#Chapter 70: Westland

Ruby I was kneeling on the dirt road on the other side of the Sockenee River Bridge next to my own sick. Caleb’s gaze flitted back and forth between me and Vic, desperation clouding his eyes where he sat with his hands raised in the driver’s seat of Daniel’s car. Daniel’s eyes were even more clouded, the last of his self-restraint keeping him still in the backseat. “I said lower your weapons!” Vic bellowed in a voice that was half-human, half bear roar. Slowly, the seven other bears around us all lowered their guns. I couldn’t stop the sob that bubbled out of me when I felt the muzzle of the gun slide off the back of my head. “Please!” Caleb cried. “Please may I comfort my mate!” “Permission granted,” Vic said. Caleb climbed over the center console like a cat, sliding out of the car and leaping over my pile of vomit to pull me into his lap. We rolled in the dirt, and neither of us cared. His arms were around me, he hadn’t been shot, his heart was beating. And I was sobbin