Bear Mountain Daddy (Bear Mountain Shifters)

by Sky Winters

  “Sounds good. I hadn’t even thought about food, but now that you mention it, I’m starving.”

  “I know. The dried provisions are okay to keep you going, but they just don’t do much to really satisfy hunger,” he replied.

  “I’ll have to agree with that. There’s only so long you can eat dried fruit, nuts, and jerky before you want something more substantial.”

  On cue, one of the rangers began to unpack a cooler sitting to one side of the boat. They had brought more sandwiches but also fresh vegetables and fruit. It still wasn’t the same as having a real meal, but it was an improvement. Once they had cleared the trees, the ranger passed the containers of food back to them, along with bottles of water and bars of dark chocolate.

  “Eat up. We only have about twenty minutes before we go through another narrow passage. After that, we’ll be only a short distance from our stop.”

  Tabitha nodded, already biting into her sandwich. Though it wasn’t quite the roast chicken she’d prefer having right now, it was delicious after having only snacked on the go since leaving the boat yesterday. Matt seemed to feel the same way, wolfing down two sandwiches in quick succession before working his way into the fruit and vegetables.

  By the time they were done, the boat was already making its way back into another tree line. The sides scraped against the banks and had to be pushed through with paddles in a few instances. Tabitha found herself terrified that they would become stuck and have to walk out into the banks around them where crocodiles, snakes, and spiders seemed pretty prevalent. She was relieved when they once again moved out into a wider segment of water.

  “We’re here,” Matt told her, pointing toward a small dock and an opening just above it between the trees.

  The rangers left them on the banks to make their way to the sanctuary. They would be here for two days, walking into the central portion of the sanctuary where they would shower and bed down for the night and trek then further across to where the river looped back around the other side. Matt had told her it would be late when they arrived at their final destination and the rangers wouldn’t come out at that hour along the river, so they would have to bed down for the night and be picked up first thing the following morning.

  “Ready, princess?” he asked playfully as they hauled their packs up from the boat and said goodbye to their escorts.

  “I thought I’d proved myself worthy of not being called that anymore,” she replied, feigning hurt feelings.

  “Maybe, but I think I just like calling you that now.”

  “Of course you do.” She laughed, following him up the embankment and through the row of trees that flanked it.

  “Get your camera out. You’re going to want to take lots of photos in this area. It’s very heavily populated with all kinds of animals, not just tigers.”

  The hours that followed seemed quite magical. Though they had encountered a great deal of wildlife along the river and on their journey thus far, it was merely the tip of the iceberg. This place was crawling with everything from the most massive tigers she had ever seen to the playful langur monkeys that seem to follow them, flitting through the trees above their heads. An entire herd of chital bounded past them at one point.

  “This is incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” she whispered.

  “It is a thing of rare beauty that most people never get a chance to see or even consider. The closest they come to creatures like this are pictures on the internet or caged animals in zoos.” His expression darkened and his tone grew deeper. “I find nothing more offensive than seeing a wild animal behind glass or bars. It’s an affront to nature.”

  “People want to understand them, to study them,” she replied, turning to him.

  “Then they should do so on the animals’ terms. They should come here and let the animals guide them, not condemn them to a life of imprisonment when they’ve committed no crimes.”

  “I would have to agree, but isn’t it sometimes for the animal’s own good? If they’re hurt or sick, don’t they need to be put into a place like that for their own safety while they heal?”

  “There is a grand circle of life with all animals, including humans. If they are injured, if they are sick, they can still be treated in the wild to help them, but if they can’t make it, they should be allowed to become a part of the natural order of things, not hauled off to be studied and displayed. Even a sick animal would rather die in its homeland than in some hole designed to look like home when it’s nothing more than a jail cell.”

  “So, if you were an animal and you were hurt, you’d rather take your chances out here with other animals that will prey on your weakness?”

  He nodded his head firmly. “Absolutely. Besides, isn’t that what the people who take them off to places like that under the guise of ‘helping’ them are doing? Taking advantage of their weakness?”

  “I don’t think all of them are. I don’t think many of them see it that way.”

  “That’s because they have no concept of how these animals think and feel. They’ll never be in their heads to know what that feels like to one of them. Even something as mighty as a tiger experiences fear and loneliness.”

  She frowned at him, certain know that there was something she wasn’t understanding. “You speak as if you know this firsthand.”

  Matt studied her face for a few moments before speaking again. When he did, his voice was full of emotion. Somehow, he was deeply touched by the plight of tigers in this place and any other place. It showed in his carefully chosen words.

  “A tiger would rather be put down by another animal than caged. It’s just that simple,” he said with deep conviction.

  “I suppose I’ll have to take your word on that,” she replied. She looked hard at his face, about to probe the issue further, when a band of tigers appeared in the trees in front of them. One began walking toward them menacingly and she found herself just as terrified as she had been last night.

  “Don’t move,” Matt told her, holding his hand out and pushing her slowly behind him protectively.

