by Layla Nash
"Joe? Hap? We've got the bastard cornered, we need your help, bring the —"
Kira smacked the radio with her paw and snarled, lurching up to race through the trees. They'd cornered Ethan. She didn't need the guns or the radio or anything but her razor-sharp claws and teeth. She'd kill every last one of them if they hurt Ethan. He might not love her once he found out she was a shifter, but she needed to tell him.
Ethan
Ethan picked two of the miners off as they trampled back down to the river. He didn't shoot them, but instead managed to grab and subdue them, then tied them to a couple of trees with t-shirt gags so they couldn't call for help or betray his position. Which left two, somewhere in the woods.
They'd gotten smarter on their radios after they called to the men who chased Kira, and instead of an answer, all they got back was a weird yowling sound. Ethan's ears had perked up when he heard one of the men yell about a tiger before the radio cut off, and he wondered if perhaps Kira found the men before they found her.
The bear did not like that she hadn't done what he said and run for the road, particularly since that meant she'd put herself in danger. God only knew why.
Ethan shook off the worry and irritation, and instead concentrated on finding the last two men. He'd circled through the patch of forest around their river camp-ground several times, and seen no sign of them. They'd gone to ground. Maybe they realized he was hunting them. Or maybe they set their own trap, for him or Kira.
Ethan dared to walk into their camp, though he sniffed the air to figure out if they were close by, and examined the equipment. The men were definitely mining for gold, and had probably been doing so for a long time. The equipment looked well-worn. He growled, irritated that they exploited the park lands, and turned.
And came face-to-face with the two armed men. Both pointed weapons at him.
The bear wanted to break free. Ethan kept his rifle easy at his side, not bothering to raise it to his shoulder. If things went wrong, the gun wouldn't help him. He'd shift to bear form and take care of business with his claws and teeth. "Do you have a claim for this mining operation?"
"Don't need one," the dark-haired man said. "Where's your girl?"
"Safe," Ethan said. He didn't know if it was true, but they needed to believe Kira was unharmed and on her way to the road and help. "Too bad I can't say the same about your friends."
The bearded one scowled, hands tightening on his rifle. "Bullshit."
"When was the last time they came up on the radio?" Ethan backed up a step, debating whether he could shift fast enough to kill them before they shot him full of bullets. "Been a while, right?"
"You must be the unluckiest son of a bitch in this park," the bearded one said. "Sorry we have to kill you."
"We'll see." Ethan swung the rifle up to his shoulder and managed to get one shot off before he leapt behind the larger hunk of equipment.
The miners fired at him, bullets whizzing past his ears and thudding against the machinery, and Ethan tried to make himself the smallest target possible. Which wasn't easy.
He cursed and wiggled to find a good firing position, but the miners kept up a steady barrage that kept him from moving or getting to better cover. The bear roared, ready to fight, but Ethan wasn't ready. Not just yet.
Fire blazed through his shoulder as a bullet grazed him, and Ethan growled. He lurched upright, about to shift, when something gold and black blurred past him and flew at the two miners.
One fell backwards, firing wildly into the air, as the bearded man took aim at the enormous cat that mauled his partner. Ethan charged, tackling the miner, and they both rolled into the river. He fought, grappling with the miner, but the man managed to swing the rifle butt up and into Ethan's teeth. Blood filled his mouth, choking him, and Ethan cursed.
The water closed over his head as he and the miner grappled. Ethan roared as he heaved up, throwing off the other man, but what felt like three hundred pounds of rage landed on him instead. Ethan pitched back, landing hard on a couple of rocks, and struggled to breathe as the enormous jungle cat snarled and sank her claws into the bearded miner, who stuttered and whimpered like a child.
Ethan picked up the man's rifle, hesitating as he looked at the cat. It turned and the green gaze landed on him like a ton of bricks, knocking him back a step. Kira. She had to be the cat. The green eyes gave her away.
