Bear Run: A Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Pine Ridge Bear Shifters Book 1)

  BEAR RUN

  Pine Ridge

  Bear Shifters #1

  Belinda Meyers

  Copyright 2016

  All rights reserved

  Cover image used with permission

  Author's Note:

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  Chapter 1

  “Hold your gun straight! I hear something!”

  Alice cringed and lifted her rifle higher, its butt pressed against her shoulder just like Pa had taught her. Her heart beat fast, and she could feel her limbs trembling.

  This is wrong, she thought. This is all wrong.

  “There!” said Bradley, eyeing a device that looked like a compass. It wasn’t, of course, but something far more sinister—at least in his hands. He indicated a direction, and the three of them inched toward a rise, then peered over it.

  The forest loomed in all directions, green and lush and beautiful, with massive shaggy conifers arching toward the blue sky and filling the air with the scent of pine. Alice wished she were here alone, or at least with someone else. Anyone but her deranged, homicidal family.

  “I see it,” said Pa, using his angry whisper; Alice was all too familiar with that tone. His craggy face bunched up in hate, his rheumy dark eyes squinting. The rifle he carried rose, and he sighted along its barrel.

  Alice scanned the forest, holding her breath, then saw it: a huge grizzly bear, gray-brown and scarred and massive, lumbering through a glade in the woods. Her heart almost stopped in her chest. It’s beautiful, she thought. Can it really be ... one of THEM? According to Bradley’s “compass”, it was. The device only detected shifters, at least according to the self-styled witch they’d bought it off of at the flea market last month.

  “Abomination,” Pa whispered as he squinted one eye completely, peering down the sight of the barrel with the other. “Demon.”

  “Hellspawn,” Bradley agreed. He was Alice’s older brother, and she was all too used to his and her pa’s hatred of all things shifter. Ever since the supes had come out of the den a few years ago, the two men had become manic in their single-minded devotion to the idea of destroying them. This was their first chance to act on it. “Let’s send it back to hell,” Bradley added, and Alice could hear the longing in his voice. He craved violence, she could tell. It made her wonder if he’d ever done this before. This was her first time, and she knew it was Pa’s, too.

  Pa nodded, still taking aim. “I’ve got ‘im,” he said. “I’ve got ‘im in my sights.” His finger curled around the trigger, and Alice had to fight the urge to jump on him and wrestle the gun away.

  Maybe I should, she thought. Maybe I—

  Pa paused. Lifting his lean, wrinkled face, his rheumy eyes settled on Alice.

  She felt a chill. “What is it, Pa?”

  “You,” he said. “You should take the shot.”

  “Me?” She felt her mouth fall open.

  “She’s right,” said Bradley. “If it ain’t you, Pa, it should be me that does it.”

  “No.” Pa shook his head adamantly. “You I’m sure of. Alice here is the weak link. If we’re gonna start doin’ this regular like we planned, start our march on the holy crusade, we need to firm her up.”

  Reluctantly, Bradley nodded. “Alright, Pa.” He looked at Alice and spat out a gob of tobacco juice. “Well, whatcha waitin’ for, Sis? Take the shot!”

  They had been speaking in low tones, but when Alice turned back to the glade she saw that the bear had lifted its enormous, handsome head in their direction. He was so majestic it made her heart ache to look at him. He appeared to have heard them. His hearing must be ridiculously sensitive.

  “Well?” Pa demanded. “Git goin’! Wait too long and he’ll bolt—or come fer us.”

  She made herself square her shoulders and raise her rifle. Took it off safety. Made sure there was a bullet in the chamber. Aimed, sighting along the barrel, centering her sights on the shaggy breast of the gorgeous, scarred, tough-looking bear.

  “Do it!” Bradley said.

  Alice’s fingers trembled. Her breaths came fast and shallow.

  “Now!” said her pa.

  She felt her eyes burn. Don’t cry, she thought. Don’t let them see your weakness.

  In the glade, the bear lowered its head and began to turn away.

  “It’s leavin’!” Pa said, spittle spraying from his lips. “Do it or I will, you stupid cow!”

