Authors: Heather West
Matt laughed. “After what I just did to you? No way in hell.”
Chapter 9
Matt smiled the next morning as he slid Tawny’s arm from his chest and slipped quietly out so he didn’t wake her. He sat on the porch to watch the sun rising over distant mountains before wandering out in the morning haze.
He stopped abruptly, his eyes searching the woods. There was an eerie quiet in the trees, but as Matt sniffed the air, he couldn’t smell anything unusual. He kept an eye scanning the forest as he bent down and picked up several thick logs for the morning fire.
A branch cracked in the distance and Matt felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. He straightened up and glared through the brush, but saw nothing. He recognized the way the forest felt; it was the uneasy feeling of a large predator stalking prey nearby. Matt had to wonder if he was the one being stalked this time. But he knew the native black bears didn’t attack people, nor did the coyotes, and there were no wolves that he knew of in the area. He sighed heavily.
“Mountain lion, maybe?” he wondered.
He bent down and grabbed some smaller twigs for kindling and hurried back up toward the cabin.
A sharp, loud crack rang out through the air. Matt grunted as he felt a stinging heat jolt through him. His right arm fell limp, and he looked down to see the blood pouring from his shoulder, drenching his shirt as the wood fell from his grasp.
“Poachers,” he growled ferociously, spinning around and darting deeper into the thicket and out of view. A minute later the numbness in his right arm ebbed, and he flexed to work more feeling back into it. And then it hurt.
He crouched as he made his way briskly in a large circle around the hunter, at last positioning himself downwind. Once he was able to smell the man, he was easy to track.
Matt peered around the large tree trunks, creeping near the intruder as quietly as possible. But as the man turned, Matt recognized him as the young man Tawny had been with at the fireside.
Kyle spun and fired another round and Matt heard it whistle past him. Ducking behind a thick cedar, Matt fought to catch his breath.
“Why are you shooting at me?” Matt called out. “What the hell is the matter with you?”
Kyle was quiet for a second as he reloaded, then stepped toward the tree. “You were the one who came to the camp the other day, aren’t you?” he asked menacingly. “You said you were going to help find Tawny.”
Matt felt sick. “Yes, that was me. And I swear I’m still trying to find her. I only want to help.”
“Bullshit!” Kyle snapped. “I heard her in your cabin last night. I heard her screaming. By god, I’m going to see you dead!”
Matt’s stomach twisted into knots, and he felt the blood drain from his face. “It’s not what you think, I swear.”
“You swear a lot, don’t you?” Kyle sneered. “You’re lying. But what the hell — you kidnapped my girlfriend, so what’s a little lie between mortal enemies?”
“I’m not hurting her! You have to believe me!” Matt pleaded.
“I don’t have to believe anything you say,” Kyle spat. He moved around the tree where Matt was hiding, staying a safe distance away.
Matt squirmed around the trunk, keeping out of Kyle’s sight. “We can go there now; I’ll show you. She’s fine. In fact, she’s happy.”
“I’ve been waiting out here all night long,” Kyle gloated. “I’ve been waiting for you to be out here alone, far enough from Tawny that you can’t hurt her. I have you now, you sick, deranged mountain man. The only thing I’m going to do now is shoot you in the face and take Tawny home.”
Matt ground his teeth angrily, the thought of letting Tawny leave ripping at his heart. “You don’t understand. I haven’t done anything to hurt her,” he growled. “Put your gun down, or you’re going to regret it.”
Kyle laughed, still moving slowly around the tree as Matt kept to the opposite side.
“I think you misunderstand your situation,” Kyle said. “The only thing I’m going to regret is killing you too quickly.”
“Fine,” Matt muttered to himself as he slid his shirt over his head and pushed his pants down. He grabbed a thick stick from the mud and ran it through the sleeves of his shirt, in one side and out the other. In one quick movement, he thrust the shirt out past the edge of the tree trunk, holding it in the air with the stick like a flag.
Another shot cracked through the morning quiet, and the shirt rustled as the bullet tore through it. Matt swung around the tree on the other side, not giving Kyle the chance to reload. He sprang at him, shifting partly into bear form mid-step, leaving himself a gruesome, gory mix of human and animal.
Kyle screamed and dropped his gun as Matt pounced on him, swiftly pinning him to the ground. Matt dug his claws lightly into Kyle’s shoulders and glared at him with wicked eyes, drool dripping from his fangs and onto Kyle’s neck.
