Sheltered by the Bear (Trapped in Bear Canyon Book 1)

by Terry Bolryder

“Right,” he said. “And Riker will be back soon, so we should probably talk before that happens.”

  “Do you really think it’ll change anything?”

  “I think it’s always good to understand someone a little better so you can see where they’re coming from. But I’m not going to force you.” His gray eyes, so like Riker’s except more open where Riker’s were always shuttered, sparkled at her. “And I know a place that’s really beautiful at sunset. That’s worth it if nothing else.”

  She thought back to all the things Riker had done for her. The depressing thing was how good they’d been as friends getting to know each other. He’d protected her, showed her his world, gotten to know her, and helped her realize Corey’s betrayal had nothing to do with her.

  But ever since they’d had sex, things had gone so wrong, and maybe that was a sign they weren’t meant to be together. That she should’ve kept things as friends and moved on when the canyon opened.

  “Come on,” Ryland said. “There are things you should know. I promise you. After that, you can come back here and make your choice, and I’ll support you either way. But I… I owe it to Riker. I really do.”

  She threw her legs over the side of the bed and started putting her shoes on. “Okay, but this better be good.”

  “I’m going to tell you the secrets of Bear Canyon,” Ryland said. “How could it not be?”

  “Secrets, huh?” she asked, grabbing a jacket and pulling it on. “In that case, lead the way.”

  They went out the back door and walked through the woods, talking about the fights that day that Ryland had witnessed and her thoughts about meeting Francis and Ryland’s insistence that his wolf was still going to win.

  They took a turn down a narrow, rock-strewn path and went deeper into the woods alongside the event site, until they were just out of view of the crowds, where it was quiet and still.

  She gasped as he pushed through some reeds and a lake came into view, sparkling and dark and reflecting all the shades of the early sunset. Orange and pink and red and blue still in the sky and the bright sun overhead.

  He led her to a fallen log and sat down. She had the feeling he’d been here many times before. Maybe just to think or get away from the crowds. Ryland seemed to hate the fights more than the others, and even when she’d seen him watching them, he had his earphones on and his eyes pinned to a clipboard, listening to Riker but ignoring the fights.

  “This is beautiful. You were right,” she said, feeling herself slowly relaxing as the cool evening breeze rustled the leaves of the trees around them. The reeds behind them whistled.

  “It’s my secret place,” he said. “Right near the action so I can appear if they need me but far enough away it’s like I’m not there anymore.”

  “Why did you and Rock leave?” she asked. “I mean, isn’t it cool practically owning a mountain? Riker said you have interests in most of the town.”

  “What’s left of it,” Ryland said. “The town is dying, more or less. It almost shuts down after tourist season, which isn’t what it was. Probably the only businesses that survive will be ones like the bar, which also service the Brawl and make enough in one week to survive the whole year.”

  “Ros seems nice,” she said.

  “Yeah,” Ryland said. “Anyway, I’m getting off topic. I wanted to tell you about Riker.”

  And she wanted to delay that because she was nervous about what she would find out.

  But every time she thought of his face, there was something inside her that just said they were meant to be together. A deep feeling, like a ripple across the surface of an endless lake. Something she’d never felt with Corey.

  “All right,” she said, crossing one leg over the other. “I’m here to listen.”

  Ryland ran a hand through his hair. “Where to start.” Then he looked up at his hand, still in his hair. “Oh. There. I guess you’ve noticed my gray hair.”

  “Yeah,” she said.

  “No one really knows how that happens,” Ryland said. “I’ve researched it. It started when I was sixteen, when my father nearly killed Rock and Riker wasn’t there to stop it.”

  Everything inside her went still. “I…” She’d been expecting secrets. She’d seen how awkward things could be with the brothers. And there was that comment Rock had made at the bar about Riker being the big hero except that one time, and he’d pointed at the scar.

  “Rock’s scar?” she asked, stunned.

