Ebony’s eyes flew open. “But this is wonderful! This means the ring is officially dead. It will never come back to life.”
“So what?” Onyx shot back. “I’m just as ruined, either way. I killed Midnight Moraine. I’ve blown my chance of ever finding a match among the Midnight.”
“What about Abel?”
“What about Abel? He’s long gone, and he’s never coming back. He hates me. He never wants to see me again.”
“I’m sure he doesn’t hate you, Onyx. I’m sure he’s very grateful to you for saving his life.”
Onyx humphed. “Fat lot of good that does me. He’s not here.”
“Did he tell you he hates you?”
“He didn’t have to. He left, and he told me never to come around him again. We can never be together, even if he does feel the same way about me. He said so.”
Ebony blinked. “He said he feels the same way about you?”
Onyx threw up her hands. “Of course, he did. He even kissed me, right before he told me he would have to kill me if I ever went up to Renegade Ridge. I can’t live here anymore after everything that happened. I don’t think I can live anywhere, but I have to try.”
“I sure wish you wouldn’t leave. At least let me talk to Jordan. Maybe we can…”
Onyx whipped around. “You’re not telling Jordan. You’re not telling Jordan anything.”
“I haven’t told Jordan anything,” Ebony returned. “That should convince you how much you mean to me, Onyx, if I’m keeping secrets from my own mate. I haven’t told Jordan about you and Abel, and I won’t tell him unless you want me to. I only wish you would let me. He could probably help you in ways I can’t.”
“Forget it. There is no me and Abel, and there never will be.” She zipped her suitcase closed and set it on its wheels.
Ebony stood up. “Are you going to wheel your suitcase all the way to town? Why don’t you let me give you a ride?”
Onyx walked away. “I don’t want a ride. I don’t want anything that will make this easier.”
She didn’t look back at her sister watching her out of sight. She bumped her suitcase downstairs and marched out of the house. If anybody saw her leave, she didn’t notice. She didn’t talk to anybody. She paid no attention to anybody all the way to Burkes Road.
She parked her suitcase in front of the bus station and went inside. She studied the timetable over the ticket counter trying to decide where to go. The northern bus went as far as Hadison, wherever that was. That left in ten minutes, at 2:35 p.m.. The southbound bus went past Iron Bark to some place called Ross Cove. She never heard of that before, and she didn’t care. That bus left at 2:55pm..
The southbound bus to Iron Bark went past Bruins’ Peak. She didn’t want to go anywhere near that, and the northbound bus left twenty minutes earlier. She stepped up to the ticket counter. “A one-way ticket to Hadison, please.”
She bought the ticket. By the time she got it, the bus already waited outside. She gave the driver her ticket, and he slung her suitcase under the bus. She found a seat and gazed out at the scenery rolling past her window.
So this was what it felt like to live away from all your people. This was the world humans inhabited all the time. They didn’t belong to big shifter clans in the mountains. They didn’t have any definite place in the world. They drifted here and there. They stopped wherever they were and spent as long as they wanted before the moved on somewhere else. She could do it, too. She could become a nobody, a woman without a country. She would never see Midnight Moraine again.
The farther she got from home, the more she loved Abel. She would never see him again, either, but she didn’t have to. He was her mate for life. She would never love another man the way she loved him. She sacrificed everything for him, and she didn’t regret a thing. She could let go of everything she ever loved for his sake.
Now that she no longer had to worry about falling in love with her worst enemy, she could let herself feel. For the first time, she let her love for him crush her under its full power. She held him in her heart. She caressed his perfect black skin. She pressed him against her chest and kissed his hair. She worshiped him in all his bear magnificence.
She’d seen him as a bear, and he’d seen her as a panther. She understood him better now than if she’d known him twenty years. They fought side by side and won.
If she never saw him again, she could spend the rest of her life loving him. She could stay away for his sake. Whatever made him threaten her to keep her away from Renegade Ridge must be pretty important to him. If she couldn’t be with him, she could show him how much she loved him by staying away. That was the best thing she could do for him.
