Bears of Burden: HUTCH

by Candace Ayers

  He brought her to a climax, right there on the counter, and Jake had to hold her to keep Elie from falling to the floor.

  He pulled the blanket away. The cold swept in fully and Elie almost protested, until he turned her around and bent her over.

  Still shaken from her first, Elie could do nothing but succumb to the growing wave of the second orgasm swelling inside her. Jake’s fingers raked her back gently, before clamping firmly onto her hips. He thrust into her so hard she felt like her backside must be bruising, but it was never too hard, or too much. All Elie could imagine wanting was more, delighted when Jake exceeded her desires every time.

  Jake was panting. The mirror had cleared enough for Elie to see his face, screwed together in concentration and merciless pleasure. Then he looked up and met her eyes, and Elie realized how sexual, how unbelievably erotic it was to watch him ram his dick inside her this way, and for him to be able to watch from the front as he worked.

  With a soft cry he came, fingers digging into Elie’s thighs. Her legs were so wobbly, she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to walk. Her hands stayed safely propped on the counter as she straightened and turned to face him.

  “I take back what I said. You are fun,” she breathed. Jake grinned broadly and kissed her.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Pretty dead in here, for a Sunday,” Elie noted. She squared off a bite of pancake. She was still working on her first stack, but Jake had made it through two and a half, not to mention his Lumberjack Special—two eggs, sausages, bacon slices, and hash browns. Denny’s at its finest.

  Jake shrugged. “Maybe there’s some church thing going on.”

  “Maybe,” Elie glanced up to the waitress, a cute blonde, with her eyes on Jake. At Elie’s glare, she quickly turned away, smiling.

  “Ex-girlfriend?”

  Jake reddened, guiltily, around a mouthful of hash browns. “Maybe,” he mumbled.

  “Hmm.” Elie raised an eyebrow. “How long ago?”

  “Some four years. She’s married now, I wouldn’t worry.”

  Elie chuckled. “Oh, after this morning, I’m not worried.”

  Jake nodded and swallowed his food. “You shouldn’t be. That girl ain’t never seen a James Bond movie. Some things a man just can’t live with.”

  They were still laughing when another familiar face came through the door, peering around, clearly looking for someone. It was another man their age, dressed in mountain standard, jeans and boots and a dusty work jacket. Elie and Jake were the only two customers in the Hemford Denny’s, and he zeroed in on their table instantly.

  “Jake! Hey, whatcha doin’? Haven’t you heard?”

  “I’m having breakfast with a lady, you damn cowbell. What’re you doin’?”

  “Oh, hi, Elie! Didn’t know you were back in town.” Uninvited, Jonny Schneider plopped into the booth next to her and gave her a side-hug. Jake slowed his chewing, glaring at Jonny like an upset dog, but Elie didn’t mind. Jonny had been in their friend group in high school. She hadn’t seen him since.

  “What’ve you been up to?”

  “Today?” Jonny asked, excited as a kid on Christmas. “Bear hunting.”

  Elie and Jake both froze like broken robots, staring. Jonny was oblivious. “I guess Jeremiah’s mutt found a body in the woods early this morning—Jerry was goin’ out to fish, and the dog just runs off through the trees and starts puttin’ up a racket—anyway, they ID’d the body. It was that Mosley fella. Poor sumbitch. It was a bear, for sure, and a big one. Bent his skull in like a beer can.”

  “Who’s doing the huntin’?” Jake asked casually. He gnawed on a piece of bacon as if undisturbed.

  “All the guys from the mill, and Brent said if it ain’t caught or driven off by tonight, he’ll let us off Monday to chase the damn thing. You scared him real good last night I think,” this was directed at Elie. “He thought you might’ve been got, too.”

  Elie chewed thoughtfully. She hadn’t even been home yet since last night.

  “I don’t know if I can meet up with you,” Jake answered. “Elie’n me were going to town later. Her oil’s been burning up too fast, we were going to go pick up something snazzier than Pennzoil to try.”

