There was no noise coming from inside. Amanda looked around as though she was somewhere she didn’t belong or shouldn’t be. She felt like there were eyes peering out of every darkened window watching their movements with scrutiny. The thought sent shivers down her spine. She could feel everyone’s gazes raking up and down her flesh. It creeped her out.
Finally, there was some shuffling from behind the door and it opened just a crack. A man that was shorter than Amanda was peering out at them from the crack. He looked old, much older than Edgar. His eyes were ice blue and he had many wrinkles. He opened the door a little more fully.
“What do you want?” he asked Dylan, looking around to see if it was only the three of them.
“Sir, are you Louis Gregg?” Dylan asked the man.
Jase and Amanda exchanged a look. Jase didn’t look so sure of himself at this point. That gave Amanda some pause. Jase always seemed to be sure of himself. If he was nervous, maybe she was right to be nervous. It was hardly a reassuring thought process.
The old man seemed to think about Dylan’s question as though he didn’t immediately know the answer. Finally, he spoke.
“Who’s asking?” he asked.
“We’re friends of Edgar’s,” Dylan said. “This is my girlfriend, Amanda, and my brother, Jase,” he said, pointing to each of them in turn. Amanda smiled at the old man but was greeted only with a grumpy suspicious look. “Edgar said that you could help us. We’re trying to find our other brother, Virgil. He’s taken up with the Kodiak clan.”
The old man mulled it over for a moment.
“Alright, fine,” he said gruffly and opened the door all the way. “Come in.”
Amanda stepped over the threshold and found the house in shambles. He was a hoarder. There were boxes and papers stacked to the ceiling in the living room, which was completely unusable in its current state. There was a little path that Amanda assumed led from his bedroom to the bathroom to the kitchen and to the front door.
He led them into the kitchen and had them have a seat at his tiny dining room table. There was barely room to pull out the chairs. Amanda fought with hers until she could comfortably sit down. She had to put the back legs on part of a stack of newspapers.
The three of them sat down and looked at each other. The old man sat down with them.
“What do you want to know?” Louis asked.
“Well, do you know my brother?” Dylan asked hopefully.
“Yes,” he said. “I knew Virgil. He was a good guy when he first came up here. I never would have thought a young man like him would get involved with the Kodiaks. Bloodthirsty killers, they are.”
Dylan looked at Jase and then spoke.
“Edgar said you could help us. We need weapons,” he said.
“And why should I give you my weapons, boy?” Louis asked, suddenly getting slightly hostile and suspicious once more.
“Sir,” Amanda spoke up. “I’m not a shifter like all of you. The only way I can defend myself is by using a weapon. I won’t stand a chance against them without one.”
Louis considered this. He sucked his teeth and looked around the room as though he was contemplating this new information.
“Alright,” he finally said. “I’ll give you kids some weapons, but if you get in any kind of trouble, you didn’t get ‘em from me, alright?”
He looked around at the three of them and pointed to each of them until he got a nod in agreement. Louis got up from the table and meandered through the winding path in the house. He was gone for several minutes. Jase looked at Dylan.
“Do you think we can take them on?” Jase asked, suddenly not living up to the bravado he’d shown before.
“Dude, I hope so,” said Dylan. He seemed to immediately regret his choice of words when he looked at Amanda, whose eyes had widened at his statement. “It’ll be fine,” he corrected himself. “You can stay here if you want.”
Amanda looked around dubiously at the house. She didn’t want to stay here anyway. She wanted to be with Dylan. She wanted to be there for him if she could. She wasn’t completely confident in her ability to shoot a gun or in her ability to protect herself, but she wanted to do her best at both. She had a sick feeling that she was going to find out rather soon whether she was a good marksman or not. She swallowed hard.
Louis came walking back into the room with several rifles and a couple of handguns. He also had a knife in tow. He threw them onto the table rather recklessly, Amanda thought. The two guys picked up a couple of guns and began inspecting them. Jase sighted down the rifle and seemed to think it was an appropriate choice. He slung it over his shoulder.
Dylan chose a handgun and Amanda took the other handgun.
“This is for you,” Louis said, handing Amanda a massive knife.
“Thank you,” she said, unsure of what else to say. The knife was at least eight inches long and had a sheath. There was a loop that could be fastened to her belt. She couldn’t imagine herself carrying a knife and a gun around. She was a city girl. She’d never been around stuff like this. Suddenly, she felt completely out of her element. She was definitely wishing she’d stayed home and sort of considering staying in the messy house with Louis while he watched Bonanza reruns.
She sighed deeply and took the knife out of its sheath. She reached a finger out to touch it.
“Don’t do that!” Louis shouted angrily.
Amanda jumped in her seat and nicked her finger. She saw bright red blood begin to spill with each beat of her heart and the sight and sensation made her feel feint. She noticed her vision blurring and she thought she might vomit. Then everything went black.
