by Kim Fox
I can’t get home fast enough. Just the thought of Abigail in my cabin is driving me crazy. I don’t know how long she’s staying and I don’t want to miss a second.
My stomach drops when I finally arrive and see her. She’s crying.
Maximus, Lachlan, Jessie, and the twins, Tito and Ronin, are hovered around her. What is going on?
I throw the pickup truck into park and race over, trying to pick up bits of words as I go.
“I’m so sorry,” she says as tears stream down her cheeks. “I’m trying to find a cure for him.”
“A cure?” Tito says, looking offended. “He doesn’t need to be cured.”
“I don’t think she meant it like that,” Maximus says as I hurry over. “Give her a break, she’s clearly been through a lot.”
“What’s going on?” I ask when I arrive in the circle.
Abigail’s wet eyes dart up to mine and my heart breaks when I see the pain in them. I would do anything to take that pain away from her gorgeous green eyes.
“Bryce ran away,” she says. Her voice is all shaky. I just want to hold her in my arms and tell her that everything will be okay, but there are too many people around, and I don’t think we’re there yet.
“We’ll find him,” I say with a nod.
Abigail winces. “But he’s not…” She glances at Lachlan and Jessie.
“He’s a lion,” I say. “I know.”
Her eyes widen in shock as she turns to me. “You know? How?” She turns back to Lachlan and Jessie. “Did you call him? When? I was here the whole time.”
“It’s okay,” I say as I walk up to her. I slide my arm around her shoulder and turn her away from the group. “We’ll find your brother.”
I walk her into the forest and glance over my shoulder in time to see the others spreading out to search in different directions.
Even a full-grown lion wouldn’t be safe in this forest. Kneecap’s psychotic bear lives in here and he doesn’t take kindly to intruders.
Abigail will be safe with me. Kneecap won’t attack a member of his crew. Hopefully.
“How did you know?” she asks, staring up at me in awe. “That Bryce turns into a lion?”
I’m going to be a hundred percent honest with her from this moment forward.
“I smelled him.”
“You smelled him?” She looks so freaked out.
Okay, maybe ninety-nine percent honest. I don’t want to scare her away too soon.
“My cousin is a shifter,” I say, feeling uncomfortable lying to her. I’ll tell her the truth eventually, just, when she’s ready to hear it. “They have the same smell.”
“Oh,” she says, scrunching her eyebrows up as she looks at the ground. “Does your cousin change into a lion at the worst possible times too?”
“No,” I say, giving her a reassuring smile. “He learned to control his animal. He learned to live with him. Just like Bryce will do.”
She looks so lost. “How is he going to learn that? The lion has complete control over the poor kid.”
“With time,” I say, stepping a little closer to her. “And with some help.”
“I’ve tried to help him,” she says, shaking her head. “Sometimes I think I’ve done more harm than good.”
“You’ve done good.”
Her shoulders droop down. “Right.”
“It’s true. Is that why you moved here from the city?”
“Yeah. I heard the country was better for shifters.”
“It is. Bryce’s lion needs to roam around out here,” I say, waving my hands at all of the lush vegetation. The trees are thick and tall, providing a beautiful canopy of green over our heads. “They go crazy in the concrete jungle. They need real jungle.”
I’m tracking his scent as we walk, smelling the air and working out which direction he’s in. It’s not hard. The distinctive smell of lion cuts through everything else.
“We should pick up the pace,” I say when I get an old whiff of Kneecap’s grizzly. “I don’t want anything to happen to Bryce.”
She looks up at me with a chuckle. “What’s in here that can hurt a lion?”
I shrug even though my stomach hardens and I get a sour taste in my mouth. Kneecap can hurt a whole pride of lions.
He’s always made me a little nervous. I’ve never met a bear as unpredictable as him.
I swallow hard, regretting my decision to bring Abigail in here.
It’s okay. Maximus and the boys are around. One call to them and they’ll be by my side almost instantly. I can hold off Kneecap for that long if I have to.
