His Unbearable Desire 2 (9 page)

She couldn’t imagine how brutal the attack must have been to leave Glenn in a coma and Colton with that deep gash in his stomach. She had never been through anything like that and wondered how much of their life had been tinged with tragedy. She accepted that it must have been hard, especially for Colton to lose his parents in the way that he had, but that didn’t give them an excuse to treat her the way they had. But she had never belonged to a pack like bears.

With her family she had always felt distant and like she didn’t belong, whereas with Colton it was seared into his blood. In a way she was envious of the deep bond he had with his own history. She didn’t know anything about her ancestors and there was no way she could have given anyone a story about them like Colton had given her. The history of her family was a blank slate to her.

When Colton had been telling her the story of his ancestors, she felt captivated by the rich history it alluded to, and she wished that she had something like that to point to whenever she spoke about her own history. In a way it felt like she was forging her own path with her business. She hoped that it would lead to a legacy for any eventual children she had, but at that moment she felt inferior to Colton’s family history.

The time in her car gave her a good opportunity to process everything that had happened. It had only been a matter of hours since she had been confronted with a bear who turned into a human. The whole situation was unbelievable and she never would have thought it would come to this back when she first met them at the wedding.

Their behavior had been explained away by the fact that they were billionaire playboys. Now that she knew they were bears she understood why they had been so closed off and reticent. It must have been a hard thing, to keep such a secret while trying to live a normal life, and it was natural that they try and keep out of the spotlight.

Newtown appeared on the horizon and it gleamed in the soft morning sun. Somewhere Glenn was lying helpless in a hospital and no matter what happened Ana was going to do everything she could to catch the people who had done it to him.

Chapter 9

As she entered the city she looked ahead for Colton but he had weaved between traffic and made his own way to Glenn’s house…always the maverick, she thought. The city seemed different now. Before it had seemed normal and daunting, like she could lose herself in it easily. Now she was privy to a secret few had been allowed to share, and it made her feel special and honored. She gazed at the people in the city and smiled smugly for she was aware of an underlying magic that threaded through the history of the world and had been kept hidden.

They all went about their normal lives while she looked upon them and pitied her ignorance. A layer of the world had been peeled away and she was eager to learn more. She wanted to know about Colton and Glenn’s tribe, about Glenn’s siblings, and what happened to make them come to America. Colton’s mention of other tribes in Europe caught her attention as well and she felt like there was a whole other world out there for her to explore.

She wondered if there were other types of man-beasts lurking out there, and started to wonder how many people she met had such a secret. Her mind reeled as it went all the way back to college and she parsed through her memory to try and pick out anything that may have suggested a secret identity.

In some ways she found it odd that she was able to take it in stride, but she had always had an open mind about these things. In a way she was glad that Colton and Glenn existed because it proved her fascination with magical creatures. She even wondered whether there had been pixies and fairies and imps dancing around in the forests when she had been younger. Her fertile imagination liked knowing that there was more to the world than what was merely presented to us.

She wished that the Huntington cousins, and people like them, could have been more open with their true selves because it wasn’t fair what they were afraid of. She totally understood it and she knew that ultimately Colton was right; people would hunt them down because they were naturally afraid of what they didn’t understand.

She wondered how many other people were going through exactly the same thing. She breathed out and gripped the wheel, and laughed harshly at the people back in Trinity Falls, who she thought would never know any kind of adventure like this. Back in that sleepy town nothing ever happened and they would never know the excitement of chasing down some vicious, villainous were-bears.

The car snaked around Newtown’s roads and she saw familiar sites. She glanced at her business and hoped that she wasn’t taking too much of a hit after having the store closed for the week. She felt guilty because she had neglected it, but then so many things in her life had been neglected recently.

