Goldilocks (18 page)

Chapter 23:

“You want me to do what?!” Hannah stopped in her tracks, her eyes wide as Jake turned to face her.

Instead of going to practice
she’d pleaded ill, surprised to find Jake waiting for her just off the cross country course, on an ATV that looked like it could hold at least four people. They hadn’t been able to talk over the noise of the engine, but now that they were on foot, heading up the mining trail behind her house, he’d finally told her his plan and she didn’t like it at all.

“Meet my parents,” Jake repeated, shrugging his shoulders at the request. “That’s where all of this has to start. You want to do som
ething about Creed and his pack; this is the only way to do it. I learned some things last night that I haven’t even begun to make sense of yet. It’s why I need you to meet my parents. My father could explain…”

“So they know I’m coming then?” Hannah looked anxiously up into the woods ahead, her stomach suddenly in knots.

“Not exactly,” Jake admitted. “But…”

“Not exactly?! I thought you said your father hated me!? I thought….”

“I didn’t say he hated you,” Jake corrected her. “I said that being with a human was forbidden. He doesn’t trust humans, and…”

“And yet he has a twisted sense of trying to save them by collapsing tunnels on top of them,” Hannah huffed, shaking her head at what he was asking her to do.

“Not fair,” Jake said quietly, grabbing her arm before she could turn and head back down the trail. “If there were any other way, I would take it. My father won’t listen to me, but if he just met you,” The words caught in his throat as he searched her face carefully. “There’s something should know,” Jake pulled her closer, pushing her loose locks over her shoulder so that her face was cupped in his hand.

“The reason you can hear my thoughts, and I can hear yours. The reason this happens when we touch,” he paused, his fingers pressing fully against her skin.
“It's because your blood is pure bear Kind. Something that is nearly impossible. The odds are like one in a billion that every last person in your family has only birthed children originally born of man Kind’s bear breed, but it’s so. The chances of us actually meeting, one in a trillion,” Jake whispered. “I’m nowhere near prepared to have this conversation with you…”

“You said it wasn’t possible…” Hannah breathed out, accepting the soft kiss he pressed against her lips.

“Maybe it isn’t, but maybe,” Jake released her, squeezing her hand tightly. “It is.”

“I’m not understanding everything,” Hannah admitted. “My blood is bear Kind, so does that mean I’m not human. Not…”

“You’re definitely human,” Jake nodded, pulling her forward again, up the trail. “It’s just that the very first of your ancestors was born with the bear Kind spirit, and he or she only procreated with another bear Kind born, so on and so forth until finally there was you. Impossible for humans to tell from one person to the next what their true ancestry is,” Jake shook his head in disbelief. “Maybe it was fate, maybe some higher power leading your existence to this very moment,”

“And that somehow has something to do with killing Creed?” Hannah asked, allowing Jake to
help her up the steep incline leading to the hidden entrance of his home before meeting his gaze again.

“You’re the only human who knows about us, and the only one that can kill Creed. You, or your father,” Jake winced at the alarm that crossed her features, her head shaking at the very thought.

“I don’t want him to know.”

“By the time this is over, the whole town mi
ght have to know,” Jake consented, pushing the vines away to reveal the hidden staircase leading up to the tunneled entrance.

“
But what about your secret?!” Hannah asked in alarm, her eyes lifting once again to take in the strange carvings overhead.

“It’s something we would have to live with. Creed would never just accept an open invitation, and to get to him would mean releasing a few hundred wolves in the process. It would take every one of the council, most of the town, and then you to defeat them.”

“And your father thinks I can kill him?” Hannah asked, allowing Jake to lead her through the front door of his home.

“He knows you can, he just hadn’t admitted it yet.”

**********

“Because a spirit taken is a spirit given, at least if you’re one of the council mem
bers or a direct blood descendant,” Rone’s voice boomed loud and clear throughout the closed in space, his deep baritone sending a hum through the smooth stone walls and floor they stood on.

Hannah’s breath caught in surprise at the burly man standing at the head of the massive dinner table, her gaze meeting deep chocolate brown eyes
, the same shape as Jake’s. His arms were nearly twice as thick as his son’s, his chest and shoulders broader than any man’s she’d ever seen. Even the muscles in his neck seemed to flex as his nostrils flared in anger, his hardened stare moving ever so slightly from her to Jake.

“Dad this is…”

“The Adler girl. The
very human
Adler girl,” Rone observed with a raised brow, his mouth pulling into a tight line as Hannah looked between the two of them.

“If you want me to go…”

“No! Stay!” Jake insisted, tugging Hannah fully through the door so that it shut behind them. “My father…”

“Has no manners,” Jake’s mother’s voice tinkled soft and high as she entered the living space from the second bedroom on the far left wall, her hands smoothing back her wild reddish brown locks. “I wasn’t um…dressed for company,” she blushed as Hannah gave her a tentative smile, moving to check the pot that was centered in the open oven. “Stay for dinner. It seems we all have a lot t
o discuss,” she added, rubbing a hand over her husband’s tense shoulders before setting out an extra bowl.

“I
am
a little hungry,” Hannah swallowed hard, hoping that whatever was in the pot included vegetables that she could pick through.

“But she’s a vegetarian,” Jake added quickly, stopping his mother just before she added a chunk of
fresh rabbit meat to the bubbling broth.

“Well this will do nicely for you,” she smiled. “Call me Marigold,” she added
, rolling her eyes as her son winced at his forgotten manners.

Hannah smiled once again at the surpr
isingly petite woman, noting the beautiful amber color of her eyes. Jake had most certainly taken after his father, his mother’s fair complexion, pixie like features and wild red hair all her own. She gestured for them to sit and Hannah followed Jake’s lead, keeping her eyes averted from the stare Jake’s father still fixed on the two of them.

