by Amelia Jade
“Fuck.”
The single word carried several different sentiments at that particular point in time. Reluctantly she headed for her car. There seemed to be nowhere else to go but home, and at that point in time, it was the last place she wanted to be. Trestin knew what was waiting for her at home. It was, she admitted to herself in a deep, dark corner of her mind, the same thing the doctors were likely to tell her.
You need to tell someone.
Like Cole? she thought bitterly, laughing to herself at the idea of showing up at his door and telling him everything that was going on. He would probably just tell her to leave again! Trestin snorted as the memory of the one night she had had with him came back to haunt her yet again.
What a joke. Adults didn’t actually have things like this happen to them! It was only in lame movies. Of course, she thought, those movies didn’t have a town full of stupidly arrogant, obscenely good-looking and completely stubborn bear shifters either. Nope, just Genesis Valley, which, for all her luck, is exactly where she ended up deciding to live. Now there was a life choice that needed examining in depth.
She sat in her car, but the keys refused to turn themselves in the ignition. As if to make the day even better, the gray skies that had been threatening rain for two days decided that now was finally the right time for them to open up.
“Perfect,” she muttered, forcing herself to turn the keys.
“You know what,” she said to herself aloud once more, “fuck this. Nobody should have to go through this shit alone.”
She reached for her phone, found the contact she was looking for, and hit send.
***
“Thanks for coming to meet me so quickly.”
“Not a problem,” the person across from her said with a smile.
“I just... needed to tell someone,” she said nervously. “Anyone, really. I’m sorry you’re getting dragged into it, and that it might make things awkward for you, but I really wasn’t sure who else to turn to that might understand.”
“It’s fine, seriously. Now, what is it you needed to tell me?”
“So you remember that night, three months ago?”
The person nodded.
“Well, during it,” she said, telling the story as best she could.
The two of them were seated at a picnic bench in a little park in a residential part of Origin. In a bigger city it might have been referred to as suburbia, but there really wasn’t enough population in town to label it as such. It was simply where the majority of the humans who owned houses lived. There were two schools, and behind her and across the street was the oldest of several churches as well.
Trestin loved it. The peace and tranquility of the small random park was completely out of place with the normal atmosphere of Origin, and Genesis Valley as a whole.
“And that’s how I found out,” she finished a few minutes later.
“Holy. Shit. You have to tell him!” Emma exclaimed.
“I can’t, Em. Not until he explains to me what’s going on, why he kicked me out so abruptly that night. I know it sounds stubborn, but that hurt. On a completely different level. I can handle rejection, but he knew, he knew that I was doing something totally unlike myself, and doing it only for him. And he took that, tore it up, and kicked it out the front door. So no, until he invites me back in, I won’t do anything.”
“No, I don’t think you understand, Trestin,” Emma said, her voice perfectly level and unusually serious. “This isn’t about your embarrassment, your pride, or your feelings.”
“What the hell do you mean?” she said, her guard coming up. This wasn’t the way she had expected Emma to react. Was everyone destined to turn on her, to tell her it was all her fault? She hadn’t done a damn thing wrong, so why did everyone see fit to side against her?!
“I mean that it’s gone past that,” her friend said with a sigh. “Cole’s been a disaster since that night. He won’t talk to anyone, he won’t accept help. Whatever it is that’s bothering him, it’s got the best of him. I’ve never seen someone in such a downward spiral of destruction before.”
“That’s his own fault,” Trestin said. Yet even after everything that he had done to her and the way he had made her feel, a part of her still wanted to reach out, to be there for him, to help him. It sickened her.
“Trestin, he got in a fight with one of the Sapphires the other day. On their property,” Emma said.
“So?” Trestin asked, confused. She didn’t understand the intricacies of the crews like Emma did. That was her job after all, but the sheer gravity of her words told Trestin that there was more to it than it sounded.
“Trestin, he’s on trial. The Kedyns have him up at their mansion. They’re going to kill him if you don’t tell them this!”
She felt like she had been hit in the stomach with a sledgehammer. A hand rose to her stomach at the dull ache that settled there, and she clutched at it protectively.
They were going to kill Cole?
“Why? Why is it so serious?”
“One of the big things for the crews is that it’s an offense to trespass on someone else’s property. That, combined with all the fights Cole’s gotten into since that night, and most folks have had enough. Garrett’s going to do what he can to save him, but even he’s rather fed up with him. You might be his only chance,” Emma explained urgently.
“When’s the trial?” Trestin heard someone asking with her voice.
“Tomorrow,” Emma said with some relief.
“This is ridiculous, you know that, right?” Trestin said, eyebrows raised as she shook her head in disbelief.
Emma laughed, a nervous, shaky sound that didn’t seem right coming from her normally upbeat friend. She was distraught.
As she should be. One of her family members is on death row, you idiot.
“Promise me you’ll be there?”
“I promise, Emma.”
Despite herself, Trestin found that she meant it. She would be there. Besides, the look on his face would be almost worth it.
She laughed silently at the thought.
***
“Have you ever been up here before?” Emma asked as they got out of her SUV.
