Bearly Magic: (Bear Meets Girl: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Werebear Romance)

by Catherine Vale

  “Raina!” She grabbed the bars, then cried out as an electrical jolt zapped her. Cole caught her as she fell back, supporting her weight as she jolted back and forth between forms – bear, woman, bear, woman, bear, woman. The world around her melted into a haze, and she could hear Cole shouting her name, but she couldn’t actually make out what he was saying.

  “Save Raina,” she choked out, or at least she tried – she couldn’t quite manage to get the words out, when her mouth kept changing into a muzzle, and back again. But Cole seemed to get the message – he laid her down on the concrete floor, and rushed over to the cell. His voice washed over her, as he chanted the unlocking spell, and she focused on the sound to try and anchor herself.

  Focus. You at least have to focus long enough to see what’s going on.

  She managed to hone her hazy vision in time to see the cell door swing open. Raina was straining against the chains, her eyes wild, as she shouted Angela’s name. Her long, black hair, normally silky and oh-so-perfect, hung in unkempt hanks around her face, making her look like a crazy person, and Angela sobbed with relief, as she watched Cole get to work on the manacles.

  “Well, well, look what we have here?”

  Angela’s blood froze, at the sound of Garrison’s voice. She tried to turn her head in the direction of his footsteps, but she couldn’t manage to move, so she didn’t see him until he was almost atop her. Tears smarted in her eyes, as she looked up at him – in some ways he looked so much the same, with his sandy brown hair, and his cornflower blue eyes, and his long, lean, almost gangly form. But those eyes, once filled with kindness, were icy cold, and that long, lean body of his, had filled out a bit more. He was dressed all in black, with a long leather duster flowing around him. Flanking him were two huge shifter men, also dressed in black and their heads shaven. They had flat faces with blocky features, and merciless eyes, that coated Angela’s heart in a layer of ice.

  “My dear sister,” he said, crouching down beside Angela, as his lips curved into a smile – a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’m so glad you’ve come. You’ve made it just in time to be part of all the excitement.” He reached out to touch her face. “It’s just too bad you had to be so reckless as to touch the bars. You really should have known better.”

  “Get away from her!” Cole shouted, rushing forward, but one of the shifters who’d accompanied Garrison had kicked the door shut with one of his boots. Rubber soled boots, Angela noted with some resentment. Why didn’t she just try kicking the door first?

  Yeah, like that would have worked.

  “I think you’ll find it significantly harder to get out, than it was to get in,” Garrison sneered. He rose to his feet, and slid his hands to his pockets, as he strolled over to the cell. “I forced the last mage I captured to place a special seal around several of my cells that would prevent mages from being able to use their powers to get out.”

  “You bastard,” Cole said hoarsely, his eyes wild as he stared at Garrison through the bars.

  Garrison’s face purpled. “I. Am. NOT! A bastard,” he insisted, baring his fangs at Cole. “My parents were truly mated when they had me. It’s through no fault of theirs that they weren’t around to raise me.” True pain flickered in his eyes, and it was that pain that soothed the edges of Angela’s anger, and reminded her that, whatever Garrison had done, he was hurting and needed to be helped. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have more important matters to see to.”

  He snapped his fingers, and his two bodyguards lifted Angela between them, carrying her as though she was on a stretcher – which was no mean feat, since her body was still shifting from woman to bear. She struggled against him, but she couldn’t break out of the trap she was in, and all she could do was listen helplessly to Cole shouting for her, as she was pulled from the room.

  Chapter Thirteen

  When Angela opened her eyes next, she was sitting in a high-backed brown leather swivel chair, in a crescent shaped room that resembled something like a command center. She couldn’t move, and realized that Garrison had tied her up, ropes knotted around her body, running across her chest, to her ankles, and cuffs around her wrists. She squirmed against the bindings, but it was futile. She closed her eyes, willing her bear to show itself, but while her head buzzed with a migraine, nothing happened.

  I can’t shift, she thought to herself. He put a spell on the bindings.

