Apex Bear Read online

  

  Apex Predators 3

  Apex Bear

  In a world where humans are food or playthings, Cal is a half-breed marked for death. On the day Cal’s about to be hanged, he found an unexpected saviour in Dimitri, the Apex Alpha of the bears. Cal’s first instinct is to run, only to escape from the frying pan and be shoved into the freezer. Dimitri is demanding, arrogant, and dangerous, but Cal can’t seem to stay away.

  Dimitri’s just wrestled the crown of Apex Alpha from its previous owner. He’s been busy putting out the fires his predecessor started, but he never expected to find his mate on the execution block. Cal might deny the fire between them time after time, but Dimitri’s determined to prove Cal wrong. When the two men discover there’s a traitor in their midst, will the fragile bonds between them break or grow even stronger?

  Genres: Alternative (M/M, Gay), Contemporary, Paranormal, Shape-shifter

  Length: 20,186

  APEX BEAR

  Apex Predators 3

  Fel Fern

  

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  Apex Bear

  Copyright © 2019 by Fel Fern

  ISBN: 978-1-64243-590-0

  First Publication: February 2019

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All art and logo copyright © 2019 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book or print book being sold or shared illegally, please let us know at [email protected]

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  DEDICATION

  To my readers, I hope you enjoy Dimitri and Cal’s story as much as I loved writing it.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Felicia Fern loves penning M/M paranormal erotic romance.

  A sadist who loves watching her heroes break their backs trying to earn their happy endings, Fel likes throwing in the occasional dash of the unknown to the usual romantic concoction.

  www.felfern.com

  https://tinyletter.com/authorfelfern

  https://www.facebook.com/author.felfern

  For all titles by Fel Fern, please visit

  www.bookstrand.com/fel-fern

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  APEX BEAR

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  APEX BEAR

  Apex Predators 3

  FEL FERN

  Copyright © 2019

  Chapter One

  Looking at the grim-faced villagers of Thorne Village put Dimitri Solonov’s inner bear on edge. It didn’t help that he could also sense the aggressive energy emanating from the other bear shifters he brought with him.

  They were the men and women who pledged their loyalty to him when he took not just the mantle of Alpha of the Skull Crushers clan, but also the Apex Alpha of all the bear shifters. Dimitri needed to calm his bear down, because an Alpha’s mood always rubbed off on his clanmates.

  He breathed in and out, but he still didn’t like the smell of fear coming off from the villagers. Throne Village contained a mix of both humans and paranormal residents, one of the first of its kind. After the Doomsday War, most people stuck to their own kind.

  Thorne Village was composed of a couple of rows of hovels, some dried up farmland, and not much else.

  “Look at them. They’re all sheep, ready for the slaughter,” muttered his Beta, Duncan, by his left ear, not bothering to disguise his voice.

  “Can’t blame them, especially knowing how Savage used to rule,” commented Cassandra, one of his enforcers to his right.

  Savage had been Dimitri’s predecessor, the former Apex Alpha of the bears, and Thorne Village had been one of his conquered territories. Like the three other villages they visited, Throne Village looked like it could barely last the winter. Savage had drained the resources of any village and settlement in his territory in his thirst to conquer more land.

  As an Alpha of his own clan, Dimitri answered to Savage, but seeing the mad shifter was about to drag all the bear clans into a war propelled him to challenge Savage for his throne. The last thing Dimitri wanted was his species’ extermination, and Savage was doing just that, fighting other shifter groups to claim more land he couldn’t manage.

  An obese balding man in his late fifties walked toward Dimitri and his group, huffing and puffing as if he wasn’t that used to walking. Trailing him were four other men. Unlike the other villagers, who were dressed in mismatched pieces of clothing and armor, these four men actually wore greasy silks and fur.

  Silks were hard to come by in the harsh mountain terrain they lived in, Dimitri mused.

  Like the balding man, the other four also looked hale and healthy compared to the rest of the villagers, whose bones stuck out through their clothes.

  He could hazard a guess as to who these men were. The mayor and his advisors. Dimitri already formed an extreme dislike toward them the moment he laid eyes on them.

  He took one whiff. Not humans but not shifters with apex animals inside them, either. Fox, his bear identified as the group finally reached them.

  “My lord, we weren’t aware of your arrival. So sorry we weren’t able to give you a proper welcome,” the balding fox shifter muttered. “I’m Keys, the mayor of Thorne Village.”

  “Doesn’t matter. The surprise visit was intentional. I wanted to see the villages Savage used to rule without any fanfare,” he said in clipped tones.

  His bear seethed inside of him. How could Keys and his advisors stand to live like kings, while the people they were supposed to protect lived in poverty and hunger? The strong ate the weak. That was the simple rule of their world, but Dimitri also believed the strong had the responsibility to provide for those they took under their protection.

