Two Bears are Better Than One (Alpha Werebear Romance) (Broken Pine Bears Book 1) (16 page)

The fire though, that was certainly not her imagination.

When it burst, it was so close that she felt an aftershock of force, and then a wave of heat. For some reason, she knew that whatever it was, and whatever that gunshot was, were part of why her chest was presently aching so badly she thought it might’ve been a heart attack. She checked her pistol one more time. She knew they were there, she knew it was loaded, but seeing the bullets gave her a little shot of security. Jill felt herself almost unconsciously pulled toward the pillar of smoke. Why, she couldn’t say – but something called her. Something tugged her in that direction. But just like Rogue and King, no matter how crazy she felt, no matter how strange or unbelievable the whole thing was?

Somehow, it felt
right
.

Maybe that fate stuff? Maybe there’s something to it after all.

*

“R
eport.”

Ice cold, stony hazel eyes focused on a slightly nervous man who was thirty years younger. The younger man was trying to hide his nervousness. “Uh, yes, General Draven.”

“Just Draven,” he said. “On this job, there aren’t any generals. We’re not supposed to be here. Hell, we’re not supposed to exist.”

“Right, sir, sorry. There was a slight... miscalculation.”

“With the wolves?” Draven asked. He narrowed his eyes. Just the glance was enough to make sweat bead up on the younger man’s smooth brow. He wiped it away.

“No, the wolves, that all went off as planned. The frequency we had is right – they went right into a whipped up, crazed frenzy, just like we hoped.”

Draven grunted under his breath, then unwound his arms from where they were crossed behind his slim frame and steepled his fingers under his chin. “So then, what? The bears?”

A moment’s hesitation told him everything he needed to know. “What about the girl? Is that obnoxious scientist still in the picture?”

“That’s the other thing, sir. We had a bead on her – or you did, I mean – but then she vanished. By the time we called in the air strike, our coordinates were no good.”

“Then what was that explosion?” Draven narrowed his lips to a thin, unbroken line that matched the pencil-shaped mustache immediately above it.

The soldier shook his head. “I told them not to do it. I told them the coordinates were bad, but they,” he trailed off, eyes turning to the floor.

Draven was nodding – he had expected this double cross. His only anger was at himself for not acting sooner. “I had a feeling this was the plan all along, but of course thinking isn’t in my job description. If that’s what the corporation wanted, then that’s what they get.”

“It was the den.” The soldier’s voice hitched slightly in his throat. “They firebombed the shit out of it. It’s like they wanted to wipe it out, make sure there was no trace left behind. I thought they just wanted to catch a couple of them, a couple of wolves, and do some experiments, or—“

Draven grabbed the younger man’s shoulder. “The first thing you learn in this line of work is that you’re getting paid to follow orders. The sooner you stop thinking, the sooner you stop feeling, the easier it’ll be.”

He laughed bitterly. “That’s a lesson I should have learned a long time ago. The other one is that you can’t fight an army by yourself. I never learned that one either. But the girl’s still alive?”

“Must be. And I think they might have missed with the firebombs. None of the cubs were down there. I checked the heat signatures. Maybe it was just supposed to be a warning?”

“You can’t warn someone who doesn’t know you exist. What would the point be? If you ask me, they’re trying to get all three of them back there so they can catch them all at once. At least, that’s the only thing that comes to mind.”

Draven pulled an unfiltered Camel out of the packet that he kept in the breast pocket of his unmarked uniform. With a smooth, practiced motion, he flipped it into his mouth and struck his ancient Zippo, then shut it with a clink as he exhaled the first puff. “I think you had the right of it. They want to experiment, but they don’t want to bother experimenting on the young ones. Why bother? If you want to dick around with nature, why not take the biggest and the strongest?”

“Yeah, I mean yes, sir,” the soldier said. Draven smiled. He hated the formality he was supposed to keep. He’d been a brilliant tactician, an incredible leader, but an absolutely horrible general. This life suited him much better, he thought.

“But what I can’t figure out, why did they want the girl?”

