by Cecilia Lane
Mara peeked out the door before stepping through and waving the cubs to follow. She pressed a finger to her lips as a reminder. Two mimicked the motion, then twisted an invisible lock and threw away the key. Mara gave them a tight smile, then led them into the night.
Herding children was more difficult than herding the same number of cats. They stopped and crouched together in the shadows twice as voices yelled around a clump of bushes or another bungalow. Snarls, too, made her cautious in case they attracted more hunters.
She tried to keep them together and moving quickly, but tiny feet were left behind with her longer strides. The wolves kept to their paws and raced around her legs. Finally, Mara scooped up the smallest girl and settled her on a hip.
Then she leaned around the corner of a maintenance shed and spotted the wall. A small garden with a wrecked fountain in the center stood between them and escape. Freedom was so close.
A crunching step set her on high alert. Her inner lioness snarled at the threat to the cubs. They crowded together and huddled around her legs against the shed.
Mara tensed, and listened. Her heart raced in her chest, the beats loud enough she thought even a human could hear them from a hundred yards away. The steps came closer.
“Around the building,” she whispered to the cubs.
Most made it. The stragglers clung to her legs, and she wasn’t quick enough.
“Thought you could get away with my property?”
Mara twisted, swinging Kerry around with her. Ronnie, face streaked with blood, shouldered a rifle in their direction.
Mara watched Ronnie’s finger as much as where she aimed. “Let us go, Ronnie. Just walk away and let me take them with me.”
“There’s no coming back from this,” Ronnie gestured wildly. “All I can do is make you suffer.”
Mara set the little girl on the ground and pressed her hand into Kerry’s. “Run. Hide. Don’t come out until you see one of us.”
Because she’d be damned if anything human remained alive on the estate.
The little patter of feet stopped before they cleared the building. Hulking goons who took pride in frightening children blocked their path on one side. Mara whipped around as others cut off another escape route.
Trapped, with the fuckers edging in. The cubs, with their hope for freedom snatched away, whimpered and cowered behind her.
She cursed herself and Ronnie equally. Her stubborn determination to go it alone brought about the whole mess. Hudson should have been at her side from the beginning.
Now it was just her against Ronnie and the hunters that remained at her side.
Mara stepped aside and let her lioness take hold. The shift ripped through her as violently as possible. Her cat wasn’t happy with any delay and took control even before the final patch of fur slid through her pores. A snarl, halfway between human and lioness, challenged the hunters to take a step closer.
The children whimpered behind her and fueled rage and protective instincts. They weren’t cubs from her own body, but they were still hers to keep safe. She would die to see them live.
Ronnie laughed, and handed the rifle to someone else. She took his cattle prod in exchange and jabbed the sparking point in Mara’s direction. “Capture the young ones. Leave this bitch bleeding.”
Mara hissed and paced in front of them, swiping deadly claws at the humans brave enough to approach. Toying with her wasn’t the smartest choice, but it was a cruel one. It kept her distracted, too. Each twist of her body to shield the cubs was met with a hunter shuffling closer.
She watched the ones with guns warily, ready for the situation to turn deadly with a brush of a finger on a sensitive trigger.
Four bears streamed into the garden, mouths open and showing huge fangs. Lethal grace lined their movements as they padded in a line around the hunters. Now they didn’t know what to do or where to point their weapons. Death panted for them at their front and snarled at their backs.
Mara hissed when one edged closer to her. She still stood between the children and the threats to their lives. Nothing would force her away.
Someone, she wasn’t sure who, jiggled the door handle behind them. Whispers from the older children passed the order down the line. Those that didn’t move were grabbed and dragged until they all streamed away from the fighting.
Good. She didn’t want them to see what came next.
Hudson, at the center, charged. He was a beast, full of power and rage. Nothing would stop him from getting to Mara. The hunters between them were nothing but rag dolls to be tossed aside. Gunfire rang out, but he still didn’t stop.
The garden turned into chaos. Half of Ronnie’s crew turned outward to attack the bears at their back. The other half focused on Hudson barreling through them to get to Mara.
Mara leaped onto the backs of some and ripped into the legs of others. Blood covered her muzzle and her paws. One body down meant another threat taken out of the world and a better chance for the hidden cubs. Mara roared as she tore between her targets.
Caught in the press of bodies and stench of blood, Ronnie turned and fired a gun right into Mara’s side.
Fiery pain slammed through her awareness. Her cat’s roar died on her lips as her shift ripped back through her. The bullet, somewhere inside her still, locked her animal down with silver. The beast wanted back out, wanted to finish what they started, and was reduced to a dull sensation Mara barely registered over her pain.
With the force of a freight train, a massive bear crashed against her and shoved her and Ronnie apart. Mara rolled to her side when her bear ripped the woman of her nightmares off the ground, shook her with his teeth, and tossed her ruined body away like trash.
Mara’s only regret was that she didn’t get the killing blow.
Matthew’s killer was dead. A weight lifted off her shoulders and a darkness faded from her soul.
She inched her fingers toward the legs thick as tree trunks on either side of her body as the last hunter fell.
Hudson saved her.
