Bear King's Curves: A BBW Werebear Shifter Romance (8 page)

The proper hunting season hadn't started yet. There
shouldn't be any bears in the woods except the patrols. And among
that handful, one was dead and the other was peacefully snoring in my
cabin.

The people didn't know about this incident yet, even if
someone had found Victor. News traveled fast among our small group,
but not that fast.

“
There!” I stopped at the door leading into
the big long shed. I knocked once, just to be safe.

No answer.

I reached for the handle and pulled. The rotten woodwork
gave way even faster than I expected.

Lyla cursed behind me, coughing. The big wooden slab hit
the ground hard and kicked up a small dust cloud.

I reached behind me, found her hand, and pulled my
companion into the office. Luck found us again: there were no other
vehicles in for a fix right now.

Brady, our lone mechanic, was messy and lazy as ever.
He'd left the keys on his desk, right next to the old thermos stained
with a thousand old cups of coffee and soup.

We were out in the garage fast. I raised the door and
then ran to the side, just as Lyla started her car up.

She popped the lock and I climbed in. It was weird
sitting in a stranger's car naked, but the slight amusement in her
eyes said she didn't mind.

“
Let's go. I'll direct you along the back
roads...we have to make good time on those. Best not to take the main
routes around the reservation. Sometimes the boys patrol those for
stragglers who might want to break in and do us harm.”

“
People like me,” she added.

I looked at her, darkness dashing out the light in my
eyes. The triumph swelling my heart from our great escape hadn't
lasted long.

Damn, beautiful. You really had to remind me, didn't
you?

I took a minute to let a long, harsh F-bomb echo through
my head.

Fuck. Fuck! Double fuck.

There was no getting around it. I'd killed a fellow
bear, however much he deserved it, all to help a convicted thief and
smuggler make a getaway.

There had to be more than this, no matter my feelings
for her.

“
That cabin right there – turn!” I
yelled, pointing.

She roared behind my place and jerked the car to a
sudden stop.

“
Nick! What the hell are you doing?”

“
Be back in a second...”

This had to be about more than saving my curvy new
obsession. I slid in through the back door, listening to the steady
rumble of Beamer's snores. He was still dead drunk and collapsed over
the checkerboard.

I made a hurried trip through the bedroom, grabbing a
bug out bag I always kept with a change of clothes and a First Aid
kit for my patrols. I zipped it open, snatched the artifact off my
dresser, and shoved it inside.

The bastards who'd marched us over to the Elders were
too caught up in seizing Lyla to worry about the big green ball.

I half-wondered if Lyla would drive away without me. I
wouldn't have totally blamed her if she did.

After all, I was the one who pretended to throw her to
the wolves – or rather, the bears – the only chance I had
to save both our asses.

I packed my stuff in and threw on a change of clothes.
Just enough time for that, and not a second more for anything else.

Her bright eyes sparkled behind the windshield when she
saw me emerge, clad in a new pair of jeans.

I knew that flicker. Surprise, uncertainty. Was she
really thinking about leaving without me?

“
Let's go on,” I said, sliding into the seat
next to her.

“
Well, yeah! Now that you're dressed to ride,
cowboy. Hope it was worth it.”

I smiled, gesturing to the fork in the road just outside
the reservation's main gate. The car turned, and we were out into the
night, heading as far north as a half tank of gas would carry us from
this nightmare.

“
Where the hell are we? I've never been this far
north before along all these little back roads.” Lyla
swallowed.

I'd taken over driving at the last stop. I kept urging
her to rest, but she was obviously too alert to follow through.
Having a man who'd been ordered to kill her not so long ago driving
the car had a funny way of keeping a person awake.

“
Junuta. Small town, not too far past Bend. We're
on our way to the Idaho border now, baby.”

“
Don't you baby me,” she said sharply.

I glanced over. We had three or four solid hours until
sunup.

Darkness billowed all around us, a constant shroud of
dark gray clouds rolling by. Thankfully, bear eyes always saw better
in the dark than a human's. Regretfully too, since it let me see the
lines of stress and sorrow furrowed near her pretty eyes.

“
What is it?”

“
You didn't know what they'd do back there,”
she said sullenly. “They could've killed me. Hell, I really
thought you were going to let them. The way you handed me over to
that vile man, that animal.”

She sniffed. Hard. Fighting back tears.

My heart sank lower. Damn it, there wasn't any choice!
Why didn't she understand?

“
I knew they wouldn't hurt you. Not for hours.
Everything I did was to save you, Lyla.”

“
You abandoned me.”

I jerked the wheel, almost tearing the car over to the
dark curb. My foot tapped the accelerator, quickening our journey
into the dark night.

No. No matter how heated this gets, I have to keep
going. Gotta put more miles between us and them.

“
Look,” I said, pausing to collect my words.
“I don't know what the hell happened between you and bear
shifters in the past. If I knew there was a single chance Branson and
his goons would've hurt you before I could get to you, I would've
torn him down then and there. I would've given everything –
everything! – to keep you safe. And I still will. Trust me.”

“
Trust? You broke my trust the first night we
spent together! The first time we kissed, I got tied up...” She
swallowed hard, as if her mouth were filled with something bitter.

“
And I saved your life over this damned ball.
Twice.”

I stared at her, casting one glance back at the open
road. The truth had given her serious pause.

“
I just...this whole fucking thing is crazy! I
never, ever thought I'd end up with a bear – on the run no
less...” Lyla shook her head.

