by Kim Fox
“I know,” Thorn said, stepping towards him and turning to watch the imminent fight between the two fierce giants. “What’s on the north side of the ranch?”
Hannibal sighed in relief. “It’s gorgeous. Soil so moist that you think you could eat it, acres of prime forest to wander around in for days, elk the size of Stetson, and rivers jam packed with delicious trout.”
Alexander lunged forward and slammed into Stetson with the force of a train. The two bears toppled over, snapping their deadly jaws at each other. They rolled around, with one biting the shoulder of the other. Hannibal couldn’t even tell who was who.
Royal and Slate started taking bets with Julius and Khan. They all threw money on the ground, cheering for their guy.
“What’s your plan for the general?” Thorn asked, grimacing as one of the polar bears, probably Stetson, sunk his teeth into the other’s back leg, drawing blood.
Hannibal had planned for that. “We both know that he’s going to show up here tonight.” General Samson always liked to come see his dead victims for himself. “We’ll take him out then.”
Thorn nodded. “And his department? What about that?”
Hannibal sighed. This was the hard sell. “It’s top secret. The president himself probably doesn’t even know about it. Destroy the building and it should all go away.”
Thorn rubbed his chin as Alexander’s bear got back to his feet. The two bears circled each other while the rest of the boys cheered them on. Alexander pounced on him, sinking his teeth into Stetson’s shoulder. The bear cried out in pain as Alexander landed on top of him.
Thorn exhaled long and hard. “Alright,” he said, holding out his open palm. “You guys take care of the general and we’ll go take care of the building.”
Hannibal shook his hand but he could have kissed him. A lightness took over him as they shook on it. Everything would be okay, if they could just take care of the general.
“Three thousand acres,” Thorn said, locking eyes with him.
“Fuck it,” Hannibal replied, letting out a huge breath. “Let’s make it four.”
Thorn slapped his shoulder with a mighty hand. “Thanks, neighbor.”
Hannibal closed his eyes and shook his head as the two polar bears tried to kill each other while the rest of the shifters cheered them on. These boys were moving in next door. I hope I didn’t make a huge mistake. There would be time to worry about that later. The most important thing was that their mates and cubs would be safe.
“Clawed Squad!” Thorn’s deep voice boomed. “Time to move out!”
“What?” Royal said, outraged. “Stetson’s got him on the ropes.”
“Are you blind?” Julius snapped back. “Look at all of that blood on your boy’s back.”
Both of the bear’s white fur was stained a matted pink and red. They were both getting as good as they were giving.
“Stetson!” Thorn yelled. The polar bear backed away and glanced over at his alpha. “Phase. Now!”
The bear huffed but began to shake and shrink in on itself. Wow. That’s control.
“Alexander!” Hannibal yelled, trying to sound as impressive as Thorn. “Phase now too!”
Alexander’s bear glanced over at him with an amused look. If he could have given him the middle finger with his bear paw he would have.
“Mission has changed,” Thorn said, as Stetson completed his phase.
“I was just about to knock him down for good,” Stetson complained as he stood there naked in the night.
“That’s not what I saw,” Thorn said, turning away from him and towards Hannibal. “Four thousand acres,” he whispered. “We’ll be back to collect in a week or two.”
Hannibal nodded. “I’ll have the deed ready for you.”
“Good,” he said. “And good luck with Samson.”
Khan, Julius, Royal, and Slate all grabbed their money off the ground and stuffed it back into their pockets, all grumbling that their man would have won.
“Back to the Humvees,” Thorn said, turning to the road. The Clawed Squad groaned as they reluctantly followed their alpha off the Vega Ranch.
“This is not over!” Stetson said, pointing at Alexander’s bear who was watching him with heated eyes and a snarl on his lips.
“You forgot your panties,” Julius said, grabbing Stetson’s clothes off the ground and tossing them at him.
He caught them and held them to his chest in a ball. “Who are you kidding, Julius? You know you love staring at my ass.” He smacked his right ass cheek as he walked away into the night.
Julius shook his head as he watched them go. “I can’t believe those freaks are going to be our neighbors.”
“Forget about that for now,” Hannibal said, his mind racing. “We have to prepare for the general.”
“What’s to prepare?” Khan asked. “We snap his puny human neck.”
Hannibal shook out his sweaty hands. He knew that the general was more clever than that.
Just as the thought passed through his mind he heard four whooshes fly through the air and felt a light prick on his chest.
“What the hell?” he whispered as he looked down and saw a red dart sticking out of his left pec.
He glanced back at his brothers and they each had a dart sticking out of them as well. Alexander shrank down from his bear back into his human form. “I didn’t phase,” he said in shock as he yanked the dart out of his shoulder. He wasn’t healing either. The cut on his ribs was still bleeding heavily.
“Anti-shifting serum,” Hannibal whispered. He had heard about it but wasn’t sure if it actually existed. He tried to bring his bear forward but it was as if he was drugged and deep in hibernation mode. From what he had heard, the effects weren’t permanent. They lasted about two hours or so.
