Blake, Her Bad Bear: A Paranormal Bad Boy Romance (18 page)

“Here’s hoping I know what I’m doing,” Blake said to himself, and pried a hole in one of the bags. Next he sprinted several hundred meters to the other side of the grove of trees and pricked a hole in the second one. Now it was a matter of time and cunning.

Breathing hard, he ran up the scree slope, following old animal trails. Occasionally, through a hole in the trees, he would spot the glow of the campfire again. He was like a moth to a flame, except this moth was bringing firepower. Finally, he reached a space below the campfire. He still couldn’t make it out, but he’d have to wait here for his diversion to actually take effect. He took the time to scan the surrounding area—
if I was Connor, where would I position myself for maximum view?

There was a small opening in the cliffs to the right where the hillside rose sharply into a perilous drop below on the stones beneath. But it would be possible for someone to fix themselves into a sniper’s nest. It was pretty ideal. From that vantage point, Connor would be able to see almost all the way down the hill, all the way to the campfire. There was one small conduit of tiny trees growing on bare rock that was less in view, but Blake had to believe that Connor, a seasoned hunter, had seen it also and was counting on his quarry to try and use it.

“All right, let’s heat up the game,” Blake said and looked back down the way he’d come. There was still nothing. Time seemed to stretch on forever, and he feared the worst. What if his fire-starters had failed to ignite? It would all be for nothing. More time passed, and he tried to count the minutes but lost it after a few moments—his heart was beating too fast.

He considered running down to check the apparatuses, but restrained himself. If he left his position now, he would be too far away to make use of the distraction. All he could do was wait, and pray.

Blake didn’t have to wait long. He heard the snap of one of the traps being set off, and looked down. In moments, he saw another glow, dancing like a candle between the trees, and then it began to crackle and grow. At the same time, another echoing snap of wood and the ignition of gun powder set off in the opposite direction, and this one caught on even faster.

The dry summer had made the forest a dangerous fuel source. In less than thirty seconds, the fire-starters had caught the nearby undergrowth and low lying tree branches. On this steep an angle, the flames carried upward even faster, and he smelled smoke and the acrid aftertaste of flame and burning. It was now or never!

He sped forward, using the abrasive glow of both fires on either side to flank his approach. Even if Connor had been looking directly at his path of attack, the interfering glare of the growing flames among the trees below would have made Blake almost invisible.
I hope
, the Beta remarked to himself as he left his hiding spot and raced forward. His heartbeat was in his ears as he ran uphill and dived behind the bushes and then made his way up the side of the mountain. There was no shot given, and for a minute, it seemed like things were going too well.

Blake made it to the top of the flat area and rolled into the cover of some dark trees opposite the campfire. Breathing hard, he dared to look around the trunk. Only his lightning quick reflexes saved him from getting his head blown off. A shot rang out, but Blake was already ducking back behind the tall pine by the time a bullet tore a bite off the bark inches from his face. He’d found Connor—and Lily.

“I know that’s you, Blake!” a voice shouted. “That was clever. I should have expected as much from you. You’d set the whole mountainside on fire if that meant giving you an advantage. Well played!”

Blake risked another glance around the tree and saw that Connor was standing on the other side of the fire and had Lily gripped in front of him like a shield, a knife against her throat. She was shaking, but her eyes were still as furious as ever, looking for an escape.
Son of a bitch,
he thought.

“Thanks for the compliment,” Blake grumbled from the darkness.

“Just you?”

“Just me. What were you expecting?”

Connor seemed to smirk at this and raised his rifle with one hand toward the tree again. Lily squirmed against the knife’s edge, but didn’t say a word. She looked as worn and ragged as Connor, her black hair was frayed and mussed, and there were smudges on her knees and hands and on her cheek. She carefully pulled off her glasses again and held them in one hand.

“Come out, Blake, it’s over,” Connor warned. “You thought you could trick me, and you failed. Now come out, or I’ll empty this broad right here and now. You know I’m not bluffing… move!”

