“It means, I love you,” they said.
Chapter Thirteen
The voices floated to her from downstairs. Concerned voices. Jordan had spent the better part of the day in bed with Ivan and Mikhail, but in the early evening they’d announced they had things to see to and left her.
She enjoyed a leisurely bath, feeling for the first time as if she had a handle on things, that she could adapt and even thrive in this new reality and that maybe—just maybe—this was all meant to be.
But her curiosity was piqued by the eavesdropping, and she put down the book she’d been reading and padded quietly from the room, peering over the landing.
Ivan was pacing, and Mikhail had his hands on his hips.
“Is something wrong?” she asked. “Sorry for eavesdropping, not that I would know what you’re saying anyway.”
Ivan walked over as she descended the stairs.
“Viktor’s gone,” he said gravely. “Someone cut the lock.”
“Who would do this?” Mikhail asked. “No one knows he’s there other than Alexei and Jordan.”
Ivan stopped. “One other person does.” He paused. “I went to see Boris.”
“You told Boris?”
“Who’s Boris?” she asked.
“He’s an elder,” Ivan said.
“Yes, but not one to be trusted.” Mikhail turned away.
“I thought it would help if he knew. I thought he may take pity on Viktor, possibly bring Marina back.”
Mikhail shook his head. “I cannot scold you, cousin. Not after my own misjudgment. But this could be dire. Was there any sign of Viktor?”
“No.”
“No tracks?”
“I looked. He did not change, at least not there.”
“We need to find him.” Mikhail grabbed his jacket.
“I’m coming with you.” Jordan descended the rest of the stairs, but he held up his hand.
“No. It’s not safe, Jordan. You stay here.”
“No!”
Both men looked at her, surprised by her show of defiance.
“You said I’m your mate, right? You can’t hide me here, guys. I’m not going to sit here when there’s danger and wonder if you’ve been hurt. I’m going.”
She held her breath. Ivan was looking at Mikhail. He shrugged, a shadow of a smirk on his face. “You heard stubborn woman,” he said. “She’s going.”
“Get your coat,” Mikhail growled, and then muttered something under his breath.
The three of them piled into Ivan’s Land Rover. They were heading to Viktor’s house, which was on the outskirts of the village not far from where Boris lived. It was the only place they could think to look for him, but as they drove, Ivan said he understood why Viktor would leave. The talks he’d had with the troubled man were starting to have results. Viktor was understanding the danger, understanding that Mikhail and Ivan were trying to save him from going Rogue.
Viktor was not a wealthy man, and his house reflected that. The small dacha had plastic over some of the windows to keep the cold out, and the yard was overgrown with weeds. Before Marina had left, he’d made some improvements, and had even started an addition that he’d abandoned finishing after Boris sent her away.
As the truck pulled up to the house, Mikhail turned to Jordan.
“You will stay inside now,” he said. “I don’t know what we will find, but if you are there then we may be more focused on protecting you than calming him.”
She understood.
“Lock doors,” Ivan said.
Jordan did, her heart in her throat. She suddenly had a bad feeling she couldn’t explain.
* * *
Ivan knocked on the door, calling to Viktor. There was no answer, and after a moment he started to tell Mikhail that they should look elsewhere when he noticed something. The doorframe was jammed, as if someone had shoved it shut from the inside hard enough to force it to stick.
When he pushed it and it didn’t budge, Mikhail put a broad shoulder to the center and leaned his weight against the door until it gave way, the jammed frame splintering.
The door creaked as it swayed back and forth on its damaged hinges. The interior of the house was lit by natural light. Ivan lifted his head, sniffing air heavy with dust motes.
“He’s here,” he said quietly.
Mikhail shut the door.
“Viktor,” he called.
They searched the main room. The small potbellied stove was cold. No food was on the table. The men went down the hall, past the bathroom.
They found him in the small bedroom. He was sleeping on his bed, but he was still in human form.
“Viktor.”
He sat up, and when they did, both men stared in shock. A heavy iron collar was around his neck, fastened to a chain bolted into one of the support beams of the house. The collar was large enough to accommodate him if he changed.
“Viktor, who did this to you?”
He seemed slightly disoriented, then backed up on the bed. “Leave,” he said. “Leave. He’s right, and you should leave.”
“Who’s right?”
At that moment, the back door opened. A path led from Viktor’s house to the others leading up to the village. Neither was surprised to see Boris, who’d arrived with some food without seeing their vehicle. He nearly dropped the plate.
“You did this?” Ivan said angrily. “You took Viktor?”
“It’s for his own good,” Boris said. “He should be free.” He sat the plate down and walked over to rub Viktor’s head, as if he were already an animal. “They should all be free.”
“Freedom is being who he is. Being fully BearKynd. He doesn’t have to choose.” Ivan walked over to Viktor. “We’re leaving,” he said. He glared at Boris. “Give me the key.”
“No,” the old man hissed. “I’ll only let him go after I undo the damage that’s been done.”
