The men had finished off the other bears, Bruce knew it. He just knew it. His friends were dead, and somehow this was his fault. If he hadn’t run, if he hadn’t shouted…
Two men pulled the bear off Bruce and helped him up.
“Are you okay?” the one man asked. He was tall and muscular and his blade hung at his side, dripping with blood. But he looked concerned. Bruce shook his head yes and then no, not sure what he was anymore. His back hurt and he was scared. He just wanted to go home.
“ Come on, son,” another man said. “Let’s get you home.” He put his hand on Bruce’s back and Bruce winced. The man turned Bruce so that his back was to the moon, using the light.
“Skin’s broken,” he said, speaking to the others. “He’s infected.”
Infected? What?
“We can’t let him go now,” another said. “We’re going to have to finish him off.”
They were talking about Bruce like he wasn’t there. And he’d just seen them kill without blinking. He knew they could do it again. He didn’t give them a chance. He turned and ran.
They were after him, he could feel their feet on the ground, vibrating through him. He ran harder and faster than he had before, fear propelling him forward, and somewhere he lost them.
It was some miracle that he’d escaped, but he’d gotten away.
He sank onto the forest floor, curled into a ball, and started shivering. They’d said he was infected. Infected with what?
It took Bruce a month to realize what he’d been infected with. Life went back to normal, except he stopped sneaking out. He stopped looking for trouble. He started listening to his parents and what they had to say about life. He couldn’t afford something like that night to happen again.
He’d narrowly escaped with his life. He was going to savor his second chance.
But then the moon had been full again, and he’d realized he hadn’t had a second chance after all. The skin had been broken, the Assassins had said. He’d been infected. Infected with the disease, the curse, that made him turn into a bear at night, especially at full moon, and even though he could learn how to control it, he would never be rid of it again.
He would never be human again.
Bruce was alone for two years. He learned out to control his beast. He learned how to hunt and how to kick start the shift both ways. His parents knew something was wrong, but he couldn’t tell them. What was he going to say? That he was a monster?
An old shifter found him after that and took him under his wing. He left home, ran away from his parents who wouldn’t understand. He lived life in a big city where he could stay anonymous and spent time with his mentor.
Until the assassins had killed him too. They’d swept the city, found so many of them, killed most of them. Bruce had run back to his parents. If only he could see them one last time, let his mom hold him.
Assassins had cornered him and he’d had to fight his way out. It had been messy and bloody and he’d almost not made it. When he’d finally gotten out, an Assassin had called after him.
“We’ll find you. Anyone who knows who you are can help. We’ll find you.”
That meant Bruce’s parents. Bruce had learned enough, seen enough, to know that the Assassins would hurt his parents. He wasn’t going to put them in danger. So instead, he fled. He ran to the mountains, looking for a new place to live, new shifters to be a part of until he found the Syracuse Mountains. He’d left his life behind, left his parents behind, without ever saying goodbye.
Bruce wasn’t going to let Jenna go through the same thing. He could protect her. He could keep her safe, and as long as she was in the village and under the pack’s protection, she was going to be safe.
She had to hold onto what was human. She couldn’t be so eager to throw that all away. He wished he could explain it to her. But he didn’t want to go into details about his past. He didn’t want her to suggest he go find his parents.
And he didn’t want Jenna to leave the person she was behind.
It was bad enough that Saxon was a bear now. He hadn’t seen that coming. It shouldn’t have happened with Jenna as a human. But it had. Somehow the magic had been stronger, there had been too much shifter in him, and it had caused Saxon to be one too.
Bruce already blamed himself for Saxon’s change, for the fact that he would never be human. That he would never understand an innocent world. And that he, as little as he was, as nonthreatening, could still be killed just for what he was. It was bad enough.
Bruce walked through the trees, following a path he didn’t often walk. It took him up the Mountain, above the plateau and then down the side Lori favored. He’d wandered around for almost an hour when he ran into her.
