by Amelia Jade
“Form a line!” He heard Garrett shouting, trying to gather the remaining bears into formation.
“Why?” he shouted, his attention focused back on Victoria.
“That’s why!” Garrett replied, his finger pointing across the open parking lot.
Evan spun quickly, and his eyes flew wide as he realized he’d forgotten all about the enemy bear shifters.
Even now as he watched, the attackers swept down on them.
Hastily the remaining bears assembled a shallow wedge formation in front of the women, who had come to join them. There were some hasty hugs between the bears and their mates, but there wasn’t time to chastise them for their trickery, nor with the way they had so blatantly exposed themselves to danger.
“Stay back,” Gabriel and Garrett ordered almost in unison as the women, angry at once again being forced out of the fight, stepped forward.
“We’re not helpless!” Emma stepped forward, and Evan felt his hand shake as Victoria let it go, moving to stand beside the human women. He tried to get her back, but she was already out of reach.
“Think!” he heard her yell at the two Alphas. “They have ranged weapons. You don’t.”
The attackers had crossed half the distance by now, and were surging closer with every second.
Gabriel paused, then turned to the women. “You stay in line with us, and once we charge, you stay together as a group. Clear?”
“Clear,” Caia, his mate, said as she shouldered her way past the big bear shifter and began to take aim. To her left and right, the other women also stepped up, raising the guns to their shoulders and taking aim.
Evan watched as they unleashed a barrage of darts at the oncoming bears. Here and there the massive creatures tumbled out of line, their limbs suddenly limp underneath them. Many got back up, shaking off the effects of a single dart, having just been slowed. As they got closer, Evan noticed the women beginning to group their shots. More bears went down under a storm of hits, many with half a dozen darts sticking from them.
How did they learn to use those so well? His mind was immediately drawn to the lone male armed with a gun.
Uriel.
That had to be it. He had been so unconcerned about the disappearance of the women the night before. He was in on it! Evan realized he must have been teaching them in secret in preparation for this day.
Badass.
The enemy was close enough for Evan to see the whites of their eyes now, the saliva flying from their mouths as they charged.
It was time.
Victoria must have known it as well, because she stepped up next to him and gave his hand a quick squeeze before she stepped sideways and shifted. He took a moment to admire the sleek lines of her bear before he called forth his animal once more.
He waited until he saw the enemy falter slightly as the allied bears steadied, and that’s when he made his move.
Together with his mate and dozens of others, the bear shifters of Genesis Valley charged out to meet those who threatened them, their homes, and most importantly, their families.
Chapter Fifteen
Victoria
The two lines collided with a thunderous impact.
Her ears ached from the cries of triumph and pain that echoed across the battlefield. The numbers were near even now, thanks to the efforts of the women, and the superiority of their training gave a slight advantage to the defenders.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t in the fight of her life. Within seconds her opponent had opened as many wounds as she had managed to inflict upon him. The larger male bear swung at her contemptuously, as if the fact that he knew she was a woman made her inferior. This woke the rage within Victoria and she slapped aside the lazy hit and drove her jaws into the fleshy area under the arm, tearing a great chunk of it aside as she surged forward, using her smaller size to upset the balance of her opponent by hitting him low.
With a screech he fell onto his back. In a flash she was on him, her great claws ripping as her teeth clamped down upon his snout. She let go and as he roared in pain her paw thudded the side of his head. With him stunned from the blow, it was a simple matter for her to close her jaws around his neck and deliver a mortal wound.
Feeling triumphant, she spat the flesh away and roared a challenge.
Nearby, a familiar-sounding bear cried out in pain. Whirling, Victoria saw Evan being pushed back by two bears. He was doing his best to defend himself, but it was clear he was overworked. Both of his enemies were near his size, and there were two of them.
With an angry growl, she launched herself at one of them, intent on defending her mate.
He’s mine! She slammed heavily into the hind leg of the closer bear, and used her surprise advantage to mercilessly maul the leg, rendering it useless before the other shifter even noticed she was there. Then she backed away, staying out of its far longer reach. With a roar of pain the attacker turned to face her. With the odds suddenly cut in half, Evan launched an offensive that caught the second attacker off guard.
Meanwhile Victoria began to dance around her opponent. With his rear leg hurt, he couldn’t keep up, and she darted in and out as fast as her bear could move, delivering blow after blow to her enemy. None of them were fatal, not with the healing abilities of a shifter, but he began to lose blood faster than he could heal, and his movements slowed even more.
Noticing something in her peripheral vision, Victoria kept the bear turning to face her. She would dart in, slap at his flank or tear some skin with her jaws, forcing him to keep his attention focused on her.
Which meant that he turned his back toward Evan, who exploited the opening easily. The attacker went down and Evan used his massive paws as clubs, hammering away at the attacker’s skull until he went limp, never to move again.
