Briar on Bruins' Peak (Bruins' Peak Bears Book 7)

by Erin D. Andrews

  “She can’t go home,” Tina hissed. “You heard her. Her father is crazy. He’ll literally murder her.”

  Sam looked at Harper with her dirty hair and skin, blood-stained clothes, and pale face. Despite it all, she still looked like a royal compared to the rest of them. “No father would ever kill his own daughter. Not even Bachmann is that evil.”

  “Yes, he is.” Tina’s head whipped around to look at Larissa, and Sam’s eyes went wide with anger. He took a shuddering breath, made a fist, and then put it down.

  “Fine.” He looked at each of them and turned to go. At the door, he stopped to turn back around and said, “I don’t know anything about this, got it? I don’t know you two, I have no idea she’s here. I wasn’t at any party. If you say anything different, well…” He gritted his teeth and stormed out.

  Tina watched him go, while Larissa sat quietly on the bed with Harper. “What’s it like in the palace?”

  “What? I mean, what do you want to know?”

  Larissa shrugged and smiled as if she were having a great time. “What do you do all day?”

  “I don’t know,” Harper looked at her smashed leg and started to cry silently. Through the tears, she whispered, “I can’t talk right now, okay?”

  “Oh, your leg? Don’t worry.” Larissa stood and shifted again and walked up to Harper’s face. Harper reached out to touch her head, and Tina watched in a state of shock as Larissa allowed herself to be petted on the head. She had never seen her friend allow anyone to touch her before. It was one of the reasons none of the shifters trusted her.

  Larissa moved down to Harper’s leg and gently pressed her wide, flat nose to the top of the broken bone. She breathed evenly and let out a low, steady purr. Harper tensed up at the beginning of the purring, yanking her blanket up to her chest as if for protection. After a few minutes, she relaxed and even laid back a bit on the old, foam mattress Tina used as a pillow. Harper’s eyes closed, and soon she was asleep.

  Allowing herself to breathe a moment, Tina arranged a little pile of foam scraps into a makeshift bed and pillow. She quietly slipped one of her mother’s homemade rag blankets off the bed and threw it over her little nest and let out a big yawn.

  “Hey, doc,” she whispered to Larissa, “I gotta sleep. You can stay here if you want.”

  The fossa didn’t respond, just focused on her task. Purring was a favorite medicine in The Hills; the vibrations sped up the healing process and helped ease the pain of anyone who was injured or ill. Tina had been the recipient of many purrings, but she rarely got injured or was sick anymore. She laid down on her messy pile of a bed and rested her head on the lumpy pillow.

  As she lay on the floor, she took in the scene of her shifter friend helping her human friend. From her point of view, the fossa and the First Daughter were sideways. Harper slept, while Larissa focused with her eyes closed. The purring was so powerful that it floated across the room to Tina and vibrated inside her head. She imagined Harper’s bones gently fusing back together. Would she be able to walk after this accident? Surely, the president would spare no expense to help his daughter get well once they got her back to him.

  Of course, she had no idea how to do such a thing. Tina drifted off to sleep with heavy eyelids shutting out the world. It was already almost dawn, the light was grey and ominous, and the air smelled like smoke.

  When Tina woke, she was greeted with the sight of Harper chatting with her mother. Tina shot up out of bed, making both of them jump.

  “Mom! What, ah, what’s going on? What are you two talking about?”

  “Honey,” her mom smiled, “why didn’t you tell me about your friend Evelyn? She’s lovely.”

  Tina paused. Was her mother so unfamiliar with the presidential family that she didn’t recognize Harper? She watched her mom closely; she appeared to be sincere. Slowly, Tina nodded.

  “Yeah, Evie’s the best. Did she tell you about her leg?”

  Harper jumped in. “Yup, that earthquake got me good. Lucky for me, Larissa was able to help out. Thanks so much for breakfast, Ms. Traxson.”

  “You can call me Faye,” she corrected her as she gave Harper’s face a motherly pat. “Well, girls,” she sighed, “I’m afraid duty calls. I have to get to my little fry stand. Will you girls be alright on your own?”

