Her Wild Bear Page 12

  Thomas grinned. “Oh good, I’m glad they’re taking care of that. There’s no cell service out here, and that will leave the town mostly isolated until we complete our mission.”

  “What about these two?” Rodney asked. “Are we just leaving them here alone?”

  “I’m watching them,” a skinny, disheveled younger man replied.

  Tawny eyed the kid up, her skin twitching nervously.

  “Dale here twisted his ankle on the first trip out there, and he’s in no shape for a march,” Thomas explained. “He can sit down here and make sure these two behave themselves.”

  “No problem, boss,” the kid smirked. “I’ll see to it they don’t do anything.”

  “Good,” Thomas barked as he turned and plodded up the stairs. “Let’s get to it, men. And remember, the largest bear pelt is mine!”

  Tawny watched as Dale dragged a folding chair across the hall from the jail cells and sat himself squarely down to stare at them. Overhead, the men scuffed and meandered for several minutes, then the heavy door squealed as they made their way outside. The building fell quiet.

  “Can I please get a shirt or something?” Tawny asked. Her voice was soft and reserved.

  “You’re not getting anything, bear-lover,” Dale sneered. “If you’re lucky, I’ll let you keep your pants.”

  Tawny glanced beside him to stare at the knife that still lay on the table. She winced as she imagined how it would feel to have it cut through her skin, and possibly her bone. She felt hot tears well up in her eyes.

  “She can have my shirt,” Kyle offered. “Can you just hand it over to her?”

  Dale glared over at Kyle, giving him a smirk. “I don’t want to see your ugly-ass tits, dude,” he scoffed. “She looks much better topless than you do.”

  Tawny felt his heavy gaze on her skin. She stood up and turned her back to him, pulling the cot away from the wall. She sat herself on the other side, facing away from Dale.

  “Turn around and give me a show,” Dale ordered.

  Tawny tried to ignore him, but a deep shiver rolled through her as he spoke.

  “Do as you’re told!” he demanded.

  Tawny gritted her teeth. “Fuck off,” she mumbled.

  She heard him stand up and grab the bars. She was glad then to have the cage between them.

  “You don’t seem to understand who’s in charge,” Dale spat. “Stand your ass up, turn around, show me your boobies, and tell me who’s in charge!”

  Tawny clenched her jaw and sat in terrified silence.

  “Fine,” he crowed.

  She heard him hobble away, her blood turning cold as she wondered where he was going. A minute later she heard him come back and unlock the door.

  Tawny twisted around to see him swinging the bars open and stepping inside, a thin rope dangling from one hand. Her stomach turned sour and tight.

  “You’re going to be begging to call me ‘master’ by the time we’re done here,” Dale snarled as he locked the door behind him and hooked the keys back onto his belt.

  Tawny saw the dark gleam of his handgun as the grip peeked out from its holster. Her throat tightened.

  “Leave her alone!” Kyle screamed.

  Dale motioned to the rope. “Tell your boyfriend over there to shut it or I’ll string him up right now,” he muttered quietly.

  She swallowed back hard on the lump in her throat. “Kyle, don’t say anything,” she moaned. “Please, just stay quiet, for me.” The thought of having him yelling as Dale hurt her made her gut ache. “Please just don’t say anything, okay?” she cried.

  She heard Kyle groan, then toss himself onto his cot in despair.

  “Good girl,” Dale grinned. “See, you’re getting the idea already.”

  He grabbed her arm and Tawny gave a muffled scream as he dragged her over the cot onto the cold concrete floor and pinned her beneath him. He straddled her and wound the rough rope around her thin wrists, tying them together.

  “Please don’t hurt me,” Tawny pleaded.

  “You’re a little late for that,” Dale smiled. “Now there’s going to be some pain.”

  He dragged her to her feet and threw the long end of the rope over an exposed rafter in the middle of the room. He yanked the rope taut, pulling Tawny’s arms tight over her head, and tied it off. Her shoulders ached and she raised her body up onto the balls of her feet to lessen the strain.

  Dale stopped and stood in front of her, staring eagerly at her bare breasts. The hungry look on his face made her skin crawl. She cried as he reached up and pinched one of her nipples, grinning as her body rippled with pain.

  “That’s my girl,” Dale said. “Now let’s start with some whipping, shall we?”

  Tawny watched in dismay as he slid his belt from his pants, calmly walking around her and setting the keys and gun on the floor. She turned to stare longingly out through the bars and up the stairs, her lower lip already quivering in fearful anticipation.

  The belt hissed as it slipped through the air, striking Tawny’s back and leaving it sore. She jolted and struggled vainly against the ropes before clenching her eyes shut and waiting, helpless, for the next hit. Again she felt the sharp slap of his belt to her back and she began to sob.

  “Call me your master,” Dale demanded. “Tell me you belong to me.”

  Tawny clenched her teeth and said nothing.

  Two more brutal lashes struck her back, each one hard enough to make her squeal.

