Bears of Burden: WYATT

by Candace Ayers

  I cleared the tree line and found her, one hand on her hip, wagging a finger right in the face of a massive black bear sow. The bear wasn’t a shifter, and from the scent, I could tell she was protecting her cubs. There weren’t a lot of wild bears in the area, but they did pass through occasionally. It was just Georgia’s luck that she’d run into one—a momma protecting her babies, no less.

  I roared, deep and loud, and circled around the bear. I had her full attention, thank god. I was praying Georgia would run, but she didn’t. She hunched over and started dragging an unconscious Sarah farther away.

  I was bigger and stronger than the sow, but I wasn’t a fool. Nothing was more dangerous than a momma guarding her babies. She’d be more than willing to fight to the death to protect them and I wanted Georgia farther away in case anything happened to me, but she wasn’t budging.

  My time circling with the bear was done. She lunged at me and I found myself in a fight with one fierce, frightened momma bear. A fight I didn’t want to lose, but had no interest in winning, either.

  CHAPTER 23: Georgia

  It was all the evidence one would need to prove that some people just could not survive in the wilderness. I’d managed to stumble on what was probably the only full grown bear for miles around who wasn’t a shifter. How the hell did I know that wasn’t Wyatt? I’d lectured it, scolded it, stomped my foot at it, and even pointed my finger in its face. Then, when Wyatt had actually shown up, I’d immediately known. It was weird but I could feel him in his bear. He was majestic to watch. As large as the first bear was, Wyatt was even larger. His coat was thick and shiny, silky. There were sun-kissed streaks in his fur, just like in Wyatt’s hair. His bear even had the same beautiful golden brown eyes.

  I didn’t have time to admire him, though. I grabbed Sarah and dragged her away from the impending fight. She’d passed out cold at the sight of the bear and was dead weight as I dragged her by the armpits. I kept my eyes on the bears, wondering what was going to happen.

  Wyatt circled and dodged swipes, careful to keep himself safe, but he never attacked. He just let it come at him again and again. He wasn’t trying to hurt it, at all. He was tiring it out, it seemed.

  Martha suddenly appeared beside me, naked as the day she was born. I averted my eyes and focused them back on the fight, offering her the sweater I had on.

  “Keep it, honey. We need to get you out of here. Wyatt’s going to be distracted if you’re standing here in the way of danger.”

  I swung my face back to her. “You know?”

  “Course I know. I’m like him. Only a little different. Come on, Georgia. Grab Sarah’s legs. Let’s get out of here.”

  “I don’t want to leave him. What if he gets hurt?”

  Wyatt roared in my direction and I jumped. “Okay, let’s go.”

  We pulled Sarah as far away as we could before the terrain got too rough to carry her. Then, we settled her against a large rock and waited for her to come to.

  “What was that? Who was that other bear? Why was it so angry?”

  “Honey, you stumbled on a momma bear who was agitated and upset. She was just protecting her cubs. Wyatt will wear her down and then run her off. He won’t hurt her.”

  I swallowed and patted Sarah’s cheeks. “Come on, Sarah. Wake-y, wake-y.”

  “Why are you leaving?”

  I met Martha’s eyes and fought the urge to cry. She’d taken better care of me in the few days I’d been on the mountain than my own mother had during my entire childhood. Her very presence made me want to breakdown and tell her everything. “I don’t belong here.”

  “That boy is a damned fool.”

  I shook my head. “It’s not even his fault, really. Whoever arranges these mate bonds just got it wrong this time. I’m sure it’s happened before.”

  “He needs to fix this with you. Mate bonds don’t happen by mistake. They’re special and fated. If you two are mates, it’s for a reason.”

  I sent a little prayer of gratitude up when Sarah started coming to. I patted her cheek again and then wiped it on my shorts. I felt bad, but she was still covered in rash.

  “What happened?”

  I sighed. Too much. Everything. Nothing. “There was a bear attack. Wyatt and Martha came to save us.”

  Sarah turned her head towards Martha and gasped when she was face to face with Martha’s naked chest. “Where are your clothes?”