  The Skull Crushers might be the largest and most powerful bear clan in the country, but Dimitri treated all his clan members, from the dominant shifters to the submissives and omegas, fairly. Each of his bears was vital to the growth of the clan and each member had their roles.

  This wasn’t the first village he’d seen that had grown toxic or corrupt. Dimitri let out an impatient growl, noticing for the first time that villagers started to sweep past them and head what looked like the town square.

  Keys swallowed. “I see. Perhaps we can talk further in my home?”

  “What’s going on here?” Duncan asked, gesturing to all the villagers.

  “Well,” Keys began, licking his lips, “we’re hanging a couple of criminals today, thieves and two murderers. Savage imposed the law—”

  “Thorne Village no longer answers to Savage,” Cassandra curtly said. “But to our Alpha.”

  “Of course,” Keys said quickly.

  “Well then, if there’s an execution going on, let’s head to where
everyone is,” Dimitri said in a mild-mannered tone.

  Keys looked confused. “Are you certain, my lord?”

  Dimitri crossed the space between them in a fraction of a second and had his hand fisted into Keys’ shirt. He growled into the werefox’s face and flashed Keys his very sharp canines. Keys paled.

  “Don’t question me again,” he said, releasing the sad excuse of a leader.

  “Of course, my apologies. This way, please,” Keys hurriedly said. Both their groups walked toward the muddy square.

  Dimitri frowned, eying the medieval-looking wooden platform at the center. A dozen men and women were lined up, all shackled together on the steps leading to where the noose dangled.

  In his time as Alpha of his clan, Dimitri had dealt with his fair share of enemies and traitors. Their deaths were usually quick, done behind closed doors, but this seemed like an unnecessary public spectacle.

  “Why only one noose?” Duncan asked Keys. “It would be more efficient if there were three to speed things up.”

  “It’s more effective to hang these criminals one-by-one, as a warning,” Keys explained.

  Dimitri crossed his arms, frowning. The monster of a bear he’d been born with began to restlessly pace inside of him. Strange. A simple hanging didn’t normally affect Dimitri like this. He told Duncan and his enforcers they’d only be observers when they toured the villages and settlements they were now responsible for after Dimitri took Savage’s place.

  Dimitri had no patience for greedy men like Keys. He already told Duncan and his other enforcers he planned on replacing the leadership of these villages anyway. He let his second handle Keys and his nervous advisors. What was it about this hanging that intrigued his bear so much?

  Dimitri understood the need for executions and punishments. At times, they were necessary to uphold the law, to ensure everyone fell in line, but Duncan overheard from passing merchants that Keys seemed to love them too excessively.

  Look closer, his bear told him. Dimitri narrowed his gaze. There. He sniffed once, twice. Bears had incredibly sensitive noses. Dimitri parted the individual scents and focused on a heavenly one, alluring, tempting. Fuck. Where did that come from?

  He eyed the crowd first, not surprised most of the villagers lowered their gazes and even stepped away from him and his bear shifters a little further. It would take plenty of time for them to start trusting any of his bears, but Dimitri would deal with that issue later.

  He moved his gaze to the prisoners lined up for the noose, immediately drawn to the first man at the front. It couldn’t be. Like the others, his clothes were dirty, and he was barefoot and had tangled gold hair, but compared to the defeated looks of his fellow prisoners, his blue eyes held defiance. This young man held his chin high as the executioner read out his crimes.

  “Cal Simmons, you’re accused of various thefts, including collaborating with others to raid the village stores. Any last words?”

  This one, his bear told him with absolute certainty that flooded Dimitri. Fuck, he wouldn’t be able to erase the image of those blazing blue eyes in his head. Not ever. From the prisoners to the villagers, every denizen of Thorne Village looked like the living dead. Oh, their hearts beat all right, but the way they walked, dragging their feet with their shoulders slumped, they amounted to walking dead men and women.

  This thief, however, had plenty of fight in him.

  Cal, Dimitri reminded himself.

  Cal turned to the waiting crowd and seemed to be searching for someone in particular. For a moment, their gazes crossed. Cal’s face registered surprise then confusion before he moved on, finally looking right at Keys.

  “I regret nothing. It’s the responsibility of the village leaders to feed its people, not hoard everything for themselves,” Cal said in a strong, loud voice.

  “Hang that half-breed!” Keys yelled.

  Half-breed. A term used for those with shifter or paranormal blood in them. One of their parents was human, but they fell on the gray area, never truly belonging on the humans nor the side of the paranormals.

  The executioner placed the noose around Cal’s scrawny neck. Rage filled his vision. Dimitri let out a roar that made those near him jump. Letting Cal die was unacceptable. This half-breed was essential to his bear. Dimitri strode forward, and the crowd parted for him. The platform underneath Cal dropped. Dimitri raced forward, not caring who he ran into.

