Defending the Bear (Blue Ridge Bears Book 2)

by Jasmine B. Waters

  It took me ten minutes to pull myself together enough to play more of the video. I tried to keep quiet. It would be just like Frigg to have perched outside my cell, hoping to hear my breakdown.

  “I know you thought for a long time that I was scared of you. Well, you’re wrong. I’m scared of most big guys.” She sighed and brushed her hair out of her eyes. “No one would peg me as a victim of abuse, you know? I grew up in a nice house, in a nice part of the neighborhood. My mom and stepdad held down jobs. But, he’d come home every night and take a swing at one or both of us.”

  I gripped the camera so tightly the frame was in danger of cracking. The bear emerged from whatever cave it had been hiding inside of and roared. It was actually kind of comforting to have it back. That comfort was short-lived however, as she continued.

  “My mother was religious. She refused to leave him, and we both paid the price for it.” She heaved another sigh. “It’s history now, but I thought you deserved to know. My fear was never personal. I’m not scared of you, now. Now, I know you’re one of the kindest, bravest men I’ve ever known. You taught me that big doesn’t always equal mean. If things were different, I would have been proud to call you my mate.”

  My hands were shaking hard around the camera. I’d clenched my jaw so hard it ached.

  “I don’t know what sin you think you need to atone for, and maybe, if I’m lucky, you’ll be able to tell me someday. But if not, you need to let it go. Please live, Luke. When the time comes, and you have no hope, please live. I love you. Please live. For me.”

  The screen went dark again, and I was left alone with my thoughts, and the savage, internal growl of my bear. She’d said something similar to me in the shower. She’d told me I had to have more reasons to live.

  But, what other reason was there for me? If I defeated The Sons tomorrow and somehow, miraculously managed to escape, what then? I’d return to my cave alone and mateless. It would be better to die on the battlefield. Her earnest face flashed through my mind, and an echo of her words came back to me.

  “Don’t you ever give up on me like that, you stupid lunk. You can’t just live for me, okay? If I die, you have to live. I have to believe I’ll see you again in some way or another or I’ll go crazy.”

  Maybe she was right. A lot of religions frowned on suicide. At the very least, a lot of them thought of it as cowardly. I was already outcast, so I wasn’t sure how much lower I could sink in the esteem of my fellow were-bears. But if I was denied entry to whatever afterlife Audrey was in, I would truly be in hell. So, I’d fight and hope that my soul, or whatever it was inside me, was drawn to hers in the after.

  With that bittersweet thought in my head, I curled up with the camera cradled in one arm and my head pillowed on the other. Maybe I could get a few hours of sleep in before the sun rose.

  ***

  It felt like I’d been asleep barely a second before Frigg was dumping a bucket of water on my head. I spluttered, scrambling to my knees. The camera in my arms sparked and then sizzled, the mechanisms within dying.

  I saw red for a moment. This bitch was getting on my last nerve. Maybe she was the big evil that Freyr had told my sister I was supposed to defeat. I wanted to snap her in half like a twig. I doubted she was supposed to be my target, no matter how hard she tried. My sister had been able to waste her on that mountaintop. If push came to shove, she wasn’t as strong as the others without her magic.

  I wanted to test that theory for myself. She’d destroyed the last connection I had to Audrey by ruining the camera. I wanted to slap her for it.

  “Up,” she commanded imperiously. “It’s dawn.”

  “Bite me, bitch,” I snarled.

  She gave me a megawatt grin. “Oh, that will happen soon enough. The Sons haven’t had anything to eat in ages. They’ll be simply dying to sink their teeth into you, Mr. Elmsong.”

  I had thought The Sons were a group of Thor’s graduates. A hyper-masculine group of dudebros itching to carry out an execution. I amended my theory in my mind. The Sons were starved animals, whipped into a frenzy by hunger, colosseum-style. They were throwing me to the lions, or whatever the hell they were.

