by Lynn Red
“Huh?”
“The panthers. You want to know, I’ll tell you. Twelve years ago, I was just an up and coming clan leader without much experience to my name. My pops, he was everyone’s favorite. Well, I can’t say favorite exactly, because he was kind of a gruff, rough and tough asshole sometimes, but everyone respected him.”
I nodded, somehow pulling my eyes away from the sky.
He laughed softly, the way people do when they’re trying to hold back tears, or at least, when they’re trying to keep themselves from choking up. “It’s a funny thing. Before the panthers moved on us...on him, I guess, since pops was in charge, we sort of got along. I mean, not like we’d have dinner together, but we all had our territory, and they kept to themselves and left us alone.”
Another chill wind swept through, punctuating the story perfectly. “Anyway,” he continued, “territory started getting a little tricky to navigate when the paper companies came in and started clear-cutting the woods from the outside in. Over a few years, we were pushed closer and closer together, and let me tell you, that’s not exactly comfortable.”
As I watched his face, Ale looked off in the distance, searching his memory. “Yeah, anyway, it’s an old story really. Two rivals forced to be closer together than they ever should have been. Tensions ran high and there was a brief flash of a war. I say brief flash because it only lasted a couple of days. Pops got surrounded in the middle of the night while a few of us were doing some spying. It was over before anyone realized what was happening.”
He cleared his throat again. “Anyway, yeah. It’s been over ten years and it still hurts like it was yesterday. They’re going to pay for what they did, and it won’t be anywhere near as quick as they made it on him.”
Ale’s eyes had gone from twinkling to burning. I’d never heard him angry like this, and I’d never actually been afraid of what he could do, though I’d sort of seen how strong he was when he thrashed that small group of panthers. “Exile, the panther who was in the hospital? He’s their leader. He got the name from being, well, exiled by the pack way back when for trying to kill his way to the top of their structure.”
“And then he came back?”
“You could say that,” Ale said with a gruff laugh. “He figured it’d be easier to impress the panthers by killing off my dad and taking our territory than it would be to keep killing panthers. Can’t say he didn’t learn, I guess.” Ale staggered to his feet and clutched the side of his head. I stood too, trying to help him balance.
“What’s wrong?”
He shook his head. “Just...sometimes I get these headaches, and I have to let my brain cool down. I don’t really know what—”
I stuck my fingertips into the back of Ale’s head, prodding either side of his spine. He let out a low, groaning moan. “Good?” I asked. He didn’t answer, he just kept moaning, which struck me as incredibly funny. “You have the biggest knots I’ve ever felt,” I said. “I’d think having these huge traps would keep your neck from doing this.”
“I carry stress in my jaw,” Ale said in a way that sounded more attuned to coming out of an old issue of Cosmo than out of a gigantic, muscled up bear. “Guess it kinda pulls on my neck? Hell, I dunno, I can’t remember that kind of thing.”
“You know, I am a nurse,” I said. “I can take care of things that hurt. And if I can get back to town, I can get you a bunch of medicine and supplies that could help.”
“Right now, all I need is you with me,” he said softly, as he turned to face me and slid his arms around my waist, pulling me against him. “Is that all right?”
I felt my cheeks flush red and couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah,” I whispered. “Yeah it’s perfect.”
His soft, warm breath caressed my neck, sending a wash of goosebumps down my back. When he leaned in and kissed me gently behind the ear, it wasn’t a surprise, but it certainly did give me the same electric charge as opening a really good birthday present. The scent of man and earth and sweat filled my nose, thrilling me from heel to head.
In the distance, so far away that I couldn’t tell in any way how far it was, a couple of headlight beams shot through the darkness, piercing it and pointing toward the heavens. Ale tilted his head in the direction of the lights, and stared for a short moment, but then turned his attention back to me. He curled his fingers against the soft skin between my jeans and shirt, that sent a thrill running up my backbone.
“We’ve got some time,” he whispered, as he tilted his head and kissed me softly behind the ear. “Not forever, but...well, right now it’s the best I can hope for.”
