Her Secret Protector Bear (Oak Mountain Shifters)

by Leela Ash

  Michael stopped himself from retorting. There was nothing he could do right then, so he clamped his mouth shut. He wanted to warn Caston of what would happen if he did find her, but Michael was past the point of being able to hide all of his feelings and didn’t want to say more than he should.

  “You will tell me what I want to know Michael, and I will make you watch what happens next. As soon as I saw you, I knew you were going to be good luck to me. I just didn’t know how much.”

  3

  The group had been tracking Michael all day, and it wasn’t long before night fell and they had to stop. Jessa didn’t want to make camp. She felt sure that she was close, but she knew that it was too dangerous to keep going in the dark.

  “Milo, can you find us a place?”

  He nodded. There was a hesitation, like he shouldn’t leave them, but he finally turned around and left. Jessa knew it wouldn’t be long before he would be back with a place in mind. He was good at those types of things. She had briefly considered going back to the house, but something kept her from going back. It seemed wrong. Instead, she found herself stopping several miles before the house. It would have been easier to go back. Everything was already there and prepared for them. But she’d sent Milo in search of somewhere new.

  “Why don’t we go back to that house mom?”

  Shane was reading her thoughts again and it seemed like the two newest in the party felt the same way. They had made the place their home for quite some time. How could she explain it without scaring him? And did he need a little fear? Maybe they all needed a reminder of what they were walking into.

  “Because Michael is around some bad men and they may come looking for us. So we don’t want to be where he could tell them we are.”

  She could see him trying to process it, but soon he was shaking his dark head, disbelieving that such a thing might happen. He had seen a lot, but he was still naïve in many ways.

  “Mike would never tell the bad men where we were. He wouldn’t.”

  “He never would intentionally Shane. But sometimes people can get information from a person, even if they really don’t want to tell anyone.”

  He thought about it some more and she could tell that he didn’t agree with her, but he wasn’t going to argue. Carin and Jason were quiet as well. Jessa had given them all something to think about. It was one thing to know there were possibilities that could arise from a decision. It was another to hear them out loud and to really think about it.

  They were quiet as they waited for Milo to come back. He was taking longer than usual and she started to worry that he was found. Jessa’s nerves were on edge, quite possibly from her own thoughts of what was or could be happening.

  Finally, Milo emerged from the darkness and led them to a place that wasn’t too far away. Jessa was relieved to see him and even more relieved that it was high on a bluff and she could see scope out the area easily. It was a great spot, and if she looked hard enough, Jessa could actually see the small cabin that they could have gone back to.

  It was late by the time they had settled in. After everyone went to sleep and she was left to stand guard, her eyes kept settling on the cabin. She was waiting for something, but she couldn’t say what it might be. When it finally came, the dark smoke emerging from the chimney of the cabin, it was not a good feeling that went over her. It meant that the worst case scenario had happened. They had Michael and he had talked. Jessa knew that he wouldn’t have if he’d had a choice.

  Of course, she was supposed to be gone like he told her to. He had told Milo to keep going on without him and to wait for him to catch up. He would believe that he hadn’t put them in any danger. She didn’t regret going back, but it meant that everyone with her was going to be in trouble. Jessa was torn once again and she didn’t know what to do, but she could see a fire burning in the old house. It wasn’t coincidence, nothing ever was.

  “So they do have him.”

  Jessa looked behind her to Milo and nodded. “Yeah, I guess they do. We need to go over there Milo, but I can’t leave Shane.”

  He nodded his head, implying that he understood, but he didn’t say much more about it. “Well there is tomorrow. We can get there early, leave the other ones here.”

  “Carin said she would watch Shane, so I think that is a good idea. Jason is too young to go into something like this.” They both knew that Milo was not that much older, but he had not been sheltered the same way that Jason had. He had been on his own and he’d had to learn how to survive on his own. Jason was still under the protection of his grandmother. It was not a bad thing, Jessa would have preferred that Milo had someone to protect him as well. However, it made Jason less likely to help them out much. Jessa didn’t want Jason to get hurt himself. His grandmother would never forgive it.

  Jessa worried about Milo’s health though and if he would have the strength for what was needed. For a while, he had seemed to be getting better, but the nearer they got to the city, the more he seemed to be coughing again and the less energy he had. She wondered if there was still radiation present. His body was already sensitive from all of the abuse that it had been given. The fact that the radiation was affecting him more seemed to give her a clue that they shouldn’t stay long. They needed to get in, get Michael and get out.

  “Are you sure you are going to be up for it, Milo? It could get rough.”

  Milo nodded his head. It wouldn’t be the first time that he had to be around people like that. Those were the type of people who would make life worse for everyone once they arrived. “I have seen groups that are not even human. I think that the world is full of them now. If it isn’t this group, there will always be another to deal with. There is never a shortage of bad people. The world needs people like Mike in it.”

