He whirled around just as the first horses emerged from the trees. They flowed all around him, and the men leveled their rifles at him. Jude didn’t wait for them to fire again. He lunged forward. A terrible roar ripped from his throat, and he plunged into the forest running as fast as his legs would carry him.
He made it a hundred yards before the men got their horses turned around to follow him. They galloped on both sides to cut him off. In seconds, they circled him. Their horses raced all around so he couldn’t get through.
Jude spun this way and that. He bared his teeth and bellowed at his captors, but he couldn’t fight them all. Seven horsemen surrounded him while another two stood back and took aim.
All at once, another rider cantered up. Luther swept his arm aside and shouted over the noise. “Capture him alive, boys. He can tell us where that woman is.”
Jude faced him in wild rage. “You’ll never find her. You can skin me alive. I’ll never tell you anything. She’s halfway to Reno by now where you’ll never get her.”
Luther reined his horse outside the circle. “We’ll see about that. Tie him up.”
Jude clenched his fists, ready to fight, but the horsemen stayed out of his reach. They swung their lassos to rope him and capture him. He danced one way, and the first rope flopped to the ground. Another rope wobbled through the air, and he couldn’t escape. It whipped around his shoulders and cinched his chest.
He grabbed the rope in one hand and yanked, but the horseman wrapped the other end around his saddle horn. The horse dug in its heels, and the rope held. Another lasso wound around Jude from the other direction. It tightened around his waist, and another tangled with the first. Three ropes held him from all sides. He couldn’t get away no matter how hard he fought.
Jude jerked right and left. His eyes blazed, and he gnashed his teeth at his captors. If he went down, they would search the whole mountain until they found Lily. A woman on foot couldn’t outrun them.
Jude let out a deafening bellow. His voice ripped the fabric of the world in half. It touched the skies. It grew and grew, bigger than any man. It swelled so big it split Jude Farrell down the middle. His head craned back on his neck, and the teeth stabbing between his lips burst out of his head. His jaws extended and peeled the skin back from his face.
That bottomless, thunderous roar shuddered his massive shoulders. His spine bent at a sickening angle, and his shoulders blew apart under his jacket. His arms flexed and turned inward, and his fingers splayed to become vicious claws. He arched back, and his chest expanded. He towered over the horsemen surrounding him, and a shaggy brown bear appeared where the man once stood.
The bear wheeled on his hind legs. He yanked the ropes out of the men’s hands with one sweep of his paw. He thundered one more time, and that sound struck terror into the hearts of everyone who heard it.
The horses darted back. One man pulled back on the reins to get his horse under control, and the horse shied before the monstrous threat. The bear growled low, and the horse reared. The rider tried to sit low, but he couldn’t hold on. He rolled backward and tumbled on the ground.
Two horsemen wheeled their horses around and galloped into the trees, but the others tried to stand their ground. The bear advanced on the fallen rider. The man scrambled for cover, but that only excited the bear to charge. He hit the man from behind, and a nauseating crunch followed him to the ground.
The bear didn’t linger over his triumph. He rounded on the nearest man, another rider still in the saddle. The bear crossed the space in a few paces. The horse couldn’t retreat in time. The bear rose on his hind feet and met the horse in a close embrace. The bear’s jaws closed on the horse’s head, and horse and rider bit the dust in one heap.
The bear collapsed on top of them. A piercing scream rent the forest, and when the bear moved on, the man lay still in the saddle around his flailing horse. The other riders bolted for the trees. Across the gap, a single horse stood still. Luther Campbell sat deep in his saddle and raised his rifle to his shoulder. He took careful aim at the bear marauding from one horseman to the next.
Luther’s finger tightened around the trigger. One bullet would end this massacre, and Luther and his men would be on their way. He led the bear a few steps and steadied his breathing to fire when a low growl behind him rumbled his bones. Luther glanced over his shoulder and came face to face with the she-bear.
Luther’s eyes widened for a fraction of an instant. Then his face hardened into a mask of determined malice and deadly certainty. Every muscle fiber tensed to spring. He and the she-bear regarded each other for a long moment.
They both exploded into motion at the same instant. Luther spun around and swept his rifle to his shoulder. The she-bear launched herself at him in one coiled, murderous blur. The gun went off. The she-bear slammed into Luther’s horse, but Luther’s spurs touched the animal’s sides before she could bite.
The horse rocketed forward and knocked the she-bear aside. She thundered in rage, but the horse got the jump on her. By the time she gathered her legs under her to give chase, the horse tore through the trees headed down the mountain.
Another ear-splitting roar made the she-bear whirl around the other way. When she saw her mate fighting a bunch of mounted men, she left off chasing Luther. She charged in to join the fight. She attacked one horse from behind and broke its leg with one bite. She slashed another across the hip and tore its leg off with her claws.
The male bear caught one rider by the leg and yanked him out of the saddle. His horse disappeared, but the man fell under the bear’s clashing jaws. By the time the two bears met in the space between the trees, none of the riders remained to threaten them.