  Martha laughed. “Lost them in a bear fight.”

  Sarah, still groggy and shaken, seemed to accept that. She took a few steadying breaths and then her eyes widened as she stared off at something over my shoulder. “He must’ve lost his, too.”

  I turned to find a furious, and very naked Wyatt standing over me. I quickly stood up to avoid getting smacked in the face with his junk. “Are you okay?”

  He grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the two women. “You knew!”

  “So, you’re okay, then?”

  “You knew what I was and you knew that we’re mates.”

  I stared up at him, a mixture of desire and sorrow warring inside. “I knew.”

  His expression contorted in pain and he pushed me away from him like my touch disgusted him. “You knew and you still walked away from me?”

  I steeled myself and drew together every ounce of aloof indifference that I possessed to muster a blank expression. I hoped my expression masked my anger that had temporarily replaced my pain. “You knew and you let me walk away.”

  He gritted his teeth, jaw muscles twitching furiously. I noticed his hands were white-knuckled, balled in fists at his side and his eyes were hard. His mouth had snapped shut, forming a hard line signifying he was done talking. He’d gotten what he needed to say out and that was that, apparently.

  I turned and walked back over to Sarah, who was staring at Wyatt’s body. I resisted the urge to smack her. “You still want to go into town with me?”

  She looked up at me and must’ve seen something that she recognized. Heartbreak. She nodded and pulled herself up. “Come on. You owe me a spa day. A much needed spa day.”

  Martha glared at Wyatt over my head and then looked back at me. “I’m coming down with you two. Start down without me and I’ll catch up when I have my bag and clothes.”

  I didn’t look back at Wyatt. I just nodded and pulled my knapsack on with shaking hands. I was close to sobbing and throwing myself on the ground. The heartache I was drowning in was too much. Actual physical pain radiated from my chest and I rubbed at the spot.

  Sarah caught my hand and squeezed. “It’ll be okay.”

  I tried to smile but a tear fell instead. I helped her get her pack on and then we headed down the mountain, without looking back.

  “As much as I need this spa day, you need it just as bad. Have you seen your hair yet?”

  Maybe I would smack her after all.

  CHAPTER 24: Wyatt

  “We’re going to check the traps and see if we can’t catch some fish. You interested in coming?”

  I looked up at Bill, surprised to find the man standing in front of me. I hadn’t even heard him approach. “Nah. I’m good here.”

  He shook his head and chuckled. “Yeah, I can see that. When’s the last time you bathed, son? You smell like a wild animal.”

  I looked down at myself and shrugged. What the hell did it matter? “I’m good, Bill.”

  He clamped his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “Are you sure you want to be here instead of chasing that girl of yours?”

  I growled and he held up his hands. “Forget I said anything. We’ll be back at the campfire in a few hours, probably.”

  I watched him go and winced as my bear retreated farther into me. He was a moody sonofabitch. It’d been two days since we’d watched Georgia go and he was throwing a tantrum. He didn’t get it. She’d known about what I was. The worrying I’d done had been for nothing. She’d known and she was still okay with leaving me.

  I swore and stood up, ready to pace a canyon in the mou
ntain. My bear wasn’t the only moody asshole. I felt like screaming at anyone who approached me. I’d lost any semblance of professionalism. When the men suggested we stay a day longer, I’d just nodded. It was better to be away from town, anyway. Away from prying eyes and Georgia’s scent. Away from anyone who could take one look at me and see what a sorry excuse I was.

  I sat back down and held my head in my hands. I went back and forth between feeling angry enough to chase Georgia down and shake her and feeling devastated enough to forget who I was and just cry. She’d knocked me on my ass. Not that she gave a shit.

  I kicked my pack away from me and groaned. I was going insane. My bear didn’t care about any of it. He just wanted to go to our mate. He wanted to grab her and scoop her up and do anything she wanted him to. He was a soft piece of fluff, that was for sure. He didn’t care about who was right and who was wrong. It was simpler than that for him. There was no gray. Just mate.