A long tail lashed the air as she made a questioning cat noise, almost like a chirp, and swatted the bearded miner as he continued to flail in the river. Ethan couldn't breathe as he looked at her. She was gorgeous — all lithe beauty and fierce wildness. She was a jaguar. And she'd tackled that damn miner to save his life.
Ethan grinned, taking a step toward her. "Hey. What —"
He stopped as a gunshot broke the stillness. He turned, searching for the source, and saw one of the miners staggering out of the trees behind him. Ethan cursed, and the entire world stopped moving as he saw red bloom across Kira's side. She made that funny cat noise again, a meow of surprise, then she staggered back to the land and collapsed.
Ethan roared. By the time he turned around, the bear broke free and he was all grizzly.
The asshole in the woods went white with fear and tried to flee, but the grizzly moved faster than any human could. He caught the man in the trees and roared, claws scoring deep cuts in the man's back and sides. He'd shot Kira. He tried to kill Ethan's mate.
The grizzly threw the man against a tree and whirled, charging back down to where Kira lay and the two other miners lay unconscious. He hated them all. He wanted to kill them all. His roar shook the leaves from the trees.
Ethan lumbered to where Kira lay, nosing her gently. He wanted to hold her, to stroke the soft fur over her ears, but he couldn't shift back to human until he knew the threats to her safety were completely dealt with. She still breathed, but blood leaked from where the bullet struck her side. The bear groaned his misery, wanting to scoop her up out of the dirt, but more radios and noise and shouting filtered through the trees.
He lurched up to his back legs, towering over the mining equipment and the bodies of the miners, and faced whatever built up in the woods. He would protect her until he could make her better and get her medical help. There was a first aid kit in his pack. She would have faster shifter healing on her side, and he could fix the rest.
Kira
Something wild broke loose in Kira's head when she saw the miners trying to kill Ethan. Even though she intended to stay along the banks of the river until Ethan's friends showed up, she charged through the water and knocked the miner off Ethan. Everything blurred with rage and she didn't really know what had happened until a loud crack broke the silence and a bright spark of pain lit up her side.
Shot. She'd been shot. Before she could really understand what that meant, something dangerous roared, shaking the ground, and she kept still as a grizzly bear appeared and charged into the trees. Kira blinked, trying to remember where the bear came from. When he lumbered back over to her, she looked up and found very familiar eyes on her. Ethan. It had to be Ethan.
She wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. He was a shifter, too. A giant grizzly bear of a shifter.
He faced the trees once more in the fading light, and Kira strained to hear what concerned him. More voices, radios, and the crashing of uncoordinated men hacking their way through the woods reached them. The jaguar wanted to get up and fight alongside Ethan, but the pain in her chest made it hard to move. Made it hard to breathe, really.
The grizzly dropped to his front paws and the ground trembled again with the shock of his weight. Kira lifted her head as the bear swayed, moving away from her and toward whatever disturbed the woods, and her heart stuttered. She wanted to warn him, though she couldn't have said what made her so uneasy. Kira pushed to her paws and staggered as the pain ignited into an inferno, almost crippling her.
The sky darkened more as the sun set and the clouds stirred into beautiful pink and orange cotton candy. Ki
ra would have loved it, maybe even found it romantic, if she hadn't been bleeding and Ethan wasn't focused on some unknown threat trying to sneak up on them. Kira limped through the river, her paws slipping on the smooth rocks, and the cold water extinguished some of the pain in her chest.
She paused to catch her breath, twitching her tail, and scanned the remains of the miners' camp and the river. And saw one of those bastards wobbling to his knees, a rifle in his hands. Kira snarled, leaping in his direction as he raised the gun to fire, but she was too far away. Too far.
The jaguar screamed as the man fired once, then again and again, and the grizzly bear grunted. Staggered. Tried to shake off the pain as bullet after bullet struck him, and Kira snarled. She swiped at the man just as another gunshot tore through the air, and the miner went to his knees.