The bus rumbled down the highway. Dusk darkened the sky when it stopped in Hadison fifty miles away. Onyx wheeled her suitcase to the nearest motel and booked a room for the night. “Is there a restaurant nearby?” she asked the clerk.
The woman aimed her pen across the street. “There’s a diner over there. It’s pretty good. Cheap, too.”
Onyx thanked her. She left her suitcase in her room, took her wallet, and crossed the street.
The diner looked like something out of an old movie. A long counter of barstools lined one side. A waitress with big hair poured coffee in one cup after another all down that long row. Onyx got herself a barstool between two big trucker-type guys. No one gave her a second glance.
The waitress came along. “What’ll you have?”
Onyx blushed. She never ate a restaurant in her life. “I guess I’ll just have a burger and fries.”
The waitress spun around in a circle. She yelled through the service window. “Burger and fries!”
That’s all the interaction Onyx had with the waitress before she went back to pouring coffee. Onyx didn’t dare look around. What had she got herself into this time? Was this how humans really lived? How prosaic!
Well, she had the rest of her life to think about. What would she do? Should she get some kind of a job? Should she stay in Hadison or move on to the next bus stop along the line? The world was her oyster.
Melody Mackenzie told everybody mates for life couldn’t live without each other. She claimed mates left alone usually killed themselves or found a way to destroy themselves. Onyx lost Abel, but she found herself feeling cheerful. She looked forward to the rest of her life. She felt better now than she had since she first laid eyes on Abel. What was that all about? Maybe they weren’t mates after all. Maybe she imagined the whole thing.
She chuckled to herself. When the waitress set a loaded plate in front of her, Onyx went to work with a healthy appetite. Life wasn’t so hopeless after all.
One of the truckers next to her got up and left. The waitress cleared his place, and someone else sat down. Onyx got so wrapped up thinking of all the possibilities before her, she didn’t notice the person until a man said, “That’s a nutritious meal.”
Onyx’s head whipped around to glare at the guy. The minute she clapped her eyes on him, though, she froze. He sat a full head taller than her, and shaggy brown-blonde hair flowed all around his face. A rough brown beard covered half his face, and bright blue eyes sparkled out of his sockets. He wore a checked plaid shirt over his big shoulders, along with faded jeans and dusty cowboy boots at the bottom.
The instant she looked at him, every nerve along Onyx’s spine prickled. She’d seen enough humans in her life to know when she saw one. Whatever else he was, he wasn’t human. Her mind whirled. What was he doing here, sitting at a diner like any ordinary guy? Maybe he wondered the same thing about her. Maybe that’s why he decided to talk to her, to find out why some shifter was sitting at a diner like any ordinary person.
She glanced down at his callused hands on the counter. “What are you having—fillet mignon?”
He burst out laughing. “I’d like to see you find that on the menu anywhere in this town.”
Onyx thought fast. She had to find a way to get him talking, to explain who and what he was. “Are you from
around here?”
He nodded. “You’re not, though, are you? Where did you come from?”
She took a calculated risk. “Burkes Road. I just got off the bus.”
If he ever heard of Burkes Road, he showed no sign. “I was born and raised in this town. All my family lives here, too.”
She gave him another quick once-over. He wasn’t a bear, and he definitely wasn’t a panther. He had an air of cat about him, but something more like a lion. Her senses strained to figure out what he was.
He stuck out his hand. “Name’s Cyrus Cochran. Pleased and charmed and delighted.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. She shook his hand back, and his fingers dwarfed her hand by a mile. “I’m Onyx Archer. Pleased and charmed and delighted, too.”
Waitress set a plate of fish and chips in front of Cyrus. He and Onyx started eating together. She never realized how much she needed the company of another person until right now. She never thought she would share a meal with some stranger, but sitting next to Cyrus felt good and right. This was going to be some life she embarked on.