  “We all act like Riker never tried to leave here, but he did, just once. After a particularly bad fight with Dad, he said he was out of there, that he wasn’t going to take it anymore.”

  She kept her breathing controlled. As a nurse, she’d been in many disturbing situations and needed to stay calm. But that was different because it was people in physical peril that needed her help.

  Right now, she was just hearing things that were so far out of her sphere of experience she could hardly imagine them. They struck at that dark part of humanity she had been so blessedly free from, with good, albeit distant parents and no abuse in her past.

  “I had no idea,” she said.

  “Not exactly something we talk about,” Ryland said. “I think we keep assuming if we just don’t talk, then it didn’t happen. We’re all forgiven. We’re all fine. No one was hurt.”

  “Except Rock was,” she said.

  “I think the way Riker was hurt was worse,” Ryland said. “Because while Rock was able to get angry and decide he wasn’t going to take it and was going to get out as soon as he could, Riker seemed to decide the opposite. That he would never be able to escape, and if he tried to, people would get hurt and it would be his fault.”

  That made too much sense. “But there’s no one here anymore,” she said.

  “There’s a whole town,” he said. “People Riker has known since birth.”

  “But they don’t… But he doesn’t need to…” She trailed off, not knowing what she even intended to say. She still had to process how she felt about this new info. “So what happened with Rock?”

  “You mean the night Riker left?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, I think Riker assumed since he was our dad’s favorite punching bag, the rest of us would be fine until he returned. I don’t think he meant to stay away. I think he was just trying to see if he could make a point, get Dad to stop.”

  “Why was he beating his children?” she asked. “No, I don’t want to understand him. I’m trying to understand Riker. And the rest of you.”

  “He was frustrated,” Ryland said. “I think he had dreams, too, when he was younger. He was the only child, and I think he felt trapped here. The way Riker is. And his mate leaving didn’t help.”

  “Yeah, but did he beat her before she left?”

  “We’ll never know,” Ryland said. “She left when we were all young, and if our dad did abuse her, he did it when we weren’t looking. I would assume so, though. If someone is prone to handling things with violence, it’s usually universal.”

  “So Riker didn’t think anything would happen and he left,” she said.

  “Right,” Ryland said, rubbing the crease on his forehead between his eyebrows. “Sorry, I don’t think about that night that often. I try not to.”

  She put a hand on his shoulder, giving him a light squeeze before removing her hand again. “I appreciate you helping me understand him.”

  “Riker was like, ‘You have to stop doing this. You chased your mate away, and you’ll lose your sons, too.’” He slowly moved his head side to side. “I think if Dad had known Riker had just gone to town and was planning to come back, things would have been different. Instead, he came at me and Rock, saying things like, ‘It’s your fault, you little shits. If I’d just hit you instead.’ Things like that.”

  “He was a monster,” she said.

  “I don’t know,” Ryland said. “I think there’s a little of him in all of us. You’ve seen I don’t watch the fights.”

  “Yes,”
she said.

  “We all react to what we saw in different ways. I pushed everything away so deep that we all try to be careful it never bursts out. Rock goes danger seeking with his stunt work, feeling more alive when he’s risking his life. And Riker uses violence judiciously to protect others around the time of the Brawl and then retreats to self-imposed exile for the rest of the year in his lonely mountain workshop.”

  “But you don’t think he can change,” she said.

  “I don’t know,” Ryland said. “I’m seeing a different side of him the last couple days. Not sure what it means, but I felt it was worth a try to help you understand him.”

  “I appreciate it,” she said. “You’re a good brother to him.”

  “No, he’s a good brother to us, and I think deep down, we’re ashamed we left this all on him. He never makes us feel bad about it, just shoulders the burden. Self-sacrificing as always. Except that one time. But after what happened, I don’t think that will happen again.” He picked up a rock, drew back his arm, and skipped it over the lake.

  The rock took huge leaps, spinning, and then landed in the middle with a plop.

