He quickly lifted his shirt and checked the wound. It had grazed his ribs, leaving a deep gash. It wasn’t the worst wound he’d had, not even close. And thanks to his bear strength and the incredible healing power all shifters had, he knew his body could take it. But the dangerous thing was that it hadn’t been from something like a handgun. Based on the size of the wound and just how damn bad it hurt, the shot had been from a much higher velocity weapon, like a hunting or assault rifle.
At first glance, Zeus hadn’t seen anyone with anything bigger than a handgun. And just based on their ragtag tactics, he didn’t expect any of them to be terribly accurate. But someone had been able to hit him from somewhere across the clearing and with surprising accuracy.
Zeus was just getting started. To anyone else, that shot would have likely been lethal. But there was one thing none of the men out there knew and he did.
There was another fighter inside him, one stronger than they could handle. He felt his body change and let out a roar as he charged into the clearing.
They’d threatened his mate and woken the animal inside him.
Now they’d have to deal with the big, bad bear.
* * *
Carly watched in terror at the melee below. From the bedroom window, she could see Zeus as he ran for the trees and fought the intruders from there.
Yesterday, when Zeus had protected her in the bar, she’d seen just how capable and strong he really was. And how protective. And since then, she’d learned snippets here and there from Ares or from himself about his past in the military, apparently doing something he didn’t or couldn’t talk about.
But seeing him out there, singlehandedly fighting what looked like twenty or so men, fearlessly and all by himself, Carly knew for certain that Zeus had seen combat in his previous life. Lots of it.
Even though he took cover right at the edge of the clearing of trees, Carly could make out Zeus’s huge figure as it dodged, rolled, returned fire, and moved effortlessly through the shrubs, fighting what seemed like an endless onslaught of men.
Her heart sank at the thought of anything happening to him at all, and she thought momentarily about surrendering if that meant they would let him live. But considering just how ferociously he was fighting them, she didn’t think it was something Zeus would ever agree with.
Part of her cursed her luck for having had the run-in with the Red Devils back at the bar. But she also knew if it hadn’t have happened, she probably wouldn’t have been brought up here to this beautiful forest and been able to have the most mind-blowing sex with the hottest man she’d ever known.
The fighting was starting to dwindle, when she heard a loud shot ring through the forest. Zeus staggered and disappeared from her view suddenly.
Was he okay? Had he been shot?
Carly’s heart raced. She picked up her cellphone to call 9-1-1. However, when she unlocked it and started to dial, she heard several loud beeps, then nothing. She checked her phone and saw a small “no service” in the top left corner. Dammit, she didn’t have service this high in the mountains, and until now, she hadn’t bothered to check. And from what she’d seen in the house, she didn’t recall Zeus having any landline. All she could do was wait, eyes focused on the last spot she’d seen him.
What would happen if the Red Devils did get their hands on her?
She tried to put away the horrible possibilities that ensued from the thought and silently hoped for the best.
By now, those who were still left standing started to pull fallen comrades out of the clearing to the side, while others approached his last-seen position, guns trained on the thicket of ferns and brush.
Out of nowhere, a long, loud roar reverberated through the forest around them, shaking Carly to her core. It was unlike any sound she’d ever heard before. Looking down at the thugs, she saw them exchange harried looks before moving forward again.
A split second later, a huge brown grizzly charged out of the forest and gave another ferocious roar that made the walls of the house shake, then charged at the men. Some of them froze in their place, dropping their guns at their sides. Others turned and ran for dear life, bolting for the nearest motorcycle and running for the trees behind them.
Carly felt herself freeze as well at the sight of the larger-than-life creature. She’d seen a few bears at a zoo when she was little, but this one seemed bigger than anything she could have imagined.
And where was Zeus? Was he still okay?
To her surprise, the bear was not only huge, but it was fast as well. With one swipe, a biker was thrown twenty feet into the forest, out of Carly’s view. A moment later, the bear grabbed a motorcycle in its mouth and hurled it toward another man about to shoot at it, knocking him over. Some of men regrouped and fired their weapons at the bear, but it seemed to have the same effect a BB gun would on a raging bull.
