Hunting Party (Bear Lodge Shifters Book 1)

by Kyrii Rayne

  BEAR LODGE SHIFTERS – Book 1

  Hunting Party

  Kyrii Rayne

  Dreamstone Publishing © 2019

  www.dreamstonepublishing.com

  Copyright © 2019 Dreamstone Publishing and Kyrii Rayne

  All rights reserved.

  No parts of this work may be copied without the author’s permission.

  ISBN: 978-1-925915-01-3

  Disclaimer

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organisations, events and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.

  Table of Contents

  Disclaimer

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 - Anna

  Chapter 2 - The Lodge

  Chapter 3 - Stolen Moments

  Chapter 4 - Fresh Meat

  Chapter 5 - Shell Game

  Chapter 6 - Survivors

  Chapter 7 - The Thing on the Mountain

  Chapter 8 - Armed Camp

  Chapter 9 - Revelations

  Chapter 10 - Family Monsters

  Chapter 11 - The Fire Tower

  Chapter 12 - Assault

  Chapter 13 - Helga's Promise

  About the Author

  Here is your preview of Bear Brother

  Chapter 1 - The Lodge Mother's Request

  Other Books from Kyrii Rayne

  Other Books from Dreamstone Publishing

  Chapter 1 - Anna

  Sometimes life throws you a curveball, Anna Moretti thought as she gazed out of the helicopter window at Jackson Hole shrinking below them. Off into the mountains they went, swept away to a private resort owned by the father of her new boyfriend, Jake Matson. She felt her stomach drop as they rose high enough to make her nervous, and instead turned back to Jake, who sat there smiling with his arm around her.

  Jake was huge, six and a half feet of muscle, with a sweet clean-shaven face that looked younger than his massive body, soft brown eyes and slightly floppy coffee-colored hair. A gray weathered t-shirt stretched across his chest under a black motorcycle jacket, and black jeans molded to his powerful thighs. She couldn't look at him and not feel warmth running through her. Especially after the last few days.

  “You okay, baby?” he asked gently, reaching out to slip his hand through her shoulder-length honey-colored hair.

  She was tiny compared to him, and soft-bodied, with luxurious curves and bright green eyes. She wore jeans as well, with a big fluffy teal sweater, and nestled against his shoulder as he spoke.

  “I'm good,” she purred. And she was.

  Last night especially had made sure of that.

  Jake had started out shy with her, just a few days ago, coming by her desk at the seminar they shared in grad school, and introducing himself. Offering an afternoon coffee, someone to talk environmental law with, then later someone to walk around campus with until an autumn rain drove them indoors again.

  Hand-holding, walks and long conversations had evolved over a few days, and he had shocked her with an invitation to Wyoming for the weekend. Always adventurous, and having had no chance to hike anywhere for a few years, Anna had jumped at the opportunity. And then Jake had made another proposition, and she had smiled slowly... and jumped at that chance as well.

  They had spent last night exploring each other, mapping each other’s' bodies with fingers and mouths, learning the caresses that brought each other to trembling heights, and then resting and trying again.

  She was pleasantly exhausted as she sat through the flight, and dozed a little against his side, feeling the warmth pouring off him even through his jacket. It was amazing how she could know him for only a few days, and already feel so safe around him.

  “My Father's holding an event this weekend, some kind of hunt. Probably moose, something like that. I told him I had someone special to bring along, and he said it was fine.”

  He leaned forward to nuzzle her hair. Strange, how having sex with her had left him even more affectionate than before. In her experience it was usually the opposite: a guy slept with you, and then stopped trying because he had gotten what he wanted. Not Jake. Last night in the middle of his first climax he had looked at her suddenly, amazement and joy spreading across his face, as if an angel had whispered in his ear. And since then, his sexy, friendly affection had become something infinitely more tender and intense.

  It was almost frightening... but he never did a thing to try to hurt or control her. He simply seemed so hopelessly smitten that his enormous size and sheer masculinity somehow made it even more adorable.

  “That's really nice of him. Will it be safe to go hiking with the hunt going on?”

  “They hunt to the north and west. There are some good hiking trails to the southeast that we can use. It's not a big deal.” He smiled down at her, and leaned down to give her a gentle kiss.

  “Okay. That sounds good. I haven't been able to do any hiking at all since I started grad school. I really miss it.”

  “Did you bring good boots? It could snow.” He rubbed her back, and she nodded.

  “Good waterproof hikers, yeah. I don't have a compass right now - do you have one?”

  “Yeah, there's one set in my multi-tool. I've barely ever used it for anything though. I've turned into a city boy.” He smirked gently. “This should be pretty interesting.”

  “Okay, well, we'll figure it out.” She managed another glance out the window, and watched the landscape slide past far below: tree-clad mountains, stone outcroppings, drifts of dead leaves. Sometimes a flock of birds flew by underneath. Once or twice she saw other animals: deer, elk, a female moose with her yearling. The land looked so pristine, so untouched, save for a few cell phone towers and the odd pair of power lines. Back as a kid she had hiked the Sierra Nevadas with her uncle every summer, traveling overland for miles and miles. She still kept her mileage up every day, surprising Jake with how easily she had taken the hills and stairs of the UC Berkeley campus. She was built for cuddling, as he had commented, and the idea of her powering up a Wyoming mountain path had intrigued him.