“Jake, what you’re asking is nearly impossible,” Rone started the conversation before the food had been served, his tone matter fact as Hannah and Jake settled in their chairs. “The townspeople didn’t listen a hundred years ago, what makes you think they will listen now?”

“They would listen to save their fathers…their son’s, their uncles, cousins, brothers,” Hannah jumped at the question , her eyes lowering as Rone’s settled back on her face in surprise.

“Do you think you could kill me in a fight?” Rone challenged, his face hardening as he dared Hannah to meet his gaze. “Some of those wolves are just as big, nearly as strong. The thought of that alone would be enough to sen
d everyone into a panic, if they even believed, and they won’t, believe me I’ve tried.”

“But if you showed t
hem what you are, told them how,” her words trailed off as mocking laughter bubbled from Rone’s throat, his head shaking at the very idea.

“They would try and kill us before they even heard the rest of what we had to say,” Ro
ne countered. “You have no idea.”

“I could teach her to fight,” Jake finally spoke up, his hand slipping under the table to grab Hannah’s in a squeeze. “She wouldn’t have to face Creed alone. I have a plan and I think it could work if we just…”

“You have a plan?” Rone snorted loudly “You don’t even know what it would take to kill these monsters and Creed,” he nearly growled the name, jumping from his chair in one swift move. “For seventeen years and eleven months I have kept you safe, do you really think I would let you face him on your own?” Rone regarded Jake with a pained expression, his eyes sliding down to their joined hands. “If you care about him, you’d leave this place and forget about us, forget about all that my son has told you and move on with your life,” he advised Hannah before turning his back on them both. “I’m not going to lose my family over this,” he added, his shoulders slumping as he started towards the bedroom his wife had come from.

“And I’m not going to lose mine,” Hannah spoke boldly, releasing Jake’s hand as she stood. “He’s all I have left.”

Her legs trembled in fear as Rone froze in his tracks for a moment, his body turning slowly so that they faced each other. The top of her head barely reached the middle of his chest, but Hannah squared her shoulders anyways, her eyes locking with his in defiance.

“Either you can tell them, or I will. They might call me crazy, but I’m not going to stand idly by and watch anyone else be killed. They have a right to know. My father has a right to know.”

“And you trusted her with our secrets,” Rone spat angrily, his hardened stare sliding from Hannah to his son.

“I still trust her,” Jake corrected, sliding from his chair so that he stood beside Hannah. “It’s time dad,” he spoke quietly, stepping between Hannah and his father as he spoke. “Whether I make it to my eighteenth year or not is not for us to decide. You took a vow to protect the people here, and keep Creed bound. Now that it’s becoming harder and harder to do, it’s your duty…
our
duty,” Jake corrected, glancing over his shoulder at his mother. “to do what is right. Hannah…”

“Is
not going to let this go, and neither are you,” Rone interrupted his son, shaking his head as he looked to his wife.

“It’s time,” she whispered, tears welling in her eyes as Jake and Hannah turned to look at her too.

“I made him promise not to go after Creed until your eighteenth,” Marigold admitted. “Until you were…”

“Immortal,” Hannah supplied at her hesita
tion, wincing at the memory the word brought forth.

“My son has told you more than any human has ever known about us,” Rone observed, taking his seat at the head of the table once more. “But there are pieces that you’ll need to understand going forward that will take some thought on your part. I have
been
ready to do away with Creed once and for all, but your mother was right. Immortality doesn’t mean that we’ll be around forever, and we needed to make sure that you would carry on the bear Kind blood, if only for one more generation,” Rone explained, his gaze settling on his son and Hannah as they too took their seats. “If anything happened to you, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself,” Rone said solemnly. “I couldn’t live forever knowing that your death was because of something I did.”

“And you won’t have to,” Jake assured him
, his eyes brightening with his own tears. “Times have changed and the people of Lake City and Hinsdale will listen. The mine is their life, and I don’t think they will be willing to let it go so easily this time.”

“Maybe,
” Rone nodded slowly, his eyes on Hannah. “I wasn’t entirely sure before, but I am now. Your blood is pure bear Kind. That, including a few other factors makes you the only one in the world able to kill Creed.”

“What about my father?” Hannah questioned, her gaze sliding hesitantly to Jake.

She didn’t want to get him in trouble by saying too much, but she also wanted everything out in the open so that she knew exactly what she would be facing.

“It’s okay, he knows how much I’ve told you already,” Jake nodded, opening his mind to Hannah so that she could see what Rone had seen.

“I’ll never get used to this,” Hannah shook her head as Rone and Jake’s memories intertwined, some of them lost on her as they came in pieces.

“The council’s rules were strict when Creed and his pack were bound. We have never
been able to kill any species of Kind; to do so would mean certain and immediate death for us. This is why we have only been able to maim the escaped creatures and cast them back into the abyss. But even so, they cannot just be killed,” Rone explained, his hands folding together as if in prayer. “Creed, like us, is half spirit half wolf and so is his pack, except with them, he was trying to recreate man on his own. It’s a formula that he could never attain through his own power, but he continued to try, creating mutants that can never complete a full shift into human form.”

“Full shift?” Hannah asked just as old memories transferred from Rone’s mind to hers, jerking a gasp from her throat.

Her body tensed as a wolf, just like the one that had attacked them on the ridge, staggered forward, its fangs dripping saliva as it seemed to writhe in pain. She could hear its groans, see its matted greyish brown fur as it shed from part of its body like you would a coat. Thick corded muscles grew pale white skin in patches, a human arm, head and neck appearing where there had once been a snarling snout. The rest of the animal remained wolf, bent and deformed in its current state. The memory was cut short just as the animal lunged forward, a swiping claw bringing a scream from Hannah’s throat as her arms flew up to protect her face.