Rather than heading back through the bedroom to his right, he eased towards the open door at the end of the corridor to his left, one that led into the living room. He quickly peered around the door when he reached it and ducked behind cover. Probably a mistake. If the sniper had noticed him, he would have just given his position away. He grunted and flattened himself against the floor, crawling out in a marine commando way.
The front door off to his right burst open.
Knox’s gaze swung that way.
Met Karl’s.
Knox kicked off, hurling himself behind the L-shaped couch just as the male opened fire. Bullets ripped up the floorboards where he had been and he kept on moving as the second male, Wade, opened fire too. The assault rifle the bastard had made fast work of chewing up the black couch, whittling down Knox’s cover and forcing him to move. He twisted and went to kick off again, his focus on the door of the larder directly opposite him, his thoughts on how the thick log wall would provide him with some cover.
A bullet ripped through the couch back and through his right arm, carving a hole in his biceps that felt like someone had just poured molten lava into his muscles and bones.
He grunted and moved the gun to his left hand, couldn’t hold back the growl that rumbled up his throat as his canines elongated, as the agony and the rage and his need to protect Skye had the urge to shift surging through him. Thankfully, the pain kept it in check a little, but only a little.
Normally, pain forced bears and other shifters out of their animal forms, but right now he felt as if he could shift if he wanted it. Because Skye was in danger? His primal instinct to protect her was strong, had dense brown fur rippling over his body despite the fire that burned along his arm.
Knox shut it down and kicked off, hurled himself into the larder and collided with a lot of metal pots Lowe had stacked on the lower shelves, completely giving away his position. Not good. He ducked behind the thick log wall as bullets tore into the door and several thudded into the tins and packets of food stored in the room.
When the hail of bullets halted, a thick silence fell, interrupted only by the steady dripping of soup and other liquid from the punctured cans. Knox glanced around the door and fired off a few rounds. All of them missed, but he got better with the gun with each shot. The last one he fired before Wade finished reloading his assault rifle and unleashed hell on him had come close to nailing the bastard.
Knox growled at the thought of taking him down, both the bear and the man in him hungry for it to happen. The human would pay for the way he had acted around Skye, for that twisted flare of interest that had lit his eyes from time to time.
He curled into the corner as bullets shredded more of the food, causing an unholy mess that he knew his twin wasn’t going to be happy about. If Knox survived this, he had one hell of a cleaning job ahead of him.
The gunfire halted again and Knox grinned and poked his head out. His turn. A bullet ripped into the doorframe right beside his head and he ducked back, his heart lodged in his throat. Fine. Not his turn. He growled and snarled as he realised he was pinned, that if he tried to look to aim, he was going to get his head blown off by the males who were waiting, biding their time.
A grunt sounded and Knox smelled blood. Not his.
He risked it, peeked out from behind his cover and really growled as he saw Wade and Karl both glaring at the door he had closed behind him and Skye, to the left of the fireplace. It was open. Fear sank icy claws into him as he looked at it, the relief that flowed through him when he didn’t see Skye there only taking the edge off it.
Wade gripped the small knife lodged in his bicep and tugged it out, glared at it and then cast it aside. When the male turned towards the door, looking as if he was going to go after Skye, Knox lost it.
He growled as he broke cover, as his vision sharpened and locked onto Wade and he lifted his gun. He squeezed the trigger as soon as he had it lined up, wanted to roar as the bullet nailed Wade in the back of his head and blood sprayed across the wall in front of him.
He swung the gun to the left, aiming it at Karl.
Pulled the trigger as he grinned.
The gun clicked.
Just clicked.
No bullet.
No incredible looking and somewhat epic moment that would have Skye swooning.
“Shit,” he bit out.
Karl smiled coldly and aimed his own pistol at Knox’s head.
Skye came blazing out of the bedroom and leaped on Karl’s back, throwing him off balance. He staggered backwards, his arm lifting as she locked hers around his throat and heaved. The bullet tore into the pitched ceiling. Karl regained his balance but kept moving backwards and slammed her into the wall.
Knox kicked off, vaulted the couch and hurled himself forwards into a roll as he hit the floorboards, snagging Wade’s assault rifle on the way past. He stopped in a crouch and raised the gun, aiming it at Karl.
Froze.
He couldn’t fire at Karl while Skye was still riding his back, clinging to him as the male slammed her into the wall again, clutching her arm now to keep her in place. He wouldn’t shoot when he would be in danger of hitting her too.
“Shoot him,” Skye gritted as Karl released her arm, reached over and managed to grab hold of her head. He bashed it against the logs behind her, ripping a pained grunt from her, but she didn’t give up the fight. She battered him with her fists, pummelling his shoulder and the side of his head, and her dark eyes leaped to Knox. “Shoot!”
Not a chance in Hell of that happening.
He shook his head. He couldn’t. She had to see that he couldn’t.
She stilled and stared at him, affection in her eyes, as if he was the most wonderful male in the universe for not wanting to risk hurting her.
Then she screamed as Karl threw her, tossing her over his head. Her legs struck the kitchen island on the way down, ripping another grunt from her, and she disappeared from view. Karl lunged for her, and Knox knew the bastard was going to use her as a shield.
