by W. H. Vega
Gabby continued to stare, and Zane couldn’t help but notice the swell of her chest as she took in small breaths. She was clearly trying not to freak out.
“So what exactly are you saying?” Gabby demanded.
“I’m saying that for your safety, you should remain with our clan.”
Gabby blinked, her mouth dropping open as she took in this news.
“And there’s more,” Michael added, “your blood makes you very valuable to us, so I have to ask that you choose a mate and help us produce offspring.”
“What?” Gabby exploded, leaping out of bed.
Zane tried to help her back down, but she swatted at him. “Don’t touch me!” She moved like she was going to yell at Michael, but then she rounded on Zane. “This is your fault!” she yelled, jabbing a finger at him. Then she looked from Zane to Michael. “So what? That’s it? I can either go out and get killed by another tribe or stay here and fuck one of you bear-weres or werebears or whatever the hell it is you call yourself?”
Zane nodded.
“Then maybe I’ll take my chances! Maybe one of the other tribes won’t kill me!” she said hotly.
The thought of the Cruentus, or worse the Atrocitas, getting their hands on Gabby made Zane nearly lose his mind. He jumped up and grabbed Gabby by the wrist. “You don’t know what you’re dealing with!” he said loudly. “We are the gentlest of the three clans! Even if they don’t kill you, I can promise you that you that they will take full advantage of your heritage! They could lock you up and rape you repeatedly, or let bear after bear have his way with you and turn you into nothing but a breeding machine, popping out cub after cub, year after year!”
Gabby paled as she listened to Zane, and she sank to the bed as Zane continued on.
“It’s not ideal what Michael is offering you, I know that! I didn’t want this for you. But it is your best option. He’s offering you a mate. As in, one. You can pick someone from the clan, start a life with them and have children only with that one bear. No sharing, no breeding, no imprisonment.”
He could see that he was getting through to Gabby, but then the word imprisonment set her off.
“But it is imprisonment,” she sobbed. “That’s what you’re telling me! My life as I knew it is over!” She paused, pacing the room. “No! No! I won’t do it! Fuck all of you! You can’t hold me here! You can’t force me to do this! I’ll go to the police! I’ll run away! This is insane!”
“Gabby,” Michael said, moving towards her, “I’m so sorry. We’ll give you some time for this to sink in. We’ve arranged for you to stay here at Alicia’s.”
“Wait,” she said, looking up. “I—I have to stay here? I can’t go back to my apartment?” Her lower lip trembled.
Michael shook his head. “I’m sorry. We’ll have your things brought to you, and if you are uncomfortable here with Alicia, then we can make other arrangements for the time being—until you choose a mate.”
“Oh my God,” she whispered, sinking down on the bed again. “Get out!” she screamed suddenly, throwing a glass of water at the door. Zane and Michael ducked, and Alicia appeared.
“Give her space,” Alicia murmured.
Feeling like a piece of shit, Zane looked at Gabby one more time; she was laying across the bed sobbing,
“Zane,” Michael said in a low voice, “Let’s give her some space.”
Zane had no choice but to obey, and he left Gabby in Alicia’s hands.
Chapter Nineteen
When she had finished crying and was done feeling sorry for herself, she got up and washed her face in the bathroom sink. Her eyes were puffy and red, but there was nothing she could do about that now. She vowed that she would not shed another tear over this situation.
And honestly, she was not just going to sit back and let this clan of nut job bears try to dictate her life.
Screw that.
She went downstairs where Alicia was humming and wiping down the kitchen. She looked cautiously over at Gabby. “How are you?”
“I’m fine,” Gabby said, not caring if she was being short with Alicia. “So now that I’m stuck here, what is supposed to happen next?”
“Well,” Alicia said carefully, “You can settle in here and make yourself comfortable. Then you can think about finding a mate. I promise you, there are many great men in our clan, and I’m sure that they will begin pursuing you.”
“And what does that mean?”
“They will begin showing up at my door.” Alicia watched Gabby closely. “Though Michael has told them to give you a few days to let everything sink in. But then, they will show up and ask to spend time with you. Here. If you’re interested, then you can allow them to take you out on an actual date.”
“So what?” Gabby asked sarcastically, “These are, like, the bear dating rules?”
Alicia chuckled. “Sort of.”
There was a knock at the door, and Alicia went to answer it. Gabby was going to freak out if these bears were already pursuing her. Instead, Alicia came back with Zane behind her.
“Do you want to see him?” Alicia asked.
Zane gave Alicia a lethal look.
Gabby was still upset.
“Sure. Why not?” she snapped.
Alicia nodded. “I’ll leave you two alone.”
She left the kitchen, and Gabby plopped down in a seat at the table.
“I’m not going to stay here,” she said matter-of-factly as Zane took a seat next to her.
“I figured you would say as much. I’m afraid you don’t have the choice.”
“I’ll just run away.”
Zane rolled his eyes angrily. “Then you’ll be killed!”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“Damn it, Gabby! Be smart here!”
“How about you all be smart? Did anyone stop to consider the fact that I have a sister? What’s to stop the other clans from going after her?”
