True North (The Bears of Blackrock Book 4)

by Michaela Wright

  “If they threaten my family tonight, they will not live to regret it.”

  Charlie held the radio for a moment longer. Then he calmly set the radio onto the seat between them. Theron didn’t reach for it.

  Charlie’s hands were shaking as he exhaled. “Do you think they’re properly riled?”

  Theron gave a half laugh. He’d realized what Charlie was doing at the ‘wanted criminal’ comment. Charlie Black had just pulled the douche bag cop routine on his cousin and grandmother, all in the effort to make Darrell do exactly what he was now preparing to do.

  Go ballistic.

  Theron was sure Charlie hadn’t bargained for Grandma Pearl in that exchange, though.

  “Darrell almost killed me when we first met, so yeah. I think he’s pretty riled.”

  “Good. You go. Hopefully, if they get through the gate before you reach them, that lady there will have spread the rage.”

  Theron paused a moment, watching Charlie as he ran his hand up the back of the nape of his neck.

  Charlie looked like a man who’d seen battle before and wasn’t looking forward to seeing it again. He shot Theron a sideways look. “Go, Talbot. We don’t have fucking time for this.”

  “What are you going to do?” Theron asked.

  Charlie reached down to his belt, snapping the holster on his sidearm open. “I’m going to go make nice. Hopefully, they’ll buy the ‘escaped criminal’ shtick.”

  “And then what?”

  Charlie paused. “I don’t know.”

  I don’t know. No words had ever been so weighted in the history of language.

  Theron watched Charlie turn the key in the ignition, then without another word, did as Officer Black asked.

  Theron’s boots crunched through the ice sheets left by melted snow and days of cold. The terrain was grassy beneath, with rocks and boulders jutting up from the soil. It made for slower going than Theron would like, but he ducked down as low as he could, rushing over the distance from the road to the shoreline. He turned to the north, spotting the subtle blink of the electric fence lights even in the mist coming off the water. With each few passing moments, Theron heard laughter travel across the landscape, a sound all too similar to a gathering of drunk tailgaters at a sporting event. It seemed fitting. Of course, this was a game to them – a spectator sport. Each time he heard it, bile rose up in his throat.

  Theron reached the corner of the fence boundary and stomped into the water. The tide had come in far enough to leave much of the shoreline under a few inches of water. He half feared some engineering failure might cause the water to carry current, that perhaps he’d die there, electrocuted by the fence despite it being ten feet away.

  Come on, Theron. You got this.

  The air around him crackled suddenly with a bone rattling sound. Theron spun around, turning toward the source of the gun shot. The laughter had stopped.

  Theron glanced toward the fence and the shoreline – the direction he’d promised Charlie he’d venture. He was another fifteen minutes from the break in the fence. Another fifteen minutes at least.

  Still, something about that gunshot curdled his blood. It didn’t sound like the hillbilly glee kind of gunshot, fired off by drunk assholes before heading out for the hunt.

  That gunshot felt like death.

  Theron’s decision was made before he took his first step.

  He slunk low to the ground fighting to keep the crunching sound as quiet as he could. He moved over the terrain toward the trucks. He took in the smell of the air as he drew closer – beer, men, and gunpowder. Yet there was something else in their midst.

  Fear.

  Did they have Buniq and Sinead? He didn’t smell her on the breeze, and he couldn’t decide if that fact comforted or devastated him.

  Theron drew close enough to see the men up ahead and decided then and there that wherever Sinead was, it was better than here.

  The trucks were parked in a near circle, several men now standing or crouching in the beds of the various trucks, all their floodlights now pointed toward the center of their gathering.

  Theron pressed himself to the ground and scanned the faces for Charlie.

  He found him without trouble. Charlie Black was at the center of the circle, the floodlights pouring white light onto his stoic face. Charlie was on his knees, and Baird Davenport was standing beside his truck bed, his back to Theron, pointing a pistol at Charlie’s head.

  “So, I’m supposed to believe you came trekking all the way up here to the bloody tundra to catch yourself a petty criminal.”