Kyle’s face was a ghastly white, his eyes large as saucers. “No!” he pleaded. “No, please don’t kill me!”
“You’re going to leave now,” Matt hissed. “You’re going to go home and leave us alone. Tawny is fine, and I have no intention of hurting her. What you heard last night isn’t what you think. I’ll be bringing her to town in a few days, understand? Until then, forget any of this ever happened. Got it?”
Kyle whimpered loudly, but nodded.
Matt stepped off of Kyle with slow, deliberate movements. He watched with satisfaction as Kyle scrambled to his feet, terrified.
“And don’t tell anyone about what you saw here today,” Matt growled.
Kyle nodded and stared, paralyzed with fear. For a brief second he glanced down at his rifle.
Matt charged at him, roaring, and Kyle spun around and raced into the forest, leaving behind the faint aroma of urine. For a few yards Matt chased after him, growling and threatening. But once he was confident that Kyle wouldn’t return, he stopped and trotted back to the rifle. He shifted into human form and pulled his clothes back on. Picking up the rifle and a few logs, he walked back to the cabin.
“Oh my God!” Tawny yelped as she saw the blood on his arm. “Matt, what happened?
“I came across some guy hunting the bear you saw the other night, and he shot me by mistake. Apparently it’s believed to still be in the area. I’m sorry, Tawny, but it looks like it’s going to be a few more days at least before it’s safe to travel into town.” Matt leaned the rifle against the wall and carefully set the wood near the fireplace.
Tawny held a terrified hand over her mouth. “Let’s not worry about that now, Matt. Get your shirt off; we need to stop the bleeding.”
“I think I’m okay,” Matt assured her.
“I don’t!” Tawny insisted. She untied the tethers and carefully pulled his shirt over his head as he moaned with pain.
Tawny sat Matt down and carefully washed his wound. “You said he shot you?” she asked, furrowing her brow.
Matt nodded. “But I think it went clean through. I should be okay.”
Tawny leaned in and inspected the wounds on both sides of his shoulder, touching them gingerly with her fingers. “It does look like it went all the way through. But it looks like it’s already healing over. How is that possible?”
Matt fidgeted nervously. “I’m a fast healer,” he said, giving her a calming smile.
“No one heals this fast, Matt. No one.”
“And yet . . .” Matt sighed, shrugging. “It still hurts a bit, though.”
“The fresh bullet wound still hurts?” Tawny scoffed. “Gosh, do you think that’s a symptom of something — like being shot maybe?”
Matt stood abruptly and put on a clean buckskin shirt while Tawny watched in dismay. He turned and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. “I’m telling you, I’m going to be fine. Up here in the hills you have to recover quickly, or you don’t recover at all.”
Tawny swallowed nervously, and slowly put her arms around Matt. She pulled him tight, tears filling her eyes. “I need to stay here longer?” she asked, her voice cracking.
Matt nodded. “We need to wait a few days still to be certain that the bear isn’t going to get you,” he said. He tried to sound stern and comforting, but his voice wavered. “We just can’t take any chances. And there’s no sense in doing so.”
Tawny’s teary gaze roamed over to where the rifle leaned against the wall. An uneasy feeling gripped her as she noticed how similar it was to Chad’s gun.
After a breakfast of mushrooms and seeds, Matt picked up the rifle and took a deep breath.
“I need to get something taken care of real quick. I’ll be back in a few minutes, okay? You’d better stay inside until I get back.”
Matt scurried out the door before Tawny had a chance to object.
Chapter 10
Bradly stopped dead when he saw Matt step out onto the worn deer trail from the thick brush. The men with him stopped as well, shifting uneasily as they noticed the rifle in Matt’s grasp.
“Are you guys going somewhere important?” Matt grumbled, his eyes narrowing as he looked them over. “Hey Mike, Ralph. And Christopher, good to see you guys again. What’s up?” He had to grin at Ralph’s intense glaring eyes that peered out between his graying bushy beard and wild eyebrows. Mike stood nearly a foot shorter than the others, stalky and muscular, but with a youthful face. Christopher ‘s thin form fidgeted as they faced off, clearly nervous with the confrontation.
“You know what’s up. You still have the girl at your cabin, don’t you?” Bradly accused.