The big male swung his head one way and then the other. He growled low in his chest. The she-bear darted under his chin and licked his mouth and nose. He turned his head away and pretended to snap at her, but he didn’t bite. He rested his chin on her back.
The she-bear rubbed her side against his chest and buried her nose in his fur. She inhaled deep lungfuls of his scent and purred under her breath. The big male opened his mouth and clasped her around the back of the neck, but he didn’t close his mouth hard enough to hurt. He just held her there.
The female licked the blood off his cheeks until he shook his head. His lips flapped against his teeth. He blinked and turned his head away. She rolled on her back on the ground and wriggled against his forelegs.
He bent down and nipped at her neck, but she bounded away with a squeal. She leapt to her feet and scampered into the woods. She came to a stop a few paces away and looked back at him. He regarded her with his small, keen eyes and waited.
She set off through the woods at a slow amble. She rooted into piles of leaves and fossicked under fallen branches. The big male grumbled to himself, licked his chops, and started after her. The two bears hunted for berries and grubs. They scratched their backs against trees and fished in the streams.
They enjoyed the easy life for the rest of the day, and when the sun set over Bruins’ Peak, the big male led his mate to a hidden den in the mountainside. They curled up in a furry ball and slept through the night undisturbed by dreams.
Chapter 8
Jude shrugged out of his jacket and sat down in front of the fire to take off his boots. Lily came in from the well. She lugged a dripping pail of water and set it behind the door.
She wet a cloth and wrung it out. She snuck up behind Jude’s chair and laid it on the back of his neck. He jumped in surprise, and his fingers closed around her wrist.
She smiled when he guided her hand to lay the cloth on his forehead. “That feels good.”
“How did it go today?”
“Just fine. The trees down there are perfect for logs. I’ll have the house put up in no time.” He kissed inside her wrist. “Maybe you’d like to live down there and let your family live up here.”
“No way!” she exclaimed. “Are you nuts? I’m staying here. I don’t care where they live.”
&n
bsp; “I was hoping you’d say that.” He fished inside his pocket and brought out an envelope. “This is for you.”
She pounced on it. “Where did you get this?”
“Sanders brought it up. I met him down on the road. Open it and see what it says.”
He strapped his muscled arms around her waist and sat her down on his lap while she ripped the envelope open. He nuzzled into her neck while she read the letter. “It’s from my father.”
He gave her a love bite under her ear. “I guessed that, silly. What does he say?”
“He wishes us his sincere congratulations.” She turned around to kiss him. “I knew he would.”
“Phew! I was worried.”
She smacked his shoulder. “You’re daft. He wants us to Homestead. Why would he mind me marrying someone who’s already doing it?”
“I didn’t think a lady like you would have anything to do with me.”
She threw her arms around his neck. “Well, I did. So there. He says my brother and his wife and their children will leave Philadelphia in October. They should arrive in early December. They plan to stay in Iron Bark until they get the Homestead built.”
“I’ll have it done long before then. They can move in as soon as they get here.”
“September’s half gone already,” she remarked. “There isn’t time to write them and tell them.”
“Then they’ll just have to be pleasantly surprised when they get here.”
She rested the letter in her lap and faced him. “Listen to me, darling. You’ve been slaving day and night on the other Homestead. You’ve neglected this place.”
He leaned in to kiss her. “I want everything to be ready when your family comes. I don’t want anybody saying I didn’t do my share for this family.”
“No one could say that, and we have our own preparations for winter yet to complete. Once you get the house finished, I don’t want you doing any more.”
“What will they eat? They won’t have a garden, and who knows if your brother is any good with a gun. I should put up a few deer for him, at least to get them through the winter.”
“You’ll get them through the winter and not us,” Lily countered. “My brother has money to spend on supplies from town. Finish the house, and then concentrate on us.”
He hugged her close. “All right, love.”
She picked up the letter. “Father and Mother will make their way out next year. They plan to buy my sister Lara another parcel of land down the back of the Peak. She’s engaged to marry someone named Montrause MacAllister.”
Jude laughed out loud. “What kind of a name is that?”
“My other sister was engaged to one Horton Dodd, but this letter was written three months ago. They’ll be married by now. Father says my brother’s brother-in-law, one Callum Mackenzie, and his sister Katinka Dunlap, want to move out here with their families, too.”
“That’s a lot of people in one extended family all living on the Peak. There could be problems.”
“What problems could there be? They’re all Bruins. I think it’s a wonderful plan. It means all our people will be living in one place. They won’t have to worry about humans bothering them anymore. You don’t know what it’s like Back East these days.”
“Tell me. What’s it like Back East these days?”
She didn’t smile. “It might be nice Back East these days, but Bruins live in constant dread of anybody finding out about them. They have no room to grow, and humans get naturally suspicious if they do well. The humans won’t patronize their shops. Bruins stick close to Bruins, which makes the humans more suspicious than ever. Every Bruin I know is living on a knife edge. Some don’t even set foot outside their houses anymore.”
“I didn’t know that. I’ve been out here a long time. You’re the first Bruin I’ve met in years.”
“This Peak could become a haven for Bruins. It could be one of the few safe places for our people anywhere in the world. We’re lucky we found it when we did.”
