Alice put her hand over her sister’s paw. “Susan, I have to. I love him.”
Susan’s bear eyes widened, and she shook her head more vigorously. Blood begin to ooze out of her neck again, and Alice covered it with her hand to stop the flow.
“Stop moving,” she commanded, smiling gently at Susan. “Don’t worry, you know I’m careful.” She winked, and Susan rolled her eyes at her and slumped back to the ground, groaning a little in pain.
Alice rose and looked around. She didn’t shift to her bear form, hoping with the power of speech she could talk some sense into the weres fighting each other. She called to them.
“Weres! Weres! Listen to me! Stop fighting!” Her voice rose above the melee of battle sounds, and those closest to her turned her way. The cease of fighting sounds reached others, and soon only Alex and Riley were left fighting. Somehow in the battle, Riley had found Alex and was trying to rip him apart.
All the weres watched the fight that wouldn’t stop. Alex was clearly not trying to hurt Riley, only defending himself against the attack. Riley wanted blood, and used every weapon he had at his disposal: his big claws, the fact that he outweighed his opponent by at least a hundred pounds, his powerful jaws. He swiped a paw at Alex, who dodged back and feinted left. His agility allowed him to move faster, but he already had a minor injury that slowed him down.
As Alice watched, Riley’s paw caught Alex’s right flank, and he dropped to the ground, blood already flowing freely from the wound. Alice screamed his name and ran between the two, throwing herself over Alex’s form before Riley could finish his deadly work.
Riley froze at the sight of his sister covering the wolf’s damaged body. She lay across him, hiding his vulnerable underbelly from his enemy. She held her hands up at her brother defensively. He fell to all fours and shuffled back a few steps, unable to remove his eyes from this spectacle.
Around them, bears and wolves shifted back into their human forms, the situation too much for them to understand. A werebear had thrown herself over an injured werewolf in order to protect him from her own kind. The world just might be ending.
John stood and stared at his son on the ground, Alice’s body covering his. He looked at Shara, who returned his gaze with what looked like a smirk on her face.
Cammie had also shifted and was staring at her daughter protecting the wolf. Secretly, she cheered. The end of this ridiculous feud may be upon them. She looked at Shara, and they shared a moment of understanding and hope. Neither of the women liked this continuing hatred, and both were happy to see a possible end to it.
Riley finally shifted when he realized everyone else had. His breathing was labored, both from the fight and from the scene that lay before him. His voice was quiet, almost awed. “What the hell are you doing, Alice?”
“Riley, I’m in love with him. I couldn’t let you kill him,” she explained quietly, firmly. “I know there’s some kind of feud between the clan and the pack, but I don’t care.”
Alex had shifted beneath her, and she turned to touch his wounded side, which looked much deeper and more deadly on his human form. She put her hand to his face, pale with pain. He looked up at her and smiled. Then he shifted his attention to the rest of the group.
“I love her too. I know it’s fast and seems insane, but I do.”
John was furious. “No, Alex! No. You do not love this woman. You’ve known her one day.”
“That’s all it took, Dad,” Alex replied. “I want to be with her.”
Riley glared at him. “You will not be with her. She is a werebear. We marry our own kind, dammit!”
“Do not answer for me, Riley! I want to be with him too,” Alice yelled. “You may be the future leader of our clan, but this clan has never ruled over its bears like a dictatorship.”
“New leader, new rules,” Riley growled at her.
“Young man, you are not the leader of this clan yet,” Cammie called, walking to her son. “And if your leadership is to become a dictatorship, I will not step down.”
Riley looked down. They’d both known it was an idle threat; his leadership would match his father’s and mother’s. “Mother, she cannot do this! She cannot be with a werewolf no matter how much she loves him.”
John spoke up. “I agree with the werebear, shockingly.” He looked at Alex and Alice, who still sat on the ground together. “Werewolves marry other werewolves, and I assume werebears marry werebears.”