From herself. From Ronnie. From everything that looked like a threat. It didn’t matter how far she ran or how much she denied, he had her back. He was exactly what she needed.
Mara brushed her palm down Hudson’s fur.
The bear snapped his attention back to her and roared. His lips peeled back and a low growl vibrated through her.
“Hudson,” she whispered. “Hudson, it’s me. You came back for me. Now you need to come back to me.”
Empty, dead eyes stared down at her. Monster.
He was just… gone. Like she’d disappeared when confronted with the feral shifter that tried to kill her. He brought her back from that slip in time and in herself.
Fierce, capable of destruction, ready to fight for anyone that required help. She needed him now more than ever. She fought her demons, but the hurt was still there. She needed him to show her how to make a life in the ruins. She wanted to rebuild herself with him at her side.
Dammit, she wouldn’t lose him to his own darkness.
She reached up, grabbed his ears, and twisted.
The bear roared in her face. Sharp fangs that could rip her head from her body snapped closed an inch from her. Her heart pounded so hard she thought it’d burst right out of her chest.
Awareness returned to the silver. The swirling metallic color faded to brown. Bones snapped and fur receded until a man straddled her body.
He reached for her and crushed her to his chest. His hand tightened on the back of her neck to hold her even closer. A fraction of an inch more, and she wouldn’t be able to breathe. Breathing was overrated, anyway. She wound her arms around him just as tightly and held on for dear life.
Her lioness chuffed in approval.
“You’re hurt,” Hudson said flatly. His fingers trailed just above the wound.
“Silver bullet,” she answered. She ran her hands over him where she could reach. Any injuries he’d taken healed with his shift. She doubted he’d even be bruis
ed by morning. Tough bear.
And, she admitted, touching him distracted her from the pain. She could ignore the object that prodded under her skin and made every movement burn. Blood still dribbled from the wound, her ability to heal dampened as much as the sensation of her inner beast.
The other bears huffed the bodies to make sure no deadly possums waited to shoot them in their backs.
The door to the shed creaked open and a trio of faces stacked one on top the other peeked out. When one brave little cub saw the fight finished, she threw open the door and rushed straight toward one bear.
“Daddy!” Kerry squealed and threw her arms around the bear’s front leg.
Mara swallowed hard as the bear thunked to his butt and gently wrapped the girl against him. He shifted slowly, until his human side held his daughter for the first time since she’d been taken from him for leverage.
Mara was of half a mind to learn dark magic just to resurrect every motherfucker involved just so she could kill them all over again.
“That makes it worth it,” Hudson said quietly as he pressed some cloth ripped from a dead hunter to her side.
“What?”
“All the shit and fuckery and hurts. Every last painful step of the way. All the doubts. All of it worth it to see them reunited.” He glanced to the others still lingering in the shed. “Them, too. They have a future now because of you.”
“I didn’t do anything but run the other way and get caught. You did all the hard work and brought in everyone else.”
“I couldn’t let you have all the fun. I love a good fight.” He glanced up as more shifters, most on two feet, strode forward. “Late to the party, assholes,” he growled.
“Cubs,” Mara reminded with a jab of her elbow, and immediately regretted it with a wince. Taking out the silver and shifting to heal couldn’t come fast enough.
After Kerry rushed out, the door banged open and more children lingered just on the edge. Poor babies had seen too much. She was glad the bears kept themselves between the door and the bodies.
“A-holes,” he corrected and smirked at her. “Think you can stand?”
Mara nodded. Hudson shoved to his feet before her and offered her a hand up. Feeling like she took a giant leap, she placed her hand in his and let him help her to her feet.
They worked like a well-oiled machine. Clothes appeared from packs carried by multiple men. Axel and two others lured the cubs away from the carnage and entertained them while others, including Hudson, bent their heads together. Mara stuffed her head through a large shirt and simply watched Hudson work.
Mate. The word rolled through her without her cat’s prompting. She doubted and denied for far too long. She used her past and the current dangers as an excuse to hold him at arm’s length. Safer that way, she believed.
She’d been so wrong.
“Someone will have to explain all this,” the man at the center of deliberations said roughly.
Hudson clapped a hand on his shoulder. A shit-eating grin split his face. “That’s what superior officers are for. Good luck, Crewe.”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“I have a mate to tend to and get home.”
Home hadn’t meant much for a long, long while. Even while she stayed in one spot for a year, a jail cell wasn’t a home.
Home also meant his clan. Mara tried to calm the sudden flight of butterflies tickling at her nerves.
She put on a brave face, cocked a hand on her hip, and said, “I’m waiting on you.”
Chapter 24
Somewhere in front of them, a vehicle slowed. “This is it,” Hudson rumbled next to her.
Mara straightened in her seat and fingered the spot on her side. He’d removed the bullet as soon as they returned to the home claimed as a command post. Only a new scar remained after a shift and nearly a day drive back to Bearden. Still, she pressed at her skin and settled into the sore feeling. It was real, which meant everything had been real.
