by Anna Lowe
Part of her mind continued composing the plea for help, but a sinking sensation in her gut told her there was no use. Those men were not hikers, and they were certainly not the police.
She sidestepped, putting her back to the story-high boulder as Emmett came teetering into view.
“Get her,” Emmett barked, and they all closed in.
She backed up, panting wildly. Jesus, Emmett had a whole band of thugs to back him up. How could she get away? Could she scramble up the rocks? Swing again and hope for a miracle? Drop to her knees and plead?
“But don’t kill her,” Emmett added. “Yet.”
Her stomach lurched.
“I need to teach her a lesson first,” he finished, flashing a toothy grin.
She scratched the idea of dropping to her knees. Which left climbing the rock or trying to take down six men — seven, counting Emmett — with one golf club. A glance over her shoulder showed a smooth sheet of rock that stretched over her head. No way to get a foothold.
Fight. You have to stand and fight.
She tightened her hands on the club and tried to think of some other way out. Short of flying, however, she couldn’t come up with anything.
She scooted two steps right to where the boulder curved inward, giving her some protection from the sides. But Jesus, it wasn’t going to be enough. Even if she could fight these men one at a time, all they had to do was tire her out and grab their chance.
“Purity. Purity.” The men started chanting as they closed in on her.
Her throat went dry, imagining her own death. A slow, painful one at the hands of lunatics. What would happen to the other woman? Would they kill her, too?
One of the men stepped forward, and she shoved everything from her mind except the image of little Teddy. Somehow, she had to hold out until help came. If she died here, these lunatics could lure the others out the way they’d tricked her and kill them one by one.
“Purity,” the closest man chanted. His eyes darted around, looking for an opening in her defense.
She swung the golf club right. Just the move he was looking for, because he reached to intercept the shaft.
“Wrong,” she murmured, changing direction and swung the club high, then brought it crashing down toward his head.
The man threw his arms that way fast enough to deflect the blow from his head to his shoulder, but the club still connected with a heavy thump.
He grunted and fell back, clutching his shoulder.
“You idiot,” Emmett barked. “How hard can it be?”
She refrained from pointing to the lump on Emmett’s head and brought the golf club to a ready position instead.
Two men exchanged glances, nodded, and came for her.
“Over here,” one of them goaded her.
“Over here,” the other echoed, snapping his fingers for her attention.
What was she, a rabid dog backed into a corner?
Well, she sure wasn’t far off.
She was so desperate, she grabbed on to the notion and decided to run with it. She channeled rabid-dog vibes and bared her teeth. Why the hell not?
“Over here,” she shot back, wiggling the end of the golf club. The sun glinted off the head, making the man on the right squint.
There, her inner coach yelled, and she swung. A short, karate chop that caught the man on the arm and pushed him back, leaving her a fraction of a second to backhand the second man. He warded off the blow, taking the brunt of the force with his forearm, and she swore she heard the bone crack. He was still reaching for her with his left hand, though, and she had just enough time for a defensive jab. It was aimed at his face, and though it landed on his collarbone, she still counted that as her point.
Another crack, another cry of pain.
Anna gulped back the bile in her throat and found her footing as the two men fell back. Two others took their place.
“Shift!” Emmett screamed at them. “Go for her throat.”
The men paused and considered for a moment, then nodded as the others chanted away.
“Purity. Purity.”
“What kind of men are you?” she screamed, desperate for one of them to come to his senses and call off the attack. “What kind of cowards?”
The two closest to her squared their shoulders and let their jaws hang open.
“Not men,” Emmett sneered. “Shifters.”
One of the men made a choking sound and doubled over. The other bared his teeth. Anna stared, unable to tear her gaze from the flash of white. The lengthening flash of white.
“What the…?”
“Shifters,” Emmett repeated as the man pulled his lips back farther.
She wasn’t imagining things. His canines were getting longer.
“The last of the chosen few,” Emmett went on. “Those committed to preserving our bloodlines.”
She gasped aloud as hair broke out all over the closest man’s skin.
“There are those who wish to stop us, but we will stop them. We will stop all of you.”
The closest man fell to all fours. His shirt split down his back. Beside him, the second man shook off scraps of fabric, revealing a curved back covered in hair.
“Wolf…” she stuttered. Good God, the men were changing into beasts.
She dared glancing away just long enough to stare at Emmett. He stood on two feet, utterly unchanged, grinning at her.
The scar. Look at the scar. She focused on the scar running straight up from one lip. Same scar as the wolf who came running out of the woods the day of her hike.
She stared at Emmett and read the truth in his eyes. Shifter. Man. Wolf.
“Jesus.” She looked back at the wolves that stood before her. One shook his coat as if coming in from the rain, and the other flicked his tail and showed his teeth.
“You see?” Emmett cackled as the beasts growled. “Wolves belong with wolves, and bears belong with bears.”
Her mind spun. If these guys were the wolves, who were the bears?
“Humans belong with humans.” He pointed at her. “And you have dared to cross species lines. Don’t you see?”
She didn’t see anything but the loathing in his eyes.
