Bearista

by Zoe Chant

  He couldn't see Ghost on the roof either. What the hell? He'd gone over the side?

  A soft noise from below—the bedroom door swinging a little wider—sent him on high alert. He crouched, gun in hand, and leaned cautiously down to peer through the opening in the floor, expecting to see Ghost in the bedroom.

  Instead he saw Gaby looking in through the bedroom door, gripping a poker.

  What in the hell was she doing here? He'd thought she, Sandy, and Luisa would be long gone by now.

  The movement up at ceiling height caught her attention. She looked up, wide-eyed. Derek lowered the gun and waved her back, mouthing "Out! Go!"

  Ghost was still around here somewhere. Derek could not let him get his hands on Gaby.

  Looking worried but not panicked, Gaby backed out of the bedroom and disappeared from Derek's field of view.

  Where in the hell was Ghost? He wasn't on the roof; he wasn't in the cupola. There just weren't many places to go—

  Except one.

  Derek looked up at the underside of the cupola's low roof.

  The temptation was very strong to just leave him up there. But Ghost on the roof, with a sniper rifle, could shoot anyone who tried to cross the yard. Derek and Gaby would be trapped in the house. Ghost could kill Keegan and anyone else who tried to come help them.

  Derek pointed the Glock at the underside of the cupola's roof and fired twice in different spots. He wasn't sure if the ammo was a high enough caliber to penetrate the roof, but it ought to get the attention of anyone up top.

  He heard sudden scuffling on the roof. Yep. Asshole was above him.

  Fury seized him.

  Derek shifted, dropping the gun. As a bear, he nearly filled the cupola. He reared up, throwing his powerful shoulders against the underside of the roof. The whole house shook.

  The cupola's roof wasn't meant to withstand heavy loads. A bear, even a large bear, couldn't possibly take the roof off a house, not with a normal roof's support structure of trusses and beams. But the cupola roof was simple frame construction. Everything began to splinter, coming apart. The roof started lifting up at the edge.

  There was a thump and Ghost, in his blond-haired human shape, appeared suddenly in Derek's field of view. He'd jumped off the cupola roof and was now crouching on the sloping roof of the cabin, one hand flung out to stop himself from sliding as he balanced the rifle across his knees to point at Derek.

  Derek roared and threw himself at the cupola's windows. Frames splintered and glass shattered and half a ton of furious grizzly bear came crashing through the side of the destroyed cupola on top of Ghost.

  Ghost managed to get off one wild shot. Derek felt the bullet blaze a trail of pain across his shoulder. Then he landed on top of Ghost, just as Ghost started shifting too, ripping out of his clothes.

  The rifle, dropped from hands becoming paws, clattered down the roof and vanished over the edge.

  Neither of them cared. By now Ghost's shift was complete, his small furry ears plastered to his skull and lips curling back from his teeth as he snarled.

  Derek roared. Finally, he and his bear were in perfect agreement.

  You wanted a rematch, asshole? Here you go!

  He buried his teeth in Ghost's fur. Ghost tore him with huge, clawed paws. They whirled around each other on the roof, snapping and snarling, locked together in a dance of fanged death. Shingles went flying, ripped out by their claws.

  Both of them were too caught up in the fight to even remember where they were until, tearing at each other with teeth and claws, they rolled off the edge of the roof.

  Chapter Fifteen: Gaby

  It sounded like demolitions were happening up on the roof.

  Gaby peeked into the bedroom, clutching the poker. The first thing she saw was Derek's gun. He must have dropped it, and it had fallen from the cupola onto the bedroom floor.

  Gaby darted forward and picked it up. It was still warm from Derek's hand.

  The terrific thumping and crashing up on the roof stopped very suddenly, and then she heard a whump! from down below on the cabin's lawn.

  They must have fallen off.

  Derek! No!

  Gaby looked out the bedroom window, terrified of what she'd see.

  Derek and Ghost were picking themselves up, one brown grizzly, one yellowish-white polar bear. Ghost's pale fur was matted with blood. It looked like there was blood on Derek's fur too, though it didn't show up as well.