General Samson strolled out from behind the cars in the direction that the darts came from. He tucked the dart gun into its holster and aimed an assault rifle at the brothers, keeping a safe distance from them.
“Easy,” Hannibal whispered, raising his hands. “We don’t seem to have our healing abilities right now either.”
Khan let out a growl as he squeezed his hands into fists by his side.
“A growl?” General Samson said, looking amused. “Your beast is asleep.”
“That’s all me,” Khan said, glaring at him with hard eyes. “I’m the real beast.”
“Well, it’s time to put you down for good,” the general said, aiming the gun at Khan’s chest.
“Stop!” a familiar voice called out from behind them.
Hannibal’s stomach hardened and his heart stopped. No. She was supposed to be running away to safety. What is she doing here?
All of Hannibal’s worst nightmares came true when he turned and saw Mikki standing there, walking towards General Samson.
“What are you doing?” Hannibal asked, feeling nauseous. “That’s the general!”
“Yeah,” she said, never taking her eyes off the man in uniform. “But he’s also my father.”
ten
“Michelle?!?” her father said, staring at Mikki in shock. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Mikki gritted her teeth and marched over to her Dad. “Put that gun down!”
“These are killers,” her father said, swinging the barrel of the gun from one Vega brother to the other.
“You’re the only killer here,” she snapped back.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, backing away from her as she marched forward.
“You killed my best friend, Franklin, and now you’re going to kill my fiancee and his brothers.”
“Fiancee?” her father asked with a fierce new intensity burning in his eyes. “Which one?” His face reddened as he squeezed the handle of the gun.
“Him,” Julius said, pointing at Hannibal. “Aim for his balls.”
Mikki jumped in front of the barrel. “You’re going to have to shoot through me,” she said, glaring at him.
“Move,
Michelle,” he said, his eyes full of hatred. “This is for your own good. You don’t know how evil shifters are. You don’t understand the kind of cruelty that they can unleash on the world.”
“Only because you force them to,” she said, stepping towards him. The gun was in reach, pointed at her chest.
“Get out of the way, Mikki,” Hannibal pleaded with a shaky voice. “Please, just go back to the barn.”
“You’re the only evil one here,” she said, glaring at her father. “These men are sweet and kind. They’ve treated me better than you ever did.”
“I always did what was best for you,” he said. “One day you’ll understand.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “You’re wrong. You’ve always been wrong. You’re just a bitter old lonely man who’s full of hate. That’s why mom left and that’s why I left.”
“You don’t know anything,” he said with his nostrils flaring. “You’re just a spoiled little brat.”
“Hey!” Hannibal said, stepping up beside her. Her father swung the gun, pointing it at her fiancee’s gorgeous face. Mikki’s heart nearly stopped. She knew that her father wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. He hated shifters and saw them as nothing more than irritating rats that needed to be exterminated. And a shifter engaged to her daughter deserved more than death in his cruel eyes.
“That’s my mate that you’re talking about,” Hannibal said, glaring at him. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”
A movement caught the corner of Mikki’s eye. She glanced over her father’s shoulder and saw Khan sneaking up behind him. Her father had been so focused on Hannibal and her that he didn’t see the oldest Vega brother circle around.
“I give the orders,” her father hissed. “You’re just a fucking shifter.”
“That’s right he’s a fucking shifter,” Julius said. “He’s fucking your daughter.”
“What did you say?” he said, his eyes flying open in outrage. Mikki screamed and closed her eyes as her father swung the barrel at Julius’ head. She could tell by the look in his eyes that he was going to pull the trigger this time.
The gun rang out, deafening her and making her heart stop. She opened her eyes, terrified of what she would see, and gasped. Khan had his strong arms wrapped around her father’s neck. The smoking gun was pointing in the air.
Julius gulped as he patted his hands all over his body looking for bullet wounds that weren’t there. “Phew,” he said with his pale face returning to normal.
Mikki’s father was thrashing around in Khan’s steel grip, cursing and promising to kill each one of them, including his daughter.
Khan exhaled long and slow as he locked eyes with Mikki. Her stomach was rolling as her heartbeat turned sluggish. She knew what she had to do. He would never leave her alone after this and she couldn’t put her new family in danger. Her father would come back with a whole army at his back and would go after Hannibal with everything that he had.
She looked into Khan’s soft eyes and nodded.
Hannibal wrapped his arms around her as she buried her face into his chest and closed her eyes. She heard the snap of a neck breaking as he pulled her in close and kissed the top of her head.
She stayed like that, listening to the thud thump of her mate’s heart, while Khan, Alexander, and Julius walked away with her father’s dead body.
Tears welled up behind her eyelids and poured down her cheeks as relief sunk in. She was safe. Hannibal was safe. And they were free to be together.
Forever.
eleven
“I got one!” Mikki squealed in delight when her fishing line tightened.
“Great,” Hannibal said, jumping up and walking over to her. “Just aim it towards the fish and be ready to reel it in when the fish slows down.”
Mikki’s heart was pounding. They had been by the river all day and she hadn’t gotten a bite. Hannibal was a natural, of course, and now she would finally get to add a fish to the overflowing bucket of all the fish that he had caught.