Her plans to move to Newtown were still on hold thanks to Angelica dragging her heels. Moving in with Ana in Trinity Falls had been a positive step but Ana had hoped that it would lead to them moving out far more swiftly, yet they seemed to be in a rut. Angelica talked a lot about wanting to travel and leave again but she never seemed to be willing to take that last step. Ana just hoped she didn’t wait too long because it could mean that she lost a chance with the man she loved, and Ana knew all too well how precarious the realm of love could be.

She hated the way her parents seemed to have such a large degree of control on her life. Perhaps it was only because Ana had never felt particularly compelled to follow her parent’s wishes, or that they had never seemed that strict about enforcing things on her. She had never had any family dramas and didn’t think it should be that hard to tell one’s parents what to do. If she were Angelica she would have just told her parents the situation and they would have to deal with it. After all, at the end of the day it was her life and no-one else should have any say in it at all.

Eventually she passed by the hotel in which she had stayed and then drove down the road, pulling up outside Glenn’s house. Colton was already there; she knew by the fact that his motorbike was standing outside. Ana strode in and didn’t bother knocking, for she felt that she had as much right to be there as Colton. When she entered he came through from the kitchen, dipping some bread in honey.

“You took your time,” he said nonchalantly, and she hated to admit it but he looked so damn good.

She pursed her lips and huffed as he lazily let a dollop of honey fall down into his mouth. Some of the thick, golden liquid fell around his lip and ran down his square jaw. She tried to avoid looking at him because she knew that if she looked at him for too long their sexual energy would overpower her and she would have to tear his clothes off.

“Nice to see you’re in a rush,” she said sharply.

He smiled and put the jar down, brushing the crumbs off his fingers.

“I was waiting for you before we got started.”

Ana rolled her eyes and went into the front room where Glenn stored his books.

“I’m guessing that these books aren’t just old historical documents but they’re actually about your tribe.”

Colton nodded. “Hidden in plain sight,” he said, “very clever of Glenn.”

“Did you not want to keep any of these?”

“I liked hearing the stories. I was never much of a reader. Glenn was the one that wanted to keep all of the history here so I let him.”

“Well, do you know who these other bears are or why they might have wanted to attack you? Has this happened before?”

“No, not for a long time. There was a battle once but we thought we had wiped them all out. We try not to get involved in wars because they only lead to death and it’s not something that any of us want. That’s part of the reason why the others left. They were ashamed of what we had done and they didn’t want any part of it, but our honor was attacked and we had to defend ourselves.”

“Do you think it could be the same ones trying to get revenge? Or do you think there’s a chance that one of your cousins is back?”

Colton shook his head.

“No, we’d know if it was them. Superior senses, remember?” he said, pointing to his nose. “We’d be able to tell from their scent. After we wiped out the other tribe I didn’t think that there were any other tribes operating in the area. Even those were a surprise. The rest were supposed to be in Europe.”

“Why did your tribe leave Europe anyway?”

“I don’t think it was an easy decision. As far as I understand it the bears were trying to organize themselves properly. I think they all saw that the world was growing and civilizations were getting more and more power. Some of the tribes thought that they should expose themselves and try to take over a country of their own. They didn’t see themselves as French, or British, or Spanish. They were bears first and foremost. But not everyone wanted to go to war. Some were happy living in the shadows and helping out where they could, like my tribe, who had the example of my ancestor to live by.” He paused.

“Whoever was in charge of my tribe at the time saw that the writing was on the wall and knew he had to escape lest they get involved in a civil war. Eventually the bears collapsed into in-fighting and they couldn’t make a decision, and the population was crippled. Ever since then we’ve had little contact with our brethren overseas, and as far as I’m concerned it’s better that way. The less people that know about us the better, and if there’s a big fight it’s going to disrupt the state of the world,” he said.

He then paused and turned to Ana.

“Look, I know this isn’t easy for you and I know I’ve made mistakes but I just wanted to thank you for helping me to try and find these people.”

“It’s okay,” she said, trying not to get too emotional with him because she couldn’t trust herself at that moment, especially not when he was getting heartfelt and sentimental.

