"But I just-"
"Do you have any idea what a shifter wolf could do to you? Do you have any idea how quickly one of them could kill you? It wouldn't even take a second. Shifter bears and wolves have strength about twenty times that of regular bears and wolves. Think about that. Think about how it would feel to have a shifter wolf pounce on you and rip you to shreds. Though of course your pain would be very temporary, as you'd soon bleed to death in the blink of an eye. Think about that possibility. How it would feel."
I did think about it. I thought about watching while a wolf prepared to pounce on me. Excruciating pain while getting my throat ripped out. Lying in a pool of blood, dying, knowing that I'd never see Aaron again.
Tears sprang to my eyes, and I covered my face with my hands.
Aaron crossed the distance between us within seconds and pulled me into his arms. "I'm so sorry, Kyla. I'm so sorry. That was horrific imagery for me to put into your mind, and that was completely wrong of me. Please forgive me. I just wanted to make you understand why it's so important for you to be very far away during this battle."
I sniffled against his chest. "I understand, and I forgive you. But I want you to understand the reason that I don't want to go away. It would kill me if anything happens to you and I'm not right there. I couldn't live with myself. It would actually be far worse than having my throat ripped out by a wolf."
Aaron smoothed my hair, rocking me in his arms. "I understand. But like I told you last night, I promise you nothing is going to happen to me. I'm the strongest in my family, and I'm a good fighter. I expect to have Alexander dealt with within minutes. You don't need to worry about me at all. In fact, I swear to you on my honor as the leader of my family that I'll be just fine."
I lifted my face. "You can't know that with a hundred percent certainty, though. You can't predict what Alexander and his pack are going to do, or what dirty tricks they might try. Even with all your strength, and even though you're a good fighter, that doesn't mean you can prevent them from taking some sort of cheap shot at you or something. And if that happened, and if you got hurt, and if I was seven hours away in Traverse City...." I wiped a fresh tear away. "Aaron, I wouldn't survive. I don't know how I'd ever live with myself if I couldn't be there for you."
He sighed and planted a kiss on my forehead. "You've got to trust me. I will be fine."
"But isn't it my responsibility as the woman who loves you, though, to stay nearby just on the chance that you're not fine? Even if that chance is only one in a trillion?"
Aaron kissed my forehead again. "No. Your responsibility is to help me keep you safe. And I'm asking you as the man who loves you to help me in that responsibility by getting in your car and getting yourself to Traverse City. So will you agree to do it? Will you agree to get it your car right now?"
He searched my eyes, and I sighed.
"Okay. I'll do it for you. But, Aaron, I swear to you. If anything happens to you --"
"It won't. You have to trust me."
I sighed again. "Okay. But you better call me the second the wolves are gone."
"I will. And I'll try to have them all dealt with as soon as possible."
"Okay." I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face in his shoulder. "I love you so much. Be safe."
He ran through the woods alongside my car as I made my way down the four-mile dirt road-trail to Houghton. I caught glimpses of him running through the forest bordering the road when I left Houghton. But a few hours later, while I prepared to board the ferry that would take me across the Straits of Mackinac to the lower peninsula, I knew he'd long since returned to his family, and I was completely and totally alone. An almost-tangible sense of sadness and loss seemed to surround me like a fog. A ferry employee had to ask me twice for my keys so he could load my car into the cargo hold. And even then, it took me a second to comprehend his question. All I could think about was Aaron and his safety.
After disembarking the ferry, getting my car, and stopping for an early lunch at a small-town cafe right at the northernmost shores of the lower peninsula, I began the long drive down to Traverse City, which was a popular tourist destination known for its food and wine festivals.
Several hours later, I checked into a large hotel near the center of town, and the young man at the counter asked if I was in town for some wine festival.
I shook my head. "No. I'm actually just here for...well, I'm living in the U.P right now, near Houghton, but I just had to get away for a while."
"You left the beauty of the U.P to come down here? Are you serious? I mean, not that we don't have our own nature and beauty down here, too, but...that area of the U.P, it's just gorgeous. Sounds like you must be running from something up there."
