Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume II)

by Sarah J. Stone

  “We’re not enemies, Azer. I’ll show you.”

  “What will you show me?”

  She pointed across the street. “Right over there. There’s a ring going on today. I’ll show you we’re not as bad as you think.”

  Azer frowned. “I don’t think so.”

  She tugged his arm. “Come on. I’ll prove it to you.”

  He hung back. “I don’t want to see that.”

  “What are you afraid of? How bad can it really be?”

  He dragged his heels, but he let her lead him across the street to her aunt’s house. People clustered around the front steps. As soon as Raven showed up, they rushed to grab her hand. They pumped her arm off her shoulder with excited exclamations, thanks, and congratulations.

  Azer hung back. Black clouds darkened his face, but the spirit of celebration and tense anticipation infected Raven. Her friends and well-wishers swallowed her and drew her into the house.

  She ducked back outside and grabbed Azer’s hand. She pulled him inside after her. A glowing smile spread over her face, and her eyes sparkled. “Come on! We can sit right down in front where you can see everything.”

  He glared at everyone on both sides. People crowded around Raven. The farther into the house they went, the louder the noise got until Raven couldn’t hear a word anyone said. Men jostled her in every direction and shouted back and forth. They pointed her out to their comrades, and the crowd parted to make room for her.

  The ring always gave Raven an electric thrill like no other. She attended every ring her family ever put on, and she held court in the upper balcony seats. She watched Riley raking in cash with his book. Jordan and Hunter handled the dogs down on the floor, and money flowed into her bank account.

  Nothing compared to that thrill. It aroused her like great sex. Her pulse pounded, her blood raged, and her whole body pent up with energy ready to explode in sudden release. The whole experience reminded her of screaming and moaning in the throes of sexual passion. She could even imagine some guy thrusting into her from behind while she watched the bear fight its last fight.

  She got that tingling excitement right now. Her fingers tightened around Azer’s hand, and she cast a quick flashing grin over her shoulder at him. Did he sense it, too? Would he take her back to his room and hammer her to screaming completion at the charge he got from the ring? What would it be like to share that thrill with someone she really wanted? They could have ring sex in a private box overlooking the spectacle.

  She didn’t have to work her way into the house. The mass of bodies opened to let her through. If she came up against any obstacle, other people broke apart the log jam to clear her passage. Her name flew from mouth to mouth. “Raven Faulkner is here! Look over there! It’s Raven Faulkner.”

  Raven hurried as best she could down the crowded hall to an open door. Stairs vanished into the dark basement, and deafening noise issued from that opening. Raven yanked Azer’s hand and ran down the stairs.

  Floodlights shone down from the ceiling on the bear-baiting ring below. The upper balcony seats groaned with hundreds of bodies. Fistfuls of bills waved in the air. Cole Archer sat across the upper tier from Raven. Men crowded into his face and shoved money at him. He took one person’s money and jotted notes in a book before moving on to the next person.

  Raven guided Azer to the parapet. They got their first glimpse of the ring flooded with bright yellow light. Azer looked all around him. He never let go of Raven’s hand.

  She smiled to all her friends and admirers. Azer should be proud to show up to the ring with her. She was a celebrity, the mistress of the game. None of this would be possible without her. Everyone knew how rich and powerful she was. Half the money they earned on this ring went to her.

  Bodies stood packed one against the other in the upper balcony. No one could sit down if they tried, and the noise made Raven’s head ring. Her breath caught in her throat, and sweat trickled down her neck to her back.

  She smiled at Azer, but he wasn’t looking at her. He stood stock still with his eyes fixed on the ring. She followed his gaze, but she didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

  At that moment, the ring door opened and Jordan brought in the first dog. It strained at the chain around its neck and lunged toward the post across the ring. Jordan fought the dog back and dragged it by main strength to the side wall. He clipped the chain to a ring embedded in the plywood siding.

  She touched Azer’s arm. “Isn’t this great?”

  He spun around to bellow into her face, “Are you kidding? How can you do this?”

  She shouted over the din, “What are you talking about? You wanted to see it. This is it. Do you think all these people would come if they didn’t enjoy it?”