  Adner, Cadby, and Burr filed into the room. Each of them grabbed some part of me after Frigg unlocked the cage. It was overkill really. My weapon was gone, and I was unlikely to be given another. I’d probably be tossed in naked. We marched down the halls like that, the guards hemming me in on all sides, while Frigg marched a distance ahead of us, a haughty smile on her face.

  I began to notice something odd as we continued downward toward the arena. There were usually throngs of graduates and other spectators that milled around the stadium. They filled the seats when the matches were going on and filled the halls with chatter when no death matches were taking place. The halls were completely empty.

  “Where is everyone?” I mumbled.

  “Odin has had them removed to Roanoke,” Cadby said, sparing me a glance. “All soldiers who can fight are training there.”

  Oh, great. Odin had just added onto his army. That boded well for Lucy and Chance.

  “Goody,” I muttered. “So, it’s a private execution, then. I’m glad you RSVP’d.”

  Adner threw an elbow into my gut. I doubled over, the air knocked completely out of me by the blow. The goddess turned to glance back at us. Rather loudly he said,

  “Shut your mouth, traitor.”

  When Frigg had turned her back, her smirk broader than ever, he knelt next to me. I thought he’d whisper something snide into my ear.

  “The Major is waiting for you in the passage leading to the arena. Do not fight him. He will explain everything when we get there.”

  I tried to meet his eyes, to see if it was a joke. But he straightened, and kept his face forward. I couldn’t read anything off his profile. What did he mean, they’d explain everything? There was nothing to explain. They were leading me to my execution.

  Frigg parted with our merry band halfway down the stairs and rejoined her husband and sons. They’d be headed to the top box, watching my demise from the best seat in the house. Maybe I’d get lucky, and the major would just kill me before I could face down the monsters in the arena.

  At last, we arrived at the lowest level. I hoped, a little foolishly, to see the quarters I’d shared with Audrey one last time, to get a whiff of her scent to carry with me into the arena. No such luck. I was ushered quickly to the passage that led to the arena and certain death.

  Adner, Burr, and Cadby hurried me down the hall. They didn’t release their hold on me until we were about halfway toward the arena. The Major was waiting for us, silhouetted at the end of the corridor. Anger bubbled through the numbness I’d been feeling all night. He’d been with them. If what Frigg had told me was correct, he’d been the one to catch her, and he’d been the one to finish her off.

  My skin rippled visibly as my bear struggled to rise to the surface. The phantom sensation of hair brushed beneath my skin, and my bones seemed to quiver in anticipation of my shift. The Major turned toward us as we approached his face impassive. He gave me a disdainful look.

  “Put it away, Elmsong. You don’t want to fight me.”

  “The hell I don’t,” I growled. The bear snarled its agreement inside of me.

  “I’ve been fighting for longer than you’ve been alive,” he said calmly, still not looking at me. His dark eyes were fixed on a faraway point on the field. It was almost eerie after long weeks of fighting in front of a crowd to see the stadium so empty.

  “And you killed my mate.” Just saying it hurt, like speaking aloud made it more real. To my surprise, he flinched, too.

  “I didn’t kill her,” he said quietly. “I did everything I could for her. You have to believe that. I’m here to do the same for you.”

  I sneered. “Turning over a new leaf now that you’ve killed a few dozen women and children?”

  He drew a gun from the holster at his hip. For a few t
errifying seconds, I thought he was going to shoot me and be done with it. Sure, it would save me the pain of facing The Sons, but it was still a scary prospect.

  He offered it to me. “Take this. And for the love of the Gods, do not drop it like she did.”

  I considered the weapon. It was a handgun. A Berretta more specifically, if I was remembering correctly. It would be the easiest thing in the world to flick the safety off, aim, and fire.

  “You can shoot me,” the Major said, as if reading my mind. “But you won’t stand a chance against them alone. You need me. You need us.”

  “Us?” I echoed. “There’s no us. There’s me, and then there’s whatever monster they’re pitting me against.”

