The Bear Truth (8 page)

“I have a scent,” Lukas said. “I smelled it on Craig. I smelled the same scent on Joe. It’s one that’s unfamiliar to me, but I think that’s the one that I’m looking for. That’s Joshua."

“Okay,” I said. “I’m trusting you.”

Lukas shifted in front of me then. He had told me that he could use his enhanced abilities better in his bear form. I stepped back. I marveled at the bulk of his body and the way that he moved so gracefully through the trees. His nose immediately went to ground as he went in search of what he was looking for.

I followed quietly behind him. I wasn’t sure what we would find. Because Lukas was so intent on the scent, and I was so intent on Lukas, we missed any obvious signs that we weren’t alone any longer. An arm snaked around my neck, and I felt the tip of a knife wedge my throat.

“Hey bear,” the voice said as he hissed the words against my ear. Lukas spun around, and I watched him go up on his hind legs. He howled into the daylight.

“Go ahead and shift back now. I need to talk to you.” We had found Joshua after all.

Joshua’s stench was all over the area. That was why I missed it the undertones that would have given me a clue that he had been there recently. I couldn’t believe I had been so stupid. I had maneuvered Maren behind me thinking that would protect her. Instead, I led both of us right into a trap.

There was a part of me that didn’t want to shift back. I knew that I was weaker in my human form. But I saw the threatening glint of the knife against Maren’s throat. It would take only one cut across her jugular, and then she would be gone. I had no choice. The growl was in my throat even as I changed from my bear form back into my human form. I stood before him not really caring that I was naked. I would find a way to rip out the man’s throat one way or another. He could count on that.

“Let her go,” I said. “This is between you and me. This has always been between you and me, hasn’t it?” I felt the tug of guilt inside me. So many years ago, I had drawn Joshua’s attention to me and to my clan. I knew that was why my brother was dead. It was because that hatred filled boy had focused on me ten years ago, and his anger at my kind had prompted him to go out do evil things against us.

“You are hilarious. You think this is all about you? I’ve heard a lot about you over the years. You have quite the reputation, and quite the ego to go along with that I see.” Joshua shook his head. Although we had to be close to the same age, he looked older. He was still pale and gangly. The faded scars on his face told me that he had lived a rough life. That made me happy in a way.

“This has nothing to do with her,” I said. “This is between us. You let her go, and we’ll talk. Just like you want.”

“I don’t think so,” Joshua said. “This is between you and me, yes. I do want to talk to you. But there’s no way I’m attempting that without a safety net. I know that you’re stronger than me. I get that, even though I hate to admit it. You and I need to have a chat about what’s really going on here. Maybe we can come to some sort of arrangement about what happens next, and I can help you out.”

His words made me realize that perhaps Joshua wasn’t the mastermind behind everything after all. Perhaps he was just a puppet too. “What exactly is it you want to talk about?”

“I want to talk about you leaving me alone.” Joshua stuck the knife further into Maren’s neck. She winced, but she didn’t cry out, my brave girl. I smelled the blood even before I saw it drip onto Joshua’s fist. I could tell that my bear was ready to jump out and risk taking him down no matter what. But I couldn’t guarantee that Maren wouldn’t get hurt in the process. “Please stop."

“Yeah, I always knew she was your weakness,” Joshua said. “He didn’t believe me. He thought you were smarter than that. But I always knew it after the way you get all alpha when you saw me talking to her that night. You’re just nothing but a dumb bear when it comes down to it.”

I growled. I couldn’t stop it. This conversation was growing tiresome, and my bear was becoming harder to control. “Tell me exactly what it is you want to talk about otherwise we’re going to have a throw-down right here and right now no matter what you think.”

“Here’s the deal,” Joshua said. “You may think that I had something to do with your brother’s death. But I didn’t do it. Me and my boys were up here having a little fun with him. I admit that. But at the end of the day, I don’t want to end up dead. I saw what you did to your own sheriff. I saw what you did to my friends. I don’t want any of that to happen to me. So here’s how this is gonna go down. I’ll tell you a little bit of news that might interest you about your precious Summit. You’re going to give me some cash in exchange. I’ll walk out of here alone, and you can have your woman. It’s all really simple.”