  She was a contradiction by nature: avid hiker but not athletic-looking, emotionally tough but soft-eyed and snuggly, dedicated to environmental sciences but neither a strict tree-hugger nor any other kind of extremist. She was fiercely independent, and a student of the School of What Works; she called herself a moderate but whether she was or not depended on the subject. And Jake was much the same. Of course, in his case he had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth that he didn't really need; they were both scholarship students, both at the top of their classes, but he had come from a private school and she was the product of one of the less successful public school systems in California. His plan was to start a series of green businesses, such as renewable hemp and bamboo farms to replace wood in the local paper making industry. Meanwhile she had planned to become a lobbyist in local government.

  Somehow, she suspected that his ventures would be more successful, with his father's money behind them. But she didn't mind; it wasn't a competition. As long as the work got done, she was happy enough. Though there really was something to be said about having a lover who could sweep you off to a private hunting lodge for the weekend with one phone call. “So what kind of guy is your Father?” she asked casually — and was surprised to feel him tense a little against her side.

  “He's... eccentric. He's mostly just wrapped up in his work and environmental causes. You know, one of these Type A people who are always pulling all-nighters on this or that project but don't spend anywhere near as much time on people. We aren't super close.” He hesitated, and she watched his face, and the conflict in it, and wondere
d.

  “Am I going to be welcome there? Because I don't want to cause problems between you and your Father.” She felt a small stab of concern, but he just smiled.

  “No, he already said it was fine, he isn't the sort of guy to go back on his word. Don't worry about it.” He took her hand and squeezed it, rubbing his thumb over the back. “Seriously, we'll have a great time.”

  “What's the lodge like?” She craned her head around to catch sight of any sign of civilization, but except for a single, winding road and an old fire tower in the distance, she saw nothing. She smiled, sighing with an odd satisfaction. It wasn't that she disliked the sight of other people, but there was something about unspoiled land that made her deeply happy.

  “It's huge. Looks like one of those log fortresses from the Colonial days but on a bigger scale. Geothermal heating, wind and solar electric, its own spring, seriously — the works. The designer, Helga Thorsdottr, is a good friend of my father's. She was like an extra grandma growing up. I hope she's feeling well enough to join us this weekend, I'd love for you to meet her.”

  “It sounds awesome.” She felt a touch of mischief replace the apprehension. “Do they have private hot tubs?”

  His eyebrows went up, and he gave her a lazy grin. “Yup.”

  “Those will definitely come in handy.” She slid her hand up and down his chest and he got a gleam in his eye.

  “Hey now,” he whispered in her ear. “You keep that up and I'm joining the Mile High Club and embarrassing our pilot.”

  She blushed, and stopped petting, but only reluctantly. He chuckled. Half an hour later, she saw the lodge, its massive shape crowning one of the mountains. It had its own helicopter pad, and the pilot headed for it, fighting the mountain winds now and again and making her stomach jump. But the reedy man in the bulbous helmet knew what he was doing, and after a shaky descent, set them down in the middle of the helipad. “That's it, kids,” he rasped. “Wait for the rotors to come to a stop before you get out, this isn't Hollywood.”

  Anna looked out of the helicopter window at the slowing rotors and saw, beyond them, a tall figure in a suit, waiting for them at the edge of the pad. His hands were in his pockets, his overcoat blowing past his powerful legs and his pale face strangely expressionless. “Is that your father?” she asked Jake, getting his attention.

  He tensed strangely again, and let out his breath in a sigh. “Yeah, that's him. I'll introduce you in a minute.”

  Chapter 2 - The Lodge

  Jake had never felt so nervous in his life as he did when the helicopter blades spun to a stop. It wasn't just that he was introducing his new girlfriend to his dour, unemotional, increasingly uncommunicative father. It was that he was introducing his mate to him.

  Jake's life was more complicated than the average billionaire's son. Like his father and some of his cousins, Jake was more than human. He was a bear shifter, capable of changing his form to that of an enormous grizzly, and able to use the senses and some of the strength and power of the bear even in human form.

  But being a bear shifter had its drawbacks. It complicated things. Full moons made him bad-tempered and horny; great enough outrage or injury could trigger a berserk episode where he completely lost his reason and ran on violent instinct for a while.

  And finally, despite all his power and his family's money, Jake had absolutely no control over his romantic life.

  Bear shifters mated for life. Somewhere out there, for each of them, there was one person, one amazing human being who was compatible enough with them in body and soul to produce bear shifter children.

  Once a shifter mated with this person, they became bound to them, unable to love another, unable to stop loving them. Jake was only the latest to fall prey to this inescapably powerful instinct... and he was very, very happy about it.