Chapter 6
“If you can’t stand the sight of your own blood, how the hell are you going to fight a Kodiak bear, girl?” Louis was asking Amanda as she came to on the dirty floor of the kitchen. She clambered to get off of the filthy tile and took her seat at the table again. Her finger had been bandaged and the blood on her hand was gone. She was relieved but saw the validity in Louis’s question.
He made a clucking noise as she took her seat.
“You even know how to fire a gun?” he asked.
“No, sir,” she said to him rather sheepishly. She was suddenly embarrassed by her lack of knowledge.
“Well, you’re gonna learn,” he said. He grabbed her handgun and got the bullets out of it. Amanda watched with curiosity. He explained how to unload it and how to turn the safety on and off. He showed her how to aim it and told her to only put her finger on the trigger if she was ready to shoot and to only shoot if she was ready to kill someone.
The crash course made Amanda feel a little bit better. She hoped it had bolstered the guys’ confidence in her. She looked at the pair of them and forced a smile. Jase and Dylan both smiled back and Dylan took her hand and squeezed it.
They departed the house and told the cabbie they were going hunting. They had him drop them off at a little airport to the north. There they would catch a puddle-jumper over to Kodiak Island.
They reached the airport and Amanda went to the office, asking for the pilot, Ken.
“He’s out by the plane, waiting on you guys,” said the young man behind the desk.
“Thanks,” said Amanda and she led the guys into the hangar. There they found a gruff looking man of about forty with sunglasses on.
“You must be Amanda,” he said to her, reaching out to shake her hand.
“I am,” she said.
He showed them to his plane, which was nerve wrackingly tiny. They climbed aboard and Ken taxied out to the runway. After a rough takeoff, they were in the air and on their way to Kodiak Island.
Amanda looked at Dylan as if to see how he was doing. He looked focused and calm. He had his handgun tucked into his waistband. Amanda had her knife dangling from her belt and the handgun was loaded, safety on, tucked into the waistband of her jeans. Jase had the rifle he’d gotten from Louis hanging over his shoulder. They were ready for battle, Amanda thought. At least as ready as th
ey were going to be.
Just like the flight from Seattle to Anchorage, this flight was just as uneventful, though the turbulence was much more easily felt by the passengers in the tiny plane. Amanda thought she was going to be sick. It must have shown on her face.
“You alright?” Dylan asked.
“I’m fine,” she lied.
They landed and disembarked the plane. The little strip of concrete that they had landed on was tiny. The forest surrounding the landing strip. Convenient, Amanda thought. The forest was where they needed to go. The air was sharp and cold, colder than Anchorage even. She wrapped her scarf around her once more and buried her nose in it, leaving only her eyes exposed.
They thanked the pilot and hiked off into the woods. There was some snow but not too much for hiking. Amanda was grateful for that at least. They trekked on and over the woods, delving deeper with each step into the heart of the forest. So far, they hadn’t heard so much as a twig snap. Amanda wondered if someone was watching them. She got the same feeling that she’d had outside of Louis’s house. That feeling that eyes were combing her flesh for secrets.
Amanda marched on, trying to shake the idea from her mind.
The daylight was fading and they decided to set up camp. Dylan made a fire while Jase set up their tent. It didn’t take the two of them very long to finish. Amanda got out what they would need for dinner. Beans and rice. It wasn’t much, but at least they weren’t going to be there very long.
Amanda had gotten water at a stream about a hundred yards to their east. She was walking back to camp when she heard it.
The snapping of a twig.
She whipped around and sloshed the water onto her coat. She cursed, looked down and looked up again when she heard another twig snap. There was something in the woods with them. This was it, she thought.
Amanda poured out the pot of water and began to run for the camp. She could see the campfire in the distance. She heard chuffing and the sound of feet beginning to gallop. She screamed, but she was too late. A set of large jaws clamped down on her calf. She reached for her gun only to find that it had slipped from her waistband. She must have lost it when she’d been gathering water at the stream. She reached for her knife, but she was clumsy and couldn’t get it free from its sheath before the beast that had her crunched down on her leg.
She felt her bone snap in two.
Amanda let out an ear-piercing shriek that reverberated throughout all the forest. In the dark, and blinded by pain, she didn’t see her attacker, but she knew that she’d been bested. She had no way out now. The pain was so intense. That was all she could remember.
Chapter 7
When Amanda woke it was to the absolute agony of a completely broken tibia and fibula. She screamed before she even knew where she was. Tears stung her eyes and sweat poured from her brow even in the frozen air.
“Calm down. Now,” said a stern voice.
Amanda looked up to see a pair of green eyes. The stranger was striking. He smiled at her, that same crooked smile that Jase and Dylan smiled. He must have been Virgil. She had been taken by the Kodiak bears. She was in their den. She looked around as the tears began to flow down her face. They were in a dark cave and she was chained up, sitting on the ground. She saw bones all around her. Human bones. The bones of those who had been captured by the Kodiaks before her. She screamed again.
