by Celeste Raye
“I don't know; it's not always about size.”
Even as Alexis was saying that, she could see how silly it was. This guy was at least two hundred or so pounds. He was over six-foot-tall, large muscles, and even though he had a smile on his face, his eyes had a coolness to them that told her he had done and seen things he shouldn't have.
“The fact is that it does matter, and no one is going to believe that you got the best of me. I am already going to look soft because I didn't let everyone have a turn with you.”
That made her pull back a little bit. It was so crude and beyond her frame of reference.
“Maybe you shouldn't be around people like that. I mean, if that is what you have to do to be strong in your gang, maybe you shouldn't be in it.”
“Maybe. But for now, I’ve got to take you back, and you're going to have to help me out. I’ve got to give them a reason why we shouldn't kill you right off the bat. It's clear that you're not going to give us any information, so why am I going to keep you alive?”
“Maybe the question should be why would you kill me to begin with?”
“Because you attacked us.”
Alexis bit her lip and looked away. She knew that she was in one hell of a mess and there didn't seem to be a clear way out of it. She could feel her eyes getting red and burning a little bit. She knew what was going to come next.
“Well, it wasn't supposed to be like this. There wasn't supposed to be any killing. We were just supposed to take the stuff, and that would be that. Truth is, they wouldn't let me go, so I just kind of tagged along at the end. By the time I even got up to the truck, half of the people I've known my whole life were already dead. I don't really care at this point what happens. Do what you want and make whatever excuses you have to. It would probably be more merciful if you just ended me now, instead of dragging me back to your lair.”
“My lair? Just a bunch of houses put together. And I am not going to let anything happen to you, so you can get out of the ‘take you out’ talk. I don't know why you were with them tonight, or if you were supposed to be or not, but I can't let anything happen to you. You’re in my care, and I take that very seriously.”
“Why would you help me? Like you said before, we’re enemies.”
“That very well may be, but I won't let anything happen to you. I don't need a reason.”
Alexis probably shouldn't have believed him. It wasn't like she had a reason to. But when he looked at her in that way, believed him. Or rather, she wanted to believe him.
“Fine, I'll go with you.”.
“Well, Alexis, shall we?”
Chapter Six
It took her a minute to shift into her true form. She was a bear like him, and Jake was rather surprised by that. He thought that they would have been something else, though he never had been in too many clashes with them where they could be their true selves. Most of their fighting was done in their human form. He also knew that many clans were mixed breed. Very few were only one animal anymore. Their clan pushed for it, but there were several children born something other than bear.
He started off, and he didn't even have to look behind him to know that Alexis was there. Most people in her situation would probably take off when given a chance, but not her. She was the type of person that would say something, and Jake would be able to actually believe it. That went a lot further in his world than in hers.
Jake had no idea what he was going to do with her. He knew that his father was going to be of the same mind as Donovan. It wasn't hard to see that this was going to be an uphill battle. But Jake didn't care. As soon as she had taken off her helmet and he had seen Alexis, there was no way he could do anything but protect her.
He liked to think that he wouldn't have done it if it were any woman. He wasn't that kind of man. The rest of his clan, though, may not be so moved by her. Would he be willing to go against everyone to keep her safe?
It would be a fight, and he still wasn't even sure why. What would happen when they asked him that very question?
He pulled up short about a half a mile from the block of houses that the clan used. It was in a part of town that people stayed out of, and it was mainly used for industrial businesses. They had gotten the go-ahead for residential because there were so many of them. Dean had to pay off a few people to make it happen.
He shifted back into his human form and waited for her to do the same. Her beauty was seen in her animal as well, but when she was in her human form, Jake could barely breathe. She was gorgeous, and there was just a certain twinkle in her eyes that really hit him in the gut.
“Why are we stopping? It's up ahead, right?”
“Yeah, it's up ahead. I just thought that we should talk for a minute before we go in.”
“You don't want to take me there, do you?”
Jake told her that he didn't. It was an admission that he probably shouldn't have given, but Jake never had been very good at lying. He was usually in a position to just tell the truth and whoever had to hear it would just have to deal with it.
He chuckled for a moment. “Not really.”
“Then let me go.”
“I can't do that either. The best I can do is try to keep you out of the dungeon until they decide what to do with you. That means that I am going to have to take responsibility for you and you're going to have to stay in my room. Well, I actually have a couple of rooms, so you can have one of them, but I'll have to lock you in when I leave.”
She swallowed hard and Jake thought that she was going to refuse. It was a lot to ask but it was the only way that he knew he could keep the rest of the gang happy. They could see Alexis as his little toy or whatever.
“Okay, but that doesn't mean that I am going to thank you in any way. Don't expect me to come into your bedroom at night, and if you come into mine, I will probably stab you with something.”