  “There’s nothing petty about him. I have reason to believe he might be responsible -”

  “Spare me. I heard your little conversation with Darrell Holden. ‘I’m a friend of Theron’s,’ if I recall your words, correctly.”

  Theron cringed. Charlie was right. They’d been listening.

  “So where is Mr. Talbot, then, anyway?” Baird asked, leaning back against the bed of his truck, still keeping the pistol pointed at Charlie’s head. Theron glanced around at the neighboring trucks, the faces of the men only half visible, many of them bundled up against the cold. None of them seemed troubled by what unfolded before them. Baird Davenport held a loaded weapon pointed at another policeman’s head, and no one said a word. What kind of place was this, Theron thought?

  “He’s looking for Miss Dalton, I imagine,” Charlie said.

  Baird chuckled. “Ah, good luck with that.”

  “What did you do with the woman? And the little girl?”

  Officer Reed scoffed at this. “Little girl? Can’t call a monster like that a little girl.”

  Theron’s whole body seized at these words, but he remained still.

  “Come on, now, Reed. You got a problem with cannibal children?”

  There was another round of laughter from the surrounding men.

  Charlie coughed and blood sprayed from his lips. They’d roughed him up. “What you’re doing is wrong, man. If you think hurting a little girl, or a schoolteacher is within your right, you’re a sick, sick man.”

  “Little girl?” Davenport said, and he nearly spit the words into Charlie’s face as he drew closer. “Do you know what that little girl is? Do you know what happens when she gets upset, or hungry? Or hell, bored? She turns into a fucking monster and goes traipsing through our towns, chasing us into our cars or homes, praying behind locked doors that she’ll pass us on by, or be appeased by just eating one of our dogs.”

  “God damn it,” one of the men said, shaking his head. Clearly, he’d lost a dog somewhere along the line.

  “I’d be remiss in my duties to let monsters like that roam free as they’d like. You think my actions wrong, Officer Black? As far as I see it, when we see a bear come through our streets, we’ve the jurisdiction to shoot on sight. I’d say we’re doing these people a favor.”

  “You’ll never work in law enforcement again when they learn what you’re doing up here. They’re people, damn it!”

  “Monsters,” Charlie said, and the word dripped with venom. Davenport stepped back again, his back to Theron as he lifted the pistol up to point it at Charlie’s head. “And I don’t imagine anyone will ever hear anything about it, given you won’t be leaving here, tonight.”

  Davenport pulled back the hammer on the pistol, and Theron’s fingers dug into the frozen earth, cutting through the icy soil as his claws curled out from his changing hands. The jean jacket creaked and tore against his changing shape, and Theron surged forward, barreling over the terrain with such speed, no man in the circle even saw him coming until his full weight was slamming into the truck bed, shoving it with full force into Baird Davenport’s back.

  The man went flying across the circle just as the men all reached for their rifles, training them into the center of the circle. But Theron stepped into the light of the flood lamps, coming to stand between Charlie Black and the aim of every rifle there.

  Despite the cacophony of panic around him, Theron could hea
r Charlie’s shaking words.

  “Oh my god. I knew it,” he said. Theron turned to meet the man’s gaze and found Charlie smiling, tears streaming down his face. He wasn’t afraid. He was in awe.

  “Did I tell you, boys? Did I tell you? Nobody shoot! He’s mine, god damn it!”

  Baird stumbled back toward the circle, his gait uneven. He’d been thrown with some force into another truck bed before slamming into the ground. Theron glared at him, huffing into the cold air as he spotted the pistol. Apparently, Baird managed to keep a hold on that damn gun.

  “What’re you going to do now, Talbot? Now everyone knows what you are, and you have a dozen rifles pointed at your chest. What am I saying? I’m talking to a fucking bear. Can you understand me, beast?”

  Baird let the last few words come at a slow, patronizing speed. Theron huffed, taking a couple steps toward the man. Several of the men hollered in protest, each of them growing frightened to see Theron going toward their ringleader. Theron gave a look around at each of them and breathed in deep. They were terrified, and he could smell it.