  “So no matter how happy he could be with you, he’s going to fight it. Going to think he doesn’t deserve it. And I don’t know what to do about it, but this I do know.” He took a deep breath. “Riker is a good person. You’ve seen him. He doesn’t think twice about his own safety before stepping in to rescue someone. He never complains about his lot in life. So I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I saw him trying to throw away his one chance at happiness and didn’t try to fight for him a little.”

  “I see,” she said.

  “Because he fought for me, you know?” he said with a sad smile. “He knows how to fight for everyone but himself. If someone wants to be with him, sadly, they’re going to have to take up that fight. And I know that’s not ideal, but it’s what you have to think about.”

  “Okay.” She undid her ponytail, letting her scalp rest for a moment before pulling her hair back again. “I get your message. Loud and clear.” She didn’t know what she was going to do yet. She had to let everything sink in first.

  “Good,” Ryland said. “Now we just have to kill time until he and Rock get back from the matches. You know how to skip rocks?”

  An hour or so later, Ana wasn’t any better at skipping rocks or any further along in her thoughts about Riker.

  She let out a sigh as she sat back on the log, tired, and watched Ryland expertly skip another rock over the water.

  “You tired?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “We can sit for a minute,” he said, joining her on the log. “You still thinking about what I told you?”

  “Yes,” she said. How could she not?

  “You don’t have to decide what to do right now,” he said. “Riker won’t know what I told you. If you want to just keep things the way they are between the two of you, that’s fine, too.”

  Except she couldn’t. What she’d heard changed everything. She just didn’t know how.

  Without Ryland’s rock skipping, the lake became a smooth surface, the water spreading out like a thin sheet of glass, reflecting the trees off its surface like a mirror. Every now and then, a plop would sound, a fish’s head appearing for a split second, sending tiny ripples out in every direction around it.

  Not far off, there was the sound of rising voices, shouts and hurrahs from the crowd watching the fight most likely, and Ryland perked up, listening.

  “We should get back before it gets too dark,” he said, pushing himself up.

  Ana took a deep breath, released it, and nodded.

  As they began their walk down the trail that ran along the lake, heading back to the cabin, Ana heard voices ahead. A moment later, a group of men appeared at the bend in the trail where it left the lake and delved into the tree line.

  Suddenly, Ana could feel Ryland walking more closely beside her, a stiff tension in the air that wasn’t there a second ago.

  Were they in danger? The last thing she wanted was for something to happen before she could get back to Riker.

  At first, the men didn’t seem to notice Ana and Ryland as they made their way down the path, instead turning toward the lake and tossing their bottles into the water, contending for whoever could throw theirs the farthest.

  But to her dismay, one man looked over his shoulder and right in her eyes. Upon spotting the two of them, the man shoved the nearest guy to him, talking drunkenly and making their presence known to the others.

  With startling speed, the crowd’s focus shifted to her and Ryland. Before they could run for it, the men moved inhumanly fast, making a semicircle in front of them and blocking off the trail.

  “Hey, look, guys, it’s one of the Brolin brothers,” one man at the center exclaimed.

  “Yeah, the pussy one,” another said, chuckling at his own joke.

  Others laughed in assent as Ana could feel the tension increase. Next to her, Ryland bristled but remained surprisingly calm.

  “Let us through, guys,” he demanded, standing in front of Ana protectively.

  “Or what? You’ll throw us a tea party?” one mocked.

  “Or maybe he’ll kill us with his college education. Ooh, I’m scared,” another chimed in, shivering in pretend fright.

  At that, one of the men threw a beer bottle at them, hitting Ryland in the shoulder with a loud thud before it fell to the ground. Ana could see Ryland flinch.

  “He’s not even bear enough to fight, is he?” one man asked, as if Ryland wasn’t even there anymore.

  “He must’ve gotten it from his mother. I hear his dad did all the fighting and his mom did all the running,” the first man said with a smirk. “Isn’t that right?”