Kira dragged the gun out of his hands and her jaws crushed the barrel. It made her teeth ache but at least the bastard couldn't shoot at Ethan again.
Ethan.
She ran to him, nosing his side and trying to push him onto his back so she could get a better sense of whether he was injured. Kira chirped and meowed, wanting to see his eyes. His beautiful blue eyes. The bear groaned.
Shouts reached them and Kira crouched over Ethan protectively. If anyone else tried to hurt Ethan, they'd learn why the jaguar was the scariest cat in North America. She growled, low and long, and scanned the darkening forest for a hint of who shouted.
Ethan groaned again and then was suddenly human, pale and naked and half-in the river. His fingers dug into her fur, and Ethan managed to smile despite the blood leaking from his chest and sides. His voice rasped in the stillness. "I thought I told you to run for the truck."
Kira grumbled at him and crouched lower, not wanting to crush him but needing to keep him warm. She rose as three figures tumbled out of the forest and into the river. All of them carried weapons, and two carried large packs. They headed right for them, and Kira started snarling. She'd fight them all if she had to.
The three men slowed, raising their hands in the air, and one came forward. The dark beard hid most of his face, but his scent was familiar. And his voice struck a chord in her memory, even through the jaguar's rage. "Hey there. Ethan, you okay?"
Ethan groaned and pushed himself up on one elbow behind her, and Kira froze. Ethan tugged gently on her tail. "I need a couple of bandages, but that's it, Simon."
Simon. Kira knew Simon. The jaguar calmed a little, but didn't relax from vigilantly keeping an eye on those three men and the miners who remained in the river and around it. Ethan sat up, coughing, and more blood trickled down his chest. Kira yowled softly, head-butting him, and Ethan smiled. He caught her face in his hands and scratched under her chin, crooning softly. "Can you turn back?"
Simon and the others approached, and two went to drag the miners out of the river and over to their camp. Kira grumbled when Simon got too close, but the bearded man crouched to sit on his heels a few feet away, looking at her with a hint of laughter in his eyes. "And I guess this is Kira, hmm?"
She growled more, but Ethan rubbed her ears and her paws kneaded his leg as she tried not to roll around in ecstasy. Her tail whipped his face, and Ethan snorted as he lay back in the dirt. "This is definitely Kira. Do you have any clothes for her, Simon? My pack is stashed over in the trees, and no telling where hers ended up."
Kira watched as Simon called to one of the other men with the packs, and then Ethan held a pile of clothes. She hesitated, suddenly shy. Shifting in front of all of them, particularly the miners, felt too vulnerable. If Simon and his guys weren't surprised that she was a jaguar and Ethan was a bear, then chances were they were shifters as well. But the miners were entirely human, and if they decided to report her for being an unregistered shifter in the area... She could lose everything.
Simon turned away and argued with his guys about what to do with the miners, and left Ethan alone with her. Ethan held up some of the clothes and tried to sound normal, although pain creased the skin around his eyes. "Shift back, Kira. It'll be okay. Everything will be okay."
She believed him. Even though it was cold and she wanted to play in the river more, Kira curled in on herself and shifted back to human. Her chest still hurt from the wound, and as soon as she was human and naked and shivering again, the fear rushed back and she fought back tears. She'd been shot. And he'd been shot, a lot. And those men wanted to kill her. Had intended to kill her. She shivered more, shaking and trembling as she tried to pretend everything was normal.
Ethan handed her the clothes, moving slowly as he held his side. "They're big but at least you'll be warm until we can get to your pack. How did — hey, what's wrong?"
He dropped the clothes to catch her shoulders and then pull her close for a hug as the tears broke free and Kira turned into a blubbering mess. Ethan held her tighter. "What's wrong, Kira? Are you hurt?"
"I don't know," she managed to say, still crying. She leaned back so she could see his face, touching his cheeks to assure herself he was real. She tried to wipe away her tears but there were too many and they kept falling even as she tried to laugh. "I don't know why I'm crying."
