Worshiped By The Bear Kings - Complete

WORSHIPED BY
THE BEAR KINGS

The Complete
Set

Rosette
Bolter

Also By
Rosette Bolter

Shared By
The Dragon Clan

Badass
Dragons

Engaged To
The Vampire Twins

Stepbrother
Bear

PART ONE

CHAPTER ONE

Jasmine Whiley was the only one of
the four friends who heard both the sound of the hunter’s rifle, and his
screams for help soon after. She was separated from the group – still at the
picnic tables where they’d eaten lunch, gathering up the last of their
belongings to bring them back to the car. She stopped what she was doing and
moved round from the grass area to the dirt trail which ran along the lakeside
and into the forest. She squinted, the sun’s hot rays pouring down on her.

It was far
away, but she still heard it. A man was in trouble.

Jasmine
wasn’t sure how to progress through this. The threat of another person’s life
could mean a threat to her own.

She could
also see the car with her three friends up the hill in the opposite direction.
She waved to them to come and help her, but obviously not understanding the
seriousness of the situation, her brother Dennis rudely honked the horn for her
to hurry up and return. Jasmine took a step towards the hill, but could then
bare the hunter’s screams no more.

For some
unknown reason, putting aside the danger to herself and others, she felt
compelled to investigate.

She hurried
down the trail in his direction.

“I’m here!”
she shouted. “I’m coming!”

She wasn’t
sure what had happened to him, but by the sound of things, he must have injured
himself in some way. He may have fallen into an elusive pit and had difficulty
getting out – God forbid, he may have stupidly shot himself in the foot.

After a
minute down the trail the hunter’s screams ceased, but Jasmine was sure she was
close where he was now, so he should be able to hear her.

“Where are
you?” Jasmine called out. “Are you okay?”

The trail
began to steep upwards and as she climbed it, she caught the hunter’s figure
down near the lake between the trees. She quickly hurried through there,
pushing her way through a multitude of bushes and branches, until she reached
the edge of the bank where he was.

Fright hit
her like a needle hammer.

The hunter
was dead.

There was
blood all over his chest and face, as if he had been mauled by something.

“Oh shit,” Jasmine
squealed, stifling her scream.

She realized
now she could be in danger.

Just about to
turn and run as fast as she could, her eyes drifted across to the other side of
the lake where she saw movement. A large, bare-chested man was stooped over the
water, washing himself with it.

Washing the
blood away.

Jasmine
watched him, locked into his fixed squat, running the water across his arms,
shoulders and chin. While he was physically intimidating, full of iron clad
brawn, and sportsmanship physique, there was a gentleness to his face. An
almost … innocence. This observation ran completely counter to that fact that
he was washing the blood of the hunter off himself.

Counter, to
that he was a murderer.

He stood up
at once, noticing that Jasmine was staring at him.

She hadn’t
realized he’d been caught in her vision for so long – but there it was. Under
less intimidating circumstances, she would have been embarrassed, rather than
terrified.

She backed
away into the forest still staring at him, her heart racing.

For whatever reason,
he chose not to pursue her.

He only
stared back.

CHAPTER TWO

It was a Saturday afternoon. The
night before Jasmine had received a phone call from her brother Dennis, asking
if she would be interested in coming along to this weekend in the wilderness.
While she may have been reluctant to agree due to having exams scheduled the
following week, it had been two whole months since she’d her brother, and she
was concerned about him. The last time she’d seen him was at the wedding of a
recent ex-girlfriend of his … and while he seemed okay with losing his love
then, she worried about his mental state in the long term.

“It’s okay,”
he assured her over the phone. “I’ve got a new girlfriend now. I’ve moved on.”

“Really? Who
is she?”

“That’s why I
want you to come along to this trip with us. We’re gonna stay in her uncle’s
cabin so it’s not like we’ll be roughing it. It will be a fun time.”

“I don’t
know…” Jasmine had responded. “Just the three of us?”

“Just the
three of us.”

Later the
next morning it turned out Dennis’s new girlfriend had a brother – Jake – and
the whole trip was Jake’s idea in the first place. As nerve-racking as this
little revelation had been for Jasmine, she hoped it would be the last drama
the group encountered that weekend.

But as it happened,
it was only the first.

“What are you
doing?” Dennis hissed at Jasmine as she came up the riverbank. “We’re all
waiting for you.”

Jasmine
quickly moved to his side, and stopped to catch her breath.

“What’s
wrong?” Dennis asked sounding perplexed.

“Some guy’s
dead down there,” Jasmine said. She pointed. “I think he’s been murdered.”

“What? How do
you know that?”

“There was
this guy on the other side of the river. He had … like blood on him.”

“Fuck…”
Dennis murmured. “Alright, let’s go back to the car.”

Jasmine
nodded. “Okay.”

After a short
distance’s walk they were there, and Jake and his sister Dara were still in the
car. Upon seeing them, Jake opened his passenger side door, and stuck his head
out.

“Everyone
alright?”

“No,” Dennis
responded.

He moved out
to meet Jake face to face, while Jasmine went round the other side of the car.
She opened the backseat door and sat next to Dara.