  Something dawned on her. If you could’ve, you old codger, you would’ve. It was his eyes, she thought. He hadn’t thought he could see well enough to take the shot, so he’d come up with the only excuse he could think of. Gotta firm her up, ha. Well, she would show him who was firm.

  She lowered the rifle. “No,” she said. She’d meant her voice to sound bold and dramatic, but she thought it came out as more of a squeak.

  “No?” said Bradley. His square face turned as red as his hair. “No?”

  “That’s right,” she said. “I won’t do it.”

  “Bah!” Pa snarled. Before she could stop him, he raised his own rifle and fired. The shot sounded like a bomb going off in the stillness of the forest, and a flock of birds exploded out of a tree and fluttered off into the sky, startled by the sound.

  The bear had reached the edge of the clearing, but now it paused. For a wild moment hope flooded Alice’s chest. He missed! she thought. The blind old possum missed! Then she saw the blood staining the animal’s fur and running down its shoulder. Her heart wrenched, and her eyes burned worse than before.

  “Ha!” said Bradley, pumping a fist into the air. He jumped to his feet and tugged Pa up, too. Alice rose more gingerly.

  “Is he still standing?” Pa said, shading his bad eyes with one frail hand. Alice thought she detected a tremor in it.

  “Yeah, Pa,” Bradley said. “Just one more shot to finish him.” He tried to wrench Alice’s gun away from her; there were only two guns. She fought him, holding onto it tight. He yanked harder, but she pulled back.

  “I won’t—let you—kill him!” she said through gritted teeth.

  Bradley swore and let go, and she flew backward, landing in an ungainly heap on her rump—which, as Bradley and Pa had both pointed out many times, was generous. She wasn’t tall, but she was big-boned. No point in you goin’ ta college, Pa had told her often. You’re too fat to meet a fella, and what’s the use of a girl goin’ to college if not to meet a fella?

  “Shoot ‘im again!” Bradley urged Pa.

  Grumbling under his breath, Pa raised his rifle and took aim again. In the clearing, the bear was listing to one side and shaking his head. Blood gushed freely from his wound. Sudden concern tore through Alice, and she shoved herself back to her feet, desperate to stop this. But what could she do?

  Inspiration seized her.

  Pa, blind as he was, would need a few moments to aim. That might give her time to do what she needed to do. Feeling sweat pop out on her forehead and scalp, she pelted down the incline of the rise, trees flashing past her.

  “What’re you doin’?” Bradley called after her. “Pa, she’s gone mad!”

  “Stupid cow!” Pa called. “Get back here or you’ll git shot!”

  She kept going. A root reached for her feet, but she leapt over it, stumbled, stayed upright and kept running. Ahead, the bear was sinking to its knees. A shaft of sunlight shone down on it, illuminating gnats and pollen drifting in the currents of the air, and making the bear’s blo
od almost seem to glow. It looked so red it was surreal. Alice felt like she was in a dream.

  “Git down, you fool!” her Pa shouted behind her. “You’re in the line of fire!”

  As if she didn’t know that. For once in her life, though, she knew she was doing the right thing. Even if it did get her killed.

  He won’t shoot, she told herself. He won’t!

  The horrible thing was that she wasn’t sure.

  Panting, she reached the bear and dropped to her knees beside it ... just as it Shifted. As soon as she reached it, it collapsed to the ground and seemed to lose consciousness. When it did, the air—maybe reality itself—seemed to shimmer around it, and the bear changed, slipping forms, and in seconds it was no longer a bear at all but a man, gorgeous and naked, with a mane of flowing dark hair that trailed halfway down his thick neck and rugged-looking stubble on his square jaw. Blood pumped from a hole in his upper chest or lower shoulder, down over his right arm to the grass.

  “Dear God,” Alice heard herself whisper. He was amazing, all gleaming muscles and unbridled power. But now helpless and defenseless.

