Jade Crew: Captive Bear (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Ridgeback Bears Book 4) (5 page)

“I still don’t understand
why
though,” Hannah said, and Jenny nodded her agreement.

“I bet you it has to do with whatever it is the miners dig for up there,” Kierra said after a moment of thought. “I’ve never seen such tighter security measures over something before. They all seem to know what they’re searching for, but think about it: in over two hundred years, that information has never come to the light of day. Now you have an army being formed to take out the miners? It’s gotta be to replace them with people who they—whoever ‘they’ are—want to do the mining.”

Hannah blinked rapidly as she tried to follow Kierra’s rapid-fire voice as she continued to speak, outlining what she thought.

“These ‘bad guys’ I guess we’ll call them, for lack of a better word, come in. They basically take over the LMC from the inside. But they won’t be able to make the mining crews do what they want. So if they want to keep mining, they need more manpower. These enemies also need manpower to eliminate the crews in the first place. It’s like killing two birds with one stone almost.”

“I dunno,” Jenny said. “That seems like a hell of a lot of work, and very convoluted at that. Couldn’t they just train their own men outside of the Valley?” She shook her head. “I can’t believe this is what we’re contemplating.”

“Me neither, but while it seems intricate, it
does
make sense,” Hannah said. “As little as I like to admit it. This is some pretty deep shit Kierra,” she said seriously. “We are in way over our heads here.”

“I know. Nothing is going to happen tomorrow—I hope—so let’s take the day to think about it, and decide what to do with this knowledge tomorrow, okay?”

“Where are you going?” Hannah asked suspiciously.

“I’m going to tell a very nice and handsome man that I’m a fucking moron and I would love to have dinner with him,” she said, aggressively standing up and slamming a hand on the table.

Hannah started to protest, but she saw the decisiveness in Kierra’s eyes and instead just hung her head and groaned.

Outside it was snowing like crazy. Kierra hit the remote start on her SUV and began cursing the weather as she cleared off the snow that had accumulated over the day. Driving conditions in the Valley were already horrific come winter. The last thing any of them needed was some idiot driving down the road with six inches of snow on their roof. All it would take was one gust of wind to lift that off and slam it into the car behind them. People had been killed over such stupidity.

Because of it, the entire Valley had effectively come together and decreed that anyone who did that would lose their vehicle for a week. It had taken all of three weeks to get everyone on board with that plan. That had been over a decade ago, and it made such a difference in the safety of those who were forced to drive on days like today. Kierra hated spending so much extra time out in the cold, but it was just one of those things that you got used to after having grown up in the Valley. It snowed in the winter. A lot.

Shivering despite her parka, Kierra finally slid into the driver’s seat and relished the joy of technology that was heated seats. It was a luxury she wasn’t sure she could ever do without.

Wipers flicking back and forth constantly to keep her vision clear, she headed out into the city. Although she wasn’t sure where Darren might have gone, she had an idea of what might be a good place to start.

After all, anytime she dealt with a bad situation she wanted only one thing.

A drink.

Darren

“Are you okay Darren?”

He looked over at the voice. “Ever been hit by something you can’t strike back?” he asked Ajax as the Emerald Alpha settled into a chair nearby.

They were at the Tongue & Flame, sitting at the bar. None of the other Jade Crew had ventured down that day, having preferred to stay up at the Lodge and not bother with the ugliness of the roads. After his encounter with Kierra, Darren had found himself wishing he had done the same thing.

“I take it this is a metaphorical hit?”

“No, more of a female one,” he said, taking a deep drink.

Ajax politely refrained from laughing outright, but a broad smile did crease his face. “Ah, that type. What happened?”

Darren fixed the other shifter with a look. Why did Ajax give a damn about him? Their crews weren’t at each other’s throats all the time anymore, but that didn’t mean they had deep, meaningful conversations either. The other shifter just stared back at him however, neither explaining nor backing down.

Perhaps he honestly is just willing to listen. He is an Alpha after all. Sometimes they do these sorts of things. You’re in charge of the Jade Crew right now, so perhaps that’s why he’s showing you this respect. After all, he and Garrett talk frequently. Remember the group he told you about?

Darren sat up a little straighter, giving Ajax a nod, wondering if the other would understand what it was for. The Emerald Alpha’s eyebrows narrowed slightly, but then he returned the short, curt nod.

I feel like I’m talking in code…

“I had a date. A real date, with someone that I felt something for, still not sure what, but
something
. Then she found out I was a member of the Jade Crew, and she shut me down.”

Ajax frowned. “Was there more of a reason than that?”

“It was Kierra Valcke,” he said plainly.