  For the millionth time, I wondered if she was already gone. Had she already left Burden? She’d probably run back to the city as soon as she could get a ride. I didn’t know how it felt for a human to walk away from her mate. Was she was hurting like I was, or did she just consider it another failed attempt at romance. Maybe she was fine.

  Deep down, I knew through the mate bond that connected us, she wasn’t fine. No matter how much I didn’t want it right now, the bond was there and I could feel a constant ache from her end. I hadn’t known that it was her pain and not my own at first. It was only when my own feelings swung towards anger and betrayal that I noticed that the pain stayed constant, like a mourning cry that never ceased. She was hurting. It never wavered. It never faded.

  The realization was enough to take me to my knees. My mate was hurting. But she wasn’t my mate. There’d been a mistake. At least that was what I told myself again and again.

  Then again, we’d bonded. I stood up and resumed my pacing. I knew the story about Thorn’s Mom. Her mate had abandoned her and she’d gone crazy. She had slowly withered away and eventually, it killed her. By the time she went, she was barely a human anymore. I wondered if that would happen to me. Was that what I had to look forward to? Losing my mind, and slowly dying? Mom would have to bury me. Would she survive the loss of her mate and her only son?

  The pain rippled through me until I shifted and sank down on all fours. My bear refused to run, refused to do anything. He just sat there, staring at the ground.

  “Good to see one side of you has sense enough to be depressed about this shit.”

  I shifted back as soon as I realized Thorn was standing a few yards away from me. Yet again, I hadn’t heard nor smelled anyone approach. I grabbed shorts from my bag and pulled them on. “What are you doing here?”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. “You look like shit.”

  I shrugged. “So I’m told. Shouldn’t you be at home enjoying your mate?”

  “You don’t get to sound bitter and jealous when you have a mate of your own who’s sitting in my kitchen crying her eyes out. You fucking dumbass. All that talk about wanting a mate and knowing that you’d accept her with open arms when she came along and then you pull this shit?”

  I hit my chest and stepped closer to him. “I did accept her! She didn’t accept me. She left!”

  He just rolled his eyes. “I never knew you were such a selfish fuck, Wyatt. I thought you were one of the only ones of us who didn’t have his head so far up his ass he couldn’t see the rest of the world. I was wrong. Here you sit, knowing your mate is in pain, and still you put your own shit above her. You let that woman leave and you’re as good as dead, man. You need her.”

  I rolled my eyes. “She doesn’t want to be here. She hated it. This is where I live. This is my life. She hates it, completely! She wants to be in the city. What can I do with that? Someone fucked up. The universe messed up when assigning mates. The two of us were never meant to be.”

  Thorn threw his hands the air. “I came to try to talk some sense into you, but clearly you’re beyond that. You’re stupid enough to claim she isn’t your real mate after you marked her. That’s beyond what I can help with. You’ve been my best friend for as long as I can remember, Wyatt, but this is the first time I’ve seen you act so cowardly. The woman tried to fit in with you. Yeah, she is a city girl, yet she tried to do this wilderness shit. What’d you try for her? Is she just supposed to change everything about herself to suit your needs, yet you get to just go on as usual, la-de-dah, ‘cause heaven forbid you make sacrifices for her? You don’t want a mate, you want a fucking ball of clay, ready to be molded to whatever it is you need.”

  I charged him before I knew what I was doing. My shoulder hit him square in the chest and we both went flying backwards. It’d been ages since we’d fought but neither of us took long remembering how to inflict pain on the other. It was only after I took an elbow to the head that I flopped back on my back and stared up at the bright sky.

  “I’m lost, man. We don’t fit. We couldn’t be more different.”

  He punched me once more in the side and then leaned against a tree trunk. “Maybe you need something different, man. You spend almost every waking hour on this mountain. You’re more bear than man. Maybe you need to be reminded that you’re not just some wild animal, living out on his own. Maybe, just maybe, you need to join the human race more. And if anything, that woman will make sure you live your life to the fullest.”