He smiled, but I didn't smile in return, and he quickly apologized.
"Just a lame joke. None of my business if you are."
A few minutes later, I sat on the bed in my room, flipping through TV channels, thinking about what the young man had said. I wondered if I was running. I wondered if I'd been running my whole life. As a teenager, I'd switched high schools when a girl in one of my classes started bullying me. In college, I'd dropped one particular art class when the professor had declared my work mediocre. And I knew that more recently, I'd ran my way up to the U.P, running from the pain of my parents' deaths. And now, I was running away from the man I loved when he might need me. Just because I'd let myself get freaked out by thinking about what a wolf could do to me. Just because I hadn't stood my ground when I'd told Aaron I wasn't leaving.
And both Aaron and I had forgotten something. I had a gun; I knew how to use it; and I wasn't a bad shot. And actually, when my dad had taken me to the shooting range at least a dozen times after he'd bought me my gun, I'd proved to be a very good shot. I figured that the shifter wolves might be unnaturally strong, but even the strongest animal in the world could still be fired upon. And I knew a shifter wolf couldn't be killed by a bullet, since shifters could only be killed from a bite to the heart from another shifter, but during one of our hikes, Aaron had mentioned that bullets could temporarily incapacitate shifters. I figured if I ever was attacked by one, it give me enough time to get away.
I continued flipping through the TV channels, not really even seeing anything, wondering how fast I could get back to my cabin in the U.P if I sped. There, I'd be close by, just on the off, off, off-chance that something really bad happened to Aaron. There, I'd prove to myself that I could be a hang-er in-er. Not a runner.
Soon I dropped the TV remote, having a sudden thought. Even though Aaron had told me he'd be okay, me and my gun could guarantee that. If I were somewhere very near the battle when it occurred. If I were, say, hidden in the forest nearby. I could watch from the trees, and if it seemed that any of the wolves were close to overtaking Aaron, I could just shoot them. I'd have to disguise my human scent to avoid detection. But I could make absolutely certain that Aaron would be okay.
I clicked off the TV, deciding I was done running.
I grabbed my suitcase, took the elevator to the lobby, and handed my room key to the very surprised looking young man at the front desk.
"You're checking out already?"
I glanced over my shoulder on my way out of the lobby. "I've decided I'm done running. I'm going to be a fighter now."
I made it back up to the top of the northern peninsula just in time to board the last ferry of the day. The man who stowed my car, the same one who had done it earlier that day, seemed just as surprised to see me again as the young man at the hotel had.
I began driving down the winding dirt road-trail that led to my cabin just before ten o' clock at night. I knew that just over a mile away from my cabin, Aaron and his family were probably already camped out in the woods near where the battle would take place the next day at dawn. I wondered if they were sleeping. I wondered if I'd be able to sleep that night.
But after a very late dinner, it turned out I didn't have any problems. I was out before my head even
hit the pillow, secure in the knowledge that everything the next day would be okay. The evil shifter wolves would be taken out so they couldn't hurt people; Aaron would be safe; and I would be safe. As long as I could manage to disguise my scent and hide in the woods well enough to avoid detection, which I was sure I could do.
But shortly after my alarm went off at four-thirty in the morning, I realized I had a bit of a problem. I knew I could make my way down the trail that led to Aaron's family's cabins well enough, but I had no idea where the clearing was. I remembered Seth saying that the clearing was a half-mile east of the cabin settlement, but I didn't know any details or directions other than that. I didn't know if a trail led to the clearing, or if it was just reached by cutting directly through the woods. But, figuring that "a half-mile east" couldn't be too hard to screw up, especially with a compass, I began getting ready for the day.
After showering, scrubbing my skin hard to try to get rid of as much of my human scent as possible, I took some of Aaron's dirty clothes from the laundry hamper and rubbed them all over my body. Next, I took the clothes that I'd been wearing the night before, when I'd rode home on his back when he'd been shifted into a bear, and rubbed them all over my body as well. I even rubbed them on my hair. I dressed in the jeans I'd been wearing when I'd rode home on him and a sweatshirt that still strongly held his clean, woodsy scent.
