Bear In The Rough: Book 1: Treasure Hunt (BBW Bear Shifter Romance) (14 page)
Chapter 14—Olivia
When I came to, I could barely turn my head. The bright morning sunlight burned into my eyes, bringing tears. My back was stiff from lying on thick stone; the ropes burned into my wrists.
My memories of what had transpired before I passed out returned in fits and starts. I remembered that we had been on a boat, watching the waves dance… I remembered that Henry said something that had made me tremendously, wonderfully happy. Had he proposed? No, but he might as well have. “All in,” he had said. And I had said, “All in.”
Was I making a mistake? A few days ago, I would have said yes. A few days ago I distrusted him and doubted whether he could ever be a responsible adulthood. The events of the last few days had put those fears firmly to rest, allowing me to see even his more troubling qualities in a new light.
On our first day together I had sensed something deeply unsafe about him, and it seemed to confirm all the warnings I had been given by Carrie. But in hindsight it was clear that he had only been trying to scare me away because he doubted his own ability to control himself. At the time he had had virtually no authority over when he shifted or how he reacted when he did. The discovery of the stone had changed all that. The stone allowed him to live in society without worrying about a sudden manifestation. The stone rendered him capable of holding his anger in check; of finding and holding a steady job; of making passionate love.
But the real shift in our relationship had come during our exploration of the tunnels. His willingness to brave the dangers of the temple had convinced me of his courage, and his grief over his grandfather’s death had persuaded me of his kindness. It was a potent combination, slowly winning me over in spite of my hardheaded resistance. He flirted and even fought with me with an affability that was irresistible. “Do you see this?” I had found myself wanting to ask him. “Is it obvious to you how much we belong together?”
And I had held my breath, not wanting to believe it was true because maybe he couldn’t see it; maybe it was all in my head. But he had seen it, and, knowing this, I had enjoyed a few minutes of pure happiness.
The cry of gulls overhead woke me from my reverie. Henry was nowhere to be seen. I was strapped to a pile of rock. By lifting my head slightly, I caught a glimpse of the ocean. It was a bright, serene day, almost appalling in its cheerfulness. In movies it always rains when some terrible danger befalls the protagonist, as if the world mourns alongside her. Here a palm tree swayed in the breeze and the wind sighed quietly. Nothing and no one had taken notice of my plight, and my own boyfriend had left me to die.
“So you finally woke up,” came a voice from overhead. Devin stepped clearly into view, his black eyes maliciously glinting.
“Untie me, Devin,” I said in a low voice.
“If you had just listened to me sooner,” he said, with a resigned sigh. “It didn’t have to be this way, but you left me with no choice.”
“You still have a choice. You can turn around right now. You can walk away.”
“I suppose you’ll go to your death thinking this was my fault,” he went on, as though I hadn’t spoken. “Forever blind to the choices I had to make for the sake of this expedition. I know I can’t make you understand, but please know that what I do, I do for the good of everyone.”
I shifted my head. Pieces of the stone rubbed themselves into my scalp. I took a deep breath and adjusted myself on the slab; the pain tore into my lungs, winding me.
“If you hadn’t quit your job and run off with that foolish man…” he said. “If you hadn’t cost the entire team our commission… believe me when I say, this is the last thing in the world I wanted to be doing this morning, and I regret this more keenly than you ever could or will.”
He was chanting tonelessly to himself now, as though trying to convince himself of something he knew in his heart was untrue. I didn’t have the breath to argue; the ropes were cutting into me like knives.
“I would even consider letting you go,” he said, “if you would tell me the location of the treasure of Oak Island.”
For a brief moment I thought about making up a story. “I’ll lead you there myself,” I would have said, while leading him into a trap he could never get out of. But I wasn’t going to let myself be bullied. If he intended to kill me, I wouldn’t go to my grave trying to make bribes or bargains like a coward. I would face death with honor. I would heap shame on his head with my dying gasps.
“We found the treasure,” I lied, “but I’m not letting you have it. You could kill me a thousand times and I would never tell you, because you deserve not one doubloon. You can rot in the cold snows, banging on the doors of Peranthium forever.”
He lurched forward, one hand reaching towards the pocket of his jeans. Out of it he pulled a leathery sheath, and from the sheath he pulled a small dagger that gleamed in the late-morning night.
“LET—HER—GO!” came a voice from the edge of the clearing, and Henry stepped into view.
