Untamed Mate: A Shifting Destinies Bear Shifter Romance (Shifters of Bear's Den Book 6)

by Cecilia Lane

  They left grass behind and crunched on a path of stone. Low walls rose around them as they descended the path into a garden. He listened closely for any footsteps or coughs that gave away the location of hunters. Nothing. No one. The entire area seemed too empty.

  Maybe they’d all been drawn toward the perimeter. Maybe it was a trap.

  There was just Mara’s scent.

  Hudson adjusted his grip on his gun and sniffed again. At the far end of the garden was a closed door.

  “She’s been here,” he rumbled to the others. “She went in there.”

  A bullet whizzed past him and sank into the stone wall behind him.

  With a wild yell, hunters leaped over the wall and charged them.

  Callum turned and locked eyes. “Go.”

  Hudson roared and dove through the door.

  Chapter 22

  After the last years of hell, Mara thought she’d been dropped into some bleached limbo. The harsh bright light bounced off white walls and tile. Not a speck of dirt marred the floor. The odor of cleaning supplies was thick enough to make her gag.

  The cart full of sharp objects and other menacing tools didn’t leave any clue as to where she’d found herself again.

  Ronnie let her hand linger over the various knives before selecting a riding crop from the end. Mara almost laughed at the textbook villainy. They’d come full circle on weapons used against each other.

  “Now, my dear, we need to have a conversation.” Ronnie waved the riding crop in front of her face. “Seems fair, don’t you think?”

  Mara rolled her eyes. “Just shoot me and be done with it. I’m not interested in anything you have to say.”

  “You’ve ruined my business,” Ronnie went on. “You betrayed my trust. Spilled all my secrets.”

  “Should have made me sign a confidentiality agreement instead of imprisoning my family and killing my brother.” Her snapped words were met with a crack of the crop against her leg. The pain only added to her anger. She lifted her lips and snarled at the woman.

  “How many are coming?”

  “Just me. You won. You got what you wanted, now honor your end of the deal and let those kids go.”

  The crop snapped down on her bare arm.

  “Don’t lie to me,” Ronnie said between clenched teeth. “You wouldn’t have come alone.”

  Mara lifted her chin and glared. “That’s what you trained me to do, isn’t it? Keep to the edges, find who I wanted, and get out without anyone else knowing?”

  “I trained you to return home when your master called, not send in other rabid animals to break apart everything I built!” Ronnie sucked in a sharp breath and regained her composure. “Do you know how hard it was to fold all those small operations into mine, and expand? To get repulsive men to listen to a woman? Already I hear others whispering that they can run things better, maybe they were better off on their own. Your trick at the auction sent some of my top buyers fleeing into the night, probably never to be seen again. I can’t let that stand. You need to be put in your place.”

  She just needed to keep her talking. The more time Ronnie spent focused on her, the longer everyone on the outside had to do whatever they planned. The sacrifice was an easy one to make.

  “Are you sure you’re not a shifter, Ronnie? Because that is some straight-up, crazy alpha talk,” Mara needled.

  “Yes, well, I’ve found an appreciation for that brand of animalistic simplicity.” She dragged pinched fingers down the length of the crop. “You hit me, I hit you, we’re even.”

  “If that’s what you want, let me loose. I accept your challenge. I’ll even promise not to bite you too much.”

  “No need for that. I have my plans. They’ll keep you alive while I enact hell on your world.”

  Ronnie’s eyes settled behind her, so Mara twisted until she caught sight of the empty room. Nothing. There it was again, that lingering scent of magic. Stronger than before. Mara glanced at her captors. Only human.

  No, that wasn’t right. She peered over her shoulder again, then glared. The air shimmered like a heat mirage.

  The outlines of two figures were the first details she noted. Then color appeared, faded but injected with more as she watched. Two women with hair loose around their shoulders and flowing dresses stood with their eyes on the floor.

  The one on the left, she didn’t know. The other one, she knew too well.

