Gray Back Broken Bear(7)

The rest of the crew loaded into a fat-tired charcoal gray truck, but Easton got behind the wheel of an old, beat-up white Ford truck and took off behind the other pickup alone.

Aviana followed, desperate to watch him as long as she could manage without him noticing. Getting close to him near his trailer wasn’t an option anymore. Not with his impeccable aim with knives. But out here, where there was more room and more trees to hide her, she felt safe to observe him, as she’d done for so many hours in her youth.

She flitted from tree to tree as the Gray Backs bounced and bumped down switchbacks and old dirt roads that led them toward the Grayland Mobile Park. Finding her courage, she circled high above as Easton parked his truck beside the one his crew rode in, then he strode through the woods to his mobile home. In the trailer park, the other Gray Backs reunited with their mates. Some were playful, like Matt and Willa, and others sweet, like Jason and Creed with their women. Those made her look away and swoop back toward Easton’s territory.

He had no one to come home to.

Sorrow and hope churned in her middle. Even among the Gray Backs, he lived a solitary existence. Perhaps he didn’t want a mate. Or perhaps he couldn’t handle one after everything that had happened. Or maybe, just maybe, he hadn’t found the right woman.

That last part lit her up with longing.

She was too chicken to show herself. She hadn’t been able to do it in her youth, and the rules hadn’t changed. No one could know raven shifters existed. Especially terrifying, murderous bear shifters.

But Easton was different.

From high above, she watched him stride deliberately into his trailer. The door banged closed behind him.

Was he different?

Her arm was still cut from where he’d hurt her, and he’d seemed barely in control of himself at his jobsite.

Maybe she was just fooling herself into thinking he was the boy she’d grown up with. His wild eyes said that part of him was long gone.

But…the paperclip.

Baffled, she flapped her wings and caught an air current that pushed her toward the cabin she’d grown up in. She needed time to think about all of this. And something else was weighing heavy on her mind now—something that made her cringe to consider.

She needed to call Caden.

Being the careful raven she was, Aviana searched a perimeter around her house before she Changed back into her human skin. It wasn’t painful or slow like it was for some shifters. Ravens were lucky in that respect. She just tucked her animal away in the span of a moment, and her feathers disappeared like magic. The stairs sagged dangerously under her feet as she padded up to the house, careful to avoid the nails that stuck out of the floor boards. Her phone had enough charge, so she scrolled through her contacts and hit the call button when she found Caden’s number.

She let off a long, steadying breath as it rang.

“Hello?” Caden asked.

“Hi. It’s me.”

“Aviana? Where are you? I’ve been calling for two days, looking for you everywhere. You can’t do this shit. I need to know where you are at all times, or this doesn’t work.”

She’d only been gone two days so his reaction was overblown.

“I think that’s a problem for me. I mean, one of the problems. I don’t like that you need to keep tabs on me. And I don’t like that you made me quit a job I love.” Oh, she was in it now. “And I don’t particularly like…you.” Her voice faded off on the last word. She wasn’t trained in being so direct with a man. “This isn’t what I want. A pairing between us isn’t going to work.”

Caden was quiet for so long she checked her phone to assure herself he hadn’t hung up.

“And you’ve thought this through?” he asked in a low, steely voice that brought a shiver up her spine. “You’ve thought about your place with our people, and you are fine with your rank staying at the bottom where you’ve always been? You’ve thought about the fact your refusal of my courtship will keep your family at the bottom?”

Aviana swallowed the lump in her throat as tears stung her eyes. She loved her parents and didn’t want them to be beneath anyone, but she couldn’t live a lie to elevate their status. She would only grow to resent them. “Y-yes.”

“Yes, what?”

Aviana gritted her teeth and hated herself as she whispered, “Yes, sir.”

“Who is he?” Caden asked. The emptiness of his voice echoed on and on in her mind.

“He’s not you.” She hung up the phone as a sob crept up her throat.

She’d done it, and part of her was proud she hadn’t just given into what was expected of her. She was proud she’d stood up for a life she wanted. But the rest of her was scared shitless. Caden was important, and taking his last name would’ve given her family a much easier life. More respect.