Jade Crew: Outcast Bear: Ridgeback Bears, #5

Chapter One

Corey

The party was in full swing.

There were still a number of expected guests outstanding, but that wasn’t preventing the current attendees from relaxing. He watched as two bear shifters of roughly equal stature settled in for what promised to be an epic arm-wrestling match. His eyes roamed the bar, noting the way the bartender cast an appraising eye at the table already shaking under the weight of the huge men.

Although the two in question were small for bear shifters, they were still over six feet in height and well over two hundred pounds of muscle. Not to mention they were stronger than any human could ever be. It was just genetics. Shifters looked human, but they weren’t.

And yet somehow we manage to be just like them in many ways.

As shouts and bets arose on the two men, people picking winners and cheering on their favorites, he sat back into his chair. It was a soft, real leather-covered armchair. The dark almost chocolate-brown hissed slightly as air was expelled from it by his bulk. He wasn’t overly large either, though he likely had an inch and ten pounds on the men currently positioning their arms and arguing about how they knew for a fact their opponent was going to cheat.

Several women were in attendance too he noted, and they just rolled their eyes in exasperation at the men. One of them called out for a good luck kiss from his mate, but she just snorted and took another drink of water. She was heavily pregnant, entering the last trimester he knew, and she was consuming water like he was beer.

That must suck. No alcohol for nine months?

He couldn’t imagine having to be sober for that long. Not that alcohol affected him the same as it did humans. He could consume a lot more of it than they could and still walk in a straight line. That didn’t mean there weren’t ways to dull his senses, but he wasn’t interested in going quite so far down that path tonight. After all, it was a celebration, even if the people who had called for it were still absent. He expected them to make their entrance any minute now.

Corey Baleski frowned softly as he watched the antics of the various folks at the bar. The clear bottle of beer rose to his lips and he smacked them lightly as he tasted the golden liquid that drizzled out onto his tongue.

Drizzled? He tipped the bottle upside down, but only a few more drops graced his palate.

Damn. He was out.

With a sigh he forced his body into motion, standing up and making his way toward the bar.

Hey Ferro, he said to the bartender. Thanks.

The slightly above-average height man with non-descript features standing behind the bar only nodded as he swiped the empty bottle and replaced it with a fresh one. He had noticed Corey approaching and without saying a word had readied the next round.

The man on the far side of the bar remained hunched over his beer with an unreadable look upon his face. Corey didn’t know much about Luthor, other than that he and Ferro were supposedly friends. He always seemed to be at the bartender’s side, but nobody had seen him before until he showed up several months earlier. Ferro hadn’t kicked him out, so the others had accepted his presence.

As he studied the man for a brief moment, Corey wondered several things. What was he? The consensus was that he wasn’t human, and likely a dragon shifter. If so, he was able to conceal it better than any shifter Corey had met before. Usually shifters could pick up the scent of each other. With Luthor, there was nothing.

Corey!

The call grabbed his attention away from the lone man, but not before he saw a flare of ire deep within his eyes.

What a grump.

Finishing his turn, he located the source of the call. It was Russell, who had separated himself from the group of shifters that had gathered around Cole and Joel. Even as he walked that way, Corey could have sworn he heard the table cracking under their efforts.

His attention was immediately focused elsewhere, however, as he followed Russell’s eyes. Garrett had just entered the bar, and he was pissed. Garrett Hoffman was the Alpha of the Jade Crew, and not a shifter that Corey would want to cross. Thankfully he was a good, honest shifter, one of the few like that to be found in Genesis Valley, where they all lived.

Like the other shifters, Garrett was large and well-muscled. Those muscles—honed from day after day of hard labor in the mines in the nearby mountains—were now coiled and flexed, ready to break something. It took a lot to anger his Alpha, and Corey wasn’t sure he wanted to know about it. As the nominal third in rank of their crew, however, he knew he should go and find out.

With a wistful sigh he followed Russell, Garrett’s stepbrother and the Jade Crew’s second-in-command. They made their way to the oval-shaped seating area Corey had vacated earlier to refresh his drink. The thought triggered something in his mind and he swiftly turned and strode back to the bar.

To find Ferro holding out a fresh beer for Garrett.

He tipped his head in the bartender’s direction. Ferro was a dragon shifter, and he didn’t like to talk much. He talked a lot less lately, but he had never been what one would consider chatty. That didn’t mean, however, that he wasn’t an expert at reading body language. More times than Corey could remember he had simply known when something was needed, oftentimes before those in need realized it themselves.

Here, he said, handing the beer over to his Alpha.

Thank you, Garrett said appreciatively, taking a long chug from the bottle.

That bad? Russell asked.

I should have gotten two, Corey muttered as Garrett tilted the bottle upward again and finished it.

I fucking hate ignorant, shortsighted people, Garrett spat violently.

