True North (The Bears of Blackrock Book 4) (14 page)

The knock shattered the warmth of the moment, and Theron sat upright turning toward the bedroom door.

He glanced down at her with a look of confusion. “Shit, is there school today?”

Sinead sat up with him, her brow furrowed. “No.”

She pressed the blanket to her chest and waited. She half thought it a trick of the wind. There wasn’t a soul on the Extension that had ever knocked at her door. Not even Theron.

Theron seemed to sense her discomfort and hopped out of the bed with purpose. He snatched his boxers up from the floor, and an instant later was pulling his flannel over his shoulders. Sinead was only halfway into her clothes when Theron marched out into the main room of the meeting house, his footsteps creaking across the linoleum.

“Wait, Theron,” Sinead called, struggling to pull her shirt over her head as the knock returned.

Panic set in. What if it was Baird? What if they’d seen her marker and Theron’s together? It wouldn’t be the first time they showed up to punish the Holdens for gathering, but would they punish her and Theron for simply spending the night together? Could they be that cruel?

“Theron! Wait,” she said, jumping from the bed and rushing out into the meeting house.

She stopped dead in the middle of her classroom and stared at the unfamiliar man in the doorway. He was bundled in a thick winter coat, his face only visible after pulling the hood down from his head. Sinead stared at him with only an inkling of knowledge. He was bundled against the cold – he wasn’t a shifter.

Theron took a step back from the door, shock etched on his face. When he spoke it was barely audible from across the room.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Theron said.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THERON

Theron stared out the classroom door, his mouth agape as he waited for the man to speak.

Charlie Black glanced from Theron to Sinead, then back, but didn’t speak. Theron realized quickly that the man was freezing. Half of him wanted to punch Charlie square in the face. This was Canada – this was Labrador of all places, Charlie had no jurisdiction here. Yet another part of him wanted to relish in this moment - in this sudden unexpected piece of the outside world.

And home.

Charlie tugged the collar of his coat down, the skin of his nose and cheeks bright red in the cold. “I’m sorry.”

“What?!” Theron said, his voice rising in volume.

Charlie stuttered, unable to get the words out.

“I asked you what you’re doing here!?” Theron yelled, anger rising in his chest. He wanted to hurt Charlie Black. Every cruelty Theron had known at the hands of Baird Davenport was because of this man. He wanted to hurt him. He wanted to knock the gentle look off Charlie’s face.

Charlie frowned, stumbling over his words. “I’m sorry, Theron. Please -”

“Please what?! What the fuck are you doing here? How did you get here!?”

Charlie’s eyes grew heavy, and Theron felt his heart soften instantly.

“Please,” Charlie said. “Please, I just need – Please, just tell me I’m not crazy.”

The words stifled in the man’s throat and Theron realized Charlie Black was holding on by a thread. Theron stared at the man for a long moment, fighting with a thousand emotions. Something about the man’s presence softened him. He wanted to rail against him, but Theron found he couldn’t be unkind. This man who’d chased him away from home, who’d threatened his and all those he’d loved with his promise of patrols and hunting cameras. Still, some need had driven him to follow Theron to the most miserable place he’d ever known.

Was this some trick?

Theron took a deep breath. “Come in,” he said.

Charlie Black slipped into the room as though he feared he’d break something, his boots kicking off snow as he walked. The night had given way to more snow, and the landscape outside was as white and gray as the dreary sky overhead.

There was no sign of anyone outside save for Charlie’s footprints, their path etched into the fresh snow from the east.

Theron glanced out into the unpaved road as though searching for Baird Davenport and his comrades. He half suspected Charlie to be there on their captors’ behalf.

In an instant, Theron forgave Darrell’s early suspicion.

Charlie kept his coat zipped tight, glancing between the two of them with nervous energy. Theron’s anger was quickly losing steam. “If you came here to haul me home, you’re going to find that difficult.”

“What? No. I’m not – that’s not why I’m here.”

Theron glared at Charlie for a long moment, fighting to maintain some semblance of anger. It was melting with the snow on Charlie’s boots.

Charlie gave a polite nod to Sinead. Theron glanced back at her, her hair wild and disheveled, her arms wrapped tight around her as the cold set in.

