Bearly Breathing (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance) (3 page)

“Kill this fucker,” Mitch said plainly. “He tried to rat us out.”

Orion turned his huge head to the left and there, through the wildly overgrown trees, was a small clearing. In that clearing, a man knelt in front of a stump, with his arms chained around it like he was hugging a toilet after a night that went on way too long.

Squeezing his fist around the rod, Orion briefly though about letting his hand lash out. He could almost feel the crunch of lead on bone, and in his imagination, saw Mitch falling backwards, scrabbling against the ground in pain.

But as big and powerful and overwhelming as Orion’s strength was, he was only one bear against a small army. That probably wouldn’t turn out too well, at least not without a little help. He stared at the bound bear for a long second, sizing him up. He wasn’t big, but the scars crisscrossing his lean arms meant he’d probably seen his fair share of fighting.

“You just want me to kill him?” Orion growled. “Just like that? Where’s the fun? Where’s the sport?”

Mitch yawned, openly showing his contempt for his cub. “I figure he needed to be tied down for you to be able to do him in. I mean, if he tries to fight you’ll just end up hurt again, and I ain’t takin’ care of you for another month.”

The last time Orion was hurt, he was run over by a couple of Devils while his father was trying to prove some point about being the clan alpha that didn’t make a whole lot of sense. But, then again, “sense” and “Mitch Samuelsson” were two concepts that never did overlap much.

“Let him up,” Orion said as he began to close the short distance between where he stood and where the man knelt. “I’ll kill him, but not if he’s defenseless.”

Mitch let out a short, grunted laugh. He whistled to two of his enforcers. “Let Ricky up! I guess we gotta watch the two of ‘em dance and kiss a little before we can get back on the road.”

One of the two men lifted his hand up to shield his eyes from the sun and squinted in Orion’s direction. “You jes’ say to let ‘im up? After I spent all that time figuring out how to tie him in the first place?”

“You do it without complainin’ or I’ll let him have you next, Elwood,” Mitch sneered. “And hurry, we gotta get going before too long. One of our labs blew up last night. Jamesburg’s finest’ll be looking our way before long.”

With sagging shoulders, Elwood grumbled something and crouched down to unlatch the chains. His knees popped when he stood, and the prisoner looked up at him, obviously confused.

“Up, Ricky!” Elwood shouted. “Boss wants you on your feet.”

Orion paused and grabbed his father’s shoulder. “Give him a weapon. I don’t care what, just something.”

“Aw, Jesus, can’t we just get this over with?”

“Sure, if you want to go do it yourself. If you’re gonna use me as a murderer you can at least give me the courtesy of a challenge.”

With a clear look of irritation on his face, Mitch motioned for Elwood to again do what Orion was requesting. The only thing around was the length of chain that previously bound this Ricky guy to the stump.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Ricky said as he took the chain and looked down at it, confused. “Fight someone?”

Elwood tilted his head toward Orion, who was already starting to feel the surge of blood rush through him. At the same time he loved the warmth coursing through his veins that made all his skin prickle and made his hair stand on end, made it grow thicker and harder and longer, and sometimes if the stars aligned just right, his eyes went from pale brown to flaming gold and...

“Fight
him
?” Ricky’s voice jumped about four octaves. “No! No way, just... just do whatever you’re gonna do, don’t make me try to fight him.”

Mitch looked over at Orion and shrugged. “Your choice, college boy,” he said. “Just deal with him. I don’t want to look at that traitor without a hole in his head.”

Something about the exchange wasn’t hitting Orion right. Not at all. “You’re lying,” he said through gritted teeth. “He didn’t do anything. You’re just testing my loyalty again. That’s it, isn’t it?”

“Does it matter?” Mitch shrugged. “You’ll do it or I’ll kill you, same as always.”

“Have them kill me, you mean,” the muscled-up bear growled, stomping toward the man who would be his victim.

As he crossed the distance, Ricky started first shaking, and then trembling. Seconds later, the
much
smaller bear’s hands started to vibrate with fear, his lip trembling. “Just do it quick,” he said. “I never did anything wrong! I never sold anyone out!”

“Shut up,” Orion roared, putting on a show. “Shut up and fight me!”