  Saving Cal was his top priority.

  Chapter Two

  Cal sucked in a breath, forcing himself not to panic as the coarse rope touched the skin of his neck. He clenched his fists by his side, telling himself not to struggle. Everyone watched him, including Keys, and he refused to give that smug bastard the satisfaction of seeing him fearful, scared.

  When the executioner read out his crimes, Cal expected someone, anyone to come to his defense. His crew, maybe, or some of the villagers he helped. Cal should have expected no one to speak on his behalf. As a half-breed, he’d never truly fit in. He grew up isolated from both the shifter and human children with his mother. When she died, he never felt so alone. Cal thought he found a new family with his crew of misfits, but in the end, when Keys’s village guards caught him, they fled.

  He spent most of his life feeling isolated, lonely. Cal guessed his miserable existence would end the same way.

  “Any last words?” the executioner asked.

  Cal nodded, looked past the crowd, and sought out Keys, the man responsible for making his mother’s life miserable, for creating him. On her deathbed, his mother finally told him about the bastard who fathered him. Hard to believe the very same blood that ran in the mayor’s veins was also in his body.

  For a second, he froze as he spotted a huge monster of a man dressed in leather armor. Even this far away from the armed group, he could feel the strange, aggressive, dominating energy from that single man. Outsiders. Not only that. The village guards in the prison were panicked that morning. He overheard them saying that Savage’s replacement, the new Apex Alpha of the bears, decided to pay the village a surprise visit.

  None of his business but why did this man’s golden gaze seem to both terrify him and set his heart beating fast at the same time?

  Cal couldn’t waste his last few moments on earth on this stranger. Finally, he looked at Keys and said his last words, to which Keys replied, “Hang that half-breed!”

  The executioner must have pulled the lever that would drop the platform underneath his feet. Cal gasped, hands flying to the rope tightening around his neck. He swore he’d go in peace, but damn. His throat burned. He desperately kicked at nothing but air. Endure it, Cal silently told himself, but fuck, it hurt.

  In the distance, he heard the loud roar of an animal, a ferocious beast. Maybe he was imagining things, but all he could focus on was the fire in his neck, his entire body. The pressure suddenly lessened. Cal was falling.

  Maybe this was death, except he landed on something hard. The arms of someone. He looked up, confused, seeing nothing but blazing eyes of gold set in a rough, scarred face. A warrior, maybe some kind of savage god.

  Lips touched the shell of his ear, the tender act making him freeze up.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll keep you safe.”

  Cal’s body began to shut down on him at those words, as if they were a trigger. Go to sleep, you don’t need to be scared. He’s finally here, a voice in his head said. Who was he, though? A hundred other questions raced in his head, but his vision started to dance. Cal saw dark spots, the face of his savior becoming blurry.

  He didn’t know why he reached out, desperate to know if this was all real. Hard leather bunched in his hand.

  “Will you be here when I wake up?” he found himself asking.

  “I’ll never let you out of my sight.”

  With those words, Cal let consciousness take him. If this was the afterlife, then he didn’t mind it at all one bit.

  * * * *

  Silence met Dimitri’s actions as he gazed at the uncon
scious figure in his arms. All Dimitri wanted to do was leave this wretched place, take Cal with him back to the Skull Crusher’s base, and get a healer to look at him, but that wouldn’t be the appropriate action for any Apex Alpha.

  Duncan and his enforcers made his way to him. They might be confused by his actions, but he’d trained them well enough to show no emotion, to react appropriately to any change in the situation.

  “Allow me, Alpha,” Duncan offered as he passed Cal to him.

  “What is the meaning of this, Dimitri?” Keys demanded. The villagers murmured among themselves as Keys, along with his advisors and several other village guards, approached him.

  All Dimitri wanted to do was let his seething bear out and tear Keys to shreds. Oh, the bastard ought to pay. Dimitri wouldn’t just rip out his neck. Keys didn’t deserve such a merciful death, not when Keys had inflicted so much misery on the people of Thorne Village, on his half-breed.

  Fur began to cover his arms, but Dimitri willed the change back. His bear wanted blood, to feel skin rip.

  Not good. Dimitri knew he couldn’t afford to show weakness to scum like Keys, so he had to act like the ruthless ruler here. Word might get out that he showed mercy to a random thief and that wouldn’t be good.

  When he killed Savage and became Apex Alpha, Dimitri knew there would always be a target painted on his back. There would always be challengers to his throne, and he’d only begun assessing the damage Savage had caused and hadn’t even begun on repairs.

  “Did I allow you to call me on a first name basis, Keys?” Dimitri asked with a growl. Keys froze, a couple of steps from him under the hangman’s platform. “Didn’t Savage do this kind of thing often? I want a new plaything, and since this half-breed is already sentenced to death, I’ve decided I have better use of him.”