by Ripley, Meg
It was when I saw the blood that I sucked in a gasp, which came out like a growl since I was still in bear form. I couldn’t help it, though. Beside the leg, a pool of red. The woman—what I could see of her—wasn’t moving. Could I be looking at a dead woman? I shoved my paw over my mouth to keep from screaming.
The man looked right at me. He’d heard my growl; he must have. He narrowed his eyes at me, and I barely breathed.
He turned and walked back inside the cabin, and I felt a tiny twinge of relief. The reality of what I saw slowly settled in. At least one of the women was dead. I couldn’t swallow. It became too much and I turned to throw up. Gabby couldn’t be dead. I couldn’t even think it.
But I had a decision to make. How would I go about this? I needed a good plan that would get the women out and have the man taken down—while remaining safe. I wasn’t sure how to make sure all of those things happened.
Then the man, who I’d assumed went back inside because he was finished with his cigarette, came back out. He carried a gun in his hands. And he came right for me.
I could smell that he wasn’t a shifter. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t see or hear a bear in the woods a few feet from him.
The ground crunched under his feet as he approached, and I knew I had to move. If I waited any longer, he would get too close for me to get away. I backed up slowly so that I didn’t make any noise, but it wasn’t easy. Dead branches covered the ground, and in the shade-covered spots, small patches of ice still remained. Every sound felt amplified.
The man picked up his pace, taking several more steps in my direction. My backward movement halted. My fear became too intense and I couldn’t move. Then, to my right, I heard someone else approach.
14
Jace
When I was close enough to smell Kylie, I stopped, taking several steps back so she wouldn’t pick up my scent. She wasn’t expecting me to be out there of course, but my scent was so familiar to her, that it wouldn’t take much for her to notice it.
From a distance, I inspected the cabin, recognizing the scents of Gabby and a few other women, along with the unmistakably horrid human scent I’d picked up on twice before. As I watched the man walk outside, I wished I’d been able to find him earlier—and with a stench like that, how hadn’t I? Maybe I would have prevented Gabby from being abducted.
The man headed back inside. Either I run in there and drag him out by my teeth or he comes out again and I tackle him. Running in there would certainly catch him off guard. No one would expect a bear to come dashing into a cabin. But I couldn’t tell exactly where the women were located inside and I didn’t want to trample anyone. I thought I could smell at least three alive, including Gabby. I could find a good window and go in that way.
I was pondering the best ways to get this guy when he came back out. Okay then, he made the decision for me. Then I saw he had a gun and was heading for Kylie. He must have heard her little growl earlier, too. If he was going to go after Kylie, there was no further choice to be made. She was my priority above all others, at all times.
I waited for him to gain a bit of distance from the cabin, then I charged. I ran full force at his back and pounced on him.
We both hit the ground with a hard thud. The air was pushed from his lungs with a grunt as my heavy feet pressed him down. He tried to move and lift his face from the dirt, but I wouldn’t let him.
I continued to press my weight on him, heavy enough to pin him. The man had lost his gun in the tumble, but apparently, he had a knife in his belt. He pulled it out and I felt a little prick where he stabbed my arm.
I roared at him and slashed across the side of his neck, hitting his carotid artery. It was the fastest way. I wanted to cause him pain for all the things I imagined he’d probably done to those women, but I didn’t have the time to shred him to ribbons, so a simple slice of the claws would have to do.
I almost got off him and walked away. No one should have survived an attack like that. But he had.
The man still moved, flailing and fighting back, and Kylie bounded toward us. She must’ve watched the whole thing from her safe place. She ran up to the man and pulled on his sleeve with her teeth. He still held the knife, but she had him at an angle where the weapon was useless to him.
With her holding him in place, I was able to slash him again. He finally went still.
Kylie and I exchanged looks. Neither of us had said anything. The rest of the clan had been there in the background of my mind, chatting once in a while, but they didn’t know what we were doing unless it had been leaked through our thoughts. It probably had, but they’d stayed quiet, probably observing, possibly moving in closer.
We’ve found Gabby and the other women and got the perpetrator, I told them. He came after Kylie, too.
Is Kylie okay? Becca asked.
He didn’t get to her. I was here, I answered.
Carson responded first. I’m on my way.
Hey! Max interjected. So am I!
We’re on our way, Carson corrected. Good work, you two.
Where is Cooper? I haven’t been able to reach him, Kylie said.
Not sure, Max answered.
No Alexis, either? I asked.
Haven’t seen or heard from either of them today, Carson said.
We’re heading in the cabin to get the captives out, I said. Any back up would be a great help. And if someone can notify the station—
On it, Carson said.
We’re shifting back now, I said.
We couldn’t go in there in animal form unless we intended to act like animals and stay in bear form. Obviously, it would be quite difficult to free anyone with paws instead of hands. And we couldn’t be in animal form when back up came; at least a few Rangers who weren’t shifters would surely respond to the call.
Kylie shifted back, too, and looked awkward about being naked in front of me. “We have to hurry!”