  Jessa agreed. She had done a lot of traveling and had encountered the worst, and the best, of people. She had never met anybody in between. In these times, it was one extreme or the other, and she was glad to have found so many good people to share the road with. But it was a reminder that there would always be good people. There would also be the worst. They would always have to fight for a place in the new world, and Milo was always good at reminding her.

  “You’re right Milo. Mike makes the world a better place. He helped me out of more than one jam and I don’t know what I would have done without him. We have to get him back.” Jessa stopped, afraid she was going to lose herself to emotions. It was something she could never let herself do. Especially not when there was work to be done.

  ***

  Milo told her that he would stand guard for a while so that she could get some sleep. She agreed, though it was hard to wait. Someone was in the cabin, and Jessa knew that whatever rest she managed was not going to be peaceful. They had to get closer and make sure that they weren’t seen. The last thing that she wanted to do was get caught as well. She closed her eyes for a few minutes, but soon it was morning and the time had come for them to leave.

  Jessa got up and looked around. Her heart hammered in panic when she couldn’t find Milo. She asked Carin and Jason if they had seen him, but it was becoming clear to her that he had left. He was going ahead, to take care of it himself. She thought it was the most ignorant thing to do, but she knew it was to keep the rest of them safe. He was much like Mike in that way, trying to make everything better by taking it all on his own shoulders. The only problem was, he had no idea what he was going to get involved in. What if he got caught? What if she did? Then what would happen to Michael? What good would three casualties do?

  Jessa had Carin watch Shane and she promised him that she would be back soon. Jessa had to fight with Jason a little bit. He was bound and determined to go with her, but she didn’t have time to argue. Jason needed to stay and keep his grandmother and Jessa’s son safe as well.

  “You have to stay here with them Jason. You are the man right now and you must keep them safe. No matter what you see or hear from the cabin, you must keep them here.”

  “Wh
at if they come for us?”

  “They won’t.” Jessa wasn’t sure of much, but she was sure that she would not be telling them where they were. She would rather die than have something happen to her son. She knew that Michael must have been forced to tell them, but he would have known that they were gone. She had to believe that.

  “What if they do?”

  “If they do Jason, me, Milo and Mike are dead and you should all run. But it is not going to come to that. Just hunker down for a day or two. There is enough supplies for a week. You don’t have to leave for anything, so don’t.”

  He nodded, his eyes widened, but he seemed to come to his own resolve. Jessa was happy to see the change in him and it made her feel safer leaving her son with him and Carin. Whatever was going to happen, it was her son in the end that she cared about being safe.

  When she finally headed out, she was already tired from the confrontation and leery of what was going to happen next. She hoped that Michael was still okay and that she could somehow get him out of there.

  In the far back of her mind, she hoped she had been wrong about everything and it was just a coincidence. That somehow it was just a new group that found a spot for themselves for the night, just like they had before. She wanted to believe that Michael was not in trouble, but taking care of whatever it was he thought he had to and was coming back to her. He had told Milo that he would catch up and she wanted to believe more than anything that it was true. Jessa wasn’t prepared to think about what happened after he left.

  She looked for Milo’s tracks, but he was always untraceable. Jessa couldn’t believe that he had left alone, knowing and hearing what those men were capable of. It might not even be the same people that Mike went after. Mike may not be with them and Milo could be walking into some kind of trouble. She didn’t know what he was thinking, but she was touched by the thought. He wanted to help, that much was clear. What wasn’t clear was what the consequences were going to be for doing so.

  There was nothing to deter her from her thoughts and they were taking over far faster than she would have liked to admit. It wasn’t that she had no faith in Milo, but he was used to hiding in the shadows, not confronting someone. With the ordeal with Billy she had found that he had been protective, but still in a way that kept him out of the line of fire.

  “There is nothing you can do until you get there Jessa. Stop worrying about it.”

  Her words did little to make her feel any better, but it was something.

  4

  Michael was the first one up the next morning and he was more than a little happy to see that everyone sleeping. He hadn’t wanted to give them the cabin, but it hurt so much and he knew that they would be gone. There had been a small danger that she hadn’t left, but he was sure that she had. It was no place for her to stay and though he knew Jessa loved him, she would make sure her son was safe first. It meant that she wouldn’t go do anything stupid, like coming after him.

  Caston had been upset when she hadn’t been there. He had gotten rough with him again, but not like before. Michael knew that the brute was not going to ever lay eyes on her. Jessa was going towards the sea and somehow, he assured himself, he would catch up like he had promised.

  The only thing good that had come out of the ordeal was the fact that he had learned more about himself. He had learned that the present was more important than what had happened in the past. He didn’t live there anymore, and even though in the present, he’d had everything he had ever wanted, Mike had ruined it by going after the past.

  Now he wished that he could go back, maybe change his decisions, but he had learned about the man that had haunted him for so many years. It was enough that he now pitied the old, lonely man instead of seeking out vengeance. Michael knew now that he didn’t have to kill him to go on. He should have left with the rest of them. They would have all been halfway to the coastline by now. Even if there wasn’t much that way, they would have at least been together.

