Chapter Five

 

 

Alec forged through the snow, his bear's powerful legs pistoning through the snowdrifts. His heavy grizzly body was like a plow, churning up snow in front of him and leaving a trail behind.

It was cold out here, but he was perfectly comfortable. The stiff wind couldn't penetrate his shaggy fur. If he needed to, he could curl up under a tree and sleep in comfort. That was one reason why he wasn't too worried about Gannon. Unless something had gone seriously wrong, Gannon wouldn't be having any more trouble with the storm than the other bears. Like the rest of them, he could sleep in the snow without being in the slightest amount of danger.

Not that Alec wanted to spend the night out here. He was looking forward to getting back to the ranch and curling up tonight with his beautiful, feisty Charmian instead.

He glanced behind him at the two bears following in his wake. Axl was a big, heavyset blond grizzly. Jaron was leggier and more gangling than was typical of the heavy, burly Circle B clan bears. His bear was light brown, similar in color to Cody's.

Alec had been unsure about bringing a stranger along on the search for Gannon—a bear not of the clan. Axl had talked him into it. Jaron was a good kid, he'd said, and knew the woods well. And it meant they could leave Remy with the women until Cody got there, and still have enough bears in the search party to deal with whatever might come up.

Alec didn't expect trouble, but, well, that was the thing about trouble. It wasn't the things you expected that really got you; it was the ones you didn't see coming.

And not all the wild clans were friendly.

Axl put on a burst of speed and came up alongside him, bumping Alec's shoulder with his own. They coudn't talk in this shape, but no words were necessary between the brothers. Alec fell back and let Axl take over breaking trail for awhile.

The cold might not bother him, but wading through the deep snow was exhausting. That might be what had happened to Gannon; he'd gotten tired and decided to wait out the storm before coming home. It was possible he'd lost track of time. Sometimes it was hard to remember how to think in hours and minutes when you let your bear take over.

Axl made a sharp whuffing sound and buried his nose in the snow. Alec came forward to sniff, too. Gannon's scent was unmistakable, despite the snow covering up his trail. He'd come this way recently.

They turned to follow his trail, forging through the snow with a renewed sense of purpose, Jaron bringing up the rear.

It was only a few minutes before Gannon's scent grew hot and fresh. Alec didn't smell blood, other bears, or anything that might signal a crisis. He did, however, catch the familiar scent of cattle.

Gannon's bear was a humped, dark shape under a pine tree. As he became aware of them, he stirred, raising his head and shaking the snow off. It didn't look like he was injured or ill. Instead it looked like he'd just curled up for a nap under a tree.

As soon as they were close enough, Alec gruffly swatted Gannon with a paw, asserting his alpha right to discipline the members of his clan. The nerve of you, the gesture suggested, making us come out here in this weather!

Gannon dipped his head in acknowledgement, though not outright submission. Although his bear was a natural alpha, he and Alec had worked out their differences long ago, and they both operated under a mutual understanding that Alec's bear was in charge. This didn't mean that Gannon's bear would abase itself, though, even when it was being scolded.

Alec grunted at him and jerked his head in the direction of the ranch. Your mate's waiting! Let's go!

Gannon carefully and gently uncurled, standing up halfway to reveal a calf sheltered beneath his bulk. It was one of this spring's calves, lying down and clearly exhausted. Gannon had been keeping it warm.

And then suddenly Gannon shifted, the dark bear dwindling to a naked human male, crouching in the snow with one hand resting on the calf's side.

"Didn't know how to get her back to the ranch," Gannon explained. "Snow's too deep for her to walk through. Couldn't carry her as a bear. Couldn't walk all the way like this."

Exasperated, Alec shifted as well so he could talk. Immediately the wind knifed against his naked flesh; the snow was painfully cold on his bare feet and legs. "Shift back before you make yourself hypothermic, idiot. Axl, Jaron—go back to the ranch and find something we can use as a sled. We're not too far away."

He took his own advice and shifted back immediately, because he was already shivering violently. He had to stamp around to get the blood pumping through his furry body.

By that time Axl and Jaron were already gone, trotting back through the dark, snow-filled forest as their alpha had ordered.