  “Call me master!”

  Tawny groaned. “Kiss my — ” she began, then bit her lower lip regretfully.

  His fingers slid beneath the leather of her pants, tugging lightly on them. “What shall I kiss, darling?”

  Tawny turned her head away from him.

  “You know what you need?” Dale gloated as he rubbed at her arm. “You need to be properly branded, like a cow.”

  Tawny couldn’t subdue a whimper. She heard Kyle turning restlessly in the next room and remembered that he was hearing everything.

  Dale grabbed the keys, unlocked the bars and hobbled around the corner, out of sight. Tawny eyed the bowie knife on the table, just outside the open door, and the gun on the floor behind her. She yanked down hard on the rope, but it only dug deeper into her soft skin. She wriggled, trying to break free, until Dale came back, his pockets bulging.

  She felt the last of her hope dying as he locked the cell door and walked to the back wall, dropping the keys to the concrete with a loud rattle. He set a thick candle on the floor and lit the wick. Then he took some baling wire and twisted the end of it into the shape of a letter “D”.

  “Where should we brand you?” he taunted as he sat himself down next to the candle. Tawny twisted around to watch him as he sat, engrossed in the little flame.

  “We need to get this iron red-hot,” he goaded. “But we can use that time to talk about just where this is going.”

  Tawny stared out the door and up the stairs, her sight clouded with burning tears. She tried to picture Matt, his kind eyes, his brooding smile. Her heart ached as she imagined him sinking beneath the river’s surface, his body bleeding into the icy water. She longed desperately to see him one last time, to watch him come down the stairs to rescue her. She tried to imagine him creeping down along the steps, his muscles tense, his body — naked.

  It struck her as odd that, at such a miserable time, she would envision him fully nude. She blinked the moisture from her eyes, expecting to find the stairwell vacant. But he was still there. And he was, in fact, completely naked.

  Her heart leapt inside her chest as waves of relief and elation washed over her.

  She watched Matt scan the room, quickly assessing the situation. He lifted a finger to his lips, warning her to keep quiet.

  “I don’t want to damage the good stuff,” Dale muttered, still focused on the candle. “I want your boobies undamaged. But your lower belly may be a good spot.”

  Matt hurried to the barred door and carefully pulled on it. It was loc
ked solid. He looked at the rope tied around the rafter, then gazed down along Tawny’s stretched-out, exposed body, her muscles twitching as she perched herself up on her toes.

  She saw his thickness swell and stiffen as he examined her, and a longing heat roused deep inside her in response. She watched him gape at her breasts and stomach, her face growing soft and submissive.

  “If some other guy wants to screw you, he’d see my brand hovering over that skanky little puss of yours,” Dale droned on, still staring intently at the flicker of a flame. “That would be a perfect spot.”

  Matt’s expression hardened, and he looked around the basement. He noted the keys and gun on the floor next to Dale, and the little candle. He hurried from sight, scouring the rest of the room, then peered cautiously back around the wall at Tawny.

  “Once I finish with you,” Dale was saying, “you’re going to beg me to let you call me ‘master.’ Hell, you’ll be calling me your god.”

  Matt winced, but plucked the bowie knife from the table. He cocked his arm back, taking aim past Tawny, at Dale’s neck. She squirmed in sudden panic, trying vainly to twist out of the way.

  “You’ll be kissing my feet and my hands,” Dale chortled. “And you can be damn sure you’ll be kissing my big, hard dick.”

  Matt hunched, dropping his arm to his side. Tawny was too much in the way. She stared at him, the dread sinking in. But she knew he could wait, just out of view, until Dale stepped out of the cell.

  “You’re going to tell me that you’re a whore,” Dale went on. “You’re going to admit you’re a big bitch.”

  She wrenched in grief, knowing she would have to endure whatever Dale wanted to inflict, all while both Kyle and Matt listened to everything. She wondered if she would going to cry out loud when he did what she knew he intended to do after the branding, after the torture, when she was weak and frail.

  Matt sighed resignedly, then cocked his arm back once more. This time he took careful aim at the low rafter overhead where the rope secured Tawny’s hands. She gasped, flinching as the knife spun through the air before thudding into the soft wood. A grim smile touched Matt’s lips as he saw the knife stick, then he stared down at Dale, his eyes cold.

  Tawny’s heart thudded hard in her chest. She looked up to check if she still had all of her digits, relieved to see she wasn’t bleeding. The blade was wedged safely between two of her fingers.

  “What the hell was that?” Dale yelped, grabbing his gun and jumping to his feet.

  He stopped, alarmed to see Matt standing at the bars. He shuffled across the room and past Tawny, stopping inches away from Matt, the two of them staring intently at each other with the knife hanging precariously in the rafter just over Tawny’s head, Dale still completely oblivious that it was there.

  “I was told you were dead,” Dale mused thoughtfully. “It seems that may have been a bit premature.”

  Matt offered a wry grin. “I have no idea how these rumors start, do you?”