  The two bears circled each other, snarling. Derek was limping badly. It looked like he'd hurt his leg when he fell. And Ghost was definitely bigger. He was huge, as big as a truck.

  How could she change the odds in Derek's favor? She had to do something.

  She cranked open the window. There was a screen in the way, and Gaby hesitated for only an instant before punching her fist through it. Sorry, Keegan. Guess we owe you a new window screen on top of everything else. She aimed the gun out the gap, carefully lining it up just as Derek had taught her.

  Her hands trembled. Looking down the gun's barrel at the circling brown and white bodies made her realize how much risk there was of hitting Derek if she missed.

  So don't miss, she told herself, steadying her right hand with her left.

  Then Ghost lunged at Derek, and suddenly the two separate furry bodies were a thrashing mass of brown and white on the ground. Gaby tried to follow their fight with the muzzle of the gun, but quickly realized that she didn't dare try to shoot Ghost now, with the two of them so close together. They were thrashing around on the grass, first one on top, then the other.

  Before she could decide what to do, they vanished out of sight under the edge of the roof. She could still hear them, snarling and roaring and occasionally thumping into the wall, making the house shake.

  Her own lack of fear surprised her. She wasn't scared for herself at all. She was only afraid for Derek.

  Somehow, she had to help. And she couldn't do it from up here.

  She pulled the gun in, and left the bedroom, running down the stairs.

  On the ground floor, the noise of the bear fight was terrifying. The cabin shuddered every time they rolled into the wall. It sounded like they were killing each other out there.

  Holding the gun in front of her, she went out onto the porch. Derek and Ghost's snarling sounded even louder out here, without the cabin walls in the way.

  She wasn't afraid that Derek would hurt her. Even in his fury, she knew that he wouldn't.

  No, her worse fear was that in trying to help, she'd become a liability—a hostage.

  But she wouldn't just stand by and let Ghost kill her mate.

  She rounded the corner cautiously, but the bears were fighting behind the cabin now, so she couldn't see them yet. The wall of the cabin was scored with huge gouges where their claws had dug into the wood, raw and pale against the weathered brown logs.

  Imagine what those claws could do to a person ...

  She peeked around the corner at the back of the cabin. There they were.

  It looked like Derek might be winning; he had Ghost down on the ground with his jaws on Ghost's throat. But even as she thought it, Ghost swatted Derek with an enormous paw and knocked him sprawling.

  Instead of lunging for Derek, he went a different way instead. Gaby thought at first that he was running to escape. Then he shifted back to a man, and his fingers closed over something lying in the grass.

  He stood up and turned around with the rifle in his hands.

  Chapter Sixteen: Derek

  Derek started to get up to continue the fight, then froze at the sight of the rifle pointing at him.

  Blood streamed down Ghost's naked, human body from dozens of bite marks and claw gouges, but he aimed the rifle at Derek with ruthlessly steady hands.

  "Doesn't matter if you're a bear or a human at this distance," Ghost growled. "A bullet to the head will stop you just the same."

  Derek shifted too. His head spun with the change from bear to man, but it was easier to th
ink and plan in his human shape, and he really needed that right now. He gauged the distance between himself and Ghost, but it was no good; he didn't think he could make it without getting shot.

  "Nothing to say for yourself?" Ghost demanded.

  "Just that it didn't have to be like this." Derek wiped blood off his mouth with the back of his hand. Come on, Keegan, get here already. What's taking you so long? "We were both just doing our jobs. It never had to be personal. And for me, it never would've been, if you hadn't gone after my mate."

  "Always the self-righteous bastard, weren't you? Taking you out as a bear would've been satisfying, but I'm glad I got to look into your eyes before I—"

  The sound of a gunshot drowned out his words.

  But it wasn't the deafening crash of the rifle. Instead it was the sharp report of a pistol.

  Ghost jerked.

  Gaby stood less than twenty feet behind him, Derek's Glock gripped in both of her shaking hands.

  Derek didn't think Gaby had managed to hit Ghost anywhere vital. He wasn't collapsing; instead he started to turn around.

