Jade Crew: Forgotten Bear (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Ridgeback Bears Book 3) (4 page)

“This is our way of life, Gwen. We aren’t humans, we don’t operate under human rules.”

“But out there,” she protested, pointing wildly and meaning outside of the valley, “this isn’t how it’s done there. Why here?”

“That was why Emma made the phone call before the fight started,” he explained. “If they weren’t a legitimate hired crew, then you’re correct, things would be different. But they are. Or were,” he corrected. “That means they are here on a last-chance opportunity, because out there,” he pointed the same way she had, “had already rejected them. This is the result of them using up that second chance.”

He had to give Gwen credit. She was close to panicking, but she managed to think it through, to stay calm and use logic. In any other situation, he would have found her completely intoxicating. But right now, he just wanted her to go somewhere where she wouldn’t see what was about to happen. Especially because—

“Whose responsibility is the fifth bear?” Gwen said slowly, turning to face them.

Russell glanced over at Emma, who nodded slowly, despite the pain.

“Mine,” he said regretfully. “Now will you go inside?” he pleaded yet again.

Gwen thought about it for a long moment. “No,” she said firmly. “If you,” she looked at Emma, “can proclaim it, and you,” she looked back at Russell, “can do it, then I can bear witness to it.”

Like Emma, there was no give in her voice. She had made her decision, and that was that. Gwen stepped up next to Emma and stood firm, looking out from their slightly elevated position over the parking lot.

“Why are you doing this?” Russell asked.

Gwen hesitated for a moment to form her reply, but there was no doubt in her voice. “This is your way of life. This is your culture. While it clearly bothers the both of you, neither of you are freaking out. I’ve seen and dealt with death more than I would have liked lately. I’m not pretending that I’m okay with it. Nor am I likely to forget it any time soon. To me it seems fucked up, but it clearly does not to you. So, if you can stomach it, because that’s the way it has to be, then I can do so as well. I’m terrified, but I think, deep down, we all have a fascination with death as well, whether we’re willing to admit it or not. If I’m going to live here, I need to become exposed to the culture, and acclimatized to it, no matter how horrifying it may seem to me now.”

Russell sighed.
Stubborn woman. Smart, intelligent and fucking sexy, but stubborn.
He knew she was going to regret it, but he also recognized when he couldn’t talk someone out of something either.

He had to fight back a smile as he realized he was proud of her for thinking it all through, and having the conviction to understand that despite her experience with a different system, that this is how it was done here in Genesis Valley. That life was not as valued a commodity as it was elsewhere.

With slow, measured steps, he took his place in front of the last remaining Opal shifter, the one still in bear form. He paused. After a moment, the shifter returned to human form.

Then everyone waited.

From behind him, he heard Emma draw in a breath. He turned to face her, as did the rest.

“Do you witness?” she asked.

“We do,” the assembled bears replied. Gwen added her voice a half-second later.

“My name is Emma Labelle, and I am a Liaison, duly appointed by the Lionshead Mining Consortium at the approval of Valen and Marcus Kedyn. Does anyone dispute this claim?”

“No.”

“The unnamed in front of us have been found guilty of the following crimes: One, refusing to obey a citizen business owner. Two, destruction of civilian property in bear form. Three, refusal to obey a direct order from a Lionshead Mining Consortium superior. Four, putting a human in harm’s way while in bear form. Five,
harming
a human using the superior strength of a shifter.”

It was that final charge that had placed them out here, but the other four combined would have been enough for Emma to sentence them to ending. She wouldn’t have, however, because she hated doing so. But the moment one of them had struck her and injured her, she had no choice. The law was the law.

“Does anyone here dispute this judgment?”

There were several noises from the bears in front of them, but none of them could say that they hadn’t done the above. The remainder of the bears voiced that they did not.

“Very well. I sentence you to summary ending, to be carried out immediately.”

She nodded formally in the direction of Garrett, Ajax, Ferro, Gabriel, and Russell.

The quintet turned to face the condemned.

Russell knew what he had to do, but that didn’t mean he liked it. With a thought, his bear ripped from his skin once more, landing on all fours in front of “his” prisoner. He wished it didn’t have to happen this way, but it did. To his left he heard loud snapping noises as the others discharged their duties. Closing his eyes, he took the man’s skull in his jaws, and without further hesitation, he wrenched his head violently until the body in front of him went limp.

Gwen

She made herself watch. Part of her was screaming that this was wrong, it was all wrong. Another part of her was saying that she was an idiot. She had been in Genesis Valley for barely a day and already she was involved in things up to her neck. But, she told herself firmly, it wasn’t wrong to them. It was just different from everything she’d been raised to believe about human society. That was the difference between what she knew and what was being played out in front of her.

Human.

Shifters were not human, and she would have to remember that fact. Emma had tried to make that point when Gwen had first arrived, going over several ground rules for dealing with shifters in the Valley. At the time, Gwen had scoffed and said that it couldn’t be
that
different from the few shifters she had come across in the outside world. Emma had rolled her eyes and told her she was being naïve.

