Bear Trap (Bear Lodge Shifters Book 4)

by Kyrii Rayne

  Oh crap, oh crap—

  “Get down!” she managed to yell, crouching low behind the seat as a massive paw crashed through one of the windows and flailed at them. She raised her pistol and fired; the report deafened her and the stink of cordite made her choke. But the bear roared in surprise as she holed him through his forelimb, and yanked it back out hastily.

  “We're armed in here, asshole! You want a piece of us, you're going to pay for it!” Carly's voice was a little hoarse with strain, but firm and cold.

  A long silence. What's he doing? She didn't dare look out any of the windows to check.

  She heard a footstep crunch in the snow outside. Then a man's voice spoke up, arch and cold.

  “Oh, I don't think so. I can smell that both of you are human. You have no powers. Your weapons are useless; I will simply heal back any wounds.”

  “Not if we put one through your skull.”

  Anna looked down at her pistol and gripped the hand holding it to keep it from shaking.

  “You might get lucky, true. But the odds are on my side.”

  Buy time. The others will be here soon.

  “How about you stick your head in here and find out?”

  He laughed mockingly.

  “You humans are so pathetic. You think I can't see through your bravado? I can hear your hearts beating ever so fast in there. The fear is right there in your sweat, and in every breath.”

  He went quiet— and then slammed against the van again with a terrifying growl.

  Carly yelled despite herself and stumbled to her knees. She looked up at Anna.

  “What do we do about this guy?”

  “He'll tear your van apart to get to us. Just play it cool a minute while I think,” she said that out loud— but then leaned into the computer screen's glow and mouthed, “we delay him.”

  Carly stared at her a moment, then nodded.

  “Hey, uh, dude? You should know that you're on camera right now. I just recorded you turning into a bear and then back again. Got a real good shot of your face, too.”

  Her voice shook, but she managed to sound a little smug.

  “What's that?”

  “Just this, asshole. I have the email addresses of those Hunters you guys sent after my friends. If you don't back off right now, I hit one key, and what I just filmed goes to all of them. They will know you're a shifter, and they will know that you have been deceiving them and trying to use them. I've got your address, too. This place, the vacation place in Cabo, your flat in Chicago....” Oh, good job.

  Another long pause. Then the Bear outside yelled in a high, outraged voice, “...what? You wouldn't dare!”

  “The Hell I wouldn't! You betrayed your own kind because they wouldn't let you hunt humans like some kind of fancied up serial killer. So, fuck what you think is proper. Try me. Shake this van again. My finger might slip.”

  Carly cut her eyes over to Anna nervously.

  Anna gave her a thumbs up and an enthusiastic nod. Keep it up. Just make him hesitate long enough. Gunshots back down toward the house. More yelling, and the outraged bellow of a Bear.

  “Then it seems that we are at an impasse,” the voice outside said carefully. “I won't let you go, of course. Not alive. But on the other hand, I can't have you disseminating that information. And since your mates are occupied with my security team, that means that our little standoff may go on for some time.”

  “I can wait it out. You have to rip open this van and kill two people to win this fight. All I have to do is hit one key.”

  “...at which point, I will rip open that van and kill you both. So really, you're trying to defend yourselves by way of mutually assured destruction. And that never works.”

  “What are you planning to do once you have us hostage anyway?” Anna called out. This guy liked to talk, and every time he did, he wasn't bearing out and going after the van again.

  “I will trade one of you for my companions, who are currently locked inside the mansion like a couple of idiots. The other I will keep hostage against the enemy's good conduct. I'm thinking... you. You're pregnant, after all - that's extra leverage.” His tone was so smug she wished she could punch him in the face.

  “You are going to be so dead before this is over,” she growled in reply. “Our guys will make a rug out of you. We'll make Helga a new cape. I'll mount your head over my goddamn fireplace!”

  A brief, shocked pause, and then he started laughing lightly.

