Worshiped By The Bear Kings - Complete (12 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

Jasmine felt much better. Her secret
wasn’t a secret anymore and Brad seemed to empathize with what she was going
through. On one hand, even though she’d been so close with him and his cousin,
Jasmine knew while she had this baby inside of her, she had to be ready to
abandon them at any given time. She had expected to be rejected. Scolded.
Treated as though the baby was poison and that made her poison as well. But
that hadn’t happened. Not everything was dark and gloom-filled as it appeared…

And now that
she felt strong again, Jasmine was able to identify where her insecurities
began. It was time to tell Brad about the Mage who had been following her.

“The whole
time it seemed like he was working with the dark dragon,” Jasmine explained.
“He was like the dark dragon’s servant. Later on we all found out he was
actually working for police as well, so … I don’t really know. I would never
trust him. He may have helped you to find me here – but why? What is he
planning on doing when my baby is born?”

“You don’t
have to worry, Jasmine,” Brad said. “Spike and I will protect you from him.”

“Thanks,”
Jasmine murmured.

Knock, knock.

Brad stood up
from the sofa. “I’ll see who it is.”

He went to
the door and opened it a crack.

Jasmine could
hear an inaudible exchange of words.

Brad closed
the door again and turned back to her.

“They’re
ready for us now.”

“Who is?”

“Hades and
the Destair,” Brad said. “We have to convince them to free the rest of our
tribe.”

CHAPTER FIVE

At the ground floor of the building,
the Destair black bears were waiting.

Jasmine and
Brad arrived via the elevator, and walked down a short white corridor to enter
the meeting room at one of the side doors. The room was the size of a small
theatre minus the stage, with chairs stacked and filed in columns and rows.
They were currently busy with seated members of the Destair tribe, although
Jasmine could see her brother Dennis loitering at the front of the room.

“Over there,”
she said signaling to them.

Brad nodded,
and Jasmine followed him to the front row where Dennis, Dara and Spike were
just getting seated.

“How did you
guys get in here?” Jasmine asked.

“They came
out and grabbed us,” Dennis answered.

“Alright, sit
down, sit down,” one of the Destair said their group. “Lord Hades will be with
us shortly.”

Jasmine sat
at the end of the row, next to Brad. She whispered to him, “What do you think’s
going on here?”

“Something
serious,” Brad replied.

The curtain
at the end of the room behind the podium parted, and two men stepped out from
behind it. One of them was a bare-chested, muscle-bound warrior with long dark
hair and a black cat tattooed to his chest.

The other was
Hades.

“Good evening
my fellow Destair,” Hades began. “I hope you enjoyed the fight earlier. Even if
it wasn’t one of us who conquered.”

He looked
behind him. “We have a special guest with us tonight. Some of you may have
already met him. For those of you who haven’t, I’d like to formerly introduce
Gasper Travis, Arch Baron of the Ice Storm panthers. Put your hands together,
please.”

There was a
reluctant murmur of applause.

Hades grabbed
hold of the podium and shouted, “I SAID PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER.”

At once the
room filled with loud applause, hollow yet enthusiastic.

Hades stepped
away and allowed Gasper to approach.

Gasper waved
the applause down.

“Please, I
don’t deserve your respect or admiration,” he said. “Panthers and bears have
never been the best of friends, even if we do share the same color fur.”

There was a
spray of laughter from up the back.

Gasper
cleared his throat. His eyes surveyed his audience.

“But then
what am I doing here? Why his your Lord telling you to applaud me? Well, that
is because it is time for an alliance. Between bear and panther, panther and
bear. An alliance not only between our two types of people, but an alliance of
all shifters. For too long the humans have savaged us! They have forced us into
the wilderness on occasion. Made us live outside the city as beasts and not
men. Some of you think because you’re here and you can live a reasonably normal
life – that it is normal. But let me ask you, how many humans have you spoken
to today? How many have you been open about your bear with? Our powers frighten
the humans because they lack the perfection we clearly partake. And it’s not
just in our physical abilities. It’s the heart of what we stand for. Panthers
and bears might not treat each other as brothers, but that’s how we treat our
own kind. Stop what you’re doing for just a moment. Look at the bear sitting
next to you. He or she, is your brother or sister. You would do anything for
them. Humans on the other hand, want only war against themselves.”