Draven shook his head. “If I could answer that, I would. Hell, I can’t even really tell you who is writing our paychecks. But then, that’s probably how they want it. There’s something strange about her, though. When I was watching her earlier, she didn’t show one shred of fear. She just stared straight back at me, like there was a purpose to what she was doing. And she kept touching her chest. Maybe a habit, maybe a tic, or—“

“It ain’t a tic, Draven,” a big, muscled-up bald man, heavily tattooed on the neck and shoulders, entered the makeshift office and closed the door behind him.

The grizzled old man took a long drag, held it for a second, and then blew out a huge plume of smoke as he turned to the door. “Rogue and King,” the new man said. “They don’t know what they’ve got themselves into.”

“Good to see you, Madix. I was afraid you’d decided to take your freedom and run with it.”

The cryptic comment made no sense to the young man, but he stood still all the same, his expression never changing. If there was one thing he’d learned about being a mercenary, it’s that you don’t show any emotions until you know someone’s entire game.

“No, sir,” the massive brute said. “Wouldn’t know where to go. And besides, I owe you one. Like I was saying, Rogue and King have no idea what they’re up against. They think the wolves are just frenzied because it’s that time of year, or month, or whatever. Also, I missed him on purpose.”

“Missed him? What are you talking about?”

Madix huffed a laugh. “Those black suits, they wanted me to tranquilize one bear so the other would be easier to catch. The point was – you had it right, junior – that the fire was supposed to lure them home. And to lure that girl in as well. She feels them, you know. She’s one of them.”

“I suspected,” Draven said. “But kept my mouth shut. So she’s marked, then?”

The big man nodded. “Marked just like my mother, just like the two alphas. My memories aren’t all that clear, and God knows what GlasCorp did to me when I was in their cages, but I remember enough to know that she’s special. Marks aren’t random, they don’t just
happen
. They always have a purpose.”

“Regardless,” Draven said. “Business is business. Not a word, to anyone. Understand, Madix? You’re not going to do anything to spoil the mission.”

“Of course not,” Madix said.

“But you’re also not going to do anything that’ll endanger your people any more than necessary. Rogue and King, I get the impression they can take care of themselves. The girl too, to an extent. But the cubs?” The old man shook his head. “There’s a reason I’ve been protecting them for fifty years. Last of their kind.”

“But, sir,” the young man cut in. “If you’re trying to protect them, why are we going along with this?”

“Like I said,” Draven whispered, taking another drag. “One man can’t fight an army. Even if he’s a bear, and the army is nothing but pencil necked bureaucrats. So I watch, I manipulate, I try to do what I can. Hell, the only reason Rogue and King are still alive is because I deflected the Army from figuring out they existed. GlasCorp might experiment, might be trying to create some kind of human enhancement serum using their DNA, but that’s nothing compared to what a bunch of scientists with grants on their minds would do to those people.”

“
Our
people, you mean,” Madix said.

Draven curled his lip in half a smile and rolled up his sleeves casually. Underneath the stark, black uniform were harsh, line-drawn, tattoos all the way to the wrist. “Dismissed,” he said.

The young soldier looked back and forth a couple of times. “Me?”

Draven nodded. “Report back if anything changes. If not, you did good work. Get some rest.”

“I’m staying, I guess?” Madix asked.

Draven gestured with his head for the younger soldier to leave. He turned on his heel and exited the trailer, but paused as soon as he was outside. “You know them better than anyone,” he heard Draven say. “I’m a generation too old, I came before. But you? You’re theirs. We need a plan, but we need to be careful.”

“Understood,” Madix said. The enormous bear smiled, revealing a set of teeth capped in metal. He wasn’t as put together, collected, and calm as the old man. This guy seemed on edge, a little too intense, and a little... sweaty?

The young soldier smiled to himself. In his line of work, knowing about the secret things in the world was just part of the job. Shape shifters, werewolves, silent helicopters, alien technology, black ops projects in the Nevada desert, it was all old hat.

But, figuring out the General’s secret before the old man said a word? That was
damn
cool.

––––––––

T
he ash was thick and heavy, falling like pillowy snowflakes all around Jill as she crept through the undergrowth. The wolves were still whipped into a wild, screeching, howling frenzy, but they seemed to stay where they were. At least, they weren’t getting any closer, which was nice.