Theron gave an exasperated sigh. “You can relax, Charlie. Charlie, this is Sinead. Shin, this is Officer Charlie Black. He’s from my hometown.”

Sinead’s eyes went wide. “Officer?”

Charlie glanced between them again, then with trepidation, unzipped his jacket like the nervous uncle that comes to Christmas dinner every year, but doesn’t get comfortable until his second glass of scotch. “Yes, ma’am.”

Theron watched the man, both wary of his presence, and somehow, grateful.

However much Theron wanted to hate Charlie Black, he was a piece of home, and on the Extension, any piece of home was welcome.

Certainly, they wouldn’t inter a police officer up here. Someone would notice a lawman disappearing. Someone would ask questions.

Sinead rushed over to one of the desks and pulled out a chair, offering it to Charlie. “Come on. Why don’t you have a seat? I have a heater back here, if you -”

“No, no, Shinny. Let him explain himself first, please.”

“What? No? He must be freezing,” Sinead said, shuffling her bare feet on the linoleum. Theron quickly realized it wasn’t just Charlie’s comfort she was thinking about.

Theron didn’t protest as she hurried into the back room to fetch it.

Charlie shrugged out of his massive coat and set it aside, suddenly unable to meet Theron’s gaze. Theron stood a good couple inches taller than Charlie, and he took a moment to straighten, making sure Charlie felt their difference in size. He might be losing the fervor of his anger, but he sure as hell wouldn’t let Charlie see that.

“So what? You just flash em your badge and they let you on the Extension – favor from one cop to another kind of thing?”

Theron let his tone drip with disdain. He’d grown very wary of police as a teenager, and that aversion was only solidified by Charlie’s actions back in Blackrock. Even still, nothing could have prepared him for the crimes Baird Davenport was capable of.

Charlie gave a sad laugh. “No, they took my badge.”

Theron’s brow furrowed. “Davenport took your badge?”

The notion hit him with such force, he exhaled. Had Charlie Black made the mistake of coming here like he did? Would they really be so brazen to lock up a cop?

Oh god, what if the only man who might have the power to help was a prisoner there, too?

“No. The Sheriff did. Back in Blackrock. Took my gun, my badge, and put me on administrative leave. I’m not allowed back on the force until I get the all clear from my psychiatrist.”

Theron took another step toward Charlie, watching the man’s sad face.

“What? Why?”

Charlie gave a sad laugh. “Apparently, telling your boss you saw some Indian turn into a polar bear doesn’t earn you brownie points.”

Theron’s mouth fell open. “They think you’re crazy?”

“Can you blame them?” Charlie said, and the sadness was almost visible in the cloud of vapor that came from Charlie’s breath.

“So, that whole ‘we’re putting cameras in the woods – patrolling the rez -?’”

“It was all a lie. They’d already taken my gun, by then.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?! My whole family – everyone I -” Theron stopped, catching himself. Charlie Black may have seen Theron, but he couldn’t out the other bears in his life. They’d never forgive him. And seeing what had become of the Holden Clan, there was no telling what might happen to them.

He’d never forgive himself.

“I’m so fucking sorry, Theron. I don’t know why I reacted the way that I did. I just – you don’t know what it’s like to see something like that – to have everyone think you’re crazy. So much so that you start to think you’re crazy, too.”

Theron sat down in a seat near Charlie and watched him.

“I know other guys in the county let the badge get to their heads. They get this attitude like no one can step to them. I wasn’t like that. I didn’t want to be like that. Then I saw you – I saw what I saw, and no one would believe me! No one.”

Charlie watched his own fingers as he fidgeted there.

“I thought I was losing my mind. I still think I’m losing my mind. So I threatened you. I thought maybe you’d tell me what I wanted to hear if I just – if I made it hard not to.”

Theron looked down at his own hands. Hearing the contrition in Charlie’s tone was enough to soften any man. Still, Theron had known greater pain and injustice since that night than he could ever have imagined, and he’d have never known any of it if it weren’t for Charlie. He wouldn’t know Sinead if it weren’t for Charlie, either.

“I tried talking to your family. I couldn’t sleep. I spent the past week camped out down by Parkhurst Lake just praying I’d see you again. That I’d see something to explain it away or prove it. Anything! I feel like I’m losing my mind. I think I’m losing my mind.”

