“Thanks,” Jeanie said. Taking it in her left hand she slipped the strap over her head. “I hope my pictures came out alright. It was really so unbelievable to have those bears walk right there,” she gestured awkwardly with her strapped arm, “Ryan, they were so close I could have reached out and touched them. It was the most intense moment!”
A look passed over his face. Jeanie couldn’t identify it. It looked sad and hopeful all at the same time.
“G’night then,” she said feeling very tired.
“Bye,” Ryan said and turned to leave.
He walked out the door and down the steps. At the gate he stopped and turned to look back. Jeanie waited and then when he continued out to the street, she took the stairs slowly up to the second floor. Her room was right at the back of the old house. Why did it have to be so damn far? It was pleasant, though. Clean and covered in doylies and frills in an assortment of pastel shades.
Jeanie wasn’t a pastel person, and she certainly would never put frills and lace on furniture but, Mrs. Graham who owned the inn, seemed to love them. With a sigh Jeanie collapsed on her bed. She had the forethought to unsling the camera strap from her neck before she fell into a drugged and troubled sleep.
The sun was well up when Jeanie woke to the sound of someone knocking on her door. She had slept in her jeans and sweat shirt from the day before and she was a mess. With a herculean effort she hauled herself up and to her door. Unlocking it she poked her head out. The hallway was empty. Meaning to go back to bed, Jeanie looked down as she closed the door and noticed a small square of card on the carpet. She bent down and picked it up.
Someone had written a message on it in a fine, neat hand.
Ryan Hunt is downstairs waiting for you. It read.
Right, Jeanie thought. We arranged a pick up for the morning to go get the rental.
With sluggish movements that were hampered by her injury, Jeanie managed to get in the shower, wash and then dress herself. She could do nothing promising with her hair and simply piled it all on her head in a ponytail. Then, dressed in a clean pair of jeans and a black hoodie, she went downstairs.
Ryan was sitting in an armchair, dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt. He looked up from his phone and smiled at her. His black hair was messy but his golden eyes shone.
“Morning,” he said. “Are you ready for an adventure?”
“So long as it doesn’t involve any injuries I’m all for it.” She smiled.
They walked out the door and down the path.
“How is the wrist?” Ryan asked.
“Excruciating,” Jeanie said. “Serves me right. Maybe I need new hiking boots. They had no grip on the needles at all.”
“I promise you, you’re in good hands today.”
“And whose would those be?”
“Mine.” He smiled at her. “Coffee? I got you a latte from the Lemon Drop. They also make these amazing cinnamon buns. They are so good. Better than doughnuts.”
She looked at him amazed at his friendliness. “Really? We’ll see about that.”
They climbed into Ryan’s truck and drove out to Sun Valley. The road was wet. It must have rained in the night while Jeanie was dead to the world and the whole place looked clean and fresh. A breeze was blowing again, and though the sun was shining, white clouds were rushing by overhead. Jeanie sipped her latte. She preferred a straight up black coffee but this was a sweet gesture and it wasn’t lost on her. They had both gotten off on the wrong foot the previous day. So it was clean slates all round, thanks to coffee and cinnamon buns.
“Good, right?” Ryan asked after she’d eaten her third little frosting covered sugar bomb.
“Surprisingly,” Jeanie agreed after she’d swallowed. “I could eat the whole box and then keep going. These things are bad!”
“I know, right, you gotta love them,” Ryan said smiling as he bit into another one, frosting sticking to his nose.
They laughed.
“So does this mean we’re friends?” Jeanie asked. “I’m not the big bad monster coming to take your home.”
Ryan shrugged. “I’m hoping that you will learn to see things our way. There’s a lot going on here that I’m pretty sure they didn’t tell you about. But we’ll get to that later. This morning I plan to take you on a guided tour of the forest. That way you’ll be guaranteed to see strange bears galore.”
“Right?” she said not believing him but enjoying the ride.
They took the turn at the T-junction and entered Sun Valley. The place was so pretty with the fallen leaves and the damp soil. Jeanie opened her window and took in lung-fulls of the air.
“I just love that smell,” she confessed. “You know that wet, earthy, mulchy kind of smell. Reminds me of my grandparents’ place in Canada. I know don’t shoot me, I have Canadian relatives.” She held her hands up in mock surrender.
Ryan held his fingers up like a gun and pretended to shoot her. “Actually, I don’t mind Canadians at all.”
“Good.”
The track they were driving on forked ahead and they took the left one, heading deeper into the forest. After a few minutes Ryan stopped the truck.
“Here we are,” he said and got out.
Jeanie had no idea where she was. If he was planning to kill her, then she was as good as a face on the news. There was no way anyone would ever find the body out here. Watching Ryan; the way he moved and spoke, just how he was with her, Jeanie decided that she definitely wasn’t getting the creepy insane vibe from him. It was probably fine to go deep into the woods with this man she only just met yesterday. Famous last words—possibly.