I had to force myself to focus on driving again, away
from the long hair flowing around her supple breasts. Gods, to throw
myself on her again, wrapping each hand around her softness.

“
Why? Tell me what happened. We're not monsters,
Lyla.”

Not all of us,
I
thought, a vision of the one eyed Elder smiling sardonically in my
mind.

“
My father,” she began, looking out the side
window. “He was killed by a bear.”

Surprise. My eyebrows stretched up toward my forehead.
Well, that explained a hell of a lot.

“
Around Klamath? Our Clan?”

She nodded. “Yeah.
He was a miner. Went north for some little startup and ended up
around Klamath Falls in the mid-eighties. Everything went well the
next ten years, until he got in a fight. Happened at a poker game, my
mother said, a fight with another man. Or what he
took
for another man.”

My heart began to pound. Something about this story was
awfully familiar. I remembered a time in my teen years when Branson
and a couple other guys were big on gambling with humans.

“
He shifted,” Lyla continued. “His
teeth were in my Dad's neck before anybody could tear the bear off.
Then these fucking government goons had the nerve to cover up the
whole thing. Told my mother to keep it under her hat, or else it
would cause a lot of bad blood between the local people and the
reservation – as if you're some kind of harmless Indian tribe!”

I glanced down. Her fists were clenched, pressed deep
into her plush hips, shaking slightly as fury rolled through her.

Dead fathers. One more thing in common,
I thought.

“
I've never told anybody that before. Never
expected the first person outside our family to know it would be one
of your kind...”

“
It's okay, Lyla.” Slowly, I reached for her
hand, wondering if she'd shrink away.

She didn't. Her shallow, soft sobs filled the car as I
held her hand. Both of us stared at the dark road flanked by rocky
forest, onward to Idaho.

“
My clan's been on a warpath for decades. It was
only forty or fifty years when they finally got a treaty locked up
with the government. Money was never been easy to come by. The Elders
always approved a bunch of stupid schemes with the human world, but
Branson's were always the worst...”

“
Can I ask you something, Nick?” She locked
eyes on me, big and round and sad.

I nodded. Wouldn't dream of saying no to that look.

“
Do you know who killed him?”

I shook my head. I didn't know. And if I did, would I
have turned him over, betraying another one of my people for a crime
that happened so long ago?

No easy answers to that.

“
No. I was just becoming a man at the time. I
remember hearing something about a fight in a bar, some trouble with
the government...the Elders are the only source of information we've
got. They share a few scraps with those in their inner circle. Hardly
anything with bears even lower down the line. Very hierarchical.
Everything we do is based on power and ritual.”

“
I know all about that. You were training to be an
Alpha, weren't you?”

The words stung. After this, speaking in the past tense
was more than appropriate.

“
Yeah. Branson trusted me until he found your car
on our property. That's why he sent me to do the job, and not some
asshole like Victor. I've always been the strongest among the younger
bears. Last Alpha we had died up north five years ago...a little
known shoot out.”

“
Shoot out?” It was her turn to look
surprised.

“
Short lived gun running operation for this human
group based out of Redding. Another one of Branson's stupid ideas.
That's how he lost his eye.”

“
Shame,” she sneered. I practically shared
the bitter taste of Lyla's sarcasm.

I drove on several more minutes in silence. Out here in
the boonies, dead of night, it was like we were the only man and
woman on earth.

Something calming about that. Or maybe we were both
satisfied that we'd laid our cards out on the table without laying
claws into each other.

“
Well, what now?” She said, lightening her
grip on my hand and stroking the muscular sides. “Your buddies
will come looking for us. If they aren't already. Can't keep driving
forever.”

She glanced in the side mirror. I'd checked carefully
for any familiar vehicles behind us on the road every time we filled
up. By now, someone had probably discovered Victor's corpse and our
hasty departure, but I was sure we'd gotten at least a hundred mile
head start.

“
We'll find some place to settle. Get our shit
together while we plan our next move. It'll take them forever to find
us in the next state over.”

“
I thought bears were supposed to be awesome at
tracking their prey?”

“
Then you forget we're half human too,” I
said, managing a small smile. “Let's get ourselves across the
border and find some place to rest. They'll have to fan out, slow and
confused. The few clans we've had contact with are really spread
across the country, and the Klamath bears have never been on the best
terms with our kinsmen.”

“
Not surprising with who you've got in charge.”

We drove on. The darkness wasn't so claustrophobic now.
More like a dark soft sea gliding us to safety.

I was finishing my steak and eggs, staring up at a huge
stuffed elk's head on the wall. The lodge we'd found across the Idaho
border was good enough. For now.

“
How do the rates look?” I asked.

Lyla studied the booklet the old Indian owner at the
front desk had given us. It was a breakdown of rates by the day,
week, and month. She had her phone out, crunching numbers on its
calculator.

“
If we go with the weekly, we can hide out here
for quite awhile. More with the monthly discount, but I thought you
might want to move on at some point.”

“
At some point,” I repeated.

I looked at her plate. She'd only eaten half her spiced
oatmeal and toast with jam. The tea next to her was untouched.

“
You should really eat more.” She looked up,
a suspicious twinkle in her eyes. “I'm serious. It's been a
long journey and I know you haven't had much for a few days.”

She flashed a slow smile, and then went for her tea,
stirring in extra sugar. Her pale cheeks turned slightly red. Plush,
rosy, and beautiful like ripe apples.