  Hearing footsteps, she wheeled about. Pa and Bradley scrambled toward her through the trees. Doubtless they meant to drag her away and finish the job. The fact that the bear shifter had changed shapes wouldn’t matter to them. Whether in the guise of a bear or a man, he would still be an abomination to them. Anything new or different is bad, she thought. Ma had been the same way, she remembered, but she hadn’t been so militant about it. Alice missed her a great deal, despite her narrow-mindedness. In her own way, she had been sweet and good and kind, and she had died before the shifters had come out to the world, so Alice had never heard her thoughts on them.

  “Leave him alone!” Alice shouted as Pa and Bradley drew close.

  Pa’s face was as red as Bradley’s now, sweaty and unhealthy-looking. He drew in long, ragged breaths, and she couldn’t help but feel a twist of concern for him. He sounded like he might have a heart attack at any moment.

  “You cow!” said Bradley. “Look what you’ve done to Pa!”

  A flash of guilt flickered through her, but she stood firm. “I won’t let you kill him,” she said, indicating the naked man behind her. “He needs a doctor.”

  “He needs to be put out of his misery,” Pa said, then grinned. It was a cruel, half-mad expression. “Or at least mine.”

  Bradley laughed, a harsh, manic sound. “Good one, Pa.”

  Alice scowled at them. How could I have been brow-beaten by these two idiots for so long?

  “I won’t let you do any more harm than you have already,” she said. “I can’t believe I went along with you this far. But no more!” With a toe, she very dramatically drew a line in the dirt before her. “This is the line in the sand.”

  Bradley sneered. “What happens if we cross it?” Experimentally, he took a step forward.

  Alice half-raised her rifle. “Wanna find out?”

  He paused, a trace of something that might be fear in his eyes. “You wouldn’t.”

  “Try me.”

  His face went rigid. “Bitch.”

  Pa patted him on the shoulder. “It’s alright, Junior. She’s a stupid cow, that’s all.”

  “Don’t call me ‘Junior’,” Bradley said, and Alice couldn’t help smiling a little at the familiar fight.

  Behind her the naked man was groaning. She glanced over her shoulder to see him moving and blinking his eyes. Bradley seized her distraction to leap forward, across the line, and knock the barrel of her rifle aside. She stumbled backward, actually tripping over the body of the naked man. For the second time in as many minutes, her rump hit the forest floor, only this time the impact made her finger squeeze the trigger. The rifle boomed, and Bradley leapt backward, a girlish scream curdling from his lips.

  Looking quizzical, Pa patted himself down for bullet holes, then checked Bradley, but neither were hit; the bullet had whizzed harmlessly overhead. At least it had given Alice a moment to consider her options. Analysis: zilch. Just how was she going to get out of this?

  Suddenly, the naked man, though still bleeding, lurched up to a sitting position, then rose to his feet. He stood there swaying, one hand pressed over his wound, while Pa and Bradley reeled back, eyes wide. Alice wanted to laugh at the comical fright on their faces, but the laughter died in her throat when she saw Pa start to lift his rifle.

  “Do it and I’ll blast you,” she said, wincing at the words. Blast you sounded like something out of Star Wars. She said it pointing her rifle at her own father’s chest, though, and he didn’t seem to find it amusing. Her fingers trembled, and she felt like she wanted to throw up. What am I DOING? Pointing a gun at my own pa for the sake of a stranger? Not even a human stranger, but a monster! She must be as mad as they were, only hers was a different kind of madness.

  “What you think you’re doin’?” Pa said. His face had gone pale, but it had also tightened, and his eyes had become flinty. He was pissed. Hard to blame him, really.

  Still on the ground, Alice kept her gun steady. “Get out of here, Pa. Bradley.”

  “Who’re you to tell us what to do?” Bradley sneered. He had an ugly sneer, which was a shame, since that was one of his favorite expressions.

  For the first time, the bear-man spoke. Actually, it wasn’t speech so much as a growl. A tremor coursed through him, and a deep sound like an earthquake rattled up from his chest. Alice was behind him, facing his powerful legs and firm, muscular buttocks, so she couldn’t see his face, but it must have been terrible, since Pa and Bradley stumbled back another few steps.