He led her through the trees, her camera slung around her neck. They came to a fallen log and Ryan said to crouch down behind it. It was huge, big enough for Ryan to hide behind.
“Wait here, the bears come by all the time,” he whispered. “You should be able to observe them.”
Jeanie was skeptical but she crouched down and waited. Ten minutes later a bear sauntered into the clearing ahead. It looked around and found a tree. Then it stood on its hind legs and began to rub its back up and down on the trunk.
Jeanie snapped pics. The bear was pulling faces. She was sure of it as it groaned and moaned with pleasure.
“That must be a really good scratching post,” she commented, laughing.
Ryan looked annoyed. “It’s not that good.”
The bear stopped his scratching. Landed back on all four huge paws and sauntered out of the clearing.
A few minutes later two more bears walked into the clearing. They sat down and stared at each other. Then they grunted and groaned, whimpered and snorted as though having a conversation. Jeanie couldn’t believe it. She was no expert but she was sure that bears didn’t behave like that. She finally realized that she was being had when a bear tottered into the clearing and bowed at her. It actually bowed and then smiled pulling back its rubbery lips.
“Okay Ryan, how did you do it?”
“Do what?” Ryan asked exuding innocence.
“How did you train the bears?”
Ryan had been very closed lipped about the bears. After their little show and Jeanie calling him out about them, Ryan had bundled her back into the car and driven off even further into the woods. Jeanie was beginning to think that maybe her vibe about him had been wrong. Maybe he was up to something. If it was just to mock her or make a fool of her, then why go to such lengths?
Every attempt at conversation met with silent resistance from him until eventually Jeanie threatened to open the door and fling herself out.
“Bad idea,” Ryan said. “You don’t know the area and its full of bears.”
“Yeah well, maybe I’d rather take my chances with a bear than you!”
He looked at her with a strange expression on his face. “Look. I’m taking you to a place where you can get answers. Isn’t that what you want? Don’t you want to know why Petersen and Snow are so hell bent on destroying this place?”
“I know why, they w
ant the gold,” Jeanie said.
“That’s probably the frosting on the top,” Ryan replied shaking his head. “Please Jeanie. You just have to trust me a little. I’ll earn it I promise you. But you have to trust me so I can. Does that make sense? You see my people, the people of Sun Valley, we really need you on our side. And yeah it was a cheap trick with the bears just now, but I promise it will make sense when we get to where we’re going.”
Jeanie looked into his face and tried to find the lie. She was usually pretty good at this, seeing the rusting barrels of toxic waste in the man’s eyes long before they ever reached the lake he planned to dump them into. It was almost a superpower. But looking into Ryan’s open, hopeful face she couldn’t find the lie. He was hiding something, but not lying to her.
“Okay,” she agreed. “I’ll trust you. But if you break my trust just know you’ll never have it again. I don’t make the same mistake twice.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to,” Ryan said smiling.
He drove on, turned right at a truly massive boulder that Jeanie would love to examine and he stopped the truck under the spreading branches of a clump of pine trees. Jeanie looked up at them and noticed faerie lights had been strung between them. Then she noticed the caravan stuck in a hedge and the steps leading up to the red door.
A sign hung in the bush read Honey’s.
“Honey’s? What is this place?”
“Local hang out,” Ryan said. “I’d like you to meet the locals. We’re about to have a town meeting and I think you should be part of it. But first I think you need to meet some people.”
They got out of the truck and made their way across the car park and up the steps to the bright red door. Ryan opened it for her and as Jeanie stepped through she felt her mouth hang open. The room beyond was mostly open to the sky with only the sides sporting a roof of sorts supported by poles. In the center of the area was a huge fire pit. With the weather looking chilly, great big logs burned and smoldered. Jeanie noticed that the place was quite busy for a Wednesday morning with big, burly men and large boned women sitting on the rough-hewn furniture. It was perfect; exactly how she would have expected a rustic place to look.
A young woman, probably a year or two younger than Jeanie herself walked up to Ryan and smiled. She had the most beautiful blonde hair and golden eyes.
“Hey Ryan,” she greeted him smiling. “You’re early. The meeting’s only at twelve.”
“Hey Donna,” Ryan replied. “This is Jeanie. Is Kyle here yet?”
“Hi Jeanie,” Donna greeted her with a curt nod. She was balancing a tray on her right hand steadying it with the other. “Yeah, he and Val are over there with Marcus and Paul. Good luck, Paul’s in a mood.”
“When isn’t he?”
She shrugged and moved on.
Ryan led the way across the open grass to the far side of the room. There at a large table sat four people and only one was a woman. Jeanie looked at her just as the woman turned her head, saw them and smiled. She had dark curly hair and the brightest blue eyes that Jeanie had ever seen, with lovely olive skin. She stood up and walked to them.
“Hi, you must be Jeanie.”
“Yeah, I am.” Jeanie admitted.
“I’m Valerie. I feel a little responsible for getting you out here.”