  Tawny quickly realized that any moment Dale would leave a clean shot through Matt’s chest. Everything inside her went gushy and a little ill, but she clenched her teeth in determination and reached up to grasp the knife.

  Tawny was surprised how easily it sliced through the thin rope where it was stretched taut up to the rafter. Her hands were still tied together, but she lowered them and repositioned the knife.

  “Well, we’d best get you caught up then,” Dale said with a smile, turning the gun at Matt.

  In an instant, trying not to think about what she was doing, Tawny pushed hard up against Dale and pinned him into the bars with her torso. She shoved the bowie deep into his side, frantically burying it up to the hilt. He tried to lunge back, but she held him secure his blood spurted out and the life inside of him waned.

  “You know,” she whispered into his ear, her voice hoarse and shaky, “now that you mention it, I have to confess I can be a real bitch sometimes.”

  She twisted the blade and Dale gave a choking wheeze. Tawny was both relieved and a bit alarmed at how quickly he fell to the floor in a pool of blood. She stumbled back and stared in horror at him.

  “You know you had to, right?” Matt spoke soothingly.

  She nodded.

  “What happened?” Kyle cried out, pressing up against the bars.

  “He’s dead,” Tawny said. “I stabbed him and he died, right here in front of me.”

  The room fell silent, Matt and Tawny motionless, staring at Dale.

  Matt broke the silence. “Shall we eat?”

  “God, yes,” Tawny blurted out. “I’m famished.”

  Chapter 22

  Upstairs, the three of them raided the kitchen, devouring whatever they could find. Matt pulled a raw roast from the fridge and tore off chunks while Kyle and Tawny built sandwiches and pieced through leftovers.

  “Maybe we should get you some clothes, Matt,” Kyle remarked, trying hard not to look directly at Matt as he stood naked in the kitchen.

  Tawny winced as she secretly gawked at the large penis arching over Matt’s bulging testicles.

  “You don’t have to get dressed though, Tawny” Kyle said with a large grin.

  “I’ll need to put on a shirt before we go outside,” Tawny retorted. “We should avoid attracting attention.”

  “Kyle’s right — I need something as well,” Matt admitted. “We’ll need to rummage through the bedrooms and grab some clothes. Then you two go to the police station or the rangers, or wherever, and let them know what happened. We’ll need them to call in the state troopers.”

  “It’s just a ranger station out here,” Kyle explained. “The sheriff’s office is at least thirty miles out, and they’ve cut the phone lines.”

  Matt cursed. “Fine, then you’ll have to find a car. But I need to get to my clan and warn them before The Path gets there.”

  “I’m going with you,” Tawny insisted.

  “You can’t,” Matt said. “You need to go with Kyle.”

  “I’m going with you,” she repeated.

  “You don’t understand,” Matt sighed. “You simply can’t.”

  “Explain it to me, then.”

  “Look, Tawny, when I tell the clan that I betrayed them they are going to kill me, okay? And if you’re with me, they’ll probably kill you as well. But I have to go; I have to give them a fighting chance.”

  Tawny looked around the kitchen, her expression sullen. “I’m going with you, Matt. That’s final. If they’re going to kill us, then we die together. I’m not letting you go without me.”

  The stunned look on his face rattled her, but Tawny looked back at him with steady resolve.

  “Fine,” Matt conceded. “But we need to get going – now. We could use some provisions, though.”

  He rummaged through the kitchen cupboards and drawers, glanced through the pantry, and stopped dead still as he stepped down along a dark hallway just beyond the side door.

  “What’s that smell?” Matt muttered.

  “I don’t smell anything,” Tawny answered. She furrowed her brow and followed after him. “What does it smell like?”

  Matt charged down along the dimly lit corridor, yanking open a hefty door partway down. He stood, his jaw slack, staring inside. Tawny ran up alongside of him and peered around the door.

  “Holy God,” Tawny mumbled. She gazed around the deep room filled with long strips of smoked meat.

  “There’s deer and elk in here,” Matt said as he sniffed at the air. “And a little bit of wild boar, too.”

  “You can tell that?” Tawny gasped. “I mean, just from how it smells?”

  He nodded. “Can’t you?” He stepped into the room, staring around in amazement at the meat still hanging from the ceiling on hooks. “There’s enough here to feed an army. How can they hunt this much?”

  “I overheard them talking about poaching,” Kyle explained. He startled Tawny as he crept up alongside of her. “They’ve been trying to starve you and your clan out of the woods.�
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  “And it’s been working,” Matt noted. “So this is where all the game has gone. If we manage to survive, we’re coming back for this.”

  “Maybe they’re not unjustified in trying to wipe your kind out,” Kyle said. “After what you’ve done, I can understand the need to retaliate.”

  Matt clenched his jaw and continued to stare at the curing meats. “There was one rogue bear years ago that killed a few campers. It wasn’t right, but you can’t blame all of us for the actions of a few. We’re not like that — we’re not killers.”