Ethan smiled, kissed her gently, then held up some of the clothes. "Well, let's get you warm and dry first, then we can talk more about what happened."
She shivered and nodded, still hiccuping every now and then, and tried not to laugh when Ethan helped her put on a couple of shirts and a pair of sweatpants. He patted her down, trying to look serious. "Just checking for wounds."
"I wasn't shot in the butt," she said under her breath, finally able to dry her eyes on her sleeve. "And you were shot at least a couple of times, so I need to check you over."
Ethan grinned, though he groaned as he held his side. "I'll survive. I've lived through worse."
"Then you should get dressed, too," she said. Kira winced as she pushed to her knees and tried to stand. "What are we going to do now?"
Ethan peered down at his chest, then sighed and pulled on another pair of sweatpants before pushing to his feet. He offered her a hand, helping Kira up, then looked around at the darkening woods. "We're going to have to stay here tonight, then hike out tomorrow. Simon and the guys will take care of the rest of these clowns."
"I knocked out a couple," she said, scrunching her bare toes in the soft dirt. "Up near the cave. That's where I left my pack, too."
"Got it." Ethan paused long enough to kiss her, his hands lingering at her waist, then he winked. "You wait here. I'll take care of it."
Kira watched him walk over to Simon and the other guys, talking quickly, then he and one of the guys jogged off into the darkness. At least they were both armed. Kira counted the miners tied up off to the side by Simon and his friends — five. So there was one left in the forest somewhere. She shivered and hugged herself as the dark woods started to look a lot more dangerous. She almost shifted back to jaguar form, so at least she would be the scariest thing hunting in the forest. Kira tried to smile when Simon offered her a seat by the small fire they'd started at the miners' campsite, but inside, she braced for the next horrible surprise.
Ethan
Ethan and Coop headed out for the cave where Kira said she left her pack and at least one of the miners, although the one who shot Ethan from the trees had been one of the guys chasing her. Cooper didn't say much as Ethan’s pace slowed, his chest still hurting from the slowly-healing wounds, but Coop wordlessly carried the extra ammunition they took as a precaution. They moved with less urgency than he wanted in the dark, but they only had one headlamp to light the way. Ethan preferred the grizzly's superior night vision, even if it wasn't perfect.
When they passed the spot where Ethan had knocked out the men who'd been chasing him, Cooper picked up Ethan's pack and kept walking, despite Ethan's objections. And Ethan didn't entirely mind the help — Kira wasn't there to see the other man take his burden, and Ethan would need to carry her pack. The extra time to heal was appreciated. Ethan slapped Cooper's shoulder and tried t
o breathe easy. "Thanks, man."
"No worries," the other man said, though he shot him a sideways glance. "You can pay me back by filling me in on what the hell happened with the girl."
"She's a jaguar," Ethan said. He still marveled at it a little himself. She was so unbelievably beautiful, and the wildness in her eyes... He wondered how she could stand living in the city. Which she would have to go back to. His heart sank, thinking of how soon their adventure would end. "Just found out right before you guys showed up. We got caught out in a storm and had to take shelter at the cave."
"Snuggled up to stay warm?" Cooper snorted, a grin making him look a lot younger. "Clever bastard."
"It wasn't a trick," Ethan said. He scowled as he tried to concentrate on the forest around them. At least one of the miners was still out there, doing God only knew what. He hoped none of their friends were working nearby, or else he and Coop might end up facing an army. "She was cold."
Coop opened his mouth to make another joke but his teeth clicked shut as Ethan's bear growled. He wouldn't tolerate the teasing about Kira. So Cooper just shook his head, laughing to himself at his own joke, and headed down the trail ahead of Ethan.
Ethan tried to calm the bear as they stalked through the forest and found Kira's scent everywhere. She'd run down that particular trail in fear or anger, the smell of adrenaline stronger as they got closer to the cave. Ethan wanted to shift, but held the bear back by his fingernails. He needed to save his energy to heal and to protect Kira on the hike back to the road.