Her Wild Bear (15 page)

It was getting late in the afternoon when Matt finally trotted to a stop. Tawny was lying face-down on his back, resting her eyes as he ran across flat, even meadows. She looked up to see swirls of smoke rising faintly from the chimneys of several small cabins.

“This is it?” she asked, sliding off Matt’s back.

“Yes, this is my home,” Matt replied gruffly. He shifted into human and took her hand. “You can still turn back, Tawny. I have to do this, but you don’t.”

She squeezed his hand tightly. “I’m with you until the end,” she assured him, “even if that’s today.”

Chapter 23

“You did
what
?!” Bradly roared ferociously.

The three of them stood near the main fire pit, huddled between the cabins and elk-hide tents.

“I had no choice,” Matt insisted. “They were going to torture and kill her if I didn’t give up this location.”

“And now we’re going to kill her anyway,” Bradly said mockingly. “You and her, both!”

Tawny grimaced, but saw that Matt’s expression was reserved and stern.

“You’ll need me for the ensuing battle,” Matt pointed out.

“Fine — we’ll kill you afterwards, assuming you survive,” Bradly muttered. “Assuming
any
of us survive. You do realize, Matt, you’ve almost certainly just destroyed the entire clan?”

“I understand the ramifications of what I’ve done,” Matt said.

“Ramifications, my ass,” Bradly snapped. “You mean you fucked up, right?”

Matt’s jaw clenched and he sat on a log, staring into the fire ashes for a long time. “I don’t think so,” he finally said. “If I were given the same choice, I’d have done it all exactly the same way.”

Tawny stood next to him, rubbing her hand soothingly along his back.

“You’ve just led our enemies straight to us,” Bradly whined. “How can that not be screwing up?”

“They would have found us eventually. They’re determined
and
resourceful, Bradly. Sooner or later we would have had to deal with them. We both know that. Maybe it’s best we just deal with this now.”

“Not that we have a choice anymore,” Bradly grimaced. “But for now, we’re going to secure Tawny until after the war is done.”

“Secure?” Tawny asked.

“They want to tie you up,” Matt explained. He gave Bradly a piercing glare. “You are not to touch her.”

“And you don’t give orders around here,” Bradly said. “We have a code to follow, and it will be followed.”

“If anyone touches her,” Matt growled, “The Path will find half of you dead before they even get here. And you’ll be the first.”

“Damn it, Matt,” Bradly snarled. “What has happened to your loyalties?”

“I’ve seen my share of death and bloodshed,” Matt said. “I’m sick of it, Bradly. It needs to stop, and I propose it stops here. If we hurt and kill when we don’t need to, are we really any better than our enemies?”

“But we can’t just let her leave and go back to her own people now,” Bradly objected. “It’s against the code, and she can’t be trusted not to divulge our whereabouts.”

Tawny’s eyes grew wide. She looked up at Matt in surprise. “You forgot to mention that part!”

“Maybe she’d like to stay here,” Matt suggested, “as one of us.”

Tawny looked nervously around the camp, wondering if she could ever get used to living there. “Please tell me this wasn’t your plan from the beginning, Matt.”

“Planning never was my thing,” Matt said with a shrug.

“Well, maybe I could help with the planning for the battle,” Tawny suggested.

Bradly glared at her, his face furious. “Because of you, this clan is going to be slaughtered. That’s about the only plan we’ve got!”

Tawny’s stomach churned as she watched Bradly’s anger growing. “But... you’re all bears,” she exclaimed. “They have some dangerous weapons, I know, but you must have some advantages over them. Can’t you just become bears and rip them apart?”

Bradly let out a frustrated yell, grabbed a large log from next to the fire pit, and chucked it violently out into the woods. His shoulders slumped, and he stared into the distance in despair.

Tawny looked helplessly at Matt. He offered a glum half-smile.

“The entire clan has been low on food for months now,” he explained. “
Maybe
we could fight if we could shift, but it’s just not going to be possible. We need more food than we can possibly get right now.”