  “Oh, I don't think so. That's what you're here to make certain doesn't happen. You're my personal little meat shield from here on.”

  “Keep dreaming.” She looked over at Carly, who was hastily closing her laptop and battening down some of her gear in case the van got hit again. “It won't be allowed. It doesn't matter how much you brag. You were let go once. You won't be let go this time. You should have run away and left us alone like the others once you were banished!”

  His voice went bitter.

  “The others are dead now, for abandoning us.”

  Anna froze, and she and Carly exchanged shocked looks in the semi-dark. “You sent Hunters after all three of them?”

  “Those fanatics are stunningly easy to manipulate,” the voice rasped with cold disdain. “So easy to get them to dirty their hands for us.”

  “You're stunningly easy to manipulate, you fucking idiot!” Carly screamed suddenly, her face red and real anger in her eyes. “Every shifter you send them information on is another victory for them! They're out to extinguish your race, and you're stupid enough to help them!”

  “If members of my race don't agree with my aims, they're nothing to me. Why should I worry about us getting rarer? It means less competition from people with my powers!”

  Anna felt sick. Jake, where are you? She prayed one of the mercenaries hadn't gotten in a lucky shot on one of them. She doubted it, not with their abilities and Mark and Esme watching over them like angels with big damn rifles. But the fear always gripped her when bullets started flying. Near-unkillable wasn't the same as unkillable, and in a fight, death could strike in a split second.

  “No wonder you and Anthony Matson got along. You're both crazy!”

  In response he growled again and the van shook. She heard metal tearing.

  “Shit, that's the side door. A few more hits like that and he'll peel it open and get in at us.”

  Carly kept her voice as low as she could.

  “I know.” And mouthed again, so that superhuman ears couldn't hear: “Keep buying time. They'll be here.”

  She had faith in Jake and Darrin.

  She had faith in Mark and Esme as well. Their loved ones and friends would not let them down. But if he got to them too soon, the cavalry couldn't help.

  Loud cawing erupted outside. The bear growled in response, and wings flapped angrily. A grunt. Scrabbling sounds. And then— the heavy thud of a smoke grenade going off right outside.

  The bear started sneezing uncontrollably, and after a few moments the noise dissolved into the man coughing and choking, managing to stuff in a few curses in between.

  “What the Hell?”

  Carly pulled the front of her t-shirt up over her nose and squinted as small amounts of smoke started to seep inside. But outside, the man continued choking and swearing as another smoke grenade went off. He wasn't attacking anymore. He wasn't making threats. He couldn't even talk.

  “It's Esme! She's buying us more time!” Anna yanked the collar of her turtleneck up over her nose and crouched low to the floor.

  “Where did the guys get to?”

  “I think they ran into whoever was left of the security team!”

  She prayed Mark and Esme had killed, wounded or driven off enough of them to keep the boys from having to fight their way through too many. Last time it had been four fighters against a dozen. Now the bad guys had way better odds. Please be okay, Jake. Please be okay, please let Darrin be okay. Don't leave us here waiting for you. We need you now.

  A heav
y thud and a snarl— but no tearing metal.

  The van bounced on its shocks again. The voices of two angry Bears rose in guttural sounds of rage.

  Anna finally dared get up and look out one of the shattered windows at the fight. The smoke was clearing, and she squinted against it, finally making out two figures in the street beside the van, backed by a rank of trees. Jake and an aging brown bear were circling each other, the older bear bleeding from his shoulder and his back. Esme crouched in a tree nearby, covering the brown bear with a pistol. And up the street came Darrin, in human form, aiming his shotgun.

  “Step away from him, Jake. I've got this one.”

  His voice was quiet in the dark, but rage burned underneath the calm, and she felt her scalp prickle as she sensed it.

  The grizzly backed off as their enemy sat back on his haunches and stared at Darrin. Darrin aimed his shotgun.

  “Change back or you'll be healing back your whole face.”

  The Bear simply snarled at him and dropped to all fours, lunging forward.