“Meaning what? Oh...oh!” the gentle sucking on the back of my neck shot electricity through me, and the heat from Ale’s hand lying flat on my back somehow warmed me all the way through. “Oh that’s...that’s nice,” I smiled slightly and let a soft breath escape my lips. Nice is, honestly, the understatement of the century, but before I could say anything again, he kissed me again, this time just underneath my jaw.
Goosebumps crawled all the way down my spine, and I felt the soft skin between my legs prickle as my nipples pebbled up, pressing sweetly against the inside of my bra. I tilted my chin upward so he could get easier access to kiss me so deliciously along the line of my neck. He let out soft, hot breaths that tickled my skin and once again sent a shiver of pleasure down between my breasts that settled in my belly.
“That’s so good,” I whispered, cupping my hand behind Ale’s head and pulling him closer, though it wasn’t really necessary. He nibbled my earlobe, and ran his hand up my back underneath my shirt. His soft, hot hands curled against my skin, and then he tangled his other hand in my hair, pulling me against him hard and hungrily.
He tasted me deeply, sliding his tongue between my teeth when I opened my mouth to gasp. For a moment, our tongues swirled together and the only sound was our breathing; the only feelings I had were of longing and hunger and desperation to feel every part of him, to have him against me, inside me.
I let my hand fall down Ale’s muscled chest, unhooking shirt buttons as it went. I felt him smile against my lips, and then gasped when he slid his hand around to my stomach, pushing my shirt up, and cupping one of my breasts softly. He ran his thumb in a circle around my sweetly aching nipple, and I clutched his hand, pressing it harder against myself. Without breaking his hold on me, Ale managed to slide out of his shirt when I finished unbuttoning it, and then settled back down. I shrugged out of mine, and he pulled me against his body, so warm and welcoming that I could already feel something building up inside that wasn’t going to let me move, not until I had what I wanted...what I needed.
He pulled back to get a breath, but I followed his mouth with mine, pulling his bottom lip between my teeth. I pushed him backward, and he laughed out loud as he fell over backwards, pulling me on top. I spread my legs around him. The warm thickness in his jeans found the perfect place to lie against my sex, and for a moment it was all I could do to keep from ripping off my jeans and letting him have me, right then and there.
Right then, just as Ale’s hands were doing what I was considering doing with mine, those headlights reappeared. This time, he froze still, and covered my mouth with a hand. He pulled me close, kissed my ear and whispered, “quiet” in it.
I scrunched my forehead up, and apparently, he’d seen my confused face so many times in the past few days that he knew what I was thinking. “It’s probably nothing,” he said, “actually it might be a good thing. Or it might not. I think I recognize that truck, but the bear driving it can go one of two ways depending on whether or not he’s been tipping into his own moonshine supply or not.”
“What about Nana Singer?” I asked him, though my voice was muffled almost to silence behind his massive hand. He heard, though, and shook his head.
“She’s fine. She can vanish if she really wants to vanish. And if she vanishes, ain’t nobody gonna find her. No, I’m more worried about Jasper being drunk off his ass, doing what he thinks is right by coming
to check on us, and bringing a pack of panthers with him without him knowin’ it.”
“Never a dull moment with you, is there?” I said, pulling my shirt back on and hitching my jeans up around my hips. “Although I guess I can’t complain. Or, well, I can, but there’s not much point, I guess.”
Ale shushed me again, smiling as he did. The truck was almost on us, though if I’m being honest, the driver—Jasper he’d said—was veering and wobbling so mightily that it’d be a slight miracle if he could even see anymore, he must’ve drunk so much. Either that, or he was just a really good driver, and was deftly avoiding every single stump and root on the way.
When the truck, which I could now see was a mid-40s Ford, the sort I haven’t seen in years and years, hit a bump and rocketed almost off one side of its wheels, I figured things might tend toward the bottle.
“Oh God,” Ale said. “It’s worse than I thought.”
