Goldilocks (14 page)

Chapter 17:

School had never felt as pointless as it did today. Hannah blinked twice to clear the vivid images in her head that had plagued her throughout the night and all of this morning, giving the lock on her locker a third spin, praying that she got it right this time. A heavy sigh left her parted lips as she heard it click free, the narrow blue metal door swinging open with a squeak. She grabbed her government book and tucked it under her arm, going through the motions of putting the rest of her stuff away as Jake’s face filled her mind once again. Those sable colored eyes seemed to pierce her soul, human features disappearing suddenly to reveal the snarling bear he’d turned into up on the ridge.

It was impossible according to everything she’d ever learned about life. It went against every facet of science and spiraled way out into a fantasy world that she’d only believed in as a kid. It drained her to even think of all the possibilities of how it coul
d be so, but regardless of how it was possible, she knew that what she’d witnessed was real. Long after she’d begun her sprint down the mountain, she’d heard the sounds of the ferocious fight, echoing through the trees, a yelp and then a guttural roar that had seemed to shake the leaves from their branches overhead.

Her drive into Hinsdale had been reckless, her father surprised when she’d pulled into the mine entrance almost two hours ahead of the end of his work day. Running from the truck she’d thrown herself into his arms, her words choked by tears that wouldn’t stop coming. To
him, her story hadn’t made sense, his concern more for the myriad of cuts and scrapes along her arms and hands, but she’d seen the looks some of the other miners had given her, their eyes wide with fear as she’d screamed about the wolf and the bear in the woods.

When she was asked to repeat her story at the hospital, something had stopped her from bringing up Jake and the way he’d turned. Then, she’d thought it was her conscious. He had, after all, saved her life more than once now, but after a restless night of tossing and turning she wasn’t so sure that it was her own thoughts preventing her from telling her father the whole truth once the shock had worn off. Even the nurses at the hospital had
shaken their heads at the mention of wolves the size of bears, patting her back sympathetically, before whispering outside the door to her father.

Hannah had refused to be kept overnight for observation, and against her father’s wishes had insisted on coming to school today. She couldn’t be at the cabin with hi
m hovering over her every move. After their fight last night, he’d promised to go into the woods and track down the animals that had attacked her. She’d bit her tongue to keep from protesting, and had only nodded when he offered an apology with a kiss to her forehead.

Aunt Maggie would have been the person she’d turned to if she was back in D.C. right now, and even though she would have immediately answered a phone call or text, Hannah wasn’t sure how she would even start the conversation. Jake was her secret, and she wasn’t ready to share it with anyone just yet; not even the woman that had become a second mother
and best friend to her. Regardless of what Jake was, he had to be warned. She owed him at least that.

“It’s Friday!” Beth chirped happily, slumping lazily against the locker next to Hannah’s, a wide smile on her face.

They were the last two people she wanted to deal with right now, but as she turned to offer a nod, Hannah noticed Lindsey already staring down in horror at her bruised knuckles.

“You get into a fight or something?!” Lindsey gasped, grabbing Hannah’s right hand before she could tuck it out of sight under the books in her arm.

“
OH my gosh Hannah!” Beth exclaimed, a look of alarm on her face as she too looked at Hannah’s mangled fingers.

“It’s nothing,” Hannah shrugged, tugging her hand away from Lindsey’s to shut her locker door once again.

“Nothing!? That’s not nothing,” Lindsey shook her head, her brow rising when Hannah moved past them back towards the main hall.

“Is anything else hurt?” Beth questioned, falling in step beside her almost immediately. “I mean, you’ll be ready for tonight right?”

“Yeah, it’s only the biggest meet of the season and…”

“Meet?” Hannah shook her head, looking between the two girls now.

“You didn’t forget did you?!” Lindsey accused, a smirk on her face when Hannah stopped completely.

She
had
forgotten. Her mind had been so preoccupied with Jake that she hadn’t even remembered to bring her running shoes with her today.

“Of course not,” Hannah shrugged, pushing past the girls once again, her eyes on the crowd of students heading towards Mr. Goodall’s government class.

The last warning bell saved her from being followed this time, and before she could figure out what she was going to do about the meet tonight, she had to find Jake.

“Win or lose we’
re still on for tomorrow, right?!” Beth called down the hall, waving when Hannah turned and nodded reluctantly.

It had just been yesterday when she’d invited them to the cabin to hang out on Saturday, but it seemed like weeks ago now, and it definitely wasn’t something she was looking forward to any more than she had been when she’d first asked them.

