Luke (Bear Shifter) (New World Shifters) (8 page)

“We need to go North,” Luke told me. “Bruno’s going to know that you came to save me. If he hasn't figured it out yet, he will soon. You aren’t safe back there anymore.”

“What's North?” I asked.

“I've been living up there. It isn’t much, but you’ll be safe there until I can get you out of here.”

I frowned. He hadn't really answered me, and I felt myself resist. I didn't have much, but what few possessions I did own were back in my motel room. He must've seen the look on my face, because he shook his head.

“It's gone,” he said. “Whatever's back there can be replaced. It isn’t worth your life.”

“You’re wrong about that,” I told him angrily. “You may know about me and you know and about my son, but you don't know everything. I've been getting paid in cash. I’ve got it hidden in the motel room. Every letter my son has ever written me is there too, and I'll be damned if I just leave it behind.”

“What good will you be to him if your dead?” Luke asked me fiercely. “You need to think this through, Zoe. I know you saw me Shift. Now that you know, there’s a big, bad world out there just waiting to swallow you whole if you're not paying attention.”

“Bruno…” What did he call it? “Bruno shifted too, didn’t he? He’s a Wolf.”

Luke nodded. “They all are. All of the Wolf pack.”

“And you’re a Bear?”

“I am. The Bears and the Wolves have been fighting for centuries. This is just the newest battle, and if we don't get out of here I can tell you right now that the Wolves are going to win it.”

I looked back over my shoulder to the South, past the bloodied bodies of the men that Luke had gunned down, trying to pierce the thick forest with my gaze. Everything I knew was back there. The town. The roads beyond that would take me to Jake. Everything and everyone I'd ever experienced was South of me, and here this guy that I barely knew was insisting that I follow him as he led me away.

“Listen,” I told him breathlessly, “you owe me. I saved your life. You and I both know those guys would've gotten you, or simply let you starve down there. Yes, you can turn into a Bear, and don't think I don’t have a ton of questions about that, but I'm sure Bears have to eat too. You would have died at the bottom of the hole if it weren’t for me, so you're going to have to pay me back. Got it?”

“And what is it you want?”

It was a good question. I opened my mouth to answer, and then shut my jaw so fast I heard my teeth clack together. It was like discovering a genie all of a sudden, and that childhood game of wishes that I’d always played came back to me.

Be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it
, I told myself. “I don't know yet,” I admitted. “But when I ask, if you can help me, you have to. Is that fair?”

Luke watched my face closely. The light of the moon crept through the clouds and caught in those glacial blue ice chip eyes of his. Just standing this close to him was enough to make me melt, but I grit my teeth and planted my feet and tried to resist his charms. I didn't even know if he knew how gorgeous he was, and that was even worse.

A guy like this, unaware of his good looks and charisma, without the arrogant asshole you-know-you-want-me vibe that most attractive men gave off, that was going to be hard as hell to resist.

“So you agree?” I asked, breaking the tension.

“I'll do what I can,” he answered.

That was good enough. It had to be. I headed off in the direction that he pointed earlier, and it must've stunned him because it took him a couple of steps before he hurried to catch up with me. “You know don’t even know where you’re going,” he said with a laugh.

“So? That's why I've got you. I assume you have a way for them to not be able to follow our tracks.”

“I do. I'm the youngest. That's enough.”

I looked at him like he was crazy, and he tossed me a lopsided grin. “Sorry Zoe. You’re taking this so well that I'm already forgetting there’s so much you don't know. I'm the youngest of three brothers.”

“And?”

He shrugged. “The youngest Bear is always the magic one. Our tracks will go away soon, when the wind and the snow answer my request. In five or ten minutes the Wolves won’t be able to follow us, and I think that'll be enough time for us to get a head start on them. They've looked for me before, and haven't found me yet.”

I frowned. “If you could make the snow do that, cover up your tracks and all, why didn’t you do it for me before?”

“Yesterday, you mean?”

“Is it after midnight?”

He nodded. “Just. But if you’re asking me why I couldn’t help you escape Bruno before, it’s because the magic is with me and not you. I had a little influence, but not much. You're walking with me now, so you'll be fine. But if we were to go in two separate directions, your tracks would remain visible for a lot longer than mine did.”