“Oh,” Ajax said with a thoughtful nod, clearly recognizing the name. “Yes, she isn’t exactly big on shifters. But why did she accept in the first place then?”

“That’s just the question, isn’t it?” His lips scrunched up as he thought it over for the hundredth time. “I think it’s because she felt something too. But once she told her assistant, who seems to be a bona fide shifter hater, that was that. The assistant convinced her that it would be a terrible idea to date me.”

“Sometimes these things take their time, but they usually have a way of working out,” Ajax said, his voice full of certainty.

“How come you’ve never taken a mate?” Darren asked suddenly, without thinking through what he was saying. “I mean, some of your crew already have mates.”

The big shifter’s eyes clouded over. “That is not a story for now,” he said thickly.

Darren nodded vigorously, already regretting having opened his mouth. “I’m sorry; that really wasn’t my place to ask,” he said awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck as he tried to think of a way to change the subject. “Anyway, I may have told her she was full of political bullshit. So I’m not sure if I’ll be seeing her again anytime soon. Besides, things could get really awkward for her if it got out.”

Ajax, to Darren’s relief, seemed willing to ignore his earlier outburst. “What do you mean?”

“Well, like, if the newspaper found out who I was, what I’ve done. I mean, not a lot of people in town can lay claim to what I’ve been through, right?”

He lapsed into silence, reliving his past as he thought the whole situation over. Darren, like most of the shifters, had several skeletons in his closet. His however were all housed within events that had happened while he was living in Genesis Valley. Or at least the most recent ones. At this point he didn’t think the newspaper could really be mad at him for what had brought him to the Valley back when he was a teenager.

“You’re referring to what happened during your training?” Ajax inquired.

Darren nodded sullenly. He hated being reminded of what had been taken from him. “If it wasn’t for that, I would probably be a Stone Bear right now. I had the raw ability and the skills.” His hand smashed onto the bar top in anger.

“I don’t understand your anger. You made a mistake, and you paid the price for it,” Ajax said as politely as possible.

Anger flared through Darren’s eyes, but he fought it down. “The only mistake I made,” he growled, “was not carrying a camera around with me twenty-four-seven.”

Ajax’s eyes widened.

“Exactly,” he confirmed. “I didn’t do it. For a reason that I still haven’t been able to figure out over five years later, somebody framed me.” With a silent snarl he grabbed his drink and finished it in one gulp.

Ferro, ever the present and understanding bartender, had a refill ready before he put the glass down. Darren grabbed that and tossed it back smoothly as well. Ferro was still pouring the next pint, but Darren was already running himself through several calming mind drills to help relax and dilute his temper.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had thoughts of that part of my life come up. I had thought I was past the judging and hatred, but apparently I was wrong.”

His shoulders drooped as he remembered what life had been like when his name had been fresh in the news. Not that Origin had more than one newspaper and radio station, but it was so small that word traveled fast in town.

“Why have you never told anyone about this? Surely if you are not to blame, there must be
some
way to prove it?” Ajax said, not willing to let this angle of conversation die just yet.

“I wish Ajax. I wish. Trust me, I tried every angle I could think of at the time, but it didn’t help. Someone wanted me out of the Stone Bear training for good, and they didn’t take any chances.” He grimaced in distaste. “Thank you though.”

Ajax nodded, and picking up on the tone of Darren’s voice, let the conversation die.

“We’ll talk again soon,” he said with a knowing look, before getting up and returning to his crew, who had been calling his name for several minutes.

Darren knew what that look meant. He was talking about the group Garrett had pulled together to try and figure out just what was going on in the Valley. Did he have something new to discuss? His earlier troubled thoughts evaporated as he began to focus his thoughts on the present. The past, as far as he was concerned, was the past.

The sound of glass clinking against the new black slate coasters caught his attention. Dragging his eyes up from the spot he had been inspecting on the bar, he made eye contact with another man sitting near him.

“Luthor,” he acknowledged politely.

The other man simply stared at him with slow burning ire in his eyes before looking back at the drink in front of him.

Ugh,
Darren thought to himself, slowly returning his gaze back to the bar in front of him.
That was odd
.
What the fuck did I do to him?
He racked his brain, trying to come up with something he had done to earn Luthor’s ire, but he couldn’t come up with anything.

The tall man with the bald head and short but full beard had appeared back before the Ridgebacks had been formed. Darren didn’t know his backstory, except that he was almost always present at the bar, and rarely said or did anything. Garrett had decided that he was another dragon shifter, possibly a relative of Ferro’s, but nobody seemed to know anything about him.

Apparently, he wanted to keep it that way.

He thought about outright asking Luthor about why he was here in town, but the doors opened behind him, letting in a gust of frozen wind and snow that caught his attention.

