by Amelia Jade
“Holy shit,” he breathed. Before Russell had taken more than two steps, Gabriel made his move. The Stone Bear had stepped back from the confrontation at first, but with Emma in danger, he had chosen to act. As smoothly as if he did it every day, Gabriel caught the bear stumbling toward Emma, snapped its leg as he reversed his twist, looped his hands around its neck, and yanked.
The bear simply collapsed to the ground, something in its spine undoubtedly broken as well, since it was writhing in pain. With the space around him momentarily clear, Gabriel scooped up Emma and burst through the door. Knowing that she was now safe, Russell turned his attention back to the brawl. There were bears appearing left and right now that the first person had changed, as each shifter found the room and time to focus clearly enough to shift.
“Fuck this,” Russell snapped angrily, and a moment later a massive, dark brown bear ripped from his skin with a loud growl.
Seeing Ajax go down under the combined attack of three Opal members, Russell charged to his aid. A swat of his paw sent one shifter still in human form flying. He crashed through a wall, sunlight spilling in from outside. A crash of glass from the other direction told Russell of windows breaking, but he didn’t care.
Full battle fury had overtaken Russell. He swatted left and right, his long claws rending ferocious tears in the skin of human and bear alike, though there was increasingly less human and more bear. He ignored the hits in return, opting for full-on offense in a bid to help turn the tide. The Silvertips were giving as good as they got, but the Opal Crew had them outnumbered by at least three, even with Russell’s help.
Two bears hit Russell simultaneously, one from head-on and the other from the side, overwhelming him. He went down, but he rolled as he went. The other bears, less experienced in shifter combat, came on strong, hoping to tear huge pieces of flesh from his back. Instead, they found him ready to pounce with all four paws.
The shifter that had come in at his side took a hind leg straight to the face as hard as he could. Russell could hear the jaw breaking, and he tore enough skin with it to leave a huge flap dangling uselessly from underneath the broken bones.
Using his front paws to hit his second attacker, Russell grabbed its head as it lunged in, and twisted as best he could with his paws. The bear yowled as his claws dug into the tender flesh around its ears, and he bit down as hard as he could on its snout, which elicited another cry of pain.
Fire erupted along Russell’s side as yet another bear attacked him while he was down. Rolling quickly, he brought himself to his feet, finding himself side by side with Ajax and his crew. The Silvertips were all on their feet, but most were looking worse for wear as a small line opened between the two sides.
Holy shit, Russell thought, looking around the bar as he gasped for air, his huge bear lungs heaving with the exhaustion of fighting. The building was an absolute wreck. There were holes in the walls everywhere, and most of the tables and chairs were flattened. Even the bar, the huge, one-piece slab of mahogany, was dented and left with large furrows from various claws. Lights hung askew from the ceiling, and in a few places the ceiling had even been destroyed from flying wreckage.
Ferro is going to fucking kill us.
The Tongue & Flame was a write-off as far as Russell was concerned, but at that moment in time, the other bears required his attention. He glanced over at Ajax to see if he had a plan, but the Alpha was clearly in the same quandary. The Silvertips were all still game, but they just didn’t have the numbers to overwhelm their foes.
I wonder when Garrett will get h—
As if on cue, three bears burst through the far side of the bar, coming in through the already opened holes in the walls. One of them he instantly recognized as Garrett, his Alpha. The other was Corey, but Russell had no idea who the third bear was. What he did know was that it was a hulking monstrosity. Garrett and Ajax were the two largest bears Russell had ever seen, but it wasn’t even a contest next to the third one. It was so large he could only stare at how it lithely moved for a beast that had to weigh well over two tons.
Gabriel.
It had to be. There was nobody else it could have been. Which was odd enough, because the Stone Bears almost never got involved in crew politics.
But they hit Emma. So perhaps he’s here under orders.
Russell felt bad for the Opal Crew as the wrecking ball hit them from behind. At the same time, Ajax roared and his Silvertips charged, hitting the suddenly outclassed Opal Crew as they turned to face the newcomers.
They had no hope. Gabriel alone took out three of them in the opening handful of seconds in the scariest display of animal fighting Russell had ever seen. He moved in ways that seemed so unnatural for a bear, that there was no counter to them. Garrett was just as destructive, though he relied on his size and the fact that he was fresh from not having fought yet. Before the combined onslaught, the Opal Crew stood no chance. In a matter of minutes, half of them were unconscious or unable to move due to broken bones or slashed ligaments. Shifters healed incredibly fast, but they still had several wounds that required help from others to recover from. Help that the five of them that remained were unlikely to get, he thought darkly.
The others somehow managed to escape.
Russell shifted back to his human form as soon as he was sure that things were okay, and ran for the back room.
“Gwen!” he shouted, pulling aside debris that had piled up in front of the sturdy metal door that Ferro had worked into the frame. He wondered if that had been on purpose, in the event that something like this happened. Because despite the damage on either side of the bar, the entire back wall was effectively untouched. The pictures and the decorations on the wall looked worse for wear, but none of the bears had managed to actually go through this wall. Whatever Ferro’s reason for installing it, Russell was extremely glad that he had.