  Jonny snorted. “That’s a Subaru for you. Just buy a Ford, problem solved.”

  Elie smirked. “New oil is a little closer to my price range.”

  “I’ll check in with you later,” Jake waved him off. “Leave me be. I don’t muscle in on your dates with Jennifer.”

  Jonny smiled again and got to his feet. “Fine, Jake. See ya. Good seeing you, too, Elie!”

  Elie waved as he bounced out the door. Her pancakes weren’t quite so appealing anymore. She looked over at Jake.

  “Want to go catch a movie?” she asked with a shrug.

  Jake offered half a grin. “Probably not.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re really going to help them bear hunt? I mean,” she lowered her voice, “I guess that would be the best way to hide.”

  Jake shook his head. “Elie, don’t get mad.”

  “I’m already getting mad as soon as you tell me not to get mad.”

  “Well, just don’t, ok?” Jake exhaled and looked her in the eye. “I’ve been thinking about this kind of thing for a long time. You know, that eventually they’d want to get rid of the resident bear. I actually have a bit of a plan worked out, believe it or not. I have a few ideas.”

  He took a sip of orange juice. Elie waited, motionless.

  “All right, this is my plan,” Jake pushed his empty pancake plate away and poked at his eggs. “I’m going to give them something to chase.”

  “That’s a stupid plan,” Elie hissed. “What if you’re shot? Oh, wait…”

  “Well,” Jake winced. “If I’m shot in bear form it’s a little different. They say only silver bullets kill werewolves, and I admit, the lead ones don’t seem to do the job. But they do hurt like hell.”

  “So you would’ve healed from the one last night even if you didn’t change?”

  “As soon as I’m human, all bets are off,” Jake said quickly. “I got shot in the leg a couple years ago—”

  “What?!”

  “I was in bear form, and a hunter shot at me. He got my leg. I’d been roaming around all night, and near exhausted, and I changed back before it healed. Hell of a time trying to explain it to the nurse at the ER.”

  Elie sat there and stared, absorbing this information. “So you want to convince them that you’ve been run out of town?”

  Jake nodded. “And preferably not get shot, but I could probably take a few.”

  It was bizarre, to be sitting in a sunny little Denny’s in Hemford, Colorado, calmly discussing the logistics of leading a mob through the forest on a goose chase and possibly getting shot here and there. Not that Elie’s life was particularly predictable, but this was by far the oddest morning she’d had since the Mardi Gras she’d spent partying with a troupe of drag queens.

  “Why not just let them hunt for nothing?” she asked, already knowing the answer. “You can just come watch a movie with me and my parents, or we can go back to your house and ride each other to death. Why even risk it?”

  “One,” Jake held up a finger. “As temptin’ as it sounds to pound you until we both drop dead, I killed somebody, Elie. They’re serious this time, if your dad’s letting people off work to organize a search. Maybe they’ll never stop. Maybe they’ll come up with nothing, and someone puts in another call to Fish and Game, and the big guns come up to see what the fuss is about. Next thing you know, the government’s here, someone thinks there’s a new bear species, media, all that nonsense. Before you know it, Jake Framer is in a testing facility out in Area 51 or some shit.”

  Elie rolled her eyes. “You might be overthinking this.”

  Jake held up a second finger somberly. “Two, I don’t have a choice.”

  Elie frowned. “What do you mean?”

  He took another bite of egg. “I mean, I’ll be changi
ng tonight whether I like it or not. It’s a full moon. I might as well make the best of it.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “Just be careful, please.” Elie kissed Jake again, lingering. It was a promise of things to come later, when they were both back in his bed, safe.

  “It’ll be fine,” Jake promised. “I’ll just run around the mountain for a few hours and make like I’m running west. Just pick me up at the truck stop in the morning, ok? I’ll have to hide naked somewhere, and I’d rather not wait around too long.”

  Elie nodded. “I’ll be there. You be there, too.”