  He towered over her. He roared so loud spit flew off his lips to spatter her cheeks, “You people are sick. I never want to see your face again. I’m out of here.”

  He spun away. She yanked him back around. “What’s your problem? What did you think it was going to be like?”

  “You want to know what my problem is? You want to know what I’m talking about? I’m talking about that. That’s my problem.” He pointed down into the ring.

  Jordan came back in with another dog. The animal slathered and snarled in a frenzy at the end of its chain. It rose on its hind legs and threw itself away from Jordan. It barked and growled at a little black bear cub across the ring.

  The cub cowered against a wooden post. An iron ring clamped around its ankle, and a chain held that ring to the post. The cub cringed as far away from the dog as it could get. It tucked its head under one forelimb so it wouldn’t see the dog menacing it.

  Raven swept the ring with her eyes. “What’s the matter? I don’t see anything wrong.”

  He aimed his finger at the cub. “How can you do this to her? How can you treat a living creature this way?”

  Raven’s eyes flashed. She might like this guy. She might even secretly want to do it with him. What the heck. He was pretty good-looking, and he could kiss like anything, but this was going too far. She wouldn’t stand by and let him bad-mouth the ring—her ring. “What do you think she’s here for? She’s a bear.”

  “She’s a child!” Azer boomed. “You’re the sickest, cruelest, most vicious witch I ever met.”

  Raven snarled in his face. She sashayed her hips a step closer to him. “Oh, really? You just told me I was the sexiest, smartest, most beautiful woman you could imagine. Which is it?”

  He knocked his hands against her shoulders to shove her off. “Get away from me. You deserve the worst for this, and I’m gonna make sure you get it. This is barbaric. How can you be part of something like this? I can’t believe I ever touched you.”

  Raven waved her hand. “Cool it, Jack. Do you know how much that cub is worth?”

  Azer whirled away, but he couldn’t get through the crowd. Bodies crushed him against the parapet. He had nowhere to turn but toward the ring. Jordan finished clipping the third dog in place. He went out and came back with a long stick. Hunter and Sloe Archer came in behind him, also armed with the same long spears. They took their places in a semi-circle around the cub.

  The dogs’ deep-throated ro-ro-ro drifted over chanting and cheering from the stands. How the noise got any louder, Raven didn’t understand. Hands waved over the parapet. The energy spiked to an unimaginable pitch.

  Azer looked around in wild fury, but he couldn’t get away. He lowered his voice to a growl, and somehow Raven heard him, “How can you do this? How can you treat her like this?”

  Raven couldn’t look at him anymore. What was he going on about? That cub was just an animal. It was a means to an end, a very profitable end. She turned her attention to the ring. The men moved in with their spears aimed at the cub. The cub curled into a tighter ball. She jammed her rear end against the post as hard as she could.

  Jordan darted forward and jabbed her with his spear. She squealed in surprise and jumped off the floor, only to settle into her huddled
ball again. Hunter moved in, and he and his brother poked her at the same time. The cub let out a little bleat of pain. Then she threw back her head and bawled out loud.

  A jolt went through Azer, but Raven couldn’t mistake that for sexual excitement. He stared down at the scene in molten horror. All of a sudden, he rounded on Raven. He hissed in her face, and his eyes flashed lightning. “Stop this now. Stop this now, or by God, I won’t be responsible for the consequences.”

  “Are you nuts?” she shouted back. “Look at this place. I couldn’t stop it if I wanted to, and this is the most successful ring we’ve ever had.”

  “Don’t tell me you can’t stop it,” he screamed. “I don’t care what you have to do. Call off those men and get those dogs out of there before I make you regret it.”

  She held her hand up in front of his face. “Back off, punk. No one orders me around in my own ring. This is my place. I’ll do what I want, and you sure as shootin’ can’t make me stop.”

  Chapter 9

  Azer didn’t try to argue with her. He spun around. His knuckles gripping the parapet turned white as chalk. His mouth compressed into a hard, straight line. Hunter got his dog out, and the animal’s foaming howls choked on the collar digging into its neck. It jumped off its feet with every leap toward the little bear cub.

