Jade Crew: Forgotten Bear (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Ridgeback Bears Book 3) (5 page)

“Besides,” she added, looking over at him again. His day-old facial hair added a bit of roguish charm that she liked. He looked good with it, and she wondered if he normally kept it trimmed, or if he had just skipped a day.
Guess you’ll just have to find out.
“I don’t really have anywhere else to go, so you’re kind of stuck with me.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

“Well, you asked what brings me to town. You’ve shown and told me so much about this place, and to a lesser extent yourself. I suppose I can answer that question now.” She took a deep, steadying breath. It still wasn’t easy to talk about.

“Whenever you’re ready,” he said, sitting back gingerly in his chair so as not to break it, while he gave her time to organize her thoughts.

“I was supposed to come visit Emma, oh... at least two months ago,” she started. Russell nodded. He must have heard about that. Which, she thought to herself, made sense, because Emma would have had to tell Garrett, who would have made arrangements for her when she was going to stay
with
the Ridgebacks.

“Anyway, I had been overseas in Paris. I used to work in the fashion industry, and it was runway season, so that’s where I was. But it got to be more than I was interested in, so I came back to see my parents. I was going to come out here to visit Emma, but a week before that, my parents were both killed in a car crash.” She barely got the last sentence out, before taking a deep, shuddering breath as she tried to keep her emotions in check.

Grieving was okay, she told herself, but talking about it is what will help heal the wounds with time. Crying every time you try to talk about it doesn’t help the situation.

“Holy hell Gwen, I’m so sorry.” Russell sat up straight, and his arm twitched in her direction as if he wanted to reach out and touch her. A part of her smiled. His interest in her, which from anyone else she knew would have freaked her out in its intensity, was somehow reassuring with him.

“Thank you,” she said sincerely. “It was…unexpected, to say the least. I’m an only child too, so I had to fly out to the other side of the country to deal with the funeral, the lawyers, their estate, all that. I wanted to call Emma, but my mind just couldn’t cope at the time. Even when I got home, I couldn’t handle it. So I sold all my stuff, packed up what I had left, and drove out here, not really knowing what else to do with my life. That was two nights ago. I’ve been staying in the hotel downtown ever since.”

“I do not envy you the past few months,” Russell said eventually into the silence that descended upon them, although they continued to look at each other.

What is going on? I feel like I’ve known him for so long.

Gwen knew something was at work. She was sitting in the middle of a battlefield, telling someone who was practically a stranger her life story, and yet somehow it was making her feel
better
about things, allowing her to relax in ways she hadn’t been able to in months past. Even the realization of that wasn’t freaking her out, which it should have been.

“Russell,” she said, then closed her mouth.

“Yes?” he asked when she didn’t continue.

Gwen shook her head softly. She had almost asked him what was going on between them, but she didn’t. She wouldn’t, not yet at least. Whatever it was, it was something she could feel. Emotions had been all too rare over the past few months, and the last thing she wanted to do now was risk ruining it by talking about it. For now she was just going to go with the flow.

“What’s your last name?” she asked instead.

“Warne. Russell Warne. What’s yours?”

“Revere,” she said, sticking out her hand. His large, and quite warm hand engulfed hers, giving it a nice, firm shake.

“I’m cold,” she said, the realization sinking in suddenly. The adrenaline must have been wearing off finally. Although it was a warm enough day for the time of year, it was still early November, and temperatures were dropping.

“Where’s your jacket?” Russell asked, looking around.

“In the car. Emma told me it was warm in here, and that I wouldn’t need it. Turns out she was right, but I’m not sure if she knew about the new air conditioning system that was installed.”

“Air...conditioning?” Russell looked around, trying to understand what she meant.

“It’s right there!” she said, pointing toward one of the holes that had been blown in the side of the wall.

Russell froze for a moment, then looked over at her. “You, Gwen Revere, have a great sense of humor.” Then he began to laugh. Loudly, uncontrollably, and perfectly honest. He didn’t try to hide anything as he howled with laughter. She could see how the tension had gotten to him as well, and he was letting it all loose now as his broad, muscular shoulders heaved with the effort.

“Russell?”

As quickly as the glimpse into his soul had been, it was gone. She watched as Russell tightened up, his motions becoming stiff and unsure as he turned toward the source of the voice.

“Yes?” he replied.

“Emma is ready for your report now,” Garrett said from over near the bar itself.

“Okay,” he said over his shoulder.

“Is Garrett that bad?” Gwen asked very quietly.

“What do you mean? Garrett’s a good guy. One of the better Alphas if you ask me,” Russell said, fiercely defending Garrett.

