by Zoe Chant
Remy roared at them furiously and moved to block their approach to his mate with his great shaggy bulk. No single one of them, no five or ten of them were a match for him. But ... all of them?
No matter. If he went down, he was going down taking as many of them with him as possible.
None of them had moved in to attack yet. It wasn't clear if they were waiting for a signal from their leader, or if none of them wanted to be the first to go under those swinging skillet-sized paws and the teeth that could crush the bones of a deer. A few more stragglers came running, waddling, or slithering out of the woods to join the rest—a crocodile, a long striped whipsnake, a darting mongoose, even a porcupine with its awkward, rolling gait. By now they had Remy and Saffron completely surrounded.
The eagle swooped in and landed in front of them. As he touched down, he folded his wings and straightened up as as a man. This was Remy's first opportunity to get a good look at his enemy. Creed was a big man, his body laced with the twisting scars of past fights. There was a superficial resemblance to the bear shifters of Remy's clan—tall, powerfully muscled—but his face was where the resemblance ended. His features were cold and cruel, his eagle-yellow eyes hard as chips of stone. There was nothing kind or soft in him.
A fresh flood of rage welled up in Remy at the idea of Saffron—warm, loving Saffron—bound to this loveless creature. It would have been a miserable existence for her even if she hadn't been denied the chance of finding her true mate. He threw his head back and roared his fury and defiance.
"You really think you stand a chance against all of us?" Creed sneered. "I suppose it's redundant to tell you to stand aside and give us the woman."
Saffron straightened from her crouch, yanking her hair free of the briars snatching at it, and moved to Remy's side. She placed a hand on his shaggy coat, naked and seemingly unafraid. Only he could sense the fear coiled inside her, could feel the slight tremors in the hand pressed against his side.
"Remy is my true mate, Creed. Something you never were and could never be." She threw her head back defiantly, her dark curtain of hair cascading down her bare back. "We are walking out of here together or not at all."
Remy had never loved her so much as he did in that instant.
"If that's how you want it," Creed snarled.
The last word became a high scream—an eagle's scream, as he shifted and spread his wings.
On that sound, the Black Wings made their move. The bigger predators sprang first, the black bear and big cats and crocodile. Creed beat his powerful wings and lifted his eagle body into the air, making a wide circle through the trees and then swinging back around with his talons out, clearly preparing for an attack.
Remy stepped in front of Saffron, knowing only that he would protect her with everything in him.
Chapter Nine
As the Black Wings closed in, Saffron intended to stand and fight with Remy.
Naked and unarmed, she looked around for something to defend herself with. The nearest thing in sight was a length of rotten pine branch, about three feet long. She picked it up and gripped it tightly. At least it made her feel as if she could do something.
A bobcat came racing in from the side and Saffron swung the branch at it, striking it a glancing blow on the head. She didn't think she'd hurt it badly, but it shied away, startled.
The black bear slammed into Remy with its jaws spread wide and teeth pulled back from yellow fangs. Remy smacked the other bear hard on the side of the head, taking advantage of his much larger size to knock it sprawling like a disciplined cub, and then whirled to snap at the mountain lion, leaving a bloody streak down its side.
The crocodile took advantage of the opening to sink its teeth into his leg. Remy roared and bit down on its back, and it let go and writhed away, screaming in a very un-crocodile-like way.
So far he was holding them off, but Saffron could see that she wasn't helping much by standing here. She was only making it more difficult for him to fight, because he had to try to not to hit her; while she was holding them off his side, she was preventing him from being able to fight in an unconstrained way.
There was one other thing she could think to do that might help.
Looking around, she spotted a sturdy pine that looked easy to climb, with ladderlike branches up its trunk. This was going to be fun with bare arms and legs. Gritting her teeth, she made a dash for it. Remy swung his head in her direction, starting to go after her.
"I'm fine!" she yelled over her shoulder. "I'll take care of me! Look out for yourself!"
