Josiah's Conclusion

by Vivian Wood

  Josiah’s Conclusion

  A Red Lodge Bears Epilogue

  Vivian Wood

  Vivian Veritas Publishing

  Contents

  Author’s Copyright

  Protection

  Get News

  Red Lodge Bears Series

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Introducing The New Alpha Guardians Series Listing!

  Ready For More?

  Join The Vixens

  About Vivian Wood

  Author’s Copyright

  Copyright Vivian Veritas Publishing 2015

  May not be replicated or reproduced in any manner without express and written permission from the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to author and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Protection

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  Red Lodge Bears Series

  Amazon and Kindle Unlimited Exclusive

  Josiah’s Command: A Red Lodge Bears Prequel

  Luke’s Obsession: Red Lodge Bears Book One

  Noah’s Revelation: Red Lodge Bears Book Two

  Gavin’s Salvation: Red Lodge Bears Book Three

  Cameron’s Redemption: Red Lodge Bears Book Four

  Finn’s Conviction: Red Lodge Bears Book Five

  Wyatt’s Resolution: Red Lodge Bears Book Six

  Josiah’s Conclusion Red Lodge Bears Book Seven

  Chapter 1

  Lucy woke in the dead of night. She’d dreamed of the sound of Wyatt’s voice, and it had sounded strange. Low, insistent, tense. She scrunched up her face and tried to remember what the dream had been about, but to no avail. She rolled over and frowned when she realized that her mate wasn’t in bed with her; Wyatt was such a sound sleeper, he hardly ever woke up in the middle of the night. Lucy’s first year as a fellow at her new hospital in Chicago wasn’t treating her sleep schedule a lot better than the last year of her residency had, but at least her mate was hardy enough to sleep through her constantly shifting wake-up times.

  Climbing out of the big bed she and Wyatt had picked out together upon their move to Chicago, Lucy stretched. She smiled to herself a little at the delicious soreness in her body; she’d asked Wyatt for a baby, and he was doing his best to make that happen. Mostly by pinning her against every available surface at every hour of the day and making her call out his name.

  She blushed a little and scooped up the oversized t-shirt she often slept in, a cast off of Wyatt’s that he regularly delighted in stripping off her body. She pulled it on and padded out of the bedroom, thinking how glad she was that Wyatt had insisted on heated floors throughout their house to ward off the chill of Chicago winter nights just such as tonight.

  When she hit the living room, at first she could only see the dazzling display of lights on the Christmas tree, shining down on the beautifully wrapped presents below. Her boxes were so fewer in number than Wyatt’s that Lucy was nearly certain that he’d gone against her demands and gotten her a new car. He was forever on about the supposed lack of safety of her beat up old Volvo. Almost as if to prove him right, the damn car had refused to start twice this week, prompting Lucy to choose between waking her mate for a ride to work or taking Uber, which Wyatt forbade because he didn’t want her in the car with a strange man. Or any man that wasn’t family, really. Her mate was quite possessive.

  Yawning, Lucy halted midstep when she saw Wyatt standing by the front door. He was dressed only in a pair of striped pajama bottoms, facing away from her to look out the frosted glass of the front door, and Lucy took a second to admire his incredible physique. Then he turned, and the expression on his face sobered Lucy in an instant.

  “There’s no more information right now?” Wyatt said. It sounded as though he was repeating someone else’s words back to them. He saw her and gave her a long look, letting her know he’d be off the phone as soon as he could. “Yeah. Well… Yeah, I understand, Gavin.”

  Gavin? The two brothers were on much better terms now that Wyatt’s psychic abilities had been revealed as the reason for his meddling, but they still rarely spoke on the phone. Something was up, and it couldn’t be good if they were talking at such a late hour.

  “We’ll fly out first thing in the morning,” Wyatt said. “Alright. See you tomorrow.”