None.
Carly remembered the bear Zeus had mentioned before when they were at the lake. Was this it? The thought that Zeus lived so close to such a merciless, gigantic killing machine was unsettling, even though he hadn’t sounded worried at all about the creature when he brought up the subject earlier. When she saw Zeus again, she would have to talk to him about it.
Roaring and clawing, the bear made its way through the clearing and into the forest, where she saw it chasing several men who had been hiding there. By the time it reached them, they’d gone out of her view from the small bedroom window, and Carly scanned the forest for where she’d seen Zeus.
Carly heard one last roar and saw the bear charge back into the forest from where it had first come from, overturning the brush and disappearing behind the trees in a matter of seconds. She marveled at how close the creature had come to where Zeus had been, but from what she’d seen, it had gone right past him. Maybe Zeus had seen the bear and hid in the thicket, out of sight?
The clearing was quiet, aside from the quickly waning sounds of a few motorcycles carrying men that had managed to escape in time. But those too soon faded, leaving just the sight of mangled motorcycles and unconscious or dead gangsters.
Carly’s heart stopped when Zeus didn’t appear. Should she go outside and look for him? She turned the thought over and over in her mind. There was still a risk in her going outside. But it was also possible he could be out there, bleeding and dying, right now, and without help, he could surely be doomed.
She couldn’t bear the thought of losing Zeus, only now when she’d just found him. She grabbed a pair of sandals from her bag and threw on her jacket, going to the window to look one last time before running outside.
To her surprise, she saw Zeus, shirtless and shoeless, walking across the clearing toward the house. His left arm hung limp, weakly holding a gun in his hand, with his right hand pressing what looked like a torn piece of fabric to his left chest. She could see blood running down his abdomen from what must have been a gunshot wound he was covering.
Carly didn’t care about the danger. Zeus was hurt. She ran for the stairs, going down them by twos and threes, and swung open the front door. When she did, Zeus looked up at her and smiled weakly, his dark haired mussed and his body riddled with cuts and scrapes. He walked more quickly, and when she reached him, she threw her arms around him, glad to know he was still alive.
“Are you okay? You’re injured,” Carly said, holding back tears.
“I’m fine for now. Let’s get inside, quick. There might be more out there,” Zeus whispered, his voice strained. Even like this, just the sound of his voice reassured her that everything was going to be okay, somehow.
Carly went with him as they walked inside and closed the door. She locked it while Zeus called Ares, informing him of the situation and telling him to come quickly. As they waited, Zeus went to work cleansing the gunshot wound and patching it up. To her surprise, the bleeding had already stopped by the time it was bandaged, but when she asked, Zeus just said it had been a clean shot and it only grazed him.
Faster than she would have guessed, Ares ca
me roaring up the mountain in his truck. He strode into the house, carrying what looked like an arsenal of weaponry in a large, black bag, and started to unpack, when Zeus spoke.
“Sorry, Ares, not today. We just need to get out of here quickly. Can we stay at your place tonight?”
Ares halted his unpacking. “Of course. Anything for you, boss,” he said.
“Thanks. Carly, you go get your things together while I grab a few necessities. Ares, wait in the car for us,” Zeus said in his commanding voice. Second by second, he seemed to be getting better, from what she could tell, though maybe Zeus was just so focused right now that he could ignore the pain from the injury.
Carly ran upstairs and gathered her stuff. Thankfully, she hadn’t taken much out since last night when it had been brought to her in the first place, and in less than a minute, she was back downstairs, ready to go.
Zeus had a backpack and one large suitcase and was standing by the door, waiting for her.
“Emergency kit, for situations when I need to leave in a hurry,” he said, ushering her through the door and out to Ares’s large black truck. Zeus tossed their things in the back and opened the passenger door, helping Carly get in before getting in the backseat of the cab.