“Leave it, Henry,” said Devin, still advancing forward. “This is none of your business.”
“Put down the knife,” said Henry.
“DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!”
“Devin, listen,” he said, his voice hoarse and throaty. “We found the lost trail, we looked for the treasure, and it’s not there, okay? It’s gone. You can search and search for it but you’re never going to find it, because someone already took it. Someone got there before us and took it all and nothing you do to me will ever change it. You’re just throwing away two perfectly good lives. You murder her, you’ll spend the rest of your life in prison. It’s not too late to turn around. You still have a choice.”
“I’ll find it,” said Devin, but his arms were shaking. “The two of you stashed it away somewhere, and I’ll find out where.”
“Listen to him, Devin,” I said. “The treasure is gone.”
“LIARS!” he shouted, springing forward onto the stone and seizing my hair. I screamed. Henry roared; his tall, lank silhouette expanded and shifted, and with a single ferocious lunge the bear sprang to the foot of the cross.
I thought Devin was dead. I doubted that Henry could control himself while still in his bear-form, when the madness of beast-brain and battle overtook him. But, with remarkable self-control and dexterity, he wrangled the dagger out of Devin’s hand. Devin, apparently overwhelmed by terror and surprise, fell backwards onto the grass and blacked out.
Chapter 15—Henry
Having overcome Devin, I shifted back into my human form and ran for Liv. She squirmed restlessly as I struggled to loose the knots that bound her, then showered me with kisses and hugs.
“I was so scared,” she said, over and over. “I really thought I was dead.”
“Not yet,” I said, brushing my lips against the top of her forehead. “Not today.”
* * *
I carried Devin back to the tavern, where we tied him up. I made an anonymous call from a payphone alerting the authorities to what had happened. Then we sat down at the bar, ordered drinks, and waited for them to arrive.
At the subsequent trial, Devin was convicted of attempted manslaughter. He was also found guilty of embezzlement, as Liv had discovered that he had been using the excavation’s funds for his own personal uses, which apparently included a BDSM dungeon and a gigantic bouncy castle. The team’s benefactors were so overwhelmed with gratitude at Liv’s exposure of the truth, and my assistance, that they made her the leader of the expedition and gave me an advisory role.
“So…?” said Liv, entwining her arm with mine, as we descended the steps of the courthouse.
“So?” I said.
She twirled and giggled girlishly. “What are you going to do with your life? You know, now that we’ve found your granddad?”
I stretched wearily and sighed. “I’ll have to go back for him eventually. He deserves a proper burial, but after that, I don’t know. I’ve spent so much of my energy and time chasing after him, now that I’ve found him, I don’t know what to do with my life.”
Liv wrapped her arms around my neck and leaned close. “I have an idea,” she whispered into my ear, motioning to the window of our hotel room just across the street. I began running and she ran after me, laughing the whole way.
Epilogue—Olivia
One Year Later
Flashlights flared in the darkness. The temple was filled with the sound of running footsteps and the slow, repetitive grind of metal against stone.
We had been excavating here under the ground, under the sea, for the last six months. The first couple of months had been slow going, but recently we had made some of our most exciting discoveries.
“Those books you found really turned out to be the key to the whole expedition,” said Henry, as we walked through the marble ruins. “They allowed us to translate the remaining bear dialects…”
“… and let us to an entire library of bear history and legend,” I said. “I hate to think what would have happened if we hadn’t gone on that little adventure.”
“It gave us everything, didn’t it?” said Henry. “Closure…”
“A career…”
“Careers for both of us,” he said. “And now—this.”
I was watching two of the other workers sipping coffee and not actually working, so I didn’t see when it happened. “And now what?” I asked, turning round to look at him, and seeing he had fallen to one knee.
My heart thudded as he whispered, “I realize this may be a bit soon, but I’ve known, ever since the moment I first saw you in the tavern. There was just something about you. Today I’m more sure of that than I’ve ever been.”
His eyes posed the unspoken question that I hastily and unhesitatingly answered with tears in the corners of my eyes. Henry slipped the ring on and slowly stood up. The kisses that followed were so hungry and enveloping that we hardly noticed the applause that had erupted around us on all sides, echoing throughout the temple.