The two of them then went looking for another attacker. And another. Like a pair of scythes they swept through the battlefield as a tandem, helping beleaguered defenders anywhere they could, until there was no one left to fight.
Victoria paused, and decided to shift back into human form, wincing at the way some of the cuts she had sustained pulled at her skin differently.
Looking around, she could see that the fight was mostly over. There were still pockets of fighting, but the numbers had turned in favor of the defenders, thanks largely in part to the casualties they had inflicted before, and because of the tactics the armed women had employed.
“I think we did it,” she whispered as Evan came up to stand next to her.
From down the mountain came a horrific cry, followed by an ear-splitting craaack!
The shifters tensed and began to gather in front of the mansion complex, preparing themselves for whatever might come walking back up the ridge. They all hoped it would be Ferro. If he had somehow lost his fight with his son, then they would all be in a world of hurt.
The moments stretched by, and worry began to slip its tendrils deep into their individual thoughts.
“There!” someone cried. Everyone saw it at the same time, a figured covered in dirt and debris, slowly making his way up the road and into sight. They couldn’t make out who it was, not with the tattered clothing and dirt covering them from head to toe.
Then at last, the figure came close enough to make out some facial features.
“It’s Ferro!” Evan said from near the front of the group. There were mixed sighs of relief and the clapping of hands as people grew excited.
“We won!” someone shouted.
Victoria looked around the field.
“Yes,” she whispered. “But at what cost?”
***
They were gathered in the cavern below the killing field. It had been three days since the climactic battle for Genesis Valley.
She still couldn’t believe everything that had happened. It was surreal in a very awe-inspiring and equally terrifying way. For once in her life, Victoria had helped others, put her life on the line for someone else. That fact alone was enough to give her pause.
&nb
sp; But not everything to come from it was so bad, she thought, snuggling up against the big-bodied male shifter sitting next to her.
Evan responded by draping his arm around her shoulder. She grabbed his hand and tugged on it, pulling it tighter around her, gracing her with a relaxed, safe feeling. Victoria knew she could take care of herself, and that in a fight she could give as good as she got. That had been demonstrated to her mate time and time again during the fight for the Valley. That still didn’t mean she wasn’t allowed to feel safe in his arms.
Even now, as she looked around at the group of shifters who were assembling, she saw the other women of the Valley doing very similar things. Women who hadn’t blinked when faced with a line of very large, and very angry bear shifters intent on their death. Women who had simply said “no more” and stood up for what they believed in alongside their mates. Their family.
A family that she know belonged to without reservation. Nobody looked at her suspiciously anymore, and many of the women had reached out to her, offering their help in getting settled in the Valley. For the first time in her life, Victoria felt like she was welcome there. That she belonged there.
“You okay?” Evan whispered quietly, his lips pressing gently against the top of her head.
“Perfect,” she said dreamily, exhaling in contentment.
The fallout from everything was still happening, and she knew it would be a long time before Genesis Valley recovered. But it would recover. Already there was talk about rebuilding, recruiting new shifters, and restoring things to how they had been. Victoria was in favor of that. Despite any issues that Genesis Valley may have had, there was an inordinate amount of good that came from it. Dozens of shifters over the years had come to the Valley and been able to start fresh, building themselves up from scratch to lead lives worth living.
That was her reason for coming to the Valley, so she had a soft spot for the concept. In the meantime, however, there were several things that needed to be addressed.
A hush fell over the room as Ferro joined them. The gathered shifters looked to him with a reverence that she had rarely seen before. They had seen just what he was capable of, and had learned exactly who he was. To many of them, he was a living legend, fantasy come to life.
And yet…if she didn’t miss her mark, she was positive that Ferro absolutely hated the attention.
He probably just wants to live out his life as a humble bartender, she thought with a smile.
“Hey Ferro!” she shouted, waving at him from across the room with over-emphasized arm action.
The entire room turned to look at her, many of the faces aghast with horror as if to say “How dare you treat him like that?”
Screw it, they want to worship him like a god. He doesn’t want that.
As if to prove her point, Ferro smiled jovially and gave her an exaggerated return wave before moving to the front of the room.
Take that, she told the room silently, sitting back into her chair and smugly crossing her arms. Above her she could sense Evan shaking his head as he tried to cover up his laughter.
“You’re going to get me in trouble,” he hissed in her ear, though she knew he wasn’t mad.
“Well then tell these folks to stop worshiping the ground he walks on!” she said, not trying too hard to keep her voice down.
Ferro cleared his throat, preventing any further conversation.
“I’m going to keep this brief,” he said, eliciting a chuckle from the assembled group of shifters, all of whom were well aware of his preference for doing as little speaking as possible. “But first I have a question about something that Luthor said to me during our fight.”
She saw the sadness in his eyes at that comment, though no emotions crossed his face. Not only had Ferro killed one of his own species, whose numbers were so miniscule that each loss was felt heavily, but it had also been his son. Victoria didn’t want to contemplate how conflicted he must feel on the inside.