Now both she and Russell were drilling it home to her harshly enough. Gwen knew it would take some time before she came to fully understand it in her core, but something inside of her said that this was important enough to try to put aside her own ideals and watch. It may seem barbaric to her since they looked human enough. Even when they changed, they
seemed
to still exude pieces of humanity. But looks were deceiving, and the five corpses in front of her were evidence enough of that.

Despite her best efforts, Gwen turned to the side and retched as the reality of what she was looking at overwhelmed her senses for a moment.

“I told you, you should have gone inside,” a strong, deep voice said as she finished.

“And what,” she said, some of her former personality showing through, “gives you the idea that right now while I’m busy losing my lunch is the best time to say ‘I told you so’? Hmm?” she said, waving her hand, trying to get him to go away. She was embarrassed, and didn’t want anyone, let alone the extremely cute Russell, to see her like this.

“Here,” he said, ignoring her question.

She looked slightly to the side. He was holding out a rag.

“Thank you,” she said, taking it from his hand and wiping down the corners of her mouth.

“I think the washroom is still intact. More or less,” he said with a shrug as she looked up at him.

In the background, she could see some of the other shifters preparing to dispose of the bodies. Very quickly she looked back up at Russell. His brown eyes were filled with far more warmth, enough to keep her entranced for some time.

“Why are you being so nice?”

“Well,” he responded humorously. “Why not? You haven’t given me any reason not to be. And secondly, what you just did there—besides being incredibly unnecessary—was rather brave and polite.”

“Polite?” she said incredulously. “How was that
polite?”

“You came in here to our home, and instead of making a huge scene about how our laws are so different from yours, you protested, listened to reason, and then against your own personal faith, you took part. That takes guts,” he said with a nod of respect toward her.

“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up,” he said, sticking out a hand.

“You guys are weird,” she said, shaking her head, but she took the offered help and managed not to look at him as he lifted her to her feet as if she were nothing. The innate strength a shifter possessed was something that would take a while to get used to.

Her brain flashed her an image of him pinning her to the wall, holding her aloft for quite some time.

Stop that. You barely know him.

Bare.

Bear.

Hahaha.

She shook her head. Now was not the time for her lame sense of humor, no matter how much it wanted to poke its head through. Reining in her secretive love of puns, Gwen followed Russell as he led the way back inside. He held the door open for her, which struck her as mildly funny.

“What?” Russell asked when she couldn’t quite contain her smile.

“Oh, I just find it funny that you’re here holding the door for me despite the massive, gaping holes in all the walls around us,” she said, pointing to at least four different exits that had been made.

Russell snorted, then laughed. His smile extended all the way up into his eyes. She wondered if he was single. The way he was acting around her suggested he was. She’d have to ask Emma what the rules were on dating shifters. Who knows what other rituals they might have!

“Here,” Russell said as she exited the washroom a few minutes later, feeling slightly fresher, the shock and horror of what she had witnessed beginning to fade. He was holding out a bottle.

“What is it?” she asked cautiously.

“Beer.”

“Oh, I don’t drink beer,” she said as politely as possible, doing her best not to curl her lip in distaste.

Russell frowned at her. Gwen swore internally at her lack of control of her facial features. Insulting him wasn’t something she had meant to do. Clearly he had been offering her more than just a beer. Perhaps, she thought, it was part of the courtship rituals. Not that Russell had given any real indication that he wanted to court her.

Swallowing her pride, she forced herself to take the still-proffered beer and swallow some of it as well.

“Thanks?” she said meekly, raising the bottle his way.

“How can you not like beer?” he said with a smile and shake of his head, before taking it back.

“You know,” she said contemplatively, “until recently, I’ve never really been all that exposed to it. It was always cocktails or wine. I’d take anything like that,” she said, panning her hand across the devastated bar, “but it doesn’t really look like there’s much left.”

“Oh, I’m sure we can find you something,” Russell said, diving into the wreckage, searching for unbroken bottles.

She laughed and watched as he made slow progress, turning up broken bottle after broken bottle. “Try over there!” she exclaimed, pointing toward an area that seemed to have suffered slightly less destruction than the rest.

“Oh, Gwen. There you are,” Emma said, coming up to her. “Listen, I’m sorry, but I have to wait for a representative from the head office to arrive, and then fill out some reports and that kind of stuff. I can’t really do much for the rest of the day.”

“That’s okay Em, I totally get it,” she said, her eyes inadvertently flicking back over to Russell. She saw he had found one bottle and was searching for more, or perhaps a glass.

“If you want,” Emma said slowly, “I can have Russell fill out his report with me, and then he can take you back to your hotel room.”

Shit.
She swore, realizing Emma must have seen her glance. The
last
thing she wanted was her best friend trying to help her hook up with a shifter. She would probably try to arrange their marriage. Gwen wasn’t sure she was ready to move as fast as her friend. When she had found out upon her arrival in Origin that Emma and Garrett had gotten engaged, she could scarcely believe it. Until she had seen the two of them together. Then it had all made sense. But that wasn’t the path for Gwen Revere, she was sure of it.

“Got it!” Russell cried out successfully as he held up several bottles and an empty glass.

