Her Secret Protector Bear (Oak Mountain Shifters)

by Leela Ash

  Carin bit her bottom lip. “I will have to talk to Jason about it. I know that he is still young, but he likes to think of himself as a man. It’s a big decision he would like to be included in.”

  “Well we were planning on leaving today, but we can wait around a day if you want to get your things together. You guys think it through. I think it could be better for all of us. And,” Jessa said with her eyes glittering. There is a little more coffee.”

  Carin smiled back. She was already thinking about what it would be like to have someone to talk to again. It was a lonely world; most people were gone, and the ones who were left were generally the worst sorts. She had forgotten that people could be like Jessa. “But like I said, wouldn’t you have to talk to your people about it?”

  Jessa shrugged. “My son is always up for more people to talk to. He will talk your ear off if you let him, or if you know anything about machines. I think the rest are feeling the same way. There is strength in numbers and we have a long trek ahead of us. I have already decided that if there isn’t a settlement there, I will just start one. Someone has to, and six is better than four to start. Everyone has strengths and knowledge that together can become something wonderful.”

  Carin liked the idea of it, but she wondered if Jessa wanted a pipe dream. Maybe it was one, but if there was no hope, what was the point?

  “Let us stay the day and I will talk to Jason. I like the idea of it. We can’t stay here forever. There are not a lot of resources here and we are having to go further and further out just to get enough to eat.”

  Jessa agreed and her mind went to all of the stocks that they had. That had taken them some time and energy to get. She wanted people like that. People who could see beyond the next day or week and into the long term. It was all about the long term. Another strong back and some old knowledge were always needed in this new world.

  ***

  “Are you really sure you want to invite them along?”

  Jessa turned towards Michael as she got out of the bathtub. It had taken her over an hour to heat enough water to actual submerse in, but it was worth it. When she finally got out, her body was soft and relaxed. Michael’s blue eyes darkened suggestively, and she giggled, squirming under his intense gaze.

  “Will you hand me a towel?”

  He shook his head no, not wanting her to cover up her body just yet. It had been only a few hours since he had her last and he was already aching for more. She gazed at the tenting in the crotch of his pants and she sighed to herself.

  “Please?”

  “I love when you beg.”

  “We have people around and this is their house.”

  “See, this is why I think we have enough. At least with Milo we can still sneak around.”

  She giggled and started to reach for the towel herself. He stopped her with a hand on her wrist, her body open and dripping wet for him. “Are you really going to stop me from getting dressed?”

  “Are you really going to stop me?”

  Michael moved to kiss her and she relented as her lips opened to his insistence. Soon he had her moaning, forgetting everything but the heat between them. All she could think about was him and his touch, his hands on her. Michael turned her around until her back was to him. His hands were moving in between their bodies, and before she could stop him, she was bent over and filled with his need. He covered her mouth as he slammed into her over and over again. The vanity shook and the slapping of their bodies echoed in the small, tiled room.

  Jessa had her eyes closed and found herself gasping for breath when he finally pulled free from her body. Her face was flushed and she couldn’t help but smile to herself. He felt too good, and there was nothing else she could do but succumb to his urges. There was no saying no to Michael. There never was a time that she had been able to tell him no before. He was impossible to resist, and the longer she was with him, the harder it became.

  He finally handed her a towel after she climbed out of the tub. She had to rinse some of the sweat and his seed off of her. That time he didn’t try to stop her, kissing her instead as he watched her cover her curves with water.

  “You know that I love you right?” Michael’s soft voice purred.

  She laughed quietly as she dried off. “Yeah I think you have mentioned it before.”

  “I don’t ever want to leave you, Jessa.”

  Jessa thought it was an odd thing to say.

  “Then don’t.”

  She couldn’t even imagine her life without him and she didn’t want to.

  4

  Carin and Jason took the evening to get their things together and packed up enough that they could just haul their belongings on their backs. Jessa, Michael, and Milo helped carry some of the food stock. It would help them all if they didn’t have to stop for a while, especially if they were in an area where nothing could be foraged.

  Most days, Jessa was able to find something, but more often than not, an area could be picked clean and having a backup was crucial. Besides that, winter was coming soon. It wouldn’t be as cold in the south, but it still got a few cold fronts, making it difficult to thrive on the road. She wasn’t sure what to expect and was grateful for the preserved food that took some of the uncertainty away.

  Milo and Shane seemed happy enough to have more people added to the group. They were now six and though there was more safety in numbers, there were other things to consider. Although they were safer, in a tight spot it might be more difficult to hide six people. But Jessa was convinced that the days of hiding were over. Michael worried about keeping such a large group safe, having a young man and an older woman to think about now, but he would do anything Jessa wanted. He was content to be with her.

  As they traveled, Mike and Jason talked for a time. Michael found himself very curious about how the pair had ended up all the way in Florida from Texas. He was able to piece together that Jason and his deceased father had a tendency to say and do things that were not very well-received by others. But it was Jason’s story of losing his family that made Michael listen. He had heard of such men before, riding motorcycles and burning everything in their wake before they moved on to the next town to create more chaos.