At a quarter after five, I was ready, and I set out on the trail that led to Aaron's family's cabin settlement with my loaded .38 Special tucked into the waistband of my jeans. With no safety catch, only a harder trigger pull than most guns serving as a safety feature, I knew this particular firearm was the best kind to take to the battle. If Aaron needed help and I had to fire quickly, I wouldn't even need to waste a tenth of a second clicking a safety catch off.
I strode down the trail, lighting the path with a flashlight, while a few early-rising birds chirped in the darkened trees around me. By the time I reached the cabin, maybe twenty-something minutes later, the palest shades of gray and lavender colored the sky. I knew I had just a little over a half-hour before sunrise, and the start of the battle.
I investigated the woods bordering the east side of the settlement, looking for some sort of trail, but couldn't spot one. I suddenly realized I should have brought a knife of some kind, even a regular dinner knife, in case I had to hack my way through dense forest the entire half-mile to the clearing. But then I remembered that Aaron and his family went to the clearing, so even if there wasn't an actual trail, they would've had to have cleared the way at least enough for them to walk through, whether they'd been in bear form or human form at the time. I began inching along the edge of the woods looking for an entry-way again, and this time, soon spotted one, just a little beyond where I'd concentrated my search before. Several thick raspberry bushes appeared to have been flattened, leading to a more open space through clusters of dense trees.
I set out on this trail of sorts, relieved when about a hundred paces in, the trail became more defined, seeming to head in a fairly straight shot to the east.
It didn't take me long to reach the clearing. But I didn't see it first; I more like heard it. I stopped dead in my tracks, listening, as roars filled the air. I wondered if the battle had already begun. But although the sky was now colored in shades of pink and orange, the sun hadn't actually risen yet. I tiptoed the rest of the way down the path, cutting north to hide myself behind some tall evergreens when I spotted the trail exit and the clearing beyond.
From my spot between the evergreens, I surveyed the grassy clearing, mere feet in front of me. Aaron and his brothers, all in bear form, stood shoulder-to-shoulder in a line on the side of the clearing closest to me. Just a little behind them stood three smaller bears I knew must be Sarah, Jasmine, and Emily. Hardly bigger than a cub, Emily was easily recognizable. The bright ginger color of her fur stood out against Jasmine and Sarah's deep brown fur.
Opposite Aaron and his family, maybe only ten feet beyond them, stood a line of wolves about three times the size of any I'd ever seen in a zoo. One stood in the middle of the pack, at least a head taller than the others, and a foot or two in front of the others. He threw his head back and howled, his silvery-gray fur glinting in the early morning light, and the other wolves followed suit. I knew this wolf must be Alexander.
Aaron, who stood in the middle of his brothers, answered Alexander's howl with a roar, rising to his hind legs and beating his paws against his chest, his full height at least seven feet. A bear next to him joined in, rising to his full height as well, roaring. I figured this bear was Calvin, because of a distinctive gray streak in the fur on the side of his head, similar to a steak of gray Calvin had running through his hair in human form. The rest of the bears joined in the roar, the sandy-colored bear I knew to be Seth, pawing the ground as if he couldn't wait for the battle to begin.
And just then, the sun rose. Golden light flooded the clearing. The howls and roars died down. But only for a moment. Aaron and his brothers charged the wolves, and the wolves met them halfway. The force of the fourteen bodies colliding shook the ground beneath my feet. I took my gun from my waistband. I was ready.
But soon, to my relief, it became clear that I probably wouldn't be needed. Aaron began batting wolves away as easily as if he were swatting flies. One of them flew at least twenty feet in the air and landed in a heap, legs splayed. Another fell to the ground headfirst, as if diving into a pool. Seth also soon proved to be a good fighter, slashing the side of one wolf to ribbons with a single swipe of a paw. Calvin clamped his jaws onto the leg of a wolf who appeared to be trying to get to Seth, stopping him in his tracks. Lucas, Andrew, Cole, and Samuel also seemed to be more than holding their own.