“What is it?” she asked, ignoring Emma for the moment.

“No idea actually. Just three different types of things, one of them fruity looking.”

“Sounds good!” she cried with a laugh, shaking her head. “Come up with a name for it. If it’s good, you can invent a new drink.”

“Okay, I’m definitely having Russell take you back to your hotel,” Emma said decisively as Gwen turned back to look at her friend.

“You’re ridiculous,” she told her.

“Hey, I’m not the one flirting openly with a guy I just met,” Emma replied.

“He’s cute!” she whispered, giggling, which seemed utterly inappropriate given what had all just transpired, but she couldn’t help herself. Life worked in mysterious ways sometimes, and who was she to fight it?

“Russell,” Emma said. The shifter looked over at her. “When you’re done there, come give me your statement, and then take the afternoon to show Gwen around, will you? I’m going to be busy here for a while, unfortunately.”

“Of course Ms. Hoffman,” he teased.

“That’s
Mrs.
Hoffman to you, oaf!” she said.

“Here, come try this,” was his response. He had found a second glass it appeared, making two of his concoctions.

“I don’t—” Emma started to say.

“Oh no you don’t!” Gwen said, dragging her friend along after her. “If I’m trying this potential failure of colossal proportions, so are you!”

“Fine, but you first,” Emma said. “I’m on duty anyway.”

Nervously, Gwen took a glass and sniffed at it.

“Holy hell! What did you put in here, pure rubbing alcohol?” she said, coughing at the strength.

“Whatever I could find,” he said, “Now drink up or have some beer.”

“Fine,” she said, taking the glass and taking a sip. It burned the whole way down. But strangely, it wasn’t that bad. “Don’t sip,” she told Emma, as her friend went to follow. “Just take it back.” She followed through, tossing back the rest of her drink. The fire traced its way down into her stomach, a slight warming feeling infusing her as it settled there.

“Just what we needed I think,” she proclaimed, then turned her glass upside down as Russell went to refill it. “Yeah, it wasn’t
that
good, Mister,” she said with a wink.

“Here,” Ferro said, coming out of the back with what appeared to be an alcohol cooler of some sort. Either way, it had images of fruit all over it, and Gwen was game to try anything after Russell’s concoction.

Drinks in hand, she and Russell created a makeshift table from several piles of debris and a mostly-intact tabletop, and then pulled up two miraculously unbroken chairs to sit in front of it.

“So Gwen,” he said conversationally. “What brings you all the way out to our fair town of Origin, and our way of life?”

She looked at him, then down at their improvised table, then around at the devastation surrounding them. Even as her eyes roamed, a piece of debris fell from the ceiling, adding to the wreckage. Chairs and tables lay crushed flat everywhere, blood was spattered on most every visible surface, pooled in others, and even Russell himself was covered in dried blood and shredded clothing.

“This sort of thing really doesn’t faze you, does it?” she asked.

“On the contrary,” he said, his voice softer than she’d heard it before as he acknowledged her point. He leaned forward as he continued talking, making it clear he was speaking only to her. “I regret that any of this had to happen in the first place. Even more so that you had to get involved in it, though I’m extremely thankful you’re okay. But I will mourn those who were ended today. Perhaps not the individuals themselves, but that life itself had to be extinguished. That will always faze me. But blood, broken furniture and general destruction?” He smiled broadly, suddenly back to himself, “Welcome to Origin,” he finished.

Gwen evaluated everything he had just said. The serious and the not so serious.

“Why not spare them then?” she asked.

“The iron rule is that you don’t harm humans, in either bear form or using the natural strength of your animal. Nothing that you have can counter that. So it is punishable to the extreme. It has to be that way. Too many humans get hurt or killed every year even with the rule in place. Could you imagine if it wasn’t there? We have to enforce it, Gwen, not just for your sake, but for ours.”

“Does this happen often?” she asked, wondering if perhaps she had made a mistake in coming to Origin.

“Of this magnitude? No. This is only the second one of this size that has happened since I’ve been here, and that’s going on seven years now. But I would say on average, probably one a month. Generally it’s just one shifter who’s done something, not an entire group. That’s what makes this whole thing so strange. I’m sure we’ll figure out what their reasons were, but it may take months or more before we do.”

“I see.”

“Do you?” he asked, genuine caring evident in his voice.

“Yes. It all goes back to what you told me outside. You look human, but you aren’t. Just because I don’t
agree
with it doesn’t mean I can’t understand your reasoning for it. Plus, if Emma understands it, then I’m sure it’ll come to me eventually. I likely just have to spend more time around shifters.

“And,” he hesitated, “is that something you plan on doing?”

“What? Spending more time around shifters?”

He nodded. She could see how much he wanted her to say yes. It was as clear as daylight. Gwen couldn’t help herself; she had to tease him.

“Oh for sure. I don’t know about you,” she said, smiling, “but I’m not going anywhere just yet.”

He looked so absurdly over-the-top dejected she couldn’t help but laugh, which brought a smile to his face.

“Okay, okay!” she relented. “I guess I could include you in there somewhere.”

“Excellent!” he hissed, clenching his fist in mock victory.