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that when he called your name, you changed,” she said, trying to placate Russell’s sudden intensity, showing that she was just trying to understand. “You stopped laughing, and you seemed to tense up and get nervous. I just, I don’t know. I’m sorry?” she said with a shrug of her shoulders, trying to fix it.

“Don’t be,” Russell said, letting his breath out loudly. “I shouldn’t have torn your head off there, you were just asking. I’m the one that should be sorry,” he said with a lopsided smile.

“Before you go, do I get the short version of who you are and why you’re here?” she asked.

“I came here because I had a temper, and kept getting in trouble with the authorities. I thought the whole world was out to get me. I’ve since realized I was the problem, and that I actually quite like it here. The mining seems to agree with me,” he said with a shrug and a smile. “So much so, in fact, I told my brother to come join me,” he said brightly. “He told me that he’d come check it out in a month or two. So I spent the next six months waiting on him.”

“And now?” she asked.

Russell looked over his shoulder at Garrett, almost remorsefully she thought, but the Alpha wasn’t getting irate with him yet. “Still waiting,” he said sadly.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” she said, reaching out without thinking to rest her hand on his arm.

He glanced down at it, then back up at her. For a moment, Gwen thought that he was going to move it aside, or shut her down in some other way. But to her surprise, Russell didn’t say a word, and instead he just put his other humongous paw on top of hers and held it there for a moment.

“Thank you,” he said, trying to remain upbeat, though she could sense the hurt in him.

“How did it happen?” she asked softly. Having just lost her parents, Gwen knew she could sympathize with him.

“How did—” Russell cut himself off abruptly as he realized what she meant. “Oh, he didn’t die,” he said with a wince. “Sorry. Damn, I should have realized how that would come across. No, he’s still alive. He just... forgot, I guess?” he said sadly.

“Anytime now Russell,” Garrett called.

She watched as Russell twitched, then rose from his seat.

“Listen, I have no idea how long this will take, but if it takes too long, I’d like to see you again, if that’s okay? I know Emma said to show you around, but once I’m done filling this out, I think Garrett should take you and her home. I…I need to be alone for a bit,” he said softly.

“That’s fine,” she said, nodding in understanding, trying not to appear too eager to see him again. “When will that be?”

“Tomorrow,” Ferro said, intruding on their conversation. “When all of you come by to clean up.”

Russell stared at the bartender for a moment, then he looked back at her.

“Hey, how does tomorrow work? I know this great little bar, called the Tongue & Flame. Nice, peaceful place. Does that sound okay to you?”

Gwen giggled at him. “Go!” she shooed, doing her best not to bite her lip as he winked at her and headed over to his Alpha.

She watched him go, doing her best not to openly stare at his butt.

But those jeans make it look soooo good.

With a sigh of contentment, she sat back in her chair.

“What a first week,” she said softly, before finishing the rest of her drink in one shot.

Russell

The next morning came early for him.

“
Hnggh
,” he growled at his alarm, slapping it repeatedly until it shut off.

It was next to impossible for a shifter to have a hangover. It was almost as hard for them to get good and wasted, though they could enjoy a nice buzz after a few beers, oddly enough. But that didn’t mean that Russell hadn’t given it the good ol’ college try. He and Corey had put aside their differences and drank into the late hours of the night as they filled out the reports Emma needed. The two women had left shortly after Russell had filled out his report. Garrett had taken them back to the lodge, leaving Corey without a ride, and Russell with the need to drink. He badly wanted to forget the day.

He had downplayed it hard with Gwen, not wanting to overwhelm her with the depths of his pain. But that didn’t mean it magically went away. He had drunk to the memory of his fellow shifter, fervently hoping that he wasn’t judging Russell for doing what he did. Ending another shifter was never a small thing. Despite how widespread their acceptance had become, they were still the next best thing to an endangered species, though their numbers
were
on the rise now that they could mate safely with humans without fear of reprisal.

Still, there couldn’t be more than three, maybe four times as many shifters in the rest of the country as there were in Genesis Valley. Compared to hundreds of millions of humans, they were like nothing. Which is why he hated himself for not being able to find a way to settle the conflict peacefully yesterday. It was one thing for shifters to fight. That happened all the time. Hell, it still happened within the Ridgebacks. Fighting was nothing.

But involving humans and being reckless about their safety was something else entirely. So the two shifters had raided Ferro’s supplies in the back, including the untapped keg—or had it been kegs?—that they had found.

Russell could confirm once again, if there had been any doubt, that shifters couldn’t get hangovers. Their metabolism was just too fast. But, he swore, that doesn’t mean they didn’t suffer from a lack of sleep, just like normal humans.

“Fuck. This. Shit.” He said, rolling onto his back as he groggily tried to pull his mind together. A shower would help, but he had to convince himself to get there first.

Sometimes he wished he got sick, so he could use a sick day. He didn’t want to be in the mines today. He wanted to be outside, doing anything but mining.

