Badlands: The Lion's Den (11 page)

Finn clambered painfully to his feet, blood seeping from his mouth and nose, and shook his head, sending arcs of hot crimson droplets spattering into the crowd. He seemed dazed, and Flora’s heart lurched as he moved woozily towards Ruben.

Finn slunk forward, low to the ground. Ruben took his slow, careful movements for submission. The big bear rose to his full height, his triumphant roar booming across the crowd and causing a tense, horrified hush to fall.

But Flora knew Finn better than that. Ruben, with his hair product and his flunkies and his honest-to-God golden throne, was all about showing his power. The Hudsons didn’t work that way. Finn didn’t need to strut around playing King of the Jungle. If he wanted someone dead, that person was as good as cold and buried.

No threats. No bluster. He just hurled himself at Ruben in a golden blur of motion, muscles bunching and releasing with powerful precision, and with teeth and claws he ripped open the brute’s belly. Glistening loops of silvery-gray intestine slithered to the floor, along with gouts of thick, dark blood that splattered on the ground and spread into deep pools that crept together and merged.

Ruben staggered for an endless moment, as if he could keep fighting even with his insides ripped out, fueled only by his shock and fury. Then he fell.

Finn stepped back and, with a ripple in the air around him, switched back to human form and stared down at Ruben with a solemn expression on his face.

Several of the women who’d been held in his cells pushed their way through the crowd and stalked over to the massive bear, who lay sprawled in a pool of his own blood. They spat on his twitching body, and he feebly swiped at them before his eyes went dull and he lay still.

It seemed as if all of Darwin was flooding the streets in front of Ruben’s house. Ruben’s guards had all been killed and lay abandoned on the street. Several dozen dead shifters who had fought against Ruben’s men lay in rows, covered by tarps. The injured were being carried away to medical clinics in both territories. Shifters of all species – cats and canines and bears – mingled together.

Flora climbed up on top of an abandoned car, and Krystle scrambled up beside her. Finn and Liam leapt up and stood next to them. Flora cleared her throat nervously. “Um, excuse me, everybody.” A few shifters glanced up at her, then looked away.

“Louder,” Krystle whispered to her. “Access that inner bitch.”

Flora took a deep breath. She thought of the dead shifters sprawled out on the ground, and the women Ruben had abused, and everyone who’d lived in fear and poverty to feed his massive ego.

“Listen the hell up!” Flora shouted at the top of her lungs, and everyone turned to stare up at her. She fought the urge to apologize for raising her voice and using bad language. “These shifters did not die in vain,” she yelled, pointing at the bodies of the fallen. “They died to end Ruben’s reign of rape and terror! Outside these borders, your life was controlled by the government! Did you come here just to be oppressed all over again?”

“No!” the crowd bellowed.

Liam cleared his throat and yelled out to the crowd. “From now on, we join together as a city! The borders are eliminated! All bears are welcome in our territory, and we will share our resources! You have internet connections, we have medicine that you need! You have the car mechanics, we’ve got the canning factory!”

“We have better beer!” one of the bears yelled, and there was a ripple of laughter from the crowd, despite the grim circumstances.

“Yes, you do! I’m not too proud to admit it! And we have better tequila!” Liam roared back. Now the crowd was laughing out loud. “And you have the best bakeries, and we have the best butcher shops! Let’s work together! Let’s patrol together! We’ll form a council of all shifters to make Darwin the best damn town in the Badlands!”

There was a loud cheer from most of the bears. A small but sizeable contingent, those who had once supported Rueben or who had benefitted from his criminal reign, booed and let out threatening growls. They glared intimidatingly at the bears who were cheering.

“One more thing!” Flora called out. She looked at Krystle, who nodded. “No woman, whether she is bear or cat or any other species, will be forced into a relationship with a man, ever again. Any woman who wants to leave a man can do so. Any man abusing a woman will be banished from Darwin forever.”

“You cats can’t tell us how to live! We rule by strength! What are you going to do about it?” a tall, angry bear shifter with a scarred face yelled threateningly at her. He was standing with a crowd of several dozen male bears, apart from the shifters who were mingling together.

With a mighty roar, he shifted into bear form. He shot up to a height of at least eight feet, snarling and waving his massive paws with long, curving claws.

“I’m
so
glad you asked!” Flora shouted back.

He was standing next to a red maple tree. She and Krystle stared at it, and it burst into flames as if it had been soaked in gasoline and set ablaze. He was caught in the fireball, and the fur on the left side of his body lit up. He ran screaming and flaming, then fell down on the street, rolling frantically on the road to put the fire out.

“If we ever hear of a woman being abused again in Darwin, by a bear or a lion or anyone else, we will hunt the abuser down and burn them like torches!” Krystle shouted.

She grabbed Flora’s hand, looked down the street and glared at a parked car. The car exploded into an enormous fireball.

“Any more questions?” She put her hands on her hips and glared at the crowd. She was answered by dead silence.