“So where are you staying?” he asked.
She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “At the motel across the street.”
“Well, you can’t stay there. You’ll want to find an apartment to rent or something. You let me know what you’re looking for. I know everybody in this town.”
“I haven’t decided whether I’ll stay here yet. I might decide to move on and settle somewhere else. Maybe I won’t settle anywhere. Maybe I’ll become a gypsy or something.”
He shook his furry head. “You’ll stay here. This is the place for you. People like you always come here and they always stay.”
Onyx stiffened. “What do you mean, people like me?”
He shot her a wicked grin. “You know what I mean.”
She did know what he meant. That was the problem. So why did he say that? Did he know other shifters in this town? He must, if his whole family lived here. Maybe that’s why he sat down next to her in the first place. Maybe he acted like some kind of shifter welcoming committee.
He pointed at her. “Hey! Guess what? There’s a dance going on tonight at the Pioneer Hall. You should come. You can get to know all the locals and knock the guys off their feet.”
Onyx’s fry hovered halfway to her mouth. She looked this guy over with a very different expression on her face. Was he trying to pick her up? Everyone on Midnight Moraine heard the story of Riley hitting on Marla to lure her back to the bear-baiting ring. Maybe Cyrus was trying to do the same thing to her.
His eyes sparkled brighter than ever. He read exactly what she was thinking. He fingered his shirt pocket and handed her a business card. “Don’t worry. It’s perfectly safe. No one in this town will bother you. Here’s the address. You can go there alone and see for yourself. I won’t tie you up and throw you in my basement. I promise.” He laughed at his own joke.
His words hit too close to home for Onyx. She turned back to her meal. “Thanks. I’ll think about it.”
He slid off his stool. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I’ll leave you alone. Maybe I’ll see you later. Have a good evening, Onyx.”
He vanished before she could say anything. She took another bite of her burger when she noticed the card sitting on the counter. It said, Pioneer Hall, 180 Fitzroy Street, 730pm. Nothing else.
That was strange. Everything about that guy was strange. He was nice enough, but he wasn’t exactly hitting on her. Onyx knew when guys were hitting on her. He was just being friendly.
She put the card in her pocket and paid the tab. She walked out into the hot evening, but she didn’t want to sit in her motel room alone on her first night in a strange town. She wandered the city streets. She window-shopped and watched families with children playing in the park. Hadison wasn’t such a bad place. She could get comfortable in a city like this.
Cyrus’s words came back to her. Why did he sound so certain she would settle here? What did he mean when he said people like her always came and stayed? What could he mean if he didn’t mean shifters?
The more she thought about him, the more curious she got. Who was he? Was he bear or cat or…or something else? She would love to meet his family and find out. She would love to learn all about him. If there were other shifters in this town, she might as well find them.
She pulled out the card and reread the address. She had to ask directions to Fitzroy Street, but she heard the lively music jumping from blocks away. People in fancy clothes hurried toward the sound from all directions.
A sign hung over the door of a big building, Pioneer Hall. Bouncy dance music pumped through the open doors into the street. Young people be-bopped on the steps while they waited their turn to get through the door. Excitement infected Onyx’s bones the closer she got to that entrance.
She handed over her money to the boy at the door and stepped across the threshold. She searched the crush of bodies, but didn’t recognize anybody. A band played on a stage at the far end, and people danced all around her.
Onyx stopped where she was and stared. She blocked up the doorway until someone bumped into her from behind. Then she scuttled out of the way. She couldn’t believe what she saw. On the outside, everyone in that place looked perfectly normal. They wore regular clothes. They all had two eyes and two ears and one nose, but they couldn’t have been more different from humans if they all landed from Mars.
She studied one person after another. They all confounded her the same way Cyrus did. What were they? She couldn’t distinguish bears from wolves from cats. No one in the place looked like anything in particular.
