Lord of the Bears (Wild Ridge Bears Book 1) (15 page)

“No. I’m safer at home. Besides, Simon wants me off clan lands anyway, doesn’t
he?”

Cullen raised a brow. “For now, yes.”

“So let me go. My being here is making all of you nuts, isn’t it?”

Cullen swallowed hard. “Yes. It’s hard for us to think straight with
you around.”

“Okay then. So I’ll go. The sooner I put distance between Jax and me,
the clearer headed you’ll be, right?”

Cullen paced in front of me, tearing a hand through his hair. He
muttered how Jax might kill him and he’d be better off just shooting him with a
dart again. But, the simple fact was, I was right. Letting me go was the best
way for him to help Jax and honor his oath, even if it meant tearing my heart
out. I kept silent about my plans. Instinct told me Cullen would have the same
reservations Jax had about sending me back to the Spences. I didn’t need
another obstacle to slow me down once I’d made my choice.

Cullen grunted. He took a step toward me. His hands hovered in the air
as if he didn’t know whether to kiss me or throttle me.

The noon sun rose high over the trees. I should be back in Jax’s house
with him right now. He should be getting ready to take me down to the village
to meet his crew. And they should be working in the mines today, bringing rich
copper out of the ground. All of this was a distraction they didn’t need. I
just hoped it wouldn’t be one more thing to test their loyalty to him. Jax
couldn’t afford to lose any more men to Simon or the others even if he came out
of that long house unscathed.

Cullen reached into his pocket and handed me a set of keys. “Take the
Grand Cherokee parked on the side of the building. I promise, I’ll make sure
Jax knows your safe.”

“Are you going to promise me that Jax is safe?”

Cullen’s grim look gave me all the answer I needed. If I failed, Jax
would pay the price. I thanked him again then turned and ran toward the Jeep.

Chapter Sixteen

Jax

I was buried alive. With each breath I took, pain shot through me. I
could hear Nora’s voice. Scared. Crying. So far away. Chains around my arms and
legs dragged me down. I’d never get to her.

Finally, light stabbed through the thick film over my eyes and I clawed
my way back. A hand on my shoulder replaced the chains I felt.

“Take it easy, son,” Hank said. “You’ve been out of it for a while.”

“Raaagh!” The bear lumbered awake inside of me. He wanted out. He
wanted vengeance. A hot poker seared through my shoulder, and I remembered what
happened.

“Son of a bitch!” I said, throwing Hank’s hand off of me. “Where is
she?”

“Now, calm
down
son. You’re not doing yourself a damn bit of
good right now.”

“Dad.” Cullen stepped forward. His skin had a ghostly pallor as he
stood in the doorway. I knew that look. Something bad had happened. Something
very bad. I went still and searched my heart. I searched for Nora. I felt her
still and I nearly doubled over as relief slammed into my chest to rival the
pain. She was alive. But she was gone.

“Where is she?” I said again, struggling to keep the bear at bay. I
couldn’t give in to that now. I needed my head. I needed to think.

“You need to worry more about your own predicament,” Hank said. He sat
on a stool near the bed where I lay. This was the back room of the company
store. We kept sleeping quarters back here for when workdays ran long.

“Hank. I swear to God, don’t make me ask you again.”

“She’s safe,” Cullen stepped forward. “Okay? At least as safe as we can
make her. Now, my father is right. We don’t have a lot of time before the
others want to talk to you. You need to know what’s going on.”

“I know what’s going on. Simon tried to fucking kill me.”

“If he’d wanted you dead with that shot, you would be,” Hank pushed a
flat hand against my chest. If I were at full strength, I might have torn his
damn arm off. As it was, I was still woozy enough to lie back. I wouldn’t be
for long. Hank knew that too. He wisely moved his stool back and out of my
reach.

“It was bullshit,” Cullen said. “We were all coming down the ridge to
talk to you. Simon took matters into his own hands and tranqued you. He didn’t
think you’d come up here to talk to the clans on your own.”

“Well, he was right about that.”

“Dammit, Jax. You need to calm your shit. You don’t see reason, Simon’s
going to be able to
make
his case against you.”

“You swore to me, Cullen.” I looked past Hank and locked eyes with
Cullen. “If anything happens to Nora.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to her,” Hank shouted. “Now listen here. You
gonna shut your hole for two minutes, or am I gonna have to go out there and
get Simon’s dart gun? Your choice.”

“Two minutes,” I said. “Not a second longer.”