“Damage. We’ve been trying to save him,” Mikhail said hotly. He was getting agitated, and shook off the gentling hand that Ivan placed on his arm. “We’ve always done what was best for the clan.”
“Don’t speak to me of clan!” Spittle sprayed from between Boris’ quivering lips. “You’re more man than bear with your mines and your millions, lording yourself over the rest of us. King of the BearKynd.” He smiled meanly, displaying yellowed and broken teeth. “No clan, no king.” He paused. “It’s taken some time, I’ll admit. But I’ve been able to use the current circumstances to help push these young men away, to push them to the wild.”
“That’s what this is about? Jealousy?” Mikhail said.
Ivan shared his incredulity. That one of their elders could undermine the clan, could threaten its existence, seemed beyond comprehension. He felt the anger roiling in the pit of his stomach, anger that rivaled anything he’d experienced, but he kept control. His cousin looked furious, but before them, the old man only laughed.
“Why should the young continue to choose when the elders like me lose the choice?” he asked.
“You selfish bastard,” Ivan said.
Boris just laughed. “Maybe we should ask what Viktor wants.” He laid a hand on the younger man’s head. “Do you want to live here, scraping and scrabbling in a man’s world while Mikhail and Ivan lord their largesse over you? Or do you want to break their reign and run free with your brothers who await you?”
Viktor looked at Mikhail and Ivan. Then he looked at Boris. “Let me go,” he said through gritted teeth. “I am ready.”
The old man moved faster than either had anticipated. He’d obviously had the key ready and turned the lock before anyone could stop him. The collar fell away in two halves and Viktor sprang up, breathing heavily. There was no time to reason with him, and Ivan looked on helplessly, keeping control as Viktor lost his and transformed.
Ivan expected this transformation. But he did not expect Mikhail’s. But should he have not expected it? Mikhail’s face had darkened with rage when he’d learned that the old man had been deliberat
ely urging the young males to turn Rogue.
Now the room could hardly contain the two huge beasts that filled it. Viktor burst through the thin window, breaking the frame and siding around it as he launched outside. Mikhail followed.
“No!” Ivan resisted the urge to change. He could feel it—the fear and stress calling forth the beast. But he ran outside where his cousin and Viktor were circling each other.
Boris was walking outside, cackling gleefully.
“Look! Look!” he said as he walked down the steps. “Look at your king! See his rage! See how he joins Viktor!”
Viktor had risen to his hind legs.
“To the woods!” Boris yelled. “Go! And take your king.”
But the one-eyed bear wasn’t looking at Mikhail. It was looking at the old man. And before Ivan could call to him, the animal launched itself at Boris, grabbing him by the back of his head. There was a sickening crunch as he crushed the old man’s skull and dropped the body as if it were nothing more than a rag doll.
He staggered away and then put his head down. With a groan, he changed back and wordlessly walked back in the house.
But Mikhail did not change back. Ivan approached him, but his cousin growled.
“Mikhail!”
It was Jordan’s voice calling to him, and he stopped for a moment. She’d opened the door of the truck. For a moment, everyone froze. Then Mikhail stood and roared before turning to run toward the forest.
Chapter Fourteen
“Have we lost him?” Jordan was crying, her hands and legs still shaking from what she’d seen. A man was dead, killed before her eyes by the bear that had been Viktor. And the look in the eyes of one of the gentle creatures she’d walked with had showed no trace of his humanity. “Tell me, Ivan!” she cried.
He was driving as fast as road conditions allowed, taking a rutted access path up the slope in the direction Mikhail had been running. With any luck, he told Jordan, they would cut him off by the open location of the research station. Beyond that was forest. If he reached it first, they could lose him forever.
“What are we going to do?” she asked.
Ivan shook his head. “I don’t know. I only know that…” He looked over at her, and she could see fear in his eyes. Deep fear. “If I can’t reach him, Jordan. If he’s… if Mikhail is gone, then I cannot promise how I react.” He gripped the wheel. “Do you know what that means?”
Of course she knew what it meant. They’d told her. They’d told her how fear and stress could tip the balance, had tipped the balance with the Rogues, who were lost forever. Mikhail may be lost. They would find out. If he were, the stress of that could turn Ivan as well.
“Listen to me,” he said. “If that happens, do not try to reach us. Do not try to engage. You stay in car. You lock doors. You turn around and go back.”
“Ivan…”
“No!” he yelled at her, and she decided to listen and not press him. He was already struggling to hang on. She could tell.
“There is safe in Mikhail’s office. The combination is 6-16-47-3. Can you remember?”
“Ivan.”
“Repeat it to me.”
Jordan repeated it, tears in her voice. “There is money in safe. Take it. Fly to country that is not America. Stay low.” He looked at her, and she could see there were tears in his eyes as well. “Stay safe.”
He turned his attention back to the road and slammed on the brakes. A bear stood in the center of the path just as they came around the corner. It was Mikhail.
