Gray Back Broken Bear(15)

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Easton,” she said with a shy smile and pink cheeks.

Stunned, he stood from the tailgate and watched her drive away.

Ana had made him feel almost normal tonight, but that wasn’t the only gift she’d given him.

She’d given him his first kiss.





Chapter Seven




Easton sat on the back porch of his trailer and watched the progress of the sun as it sank down behind the mountains. He fingered the strand of frayed, black silk ribbon he’d taken from the raven’s treasure box this morning before work on the landing. The day had been hard as his focus had drifted this way and that between thoughts of Ana and the meaning of the black ribbon that he’d tucked deep inside his pocket.

It served as a reminder. Ana was frail like Mom had been. She wouldn’t survive a man like him, so it was best that her words, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Easton,” had been nothing more than a pretty lie. She didn’t even know where he lived.

He pulled the length of ribbon through his fingers. A raven’s sympathy.

“Where has he gone off to?” Mom asked, hands on her hips as she squinted against the setting sun that threw the front yard into the golds and oranges of autumn.

Easton had just hit his first grizzly growth spurt and was almost as tall as his human mother now. He shrugged and pressed his hand against her belly where the undulating was the strongest. It was a boy, a little brother. He just knew it. “Maybe he fell asleep somewhere.”

Mom inhaled deeply. She was tired lately and had trouble moving around. Her feet swelled at night, and she was short of breath, but Dad didn’t let her ease up on the chores. Not this close to winter.

“Next year, can I go to school with other kids?” he asked. He wouldn’t dare mention it to Dad. He already knew that answer.

Dad would say, “Boy, you know what you are? You gotta bear inside of you, and humans can’t be trusted with that kind of information. We stay out here in the woods for survival. Get that cockamamied idea out of your head. School.” And then he’d spit in the grass because he always did that when Easton asked a dumb question. He spat on the ground the same as he used a period at the end of a sentence. Discussion closed.

Mom was softer, though. She understood how lonely it was out here.

She smiled sadly down at him and squeezed his shoulder. “Things were going to be different, Easton. I had plans for you and me, but the baby derailed them. Maybe someday, but not now.”

Plans? Troubled, Easton looked out over the yard again as his senses picked up something that lifted the fine hairs on the back of his neck. Something was wrong in their woods.

“Dad?” he called, stepping off the porch.

Movement stirred the dry grass in the brush just behind the tree line.

Easton trotted forward at the sound of a pained groan, and Mom followed as she was able.

Dad appeared from behind the trees, stumbling and slow. Easton couldn’t understand what he was seeing, though. Dad’s head was crooked on his shoulders.

“Oh, my God,” Mom whispered in horror. “Easton, don’t look.” She covered Easton’s face with her hands and yanked him to a stop. “I said don’t look!” Mom was sobbing now. “Go back into the house!” she screamed as she ran for Dad.

Dad fell to his knees, body convulsing as he toppled over sideways.

Easton approached slowly, horrified as Mom cried over him. His neck had been snapped. No.

“Russ,” Mom cried. “What do I do? Can I reset it?”

“No,” Dad wheezed.

“I don’t understand. I don’t understand! How did this happen? No. It’ll be okay. I’ll fix it. Easton get back in the house! Don’t look!”

Maybe Dad had fallen out of a tree or over a ravine. His shifter healing had worked, but froze his broken neck at the wrong angle. Some injuries were too bad for even shifters to survive. All his life, Dad had taught him not to get careless with his healing. Easton heaved breath as Mom wept and positioned herself above his body. She was going to re-break his neck.

“Mom,” Easton said, voice thick. He shook his head. “It won’t work.”

“Mae,” Dad choked out.

“What is it Russ. What is it?”

“Mae…I’m sorry.” A long last breath escaped his lips, and his eyes rolled closed.

“No!” Mom screamed. She pulled hard on Dad’s head, but breaking a neck wasn’t so easy. Not for weak humans. “Don’t leave me here! Don’t leave me!”

Mom’s agony tore at his own burning heart. Dad. Easton dropped to his knees in shock at how broken he looked. How grotesque he looked in death with his bulging neck. He’d come back to say goodbye. Tears streamed down his face as he buried his head against Dad’s stomach. He was still warm and smelled of life. “Dad,” he murmured, gripping his clothes and dampening his shirt with tears.