Wait a minute. He sat up straight, the sheet falling away from him. They weren’t going to the mines today. They were going over to Ferro’s to help clean up the damage they had done. Ferro had been insistent that they would rebuild it. He didn’t want to write it off.

“Score!” he hissed, jumping out of bed and heading for the showers. The best part of it was that he knew Gwen would be there too! As the water warmed up, he turned on the radio and began to sing along lustily, not giving a damn. Today was going to be a good day, and none of the ongoing bullshit he had to deal with was going to change that.

Feeling fresh and slightly more awake, he scarfed down some breakfast with the rest of his crew. Everyone was talking excitedly about having the day off and what had happened the day before. Thankfully none of them pressed him for answers. Lately he had been a bit standoffish, and although it pained him to do so, it worked in his favor right now as the others left him alone. No one was rude to him, but none of them were eager to engage him in conversation either.

He hoped that would change, and that he could eventually integrate himself with the others, but right now that wasn’t up to him, unfortunately. It was up to another, who didn’t show any signs of changing.

Evan sat in one corner, quiet and brooding as he purposefully ate his breakfast. If the crew gave Russell a wide berth, they outright avoided Evan unless absolutely necessary. Which seemed to be just fine to the other shifter, Russell noted.

“Man, I can’t believe Ferro’s is gone,” Joel said, shaking his head.

“It’s not gone, you idiot. That’s where we’re going today,” Cole said, cuffing him over the head lightly.

“Yeah I know, I just meant that we can’t go drinking there anymore.”

“Why not? Corey and Russ seemed to manage it okay yesterday,” Evan sneered from his corner, trying to throw the other two under the bus.

Russell noted the way Evan directed most of it at Cole. Ever since the smaller shifter had found his mate, and especially since he had proclaimed it to everyone the other day, Evan’s attitude toward him had taken a decisive and nasty turn for the worse. Cole, he had decided, was now just like the rest of them. Even Russell was a target in this latest attack, though that was unusual for Evan. The two didn’t see eye to eye, but Evan had so far refrained from truly going after him.

“Give it a break, Evan,” Russell said now, entering the conversation for the first time. The other shifters kept quiet. They knew that he had the best chance of placating Evan when he was in one of his moods.

“Fuck off. I don’t see why half of you are so eager to go repair damage that you didn’t cause. That’s rather ludicrous if you ask me.”

“Ferro’s is like home, Evan,” Darren said, as if that should have been common knowledge.

“Like hell it is. It’s a goddamned bar, that you idiots,” he motioned at Russell and then Corey, “had to go and destroy because you couldn’t control that big idiot Ajax.”

Russell just stared at Evan.

“Are you losing your mind?” he asked. “They attacked
us
, in case you haven’t heard by now.”

“From what I heard, Ajax threw the first punch,” Evan said, standing up and sauntering for the door. “Have fun cleaning up his mess,” he said over his shoulder.

“Where are you going? Garrett said the whole crew is going.” Corey asked suspiciously.

“I have other places I have to be. Now go on,” Evan retorted, before exiting the common room.

“What an asshole,” one of them muttered, and the rest agreed.

Nothing is going to bother you
. Russell had to grit his teeth as he repeated his mantra for the day, but already it was tough.

Several moments later, Garrett entered the hallway, then looked around at the dour demeanor of everyone.

“What did I miss?” he asked, helping himself to some food and coming over to the long table at which everyone was sitting.

“Oh, just Evan pretending like he has more important things to do than help out at Ferro’s,” Darren said, rolling his eyes.

“Speaking of which,” Garrett said, his only response to what Darren had said a slow nod of his head. “We’re probably going to be spending a lot of time over there. So we’ll be putting some of the projects here on hold as well. Our efforts need to go into getting it repaired and a roof over his head before winter.”

“What happened to the roof that was there?” Russell asked. “It was still up last night.”

“Apparently at some point in the middle of the night, the far half of the bar came down. So now there’s a gaping hole in the roof.”

“Shit,” he replied dully as Garrett settled down in a seat next to him. He felt his body tense up at his Alpha’s presence, but Garrett didn’t seem to notice it.

“So,” Garrett said, turning slightly to face Russell as the others started up conversations again. “Are you going to see Gwen again today?”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure it would be that good of an idea,” he said.

“What? Why not? You two seemed to hit it off really well last night.”

Russell just shook his head. He couldn’t explain it to Garrett. Not yet. He felt bad, lying to his Alpha about his feelings, but it was for the best at the moment.

“Very well,” Garrett said, apparently not willing to press the issue yet, much to Russell’s relief. “Let’s get going than, shall we?” he said, wolfing down the last bites of his pancakes.