Hannah shuffled in with the rest of the group in her government class, her eyes scanning the nearly full room before finally settling on the empty table that she’d shared with Jake since day one. She was one of the last people to take her seat, and the last to finally open her text book when the final bell rang, anxiety building once again when she thought of her father’s promise to go into the woods with his gun today.

Her hand froze mid raise, her request to be excused suddenly swallowed as the hairs on the back of her neck rose, her body flushing hot as her head turned towards the classroom door once again.

“Mr. Bear, you’re late,” the teacher observed from the front, shaking his head at Jake as he slipped quickly between the tables and into his seat.

“Hi,” he whispered, his eyes searching Hannah’s face when she stiffened next to him, her breathing suddenly shallow.

She wanted to punch him for pretending that everything was normal between them when it wasn’t; but most of all she wanted to throw her arms around him in relief that not only had he not been killed by the wolf that had attacked them, but he also wasn’t in the woods right now being hunted by her father. Her throat felt thick when she finally forced a reply, her hands tucking beneath the table so that he wouldn’t see how badly they were trembling. It was barely a murmur, but it eased the tension between them, a smile playing on his lips at the only word that she could manage.

“Hi…”

**********

The scent of the forest clung to him, trickles of honeydew and fresh rain tickling her nostrils when he leaned closer, his eyes searching hers
a moment. The same pull she’d thought she’d imagined, now tugged deep in her chest, quickening her heartbeat as she held his gaze. There were answers waiting in the shadows of those dark pools, secrets that he kept easily guarded with the normal scowl that he wore. But today, his brows furrowed in concern, his broad jaw set tight when she finally dropped her eyes to the hands he had splayed on the desk.

Before yesterday, had he told her that he could grow lethal razor sharp claws
from the tips, his body changing from human to bear in the blink of an eye she would have shook her head and laughed. But every inch of him seemed new to her now, a stranger she was waiting to be introduced to again. He
looked
like the Jake she’d sat beside over the last month, but subtle hints in his features suddenly revealed the bear he was hiding within.

“What…are you?” Hannah whispered softly, her head turning so that she was staring straight ahead at the war display up front.

She could feel him tense almost immediately, her cheeks heating when his fingers curled to form fists, his head shaking at her question.

“You’re not going to tell me?” she guessed, her stomach flip flopping
as she glanced up at him.

He shook his
head again, but grabbed her hand before she could move it from the table top, his voice low, but firm.

“Not here.”

“Okay then, tomorrow?” Hannah pressed, almost immediately shaking her head as she thought of her father. “You can’t go into the woods!” she whispered frantically. “My father…”

“Won’t find me.
”

“But he’s a hunter and…”
Hannah’s mouth snapped closed, her head jerking to the front at the sound of her name being called. She’d been asked a question and all eyes were now on her, waiting for her to answer. Heat flooded her cheeks as she looked down at her blank notepad and then back up at the teacher. Her mouth opened to tell him that she hadn’t been paying attention, when she heard Jake’s voice clearly in her head.

Which
amendment calls for the direct election of senators? Tell him the seventeenth.

“The seventeenth…?” Hannah croaked out, catching the shocked looked on Jake’s face when she snuck a peek at him.

Even the teacher seemed surprised at her correct answer, his eyes narrowing suspiciously as he looked from her to Jake before lowering back to the text book in his hand.

“How did you do that?” she demanded in a hushed whisper
-the second the lesson continued- her body shifting so that there was now plenty of space between them at the table. “You were inside my head! I heard you! Can you hear my thoughts too?!”

“I…I don’t know,” Jake answered honestly, the same questions burning in his mind now.

He’d simply been wishing that he’d been the one called, since he’d heard the question and also knew the answer. He had never consciously tried to push a thought forward to a human like that before, yet she’d heard him perfectly. He’d felt the connection with her mind as their thoughts had synched for a split second and then suddenly released. And now she was looking at him in horror, her head shaking in disbelief.

“Don’t do that again.
”

“I didn’t.
I mean I did, but I don’t know how.”

“Really?!” Hannah muttered
sarcastically, rolling her eyes when he tried to reach for her hand.

“Tom
orrow, I’ll tell you everything. Everything that I know,” Jake promised, leaning forward so that she was forced to look him in the eye.