  And Derek leaped forward, shifting as he went.

  He slammed Ghost to the ground and whacked him hard in the head with one big paw. Shifting human again, he slugged Ghost hard in the jaw and then smacked his head on the ground until he stopped struggling.

  "Gaby, quick!" Derek called. Gaby blinked, snapping out of her temporary paralysis. "We need something to tie him up, something strong. Chains or a really heavy rope. Check the outbuildings."

  Gaby nodded and took off running. Derek kept most of his weight on Ghost. When his captive started to stir, he slugged him again.

  Gaby came running back. "I found this. Will it work?"

  It was a steel winch cable on a spool. "Perfect," Derek said grimly. "Hold one end for me."

  He didn't have anything to cut the cable with, but that would probably work okay. He wound it around Ghost's wrists and feet, and knotted it tightly around his body, until Ghost was trussed as securely as Derek could make him.

  When he stood up, his leg nearly collapsed under him. It felt like he'd twisted an ankle, probably when he fell, but with the adrenaline coursing through his body, he hadn't even noticed.

  "Bring the guns," he told Gaby.

  She picked up the rifle and carried it awkwardly while Derek, limping, dragged Ghost around to the front of the cabin. The support posts for the porch were the most secure thing Derek could think of to tie him to. He knotted the winch cable tightly around two of the posts, leaving Ghost slumped between them, wound in several yards of cable.

  "Will that hold him?" Gaby asked anxiously.

  "It better. He's not strong enough to break a steel cable—trust me, I should know—so if he tries to shift like that, he'll cut his hands off. That ought to hold him until the police get here."

  Gaby nodded. Her lips trembled, and her face was ashen. "Is it ... over?"

  "It's over. It's over, honey."

  Derek gathered her into his arms, pulling her against him. She threw her arms around him, heedless of the dirt and blood. She was trembling all over.

  "You did good," Derek said into her hair.

  "I shot him," she gasped. "I shot a man, oh God, I shot a man."

  "You didn't kill him." He'd seen the bullet wound when he was tying up Ghost. She'd winged him across the shoulder blade. "You just grazed him. He'll be healed by tomorrow. But you distracted him. Kept him from killing me. Gaby, you saved my life."

  Gaby buried her face in his shoulder. "I don't know why I'm such a mess about this," she said, slightly muffled. "I wasn't scared at all while it was going on. And then it just hit me. I don't know why."

  "That's how it goes sometimes. I've been there. And I've seen big, strong, combat-trained guys who didn't behave as well as you did under pressure." He kissed the top of her head. "Did I say you did good? I should have said you did amazing."

  Gaby laughed shakily. "So, uh ... where are your clothes? Did you rip out of them like the Hulk?"

  Derek couldn't help laughing. "No, I planned ahead. They're in the woods. I can tell you where, if you'll get them for me. Cable or no cable, we probably shouldn't leave this guy unattended."

  He sat on the porch with the rifle across his knees while Gaby retrieved his clothes from the woods and then went into the house to look for first-aid supplies. When she came out, she was laughing, with a slightly hysterical edge to it. "Keegan's cabin is a total wreck. I bet he's never having you over again."

  "Hey, we can always blame this jerk." Derek pointed at Ghost with the muzzle of the rifle.

  "Turn around so I can patch you up." Gaby started swabbing at his lacerations with a warm, wet cloth. "Aren't you going to need a hospital for all of this? Antibiotics and things?"

  "I'll be fine. You saw how fast the other bite healed. But I'd like to get as much of this as possible covered up before the cops get here, in case Keegan brought regular human cops as well as shifter ones. I don't want any awkward questions."

  "So it's a big secret, right?" Gaby asked, dipping the cloth in the red-swirled water. "The shifter thing."

  "As much of a secret as we can make it." Derek tried not to wince. He was enjoying his mate's ministrations, but now that the adrenaline from the fight was wearing off, he felt every scrape, bite, and bruise. "Shifters like Keegan—cops, doctors, government officials—try to make sure that the real facts of a situation like this don't get into the reports. That way, ordinary shifters with families can go on living their lives."