Hank leaned back against the wall and let out a sigh. “Simon’s got the
rest of ‘em riled up pretty hot. They want a full clan meeting to settle our
differences once and for all. Now, I’m inclined to agree with them, even if I
don’t care for the way they went about it.”

“A clan meeting? You mean a full vote? That’s what you dragged me down
here to do? What the hell for?”

A shadow moved across the doorway. Simon and Trevor stood shoulder to
shoulder, and I swear it took everything in me not to launch myself at them
right past Hank.

“You’re lucky you darted me,” I said, my voice filled with dark threat.
“I’d tear your fucking throat out right here.”

Simon smiled and shook his head. “Exactly. You just think with your
bear. That’s your whole problem. So you just keep on doing that. You make my
case easier.”

“Fine.” Hank threw up his hands. “I’m getting so damn sick of listening
to the two of you go at it. Enough already. I can’t seem to talk sense into any
of you. So let’s do what we all came here for and be done with it.”

“Can you stand?” Cullen came into the room and put a hand out for me. I
waved him off and swung my legs over the bed. My knees trembled a little and
white heat flooded down my spine, but I stood on my own two feet. I took one
step, then another. Blood flowed into my limbs and my head started to clear.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m fine. You want to talk? We’ll talk.”

I brushed past Cullen and headed for the doorway. Trevor moved to let
me pass but Simon didn’t. I jammed my shoulder into his, the same one he shot
me in. Pain stabbed through me, but I kept my face even. It was going to take a
hell of a lot more than a tranq dart to take me out.

I charged out into the conference room. The heads of every clan were
already seated around the long table. My step faltered, and I set my jaw to the
side. This felt like a setup. By the looks on their faces, I feared the
decision about my fate here on the ridge was already made.

I straightened my back and took my seat at the one end of the table. We
were all equals here, each head of every clan. James, Marshall, McCormack,
Scott, MacPhereson, and Calvin. Hank was the only old timer left with an actual
seat at the table. The others had already made way for the next generation.
Though Rafe’s father and Bo’s were still here as honorary members and counsel
to their sons. Cullen took a position behind his father’s right shoulder.

“Do we need to have a discussion, or have you all just decided to
vote?” I said, not even trying to hide the venom in my tone. God. A quiet,
rational voice spoke to me from some dark corner of my brain. I wasn’t helping
myself by giving in to so much anger. But, so much had already been taken from
me. Some of these same men, Trevor and Simon, let my own father leave for the
Yukon without consulting me. I know it had been his choice, but it still stung.

“No one’s decided anything,” Rafe said. “But, Jax, we have questions.
That’s all.”

“Where is Nora?” I said. God. My heart hurt to think of her. Her
absence stung me more than any residual pain from that tranquilizer dart.

“She’s gone,” Simon said. “She doesn’t belong here.”

“What are you talking about?”

Bo put up a hand. He sat on Simon’s right. He at least had the decency
to look miserable about all of this. I couldn’t keep the bear silent. I reared
back and let out a growl that shook the windows. Then I leveled my stare at
Simon. “You mean you forced her to go!”

I clenched my fist and pounded it on the table. Cullen put a hand on my
shoulder, and it took everything in me not to shake it off. God, I couldn’t
think straight. Nora. How could they let her leave the ridge? I needed to get
to her. None of this mattered. Only her.

“I’ve done nothing wrong,” I said. “If you’ve called this meeting to
vote on banishing me, you have no cause.”

“Don’t we?” Simon rose to his feet and slammed his palms on the table.
“You and your family have done nothing but act on your own behalf too many
times now. You dragged us into wolf business. You went off to sleep and left
your crew untended for far too long. You let an outsider get close enough to
gather evidence against us and put it straight into the hands of the one man
who can do us harm right now. And you’ve hidden an
Anam Cara
from us.
That might be your greatest transgression of all. You wanted to know the
charges against you? There they are.”

“I hid
nothing
from you! Nora is
mine
. She
chose
me.
It had nothing to do with you. It was fate.”

“That’s not how it works and you know it!” Simon gripped the edge of
the table, and I think he might have flipped it if Trevor didn’t have a hand on
him.

“You boys need to calm down,” Hank shouted. “These are serious charges.
No one’s denying that. But Jax is one of us until he’s voted otherwise. Simon,
you’ve taken a few things into your own hands as well. And it is
not
right for this boy to stand here accused without his father here by his side.”

“I don’t need Caleb,” I said. “I can speak for myself. I told you. Nora
chose me. There’s nothing to answer for where she’s concerned.” My voice was
hot. Fur bristled beneath my collar. The man inside of me knew some of Simon’s
charges had merit. I
had
kept Nora all to myself. But she was meant for
me. I knew it in my heart and soul. Given the choice, I would do it all over
again.