  All of them were terrified – even Baird.

  As you fucking should be, he thought.

  “Well, Mr. Black. Is this the criminal you wanted so desperately to find? Well, I’m sorry to say Blackrock will have to do without their most wanted because he’s going to be mounted on my wall.”

  Baird cocked the pistol, again, and Theron reared up on his hind legs, coming to stand at well over eight feet tall. He could feel several men recoil at this. One even hopped into the cab of his truck and locked the door. Theron pointed his snout in Baird’s direction and roared.

  “Oi, fuckers!”

  The voice drew the attention of every man in the circle, including Baird’s. Even, Theron turned his attention to the sound of the voice.

  A voice he knew well.

  Pearl Holden stood inside the gate, the electricity humming loudly through the wires just inches from her face. Some of the men began cocking their rifles, turning their attention to the crowd of people gathering on the other side of the fence.

  “Ignore them. They can’t do shit! That fence would kill an elephant,” Baird cried.

  Theron watched the crowd of Holdens just beyond the fence, their wrathful expressions giving even him a chill. Theron watched them gathering, Uncle Gregory calmly slinking his shirt off his bare shoulders. Theron held still, fearing what Pearl was about to do.

  Suddenly, she reached her hand out to the wires of the fence gate. Theron huffed, stomping in her direction as though he might stop her, but her fingers were wrapped around the fence wire an instant later. Theron froze, watching. She didn’t move.

  The wire gave off a sharp, echoing twang as she ripped it free of its holdings with one half tug. The power she wielded was jaw dropping.

  The crowd of men hollered again, confusion and fear rising among them.

  “What the hell?! How is she not fucking dead?” Baird hollered.

  Theron watched as the explanation rose from his knees at the side of the gate. Darrell had listened more intently than Theron realized. Darrell had used his jerry rigging wire skills and bypassed the circuit. The fence was safe.

  Without a word, the Holden clan surged forward as Pearl grabbed two more wires and ripped them free like breaking through spider silk. The twang echoed across the empty space again as Gregory Holden shifted into a massive polar bear and lunged through the remaining three wires, dragging them free as he shoved his body into one of the trucks, knocking the men atop it onto their asses.

  “Come on, you pricks!” Baird hollered, training the gun back on Theron. A gun shot fired off somewhere, but Theron didn’t wait to see where it came from. He seized his moment, lunging down onto all fours in Baird’s direction, and biting down hard on his forearm. The gun fired off into the sky overhead before Baird’s bones cracked under the weight of Theron’s jaws. Baird screamed in agony, falling back onto the ground as Theron released his hold on him. The pistol fell to the ground and was quickly snatched up by Charlie Black, who came to stand at Theron’s shoulder, training the gun in any and every direction he saw a threat.

  Pandemonium set in. The Holden clan poured through the open fence, many of them shifting as they approached and going after their captors and attackers with ravenous looks in their eyes.

  They had been near starving, after all.

  Theron kept his post beside Charlie, watching as several men ran into the cold to escape the carnage. Theron could smell blood all around him as several men fell to the jaws of his family members, each of the bears in such a fury that he feared they might turn their eye on Charlie. He couldn’t let that happen.

  Reed was locked into the cab of his truck, and Miller was screaming in agony, clutching at the viscera of his right thigh. The rest of the men were either kneeling in surrender, or running full tilt into the wilderness. Theron thought that an appropriate fate. No normal man would survive more than a couple hours in that cold.

  His heart stopped. Somehow in this moment of chaos, he’d almost forgotten that Sinead was out there somewhere.

  Please god, let her be safe, he thought.

  Pearl marched up into the circle, the flood lights setting her face aglow. Theron watched her saunter toward Baird Davenport, her expression one of righteous indignation and grace.

  She stepped into the center of the circle and turned to Charlie. Then without a word, she held her hand out to him. Charlie inhaled, slowly, then let Pearl Holden take the six shooter from his hand, the same revolver Baird used to threaten Charlie. She glanced down at it like some curiosity of another world. Then without a word, she turned the gun on Baird and shot him point blank in the chest.