“You think that I’m going to believe anything you say?” I said the words slowly and deliberately. I wasn’t sure that Joshua fully appreciated who he was dealing with in this situation. I wasn’t my brother. I didn’t listen to reason when I thought action would get me better results.

“I’m going to tell you the truth. You’ll be able to tell if I’m lying or not, right?”

“I may be a bear and have enhanced abilities, but I’m not a living lie detector,” I said. It amused me to hear the types of abilities that humans prescribed to us. It was yet another example demonstrating that they didn’t understand us at all. “How about instead you let Maren go? Then you and I can have your man to man talk. Best case scenario though, you walk away from here alive and with all your limbs functioning. We’ll start with you telling me what you did to my brother."

“I told you, I didn’t have anything to do with your brother.”

“You said you had some fun with him, and you did kidnap my mate,” I said. “Or did you expect that I was going to forget about that?”

“Nothing was ever going to happen to her. She was simply bait for you to get you away from the others. Since we’re opening up and sharing now, I guess I should tell you that is one of RAC’s specialties really. We come up with the perfect scenarios and bait to lure animals like you out into the open, so the people who really want to get rid of you have an open opportunity."

As he spoke, I sensed that we were not alone any longer. The rustle of leaves around me in the forest told me that there were several others hiding in the trees. The impact of his words hit me. They had tried to bait me before with Maren and failed. Their back-up was to lure me out to the Summit location with the news that they were going to do something to disrupt the Summit. Of course, I fell for it. Maren and I stepped right into their trap. “I’m going to rip you limb from limb," I promised as I glared at Joshua.

I wanted to kick myself for not allowing Billy to come with us or agreeing to let him send a few guards along. I wasn’t ready to let Billy expose his identity to the rest of the town yet. That’s why I have left him behind. But now as I watched the faces emerge from the trees, I realized we were in trouble. Each one had a bow with an arrow notched and pointed in my direction. The worst part was that they were humans and Lopers. I knew them by their scents. Then another man emerged to stand next to Joshua. I couldn’t believe it. Reddon glared back at me.

“You should’ve stayed away and not come back here. Everything would’ve been fine, but you decided it was more important to stir up trouble with all the shifter clans. I can’t have that. With Markus out of the way, I can finally set my own agenda with the shifter leaders. You’ve put yourself and your mate in quite a predicament, but it’s your own fault," Reddon said.

I looked at Maren and realized that not less than ten minutes ago I had promised her I would be safe. I had promised her that nothing would happen to me or to her. I wasn’t going back on that promise. With my back against a wall, I did the only thing I could think of. I put out the silent call to all of my clan members for help. As the alpha, it was something I could do, but I had no idea how to tell if it worked. I also wasn’t sure that my clan would come to my aid, especially now that they knew about the sheriff.

Then I phased into my bear form. I climbed up on my hind legs and roared a challenge that I knew Reddon and his Loper clan members would understand. Then I fell back on all four legs and pawed at the dirt.

Reddon put his hand up. For a moment, I thought he was going to give the order for the men to shoot me. But if he did that, there might be a question among his men who witnessed this event. If he wanted to be the alpha of all, he had to prove that he could handle it. I knew that as well as he did. It was now a matter of honor.

“Hold,” he said with a slight frown. “You will not shoot unless I say so.” Then he began to unbutton his shirt. A few moments later, his clothes were in a disheveled pile at his feet. “You want a fight, bear? You’ve got one. You grizzlies have spent far too long thinking you were at the top of the shifter hierarchy. It’s time the king of beasts takes his title back.”

He moved closer toward me and shifted into his lion form. I was glad. That meant that things were going to be taking care of between us the way that they were supposed to be. I was going to have my revenge on the man who had taken my brother from me. He thought that he was so clever. He had never dealt with a bear like me before, and I planned to make sure that assumption cost him dearly.