She didn’t like having her privacy invaded. And she really didn’t like the thought of him being inside her head, but it wasn’t dishonesty she saw when she finally looked at him.
It was the same pleading look the bear had given her the night she’d discovered the cave, and it was the look Jake had given her up on the ridge just before he’d shifted. She trusted that look, and until she found out that she couldn’t, she would at least give him a chance to explain.

“Come early,” Hannah nodded once, her head turning to the front once again. “I have plans later.”

Chapter 18:

Hannah winced as she flexed her toes under the covers,
every inch of her feet still throbbing from the 5k race she’d barely won the night before. Her father hadn’t been able to bring her running shoes in time, and so she’d been forced to run in the low cut Converse she’d worn to school yesterday. Even her thick ankle socks hadn’t been able to save her from the tender callouses that had formed on the sides of her feet, Lindsey’s smug look only slightly soured when Hannah had limped forward to accept her ribbon for first place.

Even still Hannah didn’t want a narrow victory like that again with Lindsey. She’d crossed the finish line only a few seconds before the other girl and had come nowhere near the record time she’d been running all week in practice. Coach had sentenced her to five extra drills all next week for forgetting her shoes, and had also promised to sit her out of the next meet if it happened again. Hannah had been all t
oo glad to remain in bed when her father had left at the crack of dawn this morning, but it was just after eight now, and the beams of sunlight –peeping through her curtains- reminded her that she had very little time to finish cleaning before Beth and Lindsey arrived.

With a sigh she swung her legs over the edge of the bed, stretching
, before gingerly padding her way towards the kitchen in search of breakfast. A smile touched her lips when she rounded the corner and found that there was no need for her to look far. A note scrawled in her father’s illegible handwriting, plus a blueberry muffin, sat in the middle of the kitchen table waiting for her. Hannah was just about to reach for it when she heard a familiar rumble outside, announcing ‘Big Red’s’ return.

She rolled her eyes as she waited for her father’s footsteps to grow closer, up the porch stairs, his keys jingling as he
turned the lock. A frown pinched the corners of her mouth down when he popped his head in the door, a wide smile on his face. She hated that he was probably checking up on her even though he’d left just a few hours before, but the carton of pink frosted cupcakes he pulled from behind his back couldn’t let her be mad long.

“Just thought you and
your friends would like some snacks,” Paul offered the box of cakes, his gaze falling on the running shoes she’d left beside the table the day before.

“I’m not going into the woods D
ad,” Hannah promised before he could mention it, setting the desserts on the table to grab the muffin off the plate.

“I wasn’t…”
Paul trailed off at the sideways glance Hannah shot his way, smiling sheepishly as he ran his fingers threw his tangled locks.

“Okay so maybe I was checking on you, but I love you Hannah, and the woods just aren’t safe,” he reasoned, shaking the memory from his head of the last collapse at the mine.

“I love you too dad,” Hannah grinned, gesturing toward the cupcakes. “I don’t suppose Beth and Lindsey will mind skipping out on the salad I was planning to make,” she giggled when he laughed, patting his stomach as he shook his head.

“I’m getting used to it, but I’m not so sure your friends are as into rabbit food as you are,” Paul smiled, already backing out the still open door. “Gotta run, but you know where to reach me,” he paused at the first step, waiting until Hannah followed him out on the porch.

“Please go! Do some work or something!” Hannah laughed, shooing him off towards the jeep.

She couldn’
t help but giggle as she watched him pull back out of the driveway, blowing kisses as he went.

Out into the grass she walked until she could no longer see ‘Big Red’s’ rusty paint through the trees, her toes digging into the warm blades as she made her way around the house towards the garden. It was too early for strawberries, but last week she’d spotted the green fruit, dotting the edges of the row of lettuce. With all the sunshine this week, Hannah was almost betting on ripe red berries, ready to be picked.
They would go perfectly in the tea she was planning on making, and she’d still have enough left over to use for dinner tonight.

Looking up into the bright, summer blue sky, she stretched her arms high over her head, loosening out the kinks that had formed in her sleep, her thoughts suddenly on Jake.
She felt his presence before she saw him, her face warming as she paused mid turn, her eyes skimming the line of woods surrounding the back of the cabin. He was nearly hidden, just beyond the mouth of the trail, blending in between the trunks of two old pines. Her eyes locked with his, and for a minute, neither of them moved, Hannah’s hand on her chest as she stared at the bear she knew was Jake.

“Wait!” she called when he turned suddenly, a burst of speed carrying him out of sight before she’d broken into a run.