  Theron shifted back to his human form, instantly. “Grandma Pearl!”

  Reed could be heard losing his mind in the bed of his truck, but no one paid him any mind as Pearl turned on Theron, barely glancing down at his naked form. Her lips were pressed tight together, as though she barely tolerated his presence. She glanced over to Charlie Black.

  “I hear you’re a lawman, yourself.”

  Charlie nodded, talking a deep breath as he stepped forward. “I am.”

  She glanced down at Baird, who had stopped shuddering on the ground. “Do I need to be concerned?”

  Charlie looked her dead in the face and said, “I wasn’t here. I didn’t see a damn thing.”

  Darrell marched toward them, his brow set in a fury, and clocked Charlie Black across the face with a right hook.

  Charlie crumpled to the ground like a rag doll.

  “That’s for the fucking bull shit on the radio, pal. You might think you’re fucking clever, but you had that coming.”

  Charlie rolled up onto his backside, clutching his jaw. Theron shot Charlie a sorry glance and marched across the circle of trucks toward Reed’s pickup. Reed began to scream inside the cab, pushing himself into the driver’s side door to get away from Theron. Theron simply punched his bare fist through the passenger window and unlocked the door as Reed screamed. The smell of piss filled the air an instant later, and Theron gave the man a quick glare of disgust.

  He scanned the floor of the truck and the passenger seat, praying he would recognize it when he saw it. There was nothing there.

  “Where are they? Where did Baird take them?!” Theron bellowed into the truck bed, reaching for Reed as he squealed in fear.

  “The worst villains are often the biggest cowards,” Pearl mumbled from over his shoulder. She marched around the other side of the truck, and with one quick motion, ripped the driver’s side door off the truck. Charlie stifled a cry at the sight. Clearly, Pearl was startling more than just Reed.

  She was chief for good reason.

  Pearl grabbed hold of Reed’s coat and yanked him out onto the ground. He cowered at her feet, shielding his face from them. “My grandson asked you a question. Where is my granddaughter?”

  Reed shook his head, stumbling over every word. “I don’t know. I don’t kn
ow! He didn’t tell us!”

  Darrell lunged at the man and he cried out again.

  “I swear! All we know is he took em north! Said he left them in the back seat of the car. The only other one who knows is Hank Dorman, and he ran off. He ran off!!” Reed screamed, flinching as Darrell lunged forward again.

  Theron turned his attention to another truck, searching for Baird’s familiar rig.

  “We could try tracking the fucker’s scent. Shouldn’t be too hard,” Darrell suggested.

  “There’s no fucking time,” Theron said, rifling through yet another truck cab. He saw nothing to hint at a device for finding their trackers, but he was sure – the Holden’s were sure they had one. Theron turned his attention to one of the cars parked nearby, sniffing the air as he approached. A rusted Oldsmobile reeked of a familiar scent.

  Davenport had brought his car, tonight.

  Theron climbed into the front seat, reaching under the seats and into the back, scanning every surface, tossing every object aside. The glove box was a mess, but nothing to betray some tracking contraption.

  Come on, damn it. It has to be here! It has to be!

  A gun shot fired off through the darkness, startling everyone toward the back of Baird’s car. Theron glanced back to find Charlie flipping up the trunk lid. “It’s here, Talbot. I think this is it.”

  Theron stumbled out of the car in such a hurry he could barely keep his footing. The case looked official, framed in heavy, textured plastic like something James Bond would carry. Despite that fact, it was sticky with dried beer.

  Theron pulled the heavy case out of the trunk and set it on the cold ground. He needed light.

  “Where the hell did that asshole get something like this?” Pearl said from over Theron’s shoulder.

  He didn’t have time to contemplate such a thing. He had to make it work. He had to find Sinead.

  The case snapped open easily, displaying a still screen. Theron ran his hands over the edges of the case, feeling for a power switch, or anything that might help him work the contraption.

  “You! Yes, I’m talking to you!” Darrell hollered.