Maddie Love
It was a pretty humid day, all things considered. The temperature having reached above the 100's on the Fahrenheit scale, with the air itself feeling murky, like one was about to swim and had to do so to reach their destination, so saturated with moisture that it was a wonder anyone didn't simply emerge from outside drenched in anything more than just sweat. It was the sort of day that most people spent indoors, and indeed most people glad that they lived in a world that had devised air conditioning for the sole purpose of easing everyone's lives in this sort of weather. That's where the story starts, of course, and where Maddie Johnson, and Jordan Brett found themselves. Indoor, comfortable around one another in the relative safety of one of the local department stores. The air was crisp, and cool, keeping everything fresh inside while the hellish heat outside raged on to make the world miserable in it's summer passing.
Standing beside a row of various knickknacks, they stood beside one another, playful in their demeanor as they wore the clothing of the season. Maddie herself stood tall, and with a slender, petite build. Long legs reaching to longer abdomen, with her scarlet red hair reaching down past her shoulders as he looked to Jordan with those alluring sapphire eyes. Jordan of course could not help but stare back at her, that gaze the first thing he's noticed of her since they had first met, and in admittance to no one but himself, the reason for his affection towards Maddie. Still, she spoke, continuing on their playful discussion as she asked. "So tell me Jordan. What do you think we should do after this? We can't hang out in a store all day."
Jordan simply shrugged his skinny shoulders and smirked back over her way. He himself stood tall, and just as slender though not with the dancers grace she had trained with. Blue eyes behind thin rimmed glasses looked back to her as he brought up one hand to brush through his short, curly brown hair. Tilting his head almost as if to think on her question fully now. "Well.. I suppose if we wanted to, we could go swimming later. Get some of this stink off of us and get outside."
"You just want to see me in a bikini, don't you?" teased Maddie, raising her brow towards Jordan as he went red in the face from embarrassment, the nerdiness within him coming out as he raised his hands to fend off the accusations while he smiled all the while. "No no no, nothing like that. I just thought with how hot it is today, you'd like to take a break outside thats all. Nothing like that."
Maddie couldn't help but continue to smirk as she shook her head. Her shoulder length hair slapping against the side of her face as she turned and looked along the rows and rows of knickknacks that lined along the wall as Jordan continued to talk, changing the subject almost instantly as he leaned in closer towards her. The movement not escaping Maddie's sight as she leaned to the side somewhat, though not too far from the man he continued on. "Besides. Don't you have your audition tomorrow? I know that some representatives from "Dancing World" is out here, looking for talent. You need some relaxing to settle your nerves a little bit."
Of course, those words brought back all sorts of conflicting emotions within her. On the one hand, she agreed with Jordan. A little bit of relaxation was good, and of which she was in desperate need of. But yet, on the other hand if she wasn't as good as, or better than, all of the other applicants that came out for this audition, she wouldn't win. She had to win. This was what she had been building up for since she was a little girl. All of the lessons, all of the practice, all of the aches and pains to improve and become the best is leading up to this moment to her she figures. She smiled a simple cautious smile, looking over towards Jordan through Sapphire eyes as she replied. "I've been working on it. I've been practicing for months. I'm nervous Jordan, you know that. But this is something that I really want. Something that I really need."
"But if you get the job Maddie, won't that mean you'll go away from here?" Jordan asked, almost in a quiet tone as he simply looked upon her.
Maddie deadpanned somewhat, caught unprepared for his question as she simply smiled somewhat. Her eyes looking from the tall man that stood before her. Her friend since high school. The one person whom she's depended on for emotional support through the trials of her life. Her best friend, and confidant. She knew fully well Jordan's feelings towards her, and how he'd feel if she just packed up and left, but this was something that she needed to do after all. She truly did not know how she felt about Jordan. Love? She couldn't say fully. But she looked away as he did as well. The awkward silence filling the aisle that they stood in for the several moments that none of them said anything before Maddie turned to look upon him. Jordan's eyes downcast, the feelings she knew he felt was there, plain as day upon him. Jordan never was good at hiding his emotion, wearing his heart on his sleeve at every opportunity. She reached out. Patting her palm upon his bare elbow as she spoke, trying to cheer him up.
"Come on Jordan. What do you say we go get some swimming done huh? We can't sit in here all day. Maybe we can invite some other friends and hit up Chad's place. His room mates out of town for the week."