  They both smiled and nodded. Faye stood and stretched, then put her hands on the ground and stretched her spine up to the sky. “Whoo. Not as limber as I used to be. Ah, well.” She stood and waved to her daughter and guest. “See you later.”

  “See you.”

  “Have a good day, Mom.”

  Both girls sat silently and waited until Faye was completely out of sight. Then Tina jumped up and ran over to Harper’s bed. “Okay, fill me in. What story did you give her?”

  “Same one you told the guys last night. I’m new, no one knows me, and my name is Evelyn. I kept it vague.”

  “Okay,” Tina nodded, “okay. We just have to get you well. How’s your leg?”

  Harper threw the blanket off of her and Tina gasped in shock. What had been a crushed, useless limb the night before, had been upgraded to a swollen, bruised leg. It wasn’t completely healed, but the progress was undeniable.

  “I had no idea purring was so effective.”

  “It’s an old cure that shifters have used for a long time,” Tina said, leaning down to smell Harper’s leg. Her friend raised her eyebrows as Tina sniffed her. “What are you doing?”

  “Checking for infection. If you have one, you’ll lose this leg entirely.”

  The thought of an amputation made Harper turn as pale as the sheets beneath her. “Do you think it will have to come off?”

  Tina took one last, long sniff. “I don’t smell anything odd. Infections are usually easy to spot.” She stood and gave Harper a tired smile. “I hate to do this to you, but I have school today.”

  Harper cocked her head. “You go to school?”

  “Yeah, every day. You didn’t know shifters were educated?”

  The First Daughter blinked at her friend, her mouth open as she processed this new information. “You know, I guess I just assumed you weren’t. Is that horrible of me?”

  Tina got very quiet. The myths around shifters were a topic the two friends didn’t normally broach, but Tina suddenly wanted to know all about the human view. “What else do humans believe about us?”

  Harper bit her lip. “I don’t want to say.”

  “Come on. I’m just curious.”

  She paused a moment, then offered, “They think you’re savages. That you have no order to your life. Like, you all hulk around, grunting. That sort of thing.”

  “How could anyone say that? There are shifters that work in the palace!”

  Harper shrugged. “They’re rarely allowed to speak. And when they do, it’s just to say, Yes, Mr. President. No one asks them about their lives or their families. They’re too busy gossiping about all of you.”

  Tina nodded. She hugged herself tightly and looked out the door. She thought she saw someone duck out of view, but when she stood up for a better view, there was no one. She turned back to her injured friend.

  “I better go. Do your best to stay out of sight. I’ll come back as soon as class is over, and I’ll bring Larissa with me.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m just gonna sleep.” Harper pulled the blankets up to her neck to keep off the morning chill. “I don’t know how you can go to school,” she yawned. “I’m exhausted.”

  “Me too.”

  By the time Tina was dressed, combed, and ready, Harper was fast asleep on her bed. She looked so comfortable and peaceful that Tina had to look away. A deep, restful sleep suddenly seemed like a very rare commodity that the wolf shifter wouldn’t see again for a long while.

  In school, Tina kept an eye on the room. Several people were missing – all people who had been at the party. The absence she noticed right away was Black Feather’s, and it instantly made her uneasy. She asked some friends if he was o
kay, but no one wanted to speak to her. Great. She focused her attention forward on the teacher who was breaking down cold-blooded amphibians and their biology for the group.

  When it came to time to work in a group, she managed to squeeze her way into one but only because they were a couple of people short. Everyone in the group glowered at her silently as she tried to break the tension.

  “So, frogs. It’s nice to finally learn about my favorite snack.”

  Silence.

  “Any of you big on jumping? It’s a favorite of mine. I’ve been over some pretty intense crevasses; they’re the best. What’s the furthest you’ve jumped?”

  No response.

  “Fine, let’s just do the assignment.” She picked up a stick and started drawing. When she looked up again, she was shocked to see that Larissa had joined them.

  “Geez, girl! You gave me a heart attack.”

  Larissa didn’t apologize, rather just smiled with her lips sealed. She looked down at the frog drawing in the dirt.

