The Hunter and the Hunted (Bear Naked 3)

Chapter 3

Brianna Sage

Brianna closed her macbook and looked around the game room. She felt lost. Tanner and Jonathan were playing on the PS3, Halo or some such game. They kept losing. She could tell they felt it, too. Erica was curled up in a chair reading. Outwardly she seemed the calmest of them but her head jerked at every noise and Brianna knew she felt it too.

Their alphas were gone. Aaron had gotten the call late last night, or early this morning. At any rate when by the time the pack woke, they were gone, Aaron, Vince, Connor and Amanda.

They had a couple of short, tense updates from Aaron. Mitch was still in a coma. The DNR had returned to the camp this morning but found no sign of Darren.

Davenport, Iowa to Fort Hall, Idaho was almost twenty hours, driving straight through. They had left around two in the morning and wouldn't get there until after eight pm. And that was with changing out drivers regularly and pushing through without rest. What they would find was anyone's guess.

Brianna felt her lip quivering and put her hand up. It was silly. Mitch was one of the toughest men she knew, he had come through the fight with the Sons of Garm last summer two fingers short but his spirit unbroken. Darren, Darren was the toughest man she knew. His bear form was huge. What could threaten the two of them?

But that was just it. Something had threatened them. And now Amanda and Connor were heading into the same situation.

Erica slid onto the couch beside her. She put her arm around Brianna. Brianna lay her head on Erica's shoulder, tears threatening her. There had been a time, when they first met, that Erica's affectionate nature, and her being a lesbian, bothered Brianna, made her think something more was intended. Now they were as close as any sisters.

"It's going to be okay," Erica said, stroking Brianna's hair. Tanner and Jonathan had quit their game and came over too.

"Don't you dare laugh, I know you feel it too," Brianna said.

"I wasn't going to," Jonathan said, hurt.

"We just need to stick together," Tanner said, "it's going to be okay. Somebody just needs to play the temporary alpha, keep us together."

"Not me, I made my peace with being a beta," Jonathan said, fear in his eyes.

There was a knock at the backdoor and it came open. Two figures came through. "We came as soon as we could," Corey said as he pulled a stocking cap off and shook the snow out. He was wearing overalls and a thick sweater. The sweater did little to hide Corey's breasts or feminine curves. Brianna had grown so accustomed to Corey/Courtney's gender queer identity that it threw Brianna when people who didn't know Corey stumbled over gender pronouns or missed the obvious cues about which gender they were presenting as.

Next to her was Jay. He had already shed his winter coat and was in skinny jeans and a gray and white sweater that came to mid thigh. He had a thick, tasteful gold chain around his neck and his hair had been cut short.

He had decided only days before school had started that fall he couldn't transition to female until he had "given being a boy an honest try," whatever that meant. He had his hair cut short before school had started and resolved to only wear male clothes.

It hadn't been going so well. His sense of male fashion, skinny jeans, tight T shirts and loose sweaters, had been dubbed "high-end emo boy" by a few kids at school and the new nickname had stuck. The new Jay was male, but hardly masculine. He was still partnered with a gender queer lover and his reputation with the bullies and haters had not improved, as he had seemed to think it would.

"This is what they've been telling me for years," he complained, "to butch it up. Now it's not enough?"

He was no longer afraid of the bullies and he had turned surly. For the last month all he could talk about was how happy he was to be graduating early and getting out of "this rat trap school."

Brianna put up with his ups and downs because he was Jay and she adored him. He crossed the game room in three easy steps and pulled her into a hug. "Geez, Brianna, don't worry," he chided her, stroking her cheek. "It's going to be okay."

He took her hand and led her to one of larger tables. "Come'on, you guys. You can't do anything by moping. Let's play a game to take our mind off things."

Brianna followed and sat. There was no need to exchange information, they had talked on the phone early this morning and again after the last news from Aaron.

As they all gathered around the table Erica said, "hey, your family is all magical and stuff."

Jay raised an eyebrow. "And?"

"So do you know anything? From the tarot cards or something?"

Corey gave her a clouded look and looked away. Jay met her gaze evenly. "Yeah, my uncle called, right before you guys did."

"What did he say?" Tanner and Erica said together.

"That there are enemies all around, but allies too." He paused. "And that I should face my destiny with courage."

"That's it?" Erica said.

Jay nodded. "Yup, that's it."

"What's the point of having mysterious powers if the messages are all so, mysterious?" Tanner wondered.

"Things will work out the way they are supposed to," Corey said, "in their own time. For right this second, there isn't anything any of us can do, except worry. We should try to keep busy, keep our minds off it. Worrying doesn't help anyone."

Jay gestured and Tanner brought him a deck of cards. Erica came back from the small bar with a bag of M&M's and a thing of peanuts. "Usual stakes?" she asked. Poker for M&M's and peanuts was their current favorite game.

Brianna laughed. "Hey, everyone, I just figured it out. Jay is our temporary alpha."

Jay rolled his eyes but smiled. "Shut up and deal, you."