Lori wasn’t in bear form. She was butch, with wide shoulders and a muscular build, not feminine at all. Her hair was short and she glared at Bruce.
He lifted his hands.
“Didn’t mean to disturb,” he said. “I was just taking a walk.”
Lori nodded with a grunt.
“Human life getting to you?” she asked. She didn’t sound friendly, but Bruce sat down on a log and shrugged.
“Lack of it,” he answered.
“The kid,” she said. Bruce looked up at her.
“I thought Dwayne was supposed to be the one that read minds.”
Lori shrugged. “You’re too predictable,” she said. It was an insult, but Bruce let it slide. If he got upset about everything Lori said they would always be fighting.
“I don’t know how to deal with it,” Bruce admitted. “He’s just five.”
“So? You were five too.”
“I wasn’t a five-year-old shifter,” Bruce said.
“Oh, you were changed,” Lori said as if it explained a lot.
“Weren’t you?”
Lori shook her head. “Born in these mountains. Parents didn’t make it through, obviously. But that was long ago.”
Bruce didn’t know what to say. Lori was hard to talk to. She was so strong and able to look after herself it was difficult to imagine her as a child. It was difficult to imagine her as anything other than a bear.
“Jenna wants to be one,” Bruce said.
“A bear?”
Bruce nodded. He hadn’t asked her what shifter she wanted to be, but he could assume. She wouldn’t want to be different than him and Saxon. That was the point.
“She feels left out.”
“I don’t blame her,” Lori said.
“But I can’t allow it.”
Lori looked at him for a while without saying anything. “You can’t stop her.”
“I can refuse to do it.”
“There are a lot of shifters in the world that won’t feel the same,” Lori said.
“This isn’t right. This isn’t how its supposed to be. This was not how I pictured our life together. She can’t let go of being human. She doesn’t know what she’s sacrificing.”
“I think she knows exactly. She’s married to you. She’s a part of the pack. If anything, she knows what she’s letting herself in for.”
Bruce shook his head. “It’s not the same. Being a shifter is just… you won’t know the contrast because you were never a human. But this isn’t fun, not if you know what it’s like to know freedom.”
“Seems to me like you’re not saying no because she can’t afford to lose touch with her humanity,” Lori said and Bruce snapped his head up. “Looks like you’re the one that doesn’t want her to lose touch with being a human. Because she’s the only link you have left. You don’t want her to change because then it’s over for you.”
Bruce was suddenly angry.
“Well, I didn’t expect someone like you to understand,” he said and stormed into the trees.
“She’s not going to wait for you permission, Bruce,” Lori called after him. “You might lose her humanity, but if you don’t allow her to and she goes somewhere else, you’ll lose her altogether.”
Bruce kept walking until he couldn’t hear her anymore. He d
idn’t want to hear what she had to say. He didn’t want to know what she thought. It was a mistake talking to Lori. It always was.
She didn’t follow him. He hadn’t expected her to. This wasn’t about that at all. This was about Jenna’s safety, about her well-being, physically and emotionally. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she was human and Bruce was jealous of that.
Or maybe it had everything to do with it.
He started his descent, moving slowly down the mountainside, reluctant to go home. His body was drained of energy and he needed sleep. But Jenna was going to be home and he didn’t know how to face her. He thought he knew her. He thought that everything was going to be fine, and they’d finally reached their happily ever after. But now?
Now it was all wrong again. And this time, he didn’t know how he could fix it. One thing he knew, though. He wasn’t going to let her change into a shifter. She could come to the plateau again. She could go to their meetings and feel like she was part of the pack. He could even try to take her out to hunts so she could see Saxon’s progress. But he couldn’t let her become a shifter.
He couldn’t afford to lose her again. There had been too many times, and he wasn’t going to be able to survive it again.
Chapter 4
Jenna tried for almost two weeks. She tried to make it work with Bruce who was a shifter, and Saxon who was a shifter too. Maybe if she tried hard enough, she could get used to it.
