Jade Crew: Forgotten Bear (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Ridgeback Bears Book 3) (12 page)

“Nobody owes you anything,” Russell told him harshly.

“Oh, you siding with Garrett and that little bitch of his now?” Evan said.

Russell knew he was taunting him, and that he should just ignore it. But he couldn’t.

“I’m telling you that you need to drop the act. You fucked up, and now you have to deal with the consequences.”

“She wanted to be with me!” Evan snapped.

He was referring to Emily, the woman Evan had wanted so badly he had started a fight with Michael and his crew, which resulted in three dead shifters, two dead humans, and twelve bears on trial, seven of whom would be ended. Shockingly it wasn’t the bloodiest fight that had ever happened in Genesis Valley, but it was far and away the second.

“It doesn’t
matter
,” he said again.

“It matters to me! Just because none of you ever believed me that he was forcing her to go, doesn’t mean it wasn’t true. So we ended up here. And now, because you’re a coward, this is where you’re going to stay.”

Russell launched himself at Evan.

He hadn’t been meaning to turn it into a fight, but he couldn’t ignore being called a coward. Russell Warne was many things, but a coward wasn’t one of them. He was not going to stand by and let Evan smear his name like that.

The two shifters went down in a heap, fists and elbows flailing wildly as they tried to get the upper hand. Evan curled his legs up below him and kicked out hard, launching Russell away from him.

Hitting the ground, Russell rolled and shifted as he came around, his bear bursting from his skin and landing on all fours with a roar. A solid fifteen feet away, Evan shifted as well, answering the battle cry with one of his own. The two of them charged at each other, colliding with bone-rattling force as they rose up on their hind legs at the last moment.

The two beasts went to war on the open ground surrounded by trees and a mammoth mountain. Teeth snapped, paws flew with colossal force, and blood flowed, dripping between them or sprayed around as it was thrown from drenched claws. Russell latched onto Evan’s neck with his teeth, but the other shifter shook his head violently at the same time he opened furrows across Russell’s stomach with his other paw.

Roaring in pain, Russell let go. He feinted a retreat, and then darted back in as Evan let his guard down temporarily. Blood drenched the fur on his arm as he hooked his claws into the wound his teeth had started and opened Evan up from neck to stomach in one vicious blow.

Evan’s beast made a high-pitched cry of pain, but he didn’t let up, coming straight for Russell, trying to bowl him over. The move caught Russell off guard, and the dark brown bear went down hard, rolling out of the way to avoid the slashing claws that would have dug deep into his unprotected underside. He was fast, but not fast enough, and fire erupted along his flank as the claws found his hide anyway.

Using his momentum as a springboard, Russell propelled himself
back
at Evan as soon as his feet hit the ground. His giant body slammed into the other bear just as he landed on all fours. It was a decidedly human-style move, but it worked just fine in animal form. Landing on Evan’s back, he lifted both massive paws above his head, and brought them crashing down on the top of Evan’s skull.

The other bear let out a
whuff
of air and collapsed flat onto the compact dirt, unmoving aside from his lungs, which gulped down air as fast as they could.

Russell rolled off and shifted back, calming his bear to the best of his ability. Then, as if nothing had happened, he hooked his refuse cart from the mine to the crane, and lifted it up.

He debated hard with himself, but in the end he took the higher route and dumped the large chunks of rock into the truck instead of depositing them all over Evan, who was gathering his senses below. It took a lot of willpower, however, to avoid it. The other shifter, Russell realized, was never going to change his ways. He was
never
going to come around and accept that life with the Ridgebacks was
good
. That they had a great Alpha in Garrett, and were steadily forging their own niche within Genesis Valley. The shifters, if they kept in line, could actually lead a decent life.

They had a shelter over their heads that they didn’t have to pay for. They received a solid wage for their work, and they were starting to make friends as Ridgebacks. The Silvertips, likely at the behest of their Alpha, Ajax, were starting to become friendlier, as were some of the others.