  He fired the shotgun, racked another round, and fired again before stepping aside from the still-charging Bear. She couldn't tell from the darkness and her angle how hurt their opponent was. The wet sound underlaying the blast when Darrin sent another round into him told her she didn't want to. The Bear slammed into a tree trunk and collapsed, his whole huge body going limp.

  Anna held her breath. A few moments later, the figure collapsed in on itself, shrinking down into the shape of a man. It twitched a few times, then went completely still.

  Sickened but relieved, she turned back to Carly.

  “Okay. I think that's it.”

  But her legs were suddenly very weak, and she leaned hard against the van wall as Carly clambered into the driver's seat and opened that door. Anna heard her step out, and just knelt where she was, catching her breath.

  “Baby?” Jake's voice had an edge of panic to it as he stuck his head in the driver's side door. “The sliding doors jammed. Are you okay? Can you move?”

  He climbed into the back and over to her, crouching next to her.

  “Just... adrenaline. Legs are a little weak. Um.”

  She gasped for air a little, and he pulled her into his arms and tucked her head under his chin.

  “It'll be okay, baby. It will. This guy's dead, the security team's being driven and picked off by Mark, and we have the other two locked in the basement. It's all almost over. It is.”

  He kissed the top of her head.

  Anna felt tears brim in her eyes as she hung onto him. Finally, she got some strength back in her legs, and stood slowly, climbing out of the van with his help.

  Chapter 12 - A Day Without Goodbyes

  The two Bears captive in the panic room had nothing to say for themselves. No apologies, no excuses, not even cries for mercy. Anna didn't understand why they simply sat so stoic, their faces sullen and their eyes dull. It was as if they had died already. Anna stared at them as Jake and Darrin questioned them, and for long minutes they sat like statues, completely oblivious to everything around them.

  Finally, the older one in the brown plaid hunting jacket peered up at them, his steel gray eyes twinkling with irony.

  “Are you going to shoot us, or what?”

  “Don't you people have anything to say about all of this?” Jake sounded astonished, and she didn't blame him.

  “You get caught helping the Hunters kill your own, and all you can do is sit there and ask when we're pulling the trigger?”

  The man chuckled, his brows drawing up. “Everything else is irrelevant at this point. Our leader is dead. His second is dead. We two are in your hands, and I know we won't survive the night.” He sighed. “Helga and her antiquated way of treating humans as somehow our equals will go on at the Lodge. And eventually, it will lead to your demise.”

  “I think all the Hunters you set on us are more likely to do that. If we let them. Which I don't plan to.” Darrin's disgust was audible as he stared down at the man.

  “Humans are gaining more and more advantages in the modern world. The wilderness we struggle to protect is dying. We soon will have no place to hide, and once humanity finds out about us for certain, they will seek to destroy us. That is a simple fact. We hide from them for a reason. And that reason is that they are the enemies of all other living things on this world.” He turned and focused his eyes on the humans in the room, a look of tired hatred in his eyes.

  “You sound like as much of a fanatic as the Hunters,” Darrin snapped. “Speaking in absolutes, pretending you can predict the future or the actions of every member of a race you don't even belong to. Don't you have any connections with humans at all? You act like you have no experience with them. What happened? Did your mate leave you for someone with a soul?” A low, resentful growl was his only reply. “I don't know what the hell we're supposed to do with you people. Let you go and you'll do something even worse than you already have. Execute you like you expect and we make martyrs for your cause.”

  Jake ran a hand back through his hair and looked around, lips pressed tight together in frustration.

  “There will be no martyrs, because there is no cause.” Carly's soothing tone was meant for Darrin. “Everything that we know says these guys are outliers. Things like that don't happen. That's why nobody was watching for it. Nobody expected it.” She stepped up beside him, staring down at the man. “You really are an idiot. I'm human, and I spent a lot of my life keeping track of Hunters because they killed my best friend. I only ever wanted to help your people. But according to you, people like me don't even exist.”