Zane ran a hand through his hair. “Michael and I were just discussing that. We don’t believe your sister has the same royal blood. According to our lore, only the first-born child of a king has the powerful blood.”
“So, does that make me a queen or something?” Gabby snarked, thinking that might not be half bad.
Zane laughed just a little. “Sort of. You will certainly get perks within the clan. But Michael is our leader.”
“And you?” Gabby asked, peering at Zane, “What are you?”
“I’m his Second.”
“His second?”
“Second in command.”
Gabby nodded. She paused, looking over Zane’s chiseled body and his warm brown eyes. There was no denying the attraction between them; her pulse had quickened the second he came into the room. She could think of worse things than sleeping with him, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to do it because someone told her she had to.
“I think you’re checking me out,” he said cockily, leaning back in his chair.
“Go to hell,” she shot back, her cheeks flushing, but Zane only laughed.
“You were!”
“I was not!”
Zane leaned in; he was so close that Gabby could see each thick individual eyelash and smell his warm, woodsy scent. “It would be so easy,” he breathed, his mouth only inches from her. “You and I. Together. You could pick me.” He paused, his breath noticeably quickening. “Think about it. You and I. We both know the attraction is there.”
Gabby felt her heart accelerate and her nipples hardened within her bra. It would be so easy to give herself over to Zane and let him have his way with her. She could just imagine the powerful lover he would be, taking control in all the right ways. And the thought of what lay between his legs…
Well, that was almost more than she could handle. She had noticed his size when he had been hard against her last night in her apartment.
She felt her sex clench, and she had to close her eyes against the onslaught of her dirty thoughts. Falling into bed with Zane would be so easy.
Amazing.
Mind-blowing.
But it would be mating.
Something about that word brought her back to reality, and she leaned away from Zane, shaking her head to clear her lustful thoughts.
“No,” she said flatly.
Zane sat back in the chair, looking at her scornfully. “You’re just being difficult.”
“And you just want to fuck me!”
“Is that a bad thing?”
She opened her mouth to reply, but closed it. She wasn’t going to play these games with him anymore.
“Think about it,” he murmured, and Gabby looked away, not wanting to give away just how turned on she actually was.
Just then, Alicia came rushing in, and Gabby was grateful for the distraction.
Until she saw Alicia’s face.
“Zane,” she choked. “There’s been another cub.”
Gabby wasn’t sure what this meant, but Zane jumped out of his seat. “Who?” he demanded.
“Liam,” Alicia sobbed.
Zane made a strangled sound and pulled Alicia to his chest, hugging her hard. “No, no,” he said, “It can’t be.”
Alicia continued to cry. “Michael needs you,” she choked out.
Zane released Alicia and turned to Gabby, his face full of pain. “I’m sorry, Gabby. I have to go.”
And before she could ask any questions, or even say anything at all, he rushed out the door.
Gabby stood there in the middle of Alicia’s kitchen, which was slowly darkening as the sun went down. She didn’t know what had just happened, and she felt helpless as Alicia sobbed. She slowly moved towards Alicia. “Alicia?” she asked quietly. Alicia was facing the wall, hugging herself, sobbing silently as her shoulders heaved up and down.
“Alicia,” she repeated, “I’m not sure what’s going on, but can I do anything to help?”
Alicia turned around, her face streaked with tears. “You can get over yourself already and help our damn clan!” she cried, before rushing out of the room.
Stunned, Gabby stood there. What the hell had just happened? She tried not to feel hurt; clearly Alicia was dealing with something.
“She didn’t mean that,” Grayson said quietly, causing Gabby to jump. She hadn’t heard him enter the house. “Her nephew was just killed.’’
“Oh my God,” Gabby gasped, “How?”
“We believe bears from another tribe are killing our cubs. We’ve had a number of cubs killed over the past few months. They’re just kids!”
Gabby stared helplessly. That was horrible.
“Our blood is already diluted,” Grayson explained “because so many of us are mating with non-shifters. A number of our children are born as non-shifters, so we treasure our shifter children who will continue to produce more shifters. That’s why your blood is so important. You can help build our shifter population.” He was blunt, but honest. Gabby had to admire that. But that didn’t change how she felt.
“I’m very sorry,” was all she could say.
“I need to go be with her,” Grayson said nodding in the direction Alicia had gone.
Gabby watched him leave and then sank down into a kitchen chair. Her head was spinning from everything that had happened. She had been told that her father had been a bear, a shifter who could change from a man into a beast. And she herself had the same powerful blood, making her some rare exception, even though she couldn’t shift. She had been kidnapped and ordered to live a new life while picking a mate and producing bear cubs.
It was just too much to comprehend and she wasn’t going to let anyone else tell her how she should live her life.
“Screw this,” she muttered.
She hated taking advantage of the fact that Alicia was suffering, but she had to take this opportunity. She quickly went to the front door and slipped outside. She wasn’t sure where she was, but she ran down the dirt road, grateful for the darkened sky that was helping to hide her. The street was lined with a few other small houses, and Gabby was surprised at the remoteness of the area. Even though she didn’t know exactly where she was, she was sure Sam and Tommy hadn’t taken her too far.