Krystle sat down on the car roof, slid off, and landed on the ground. Finn jumped off in one graceful motion and gestured to Flora, who slid off into his arms. He held her cradled there like a groom about to carry a bride across the threshold.

“Am I too heavy?” she asked him. “You can put me down if you want.”

“What did I say about calling yourself heavy?” he purred in her ear. “You’ve earned yourself a spanking tonight.”

“But how will you punish me?” She smiled at him as he gently set her down.

“Oh, Flora, you are becoming a very naughty, naughty girl. I like it.”

* * * * *

Flora, Finn, Liam and Krystle sat in folding chairs in the office of the new Darwin Town Hall, located right in the middle of bear and lion territories.

Three Council for Shifter Affairs representatives sat facing them. They were accompanied by a squad of twenty Enforcers, all armed to the teeth and still looking very uneasy. Their kind was not particularly popular in the Badlands.

Ameera Radwell, the representative who used to check in with Flora once a month when she lived with the Wilkinsons, was there, with an eager smile pasted on her face.

“I want you to know that we began investigating your report of TerraDyne as soon as you called it in,” she said to Flora. “And, of course, their infiltration of our own organization.”

One of the other representatives, a man who’d introduced himself as Kelmar Drake, cleared his throat. “Well, infiltrated is perhaps overstating it. We found that three of our employees were passing along certain classified information to them, in exchange for certain financial considerations, and—”

“You mean they leaked information about Flora and other shifters who might have extra-sensory powers, putting them in danger of their lives, and accepted bribes for it?” Krystle snapped.

“Well, yes, but they’ve all been arrested now,” Ameera said quickly in her peppy, rah-rah cheerleader voice. “And TerraDyne has been shut down completely, and the CEO and employees are facing trial.”

“You didn’t come all this way to tell me that,” Flora said to her. “You could have called me on the phone.”

Ameera glanced uneasily at the other representatives. “I hope you understand that the council itself knew nothing of what these people were planning,” she said. “If you had come to me and told me what you’d heard, we would have launched an investigation immediately.”

“That’s probably true.” Flora shrugged. “Not that it makes me feel much better. A member of your organization told TerraDyne that I had entered the Badlands. And then TerraDyne contacted Ruben, a corrupt criminal tyrant, and offered him money to find me. And he kidnapped a friend of mine, and me, and we nearly died because of it.”

“And that was unforgiveable,” Ameera said, nodding vigorously. “They’ll be in prison for the rest of their lives. Oh, and by the way, the Wilkinsons and Loren Haig are also facing criminal charges, and all the money they received from TerraDyne has been confiscated.”

“Yay?” Flora raised an eyebrow.

“You know, I’m just going to jump in here,” Krystle said. “Are you trying to sell yourselves on what a great, benevolent entity you are? You people do the bare minimum of checking in on juvenile shifters. You make sure that we’re not dead or visibly injured, and that’s it. I was in and out of foster care organizations for years, staying with abusive families, and when I told you people about it, you never did a thing for me. Why do you think I left it all behind and came to the Badlands?”

Ameera cleared her throat, looked at Mr. Drake again, then smiled brightly at Krystle. Her smile was starting to fray around the edges, however.

“Of course, it wasn’t me you reported to,” she said. “But I think it’s quite likely that one of my colleagues felt you were perhaps a teenager rebelling against following the rules. You weren’t in any actual danger. We at the council are always concerned with the welfare of shifters, as well as maintaining peaceful human-shifter relations.”

She glanced appealingly at Flora. “And I’m sure that you are concerned with the welfare of the shifter race as well.”

“Whatever you’re selling, please cut to the chase,” Flora said coolly. She struggled to stifle a grin of triumph. She was being rude and disrespectful – and it felt great.

An offended look crossed Ameera’s face. Outside the borders of the Badlands, she was treated with deference. Here she had no power.

Now her smile was positively pained.

“You and your cousin apparently have a fascinating genetic skill which is very unusual and potentially of enormous value. It could benefit all mankind. It could benefit America.”

“Yeah, well, America seems to have survived just fine without it so far,” Krystle said.

Ameera winced and forged on. “If you were willing to, voluntarily of course, accompany us out of the Badlands today, we would waive the thirty days in detention requirement, just for you. And we would pay you handsomely to participate in an entirely voluntary scientific study of your powers. I mean salaries in the six figures. Housing provided free. Security. Safety.”

She glanced around their surroundings with her lip curled in disdain. “After all, you don’t want to stay
here
.” She flicked a horrified glance at Finn and Liam. “With
these kinds
of people.”

Finn let out a low, rumbling growl.

“That’s my mate you’re talking about,” Flora snapped.

“Well, I suppose he could come too,” Ameera said doubtfully. Mr. Drake looked appalled at the notion.

Flora raised an eyebrow. “My mate’s family is here. My friends are, too. And I made a promise to some people here that I would stay here and look out for their welfare, and I keep my promises.”