  As soon as Jason started to tell him about the gang that had destroyed their lives, he couldn’t help but think about the gang he had been looking for. Michael wasn’t sure if there was a connection, but he felt like there was. The whole situation had felt somehow orchestrated – fated in a way, and he began to wonder to himself if there might be a reason why he had run into Jason and Carin. But fate seemed silly; it was more of Jessa’s territory. He must have been around her for a little too long if he was allowing himself to think too much into fate and destiny. But regardless, if he believed that he had met her for a reason, was it that much more far-fetched to think that he had met the young man and his grandmother for a reason as well?

  “What more can you tell me about them Jason? Do you remember what kind of emblem they had on their jackets?”

  When the kid nodded, he sighed to himself. Jason offered to draw it for him and Michael searched around, trying not to let the frantic adrenaline take over as he looked for something for Jason to draw with. His blood was ice; he just seemed to know that the emblem would be the same as the gang he had been searching for since the fateful day when he lost his family. What he didn’t know was what that would mean for him.

  They had holed up for the night in a modest sized house. Jessa and Carin were outside, watching as Milo and Shane played with his small collection of cars. As he sat at the small dining room table with Jason, waiting for the young man to finish up, he could feel his heart rate rising. After what seemed like an eternity, Jason handed him the picture that he had sketched out. Michael’s throat constricted. He suddenly couldn’t breathe. Jason noticed that Mike’s face had gone pale, and asked him if he was okay.

  “Are you sure this is what it looked like?”

  Jason looked down at the paper and nodded. He was positi
ve. The emblem had been burned into his memory during the worst day of life, much as it had been for Michael. There were some things that his mind wouldn’t let him forget, no matter how hard he tried. In fact, he had been tortured by the memories for years. And why would he want to let go of his need to avenge his family? It had all been so senseless.

  “When was the last time you saw them? I mean, where was this at?”

  Jason told him where he used to live. Michael had been worried they would have to travel all the way to Texas, but surprisingly it wasn’t too far away from where they were. Maybe a hundred miles back the way they had just come. Michael realized that the attack on Jason’s family must not have been too long ago. It made him wonder if he actually had a chance to catch up with the gang. There was a small chance that they were still around, terrorizing that town. After he had pumped the young man clean of all that he could tell him, Michael was left with wondering what he should he do. Could he really just let it all go?

  ***

  Everyone was sleeping in the house, except for Michael, who couldn’t let his mind settle down long enough to close his eyes. There was no way that he could get to sleep. They were supposed to leave in the morning, but all he could think about was what Jason had told him. If there was a chance that he was that close to the men who destroyed his family, he had to go after them. There was no other option. He knew that Jessa wouldn’t want him to go. He was also painfully aware that she wouldn’t want to come. And for good reason. She needed to protect her own living son, not avenge the ghost of his.

  Michael looked over at her sleeping form and was torn, not knowing what to do. He didn’t want to leave her again, especially after what happened last time, but he knew it was more dangerous to let a group of bloodthirsty men like that roam the fragile new world. As with Billy, there had been a decision made that they couldn’t let guys like them go on. Michael hated to think of how many people could have been saved such misery if someone had taken care of the gang before; if he had taken care of them when they had killed his family.

  He felt guilty that he hadn’t been able to stop them, but now that there was a chance to do what he regretted not doing before, didn’t he owe it to himself and to all the other people out there like him to take care of it? Jason’s family deserved justice too. How could he walk away from an opportunity like this? As if on cue though, Jessa turned back towards him, snuggling in against his body as she murmured in her sleep.

  What if he never saw her again? It was always a possibility when you left someone. They might not be there when he got back. A lot could happen while he went away to seek his revenge. That was, of course, assuming that nothing would happen to him. It was the optimistic hope that he would take them all on and finally be the one that stopped them.

  Funnily enough, Michael as worried about that as much as he worried about something happening to Jessa and Shane while he was gone. He knew that Milo would stay and help watch out for them, but he would never forgive himself if something happened to them if he wasn’t there to defend them.

  Michael had no idea what to do. There was nothing he could do that night. Tomorrow he would have an answer; he was sure of it. Was it truly a sign that they had run into Jason and Carin on the road? Eventually, his mind couldn’t handle the pressure anymore and he blacked out, his body pulling him into sleep out of pure exhaustion.

  ***

  “Wake up, silly.”

  Michael growled at Jessa as she squeezed his shoulder. She kissed him, knowing that he was grumpy in the morning. She also knew that he wouldn’t be able to hold onto the grumpiness for too long if she started him off with a little morning seduction. She turned out to be right, and before long he was pulling her onto his hardness and she squealed, trying to get away. Her method was not a hundred percent and there were still times that it got out of hand.

  “I am awake.”

