by Kyrii Rayne
“If someone has to unleash a can of whoop-ass to defend this place, Gray's the best bet,” Jake finally said. It was true. Gray wasn't an administrator; in fact, he was just starting to reach the point where he could interact normally with others. He had led a hellish secret childhood in their father's hands, and had lived most of his life as an unshifted bear. He was still learning the fine points of living as a man, something they, along with his mate Julia, had put in a lot of time helping him with. “And I know no one will question him.” Gray had been used as their father's muscle, and many of the other Bears were terrified of him. “But we'd have to stay in contact with him and advise him. A lot.”
“I'm up for that, Darrin said quietly. “I will end up spending half my time on this deal on the phone or the Net anyway, and at least Gray will listen.”
“Most of the time.” Jake smirked. Gray could actually be stubborn— but not, generally, about anything really important. “Anyway, if Julia can get some days off from training, I'm sure she can back him up.” It was trusting someone they hadn't known very long, but the ranger trainee's competence and sense of honor rivaled Mark's... and she was also a lot more stable than the emotionally scarred military man. “Okay, so, does this look like something resembling a plan? Make some calls, make some arrangements, then hike our asses out to Denver and see why the renegades are gathering there?”
Darrin nodded, and Anna sighed. “Yeah, it looks like. Has anyone talked to Helga today?”
Darrin glanced out the window, then took a long swallow of his coffee. Outside, snow fell past the window, the flakes so sparse they barely speckled the black, frozen ground. “Yeah. She's conscious, but weak. I'll tell her what's going on, but we can't expect any backup from her. She's gonna need to save all her fight for the latest surgery.”
He sounded worried, and Anna could understand why; Helga had been his mentor for a long time, and he had done a lot of work for her. And Bears were usually so robust that the idea that one of them could finally fall to the pains and illnesses of old age was a little shocking. However, as it had turned out, Helga was well over a century old. That was a long time to live with good health before age took its toll. That didn't make it any less of a concern, but at least it made her poor health understandable.
“Yeah, I get that.” Jake sounded a little sad and preoccupied, but finally nodded and looked around at them. “So. Let's split up the phone call work, and then see about getting to Denver.”
Anna squeezed his hand under the table, as much for comfort as in solidarity. Hunting Hunters was a terrifying prospect, and their little family was not at its best right now. She had to hold out hope that something would work in their favor.
Chapter 2 - Vendettas
“You're going after the Bears that hunted us? I'm in. I don't need selling points. I'm fucking well in.” Mark had the coffee pot in his Jackson trailer bubbling away as he stalked around tossing clothes and gear into a backpack. “How are we transporting weapons?”
He was a big man, African American, with his hair still cropped military close, his chin clean-shaven and his dark eyes a bit sunken, but clear and full of purpose.
His leather jacket creaked as he moved. It was the one piece of his outfit that wasn't military surplus. Despite the trauma he had lived through in Afghanistan, he remained proud of his service, and the skills he had gained while serving. Anna was far from a military woman, but she could still understand.
In a world that had betrayed him regularly, his identity as a soldier was the one single consistent thing he could hang onto. At least, until Esme had come along.
“It's a private plane. I have hidden storage in the bulkheads.” Darrin's grim expression mirrored Mark's. “I have an arsenal already, if you want to go through the list and see where you think I need to supplement.”
Mark's eyebrows went up.
“Been doing some gray-market arms purchasing since last time?”
He grabbed some plain white mugs out of the cabinet for them. Mark's whole trailer was Spartan and neat, as if he half expected his old drill sergeant to come through, and check if his bed was made and his counters clean.
“You bet your ass I have.” Darrin sounded grim. “I'm the one who interviewed those two Bears the last group captured.” Their rescue had been a bloody mess— but once the rescuers had Mark back on their side and enough backup, the blood had mostly been the Hunters'. “I'm not giving anyone, Bear, Hunter or anyone else, any more chance to harm us. Not after what's already happened.”