The children were in other trucks and cars that headed further into town. Axel, Judah, and Crewe contacted the parents they knew of, and planned to work night and day to find the others. Mara hoped they were still alive and able to be found, rather than dead or dying at hunter hands. She was sure, no matter what the outcome, that the cubs would find warm beds and open arms in the enclave.
There was no returning to a cell under Bearden Town Hall for her. Hudson made that perfectly clear. She’d already been attacked there, the police lost two of their own, and he wouldn’t trust her safety there again. Judah just shook his head and said he had more important matters to worry about than chasing her down.
Now she had to deal with the fallout of her freedom.
The quiet cabins circling a clearing seemed more daunting than sneaking onto an estate full of hunters or staring down guns pointed at her head. The women drawn out to their front porches by the sounds of approaching trucks were Hudson’s people. She didn’t deserve any of their acceptance, but she still craved it.
Sawyer pulled to a stop in front of his cabin. Mara followed Hudson out the door and tried to ignore the nervous churning in her stomach. Her cat paced in her head, watching all the people around them with caution.
“Which one is yours?” she asked and brushed against Hudson.
He slipped an arm over her shoulders and drew her closer. “This one over here.”
“Hey! Where do you think you’re going!”
Leah, with one arm wrapped around Callum’s waist, waved them down with the other. The rest of the clan stopped their reunions to take notice of her and Hudson’s escape.
Mara wanted to crawl under the truck. She thought she’d have a moment to settle, maybe even see the inside of his home before standing in front of the firing squad. “Let’s just get it over with,” she muttered.
“We can do this later.” His hungry eyes shined down at her. “I wouldn’t mind getting you alone.”
“Anyone ever told you you’re insatiable?”
Leah gestured to all the happy couples. “Everyone made it home. That’s something to celebrate. As Queen—”
“—alpha’s mate,” Callum interrupted.
“—I order you both to stick around.”
“I’m sure you can keep up, kitty.” Hudson glanced at his clan slowly making their hovering way toward them and called out, “Nolan, you grilling?”
“Like I’d let any of you ruin a good piece of meat. I’m up for it if you’re sticking around.”
Hudson quirked an eyebrow at and she nodded. “No time like the present.”
She laced her fingers with his and took three steps toward the center of the clearing when another truck turned down the drive.
Rylee couldn’t keep her smile to herself when she met Mara’s eyes. “I think our final guests have arrived.”
As soon as the truck parked, Kate jumped out of the front seat with Joy right behind her. Jacob waved her on and turned to take Jack out of his car seat.
Kate pulled her into a hug that lasted a lifetime. “Jacob came to get me as soon as he got the call you were near. I’m so happy to see you.”
They’d gone through so much and lost someone terribly important to them both. Mara wanted to be strong like her late brother’s mate. Kate had two children to raise into wonderful people. She didn’t let her grief consume her.
Joy threw her arms around their waists. “You’re not going back under the town, are you?”
“No, sweetie. I don’t think I am.” Scary words. Scary thoughts. She could hold the world at bay while under someone’s lock and key. Now she had to figure out how to live.
She took a shaky breath when Kate and Joy released her. Leaning against one of the picnic tables, Hudson gave her a thumbs up.
Around them, the clan bustled with activity. Doors were thrown open, ice and coolers and grilling food were brought outside, and everyone chattered like returning from a big fight was the most natural thing in the world.
They were c
razy, and she liked it.
Mara made her way to where Hudson leaned. “So this is what you meant by taking every chance to celebrate, huh?”
“It’s an addiction. The whole territory seems to have it. Just wait until the Old Maids decide they want to throw a party because lightning hit a tree they didn’t like.” He signed an x over his heart at her skeptical look. “True story. Ask anyone.”
“It’s a wonder anything gets done around here,” she teased. She actually couldn’t wait to experience the little quirks of the shifter town. It’d been hard not to feel jealous at all the sounds of fun she heard from her cell.
But none of that would be hers if the clan didn’t accept her. Automatically, her focus went to Becca and found the other woman watching her.
Becca pushed away from where she sat near Nolan. “All right, kitty,” she called in a challenge. “Let’s talk.”
Mara wasn’t exactly sure what to say. She’d tried to imagine the scene a thousand times and always gave up in frustration. Hudson nudged her shoulder and dipped his chin to his chest.
Great. All his offered support vanished. He sure picked a fine time to let her stand on her own feet.
She reached down deep and found her resolve. She’d been to hell and back, and dragged others there with her. Doubts and worries and nerves enough for the entire world lived inside her, but she wasn’t one to let them keep her from acting for very long.
Mara took a few steps away from the picnic table and met the other woman in the middle. “Becca, I—” she began.
Becca rolled right over her words. “Are you pregnant?”
“What? No.”
“Any heart problems, or other ailments?”
Her eyebrows shot together in confusion. “No.”
“Good.” Becca crossed the last feet between them and threw a hard punch into her stomach.
Mara doubled over. Her eyes watered with the sharp pain. She didn’t fight back. She deserved everything Becca wanted to hand her.
Hudson lurched into action, but Nolan threw his arm wide to hold him back. His bear growled and he lifted his lips in a snarl. No one, not even clan, would keep him from aiding his mate in a brawl.