  She looked around the room, noting a row of desks, fully equipped with computers. A large screen ran across the length of the far wall, with a map of San Francisco spread across it, and several areas were marked with bright red beacons – the Order of Protection precincts, Angela realized with dread.

  “Ah, so you’re awake.”

  Angela swiveled in her chair to see Garrison standing off to the side, a steaming cup of coffee in his hand, and a smirk on his face. His two bodyguards from before flanked him, as imposing as could be, and lending him an air of ‘evil mastermind’ that just seemed so wrong on the kind, gentle boy she’d grown up with.

  “What are you doing, Garrison? Why?”

  “You’d never understand, sister.” Garrison’s brows drew together slightly. “Especially since you came in here with a dirty half-breed mage. I thought you had better taste, Angela.”

  “I thought you had better morals.”

  “At least I have a desire for justice,” he hissed, taking a step forward. “What I do, I do for the good of all shifters.”

  “What you do, is about to get thousands of innocent people killed.”

  “I don’t expect you to understand,” Garrison said, waving a hand. “At least not right now. That’s why I brought you here, you know. So that you could witness my first victory for yourself, and understand what it is that drives me.”

  “Is that why you kidnapped Raina?” Angela demanded. “Because you knew that I would come, and you wanted me to be part of your madness?”

  Garrison chuckled. “Not exactly,” he told her. “Raina is the Commander’s daughter, and I was hoping that he might turn himself in to me, in exchange for her life. But regardless, that wasn’t going to put a stop to my plans to annihilate the precincts.” He turned toward the map displayed on the wall. “Getting rid of the Order of Protection is a necessary step to ridding this world of the filth, and suppression, spread around by the mages, and half-breeds.”

  Angela opened her mouth to tell Garrison that he had gone crazy, but she knew it wasn’t going to do any good. She was desperate for a way to get through to him, to remind him of all the people who cared about him.

  “Garrison, Mom misses you, you know.”

  Garrison paused. “Does she now?” he asked, his eyebrows cocked in disbelief.

  “She cried on my shoulder today, and asked me to bring you home safely.” Angela allowed the tears to shine through her own eyes, as she looked up at her brother. “Dad said the same thing. We all miss you, Garrison.”

  “Is that so?”

  “It is so,” Angela said defiantly, not at all liking the way Garrison was looking at her, as though she were nothing but a bug that he would crush under the sole of his shoe.

  “If that’s so true,” Garrison said, “then why is it that your mother and father have never once tried to reach out to me, since I left home?”

  “I – ”

  “Why is it that they’ve never once came to check up on me, and see how I’m doing, especially since they clearly know how to find me?”

  “Garrison, that’s not – ”

  “Fair?” he said bitterly, his eyes bright, his cheeks high with color. “No, it’s not fair. It’s not fair that, while I’m out here putting my life on the line, doing all this good work, that my foster parents who claim to love and miss me so much, can’t do so much as drop me a line. Because they’re afraid of what I’m doing. They can’t understand why this is so important. They’re too afraid to do anything, except sit there on their hilltop home, with their tails between their legs, instead of taking this world
back from the mages.”

  “You know, it’s funny that you say you hate the mages so much,” Angela said through gritted teeth, “Since you clearly have no problem using spelled items, or hiring mages to cast protective spells, when needed.” She looked down at the bindings on her wrists and ankles, then back up at Garrison.

  Garrison shrugged. “What can I say? Sometimes you need to fight fire with fire. I couldn’t have you shifting…. I will say one thing about you, sis. You are one fierce warrior when you’re in bear-form.” He turned toward the map, and snapped his fingers. “But enough of that. Let’s get scene one on screen.”

  The screen briefly flickered, and then a live feed of the southern precinct began to play. Angela swallowed her horror, as she saw people she knew, walking into the building, going about their everyday business. Quite a few of them were Protectors, of course, but many were civilians, and they were going to get caught in the crossfire.

  “You can’t do this,” she told Garrison, nodding toward the screen. “That woman going into the building? She’s a shifter. You’ll kill her. You’ll kill one of your own!”