That just made him laugh a little bit harder, and she gave him a dirty look, pulling her brows down.
“I wasn't joking. That wasn't meant to be funny.”
He just kind of shook his head. “Because size doesn't matter, right?”
He was making fun of her and Jake had to pull it together because he was starting to really piss her off. He didn't want to. That wasn't his intention, But Alexis was looking at him like she wanted to kill him.
“Deal, Alexis. I won't be coming to your room in the middle of the night, though I certainly wouldn't turn you away if you ever decide to come to mine.”
“Well, don't think that's ever going to happen.”
He agreed, and she scowled at him. Jake didn't know why he was having so much fun with the situation. It was serious, and she was the enemy, but he couldn't help himself.
Jake and Alexis walked towards the big block of houses, and he could tell that she was nervous. Alexis was practically shaking next to him, and he wanted to assure her that everything was going to be fine. Hell, he was trying to believe it himself. Jake wasn't as nervous as she was, but he did have a bit of apprehension in his body.
“Whatever is going to happen, Alexis, we're going to be together and I won't let anything happen to you. You just have to trust me, okay?”
Alexis agreed, but Jake could tell that she wasn’t completely sure. He didn't blame her of course. How could he?
He took a deep breath and pushed in the door to his father's home. It was already filled with people from the raid, and all eyes were immediately shifted to them. He felt Alexis squeezing his hand a little bit tighter, most likely from the fear, and he rubbed his thumb over the soft topside of her hand. He wanted to assure her she was all right.
Jake wanted to believe that it was true.
Chapter Seven
“Son, it is good to see you back. We were starting to worry that you had lost your way.”
Alexis knew it didn't have to do with them physically getting lost, but that he had come back with the enemy. Alexis was well aware of the hateful looks that she was getting from the people around her.
She questioned if she would have been better off dying in the woods.
“No, Father, I just took the scenic route. I think we need to have a discussion.”
Jake looked around for a moment, then said he wanted to have the discussion alone. His father refused.
“You might as well learn now, son, that it is better to rule in plain sight. All of the conversations where no one knows what is being said, those are the conversations to start problems. Whatever has to be said, should be said in front of everyone.”
Alexis felt like she was going to faint. She started to sway on her feet, and she straightened herself by grabbing on to Jake's arm. The touch was noted by the Rebel Bears leader, and he did not like to see it at all. He pressed his lips together and Alexis pulled her hand away almost immediately. She would rather fall than have him look at her like that.
“Very well. As I'm sure you have heard, we ran into a little bit of trouble tonight.”
“Yeah, so I hear. I also hear that this woman that you have with you now, in our compound, is one of them. Yet you brought her here. Can you see how I am confused?”
Alexis tucked herself a little bit further behind him. Everyone was looking at her like she had killed the people that they had lost. She felt a slight tick of rage fill her, and instead of hiding behind Jake, she stood away from him and looked at the man who was talking.
“He brought me here because he was convinced that this was the right thing to do. What the rest of your gang was going to do to me shows me what kind of people you are. I do not mind the fact that we are enemies. I could never consider people like you my friends.”
There was silence in the room, and she started to regret what she said.
She could feel Jake looking at her, and she hoped that his earlier declaration would stand true. Alexis had not expected to hold him to it so quickly after the promise was made, but she didn't have a choice.
“Well, I can see that he must have brought you back with him because of your lovely charm. Is there anything else that you would like to tell me? You seem to have a lot of opinions, girl, about things that you know nothing about.”
She told him that she knew enough.
“I didn't realize that your crew was taking in women. When did this start?”
Alexis was about to launch into it, but she was stopped by Jake. He was giving her a look that made it clear he wanted her to stop talking immediately. Alexis pressed her lips together and did so.
“She is not part of it. Alexis is the leader's daughter. She just wanted to see some action. I have been informed that they didn't want to kill us; they just wanted to take the product.”
Dean smiled. “Now you call it product, huh?”
Alexis was starting to get frustrated by the whole situation. They were talking over her and about her like she wasn't even there. Jake was minimizing her being there by saying that basically she was just a girl. The feminist in her started to flare up, and Alexis knew that she was going to say something she would regret later.
“I'll call it whatever you want. The fact is that I will get information out of her, but I don't think that torture is going to elicit what we need. Give me some time and we will find out what is really going on.”
Dean pretended to think about it for a moment, but he was pretty quickly shaking his head like that just wasn't going to do.
“We can’t have a daughter of the enemy running around the compound. You know that. What if she gets away and goes back to her people? She’ll know things and could tell them.”
Alexis snapped with an answer. “You've killed all my people. There's nobody left to go back to.”
And just that quickly, it all started to sink in for her. She had been filled with many emotions and they were combatting each other for a prime spot. The one that had been pushed down the most was grief, and the realization that what she said was true hit her like a ton of bricks. There was no one to go back to.