He held her close. “All right. They can come.”
She laughed in his face. “Don’t sound so downhearted about it. I, for one, will enjoy having people around again.”
He put his head on one side. “Don’t tell me you’re tired of me already.”
“I’m not tired of you. These last few months have been wonderful. It will be nice to have people around, though. You said yourself you got lonely up here.”
“I did. That was before I met you.”
She fought her way off his lap and put the letter away in her case. She didn’t come back to the fire until she brought him his pipe. When he bent down to light it from an ember, she hurried away and left him alone.
She turned down the bed and trimmed the lamp wick. She set out a bowl of yeast for the next day’s baking. She tended a dozen chores. Her knitting lay unfinished on the table next to her chair.
The night turned black outside the window. Lily untied her apron strings and hung the apron by her bed. She moved around the cabin behind Jude’s back, but he sat still and gazed into the flames. She couldn’t delay any longer.
She put out the lamp and lighted a candle. She set it on the table next to her chair and walked around in front of him. He didn’t look up until she blocked his view of the fire.
Lily set her hands on his shoulders and gazed down into his eyes. The firelight flickered against his skin. He rested his hands on her hips and drew her toward him with a sigh.
“You wouldn’t be able to live up here alone with me any longer,” she told him, “not even if my family stayed Back East.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”
She bent down to kiss him, and when she straightened up, her eyes shone. “I’m pregnant.”
He stared up at her in shock. Then he bent his shaggy head and rested his ear against her belly. She tussled his hair, and his breath seeped through her clothes to warm her. She closed her eyes and hugged his head.
His hair shielded his face. His sturdy arms compressed her hips under her dress. He held her still so long she wondered if he’d fallen asleep. He was too tired to talk these days. He usually went straight to bed.
She studied the back of his neck. “Jude?”
When he picked up his head and peered into her face, she barely recognized him. Hunted desperation haunted that face. He didn’t see her standing right in front of him. “Another Bruin?”
Her breath caught in her throat. “Aren’t you happy about this?”
He leaned his forehead against her stomach. His voice rasped low in his chest. “You don’t understand. You don’t understand what a place like Bruins’ Peak can be. You say it’s bad for Bruins Back East? That’s nothing compared to what they have to deal with on the frontier.”
She combed her fingers through his hair. “What do you mean?”
He didn’t look up. His shoulders shuddered when he tried to get the words out. “You never asked how I wound up here in the first place. I never wanted to tell you. I always thought you would run away if you found out, but I guess I better tell you now.”
“I won’t run away, Jude.”
“Don’t say that until you hear the truth. I was born on the Missouri River when the country first opened up for settlement. I never knew my father, and my mother never told me what happened to him. Then one day when I was about six, my mother took me out hunting with her for the first time. I was just a cub, so she put me in this little hollow while she went out stalking a porcupine.”
Lily kept still. She barely breathed. He never talked about his past. This must be important.
“I hid and watched her. She pounced on the porcupine and killed it. All at once, three dogs charged out of the woods and attacked her. A bunch of hunters on horseback came out and surrounded her. She tried to fight them off, but they shot her right in front of me.”
Lily froze. Holy God! How could anybody survive that?
“I ran away. The dogs saw me and chased me up a tree, but the men didn’t know
what they were chasing. They called the dogs off, and I escaped. I ran back to our cabin, but after a few weeks, the county sheriff came along and told me I couldn’t stay there anymore. The place belonged to my father, and since no one knew where he was, the county decided to sell it. The sheriff and his deputies drove me off. In the end, they had to threaten to shoot me if I ever came back.”
Lily gasped out loud. “How awful!”
“I wandered around for years. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I hated humans and feared them. I wouldn’t go near their settlements, and they hated me just as much. I kept searching until I found this place. I swore I would live alone for the rest of my life, and I was doing pretty well at it until you came along.”
He raised his head, and his eyes burned into her soul. “I can’t let that happen to another Bruin. I can’t have any child of mine driven off at the point of a gun. I couldn’t live with myself.”
She stroked his cheeks and forehead. “Don’t you see, darling? This Peak means it never will happen. We’ll always have each other. We’ll have our families to help us when tragedy strikes. No one will ever be alone again. We can make sure our people are safe forever.”
“Do you promise? Do you promise the humans won’t come after us up here?”
“I can’t promise that. We’ve already seen Luther Campbell come after us up here, and he’s still alive down in town. God only knows what he’s telling people down there, but once my family moves here, he won’t be able to touch us. We can work together to defend ourselves. We’ll always be family. We can take mates from families not so closely related to us. We don’t have to wander alone like you did.”
He clamped his eyes shut and bowed his head against her stomach again. “I don’t think I can do this. I don’t think I can face a future like this. I’ve been on the outside so long, I don’t know how to come back.”
She fell on her knees in front of him. She raised his head to look into her eyes. “You are back, darling. You came back when you married me. We’re family now, and I’m not going anywhere. Whatever the future holds, we’ll face it together. We’ll build a safe place for Bruins so no one ever has to suffer the way you did. I give you my solemn word on that.”
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