The Bears of Blackrock, Books 1 - 3: The Fenn Clan (31 page)

Deacon’s stomach turned slightly at hearing Aunt Deirdre’s nickname – Deedee. Carissa called him that, and though he hated it, hearing Patrick say it reminded him of her text that morning. Deacon found himself growing impatient. If he didn’t respond to her text soon, he’d be in even more trouble.

“What is this all about?” He asked, finally.

Richard White Eagle turned to his brother, muttering something in what sounded like another language. Maynard glanced at Deacon, then nodded.

“He’ll do,” Richard said, rising from his seat and heading for the door. “We’ll hold the engagement celebration tomorrow evening at the Council Hall.”

Patrick hopped up from the couch and shook Richard White Eagle’s hand, then turned to shake Maynard’s as Richard disappeared around the corner and out the front door of the house.

“Engagement ceremony? What the hell is going -”

Maynard stopped in front of Deacon, offering a handshake, and for the first time, the older man met Deacon’s gaze.

“I hope you are a good man, Deacon Fenn.”

Then Maynard turned and followed his brother out the front door.

Deacon turned back to his grandfather, staring up at him in waiting silence. When Patrick finally turned from the kitchen door, he was smiling from ear to ear. Patrick blew out through pursed lips and slumped down onto the couch as though some great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Deacon was almost unnerved to see his ‘prickly’ grandfather smiling with such abandon.

“Gramps. What the hell was that?”

Patrick Fenn smiled up at him, rubbing his hands together in his lap. “Congratulations, my boy. You’re engaged.”

CHAPTER TWO

June 22
nd
, 1999

“Papa?”

Maggie Light Foot followed her parents with blind trust. The woods were growing cool in the late evening, and the darkness made for eerie sounds in every direction. Yet, Papa was there, and that was enough to draw her onward.

“You’re alright, my girl.”

Maggie glanced back at her mother, her dark eyes creased at their corners in a warm, expectant smile. This night was planned, as it was for all children of her kind – the first hunt. Maynard and Karen Talbot would lead their middle child into the woods, and when they caught the scent of something, her parents would shift, in essence showing her how simply by being present. Maggie felt nervous, the hair on her arms prickling with each passing moment. What if she wasn’t good at hunting? What if she couldn’t keep up and disappointed her parents, or worse, brought shame to the family? She was already an outcast by birth, if she couldn’t be a proper bear, the Talbot family would only look down on her more.

She wasn’t really a Talbot, after all.

“Don’t be nervous, darling. You will be fine.”

Papa continued to slip through the brush ahead, his footsteps making hardly a sound as he moved. He’d taught her to walk as silently as wind when she explored the woods, the quiet ways of their ancestors, stalking through brush like ghosts. This would be a very different thing, indeed.

“What if someone sees us? Someone might shoot at us.”

Papa ignored her comments, keeping his focus on choosing their path ahead.

“It will be fine. You’ll be just like any other bear. Once you’ve made the shift, the bear will take over, I promise.”

“Has anyone ever shot at you? What if there’s a hunter out, or another bear?” Maggie asked, her heart racing.

Her mother spoke in a soothing tone. “It’s illegal to hunt in these woods, and hunting season isn’t for another two months -”

Papa shushed her from up ahead.  “Do you smell it?”

Karen stopped dead, closing her eyes as though she could smell better somehow when blind. Maggie smelled something as well, and whatever it was, it was by no means subtle.

“Are you two ready, then?” Papa asked.

Maggie’s stomach turned, instantly. Could she say no? Would her father be disappointed if she just refused to even try?

Yet, it was too late. Maynard Talbot pulled his shirt from over his head and moved closer to his teenage daughter, dropping his hands into the dirt. A moment later, his back hunched upward, and black fur sprung from every inch of skin. Maggie watched her father change, everything human about him disappearing in the matter of an instant. She’d seen this more than once, but it never ceased to send a strange shudder down her spine.

The black bear shook his head wildly as though shaking off a fly. He settled then, turning away from them and heading into the woods.

“Alright, girly. Your turn,” her mother said.

Karen Talbot turned after Maynard, and in one graceful motion, untied her ceremonial dress, letting it fall to the forest floor as her body changed shape. A moment later, she was gone into the darkness, following Papa out of sight. Maggie took a deep breath.