  “Yes, well, I can’t help it that she’s chosen to ally herself with the Order, can I?” Garrison’s face was stone cold, as he stared at the screen. “She made her choice, and now it’s time for her to face the consequences. Give the go ahead,” he barked to one of the shifters sitting at a console.

  “All clear,” the man said, speaking into a headset, and Angela watched in horror, as a loud explosion blew out all the windows of the precinct, setting the entire building aflame.

  * * *

  “I don’t know why you’re wasting your energy trying to get these off me,” Raina muttered. “We should be saving our strength until an opportunity to escape presents itself.”

  “By the time that happens, the entire Order in San Francisco could be annihilated.” Cole could hardly believe he was lecturing an actual Protector, never mind a mage, about this, but then again, she had been trapped down here for awhile. “We don’t have time to wait.”

  He closed his eyes and concentrated, moving his magic through the metal, as he searched for the weak point. Finally, he found it, and the shackles popped open with a satisfying clack, allowing Raina to slump down to the floor for the first time.

  “God,” she gasped. “That feels so much better.” She just lay there for a few moments, soaking up the feeling of not having her joints constantly struggling under the pressure of her body weight.

  “No time for this,” Cole said, nudging her with his foot. “We’ve got to get out of this cell.”

  “And how exactly do we do that?” Raina asked, struggling to her aching feet. “I’ve tried prodding at the bars, and their impossible to break through, with the spell that’s been cast on them.”

  “Yes, well you’re approaching the problem the wrong way,” Cole growled. “It’s not about attacking the cell; it’s about attacking the spell itself that’s sealing us in.” He clasped hands with her. “I should be able to do it, but I’ll need a boost from you to make it happen.”

  Raina looked up into his eyes. She could see that he was both determined, and sincere. A thousand questions blazed on the tip of her tongue, but there was only one that really mattered right now. “You’re sure this is going to work?”

  “It had better, or else we’re screwed.”

  “Alright. Let’s do it.”

  Raina sucked in a breath, and closed her eyes so she could concentrate. Letting out her breath slowly, she flowed her magical energy into him, and allowed him to start pulling on it, binding it with his own, into the spell that he was chanting. She could feel the power building in the air all around them, concentrating into one small, brightly lit ball that pulsed, faster and faster and faster, until it exploded like a supernova, ricocheting in all directions. Some of it passed through Raina, leaving her jittery and breathless, but the rest of it went straight through the containment spell, and she could feel it shatter like glass.

  When she opened her eyes again, Cole was already working at the lock. He turned to look at her dumbfounded expression, his own grim, as the door swung open behind him. “Let’s get moving.”

  * * *

  Cole ran faster than he’d ever run in his life, throwing all caution and stealth to the wind, as he hurtled through the corridors with Raina, hot on his heels. Every single shifter they came across, was simply blasted away, either by Cole or Raina, with a combination of magic and brute force, with aggression and anxiety. Heart-pumping fear raced through Cole’s veins, fear for San Francisco, fear for the success of the mission – but really, most of all, fear for Angela. For the woman he loved.

  When he’d watched them drag her away earlier, without knowing if he would ever see her again, he’d realized that he was completely, irrevocably in love with her, and for the first time in his life – he was determined to see it through.

  “No,” he heard Angela sobbing, as he approached a set of double doors. “No, Garrison, you can’t! Please, I’ll do anything!”

  A red haze burst over Cole’s vision, as he barreled through the doors, anger flowing through his veins. The idea that anyone could hurt Angela, or make her sound so fearful, flooded him with blind rage.

  Everyone in the room, turned to look at him and Raina, as they blasted into the room. Up on the screen, spread across the wall, was a live feed of Angela’s precinct, and a cold certainty settled upon him, as he realized what Garrison was about to do. Cole didn’t give them a chance to react.

  The bear inside him, growled and snarled, demanding that he be freed to destroy his enemy. He didn’t fight the beast within, and let the adrenaline rushing through him, take over.

