by Sky Winters
“I don’t want them to get hurt because I’m not going with them,” Bronson said, choosing to focus on a half-truth.
“What keeps you here?”
“I heard the mountain lion shifters plotting. They want to pick us all off now, not just the women. And when they’ve made our population vulnerable, they’re going to take their anger out on the human population. The humans have done nothing wrong. I want to stay here to protect them. I couldn’t convince the men to stay, and without them the mountain lion shifters have free reign. I had to stay.”
“I don’t see the mistake in protecting your home so that the pack will have a safe place to return to,” Agun said. “Something else is on your mind.”
“Nothing else is on my mind,” Bronson said edgily. In fact, he was making quite an effort to make sure he didn’t think about anything but his duties. He had already acted irresponsibly that night, allowing himself such deep pleasure with Hunter when his duties were clearly more important. He had to put his personal feelings on the backburner. It wouldn’t help anybody to know that he only felt an emotional and sexual connection to men. In fact, they might blame him for his lack of a mate if they knew. His position as Alpha could be challenged.
“I see,” Agun said. The most frustrating thing about it was that Bronson was sure he did. Just how much he knew about what Bronson was thinking he couldn’t be sure, but it was bound to be enough.
“I just want to make sure I’m doing the right thing,” Bronson said, exasperation showing through his voice.
“Leading is hard. Indeed, we often question whether we are making mistakes simply because so many people can be adversely affected by our actions. But in reality, hard choices need to be made, and none of us live forever. There are times we don’t always know what the best course to take is. But when we follow our intuition, things tend to work out in favor of the greater good.”
“Thanks, Agun,” Bronson said. The interactions he had with Agun were always a little bit draining, mentally and emotionally. He was anxious to head home and get some rest. Daylight was coming soon. It was only when the sun set that he really had to worry.
“Come back tomorrow for a meal with me. I have a story I’d like to tell you.”
“Okay.”
Agun’s wrinkled old face smiled at Bronson, and he couldn’t help but smile back. The man was ancient, but he was wise as water and always knew what to say to put Bronson in a thoughtful and introspective mood. It was hard to be uncomfortable, but the discomfort was usually something that stemmed inside himself. And that was the kind of thing that he could solve.
“Good night,” Bronson said to the men posted outside of the elder’s cave. They nodded courteously to him. Although Bronson was the Alpha of the pack, these men seemed to fall outside of the pack hierarchy. They served an even higher purpose; in this place, Bronson wasn’t the leader, Agun was. And that was the way it would always be.
Chapter 11
“We don’t hire out-of-towners,” the man said again, more firmly this time.
Hunter sighed in exasperation. “I’m pretty sure you’re stomping on my rights,” he said. “I could talk to a lawyer and she’d tell me the same thing.”
“You ain’t got rights in my store, boy! Now git on out of here! Try someplace else.”
Hunter left, his heart pounding in fury. That was the third time somebody in the town had turned him away. He had enough savings to live comfortably for a while, but he didn’t feel good about just lounging around in the motel. He wanted to get out of the stuffy little room and live a little. Work on something to keep his mind occupied. He couldn’t get over the guilt he felt about having sex with Bronson. The last person he’d touched had been Tyler, and now all that was gone.
He’d nearly driven himself crazy the night after he’d been with Bronson. He’d woken up feeling like the scum of the earth, and before he knew it, he was staying up until daybreak drinking and, every once in a while, crying. It was clear that he wasn’t over Tyler yet. In fact, he was only in the area because of him. How could he have been weak enough to give in to the first guy who was interested in him like that? What kind of a weak-willed shit was he? He’d always prided himself on his loyalty. Now that didn’t mean anything. He’d spent the past three days drowning his sorrows and hating Bronson’s guts.