  “You’ve got the spleen in the wrong spot,” she said, pointing to the little oval-shaped organ. “It goes under the large intestine right here.” She held her hand out for the stick, and Tina handed it over.

  “Hey,” the guy sitting with them said with a scowl on his face. “You weren’t even here for the lesson. What do you know about frogs?”

  Larissa calmly and expertly added a perfectly drawn spleen to the illustration. “More than all of you, apparently.” She sat back to admire her work and was shocked when the boy’s hand shot out to erase the perfectly done drawing.

  “What’d you do that for?”

  He stood. “I don’t let freaks tell me what I know and what I don’t know.” He kicked the dirt, spraying it on Tina’s outfit. “And I sure as heck don’t hang out with traitors.” He stormed out, his younger sister tailing behind him.

  “Wow,” Tina said, brushing the dirt off of her clothes. “Touchy.”

  “They’re wild boars,” Larissa assured her, repairing their school work. “Boars are infamously moody.” The two quickly redid the frog anatomy and the teacher – a snake shifter – wandered over.

  “Very nice, ladies.” She took in Tina’s messy clothes and tsked at her. “Miss Traxon, what did you do to yourself?”

  “The boars got angry with me and kicked some dirt my way,” she explained, but there was no anger in her voice. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”

  The teacher’s eyes narrowed, but she moved on. Larissa shook her head at her short-sighted friend. “You tell the truth too much, little wolf.”

  “Like she even cares. No snake is going to stand up to two moody boars.”

  “You forget,” Larissa said, finishing the details on the digestive system, “snakes have big teeth and plenty of venom. Don’t count them out just because they don’t have legs.”

  The two finished their drawing and quietly left the schoolroom before the teacher could wander back. They walked casually through the compound despite their intense panic. Seeing the anger in the boars’ faces had been a nasty call to reality. They were harboring a very valuable human in the one place she was absolutely not allowed to be in. Larissa touched Tina’s back and said softly, “Don’t worry about Bachmann. He has no idea.”

  “No idea about what?”

  Both girls spun around to see Black Feather standing right behind them with a big smile on his face.

  “Black Feather. What is with you snooping around lately? You’re such a creep.”

  “Hey,” he said, feigning emotional pain, “I’m not snooping. I’m honestly curious.”

  “Well, you can stay curious,” Larissa informed him. “I don’t share information with flyers.”

  Black Feather let out a little scoff and acted as nonchalant as he could, but Tina noticed he was taking in Larissa’s body with fleeting glances. Wasn’t he all over Harper the night before?

  “Listen, Black,” she said, “about last night–”

  “The kidnapping?” Both Tina and Black Feather turned to Larissa in confusion.

  “The what?”

  “You know,” she continued with a placid face, “the kidnapping of Harper, the First Daughter. Apparently someone grabbed her and ran out as the earthquake ended. Law enforcement is looking for her now.”

  Black Feather staggered a bit at the news. “Oh, wow. That’s...ah…big news.”

  Larissa nodded. “It was on the radio this morning. The whole city is up in arms.”

  Tina stood with her mouth open as Larissa gave a few details about clues that had been found in Harper’s abandoned car – some note that had been found torn in half, a lost shoe, that sort of thing. Black Feather seemed truly upset; he pressed his lips together, and his face turned an odd shade of red as he listened.

  “Hey,” he jumped in, “I better get home.” He took one final look at Larissa, a gesture that made Tina sigh with boredom. Why were boys so predictable? The look did nothing to wipe away his concern, so he just turned and left. The two friends resumed their walk home.

  “Did you see that?”

  “When he was looking at me? Of course I saw it.”

  Tina studied Larissa’s enigmatic face. “It doesn’t bother you?”

  “Of course it does,” she answered without looking at Tina. “But right now, my gorgeous figure can be a distraction that works in our favor. If that’s what’s happening, I think it’s worth a quick discomfort.”

  “Oh, your figure is gorgeous now?”