When they reached town, Ares called 9-1-1 so the police and paramedics could make their way up and tend to the wounded. After a few more minutes of driving, they arrived at a surprisingly large house surrounded by a tall, concrete barrier with a metal gate. With the press of a button, Ares pulled into a private driveway and closed the gate behind them.
They were safe. For now.
8
They got out of the car quietly. Ares carried the bags and led the way up his drive and toward the house, which was tall and foreboding, with no decorative frills. Probably two stories high, made of solid concrete, reinforced windows. It definitely stood out in the small town, or would if anyone had the guts to look over the huge concrete barrier that surrounded it.
Ares unlocked and opened the door, and Carly gasped at the difference in the interior. Pure luxury, from the beautiful rugs to the hand-carved furniture that looked much like the stuff in Zeus’s cabin. It made sense, since Zeus had told Carly Ares constructed the furniture.
Right now, she was just grateful Ares had been able to come and help. She was in awe of the way he called Zeus boss and had said he’d do anything for him. Clearly, there was still a lot to learn about the man she was falling in love with.
That’s right. She was already falling in love with him. From the moment he’d touched her, back on their walk in the woods, she’d realized something powerful and dangerous was forming between them. Something she wanted to keep exploring. But first, she had to make sure Zeus was okay.
Ares tried to help him to the nearest couch, but Zeus pulled away, walking on his own to a hard, wooden chair.
“I’m fine,” he said wearily, slumping into it. “I don’t want to get blood on your couch.”
“Fuck it. I can buy another,” Ares said, sitting down and running a hand through his ruffled blond hair. His bag of weaponry sat beside him, making Carly slightly nervous.
“Can you put those back in the safe?” Zeus asked with a raised eyebrow. “They’re making Carly nervous.”
“No, it’s okay—” she said.
But Ares had already nodded and was walking away in the direction of the doorway. Zeus gave her a tired smile, looking her over as if making sure she was okay, when he was the one who was injured.
She walked over to him and reached for his shirt, but he caught her hand and lifted it to his lips, kissing it slowly in a way that sent heat sizzling through her. Still, she pulled back and gave him a frown. “I need to look at your wound. I’m worried about it.”
“I’m fine,” he said. “I heal quick.”
“You were shot,” she said. “I don’t understand why you won’t let me look at it and help you. I’ve stitched up my brother before when he fell.”
“I’m afraid this is different,” Ares said, cutting into their conversation as she struggled with Zeus to try and see his injury. Stubborn man was going to get an infection if he didn’t let someone take a look at it. Ares put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back. “I got it, sweetness,” he said gently, and she stepped aside.
Zeus let out a low growl, and Ares laughed, kneeling in front of him. “Cool it, big guy. You know I call all women sweetness.”
“Not Carly,” he said.
“Yeah, yeah, I get it, boss,” Ares said, lifting his shirt and blocking her view of the wound. He let out a low whistle. “He’s gonna be fine. Just a flesh wound.”
“Doesn’t he need stitches? It was bleeding so bad before.”
Ares shook his head and lowered the shirt, gazing at her calmly.
She stomped a foot. “I don’t care how macho you military men think you are. Someone needs to disinfect that thing or he’s going to get an infection.”
Ares and Zeus looked at each other in puzzlement, and Ares sighed. “All right. But I’ll do it when you’re out of the room. Zeus here doesn’t want you to see it.”
“Why, because you think I can’t handle it? I want to help.”
Zeus’s calm blue eyes met hers. “Carly. Please.”
She was angry. Angry that he was hurt, angry that he was keeping her away when all of this was because of her and she desperately felt like she needed to do something for him in return. Angry at being closed off by the two large men. Angry that Ares knew all of Zeus’s secrets and she was barely scratching his surface. Seeing how he fought in the clearing before he went down, she was certain his whole life had been about war until he came to Bearstone Village.
But now wasn’t the time to talk about it, and she would respect his need for privacy. Whatever the reason.