“I am.” I tore open my pack and threw a tshirt and boxer shorts at her.
“What’s this?”
“I didn’t see you with a pack, and you can’t exactly go in there naked, no matter how hot you are.”
She narrowed her eyes at me slightly. It wasn’t the time to flirt, and I hadn’t meant to. Not really. I pulled on a shirt and shorts and we were ready.
“We have to be smart about this,” I said. “We have no idea what we’ll find in there.”
She glared at me. “Oh really? Gee, thanks for the instruction. Gosh, it’s so hard being a newbie and not knowing what I’m doing.” The sarcasm was almost as sharp as the nasty look she gave me.
“Can we please not do this right now? There are lives on the line.”
“Agreed. Let’s move; my best friend is in there.”
“I’ve circled around, and I think the best place to enter from—”
I stopped when she dashed away from me. I didn’t want to shout to her for fear of being heard, but she was out of my talking range.
“Is the back,” I finished lamely.
I ran after her as her feet hit the porch. We were out of protocol in so many ways. We should have been waiting for back up. We should have been calling to the hostages from outside, making them come out. In any protocol or scenario we’d ever practiced or trained for, the last thing anyone should ever do is run right into a building without knowing what’s inside. And of course, that’s what we were about to do.
I cursed under my breath as Kylie pushed the door open, hard enough to make it slam against the exterior wall. I caught it and hurried in behind her.
Nothing could have prepared me for what was inside that cabin—and I’d seen some pretty crazy stuff in my days as a Search and Rescue Ranger.
15
Kylie
I must’ve been expecting a typical, everyday cabin, like the ones we rented out for people to stay in. Those ones were beautiful, overlooking the calving glaciers on Glacier Bay in the distance. But the people in the shanty I stood in were not experiencing anything
like a relaxing vacation day in the Alaskan woods.
First was the smell. As a shifter, even in human form, I have a stronger sense of smell. We all do. The stench in the cabin was of urine, rotting wood, spoiled food, dirt, body odor—and death. The smell was strong enough that I could taste the bile at the back of my throat. The place was eerily quiet. But when I looked at the women, I could understand why they hardly moved.
The woman I had gotten a glimpse of through the crack in the door was dead. She sat with her back against the wall, her hands behind her back, her clothing torn and dirty, sitting in a pool of blood.
On the ground across the room, someone had thrown an old mattress, dingy and covered in stains, smelling like it was pulled from the garbage. But on the bare, ripped mattress sat a woman, hands cuffed behind her back to the radiator. She didn’t even look over at Jace and I, but stared off despondently.
When I saw that Gabby was alive, I sagged in relief. My knees hit the hard wood floor. I was already in tremendous pain, and I wanted nothing more than to lay down and sleep. Jace was beside me and helped me back to my feet.
I ran—hobbled, really—to Gabby. She crouched in a corner, her hands tied behind her, cowering, even from me.
“Gabby? It’s Kylie. You’re okay now. You’re safe.” She must be in shock. She was showing all the classic signs.
Beside Gabby, another woman was bound. They must have been drugged by the man, based on how their pupils reacted to light.
“Help us,” one of the bound women managed to whisper.
“We’re going to get you all out,” Jace said. “You’re safe now.”
“Is he dead?” the woman timidly asked.
I nodded.
She let out a long sigh and shuddered.
I got to work untying Gabby. The knots were pulled so tightly and the ropes were damp. I struggled for a moment, then looked over at Jace, who had his knife out. He’d already cut the rope of one of the other bound women.
He got behind Gabby and cut her free as well. I threw my arms around her and held her close.
“I’m so sorry this happened to you,” I said softly.
Jace got up and went to the woman on the bed. I watched his body language. Jace had always been good at his job. I knew that. But watching him in action brought a new level of confirmation.
He stood back from the woman several feet as he moved to her side, near her head.
He leaned closer, but left plenty of room between them. “I’m here to help you. I’m not going to hurt you,” he told her. He inspected the handcuffs for a moment. “I can get these cuffs off, but I have to get a tool from my bag first.”
He told her everything he was doing before he did it and explained as he went along. It was a technique that medical professionals used, but so did many first responders. Leave no question or uncertainty for the person you’re helping. The last thing we wanted was for someone to be startled or surprised by something we did and to react badly.
He tentatively put his hand on her shoulder. She turned her head slowly to look at him. “You’re safe now,” he assured her. “We’re getting you out of here.”
She stared at him blankly. I rubbed Gabby’s back, trying to get her to come back to me a little. I wish we’d brought water with us. It was good for grounding and bringing someone out of shock.
Jace was right. I didn’t have a pack. I hadn’t been prepared at all. I was newly grateful for him and the way he had just shown up to help me—well, to save me, if I were being honest. That was the sort of thing that made me fall for Jace in the first place. Watching him save me or others for all those years. Watching him care and have compassion. I loved to watch him work. Nothing warmed my heart as much as seeing him help people.