There were a few that hadn’t gone, but she had heard Jake’s people talk about going back and taking care of the rest of them. Alexis didn't know if they were going to do it or not, but a part of her knew that no matter what happened from this point on, her life was never going to be the same. It's not like she could go home and pretend like none of it had happened.
“Well, I'm glad to hear that we got the majority of them. I haven't got the body count back yet, but I hear it was quite high.”
He looked over at his son and waved him off. “If you want to take this girl with you, then go ahead, but don't let her out of your sight. If I catch her alone, then we're going to take her out. That's probably what you should have done to begin with, but I will allow you this weakness for a time.”
Alexis looked over at Jake nervously. His father didn't seem to have any compunction over getting rid of her completely.
“She will not be out of my sight for one moment while she is here. No one is going to take her out.”
Dean chuckled. “It probably helps that she's so pretty.”
Jake didn’t answer, but again, she looked at him for one. She couldn't tell what he was thinking. Alexis had admired how handsome he was. She had not imagined she would now have to spend every moment with him.
They left the room not too long after that, and she had to ask him something.
“They didn't really mean that, did they? I mean, we don't have to be right next to each other all the time, do we?”
Jake was serious for a moment, and he told her that they should at least be in sight of each other.
“Until they calm down and get used to you being here, I think we should adhere to what we agreed to.”
“Get used to me being here? How long am I going to be here, Jake?”
“I wish I had an answer for you, Alexis, but I'm winging it at this point. I'm sure it'll come to me soon.”
“What will come to you?”
“You know, a way out of this mess.”
“I sure hope so.”
Chapter Eight
Alexis was pretty quiet as they walked up to part of the compound that Jake stayed in. It wasn’t fancy, but there was definitely some money being spent, just in different places. There were bikes everywhere and the furniture looked expensive. She didn't see a lot of heirlooms or pictures on the wall, but there were three bikes that seemed to be memorialized and strung from the ceiling. It was definitely a different interior design scheme than she was used to.
Jake asked her what she thought of everything. He wanted to see things through her eyes, and the first thing she noticed was the lack of space for family.
“There is another part of the compound for married people. This is the single part. It gets a little rowdier, but we won't have to worry about that. As long as you don't get too far out of this area, you should be fine.”
Alexis told him that she didn't feel like she would be fine anywhere, and he tried to reassure her. Jake knew it was going to be difficult to keep his father off his back about it, but he didn't want to worry about that. For tonight, he just wanted to get her settled, then have a talk with his brother Fred.
Fred would know what to do. He was the third brother and though he was a few years younger than Jake, he was born with an old soul and seemed to think things through better than the rest of them did. Jake needed a little clarity because when he was around Alexis, it was impossible to be objective. She was blocking his good sense.
When he opened the door to his master bedroom, she made a sound of surprise.
“Do you like it?”
“It's, um, definitely nice and clean.”
She was making a comment about the fact that there was very little in the room. Jake had always liked a more minimalist approach. He only had a few knives that his late grandfather had made for him decorating the wall. It had been one of the things that him and his grandfather had done together. He had not only showed him how to throw a knife, but also how to hunt with them as well. A lot of the skills that he learned in the woods, had come from
his grandfather, because his father was always too busy.
Jake had never really been too close with his father because they were so different, but he had been close to his grandfather. He had always been the one to smooth things over between Jake and Dean. Even when he was younger, Jake did not agree with his father's actions and decisions. At a young age, he was questioning them, and that brought hostility. Nobody liked to be second-guessed by their own children.
“So, books and knives, huh? That is a weird combination.”
“Yeah, that about sums it up I guess.”
Alexis smiled sweetly and then shook her head. “I think that about sums up most guys that I've met. Although, I can't say a lot of men have many books that don’t have pictures of naked women in them.”
“It is always been a good way to pass the time. You're more than welcome to read anything while you're here. I will have to take care of some duties tomorrow, and I will most likely have to have a conversation with my father tonight. If I don't go, he will just come get me. He is going to want to talk about you. I'm sure he is regretting that he pushed for it to all be done publicly. He is not going to be happy.”
“Do I need to go with you?”
“Why would you think that?”
“They told me that I had to be by your side the whole time, right?”
He told her that he didn't think it was literal, although Jake knew that he was going to show her how to lock the door while he was away. There was still a little bit of anxiety in him, wondering if she was just going to take off while he was gone, but Jake had to trust her, even if it didn't make sense to.
“I will let you lock yourself in, and then you won’t have to worry about anything.”
Alexis looked skeptical.
“I will be safe if I lock myself in?”
“Yeah, and only answer for me.”
“Great, Jake, this is getting better by the minute.”
“Well, at least your sarcasm is still intact.”
“Don’t worry; that’s not going anywhere.”