  Larissa smiled. “Of course. I’m the most beautiful woman in the world.” As soon as she said it, she sped off at a full sprint. Tina decided to just let her run. From the back, she couldn’t help but notice that Larissa looked just like a young boy as she sped along the dirt-covered landscape. She trusted her friend would be back shortly and turned into her own front door to check on her broken friend. She hoped Harper had gotten a nice rest and that nothing would stand in the way of getting her home.

  Chapter 9

  The Plan

  As often happened during city emergencies, Grey was called to come in for work early in the morning. One thing that was highly unusual about this call was that it came from the president himself.

  “Grey! Grey! I need you here. Don’t wait. Don’t even drink a cup of coffee. We have food in the War Room. We must find Harper!”

  The young messenger blinked awake and looked over at his official walkie-talkie. It was handed down from his dad and was the only means the palace had for getting ahold of him. He groggily reached for it and clicked the button on the side.

  “I’m sorry, sir, I just woke up. Did you say Harper is missing?”

  “I don’t have time to explain to you, shifter!” Grey winced as the president spat out the very word he used to describe himself, as if it were the worst thing a creature could be. “Just flap your little wings and get here!”

  “Right away, sir.” Grey groaned and stretched. He rolled over and saw that his father was already awake and sitting silently. His eyes stared directly at his son.

  “Dad,” Grey said, waving his hand in his dad’s face, “I need my clothes. Do you have them?”

  Slowly, his father nodded. “Prez sounds upset.”

  Grey rubbed his face, hoping to wake himself up. “Yeah. Yeah, he does. Where are my pants?” He stood and started walking around the shelter as he pulled on his work shirt.

  “I’d stay home if I were you, son.”

  Grey froze, his shirt tail dangling above his bare hips. “What? Why?”

  “An angry Bachmann…” Floyd Wiseman shook his head back and forth as his eyes stared into the middle distance. “I’d go anywhere but there.”

  Suddenly overcome with concern for his father, Grey knelt down and took his dad’s hand in his own. He looked into his father’s soft, aging eyes. “Dad, I’m more scared of what Bachmann might do if I don’t go, so I think I had better get over there. I don’t want you to worry. I can handle him.”

  His father turn
ed to his son slowly. “You think you know how to handle him,” Floyd said. He touched Grey’s cheek. “I once thought the same thing. That was before he sent his goons to kill your mother.”

  “Dad, I don’t think that was him.”

  “You don’t know anything.” Grey’s father gave him a hard shove, knocking him to the ground as he stormed out of the house. A moment later, Grey’s pants were flung into his face. “Go to your master.”

  Not speaking, Grey stood and put his uniform on, then shifted and flew away without saying goodbye. Once again, he imagined just flying off into the unknown, leaving the community, his father, and President Bachmann behind to wonder where he had gone. The fantasy suddenly felt very urgent and he very nearly swept east when he was meant to go west, but he veered off in his usual direction.

  There was no escape to be had that day.

  He flapped through his exhaustion, working his shoulders hard despite the tiredness that was always deep in his shoulder blades, no matter how deeply he slept. Up in the mountains, he could see the palace. He was far enough away that it still looked like a little dollhouse peppered with toy dolls in black suits. He had heard of human boys and girls who played with a toy version of the palace. The very thought of Bachmann’s home and a tiny president at his disposal made Grey feel both happy and extremely nervous. He didn’t want those painted-on eyes watching him as he tried to live his life beyond his job.

  Grey swept over to the back security station of the palace and flapped down to the ground where he shifted back to human form. He ducked into the hut where he and the other shifters who worked in the palace had to have their retinas scanned and then have their security code temporarily tattooed on their cheeks. When he emerged, he had a series of lines on his cheek with a row of numbers underneath. This allowed the security guards to scan him with a little light on their sunglasses and confirm his identity. Only shifter staff members were required to have this monstrosity on their faces, but they did it without complaint. Grey had even volunteered to be the first to try it when the technology became available.

  He approached the four security guards with a friendly nod and allowed them to scan him, standing still so that his special code would read properly. He had witnessed other shifters who had turned their heads slightly or stepped away a bit too fast and were immediately dismissed as imposters after their scan hadn’t gone through. It always shocked him how humans could do things in the name of safety and security only to use it to ruin lives at every opportunity.