“And that’s where she’s going to stay,” Matt insisted. “I don’t think we need any more trouble than we have already.”
“You’re going to get us all killed!” Mike yelled. “Matt, what are you thinking?”
“Right now,” Matt mused, “I’m thinking that if anyone tries to hurt that girl or take her away, there’s going to be blood spilt.”
“And since when do we resort to guns?” Bradly asked, pointing to the rifle. “And more to the point, where did you get it?”
Matt gave them an evil half-grin. “I took it from a poacher who doesn’t need it anymore. You like it? And yes, we are resorting to guns, ever since my home was threatened unnecessarily by four shifters at one time. I think it just evens out the odds, don’t you?”
“Fine,” Bradly huffed. “But none of this had better put the clan at risk, or it’s your ass on the line, got it?”
“There’s no way she is going to cause trouble,” Matt growled. “She doesn’t know about shifters, and she doesn’t even know where the clan is. How can she possibly do any harm?”
“And don’t you even consider taking her to camp with you,” Mike snorted. “Or it’s her neck.”
Matt nodded curtly. “That’s a deal.”
***
When Matt returned to the cabin, Tawny eyed him, tensely studying his stern face. He sneered at no one in particular and set the rifle in a corner. He stopped, looked her over from head to toe, and smiled.
“What’s with the gun?” Tawny asked, squinting. “Are you planning to hunt with it?”
Matt grunted, looking over at the rifle. “I don’t have any bullets. I’m just using it to scare off the pests, that’s all.”
Tawny threw herself into Matt’s arms, holding him tight for several long minutes before she drew back to look into his eyes. He smiled warmly, then stripped the clothes from her body piece by piece. As they fell to the bed, naked, his large, muscular body enveloping hers in sweaty passion, the world fell away — all except the bullet wound, which Tawny eyed in horror.
Chapter 11
“I’m telling you, we need a search party,” Kyle moaned as he sat at the bar, drink in hand. “And I’m going to need another drink. I’ve lost the rifle my buddy Chad loaned me. The others who were camping with us are exhausted from the search, and just waiting here in town for Tawny’s parents to arrive. God damn, I need some help out there.”
The old man sitting next to him laughed unabashedly, his long, thin beard wafting in the scoffs. “Have you seen our ranger station here, boy? It’s like Mayberry, only without the dignity. You’d do better hiring the Three Stooges to find your girl.”
Kyle shook his head. “I know. They’ve already been told she’s missing, and what little they’ve done has been worthless. But I know where she is now. I’ve found her, she just needs to be rescued.”
“You said she was kidnapped by a mountain man?” the old man probed. “Holy hell, that must be horrible. But, yeah, ol’ Deputy Dog at the rangers could probably wander out there and pick her up for you without too much hassle, s’long as he’s back in time for dinner.”
Kyle groaned and bent over the bar, gripping the cold glass of whiskey tight in his fingers. “There’s more,” he muttered.
“More mountain men?”
Kyle shook his head. “No. The mountain man — he’s not just a man. He turned into this bizarre animal, I swear to God he did! It wasn’t just something I imagined. The damned thing’s drool is still wet on my neck.”
The old man stared at him, a glass of booze frozen halfway to his lips. “An animal? What kind of animal?”
Kyle gave a rueful laugh. “Like something you’d see in a horror movie. I know you’re not going to believe me, and I don’t blame you, but it’s true. He was like some kind of huge . . . I don’t know . . .”
“Bear?” the old man finished.
Kyle furrowed his brow. “Yes, like a big bear. It was hideous. You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”
The old man gulped, his eyes alight with terror. “Oh no, I don’t think you’re crazy. I’ve heard of these things before. They’re dangerous as hell. You’re lucky to still be alive.”
Kyle looked up at him, half-drunk. “You’ve heard of them?”
The old man nodded grimly. “The rangers aren’t going to be of any help, I’m afraid. But I’ve got some friends that know what to do with this sort of problem. A kind of underground professional group, if you will.”
There was a flash of hope in Kyle’s eyes. “Really? Do you think they can save her?”
The old man shrugged. “Maybe.” He took a long, heavy breath, then held out his hand. Kyle shook it. “I’m Edward.”
“I’m Kyle Bennett.”
“Well, Kyle Bennett,” Edward said, pushing himself off his barstool, “I’d like you to come meet The Path. Let’s go get us some bear.”