  The cub whimpered, but she wouldn’t move away from the post. She couldn’t withdraw any further, and she wouldn’t uncover her face to confront the men and dogs threatening her. The three men stabbed her again and again with their spears from every direction, but nothing would induce her to fight back.

  Raven set her hands on her hips. She hated Azer for spoiling her fun. She couldn’t enjoy the ring with him ranting and raving. Who did he think he was, anyway? What did he think he would see when he came into this basement?

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him move. Great. Another shouting match. He didn’t turn her way, though. Something flashed across her eyes, and all of a sudden, he wasn’t there anymore. She turned around just in time to see him vault over the parapet and drop into the ring.

  She cried and put out her hand to grab him, but it was too late. He plummeted past her. The lights caught his hair, and a moment later, Azer Mackenzie ceased to exist. A shaggy brown bear landed on all four paws in the center of the ring.

  Quick as thought, he wheeled to face the men and dogs snapping at his heels. Jordan started back in shock, but Hunter and Sloe reacted just a second too late. The enormous bear swung his mighty paw at them. He swept Hunter’s dog right off its feet. The blow ripped the chain out of Hunter’s hand. The dog went flying and slammed into the side wall. It slid to the floor in a limp heap.

  The bear didn’t stop to notice. He leapt on the other dog and landed with his stout limbs straddling the dog’s back. The dog tried to round on him and bite him, but the bear gaped wide his deadly jaws and crunched the dog’s spine with one bite. The dog gave a sickening yelp and bolted for the door. Its hind quarters dragged on the ground. The dog sat down next to the door and pawed to get out, but no one paid him any attention.

  The bear spun the other way and hit Hunter in the shoulder. He knocked the man flat and leapt. Sloe recovered and stabbed the bear in the ribs with his spear. The bear let out a bellow that shivered the house to its foundation. Sloe saved Hunter’s life, but he paid for it with his own.

  The bear took a bite at the spear sticking in his face, and the shaft snapped between his teeth. Sloe looked around for some other weapon to fight the bear off, but the ring yawned bare and empty all around him. The paralyzed dog scratched at the door and barked to be let out. The third dog whimpered and cowered against the wall exactly the way the bear cub did on the far side of the ring.

  The cub showed no sign of recognizing the huge Bruin marauding in front of her eyes. She didn’t take her paw off her eyes to see anything. Raven stared down at the scene with her mouth open. This couldn’t be happening. Her glorious ring couldn’t end this way. Azer couldn’t destroy everything she worked so hard to build.

  He lowered his broad head between his shoulders and advanced on Sloe. The flood lights shone on his golden fur. His big paws turned inward when he took a step.

  The stands thundered with hundreds of screaming voices. In one corner, Cole worked faster than ever booking bets. People mobbed him in their haste to place their wagers and hand over their money. Some distracted part of Raven’s mind noticed the overflowing cash box at Cole’s feet.

  Sloe didn’t see that, though. He saw only the bear backing him into a corner, but there were no corners in that ring. The wooden walls formed a complete circle, and Sloe couldn’t get to the door. It was too far away.

  Then his eye fell on the cub. He lunged toward her in one last desperate bid to save his own life, but the bear moved ten times faster. The bear hit the wall with the collision power of a runaway freight train. His open mouth slammed into the plywood. He didn’t have time to close it before his massive weight crushed Sloe. The bear’s teeth sank into Sloe’s head. Sloe raised his hands for an instant. Then they fell lifeless at his side.

  Hunter and Jordan dashed for the door behind the bear’s back. The bear turned around just as Jordan’s foot vanished through the gap. The bear growled low at no one in particular. When he moved away from the wall, Sloe collapsed into a broken pile of blood and boneless flesh. Pulp and brain oozed from his skull.

  Nothing remained in the ring but the dogs. Quick as a wink, the door eeked open. A disembodied hand grabbed the paralyzed dog by the collar and dragged it to safety. The other dog still chained to the wall watched in dismay, but no one dared enter to save it from a similar fate.