“She chose you because she was never given any other alternative,”
Trevor said. “You’d already claimed her before she met any of the rest of us.”

“This is the twenty-first century,” I said, surprised I could keep my
tone level after all. “We are not cavemen bears dragging women off. She’s a
grown woman. She crossed my path because she was supposed to. You can ask her
yourself. She’s mine.”

“We’ll see about that,” Simon said. He moved toward me. Every cell in
my body flared a warning. I saw the challenge in his eyes. Clarity came into
mine. This was all for show. Everything Simon did and said. It wasn’t about the
pictures Damon Spence had. Not anymore. It wasn’t about my sister and the
wolves. It was about one thing. He wanted Nora and was willing to banish me to
get to her. Simon was older than me by more than ten years. He’d never had a
mother or a sister or any woman in his life. He was desperate for a mate more
than any of the others. Save for Hank, he’d been head of his clan longer than
the rest of us at this table, and his mines pulled the most copper, at least
for now. We were equals, but Simon didn’t see it that way. I saw the cold truth
in his eyes. He believed I’d stolen his chance at Nora.

In that one, single moment, I knew what I had to do. This could never
be resolved at a council table.

“Fine,” I said. “You’ve brought your charges against me. You want to
vote. You’re very civilized. I’m not. This is about one thing and between Simon
and me. So let’s make it about that.”

“Jax. Son, don’t do this.” Hank rose. I felt Cullen’s hand at my back.

But it was too late. The wild heat in Simon’s eyes told me there was
only one way this could end no matter what the clan members decided. So, I
would decide for them.

“You’ve charged me. I have the right to answer for myself. So I will. I
choose wager of battle. I challenge Simon. Only one of us can remain and have
any peace on the ridge.”

Murmurs and growls worked their way around the table. My purpose was
clear.

Either Simon would die today, or I would.

Chapter Seventeen

Nora

Every heartbeat ached as I drove further away from the ridge. It was as
if I were trying to breathe underwater. Once I’d claimed Jax and he claimed me,
it caused me physical pain to separate from him. My body knew its place, and
that was back at the ridge with my man.

This is why banishment would kill him, I thought. If I had to live
without him forever, it would be like slow starvation. The lands were part of
him and part of me now. No matter what happened, I had to figure out a way to
make it safe for him again. We could
not
let Simon win.

I pulled into my apartment parking lot just as the sun set. Strange. No
part of this place felt like home anymore. I was heading into a stranger’s
building. It even smelled different. Foreign. I hesitated, fingers trembling as
I tried to put the key in the lock. God knew what it would look like inside.
I’d been gone for days and had left it in shambles after Simon’s crew ran
through it. I just hoped my landlord hadn’t caught wind of any of it, or he
might have changed the locks.

But, the key engaged and I pushed the door open. I flicked on the light
and my breath caught. The place was pristine. Not so much as an overturned
flower pot. The wrecked furniture had been replaced with new pieces and
positioned in the living room exactly the way I’d had it.

Did Simon do this? Did Jax? If it had been Jax, it seemed like he would
have told me. My stomach flipped when I found a note on the kitchen counter. I
took a breath and read it.

“Things got a bit out of hand. Please send a bill to Wild Ridge Mining
Co. if there is anything else to be replaced.”

It was signed by Cullen and Rafe on behalf of the company. So strange.
I wanted to be mad at them, but part of this touched me. I had reason to be
furious with all of them. They doubted my intentions. Simon at least had tried
to hurt Jax. Cullen assured me he’d acted without the consent of the others.
These bears were a complicated bunch. I wanted to hate some of them. In Simon’s
case, I did. But, I had the overwhelming sense of …well…growing affection for
some of the rest of them, Cullen in particular. I’d been an only child, but
this whole thing felt like what large families might go through. Thrash and
fight, but at the end of the day, they kill for you.

And
like it or not…
intentional
…or not, I had put them at risk.

I
pulled my phone out of my bag and plugged it into the wall charger. I hadn’t
checked it in days since I went to the ridge with Jax. I had twenty-two missed
calls. Two from my parents, the rest from Aaron Spence. I let out a hard
breath. This was going to be hard to unfuck. But I’d have to find a way.

I took
a quick shower and changed into fresh clothes. I’d have to think of a way to
deal with Aaron, and quickly. It meant I may need to meet him tonight. With any
luck, I could head back to the office in the morning. I knew Damon himself was
gone this week, taking a meeting in D.C. with his cousin. That would make my
job easier, assuming Aaron didn’t hover over my shoulder in the office.