And so he’d commenced job hunting as a way to get his mind off of things and become a more productive member of society. He wasn’t going to lay around doing nothing and hating himself and the man who had stolen his body from Tyler. But everybody in Dire was very protective of their little businesses. Most of them claimed they only had friends and family members working for them and that was just going to have to be good enough. None of them wanted a guy who hadn’t lived there his whole life to be part of the local economy. It was maddening.
“Don’t pay him any attention,” a gentle woman’s voice said. Hunter was surprised and looked around for the woman it belonged to. When he spotted her, it was startling. He had to work hard not to look surprised. She looked like she had just walked off the set of an old western movie. She was about Hunter’s age, with almond, cat-shaped eyes and flaxen hair. “Folks around here don’t trust anybody. Lots of weird stuff happens in these parts. Can’t blame them much for just trying to protect their own.”
“I guess not,” Hunter said. “What kind of weird stuff?”
The woman pursed her lips in a patient smile.
“I’m not sure you’d be all that interested. Just sometimes folks have the inclination to hurt others or disappear. Things like that. It’s nothing to alarm yourself over.”
“Ah…” Hunter wasn’t quite sure what to do with that statement.
“I’m Bella. Bella Rose. What’s your name?”
Hunter almost laughed. He really had just walked into a western. Fortunately, he was able to keep a straight face.
“My name’s Hunter.”
“I’m going to do you a favor, Hunter, and tell you that nobody in their right mind would give work to a city boy like you. We’ve had city boys here before, you know. They think they know everything, and when something happens to one of them, Dire gets all kinds of bad media attention. We try to keep our name out of the headlines, you know?”
Hunter nodded, though everything this woman said sounded like fantasy to him.
“You seem like a nice guy. Not like most people who come through here. Hell, most guys who live here have an edge to them. Bet you’ve noticed that by now, though.”
Hunter looked down at the ground as invasive thoughts of Bronson pushed into his head. He couldn’t stop the images of the man’s perfect body and the forbidden thrills that made him shudder whenever his mind brushed upon the pleasures they’d experienced together. Still, Bella was right. Bronson looked like a major hard-ass, and if he hadn’t been looking to get laid, he probably would have beaten the shit out of Hunter. That, or he would have ignored him completely.
Hunter nodded stiffly. It was true. The men he’d dealt with so far had seemed less than pleasant. And for some reason this odd woman was taking pity on him and taking him under her wing. Hopefully she wasn’t attracted to him; it was always painful to let people down, especially women who weren’t sure if he was telling the truth about being gay or simply thought they were repulsive.
Bella smiled. “All the city folk here leave quick if they know what’s good for them. But you seem pretty harmless. I like you.”
“Thanks…”
The girl was bold, and in a way she made him feel uncomfortable. But it was nice to have someone who was trying to be nice to him after a long day of being scowled and growled at by men who wanted nothing to do with him. It was starting to feel very defeating to be stuck in this town. He had already made a choice he felt like running from, though running would never make him feel better about betraying Tyler. They’d had something very special, and Hunter had fucked it up by giving into a base instinct. What would Tyler think about it?
“Yo
u know, some people say it’s haunted around here,” Bella said, whispering conspiratorially.
“Haunted? Really?”
Hunter frowned as he considered the strange occurrence on his way into the town. Maybe a haunting would explain the eerie golden orbs that had been trailing him. But Bronson had said it was just some men trying to scare him. Maybe Bella was in on it. Did everybody try to drive outsiders away here? It was getting old. And for some reason, it was having the opposite effect on Hunter. The more people tried to intimidate him, the more adamant he felt about staying right there until he was good and ready to leave.
“Yeah. I don’t know if I believe in all that myself, but I’ve seen some things. Weird things.”
“Like what?”
“Well…I think I heard a wolf right outside my door one time. But when I went out to check, there was just this man standing there. Some naked guy just staring at me. They say there are wolf shifters around these parts. Men who turn into wolves. Wolves who turn into men.”