It was now or never. It was up to her to keep up, but – how was it supposed to feel to shift? Was there a button to push, a thought to focus on?

Be a bear, Maggie. Come on, you moron. Be a bear. Grr. Rarr.

Maggie bent over, fighting to feel that familiar shudder that being near her dad’s bear caused her.

Find it, damn it.

Maggie planted her hands into the ground, forcefully arching her back, feeling absolutely idiotic. What else was she supposed to do? Is it working? Will I know if it works?

She heard rhythmic grunts and growls up ahead, her parents calling for her to follow. They were drawing further away with each passing moment. Catch up, Maggie.

Despite the absence of light, Maggie knew those woods well. She’d traveled them a thousand times as a girl. She took off between the trees, letting her feet dance over the ground, leaping over fallen trees and briars. Her body moved with barely a sound, just as it always had, but now with adrenaline pulsing through her system, she felt twice as fast, gaining on her parents as they lumbered through the trees in search of their prey.

“Maggie!”

She stopped dead, her mother’s tone startling her back to reality. Maggie turned back toward the sound of the voice – she’d run straight past her parents.

Maggie moved like her father taught her, lithe and quick, making no sound as she bounded back toward her mother’s voice.

She smelled her father before she spotted him, his massive, black shape almost invisible in the darkness. Maggie stood there, watching him approach.

“Oh god, Maggie. No,” her mother said, frowning.

Maggie turned to find her mother standing there, her brown skin bared to the cool air, the expression on her face that of pain and something else – was that disgust?

Maggie felt her father approaching behind her as she looked down at herself.

She startled at the sight. She’d tried so hard, fought to feel what they told her to feel, but as her father shifted back into his familiar shape, Maggie felt their disappointment as though someone draped it over her like a shroud.

Maggie hadn’t shifted as they’d hoped. Maggie wasn’t like her parents, or her siblings, or much of the rest of the Talbot family.

Maggie was just Maggie – and by the look on her mother’s face, Maggie was a massive disappointment.

***

August 14
th
, 2011

“Oh my god, don’t be such a buzzkill. Come on! You said yourself you wanted to check out those weird stick figure things.” Maggie’s older sister, Candyce, stood in the doorway with their cousin, Beth, glaring into Maggie’s bedroom with such fierce disapproval that Maggie couldn’t help but see the resemblance between Candyce and their estranged mother.

“Yeah, in the daytime, not in the middle of the night,” Maggie said.

Candyce rolled her eyes. “Those woods are completely safe.”

“It’s hunting season. I’m not interested.”

Beth scoffed openly, but Candyce just continued to glare. “Seriously? You never come out with us! When was the last time you shifted? Seriously.”

Maggie shook her head. She’d seen the strange effigies hanging from the trees while out walking with her father, as had many of the tribe. None took responsibility for the spooky trinkets, but they all felt unnerved by them – almost enough to believe there might truly be a mad hermit living in the woods. Given that almost every member of her family was a bear, they had trouble believing this. Certainly a hermit would leave a scent they could catch. These stick trinkets didn’t smell like anything but white man, her father said.

Alright, Maggie. Come up with an excuse, she thought. Hunting season? I’m not feeling well? I’m on my period? Something! Anything!

“I’m just not in the mood tonight,” she finally said, only drawing further glares from her older sister.

“I’m beginning to take offense to this, Mag.”

Shit, she thought. “I know. I’m sorry. I just – I don’t know. I’ll tell you later.”

Beth was distracted a moment, glancing out into the hallway as Candyce glared. Maggie gave Candyce a surreptitious look, shooting a focused glare toward Beth, as though to say ‘It’s Beth’s fault. I can’t tell you why, she’s right there. Ask later.’

Candyce gave an exasperated sigh, storming out of the room toward the kitchen. “Oh my god, Papa. It’s days like this that I remember she’s adopted.”

“Shut up, bitch!” Maggie hollered, throwing her copy of
The Shining
in protest.