“Okay…” I said, rather blankly. I had no choice but to believe him, but I guess that made sense. “The Wolf pack. Are you just after them because they're Wolves, or what?”

He didn’t answer. We walked in silence for a while, and after thirty seconds or so I was about to repeat my question. Maybe the wind had stolen it from the air, or maybe he hadn't heard it over the noises of exertion I was making as I shoved through the snow. “There's more to it than just that,” he said at last.

“What,” I said sarcastically, “they pissed in your cornflakes? They short sheeted your bed? They-”

“They butchered my father and injured my oldest brother so severely that I don't know if he'll ever recover,” he said, cutting me off. “This isn't a game. Not to me. The last real battle we had with them I had to flee. My father made me.”

“Why?”

“It's complicated,” he answered. “Suffice it to say that the Wolves have a way of making you die that isn't very pleasant. They drink your power if they do it right, and doing it right to them means it takes a long time.”

“Right. I guess you got a lot of power for them to drink, huh?”

He sighed sadly. “I
am
the youngest. The magic one. If they would want any of us, it would be me. My father and my brother, they knew that too. They stood their ground and fought the battle that let me get away. I fled, just as they asked. I didn't want to disobey. I should have, but I listened to them. They made a coward of me, Zoe.”

I looked over at him, and the look on his face broke my heart. He was devastated, carrying a weight on his shoulders that I couldn't possibly imagine. Yes, I'd let my child down, but I built my life around the fact that I had a chance of getting him back. Luke though… There was nothing he could do to resurrect his father. I could see right away that he thought he was doomed to walk through life alone, desperate for a chance to atone for his sins, be they real or imagined.

“It's not like that,” I said to him softly, wondering if he’d listen to me at all.

“No?”

“Your father did what he thought was best for you. He lay down his life, and I'm sure he did it happily.”

“If you say so,” Luke told me, though the empty sound of his voice left a hollow in my gut.
What would you know
was what he really meant to say.

It made me furious. I whirled on him, and he wasn't expecting that. He may have been stronger and faster than I was, but he was stunned as I threw myself at him, shoving his shoulder hard enough to almost knock him off balance. “Have you got a child?” I demanded. “Are you a father?”

“No,” he answered, “but that doesn't mean anyth-”

“Just shut the fuck up and listen.
I'll
tell you what it means and what it doesn't. I'm a mother. I've got a son. If someone told me that I could die and my son would live, I’d do it. Gladly. I'd thank them for the opportunity, and I’d go to my death with a smile on my face. My son is everything to me, just like you were everything to your father. Don't disrespect the choice he made by moping over it now. He died so you could live Luke, so now it's your job to live a life worth saving.”

He didn’t say anything, but the look on his face made a lump in my throat. He needed so much, and he was so
lost
! “Don't think that he’s gone, because he isn't. He lives on in every action you do, every word you say, in every person you hurt and help. You want to justify his actions? Then get back to living, and show the world that he made the right choice.”

I didn't wait to see the effect my words would have on him. Instead, I turned on my heel as best I could in the snow and stormed off to the North, not particularly caring if he followed me or not. I was angry, and even though my words were directed at myself as much as at him, I could feel my wrath seething through my body.

The world had taken my son from me, and the Wolves had taken Luke's father from him. It wasn't right, but there was no way we could go back and change that. Wanting to was just a waste of time.

“Hey,” he called, “wait up.”

I ignored him. If he wanted to talk to me he was going to have to catch me, and even though I doubted that would be very difficult for him I wasn't about to turn around and wait for him.

I heard him plowing through the snow, and I did my best not to speed up. I wasn't running away; I was proving a point. Still, I was competitive, and a little part of me was annoyed at how quickly he closed the gap.
Just how strong was he
?

“Zoe, come on. I'm sorry, okay?” He was next to me now, and I felt the weight of his hand on my shoulder.