Wait. Can I hold off Kneecap for that long?
“There he is!” Abigail shouts as she points at Bryce. He’s kneeling beside a tree, naked and afraid. She’s by his side in an instant. “Bryce, it’s me.”
“Abigail? I’m so sorry. You should stay here, and I’ll go,” Bryce says. He’s on the verge of tears. “You don’t deserve this.”
“No,” Abigail says with a fierce protectiveness. “We’re staying together. Always.”
I can tell these two have been through a lot. Bryce has no control over his lion. I can almost smell the chaos emanating from within. He needs some structure. Some guidance. He needs to be in a crew of lion shifters who can help him gain control of his animal so they can live in harmony.
Abigail has tried to help him in every way that she could, but there’s nothing she can do about this. He needs experienced shifters to help him through this difficult time.
They both have a red flush creeping across their cheeks as they look up at me.
“Now you know our secret,” Abigail says in a weakened voice.
Bryce’s chin is trembling. “I’m sorry,” he says to me. The embarrassment is thick in his voice.
I drop to my knee beside them. “Hey,” I say with a forceful tone. “You’re a shifter. That’s nothing to be sorry about or to be embarrassed about.”
I slap him on the chest and grin. “You’re a badass. You have a fucking lion—an apex predator—living inside you. Start acting like it.”
The kid looks up at me with surprised eyes.
“You’re strong. Powerful. Soon you’ll be able to lift up cars and punch down trees. You’re growing into a badass beast. This is a good thing.”
He wipes his eyes and looks at me, already his back is a little straighter, his chin a little higher. “A good thing?” he asks, looking at me with an unsure expression on his face.
“Fuck yeah,” I say, slapping his arm. He winces. “You can learn to talk to him. You two can learn to share the same body.”
“But he doesn’t want to be controlled,” he says. “He won’t listen. He comes out whenever he wants to.”
“You have to learn to work with him and not fight him,” I say, poking his chest. “If you do that, you’ll be unstoppable.”
He’s quiet for a minute, thinking about what I just said.
I glance over at Abigail. She’s staring at me in awe.
“But how do I learn to work with him if he doesn’t want to work with me?” Bryce asks.
“It’s not going to happen overnight,” I tell him. “It’s a long process and all part of growing up. You have to learn to trust each other, and that trust doesn’t happen in an hour. It takes years of working together.”
He looks down at his chest as if he’s trying to see the animal lurking within.
“Have you tried talking to him?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “No. I’m terrified of him.”
“That’s the problem,” I say. “He can smell your fear. He’s taking control because you aren’t. Remember, he’s a lion. He’s not going to work with someone who’s trembling in fear. He’ll walk right over you every time.”
Bryce sighs. “How can I talk to a lion?”
I shrug. “You just do. You two will figure it out. He’s not going anywhere so it’s not like you have much of a choice.”
“But he can live with him?” Abigail asks. “In peace? H
e doesn’t need to get cured?”
“The cure is learning to live with him in peace,” I tell her. “It’s an amazing thing to be a shifter. It’s hard now, but one day you won’t trade it for the world.”
Bryce chuckles. “I don’t know about that.”
“It’s true,” I say. “And the day you bond with your mate you’ll see that I’m right.”
“His mate?” Abigail asks.
“Every shifter has one mate for them,” I tell her. I should be talking to Bryce, but I can’t take my eyes off her. “The girl he bonds to will be his forever. And he’ll be hers. It will feel like their souls have been entwined together because they have.”
I’m staring into her gorgeous green eyes, wondering if it’s going to be her. I really hope it is.
“I don’t need that,” Bryce says with a laugh. “I just want to get some control over this wild animal.”
It takes some effort, but I pry my eyes from Abigail and turn back to him.
“You’ll get it,” I say. “Every shifter manages to get some control over their animal.”
Uh oh.
That smell. I spoke too soon.
Most shifters get some control over their animal.