Orion looked to the side, obviously trying to indicate something to the man he faced down. As they circled, Mitch strode up beside them, apparently waiting to watch the spectacle. “Hurry up, college boy,” he said. “We ain’t got much time.”

Orion roared and lunged, easily catching the smaller man by the collar of his torn shirt. He clutched Ricky’s head in a rough headlock, dropping his pipe to the ground.

Blood pounded in Orion’s temples.

Times like this, even when they were set-ups, even when he wasn’t
actually
going to fight? They made him feel alive. As much as he hated it, there was a reason he was the Devils’ chief enforcer, no matter how much berating Mitch did.

“I’m not going to kill you,” Orion said as quietly as he could.

Ricky grunted in pain as Orion squeezed. “You’re... My neck!”

“I’m gonna let you go, you’re going to whip that chain around and hit the fat one who let you up. Then I’m going to clock the other one...” he groaned, straining to keep the terrified, wriggling Ricky under control. “Anyway, we’re going to get away. You’re going to live. I don’t need any more guilt weighing on me.”

The little guy elbowed Orion in the side, which hurt a little bit, but nowhere near enough to break the hold, or even get him to move very much. “Good,” Orion said. “Make it look more realistic.”

Next, he slammed a knee into Orion’s gut. That one? That knocked some wind out.

“Not
that
much trying,” Orion said with a bitter laugh. “Are you ready for this?”

“No,” Ricky said. “I’d rather... Ugh! Just kill me!”

“We don’t always get what we want,” Orion said with a grin. “I’m gonna count to three, then do exactly what I said. Spin right, and whip that chain as hard as you can. Get it?”

Ricky gritted his teeth like he was about to get a dislocated shoulder popped back into place. “Don’t have... any choice,” he hissed

The entire world condensed to one instant, one moment in a vast ocean of time. For years, Orion had been planning to do something exactly like this, but he never thought it would happen. Today was a good day for taking risks, he decided. He didn’t know why, not really. Maybe it was the way Mitch talked to him, maybe it was the almost comical level of rage he felt. Maybe it was being forced to hurt someone who didn’t deserve it.

“One,” Orion whispered. “Be ready. They won’t put up much of a fight if we get the drop on them, but then we have to run.”

Ricky nodded. Sweat beaded on his upper lip. He pulled both his lips into his mouth in a nervous gesture and chewed on the bottom one.

“Two,” Orion said. He shot a glance in Mitch’s direction. His gray, patchy beard blew gently in the wind, and he turned, impatiently, away from the fight.

Nothing is ever going to feel this good again as long as I live
, he thought grimly.
I’m not much for settling down with a mate and a clutch of cubs, no matter how much I try to pretend I am. But at least I’ll be free while I’m still alive.

Just the fleeting thought of a mate and cubs made Orion pause. But then, it didn’t matter what he wanted. Not really. This was the life that fortune had picked for him. A life in the gang, or a life running away from the gang – there was no place for a nice woman, a pair of cubs. He’d never drag anyone else into his own, private hell.

“Three?” Ricky asked.

“Huh?” Orion said, blinking.

“You stopped at two. So, three. Time to go?”

“Oh.” Orion blinked hard, one last time, clearing his thoughts. “Three.”

With a wild roar, Orion dropped to a knee, grabbed the pipe off the ground and lunged at his father. Ricky did exactly what Orion told him to do: he spun as hard as he could, whipping his chain through the air.

It caught Elwood in the side of the head with a sickening
thunk
. The big, round-headed bear fell to the ground, but came up quick, thrashing and biting as he did. Ricky caught a shot to the side of the jaw, but he turned with it, and lashed the chain out again, ripping straight through Elwood’s sleeveless button-up and leaving a nasty mark down his chest.

“The fuck are you doing?” Mitch shrieked as the pipe came down on his back. “Ah! You goddamn, idiot boy!”

Orion tensed his muscles, breathing heavily, and felt the beginnings of the change come over him. His vision went a little wavy. His sense of smell began to pick up hints of distant dirt, and rainclouds on the horizon and...

His moment of clarity was shattered with a fist that connected hard with Orion’s jaw and sent him reeling backwards. Tasting blood, he threw back his head, unleashed a terrible roar and charged.

