by T. S. Joyce
“We can. Do you know how much these men have paid to hunt a real life grizzly shifter?” His blue eyes sparked as he took a step toward her. “Thousands.”
“You’re killing people!”
The bear groaned from the ground ten yards away.
“That’s not a person,” the man spat out. “It’s a monster, and I’m just the guide to annihilate them from the face of the planet. For a fee, of course.”
So here was the leader. The one who’d organized it all. Her finger brushed the trigger.
“I wouldn’t,” he advised. “You have a lot of weapons trained on you right now, and your clip is empty. I counted your shots.”
With an empty smile, the man swung his rifle to the bear. “You can watch.”
A sob clawed up her throat. Not for her or the bear or for what she was about to do. But because Jason was going to lose a second mate. It wasn’t Tessa who was meant to destroy him. It was her.
As the man took aim, Georgia gritted out, “You counted wrong.” She pulled the trigger and the man’s eyes went wide as blood trickled down the bridge of his nose. He fell to the snow like a sack of stones.
And then pain.
So much pain.
Burning, ripping, tearing ache that dropped her to her knees.
The bear dragged its broken body toward her. The gunfire stopped. The only noise was a cold chuckle from one of the shifter hunters. “Got us a female,” he said low.
Georgia struggled for breath and fell backward. She couldn’t feel her legs, but her stomach felt like someone had started a fire inside of her. She focused on the bear. He was intent on reaching her. They would kill him soon, but at least she’d tried her best to save him. She could die knowing she was no coward. Still, it was tragic that both of their deaths meant nothing. The other crews didn’t even know they were being hunted.
Her breath came in short pants as her lungs struggled to pull oxygen past the fluid filling them. Warmth trickled down the side of her mouth as she clutched her stomach.
The bear was clawing the ground desperately trying to reach her. Trying to be there for her when she passed. Sweet bear. She wished he wasn’t going to die alone.
She stretched her fingertips out for him. Her hands were covered in sticky red, contrasting with the white snowflakes that fell onto her shaking open palm. A man stood over her, the devil’s look in his empty hazel eyes. He lifted his gun just as a giant shadow covered them all.
With a frown, the man looked up, but nothing was in the sky save storm clouds and the birds the gunfight had ousted from their roosts. “What was that?” he muttered.
Georgia smiled. “Bears aren’t the only monsters you have to fear in these woods, poacher.”
The man looked down at her as a wave of uncertainty washed through his eyes. “What does that mean?”
“It means if the bears don’t get you…the dragons will.”
And then there was fire.
Chapter Thirteen
“They’re here,” Tessa whispered again. She was barely visible anymore, but Jason could still hear her just fine.
“Piss off, Tessa.” He picked up another log and balanced it over his shoulder. He walked right through her transparent body to load the lumber into the back of the truck. Up here, he didn’t have to hide how strong he was. No humans came up this far into Damon’s wilderness, and even if they did, Jason was a registered shifter. They could get over it.
He picked up another huge log and tossed it in the back with the others.
“They’re here,” Tessa repeated for the tenth time.
“Who! Who are here, Tessa? Who?” He blasted his hands on his fists and glared at the ghost.
“The poachers.” Tessa’s soft words whipped around on the breeze. “Save her. Save yourself.”
All of the fine hairs on his body electrified as he watched Tessa disappear. “Creed?”
His alpha stopped stacking loops of cable at the edge of the landing. “What?”
Jason swung his gaze in the direction of the ranger tower. “I don’t know. Something doesn’t feel right.”
“What do you mean?”
From the edge of the landing, he could see all of Damon Daye’s mountains. A flock of birds left a tree near the edge of Boarlander territory, and Jason narrowed his eyes at their cawing escape. “I think I need to go.”
“Is it Georgia?”
“Yeah.” He bolted for his truck.
A shrill whistle rang out from his alpha, and before he’d pulled out of the parking lot, the other Gray Backs were loading into Creed’s truck.