“You are unpure,” he said, practically spitting the words out.
She swung the golf club, warning away the wolves while her mind picked the riddle apart.
You’ve whored yourself to that bear, Emmett had said.
She hadn’t whored herself to anyone, but yes, she had slept with Todd.
“You must die,” Emmett concluded, clapping his hands.
The two wolves snarled and stepped forward.
Bear…Todd…
Stop thinking! Just act!
She dropped the threads of thought that had started to connect Todd and bear and wound up for another swing.
It made her sick, how easy she found it to strike out at an enemy and hope for blood, even death. She’d never killed anything but insects in her life. But suddenly, she was thrust into the role of warrior in a fight to the death. And her death was only part of a greater scheme. Worse still was the idea of someone as innocent as little Teddy dying.
Teddy, Todd’s son.
The idea fueled her in a way muscle alone never would have done, and while everything at the edges of her vision blurred, the center was frighteningly clear. She focused on the wolves before her.
Kill them. Kill them now.
Metal shone in a wide arc as she unleashed a furious blow. She struck the wolf on the right on the shoulder. The other leaped forward with a growl, and she punched it back with a jab at the nose.
They both backed up, shook their dark coats, and closed in again. The four men behind them chanted their eerie chant, and Emmett LeBlanc cheered it all on.
Part of her watched like an out-of-body experience. How on earth was she going to overcome these odds?
The wolves sprang forward in tandem, tearing at her legs, and she jumped back, raking the space before her with the golf club. One
of the wolves went sprawling but the other dashed forward, and she kicked just in time to connect with its muzzle.
She swung the golf club back to a ready position, panting wildly.
“Get her!” Emmett yelled.
Another attack; another blur. She hacked and swung and chopped until her shoulders ached. She swung too wide, slamming her weapon into the boulder, and the blow vibrated right into her arms. Then it wasn’t only wolf jaws snapping at her, but human hands, too. The other men had joined in, crowding her tiny space.
“No!” she screamed when one caught the golf club and wrenched it out of her hands.
She kicked at one wolf, but another dove in, butting her legs. She teetered, clawing desperately at the hands reaching for her, but it was too late. She fell, but the man hauled her to her feet and slapped her so hard, her vision went double for a moment.
A moment too long, because two blurry Emmetts moved in and four greedy hands reached out.
“Gotcha, bitch!”
Emmett grabbed her by the neck and gripped hard, squeezing the life out of her.
“You see?” he screamed in triumph.
She clawed at his face and arms, desperate to get free.
“Thought you could fight with me, little bitch?”
She landed a kick at his shins, and his grip loosened just long enough for her to suck in a breath of air.
“Don’t make this harder on yourself, honey.”
She scratched at his eyes, but she could barely see. Her kicks grew weaker, and she wheezed desperately. God, she couldn’t breathe.
“You will die, and the others, too.” Emmett’s face was purple with rage, and his stale breath stuck in her nose.
She closed her eyes, unable to face him any more. If she had to die, she’d shut her mind off to the worst of it.
Don’t die! Fight him! an inner voice cried.
She gave another weak kick, a feeble punch, but he parried both easily.
Don’t die. Hang in there.
She knew she had to be dying, because the voice no longer sounded like her own. It came whispering into her mind from a distance, like an angel in her hour of need.
She allowed herself a tiny inner smile. That’s what she’d think of. An angel.
The funny thing was, she’d always pictured angels as women with fluttery white gowns and wings, but the image that came to her was of Todd.
Don’t die. Not now. Not like this.
Why did the words sound so familiar?
“You see?” Emmett raged on, but his voice grew fainter. “No one can stop us.”
Don’t die. The angel’s voice grew fainter.
How could she not die? She didn’t have any air.
Emmett changed his grip on her throat, and she gulped a tiny breath of air.
Not now. Not like this.
Maybe the angel was right. Maybe she could last a little longer.
Why bother? part of her wailed, ready for it to be over.
Hang on. Just hang on, the angel pleaded in her mind.
She stopped struggling and tried anticipating Emmett’s shakes. He rattled her back and forth like a rag doll, making her sick. But when he pushed her body away from his, his fingers let up a little, and if she was quick enough, she could catch a little air.
“Say it!” Emmett screamed on. “Tell me I was right!”
Hold on…
She tried to, but the world was getting darker. Even with her eyes closed, she could feel her awareness slip away.
“Tell me I am the best—”
Emmett’s tirade was cut off by a mighty roar that ripped out of nowhere, and the ground shook under her feet. The earth seemed to swallow her up, and she crashed into something hard.
Breathe, the angel ordered as the world around her exploded in barks and growls.
She blinked, finding herself on the ground, fallen in a heap.
“You,” Emmett cried in a disbelieving voice.
Anna managed to roll sideways, away from the chaos just inches from her side. She twisted to a belly-down position and gasped wildly.
Alive. She was alive.
Dust flew through the air, choking her. She pushed to her knees, then her feet, leaning heavily against the boulder. That side of her universe was safe. The other was a tornado. A typhoon. A battlefield.
“Get him! Get him!” Emmett yelled.