  The man glared at her, his mouth working and his eyes bloodshot. He suddenly seemed older and madder than before, as if a mask had slipped and his true grasp of reality was suddenly exposed. Or rather— its lack.

  “You're lying,” he snarled finally. “You're lying!”

  Anna would never know if what happened next was an outburst, or deliberate. Whether it was insanity or an urge to suicide. Maybe the man simply couldn't live any more in a world where things were more complicated than the black-white extremism he clung to. Or maybe he simply snapped. She would mull it in her head for days before managing to move on.

  But at the time, all she felt was shock. It happened so fast— the shift, the blur of gray-brown fur heading for Carly and Darrin— and then the shotgun going off twice.

  Everyone stood there in shock for a moment, except for the Bear, who collapsed and shrank back into his human form, now spattered with blood.

  The other man, who had simply sat that whole time, slumped forward a little, caught in the shotgun's blast. Anna would never know, either, if Darrin had pulled that trigger twice at the same target, or if he had simply shot the other Bear right after killing the first. She mulled that far less, though. She didn't want to think about it. Darrin was her friend, and a good man.

  But she still stared at the bodies a long time, until Jake took her by the shoulders and led her out of the room. Darrin was already on the phone to something called a ‘cleaning crew’. Yet another thing that Anna did not want to know about.

  “It's over,” Jake reassured her gently as they walked down the drive. His big, firm body was the pillar she clung to as she felt her body start shaking from a mix of shock and exhaustion. But halfway there, her knees gave out again, and he gently picked her up and carried her back to the van. She curled in his arms, a little ashamed but pitifully grateful. They could finally go home.

  *****

  “This still leaves us with a good chance that multiple Hunter groups now know about the Lodge. We'll have to get ready for it. This isn't going to be easy to deal with, but at least we're more prepared.”

  Darrin sat with his towel over his shoulder, waiting for the shower to open up. They were taking turns in there now that they had gotten back to the hotel.

  “I guess all we can do is get ready, and watch out for them. But this could be trouble. I can't stay out of town forever. I'll need pre
natal care, and there's nowhere to go but Jackson for miles.”

  Anna was so exhausted she might have just fallen into bed, but one look in the mirror at her smoke, cordite and sweat streaked face told her that was a terrible idea. So she waited with the others, while one after another they washed off the residue of the night's battles.

  “We'll hire someone to come in. That should work out.”

  Jake stroked her hair and looked down at her worriedly. She tried to smile back at him and relax a little. At least with his income, getting a doctor to do a house call wasn't actually in the realm of the impossible. But it still left her feeling... trapped. She would have to go back to the Lodge with them and coop herself up until the Hunters were detected and dealt with, and that could take months. And meanwhile, how would the rest of them manage? Julia had classes, Darrin had his business... they couldn't all hide out all the time. It just wouldn't work.

  She opened her mouth to contradict Jake, but then closed it, sighing. Arguing people into feeling worse wasn't her style. Maybe it will all work out all right, and I'm just catastrophising the whole thing. She could at least comfort herself by assuming that was the case.

  “Okay,” she finally said, knowing the smile she forced was weak at best.

  She knew herself too well to go in with him when Jake took his shower. Even exhausted, that would lead to things. Watching hot water sluice off the planes and curves of his sleek, hard body always had an effect on her. And with two other people waiting after them for the shower, using up the last of the hot water in a clinch under the spray would not only be obvious, but rude.

  Mark and Esme had gone first, as they were the ones streaked with gun smoke and smoke grenade residue the most. Then they had run off to bed, and had some music playing in there that didn't quite cover the creaking of bedsprings. That left Anna waiting quietly at the table while trying to ignore the gently dramatic conversation going on, on the couch.

  “I've... had a great time with you this weekend. You know, when we could actually... get away and all.”

  Darrin's voice was soft and hesitant as he spoke to Carly.