  Lucy’s eyes widened. Wyatt hung up, his broad shoulders sagging a little bit. Lucy went to him immediately, putting her arms around him and giving him a tight hug.

  “Your dad?” she asked.

  “Yeah. He’s been hospitalized,” Wyatt said, his voice heavy with concern.

  “What happened?” Lucy asked, keeping her voice soft.

  “He’s has cancer. Apparently he’s had it for several years and refused to tell anybody but Ma.”

  Lucy sucked in a breath. Wyatt would never admit it, but gruff old Josiah was Wyatt’s idol, the man he longed to be.

  “Let’s go pack,” she said.

  “It can wait until morning,” Wyatt said bleakly.

  Lucy pulled back and looked up at him, rising on her tiptoes to give him a chaste kiss on the lips.

  “No, baby. I don’t think it can,” she said.

  Taking him by the hand, she led him toward the bedroom, ready to begin their journey as soon as possible.

  Chapter 2

  “Beauty before brawn,” Cameron said, holding the door open for Lucy and Alex.

  “Not a good time for jokes,” Wyatt muttered, giving his brother a hard look.

  Cameron shrugged and rolled his eyes.

  “Some of us tackle serious situations with levity,” Cameron sighed.

  “Just shut it down before we see Ma, okay?” Wyatt asked.

  Lucy grabbed his hand and tugged. Wyatt peered down at her heart-shaped face, the icy defense that had begun to build up around his heart melting instantly the second he looked into her eyes. Somehow, she looked amazing and put together despite their scrabble to get packed and get the soonest flight available. Apparently Cameron and Alex had done the same, because they’d been waiting at the terminal when Lucy and Wyatt showed up.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Lucy mouthed. Wyatt pulled her to a stop and kissed her soundly, wishing that they could deal with this together, just the two of them. Lucy got him, knew how he worked. But his brothers… that was more tenuous.

  Lucy gave him a wink and then towed him along, following Cameron and Alex. Cameron had Pa’s room number and some vague directions from Gavin, and they managed to make it up to the right floor without getting lost. The first person Wyatt saw was Aubrey, standing alone in the hall. She was pretty hard to miss, nursing a very fussy, red-faced baby with precisely her shade of auburn hair.

  The second Aubrey saw them, her face lit up with genuine pleasure, but her happiness quickly faltered. Then the baby squalled again in her arms and she pulled a face.

  “Gen’s not a happy camper,” she sighed. The baby, Imogen Valerie Beran, gave an angry howl to verify Aubrey’s words.

  “Would you like a break?” Alex immediately asked, rushing forward to hug Aubrey. Lucy followed in quick succession; Wya
tt’s mate was a sweet, sociable little thing. He couldn’t miss the way Luce looked at baby Gen either, her eyes getting big as dinner plates as she sized the little girl up. If circumstances were a bit different, Lucy would be rubbing her palms together and declaring her own baby schemes to everyone, in a great amount of medical detail.

  “No, no,” Aubrey said, giving Alex a grateful look. “She’s in a phase right now, won’t go to anybody but me. It’s exhausting.”

  “Poor thing,” Lucy clucked.

  “Everyone’s in the family waiting room. They’ve got the latest updates. I can’t even keep a thought in my head right now or I’d tell you everything,” Aubrey sighed. She did look beat, but also strangely content, so Wyatt didn’t feel too bad leaving her to bouncing and cooing the baby.

  Aubrey hadn’t lied; everyone was in the family room. Literally forty or more people were crammed in the thirty-seat room, and it was a madhouse. Wyatt picked out Gavin first, sitting next to Faith, who looked to be about a hundred months pregnant. When Wyatt’s group entered, Gavin stood up. Faith, to her credit, did actually attempt to rise, but Gavin frowned and motioned for her to stay seated. Her relief was both evident and charming at once.

  Gavin pointed to the corner, where Ma seemed to be dozing. Finn was parked on one side of her, awkwardly cradling a pillow for Ma to recline on. His mate Nora was on the other side, a laptop open on her lap, staring intently at the screen.