They fell into a routine very quickly. Saxon and Bruce went out at night and Bruce taught the boy how to hunt and how to control his animal. He had more magic than Bruce had. It didn’t make sense, but that was how it was. And Bruce had said that if Saxon could learn control so early, he was going to be very powerful one day.
And Jenna wanted that for him. The more power the boy had, the better chance he had of survival. He could fight the Assassins and win, maybe even be the alpha of his own pack one day, or of the pack in the Syracuse mountains. But it also meant that with all Saxon’s power, he was even further removed from Jenna. He hadn’t just become a shifter overnight, he had become a different person. It was like all the strangeness that had been in him had found a home.
And Jenna felt like in a way she’d lost her son. He had a better bond with Bruce now. Jenna still spent time with Saxon, but he could relate better to Bruce. And Jenna was alone again. More alone than she’d been when it had just been her and Bruce, because this time Bruce had Saxon, and Jenna had no one.
And it wasn’t worth it. She’d tried, she really had. But it wasn’t working. Bruce hated the idea of her becoming a shifter, and in a way she understood. The same problem was there with Saxon now – a potential target for the Assassins when he was so young and inexperienced.
“If Saxon can handle it with his age and level of experience, why can’t I?” Jenna had asked Bruce almost a week ago. “That’s not fair.”
Bruce had been angry. He always got angry when Jenna spoke about being one of them.
“It’s not the same thing. Saxon hadn’t chosen to be a shifter, he was born one.”
“And you?” Jenna had asked. “Didn’t you choose?”
Bruce’s face had gone hard, eyes cold and lifeless.
“No,” he’d said. “I didn’t.”
That had been the last of it. Jenna hadn’t mentioned it again and Bruce pretended like it was never a topic at all.
New Moon rolled round. It was the darkest night of the month, and Bruce and Saxon didn’t go out together. There was no moon and their animals didn’t crave to get out. Bruce tucked Saxon into bed and promised him they would go out again the next day. Jenna listened to their conversation, jealous that Bruce was the one tucking Saxon in now. Saxon never asked for her anymore.
When Bruce came out of the room he closed the door behind him. He walked to Jenna and pulled her close to him.
“I’m going to go up to the plateau. Tara called an emergency meeting.”
“Emergency?” Jenna asked and fear clawed at her throat.
“Don’t worry. Let me go up and find out.”
Bruce pulled her tight against him into a hug. Jenna breathed in and smelled his scent, wild and full of forest, even though he hadn’t been out yet.
“Be careful,” she said softly. Bruce nodded and kissed her on her hair.
“I won’t be long. It’s just a talk.”
Bruce walked out of the door and Jenna watched him go. The night was dark, and she could feel it on her skin even though the moon wasn’t out and there wasn’t supposed to be magic in the air. She had a feeling that this thing she felt was the reason for the meeting. Something was wrong, she just knew it.
Jenna sat down on the couch facing the door and picked up a book. She couldn’t concentrate on what she was reading, and after reading the same page five times, she closed it and put it down. Two hours later she heard footsteps and then Bruce pushed open the door and stepped into the house.
He looked tired like he’d had a long night even though it had just been two hours. Jenna stood up. When he looked at her his eyes were haunted.
“They’re in Rhodestown,” he said. He didn’t have to specify – Jenna knew he was talking about the Assassins.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
Bruce shrugged. “Lay low until they move along. They don’t come this way, usually.”
“But it’s not impossible,” Jenna said. Bruce nodded. It wasn’t impossible. They both carried the last war with the Assassins close to their hearts, a reminder of what they were fighting and what they lost.
“How are we going to protect Saxon?” Jenna asked. “He’s just a baby.”
Bruce sat down heavily and he looked like all his energy had been drained. Hunting wasn’t going to be much use tonight – without the moon there just wasn’t a lot of preternatural energy to go around.
“We’ll be fine, Jen,” Bruce finally said. He rubbed his hand down his face and his expression made her think that he wasn’t sure about what he said, but he looked her in the eye. “The pack will look out for him, and I’ll always be there.”