  “Get. Out,” the man said-growled.

  Pa and Bradley glanced at each other, as if asking each other’s permission to run away, and for a moment it looked like they would both flee with their tails tucked between their legs, screaming like scaredy-cats. But it seemed like neither could quite make themselves look like a coward in front of the other. Their backs straightened and their faces took on more menacing aspects.

  “You can’t tell us what to do, you damn demon,” Pa said, glaring at the shifter.

  Still keeping her gun level, Alice climbed to her feet. She wavered a bit and almost fell on her butt again, but the naked man reached out and steadied her. He had huge hands, and they were so warm. For a breathless instant she gazed up into his face, and heat rushed all through her. He was the most handsome man she’d ever seen, with a strong whiskered jaw, broad forehead piercing blue eyes that seemed to shine and shift with lights of their own. His chest was deep and his shoulders broad, tapering down to a narrow waist. A giant shaft dangled between his legs, huge and thick. Feeling her cheeks grow warm, she wrenched her gaze away.

  “G-get out!” she told her brother and Pa, but they stayed put.

  “You’ve only got one bullet left,” Pa said. “You can’t get us both.”

  “You wouldn’t die just to kill someone that’s different from you, would you?” she said, but as soon as the words left her mouth she wondered if they might. They really had let themselves go awfully far down that dark road, hadn’t they?

  “We’ll do what we must, Sis,” Bradley said, his piggy eyes blazing contempt. “And if you help this hellspawn, you might suffer his same fate.”

  The bear-man growled again and took a step forward. Pa raised his gun to point at the man’s head. The giant stopped, but Alice could feel the tension in him. He was ready to lunge, something that might spark a round of violence that could kill them all.

  Keeping her gun trained on her pa with one hand, she grabbed one of the bear-man’s giant hands and tugged him away. He fought her for a moment, then came, swearing under his breath.

  She backed away from Bradley and Pa, pulling the shifter with her. Bradley and Pa stayed where they were—her gun was still on them—but she knew they’d be after her soon. And if they caught her and the bear-man, there would be blood.

  “What are you doing?” the man asked her, even as they slipped through the forest. “W
here are you going?”

  “You mean, where are we going?” she said, then rocked on her heels as the truth flooded her: “I have no home to go back to.”

  Chapter 2

  She looked so devastated that Taggart had to fight the urge to reach out and cup her face in his hands to comfort her. Losing your family was no easy thing; he knew that twice over. But such a move might alarm her, and anyway she was one of Them. He couldn’t let himself get too close.

  Still clutching his wound with his right hand, he knocked leaves and branches out of his way with the other. The girl trailed along at his side, constantly glancing backwards to see if her insane family, if that’s what they were, was tracking them.

  “They’re back there,” Taggart assured her, sniffing the air. “I can smell them.”

  He didn’t miss the shock—but also the wariness—in her eyes. “You can smell them?” she said. “But they must be half a mile back or more!”

  He rolled his huge shoulders, then grimaced at the pain that caused as the flesh bunched around his bullet hole. “My bear can smell good even when he’s locked inside me.”

  “‘Smell good’”, she repeated, as if tasting the phrase. “Did you, um, go to school? I mean, if that’s not offensive to ask.”

  “I’ve got some learning," he said. Abruptly he felt defensive. That was one thing about Them, he knew; They had better schools than the Clan did. That was something he wanted for his little ones, if he ever had any. One reason he’d done what he had, may the fates forgive him. “Enough, anyway,” he added.

  She swallowed, and he could scent her nervousness. Her fear. Here she was in the middle of nowhere with a naked and bloody bear shifter. Anyone else in her situation would panic. Not her, though. She looked pale and sweat had popped out on her cheeks, but she plowed on. Taggart was impressed. This little human had some guts, that was for sure. He had been moving fast through the woods, partly hoping to lose her, to shake her off like an annoying pest, but now he slowed down a bit, letting her keep pace with him. Maybe she wouldn’t be such a hindrance, after all.