He squeezed the trigger before that could happen, his eyes widening as he unleashed a hail of bullets and fought to rein in the gun and get it under control. Several of the bullets tore into Karl and the male staggered back into the corner between the first kitchen cabinet and the wall of the lodge as blood exploded from the wounds.
Knox convinced himself to release the trigger as the male slumped, blood trickling from more than a dozen holes in his black jacket.
“Shit, this is more my style.” He admired the gun as he approached the kitchen and grinned at Skye when she rolled her eyes at him.
She manoeuvred herself and sagged with her back against one of the cupboards of the kitchen island, breathing hard as her gaze drifted back to Karl. She paled a little. Looked as if she might vomit.
Knox lowered the gun and went to her. He set the gun down on the counter to his left and held his hand out to her, and breathed a sigh as she slipped hers into it. He hauled her onto her feet and into his arms, all the tension melting from him as he felt her pressing against him.
His senses sparked a warning.
He tightened his arms around Skye and rolled backwards, over the counter of the kitchen island, grunted as he landed on his injured arm on the other side of it as bullets pinged off the granite. Fuck. He had forgotten about Cooper.
Knox released Skye and pushed her behind him, gritting his teeth against the fierce sting as fresh blood bloomed on his arm. He felt her gaze on it, sensed her need to touch it, and glanced at her, silently telling her that he was fine.
His heart thundered as his mind raced, running through every scenario to find one where Skye and him would both make it out of this. Adrenaline surged, the need to shift quick to sweep through him. He couldn’t. Skye would see. He looked up at the counter above him, weighing his options. If he could reach the gun, maybe he could take Cooper down too. He cursed himself for forgetting about him.
Before he could reach for it, Skye was on her
feet and making a grab for it, completely exposing herself. She ducked back down, narrowly evading being shot as another bullet ricocheted off the counter, and he wanted to growl at her when he looked over his shoulder at her and found her checking the assault rifle.
The steely look in her eyes and the image she cut as she shouldered the weapon was both deeply erotic and incredibly terrifying.
He lunged for her.
She popped up and fired off a few rounds. No wild spray of bullets from her. Each shot was controlled. She ducked back down again before Cooper opened fire on her.
“Where the hell did you learn to fire an assault rifle like that?” he hissed. “At the range?”
“No.” She shrugged. “Video games.”
His eyes widened. He wanted to snatch the weapon from her, because shooting in a virtual environment with a controller was not the same as firing a weapon in real life as far as he was concerned. It might look like she knew what she was doing, was a seasoned pro, but what did he know about guns?
Enough to shove her backwards when Cooper opened fire. Bullets tore through the cabinets, emerging from the side they were on to embed into the floorboards.
Skye scrambled ahead of him, tucking the gun to her chest as he pushed her backside, making her head behind the couch.
“Provide some covering fire for me,” he murmured quietly as he glared over his shoulder in the direction of Cooper, tracking the male with his senses.
Any moment now, the male was going to come out from behind the kitchen post and then it was game over.
The couch wouldn’t be any match for the high-powered rifle the man wielded.
“Um.” Skye rattled something.
“Um?” He didn’t like the sound of that. He glanced at her and his gaze remained locked on her as she stared at the assault rifle and the thing that was in her hand. Magazine. The magazine.
She angled it towards him. “Um.”
No bullets.
“Fuck this shit,” Knox snarled. “You’re not dying here. We’re not dying here.”
If he had to shift into a bear to make sure that happened, he would do it.
He gauged where Cooper was with his senses, tracking the male as he eased deeper into the room.
“I know you’re in here,” Cooper called out.
Beside Knox, Skye froze, locking up tight. Her fear hit him hard.
He motioned to the other end of the couch and then to his left, trying to tell her to head around the couch near the windows. She nodded, got onto her hands and knees and hurried that way, following his instructions. He drew down a breath. Then another.
Skye hissed as she reached the area where broken glass littered the floorboards and the scent of her blood hit him hard, rousing a fierce need to growl and shift, to taste that blood by sinking his fangs into her nape.
Cooper swung in her direction.
Knox harnessed all of the aggression he felt as he thought about Cooper hurting Skye, as he thought about how in danger she was, and exploded from behind the couch.
A roar shattered the tense silence.
Not from him.
And then a huge cinnamon black bear came barrelling into the lodge on a collision course with Cooper’s back.
Chapter 18
Skye couldn’t believe her eyes as the enormous bear roared as it reared up and slammed its dinner-plate-sized front paws into Cooper’s back, taking him down. The pain in her hand drifted to the back of her mind, replaced by terror as the beast snarled and bared fangs as it ripped into him with long claws, easily slicing through his blue jacket. Cooper’s agonised screams and bellows rang in her ears and she tried to look away, but she couldn’t. Her eyes remained glued to the poor man as the bear savaged him, brutally mauled him with claws and battered him with its huge paws.
Panic gripped her, the need to survive and to protect Knox blasting through her to make her move as Cooper went deathly still and silent. She scrambled for the gun he had dropped, her heart pounding so fast she felt dizzy, and her hands shook as she lifted it and aimed it at the bear. She shuffled away from it as it looked at her, tried to stand to move but her legs were like noodles beneath her.