Tawny grumbled weakly and sat down next to Matt. “So, what can we do?”

He grunted and stared at the ground. “I don’t know. I don’t know if there is anything we can do.”

“With a little planning, maybe we could still beat them without much bloodshed,” Tawny said. “Right now they’re already wanted for kidnapping and torture. If we can fend them off until they retreat, they can all do some serious jail time. I doubt they’ll ever pose a threat again.”

“And how do you propose we do that?” Bradly asked, sitting on the log on the other side of Matt.

“I don’t know yet,” Tawny admitted. “Maybe if we set some traps. We know they’re on their way here, and we know the trails they’ll be using. And, better yet, they don’t realize that we know. It seems we could use that to our advantage.”

Bradly rubbed at his dark beard, his mind whirring. “How long do we have?”

“They’ll be arriving sometime tomorrow,” Matt said. “Probably around noon. I doubt they can reach here any sooner than that. We have some time to prepare. Maybe we could hide, or something.”

“That’s very little time, I’m afraid,” Bradly sighed. “But we’re not hiding; we’re going to stand our ground. No one is running us out of our home this time. We don’t deserve this.”

Matt fidgeted. “I don’t know about that,” he muttered.

“What do you mean?” Bradly asked, his voice sharp.

“They said that a camp of their children was attacked by a bear just last year. Is it possible that we have another rogue human-killer in the clan?” Matt asked.

Bradly took a long, beleaguered breath. “Several young men and a couple of young women, right?” he asked.

Matt nodded, his brow furrowing quizzically. “You know about this already?”

Bradly gave a solemn nod. “It wasn’t a bear,” he muttered. “It was The Path. Your father was near the camp when it happened, and he was appalled by the brutality. He saw them beat the kids to death, then use gardening tools to tear them up and make it look like a bear attack.”

A dark chill swept over them.

“Why didn’t he say something?” Matt asked solemnly.

“He did — to me,” Bradly countered. “But it was an act against their own kind. We don’t get involved if we don’t have to.”

“But why the hell would they kill their own children?” Matt asked.

“Recruiting,” Tawny said bitterly. “They blamed your clan for the murders, and now they have an army of willing soldiers eager to kill anything that moves. It’s a military tactic. See, they’re strategizing. We need to do the same.”

“We’re going to be slaughtered, aren’t we?” Bradly moaned.

“Are there any bridges along the trail?” Tawny asked, her mind frantically spinning through the possibilities. “Maybe if we destroyed a bridge they couldn’t get here.”

Bradly shook his head, and Matt just stared down at the dirt, lost in his own thoughts.

“There’s one bridge,” Bradly admitted, “but the ravine it spans isn’t difficult for a person to get across without a bridge.”

“How about horses?” Tawny persisted. “Could a horse get across the ravine? They’re bringing their supplies on horses, and if they couldn’t — ”

“How many horses?” Matt interrupted.

“I don’t know,” Tawny said, shrugging. “But if most of their supplies are on the horses, and they might not be able to attack without them. I’m just trying to come up with any idea that might help, that’s all.”

“You may have done just that,” Matt mused.

“Why?” Bradly asked, perplexed. “I’m guessing they could probably get a horse past that ravine, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Matt gazed around the camp, lost in thought. “They need to camp tonight,” he muttered, mostly to himself. “It’s going to be a moonless night, and our night vision is far better than theirs. I think I’ve got a plan… of sorts.”

Bradly fidgeted as he waited for Matt to go on. “Are you going to share it with the rest of us?” he finally asked.

Matt turned to Bradly and Tawny, a hopeful excitement in his eyes. “We’ll need Tawny to slip into camp and lead the horses out. They can smell a shifter, and if one of us gets too close they’ll spook and give us away. I’ve eaten recently, so I’m okay to shift, and I’ll carry her down on my back.”

Tawny’s stomach tightened in fear. “I can’t do that,” she cried.

Matt gave her a reassuring look. “I’ll be close by the whole time. It’s risky, I won’t lie about that, but… this may be our only shot.”

