Page 15 of Omega's Bears

Chapter Nine

When Luka and Ryancome back, it’s with good news—they’ve found a place we can stay. Jack and I follow them back through the forest. I notice Jack looking around us at the trees and I’m impressed, all over again, by his attention to everything that’s going on around us. I don’t even know what he’s looking for, but he’s clearly noticing something. A few times, he stoops down and trails his fingers along the dirt or examines a plant or the bark of a tree. I open my mouth once to ask what’s going on, but Luka gives a slight shake of his head and I understand that we’re being quiet for now. Until we’ve staked our claim on whatever place he and Ryan have found for us, I suppose it’s important that we don’t make our presence too conspicuous.

It takes ten minutes to reach the cave entrance from the road, which I assume is a good sign. It’s unlikely anyone driving by will wander in this deep. What’s less promising is the entrance to the cave itself, which is so small that I don’t even see it at first. All I can see is a solid wall of rock, as if I’ve reached the very end of the world, with a few wild and overgrown bushes thrusting up from the earth in front of it.

Apparently, Jack doesn’t see what we’re looking for either. “This is the place?”

“Over here,” Luka says, leading us along the mountain face and pulling aside a bush to expose a narrow fissure in the rock. My heart sinks as I take it in. The den we left three days ago had a wide mouth that let in the sunlight and the air. Even at night, it was never fully dark, because the moonlight shone in. But this tiny opening couldn’t possibly admit much light, and it’s going to be nearly impossible for us to get in too. Besides being narrow, it’s only a few feet high.

“You have to crawl to get in,” Luka says, perhaps reading the expression on my face. “But it’s much nicer on the inside than the outside suggests.”

It would have to be. I’ve only just managed to adjust to life in a cave, and that cave was welcoming and homey by comparison. I don’t want to get down on the ground and crawl through that foreboding crack in the wall. I want to run away as fast as I can.

But I feel the powerful pull of my clan and know that I can’t. I’m a Hell’s Bear now, for better or worse, and whatever decision my alpha makes, I know I will obey. It’s the first time I’ve really felt the strength of my new allegiance. I would have gone to the ends of the Earth for my old clan. If pressed, will I do the same for the Hell’s Bears? Based on the feeling I’m having right now, I can only assume the answer is yes.

Jack takes the lead, as he always does, dropping to his hands and knees and crawling in. Ryan follows right behind him.

I hesitate.

“Go ahead, Cami,” Luka urges. “I’ll bring up the rear.”

I can see he’s proud of having found this place and I don’t want to confess my misgivings, so I force myself to follow behind Ryan. Almost immediately, I regret my decision. The light disappears as soon as I’m inside the passage. It’s too narrow to turn my head, so I can’t look behind me and see whether Luka is there. I have no idea how far I’ve come or how far I have yet to go. I inch forward bit by bit, one hand in front of the other, my knees aching on the cold ground. Surely, I must be about to emerge from this tunnel into the chamber of the cave, the place where Luka and Ryan want us to live. Surely, I must be almost there. If only I could see.

And then, suddenly, to my overwhelming relief, the tunnel spits me out. I feel the air expand around me and gingerly extend my arms to either side. I’m not touching rock. I’m in a larger room now, but I can’t tell how large, because I still can’t see a thing. It’s pitch dark in here.

They can’t mean for us to live here, can they? In the dark? Like possums?

“Jack?” I say, embarrassed to hear the tremor in my voice. “Ryan?”

“Here.” The voice that answers is right next to my shoulder, and I start. A hand finds mine. It’s Ryan. I know him immediately, not only by his voice, but by his touch. Even though all he’s doing is holding my hand in his, it feels so powerfully familiar that I want to climb into his arms or maybe strip off all my clothes and press my body against his for maximum contact. I settle for stepping closer to him, so I can feel the heat emanating from him. Knowing he’s here somehow makes all the difference.

He tugs at my arm, so gently that I almost can’t believe he’s really Ryan. Gentle is not a word I’d ever have used to describe him before. But now, it’s as if he knows I’m afraid. It’s as if that matters to him. He moves slowly, staying close to me, making a lot of noise so I can’t possibly lose track of his presence in the dark. I cling to his arm, anyway, terrified of being in here alone. I can’t live here. How can they expect us to?

And then I see a light.

The light brightens as we move toward it. Before long, I can see the walls around me and Ryan beside me. We’re moving down a tunnel bigger than the one we crawled in through, approximately the size of a wide hallway. The ceiling is a little too low for comfort, but being able to see is such a relief that I’m not about to complain. I can tell the tunnel is leading us to a chamber of some kind, and that that chamber is somehow the source of the light I’m seeing. But how can that be?

I don’t understand the full scope of the chamber until we reach the end of the tunnel and I take my first step into the light. It is absolutely vast, the size of a ballroom. The ceiling is high overhead, probably at least five stories up. And far above us is a big open circle of exposed sky, allowing the sun to shine down into the very center of the cave.

Right away, I understand the appeal. While the center area is open, the perimeter is protected by ledges of rock that will keep us safe from the elements if it should rain or snow. As long as we keep a fire going, the place will be plenty warm, and the smoke will be able to escape through our built in chimney. Perhaps most important, the entrance to this place is hard to find, and that guarantees us a lot more security than we had in the old den.

Jack is already in the chamber when Ryan and I arrive, standing in the patch of sunlight and giving the place his usual analytical appraisal. Luka arrives a few moments later and is the one to break the silence. “What do you think?”

Jack nods. “This is suitable. But you know what I’m going to say.”

“Ryan and I have already decided we like it,” Luka tells him. “We don’t need to have a vote. It’s already unanimous.”

It’s Ryan who speaks up. “Cami hasn’t voted.”

I turn to him in surprise. He’s going out of his way to include me. He doesn’t need to do it—if the three men like this place, my vote can only be a formality. The majority has spoken. But Ryan wants to make sure my voice is heard, and that’s a first. I wonder what he’s thinking. Why is he being so kind to me? Has he noticed how uncomfortable I’ve been since the convenience store holdup yesterday? Maybe he’s thinking about our future, about how we can best transition from the animosity with which we began to the relationship we’ll need to form as mates. I don’t know what his motivation is, but my heart warms. I don’t think I’d deny him anything at the moment.

“I like it,” I tell them. “It seems safe and warm. And we’ll have plenty of space here.”

“Then it’s settled,” Jack says, as if the foundation of our group dynamic hasn’t just shifted. “Ryan, come with me and we’ll find a place to conceal the bikes. Luka, you stay here with Cami. You two can start unpacking the bags.”

Luka nods and drops the bag he’s carrying to the floor. Ryan and Jack set off back down the tunnel to the outside world.

Once the sound of their footsteps echoing on the stone has faded away completely, Luka turns to me. “You did well on that ride,” he says. “Riding with a gang can be hard.”

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