Defending the Bear (Blue Ridge Bears Book 2)

by Jasmine B. Waters

  Let go? Let go of what? My fear? My anger? My inhibitions? What? What did I let go of? What sort of fortune cookie bullshit was she spouting?

  Step aside, human, she said, eerily calm. I will fight for you.

  And then, my whole world exploded in a rain of flesh, blood, and fur.

  ***

  We flew down the long corridor leading to the arena like a bolt from a bow. The human was more aware than I was used to. Perhaps it was the bloodline. I could sense that once, many generations ago perhaps, she’d been a part of a proud were-bear bloodline before something had sullied it.

  It was the bloodline that made this union possible in the first place. In other circumstances, I would have been forced to wait a lunar cycle to emerge. And, when I did, we’d struggle for months, perhaps even years, before we could communicate.

  She was gibbering, her mind overloaded by the information I could process instantaneously. She was, at least, not fighting me. That was a pleasing quality in a human host. It was annoying to have them tugging the reins from me, especially in a combat situation, where I clearly knew better. Everyone but family was an enemy. Any unfamiliar scents would be dealt with once our mate was safe.

  I launched my full weight, all two hundred and fifty pounds of it, into the wolf’s side as it circled around to get the drop on Luke. The thing stumbled, and its legs went out from under it. I felt an intense surge of pleasure as the enemy fell prostrate before us. Big they might be, and driven by madness, but they were still children. Inexperienced and ravenous children. I might have felt worse about killing pups, if I didn’t know they’d grow into enormous annoyances.

  I darted in, aiming for its jugular. It swatted a huge paw in my direction, and I skittered backward out of range. According to what I could glean from the scattered memories of my host, bears were faster than wolves in short distances. Probably even faster against these wolves, given their size. Bigger meant unwieldy.

  Its claws were sharp, and if I let it get them under me the wolf pup would happily flay us from stomach to throat. It would eat our entrails while we were still alive to scream. Somewhere in the back of our shared mind, the human gagged. Weakling.

  Distantly, I could hear noises. All of them were irrelevant, save one.

  “What the hell?” Luke’s voice echoed distantly in our head. Audrey tried to struggle to the fore at the sound of it, and I wasn’t having that. She’d be useless against the sons of Fenrir. “How is she doing that? She was just infected yesterday, right?”

  Not important. I would have snarled it at them if I’d had a human mouth to speak. Fight now, talk later. Audrey was good at the talking. She could explain, if she ever managed to sort out the tangle of our joined thoughts.

  “I don’t know.” Another voice pierced our haze. This one mattered too, though Audrey didn’t know it yet. He was family. His blood had given us life. I didn’t know the other three, but I’d leave them be, as long as they kept the wolves from our back.

  The wolf before me struggled to regain its feet. I swiped a paw at its eyes, catching the corner of one with a lucky shot. It screamed out in agony, and its limbs curled away from its center. Perfect. I pulled back for a second strike and found the meaty underbelly of the dog. It parted for me like the ripest of summer berries, spilling forth copious red juice.

  It whined and struggled. The poor pup didn’t have the good sense to realize it was dead. I turned from it, seeking new prey. I set my sights on the nearest biped. The big man was hoisting a weapon from the skull of a fallen wolf. His scent did not mean anything to me. He was not family. He had a weapon. He would be dealt with before he could hurt us.

  Oh God, oh God, Audrey chanted from the back of our mind. Burr. Don’t!

  The name stirred vague recollections in her mind that I didn’t have time to examine. I prepared myself to cross the distance. The human was only fifty yards away. I could make it to him in seconds if I tried.

  No! Stop!

  I snarled my frustration at her. What did she think she was doing? I was in control here! There were humans about. I had to defend us.

  You are too weak. I must remain in control.

  Her presence in my head grew stronger, her voice louder, and I could feel myself shrinking back into the hated corner of her brain that I was confined to when she was in control. My strong limbs thinned and lost their fur. Her face emerged from my snout, and she stood shakily on two legs.

