by Amelia Jade
“So, what shall it be?” Corey asked in a normal voice as Ferro came down from the other end of the bar to serve them.
“I think I may just have another of the house beer,” she said. “It was actually delicious. I’m not a huge beer person, but everyone here seems to drink it, and I can see why now!”
“Perhaps you would like to try my other beer?” Ferro asked, his voice as nondescript as the rest of him, a nice, smooth tenor that didn’t have any of the deep gravel she heard in the bear shifters.
“You have another one?” Corey asked in surprise. “Why haven’t I tried it yet?”
Ferro just looked at him and fetched two beers. He placed the two dark-brown bottles in front of them.
“You never ask,” he told Corey, then left.
“Well I’ll be damned,” the big bear shifter said softly, looking fondly after the bartender.
She realized that the man who ran the joint seemed to mean a great deal to Corey, and probably all the shifters who frequented here. He was their family, she assumed, or at least an extended part of it.
“To assumptions!” he toasted.
“To being royalty!” she responded and they both took a drink.
“Wow,” she said as the beer played across her taste buds. It seemed to flow smoothly, and yet taste thick, as if it were coating her tongue. Rich in flavor but with no aftertaste, it was amazing.
“Holy shit,” Corey said. “Ferro, this is unbelievable!”
But the bartender ignored them, moving to serve another shifter. She made to track him down to ensure he knew how much they liked it, but Corey caught her by the arm.
“Ferro doesn’t like compliments,” Corey explained to her as he guided her away from the bar instead of waiting for the bartender to come back their way. “He heard us, and knows we were being genuine. That, from what I gather, is enough for him.”
“What did he mean by ‘you never ask’?”
Corey shook his head. “Exactly what it sounds like. He never told me he brewed a second beer. But I had never asked.”
“Why not?” It seemed like a bigger deal to Corey than it should have, and she wanted to know why.
“Everyone always drank his other stuff, so I just assumed that’s all there was, and left it at that. I never thought to ask him if there was anything else he served that was his own.” Corey sounded thoughtful. She could tell there was more to it than that, but he wasn’t sharing at the moment.
Without meaning to, Jenny laughed. It simply escaped as they were sitting back down, after Corey had escorted her back to her “throne.”
“Did I miss something?” he asked, looking around the bar for the source of her amusement.
“No, no, not that,” she said with a wave of her hand. She was feeling strangely…empowered. As if the scary prospect of talking to a man like Corey—gorgeous and so completely out of what she would consider her league—no longer had any fear attached to it. She felt calm, confident, and completely exhilarated.
“Is this one of those things that you just keep to yourself?” he asked with a smile.
Jenny shook her head. “It’s tough to explain. I’m not sure you would completely understand,” she told him.
Corey appeared slightly hurt. “I’d love to try. You might be surprised at what I’m capable of.”
She smiled at him. “It’s embarrassing,” she said with a blush. Another one. Would she ever stop going beet red around him?
“Oh, now I have to know!” he teased, taking another sip of his beer while she attempted to compose herself.
“Very well,” she said airily. “But you can’t laugh.” She waited, but he didn’t say anything. Jenny sighed. “Okay, I don’t have a lot of experience, you know, talking to men. Men like you.”
Why was this so hard?
“Shifters?” he asked. If he was pretending to be confused, she had to admit he should have been an actor, because he certainly had her fooled.
“No, silly,” she said, feeling her face burn even more as the words came out. “Good-looking men. Sexy men. They don’t normally talk to me. And now you’re here, and we’re flirting, and I suddenly realized that though I was feeling a little delirious, I wasn’t scared. And that made me laugh,” she rushed on, feeling the temperature rise in her face with each word. “Are you happy now?” she asked, sitting back and crossing her arms.
“Very,” he said quietly, in a very serious manner.
His eyes, she noted, never wavered from her face. She wondered what he saw there, besides her thick cheeks and shoulder-length red hair. Did he see how intently the green of her eyes focused on him? She shivered at the thought. What happened now? Was this where she was supposed to go home with him?
Questions ran through her mind nonstop, making everything more confusing, increasing the racket in her brain. It wasn’t until Corey stood up and reached for her hand that she realized the noise wasn’t coming from within her.
“What is it?” she asked, turning to look at the same time she reached her hand out toward him.
A loud roar, full of anger and the promise of pain, erupted from the corner behind her. She saw two shifters standing up. The first one pulled back a fist and without hesitation drove it into the face of the other.
Jenny froze. Visions of her past swam in front of her eyes as the angry giants went to war. Fear swam up from the depths of her soul, sinking its talons deep into skin, threatening to drag her down into the abyss of her own despair. Horror descended over her like a comforting, blanketing cloud that suddenly constricted her, making it impossible to breathe. Panic bubbled within, overpowering her mind and cleansing her of all rationale.
She didn’t speak, nor did she cry out. There was no time. The only thing she could do was run. Run and hide. It’s what she always did, and had done before. The meaty thud of fist hitting flesh was like the tap of spurs to the side of a horse. She shot across the bar, ignoring everyone as she fled out into the cold.