“He said to me ‘Whatever you do, my legacy will continue.’” Ferro said, resuming. “Does anyone know what that might mean?”
Victoria frowned, not liking the sounds of that. Low voices broke out in the room, until Gabriel raised his hands to hush them.
Then he spoke, answering Ferro’s question. “In one of their attempts, his henchmen did manage to take one of the Dragon Stones from us,” he admitted regretfully.
Ferro chewed on that information for a moment. “Was it ever recovered?” he asked, though his tone indicated he knew the answer to that question.
“No,” Gabriel said bluntly.
“Then we must get it back,” Ferro announced. “That, along with several other things that must be done.”
Victoria spoke. “What else has to happen?”
“There were two, but now three, things. First, I will be departing the Valley for an unseen amount of time.”
“How come?”
“Why?”
What?”
“No, you can’t leave!”
Ferro calmed the various outcries with a calm, level look, and quickly the shifters subsided into silence, letting him speak. “I must. No one has heard from the Dragon Council, and I must go to them and see what has happened.”
Victoria nodded. That made sense. Who better to search them out than their father? She frowned. If he was going to find the council then who was going to find his granddaughter?
“While that must be my priority, as little as I like it, it still leaves my granddaughter at the mercy of any remaining shifters loyal to Luthor. I would ask if there is anyone here who would be willing to try and find her, to see what has become of her during my absence?”
On the far side of the room from her, a shifter she didn’t recognize stood up almost immediately. “I will,” he said, his voice firm without being overconfident.
Ferro turned to face him. “Thank you Raphael. I appreciate that more than you can know. I wish I could be the one who went looking for her, but I can’t.”
The shifter nodded his head respectfully before sitting down to converse with Gabriel, likely about any details they had about her disappearance.
“I’d hoped that would be it,” Ferro said, and again smiles were had all around at his desire to be done speaking. “But with the revelation that a Dragon Stone was taken, I must ask for the help of someone else to find it.”
There was the creaking of metal, and a massive shifter stood from his seat. He was huge, almost the size of Gabriel, who was the biggest shifter she’d ever met. The shifter didn’t speak, he simply nodded at Ferro, and then sat back in his chair.
“Thank, Ajax,” Ferro said. “I will leave the rest of you now to—”
“Oh shit!” came a female cry to Victoria’s right.
She sat upright abruptly, something in the voice reaching out to her instinctively. Before she realized it, she was halfway across the room. Looking around, it became clear the other women in the room had heard it as well. They converged on the source of the cry, which as it turned out was Emma.
She looked up at the crowd surrounding her while her mate Garrett looked on with consternation. Her face was red, and judging by the dark mark spreading across her gray sweatpants, Victoria figured she had accidentally urinated and was embarrassed by it.
Then the reality of Emma’s condition sunk in and she realized that wasn’t the case at all.
“I think my water just broke,” Emma said in a very small, very nervous voice.
“Courtenay?” Garrett called, and one of the other women stepped forward from the far side of the room. “Okay, that’s just the start. Come on girl, we’ll take you down to the medical wing.”
Victoria stood back, watching as Courtenay, who she quickly learned was the resident doctor in Genesis Valley, took the pregnant Emma in tow and departed the room. Garrett was still sitting in his chair, looking stunned.
She walked up to him, and lightly tapped him in the shin. The Jade Crew Alpha looked up at her. His eyes were elsewhere for a
moment before they focused on her.
“Your child is about to be born,” she chided him softly. “Go to her.”
Garrett shook his head, smiled, and with that, he leapt from his chair. The other shifters broke out into laughter as he darted from the room at breakneck speed.
The laughter was immensely needed. The tension in the room faded instantly, even as it became clear that Ferro had used the interruption to depart without a farewell. Nobody thought much of it, however, knowing that he hated the spotlight.
“So my love,” Evan said as she walked back over to him. The meeting seemed to be splitting up, the various parties clustering together.
“Yes dear?” she asked, using the phrase for the first time. They hadn’t had much time together over the past few days, and she was looking forward to some quality time alone with her mate.
“What should we do now?” he asked.
“Find a room to ourselves?” she suggested mischievously.
“I thought you would never ask,” said, reaching down to gather her up into his arms and heading for the exit.
She giggled as he carried her from the room, then laid her head on his chest.
This was something she could get used to.
Epilogue
A shrill cry split the room.
It was a signal, a sign. A portent of things to come.
Evan watched with Victoria by his side, his new crew to his left, his old crew to his right. The shifters were all there.
Joel and Courtenay.
Cole and Trestin.
Darren and Kierra.
Corey and Jenny.
Russell and Gwen.
And at the center of attention, a new father’s hands carefully held a small bundle to his chest.
“Hush,” Garrett said, whispering soft, calming words to his child.
His daughter.