Blake hunched down and rubbed his head. All of that running and diversion for nothing. He took the bat off his back and set it on the ground. Then he looked at the small firearm, tucked it into the back of his jeans, and held up his hands as he entered into the clearing. When she saw him, Lily squirmed again, her eyes wide—part of her hadn’t wanted to believe that he had actually come for her. Now they were both at the mercy of Connor, who was merciless by nature.

Connor had an evil grin on his face as he watched his adversary step into the light of the campfire. “I’m here,” Blake said, “now let her go.”

“And why would I do that?” Connor said, raising the muzzle of the rifle again.

“Because she isn’t a threat to you, Connor—she’s a human. She has no say in the tribe, and there’s nothing about her that should make her an enemy to you. We’re Ursas, remember?” Blake said. “What are you doing? Have you even thought this out? Why have you taken a human hostage?”

Connor was caught off-guard, just for a moment. Neither Lily nor Blake seemed to offer any recognition of the other. “She was at the house, she had a gun, you’re telling me she’s not part of your little attempted coup d’état, Blake? Bullshit! I don’t know who she is, but she knows
you
, and you’ve come all this way for her, so—”

“I came all this way for
you
,” Blake said defiantly, and his voice was a scalpel. “You’ve disappeared, and even your mother has sent out scouts for you. What’s going on, Connor? Why are you doing this?”

“Shut up!” Connor said, and took a step back toward the rock boulder.

“If I’m already dead, you might as well tell me what the hell is going on—you owe me that. Me, I get it; you want me out of the picture. Not going to contest that. But why are you threatening her?”

It was a dangerous gamble, but having Blake at gunpoint must have made Connor feel a strengthened sense of arrogance and pride, and he spat vehemently into the campfire and let out a low uttering chortle. “You really are something, Blake!” he admitted. “When you showed up at the town hall and started talking, I was worried, let me tell you. Of course I would be. Everyone else, the gang, even my mother, they’re all idiots when it comes to leadership, to understanding what it takes!”

“And I take it you aren’t?” Blake said, challenging him. His eyes brushed lightly over Lily, who met his gaze and squinted. He saw her glasses in her left hand, hanging limp, and gave the subtlest of nods.

“Of course,” Connor said, “I’m doing what my father couldn’t have imagined. Or dared.”

“Which is?!” Blake shouted.

Connor shook his head and pulled on the hammer of the rifle. “We’ve been living in a vacuum, Blake, all of us, for longer than any of us can remember. We’ve grown stagnate—brokering peace with the other tribes was the worst decision my father ever made, and it’s stymied us ever since. I won’t let the Ursas dwindle! No, so I invited all the tribes—we’ll align ourselves to the Blue Devils, to the Eaters of the Dead, and then we’ll be a match like no other. We’ll be out to overwhelm all the other tribes that stand in our way!” Connor was gnashing his teeth now, and Blake did his best to try to hold his ground. The Alpha really was mad. He had never wanted peace at all; his reasons for creating a new alliance wasn’t to hold the peace, but to enforce it by wiping out all the other shifter tribes. “Once we’ve taken over all the other areas, our dominion will be enormous!”

“And what happens when your ‘allies’ decide they want more power?” Blake asked.

“The Blue Devils, the Eaters of the Dead, they’re all old school, like father—the Ursa Majors were always designed to be the rulers of the shifter world. It would be easy to get rid of the other leaders when the time was right,” he snarled.

That was the break Blake had been looking for. “Is that what happened to Damian? He got in the way so you had to get rid of him?!”

The fact that it wasn’t just Lily who had made the connection caused Connor’s face to warp into a grim and grotesque expression of horror. “He was old,” Connor said, after a moment, his voice low and set. Blake didn’t let the change in tone go unnoticed. Connor was slowly coming to terms with the fact that his plans had been ruined, and that there was no way back from it—now he was thinking in terms of his own survival, and his hand on Lily’s throat tightened. The sharp knife nicked her neck and she made a restrained hiss as a drop of blood ran down the smooth pale stretch of flesh. “This ends now,” the Alpha said, and raised the rifle one-handed.