The cinnamon bear roared and charged her.
Knox threw himself between her and the bear, his arms outstretched, as if that would be enough to block the bear and save her.
“Get out of the way!” she screamed, the sight on the rifle jittering around all over the place as she aimed at the bear. She couldn’t get a clear shot with Knox in the way and she feared he was going to get himself killed if she didn’t act fast. The bear was going to maul him the way it had Cooper.
“Back the fuck down!” Knox growled and she wasn’t sure whether he was talking to her or to the bear as it advanced on him.
She locked up tight at the same time as the bear did.
The damned thing had to be at least five-hundred pounds, maybe more, and she had never seen a bear with so many scars. A particularly brutal one cut up the left side of its head, from just above its eye to over the crown of its head, close to its ear, and made it look as dangerous as she felt it was.
Why wasn’t it attacking Knox?
She couldn’t believe her eyes as it just stood there staring at him.
Not moving a muscle.
She really couldn’t believe her eyes when a black-haired man jogged into the room, a little breathless, and his clear grey eyes landed on her and turned to steel as they dropped to the gun she desperately clutched in front of her.
He was big, rivalling Knox’s size, packed with muscle that was clearly visible beneath his tight black woollen sweater and damp jeans. Another of Karl’s men? She wasn’t sure whether to swing the gun at him or keep it vaguely trained on the bear, wasn’t sure of anything as she sat on her backside reeling and trying to figure out what the hell was happening.
“She isn’t part of this.” Knox eased back a step, moving closer to her, and slowly lowered his hands to his sides, but she didn’t miss how he clenched his fists.
Neither did the black-haired man.
The sight of Knox preparing for a fight seemed to trigger something dark within him, had him flexing his fingers into fists too and angling his body, placing more of his weight on one foot. The grim planes of his face grew harder still, his eyes as cold as ice as he fixed them on Knox.
And then he suddenly relaxed, as if someone had flipped a switch in him, and did the craziest thing yet.
He walked right up to the moaning, restless bear and planted his hand between the beast’s ears and rubbed its reddish-brown fur.
Skye stared at the animal, and then at the man, her gaze flicking back and forth between them as she tried to process what she was seeing. She had to be dreaming. Maybe the fear had become too much for her and she had passed out. This was all just some weird, crazy dream.
Knox turned to her and held his hands out with his palms facing her, approached her slowly as if he feared she was going to hurt him. She laughed at that, the sharp barked sound drawing the gaze of the black-haired man and the bear. Knox wasn’t afraid of a bear or that man, but he was afraid of her. She laughed again. Couldn’t stop herself.
She was definitely dreaming.
Or she had finally snapped.
Knox gently took hold of the barrel of the gun and then her hand. He eased her fingers open and took the gun from her, set it down on the floorboards beside him as he lowered himself into a crouch beside her. He brushed his fingers lightly over her palm and she sucked in a breath as the cut on her palm stung. She dragged her eyes away from the bear and the man, stared at Knox instead, into blue eyes that held more worry than she had ever seen in them.
He was scared.
Of the bear and the man?
Or something else?
Something deep inside her screamed that it wasn’t the animal or the man he feared. It was her. He had that spooked look again, the one he’d had from time to time over the last few days they had been together in this cabin. The
one that gave her the impression he was afraid he would never see her again.
Sometimes, she had caught him watching her, staring at her as if he was desperately trying to put her to memory, to capture every little thing about her. She had put it down to fear of losing her, that he was scared something would happen to her and she would be taken from him.
Now, she had the impression it wasn’t fear of her dying that had put that look in his eyes.
It was fear of her leaving him by choice.
She looked between him and the bear and the man, going around and around.
“Hey. Don’t worry about them.” Knox smoothed his hand along her jaw. “Look at me.”
Her gaze darted to him and away again, back to the bear. It huffed and she tensed, and the man gave it a chastising look.
“I know them. They’re not going to hurt you, Skye.” Knox applied gentle pressure to her cheek and she looked at him again, obeying his silent command.
She tried to keep her eyes on his, but it was impossible while there was a bear in the room. A huge bear with a bloodied face. A bear that was standing near Cooper’s corpse. She swallowed the bile that rose into her throat and diligently kept her eyes away from the body. She tried not to think about Karl where he bent backwards over the kitchen counter either. Or Wade, who was laying face down beyond the black-haired man, his brains splattered up the wall, a gory backdrop that seemed to suit the man.
She swallowed hard, her entire body shaking as adrenaline and fear did a number on her.
“Look at me, Skye.” Knox stroked his thumb over her cheek, his voice lowering, softening as he gazed at her. “Look at me.”
Her eyes leaped to him and locked with his, and this time she managed to keep them on him.
“There’s my girl. You’re fine now. You’re safe now. Maverick and Rune aren’t going to hurt you.” Knox smiled softly, his blue eyes brightening with it, but that edge of fear they held didn’t go anywhere. “It’s over, Skye. It’s over.”
Saved by her Bear (Black Ridge Bears Shifter Romance Series Book 3) Page 15