Right, Jenna thought. They pack, and Bruce. But she couldn’t be there. She was his mother. She’d carried him inside of her, felt him move, lived and breathed wit him, for nine months. And now she couldn’t look after him. She couldn’t protect him.
“What if you can’t?” she whispered. Bruce didn’t answer her. He didn’t reassure her, and that made her that much more scared. What if he couldn’t? What if something went wrong?
“I need to get to bed,” Bruce said. He looked like he was going to fall asleep right there. Jenna walked to him and held out her hand. Bruce took it and she led him to the bedroom. She tucked him in, blankets up to his chin, and stroked his hair and his face until he fell asleep. It wasn’t long before he started snoring and Jenna knew he wasn’t going to wake up from anything for a while.
Jenna stood up and walked to the window, looking into the darkness and the trees that lay beyond it. If she wanted to go, she had to do it now. Now was when it was safest for her to find another shifter. Now was when the Assassins wouldn’t expect anyone out.
Jenna got dressed in warmer clothes and she packed a bag with two changes of clothes. She didn’t want to be away from home longer than that. She got Saxon clothes too and added it, along with another warm jacket and another pair of socks and underwear, just in case.
When Jenna went to Saxon’s room she stood in the doorway, watching him sleep for a while. He was beautiful when he slept, with his eyes closed he looked so much younger, so much like the human he used to be.
A lump rose in Jenna’s throat, but she swallowed it down and walked to the bed.
“Saxon, honey,” she said, stroking his hair. His eyes fluttered before they opened. “Come on, sweetheart. You and I, we’re going to go on a trip.”
They left the house before sunrise. Bruce was sleeping and Jenna counted on the fact that it was new moon and his energy was drained. If he woke up, the
y weren’t going to get away and then Jenna would have to wait for another month if she wanted to do it at all.
And she didn’t want to wait any longer. The more time passed, the longer Jenna couldn’t protect Saxon.
“Where are we going?” Saxon asked. His voice was still thick with sleep, hair sticking up in small tufts.
“Mommy wants to make sure that nothing goes wrong ever again, sweetheart,” Jenna said. It wasn’t an answer and she knew that Saxon was going to ask again in a short while, but, for now, he stayed quiet. Jenna made her way through Williamsburg. She knew better than to go through the forest. Even though it was new moon there were still animals out there and she didn’t want to take a chance. Not while she was just a human.
Her plan was to go to Port Alfred. It wasn’t too far to travel, but it was far enough from Rhodestown, where the Assassins were, and far enough from Williamsburg so that when Bruce noticed they were gone it would take him a while to find them.
Jenna had called a taxi and the car waited for them where the dirt road ran into the freeway. Jenna opened the door and let Saxon get in first before following with the bag.
“Port Alfred, please,” she said. The driver looked at her over his shoulder.
“That’s a far drive,” he said.
“I’ll pay,” Jenna said and she hoped that he wouldn’t argue. She didn’t want to go to public transport with Saxon. There was too much at stake.
The driver didn’t argue. He pulled off and to Jenna’s relief started driving in the direction of Port Alfred. By the time the sun came up they’d already driven three and a half hours. The cold of the night gave way to the warmth of the sunlight that crept across the countryside. Saxon lay on Jenna’s lap, eyes closed, but she doubted he was sleeping. She was a nervous wreck and she knew Saxon could feel it. Children were open to the emotions of their parents, but with Saxon being a shifter it was going to be more now than ever.
Jenna had been serious about becoming a shifter. She still was. But now that she was on the way, now that it was in motion, it was a different story. Jenna was scared. There was no way around it – she was scared to leave the life she’d always known behind. She was scared to become something else. She was scared to start sharing her body with something that was going to want full control. She’d seen the other shifters lose it often enough to know exactly she was letting herself in for, and she knew it wasn’t a party.
BAD BOY ROMANCE: DIESEL: Contemporary Bad Boy Biker MC Romance (Box Set) (New Adult Sports Romance Short Stories Boxset) Page 105