Gannon had also shifted back, and was lying curled around the calf again, his shaggy fur entirely shielding it from view. Alec huffed a sigh and settled down next to him, pressing his body against Gannon's to wait for their clanmates to come back.

It wasn't entirely dark out here in the woods. The falling snow seemed to fill the world with a faint luminosity, enough to see by. Humans had the idea that bears' vision was poor, but that wasn't true. They weren't the best sighthounds of the animal kingdom, but they had acute night vision.

He could see the glimmer of Gannon's eyes as the other bear looked at him sideways.

Alec huffed again. Out here hunting for lost calves instead of back there snuggling with your mate. Isn't that just like you!

But it was like him, and like Alec too. The women they had married understood that. The thing about the ranch was that it meant chores that couldn't be put off or delayed. A lost calf in a snowstorm had to be found before it succumbed to hypothermia. That was just how it worked.

And Gannon had found this calf in time, so there was no harm done.

Their mates would be glad to have them back in time for Christmas Eve dinner. They'd all gather around the fire ...

Well, no. What they'd probably do was collect plates of food in the kitchen while trying to keep up with two active toddlers, a baby, and one exhausted, hormonal pregnant woman, with Charmian trying to boss everybody around, Tara nettling the rest with her sometimes ill-considered sense of humor, and Daisy probably getting so overwhelmed by all of it that she'd have to retreat to lie down in a bedroom for awhile. Not to mention that some of the clan, his own mate among them, had brought guests with them this time, to add to the cheerful chaos.

Alec's lips pulled back from his bear teeth and he grinned fiercely into the storm.

There had been a time in his life when he would have dreaded the idea of going back to all of that. He'd loved the quiet solitude of the ranch, loved the peaceful routine of his everyday life. If he'd wanted hustle and bustle, he would have moved to town.

He'd fought a dominance battle with his brother, who was also one of his best and most trusted friends, just to stop change from coming to the ranch.

And now change was here, and ...

And all he could think about was finishing up their business in the snow so he could get back to the cheery disaster zone of his house, to trip over children's toys and listen to their mates arguing and try to drown out Remy's Christmas music with his own.

It wasn't going to be a silent night, that was for sure.

Good, he thought. He'd had far, far too many silent nights after his parents passed away, leaving him in charge of the ranch and the clan.

Gannon raised his head, his furry ears swiveling forward. An instant later, Alec heard what he'd heard, the sound of an engine.

Well ... that was unexpected.

It was only a moment or two later when a headlight stabbed out of the falling snow. A snowmobile pulled up alongside the two bears, dragging a sled, and stopped. The driver pushed up the face shield on his helmet, revealing Cody's cheerful face grinning at them.

"Hey, you two! Need a hand?"

Alec whuffed at him. Apparently the question (What are you doing here?) translated just fine without words.

"I didn't want to try driving over from Crystal's and my place in this storm, so I decided to take our new workhorse out for a spin." He patted the snowmobile's handlebars affectionately. "With just me and Crystal to keep the roads around our new spread plowed out, sometimes it's hard to get to the upper pasture with a horse or a truck. So Remy gave me and Crystal this baby for Christmas. I got over to the ranch just as Axl and that Jaron kid got back and explained where you all were. So I figured I'd run out to give you a hand."

Gannon stood up so the calf could be seen. Cody hopped down off the machine and loaded the calf into the sled, wrapping it up in a heavy blanket and using a strap to tie it down so it couldn't get up. "Just for the short ride to the ranch, that'll be fine," he remarked, looking down at his handiwork. The calf struggled a bit and then settled down. "I'll get her into the barn and warmed up. See you two back at the ranch!"

He waved before revving the machine and setting off into the storm.

Gannon and Alec looked at each other. Alec managed a bearish equivalent of a shrug.

They'd never had machines like that on the ranch back in his father's day. His dad, a very traditional clan alpha, would never have tolerated it.

But things moved on. Times changed.

Alec wouldn't have it any other way.

And they had a Christmas dinner to get back to.

He huffed at Gannon, who nodded. Single file, the two of them moved out, walking in the broken trail in the snowmobile's wake.

Heading home.