Page 2 of Bear Haven
Luke had brought information to them months ago that had opened up a whole can of rotten worms, but it had also opened doors and chances and provided a lifetime of answers for Bex, even though she hadn’t really known what questions to ask.
The wolf backed up on silent feet and before Gus could react, Luke dove into the underbrush and made for the waterfall. Gus gruffed and loped after him, but knew that he wouldn’t be able to catch up. He could come close, but Luke was lean and fast and could slink under and jump over things that Gus’s bear couldn’t.
The dumbass wolf was going to do exactly what Gus hadn’t wanted him to.
Luke was going to get closer to the Mayor’s hunting cabin.
Gus hoped to hell Luke didn’t get killed. He might not like Luke all that much, but he didn’t want any harm to come to him, he didn’t want anything to happen to him. Not when Gus planned to beat the tar out of the shifter himself.
Despite what any of them said or did or thought, they needed Luke Blackwood to make it through all of this alive.
* * * * *
Gus pushed through the brush as dusk started to fall over the mountains. He’d stayed up on the bluff for several hours, waiting, hoping Luke would return. He hadn’t.
Behind the old abandoned mill at the base of the bluff, Gus shifted. He shook himself, and leaned against the side of the old mill house to catch his breath. He hadn’t stayed a bear for hours on end, day in and day out, ever. Short spots of time he could do without a problem and recover quickly, but the last few days had been hell on his body and he ached in places he didn’t know he had. His muscles and bones and organs weren’t accustomed to the frequent shifting from human to bear and back again. It was necessary at the moment, but it was also dangerous to continue much longer. His body needed time to recover and it protested every time he moved.
Like now, reaching inside an old barrel where he’d stashed his clothes before shifting that morning. He was out of breath and out of strength by the time he finished dressing that he leaned his weight back against the mill house, locking his knees to keep from sliding to the ground.
He needed to get his ass down the trail and to the edge of the abandoned town where he, Beck, and Luke had set up a bare bones camp in an old hotel.
And his heart needed Bex. He’d only been gone a few days, but he missed her. If he thought Luke would’ve trusted anyone else, Gus wouldn’t have left her. He wouldn’t have given her a made up story the way he did, either.
Leaves crunched nearby and Gus straightened against the rundown building, fought against the exhaustion flooding his system.
He listened.
One set of footfalls seemed familiar, one didn’t. It wasn’t an animal. It wasn’t Luke, either.
His heart hammered in his chest. Fear coiled in his gut, mixed with survival and anger. He wasn’t going down like this.
But his knife was down in the bottom of the barrel along with his boots and he didn’t have time to reach down to grab them.
He stayed plastered to the worn wood of the mill house and the footfalls closed in on him.
“Gus?” His name was whispered from his right. “Gus?” And, again.
Relief swamped him and he sagged, the tension flowing out of him. “Here,” he whispered back.
The shadow of the man who’d raised him came into view, as did that of another man he had only seen once.
“Been looking for you for two days,” his father said.
“What are you even doing here? How did you know to come looking?”
“I might be a little old, but give me some credit. I knew the second you set off that you weren’t going where you said you were going.”
“Never could fool you.”
“Not since the day you came to live in my house. You remember Bryan, Blake’s uncle?”
Gus nodded. “Yeah. Sure.”
“Y’all set up shop somewhere?”
“Half a mile up the trail. Building was a hotel. A few of the rooms still have bedding, bowls and pitchers for washing. That’s about it though.”
“That’s about all we need. Where’s the wolf and where’s Beck?”