Maggie took a deep breath and slumped into the pillows of her twin bed. There was merit to her sister’s protests. Maggie was twenty seven now, and in the decade since that night – the night her parents discovered their daughter wasn’t like them, the night they promised to keep her secret from the rest of the clan – she’d never accepted her sister’s invitations to hunt together, and never told her why. Even as her mother packed up her things, disavowing her husband and her adopted child without explanation, Maynard and Karen Talbot kept her secret from everyone, including her siblings. They knew she was adopted, but they didn’t know she wasn’t a bear. Candyce rarely even asked Maggie if she wanted to go out anymore. It hurt Maggie’s heart every time to say no.

“Alright, hurry up and tell me.”

Candyce slipped into the room, plopping down on the edge of the bed to whisper in quiet conspiracy with her sister.

“I know she can be fucking intolerable sometimes, but when she’s a bear she’s fine.”

“It’s not that,” Maggie said, sighing in frustration. Damn it, how long did she have to keep this secret? They’d have to learn someday, wouldn’t they? When she gave birth to children who weren’t bears someone was bound to notice, weren’t they? Maggie stared into her older sister’s face and frowned.

“Come on. You always say no. Is it something I did?”

Maggie shook her head. “No, Candy. It’s not you.”

“Then what did Beth do? I’ll kill her for you while we’re out tonight if you want.”

Maggie laughed. “No, Beth is fine. It’s not her either – it’s not important.”

Candyce stared at her, silent. Candyce was three years older than Maggie, and her face was nearly identical to a young Karen Talbot.

“Is it because of Mom?”

Maggie stopped dead. Maggie no longer offered such a term to Karen Talbot. Karen’s response to discovering her adopted daughter wasn’t a bear was to spurn her. She demanded Maynard do the same.

She’s not what they said she was. The only reason the Talbots took her in was to have another female. She should be banished.

Maynard refused, watching helplessly as his wife left him as punishment for choosing family over tribe. Despite leaving him, Karen honored his wish – that he be the one to tell the tribe when the time was right. Maynard knew as well as Karen how the tribe would react when they learned the truth.

Not a bear, not a Talbot, not of the tribe.

Maggie had been on borrowed time for a decade now.

“Why do you ask that?” Maggie asked.

Candyce shrugged, her black hair cascading over her left shoulder. “Because something happened back then, didn’t it?”

“What do you mean?” Maggie asked, growing nervous.

“Come on, Mag. Mom left afterward and you’ve never shifted with anyone else since.”

She’d never shifted at all. Damn it, would Candyce turn on her too if she knew.

“Look, whatever happened, it’s ok. Mom is an asshole. You’re my sister. Whatever happened, you’ll always be my sister.”

Maggie’s throat grew tight, but she fought to steel herself against it. “You don’t mean that.”

Candyce’s eyes went wide. “Bull shit I don’t. I don’t care if you tried to rip my face off when you turned, you’re my family. I’m not like Mom. I might look like a Holden, but I don’t behave like one.”

Maggie shifted on her pillows, scanning the room as though she might find someone hiding behind her dresser. Holdens and Talbots were the same as far as Maggie was concerned – she’d disappoint them both, equally.

She swallowed. “Can you promise never to tell anyone?”

“Come on, bitch! I’m itching to get out there,” Beth called from the hallway.

Candyce rolled her eyes, giving an exasperated groan. “I’ll be there in a sec, damn it! Shove off!”

Beth stuck her tongue out at them and disappeared back down the hall.

Candyce turned back to Maggie, ready to hear whatever secrets Maggie possessed. The moment had passed.

“Go. She’s only gonna get worse.”

Candyce reached for Maggie’s hand. “No, come on. I’m here. Tell me what’s up.”

Maggie shook her head, taking a deep breath. “It’s fine, Candy. It’s a bit too heavy for tonight. I’ll tell you tomorrow, alright?”

“You sure?”

Maggie nodded and squeezed her sister’s hand back. Beth hollered further complaint from the front door, inspiring Maynard to holler his own disapproval from the kitchen. Candyce stood, making an irritated face, and snatched Maggie’s book from the doorway.

She threw the dog-eared paperback back to Maggie. “First thing tomorrow, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Maggie said, catching the book in both hands.

Candyce disappeared down the hallway, scolding Beth as they slammed the front door behind them. Maggie lay in bed, listening to the sound of her sister and cousin laughing outside, their voices growing fainter as they walked away from the house, heading for the woods.

Maggie never told her sister her secret. Candyce never came home.