He heard a muffled reply from behind the door before it clanged and then opened smoothly as Ferro pushed. He barely had it open more than a sliver when Gwen came rushing out. Without thinking, Russell wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly. Gwen didn’t resist either; in fact, unless he missed his guess, she had practically thrown herself at him.
“Are you okay?” she asked suddenly, his wounds and blood-soaked clothing registering. She pulled back from him, her own clothes already bearing some of the wetness.
“Shit,” he said. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”
“No, it’s okay,” she said, taking a deep breath. “I think. It is okay, right?” she asked, looking around suddenly.
“Yeah, it’s okay. Are you all right?”
“Yeah I’m fine. All we heard were some big thuds and it felt like an earthquake the entire time, but no damage to me. Where’s Emma?” Gwen wanted to know, concern for her friend showing through as she waved off his concern for her well-being.
“She’s outside. Gabriel got her out safely.”
He hoped. Russell hadn’t actually seen Emma since she was taken outside, but he figured he would have heard by now if she had been injured.
“Okay, I want to see her,” Gwen proclaimed, stepping forward into the disaster zone that had once been Ferro’s pride and joy.
“Careful,” Russell cautioned, pulling her back before she could get too far ahead. “Those bears aren’t dead, and they could still hurt you.”
Following his lead, the pair of them took a wide route around the fallen bears. Although they were guarded by Silvertips, the defeated shifters were still a threat to a human if Gwen got too close. As they neared the doorway, Gwen stopped to watch as Ajax stalked in through one of the many holes in the wall, grabbed one of the unconscious bears by a leg, and began to pull him outside. With a quick motion, he indicated to the rest of his crew to bring the others with him.
“What’s going on?” Gwen asked as they went outside.
“Justice,” Russell said, not liking where things were going, even though he had known all along that it couldn’t end any other way.
You have no idea if she’s living here or just visiting.
Right.
But, he argued, watching her embrace Emma gently, she likely has the guts to, if she found a reason to stay.
Oh, and is that reason you?
Russell snorted. His inner self could be a dick sometimes. Although he had barely met Gwen, he knew he wanted to spend some more time with her. It would be awkward to do it the way he wanted with everything going on, but he was determined to ask her out on a date.
After today’s unpleasantness was concluded though. He had a feeling she wasn’t going to react so well to what was going to come next.
“Hey Emma,” he said, approaching the two women after giving them a moment. He noted the way her left arm hung awkwardly, and the swelling around one eye.
“Hi,” she said, giving him a slight nod. She winced even at that movement, and Russell felt his temper flare again.
“Whiplash?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she told him this time, beginning to nod along but catching herself this time before she moved too much. “Pulled something in my shoulder too, but it doesn’t feel too bad. Definitely not dislocated, thankfully.”
“You’re sure?”
“Garrett checked it out already,” she said with a smile.
Russell nodded, and moved up closer to Gwen.
“You should go back inside,” he told her softly.
“Why? It’s a mess in there. At least out here the air’s fresh,” she said, not understanding.
“Gwen,” Emma said, “life here isn’t like the outside. It’s rougher, grimmer, and it doesn’t operate by the same rules. You haven’t been here long enough to truly understand that.”
“What is it the two of you are trying to protect me from?” Gwen said, backing away a step as she looked back and forth between the two of them.
Russell sighed. “These bears disobeyed so many rules I’m not even sure I could begin to list them. I’m sure Emma can, and will, but that’s not the point. It’s the punishment for what they did. They wrecked civilian property, and they injured a human using their shifter strength. The first one is bad enough, but the second?” He hesitated.
“It’s punishable by ending,” Emma said for him, her voice like steel, uncompromising. She was no longer Emma Labelle, mate to a bear shifter, but Ms. Labelle, Lionshead Mining Consortium liaison. The change was abrupt, but he knew it was coming.
“You don’t need to see this,” Russell pleaded, trying gently to push her back toward the remains of the bar.
Gwen was shaking her head. “Wait, are you saying that they’re going on death row for this? Is that what you mean by ‘ending’?”
“No,” he said with a grimace. “They will be summarily tried and ended right now.”
“Oh my God,” she said in horror. “Is that even legal?”
“Not only is it legal, but it’s the law,” Emma told her friend in that same unyielding tone.
Gwen spun to face the scene laid out in front of them. The five captured bears, four of them back in human form, were lying on the ground. In front of three of them stood Ajax, Garrett, and Gabriel.
“No,” he heard Gwen breathe, as Ferro walked slowly down from his bar to stand in front of one of the remaining two bears.
“This is our way of life, Gwen. We aren’t humans, we don’t operate under human rules.”
“But out there,” she protested, pointing wildly and meaning outside of the valley, “this isn’t how it’s done there. Why here?”