  Her previous trip to Bearden ended with two of Hudson’s clan captured and delivered to Ronnie. Before that, though, a fae crone interrupted a rare, happy afternoon where she let herself feel normal. Inside an innocuous fortune teller’s tent, predictions were made of blood and death for her family.

  When Mara found the fae still on the edges of Bearden territory, it all but confirmed her suspicions. The message was passed on Ronnie’s orders. Control was never far when she had a tracker in her neck and a handler watching her from the shadows.

  She’d been in such a panic, she didn’t know what to do. She demanded the fae give her more answers, tell her how to free her family. But there was nowhere to turn. She’d forced Becca into the tent, so there was no going back to Bearden without causing a scene. She couldn’t return to Ronnie empty-handed without Kate or the kids suffering the same fate as her brother. The fae laughed and laughed, until she lunged for Mara’s gun.

  Mara always thought there was a good chance the fae woman survived the fire she’d set to the tent after. Hudson even said no remains were discovered. That fire was just one more added to her charges that saw her locked up under Bearden Town Hall.

  She took the tiny bit of relief afforded to her. She no longer had to doubt or second guess herself. She hadn’t killed that day.

  “I plan to start small, starting with that family you were so damned determined to keep safe. Fingers. Toes. Ears. Bit by bit, I’ll rip them apart until there’s nothing left but a pile of rotting meat for you to love.”

  Her lioness bristled at the threats. Even locked down and unable to shove into existence, the cat wanted to tear into Ronnie. Mara wanted to let her. No one threatened Kate or Joy or Jack. They’d been through hell and Mara did what she could to ensure their survival. She growled and jerked against the bindings holding her to the chair. She wouldn’t let Ronnie get near them again.

  “When I’m done with them, I’ll go after every person in that fucking town that helped you. The ones that mauled my workers? I had to put two of them down after they took bites from you animals.”

  “You call us animals, when you’re the one putting us in cages. We’re people. Different than you, but still walking, talking people.” Mara spat. “You and all your hunter friends aren’t worth the dirt on my shoes. You force us to fight for you, die for you, so you can make some money? If you survive tonight, I will dedicate the rest of my life to making sure you don’t have a moment of peace. I will see you ruined.”

  Ronnie smiled like she hadn’t heard a word. Maybe she hadn’t. Mara was an animal, after all. Her words were just noise.

  “You’ll know it’s near the end when that big brute you brought to the auction is tied to a chair in front of you.”

  Mara hissed with the sudden fury and pain that scorched through her veins. Her cat roared again and again. Not Hudson. Never. She jerked against her chains. They couldn’t have him!

  Boom!

  The noise shook the room. The guards all exchanged nervous glances. The fae jerked upright and stared in the same direction.

  Ronnie snapped her fingers. “Find out what happened. Now!”

  Before anyone had a chance to move, one of her goons entered the room and didn’t stop until he was close enough to lean in for a whisper. Ronnie’s glare settled on her as the man spoke. Mara’s grin broadened as red anger colored her cheeks.

  Hudson.

  She didn’t care if he’d come solely for the children.

  “More lies, Mara?”

  “Die painfully, Ronnie,” she quipped.

  The sounds of fighti
ng hitched her lips up in a smirk. Gunfire. Pounding boots. Growls and roars of rage that the dulled sensation of her cat echoed. Mara flexed her fingers and willed her claws to appear. She wanted hunter blood.

  Fuckers all needed to be put down like the rabid animals they were.

  Ronnie’s entourage all lifted their weapons and pointed them toward the door. Their fingers stroked against their triggers in anticipation.

  Mara flicked a glance to Ronnie’s captive fae, suddenly regretting ever almost shooting one of them. She didn’t know which way they’d turn, or if they could work any sort of battle magic.

  The door slammed open and one massive figure rolled inside.

  Guns fired, but the bullets lodged themselves into the air surrounding the crouched man. They pinged to the floor, and the fae dropped their hands.

  Hudson straightened as more shifters streamed into the room behind him.

