Chapter 12 #2
First it was hot breath on the back of her neck.
Soon it was shoves against her legs or back.
She honestly couldn’t tell if it was because they needed more room back there or because they wanted to eat her.
Either way, she scrambled forward, as did Vic.
And the only place to look then was back at Simon.
He was on his feet now, his jaws and claws systematically ripping apart Nanook. And all around them, the bears started grumbling. They shuffled and growled. Their breaths came in big bellows and their teeth showed yellow white.
Simon didn’t notice. He was covered in blood as his jaws bit down and cracked off a couple ribs. Alyssa flinched at the sound, her heart hammering in her throat. The tension was climbing in the room, and she and her brother were in the middle of it. Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.
“Simon! Damn it, Simon!”
Her words echoed sharply in the room only because her voice was higher pitched than anyone else’s. The bears were loud, and she didn’t think anyone could hear her much less the grizzly with its snout deep in blood. But Simon did hear.
She saw his ears twitch and his head came up.
His head swiveled back and forth as he took in the room.
His nostrils flared as he stood over the carcass.
And then he released a roar that took Alyssa to a knee.
It echoed in the space and the sound seemed to beat her down.
Her brother fared little better. He stumbled beside her, but he regained his balance and remained upright beside her.
Protecting her, she guessed, but she was the one with the gun.
But who the hell did she aim it at? Simon? He was an adult grizzly growling over a kill. And his roar told everyone in the room that it was his. His food. His kill. His territory.
But it was eight to one here. They could overrun him in a second. And probably flatten her and Vic in the process.
The nearest bear lumbered forward. It was big and all black. She realized belatedly that it didn’t have a grizzly hump, but it was still huge. And it opened his mouth in a sound that Alyssa couldn’t hear in all the noise. But she heard Simon.
He turned straight on the black bear and roared back, hard and angry. The sound ripped at Alyssa’s insides. God, she couldn’t stand to see another fight. Not here. Not now when there wasn’t room to flee.
Except when Simon’s roar stopped, the black bear didn’t attack. And he certainly didn’t rear up on his hind legs. Instead, he flopped over onto his side. A full-out plop that exposed his neck.
Submission?
Holy crap, that’s exactly what it was. The black bear was submitting to Simon who stood there staring at it with nostrils flared and his mouth dripping with blood.
Alyssa wanted to speak. She wanted to bellow that the bear was submitting and Simon didn’t need to attack it. But her voice was frozen in her throat. It was terror, pure and simple. She just didn’t want to draw attention to herself and she damned herself for being a coward.
Then Simon stepped over the edge of the carcass. He was coming toward her, though his eyes were on the bears nearest her. He didn’t even give the black bear any acknowledgment that she could see. He just lumbered forward, closer and closer to her.
She shied backward, but there was nowhere to go.
The grizzlies behind her were rocking back and forth on their feet while grumbling deep in their throats.
What was Simon doing? And when the hell had she fallen to her knees?
She was crouched now, huddled back against her brother.
The gun was still in her hand, but the handle was slick with sweat and she didn’t know if she could raise it. She was trembling from head to toe.
And still Simon lumbered forward.
She swallowed, trying to force herself to speak. She managed a bare whisper. “Simon, please.” She didn’t even know what she was asking him, but it was all she could get out.
He roared again. Straight at the bears behind her. He was so close, she could feel the heat of his breath. She could see the gore on his body and the way his roar made the fur tremble on his sides.
Then she heard it.
Thud. Thudthud.
All around her, the bears were dropping with heavy thumps onto the floor.
One by one they sat and rolled over, exposing their necks.
And this, too, was something she’d never seen on the nature channel.
They weren’t dogs. These were grizzlies and another black bear.
But they all dropped, even Vic beside her though he went to his knee and not the floor.
“Tilt your head,” he hissed at her.
“W-what?”
“Expose your neck! Submit to him!”
She wasn’t a dog to roll over on command, but in this, she obeyed without hesitation. She submitted to Simon as he lumbered in a tight circle. He glared at everybody in the room, herself and Vic included. And when he had gone nearly full circle, he did it again. He roared.
At least this time she could cover her ears. His back was to her, so she could duck her head into her hands, though it clapped the hard butt of her pistol against her head. She didn’t need to hear that terrifying sound again, but apparently the others did.
Because this time after the roar ended, there was dead silence in the room. No grumbles. Certainly no growls. Not even the huff of a breath. Every single bear was on his back and silent.
And it stayed that way as Simon continued to prowl.
He walked in another slow circle that came too near her for comfort.
Then again. Two times around, plus another roar.
Then a third. Once he lumbered close to the carcass and bit off another rib.
He crunched it in the silence while everyone else stayed frozen on the floor.
And when the rib was gone, Simon went back to prowling. To Alyssa’s eyes, he seemed agitated and angry. That was understandable twenty minutes ago, but now? He needed to settle down. But the more he prowled, the more upset he seemed to get.
Another roar. God, by the end of the day she was going to be deaf.
Two more circuits, and then she realized the truth.
He wasn’t settling down. He was winding himself up. Had he lost himself in the bear? He had to remember who he was. He needed to shift back into a man. But it wasn’t happening. Another roar convinced her of it.
And go figure. She wasn’t deaf, but she was freaking tired of flinching every time he took a deep breath. So she stood up.
She was surprised that her legs had any strength. But she could remain terrified only so long before she just got annoyed.
“What are you doing?” her brother hissed, but she waved him to silence. She didn’t want to say that she had no idea.