Chapter 5
The bear shuffled out of the woods and heaved up onto his hind legs. His heavy brown fur dropped away, and his head shrank. Aiken Dunlap stood in place of the bear. Only his burly shoulders extended on either side of his head to the same distance as the bear’s powerful frame.
He looked across the open green lawn spreading around a bright white Victorian house sent among the trees. A granite fountain tinkled in the rose garden set in the lawn, and a white picket fence surrounded the whole scene.
No one could see the red timber barns and steel sheds hidden in the forest nearby. The Dunlap tribe kept those things out of sight to preserve the serenity and beauty of their Homestead.
As Aiken watched, three boys ran down the steps and bolted across the lawn with a shout and a jump. They dove into the woods and disappeared. Behind them came two stately women, one with greying hair pulled back in a bun behind her head, and the other with long curling tresses touching her shoulders. Both women wore long dresses set off with lace.
The women stopped on the front porch and gazed toward the woods where the boys vanished. The younger woman noticed Aiken standing just inside the trees and waved to him.
Aiken sighed. So much for making a subtle entrance. His mother and sister wouldn’t let him slip away again without interrogating him about everything he did since he left. He couldn’t visit his best friend at Kerr Homestead without giving a full report when he got home. The longer and more often he stayed away, the more they hovered and henpecked him when he got home.
He comforted himself with the knowledge that they did it out of love. His mother worried he spent too much time alone as a bear in the woods. She always asked when he would find a mate and settle down. That’s all parents ever cared about.
Aiken envied those young boys. He knew exactly what they would do, now that they got away from the Homestead. They would run through the woods, climb trees, swim in the streams and camp out as bears until they felt like coming home. No one enjoyed that life more than Aiken.
Aiken enjoyed it, but not as much, now that he took on more responsibility around the Homestead. His father Jasper wasn’t young anymore, and his oldest brother Boyd would take over as Alpha. They both wanted Aiken to take an even bigger share in running the family business.
Aiken set off across the lawn and stopped at the foot of the steps. He smiled up at the two women. “Morning, Ma.”
His mother Beatrice compressed her lips, but she couldn’t stop herself from smiling down at him. “Good morning, Aiken. Did you finish all your work?”
“For now. Barton’s going to let me know when he needs me again.”
His sister Clarissa spoke up. “Then you can go inside and wash your hands and change your clothes. You look like you just crawled out of the sewer.”
Beatrice murmured over her shoulder. “Clarissa, dear, that’s not polite.”
“Well, look at him. You look like one of those no-account Farrells, with your wife-beater T-shirt and your muddy work boots. Don’t even think of coming inside dressed like that.”
Aiken bit back the words he really wanted to say. “I can take my boots off, Clarissa.”
Beatrice laid her hand on her daughter’s arm and spoke the words for him. “Is it any wonder he spends so much time away from home when you talk to him like that? Aiken, dear, you missed breakfast again. I left your ham and sausage in the fridge for you.”
“Thanks, Ma. I ate at the Kerrs, but I’ll eat that for lunch.”
“I don’t want my boys seeing like this, Aiken,” Clarissa interrupted. “It’s bad enough they see their friends from the other tribes dressed like they just finished digging a ditch. I want them to grow up respectable, like real Dunlaps, not like the rest of the riff-raff on this mountain.”
“First of all, Clarissa, the rest of the riff-raff on this mountain are Bruins just like us. They work for a living, and if they get dirty doing it, I for one don’t respect them any less for that. And second of all, your boys won’t see me dressed like this because they just ran off into the woods. They won’t want to be around you any more than I do if you insist on scrubbing behind their ears every time you see them.”
Beatrice held up both hands. “Children, children, let’s have peace in this house.”
Aiken unlaced his boots and kicked them into the grass. He pushed his way between the two women and headed for the door. “Sure thing, Ma. I didn’t mean to upset anybody.”
Just then, his father Jasper and his younger sister Marla came out of the house. Jasper wore a black business suit and worked a cell phone in one hand. “There you are, Aiken. I’ve been looking for you.”
“How are you, Dad? How did the contract negotiation go?”
“It went just fine. We got the delivery date moved up, so I need you and Boyd to get on the harvest right away.”
“Sure, Dad. No problem. I suppose Boyd is out at the harvester right now.”
“No, he’s in the office finishing up the paperwork, so you can put your work boots right back on—as long as you don’t need to go back to the Kerrs any time soon.”
“No, I’m done there for now.”
“Is everyone alive and well over there?”
“They’re fine. They had a few more complaints from locals, so there was a social worker there this morning. She’s investigating the accusations, so I expect she’ll work her way around the mountain the way they always do.”
Jasper looked up from his phone. “Is that so? We’ll have to spread the word. I’ll send Brody Farrell a text. What’s the social worker look like?”