“Stay here,” he said, putting the truck in gear.
He got out, and Jordan covered her mouth with her hands, trying to keep her breath steady. She could feel herself threaten to hyperventilate as Ivan approached Mikhail.
He was talking to him, much as he’d talked to Viktor that day at the research station. But his tone was pleading, his hands out. The bear that was Mikhail backed away, his head down. He exhaled angrily, sending up puffs of dust from the road.
“No,” she said to herself. She would not make Ivan do this alone. It was the three of them now. Wasn’t that what they’d said?
She got out of the truck. Ivan looked at her, but she could tell he was struggling to hold himself in check. He wanted to change. But she didn’t feel she could make it worse. Not now.
“Mikhail,” she said, her voice firm. “Mikhail. Look at me.”
The bear huffed and pawed the ground. He growled low in his throat. If he charged, he’d kill her.
“Mikhail… Ivan…” She addressed them both now, as Ivan had dropped to the ground, fighting against himself. “Both of you. Listen to me. I need you. I can’t do this without you. You’re my mates. I need you to take care of me. I know you’re in there, Mikhail. Don’t you fucking leave me. Don’t you dare fucking leave me!”
She walked over to the bear, not caring now if he did kill her. Living without the men she loved would be a worse fate, she decided. She was within inches of his face.
“You come back to me. Now!”
The bear stood and looked down at her.
She pointed at the ground. “Get back down here, reach inside, and pull yourself back. You’re a king. So act like it.”
Time seemed to stand still. She could feel her heart pounding, could hear Ivan moaning in physical pain as he sought to stave off his change. And the bear that was Mikhail sank down onto the ground, bowed his head, and—as tears of joy coursed down her face—transformed back into the man she loved.
He was naked. She didn’t care. She ran to him, held his shaking form. Ivan came over, putting his arms around both of them.
“You brought me back,” Mikhail was saying. “I was gone. Completely gone. You brought me back.”
“You’re back,” she said. “And we’re together.” She kissed them both. “And we’re going home.”
Chapter Fifteen
They had to see to Viktor first. All were afraid of what they would find. His house was far enough away from the village that the attack on Boris had not been witnessed. Viktor had covered the old man’s body with a tarp and dragged him to the side of the house, where he’d covered the body with branches.
Mikhail, Ivan, and Jordan found him sitting at his kitchen table, wearing a coat over his nakedness.
Mikhail pulled out a chair and sat down across from the one-eyed man.
“I thought you were going to attack me,” he said to Viktor.
Viktor scoffed. “I was. He brought me here, told me he would help me more, that you were using me. He chained me, telling me once I knew the truth, he’d let me go. He said it was for my safety. But I quickly realized that Boris only wanted to use me.” He sighed. “I did not know he put fear in the others to drive them away.”
He looked at Mikhail with his good eye. “Try to save them, Mikhail. Don’t give up. There must be a way. But for me…” He glanced toward the window. “I killed an elder. I cannot stay. We know that. I must change, and stay changed. But I will not be a Rogue.” His voice faltered, as if ashamed. “I will need help.”
“And you will get it,” Ivan said. “We will bring you food, and we will make sure all bears—both clan and otherwise—know that the area you mark for your territory is yours alone.”
He nodded, then looked at Jordan. “You’ve taken a mate,” he said.
“Yes.”
“Good,” Viktor smiled. “Were it not for Boris, I’d have Marina.” He grew quiet. “I do not regret it, killing him. But there is a price to pay.”
Both men moved over to where he sat and hugged him. Then they stood and walked out back together. Jordan had not understood the conversation, but watched from the window now as Viktor dropped to all fours, changed, and headed to the forest. She would never see him again, even though her mates would.
* * *
In the end, love was the key. A woman’s love. It was a simple solution that the patriarchal bear clan overlooked. When a young bear went Rogue, he was considered lost, and the human wife or mother was told no
t to approach him, lest she be killed.
But after what happened on the road, Jordan had a theory that if emotion could cause a permanent shift, perhaps a counter emotion could reverse it.
Alexei was skeptical, but his wife, Elana, insisted. It took nearly a month for Mikhail, Ivan, and Alexei to track Sergei down, but once they did, Ivan stayed in bear form and shadowed him, shifting back occasionally to radio in the location so Alexei and Mikhail could bring the Rogue’s mother.
Jordan was not allowed to go. Ivan, ever the scientist, considered her theory unproven. She argued, but was overruled. But it worked, and Ivan and Mikhail assured her that it was as emotional a moment as she may have expected.
Slowly, over the next six months, all the Rogues were found and brought home. The clan was saved, except for Viktor. The one-eyed bear adapted as well as could be expected to his life, the one reminder of the closest the clan came to falling to ruin. There would, of course, be other challenges. Ivan and Mikhail knew that. But with a mate at their side, and with their kind’s heritage to uphold, they were more committed than ever to be the leaders that they’d been born to be.
The End
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