“Hurry,” Tessa’s whisper urged.
Jason slammed his foot on the gas and took the first switchback dangerously fast. His heart pounded hard against his sternum, faster and faster, as if it was urging him on, too.
This was silly. He blasted through the Grayland Mobile Park and onto the dirt road that led to the ranger station. He’d probably get there and she’d be making her rounds, looking at him like he’d lost his mind, and Tessa would get a good cackling laugh at her sick joke.
A shot rang out. It was faint, but the blast short, perking up his sensitive ears and making them tingle. Whoever had pulled that trigger had hit what they were aiming for.
“Oh God,” he murmured as he spotted the trashed ranger station ahead. The snow hadn’t quite covered the debris underneath it yet.
More gunfire echoed through the woods as he blasted past the tower. Something was wrong. Georgia wasn’t here, and the ATV was gone, too. God no. No, no, no.
“Hang on, baby. I’m coming,” he gritted out as he zoomed around a brush pile. Georgia’s ATV tracks were faint and half filled in with snow, but he could still read them.
A whooshing sound drowned out the gunfire and threw his truck to the side. He fishtailed, but regained control. Above him, a gigantic blue and cream-colored dragon was pushing himself through the air, his powerful wings beating down so hard, trees bent with the wind he created under him.
“Fuck!” Jason yelled. Tessa wasn’t playing a joke on him. The only thing that pulled Damon Daye from his human skin was if one of his people were in trouble.
Georgia, Georgia, Georgia, hang on.
A smaller dragon flew overhead. Damon’s daughter, Diem, was flying with the same urgency, and to his left, a giant grizzly charged through the woods. It was Tagan, alpha of the Ashe Crew, and his bears were running behind him, shaking the earth under his tires with their powerful strides.
The gunfire had died off, and Jason could see fire now. Tall flames licked the trees in rows as black smoke billowed into the sky.
He slammed on the brake and threw it in park. His feet hit the ground running. He could smell her now, his Georgia. Georgia, iron, and smoke. Animal and injured pine bark. The metallic smell of bullets and the faint scent of smoke that came from gun barrels when they fired.
Flames everywhere. “Georgia!” he yelled as he ran as fast as he could.
There.
She was lying beside Harrison in his bear form, clutching his paw as she struggled to breathe. Blood. Blood everywhere, and her chest rocked with her efforts to stay alive. Blood on snow. Red soaking white. Her face so pale, and those beautiful freckles stark against her colorless cheeks.
She was crying. Tears streamed down the corners of her eyes as he reached her.
“I thought you wouldn’t get here in time,” she whispered brokenly.
“Georgia,” Jason whispered, pulling her head onto his lap.
One look at her stomach, and he ripped his gaze away as his vision blurred with tears. This wasn’t fixable. “No. No! I just got you!”
Georgia’s face crumpled as more tears streamed down her face. “Jason. Jason, I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you that. I’m so sorry.”
“Baby,” he crooned, resting his forehead against hers. “I don’t want you to go.”
“Change her,” Tessa whispered. “Claim her.”
Jason looked up, and she stood there with the sadd
est eyes. A wall of flames was behind her, but through them, he could see bears battling, tearing and ripping at the bastards who had done this. Georgia would be avenged, but that didn’t make him feel better. Not now.
Tessa disappeared and then reappeared right in front of him. She flickered like an old television screen. “Do it fast before it’s too late. Save her. Save yourself.”
He looked down at his mate’s crumpled body as the life left her eyes. “I love you,” he told Georgia, ripping her open jacket to the side. “Forgive me.”
He pulled her sweater away to expose her shoulder, and then he clamped his teeth down until he touched bone.
She didn’t scream. She didn’t flinch either, and when he pulled back, his mouth wet with her blood, her eyes were closed.
“No!” he roared. He laid her down and pressed his palms hard against her chest, over and over. If he could keep her heart beating with CPR until she Changed… “You can’t leave me, Georgia. Not now. I need you. Do you hear me? I need you!”