The scent of Kneecap’s lunatic bear comes traveling on the light breeze and my heart starts pounding. My bear lunges into alert mode, ready to phase at the drop of a grizzly bear. You never know what to expect when Kneecap comes to play.
Bryce’s lion seems to smell him too. He starts shaking and convulsing.
“It’s happening again,” Bryce says, his face straining.
“Talk to him,” Abigail says, trying to keep her voice calm, but I can tell that inside she’s freaking out.
“Maybe we can work on that later,” I say, grabbing each of them by their arm and pulling them up to their feet. “We better get out of here. Quickly.”
I turn in the direction we came and stop short when I see the enormous grizzly bear blocking our path. Kneecap’s bear circled downwind to catch me by surprise. He’s as clever as he is psychotic.
“Oh, boy,” Abigail says with a gasp when she sees him.
The bear is a monster. Twice the size of mine with ten times the crazy.
Bryce’s lion takes over and he phases beside me. This is going to make things even more precarious. Now I’m in the middle of two unpredictable animals with Abigail by my side.
“Kneecap,” I say slowly as I raise my hand to the bear. “These are my friends. They’re welcome guests of our crew.”
“He has a name?” Abigail whispers beside me.
The hair on the bear’s back stands straight up as he growls. The lion doesn’t like that and snarls back.
“Easy, Bryce,” I say, turning to the mangy lion. He’s barely an adolescent with a scruffy mane and small paws. Kneecap would use him as a toothpick if he was stupid enough to attack, but adolescent males, even in lion form, can rarely be relied upon to not do stupid things.
“If you can hear me, Bryce,” I say to the lion. “Now would be a good time to start talking to your lion. Tell him to shut the fuck up and stop growling or he’s going to get a tour of a grizzly bear’s digestive tract.”
If Bryce survives this encounter, he’ll be able to calm his lion down one day, but unfortunately, today is not that day. The stupid lion doubles down and roars.
I shake my head and curse under my breath. He needs to work on his roar.
“Kneecap,” I say, turning back to the more reasonable animal. Wow, you know you’re in a bad spot when Kneecap’s bear is the more reasonable animal. “These two are under our crew’s protection. They are under Maximus, your alpha’s, care. If you harm them, you’ll be in direct violation of our alpha’s orders!”
I can feel my bear skimming my surface, itching to get out. I need this situation diffused. Not escalated.
Kneecap’s grizzly huffs out a deep grunt and stands up on his hind legs. Jesus. He’s huge.
My stomach drops as I look up at him.
“Holy fuck,” Abigail says with a gasp.
Bryce’s lion growls back at him. His body is crouched down, looking like it’s ready to pounce.
“Don’t even thi—”
In a golden blur, the lion takes off, charging at the psychotic bear.
I react just in time, grabbing Bryce’s tail in my hand, stopping him with a whimper. “Get back there!” I shout as I yank him back with all of my strength. I launch the stubborn cat through the air and send him flying at least thirty yards behind us.
That takes care of the easy one, but the harder one looks madder than ever.
With a furious grunt, Kneecap drops to his four legs and charges at us on his thunderous paws.
“Guys!” I yell so loud that the birds in the trees above us fly away. “A little help!”
I throw a glance at Abigail over my shoulder. “Run!” I shout to her, but the fear has frozen her like a statue. Her wide eyes aren’t even blinking.
I turn back just in time to see Kneecap’s huge paw come swiping at me. His long black claws slice through my chest like knives; carving my flesh, ripping my muscle, and leaving a wet bloody mess.
Abigail screams as thick hot blood pours down my stomach from the searing wounds on my chest.
“Goddamn,” I grunt, wincing in pain as I glance down at my hacked up chest. I hate this fucking bear.
My legs start to lose their strength and the trees are going blurry. I shake out the daze in my head just in time to see Kneecap’s other paw come swiping at me.
8
Abigail
There’s so much blood.