  "So it's not like some kind of organized conspiracy, like a government cover-up."

  Derek shook his head. "Not really. It's more just that shifters work together to make sure the human world doesn't find out about us. Individual humans, sure. A lot of us have human friends, allies ..."

  "Mates," she whispered, kissing him lightly.

  "Yeah," he murmured into her warm, soft lips.

  She let him go and went back to swabbing at his injuries. "Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me. It's going to be hard to keep it from my family, but—"

  "Actually, you don't have to. Your mom knows. She saw me shift while I was rescuing her earlier."

  "Oh." Her eyes went briefly wide. "Er, how did she take it?"

  "Fine. The only questions she asked me had to do with making sure I was going to be a good mate for you."

  "Of course she did." Gaby sighed, but her smile was very fond. "I'm sure she'll have plenty of questions later on, just to warn you."

  "It's a price I'll have to pay." He smiled before turning serious. "We probably should wait a couple of years before telling Sandy, to make sure he's old enough to understand about keeping the secret."

  "Yeah, we still haven't broken the news to him about Santa Claus. Probably better to hold off a little while on revealing that the Easter Bunny might be a guy who turns into a bunny."

  "If he is, I've never met him."

  Gaby laughed softly and bent her head over his arm, gently disinfecting a parallel series of claw marks across his forearm.

  Derek looked down at the dark, tousled top of her head. It still felt so unreal, not just to have found his mate, but also an entire family to go along with her. He never would have expected to feel so welcomed by a group of humans.

  Even after they knew what he was.

  His sharp ears caught a sound. "What?" Gaby asked, looking up quickly when she felt him tense.

  "Engines. Sounds like cars coming up the road. Let me get my shirt on. You can go dispose of that stuff."

  Gaby dropped the cloth into the red-tinted water. "If there are regular cops, aren't they going to wonder why Ghost is stark naked and looks like he got mauled by a bear, too?"

  "Good point. Bring a blanket while you're at it."

  He'd just gotten finished putting on his shirt and throwing a blanket over Ghost's huddled form when a state trooper vehicle pulled into the yard. Keegan was out almost before the wheels stopped turning.

  "Late
to the party, as always," Derek called, straightening up stiffly.

  "What'd you do to my cabin, man?" Keegan demanded, looking up at the ruined cupola. "This is friendship?"

  "Hey, we got you a present to make up for it."

  Keegan lifted the corner of the blanket and flashed a quick grin. "He's alive?"

  "Still kicking. He's either genuinely unconscious or faking it." Derek nudged him with a toe. "Anyway, I guess I don't have to tell you to be careful with this guy."

  "Don't worry, we've got reinforced cuffs in the car." Keegan jerked his head toward the troopers who were getting equipment out of the back. "They're friends of mine. They know about us. And how are you doing, ma'am?"

  "I'm okay," Gaby said. "What about my mom and my son? Have you seen them?"

  "They're in town, with a car full of state troopers to stand guard. At this point I can probably tell them to stand down. It doesn't look like Ghost is working with anyone anymore."

  "You said he was working for one of the local crime families." Derek put an arm around Gaby, pulling her closer to him. "Any chance they might send someone else after her?"

  Keegan shook his head. "Unlikely. Ghost's very public revenge crusade is exactly the kind of publicity they don't want. At this point, they're very happy to cut all ties with him. We've got the other perp from the armed robbery in custody, and it looks like things are going to end there."

  "I can go home?" Gaby asked hesitantly.

  Keegan smiled at her. "Yeah. You can go home."

  Derek sat back down on the porch steps, Gaby at his side, and watched as the troopers cuffed Ghost hand and foot, before cutting him out of the winch cable with a pair of wire cutters Keegan produced from somewhere around the cabin.

  "The phone's not working either," Gaby told Keegan. "I think Ghost sabotaged it somehow. What's his real name, by the way?"

  "Still working on finding that out. Don't worry, we'll have a name to charge him under soon enough."

  Gaby rested her head on Derek's shoulder.

  "Holding up okay?" he murmured to her, once Keegan and the troopers were no longer in earshot.