  He sighed and closed his eyes, trying to forget the stupidity of his choice. Instead of being with her, with all of the ragtag group that had quickly felt like family, he was tied up and pushing an existence that wouldn’t last much longer. While he felt sorry for Caston, the old brute had no intention of keeping Michael alive. Once he realized that Mike wasn’t going to tell him where to find the rest of them, he would most assuredly kill him. It was what men like him did.

  When he opened his eyes and refocused on the dim light streaming in from the windows, Mike was eye level to the man that had filled his thoughts and his mind for so long. There was nothing that he could do but stare back at him. He was gagged and tied. He wasn’t going anywhere, and dirty looks just seemed to piss the man off.

  “I see you’re up. Ready for more questioning?”

  Mike tried not to respond, but it was hard not to. The last thing he wanted was to answer any questions, especially the way that Caston liked to ask them. Caston was one of those people who genuinely liked to hurt other people, and Mike could tell he was in for it by the smile on his face. It was unnerving, the idea that he could do it for hours and be relaxed the whole time. Caston was a man with patience. That was not always a good thing. When he saw the familiar smile, he shivered on the inside and hoped like hell that instead of looking as afraid as he was, he looked determined. If he could manage that, it would be enough.

  He tried to respond, forgetting that he had a dirty gag in his mouth. He instead met his eyes and nodded his head that he was.

  Caston moved towards him and pulled the gag don. Mike spent time trying to moisten the painfully dry areas in his mouth before he was forced to speak. He had nothing to say, but he was happy to have that out of his mouth.

  “So what can you tell me about this woman, this Jessa?”

  He shrugged and told him that he didn’t know. “She was supposed to be here when I got back. Maybe she left without me. You know how woman are. They are even more skittish nowadays. She could have seen us coming and be watching us right now. I really don’t know.”

  Caston liked the idea of the woman just anywhere around. He made a mental note that he was going to go look for her, but instead he asked more questions. No one else was up yet and he wasn’t ready for the gripes and moans for the rest of the day that would surely take place.

  “What do you know? Does she have any family? Anywhere else that she would go?”

  He shook his head that she didn’t. “No, when I found her, she was all alone.”

  Caston grinned and Mike looked away so that the man wouldn’t see his anger because of it. The older man was playing him like he was stupid and the best thing for him to do was let him think that as long as possible. When he realized his error, Mike hoped that it was a big enough one that he would be able to get out of there.

  “Yes, I have found many on the road, all alone and in need of protection. They of course realize too late that I am not it.”

  “If there are so many, why would you bother with just one girl? There are many more out there like you just said.”

  Caston made a face. “No, they are getting to be less and less. All of the good ones turn bad or get taken. Either way, the choices are not as good as before all of this. Now a man has to work for it. You seem like the type that would not hold on unless she was Grade A. Am I right?”

  Mike wasn’t going to answer him, but in any world, Jessa was Grade A. The idea of her being around such men made him sick to his stomach. It was not hard to think of what they would do to his beautiful Jessa. They would ruin her and most likely kill her. He couldn’t let that happen.

  He looked away, desperately trying to think of something to say when he saw something outside the window. Mike was sure that he was seeing things. Then he saw a head pop up behind Caston and he gasped.

  “No...”

  “What was that?”

  Mike tried to recover, seeing Milo brought so many questions running through his head. What was he doing there and did it mean that the rest were clo
se? He had only told Caston that because he wanted the gang to look for them around there, giving them more time to get further away. What the hell was Milo doing there!?

  “What was that, Mike?”

  Caston’s voice had risen and he looked back at him. “No, it was not like that. She is not like that. The first time I met her she was in a garden. I had never met someone like her, but now she has left me and maybe if I wasn’t here I could find her. But her tracks are probably gone now.”

  He said the last bit a little louder, hoping that the man outside would get the point and try to make some tracks taking him in the other direction.

  “We can look together. The rest of them will be up soon.”

  Michael just shook his head. “You don’t want your men to get to her first. How apt are they to turn down a piece of tail? She won’t even make it to you I bet.”

  He was playing on the man’s greed, hoping that he wanted her all to himself and by the look on his face, he did. Caston was sure of himself, so sure that he did not fear Mike. The man was strong, but he was stronger.

  “We will leave now then.”

  Mike was jerked up by the arms and wrists tied together. He didn’t make a sound, not wanting anyone else to wake up. If he could get him out there by himself, no matter the ropes and the lack of gun, he would come out on top, Mike was as sure as Caston was. One of the men was wrong though.

  When they were a bit away from the cabin, Caston finally stopped and took the gag off of Michael completely. “So where is she?”

  Mike tried to look around, to see if Milo had made some tracks for them to follow. He really hoped he did because the last thing Mike wanted was for Caston to somehow get his hands on his Jessa. He would not be able to live with himself if that happened and he knew that it was a gamble bringing the man out there. But why was she still there? Was it really that hard for her to do as he asked? Chuckling to himself, he figured it actually was.