“Yeah, well, I'm with you on that one.”
Though there was a slightly sullen tone in Mark's voice. For him, it was a sort of penance - granted, he now had a personal stake in fighting Hunters, as his own lady love would be targeted by them if found out. But most of it was guilt. Because of his brief throw-in with the Hunters, they had learned things about the Lodge that had endangered everyone. And they had gained information about some of their members which had, along with causing problems for everyone, nearly ended in Anna being kidnapped, used as bait and killed.
Mark had stepped in and warned her before they could get at her, but he still lived with that guilt.
Anna... couldn't feel sorry for him. It was good for him to live with guilt. The various hells he had been through had left him a bit unstable, and if he had to carry a painful reminder of what happened when he let his rage win, to keep him on track, so be it. Besides... she honestly wasn't quite up to forgiving him fully yet. After all, as she had soon learned, it wasn't just herself that his anger at the Lodge had ended up endangering. The Hunters had learned about her pregnancy that day in the doctor's office, at the same time that she had. And they had chosen to try to kill her for that, to prevent another bear shifter from being born. So now, even she found her mind turning to arming herself.
“I'll need something to carry myself. I think I'm more comfortable with a pistol, now that I have practiced some.”
Mark looked at her in shock.
“You're not going with us.”
That pissed her off. First Jake and now him? Give me a break.
“So what, you leave me home at the Lodge, and Murphy's Law strikes again, and I get targeted specifically because I was left behind— and because they want to hit the Lodge anyway? How many times has going off on my own meant trouble for me since this all happened? It has never gone well. Do the math, Mark.”
She sounded more annoyed than she actually was, but she didn't feel like soft-balling her statements.
He poured the coffee, shaking his head.
“There has to be a better way. And if there isn't, you at least better wear that damn vest I got you.”
“Yeah, Jake already got on me about that.” She accepted a mug, cradling it in her hands to warm them. The trailer was well insulated, but this time of year she never entirely felt warm. She was from the San Francisco Bay Area, after all, where the weather essentially went from fall to spring and back again, without any temperature extremes in between. Now, dealing with Wyoming in the mountains, she realized just how much her home climate had spoiled her. “I'm actually glad to have the extra layer anyway. So no, you won't catch me complaining. And come on, last time I drove the getaway car. It's not like I want to be in the thick of any fights.”
“Good,” chorused Mark and Jake, and then eyed each other. Anna's irritation drained away, and she hid a faint smile. Though Mark had stopped seeing himself as Jake's romantic rival when Esme entered the picture, they were still back to competing with each other over who was the most protective. That was a good sign; it was a lot better certainly than the near-mute antipathy that had grown between them the last few months.
“Thing I don't get is, what do these guys plan to accomplish by pointing out the existence of the Lodge to Hunters? It only means that the Hunters will eventually trace their connection to the place back to them, and go after them too.”
Esme lounged in an over-sized leather chair in the corner, her booted feet up. The Crow
was a small woman, slim and athletic, with short, mussy blue-black hair, bottomless dark eyes and a sharp, pale face.
She dressed in motorcycle leathers, and a pair of biking goggles sat on her forehead.
“These are the same guys whom my dad managed to convince that hunting humans was something they could get away with. They're too shortsighted to think about the potential risk of exposure, which is about the only thing they would care about if they realized it.” Jake took a swallow of his coffee. “And anyway, if there's one thing I learned trying to get the other Bears in the Lodge to help, it's that there are a lot of big egos involved. A lot of the older Bears, the more established ones who are richer than me, resent that I'm part running things - they made it clear. They don't like being told no, they don't like being expected to do anything, and they hate humiliation most of all. These six exiles, they've been caught acting like monsters and punished for it. Now their pride is wounded and they want revenge. They're not thinking, certainly not about consequences. They are emoting, and behaving as irrationally as spoiled little boys.”
Esme let out a disgusted little grunt.