“Sounds like a pervert,” Hunter said, though for some reason he didn’t fully believe himself when he said it. There really was something strange about the town, and the story she was telling made him feel a little bit on edge. Like he knew something that he wasn’t quite able to remember. It was frustrating. But wolf shifters couldn’t be real. Even if the story was comforting and somehow familiar.
“A major pervert! I called the police but there wasn’t much they could do about it. The fuzz here are basically useless. They know the biker gang runs the town. They mostly just sit back and let things sort themselves out. It’s a nice way to make a salary, but the people like me basically get screwed over in the process.”
“The biker gang?”
“Yeah, they hang out in that bar out yonder… Fangz. I don’t know why they’d give it such a name, but that’s the way it is, I suppose. Nothing to be done about it.”
“I’ve been there,” Hunter said, eager to hear more about it. He had definitely gotten a strange feeling about the place, and maybe talking more about it would give him an excuse to think about Bronson in a context that didn’t make him feel like the scum of the earth, as if he had cheated on the only man he had ever truly loved.
“What?” Bella exclaimed. “And you lived to tell the tale, huh? They must really like you.”
“What do you mean? They hurt people?”
“Nah… Well, not really. Depends, I guess? They’re real protective of Dire these days. More now than ever before. I’m not sure what’s going on. There were a lot of murders that I think made things personal.”
“This bike gang…they’re murdering people?”
“No, not the gang here. Their rivals.
“Ah, so then they have rivals? Capable of murder?”
“Definitely. They didn’t get to the top of the food chain here selling girl scout cookies,” Bella said, laughing.
Hunter didn’t feel much like laughing. If the strange event he’d dealt with on the way into Dire had been the rival gang that Bella was talking about, that meant he could be in serious danger. But Bronson had said he was safe with him, and he had fully believed it. In fact, he had gone back to the motel and had the best night’s sleep he’d had since the night before Tyler had passed away. He woke up a mess, but the sleep had been restful. Rejuvenating.
“What kinds of things do the gangs do?” Hunter asked.
Bella shrugged. “Whatever they like. Which is mostly just fighting each other. They mostly leave the townies alone, but when new folks come poking around, one or the other of them get worried that they’re going to bring unwanted attention to these parts. Strange things can happen to them.”
Hunter’s blood turned to ice. “What kind of strange things?”
“Oh, you know. Accidents on the mountain trails…disappearances. Animal attacks…” Bella’s voice trailed off and Hunter’s heart began pounding wildly. Animal attacks? Like what had happened to Tyler? If Bronson and the gangs had anything to do with what happened to his partner, he was going to go ballistic. He had to find Bronson. Right away.
“Thanks for all the information, Bella,” he said. “But I have to get going.”
“All right. Well I’ll be right around here if you ever want to talk. Guy who owns the shop in there is my father.”
Hunter was too consumed by his thirst to avenge Tyler to stop and tell her how rude her father had been, or maybe ask her to put in a good word for him. He nodded distractedly at her and ran clumsily to his car. He had to figure out where Bronson was and talk to him. He deserved answers, and he wasn’t going to leave Dire until he had them.
Chapter 12
Bronson prowled along the outskirts of the town. The scent of mountain lion shifters was strong here, much stronger than he was comfortable with. If they were planning on taking out the town while it was vulnerable, they would have to think again. He had stayed behind for a reason, and woken up early just to reinforce the boundaries of the territory so the mountain lion shifters would give it a few more days before they attacked. He wasn’t fully ready to handle them yet. He had a few things to take care of first.
He was really angry at himself for being so weak the night before. Not only had he sent his men off and allowed them to separate from each other when they were clearly stronger as a pack, but he had wasted precious time and betrayed his pack by copulating with a human. It was an unspoken truth that the desire to breed with a human was considered weakness in a shifter, especially an Alpha, but somehow he had been unable to help himself. Whether that was because he was hoping to get things out of his system in case the others actually did find an Omega female hybrid who would be willing to propagate with him or if it was simply his own desires becoming too strong and difficult to overcome, he still felt like he had made a mistake.