Riley nodded his head, but Shara stepped up to speak. “There is no law within the pack that says a werewolf must marry a werewolf.” She turned to Cammie and asked, “Is there such a law in the clan?”
“No, we have no such law. It’s just always been that way,” Cammie replied.
“Same here. It’s called tradition. And this pack is about tradition,” John called, looking at the crowd around them. He spoke to the wolves first. “Werewolves, we have never married outside the werewolf species. We don’t know what kind of children these two might have. Or if they can even have children.”
“We haven’t said anything about children,” Alice yelled. “That’s a discussion best left for another time. We want to be together, to see what might happen. Why is that so wrong?”
“Because the werewolves are our natural enemy, Alice. You know that, have known that your whole life. Quit acting like you don’t,” Riley told her. When he saw Alice struggling to rise on her injured leg, his chivalry overcame his anger and he offered her his arm. She immediately turned to help Alex. Riley’s chivalry didn’t reach that far, so Shara stepped forward and helped Alice haul Alex to his feet.
“Riley, do not speak to me like I’m stupid. I know about the feud, and believe me, it’s been on my mind since last night,” Alice told him, supporting Alex with Shara’s help. The blood had slowed to an ooze, but the wound was ugly.
Shara turned to the crowd after gesturing to Cammie to join her. “Wolves and bears, let me pose a question to all of you.” When she was sure all of them were paying close attention, she called out, “What began this ugly feud between the wolves and the bears?”
“I can’t remember, Shara. Can you remember?” Cammie asked a little sarcastically.
“No, Cammie, I can’t remember either.”
“That’s really weird.” Cammie addressed the congregation of wolves and bears. “What about any of you? Does anybody know why this feud began?”
The silence among the wolves and bears stretched into forever. Cammie and Shara looked at each other and grinned. No one truly knew the reason for the feud; it had been a deeply held belief for so long that the clan and pack hated each other that everyone fell into it as if it was supposed to be that way.
“So nobody knows? John?” Shara looked at her husband. She turned to Riley. “What about you, Riley? No?”
The two men stared at her, then looked at the ground abashedly. They had no idea why they hated each other. Stories of the cruelty of the clan had been told to John as bedtime stories, and Riley had always heard of the tortures inflicted on bears at the hands of the wolves. But neither had actually seen evidence of this, neither had actually witnessed it.
Shara said their thoughts out loud to the crowd. “We’ve grown up hearing horrible stories about the werebears.”
Cammie nodded, “And we’ve heard nothing but horror stories about the wolf pack.”
Shara continued, “But have any of you ever actually seen cruelty from the other? Have any of you experienced it?”
Alice joined the argument. “When Alex could have left me to the poachers, he saved me instead, facing those poachers and even injuring one to rescue me. I was terrified at the idea of being taken to the wolf pack camp. I’d heard the stories too. But Shara cleaned and dressed my wound, they fed me, and almost all of them were polite to me.” She looked at John pointedly.
“If no one can remember why this feud even started, why must we continue it? It’s ridiculous!” Cammie yelled, focusing her energy at the werebears, some of whom nodded in ag
reement.
“Stupid is a better word, Cammie,” Shara interjected. “We need to end this, and soon.” She looked around at the injured wolves and bears, at the ones who hadn’t been able to shift because of their wounds. She gestured to them. “Hurting each other only makes us weaker, more susceptible to more dangerous enemies. A truce would save us all a lot of pain and heart ache in the coming years.”
Riley finally spoke after a long silence. “Mom, Shara, the two of you are right. I don’t know why I’ve always hated the werewolves, I just always have. And that is stupid.”
John refused to speak. He didn’t want to agree, though deep in his heart he knew they were all right. But his stubbornness wouldn’t let his tongue move to form words.
Riley continued. “It will take time, but maybe we can reach some kind of agreement.”
Cammie and Shara smiled and clapped their hands. Alex and Alice leaned into each other, and Alice thought about kissing him. She decided against it, though, when Riley spoke again.