Corey felt his eyebrows rise. Whatever it was that had happened, it hadn’t just irritated Garrett, but had full-out pissed him off. He shared a glance with Russell, the two of them realizing that things might just be a tad more serious than they had initially thought.

What happened at the meeting? Russell asked after a moment.

Corey knew that Garrett had been at a meeting of the various remaining Alphas for the mining crews that lived and worked in the area. The company that oversaw them, Lionshead Mining Consortium, had been under attack by an unknown entity for some weeks now, and several of the crews had been wiped out completely by the escalating violence. The remaining Alphas had decided to get together and see if they could hash things out. Judging by Garrett’s reaction, it hadn’t gone well.

Michael fucking happened, Garrett snarled, still refusing to elaborate.

Perhaps refusing was the wrong word, Corey thought, correcting himself. He wasn’t outright refusing, he was just so mad he couldn’t articulate his anger just yet. Across from him Russell leaned back, looking speculatively at their Alpha.

Michael, as in the pretentious dick leader of the Diamond Crew? Russell asked after a moment of silence.

Correct with every word, came the reply.

Corey frowned at the unbridled hatred for the leader of the undisputed number one crew in the Valley. The Diamond Crew—also known as the Whitepines—were the rock stars of the Lionshead Mining Consortium. LMC crews mined the mountains by hand for their precious cargo and the Diamonds were the best at finding it. Nobody disputed that.

Apparently they had developed a bit of an attitude about it. Corey had never noticed that himself, and he had knowledge of them from both inside and out. To see the general agreement that their Alpha Michael was a dick was unsettling.

What did he do? Corey tentatively asked.

Derailed the entire meeting, basically. Kept saying that whatever is going on is a result of our own actions. That neither he nor Marcel and the Ruby Crew have had any issues with whoever has been attacking us. Put all the blame on us, and said we brought it upon ourselves by being unable to control our actions.

Corey bit his lip. The sentiment being expressed by Michael was nothing new to him. In fact, Corey had to admit that there were times when he wondered if Michael was right. His crew and the Ruby Crew, among others, had had absolutely no problems. They minded their own business and everything seemed to avoid them.

Ever since Corey had been removed from his previous crew and assigned to the Jade Crew, there had been no peace. Garrett and the Jade Crew, along with their allies in the Emerald Crew and a few others, had been in the thick of it, fighting off enemies from all directions. Corey had fought alongside them, not because he wanted to, but because he had to. He was associated with the Jade Crew now, and he didn’t have much of a choice. The attackers saw him and assumed he was a target.

And people believed him? Russell asked in shock.

Corey looked over at him. Of course they did. Can you blame them? We’re the only ones finding ourselves under attack. Whether his words were true or not, he has a point. We’re the only ones involved. The other Alphas are probably hoping that if they follow Michael’s lead, they’ll be left out too. Isn’t that right Garrett?

Russell stared at him as if he couldn’t believe the words coming from his mouth, but Garrett’s eyes narrowed as he evaluated what Corey was saying. He didn’t look at either of them, choosing instead to take another swig of his beer, before it became too warm in his hand. That was a constant problem as a shifter; he emitted far more heat than was necessary, and holding onto a beer in a glass bottle tended to be a quick way for it to become warm.

Corey makes a point, Garrett said. We need to look at this from their perspective as well. Of course we’re incensed that they wouldn’t believe it, but when they haven’t been affected by it, haven’t been attacked, haven’t had their mates kidnapped and threatened, why would they believe this is a widespread thing?

Russell looked thoughtful. I see what you’re saying. I’m just not as good at understanding things from someone else’s perspective, I suppose.

You’ll get there, Garrett teased, the first sign of any emotion other than anger he had emitted since arriving.

Perhaps it was the atmosphere of the bar, Corey thought. They were at the Tongue & Flame, the typical hangout for both the Jade and Emerald Crews. Everything looked new, and that’s because it was. A while back, the bar had been utterly demolished when a fight between two bear crews had broken out inside the bar. The only thing that hadn’t been smashed to pieces was the single solid piece of mahogany that formed the bartop itself.

The bright pot lights in the ceiling and the festive music emitting from the old-style jukebox along the wall opposite the bar all contributed to a very happy feeling. They were celebrating that night, and it seemed to be wearing off on Garrett.

Fresh beer? the Alpha asked, looking at the two of them.

Corey nodded his assent, but Russell decided against it.

This isn’t going to be good for us, Russell said as Garrett moved away. He said it quietly, and his voice would have been lost in the din to a human, but with his shifter hearing, Corey picked his voice out easily from the background noise.

He knew that Russell meant the Jade Crew when he said us, but to Corey, that didn’t have as much of an impact as it might have. He considered himself a Jade Crew member, there was no doubt about that. Despite that, however, in the six-plus months since the Jade Crew had been formed, Corey had yet to truly feel at home or a part of them. He fought because he was a