She gripped the tree's rough bark and pulled herself up. She used to climb trees as a kid. This wasn't so different, she told herself, and clenched her teeth as the needles raked painfully at her skin. The most difficult thing was climbing the tree while holding onto the stick she'd been using to defend herself, but she didn't want to drop the only weapon she had.
Scraped and gouged, she stopped about twenty feet off the ground, and looked down.
Remy had retreated to the base of her tree, and there he was making his stand. One small piece of luck was that the tree she'd picked was, by accident, in a denser grove of pines, which made it harder for the flying Black Wings to get to Remy and harass him. Creed in particular, because of his size, was having trouble flying in without fouling his wings on the branches of the trees. He looked frustrated and furious, circling overhead while the Black Wings besieged Remy on all sides.
"Come down here and fight like a man, you son of a bitch!" Saffron yelled at him.
He circled her tree, his cold yellow eyes glinting at her. With one arm hooked around the trunk to stabilize herself, she pulled a handful of pine cones and threw them at him. She wasn't actually expecting to do any damage, but it was viscerally satisfying, especially when one of them rebounded off his head as he swooped past.
Creed let out an earsplitting eagle's cry.
"Yeah, all you can do is scream, huh? Big strong eagle," she taunted him.
He landed in the tree a few branches above her. Looking down, he snapped his beak at her.
"What, is that supposed to mean something to me? Sorry, I don't speak eagle, or asshole either. I left you once and I'll leave you a thousand times over, Creed."
Creed mantled his feathers and shifted. The branch wobbled under him and he hastily threw an arm around the trunk to stabilize himself, and winced as the needles jabbed at him. He looked ridiculous, she thought, with his bare legs dangling down. Although she probably looked just as silly herself.
"Are you sure about that?" he asked, looking down at her between his knees.
For answer, she threw another pine cone at him. It glanced off his foot.
"Look down, Saffron. Look at what they're doing to your—" He curled his lip. "Your so-called mate."
Unwilling to take her eyes off him, afraid what he might do if she did, she nevertheless couldn't help risking a look down.
Remy was half buried under the Black Wings' massed might. They were still arriving, foxes and deer and mink, trickling out of the woods to join the fray. For every one he knocked down, two more piled in, savaging him with teeth and claws. Most of their hits failed to score through his heavy fur, but he was still panting and wearing down, with blood matting his fur.
"You could have prevented this," Creed said. Saffron looked up at him, her blood boiling with fury. "You could still prevent this, if you agree to go with me."
"Will you let him go if I do?"
"Of course," he said, smiling evenly.
"Somehow I don't believe you."
"No, you're right." His smile dropped away. "Not with his mark on you. The only way I can claim you as my mate now is if he's dead."
"Fuck you, Creed!" she screamed. "You'll never claim me, never!"
The Black Wings were slowly but surely driving Remy away from the shelter of the trees, out into the open where Creed's hawks and buzzards could harass him freely. He roared and struggled, shaking them off time and again, but it was clear he w
as weakening under the onslaught.
"There you are!" Creed shouted. "Finally."
He wasn't talking to Saffron. Two more Black Wings came stumbling out of the woods, but these were human-shaped, still dressed and—her heart plunged to her bare feet. One of them carried a shotgun; the other had a hunting rifle.
"We're up in the fucking mountains, boss!" one of them yelled. "It's not like it's easy to get through those trees when you're not shifted."
"Well, do your job," Creed snapped. He stood up carefully on his branch, holding onto the tree trunk.
"Remy!" Saffron screamed. "They have guns!"
The animal-shifted Black Wings were already falling back, moving out of the way. Remy swung his blood-matted head around, searching for the new source of threat.
"Remy, run!"
Remy showed no intention of doing anything of the sort. Instead, as the Black Wings lowered their guns at him, he put his head down, hackles raised, with the clear intent of charging them.
