Unbearable: Russet Falls Series (3 page)

She heard the shower turn on in the upstairs bathroom, and
she realized that her mother was actually taking her advice and showering. Why
did Gabby have to be the one to take care of everyone? She knew that if her
father was still here, she wouldn’t have to be in charge.

She remembered the State Troopers bringing his body back to the
house. Her mother had screamed and tried to push Gabby away so that she
couldn’t see, but it was too late. Gabby had seen the blood around her father’s
mouth and the missing fingernails.

As if he had tried to fight a bear.

What the hell could he possibly have been thinking?

Gabby shook her head, trying not to think about that night.
The night that had changed her whole world when she was only six years old.

Gabby went back out into the kitchen and Lucy was quiet,
sitting in one of the kitchen chairs. She looked up at Gabby with her big blue
eyes and she suddenly looked so young; she reminded Gabby of what she had been
like as a child.

“So are you going to leave, now that I’m graduating? Are you
going to move away?”

Sighing, Gabby sat down next to her. “No. I’m not going to
leave. Not now, when I have a good job.”

“But you could get a good job anywhere,” Lucy pointed out.

“True.”

“But you still feel like you need to look after me?” Lucy
asked.

Gabby nodded. She couldn’t imagine Lucy on her own. At least
not yet. And it was true, she did have a good job at the hotel, and Paul was
paying her more than she deserved.

“You still could take some classes at the community college
in Salem,” Gabby pointed out. “It’s only a thirty minute drive.”

Lucy nodded. “I know. Maybe I will. I’m sure I could keep
working at the diner while I took classes.”

“Absolutely. You could probably work more hours at the diner
because your class load wouldn’t be the same as being in school all day. Ask,”
Gabby urged. Lucy worked at one of the two diners in town, and even though she
was a troublemaker at school, she was actually a hard worker. Gabby knew the
owners, Trish and Jimmy, would love to have Lucy put in more hours.

“Okay. Maybe I’ll ask at work tomorrow. And then I can look
into registering for Fall classes.”

“Don’t wait too long,” Gabby warned. “Those classes will
fill up.”

They didn’t get a chance to speak anymore because Andrea
wandered into the kitchen, freshly showered and looking like she didn’t know
how she got there. That was often the look of a drunk. Once they sobered up,
they couldn’t quite remember how they got to that point.

“What’s this about you getting into trouble?” Andrea asked,
grabbing a Diet Coke from the fridge and reaching for a granola bar.

“Nothing. I just had a little fun with the intercom system,”
Lucy smiled.

Gabby didn’t want to stick around to watch her mother try to
act like a mother to Lucy, so she stood up.

“I’m going to head out and you can fill Mom in.”

“Stay,” Lucy pleaded, her eyes begging Gabby.

She felt horrible, but Gabby shook her head. “I can’t, Luce.
I’m sorry.”

“We could order pizza,” Andrea suggested. “I don’t really
have any food here anyway.”

Gabby pulled out her wallet and placed a twenty down on the
table. “Here. Order pizza. I’ll bring some groceries by tomorrow.”

“We’re not a charity house,” Andrea snapped. “I don’t need
your damn money or your groceries. I was offering for you to stay for dinner.”

“Well maybe I wouldn’t have to put groceries in this house
if you didn’t waste all of your money on booze!” Gabby shot back. “Enjoy the
pizza.” She looked back at Lucy. “Sorry, Luce.”

She hurried from the house, hating herself for how she acted
toward her mother, while hating her mother at the same time.

Why the hell couldn’t her mother take care of things? Her
mother had received a good pension since her father died; it was more than
enough to care for her and Lucy. And if her mother could quit drinking the damn
booze, she would even be able to work.

Disgusted, Gabby got in her car and drove away. She was too
keyed up to drive; she knew what she really needed was to exercise. She had workout
clothes in the back of the car, and, on a whim, hopped onto the highway and
made her way towards Santiam State Forest. A nice, hard hike could do wonders
for her and she needed to clear her head.

“Fuck!” Zane muttered, noticing the time. He was supposed to
have been at work ten minutes ago, and he hadn’t even left his house. He
climbed into his new Hummer and flew down the driveway.

People had been questioning why he had bought such an expensive
car, but he didn’t give a shit. He worked hard, and he deserved a nice car if
that’s what he wanted. And it was Heaven to drive.

He hurried towards the park office, knowing full well that Michael
would already be there and want to know why he was late. He certainly couldn’t
explain that he had been whacking off in the shower. He would have to come up
with some other bullshit excuse.