  “You’re here,” Luke said, approaching and clapping Wyatt on the shoulder. Luke and Cameron exchanged a complicated fist bump, and then Luke gave Lucy and Alex each a brief hug. “Glad you guys made it.”

  Cameron slid his gaze over to Ma, as if questioning whether she was truly asleep or not.

  “Can you fill us in?” Cam asked, drawing Luke to the opposite corner of the room. Wyatt followed, Lucy on his heels.

  “According to Ma, he’s been sick for a really long time. Like three years or more. His treatments started failing two years ago…”

  “Right around the time he demanded that we all take mates,” Wyatt surmised.

  Luke nodded.

  “He collapsed at home, and now the doctor says the chemotherapy treatments are overwhelming him or something. He’s… he’s not doing doing well, Wy.”

  “Shit,” Wyatt said, rubbing a hand over his face.

  “Yeah. He should be up soon, I think. He’s still rising with the sun, despite everything,” Luke said, a wry smile teasing his lips. “He wants to talk to us boys and our mates first, before anyone else goes in. Except Ma, of course.”

  “Ha! I’d like to see him keep her out,” Alex huffed. Alex sniffled delicately, the only outward indication that she was in any way upset by Luke’s words. She played her cards close to her chest, as usual.

  Lucy, on the other hand, half-launched herself into Wyatt’s arms. Her little frame shook as she tried to hold in her tears, and Wyatt ended up leading her out of the waiting room. Lucy only made it ten feet past Aubrey when she broke down in hysterical sobs.

  “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she kept mumbling, losing all semblance of self-control.

  Wyatt scooped her up in his arms and carried her a bit down the hall to an empty seating area. He sat down and cradled Lucy on his lap. He felt tears on his face, though he felt a bit disconnected from them. Watching Lucy’s reaction was pulling at him in a different way, but he didn’t want to try to soothe her or calm her. If she needed to grieve, he’d just hold her. That was all that he could do at the moment, so it had to be enough.

  They sat like that for three quarters of an hour, though Lucy calmed after only a few minutes. Wyatt thought they both might have dozed, because he startled when Noah squeezed his shoulder.

  “We gotta go in,” Noah whispered, apologetic.

  Wyatt blinked and squinted against the bright morning light, then gently woke Lucy.

  “Is it… can we see him?” Lucy asked. Already her eyes were brimming with tears again, and Wyatt gave her a tight hug. She was as open with her feelings as he was closed, and somehow she filled a hole in him that way, outwardly showing what he felt when he couldn’t.

  “Yeah, babe. Let’s go,” he said.

  Lucy rose and Wyatt followed. They gathered outside the closed door with all five of Wyatt’s brothers and their respective mates, plus Max, baby Gen, and the baby’s namesake, Wyatt’s mother. Luke cleared his throat and pushed through everyone else to the door, Aubrey right behind him.

  Luke gave the family one last glance and opened the door to lead everyone inside Pa’s room. Wyatt and Lucy hung back a little, waiting until last to go in.

  Wyatt’s heart wrenched in his chest when he saw Pa stretched out on the bed, tubes and IVs and medical stuff seeming to sprout from every part of him. There was a plastic oxygen mask covering his face, but above it his eyes gleamed as brightly as ever. Wyatt felt Lucy squeeze his hand, a lifeline in the sudden darkness. She was hiccuping and shaking, but holding in the noise of her crying. Wyatt released her hand and wrapped an arm around her, though he didn’t know if he was comforting her or she was comforting him.

  Ma took a seat on the bed beside Pa. She looked at him and nodded, then cleared her throat.

  “Settle down,” she said, her words the habit of a lifetime. “You father has… some things he wants to say.”

  She was clearly trying not to cry, and suddenly Charlotte was there with tissues, every bit the supportive nurse.