“Do you think there’s anything here that will help us?” She said, leafing idly through the books, “I mean, you’re going to have to do most of the grunt work here because I can’t actually read any of these marks but if there’s anything I can do to help just let me know.”

“It’s just good that you’re here. We haven’t had to deal with anything like this since the last time.”

“What happened last time?” Ana asked. Colton puffed out his cheeks.

“You ask way too many questions sometimes,” he teased.

“It’s always been one of my faults.”

“It was back when I was about sixteen. I’d been living with my aunt and uncle for a long time but I still missed my parents. His father wasn’t like mine at all, he was so standoffish and we barely saw him. Most of the time us kids were left to our own devices and I wasn’t kidding when I said I was the runt of the litter.” Colton began.

“
Glenn tried to train me but I was hopeless back then. I was still so full of anger at what we were that I never even wanted to get better and learn how to use my skills, and Glenn grew frustrated at me. My uncle and aunt tried to talk to me but they didn’t understand like my own parents. I think they just hoped that I would work through it on my own.

We trained together and ran together, and one day in the woods we came across another bear while we were all in beast form. Now, when you come across bears in the wild it’s pretty obvious whether they’re intelligent or not, but this one looked at us then ran away. We chased after it because we were curious.

After all, we had no idea that there were others like us and we just wanted to become friends. We lost their trail, and looking back on it now that should have been a warning because it takes a skilled bear to cover their tracks from others. We went back and Glenn told us not to tell his parents because he thought we could go out again and find out where that bear came from, and then we could surprise them. I wasn’t sure about that though, but I went along with it all the same. The less I said the better.

The next day his sister went for a walk and she disappeared. When my uncle asked where she went Glenn still didn’t want to say anything but I was worried for my cousin, so I told my uncle the truth. Upon hearing this he flew into a rage and berated us all for putting ourselves in such a dangerous situation. That was the only time I heard him mention my father’s name as well, as he wished that my father was there beside him. He looked at us all and he paced the floor before us like a drill sergeant.

‘You don’t know what you’ve done. Your sister is in trouble now thanks to you. You should have come to me with this. I haven’t told you about the other tribes because I didn’t think they’d be a concern but I am paying the price for my own naiveté. As far as I’m concerned you’re all soldiers now. Hopefully this won’t come down to brute strength but if it does I’ll need all of you by my side. They’ve taken one of our own, and if there’s only one thing you remember that I say to you make sure it’s this – you always take care of your own.’

And that was that. Those words have stuck with me to this day. All of us went out to the forest. My uncle and aunt led us out there. He was older and had more experience than us so he was able to track them, although given what happened I think they wanted us to track them. When I look back I remember the look in his eyes and I think he knew he was going to his death. When he looked at us it was for the last time. He didn’t say anything much, but he made sure to give us each a moment.
” Colton finished.

“Did he say anything to you?”

“No, not really, just that my father would have been proud of me. We found them and they had my cousin tied up. We asked them why they were doing this but they said it was for blood crimes that needed justice. I don’t know what he meant by that. I still don’t. We tried to talk, tried to find a peaceful solution but without any warning they attacked us. I was still so young…so unsure. I wanted to run but before I knew it I was caught in the blood and thunder of battle. Instinct took over and I found myself defending my pack but there were so many. There was so much blood and by the end of it my muscles were aching and blood stained my fur, although I wasn’t sure whether it was mine or theirs until I checked.”

As he spoke his voice became strained and a haunted look came over his eyes as he took himself back to that moment. Ana sat with her hands in her lap and watched, almost afraid to make a sound in case she interrupted his fragile thoughts.

“In the fury of battle I lost track of everything. I didn’t see…wasn’t aware of anything. Only when it was over did I see that we had won, but at a great cost. My aunt and uncle had died protecting us. My parents had already been taken from me and now they were too. I began to hate my race for the evil they could do and we all howled to the heavens. We cried together, and we drowned in sorrow together as we carried their bodies back and gave them a proper burial.