The elder tried to convince him that mistakes were a good thing in the long run, but this one felt like a black mark on his pride. He’d been weak and put himself first, ahead of his pack and even ahead of Hunter’s feelings. He had been bothered by something. Deeply. And instead of getting to the real heart of the matter, Bronson had taken advantage of the boy’s vulnerability and unleashed something deep and pent up inside of him that he hadn’t even known was there. A vague attraction to male shifters was one thing. An attraction to a male human so intense that he hadn’t been able to resist it? That was shameful.
A familiar sound that he couldn’t place made Bronson’s ears perk up. It took him a few seconds to figure out what he was hearing. Hunter’s car sped along the dirt road at full throttle, coming right toward him. That was the last thing that he wanted to deal with right now.
“Bronson!”
Hunter’s voice had taken on a powerful quality that surprised Bronson just as much as he was surprised that Hunter had been able to find him in this concealed place.
“What are you doing here?” Bronson barked, turning to face Hunter. His heart pounded painfully when he saw that the man was holding a gun out, pointed right at his chest. “Whoa, easy there. What’s going on?”
Hunter was hysterical, his hands shaking violently and tears springing at the corners of his eyes. But his voice was even, and he didn’t let the emotion into it.
“Animal attacks. Weird things happening to outsiders around here. What’s going on, Bronson? Did you guys do something to Tyler?”
“Tyler?”
Now Bronson was just confused. Who the hell was Tyler? He could tell it had something to do with the deep anguish that he’d sensed coming from Hunter the night before, but it was still hard to connect the dots.
“Yes, Tyler!” Hunter exclaimed, emotion seeping into his voice now. He marched forward purposefully, until the barrel of his gun was close to Bronson’s chest. “My… He died here. In the campground! He was everything to me!”
Hunter’s voice cracked as he was overcome with anguish. Bronson wanted to reach out to comfort him, but the gun was still pointed squarely at his heart. One false move, and one of them was
going to get very hurt. And the unfortunate fact was that it probably wouldn’t be Bronson. Even if it came to blows, for some reason, he really didn’t want anything to happen to Hunter.
“He got attacked?” Bronson asked, trying to make sense of the situation as much as he could without encouraging Hunter to pull the trigger. Then he remembered something. “Is Tyler the man who died in the campground last year? It was in the newspaper.”
He kept his voice gentle and even, despite the cold fury that was filling his chest. The mountain lion shifters had probably killed him. Hunter and his boyfriend had drawn an unlucky lot. The mountain lion shifters liked to prowl the campground for easy targets, and it sounded as if Tyler had fit the bill. It was miraculous that Hunter had survived; they usually didn’t leave anybody alive.
“Yes. He was my world. Is my world. What happened with you, that’s nothing to me. Nothing could ever compare. I feel so dirty.”
Hunter began to cry in earnest now, his gun drooping a little bit as his shoulders quaked. Soon, Bronson would be able to reach over to him, take the gun from his hands. But not quite yet.
“I would never try to replace someone so meaningful to you,” Bronson said, sincerely hurt by the accusation. For some reason, it really stung that Hunter would consider him a mistake, even though Bronson had been thinking the same exact thing. It made him feel miserable to see the ease with which Hunter apparently brushed off of the passion they’d shared.
It wasn’t as if Bronson had wanted it to happen either. He had reasons to be angry and upset. But he wouldn’t take it out on Hunter. The situation felt unfair, and yet Hunter was grieving. He knew grieving people did some crazy things sometimes.
“My mother died in an animal attack,” Bronson said carefully. “I was about ten years old. There was this merciless gang of men who were out to hurt anybody weaker than themselves. The guys I was telling you about. The ones I call my rivals.”
Hunter was quiet, his eyes closed and head bowed down to his chest. But he was clearly listening, even though his gun was still pointed at Bronson.