  Ma reached over and pulled down Pa’s oxygen mask.

  “Go ahead, honey,” she urged him.

  Pa took a gasping breath, and looked around the room.

  “I have… never… been more… proud… than I am… right… now…” he wheezed. Pulling up the mask, he drew in another deep breath before continuing. “You boys… your mates…. my grand…. children…”

  He reached out a hand to Max, Noah and Charlotte’s adopted son, and patted the boy’s arm. Max, having spent a good deal of his own time in hospitals, wasn’t the least bit afraid and hopped right up on the bed with Pa. Charlotte lost it right then, turning away from the group as she buried herself in Noah’s arms.

  “I want… to tell… each of you…” Pa said. “Luke… perfect… big bro…ther… so glad… you found… someone… to make you… whole again… Aubrey… I thank you… for my… son… and my… grand… daugh…ter…”

  Aubrey wiped at her face and nodded, still bouncing as she gave baby Genny a tight hug.

  “And Wy… Wyatt…”

  Wyatt’s heart nearly stilled.

  “You… did… right. Love… your… little… doctor.”

  Lucy pressed a hand to her lips and whimpered, and Wyatt gave her a hard squeeze.

  “Gavin… no man… could do better… than… Faith…. You are the… most loyal… son… Take care… of my… twin… grand… sons…”

  Wyatt’s brows shot up; he hadn’t known that Faith was carrying twins. Pa took another long draw from the oxygen mask.

  “Twins… you both… surprised me… So… proud…”

  Noah and Finn were both openly crying.

  “And Cam… take care… of the… family… like you do… And Alex… give her… everything… she… deserves….”

  Ma insisted that Pa take a short break, but he refused.

  “Thank you… for being s…. such a great… family…. so proud…” he finished before relaxing back on the mattress.

  “Okay, okay,” Ma said, clearly trying to keep herself together, and failing miserably. “Let’s let your father rest for a bit, everyone.”

  Wyatt filed out of the room, gripping Lucy’s hand tightly. All the couples spread out and split off, seeking solace from one another. Wyatt and Lucy returned to their earlier resting place, and soon both drifted off once more.

  The next eight hours were filled with many tears and no little laughter as the family reminisced about Pa’s life, times he’d laid down the law or lost his temper or made some small error. Pa slipped away in the early evening, having
said all his goodbyes and held all his grandchildren one last time.

  Chapter 3

  “Thank you for coming today,” Gavin said, standing at the front door of the Lodge, holding a glass of expensive champagne as he looked over the seventy or so people packed into the house’s main room. More people were outside, and even more had come to the funeral, but seventy was about the maximum number that could physically be present at the moment. Gavin cleared his throat and began his send-up of Pa, and Wyatt was glad that he and Lucy had managed to snag chairs in the far right front corner of the room, because Lucy was already wilting in his arms with grief.

  “It’s nice to see so many of you here,” Gavin said. “It speaks to my father’s life, and how many people he touched. He loved the Berserker community, and it loved him… mostly. Except when he was making crazy rules.”

  There was a bit of laughter, as Luke had clearly intended.

  “Josiah Beran was a family man at heart. He wasn’t always easy to talk to, or get along with. He was blunt, and didn’t take crap from anybody but my mother, the love of his life. But at his core, he only wanted a happy, healthy family. And that family was a lot bigger than just us six boys. It was everyone that is standing in this room. It was everyone that was at the wake. It was almost everybody that he met, actually. He wanted what was best for literally everyone.

  “Now you might think about the Alphas’ Council decision of two years ago, driving every eligible Berserker to take a mate. I think most of us know that my father was the driving force behind that ruling. I promise that when I heard it for the first time, I was every bit as shocked as the rest of you.

  “But think where you are today. Turn and look at your fated mate, the love of your life. Would you two be here now, staring at each other, if my father wasn’t an impatient, overbearing know-it-all?”