  In front of her, Ana could see Ryland’s knuckles going white, his fists bunched so tightly his hands were trembling. His arms and shoulders flexed beneath his expensive sweater.

  For a moment, Ana feared the fabric would rip in two.

  “What are you gonna do now, pussy? Cry for your brothers?”

  “Hey, leave him alone, you dicks!” Ana retorted, grabbing the beer bottle at her feet and throwing it at one of the guys. The bottle hit him, but he just chuckled as the others began to laugh heartily, apparently more amused by her than scared.

  “Let’s go,” Ana heard Ryland mutter as he lowered his head and made his way toward the men ahead, obviously planning to push through them.

  At first, the men backed off a pace, probably intimidated by the fact he still had a few inches on them and was quite impressively muscled.

  For a second, Ana hoped it would just all be over.

  But as they passed, Ana felt hands grab her by the sides, and without warning, she was yanked away from Ryland.

  “We’ll take this off your hands,” the man holding her said, laughing.

  Instantly, Ryland turned to face the man that had grabbed her. But his eyes were different. Dark. Inhuman. Predatory. Black globes that looked soulless and unfeeling.

  And furious.

  Before anyone could react, Ryland roared, and all at once, he exploded out of his clothes, changing shape from man to gigantic bear in the blink of an eye.

  His bear was beyond huge, with thick brown fur and enormous, pitch-black claws. And those same dark eyes.

  And as he snarled, she could see white, razor-sharp fangs while he stood on his hind legs more than double, maybe even triple her own height.

  “Oh fuck,” the man holding her exclaimed.

  13

  “Hold up, lover boy,” Rock said. “You still don’t even know what you’re doing for her.”

  “I know she and Ryland are going to be back soon,” Riker said. “He said he was taking her to the lake, but they’d be back at sundown.”

  “That doesn’t leave much time for romantic gestures,” Rock said.

  “I don’t have any ideas anyway,” Riker said. “The most important thing right now is that I talk to her. Tell her what I�
��m thinking instead of keeping it inside until I explode on innocent people.”

  “I don’t know that Francis is entirely innocent,” Rock said. “I get the feeling if you were out of the picture, and Ana wanted him, he’d be more than happy to step in.”

  Riker let out a growl.

  “Easy, boy,” Rock said. “It’s fine. I’ll help you win her over. We’ll get back, make a nice dinner to start with, and then after, you can talk and maybe take her somewhere pleasant. With a view.”

  “I don’t have the slightest idea where,” Riker said. He’d been uneasy since Ana had left, and he would feel better, be able to think more clearly, once she was in his sight again.

  They reached the door to his cabin, and Rock opened it, calling inside.

  It was dark and empty. Riker frowned. “They’re still out?”

  “Relax. They’ll be home soon.” Rock slapped Riker on the back as he passed by him on his way to the fridge to grab a beer.

  But Riker couldn’t calm the foreboding sense of unease.

  It wasn’t like Ryland to be late like this. Outside, it was all but dark now, with only the last remnants of sunset lighting the quickly fading dusk.

  There was a note on the table, stating what Riker already knew.

  Gone to the lake. Be back at sundown.

  —Ryland

  He looked out the window. Sundown had come and gone, and it was getting dark out there.

  So where were they?

  A loud roar sounded in the distance.

  Only one bear made that kind of blood-curdling sound.

  “Did you hear that?” Riker asked, turning sharply to look at his brother.

  “Shit. Ryland,” Rock said, his brows furrowing as he set down the unopened beer and made for the door.

  But Riker was already there, and both brothers bolted out of the house and up the trail that led to the lake.

  The two of them ran at top speed, and as they bounded up the dirt path, Riker could hear desperate screaming and shouting as they got closer to the edge of the lake.

  By the time they arrived, all hell had broken loose. All around them, men were running for their lives, fleeing as fast as they could from the monstrous beast that was Ryland’s bear. Off to the side, Riker could make out one of the men holding Ana in front of him as he cowered in fear.