Creed leaped off his branch, shifting as he went. His great eagle wings caught the air with a tremendous crack, and he swooped low over Remy's head, gouging with his talons as he went. Remy reared in the air, much faster than Creed seemed to expect. One great paw hooked the eagle and Remy, roaring his victory, pulled Creed down, slamming him into the ground in a flurry of wings.
The rifle gave a thunderclap report, its echo rebounding off the hills.
Remy staggered. Creed ripped free and hopped awkwardly away, scrambling out of reach with one wing trailing.
"Remy!" Saffron shrieked. Tears half-blinded her. "Remy, run!"
He looked her way, squinting through the blood masking his face, and then lowered his head and charged the Black Wings. He wasn't going to leave her.
Another rifle shot made him stumble, losing his balance and falling.
"Remy!"
She thought there might have been another gunshot, but it was all but drowned out in a deafening grizzly roar. For an instant she thought it was Remy, and then she realized it wasn't just one grizzly roaring.
Enraged bears spilled out of the woods, and Saffron, from her tree, could only stare in amazement.
They were all as huge as Remy's bear, and each was a different shade of brown, from a bear so light it was blond to another nearly as dark as mahogany. The armed Black Wings were their first target. The one with the rifle was slapped to the ground before he could get off another shot, while the other broke and ran, only to be smacked down within a few steps. No human could outrun a charging grizzly.
The woods below Saffron erupted in chaos as the shifted Black Wings scattered in all directions. They might be willing to take on a single grizzly shifter, as a group, but the whole clan was too much for them. Foxes, snakes, deer, cats, and the limping black bear fled into the underbrush in every possible direction.
"Cody!" Saffron screamed at the top of her lungs. She wasn't sure which one was Cody, but knew one of them had to be. "Get the eagle! He's their leader!"
Creed was desperately trying to get airborne, but Remy had managed to hurt him too badly to fly. The blond grizzly pounced, flattening Creed with one enormous paw.
In moments there was no one left except for a handful of Black Wings too injured to run away, and the bears—all those bears, huge and primal, prowling around for stragglers with their big heads swinging from side to side.
Saffron finally dared come to come down from the tree. Heedless of the needles ripping at her skin, she slithered from branch to branch, and landed barefoot on the prickly ground. "Remy!" she cried, running to him.
Remy lay still, a huge mound of motionless fur. One of the other bears, his fur a chestnut brown, was pawing anxiously at him. Saffron threw herself on him, ignoring the blood matting his fur. "Remy," she cried desperately. He was breathing at least, his humped side rising and falling. "Remy, please wake up."
The chestnut-colored bear standing above her shifted suddenly into a big, broad-shouldered man with dark hair. "Remy," he said, his voice blending exasperation, worry, and maybe a hint of anger. He prodded Remy's furry bulk. "Shift, you idiot. Shift now, so we can see how bad you're hurt."
"Remy, please shift," Saffron put in. She dug her hand into the heavy fur of his neck, where the claiming mark was when he was human-shaped.
Whether he heard either of them was an open question, but Remy's whole body shuddered, and the bear's bulk collapsed into his naked human body. Saffron gave a soft cry. He was so covered in blood and dirt that she couldn't even tell where he was hurt, or how badly.
The blond grizzly with its paw on Creed shifted into a tall, muscular man with short blond hair. "If he can't walk, have Cody carry him. He's not shifted back yet." Creed, still eagle-shifted, made a move to get up, and the bear shifter gave him a hard shake. "No, you don't. Not unless you want grizzly teeth in your ass. I'm a law enforcement officer, dumbass, and you are so fucking arrested right now."
One of the other bears lumbered up to Remy, this one with fur of a light honey-tinted brown, a few shades darker than the blond one who had just shifted. He nudged Remy's still form with his nose. If bears could look anxious, this one definitely did.
"Cody, lie down," the dark-haired man told him. "We'll put him on your back. Give me a hand," he told Saffron.
There was something about him that was hard to disobey, a naturally commanding presence. This, she thought, must be Remy's alpha, Alec. Between the two of them they wrestled Remy's big frame onto Cody's broad back. Remy moaned softly.