The weather had gotten steadily worse since he had arrived, and there would be few people moving around on the roads by now. Darren felt his eyebrows hit the roof as he turned to see who was brave enough to venture out just for the admittedly warm and peaceful comforts of the Tongue & Flame.

It was Kierra.

Frowning, he turned back to face the bar, but not before he got another eyeful of her gorgeous facial features as she doffed the hat and scarf that had covered her up. The smooth angles of her cheeks and the gorgeous pools of hazel set above her little button nose all but called to him. Fire surged to life within him as bright and fiery as the flames crackling in the hearth nearby.

Part of him wanted to surge to his feet and go to her, to pick her up and lay her back onto the pool table, ripping off her clothes while he pressed his lips to hers. All of his instincts screamed at him to take her without delay.

All of his
animal
instincts.

The human side of Darren knew the folly of listening to his bear when it became riled up. There were limits to what he could get away with, and most of what it was trying to tell him to do was definitely
not
on the list of acceptable actions. Not yet at least. His fingers tightened around the glass as he heard the telltale sound of high heels approaching behind him.

“Evening Kierra,” Ferro said politely, with a little more jovialness to his voice than Darren was used to. He glared at the bartender. Ferro was clearly trying to tell him to stop sulking and talk to the beautiful woman who had come all the way out here to talk to him. How Ferro knew that, Darren didn’t know, but he did. Perhaps he had seen them talking the night before and realized what was going on. Either way, it didn’t matter, because his intent was as clear as a lighthouse blazing away on the shore in the dead of night.

“Hello Ferro. Can I have a house one tonight?” she said, tossing her jacket on the back of the bar chair next to Darren.

That piqued his interest. Not only was she having a drink tonight, which meant she wasn’t here on business, but she was having a beer. One of Ferro’s house brews as well, which meant that she actually knew a little something about beer. Any woman willing to sit down and have a beer was instantly raised a few notches in Darren’s books.

“Of course. Bottle or glass?” the dragon shifter asked as he cracked the bottle open for her.

“You know, I think I’m feeling fancy today,” she said, and he could all but imagine the twinkle in her eyes as she joked. “Can I have it in a glass?”

Ferro nodded and expertly poured the beer, setting it and a coaster down in front of her.

Kierra sat, snatching up the beer and taking a long draft. She sat back into the chair, smacking her lips lightly as the wonderful full-bodied taste of his house ale touched her taste buds. Darren could understand that, for it was truly some of the best beer he’d ever had. Part of him wondered if Ferro put something with addictive properties in it, though he knew the shifter would never actually do so. The taste was likely a result of brewing expertise that stretched back to when the Egyptians had invented the brewing process. Ferro had had a
long
time to perfect the taste.

His bear growled and pawed at him, urging him to say something,
anything
to Kierra. But Darren was still hurting from her earlier dismissal of him. It seemed so silly, he thought. Or at least, silly in the way he had been brought up, which was to never show emotion or hurt. But the truth was it
had
hurt, and more than just a little. Apparently he had opened himself up to her more than he realized, which was why the slamming shut of the door had caught him so off guard.

So instead of speaking up, he waited for her to break the silence. It may have been petty, but right then and there he didn’t care.

“Darren,” came the soft, velvety smooth voice with just a hint of an accent that made her so exciting. He wanted to know her story. Badly.

“Kierra,” he returned, turning slowly in his chair to face her.

She was looking directly at him with an intensity that surprised him. Sitting up straighter, he gave the beautiful, full-figured woman sitting no more than a foot away his entire, undivided attention.

“I’m sorry,” she said bluntly, stopping after the two words.

Not what he had expected, Darren thought, the interest in him fading. He had figured she was sorry. Why else would she have trekked across town in the blizzard?

“Hey, don’t give me that shit,” she snapped, her tone still low.

His eyes stabbed her with an intensity he hadn’t known he could display toward her as his temper flared. How
dare
she talk to him after the way he had been treated at her hands earlier?

“I came out here through the fucking blizzard to see you,” she said angrily, jabbing a finger at the door. “So give me the time of day to say what I have to before you judge me some more.”

Wow. She’s sexy when she’s feisty.
He immediately tried to take the thought back, but it was too late. Thankfully he was able to keep a smile off his face, which would truly have doomed any hope of pursuing things with her further.

“I was a jerk earlier.” She paused. “No, I was a complete and utter bitch, actually.”

Now she had his attention once more. He didn’t say anything, but his eyes implored her to continue. He wanted to forgive her, but the way she had so simply shunned him earlier had dug deep. He needed to hear her speak some more.

“Do you ever do something, and then in hindsight ask yourself ‘what the fuck was I thinking’?”