He stammered and stuttered, trying to find the right way to tell her what his father had planned. Eventually he knew that he was just going to have to tell her the truth. “We’re going to be a distraction.”
She looked shocked. “A distraction?” He nodded and she finally realized the risk involved. “What are we supposed to be a distraction for?” Her heart started to flutter and she was afraid of what the answer to her question was going to be. Her eyes started to brim with tears once again and her voice was trembling in pure unadulterated terror.
“They’re going to go in and try to get our son back.” He sighed, knowing the questions that were about to come and he didn’t know how he was going to answer them yet. She didn’t understand the way his people worked that well yet. Situations like this were typically handled quickly and efficiently with the attitude that it was better for the victim to be dead than for them to continue being imprisoned. It was a plan that was made in order to either save the boy or force his captor’s hands. “It’s pretty clear that they’re not just going to return him easily.” He sighed, still fighting with the words that didn’t seem to want to come.
“What do you mean? What are they going to try?” There was panic in her voice.
“A few men are going to sneak in and try to get him back.” He was telling her the truth, but wasn’t sure if she would like the idea. It was risky and their son would be the one that most at risk.
A single tear ran down her cheek and he squeezed her hand. “I don’t know.”
“I know it’s hard to understand.”
“Couldn’t this get him killed?” She asked the question that he was afraid that she was going to ask.
He remembered sitting in the room with his father listening to them and thinking the same thing. He hadn’t been sure that he was willing to put his child at risk like that either, but he had been convinced. He replayed the conversation in his mind. He knew that it was the best choice for them at this time, but he wasn’t sure that he was going to be able to convince his mate of that fact. He gazed into Ursula’s eyes, understanding the pain and questions that were plaguing her. “I had the same concerns at first.”
“Why would you agree to this?” She was begging for an answer.
“I haven’t yet, they want you to be on board as well. We do this together or we don’t do this at all.” He sighed.
She drew in a ragged breath. There were tears in her voice as she spoke her trembling words. “What if I make the wrong decision?”
“You won’t, I know you won’t.”
She thought about his faith in her. “Tell me what they’re planning on doing.” She thought about him jumping out of bed not long after they had finished their love making earlier. She remembered the questions that she had, and knew that this wasn’t what she was hoping for. She wanted to hear the news that her son was back or that they had found a way to work with the tribe that was holding the boy.
“Well, this is what they were thinking. It hasn’t been arranged yet.” He was trying to soften the blow. “There’s a lot of risk involved and we all know that.”
“I understand that. What do they want to do?” She wanted answers and she wanted them now. It was evident in her voice and that his fear was making her afraid of the answers.
“They want to go in and try to find him.”
“How are they going to do that?”
“They have a team that’s trained for raiding other tribes.” He didn’t like admitting this fact, it always felt like they were going back to warlike times. “They’re going to sneak onto tribal lands and try to find him.”
“How is that going to work?” She had to ask the question. “He’s probably going to be in a house, not in the woods on the edge of town.”
“They’re very good.” He made the promise, knowing that it was the truth. He used to be a member of the team, so he knew that they had never had a mission like this before, but every member was prepared to die for their tribe and each member was intelligent and able to think on their feet.
“I don’t care how good they are. The child is going to be watched. They aren’t going to be able to get to him.” Her doubts were taking control of her. “This isn’t going to work.”
“Just hear me out.” He started to speak through the details and the contingency plans that had been laid into place during the meeting that he had been sitting in. He hadn’t exactly been happy about it either, but was eventually convinced that it was the best idea that they had.
“He’s our son.” She was stating the facts as her argument.
“I know it’s hard to understand.” He was trying to get her to see it her way. “I think it’s a good idea.”
“Why? How could you think that this is a good idea? This is terrible. They’re going to kill him because of this and we’ll never get him back.”
He sighed and gripped her hand again, looking into her eyes. “They’ve stopped talking to us over this. We have to do something or we’re never going to get him back.”
“What do you mean? What did you say to them?” She was making accusations.
“I haven’t done anything that you wouldn’t do. They claimed that they didn’t have the child so I told them that I knew that they did and they needed to return him. Apparently they took offense to that.” He explained it gently, leaving out the rage that had filled his voice at the time. He knew that he had messed up, but wasn’t sure that it would have made any difference. “These people are fanatics, have you ever tried to reason with fanatics?”
She sighed, thinking about the current atmosphere of the world. It was true that it was almost impossible to reason with zealots. “Do they feel that strong about that?”