Gasper
stepped back a moment. He took another deep breath.

“I won’t bore
you for too much longer. I know you already know all this. But what I’m trying
to say is that there needs to be a general consensus between not only panthers
and bears, but all shifters. We need to unite against this horrible devolved
species that is ruining this planet. Divided, we are weak. But together we will
be strong and we will conquer.”

While Jasmine
was utterly bewildered by this man’s discrimination of her people, she was
still surprised further when Brad stood up in her defense.

“My name is
Thunder Brad,” he declared to the whole room. “I am king of the Uthuro grizzly
tribe. I request permission to speak.”

There was a
sense of erring within the audience.

Hades stared
at him with poison in his eyes.

“You may
speak,” Gasper said.

“Are you
aware, Arch Baron, of the destruction these black bears have recently caused my
people? Not only did they destroy the forest I lived in, killing many innocent
creatures, they now hold my tribe hostage so that I would be as a servant to
them. I’m just curious if your impassioned speech about freeing us from
discrimination includes obvious barbarity and hypocritical standards.”

Gasper
nodded. “Yes, I know of your people’s plight. I’m sorry you lost your forest.
But I’m sure with some careful thought, you might realize that where you once
were asleep, now you are awake. Your tribe served no purpose in a global sense
to the rest of us. You were simply there, existing, while the rest of us were
facing the problems of the real world. You had taken the life of a bear as an
animal and not a man because you were a coward, and you had no means to fight
back.”

 “We were
happy,” Brad said. “Were were at peace. Your war is not ours.”

He sat back
down.

“I respect
your view,” Gaspar said. “But you need to hear the whole story. You’ve been
living away from your true people, the Destair, for too long that you have
missed much of what has occurred. Anyway, to the rest of the group, I want to
inform you that an alliance of bears and panthers also shares a common enemy
which is not man. One of our shifter rivals, has been keeping things from us
for much time now. Things you could only dream about.

“The time
however to declare our mutual enemy is not yet afoot. We have things moving in
the direction that will possibly avert a war. In the meantime, it is important
for each of you to contemplate about the world you want to live in. And how
important it is to have shifters united. Thank you.”

Gaspar backed
away from the podium, while Hades returned.

“Well, then,
give him another applause.”

The crowd put
together another inspired effort.

Jasmine
turned to Brad throughout the noise and said, “What do you make of all that?”

“I don’t
know,” Brad said. “But they’re up to no good.”

CHAPTER SIX

Silence eventually descended over the
room. Hades began his closing speech.

“I’d like to
congratulate you all on your hard work today. You each owe yourself a drink or
two and a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow you can have off. Take some time to
reflect on Gaspar’s message. When we reconvene here on Monday, be prepared to
stand up and fight for your brothers as they fight for you. Thank you, you may
now go forth.”

As he stepped
away from the podium the bears began to get up from their seats and make their
way out of the meeting room.

Hades
immediately approached Jasmine’s group.

“You lot are
to follow me,” Hades said. “We’ll see if we can’t come to an agreement.”

He then
turned and moved back towards the curtain.

One of the
Destair snapped his fingers and ushered them to follow them as they were told.

Ahead of
them, Gaspar had caught up with Hades and disappeared behind the curtain.

“Dennis,”
Dara hissed to her boyfriend. “I’m tired. I want to go home.”

“Can you get
us out of this?” Dennis asked Spike.

“We’ll see
what they have to say,” Spike said. “I’m sure we’ll all be set free
afterwards.”

Jasmine
turned to Brad. “Is that what you think?”

“They want
something from us,” Brad said. “But I have no idea what.”

“Whatever it
is, it has nothing to do with us,” Dara said, overhearing them. “I’m serious. I
want out of here or I’m going to start screaming.”