He pawed at the ground and then we began to slowly circle one another. I hung back and waited. Reddon was at least double my age, and I trusted that my reflexes were quicker than his. Because he had been the alpha of the Lopers almost as long as Markus had been the alpha of the Grizzlies, I didn’t think he had been in a fight like this in years. I would take full advantage of that.

Reddon launched himself at me, but I was ready for him. I went down on my haunches close to the ground and flipped onto my back even as he sprang into the air above me. I knew this put me into a precarious submissive position. I heard his growl of glee as he thought that he was already going to take the upper hand.

My move was risky, but I had a strategy. As he came down on top of me, my claws ripped into his soft underbelly and dug in deep. Reddon howled in pain. I push upward and used the momentum and my weight to flip us both over. He landed hard on his back, and I was on top of him. My plan had worked.

Something else was also happening. I felt the presence of my family. They had responded to my call.

“Jesus Christ, there are bears everywhere!” I heard the shout, and then there was the noise of other scrimmages around me. But that didn’t matter. I was intent on my prey. Reddon was my focus.

I felt his claw scratch across my side, but they didn’t go deep. It was barely more than a flesh wound, and I put all thoughts of pain out of my mind. I had the upper hand because I weighed more than he did, and I pressed all of my bulk into him to try to keep his thrashing body still. Using my teeth now, I ripped into the open wounds of his stomach. I barely heard his squeals of pain.

For the first time in my life, I let the bear completely free. My mind receded into a sea of red. There were only sensory sensations now. Anger. Ripples of pleasure. The gnashing of my jaws as it worked the flesh underneath me. My bear and I were completely in sync, but he was dominant now.

“Lukas. Lukas, come back to me.” The words carried such fear that it caught the attention of my human consciousness. My mate was speaking to me. I needed to pay attention.

As my vision cleared, I saw Maren standing several feet away from me. She had Joshua’s knife in her hands. I looked down at my feet. The bloodied mess of what used to be Reddon laid there limp and lifeless. In his last moments, it appeared that he had tried to phase back into his human form. His dull eyes were sightless.

The shock of what I had done caused me to phase back. It was more difficult than I had ever experienced before though because my bear didn’t want to go back inside of his box in my mind. He fought me, but I won.

“What happened?” I asked. My voice was hoarse.

“The cavalry arrived just in time,” Maren said. “But Joshua ran after I gave him an elbow to the stomach. Those self-defense classes that my dad enrolled me in paid off.” She was babbling, trying to distract me.

Billy appeared behind Maren. He saw Reddon’s body at my feet and grimaced. “Shit, Lukas. This is a mess.”

“He was responsible for all of it,” I said quietly. “I don’t know why he chose to work with an organization that hates his kind, but he was worked with Joshua to lure Markus into the bear trap. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the one who busted Markus’s head with the rock. He must have had it all set-up with the sheriff, and I guess I came along and messed it all up.”

“Thank God you did,” Maren said softly. I could see the tears in her eyes. I wasn’t sure if she was scared of me or for me. I couldn’t blame her either way. “He would have had both of us killed. Lukas did what he had to do.”

She was defending me, even after what she had just witnessed. The bear in his freest state was surely the worst side of me. I opened my arms, and she fell into them. I squeezed her tightly against me. As I looked over her head, I saw the members of the clan come out into the open. They watched us silently. I nodded to them. I’d find a way to thank them later.

“This is clan business. There’s no need for any kind of official inquiry into what happened here,” I said firmly. “We had a problem, and I took care of it. End of story.”

“I will figure out a way to make this disappear,” Billy replied.

That was exactly what I wanted to hear. “Maren said that Joshua took off,” I said to Billy.

“There aren’t that many options for getting out of the park,” Billy replied. “We’ll find him. In the meantime, I’m taking these guys into custody. I’d suggest that until we can do another sweep of this location, you meet with the others inside the walls of White Oaks. It will be safer there.”

It was sound advice, and I readily agreed to it.

“Let me take you home,” I whispered against the top of Maren’s head. She was quiet as I maneuvered her back toward my truck. I couldn’t help but feel that once again, fate had turned us in a new direction. I hoped that we could finally put the past behind us and start again.