  Jake kissed her again. He stripped off the rest of his clothes. Elie sighed, admiring his body, as always, in the twilight. They were in Jake’s back yard, where he planned to begin his little adventure. The moon hadn’t risen yet. According to Jake, once it did, he’d better be in bear form already if he wanted to keep his sense.

  He leaned on the porch railing. “Strange how things turned out,” he chuckled. “Bet you didn’t expect to turn up here.”

  Again, that evening in the rain, after graduation. It was on her mind too often. “Jake, I… I definitely didn’t expect it, but I’m not complaining.”

  They shared a smile.

  “You remember what I said before you left, Elie?”

  She did. She just wished she hadn’t said what she had in return. “Jake, I was stupid then. I shouldn’t have been such a dumb kid. I should have told you—”

  “I asked if you remembered what I said, not what you said.”

  “Of course.” Elie set a hand on his arm. “You said you were in love with me. You wanted to marry me. Back then, well, forget back then. I’m not a dumb kid anymore, and now, I’m saying—”

  Jake stopped her with a kiss. “Not now. When I come back. I have to get going, now, and if you say anything more, I might not leave.”

  Elie laughed. “Fine. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  He kissed her hands and turned away. Elie watched his silhouette disappear into the woods, and soon the crashing of a much larger animal replaced Jake’s footsteps. Before long, that was gone, too. Elie sighed and walked around the house to her car. She didn’t like this plan.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “I hate being right,” Elie murmured.

  The time was two in the morning. The moon had crested the horizon four hours ago, which meant that Jake had been in bear form for half the night already. He’d stay that way until he was exhausted or until the sun came up, whichever happened first, or so he had said. Elie looked at her phone for the time once more. The sun wouldn’t rise for another four hours at least.

  Jake should have met up with the hunters. When Elie left the Framer’s and cruised back through town, she drove by several unfamiliar trucks with the Colorado Fish and Game seal on the doors. What seemed like dozens of trained professionals were setting up base camp outside town already.

  They didn’t want to kill him or chase him off, Jonny had explained excitedly. They were going to catch the beast. Shoot him full of enough ketamine to knock out a whale, and drag him off to a safer habitat. They were going to corner him in a gorge, and see to it he went to live somewhere more peaceful.

  Elie banged her hands on the steering wheel. Terror shot through her veins like lightning. Would tranquilizers work on a werebear? If they did, Jake would surely turn human again, wouldn’t he? If he did, and there were enough downers in his system to put a full-grown grizzly to sleep, would he even survive? And if he did, what then? His secret would be out.

  So here she was, sitting outside the mill, the town’s lifeblood, planning something excruciatingly stupid.

  No one was here. The mill was on the east side of town, and the bear hunt was happening throughout the west. Elie got out of the Outback and ran inside. She knew what she needed, thanks to CSI. A number of spare extension cords were left simply lying around; she grabbed the longest and trailed it to an exterior outlet. The farthest, most isolated one she could find.

  The end of the extension cord, she hacked at with a shovel. When the glimmer of copper wire showed through, she took the shovel and found a likely-look heap of sawdust.

  “Here goes my ass,” she muttered, shoveling sawdust through the air like confetti or fake snow. It fell slowly to the ground, catching the sparse light. It was probably her imagination, but she could almost hear them on the other side of town, chasing Jake. Was he still alive? Had they caught him already?

  When she was coughing sawdust, Elie ran out front. She crouched behind the Outback, which she had parked next to the outlet farthest from the mill.

  “I sure hope this place has good insurance,” Elie moaned. “Sorry in advance, Dad.”

  She plugged in the extension cord.

  Nothing. Just dark, still, night. Elie peered over the hood of her car.

  Somewhere in the mill’s depths, the stars aligned and a spark caught the floating particles of dust—the explosion was spectacular.

  It lit the night like dawn. A deafening boom, like being inside a drum, filled the air with almost physical presence, as heat shoved the world aside to make a place for the blossoming column of fire that unfurled from the mill’s ruined roof.