It’s pouring down Caleb’s chest from the long thick gashes. I can’t move. I have to do something, but I literally can’t move. My heart is thrashing in my ears. My pulse is racing, and I’m practically hyperventilating as I watch the enormous grizzly bear glare at Caleb.
Do something! I scream to myself, but myself doesn’t listen.
“Goddamn,” Caleb grunts as he looks down at his shredded chest. It was shredded in the good way before, but now it’s shredded in the bad way. It’s a bloody mess of ripped up flesh.
The grizzly bear launches his huge paw at him again, but this time Caleb is ready. He ducks out of the way, grunting in pain as the horrifying paw flies over his head harmlessly.
My body snaps into action and I can finally move again. Caleb managed to move out of the way of that assault, but he won’t be able to keep up that pace for long. Especially with him losing so much blood.
I scan the forest floor for a weapon, for anything, and find a rock the size of a baseball by my foot. I quickly grab it and throw it at the vicious bear as hard as I can. It bounces off his massive shoulder like it was made of styrofoam. He doesn’t even seem to notice.
My mouth drops when Caleb takes a step toward the bear and shoves his finger into his face. “What the fuck?!?” he screams. “We’re on the same crew, you dick!”
My heart is pounding as I watch him. That bear is going to bite not just his finger off, but his whole hand.
But surprisingly, he doesn’t. He just stares at Caleb.
“Kneecap,” he shouts as he clutches his chest like he’s trying to hold the blood in. “Can you not be a total hairy ball sack for like two freaking minutes?!? This is the girl I’m falling in love with!”
He points right at me and even though we’re in a deadly situation, I can’t help but feel a jolt of… something.
He’s falling in love with me? My heart starts beating faster, but in a different way.
Caleb just said that he’s falling in love with me. Yeah, well, he’s also talking to a freaking attacking grizzly bear, so maybe he’s not totally with it right now.
He’s calling him Kneecap and talking to him like they know each other. He must be delirious from the lack of blood. Or, maybe I’m delirious from the terror.
The sound of movement behind me makes me jerk my head back. Oh no. Bryce’s lion is stalking forward, ready to make this horrible s
ituation even worse. At least Caleb has got the bear to stop attacking even if it doesn’t make any sense why.
“No, Bryce,” I say, but the words get caught under my breath.
The grizzly turns from Caleb back to my brother. The momentary calm disappears from the bear and the fury comes back.
The lion plants his paws and lets out a loud cracking roar that really gets the grizzly’s attention.
The bear raises back up on his hind legs and lets out his own deep roar that I feel in my bones. My body is shaking when he’s done and every goosebump on my body is up in alarm.
Bryce’s lion takes one look at that, turns on his paws, and flees. He disappears into the forest, sprinting away as fast as he can.
The grizzly bear charges after him, leaving Caleb and me alone.
“Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” I gasp over and over again as I rush over to him. “Are you okay?”
He’s taking deep breaths as he looks over my head in the direction that the two animals ran in.
“I have to go,” he says. I grab onto his thick bicep as he takes a step.
“Wait!” I shout, trying to pull him back, but it’s like trying to stop a train with only your body. My feet drag along the dirt. “Your chest. You shouldn’t be walking.”
He stops and places his hand on mine. “It’s okay,” he says softly as he turns to me. “I’m okay.”
“But the blood?” How can he be okay? He should be dying right now, but instead, he’s about to chase down a bear and a lion. How strong is this guy?
“I’ll meet you back at the cabin,” he says, locking eyes with me. “You see that mountaintop?”
He points up at the top of the mountain peeking through the trees.
“Walk in that direction and you’ll get back to the camp,” he says, prying my tight fingers off his arm. “Just follow that mountain and you won’t get lost.”
“But…”
My words fall away as he takes off running. Running!
He’s acting like his chest is already healed. Is this guy Superman or something?
I take a deep breath when he disappears into the trees, leaving me all alone.
The forest is so quiet. My body starts tingling and my chest tightens.