  I looked over at him and rubbed my hand down my face. “What’s she been doing?”

  He growled. “She’s gotten my mate shitfaced for the past two nights. They danced on my fucking bar. Hell, she had half the women in town dancing on my bar. She refuses to listen to the jukebox and plays hip hop. I’m losing my mind. When she isn’t drinking herself silly, she’s sobbing. In my house. With my mate. I haven’t gotten close to Allie in days. You need to get it together and come get your mate from my house. She’s driving me insane.”

  I closed my eyes against the wave of pain that hit me. “She has a tendency to do that to a man.”

  CHAPTER 25: Georgia

  I tipped the bottle of champagne and looked around the salon. Every chair in the place was full and music was pumping through the speakers. Cups were emptying at a steady pace, and requests had quickly gone from simple blowouts and highlights to rainbow colors and wild haircuts. Inhibitions were gone. Brandi and Samantha had their hands full with over half the women in Burden wanting to branch out and get in touch with their wild sides.

  I’d needed to get out of Thorn’s house, so I’d organized a salon party. Crying on his couch was getting to both him and me, and Burden was sorely lacking in the party department, so I’d waged a party march on Brandi and Samantha. I’d needed to get my hair fixed anyway. I looked back at Brandi and smiled.

  “I’ve decided. Cut it to here and add some highlights. Why not?” I thought of Wyatt’s sun-kissed hair and hiccuped out a sob. “Forget the highlights.”

  Fortunately, she’d gotten used to my sudden outbursts of tears. “Honey, we don’t have to cut it so short. I can just trim off the burned bits.”

  I shook my head. “I want a change. It’s new and improved Georgia now. All-new, all-improved. Starting with the hair.”

  Sarah looked over at me. Another woman was brushing some sort of soothing avocado mask over her skin. Her eyes watered and she drained her cup. “We should open some sort of women’s-only salon bar. Just us, drinking, having fun, and getting beauty treatments. Maybe talking shit about the jackass men in our lives. This is good for us. Letting it all out.”

  I hadn’t even begun to let it all out. Not yet. I had stuff eating away at me that I was saving for the next guy who tried to play around with my heart. If there ever was a next guy. I couldn’t even imagine another man right now without my heart throbbing in agony. “I’ve figured it out. I’m going to be a lesbian from now on. Forget men. Forget Wyatt.”

  Cheers rose and then tapered off as they realized I was cry
ing again. Allie came over from where she’d been getting a blue streak put into her hair.

  pea-brain. He can’t actually let you walk away. He marked you.”

  I waved my hand and settled back into my chair. “I don’t want to talk about him. I just want Brandi to cut my hair off and then we’ll all go to The Cave and drink some more and I’ll find myself a girlfriend to settle down with. No more letting my heart take walks on its own. My heart is grounded and that’s final.”

  She laughed. “Okay. We’ll do it your way for a little while longer.”

  We all continued to drink, continued to bitch about men, and continued to make rash decisions about our hairstyles. Much needed change was in the air.

  By the time we got to the bar that night, we were already drunk and feeling more than a little crazy. Abram, looked up at us from behind the bar with wide eyes and held up his hands.

  “Ladies, please, keep it together tonight, okay?” His eyes landed on me. “You have power, Georgia, and I’d appreciate if tonight you used it for good instead of evil for a change.”

  I laughed and hip bumped Allie. “Did you hear that? I have power.”

  She grinned at the older man and patted his cheek. “We’ll be good, Abram. I promise that no one will break anything tonight. Isn’t that right, Ronnie?”

  The quiet woman blushed and licked her lips. “It was an accident. I slipped off the edge of the bar. I had to catch myself on the light.”

  I threw my head back in a fit of giggles. She had really let loose. I was hoping she did again tonight. She deserved to have fun. “You did what you had to do, girl.”

  We got set up at a couple of tables in the back and the night went much like the past two nights had gone. Laughing and drinking and talking turned to dancing and more laughing. I knew I was avoiding an issue that I’d have to deal with eventually, but for one night, I wanted to feel okay.