Russell wanted that. He wanted that life, the stability of it, after everything that had happened to him over the past few years, including his move to Genesis Valley. But having it meant leaving behind his old Alpha, and a shifter’s loyalties took a long time to change. He grimaced, realizing that it hadn’t been he who had changed, but the woman he loved, Gwen, who had told him he needed to change.

Sometimes having someone tear a strip off your hide awakened you to reality. He snorted aloud.
Well no shit. About time you came to the smart conclusion.
There were still two more wrongs he had to rectify, however, now that he had made his decision to abandon Evan to his own devices.

“We’re done,” he told Evan after setting his cart back down and exiting the crane. “Don’t include me in any more of your schemes, and don’t expect me to come to your rescue when you fuck up.”

“And don’t expect me to think twice about you when it comes time,” Evan told him darkly.

He almost asked “comes time for what?” but he just shook his head and hit the
Return
button on his cart, which started taking him back to his mining area that he currently shared with Corey.

Russell’s mind was elsewhere now. Fixing one of his wrongs was easy. But the other? The other was more difficult, and he wasn’t entirely sure how to proceed with it.

He needed to ask for help.

Gwen

Her entire day had been thrown for a loop after Russell’s explosive revelation earlier. The two of them had talked about it all through breakfast at Luna’s Grill, an all-day breakfast place just down the street from the hotel. They had had to make it short, however, so that Russell could get to work on time.

Now that she was on her own, Gwen had time to ponder it. More time than she had intended, in fact. She was still new enough to the area that Origin was mostly a mystery to her. So after Russell had departed, she had set out to explore. It seemed more and more likely she was going to be spending a large chunk of time here, which meant getting to know the town was a good idea. Her original goal had been to walk the streets for a bit, maybe pop into a few shops and see what they were selling, before going over to the place that she and Emma had picked up Trestin from the other day.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t remember what it had been called, and nothing that she had come across had jogged her memory either. Now she was simply wandering around until she found it on an increasingly hungry stomach. She vaguely knew her way back to the hotel, or at least the area of town that contained it. Origin wasn’t
that
big, so getting lost shouldn’t have been an issue. Apparently she was wrong on that front. But the time wandering had allowed her to consider Russell’s situation in-depth.

A large part of her still could not believe that Russell had managed to keep it a secret the entire time. He had recounted to her the first day they had come across each other’s paths here in Genesis Valley, and she had wondered why Garrett hadn’t caught on to Russell’s reaction. The more she thought about it though, the more it made sense. Garrett had just been introduced to his new crew, a bunch of misfits that he knew were likely to go for each other’s throats at any time. He had been focused on exerting control and ensuring that they fell into line. The thought that one of them might have known who he was in a past life was likely the farthest thing from his mind.

She let out a low whistle, shock at the whole situation still fresh in her mind.

“Oh yeah? You like what you see honey?” came the voice from behind her.

She turned to see a large man in a red jacket and khakis practically leering at her.

“What?” she asked, surprise momentarily ridding her of her manners.

“You whistled at me as I walked by,” he told her, confidently striding closer as if he knew how things were going to end. “If you want, we can go somewhere a little more private and you can tell me just how you feel about me,” he told her, a smile on his face that didn’t extend into his eyes.

He was trouble, she knew it. A quick glance around told her that perhaps she had wandered into a section of town that she should have avoided. The buildings looked older, and the upkeep on them was clearly not of the highest order. She had heard that the Kedyns tolerated no vagrancy, and that no building was to fall below a certain standard of upkeep, but these clearly toed that line as close as they could.

“Thanks, but no thanks,” she said firmly, shrugging his arm off of her shoulder. He looked like a bear shifter, but Gwen was no petite woman, and her strength clearly caught him by surprise, because his arm actually moved. Having seen several demonstrations of shifter power, Gwen knew that if he had been prepared for it, his arm wouldn’t have moved.

“Oh, a little fight in you? Good, I like them feisty,” he said lecherously, making kissing noises her way as he tried to step closer.