  “We’re going out with you,” Cadby said from behind me. I turned to face the youngest of the guards. He looked pale behind the scraggly beard. His expression was hard to read.

  “Why?” I asked narrowing my eyes, staring at each of them in turn. “Why would any of you help me?”

  “There are lines that aren’t meant to be crossed,” the Major muttered. “He knew that when he set me the task.”

  “You’re making no sense,” I muttered. But, did that really matter? I’d committed to surviving if I could. It was her last plea, her final wish that I stay alive. Could I really refuse help at this point?

  I tightened my grip on the gun. “Fine. ‘All for one, and one for all’ and all that other bullshit, I guess. Let’s go kill The Sons.”

  “Simply inspiring,” the Major muttered, drawing another piece from somewhere else on his person. He flicked the safety off in one easy motion, and I copied him. “I can see why the Aesir are simply terrified of you. So much charisma.”

  “I could still shoot you,” I muttered.

  “You won’t,” he said, and strode out into the field ahead of us. Behind me, I could hear the rasp of swords being drawn from their sheaths. It shouldn’t have been comforting having three of the guards at my back. They could just as easily drive those things into my back at the first sign of trouble.

  I kept my gun pointed at the ground. My father had drilled it into my head when I was just a kid that you didn’t point a gun at anything you didn’t intend to kill. I couldn’t afford to shoot an ally. I took a deep breath and followed the major into the arena.

  There was an unsettling rumble coming from the other side of the stadium. I’d have almost called it thunder, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The closer it got, the more unnerving it became. It triggered something in my human hindbrain that made me want to bolt. Whatever was coming was an apex predator. It was coming to rip me apart.

  If I’d been alone in my skin, that fear might have paralyzed me. But the bear had a different reaction. The bear knew what was coming. It knew, and it hated it. The bear’s anger bolstered my waning courage and drove me forward.

  They emerged one by one from a corridor far to our right. The first thing my human eyes could distinguish was the chains. They glowed red-orange with runes and trailed behind each of the creatures as they stalked toward us. The collars around the beasts’ necks looked like they chafed.

  They were wolves. I was sure of tha, though I’d never seen a wolf, or even a werewolf, get that big. They were bigger than Clydesdale horses and twice as wide. They were bigger even than I was in bear form. My mammoth brother-in-law was the only were-bear I’d seen that even came close to being comparable to these monsters.

  Spittle dripped from their mouths, and their eyes wheeled around, searching for prey. I could tell when they’d spotted us, because the eager noises they made sent chills down my spine.

  “What are those things?” I wondered aloud.

  “They’re The Sons of Fenrir,” the Major answered grimly. “The wolf that will eat the sun.”

  I remembered that one, too. Chance’s insistence on story time didn’t seem so stupid now. Fenrir, the son of the God of Chaos, a wolf so massive and bloodthirsty that it would destroy the world and most of the Gods with it. And we were facing down its babies. We were fucked.

  The lead wolf lowered its head and began to charge.

  “What do we do?” I hissed at the Major. He had to have a plan, right? He wouldn’t have strode onto the field with no plan in mind.

  He raised the gun and aimed for the first wolf’s head.

  “We stay alive,” he said, and fired off a round.

  Yeah, stellar plan, I thought, and aimed my weapon at the second wolf which was barreling straight toward me. I lined up a shot. There was no way it would penetrate the beast’s thick skull. Conventional bullets couldn’t kill Armageddon babies, right?

  Only one way to find out. I took aim, and fired.

  Chapter 10

  Audrey

  I gripped the ledge hard. I couldn’t stand by and watch this. I just couldn’t. He was in danger.

  You’ve done what you can, my rational side argued. More than what the Major wanted you doing.

  I’d spent the better part of the night helping Adner and Cadby etch runes onto the bullets. Burr had been a little embarrassed to admit that he couldn’t read the runic language and had handed his tools over to me with poor grace. He was right to do it, though. The magic laced in the bullets couldn’t be released without the proper rune.