  Pushing herself off of him, Jessa’s body screamed with his roughness the last couple of times that he had taken her. Something was on his mind and he wasn’t ready to tell her about it, though Jessa didn’t mind the way that he was getting rid of his excess energy.

  “So I can see. You had a hard time getting to bed last night, so I figured I would let you sleep. Now we are both even later. Everyone is waiting for us.”

  She got dressed as he watched her lazily from the bed.

  “We have to go Mike. You have a tendency to make us late a lot.”

  “What is the big rush?”

  Jessa shrugged. She didn’t really have a solid reason beyond the fact that something didn’t feel right. It was quickly becoming known to the group how good her intuition was, and she took it more seriously than everybody else. If she hadn’t put any stock into her gut instincts, she and Shane probably wouldn’t have been able to survive for so long. It felt a little too complicated to explain the rush of urgency she felt to leave, but she knew there had to be a good reason.

  “I just want to get out of here. Just everything that has happened. I still want more distance between us and the city. If we go straight through for a couple of weeks, we can be there.”

  He just sighed and shook his head. “You know that we aren’t going to be able to go straight there. Traveling is never in a straight line anymore. There’s really no rush. In fact, I would just be happy if we got there in the next month or two.”

  “You may be right, but I want to get out of this place today. Did you hear what Carin was talking about? Those motorcycle gangs that had given them a hard time?”

  He nodded his head, his mind returning to the torturous thoughts of the night before. “Yeah, what about them?”

  “She told me this morning that she was pretty sure that she saw them the other night while they were out collecting food. If that’s true, and I have heard what they’ve done, I don’t want to be anywhere near this place. They know that she lives here and it’s only a matter of time before they’ll be back to finish the job. I don’t want to be here when that happens.”

  “Okay, you got my attention.”

  He got up and started to pull on his clothes. She hated to see the hard muscles being put away, but she was the one who had just ordered him out of bed.

  “There will be time for that later, I promise.”

  Jessa had to say it for her own sake as much as for his.

  Michael moved to pull her to him. “I like the sound of that.”

  5

  When the group headed out, it was clear that it would take some time for everybody to get used to the new arrangement. Milo and Jason seemed to be hitting it off, and Jessa wondered whether or not Milo might be a calming influence on the little hothead. Milo was so laid back that even her own son was more mellow around him. Jessa wasn’t sure how Milo did it, but she was thankful for it. She was glad that she had Carin to talk to and they spent a large part of the journey together. Michael carried Shane every so often when his feet got tired. It was sweet, but Jessa could tell that something was on his mind.

  It was strange that Mike and Jessa weren’t talking. Before the dynamic had changed and the two others had joined the group, it had been Jessa and Michael who had carried on the majority of the conversation, never seeming to run out of things to say to each other. But since they had left the shelter that morning, he was distant and quiet, constantly looking back the way they had come. He was acting strange, she realized, and Jessa wanted to know what was going on. She didn’t want to push him too hard, and he took any chance he could to evade the subject.

  Finally, they stopped for a break and got the young boys some lunch. Jessa and Mike took a walk a little bit away from the group to explore the terrain. While they were out, Jessa looked him directly in the eye.

  “What’s going on, Mike?”

  Michael shifted uncomfortably. He felt like he needed to keep the information to himself, but it felt wrong. He hated to lie to her and he knew that she wasn’t stupid. She would figure it out soon enough, whether he told her what was on his mind or not.<
br />
  “What do you mean?” he asked, hoping to buy himself more time.

  “What is going on with you Michael? Don’t tell me that it’s nothing either. You never were a good liar.”

  “It’s not something I want to talk about right now. Why don’t we wait until we find somewhere to hole up for the night? We can talk about it when we have more privacy.”

  They hadn’t ventured far from the others. They could still hear Shane’s laughter as Milo and Jason joked back and forth. She nodded her head, but there was still a nagging feeling in the back of her mind. She hated being in the dark, especially when it was important, but all she could do was hope for answers soon.

  They returned to the small band of young boys as Carin oversaw their lunch and grabbed a bite for themselves before they ventured off again. When Jessa gazed at the road ahead of them, she knew that it was going to be a while before they stopped, which meant she would have to wait for her answers.

  Suddenly, there was noise in the distance. Everybody paused in fear and confusion. It sounded like an engine. They spent a still moment trying to pinpoint where the noise was coming from. Nobody spoke as they began to back away from the sound, silently understanding as a group that they would be safer off the road, without drawing attention to themselves. Jessa shivered. She had never met a person with a vehicle that was sane. They had all been crazy, she might even have called them evil, so she figured that the odds were not in their favor.

  It was starting to get dark and she asked Milo to scout up ahead and check for some place for them to lie down. He had a knack for finding good shelters, and as they traveled further away from the city, he had become even more nimble. Jessa was sure that as they got away from the dead zones, his poor health would start to improve, but she hadn’t guessed it would be so quickly. It was nice to see him smiling more and moving around as if he had more energy. It didn’t take him long to find something and come back with a big smile on his face.