  Even hiding behind the car, Elie was thrown backwards. Her ears rang. Had she turned herself deaf?

  Then the debris started to fall. Elie scrambled back inside the Outback and swerved out of the mill lot. Everyone in Colorado must’ve heard that, much less Hemford. They’d be showing up any second, and whatever else happened, she mustn’t be here at the scene of the crime when they arrived.

  She took the long way around to reach the base of operations. It had worked, to her relief. Everyone from Hemford was streaming back through town towards the mill, to save what they could. The fire siren wailed pitifully, and Elie watched it go, relieved.

  “How far’d you guys get?” she asked a Fish and Game hat. He sighed.

  “We almost had him. This is one smart bear, but we almost cornered him—then he slipped out, headed toward Utah, for how fast he was booking it.”

  Elie’s heart leapt. He was headed towards the meeting place.

  “That’s a shame,” she shrugged. “Next time, you’ll get him. He might have tried to respond, but Elie didn’t stay long enough to hear.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The sun was rising. On the western side of the Rockies, it would be dark for a while, yet. Elie locked the Outback and set off around the shower hut with a blanket and Jake’s pants. They had come here with friends a lifetime ago, and it seemed that she still knew the way.

  There was a rocky little trail here. It led down into a gully, a pleasant little place to picnic and plan meetings of all kinds. Even this kind.

  “Jake?” Elie called softly over the trickle of water. A stream that had broken off a larger river up the mountain came tumbling over a rock sheet here, forming a pool just deep enough to wade in before moving on.

  By the pool, a still figure lay supine. Elie ran.

  “Jake!”

  At her yell, he opened his eyes. He hadn’t been shot, Elie was sure of that, at least. She scanned him with her eyes. He was dirty and scraped up, but seemed whole.

  “Elie?”

  “Jake, I think it worked,” she said as she covered him with the blanket. “Fish and Game thinks you ran to Utah. I think they might stop hunting you, now.”

  “Elie,” he groaned weakly. “Did you blow up the mill?”

  “Why… why do you ask?”

  “I can still smell the burnt sawdust on the wind.”

  She winced. “I’m sure the insurance will cover it, right?”

  Jake closed his eyes. “Looks like I’m laid off for a while.”

  “Jake,” she murmured, “I thought you were dead, you idiot. You had me worried sick. They said they almost had you. Now can I say what I want to say?”

  He shook his head. Elie smacked his shoulder lightly. “Why not?”

  “It was me,” Jake whispered. His voice soun
ded like he’d eaten glass. He looked up at her. “I’m the one that killed my Mom.”

  Elie stilled. “I… I know, Jake. I’m not an idiot. I can put two and two together.”

  His jaw clenched as he watched her face. “It was an accident. It was the first time… and I couldn’t control it back then.”

  Elie shushed him. The sun was finally touching the treetops overhead. It would be full daylight by the time they got back to Hemford. “Jake, you can’t hold on to that, and you can’t expect me to hold on to that.”

  “I just wanted you to know,” he went on. “It was the only thing I hadn’t told you. I needed you to know.”

  “Well, I know,” she agreed. Elie leaned down and kissed him. “And I love you, still. Now let’s go home, I hear there’s been an explosion at the mill.”

  Epilogue

  It was enrollment day.

  Elie looked up at her school doubtfully.

  “Might as well get this over with,” she said. She turned to Jake, who was sitting in the passenger seat. “You sure you don’t want to go back to Hemford?”

  He shrugged. “Until they rebuild that mill, I’m out of a job. I might as well live up here with you, pick up some work on the side. It’s only fair you should put me up, since you’re the one who made me unemployed.” He grinned at her through his beard, and Elie shoved him.

  “Fine, fine.” They got out of the car. Elie carried a bag today, full of papers. She hated paperwork, but it was a necessary evil. “It’s only two more semesters.”

  “You were thinking of quitting with only two more semesters to ‘til your BS?”