That heat, that almost fever touch of him went right through my thick jacket and into my bones. It made me weak. It made me want him. No, that wasn't exactly right. I
already
wanted him, but his touch made it hard to ignore. “Let's just go,” I said, gritting my teeth against the urge to throw myself into his arms.

“Okay,” he said, pulling his hand away slowly and matching me stride for stride. “But thanks. Thanks for that.”

Why did he have to be so likable? Why did this guy have to hit every button that lit me up? “Don't mention it,” I growled. “And I mean it. Don't. Not ever. I’m sick of sharing moments with guys like you.”

“You’ve never met a guy like me. I know that for a fact…”

Luke

I let Zoe walk for a little while without trying to push her toward a goal or demand any more answers from her. She
had
saved my life. She was right about that. Maybe I'd saved hers first, but she was still an innocent in all of this. She was a casual bystander, and she didn't deserve to have her life thrown into chaos the way it was about to be.

But she couldn't go back. Nothing I could say or do would change that now. Bruno had run the Wolf pack for a long, long time and I knew he was no fool. Even if he didn't know for a fact that Zoe was involved in my escape, he would more than likely destroy her just to be certain. Wolves didn't take chances, and with his Pack being whittled away like it was, he'd be even warier than he usually was.

The clouds cleared for a moment and I glanced up at the stars. At least we were making good time. We were still twenty minutes of hard hiking away from the cave I was living in, but my magic and the weather were combining to let us push through the snow drifts in good order.

I wasn't worried about being pursued, not yet at least. Once the Wolves found the bodies of their compatriots, I doubted that they'd stop at anything to find me, but by the time they did we should be well away from any part of their territory.

And how was I going to get Zoe out of here?

Even asking myself that made me feel sick to my stomach. I wanted her. No, I needed her. I was desperate for her. Just the flash in her eyes and the spitfire feistiness when she planted her feet every time she needed to confront me made it harder and harder to resist the pull of her. She was a force of nature all to her own, and even though she was ‘just’ a mortal, I found myself already bending to her will.

Which would've been fine, normally. But she wasn't my Mate. I already knew that, and that meant I had to wait until the person I was destined to be with and I crossed paths. Zoe and I could never be, and rather than pluck that forbidden fruit from the tree I was determined to walk away.

“Head in the clouds?” she asked.

“Sorry,” I grunted, as she dragged me back to reality. “Lots on my mind, I guess…”

“You were totally gone there, for a second,” Zoe told me. “I was asking if we were almost there, and the look in your eyes was like you were on an entirely different plane of existence.”

“You know about stuff like that?” I asked.

“What? Not really. I was just kidding, I guess. I mean I’ve played with Tarot and Ouija boards and stuff, but who hasn't? No, I just meant you were dead to the world. Is everything okay?”

No
, I wanted to say. But instead I forced a smile and nodded. “Almost there.”

“And what then?”

“I was just wondering that myself,” I admitted.

“How much food have you got up here?”

“Enough,” I told her. “And catching more isn't really a problem, so long as you like berries and salmon and that sort of thing.”

She wrinkled her nose at me and grinned. “Bear food, huh?”

I shrugged. “It
is
easier to find food in that form than this one,” I told her, “but it is what it is. As you know, I've been in town more and more lately, and I admit to growing fond of the food I could buy there as opposed to that which I could hunt on my own.”

She made a dark face, and I caught a whiff of contempt from her. “Yeah,” I noticed. “Though I have to say, I don't think I've ever seen you
eat
anything.”

“What?” Why the sudden turn in her?

“Most of your meals come out of a bottle, don’t they?”

Of course. I may have been keeping an eye on Zoe from a distance, but she didn't know that. The only contact she and I had back in town had been at Bruno's bar, while I watched my enemy and hid in plain sight. “I'm no drunk, if that's what you mean.”

“Sure, sure,” she said, waving my words away with one gloved hand. “I've heard
that
before, trust me. You're all alike. You can stop whatever you want. You’re just a social drinker. It's just a little bit of fun before you head home, to keep you warm. It's all bullshit, and I hope you know it.”