“Don’t do
that,” Dennis urged her. “They might not let us leave then.”

“This way,”
the Destair escort said, holding back the curtain.

As they
passed through, they were greeted with another door that was being held open
for them. Inside it the next room led to a study area with luxurious furniture
and an open fire.

“Please sit
down,” Hades said, motioning to the sofas. “Tell the waiter what you’ll have,
if anything.”

Jasmine, Brad
and Spike sat together on one sofa. Dennis and Dara sat on a separate one.

Gaspar was
already seated.

A young,
appropriately dressed waiter came around the room taking everyone’s orders.
Hades waited until they were completed before he himself sat down.

“Are we ready
now?” Spike demanded. “Are you going to tell us where the rest of our tribe
are?”

“I’m holding
them with my people,” Gaspar said. “They’re in safe hands.”

“And where
might your people be?”

“Enough,” Hades
scolded. “If you want to see them again, you’ll allow me to direct the
conversation.”

Spike looked
at him aggressively for a moment. But he didn’t make his challenge.

“Very well,”
Spike said. “Direct it.”

Hades gave a
small smile. “I have a question for you and Thunder. Just to begin with. If you
were to reclaim your tribe – what then? Where would you go?”

Brad and
Spike looked at each other.

“That isn’t
the point,” Brad said. “We cannot decide that until we are able to speak with
them. When they know they are safe. We need to ask them how they wish us to
lead.”

“Absolutely,”
Spike said in agreement. “Your question isn’t of relevance.”

“I put it to
you,” Hades said leaning forward, “that with your forest burnt to the ground,
your people won’t want to run off to some other dwelling in the wilderness. To
start from scratch. Not knowing how long it will be before one of them gets
shot by a rifle. Hunted like the animals they are.”

“We did try
to stop that from happening,” Brad said.

“And you
failed.”

Quiet in the
room.

Jasmine could
hear the crackling of the wood in the fire.

“We have
found you a place where that wouldn’t be a problem for you,” Gaspar said. “For
the Destair. One where you can live in secrecy, and in a dignified way.”

Spike grinned
ear to ear. “What place is this?”

“It’s an
island,” Gaspar said. “A very
special
island. It is part of a group of
islands out from the east coast. For much time they were believed to be
uninhibited. By human or shifter. However as my brothers have discovered, that
is not the case…”

“What’s so
special about your island?” Brad asked. “Why are you so interested in this?”

“It is no
secret that the dragons have their islands,” Hades answered. “You may have seen
pictures of them. Filled with unique structures. Castles. Palaces. Villages and
towers and places for them to live in harmony.”

“That’s
between the humans and dragons,” Spike said. “Nothing to do with us.”

“Shifters
have lived on the earth for thousands of years. Our civilizations were so
advanced even then. These particular islands are not only special because they
have these historic structures built by our ancestors – but the island is said
to bear fruit that have magical properties. They say one bite of a pear, or a
plum, or a cantaloupe, or whatever else you may find, can accelerate your
super-human powers beyond anything you have seen before.”

“We would be
like gods among the people,” Gaspar added.

“If you know
where these islands are,” Brad said, “why aren’t you there now? Why even bother
us?”

“One of our
shifter types has found these islands. We only know of two or three but there
are said to be more than a dozen of them in total. Even though the islands are
large and almost surely unexplored in full, they have been captured up and
contained by this type of shifter … so that no one else is permitted there.
Human or shifter likewise.”

“In the
forests we are like animals living in squalor,” Hades said. “In the city here,
we don’t belong and have to hide who we are. These islands are good for all
bears and panthers. United, we can control them together. And we will allow all
shifters in – as long as they don’t disrupt the rest of us.”

“Fascinating,”
Spike said leaning back. “Don’t you think, Brad? Just fascinating.”

Brad shrugged
his cousin aside. “Tell us what you want us to do.”

“You have a
way in,” Gaspar said. “A friend on their side. We need her to begin
negotiations.”

“And who
might that friend be?”

“Lady Lynette
Thistle.”

“The
lioness,” Hades added.