Blake and Lily acted as a unit. Seeing his intent, she slammed the edge of her glasses hard into the hand holding the knife against her throat. The force of her attack broke the glass and it neatly entered his flesh, severing the tendons on the back of his hand. Connor screamed in pain as he dropped the knife and threw her to one side. At the same time, his finger on the trigger went off—the bullet went wide as Blake ran forward, and he felt the ozone and compression of air as it zoomed past him.

“Enough!” Blake yelled, barreling into the shifter. Both men wrestled on the ground, kicking up dust and pine needles as they punched at each other. Connor may have been a good warrior, but he was the type of hunter that liked his prey to be far away—up close and personal combat was not his forte, and it was clear that he was at a disadvantage.

But Blake was still injured, and that detail hadn’t escaped Connor. Just as the Beta laid a huge meaty fist against his face, knocking loose his senses and more than a few teeth, Connor lunged up with with his fist and hit his bulkier opponent in the abdomen, above the ribs. Blake howled in pain and threw himself to one side, gasping and clutching his side. His bruised ribs were still tender and fractured, and the force of the punch had knocked the wind out of him.

Lily had scrambled away, retrieved the rifle from the ground, and turned around to cover Blake. Connor spat another curse at her as she leveled the rifle and fired once. Somehow, Connor managed to duck the shot and it grazed above his head, lodging into the tree trunk behind. The muzzle flash in the darkness of the night was blinding to everyone.

Before she could lay off another shot, Connor tore off on his hands and knees back up the hill and was gone in a moment. Suddenly it was very still, and Blake and Lily were alone again. Without a word, he picked himself up and strode to her side. His huge arms picked her up by the elbows and he wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly. Surprised by the show of intimacy, Lily didn’t know what to do but lose herself in the hug, and she closed her eyes.

“I… I didn’t think… I’d ever see you again,” she said, trying not to cry in front of him.

“I’ll always find you,” he said, pressing her head against his chest. His breathing was rapid and hoarse, but it was breath—they were both alive, and that was all that mattered. Lily couldn’t handle it and started to cry softly. She felt the warmth of his body encompass her, and inhaled his scent deeply, feeling at once secure in the presence of his smell which was security and love and loyalty.

“He’s… he’s still out there,” she said at last when he’d drawn her back. Behind them, the crackling of the forest fire was loud and perilous, and black smoke was still screening up the hillside. It would peter out eventually, but it would be cindering for days.

Blake took off his shirt and jacket without a word, and once again the tribal tattoos flexed in animalistic vivacity across his back. Lily didn’t open her mouth—she knew instinctively what he meant to do, and stood back cradling the rifle as he finished undressing and keeled over on his knees, holding his arms apart.
Like deserves like
, she thought pensively, and watched in restrained fascination as the Beta began his transformation back into a bear.

Hirsute brown hair sprouted on his back and between the tattoos, and his arms bulged into massive paws and hind legs. A large hump grew on his back, rising like a mountain in the darkness, and a low growl emitted from his throat as he turned his muzzle toward her. The black eyes of the grizzly regarded her with a softness that seemed to belie the human that was sleeping inside the predator—even though she’d been expecting it, it was still a little frightening to see him in his full form. He kept staring at her, and she realized he was waiting for her.

Gently she gave a little nod and a smile.
Go do what you have to do,
she thought, and the thought was received without words.

Blake lumbered off into the woods, following the scent of the Alpha. There was no particular emotion in his movements. It was simply instinct, a
way
, a ritual understanding of what needed to happen next. It didn’t take him long to track Connor’s scent to another small outcrop, this one made of granite. At one end, the cliffs really began, and plummeted into an infinite of empty space. Connor was waiting for him—his bear form was hunched with his back to Blake, and the black bear looked defeated, almost sage-like as he turned.