“That was why Emma made the phone call before the fight started,” he explained. “If they weren’t a legitimate hired crew, then you’re correct, things would be different. But they are. Or were,” he corrected. “That means they are here on a last-chance opportunity, because out there,” he pointed the same way she had, “had already rejected them. This is the result of them using up that second chance.”
He had to give Gwen credit. She was close to panicking, but she managed to think it through, to stay calm and use logic. In any other situation, he would have found her completely intoxicating. But right now, he just wanted her to go somewhere where she wouldn’t see what was about to happen. Especially because—
“Whose responsibility is the fifth bear?” Gwen said slowly, turning to face them.
Russell glanced over at Emma, who nodded slowly, despite the pain.
“Mine,” he said regretfully. “Now will you go inside?” he pleaded yet again.
Gwen thought about it for a long moment. “No,” she said firmly. “If you,” she looked at Emma, “can proclaim it, and you,” she looked back at Russell, “can do it, then I can bear witness to it.”
Like Emma, there was no give in her voice. She had made her decision, and that was that. Gwen stepped up next to Emma and stood firm, looking out from their slightly elevated position over the parking lot.
“Why are you doing this?” Russell asked.
Gwen hesitated for a moment to form her reply, but there was no doubt in her voice. “This is your way of life. This is your culture. While it clearly bothers the both of you, neither of you are freaking out. I’ve seen and dealt with death more than I would have liked lately. I’m not pretending that I’m okay with it. Nor am I likely to forget it any time soon. To me it seems fucked up, but it clearly does not to you. So, if you can stomach it, because that’s the way it has to be, then I can do so as well. I’m terrified, but I think, deep down, we all have a fascination with death as well, whether we’re willing to admit it or not. If I’m going to live here, I need to become exposed to the culture, and acclimatized to it, no matter how horrifying it may seem to me now.”
Russell sighed. Stubborn woman. Smart, intelligent and fucking sexy, but stubborn. He knew she was going to regret it, but he also recognized when he couldn’t talk someone out of something either.
He had to fight back a smile as he realized he was proud of her for thinking it all through, and having the conviction to understand that despite her experience with a different system, that this is how it was done here in Genesis Valley. That life was not as valued a commodity as it was elsewhere.
With slow, measured steps, he took his place in front of the last remaining Opal shifter, the one still in bear form. He paused. After a moment, the shifter returned to human form.
Then everyone waited.
From behind him, he heard Emma draw in a breath. He turned to face her, as did the rest.
“Do you witness?” she asked.
“We do,” the assembled bears replied. Gwen added her voice a half-second later.
“My name is Emma Labelle, and I am a Liaison, duly appointed by the Lionshead Mining Consortium at the approval of Valen and Marcus Kedyn. Does anyone dispute this claim?”
“No.”
“The unnamed in front of us have been found guilty of the following crimes: One, refusing to obey a citizen business owner. Two, destruction of civilian property in bear form. Three, refusal to obey a direct order from a Lionshead Mining Consortium superior. Four, putting a human in harm’s way while in bear form. Five, harming a human using the superior strength of a shifter.”
It was that final charge that had placed them out here, but the other four combined would have been enough for Emma to sentence them to ending. She wouldn’t have, however, because she hated doing so. But the moment one of them had struck her and injured her, she had no choice. The law was the law.
“Does anyone here dispute this judgment?”
There were several noises from the bears in front of them, but none of them could say that they hadn’t done the above. The remainder of the bears voiced that they did not.
“Very well. I sentence you
to summary ending, to be carried out immediately.”
She nodded formally in the direction of Garrett, Ajax, Ferro, Gabriel, and Russell.
The quintet turned to face the condemned.
Russell knew what he had to do, but that didn’t mean he liked it. With a thought, his bear ripped from his skin once more, landing on all fours in front of “his” prisoner. He wished it didn’t have to happen this way, but it did. To his left he heard loud snapping noises as the others discharged their duties. Closing his eyes, he took the man’s skull in his jaws, and without further hesitation, he wrenched his head violently until the body in front of him went limp.
Chapter Four
Gwen
She made herself watch. Part of her was screaming that this was wrong, it was all wrong. Another part of her was saying that she was an idiot. She had been in Genesis Valley for barely a day and already she was involved in things up to her neck. But, she told herself firmly, it wasn’t wrong to them. It was just different from everything she’d been raised to believe about human society. That was the difference between what she knew and what was being played out in front of her.
Human.
Shifters were not human, and she would have to remember that fact. Emma had tried to make that point when Gwen had first arrived, going over several ground rules for dealing with shifters in the Valley. At the time, Gwen had scoffed and said that it couldn’t be that different from the few shifters she had come across in the outside world. Emma had rolled her eyes and told her she was being naïve.
Now both she and Russell were drilling it home to her harshly enough. Gwen knew it would take some time before she came to fully understand it in her core, but something inside of her said that this was important enough to try to put aside her own ideals and watch. It may seem barbaric to her since they looked human enough. Even when they changed, they seemed to still exude pieces of humanity. But looks were deceiving, and the five corpses in front of her were evidence enough of that.