  Not good enough, she snarled at me. As I had the first time she’d spoken, I jumped and looked around. This wasn’t normal, and I knew it. At this point in transition, I shouldn’t feel the bear this distinctly. From what I’d learned from friends, your were-animal half sometimes never manifested. Sometimes it always remained a nebulous thing inside you, guiding your instincts.

  Guide. Yeah, right. The bear had been shoving at me to do something since I’d regained consciousness. And the arguments I’d made didn’t seem to dissuade her. It didn’t matter to her that we were still grievously wounded. Our mate was in danger, and we had to act.

  Our mate. Yes, I’d had the feeling he’d been telling the truth about that. But now I really knew. Boy howdy, did I know. This wasn’t the time to be thinking about how much I wanted him. His life was in danger, and there was nothing I could do to stop the fight from happening.

  Go. Fight, the bear urged. I closed my eyes and shuddered. I could feel her. It felt like someone large was looming behind me, and I kept my body tense and ready to flee. Not that I’d be getting far.

  I rubbed the bandages on my sternum. I’d always thought life had given me the shit end of the stick. Maybe whatever god was out there knew I’d be needing the luck and had hoarded it for me. Only blind luck had saved my life. I was lucky that the bullet hadn’t gone a few inches to the left and punctured my heart. I was even luckier that the Major and I shared the right blood type. I was lucky I’d begun to heal so quickly.

  Even the major had thought that would be too much to hope for. He’d hoped to slow my bleeding enough to give me time to be smuggled out by Burr and Cadby. Instead, the healing factor had kicked in at once, allowing me to heal sufficiently to stand and move around by this morning.

  It was an interesting puzzle, but I didn’t have time to solve it now. I was standing in the middle of the Major’s quarters, the only soldier’s room that had been built with a larger window. I was regretting my decision to watch the wolves emerge.

  They were huge, and there were five of them. Only four men stood ready to face them. They needed one more person.

  The Major had ordered me to stay put. He’d said that I’d tear my stitches if I tried to do anything more physical than walking around.

  The first wolf charged at the Major, who dropped to one knee, assuming a firing position. Luke raised something, a gun I thought, and took aim as well. There were two loud cracks one after the other. I held my breath. If they’d been done right, the Major had said there would be one hell of a light show.

  The first shot, the Major’s I thought, went wide. Luke’s shot impacted. There was a small explosion of red-orange light, and, suddenly, the wolf’s flank wa
s on fire. It had been slapdash magic, but it appeared our makeshift incendiary rounds had worked. I wanted to pump my fist in the air and shout. But that would have let anyone who was listening know that there was still someone in the barracks, and someone less than friendly would come looking.

  Adner and Cadby charged their wolves from Luke’s other side, the pair working in tandem to take down their opponents. That left Burr, the big ox of a man, to face the fourth. He spun his hammer round in one hand, waiting for the wolf to charge.

  Luke dropped to one knee, adopting a similar position to the Major’s. Fiery explosions rained down on the wolf’s head. It howled in frustration and pain. Against all odds, they were somehow keeping the monsters at bay. Or at least, that was what I thought, until the fifth wolf calmly batted Burr away from its brother as if he weighed nothing at all. The huge man went tumbling head over foot and landed in a crumpled heap yards away.

  Run, fight, protect!

  Before I could even convince myself it was a bad idea, I was on my feet. I was gasping in pain, my stitches throbbing with every move. I had to do something. I had to distract that fifth wolf before it hurt anyone else. I grabbed my abandoned spear and stumbled out of the room.

  My progress was pathetically slow, and it was costing lives. I felt hideously helpless, the child trapped under the bed again. The monsters were hurting the people I cared about, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

  But I can, the bear rumbled. Absolute confidence and authority rang through her tone. I wavered. It shouldn’t be able to talk to me, but as long as we were having a dialogue….

  “How?” I whispered. My chest burned. I could feel blood seeping from between my stitches. That wasn’t good.

  Let go.