  By the Broken, he was a masterpiece to behold. His chest heaved. Blood stained his shirt where it wasn’t torn. His eyes were pure silver and there was nothing calm in his scent. Everything about him screamed strong, powerful male deep in the throes of a fight. How he kept to his human side with that much fur and dominance swirling through the air, she had no idea.

  Then those silver eyes found hers and she nearly melted.

  She didn’t drag him down. She took too long to realize he lifted her up until she found her footing. Maybe after the stunts she pulled, he didn’t see it that way anymore, and she could live with that. She could live with just about anything as long as those children were saved and he made it out alive.

  Ronnie jabbed a knife against her throat.

  Hudson tore his eyes from hers and snarled, “Get the fuck away from my mate.”

  Chapter 23

  Hudson couldn’t take his eyes off Mara. His mate, close and untouchable. It was her prison sentence all over again, only this time with deadlier consequences. A drop of blood welled from where Ronnie’s knife pressed too close. His bear slashed at him and demanded to rip the woman apart.

  How many lives was she responsible for destroying? How many shifters and other supes had their minds wrecked over the holes she left behind? She was a scourge and needed to be snuffed from the world.

  Especially when she was too fucking close to his kitty.

  He glanced over his shoulders are the fae women. They’d been helpful once before. He silently urged them to step the fuck up again.

  Neither looked at him, or Mara, or the men behind him. They had their eyes focused on the wall straight ahead. Fat lot of good that did him. Nope. Never trust a fae to be useful.

  This was on him, then. He cracked his neck and glared.

  Callum, Sawyer, and Axel tensed. They knew what came next. They could all count. Ten guns pointed at them. Ronnie still holding that damn knife against Mara’s throat. It’d be a rough go, but life never was easy.

  Amber colored Mara’s eyes. Strapped down and unable to fight herself, his kitty still wanted to play. “Kill her,” she ordered.

  Atta girl.

  A rush of wind twisted through the room. His entire focus remained on Mara. Her hair whipped around her as the wind picked up. Confusion shot her eyebrows together.

  Magic. The scent of it thickened and covered everything else. He couldn’t scent Mara, couldn’t smell the blood on the others behind him. The sweetness of the magic plugged up his nose and made his stomach turn.

  The tray near her shook and spilled its tortuous contents to the floor. Startled, Ronnie dropped the knife.

  The wind still spun. The edges of his shirt raised. The fucking goons planted their feet and tried not to sway. Bit by bit, they were pushed backward. Their eyes went wide and wild with the uncontrollable power used against them.

  Boom!

  The same flash of light and noise along the breached perimeter blasted in the room. Hudson was thrown off his feet, as blind and as deaf from any flash grenade.

  He pushed through. Hearing would come back. He squinted and strained, heart thumping as he crawled forward. He couldn’t even smell her over the magic in the air.

  Mara. He had to get to Mara.

  There. Chair toppled, she thrashed against her bonds. He squeezed her shoulder and didn’t even care that she startled under his touch. He’d trained for shit like this, gone through it too many times. Still, she was tough as nails. She settled as soon as she saw who touched her.

  He didn’t ever want to let go. Heat spread through him and calmed his raging bear the more their skin connected. The deep pit in his middle didn’t seem so dark and dangerous with her near.

  As soon as he freed her arms and unlocked the silver cuffs around her wrists, he pulled her against him. His hands roamed everywhere, smoothing down her wild hair, stroking her arms, rubbing her back. He needed her touch, needed to feel her melt. And once he had her alone, he’d make her promise to never leave him behind again.

  They were a team, dammit.

  Ears ringing and eyesight slowly returning, he caught sight of Ronnie slipping through the hole in the wall formed by the fae blast.

  Fuck no, she wouldn’t.

  He knew their reunion would be cut short. Not much could be said in the middle of a fucking battle. He had zero problem defending what was his against the fuckers who tried to hurt his people. And one of them was trying to get away.

  “Mara.” He grabbed her cheeks and exaggerated the mouthing of her name. She pointed to her ears and shook her head. He shook his right back and yelled louder. “Find the cubs. Get out.”