“She’s blonde and young and very nice, as far as I can tell. She charmed the pants off Laird Kerr.”
Marla snorted and tossed her layered copper-red hair. “It looks like she charmed the pants off you, too, Aiken. Man, you need a girlfriend if you’re looking at human social workers.”
Aiken rounded on her. “Will you shut up, Marla? The man asked me a simple question, and I’m answering it.”
Jasper intervened. “That’s enough, you two. Marla, you and Clarissa have to stop pestering Aiken every time he comes around. You stick to your own business. So tell us, Aiken, what made Laird so taken with this woman?”
“That’s what I can’t figure out. I meant to ask you, because it makes no sense. He couldn’t get enough of her. I’ll be the first to admit she was something to look at, but he asked her all about herself like they’d known each other for years, and he even invited her to dinner.”
Jasper’s head snapped around. “He what?”
Aiken nodded. “I know. He should have given her the cold shoulder, but he just sat there staring at her like he was in love with her. Even Celia noticed it, and she blew up at him. She accused him of flirting with her, but he wasn’t flirting. He was just taken with her. Everybody was.”
“Especially you,” Marla chimed in.
“Marla, I swear to God, if you say one more word about her, I’ll....”
Jasper chopped the air with his hand. “I’m asking the questions here. Stay out of it, Marla.”
Marla jabbed her finger at her brother. “Look at him. You can see he’s just as love-struck as Laird. What was it about her, Aiken? Did she have a really nice ass or something?”
Aiken did his best to ignore her and Jasper answered instead. “I’m sure it wasn’t her ass Laird was interested in, even if it was especially nice. Did he mention why he thought she was so special?”
“Maybe he’s interested in humans now, too,” Marla chipped in. “Maybe there aren’t enough Bruin women on the Peak now, and all the men have to run off to Iron Bark to find mates.”
Beatrice exclaimed, “Marla!”
Aiken held up his hand. “That’s okay, Ma. I know as well as anybody humans are forbidden, so you don’t have to worry about that. I’m just puzzled about Laird and Celia’s reaction to this young woman. Laird treated her like some kind of relative, and Celia went after her with all her claws and teeth. She drove the poor woman out of the house after she said the Kerrs had nothing to worry about with the complaints.”
Jasper knit his brows. “That is odd. Did this social worker say anything about herself that could have sparked Laird’s interest?”
“No. She has no family. She grew up in foster care after her mother died in childbirth.”
“Odd. Very odd that Laird would invite a stranger into his home like that. He should know better than to mix with outsiders.”
“What do you know about him? Does he have any history that could be connected to someone in town?”
“He’s a Bruin. Bruins don’t have connections with people in town.”
“I know. I just wondered.”
Beatrice spoke up. “Laird Kerr has lived and worked on Bruins’ Peak all his life.”
“He said he worked for the Dodds when he was young. He said that’s how he met Celia.”
“That’s right. He worked for Celia’s father, old Breslin Dodd, when the Dodds had thousands of head of cattle grazing on their land. Laird started as a cowboy and rose in the family business to manage all their herds. That’s how the Dodds earned their family fortune. They sold cattle to the local slaughterhouse in Iron Bark. When the old man died, he wanted to leave his whole operation to Laird and Celia, but scandal rocked the Kerr family.”
“What happened?”
“No one knows. The Kerrs covered it up, and no one ever found out. Laird turned his back on the ranch and moved Celia back to Kerr territory to be closer to his family.”
“So what happened to the ranch? The Dodds don’t have that kind of fortune nowadays.”
“They sure don’t. The ranch would have gone to Celia’s brother Vaughn. He was a responsible, hard-working man. Everyone admired him. Everyone was pleased that he would take over as Alpha of the Dodd tribe after Breslin died, but he died suddenly before that.”
“How did he die?”
“A bull gored his horse during a round-up and Vaughn was crushed in the fall. It was a freak accident, and Laird left soon after. The ranch passed to Vaughn’s younger brother Addison. He squandered the fortune and neglected the cattle until nothing but a small fraction remained. That’s the position the Dodds find themselves in today.”
Aiken rubbed his chin. “Interesting. I wonder what made Laird quit and go home like that. It must have been something serious.”
Jasper headed for the door. “Forget it. You’ve got work to do. I’ll send Boyd out here, and you two can go down to the harvester together.”
Marla and Clarissa went inside behind their father. Aiken heard Marla’s high-pitched laugh. No doubt his sisters would get lots of good laughs at his expense when they thought about him hooking up with some human woman from town.
He pulled his work boots back on. He definitely wouldn’t forget about this. He never could let go of a mystery once he sank his teeth into it. He would follow it until he found the answers.