My
phone was charged by the time I came out. I called my father first. His tone
was clipped when he answered, a sure sign of his relief at hearing from me. I
felt like an ass for going AWOL.

“I’m
sorry, Daddy,” I said. “I’ve got a bad battery on my phone and it wouldn’t hold
a charge. I’ve been out in the field taking pictures for that nature calendar.
I thought I told you about it.” I hated lying to him. I knew it wouldn’t be for
long. If I could get everything resolved with Jax, he’d need to make a trip to
Traverse City with me so we could do this the right way.

“As
long as you’re okay, butter bean,” he said. “You’re twenty-one. A grown woman.
I trust you.”

“Thanks.
But still. I’ll get a new battery and you’re going to have to break down and
start using the cell phone I gave you. You might actually have to learn to text
me.”

“Maybe
so. Might be easier for your mother too. The occupational therapist was showing
her some apps she could use on her tablet to talk with you face to face.”

“Yep.
There are a million of them. I’ll tell you what. I kind of wanted to take a
trip home next week. There’s somebody special to me I’d like you to meet.”

My
father chuckled on the other end of the phone. “You think I didn’t already know
that?”

My
heart lurched. “What?”

“Calendar
Shmalendar. I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. You go radio silent for
two days, there’s only one reason. You got a new boyfriend, honey?”

I
swallowed hard and sank down onto one of the kitchen stools. Boyfriend. It
seemed a woefully inadequate word for what Jax was. But, it felt good to at
least touch a version of the truth. “Yeah, Dad. His name is Jax. Jaxon Lord.
And I think you’re really going to like him.”

“Well,
bring him around, bean. Can’t wait to meet him.”

“You
got it.” I asked more questions about how my mother was feeling. I asked Dad
too; he did his usual song and dance avoiding straight answers, then I kissed
him through the phone and said goodbye.

The
next phone call would be far trickier.

Aaron
answered mid-ring and breathless. “God, Nora? Thank God.”

“Hey,
Aaron. Sorry I’ve been out of town.”

“Look,
I need to see you. We need to meet.”

I
swallowed hard and squeezed my eyes shut. It would be too easy to just agree
with him. He might suspect something considering how we’d left things and how
adamant I’d been I wanted him to leave me alone. But, Aaron’s narcissism worked
in my favor. He didn’t seem to have listened or cared. I had to be careful,
though; he’d gotten handsy with me the last time we were alone. I wasn’t about
to walk into another problem.

I let
Aaron do most of the talking. It was easy really. He only ever heard what he
wanted anyway. Within five minutes, he believed I was sorry for leaving things
the way I had. He tried to get me to let him come over to my apartment, but I
wanted neutral turf. I offered to meet him at a sports bar around the corner in
an hour.

I
changed three times again before leaving. More than anything, I wished I could
talk to Jax. I tried his number, but it went straight to voicemail. Maybe that
was for the best. Cullen and the others probably had to dart him again to keep
him from following me back out here. I prayed he’d come to his senses and not
be too angry with me when I did go back. But, this was my plan. I had to see it
through. Jax’s very life might depend on it.

Aaron
was already waiting for me at the bar when I got there. I wore a pair of jeans
and a t-shirt. This wasn’t a date. Aaron would take it that way, but I didn’t
have to help him.

His
eyes lit up when he saw me and he rushed across the room. He leaned in to try
and kiss me, but I put a hand up and sat down at the bar. I ordered a white
wine and waited for Aaron to finally sit down next to me.

“I’m
still pissed at you,” I said. “But I’ve calmed down a lot. I needed the last
few days to clear my head and get some perspective.”

“You
have no reason to be pissed. But I get it. I know what Dad did must have looked
bad.”

“What
your
father
did?”

Aaron
put a hand up, gesturing for me to lower my voice. “Look, you’re just as much
to blame for what happened as anyone. You throw mixed signals. You’re fickle.”

My
blood raged. Thankfully, the bartender set my wine in front of me and I took a sip.
I couldn’t throw it in his face. I needed to be at my job, at least for a few
hours. Aaron was stupid and arrogant. If he believed he could trust me, getting
access to the files I needed would be easy. It was probably sitting right on
top of his desk.

“I
just don’t think it’s a good idea for you and I to have a personal relationship
beyond work right now. That’s all.”

Aaron
nodded. “Yeah. Yeah. I get that. My father has reamed me out about that good
and plenty. You win, okay. I’ll wait. But, he also appreciates the work you’ve
done so far. He thinks he’s got enough to go to court on the mining company.
You could help with that?”