As she got closer and closer to ground zero for that fire storm, her chest burned hotter and hotter. It was like the mark was a beacon drawing her home. None of it made sense, but in that, all of it made
perfect
sense. Why she’d started studying this stuff in the first place, why she fought so hard to get out here, and how completely she was consumed by the two gorgeous alphas that had claimed her for their own – it all made a perverse kind of sense.

A half burned pine needle, with still a touch of ember on the shaft, fell in front of her. She instinctively stepped on it to put out the flame, but then barked a laugh. Fire was
all
around her. Thousands of tiny embers, thousands of impotent fires, none of which caught on anything.

But stepping on one was something she
could
do. As helpless as she felt, that one tiny act gave her a surge of confidence.

“I’m coming,” she said as the mark flared to life, making her stomach, her legs, and between them, tingle. “Whatever I can do, I’m coming.”

As soon as she lay eyes on the massive cave that overlooked the burned plain below, she felt like the world’s biggest idiot.
How did I miss this?
She shook her head.

That’s when she noticed the
eyes
. Twenty, thirty, maybe more, peered out from the cave overlooking the field. They were all glowing amber, barely visible in the darkness. Jill took another step forward, hoping she hadn’t just walked straight into a revenge ambush for the wolves she’d blown to bits. But the immense sense of calm and safety she felt told her there was nothing to fear.

“We were waiting for you,” a voice said that made her jump slightly. “Our fathers told us you were coming, but... we didn’t believe it. We thought it was impossible.”

A young bear, much smaller than King and Rogue, slid out of the forest silently, stood on his hind legs, and right before Jill’s eyes, became a young man. She touched her mark, felt the heat. “Are they here?” she asked. “Are you all right?”

The young bear nodded. “We sleep in the cave,” he said. “And no, they aren’t. It’s all right!” he called, turning to the cave. “You can come out, our mother has come.”

“Not my mother,” a black-haired boy spat as he emerged from the darkness. “Mine was taken, probably by
her
people.”

“Enough.” The one who first spoke to her said. “She’s marked. Are you?”

That shut the mouthy, younger bear up immediately.

As soon as she set foot in the massive cave, Jill’s jaw dropped. “Wow,” she said. “Is this where you live?”

The cubs looked around at one another, looks of obvious confusion on their faces, like they were trying to figure out how much to say. “I’ve heard Rogue and King talk about all of you,” she said carefully. “They’re very proud of their cubs, you know.” That got a few smiles from the still apprehensive crowd.

“We’re not all theirs,” one of the boys, who was regarding Jill rather coolly, stepped forward. “They’re the alphas, so they’re our sworn fathers. But we’re mostly from different parents. Only a handful of us are actually related to them. And the only one with an amber eye is Arrow. He’s next in line. The eyes tell us.”

“But we only have him, there are no others,” a larger boy cut him off. “Can’t be. The helicopter people...”

“I know,” Jill said, “they took them. I know the story; Rogue and King told me. So this is where you live?” Her head was swimming.

“Only when dangerous things are happening outside,” one of the other boys – this one with absolutely piercing ice blue eyes – said. “The alphas are supposed to be separate from the rest of the clan so they can make decisions without interference. It’s got something to do with the traditions. I never paid much attention to those old stories, so I can’t tell you anything else.”

“You must be one of Rogue’s,” Jill said with a fond smile. “He doesn’t care much for tradition either.”

The boy smiled back, and for the first time, she felt like she’d made a connection with one of these young cubs.

“Speaking of,” Jill said, “have you seen
them
?”

“They went,” the boy, who seemed to be in charge, said.

“Went where? And what’s your name?”

“Arrow,” he said, his cool blue eye and amber eye flashing in the orange flame licking the ceiling of the cave. “When the alphas are gone, I speak for the clan.”

“Oh boy, yeah, he thinks he does, anyway.” Another one stepped up, this one shorter even than Jill but holy
shit
was he muscular. “I’m Sly.”

“Like Stallone?” Jill asked. The bear cocked his head to the side.