The street came to a fork, and she squinted into the distance. It looked like Michael’s house was up ahead on a small hill. Maybe if she headed that way she could recover her sense of direction. She jogged down the dirt road, clinging to the shadows. Sure enough, it was Michael’s house that she approached.
Curiosity got the best of her and she quietly made her way closer. She noticed that Zane and Michael were sitting on the front porch, and she couldn’t help but want to eavesdrop. Remembering that Michael and Zane could turn into bears, she hoped that they wouldn’t be able to hear her creeping around the yard.
She stealthily made her way up to the side of the house, and she realized that she could hear them clear as day. She hoped she would get lucky and learn where the hell she was so she could figure her way out of this sketchy bear territory.
“-just like the others,” Zane growled.
“Yes, I’m afraid so.”
“But he was just a kid! He was only five!”
“They were all young, Zane, but I know that you were particularly close to Liam.”
“I hadn’t spent as much time around him in the last year,” he pointed out, his voice gruff, yet emotional. “But he was such a sweet cub. He was nuts about Alicia.”
“This is devastating for all of us. As soon as the sun is up, we will investigate further. It happened near the Atrocitas border.”
“Of course it did, those dirty motherfuckers!” Zane swore.
“Enough. That will get us nowhere. Now tell me, where do things stand with Gabby?”
Zane laughed harshly, making Gabby wince. “I have no idea. What should we say? ‘Hey Gabby, our cubs are getting killed, hurry up and mate, please.’ ’’
There was silence for a moment.
“Perhaps she will choose you,” Michael said thoughtfully.
Another harsh laugh. “Right. Until she finds out the truth.”
Truth? What was Zane talking about? Gabby had an uneasy feeling; she didn’t like what Zane’s words implied.
“You must tell her.”
“How?” Zane snapped. “How do I tell her that?”
Again there was silence.
“No, perhaps its best that she doesn’t know how her father died.”
What? Her father? A sick feeling filled Gabby’s stomach.
“I was a kid,” Zane argued, his voice filled with remorse. “How could I have known? And your father – your father was so good to me, he helped me.”
“We all make mistakes,” Michael said wisely.
“Oh yes,” Zane said sharply, “we all kill bear kings.”
Gabby froze as his words sank in.
Kill.
Bear.
Kings.
Zane was afraid she would learn the truth.
The truth about her father’s death.
It was Zane.
There was no other way of understanding his words.
She wanted to scream, to sob and pull her hair out.
She couldn’t hear any more.
Covering her mouth to stop herself from crying out, she hurried back down the hill as quick as she dared, so as not to be discovered. It was all too much.
She ran and ran, staying to the side of the dirt road, not paying any attention to where she was going.
Tears poured down her cheeks, and she stumbled and tripped along the way, scraping and tearing her skin, but she didn’t care.
When she finally couldn’t run anymore, her legs gave out and she collapsed in a heap in the grass, crying for the father she had lost so many years ago.
When Gabby was finished crying, and she realized that she was sitting in a heap in the middle of nowhere, she brushed herself off. She wasn’t sure how far she had run, or in what direction she had headed, but in the distance she thought she could make out a street lamp.
It was dark now, and
she jogged towards the lamp, suddenly acutely aware of the fact that she was completely alone and that bears were after her. She reached the street lamp and nearly collapsed with relief. She knew exactly where she was. She was a good ten miles from her apartment, but she was maybe only three miles from her mother’s house.
She was going to have to suck it up.
Plus, she had a feeling that once Zane and Michael knew she was missing, they would go straight to her apartment to look for her.
Her feet ached, but she jogged along the side of the road, following the small streets that led to her mother’s house. She jumped at every sound, always peering into the dark bushes, her heart ready to leap out of her chest. She had lost all concept of time, and all she could think about as she ran was that Zane was responsible for her father’s death.
She truly hated him.
And she dared Zane, or Michael, or any of the others to try to drag her back now that she knew the truth. What had they been planning? To keep that terrible information from her forever?
Spurred on by anger, she quickened her pace as she neared her destination. She knew what she had to do. She could no longer stay in Russet Falls; it wasn’t safe for her. Not only were the so-called “bad” bear clans after her, but now Michael and Zane’s clan would come for her too. She had no choice but to start over.
A brief thought crossed her mind, and she knew she would need more time to consider it. Perhaps she and Lucy could move together? But what if the bears tried to follow Gabby? She couldn’t risk putting Lucy in danger. But how could she ever leave Lucy? That was the reason she hadn’t left Russet Falls in the first place. If only she knew that Lucy would be okay.
Her legs screamed from the exertion, but Gabby finally entered her mother’s neighborhood. Most of the time, her mother was careless and left the door unlocked, but sometimes Lucy happened to catch it, and locked it up herself. Gabby hoped tonight was one of those nights that neither had remembered to lock the door.
She jogged up to the small brick house and crept around to the back door. She sighed with relief when the door quietly creaked open. She didn’t want to disturb her mother or Lucy, but she also didn’t want them to think she was an intruder. She closed the door behind her, locked it and glanced at the kitchen clock. It was just after midnight.