A deep, furious bellow replied, followed by a heavy thump.
She blinked frantically. What was happening?
Sun glinted off steel, and she spotted the golf club at her feet. She nearly lost her balance reaching for it, but her fingers closed around the handle and whipped it back just before a massive paw stepped into that space.
A massive, furry paw connected to a thickly muscled leg.
She fell back against the boulder, gaping upward.
A bear. A grizzly bear?
It was on its back legs, and fur bristled all over its back. Thick and shiny, the bear’s coat shook with each of his furious roars.
She shrank back against the rock, trembling.
The bear made a barrier in front of her, crowding her space. Beyond it, a dozen smaller paws shuffled left and right, and a chorus of growls met each of the bear’s roars.
Clutching the golf club, she pushed herself back to her feet and stared. The bear was fighting the wolves off. He was helping her.
“Every Voss will die!” Emmett screamed.
Voss? Todd was a Voss. Soren was a Voss, and Simon was, too.
The threads her mind had been trying to weave together earlier started connecting again.
You’ve whored yourself to that bear…
The dipper is his nose, Todd had said, showing her the stars. It’s a grizzly, not a polar bear.
Shifters, Emmett had sneered. And you have dared cross species lines.
Species, as in humans and bears.
The bear bellowed again, and she stared.
Todd was a bear?
A bear— he’d started saying about Teddy before he corrected it to baby. A baby needs other things, too.
The baby is going to be the first to die, Emmett had said.
The baby was a bear? A shifter?
Her startled mind flew back to their conversation under the stars.
How does the bear know it’s his mate? she’d asked, thinking it was all make-believe.
He knows the second he sees her. That’s the easy part.
She remembered the moment she’d laid eyes on him at the door to the saloon the first time they’d met. How strong the pull was even then, how hard it was to see him hurry by.
The hard part is making sure he’s worthy of her, Todd had explained in a choked voice.
A teary cry broke from her throat, and the bear glanced back.
“Todd,” she whispered, staring into his impossibly blue eyes.
He chuffed, and it was a mournful sound. Then he turned back to their attackers and swung a paw spiked with four-inch claws.
Todd. Claws. Paws.
Holy shit.
Anna took a deep breath and dried the handle of the golf club with her shirt. Every movement seemed too slow, like her mind, but she had a grasp of the basics at last. Wolves, bad. Bear, good. Fight to the death.
And damn it, she was not going to die.
Her mind zoomed from the biggest overview to the tiniest details, like the fact that her hands were all sweaty, and she needed a good grip if she wanted to help Todd fight the wolves off.
“They want to kill everyone. Teddy, too,” she cried.
The bear bellowed and swept forward, going from defense to attack. Wolves snapped at him from all directions, darting in and out, working as a team.
Yeah, well. She could do that, too. Anna stepped forward, holding the golf club up, looking for her chance.
One of the wolves darted forward, focused entirely on the bear. She gripped the golf club with both hands and brought it crashing down between its shoulder blades. The wolf yelped, fell, and then
crawled away, whimpering like she ought to feel sorry for it.
As if.
The other wolves bayed in outrage. The bear took another step forward, challenging them.
A challenge that was met instantly. Furiously. The bear — Todd? — took care of most of the assault, but Anna covered his left side enough to let him focus on driving them back. With a mighty swipe of the left paw, he hurtled one wolf aside. It yelped and lay still. The others cut in and out, looking for an opening.
All of the men were in wolf form now, and Anna didn’t have to wonder which was Emmett LeBlanc. If the scar hadn’t given him away, his commanding yips would have — yips that consistently sounded from the relative safety of the back of the pack.
“Coward,” she muttered.
He showed his teeth.
She cut the legs out from under the next wolf who ventured too near, and Todd finished him off with both sets of claws.
Both sets, she noticed. He favored the right paw, but it was just as effective as the left.
Deadly, in other words.
Still, they were one bear and one human against seven determined wolves. Whatever the wolves’ misguided mission might be, it drove them to risk their necks again and again.
Get them! She could practically hear the order coded into Emmett’s snarls.
The wolves hung back for one second then jumped forward at once. Todd lunged forward to meet them while Anna stood a step behind, swinging at the one wolf who seemed assigned to take her on. A smart one that waited for her to swing wide then attempted to dash in. Its teeth clicked together an inch away from her knee, and she stumbled back, landing on her rear.
Todd roared and loomed over the wolf, then reached out with a massive paw and struck. The wolf tumbled before crashing into a rock and going limp.
Deadly limp.
Todd looked at her, and she swore he was about to reach a hand out to pull her to her feet before he realized it was a paw.
“Watch out!” she screamed, pointing to the wolf leaping at him from behind. An incredibly high, incredibly bold leap that Todd turned too late to intercept.
The wolf went for Todd’s ear — far from a mortal blow, but still, Anna cried out.
“No!”
She could predict how the wolf wanted it to play out. He’d drag Todd’s ear down with his weight. The others would be on top of him in a flash. Even a bear of Todd’s size couldn’t withstand the weight of several two-hundred-pound wolves.