  The shift was quick this time. Sharp waves of energy coursed through his veins, setting his teeth on edge, and his blood on fire. His skin began rippling, as fur sprouted from his body, covering his forearms, neck, and face. Muscles stretched, and tendons tore and reshaped themselves, until the bear had taken over what was once a human shell. He towered over everyone in the room, his monstrous black bear roaring, exposing his massive jaw with razor-sharp teeth. His head grazed the ceiling as he growled, ready to attack.

  He charged at Garrison, hitting him in the chest, his furry mass crushing into the man. Garrison flew back against the wall, breaking through plaster, and leaving a gaping hole. The hit was solid, but it wouldn’t be enough. Cole came at him again, his claws and fangs sinking into Cole’s chest, clawing away at his t-shirt, ripping into his skin, leaving nothing, but shredded trails of material.

  Garrison stumbled back, scrambling on the floor, trying to put as much distance between himself, and Cole, as possible.

  “It’s too late! You can’t stop me. Just give up,” Garrison spat, but his voice was filled with pain and fear. His expression was one of wild anger, and he signaled to one of his men. “Give the order! NOW!”

  Before his man could react, Cole summoned a ball of fire, and directed it at the computer consoles that sat on the desks, lined up against a far wall. A stream of fire flew in the direction, and instantly the computers went up in flames, melting plastic and electronics, dripping across the table. Turning toward the men, his eyes blazing violet, he roared, warning them to back down before he was forced to eliminate them all.

  “You bastard!” Garrison shrieked, his face mottled with fury. His eyes glowed orange, and he began to shift. “You won’t get away with this!”

  Cole wanted to summon another ball of fire, and cast it at the son of a bitch, but he knew he had to do everything possible to avoid killing Garrison. Angela loved her brother, despite the fact he had gone insane, and if he had a chance to save him from himself, he needed to do it.

  Garrison shook violently, his spine suddenly lengthening, his shoulders broadening. His clothes ripped at the seams, as brown fur burst out of the material. Fangs sprung from his mouth, claws elongating, and coarse fur grew from hidden hair follicles, covering his pale skin. Within minutes, he had transformed int
o a large, brown bear, with glowing, orange eyes. He snarled at Cole, his eyes blazing with fury.

  Charging at Cole, he roared in outrage, followed by a brutal clash between the two bears. Angela’s eyes widened in horror, as she watched her brother attack Cole, his fangs clamping down on his shoulder, tearing fur and flesh away. Blood slayed across the room, and Cole howled in pain, thrashing back at Garrison in a frenzy of fur, and claws.

  Crying out, Angela tried to reason with Garrison, warning him that it was over, that he didn’t have to do this, that he could stop the madness, but Garrison ignored her.

  The other men in the room fled for their lives, disappearing out the door, desperate to put as much distance between themselves, and the battle. Raina turned, intent on following the men, and stopping them from getting away, but Cole bellowed at her, a growl that told her not to leave, to help Angela, to stay with them.

  Coming at Cole again, too far gone with anger and bloodlust to be reasoned with, Garrison rushed at him, as Cole dodged the hulking mass hurtling toward him, and swiped at his opponent, blood rushing from the gash on Garrison’s neck. His roar of pain was deafening, until he came crashing toward Cole again, refusing to give up.

  With a swift movement, Raina raised her hands out in front of her, balls of blue fire swirling in her palms. Her expression was etched in sadness, and she looked at Angela with sorrow in her eyes, at what she was about to do. “He’s too far gone, Angie… I’m so sorry, but I have to stop him.”

  Angela nodded, as tears rolled down her face. “I know. I know, Raina.”

  Raina focused her attention on the two bears, waiting for Cole to put enough distance between them so that she wouldn’t hurt him when she threw the fire their way. When she got her chance, she aimed the ball of fire toward the mass of fur, hitting Garrison in the back of the head. The bear turned toward her, mouth seething with fangs and saliva, his claws out and ready to swipe.

  Cole lifted his paws and grappled onto Garrison, pulling him into his arms, his large arms wrapping around Garrison’s neck.