“No, and you know what?” she told her friend, looking around. “I’m glad of it.”
The drive up the mountain had been bad enough. The winding roads, overgrown trees, and shrubs encroaching on the single-lane route had been bad enough, but once they had emerged from under the canopy and seen the Kedyn brothers’ residence for the first time, she had rapidly come to the conclusion that the trip was going to be the nice part.
If the architect could have lifted an old house straight from a horror movie, the building in front of her would have been the poster child for success. It was massive for starters, she thought, following her friend straight toward the huge metal doors inset under an overhang. She couldn’t tell if it was a copper design or simply rust upon the doors, but they appeared to be in working order as people ahead of them entered without issue.
“It is rather morose, isn’t it?” Emma agreed.
“That’s one way to put it,” she snorted, eyes roaming the rest of the house. It was three stories tall, and all the windows as far as she could see were blacked out. Two wings swept out and angled a little toward them, forming a very shallow arc. Any sense of beauty was stolen from the design by the sharp, angular designs of the windows, or perhaps, she thought, by the multitude of steel gargoyles cast along the rooftop.
“So you’re telling me that they’re both single?” she joked to Emma, shaking her head at the design once more.
“As a matter of fact, they are,” came the snickering reply. “I don’t know why they maintain such a fearsome and imposing look on the place, but it would definitely keep me away.”
“You and me both. I’m already regretting coming up here. It doesn’t feel very safe,” she confided in Emma, hands wrapping around her stomach nervously.
“Oh it’s not that bad!” Emma
said, slightly exasperated. “They’re actually nice guys. Much younger than you might expect too.”
“Younger looking, you mean,” Trestin added. “I’ve heard rumors that they’re centuries old.”
“They are!” her friend said, far more cheerfully than should have been possible as the gaping maw of the building loomed up in front of them, ready to swallow them whole as if they were nothing but a snack.
“Hundreds of years old is young for them?”
“Oh sure, a couple of centuries is still young for gryphon shifters. Dragons live for millennia, after all,” Emma said.
Trestin almost said something, but there was no hint of humor in her friend’s voice. “You’re serious?” she gasped.
“You didn’t know this?” Emma slowed and turned to face her.
“I mean, I’d heard whispers, but nobody actually believes that garbage,” she scoffed. Then she frowned, because obviously there was someone standing right in front of her who did believe it, and who also happened to be her friend.
“Well, better start opening your mind a little more Trestin,” Emma said, elbowing her gently in the side. “Let’s go! I promise, the place is much nicer inside, and the Kedyns are nice. Very stern and strict when they have to be, but they’re not going to tear your head off if you don’t give them a good reason to.”
The cheer in Emma’s voice faded as the two of them looked at each other, remembering that they were up here exactly because the Kedyns were looking to tear someone’s head off who had given them a reason.
Cole’s head, in particular.
“You know, at first I was glad he was in trouble. I told myself that he had it coming,” she confided in Emma as they pushed the doors open. Despite the fact that they were at least twice as tall as the women, they slid open easily under a light touch. “But now I couldn’t bear the idea of him being... what was the term you used?”
“Ended,” Emma supplied. “They call it being ended.”
“Right, ended. I’m glad you told me and made me come up here. He doesn’t deserve that. Hell,” she laughed, surprising herself, “even if I didn’t still find myself caring for him, he should be punished by sticking around to help instead of getting out of this easily.”
The two friends shared a giggle, which drew several looks and even a couple of reproachful stares. The mansion was supposed to be a place of seriousness, not laughter. The two of them shrugged it off, not caring. As they composed themselves, Emma pointed out the door into the courtroom.
“Okay, just in there. Are you ready?”
Trestin had been sure she was ready for this. But now, faced with the sudden reality of seeing Cole again and telling him everything, things seemed to snap into abrupt focus. This was it; she knew there was no going back once she entered that courtroom. If she took the next ten steps through the set of solid wood doors, her life would change forever.
She hesitated.
Chapter Nine
Cole
“Okay Cole, time to go.”
He looked up.
“They’re ready for you now,” the man standing over him rumbled, his voice so deep it seemed to shake the very foundation of the cell around him.
Cole closed his eyes, trying to settle his nerves down. He inhaled deeply, and slowly let it out. Then he did it again. When his efforts continued to be fruitless, he sighed and stood up, indicating to his jailer he was ready to go.
“Okay Gabriel, I’m ready,” he announced.
A key clanged in the door in response.
The cell he was in was specially built for bear shifters. It was just large enough so that he didn’t feel claustrophobic, but small enough that he didn’t have enough room to get a running start at the door.
Not that it would have mattered, he thought with a mental shrug. The door was set into solid stone, and made out of twelve inches of solid combat-grade steel. He and a team of bears could have pounded away on the door all day and it wouldn’t have mattered. Besides, even if he had somehow managed to plow the door down, the guard on the other side would have made mincemeat of him.
Gabriel was one of the three Stone Bears, the guardians of the Dragon Stones that the shifters mined for. It was up to him and his two companions to protect them from all comers. Which meant that they were drawn from the elite of the elite, and they trained relentlessly in combat techniques, both as humans and as bears.