“No,” I insisted, “it's not like that. My magic burns the beer away. I don't get drunk. That would be stupid. I was just faking. If anything, it was more the smell and the activity of the bar that I was after than anything. The alcohol hurts the noses of the Wolves, and it stops them from smelling the Bear on me. That, and I can hardly watch them in the bar without drinking myself, right?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well think about it,” I said with a sigh, “if a guy came in every single day and just sat in the corner and ate a sandwich or picked at some fried fish or something, how long would that last? Half an hour, tops? But I can sit over in that same corner all day, every day, and just drink beer. Nobody questions the drunk. Pretty soon, he's part of the furniture. The Wolf pack said and did things in front of me that they
never
would have if I hadn't established myself as a boozer beforehand.”

“So it was all an act?” She was beginning to believe me, but I could see that she was still suspicious.

“Yes. I don't even like the taste of the shit. And even though you don't know me, I'm sure you can see in my eyes and hear in my voice that I’m hardly about to get drunk on the job. I want vengeance on the Wolf pack, and I'm not going to get inebriated and slow my reflexes for even an instant. My magic is stronger than that cheap swill, and I remained ready to exact my revenge.”

She threw me another dark gaze, but I could see a smile pulling at the corners of her lips at the same time. “Well,” Zoe said at last, “I guess that makes you slightly less of an idiot then.”

“Yeah?” I asked, smiling back.

“Only slightly. Don’t go nuts…”

“Fair enough,” I told her.

Why couldn't she be the one? She was perfect. Everything I’d ever looked for was right here in front of me, and now that she was with me it was killing me to know that I couldn't have her.

“What are you going to do with your life after you kill the Wolves?” she asked.

“There are always more Wolves.”

“Sounds like a waste.”

I shrugged. “There aren’t many Bears left. It's my job to do what I can to keep my people alive.”

I could see that little wrinkle between her eyebrows that meant that she was thinking, and I waited for her to ask the question I'd been waiting for. She'd want to know about Werewolves and Bear Shifters. She'd want to know about the past, about the war.

I'd already decided I'd tell her anything she wanted to know. She deserved that much, at least. That much and more, to be honest. She hadn't done anything wrong, and I may as well have poured gasoline on the life that she’d just left behind and set it on fire myself. That was the sort of prospect that her future held, at least.

“Tell me something,” she said. “Are you in love with me?”

It was as if the world stopped. She was only a mortal, I was sure that. Even though I didn't know what a Vampire smelled like, I was certain that she wasn't one of
those
. She might not have been my destined Mate, but was there something special to her apart from that?

Was she just a woman? And if so, how did she know?

And, far more importantly, what should I say?

As always, I went with my instinct. I told her the truth. “I am,” I told her. “Madly.”

“Why?”

Wow
. That was an even harder question to answer than the first, but I walked beside her as we pushed through the snow and I tried my best to do it. “I don't really know, I confided. I mean, why does anyone love anything? I see the way you are with people. Even those that don't deserve your grace and your kindness, they still get it. By rights, you could've kicked people out into the snow a dozen times, but you never did. When people were hungry and they couldn't pay, I watched you fudge the tab. I saw you even take money out of your own pocket when you had to, to cover Old Man Cole’s bill.”

“You saw that?”

“I did,” I told her with a nod.

“Poor old dude can't keep up with the prices,” she said with a giggle that made my heart light foe the first time in forever. “He’s still paying what he did in the sixties for a burger and I don't have the heart to break it to him that times have changed.”

“
That's
why I love you. That right there. Of course you're beautiful, but beauty is cheap. You're more than that. On the inside, your soul, the thing that shines out of those bright eyes and lights the rest of the room up, that's what I love.”

She was looking at me now, and those bright eyes I’d just mentioned were wide. I didn't know if she was angry or not, but I stopped in my tracks and she did too. “Really?” she asked, and I've never seen anyone more vulnerable than the woman before me now.

She was humble, I knew that about her too, but here was a person that for once in her life was willing to believe the nice things that someone had said about her, and all I had to do was say… “Yes. Really.”

“Then are you going to kiss me?”

“No,” I told her sadly, and without another word I pushed off farther to the North, and this time it was me that wasn't going to stop.