“Good job,” he said when she started reeling it in. It was a big one. Her arms were already burning as the fish fought for its life. “Keep doing what you’re doing.”
She took a deep breath and pulled up the rod. The fish’s head popped out of the water with the hook pierced through its lip.
“He’s huge,” Hannibal said, leaning over the river to get a better look. “It’s a trout.”
Mikki felt a thickness in her throat as she reeled it in. She kept thinking of all of his fish babies and how pitiful he looked with the hook caught in his lip.
“Can you do it?” she asked, handing Hannibal the fishing rod.
“Okay,” he said, looking confused. He took the rod from her and had the fish out in a few seconds.
She sat down on the ground and stared at the dirt as she spun her engagement ring around her finger.
“Woo!” Hannibal hollered. “You caught dinner!”
Mikki grimaced, wishing that they did something other than fishing today. It had sounded fun but the sight of the fish wiggling in her man’s hands, gasping for breaths that weren’t coming was anything but fun.
“Are you okay?” Hannibal said as he pulled out the hook. “You look a little pale.”
“Can we put him back in?” she asked in a small voice.
Hannibal gazed at her and smiled. “You caught him. You can do whatever you like.”
She took a relieved breath. “Throw him back in.”
Hannibal shrugged and tossed the large trout into the river. “Sorry about your lip,” she whispered as it disappeared under the water.
“Want to go do something else?” he asked, looking at her knowingly.
She just nodded her head.
Hannibal packed their things up while she watched the current of the river. It was a beautiful summer day and the water was sparkling from the reflection of the sun. The breeze picked up, catching her hair and dragging it along for the ride.
“It’s funny,” she whispered. “I felt more sympathy for that fish than I felt for my father.”
Hannibal froze. It had been four days since Khan killed her father and Hannibal had tried to talk to her about it but she had always refused. She hadn’t been ready. But she was ready now.
“I know that he deserved it,” she said. “He killed my friend, Franklin.”
“Was he a shifter?” Hannibal asked.
Mikki sighed, remembering the sweet kid who she was best friends with in her teens. He was shy and quiet but he was always cracking jokes just for her. He was just an insecure, gentle soul with a heart of gold who was hiding two secrets: his homosexuality and his inner antelope.
She opened up to Hannibal telling him of how Franklin was over at her house one time and he had phased into an antelope while they were listening to music in the basement. Mikki had run to get her father who was in the military and seemed to have answers for everything. Her father just stood at the bottom of the stairs and glared at the animal in his basement. The look on his face still gave Mikki shivers.
A week later Franklin had disappeared. His parents were a mess and Mikki herself was just as bad. The whole town was on the lookout for him but it was like he just vanished into thin air.
His body was found two weeks later, dead in Sierra Leone. It was the middle of the country’s civil war and his body was found by a journalist just lying on the steps outside of the capital.
Franklin’s parents were shocked and utterly confused. Franklin had never left the state, let alone the country, and he had no ties to Sierra Leone at all. “I don’t think he could have pointed the country out on a map,” his mother had said. They wondered how a teenager with no money and no passport could get to a war-torn country without any flags being raised.
Mikki had her theories. And they all pointed to her father. She could never prove it but she always knew that he was somehow behind her best friend’s disappearance.
Her father deserved to die. Not just for what he did to
Franklin but for what he did to her fiancee, her soon to be brother-in-laws and humanity in general. The planet didn’t need men like him on it.
Khan had apologized to her after he broke his neck. He felt really bad. She had just hugged him and kissed his cheek. He did the right thing. She knew it all along.
“Wow,” Hannibal said when she had finished the story. He was staring at the river speechless. “I had no idea.”
“He wasn’t a good man,” she said, shaking her head. “You are. I’m glad you won.”
“Me too,” he said, inching up beside her. He wrapped his arm around her waist and she dropped her head onto his shoulder, enjoying the view of the river. Two cardinals landed on a rock that was jutting out of the water. They sang a little tune for them and then flew off, leaving a smile on her face.
“About our wedding,” she said, trailing off.
“We can put it on hold if you want,” Hannibal said with a hint of sadness in his voice. “I know that you’ve been through a lot.”
“No,” she said, smiling at his kindness. “I want to get married today.”
“Huh?” he said, tilting his head to the side. “Nothing is planned.”
“We don’t need a plan,” she said, inhaling his intoxicating scent. “We just need each other. Let’s go to the city hall and get married. I don’t want to live another day without you as my husband.”
Hannibal jumped to his feet and yanked her up to hers, making her laugh. “Let’s go,” he said, throwing her over his shoulder. He grabbed the bucket of fish, the rods and took off running with Mikki laughing as she bounced over his shoulder.
Hannibal’s heart felt so big that it was going to explode. He stared into Mikki’s eyes as the municipal clerk married them. He had waited for this moment for what felt like so long and he was shaking with anticipation. Nothing could have made this moment more special. All he wanted was to call Mikki his wife. He wanted it as soon as possible.
Mikki smiled as the clerk got to the end of his speech. “Do you Michelle Samson take Hannibal Vega to be your lawfully wedded husband?”