A creature that reminded me more of a scarecrow than a person, torn overalls, wild hair and massive gap in his teeth—both of the front ones which stuck out comically—slammed on the brakes of the ancient truck, which slid to a halt more than actually stopped. “Hey there, Ale!” he shouted. His voice sort of whistled between his teeth, and at the same time, came out slightly mushy, as he hardly opened his mouth at all.
“What is?” I asked.
“He’s sober,” Ale said with a grin, “and he didn’t bring any panthers to fight.” He took a deep breath. “Hey there Jasper,” he called, “come on in, we were just getting, uh, settled.”
Without a word, the disheveled bear opened the truck door, just about fell out of the front bench, and sauntered into the little hut.
“What’s so bad?” I asked. “And why would you want panthers to be following him?”
“Because then, we could fight them,” Ale said with one of his obnoxiously dashing, charmingly crooked smiles, “instead of talking to Jasper.”
10
He was home.
Or at least, he was at the only home he’d ever known. Exile hated the pack dens, but if he was going to lead an army of these horrible cats, he was going to just deal with it. The young bear he’d brought back like a dog who caught a rabbit began to stir.
Exile shifted back into his mostly-human form and gave the bear another incapacitating blow to the back of the head. Flame gave out a small whimper and his head slumped to the side, unconsciously.
“Come out,” Exile demanded softly. His words were scarcely more than a growl in the back of his throat. “Now.”
One by one, yellow eyes appeared twinkling in the den’s blackness. The den itself looked from the outside to be nothing more than a cave entrance, and not a very impressive one at that. Inside though, it was a labyrinthine spider’s web of tunnels that were completely incomprehensible to anyone except someone who’d spent their entire lives in them.
The ghostly eyes looked like a sea of yellow, cat-slit stars against a blanket of pure darkness. Exile’s own eyes swept the field. He let out a soft growl. “This war is about to end!” he shouted. His voice drew more onlookers, and suddenly the lightly populated field of stars looked like a desert sky at midnight. None of them uttered a sound. The entire field of unblinking eyes simply watched Exile as though they expected him to do something impressive. They had no idea what they were about to see.
“See this?” he roared, holding Flame up by the neck. “Do you see what I have here?” His voice boomed through the caves, echoing off the stone and only being muffled slightly by the various beds and junk that the panthers had collected into their simple living arrangements. “Do you SEE what I have here?”
A slight shudder went through the caves. “Exile, this has never been done before. A hostage? What are you hoping to do? Get the Singer to destroy us to save the bear? What in the hell are you thinking?”
At that, Exile began laugh-coughing. Before long, he had thrown his head back and was roaring with incredibly false mirth. “Do you see what I have here? What I have? Don’t you understand? Show yourself!”
With some understandable reticence, the argumentative panther slid out of the darkness. It was an old, scarred face that emerged, one that Exile recognized, though he’d not seen the Elder for almost a decade. When that ancient panther emerged from the shadows and looked at Exile with something that could be construed as care and, perhaps, weakness for the younger panther. “I always loved your father,” the Elder said softly. “You’re making a terrible mistake. This can be ended in peace. It doesn’t have to end in death and violence.”
Exile grinned, extended his clawed fist, and constricted the Elder’s throat. “You loved him enough to betray him, huh?” He began chuckling viciously, “is that it?”
“To stop him...the old panther rasped...from making...this...mistake.”
Exile grinned as he crushed the old man’s throat. “Is that so?”
The Elder squawked and wiggled, though his ancient frame didn’t allow much meaningful movement. He grasped Exile’s wrist and tried to yank it away from his throat, but all of his scrambling and panicking proved worthless. He kicked and clawed. He croaked under the pressure of Exile’s claw-fist that was wrapped around his throat. Crying out, the old man scratched and croaked. Exile just smiled. His scarred lips hardly moved, but the gruesome smile marking his face was undeniable.
With a crunch, the old man’s feet twitched twice, then hung limp.