  Then she swayed, her mind going fuzzy and her limbs going slack. The wound in our chest ached. Black spots crawled over her vision, and I sighed, letting the noise whisper through her thoughts as she lost consciousness.

  I told you so.

  Chapter 11

  Luke

  I wasn’t sure I trusted the sterile, white, hospital rooms with their squeaky clean staff. That was fine. They didn’t really seem to trust me, either.

  We’d caused quite a stir on our way in. The Major had pulled a cellphone from god-knows-where and called 911 as soon as we were in range of a cell tower. Sometimes, I swore someone had stuck Denzel and MacGyver into a blender and had come up with this guy.

  We’d been airlifted from our position about thirty miles north of Roanoke. The EMTs hadn’t been happy about letting the rest of us on the plane, but had grudgingly done so when the Major had lied and told one of them that Audrey was my fiancée.

  Audrey had been rushed to surgery the second we were on the ground. Adner, Burr, Cadby, and I had also been ushered into the hospital. The next main concern was Burr’s arm, which had been deeply gashed by one of The Sons of Fenrir. We’d been lucky that the Gods had called the remaining two off. We’d been holding our own, but I wasn’t sure we’d have won, especially with Audrey’s bear trying to go on the rampage like it had.

  Audrey’s bear. Now that was a strange phenomenon. No one knew how the hell she’d been able to shift so soon after the Major had given her his blood. The one thing we could all agree on was that it had been a bad thing. Her body, already weakened by the gunshot and its attempts to heal so quickly, couldn’t take the shift on top of everything else. She’d gone into shock the moment she’d returned to human form.

  Maybe I’d ask Chance what he thought had happened when he and Lucy turned up. I’d given the nurse my emergency contacts when they’d taken me to an exam room. I’d have given them Audrey’s too, if I’d known them. But from what I gathered, she had no family worth communicating with.

  It didn’t matter. She had a family now. She had me. Someday when, I refused to think if, she recovered and things became normal again we’d have a family of our own. And she’d have my family, with all its crazies. I wanted to introduce my bible-thumping aunt and uncle to my mate. I wanted barbecues, lazy afternoons, and a house with a white-picket fence. I wanted to give her all the normal things that she’d missed out on.

  Somehow, despite my outcast status, I was going to find a way to give her all of that, and more.

  Adner and Cadby had refused to part with their armor. They’d very grudgingly turned over their swords and shields while waiting in the hospital lobby. As a result, we looked marginally less crazy as we waited in the surgical waiting area. We kept getting dirty looks from a family in the corner.

  I glared right back. So what if we looked like renaissance fair rejects? My mate was in surgery. My entire future, everything I cared about hung in the balance. Who gave a shit how I was dressed? It wasn’t like it was hurting them at all.

  “Sit down,” Adner grumbled, running a bandaged hand through what remained of his hair. “You’re going to make me dizzy, boy.”

  “She’s been in there for hours,” I repeated for the umpteenth time. “Something has to have gone wrong. It shouldn’t be taking this long.”

  The Major cracked one eye open from where he sat several chairs down from us. He didn’t look quite as out of place as the rest of us. His formerly crisp, dark uniform was rumpled and covered in muck, but he at least didn’t look l
ike he was auditioning for a part in Gladiator. I couldn’t see a piece on him, but I somehow doubted that he was unarmed.

  “She’s going to be fine,” he sounded confident. “She’s out of surgery.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I know,” he said with a shrug. “She and I are…connected.”

  “How connected?” I said from between clenched teeth.

  He raised his hands in a gesture of peace. “I’m not laying claim to her. But we’ll always have blood in common.”

  I tried to relax. I tried to sink back into the chair and rest in the knowledge that she’d pulled through. But my body remained tense and hunched over in the seat until a pretty doctor dressed in surgical scrubs came out to tell us that Audrey had been assigned a room and that we could visit her soon.

  The Major climbed to his feet after she’d gone. “I’m off.”

  All of our little group looked to him in confusion. “Why?”