“Well, when they started collaborating with Hunters against other shifters, they decided to make war on all of us. Far as I'm concerned, as soon as we find out how many of them are behind it, it's open season on them.”
“Not gonna argue,” Jake said quietly, and Mark shot him a look of surprise.
“I would have thought you would defend Bear lives no matter what.”
Darrin, bent over his laptop near Esme, looked up and scoffed.
“They got kicked out for creating a canned mass murder as 'entertainment'. Their exile was the last chance they had to crawl under a rock and get out of our business. Now, they're working with the same fanatics who have killed dozens of us in the last decade. I can't let them get away with that. Even if nobody else was with me, I'd have to follow up on this one, with bullets. There's just... there's just no goddamned way that they can point Hunters at us and get away with it. Not on top of everything else.”
His voice shook a little, and Anna looked at him worriedly, noticing Jake doing the same. This whole matter with the Hunters and renegade bears was definitely tearing open old wounds for him.
Mark shrugged and handed Darrin his coffee.
“You don't have to go into detail, man, I get it. How soon until the plane takes off?”
“Tonight, midnight. We're staying in town for dinner and then just taking off. I had one of my investigators arrange a large suite for us at an extended-stay motel. But until I have some more information on where these renegades are staying, or what their next moves are, we may have a wait ahead of us.”
“I hate just sitting around,” Esme grumbled quietly. “I'll give you some backup on that investigation. Should help make it go faster.”
“That would be appreciated.” Darrin downed his coffee black, barely seeming to taste it.
They took Darrin's private plane out late that night, under dazzling stars. The wind had blown the clouds away, and with it the single light dusting of snow. The drifts and ice of a month ago had given way to an uncertain dry chill, and a steady wind which dragged at them viciously as the plane struggled off the runway. Already queasy, and never a good flier, Anna nestled against Jake's side with his arm around her for comfort, and concentrated on keeping her breathing slow.
Once they were above the mountain gusts, they leveled out and she managed to relax. But as Anna looked over, she noticed again, Darrin sitting alone, staring out the window with his laptop open on his knees. He had rarely spoken this evening, and when he had, it had been all business. As if he was hiding behind the cold drive to get things done. Anna wished that she knew him better, and had some way to draw him out. He seemed to be drowning in some private pain, and it hurt her to watch.
Denver was a short jump through the dark, just a few hours of jolting along while the engine rumbled away. Anna, exhausted, tried to nap on Jake's shoulder while he cuddled her, but the noise and the tension— and the worry over Darrin— kept her from being able to rest.
By the time they touched down at the airport, her head was throbbing, her ears rang from the airport noise, and all the lights seemed way too bright. Darrin had used one of his local people to bring a van for them. They loaded their luggage, and a few locked metal cases Darrin pulled from trapdoors in the cabin floor, into the back of the van. The group then piled in, cramming three to a bench seat in back, too worn down physically and emotionally to talk much.
Darrin's people had gotten them a three-bedroom suite at the extended stay hotel, which was clean and well-appointed but generic, with brown comforters and pictures of duck hunts on the walls. After some settling in, the two couples and Darrin all went into their respective rooms. Anna fell asleep almost as soon as she and Jake curled up together under the covers. It was a sleep so deep she felt almost drugged; the last thing she remembered was the now unfamiliar traffic noises from the highway outside, and Jake's breathing going slow and even in her ear.
Chapter 3 - Nightmares and Sweet Dreams
Early that morning Jake jolted awake to a low, anguished scream from the other room.
His eyes opened onto darkness and he snuffled at the air, his Bear senses taking in no new scents. No intruders, no fire, no spilled blood. Just another soft groan of fear and loss, coming from the same place: the bedroom next door to his, where Darrin slept.
Anna gasped awake at the next cry, stiffening against him and raising her head.
“Whoah,” she mumbled. “What—”
“Darrin,” he replied, regret in his voice.