“I said calm down!” Virgil boomed. The entire cave got quiet. Amanda followed suit. She bit her tongue until she tasted blood to keep from making any noise.
Now, not smiling, Virgil knelt down beside her.
“So what have we here?” he asked of no one. “Such a pretty girl out in the woods by herself.”
“I’m not alone,” Amanda choked out.
“Oh, is that so?” Virgil said with a smile. “That’s what all you pretty girls say.”
“I’m with your brothers,” she spat at him.
Virgil’s expression changed dramatically.
“What did you say?” he demanded of her.
“Your brothers, Jase and Dylan, they’re with me,” Amanda said. Her voice echoed throughout the cave.
“Don’t tell me that bullshit!” Virgil said, but he was clearly shaken. Amanda decided to shake him up a little bit more.
“You’re Virgil,” she said. He looked taken aback.
“Shut up,” he said.
Amanda said nothing else and he stared at her as though contemplating what he should do with her now that she had played her hand. She knew who he was. She wondered if that would be enough to open a dialogue. He didn’t seem very interested in talking.
He growled at her and stood up. He kicked the dirt violently and sent rocks spraying into Amanda’s eyes. Some of them pelted her newly broken leg. She stifled the urge to howl in pain. He went back over to the campfire where the rest of the Kodiaks were. Amanda watched him. The men were bigger than him. Not abnormally large, but tall enough to play basketball. They were broad shouldered men with huge muscles. Not that Dylan was small, but these guys were going to pose a massive threat to him and Jase.
Amanda relaxed back into the hard and cold cave wall. She could feel it even through her clothing. It was freezing. She tried to focus on anything else besides the pain that was radiating up and down her leg but it never left her thoughts.
Amanda looked about her for anything that mind provide a means of escape. Her knife was gone, of course, and the gun had been gone long ago. She was defenseless. She turned to face the opening of the cave and hoped against hope that the guys were close to finding her. She knew that they would be out looking. She was sure of it.
She listened as the conversation around the fire down in the cave grew more quiet. She wondered what was going to happen to her when it was bedtime for the shifters. She heard the crunch of rocks beneath someone’s feet as they walked towards her.
A man she hadn’t seen before pulled a piece of meat and some bread out of his jacket and surreptitiously handed it to Amanda.
He nodded to her and she understood his meaning. If anyone were to find out that she’d been fed, she was not to tell them who had given her sustenance. She nodded back and took the food, mouthing a silent “thank you.”
He turned and walked back down to the dwindling campfire. Everyone seemed to be getting ready for bed. Things got even more quiet. Amanda scarfed down the food, though she felt like with every opening and closing of her jaw that she was making more noise than she’d ever made in her life. She couldn’t stop. She knew she would need her strength if she was going to get out of there.
She heard the sound of rubble moving around in front of her at the cave’s opening. She dreaded the thought of someone walking in on her eating when she shouldn’t be. It was probably one of the clan coming back after some late night hunting. She shoved the food behind her, hoping that whoever it was couldn’t smell it.
Two shapes appeared only in shadow with the moonlight striking their backs. Amanda immediately recognized Jase’s hat.
“Dylan,” she said without thinking, not realizing how loud she was being.
Dylan rushed to her side and hushed her with a finger. He examined her leg, pulling up her jeans to see the sick angle at which her leg was turning.
“We’re gonna get you out of here,” he said to her.
“We’ve gotta find him, Dylan,” said Jase. He was pacing around like a caged animal, not knowing what to do with himself. He crunched the tiny rocks that lay about the cave floor. He seemed not to care if he woke anyone. Dylan reached out a hand and grabbed him.
“We will but you’ve gotta settle down,” Dylan said. “If you wake them all right now, we won’t have a chance. We need to get Amanda out of here.”
Jase huffed but seemed to agree with his brother. He knelt on Amanda’s other side and then the three of them heard commotion from down where the campfire dwindled. Someone was coming their way.
“We’ve gotta get her out of here, man!” Dylan hissed at his brother.
&nb
sp; The footsteps crunched closer to them. Amanda looked up and recognized the man. It was the one who had given her the food. She tried to tell the guys that he was friendly, but couldn’t manage fast enough.
“Whoa,” Dylan said to him, indicating that he needed to stay where he was.
The man held his hands up as though he meant no harm.
“Let me help you get her out of here,” he said.
Dylan and Jase looked at each other, confused.
“You’re going to have to move quick or Virgil will wake up and he’ll have all of our asses,” the man said.
“Virgil?” Dylan asked. “I want to speak to him.”
Passion For the Bear (Series 1, 2, 3 Compilation): White Spirit Bear Romance: Shifter, Erotic Romance, Suspense, Paranormal, New Adult Romance (Shifters Book 5) Page 10