There were so many vehicles in the parking lot. Which one was hers? Where had she parked?! Panic drove her, making her ignore the shout of confusion from behind her as she reached the safety of her SUV. The engine roared to life, and she threw it into gear, mashing her foot down on the accelerator. A shadow flew in front of her, but she ignored it, heading up the gravel driveway to the road.
Home. She needed to get home.
It would be safe there…
Chapter Three
Corey
The wickedly sharp point of his pickaxe sunk deep into the rock with a deep familiar clink. Wrenching the handle upward, he pried another section of rock free, the debris tumbling to the ground around him.
Several more angry swipes left him with a respectable pile that he began to toss into the waiting cart. Then he went back to hacking away at the wall in front of him. Every so often he and the shifter to his right would stop and they would take heavy-duty brooms to the ground, cleaning up the smaller debris. It wasn’t the most glamorous job in the world, but it kept him honest, and allowed him to take out his anger on his work.
“So no idea what happened to her?” Russell asked from beside him.
“None at all,” he replied, landing another mighty blow on the unsuspecting rock.
He cast a glance over at the other man. Russell Warne had come a long way, he thought. When the crew had first been formed, Russell had been a bit of a troublemaker. But it was later revealed that he was Garrett’s stepbrother and the reason that Garrett was in Genesis Valley in the first place. Russell’s actions had been those of a brother upset that he had put his family in danger. As a result of coming to the Valley to visit him, Garrett had been attacked and had lost his memory.
Corey and Russell had been far from friends at the start. In fact, they had been bitter rivals. Looking at it now though, Corey realized that it had been the case with him and just about every member of the Jade Crew except for Garrett, their Alpha. He hadn’t known any of the other shifters, and needed to establish himsel
f. It had not, he reflected, gone very well for him.
“Did you manage to at least get a phone number or anything before she left?”
“Thanks for being polite, but she didn’t leave, she fled,” he said dully. Corey had no idea why Jenny had up and bolted from the bar the night before. He was sure it was something he had said or done that made her no longer want to be near him.
Even Kierra wasn’t sure what had happened, though he figured she would know by now. Perhaps Kierra would let him know so that at least he had some closure, assuming that Jenny never wanted to see him again.
His nostrils flared as a vivid picture of her presented itself in his head. Her needle-straight red hair framing her cute little face. The whole look was anchored by her beautiful green eyes. He had never seen a redhead with green eyes before, and it had been utterly intoxicating. It was still intoxicating to him, and he knew the image of her would remain with him for a long time to come.
“No, nothing. We hadn’t even been talking for that long. It’s weird,” he said with another swing, burying the foot-and-a-half-long spike deep in the wall.
“What is?” Russell asked, mimicking his swing. The two of them wrenched upward at the same time and chunks of rock fell at their feet.
“The whole situation, really. Right before she bolted, Jenny had been telling me that she thought I was really good-looking, and that she hadn’t flirted with many guys before.”
Russell frowned at him as they both bent over to toss away the largest pieces. “Doesn’t that make more sense though? She was overwhelmed by the situation if she hadn’t talked to many men before.”
Corey shook his head. “I know that seems logical, but there was more to it than that. The way she was talking, I never would have suspected it. She was so confident about it. No, she ran away scared, not embarrassed.”
“What did you do?” Russell asked as dusty hands reached for his implement once more.
“Nothing,” he said, pulling up the memory is his brain. “Two of the Emerald Crew were getting feisty with each other, and I got to my feet to try and put some distance between us and them, just in case.”
Russell nodded. There was no need for him to explain more. Generally the crews got along with each other, but bear shifters were bear shifters. Those in the Valley were always the ones that couldn’t handle life in the outside world, typically because their tempers were on the short side of things. Giving two angry bear shifters room—especially when in company of a human—was simple common sense.
“She turned to see what the yelling was about, and then just took off without saying anything.” He shook his head, still not understanding.
“That is weird,” Russell agreed.
Clink.
Their pickaxes sunk deep into the rock again.
“Hey guys.”
Corey turned stiffly as a third voice entered the conversation. It was Darren. He and Darren had never gotten along particularly well, but Corey had always considered him to be capable of handling the other shifters if things got out of hand. But when they had gotten into a scrap about who would lead the crew while Garrett was gone, Darren had revealed his true capabilities.
He had once been a Stone Bear-in-training, and had gone through much of their combat training before being washed out. Darren had been content to just tread water before then, but in that fight with Corey he had turned into a shark, easily dispatching the unsuspecting Corey. It had certainly been a wakeup call, that was for sure. Corey hadn’t been that badly tossed around in a fight in a long time.
“We found a Dragon Stone,” the taller shifter said.
“Sweet,” Russell said, putting down his pickaxe and heading back the way Darren had come.
“I’ll take this to the surface and wait for the pickup team there,” Corey said, pointing to the nearly full debris cart.
“Okay. Also, Kierra wanted me to let you know that she wants to talk to you. She’ll meet you at Ferro’s after work,” he said gruffly, and went back down the shaft.