“And then what?” Bradly pressed.

“And then — ” Matt hesitated for a moment. “Then the warriors will meet up with me, and we attack at night. Our vision is much better than theirs, and they won’t be expecting it.”

“We attack as humans?” Bradly scoffed.

Matt gave him a stern look. “No,” he said flatly.

Bradly thought for a moment, then his eyes brightened. He heaved a tired sigh. “Okay,” he said. “It’s all we have, but it just might work.”

Tawny followed Matt to the edge of the settlement, and she grasped his hand before he shifted.

“It’s possible that one or both of us will die tonight, isn’t it?” she asked, her voice weak and frightened.

He turned to her, his caring eyes meeting her gaze directly, and he nodded.

She led him out into a grove of trees, walked a few steps ahead and stood to face him. She turned her eyes to the grassy soil and slowly stripped her clothes off. He watched without saying a word, his eyes taking in her exposed body with awe. She left her clothes on the ground and stepped over to him, laying his muscular form gently on the ground. Painful tears filled her eyes as she straddled him and rubbed her slick labia over his hardening penis.

“I’m so sorry for earlier,” she moaned softly. “God — here we are, not sure if we’ll have any more time together, and I assaulted you.”

She slid him inside of her, groaning as he went in deep. He didn’t say anything, only watched her, mesmerized, his wet eyes gleaming.

Tawny rocked her body over him dutifully, eager to make him come at least one last time for her. She watched as his body relaxed and his face tightened in pleasure. He tenderly fondled her heaving breasts and hard nipples. Then he began to stiffen and she grabbed at his chest with both hands. She thrust her body swiftly over him, watching with quiet excitement as Matt shook and jerked in orgasm.

She rocked back and forth slowly a few more times, then reached down and touched his face softly. He looked into her eyes, his gaze serene and content.

“I...” Tawny began, then hesitated. “I don’t want to lose you,” she said finally.

He looked away, his face suddenly sullen.

Chapter 24

Tawny was shaking when they spotted The Path’s camp just off the trail. They waited, watching in the darkness, the campsite lit by nothing more than dying campfire embers.

“The horses are over along the edge of camp, down at the base of that large pine,” Matt whispered, motioning to the silhouette of a towering tree. “Approach from the front of the horses,
never
from the back, and walk up slowly. Lead them out, one at a time, and get them trotting back toward town. Got it?”

Tawny grimaced, but nodded. As she slipped into the night she felt horribly alone in the dark. She found her footing carefully, frightened of making noise. A moment later, she heard the horses neighing softly, and she made her way over to them.

She nearly ran into the first horse, a large white animal. It was startled when she emerged from the bushes, but she hushed it softly and cautiously felt for its reins. Her eyes searched in the dark, and in a moment she was able to make out three horses in all.

It took a long, tense moment for her to untie the knot, but her fingers worked deftly in the blackness to feel out the leather strand. She turned her back to the horse and it seemed to willingly follow her up along the narrow path leading back to the main trail. Once in the clear, Tawny led the horse down the path towards town, letting go of the reins and patting it lightly on the hindquarters as it passed by her.

She waited for a moment, listening, and was amazed to hear it trotting further along the trail, eager to return home.

Before she could manage a sigh of relief, she realized there were still two more horses to release. The second one was just as easy to manage, and she led him for several yards before letting him run free.

Tawny paused for a moment to steady her nerves, then made her way back along the little path to where the horses were being kept, walking quietly.

A sudden beam of light cut through the darkness, settling on the last horse. Tawny dove off the path, curling as best she could into the thick brush. Her heart thudded in panic and she tried hard not to breathe as she listened to the soldier’s avid cursing.

The beam swung through the woods and Tawny let out a low whimper as it passed over her.

She froze. The light now focused on the area around her, and she heard footsteps getting closer. They stopped suddenly, and Tawny pulled her head down between her knees as far as she was able.

“What the fuck?” the old soldier grunted.