But then I thought of what he’d done to me. Of the other woman out there who had earned his love. What had she done to deserve him? I shook my head. It wasn’t the time to be thinking of that.
Jace went to his bag and dug around in it, looking for the tool to open the handcuffs. He was bent over, intent on his searching. He didn’t hear the footsteps; I barely heard them myself.
By the time my head snapped toward the hallway opening, it was too late. Another man stood there. There must have been bedrooms down that hall. Maybe he’d been sleeping or biding his time to come and counter attack. The man looked much like the other man had—extremely unkempt, just a sick vagrant out there in their shack of horrors.
He held a gun, and it was pointed at Jace.
16
Kylie
“No!”
As I shouted, Jace looked at me for an instant, then over to the man. He scrambled to his feet and put his hands in the air.
I wasn’t going to let him just surrender like that; to let that man take over the situation and possibly keep Jace and I tied up there with the other women. The man had a gun. Jace usually carried his in his bag, but either he’d forgotten it or hadn’t had the time to get it out. We didn’t need weapons, though.
A gun shot was enough to stop a human, but it had to be positioned just right and had to be a big enough caliber to do real damage to a bear. A little 22 to the arm was not going to stop one of us. Surely, Jace would shift into bear form.
He didn’t shift, but he did not plan to surrender, either. He ducked down, still in his human form, and charged at the man.
Not the best choice, but I was sure he’d considered other options and that charging as a human seemed the best to him. Perhaps he was too worried of scaring the women in their already fragile states if he suddenly grew into a bear. Or perhaps back up would arrive sooner than we thought. I would have shifted and taken my chances, but Jace had always been the more level-headed one between us.
Jace crashed hard into the man and the gun fired. A moment later, Jace screamed and crumbled to the ground.
I felt a rush of shock. I hadn’t just seen Jace get shot. It couldn’t have just happened. But as he moaned in pain, my head cleared.
I knew what I needed to do to save him, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to move right. I was in so much pain; every muscle and bone ached.
But just as I had chosen to shift and run out there to look for Gabby, there was no question in my mind. I had to do another painful motion to save Jace. Maybe I could do it without shifting again, though.
I slid back from Gabby. In one move, I pushed to my feet and rushed forward in a half-crouch. I whimpered as I crashed hard into the man with little regard for where his gun was.
He fell to the ground and I landed on top of him. I got a full whiff of his wretched stench, and it made my stomach turn again.
The man cried out and reached down. I wasn’t sure why; I hadn’t moved yet.
I turned my head and saw Gabby, tears streaming down the vengeful expression on her face. She kicked the man and he groaned again.
I rolled off him and got to my feet. She’d kicked him several more times in the moments it took me to stand up. Gabby was no lightweight. She practiced martial arts and had a strong kick. She had probably broken a rib or two already.
The man was trying to get up, though. I couldn’t have that, so I punched him square in the nose. His eyes rolled back and his head hit the ground.
“Nice punch,” Gabby said.
“You’re not the only badass, you know.” I winked at her.
I wondered if the relief showed on my face. She was back. She was acting like herself again, mostly. Maybe it was seeing the man again. Maybe it was seeing him shoot Jace or me tackling him. Whatever the reason, I was glad to have her up, talking and kicking ass.
“I guess we should bind him before he wakes up,” I said.
Gabby gave me a cold look. She bent over, put one hand on the man’s chin and the other at the back of his head. She jerked her hands and I heard the snap, and she let his head drop hard to the floor.
I held my fingers to his neck. I wasn’t going to take any chance that this scumbag might still be alive. If there was any pulse at all, he would need to be
finished off or bound. I felt nothing, however.
“Are there any others?” I asked.
“Not that I’ve seen or smelled.”
I took another deep whiff. With all the human scents, it was hard to tell if there could be someone else hiding in the cabin. But Gabby had been there for days and was well familiar with all the scents. If she hadn’t smelled another person, I trusted her wolf shifter instincts.
With the immediate threat dissolved, I turned my attention back to Jace. I hurried to where he lay on the floor, clutching his leg, bleeding far too much.
I let my mind slip into responder mode; it was the only way I’d be able to get anything done. If I just acted like Kylie, seeing my oldest friend, the man I’d loved for most of my life, bleed out all over the place, I’d freak out and maybe go into shock. I’d be worthless. Sometimes that happened to first responders if the victim was someone too close; they had to step back and let someone else do the work. I didn’t have that option, and Gabby was still a little out of it.
The first thing I had to do was assess him. “I’m going to check for an exit wound.”
He knew the protocol. He might have been in too much pain to think about it all that much, but he knew what was coming and what I had to do. He helped me by bending his leg, but I could tell it was excruciating to him.
I did see an exit wound, though. I looked behind us and saw a small hole in the wooden door where the bullet had hit.
“Okay, this is a good wound,” I told him. “You’re going to be fine.”
“No,” he said. “It’s too high. I’m going to die. All the blood. I already feel cold.”