  He stared hard at the opposite wall, not looking at any of us. “We escaped because we took them by surprise. Thor knows me. He’ll have the means to track me down if need be. It will take them a few days to catch up, but I shouldn’t be near you when whatever they send comes looking for me.”

  I wanted to argue with him. He’d saved my life with those enchanted bullets. I didn’t fancy facing down even one of The Sons with just a sword. Adner and Cadby had managed just fine against their pair. But they’d also had years of experience. I should have told him to stay.

  But he was right. If Thor was tracking him, we couldn’t afford to have him here. Twice thwarted, there was no telling exactly what the Aesir would do to get at us again.

  “Thank you,” I said, offering him a hand. “If you ever need anything, call us. We owe you.”

  He nodded curtly. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  I’d spent the last few hours alternately pacing or sitting with my head in my hands. I watched him go, and it was only because I had that I spotted my sister half running up the hall. She looked sleepless and harried, and it went beyond the mantle of new mom. It was the familiar panic on her face that she’d always worn when something had gone wrong with me. I doubted she’d ever stop trying to parent me. I’d made her be the responsible one for too long for her to break the habit now.

  She looked ready to accost the guest services representative.

  “Where’s Luke Elmsong?” She demanded.

  “Right here, sis.”

  She spun round, her baby bag thumping against her back as she did. Her eyes scanned the room, searching for me until she finally spotted us and did a double take. She scanned me from booted feet to fur-clad shoulders with astonishment.

  “Was there a field trip to middle earth? I’m sorry I missed that.”

  I snorted, still too worried to work myself up to actual laughter. Nothing would seem funny to me until I ascertained that Audrey was safe with my own eyes.

  “What’s up?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips. Amazingly, she looked about as dirty as I did. I guess the kid thing was pretty harrowing, too. Maybe we’d just agree not to ask what the stains on each other’s clothes were. “I thought you’d been attacked when the nurse called to tell me you were here. What happened? And who are these people?”

  Chance sidled up to Lucy, a squirming kid in each arm. I stared. Amy stared back at me, with impatient, blue eyes that looked very much like my sister’s. Like mine. I nearly held out my arms to hold her, but remembered once again that I was filthy. Maybe there’d be time for that later when I wasn’t covered in blood and guts.

  “It’s a long story,” I said, glancing back at Adner and Cadby. “And I’ll tell it to you as soon as I make sure Audrey is okay.”

  “Audrey?” Chance asked, handing the still squirming Amy to her mother.

  “Audrey Skylark. She’s my mate.”

  “What?” Lucy demanded. “You have a mate? Why didn’t you tell us? How long have you been together? Have you been practicing safe sex?”

  “Chill, Lucy. And could you say ‘sex’ any louder? I don’t think they heard you over in radiology.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Are you? You have to be careful. With great swimmers, comes great responsibility.”

  I snorted again. “We’re not even married yet. Give us time, Luce.”

  Lucy patted Amy’s back, and the little girl settled down, nestling into the slope of my sister’s shoulder.

  “When can we meet her?” she asked. “I think Amy would love to meet her future aunt.”

  “Right now.”

  ***

  Audrey was unconscious for most of the visit. We’d shared what had happened in hushed whispers and half-reasoned arguments. Chance had promised to look into Audrey’s premature change and get back to me.

  Her hand squeezed mine gently under the covers. “If you don’t stop frowning, your face will stick that way,” she whispered.

  She looked pale and drawn, but the doctors had washed off most of the blood. She’d get her color back after she was allowed to get enough food and rest.

  I fiddled with the length of string that I’d been working on. Lucy had seen how twitchy I was when Audrey was asleep and had gotten me one of those do-it-yourself crafts from a nearby store. I’d been braiding a rope together for hours.

  “I thought I lost you.” The words forced themselves from me. I’d been trying to hold them in. There had never been a good time to say it. Not when Adner, Burr, and Cadby had been here. Not when Chance and Lucy had listened to my explanation about our time together. Certainly not when there were doctors present.