“That doesn’t mean you two can be together,” Riley said, pointing at Alex and Alice.
Cammie touched her son’s hand. “Let’s save that argument for later. We need to tend to the wounded for now.”
Shara nodded. “Ok, everybody! If you aren’t injured, help us with those who are. Let’s move everybody to the eating area and onto tables for now until we can see what we’re dealing with.”
When no one moved, Cammie called, “Werebears and werewolves, help each other! It’s a first step toward friendship.”
A shot rang out, and Cammie dropped to the ground.
Chapter 7
Bud jerked at the report of the weapon fired. He looked at his men and realized that Mike had fired a shot at the female leader of the werebears. He looked back at the camp; the leader’s children had rushed to her side, as well as the female leader of the werewolves. Mike may have jumped the gun, so to speak, but now was their chance.
“Fire!” he yelled to the others. All four of them took aim and began to fire. Bud watched the wolves and bears scatter for cover, and the werebear leader’s son and daughter pick up their mother and run into a tent with two wolves following close behind. Two bears and a wolf were already on the ground. One of the bears wasn’t moving, and the other bear and the wolf were trying to move to cover. Others moved to help them, but Bud shot the wolf in the head before help could arrive. The bear was dragged behind a table by a wolf.
Jason called, “We’ll have to move closer to hit our targets!”
Mike answered, “Headed down.”
The third man didn’t reply, but Bud could see him moving through the brush from the other side of the clearing. The camp was surrounded. Success was imminent.
*****
When Cammie hit the ground, Riley and Alice had screamed and run to her side. Susan had roared and tried to drag herself to her mother, but more bullets rained on them. Riley picked up his mother, and together with Alex supported by Shara, ran to the nearest tent and got on the floor. A man grabbed Susan by the ruff and dragged her behind a table. She looked up at him; a man from the wolf pack held her close and low.
Alice and Riley were holding their mother’s hands while Shara did her best to stifle the blood from the gunshot wound in her chest. John, two injured wolf pack members, and a bear clan member entered the tent behind them. Everyone stayed close to the ground as bullets tore through the tent.
Cammie didn’t speak, just looked at her son and daughter, wishing Susan was also there. She could feel her life leaving her, and had only a moment to say what she needed to say.
“Riley, you’re the leader now.” He shook his head, a tear falling onto her cheek off of his. “Yes. Accept this.” She held up her hand, and he took it, removing the ring from her middle finger and placing it on his ring finger. He was the leader.
Shara had moved to John and held his hand. Alex watched sadly as Cammie spoke her last words.
“Alice, tell Susan how much I love her. And stay with Alex if that’s what your heart tells you. Your brother will defend that choice,” she murmured. Riley nodded; it was his mother’s final dictate as the clan leader. “I love you so much.”
They all watched as the life left her eyes.
Silence filled the tent. The sounds of screams and guns died. Her spirit left quietly; no one saw it. But they all felt her presence leave the room with her final breath.
The sounds returned. Riley stood. “Alice, we have to save our grief for later. Our people are being slaughtered.”
Alice laid her mother’s hand on her chest and rose to her feet. Alex touched her hand, and she smiled sadly at him.
“John, we need a plan. You know this area better than I do,” Riley said. “What do we do?”
“The reports of the gun are moving closer, I can hear that,” Alex answered.
“Yes. The poachers are closing in.” John cocked his head to the side and listened. “Four different guns. So only four men.”
“One in each direction,” Alice shared.
“Ok, we’ll each go out the back of the tent and circle around. Two together. Alex and I will take the one that’s across the camp,” John said, looking at Riley for approval. “Riley, you and your sister go for the one to the left. Shara, you take the werebear and get the one to the right.”
“What about the last one?” Alex asked.
“I can’t pinpoint his location from here. He hasn’t fired a shot in several minutes,” John said.
“You’re right. John, let’s you and I find the missing one and send Alex and Alice for the one across the camp,” Riley commented.