“Jason,” Creed said as soft as the breeze.
He put a hand on Jason’s shoulder, but he shook his alpha off. “Get the fuck away from me.” He breathed into her mouth.
How long had he been doing this? Minutes? Hours?
“Jason,” Creed said again, “she’s gone.”
Easton dropped to his knees in the snow beside him, and the next time Jason breathed air into her mouth, he took over pumping his fists against her chest. Willa was standing over them, weeping, but this wasn’t it. That couldn’t be all the time he got with Georgia. He wasn’t quitting.
He bit her again, and then again on her other shoulder while Easton kept her heart pumping.
“Come on, Georgia. Breathe!” Matt yelled behind him, loud enough to echo through the clearing where the other crews were gathering around Jason as he and Easton fought to save her life.
Creed knelt down beside them and felt her wrist for a pulse, but that didn’t stop Jason from breathing oxygen into her mouth again.
The snarl was so soft he had to be imagining it. It was just wishful thinking, so he slammed his fists against her chest. “Wake up, Georgia! Don’t you fucking leave me!”
The growl grew louder, and he froze. It wasn’t a familiar warning. It wasn’t Easton’s or Creed’s. It wasn’t his or Matt’s or Willa’s. This feral sound, he’d never heard before. It was the sound of a new Gray Back.
Easton heard it, too, because he stood and backed slowly away with a hopeful smile.
“Please, baby,” Jason rasped as he pulled her head into his lap again. “Let that bear have you, Georgia. Let her save you, baby.”
Georgia’s back bowed against him as she opened her mouth and roared. The sound was deafening and full of agony and fury. Her bear was going to bleed him ripping out of her, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t let her do this alone.
Snowflakes landed on her dark lashes as she relaxed against him.
And when her eyes opened and her pupils retracted, silver churned there like the storm clouds above.
Tessa knelt down next to Georgia. She looked down at his mate as Georgia dragged in a long, ragged breath. Tessa’s sad gaze lifted to Jason, and she opened her mouth to scream. Only this time she didn’t shriek and melt away to ash. This time, she whispered, “I’m sorry.”
And then she faded to nothing.
Chapter Fourteen
Georgia gasped. Her body was floating and numb, but perhaps that was from the snow under her. Inside, a strange sensation filled her. She could almost feel her body repairing itself, organ by organ. Her stomach burned as it fused together.
The evergreen branches above were perfectly clear. She could see every knob on every limb and every single pine needle with startling accuracy. Her shoulders hurt. Everything ached, but her shoulders were burning with a different kind of agony. It was fading though, slowly.
Something unsettling moved inside of her, and an unfamiliar rumble rattled her throat. The pressure expanded from the size of a marble until it filled every cell of her body. She gritted her teeth and fought to stay whole, but she was shattering like broken mirror glass.
She screamed, but she didn’t recognize her voice. It was deep and feral. Terrifying.
Her back arched as her insides exploded.
The roar tapered off, and she landed hard on the unforgiving snowy ground.
“She saved my life,” a man said, pointing to her. “The park ranger saved my life.” He was naked and covered in blood, surrounded by a handful of men who were trying to stop his holes from weeping crimson.
“Shh, Harrison,” one of them said, “she’s scared.” He gave her a wary look, then went back to digging into Harrison’s side with searching fingers. He yanked, and a piece of misshapen, bloody metal fell onto the snow.
The man was right. She was scared. Her body didn’t work right. Her bones felt like they’d all been broken in the gunfight and had fused together differently. She tried to stand, but fell. Propping up on her hands and feet, she looked around for Jason. He’d been there in the end. She needed him to tell her she was going to be all right.
He stood off to the side, holding his shoulder. A long, bloody claw mark stretched from the middle of his chest around his arm. Through his shredded jacket, she could see a flap of his skin hanging from the bottom cut. He was soaking his coat in red. Who’d done that to her mate? She would kill them.
“You’re beautiful,” Jason murmured, confusing her. Why wasn’t he angry about his injury?