Fire blazed in Mitch’s eyes and inside Orion’s belly. Mitch took another swing, but at the last second, Orion stuck the pipe up, and his father’s arm smashed into it. The second’s worth of shock gave him all the chance he needed.

“I’m doing what I should’ve done years ago,” Orion said.

Mitch opened his mouth to say – or rather, scream – something else, but he was interrupted by a lead pipe right on the middle of the face. His hand shot out, grabbed ahold of Orion’s shaggy hair, and then just fell limp to the side.

“Come on!” Orion yelled to his new companion. “Yours down?”

Orion turned just in time to see another whip of the chain connect with Elwood’s unconscious body. He ran over, grabbing Ricky and spinning him around. “Enough! You don’t want to kill him!”

“I don’t?” Ricky asked. His eyes had rims of gold around the deep green irises, and the hair on his chest, arms, and face had grown wilder and longer. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never wanted anything
more
.”

“That may be true,” Orion said, reaching past the man and grabbing his backpack off the ground where he’d sloughed it off. “But we have other shit to worry about right now.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

In the distance, hidden by the dense trees, sounds of angry bears started up. “Must’ve heard the fight,” Orion said. “But we got a lead on them. They’re as stupid as they are strong. We’ll lose them in the woods. And Ricky?”

“Huh?”

“I owe you one.” Orion grabbed Ricky’s hand, squeezed it tight and shook. “But for right now, let’s get the hell out of here.” He slung his heavy rucksack over his shoulder and pushed Ricky, who had started shaking a little now that the adrenaline was wearing off, toward the woods.

They broke into a hard run, branches and leaves and roots whipping past as they charged through the thick, tangled undergrowth.

Well, there goes everything
, Orion thought.
Everything I knew, gone. And now here I go, out into a world I never thought I’d see. What the hell.

He grinned as he ran, and the branches thrashing his face felt
good
for some reason. It must have been the freedom, or maybe the fact that he finally got to cold cock his dear, old dad. He’d had that coming for like thirty years.

Orion was on his own. On his own and on the run. And it had all happened so fast that there was no grasping it, not just yet. He’d need to run, and keep running. He knew that. If the Devils ever caught him, he was as good as dead.

But for once? He was living for
him
and not for them. He sucked a deep breath, letting the scent of the forest and the rotten leaves and the rainclouds that were gathering overhead fill his lungs.

For once, he was free, even if it didn’t last.

The harder they ran, the faster they went, the more Orion’s thoughts turned to fantasies. With a new life came new dreams.

Dreams he’d given up a long, long time ago.

––––––––

“M
iss Clea! Miss Clea!” Leena Lee, the world’s tiniest strong-girl-bear, barreled up the steps of The Cubby Hole and ran straight into me.

Good thing I’m a lynx. I can’t imagine trying to keep someone like her from getting this exuberant, or taking her love headbutts, as someone smaller.

“Hi, Clea,” Lilah Lee said as she and her new mate, Rex, came up to my door, and Leena ran inside screeching the name of her
other
best friend, Millie Mathers. “You sure you’re up for this?” Lilah had a huge grin on her face, watching the little bear pinball around hugging everyone. That little cub couldn’t have found herself a better mama.

“Always ready,” I said, with a smile that belied my panic. Field trips were always a lot of fun for the kids, but always about six degrees north of deep, dark hell for teachers. Or, for pre-school daycare mama lynxes. “Nah, I love these things. They’re exhausting, but it’s fun to give the kids a chance to run around the woods and act insane for a day.”

“It’s good for ‘em,” Rex said. “Good for us, too.”

Lilah blushed, I grinned and before I knew it, those old familiar pangs hit me right in the chest. I’ve wanted what they have – love, a family, all that – for as long as I can remember, but things always got in the way.

By “things” of course, I mean my ex-husband. We were only married for a handful of years – me in my early twenties, him in his thirties – but... yeah, after Liam turned me into a hollowed out ice cream shell of a female lynx, I spent a couple of years with my head in the sand.

Then I opened this place.

At first The Cubby Hole was just my way of forcing myself to leave the house, but it turned out that I was some kind of natural-born, lynx version of Mary Poppins. I got through to kids, probably because I honestly
get
kids. Anyway, the point is, that with everything going on, love never seemed to find a way in.