It was just hard to get excited to go into work most days.
He had to put on a stupid brown park ranger uniform and then act like he was
protecting the park, when really he was just waiting for one of the dumb
fuckers from another clan to cross over onto Virtus land.

He flashed his badge at the park entrance and drove up
toward the park office. It was called an office, but it looked more like a
southern plantation, which seemed even more out of place in the middle of a
forest in Oregon. But since the Virtus clan owned this land, and basically
owned the state park, they were able to use the entire building for their own
needs, with no questions asked.

Zane parked the car and hopped out, hurrying into the
office.

“Why are you late?” Michael growled from his office.

Zane wanted to say something flippant, but he felt the power
of Michael’s alpha question, and he couldn’t help himself but be kowtowed.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized quickly. “It won’t happen again.”

Fucking alpha power.

“It better not. We have business to take care of, and I
don’t have all fucking day to wait around for when you decide to show up to
work.”

Zane walked into Michael’s office and found him standing,
staring out the back window into the woods.

“Have there been any more reports?” Zane asked.

Michael only shook his head. “But I have a feeling that one
of the clans is up to something. We can’t risk losing any more cubs.”

There were three clans that shared the state park, their
borders all coming to a head at one location. Zane liked to consider their
clan, the Virtus tribe, the most honorable of the three because they at least
had ideals and tried to do some good. The Cruentus clan was bloodthirsty,
always out for a nasty fight. The Atrocitas clan was a cruel one, seeking power
with no consideration for others.

Of course, Virtus had its moments too.

“I just have a feeling,” Michael repeated, “I know that
sounds ridiculous, but I can feel something in my blood.”

Zane nodded even though he had no idea what Michael meant.
Michael, being the alpha of the clan, had more powers than the other shifters.
He was also able to sense things that the others couldn’t. The only extra-power
experience Zane had ever known was one that he tried to forget. He had been a
young, foolish boy and had made an awful mistake that had almost cost him his
position in the clan. Michael’s father, the alpha at the time, had been kind to
forgive him.

“Don’t think about that now,” Michael said swiftly, and Zane
winced, hating that when he had a strong memory or thought, Michael could pick
up on it. “Let’s get to work. Go get situated in your office and then meet me
back here in fifteen minutes. We also have a reporter from the paper coming
today.”

Shit. Zane had forgotten about that. He would surely have to
do the interview and he would have to discuss all the bogus ways he protected
the park. Annoyed, he hurried into his office and put his things down, signing
onto his ancient computer and making sure he didn’t have any emails. He glanced
at his calendar for the day, which of course had the reporter’s appointment
time, and then he went back into Michael’s office.

He was jumping out of his skin for some reason, and he was
eager to shift. Hopefully Michael would allow him to patrol the borders in bear
form today.

“Calm down,” Michael said with annoyance.

“Do you have to listen in on everything I’m feeling?” Zane
snapped.

“As if I want to know all the shit that’s running through
your head. You usually do a better job of keeping your emotions in check.”

Michael was right. Why was Zane having such a hard time
controlling his thoughts today? Michael was reading him like a fucking book.

“I don’t know,” he said, aggravated. “I just feel off.”

“Well, try not to feel off so we can get our shit done.
How’s that for an idea?”

Zane nodded, not wanting to piss Michael off any more. But
again, he started thinking of that time when he was only fourteen years old,
and he had crossed onto the Cruentus lands.

“Damn it, Zane!” Michael exclaimed. “Focus!”

“Fuck! Sorry!”

“Go on, then. Go out and patrol the grounds. Clear your
fucking head. And then when you get back here, get a fucking grip so we can
work.”

“Alright, I’ll be focused. Thanks.” Zane hurried out of the
room, feeling like a pansy for needing to clear his head. What the hell was his
problem today? Why did he keep thinking about things from the past? Things he
could do nothing about and weren’t worth his time?

He tried to think of other things as he moved out across the
lawn of the office and toward the shelter of the trees. He thought about the
cubs that were being killed, and it made his blood boil. This was good. Anger
always helped make the shift easier.

The three clans, who rarely had moments of peace, were in a
bad state. Over the past year, cubs had been killed, and Zane couldn’t
understand why. Regardless of their fighting over land, how could killing cubs
result in any good? Only pure shifters could produce shifter children for
certain, and female shifters were a dying breed—literally. 