He was looking at her with a strange expression—awe, relief, and something more. Reverence?
Georgia swayed and tried to catch her balance, but the world was different. She didn’t fit into it like she used to.
Willa stood behind Jason and was sobbing against Matt’s chest. She didn’t want Willa to cry. Georgia took a timid step forward to comfort her, but the movement under her dragged her attention to her feet.
A blond, furred, giant paw sat half sunk in the snow. Long, curved claws arched from them like daggers. The claws were as white as the snow.
Shocked, she looked up at Jason, who was approaching slowly. “I had to Turn you. I’m sorry. I know it was selfish, but I couldn’t lose you.”
You claimed me? The words she’d meant to say came out a soft rumble in her chest.
She studied her chest and front legs. They were powerful and covered in thick, coarse fur only a couple shades darker than the snowflakes that fell on her. The pad of her foot was light pink. She’d never seen a bear this color before, and she huffed a funny-sounding laugh. She was a bear.
She sat back heavily into the snow, which didn’t feel cold at all against her new body.
Wow. A bear. She’d always been afraid of them, and now she was one. She could give a Kodiak bear a run for its money now.
She shook her massive head, and snow exploded into the air around her. The dragons she’d seen were gone, but some of the bears remained. The poachers were nowhere to be found, but the clearing smelled like blood and smoke, and the snow was stained where the bodies should’ve been.
I’m alive.
The thought brushed across her mind and made her lightheaded. She wasn’t supposed to have made it out of that, but Jason had changed her fate. Changed her.
She looked down at her paw, as big as a dinner plate.
He’d given her a bear.
Emotion washed over her. If she could have cried in this form, she would’ve. Instead, she scrambled toward Jason unsteadily and pressed her forehead against his chest. Already he was healing, and he laughed and held on as she knocked him backward with her clumsiness.
He sighed and closed his eyes, then rested his cheek against hers. She held perfectly still so she wouldn’t hurt him.
“Damn, Ranger, I’m glad you’re okay.” His grip in her fur tightened.
Willa blasted into her, arms spread wide as she hugged her and sobbed openly. “You scared the shit out of us, Renegade!”
The Boarland
ers and Ashe Crew milled around them, but Georgia’s eyes were only for the Gray Backs. Gia was walking toward them from the tree line with a shocked look on her face as she cradled her hands around her belly and stared at Georgia.
Matt, Creed, and Easton stood beside each other, looking pale and shaken, but smiling.
She’d thought she would never see her friends again, but Jason had given her a second chance.
He’d given her a place to settle and a family.
Her mate hadn’t given up on her.
He’d saved her.
Jason took a step back as a slow smile spread across his face. His dark eyes swam with emotion, but his voice was strong and clear as he said, “Welcome to the C-team, Ranger.”
Chapter Fifteen
Winterizing Willa’s worm shack was even less fun than it sounded.
It was dirty, back-breaking work to make sure the enormous shed Matt and Willa had built in the woods behind their trailer would stay warm enough through the cold months.
But even filthy, covered in compost, and sweating despite the cold, Georgia couldn’t stop from laughing. Partly because Willa’s jokes were shockingly crude, and partly because Gia’s laugh was infectious, but mostly because she was just so danged grateful to be alive to experience moments like these—breathless ones filled with happiness. The ones that would cling to her always because they were too bright to forget.
Her inner bear perked up, and her new senses told her that her mate was near. She grinned and turned just as Jason ducked under the front door. His greeting smile matched hers. Today, they were going to Change together and explore the woods as bears. She still got giddy butterflies when she thought about the animal resting inside of her. Everything was clearer and smelled different. Noises had changed, and her attention was flighty, but Jason had assured her that was part of getting used to being a bear shifter.
He was an exceptionally patient teacher, her mate.
When Creed, Easton, and Matt filed in through the open door, Georgia’s smile wavered. “What’s going on? I thought you were supposed to be up on the landing.”