I actually sat down to watch, setting my gun on my lap. Maybe five minutes later, I propped my chin on my fist, thinking how silly I'd been to think that Aaron might need my help. The wolves began avoiding him in the fight, scurrying around him in order to fight any bear but him. Even Alexander didn't get too close.
But presently, something changed. Seth sustained a bite to the top of his head, and blood ran down his face, matting his sandy fur. I could tell he was having trouble seeing. He began doing more staggering than charging. Several of his brothers surrounded him trying to protect him from further attack, but they were immediately pounced on by several wolves. Aaron turned to help, but was blocked by a large dark gray wolf with fangs bared. Alexander suddenly charged at Calvin, knocking him on his back. I stood, heart racing.
Emily hid her face in the shoulder of a female bear I was fairly sure was Jasmine, but within seconds, she lifted her head and took a few steps forward, her focus intent on Alexander and Calvin. Alexander sank his fangs into Calvin's shoulder while Calvin roared in pain. Emily made a little roar noise that sounded remarkably similar to a human cry. Aaron attempted to reach Calvin, but the large dark gray wolf jumped on his back. Alexander sank his fangs in Calvin's other shoulder, making Calvin roar in pain again. Emily made another cry noise again, shaking her tiny gingery head. And then she took off, flying.
I edged out from between the evergreen trees, raising my gun. Within seconds, Emily reached Alexander and Calvin, roaring. Alexander lifted his head from Calvin's shoulder and looked at her, his dark eyes glinting. I knew Emily would soon be killed.
I stepped out of the clearing and aimed my gun at Alexander's head. I fired.
EPILOGUE
The shot only clipped Alexander's ear. He stalked toward me, growling, maybe only fifteen feet away. Emily spotted me, lunged at Alexander, and caught one of his legs between her jaws. He shook her off with the slightest shake, still continuing toward me. Aaron tossed the big dark gray wolf off his back and began charging over. I aimed my gun at Alexander again and fired. The bullet got him right between the eyes. He went down, and Aaron was on him in an instant, flipping him on his back, clawing his chest open, and biting him right in the heart. Alexander was dead. And the tide had turned.
Calvin rolled over and s
tood, blood pouring from the wounds on his shoulders, and began driving Emily to the safety of the trees. Seth pounced on the big dark gray wolf, several of his brothers doing the same to other wolves. Aaron picked up a light gray wolf in his mouth and shook him like a rag doll before clawing his chest open and biting him in the heart. Soon all the wolves were dead.
A short while later, after Aaron and everyone in his family had went into the woods and then emerged dressed and in human form, Aaron approached me, his eyes dark.
He studied my face for a long moment, muscles working in his jaw, before speaking. "I almost don't even know what to say. You didn't trust me that everything was going to be all right, and you should have."
I turned my gaze to the ground, realizing he was right. "I know, but-"
"Unbelievable. You still have a 'but.'"
I lifted my face. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."
"Again, you should have trusted me."
I nodded, my gaze on the ground again.
"Calvin and Seth are in pretty bad shape. We need to get them to the cabins. We'll talk more later."
I nodded again, wondering if Aaron would still want to be with me even though I hadn't trusted him. Wondering if he still loved me.
That afternoon, back at the cabin settlement, after Seth and Calvin had been bandaged and cared for and it was certain they'd be okay, I went to look for Aaron in his cabin, but he wasn't there. I sat down on his bed, my head in my hands. Before long, there was a knock at the door, and I answered it.
Emily stood outside, a tiny bruise on one side of her forehead from when Alexander had shaken her off. "Can I come in?"
I nodded and led her inside. We both sat down at a table adjacent to Aaron's bedroom.
I sighed. "I guess I really goofed, Emily. I thought I was changing a pattern of me running from things, and I thought I would make certain that Aaron would be okay. But I guess I only showed that I don't trust him a hundred percent yet."
Her Bear Protector Page 6