“They feel that our blood has been dirtied and want to let people know that it’s not acceptable to mate with a human.” He was explaining the basic attitude of many people in his world. “It is a general consensus, that’s why no one has ever stood up against it before.”
“Why would they do this to someone?” She begged for answers.
“It’s the way they were raised.” He sighed and admitted the truth. “It’s the world I was raised in. Humans weren’t to be trusted with our secrets.” His eyes brimmed with tears. “I actually agreed with them until I actually went to the human world for almost a month.”
“What changed your mind?”
“I noticed that most people would do anything in the world to protect their children.” He told her. “And then there was you. That made a difference too.” He smiled shyly as he told her these facts.
“I still don’t think this is a good idea.”
“We’ll continue to try to talk then, but the option is open if you decide to take it.” He didn’t want to push her into making a decision right away. For the moment he was certain that the boy was safe in his current location, but it was painful that he had been ripped from his parents. “I think that he’s safe for now.”
“You don’t think that they’re going to kill him.” She phrased it like a question. She didn’t understand enough about the culture, having only lived among it for a few months. She was desperate to learn, to change things, to modify the way that she thought in order to live in a whole new world.
It had been hard for her to adjust to the changes. This world worked so much differently than her own, but she was noticing that people tended to be generally the same no matter if they were actually human or not. She had noticed that people, no matter where they were located, seemed to be afraid of the changing world around them. It was a seemingly natural resistance to change that seemed to draw people from all walks of life together. She just wished sometimes that everyone could see exactly the way that they were all alike.
“No, he has shifter blood, but they’re not going to treat him well because of his human blood.”
“But according to the legends didn’t you guys used to be human?” She was referring the creation legend of the shifters that his tribe had passed down through generations.
CHAPTER 12
It had taken two days to convince Ursula of the desperation of the situation. She had some reservations, but was desperate enough to try anything. She wanted to fix this, she needed her son back and was finally at the point in which she would do anything in her power to get it done. “I’m ready. Let’s do this.” There was still reservations in her voice, but he was ready to jump into action.
“I’m sorry that we have to do it this way.”
She hung her head, not really ready to tell him what she was feeling, but knowing that it had to be out in the open. “I would rather find him dead than have him live his life in the hands of people that hate him. He’s my son and he deserves to be loved.”
He placed his forefinger under chin and lifted her head so that he could examine her face. “I feel the same way.” The words were a whisper, quietly spoken so that only she could hear. He wasn’t ready for anyone else to know yet. Her red hair was limp, mirroring her personal grief. He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t realized how poorly she was keeping herself together since their child had gone missing. He thought about how much she had wanted to be a mother, about how happy she was whenever she cared for the boy and how naturally she had taken to the constant stress of motherhood. He was in awe of her every day. Each time she held that boy in her arms it seemed like he was always meant to be there.
“Are we sure that this team is behind us?” She had been worried about traitors since she had been approached by several members of the tribe. Some had told her that she should forget about the boy and go back to her world. There were comments about how she didn’t belong, about how she would never belong and how she didn’t deserve to have Walter’s baby. She had nearly been shattered by the outpouring of hatred.
“I know they are. They’ll find our son.” He assured her of the fact. The team had been handpicked because of their progressive thinking. These were the men that would be the least likely to ruin the plan in order to cause the human to leave their lands.
“I hope so.” There was a shudder that ran through her spine as she spoke, causing her teeth to chatter momentarily as she said the word hope. It felt ominous because of it. “I hope so.”
“Let’s do this.” He walked her out of the meeting hall. She had become more active in finding her son lately and had flown at the chance to step in and help with the problems that they were having. His father had encouraged her behavior, but there had been several people who believed that she had no purpose getting involved in inter-tribal politics. She hadn’t listened to them, but still their words had become a silent wall around her. She held her head high, trying not to show the pain that they had caused, but he knew different. He could see the agony in her eyes and didn’t know what he could do to fix it. Instead he held the door of the four by four truck open for her.
She clambered into the vehicle with relative ease. They were taking the vehicle all the way to the coast in order to enter the rival tribe’s lands. They needed to plead for their son. They would have to be there for the distraction to fully take effect. Ursula was nervous. It felt like she was going undercover, slipping into a different world long enough to try to find her son. She had never done anything like this before and wasn’t quite sure what she was going to do.
The call came once they had left the dead areas that surrounded the tribal lands. Ursula answered carefully, letting Walter concentrate on driving. “He’s not on his lands.” She was referring to the tribal leader. “He’s in the town buying supplies.”
