doors leading to Bachmann’s offices. “I’m so sorry, Dad,” he thought and walked through Bachmann’s massive, granite doors.