  Her eyes shone with tears, and I wanted to kick myself. Why did I always do that? Then, she gave me a rather watery smile. “And you kept fighting anyway. Thank you for listening to me for once.”

  “Well, you know what they say. The wife’s always right. And if she’s not, refer back to rule one.”

  She chuckled. “Wife?”

  “Yeah.” I rubbed the back of my neck guiltily. “I might have lied to the doctors to be allowed to see you.”

  “It doesn’t have to be a lie.”

  “You want to get married?” I asked, trying to keep the swell of hope out of my voice. She’d been against the idea of being mates. I was pretty sure that getting married after knowing each other for only a month would chafe at her sensibilities.

  “I want you,” she said firmly. “That’s all that matters.”

  She reached out to take the rope from me. As I watched, she looped it around both of our hands. She gave me a cheerful little smile. “There. Easy peasy.”

  I chuckled. “You can’t be serious. You did not just pull some weird wedding mumbo-jumbo.”

  “It’s not mumbo-jumbo,” she protested, her nose scrunching up in her pique. It was kind of adorable. “It’s called handfasting. It’s valid.”

  “Not to the state of Virginia,” I said, and lifted her rope twined hand to my mouth, so I could kiss her palm. “And I can’t give you much. Maybe you should think about it when you’re not high on drugs.”

  “That doesn’t matter to me. You matter. I’ll follow you anywhere, Luke.”

  “But–”

  “What did you say about the wife always being right?”

  I could feel a big, goofy grin spreading across my face. My wife. Audrey Elmsong.

  “Yes, dear.”

  Epilogue

  Audrey

  “We’ve narrowed down Idun’s location.” Chance had been filling us in on what we’d missed, as he did every month when we resupplied. It was getting easier to go longer between supply runs, after the cabin had been built.

  Luke hadn’t been satisfied with the cave after we’d officially started living together in it. So, with Chance’s help, we’d built a home of our own. It wasn’t the idyllic honeymoon location as we’d imagined. I think Chance had helped mostly to get Adner, Burr, and Cadby out of his house. After the completion of the cabin, we’d sor
t of become Elmsong’s Home for Wayward Vikings. We’d also become the safe house for Vanir agents on the run.

  Whether I liked it or not, we’d been drafted into the Aesir/Vanir war. Thor’s attacks were becoming numerous and brutal. As he’d promised, humans had been caught in the crossfire. Tensions with all shapeshifter groups were on the rise as a result. It made me think wistfully of Sabina and my college days. Finishing my doctorate was probably going to be on hold for the next few years, assuming things would ever settle down.

  Luke sat up a little straighter in his chair, clutching his beer a little tighter. “You have?”

  Chance nodded. “Freya’s spells messed with everyone’s ability to scry. Freyr knows her magic, so he knows more than most. But she really, really didn’t want anyone to find Idun for some reason.”

  I didn’t understand that myself. Why had the Norse goddess of love condemned the gods of her pantheon to age and die? What had she been trying to accomplish?

  “Where is she? Where do we start looking?”

  “We,” Chance indicated himself and his wife, “Are headed back to Tennessee. Freyr’s almost certain she’s there.”

  “We have to go with you,” Luke argued.

  “We would like you to take care of Amy and Aaron,” Lucy interrupted. “I’m sorry, Luke. We’re working on getting your status as outcast changed, but it’s too dangerous for you to be in the public eye right now.

  Luke settled back into his chair. He didn’t like it, but I knew he’d do anything for his family. I put his hand carefully on my own stomach, a reminder. It was early days yet, but we’d be expecting our own little family soon. Looking after nieces and nephews was good practice. Luke’s sour expression melted away.

  We could leave the battle to Lucy and Chance for now. I, for one, had had enough fighting for a lifetime.

  “Sure,” Luke said easily, glancing up from my face to flash his sister a fierce grin. “Give ‘em hell, Lucy.”

  She returned the smile with an almost identical one of her own. “That’s the plan.”