“Help
how?”

“You
took the pictures of the cabin. There were some others too. When Dad reviewed
them more closely, he said he found something that might be able to prove the
deforestation claim. But since you’re the one who took them, you have to be
willing to produce an affidavit. He says you can authenticate them if we have
to get an injunction.”

I
leaned back and really looked at Aaron. He didn’t have a good poker face at
all. Damon knew exactly what was on that flash drive, and it had nothing to do
with a few trees being cut down. But it was clear he’d sold that story to his
son and he bought it. What Damon really wanted with me, I couldn’t guess, but
it wouldn’t matter. Once I had my drive back and access to the Vista server.
I’d make those pictures go away and with it the last card he had against the
Wild Ridge bears.

“Fine,”
I said. “They’re just pictures. If my testimony can help save the ridge, I have
no problem with providing it. Why don’t you just give me my property back and
I’ll write up whatever your father wants?”

Aaron’s
face lit up. He leaned in and kissed me on the cheek before I had a chance to
stop him. “Tomorrow morning,” he said. “Dad’s in D.C. until Thursday, but he
drew up the paperwork. Do you realize how happy it’s going to make him when I’m
able to just call him up and tell him this is handled?”

“I’m
sure,” I said, lifting my wine glass to Aaron. He clinked his beer mug against
it and smiled.

“I’ll
be in by eight,” I said. “Have the paperwork ready. And I mean it, I need my SIM
card back. I’m not signing anything until I have a chance to go through every
picture on them again. I want to be accurate.”

“Of
course, of course,” Aaron said. He hopped off his bar stool and tried to follow
me back out.

“Don’t
push it,” I said. “Let’s take this one step at a time. First, your dad’s
business. Then, we’ll see if you and I can at least be friends again.”

It was
enough of a bone to keep Aaron happy. I just hoped tomorrow morning would go as
smoothly.

***

I
didn’t sleep at all. My body cried out for Jax’s in the middle of the night.
The air in my apartment felt wrong somehow. Like I didn’t belong here. And I
didn’t. I felt Jax calling out to me even though we’d put miles between us.

“Soon,
my love.” I rolled to my side and stared out at the moon. I knew he was looking
up at it too. I only hoped it wouldn’t be too late.

Aaron
was waiting for me, pacing in front of the office door when I arrived at the
Vista Foundation offices. Incredibly, he held my SIM card in his hand and
tossed it to me. My fingers burned around it. It took everything in me not to
run with it. But, this was only half the job. I needed to figure out if and
where Damon had made copies of some of the most damning pictures on here. Aaron
had been lax about security, and I already knew the passcode to the computer in
Damon’s office. The trick would be finding the time to get in there without
Aaron suspecting.

The opportunity
came mid-morning. I’d reviewed the affidavit Damon’s lawyers had prepared. The
photographs they were interested in seemed innocuous to me. They mentioned the
pioneer cabin and a few acres to the north of it. To my untrained eye, I just
saw pictures of trees. Nothing had been disrupted or chopped down. To make
Aaron happy. I said I would sign the affidavit, but I put it aside. It wasn’t
much of anything, just a statement from me that these pictures came from my
camera, that my camera was in proper working order, and that I worked for
Damon.

“Great,”
Aaron said. He got bold and leaned down to kiss me on the forehead. Then he
hustled out of the room to put a call into his father in private.

I saw
my chance and took it. The receptionist had already left for lunch. Aaron and I
were the only ones in the office. I pocketed the SIM card and headed into
Damon’s office. If Aaron came back, I’d need to think of a quick excuse as to
why I was in his father’s office. None came to mind that he would buy.

I
logged on to Damon’s computer and sweated every second it took to boot up. I
did a file search and found where he’d stored some of the pictures on his
drive. My heart lurched when I saw the ones of Jax shifting. Whatever he meant
to do with that affidavit, it was a red herring. I pulled up random Google
images of cartoon teddy bears and saved over every image he had on his drive.
It was the only way to ensure he could never recover them if he called in an IT
guy.

My
heart racing, I looked around the monitor to see where Aaron was. He still hadn’t
come back from the hallway. I could just barely hear him over the hum of the
machine. I had a minute or two, maybe more. I tapped the touchpad. On a whim, I
opened Damon’s personal email. God, what an arrogant idiot. He didn’t even
bother to log out. I did a search for picture attachments.

Bingo.

Three
days ago he’d sent a message out to someone. When I pulled up the message, my
heart stopped. I couldn’t breathe.