Tawny heard him step closer to her, draw his gun, and pull the hammer back. She looked up to see the barrel of the handgun aimed at her face and she drew in panicked breath to scream.

Then he was gone... instantly. His hulking form was yanked away and into the blackness; his gun dropped to the damp ground in front of her face. She heard a brief, quiet struggle, and then silence.

“Get the last one out of there,” Matt growled softly into her ear as he padded up to her. “Set the last horse loose, then take cover on the other side of the trail. You’ll find a rocky overhang where you can hide. Stay there, no matter what you hear.”

“I can’t,” Tawny sobbed as quietly as she could. “I’m scared.”

“There’s no one else around, Tawny,” Matt assured her. “He was the only one on this side of camp. Just be quick, and be quiet. It’ll be alright.”

Tawny hurried down the trail, untied the last horse, and led it quickly up the trail. Her blood turned cold as she heard low growls somewhere along the trail leading toward town. She led the horse in that direction and turned it loose.

She stood on the trail and waited, listening. Long minutes passed in silence, but then she heard the rustling of leaves as large animals trounced through the trees, their fur occasionally glinting in the last embers of firelight as they slipped into camp.

Tawny was awed as the first advance struck quickly, quietly. She could hear the tents being torn open and muffled screams as men began to die. A disquieting sadness sank into her stomach as she listened.

The first shots were fired, with bright flashes illuminating the chaos below. Tawny hurried off the trail and took cover, searching out the rocky overhang and waiting there as more shots rang out nearby. She huddled behind a rocky knoll, quietly, tears of worry running down over her cheeks.

The battle raged in the darkness, the crack of guns unable to conceal the cries of pain. Sometime before morning the air grew quiet, with only the occasional shot fired. As dawn climbed over the distant mountains, Tawny found the nerve to venture from her hiding place. She made her way slowly up to the main trail and looked down over the devastation below.

Her heart felt crushed when she saw several bears lying motionless among the dead. She covered her face in horror, realizing she couldn’t recognize Matt as a bear among the others. Her eyes searched frantically over the bodies, but she couldn’t spot any distinguishing features.

Many of the Path members were leaving the camp, marching back down along the trail, leaving their guns behind. Some weren’t even dressed. She felt a glimmer of hope when she spotted Thomas among them with his hands clenched behind his head, still chiding his soldiers for their lack of bravery. It took Tawny only a moment to realize the clan had emerged victorious.

She hurried down into the camp, running amid the bears as they chased the last of the soldiers out. She spun around and around, hoping to hear Matt’s voice, but only heard the groaning of the wounded and dying.

She saw one large bear milling among the bodies. She watched him carefully, wondering if it was Matt. The bear was rolling the dead over and sniffing at them. One of the bodies moaned as it was rolled, and the bear roared and clenched its jaws around the man’s neck.

Tawny retched, then hurried back up to the trail, her heart racing in her chest.

“Oh, thank God!” Matt’s gravelly voice rang out behind her. Tawny yelped in surprise and turned to see him lumbering up the trail to her. “You’re okay,” Matt sighed.

Tawny wrapped her arms around his furry neck and cuddled her face into him. “And you’re alive,” she breathed softly into his ear.

“We won,” he bellowed joyously. “It’s finally over.”

Tawny crawled up onto Matt, enjoying the feel of him beneath her, and let him carry her back into the settlement.

“And — and the horses — ” she began.

“We did what had to be done,” Matt growled quietly.  “Please don’t ask me about it.”

Tawny watched the other shifters as they neared the settlement, bears shifting calmly back into men. Most of them were quite robust, with chiseled, bulging builds. Others were more sinewy and slender, but still toned, with hardened athletic lines along their naked bodies. Tawny struggled to control her gaze, but her instincts drove her to stare uncontrollably at the large muscles, exposed buttocks and ample packages. Those few who noticed her staring seemed unconcerned, and she eventually allowed herself to indulge gratuitously. She realized then that life there with the clan was something she could probably grow accustomed to.