  The tiger continued to approach, making his way steadily toward them. He was more than halfway across the divide when the others began to run, not in their direction, but away from something they heard in the distance. The tiger that had been on his way to see them suddenly stopped, ears pricked to listen, just as a shot rang out through the woods and men’s voices could be heard yelling.

  “Poachers,” Matt said, pushing her further behind him as he moved them behind a tree, out of sight.

  “How do you know?” she asked.

  “The gunshots. No one is allowed to hunt here. The only people even allowed to have guns are the rangers and they would only be shooting at poachers. If that were the case, the shots would be from much less powerful guns than what we just heard.”

  “What do we do?” she whispered, her voice hardly audible.

  Matt held his fingers up to his lips and continued watching around the edge of the tree for the men to show themselves. Another shot rang out and the tiger that had been standing in front of them dropped to the ground just as he was attempting to run away. Tabitha gasped loudly before she could stop herself and then bit her lip to quiet herself.

  “I got him! He’s a big bastard too!” one of the man yelled through the trees.

  “Hurry, go after the others. We’ve got a narrow window to get these things off their feet and out of here or I’m going to have to pay a lot more for people to look the other way,” another yelled.

  Though he said nothing, Tabitha felt Matt’s entire body tense with what she was certain was anger. She was quite sure that if his face weren’t currently turned away from her, she would see it twisted with a rage that she could not fully understand. The way he touched somewhere in her with his passion for the tigers was inexplicable.

  They were so engrossed in watching the events unfold in front of them that they never heard the footsteps approaching from another direction until it
was too late. Shots rang out from the direction the men had gone, masking the final steps that might have given them some warning.

  “What do we have here?” a man said from behind them.

  They both whirled around to find themselves looking at not one, but three men that had apparently been tracking the tigers from a different direction and come up behind them. One of them poked his gun at them, indicating for them to move forward as he yelled for the others.

  “Hey, I got a couple of peeping toms over here.”

  “Look, you’d be much better off taking your friends and marching right back to wherever you came from without harming any more of these animals. This is a sanctuary and poaching tigers is illegal. You’ll not want to pay the price for your actions today,” Matt warned him.

  “Oh? Is that right? Well, I think that nosey people get what they deserve. You are certainly in no position to threaten me or anyone else. You might be a big son of a bitch, but you appear to be without a weapon other than that utility knife on your belt,” the man said, nodding toward one of the others, who stepped forward and grabbed it from its sheath.

  “Now, get a move on, both of you,” he continued, nudging them forward with the barrel of his gun.

  Tabitha was terrified. Matt was a big guy and she was quite sure he was capable of holding his own in a fight, but as the man had already noted, neither of them was armed and she had seen at least five men ahead chasing after the tigers, in addition to the three that were here with them. The odds were not in their favor. She just might pay a price for this trip that she hadn’t anticipated.

  “Alright, buddy. We’ll go with you. Just keep a cool head,” Matt told him, holding his hands up and being sure to keep his body between the man and Tabitha.

  “Smart man,” the guy growled, his gun still pointed at them.

  She and Matt walked ahead of them. Without turning his head toward here, Matt spoke in a very low voice, so low that the men behind them weren’t close enough to hear it, but she was.

  “When I say ‘get down,’ you need to drop face first onto the ground and crawl behind the nearest tree. Don’t hesitate.”

  “Okay,” she managed in a trembling voice.

  “I won’t let you get hurt. I promise,” he told her.

  Tabitha found no comfort in his words. No matter what he imagined himself capable of, he was still outnumbered and they had guns, big guns. Even if he managed to subdue one of them, the others would have plenty of time to retaliate against him … and her. There was no scenario in which she could imagine them getting out of this unharmed.

  The men marched them through the woods until they caught up with the other men. Matt was obviously seething as he looked upon the carcasses of three dead tigers laying on the ground. She could tell that he wanted to hurt them and that frightened her just as much as anything else.

  “What the hell, Terry?” one of the men said as they approached.

  “I was trying to tell you back there, but you were already off after the cats. I found these two hiding behind a tree watching us.”

  “Well, looks like the day is going to end badly for them then isn’t it?” the man replied.

  “What do you want me to do with them?”

  “Take them with us. We’ll deal with them when we get back to base. I can’t afford to have human blood on my hands out here.”

  Tabitha felt something like a lump of doom rising up in the back of her throat. They weren’t going to kill them, at least not out here where they might be faced with disposing of them or where they might be found. However, when they got them somewhere more secure, that seemed to be exactly what they planned to do and who knew what they would do prior to that. She noted one of the men leering at her and felt sick to her stomach at what he might be thinking.

  “We could tie them up and leave them for the animals,” another one offered.

  “Rope is usually a good sign that there’s something afoot other than an animal attack,” the one who seemed to be calling the shots retorted with a scowl.

  “What if we shoot them and drop them into the river for the crocs to deal with,” the man suggested as an alternative.

  “Jesus, Carl. No. We’ll take them back to camp and deal with them there. Tie their hands and make damned sure they don’t get away.”

  Behind them, one of the men snatched their packs off their shoulders and tossed them forward to one of the others to carry. He protested loudly.