“All right,” she said. “But call me back when you’re done.” In the meantime, she’d go find a quiet place to sit and try not to think about the man she was coming to love running into a hailstorm of bullets and limping away bleeding and hurting.
* * *
When Carly was gone, Ares grabbed wipes from a first aid kit to clean the mostly healed wound. “That was risky, you know,” he said, looking into Zeus’s eyes as he wiped away the blood. “You should have waited for me to come over,” Ares said.
“It was too late,” Zeus replied. “They would have breached the house. I had to protect Carly.” He let Ares put a bandage over the area, just so Carly would be convinced he was fine, and then pulled his shirt down and let out a harsh breath.
“You want to change?” Ares asked. “Or want to go over it now? I want to know everything that happened, from the perimeter breach to when I showed up and everyone was down.”
Zeus sighed. “Damn, I’m tired. I haven’t taken on that many men in a long time, amateur or not.”
Ares’s lips quirked in a smile. “Looks like a dozen men are still no match for our Zeus.”
“More than a dozen,” Zeus said, and the two men shared a cocky grin that most people would never understand. But Zeus had protected what was his. That’s all that mattered.
“So what were you doing that you didn’t notice the initial perimeter breach?”
Zeus felt blood rush into his neck and avoided Ares’s piercing gaze. The other man’s green eyes were unnervingly adept at reading between the lines. “Ah, hell,” he said. “It wasn’t very late. I just didn’t hear the initial beep on my phone. Even if I had, the result would have been the same.”
A slow grin spread over Ares’s face, and Zeus gave him a shove. “Stop thinking about it,” he said, and Ares raised his hands in surrender.
“All right, boss, not thinking about it,” he said.
“What are you not thinking about?” Carly asked, appearing in the doorway.
“Nothing,” Ares said, stretching out on the couch as Zeus settled back into his chair.
He was proud of how she’d handled the situation. She’d stayed out of danger but been ready and waiting for him. W
orried for him. She’d feared for his safety, not only her own. And she’d been fiercely protective when she thought he was wounded.
It was all he could ask for in a mate. His bear had chosen wisely.
His bear had also kicked ass.
Zeus gave Ares all the info he could while trying not to look at Carly as she sat on the couch a little ways from Ares. She was so perfect, her brown hair mussed and fluffy, but so soft, her whiskey eyes glittering with emotion as they relived the event. Her rosy lips were pursed as she listened to their thoughts on the matter.
He wanted to just pick her up and take her back to the bedroom and cuddle her until he convinced the animal inside him she was okay. But he had to take care of business first.
“So then I was wounded, and then…” He looked at Carly, wondering how to handle the bear thing. Had she seen?
“Then a big freaking bear came out of the woods and messed everyone up,” Carly said, shaking her head. “I know you two aren’t going to believe me, but it’s all I’ve been thinking about… you know, when not thinking about the fight and Zeus getting hurt. I mean, Zeus said there was a bear up in the woods, but I didn’t think it was friendly to humans.” She put her head in her hands. “Now that I think about it, it’s almost like he was protecting us. I mean, he fought like a demon but never threatened or hurt Zeus.”
Ares’s eyes twinkled as he looked over at Zeus, and Zeus sent him a warning glare. “Now that you mention it, Zeus did say there was a bear up around his place. A friendly one, though,” Ares said.
Carly raised an eyebrow. “Are bears ever friendly? I thought they ate campers and stuff.”
Ares grimaced in disgust. “None of the bears I know.”
She raised an eyebrow. “And you know a lot of bears?”
Ares didn’t miss a beat. “Well, yeah. I grew up in Bearstone Village. Worked summers in Bearstone Park. There are bears around.”
“I see,” she said. “Why do I feel like there’s something you two aren’t telling me?” She glared at Zeus, and he looked away, not meeting her gaze. He could tell her when all of this cooled down. It would be too much right now.
Big Bad Bear Page 6