  He was lucky. Some weren't, but he was very, very lucky. He had found her, he had found her young, she was alive and healthy, and Anna... Anna was wonderful. They had so many of the same interests, and she was so snuggly and adorable and sexy that just thinking about it had him wanting to tell his grumpy-ass Father to piss off and point them at the nearest bed.

  But he couldn't. Strained relationship or not, he would do this right, and be respectful. Father had had his own true mate, in Mother, for a decade before her death. And he had lost her, lost her horribly. For that reason, he had to understand how important it was that Jake and Anna get their chance, for as long as fate would allow. Which might not be long, though he prayed it would be. Not everything had to end in tragedy when it came to matings.

  Though that led him to his one other worry: this weekend, in the privacy of the Lodge, he was going to reveal to Anna what he was. It was the only responsible thing to do now that he knew how important their relationship would be in his life. But it was also a gigantic emotional risk.

  Werebears had been rejected before. They had had their mates run from them screaming.

  Jake could only hope that Anna was as wonderful about accepting his nature as she had been about everything else so far.

  “Okay, here we go.”

  He grabbed both their bags as the pilot pulled the hatch open for them, and strode out onto the helipad, ducking under a now-stopped rotor. He could hear her walking just behind him, the faint shuffle of her sneakers against the tarmac. Her scent in his nostrils gave him focus and hope as he approached his father, who folded his arms as they walked near him.

  Looking into his father's face, at those cold dark eyes and unforgiving lines, he remembered his father's smile from his youth, and the gentle strength he had once possessed. It had faded over the years since his mother's murder, leaving him a hollow shell with harsh ambitions.

  Jake felt the old mix of feelings, which had come to replace his adoration, well up in him as he walked up: anger, sadness, confusion, disgust. And pity — pity, most of all. He stopped a few feet away, not offering to shake hands or embrace, simply exchanging nods hello as he folded his own arms.

  When had he become the bigger of them? He couldn't even remember any more.

  “Father,” he said, tone low, formal and too-calm.

  “Jacob.” His dark eyes flicked from him to Anna, who fidgeted slightly beside him. “Who have you brought?”

  “Um, Father, this is Anna Moretti, my — girlfriend.” He stumbled over the word, wanting to say ‘mate’ but knowing she herself would have no idea whatsoever what that meant yet. “Anna, this is Anthony Matson, my father.”

  “Um, hi,” Anna started shyly. He looked at her, and his lips twitched.

  “Good afternoon.” His tone stayed cold, and Jake felt his heart sink. Why did Father have to be an ass about everything, even his son finding his mate? It didn't seem fair. This was good news for their family and their species. Every successful mating in this strained modern age was. But his father simply turned back to him. “You may have the Redwood Suite for the weekend. The hunt will cover three of the four quadrants. You may take her southeast only if you wish to leave the compound. This hunt is very important. Don't get in my way.”

  Jake stiffened.

  “Yes, Father.”

  He turned on his heel and led them off the helipad and inside, down a heavy timber staircase and into an upper level public hall. He turned back once they were inside, and fished in his pocket, removing a keycard and handing it to Anna.

  “Down the hall this way to the elevator, one floor down, end of the hall on the right side. He will meet you there. Right now he and I need to talk.”

  She took the keycard, blinking at Jake's father with a startled expression, then nodded.

  “Nice meeting you,” she mumbled awkwardly as she retreated, and Jake felt his heart sink again.

  His father led him to the office he kept on that floor, and Jake shook his head as he walked behind him. The tie never came off his father, and his business face was all he ever wore anymore — unless he was wearing his other face entirely, and his other form.

  It was as if he
had slowly died over the years since Mother's death, and something else had come to take his place. Something Jake had never been entirely comfortable around.

  He let Jake through the door, closed it, locked it, and settled into the chair behind his massive burlwood desk to stare at him coldly.

  Jake pulled up a seat across from him and stared back, guts churning but refusing to show how nervous he was.

  Finally, his father sighed through his nose and said, “You picked an inconvenient time to choose to bring company to the Lodge. Who is she to you?”

  “She's my mate, Father. That's why the urgency. I needed a quiet place to... acquaint her with the facts.”

  His father sat back, something strange flickering in his eyes. “Your mate. And you are certain.” His voice had gone even stonier than usual.

  “Yes. I'm completely certain. She's the one. I wouldn't bother you with anything unimportant like trying to impress an ordinary girlfriend with the place. I've never done that.”

  “That is notable. But this is... a concern.” His neutral tone infuriated Jake. He understood that he could hardly expect congratulations from the man, but this icy coldness was the worst part of his father's personality change.

  He had hoped the news would thaw it a little.

  He had been wrong.

  “I actually must offer you my condolences,” his father said flatly. “And suggest that you send her away.”

  Jake gasped. “Wait — what? If there's private Bear business going on here—”

  “It's more than that.” His father's mouth worked. “If you have any intelligence at all, you will get as far away from this 'true mate' business as you can. It is a trap. It is imposed on us against our wills to make us dependent on humans. And humans are fragile and untrustworthy.” A humorless smile curved his lips. “For your own sake, avoid any such disruptions, and focus instead on supporting Lodge ventures.”