“What’s going
on?” Dara asked.

“I found a
dead body.”

“Huh?”

Dara squinted
at her as though it might help to understand.

Dennis and
Jake were still talking.

“Did you hear
a gun go off before?” Jasmine replied.

Dara nodded.

“Did you hear
the man screaming for help?”

“I didn’t
hear that.”

“Well, I did.
I went to check it out, and that’s when I found him.”

“Dead?”

“Dead.”

Dennis opened
the passenger door and stuck his head in.

“You okay?”
he asked.

Jake was
moving round to the back of the vehicle.

“I’m fine,”
Jasmine replied.

“You tell her
what you saw?”

“She told
me,” Dara answered, still sounding skeptical.

“Alright,”
Dennis said.

Jake opened
the trunk of the car and retrieved something before slamming it shut.

As he walked
alongside the car towards Dennis, Jasmine could see that he was carrying a pair
of rifles.

“What are you
doing?” Jasmine exclaimed. “You’re not seriously –”

Jake handed
one of the rifles to Dennis and leaned into the car. “We’re going to
investigate. Wait here.”

He closed the
door before Jasmine or Dara could protest.

CHAPTER
THREE

“Did you know they brought guns with
them?” Jasmine asked Dara who was now fishing through her handbag for
something.

“Of course.
Jake’s big on hunting.”

“Hunting?”
Jasmine spluttered.

Dara didn’t
respond. She’d found her makeup case and was reapplying her foundation with the
use of a mirror.

Jasmine
squirmed in her seat. The boys were drifting out of sight from the car.

“I think I’m
gonna go with them,” Jasmine said, opening her door.

Dara was
unaffected.

Jasmine left
the car and started heading quickly in the boy’s direction. She had a bad
feeling about this. A very bad feeling. She hadn’t spoken to Jake much today
but he came across to her as insensitive and a bit of a thug. Not someone her
brother needed around him. Throwing guns into the mix was only going to make it
worse.

A couple of
minutes later, Jasmine approached the boys as they stood over the hunter’s
body. Jake was stooped over it, inspecting the wounds, while Dennis was holding
the hunter’s rifle as well as his own, seemingly toying with it.

Across the
other side of the river, there was no sign of the shirtless man Jasmine had
locked eyes with…

“Oh, fuck
off, Jasmine,” Dennis cursed when he saw her. “Go back to the car.”

Jasmine
ignored him. She stopped at the hunter’s feet, and looked down at Jake.

“What do you
make of it?” she asked him.

Jake looked
up. “There are no murderers around here, thankfully.”

“What do you
mean?” Dennis asked.

“This man’s
been beaten to death by some kind of animal.”

“That’s not
right,” Jasmine said. “When I came down here I saw a guy on the other side of
the river, and he had this guy’s blood all over him.”

“So?” Jake
muttered.

“Well, I just
assumed –”

“He was
probably the guy’s hunting partner. You should have told him about our car
nearby.”

Dennis leaned
over the body. “What animal do you think has done this?”

Jake inhaled
through his nostrils.

As though he
was picking up a scent.

Then he
reached down and pulled some hairs off the hunter’s jacket. He held them close
to his eyes.

“What is it?”

“Hmm. How
strange.”

Jake stood
up. He put the hairs in his pocket.

“What’s so
strange?” Jasmine asked.

“I didn’t
know they had grizzlies out this way.”

CHAPTER FOUR

“Grizzlies?” Dennis repeated. “As in
the bear?”

Jake turned
slightly to face him. “Yes. As in the bear.”

“What do you
think he was hunting?” Jasmine asked.

“Well there’s
plenty of deer around,” Jake said. “But if you went north for a while … it’s
possible you might run into a wandering black bear. To be honest not many
hunters go that far though because it’s too far from the road and the terrain
is dangerous.”

“But you’re
saying a grizzly did this,” Dennis stated.

“I have no
doubt.” Jake looked to either side of him. “But I can’t tell you how it came to
be here. It must be hungry or something. Maybe it’s lost.”

“Well, are we
in any danger standing here?” Jasmine asked. “What if it comes back?”

Jake looked
at the ground for a moment. His eyes moved towards the river. “I’m pretty sure
it crossed the stream.”

“So what do
we do now?” Dennis asked. “Call the police?”

Jake
hesitated. “There’s a ranger’s lodge about seven minutes up the road. If
there’s no one there, you’ll have to go back to town and report it. But you
should go to the lodge first.”

“Whoa, wait a
second. What about you?”

“I’m gonna
see if I can find the missing hunter. He’s probably injured and in shock.”

“Well, what
if you get lost?”

Jake blinked.
“I won’t.” He then set foot into the river’s edge, before turning a moment.
“I’ve got my cell on me, so if you need to call me, you should do so. By the
time you get back with the ranger, I should be standing right here. You should
call me if I’m not.”

Jake trudged
off into the water.

Dennis looked
to Jasmine.

“We should
probably just do what he said,” she offered.

Dennis didn’t
appear as convinced. He called out to Jake, “You’re just going to look for the
hunter right?”

Jake turned.
“Sure,” he said. “And I’m gonna see if I can find that grizzly too.”