“We’ll be there in less than half an hour. Have them keep an eye on him.” Ursula conveyed Walter’s command and watched in awe as the gauge started to move up, indicating the increase in speed. He was rushing to the new plan, throwing it into action. She wondered how this was going to change things.
“Are we sure that he’s involved in this?” Ursula asked.
“He’s always been known as shady and the fact that he’s in charge means that he has access to paperwork that he needs to fake birth certificates. He has to be the center.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“I can smell the rat that he is?”
“Is he really a rat?”
“I don’t know.” Walter considered the question. “I was using a metaphor. It isn’t common to ask what kind of animal that they turn into.”
She didn’t comment any further. There were no more questions to ask as Walter sped down the highway, rushing to his destination. She gritted her teeth, hoping that they didn’t get pulled over while they went to corner the man that had their son. She hoped that he did have her son, because that would mean that this would be over soon, at least as soon as they could find the boy. She crossed her fingers and tried not to panic as Walter’s speed continued to increase.
The grocery store wasn’t exactly crowded when they pulled up, but it was one of those giant chain stores that had been popping up in every community. The kind that had destroyed a lot of small businesses. Ursula couldn’t help but to notice the similarity to her own situation. She felt like the small little business that had been forced out of town by the large chain. It was moments like this that she almost regretted her decision to follow Walter to her new home, to her new life with a man who would someday lead his tribe. She followed her mate into the store and glanced around the towering aisles, her eyes not really registering what was on the shelves. She was studying people’s faces instead. “He’s in the baby section.” Walter’s voice pulled her out of the intensity. She nodded and they moved toward the back, looking for the man who had taken their child from them because he had a problem with her being human.
“There he is.” Walter motioned down the aisle that had the diapers. The man was pushing a cart with diapers of various sizes. There was formula and various other necessities that came with raising children. She took a careful note of what was in the cart before she studied the man that had her son. He was an older man, with stringy grey hair pulled back in a traditional ponytail. Even with the sun damage to his skin, the acne scars and pockmarked wrinkles that showed his age, his countenance spoke of pride. He hadn’t seen them yet, or rather hadn’t realized that the couple was there for him yet.
That all changed as Ursula rushed up to him. “Where is my son?” She demanded answers angrily. “Tell me where he is.”
Fredrick looked up, slightly confused by the interruption in his shopping. When his eyes registered Ursula’s face he realized exactly what was happening. He kept his cool, calmly responding to her demand. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve already told you this. I don’t have your son.”
She wanted to hit him. Laying a fist on his face would be immensely satisfactory, but she stopped herself from striking at the man that had taken the most important thing in her life away from her. She stopped herself and didn’t know where she got the strength to respond by lowering her tone and carefully selecting her words. “Give me
my son back.” There was sadness in her eyes.
The older man studied Ursula’s face. “Look, I’m sorry that you lost your kid, but I’ve told you enough times that I don’t have him. I can’t help you. I’m sorry.” He didn’t seem very believable.
Walter had been regarding the entire scene carefully. He wasn’t quite sure what he could say to help, but knew that he had to step in. “Just let us have him, OK We promise that we won’t cause any trouble.”
“You won’t cause any trouble?” The older man scoffed at the insinuation. “Don’t you see that you’ve already caused a lot of trouble, just by bringing her with you? Just give up on the child. You’ll never find him.”
“We’re going to find him.” Walter’s voice was threatening and the older man didn’t really look surprised. He had a lot that he had to do. He continued his shopping.
“What are you buying all this stuff for?” Ursula pointed to the diapers in the cart.
“That’s not really any of your business, but I’ll tell you anyway.” The leader of the Coos explained. “Several women have children and we ran short of supplies. Women have babies all the time. This is normal.” He assured the grieving parents with pure hatred filling his voice.
She stared at him. She couldn’t understand why he would do this to another living being. She felt the rage well up inside her, but somewhere else, a little deeper than her initial reaction she felt something else. It was pity. She pitied this man for his close minded view of the world. She pitied that he had to live in fear of human’s finding out what he was and what he could do. She didn’t know what to say to him that would make him understand the pain that he had caused. She couldn’t get him to change his ways.
Fredrick stared at the human woman carefully. She had a strange look on her face and he couldn’t understand the emotions behind it. She should be angry, but her features were starting to soften. Her rage was starting to fade and he couldn’t understand why. “Let me know that he is safe.” She was begging with him. “Promise me that you aren’t going to hurt him.”
Simply Bears: A Ten Book Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance Collection Page 62