  “Why can’t they carry their own fucking packs?”

  “Because we don’t know what’s in them and they won’t be able to balance them,” he replied.

  “Then you fucking carry their shit or just leave it,” he said.

  “No. It might be useful. We’ll go through it back at base and then get rid of it. We don’t want to leave any signs of them here anyway.”

  “This is bullshit,” the guy replied.

  “Both of you just shut the fuck up and get them secured. We’re losing daylight and you’re acting like a couple of children,” the man in charge barked at them angrily.

  The first man pulled some rope from his pack and quickly bound both of their hands, then tied the ropes around their wrists together with a longer rope. The others made quick work of getting the tigers up and onto makeshift gurney-like contraptions to carry them through the woods. They began making their way with six of the men tied up transporting the tigers, the man who seemed to be in charge walking up front with some of their extra equipment and one man leading them along behind the others using the length of rope as a sort of lead.

  “Tabitha, I’m sorry for what you are about to see. I would have liked to discuss it with you first, but that option is off the table,” Matt said to her in a low voice.

  “What are you saying? Shut up. No talking!” the man leading them barked without turning around.

  “What’s going on back there?” the man in front was saying, stopping to let the others pass and walking back toward them.

  “Nothing. Telling his little girlfriend it will be okay, I guess. Stupid fucker,” the man leading them said.

  “Just keep an eye on them. We can’t afford for them to get away,” the man said, walking back ahead and continuing to lead the group through the trees.

  Tabitha had no idea what Matt was trying to tell her. Everything seemed gray and distorted in her mind as she still tried to formulate some idea as to how they could get out of this. As they neared a clearing in the trees, Tabitha could see a large vehicle sitting there. She assumed it was theirs and that was how they intended to get out of here. They must have come in from the south end if they were able to drive up like that. They were just about to clear the woods and she was losing hope of this ending well.

  “Get down,” Matt told her. His voice was barely audible and she looked at him with a confused expression. They were tied together. If she dropped, he would come down with her, but as she looked at him, her confusion turned to a mixture of disbelief and fear. He was changing, his face distorting, his body bending awkwardly as he dropped to all fours, tearing the ropes away and suddenly lunging at the man that held them.

  The man screamed as Tabitha shook off her state of shock and hit the ground, crawling behind a large tree and holding onto it for dear life. Her heart was beating out of her chest as she finished pulling the now loosened ropes free of her wrists. The sounds she was hearing from the other side of the tree were terrifying, much like those she had heard before when Matt had shown her the tigers feeding on a wild boar. It was horrifying and it was even more so with the knowledge that the tiger attacking the men was, somehow, Matt.

  It felt like her heart might stop completely as a shot rang out, then another. She heard a howl of pain that seemed to be coming from the tiger and then more screams, the sounds of ripping flesh and a roar that shook the trees around her. Then, everything was silent. She lay on the ground, afraid to move, even to look up. She heard footsteps approaching and slowly raised her head to see who was coming to bring the
end of life for her.

  The tiger stood over her. It was impossibly large up close. Blood coated its face and one side. At first, she thought it was all that of the men, but then the tiger faltered, falling to the ground beside her. She was afraid to touch it. Was it really Matt? Was he still in there somewhere? Reaching out, she brought her hand to its fur, feeling the hole the bullet had made when it had hit. Her stomach lurched as she struggled to keep her wits about her.

  Afraid to look around the tree, she bent over the tiger and put her head on it. She could feel the rise and fall of its chest as it struggled for breath. Despite how unreal this seemed, she understood that somehow, someway, this was Matt and not just some ordinary tiger, as he had called them.

  “Oh, Jesus. Don’t die, Matt. Don’t die on me,” she pled with the beast.

  Getting up from the ground, she looked around the tree. The men were scattered all across the forest floor, their bodies twisted at odd angles, blood everywhere. Spotting the packs they had taken from them when they tied them up, she tried not to look at the carnage, grabbing hers and running back to the tiger behind the tree. Its eyes were closed and it seemed to gasp for air. She was still having trouble reconciling that it was Matt when it was in this form, but she knew that it was. No matter how crazy it might seem. She had watched him turn into this.

  “Just hang on, Matt. Listen to my voice. Stay with me. Please stay with me,” she told him, pulling a cotton t-shirt from her bag and pushing it against the bleeding wound. What was she going to do? There was no way to call for help out here. Her best bet was to walk out of here and get some help, but what did she do with him? If she left him here with darkness approaching, there was a good chance he would become a part of the circle of life he had told her about earlier.

  “Okay, Tabitha. Think. Just think,” she said aloud, coaxing herself through this.

  It came to her in a flash. The vehicle! In the aftermath of the carnage that had unfolded, she had momentarily forgotten about seeing it parked just beyond the tree line in a clearing. It wasn’t far away. If she could get him there, then maybe she could find her way out of here to someplace where he could get help. She dug around in her bag for something to hold the makeshift bandage in place, ripping apart another shirt and stretching it around the tiger’s massive girth to hold it in place.