"Settle down," Alec told him, putting a hand on his shoulder, and he subsided.
Cody lumbered into the woods with careful, slow steps. Saffron walked beside him, picking her way over pine needles on increasingly sore feet and holding Remy's hand. Alec stayed on his other side, helping to steady him.
The dark-colored grizzly, who had not shifted back when the others did, was intermittently visible through the trees: a flicker here, a glimpse there. He seemed to be patrolling around them. Occasionally Saffron got a good enough look at him to see a scar slashed across his face. She couldn't even imagine what kind of injury could damage a shifter badly enough to leave a scar like that.
"I don't know where we're going, but there's a cabin down the hill a ways," she told Alec.
"I know," Alec said. "We just came from there. It'll be a good place to patch him up."
"How did you get here so quickly? It's hours to your ranch, Remy said."
Alec walked in silence for a few moments before he said, "Cody roused the ranch last night. Got us all moving."
He didn't seem inclined to elaborate on this.
As they walked, Saffron kept darting cautious glances at him; she could just see him over the top of Cody's back. So this was Remy's mysterious alpha, the one who he'd fought with. She hadn't known what to feel about Alec when Remy told her the story, and now that she'd met him, she still wasn't sure. He was even bigger than Remy, with a rugged, forbidding kind of good looks. She liked the openness of Remy's face, the warmth in his eyes and the laugh lines that crinkled when he smiled. It was obvious just from looking at Remy that, despite his bad-boy air, he was someone who smiled often. Alec didn't look like he ever smiled. His eyes were a cool gray, distant and preoccupied, scanning the woods steadily rather than looking at her.
But, she reminded herself, he had come to help Remy. They all had. When it came right down to it, Remy's clan had his back.
So what happens now?
"Alec?" she said cautiously, in a small voice. She still hadn't been introduced to all of them, and she was only guessing that this man was Alec at all. He glanced at her with those cool gray eyes. Her eagerness to ask about Remy died under that chill gray stare. Instead, she asked the other thing she was wondering. "How are you and your clan going to deal with Creed?"
She didn't entirely understand how things worked in shifter clans that were more tightly structured than her own, but one thing she did know was that such decisions were the alpha's to make. He al
so didn't owe her an answer, she reminded herself.
But he answered anyway. "You're Remy's mate, aren't you?"
She nodded wordlessly. It wasn't as if she could hide it; other shifters could sense the mark on her.
"Trying to steal someone else's fated mate by force—that's despicable," Alec said. He spoke softly, as if to himself. "No, more than that. It's obscene. In the old days, the clan alphas of the mated pair would have the responsibility to make an example out of someone who committed a crime like that." He turned his piercing gray eyes on her again. "Do you have a clan alpha?"
She shook her head. "I'm not part of a clan. I mean, not an organized one, not like the Black Wings, or like yours."
"Ah well," he murmured. "My decision, then."
Cody swung his big grizzly head in Alec's direction, and made a soft whuffing sound. He bumped Alec's arm with the side of his head.
"Stop that," Alec said. He gave the bear a shove, in a rough but semi-friendly kind of way. "This is a shifter clan, not a democracy. We are not deciding this by committee."
Cody let out another ursine grunt, this one more disapproving.
"No,"Alec said flatly. "And we're having the rest of this conversation when you're human-shaped."
"Can you understand him?" Saffron asked. She'd never been able to understand any of her family in their shifted form, at least not in the way a person could understand human speech. Maybe it was an alpha thing.
"Not really, but I've been listening to him mouth off at me for thirty years, and I think I know what he'd be saying if he could talk right now."And Alec gave her something that was almost a smile, just the slightest hint of a tilt to his mouth, enough to warm his gray eyes ever so slightly.
They came out of the woods behind the cabin. Since Saffron had last seen it, the yard had filled up with the Black Wings' motorcycles. Two trucks parked at the edge of the yard, beyond the mass of motorcycles, must belong to Remy's clan.