“And I’d rather use my fire-starting powers on myself than have anything to do with you,” Krystle said.

“Well. I can see our generosity is not appreciated here.  This trip was a complete waste of our time,” Mr. Drake said huffily, and stood up to leave. The squad of Enforcers did the same, looking enormously relieved.

“If you ever change your mind…”Ameera said as they headed for the door. Then she saw the looks on Krystle and Flora’s faces. “You won’t, will you? Well, the offer is always there,” she said, and followed the rest of the council crew out the door.

Two weeks later…

“Surprises make me nervous,” Flora protested, but she kept her hands pressed over her eyes as Finn pulled his car to a halt.

“Quit being such a fraidy-cat,” Krystle said from the back seat.

“Be nice, now,” Jose said. “Oh wait, sorry, forgot who I was talking to. Ouch! You’ll pay for that later, woman.”

“Promises, promises,” Krystle said happily.

“What kind of surprise are we talking here?” Flora demanded. “Most of my life, the kind of surprises I’ve had have been like… Surprise! You’re going to live with a new family! Surprise! There’s this guy named Loren Haig, and he’s going to be your new mate! Surprise! You can set things on fire with your mind, so we’re going to steal your babies!”

The car door opened, and Finn said, “You can look now.”

Flora opened her eyes. As far as she could tell, they were on the south side of town. They were parked in front of a row of small but adorable bungalow cottages. It looked as if they were freshly painted, in tones of cream and olive green, with shingled roofs.

“What’s this?” Flora asked as she climbed out. “Ooh, look at those flowers out front. Who lives here?”

“You do, dumb-face,” Krystle said. “That’s the surprise!”

Finn grabbed her hand and led her up the driveway. “You like?” he said.

“I love,” Flora said, staring around in wonder.

“I’m going to be living next door,” Krystle added. “With Jose.” She patted the small rounded bump on her stomach; she was starting to show now.

“So you don’t want to move to Cottonwood after all?” Flora asked.

“With all the changes that are happening in Darwin, I think it’s going to start being a better place for families. Besides, like you told that council beeyotch, we made a promise. It would be harder to protect the women here if we were on the other side of the state.”

The front door opened onto a hallway with gleaming wooden floors. As they walked into the house, Madison, Sarah and Sam jumped out from a hallway door to the left and shouted, “Surprise!” Flora let out a squeal of alarm and stumbled into Finn before she recovered.

“You should have warned me!” she cried out to Finn.

“What part of ‘surprise’ are you having a hard time understanding?” he said with a smirk.

“You’re late,” Sam added in a severe tone, but he was stifling a smile. He hugged Flora. He was still so skinny that it hurt Flora’s heart to feel his bones pressing against her. “Finn said we could live next door to you guys, if it’s all right with you.”

“Of course it’s all right,” Flora said, hugging him back. “I’m going to be baking you guys lots and lots of Danishes. And I’ll make burgers and steaks. And salads. No more rats, ever.”

“I did a grocery run,” Krystle said to Madison, Sarah and Sam. “There’s a picnic table and a grill out back. Let’s go start frying up some burgers and give these guys a few minutes to tour their new home.”

They headed outside, leaving a misty-eyed Flora struggling not to cry with happiness.

Finn led her into the living room, which had a wood-burning fireplace with a mantel, and was furnished with a leather sofa and loveseat.

This room felt different from his apartment. Warmer. He’d hung up landscape pictures, and the bookcase had some old high school football trophies that he must have unpacked from somewhere. He’d put fresh flowers in several coffee cans throughout the room – on the coffee table, on an end table, on the mantel.

“Look,” he said. “I put the flowers in Maxwell House cans. Fancy, huh?”

He’d remembered her favorite brand of coffee.

“Better than fancy,” she said, blinking back a sudden rush of tears. “Homey.”

On the mantelpiece, next to the picture of his squadron, was a framed picture of him standing next to Liam, and, to her surprise, she saw a picture of her.

“I took that when you weren’t looking,” Finn said. “We need a picture of the two of us, of course. And there’s plenty of room on there for more pictures. You know, for our cubs,” he said.

She looked up at him. “Cubs?” she echoed.

“Yeah, those little furry things that nip at your ankles and turn from human to animal when you least expect it.”

“We’re going to have cubs.” She nodded hard, and sniffled just a little. She had been claimed by the best man in the Badlands, and they were going to live in this beautiful little house, and she would be the mother of his cubs.

“Well, not if we just stand around here and talk about it. I believe a tour of the bedroom is in order,” Finn said, and grabbed her by the hand.

“But…our guests…”
Our guests,
she thought in amazement, as he pulled her towards the staircase. She and her mate had guests. In their own home.

“Our guests can wait,” Finn growled, hurrying her along now. “It’s a Darwin tradition that a couple has to break in their new bed within the first fifteen minutes of entering their house.”

“That’s really a tradition?” Flora said skeptically.

“It is now,” Finn said, sweeping her into his arms and carrying her over to their bed.

THE END

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