“Oh, that Valerie! It’s fine. This place is wonderful.”
Valerie smiled and led her to the table.
“And you don’t greet me?” Ryan said petulantly.
“Don’t be such a baby,” an old man chirped from the table. He was playing chess with the other old man.
“No one asked you, Paul,” Ryan retorted as he took a seat next to Jeanie.
“So, introductions. Everyone this is Jeanie Buchanan. She’s the one doing the environmental study thing,” Ryan said. “Jeanie this unpleasant bastard here is Paul Barkley, that silent old man there with all that white hair is Marcus Pierce, this is his grandson Kyle, that’s Valerie who only greets strangers, and I’m still Ryan.”
Jeanie smiled and chuckled looking at Ryan. “Are you sure?”
He laughed at her.
“Oh God! Hell has finally frozen over!” Paul exclaimed suddenly lifting his hands to the heavens. “Ryan made a joke, and for a girl no less!”
“Ignore him,” the man introduced as Kyle said. He had dark blonde hair and a wicked smile. He was sitting next to Valerie. There was something about the way they acted that told Jeanie they were a couple. “Everyone else does.”
“Ha! Checkmate! I knew I’d get you this time you sly ol’ coyote!” Marcus exclaimed and sat back in his chair. “I need a beer.”
“Marcus its only eleven,” Kyle retorted.
“So? It’s five PM somewhere.”
“Yes, but not here,” Valerie said. “Let’s have another round of coffees.”
“Right, because caffeine is so much better for me.” Marcus said sarcastically.
Donna came and took the order for the coffees and left.
“I feel that I should really explain why you’re here,” Valerie said to Jeanie as they all sat looking at each other. “You see I recommended you a great many times to Petersen-Snow. I was really hoping Wilkes would send you.”
Jeanie felt she was being examined as exhibit A. “Why?”
“You’re honest,” Valerie continued. “And I’ve never heard of you ever taking a bribe. So in this situation we need someone like you.”
“Okay,” Jeanie said haltingly. “Ryan said the same thing. What are you hoping for here? All I can do is submit my report and so far…” she held her hands up in an uncertain gesture. “I mean as cute as the bears are, if they’ve been tamed then I can’t recommend this as a wild life preserve. Which would come with its own issues anyway.”
“Tamed bears? What is she on about?” Marcus asked.
“Cute?” Paul exclaimed. “Cute? She thinks we’re cute?”
“No, I said the bears in the forest were cute.” Jeanie looked at the faces around the table and sagged. “Okay what am I missing? There’s clearly something.”
Ryan sighed. “I was hoping to do this another way but we don’t have the time.” He stood up and began to take his clothes off.
Jeanie had gone bright red as Ryan stripped to his boxers. He was absolutely not shy at all. And with good reason. He was so well built she wondered what he did for a living? Model maybe? But no, he had the look of a man who did hard physical labor, rugged and tough, not all man-scaped and soft.
And then things got really weird.
Just as Jeanie thought she couldn’t take it anymore, Ryan had begun to change shape. It was horrible. Jeanie was spellbound. As a scientist it was fascinating. Unpleasant, but intriguing. He went through forms that should be impossible for a human being, and yet it was all happening right in front of her.
And when it was all over a big black bear stood right there in Honey’s. No one paid them any attention at all as though this sort of thing happened all the time. In a daze Jeanie reached out and touched the glossy black coat.
“Oh. My. Gosh!” she said slowly, running her fingers through the fur. She stood up and walked around the bear which sat down on its backside watching her. She lifted a paw and examined it, checked the teeth in the mouth and peered into the golden eyes. “Ah, there you are. Hello, Ryan the bear.”
He grunted and stood up. Jeanie resumed her seat. The demonstration was over.
The change back into a man took less time. It was almost like the man stepped out of the bear form and Ryan pulled his clothes back on.
“Well that’s one way to tell someone you’re a Were-bear,” Marcus said. “Not the one I would’ve gone for, but what do I know?”
“Did you have to do it here where people eat?” Paul snapped.
“You’re taking it really well,” Valerie said smiling at Jeanie. “I wasn’t as cool.”
Jeanie shrugged. “Well I probably wouldn’t have believed him if he hadn’t changed right in front of me. I mean there�
��s no way to fake that. So were you born like this or did you get bitten?”
“Born,” Ryan confessed. “But listen I can answer all your questions later. Right now we need you to understand what’s really going on here. I’m sure once you hear this, the picture will change for you.”
“Okay, tell away,” Jeanie said.
The coffees arrived and Jeanie sipped hers as she listened. Marcus told the story. He explained as the chief elder of the Bear Clan it was his duty to lay out the facts. So he did with interruptions from everyone. Jeanie was spellbound. It was amazing. Almost a plot worthy of Hollywood.
Bartholomew (BBW Country Music Bear Shifter Romance) (Bearly Saints Book 5) Page 7