  The bear took a lap around the ring. An inaudible grumble rolled out of his chest, but no one could hear it over the noise in the stands. Raven only felt it in the depths of her bones. That sound broke apart her last vestige of her place in the world. This disaster would ruin her if she let it.

  She glanced around at the ecstatic onlookers. Money flew right and left. People wiped tears off their faces and broke into hysterical laughter. More people packed that basement than ever before. Maybe this wasn’t the end of everything after all.

  The bear raised his head and let out the loudest bellow Raven ever heard. For a fraction of an instant, a hush fell over the crowd in answer to that bellow. Then the place erupted louder than ever. The sound sent Azer into a fury. He paced the ring and clawed at the walls in search of somewhere to get out.

  No one moved until he came to the door. He growled at it and pawed the thin seam where the smooth plywood met the solid wall. His claws slid off the wood and couldn’t get into the crack.

  More bets flew. Would he get the door open or not? One of his claws got stuck in a splinter of wood, and the door popped open a centimeter. He clawed one more time, and his claws caught. The door swung wide.

  The whole place exploded. Pandemonium ensued. Everyone rushed for the exit. People fell underfoot and died in the crush. Stamping feet drummed up the stairs, and frightened spectators flooded into the street.

  Raven stood frozen to the spot. Azer was free. He was somewhere behind that wall, on his way up to the stands. He would be here in a second. Would his bear brain recognize her? He called her sick. He called her barbaric and threatened her with dire consequences if she didn’t stop the ring. Would he recognize her enough to stop himself from killing her? Maybe he wanted to kill her. Maybe he was coming for her right now.

  She stared down at the now-empty ring. A dead dog and a dead man lay still on the floor. The living dog rested its chin on its paws now that the killer was gone. Raven’s heart cried out for Azer. If he was coming for her, she wouldn’t run. She was ready for him. She would meet him, whatever he turned out to be.

  She welcomed him in all his raging madness. She understood him, now better than ever. He was raw. He was magnificent. He was dangerous and powerful and deadly.

  Screams echoed over the crowd, and a monstrous black shape appeared across the balcony from
Raven. She stood still with her hands resting on the parapet. The bear loomed bigger than ever at that close range. His head bonked the ceiling so he had to lower it to get through, but nothing could stop his rampaging fury.

  Bodies flew in all directions. He batted people aside with his paws and jawed here and there for anything that fell into his grasp. His grumbling roar rang through the stands.

  Cole gathered up his book and his cash box and disappeared into the fleeing crowd. Raven recognized Jordan and Hunter. They met up with Wyatt and headed for the door behind everybody else. The spectators shoving from the back cast furtive glances behind them at the oncoming menace.

  Azer plowed his way through the unlucky few who delayed too long. Bodies fell under his feet, and he paused just long enough to rip out their throats, break their backs, and leave them in pieces.

  He came closer to the hindmost spectators trying to push their way up the stairs. Heads and limbs blocked out the square of light where the stairs met the day outside. The people closest to the bear screamed and pleaded and threatened people in front of them to move faster, but no one could move in that crowd.

  Azer slowed down when he saw the glut on the stairs. He didn’t have to hurry to catch anyone he pleased. He lowered his head and growled. A few men turned around to face him. “Let’s fight him,” someone shouted. “He’s only one. We can take him.”

  Azer never stopped his inevitable advance. No one knew what to do. Three men in the farthest rear held a hasty conference. Then they stepped forward to meet him.

  A few others joined them. They spread out in a loose ring around Azer. He only roared at them. He shook his head, and the shaggy fur around his neck flapped. One big man rushed forward. “Now, boys!”

  Everything happened at once. Six big men dashed Azer at the same time. They took a few steps, and the rippling fabric of reality shimmered inky black. Six deadly shadows slipped across the floor, and a pack of screeching panthers launched themselves at Azer.

  He roared louder than ever, but he couldn’t stop them. Their fluid bodies left the ground and sailed through the air. Two landed on his back, and their claws embedded in his skin. The other four attacked him from all sides.