All of a sudden, she saw a familiar face coming toward her from the dance floor. Cyrus cracked a big grin. “Well, if it isn’t Onyx Archer from Burkes Road? How did I know you’d wind up here?”
“I don’t know. How did you know?”
He took his place at her side. “I told you, you belong here. You’re not going anywhere. It’s just a matter of getting you settled in.”
“I’m serious, Cyrus. How did you know?” She swept her hand over the crowd. “Who are all these people. What are all these people?”
He laughed at her. “You didn’t know, did you? Most people don’t. You’re a panther, aren’t you? I can always tell. When you’ve lived in this town as long as I have, you learn how to tell what people are. Everyone here—well, just about everyone here—is a hybrid of something. There are bear/panther crosses, panther/wolf crosses, dragon/human hybrids—you name it, they’re here.”
She stared at him with her mouth open. “You’re…”
He slapped his chest. “Me? I’m half-Bruin, half-lion.”
Onyx’s jaw dropped. “Bruin! Then you must be related to…”
He cut her off with a shake of his head. “We’re not related to anybody but ourselves, and most shifters outside of Hadison don’t even know we exist. They want to keep their populations pure. That’s why everybody who mates across the species line always winds up here. Pretty much everyone in town is either a hybrid or living with their mates from other species. That’s what makes Hadison so great.”
Onyx shook her head in wonder. She couldn’t stop staring at everything going on around her. No one would ever know from looking at this place from the outside. To the uninitiated, the town seemed like a bunch of ordinary humans living their lives.
“I always thought the different species were biologically incompatible.”
He waved his hand. “That’s what everybody thinks. They are very compatible.” He chuckled. “Almost too compatible, if you know what I mean.”
“It’s amazing,” she exclaimed. “I know a Bruin woman who got pregnant by a panther, but we always thought that was a fluke.”
“No fluke,” he replied. “It happens all the time. Anytime two shifters mate across the species line, they always seem to migrate here. They make their homes here when they can’t find any other place to live together. It’s a hard world out there
. You know what I mean?”
Onyx couldn’t stop staring at him. Her heart raced so fast she could scarcely breathe. All of a sudden, she let out a jubilant yell. She grabbed him and kissed him on the lips. “Do you realize what this means?”
He shook her off. “Hey!”
She spun around. “I gotta go. Thanks, Cyrus. You’re a lifesaver.”
“Hey!” he called after her. “Where are you going? You just got here.”
She ran out of the dance. “Sorry! Gotta go.”
She raced back to the bus station in a flurry. She had to catch the first bus back to Burkes Road. She never would have believed a place like Hadison existed. There really was a place in this crazy world for her and Abel. She had to get back. She had to find him fast.
31. Chapter 11
Abel walked into the Burkes Road bus station and checked the clock. 2:45 p.m.. The southbound bus left in ten minutes. He couldn’t have planned this better. He could be miles away in a few hours. He bought a ticket for Ross Cove. Once he got there, he could decide where to go next.
He climbed into the bus and stuffed his meager bag of clothes under the seat. He settled back and rested his head on the window, but he didn’t bother looking at the scenery. This old world offered him no comfort anymore. He left behind everything he ever cared about. He lost Onyx, too, and he never even had her.
The land scrolled away. The bus stopped at one town after another. Abel didn’t care where he wound up. One place was very like another, and none of them was Renegade Ridge. He would never get back there again.
He kept his eyes turned toward the window. He made sure not to acknowledge anyone who came near his seat. He didn’t want to talk to anybody. He didn’t want to get friendly with anybody in this world full of humans. He wanted to vanish. He wanted never to have existed at all.
What was his life turning into? He turned into a wraith, a specter. He started out as somebody, a member of what must be the biggest, richest, most powerful shifter group on the planet. Now he was nothing. He would become less and less until he vanished off the face of the Earth. Not even the humans were lower than he was now.
Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume III) Page 19