Theron swallowed as Charlie pressed his thumb and forefinger to the bridge of his nose. He was trying not to cry.

“So you followed me all the way here?”

Charlie frowned. “I didn’t know what else to do. I had to know for sure.”

Theron took a deep breath, slumping back into his seat. “I’m not going to validate you.”

Charlie grew smaller somehow.

“But I will say this. You’re not crazy, Charlie.”

A sob caught in Charlie’s throat, and he hopped up from the seat, crossing the room to put distance between them.

Theron had never been forced to confess himself to a norm before. He knew a couple of the Fenn Clan bears had married human partners, but he’d yet to grow close enough to a woman to have such a conversation.

“Hey, if we have kids, there’s a chance they’ll be shapeshifters” had never come up. Theron glanced toward the back room where Sinead slept and fought to stifle a smile. If he’d met her out in the real world, he had no doubt such a conversation would have occurred one day.

Instead, she knew his secrets long before he arrived.

Charlie coughed, wiping his cheeks just as Sinead appeared from the back room with her space heater, a pair of thick wool socks on her bare feet now and her electric kettle steaming.

“It won’t quite heat the whole room, but we’ll be alright if we sit right close,” she said, offering up a smile to Charlie as the man forced a smile. His red cheeks glinted with moisture, but Sinead didn’t say a word. Theron was sure she’d been waiting in the back room for the right moment to return. “Would you like a cup of tea?”

Charlie began to nod his approval when a thought struck Theron.

“Wait. So how the hell did you find me?”

Charlie gave a sheepish look. “I put a trace on your cell.”

“They took your badge, but they let you do that?”

“No,” he said, and the sheepishness doubled. “Your parents gave me no answers – none of the Talbots. Your friend John Fenn there was surprised to even hear you were gone.”

Theron felt a tinge of regret for not saying good-bye before he headed out of Blackrock. Still, he hadn’t planned to be gone forever, and he certainly hadn’t planned to be interred in some camp without a means of communicating with home.

“So I took matters into my own hands and lied to get the trace. Got a ping off a tower in Labrador, of all fucking places – sorry. Pardon my language, miss,” Charlie said, turning to Sinead for an instant.

She just smiled and shook her head. “Yeah, watch your fucking language,” she said, lifting her cup of tea to her lips.

Theron’s affection surged.

“The trace said you’d made a call from Kilikut in Labrador, Canada. I can only imagine what my psychiatrist would say if she knew how I was spending my long weekend.”

“You got signal in Kilikut?!” Sinead said, astounded.

Theron laughed. “It was for three seconds, maybe. The call dropped,” he said, then turned back to Charlie. A sense of urgency was rising in his chest. “So, you come up here, and they just let you onto the Extension?”

“What? Wait, who?”

“Davenport? Baird Davenport. Officer Reed and Miller? The mounty fucks who are keeping us here!”

Charlie stared at Theron for a long moment. “They’re keeping you here?”

Theron and Sinead’s mouths dropped open in unison.

Charlie saw the expression and quickly went on. “I thought the fence was to keep stuff out. They were saying they have trouble this time of year with wildlife coming into the village down in Black Tickle and that’s a ways south of here. I thought this was to keep the Polar Bears out -”

He stopped and looked at each of them in turn as the revelation hit. “It’s to keep them in… You’re here against your will. Both of you?”

Sinead offered up a sad smile. “All of us.”

Charlie glanced toward the windows, a look of wonder on his face. The wonder swiftly disintegrated into rage, and he was on his feet storming toward his coat. “How can they do this? That fence is unbelievable! You know how long it took me to dig that fucking trench?”

Sinead and Theron were up now, too. “You mean they didn’t let you on? They didn’t let you through the gate?”

“No! Hell no! Not a damn soul knew the name Theron Talbot in town. The cops were downright suspicious of me, said they had no clue of any strangers coming into town. When I said I had a report of you making a call here, they packed up and headed out like someone’s house was on fire.” Charlie was pacing now, his heavy boots shaking the floor beneath them. “I didn’t hear a word about the Extension until I asked a nosy old lady watching me from her front window. She said she saw you. That you would more than likely be with ‘your people’ up here, but that I couldn’t visit you because you all didn’t like outsiders coming onto your land. She was the one who warned me about the fence. When I went back to the police, they practically ran me out of town!”