There were plenty of women with shifter blood, and those
unions resulted in at least half of the children being able to shift. But it
seemed that the clan members were more often marrying non-shifters, and this
resulted in only the slightest chance of shifter children. Not only was the
blood becoming diluted, creating less shifters, but now the rival clans were
killing cubs.

It made no sense to Zane and it angered him that those
innocent cubs were being killed over fucking borders. There hadn’t been a cub
killed in the past month, but they always had to be vigilant. It seemed that
more Virtus cubs were killed than any other clans’, and the Virtus refused to
kill another clan’s cubs, no matter what was happening. Michael wouldn’t resort
to that kind of cruelty, and Zane admired him for it.

Zane thought he would lose his mind if he had to watch one
more family cry over the loss of a cub. The images of those mothers thrown
across tiny coffins were too much for even the toughest bear to handle.

At last, Zane reached the edge of the trees, and he strode
to his clothing hiding spot behind a rock. He quickly stripped off, tucked them
into a burlap sack and placed it in the deep crevice of the rock. He let the
anger he had been feeling about the cubs sweep over him, and his bear came to
the surface quickly.

Twisting his neck from side to side, he felt the bear push
through, and then his body was doubling in size, lengthening and thickening as
dark brown fur sprouted from his skin. His heavy paws fell to the ground, and
within another second he was in full bear form.

Zane stretched and inhaled deeply, glad to have his sharp
senses back. He let go of trivial matters and quickly moved deeper into the
woods. He couldn’t smell any humans nearby, and he didn’t smell any other
unfamiliar scents for that matter. He trotted to the farthest ends of their
borders, pushing his snout to the ground, and began running the perimeter.

Usually, it wasn’t this necessary to patrol the grounds, but
he felt that with the cubs being killed it was his duty to watch the lands more
closely than ever. Deep in the forest, past the boundaries of the state park,
lived many of the clan families. Some rarely ventured into town, while others
were considered completely anti-social. Zane’s house was on clan lands, though
he was closer to the town than many of the other bears. While he didn’t care
about being social, he did care about having a nice house, and he liked being
close to the park office.

He continued to circle the perimeter, feeling slightly uneasy
about Michael’s premonition. Even in bear form, he still felt out of sorts from
his earlier thoughts.

Zane had struggled with being a shifter. He was late to
shift, and his parents had all but given up hope that it would ever happen.
Most cubs start shifting around the age of five, though some began as late as
ten or twelve. Zane didn’t shift until he was fourteen. He had always been a
fairly mellow kid, and looking back, he wondered if that was why it had taken
so long. Those with angrier dispositions usually shifted sooner—something about
anger triggered shifting and made it easier.

Zane remembered how he had shifted for the first time while
his parents were in town. He had been by himself, and he hated to admit it, but
he had been scared. He ran along the clan lands, trying to find someone he
could go to for guidance. He must have crossed over onto the Cruentus lands,
but he hadn’t realized it. He had been back on Virtus lands, minding his own
business, when a huge black bear had come out of nowhere.

Zane was terrified and the bear had attacked him. Zane
didn’t know what else to do, so he attacked back, and he was shocked at his own
strength. Zane always wondered if all that strength had been storing up because
it had taken him so long to shift.

He knew the black bear had intended to kill him, so he did
the only thing he could do and fought back, killing the black bear. But
something bizarre had happened when he killed the bear. Zane instantly felt
stronger. He knew that wasn’t normal—he had learned a lot about the warring
clans and fighting bears, and no one had ever mentioned that killing another
bear made you stronger.

Panicked, Zane had shifted back to his human form and carried
the dead body back to David, Michael’s father.  David recognized the man as the
king and leader of the Cruentus. Zane didn’t even know such thing as a bear
king could exist, and David confirmed that there were still a handful of bear
kings alive, the last descendants of a powerful werebear dynasty. That
explained the power Zane had felt when he killed him. Part of the bear’s power
and strength had transferred to Zane. A rare and strange occurrence in an
unlikely situation.

David kept Zane’s secret; Zane could have been prosecuted
for the death of a bear king. Zane wasn’t sure how David had kept him out of
trouble, but he assumed that it had cost David. Zane was never able to repay the
favor; David died a few years later in a clan dispute.

And such was the life of the werebears. Fighting, warring
clans and tribe matters often cost those with volatile personalities.

Zane realized he was letting his bear mind slip back to
human tendencies, and he shut off his thoughts; it was much easier to
compartmentalize while being a bear. He pressed his snout back to the ground
and continued to run the border.