The last sentence got Russell’s attention, and instead of accompanying Darren, he hopped onto the slowly moving cart and decided to go with Corey instead. Standard procedure for when a Dragon Stone was found in the mines was for all the other shifters to stop their work and wait for the Stone Bears to come and pick it up. The stones were very precious to dragon shifters, and they paid highly for them.
Or at least they had, he thought. Lately it seemed that the Dragon Council had gone missing, according to the Stone Bears. It all had to do with whoever was attacking the shifters in the Valley, though they had yet to establish a firm motive. Several of the prisoners they had managed to capture had hinted that there was an underlying racial motive.
Apparently one of the attackers had said something about a ‘True Form,” and that the lowly types, such as bears and wolves, among others, were to be cleansed. It had sounded rather hokey and cult-like to most of the shifters, but they had no other information about their mysterious attacker or his motives. Corey shuddered to think what would happen if a dragon shifter was able to go unchecked with that sort of mentality.
Russell spoke as the cart picked up speed, heading for the surface. “Sounds like you’re going to find out what’s going on after all.”
He nodded. “Hopefully. Either that, or I’m going to get reamed out for something I didn’t even realize I did.”
“Women,” Russell said with a laugh that Corey shared with him.
Natural light began to overwhelm the faded yellow light emitted from the intermittent bulbs strung along the shaft. Shifters could see exceptionally well in the dark, so there wasn’t much need to light the main trunk of the shaft.
The cart slowed to a halt next to a large truck that was nearly filled. To the right was a small but heavy-duty crane, with hookups that would attach it to the cart, allowing the shifters to dump the debris into the truck.
To the surprise of both shifters, there was already someone in the truck. Their first clue was when the big diesel engine rumbled to life, belching black fumes from the exhaust.
“Hey, hold up a minute there!” Corey said, yanking open the passenger door. “We’ve got one more load to dump in there,” he said, once he had the attention of the driver.
“Just hurry up,” the driver said, not even bothering to look over at Corey.
“Got a hot date or something?” he said, trying to lighten the mood, but it had no effect. The LMC-uniformed driver stared straight ahead, drumming his fingers on the wheel.
“Okay then,” Corey said and hopped back down to the ground, slamming the door rather roughly behind him.
Muttering angrily, he moved to help Russell attach the cables to the cart. One went to each corner, and a fifth, independent of the others, went under the cart and connected to the top of the lip closest to the truck. Pulling on a lever in the crane would tighten this cable and pull the lip downward, thus tipping the cart so the rock debris could fall out. It was a very simple and easy-to-use system, and the two had it hooked up and lifting from the ground in less than a minute.
“Come on!” came the cry of the driver, audible over both the rumbling of the truck engine and the whine of the crane as it lifted its load into the air.
“Is something wrong with me?” Corey asked, looking over at Russell. “Do I have something on my face that screams ‘Fuck you’ to everyone?”
The other shifter paused in his manipulation of the crane controls. “No, why?”
“The driver just seems rather eager to get out of here, and I wondered if I had done something to him as well.”
“Nope, just your normal ugly mug,” Russell said.
Corey rolled his eyes and punched the button that would tip the cart.
“Hey I’m supposed to lower that!” Russell said. “That’s going to play hell on the truck, dropping it from that high!”
“I know,” Corey said, watching as the big chunks of stone rained down into the truck from at least twenty feet higher th
an normal. The big truck rocked back and forth, shock absorbers overwhelmed by the cascading debris.
They got the cart back onto the trails and watched as the driver went off, muttering what they assumed were a steady stream of expletives directed their way.
“What a charming fellow,” Corey said with a snort.
“Shall we wait up here for the Stone Bears to arrive?” Russell suggested, jerking a thumb off to the side.
He was pointing at the large trailer that served as the office, storage locker, and most importantly, break room for the Jade Crew while they were on-site.
“Absolutely,” Corey said, hungry for a snack.
He put the odd reaction by the driver out of his mind.
***
The double doors swung in front of him as he pushed them both open at the same time, making a grand entrance into the bar.
It was empty except for Ferro and Luthor.
“I heard someone call my name,” he explained to Ferro as the bartender’s eyes shifted from Corey to the doors swinging closed behind him. Corey didn’t need a dictionary to understand that the look from Ferro was a ‘what was that all about?” glance.
Ferro didn’t say anything. Instead he just grabbed a rag and went back to polishing his bar. Corey hadn’t even gotten halfway across the bar before he heard the rumble of engines out in the parking lot. It wasn’t any of his crew; they had decided in favor of a cookout that night. The weather was unseasonably warm, and the bears wanted some freshly grilled steaks.
Must be the Emeralds he decided, grabbing the beer from Ferro’s hand, so that he didn’t have to set it on the bartop.
“That’s a good shine you got going on today,” he commented, trying to admire himself in the glossy reflection.
Ferro didn’t reply.
“You’re a good man Ferro,” he said into the silence after taking his first taste.
“Dragon,” Ferro grunted.
Corey looked over at him. “I know you’re a dragon. Big, fire-breathing, likes to sleep a lot, imprisons damsels in towers for impossibly long periods of time. The whole works, right?”