Gwen stepped back, attempting to maintain distance between them. Her eyes roamed the streets as calmly as she could, trying to find a way out. The first lesson Emma had taught her about dealing with shifters echoed through her head.

Don’t show them any fear. Act calm, act strong, and do what you need to do. They respect strength, not weakness.

“I’m not interested,” she said as he took another step.

“Why? Something wrong with me?” he asked angrily. The sudden change of mood did nothing to help the feeling of fear in her stomach.

“I have a mate already,” she told him, hoping that would see him on his way.

“Lady, you’re in Windglade territory now,” he told her, jerking a thumb above him.

She followed his aim, seeing a sign above the building she had been walking past that read
Windglade Luxury Apartments
. Gwen frowned. The name sounded vaguely familiar to her, but she had had to learn so many names recently that she couldn’t place it.

The man rolled his eyes at her confusion. “We’re the Sapphire Crew. Holy hell woman, you have a shifter mate and you don’t even know all the crews?” A look of suspicion crossed his face. “Or maybe you were lying to me, hmm?”

Behind him the door opened, and out stepped another man. A much larger man, at that. It was also one that she recognized. Gwen had to rack her brain, but the name finally came to her.

“Gabriel!” she said loudly, gathering his attention.

The other shifter glanced over at her, his intelligent eyes quickly evaluating the situation. Gwen could almost see his unspoken curse of annoyance as his body language shifted.

In front of her, the unknown male who had been bugging her spun around in surprise, and, if she wasn’t mistaken, just a little bit of fear.

“Seriously James?” Gabriel asked in disgust.

“I was just leaving, I promise,” the smaller shifter said nervously, slowly moving away from Gwen as Gabriel got closer.

“The next time I see you doing something like this, you’re going to severely regret it,” Gabriel said.

Gwen blinked at the open threat, though she probably shouldn’t have. Judging by Gabriel’s reaction and words, this wasn’t the first time that James had accosted a woman.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said evasively. “She was just lost and asking for directions.”

Before Gwen could protest, Gabriel scoffed. “Get out of here.”

“Going,” James said, beating a hasty retreat into his building, casting ugly glances over his shoulder at the two of them.

“Thank you,” she said, looking up at him. Way up. He was absolutely colossal in size. No wonder James hadn’t wanted to pick a fight. That still didn’t explain everything though.

“Why is it that everyone is afraid of you?” she asked suddenly before she could think about it.

Gabriel looked at her, contemplating his answer. “I work for the Consortium. I am in charge of both the protection of the stones they mine for and enforcing the rules of the Valley. It is more the latter that they fear, because they know that if they cross me, I have the power to end them immediately, on the spot, without reprisal.”

“That’s a lot of power to entrust to one person,” she said cautiously, processing what he had just said.

“Indeed. I often lie awake at night contemplating whether I am worthy of it,” he said in acknowledgement, before abruptly changing the subject. “Now, why are you in this part of town?”

Gwen almost asked him the same thing. Why had he been visiting the Sapphires? She had remembered now that they were considered the deadbeats of the Valley. A bunch of jerks with overinflated opinions of themselves, she recalled Cole saying at one point. Had he been inside ending someone just before he came out, she wondered?

Managing to hold back her curiosity, she answered. “Truth be told, James wasn’t entirely lying. I
am
lost, though he didn’t actually know that.”

Gabriel nodded. “Where are you trying to go?”

“I’m trying to find this little café place where a woman named Trestin works. She’s mated to Cole, one of the shifters in the Ridgebacks.”

“You want Origin Café and Sandwiches,” he told her. “Though why they call it a café when really it’s a full-blown restaurant is beyond me.”

She smiled. “Can you give me directions then?”

“I’m actually headed there myself. Would you like a lift?” he asked, pointing across the street to a big black truck.

Gwen thought about it for a moment. Getting into a truck with an unknown shifter seemed like a bad idea. But she recalled the way that Emma, Garrett, and Russell had all shown him respect and authority. All three of them wouldn’t have done so if he was a bad person.

“That would be great,” she said, though not without a hint of nervousness.