Running Free (Woodland Creek)(38)

But that was selfish. Even at twelve, I should have found a way to bring her with me. Images of the violence I endured at several different pounds, flash by in a wicked breeze of memories. Minnie would have been worse off with me. I know this deep in my heart.

“Let me go!” I spit in his face but it only enrages him.

He releases me long enough to change his position. His big hand grips my throat and I thrash at him.

“You’re not going anywhere, bitch,” he snaps, eyeballing my collar necklace. “How f*cking fitting. Do you want to know what happened to our sweet Minnie?”

No.

No.

No.

“Stop,” I beg, my breath nothing more than a hiss. “Please.”

But he doesn’t stop. “He hurt Minnie. Really f*cking badly. I’d just turned sixteen and was working at my afterschool job. My body was changing. I was growing, my voice was deep, and I had hair to the point that it was f*cking embarrassing. Little did I know that when I came home and found that man doing—doing… ” he trails off, not wanting to finish the awful memory. “I went f*cking insane, Frances. Insane. Next thing I knew, I had claws. Claws, goddammit!”

Puberty. Jase was a late bloomer, unlike me, and shifted much later for the first time. I never knew he was like me.

“Let me go… ”

He shakes his head. “I killed him. Fucking tore him to a million bloody pieces. And then I ate parts of him. It made me feel better. I felt alive and powerful for once in my goddamn life.”

His eyes darken as he recalls the next part. “She’d been unconscious but she came to. Poor Minnie screamed and screamed at having a big-ass bear covered in Joe’s blood sitting on the living room sofa. I tried to make her understand it was me — I even shifted back to myself. But she was terrified,” he clenches his eyes shut. “Of me. I scared her. The one person I had left in my little world and she thought I was the f*cking devil.”

My eyelids droop from lack of oxygen. I don’t want to hear what comes next. I want to close my eyes and pass on peacefully. His grip loosens and he regards me with angry tears rolling from his eyes.

“Want to know what happened next?”

I shake my head, my own tears rolling out.

“I shifted back into a bear.” He heaves out a rush of breath. “And I snapped her tiny neck.”

No.

A loud sob pierces the air and it takes a moment to realize it’s coming from me. “Why would you do that?!”

He opens his mouth to speak when the front door crashes open.

“Drop her and nobody gets hurt.” Gun’s voice is calm and steady despite the chaos.

I’m once again twisted in Jase’s arms and facing my lover. My boyfriend. My human.

“And you,” Jase roars loud enough to rattle the ribs in my chest. “You’re the f*cking cherry on the motherf*cking sundae!”

Gun glances over at me in confusion but keeps his shotgun trained on Jase. “Dammit, hádanka. I told you to stay in the car.”

I wish I’d have heeded his instruction. Then, I wouldn’t be snared in this Bear shifter’s deathly grip. I would also have been spared learning of my friend Minnie’s fate.

“Shut up, Gunnar Mason,” Jase seethes, putting emphasis on his name. “Fucking puzzle boy.”

Gun glares at Jase and I see it. Something I’ve seen all along with him but never understood what he was doing at the time. It’s his brain. Working. Analyzing. Figuring out the big picture. Sliding piece by piece into place.

“Jase Stevens?”

Jase huffs and I wonder how these two know each other.

“Now you f*cking figure it out. Asshole. You’re the whole goddamned reason I ended up here and then I stumbled upon my ol’ friend Frances. It was like a dysfunctional family reunion.”

“I don’t understand,” Gun says softly, attempting to calm the man behind me who ripples with rage. If he shifts with me in his grip, he’ll kill me by snapping my neck just like he did Minnie’s.

“You left me, Puzzle Boy. I thought you cared about me — I thought of you like a brother and then you left me. Ran off to be some f*cking hero. Married that cheating bitch. Meanwhile,” Jase huffs, “I was getting beat on every f*cking day by a monster who did weird shit under his bed!”

Guilt washes over Gun’s features and I feel sorry for him. He’s been nothing but a good guy. But Jase is delusional. None of this is Gunnar’s fault.

“Listen to me, buddy,” Gun says in a gentle voice that Jase doesn’t deserve. “I tried to get you. Eventually they had enough of my pestering and told me I was unfit to be a foster parent because I was poor. I didn’t give two shits about money, Jase. I just wanted to look after you. They wouldn’t let me.”

Jase’s grip wanes and he relaxes. “No, that’s not true. You sent me to go live with Joe and he turned me into a monster. You made me kill him and Minnie.”

Gun shakes his head and lowers his gun. I plead with my eyes for him to not drop his guard.

“You need to know that I always wanted to help you. That is the complete truth,” he tells Jase in a calm, reassuring voice. “My mother raised me better than that. I knew you were hurting. Hell, when I became a cop, I looked you up. You had a rap sheet a mile long but they never said anything about murder. Even though you were old enough to be out of the system, I thought maybe you’d need a place to stay or some money to get you on your feet.”