Damn, man, I had no idea you were having it so rough. Darrin was tougher than he gave himself credit for, but when a man screamed in his sleep like that it was pretty clear there was more going on than he could handle right now.
“Sounds like nightmares.”
“That's what's been keeping him up.” And why he was avoiding sleep with even more coffee than usual. She had noticed him downing it as recently as ten that evening. His caffeine habit was so prodigious that she was glad for his Bear constitution. Otherwise either his heart or his stomach would have paid by now, especially on top of the stress. “Oh crap, sweetie, what should we do?”
“He's my best friend. I should go shake him out of it.” He got up, tightening the cord on his sweatpants to keep them from slipping down. He heard her get out of bed behind him and turned back gently. “It's okay, I'll be back in a few minutes.”
She hesitated, one foot on the floor, the flannel of her nightgown pulled distractingly taut across her hips. His eyelids lowered slightly, but he tabled that impulse until he knew his buddy was doing all right. Otherwise both of them would be too distracted by worry to enjoy themselves fully anyway. “It's okay. I've talked him through garbage like this before.”
Usually what he had talked him through were bad, depressive drunk episodes, which only happened now and again, but were always kind of a trial. As far as he knew, the nightmares were new. New, and alarming. He stepped out into the main room of the suite, eyes adjusting quickly to the semi-dark. Moonlight shone off new snow outside the window, filling the room with a dim, diffuse radiance.
He went to Darrin's door and knocked on it gently.
“Darrin? Buddy? You OK in there?”
No answer. After a few moments, he heard another anguished little shout from inside. Jake sighed and opened the door, walking into the darkened room beyond. Darrin had fallen asleep at his desk, not even managing to get his head to his pillow. Jake sighed and went over to the makeshift workstation, taking hold of one of his friend's hunched shoulders and shaking it.
“Dude?”
“Aaah!” He jolted awake, looking around wildly, his teeth slightly bared with fear. He managed to focus on Jake in the dark finally, and sagged with relief. “Oh. Shit. What... was I making noise?”
“Yeah. You sounded like you were dreaming about someone pulling your toenails out. I figured you wo
uldn't miss whatever was going on if I interrupted.”
He patted Darrin's shoulder once, then let him go and stepped back a little.
Darrin rubbed his eyes, looking embarrassed.
“Sorry.”
Jake just shook his head.
“Look, man, it's cool, but uh... we're getting a little worried about you. These dream things happening a lot?”
Darrin got up from his desk and stretched, his back letting out a painful-sounding series of pops and cracks.
“Yeah, ever since that first group of Hunters moved into Jackson. Goddamn flashback dreams.” He rubbed his face as he plunked down onto the edge of his bed, and then sighed and sat back, blinking his eyes rapidly. “I'll take a pill. My metabolism will clear the drug out in an hour or two, but it should help me until then.”
“I'm sorry.” Jake felt a little useless. Darrin was pretty much his second brother, but there wasn't much he could do against the guy's inner demons except try to reassure him. “If there's anything I can do—”
“Nah. It's cool. Thanks for waking me. I sometimes... it's like I get stuck in the dream. Which I guess still leaves me better off than some people, who get stuck in bad memories while they're, you know, awake.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” Jake backed off, heading for the door. “Okay, well, then, if you need anything, bang on the door, dude. We're all friends here.”
Sort of, anyway. Mark was maybe-kinda getting back to someone they might consider a friend. Certainly, he was back to being an ally, and one they could at least trust not to knife them in their backs as they slept. But Mark had his personal demons as well. Jake sometimes wondered if he himself hadn't gotten it easy in comparison to his friends. He mused on this as he went back to the room he shared with Anna. After all, where Darrin's family had been murdered by Hunters, and Mark had survived war, homelessness and the human hunt... and Gray, his own brother, had suffered imprisonment, indoctrination and all sorts of other cruelties... Jake had mostly just witnessed the suffering and endangering of others. He had lost his mother early, yes, and his father eventually, and he had nearly lost Anna twice.