The moss covering the trail was even slicker against her bare feet, her tender soles crying out in protest as they slapped down against broken twigs and pebbles embedded in the soft earth. She couldn’t see him, but she could hear him, not too far ahead, leaves rustling in a straight path up and over the first hill. Hannah slowed when his movements stopped all together, the birds chirping in the branches above, the only sounds that she could hear echoing through the still forest. Her father’s warning chimed through her head as she slowed to a hesitant walk, her heart thudding in her chest at the promise she hadn’t meant to break.

“I thought you weren’t supposed to be in the woods?”
Jake came from behind her, catching her wrist as she spun around in surprise.

Like her he was wearing shorts, but tha
t was all, the muscles of his bare broad chest still rippling from his shift. Hannah’s mouth was suddenly dry, her wrist jerking from his hold at the searing heat that suddenly shot up her arm. Warmth claimed her cheeks as she forced her eyes up to his face, shaking her head as she looked back at the cabin.

“You were in my head again!?” she accused, her eye
s narrowing as she pushed past him in annoyance, starting back down the trail.

“No! I was listening,
” Jake’s mouth snapped shut when she tossed him a withering look over her shoulder, quickening her pace into a long stride.

He caught up to her in seconds, grabbing her shoulder this time, forcing her to stop.

“You said come early, so I did. I was just about to dress,” he gestured to the shorts he was now wearing. “When I heard your father coming down the driveway. Bears can hear up to ten miles you know, especially if it’s quiet. I wasn’t eavesdropping on purpose, I just heard…and I didn’t want to draw attention, so I stayed put,” Jake shrugged, searching Hannah’s eyes as they widened slightly and then lowered, long lashes brushing her cheeks.

“
So you are then?” Hannah swallowed hard, unable to force the exact words out.

“You know that I am,” Jake answered solemnly, his hand slipping from her shoulder to her wrist. “Which is why I think it would be a bad idea for me to tell you anything more than what your father already has. Please stay out of the woods. You don’t…”

“No! No! No!” Hannah shoved at Jake’s chest hard, only succeeding in knocking herself back instead of him.

He was even more solid than he looked, and didn’t budge
under her angry stare either.

“You promised that you would tell me everything, and I’m not going anywhere until you do! You owe me an explanation!” Hannah demanded, her arms crossing as she straightened to her full height.

Even with her long legs at her advantage, Jake was still almost a full head and a half taller than she was, towering over her as he took another step forward, shaking his head.

“I can’t.
”

“You can if you don’t want me to run tell everyone your secret!” Hannah spat out, almost instantly regretting it the second the words were free.

Jake’s face was once again fixed with the stony expression she’d become so used to seeing, his shoulder squaring as he turned to head in the opposite direction, back up into the woods.

“I wouldn’t!” Hannah cried out, grabbing his arm before he could walk away, releasing it almost immediately when he turned, their bodies nearly brushing now. “I really wouldn’t,” Hannah breathed
softly, meeting Jake’s questioning stare, her head shaking as she released his arms. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

“You shouldn’t have,” Jake agreed, his fingers lifting to push a few str
ay tendrils back behind her ear. “You have no idea what that would mean, and all I’m trying to do is protect you.”

“Knowing is protecting me,” Hannah insisted softly,
her finger lifting to point up towards the wooded hills leading towards the base of the mountain. “Either I figure it out on my own, or you give me a reason not to.”

“You wouldn’t,
” Jake shook his head firmly. “Not after…”

His eyes widened as Hannah’s narrowed in determination, her arms folding across her chest as she waited for him to cave.

“I like your hair down,” Jake finally murmured, his gaze running over the length of her loose golden locks and back up again.

“It’s too long,” Hannah shrugged, cringing as she imagined what her hair must look like after a night of tossing and turning.

She hadn’t bothered to brush it upon waking like she normally did, and could almost feel the thin strands rising in the heat, absorbing any bits of moisture that was left over from last night’s rain.

“Goldilocks,” Jake comm
ented as he watched her smooth her hands over the crown of her head, his hands reaching to stop hers.

“If I
tell you,” Jake sighed heavily, his head shaking slightly at what he’d spent all night deciding against. “Do you promise to stay out of the woods?”

Hannah hated that the pained look on his face was because of her,
but she had to know the truth.

It was the same words that she’d said to her father, but she meant them this time. As long as he told her everything, she’d do as he asked.

“I promise.”