“They’re both injured,” Shara pointed out. “Should they be paired?”
“I’m fine,” Alice said, a deadly look in her eye. She wouldn’t remain in the tent. She wanted the blood of the men who had killed her mother.
“Me too. We’ll handle it,” Alex said, grasping Alice’s hand tightly in his.
“You two take the one to the left then,” he said to the two werewolves, who nodded gleefully. “Let’s do it then,” Riley said. He and John shifted, and Shara lifted the back of the tent for them. She and the werebear shifted as well, and Alice lifted it for them.
The two werewolves left next. Alice shifted and left the tent quietly, with Alex right behind her. For such large animals, they moved surprisingly silently around the camp. The guns had ceased fire as all the weres had managed to hide themselves. Alice glanced at the middle of the camp and silently gasped. Three bears and two wolves were lying on the ground, either dead or grievously injured and unmoving. She prayed to the gods that someone had pulled Susan to safety. She couldn’t see her anywhere.
To their left, they heard the guttural sound of a man dying and the undeniable growl of a werewolf silencing the noise. Shara and the werebear had found their man and dispatched of him quickly. One down, three to go.
Alice watched for movement in the trees around them, Alex looking ahead for any sign of the poacher. The fourth was still hiding, but quickly Alex spotted a large bald man skulking behind a bush, peeking through it for signs of life. He motioned to Alice, who saw the man immediately. She looked at Alex, who motioned with his paw to go around behind him. He knew she wanted the kill, and he would let her have it.
As she circled around behind her man, she heard another man scream somewhere to their right again. Apparently the one who had been on the left had changed positions, but the werewolf pair had taken him out of the equation. Two down, two to go, she thought, staring murderously at the poacher whose back was now to her.
*****
Jason jerked when he heard the scream. Dammit, he thought. They got one of the guys, Mike it sounded like. Jason couldn’t see Bud anywhere, and hadn’t been able to for a while. He wondered about his pal, Corbin, too. He’d been invisible for a time. He’d heard a strange sound earlier, almost like a choking, and hoped he wasn’t the only one left.
His worst fear was proven by the scream. The weres had turned an
d retaliated against them. At least one of his friends was dead, and the other two were who knows where. Jason decided it was time to run. As silently as he could, he lifted himself from the crouch he’d been in and turned.
Alice stared at him, her head cocked to one side. Their eyes locked, and Jason could see the intelligence in the eyes, and the knowledge of his death. He swung his rifle up to shoot at her, but a werewolf he hadn’t seen move behind him knocked it out of his grasp. He looked from the werebear to the werewolf, and said goodbye to the world.
*****
John and Riley tracked the fourth shooter. They’d heard the death throes of three of the men, so only one was left. He’d hidden his tracks well, like a person who knew he’d be tracked. However, John and Riley both possessed a sense of smell unrivaled by any other species in the world. They looked at each other in confusion. The smell of this poacher led them back to the camp.
They turned quickly and retreated to the camp, eyes open. They could smell nothing here; the scent of fresh blood from the injured and dead was overpowering. Riley looked at John and snorted. John looked at him, and Riley lifted his head to indicate a tent. John lifted his muzzle and smelled the air; the distinct odor of human drifted up his nostrils, making him sneeze. Riley grinned a bear grin and John returned his wolf one.
They silently moved to the tent. They locked eyes briefly, then pushed through the tent flap. It was empty.
*****
Bud had left the tent. He’d seen the wolf and bear shadows and knew they were closing in. He didn’t want those two. He wanted the original two, the two that had started all this trouble. All of his men were dead, of that he was sure. And he knew he wouldn’t make it out alive. But that damn werebear bitch would go down with him.
He circled around again. He’d heard Jason’s screams, so he moved in that direction first, his rifle at the ready, his eyes alert. I’ll kill them both if I can, he thought.
Forbidden Love: A BBW, BWWM Paranormal Romance Page 7