  Her jaw set in a stubborn line and she shook her head again. Blue eyes turned the beautiful amber of her inner cat. He liked a challenge, but right then, he needed her to listen.

  He stood and helped her to her feet. He couldn’t take his hands off her. He wanted to prove to himself that she was real.

  His bear growled at him to make sure she was safe.

  Every second was another Ronnie had to escape. He needed to get on with his bloody business.

  “Go.” Hudson pushed her toward the hallway. “Find them.”

  Her eyebrows shot together and she blinked like she thought he played some trick on her. No trick, he wanted to reassure her. Just trust. She could do this. She would do this.

  Hands behind his neck, he watched her disappear. He hated himself sending her away, but they both had missions to carry out.

  He and the others jumped through the ruined wall. Like a rope tugging on him, he turned and watched Mara slip between a pair of buildings.

  Axel rubbed his nose with the heel of his hand. “Fuck. I can’t smell anything over all that fae shit.”

  Hudson swung his head from side to side and tried to catch any noise. The fight at the perimeter still raged on and hid other sounds. Crewe and the others could distract every last damn hunter on the estate for all he cared. He had one target on his list.

  “Let’s hunt.”

  Mara slunk through the night, keeping to the shadows where she could and sprinting between anything that would give her cover. She stayed on two feet, in case any hunters saw her. They were firmly in shoot first mode, and she didn’t want to fill her hide with bullets if she could help it.

  Her lioness remained surprisingly silent. She watched through Mara’s eyes and leaned hard on her stunted hearing, but there was no roar to stick to Hudson’s side. The cubs and pups needed protection, and they would get them free. Their mate was strong enough to find them. He trusted them to help the innocents. The cat wouldn’t let him down.

  Slowly, pained cries and roars of beasts covered the snaps of gunfire. Mara didn’t know how many shifters stormed the estate, but she could tell one side was outmatched. It made her journey an easy one with everyone’s focus either on killing or dying.

  She slipped around the block building that held the cubs and made sure no one cowered in the shadows. She’d been tricked into believing herself alone before, but with the fae captives on the run, she hoped she could trust her own senses agai
n.

  Heart tripping and hands shaking, she edged open the door and shot inside. Fearful, teary eyes looked up at her and she tried to give them a reassuring smile. The sharp stench of their terror filled the air. At least they were all awake now. A battle outside their window had guards distracted from pumping them full of tranquilizers. Mara counted it as a win.

  “Let’s get you out of here,” she said brightly.

  Silence greeted her. The wolf pups in the dog cage whined. All eyes followed her as she twisted the bolt that locked them inside and threw the fenced door open.

  No one moved.

  Kerry stood up in the middle. “She knows my daddy. She smells like us.”

  That seemed to be all the encouragement they needed. While the others swarmed to get out of the enclosure, the wolf pups whined and clawed at their cage.

  Mara’s heart broke to hear their struggle. No person should be shoved into a cage, and no shifter should be made to keep to their shape just to have room. She stepped through the throng and released the cage door. The wolf pups scrambled to beat each other to the exit, then jumped up and down around her legs, yipping with happiness.

  Even with her dulled hearing, they were loud. Mara winced and pressed a finger to her lips. She swept her gaze over all the children. Some still watched her warily, while others were just shy of acting like the pups. All in all, fifteen faces looked to her to save them. She couldn’t let them down.

  “We have to stay quiet, okay? I’m going to get you out of here.”

  Kerry stepped up to her side and slipped her smaller hand into Mara’s.

  They were the reason she kept going. Hudson helped her along, holding her up while she limped into the race. But those faces, starting with Kerry and adding with each lot number she saw in Ronnie’s ledgers, they were the ones that spurred her into moving. They didn’t deserve the pain and terror that awaited them with hunters as captives. She wanted them to have a world without worry.

  She knew what Hudson was about. He didn’t follow her out through the hallway. He went through the broken, blasted wall. He gave her the order to find the cubs so he could end all of Ronnie’s threats forever.