That alone seemed to cheer him up as he turned and looked upon her with another smile. Nodding his head as he tilted his head towards the door "I think that would be pretty fun Maddie. Why don't we head on out for a while. You've got some relaxing to do."
And so they went, their humors returning to them as they left the convenience of the heated store, and to the inferno hell outside that marked the summers day, the sun overhead beaming upon the earth. Uncaring of the pain and warmth it brought to all beneath. However, for the day at least, two people are happy with one another.
Sometime later during the course of the next day, Maddie found herself awaiting at the audition room itself. She stood there with roughly a group of twenty other girls behind the curtain of a large rotunda like stage at the community theater building. Grouped together with others from her class that she's shared her goal and aspirations with who all felt the same as her, that this is a way of this town to live their dream, as well as other girls from out of town. Some of whom come from as far as the city over. All of them of course competing with one another for the same thing: To win the judges over outside who are judging their performances,
The atmosphere inside the building was full of tension so thick it could be cut with a knife almost. Girls of all ages and varying strengths and skill were there, pushing and shoving one another to peek from behind the curtain to the girl who went before, watching as the judges looked from their seats solemnly, and casted their gaze to whomever was on the stage. Sending them home with either a no, promises of being called up at a later date, or for consideration. None however was asked to stay on. While the girls themselves stood around, joking with one another, being friendly and talkative, Maddie herself knew whole heartedly that the reason they were all there was as competition with one another, and that this audition would be cutthroat to the end.
Still, her nervousness got the better of her as she peeked from behind the curtain as the smaller number of girls behind her pushed and strained against her. Watching the one who went before her. A lump growing in her throat as she swallowed it down, her nervousness growing with each movement that the dancer made. Her own doubts, and her own insecurities getting the best of her. Starting to wonder if she was good enough for this yet. Her eyes swaying to the rhythm and movement of her body with the music itself. However, luck would either be on her side, or misfortune on the side of the dancer she was admiring as she stumbled near the middle of her performance and nearly sent herself flying down upon the stage, her misstep echoing within the auditorium, causing the music to stop and a deafening silence to echo off of the walls as everyone held their breath. Everyone except the judges of course who simply shook their heads collectively, marking upon their clipboards as the imposing man within the center spoke next, the sound of his voice chasing away the silence as he yelled "Next."
So Maddie walked out slowly upon bare feet. Her choice of attire being the same as she always wore when practicing in her studio. Black leggings that hugged along her petite form, with a tightened top that meshed with the bottoms and gave her a seamless silhouette. Nervous, but formal she moved as she walked to the center of the stage before the three judges. Two women, and a man in the center. All wearing glasses, their faces half hidden by clipboards as the older woman to the central male's left spoke up. "Name please."
"M-Maddie Johnson. Ma'am. Madeline Johnson." she corrected herself, choosing the formal version of her name over the informal, intending to make an impression first before she chose to dance.
"Ms. Johnson. You may proceed. You have two minutes." She said again, uncaring to the plight of Maddie as she nodded her head, and awaited the music to start. Slowly at first, she found herself within the rhythm shortly after. Her world slowly crumbling away as her senses focused like a knife upon the task at hand. Her body going slightly numb as she let her body remember the dance moves before her mind registered them. Not closing her eyes, but focusing instead as she lifted one foot after the other. Her lithe form seemingly weightless within the air as she moved in time to the steps she had learned, and the routines that were formalized in her training since early in her life. One, two, three, one two three, one foot above the other. Arms outstretched to slow her spin, the air rushing through her hair as the smell of her shampoo mingled with her sweat. Her features blurring with her body before her two minutes were up, and she heard the words to stop entering the world she created, bringing her back to reality.
She stood there, posed in the last movement of her dance routine. Her breath shaking her form, expanding and contracting well her diaphram. Drenched in sweat, pooling down upon the floor beneath her as she slowly came back to the world at large. Her focus moving towards the judges as they deliberated. Sitting in front of her, leaning in on one another as they talked among each other. The sound of their voices silent, not echoing in the least. Maddie could not help but wonder if she had either done anything wrong, or what their choice would be. They looked neither excited, nor angry, and her heart sunk within her chest. Sure that she had blown her chance to win this. Her mind racing with the possibilities. Was she good enough? Was this the only opportunity that she'll ever have? Could she truly take rejection after this? Waiting for what felt like an eternity before the Man in the center slowly rose up from his seat to speak. The first time in the audition he had done so.