Exile stared at the limp body for a long time—far too long for the comfort of many of the other panthers, who weren’t exactly gentle creatures themselves. Then he dropped the old man unceremoniously to the floor.
“Any questions?” he growled.
None came.
“Now we wait,” he said with a smile. “It won’t be long.”
11
“Well I’ll be gawdammed if I ain’t layin’ eyes on the pitcher of beauty isself!” Jasper was certainly friendly, and he certainly seemed to have a shining on Nana Singer, who looked so perturbed it was hard not to laugh.
“Jasper,” he said with a sort of patient drawl I recognized from the way my own grandmother used to talk to me when I’d done something immensely stupid, like the time I got arrested for trying to set up a bungee jumping business over the local spillway. “It’s so nice to see you.”
She shot a glance at Ale that didn’t take more than a quarter second to register, and when it did, it was even harder not to laugh, as he turned bright red and crunched his eyes. He took a brief swig from one of the brown bottles Jasper brought along with him. He squinted, and then coughed, but when he offered it to me I took a nice, long draught. When I swallowed smoothly, enjoying the slight burn as the liquor went down into my stomach, Ale looked at me with something between awe and shock.
“How did you—”
“I’m a nurse,” I said. “Some nights after a twelve-hour shift, you need something to take the edge off. Anyway, this isn’t the worst stuff I’ve ever tasted.”
At my compliment, Jasper beamed a crooked-toothed smile and said, “thank you kindly, ma’am! I ain’t shore I got yer name yet, but I know already I like you.”
He stuck his hand out and I shook it before taking another swig and handing the bottle back to Ale. Ale tried once again to take a pull, and to his credit he did manage, but without much in the way of grace or smoothness. He laughed that time after he swallowed, and was already starting to look a little red in the face. Nana Singer took the next turn on the bottle, and drank deeply, smiling the whole time, and never once taking her eyes off of Ale. When she finished, she smiled, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, again, without taking her eyes off him.
“I thought you’d be better with drinking this stuff than an ancient old woman,” she said with mischief in her eyes. “Or at least, better than a young, spry woman. You want to try again?”
Jasper howled with laughter when Ale tried to drink again, but this time, didn’t even manage to get the swallow down before he spluttered a cough. Jasper looked a
t him with pity in his eyes, took the bottle, drank, and set it down on the table. “Now look here,” he said, with a clarity he’d yet to exhibit. “We gotta figure out good and fast what we’re gonna do about the panthers. They’re takin’ to ruin my liquor runnin’, and if the liquor runnin’ goes, then the clan goes, too.”
I cocked my head at that. He stuck a cork in the bottle. “Oh, don’t she know?”
“Know what?” I asked. “But wait, why do you need to run booze? I mean, prohibition’s like eighty years in the can. What the hell’s the point of smuggling booze?”
Jasper got a wild gleam in his eye. He looked at Nana Singer, who nodded slightly, as though in ascent to an unasked question. He turned his attention to me, squinted one of his eyes, and then proceeded to lay out what turned out to be a tremendous, and amazing, plan.
As it happened, the bear clan hadn’t had a source of income since Ale’s pops got whacked by the panthers. Jasper ran moonshine up to the Canadian border during the actual prohibition—which trust me, I really had to let sink in for a minute—and decided to take the old business back up. Being a bunch of bears, it wasn’t very easy to establish a properly tax-structured business entity, especially since none of them have, you know, Social Security numbers, or any sort of government-accepted identification.
“We jes’ do what we know,” he said. “Or at least, I do what I know. The others help the runnin’ part. These days I’m too gawddam old to do anything more interestin’ than mindin’ my stills and watchin’ morons yammer at one another on the TV news channels.”
Ale sat up. “And that,” he said, “is why the panthers are chasing us. They want to either steal the business or just put us out of it, don’t much matter to them. Er, doesn’t much matter to them. Sorry, when I’m around him for very long, I start talking like him. Sorta like when you watch The Sopranos and suddenly every other word out of your mouth is ‘fuck,’ you know?”