As Cole stepped into the other man’s shadow as the door ground fully open, he had a hard time believing that anyone in the valley could have taken on Gabriel in solo combat and won. The man was closer to seven feet in height than six and a half, but so well trained and lean that he looked like a predator. Every smooth, planned motion spoke of deadly skill, like a coiled snake ready to strike in the blink of an eye.
There was no give in his escort, no moment’s lapse of judgment, even though Cole had made it perfectly clear that he had no intention of trying to escape. It didn’t matter to the Stone Bears. It showed the Kedyns’ utter confidence in them that they only felt one was necessary to keep Cole in check. The other two, he surmised, would still be guarding the stones. Nobody knew where that was, but he figured it couldn’t be far. The location of the stones was one of the best-kept secrets in Genesis Valley. Cole would be surprised if more than half a dozen people, including the Stone Bears, knew where it was.
“Follow me,” Gabriel said, his voice startling Cole back to reality.
“Should I expect anything?” he asked dully.
Gabriel glanced down at him, as if pondering whether he should respond or not. Cole didn’t expect him to. He and his companions were known for their stoic silence except where politeness required. They took no mates, and as far as Cole was aware they didn’t even have sex. It was enough to drive someone nutty, he thought, but none of them seemed to ever have any issues of stability.
“They will be kind, but just. State your case calmly and clearly, and simply ask for another chance. If they were inclined to give you one to begin with, then they will. If you shout, or beg for forgiveness, they will not care. Marcus and Valen do not like having to end someone, but they will if they have to.”
Cole stumbled, reaching out to catch himself on the wall. He had never heard one of them speak more than a few words at a time. To get an entire paragraph was almost unheard of.
“Thank you,” he said gruffly, overcome with emotion at Gabriel’s willingness to speak for him.
All he got in return was a mild growl. Still, it was something. He knew now what he had to do going in, if he wished to come out alive.
The long hallway took them up a ramp, until they exited the caves that ran underneath the mansion and infested the nearby mountains. Then Gabriel opened a small door and ushered him through into the courtroom.
He tried to crane his neck to see who was there, but Gabriel’s hand clamped down on him and forced him forward to his post. Remembering the advice the Stone Bear had given him, he stepped up to his post, nodded respectfully at Marcus Kedyn—who was, by the looks of things, presiding over the events—and then waited.
A buzz had risen in the room at his entrance, and the gryphon shifter on the dais in front of them allowed it to go on for a minute before he slowly raised his hand to indicate silence. The noise died out almost instantly, and the tall, lean man with a hawked nose and a scar running down his cheek rose. The rest of the room rose as well.
“Everyone is aware of why we are here today. We shall hear from the reports filed against Cole Lovac, his Alpha shall speak, and then those who have grievances against him may speak. Then we shall hear from Cole himself. Finally, judgment shall be given. Is that understood?”
The man’s voice was a smooth, measured, and level thing that, despite speaking so few words, still managed to capture everyone in its thrall. There were no dissenters to his question, though none had been expected. Everyone waited while he sat first.
Cole had never met either of the Kedyn brothers before, though he had seen Marcus fro
m a distance once. Now, being up close to him, he wished that he hadn’t had the opportunity. Although he was smaller in stature than even Cole, who was small among bear shifters, there was no belying the power in his frame.
“First up,” Marcus spoke after everyone was seated again, “Cornelius from the Lionshead Mining Consortium Records office will read the relevant sections of the reports filed by Garrett Hoffman, Alpha of the Ridgebacks, the crew to which Cole belongs. Cornelius?” he said, gesturing to the small, officious man seated to his right, who nodded quickly and adjusted his spectacles before speaking.
***
Unable to follow orders. Uncontrollable. An unreliable asset. Issues with temper. Status is decreasing. Unknown source of issues.
Intruder. Trespasser.
Most of the words read or spoken about him swam on by. But some lodged in his head. He hadn’t realized just how upset Garrett was with him. The Alpha had always included in his reports—in sections that were, thankfully, read aloud today—that he felt Cole could be turned around, and that he was an asset to the team, however unreliable at times. His shoulders slumped as he realized just how far his Alpha had gone to try and defend him, and how much more Cole had continued to push him.
“We shall now hear from Cole Lovac,” Marcus intoned.
Cole licked his lips nervously, swallowed, and rose to address his judge, jury, and, if he was unsuccessful, his executioner.
“Thank you,” he said respectfully. “I won’t deny anything that has been spoken here. Some things were spoken with more kindness than I deserve, and some things were spoken with more vehemence than I deserve,” he carefully did not look at the Alpha of the Windglades who had spoken against him, calling him all sorts of things, “but in the end, it is all true.”
He couldn’t fault that. Benjamin Groll was an asshole that everyone in and out of Origin hated. But Cole had been on his and his crew’s territory without invitation, and that was a huge breach of the rules. Driving onto a clan’s property in human form was one thing, but to appear as a bear, like he had, in the middle of the forest was almost inexcusable. So despite Ben’s lack of manners, which seemed to be shared by his entire crew, Cole couldn’t call him a liar.
