Off the road and over the ditch, Lucky only stumbled once. She put his hand on her shoulder when they got to the tree line. “Hold on. It’s almost straight to the river.”
She dodged to the right behind some pines and out of the bull’s sight. A loud crack of breaking wood announced the hunter’s entrance into the woods. Faster. So close she could see the water.
The Matanuska wasn’t at its fullest force like in the spring. They hadn’t had much rain in a while either. Fifty or sixty feet of mud stood between them and the water.
It was mud. Just mud. Like she wasn’t dirty already.
Yet a dozen feet into it, they began to sink in past their ankles. Another ten feet, and Lucky sank in to his knees. “Shit! Leave me.”
“No!” Ametta pulled on him. “Distribute your weight. We’ll crawl.”
The bull burst out from amongst the trees and took a few seconds to spot them. He sped toward them and was almost immediately stopped in his tracks as he sank into the mud. He let out a rumbling bellow as he forced himself slowly forward.
The bastard wasn’t going to give up, but if two hundred and twenty pounds of Lucky sank, a bull weighing a ton would be even more stuck.
The extra minutes were what they needed. Crawling into the water, Ametta tried not to shriek because of the cold. “Shift and follow me with your ears and nose. Swim with the current.”
Her expensive boots and clothes became ruined tatters as she shifted. The freezing cold of the water to her as a human turned refreshing as a bear. She loved to swim. She wasn’t much of a runner or sports fan, but she’d spent so much time in the water with her sisters as kids.
Lucky grunted as he shifted and splashed as he propelled himself deeper. She led the way downriver, cringing at the fearsome cry from the hunter they were swiftly leaving behind. Glancing back, she could see the bull was in as deep as his belly. If she could grin, she would.
A second look back wiped the thought of a grin clean from her mind. She watched as the hunter shifted, but it was unlike any other transformation she’d seen.
He shimmered and removed his head. No, not his head. The bull’s head. Paul’s head. The hunter had been wearing Paul’s hide.
They hadn’t been wrong. The bastard was human. And he was killing shifters for their skins.
Ametta didn’t take them far. A pair of mismatched bears swimming in the river would attract too much attention. She directed them to a rocky shore and into the woods again.
Lucky followed, squinting with his right eye. Seemed he could see out of one at least.
She smelled a farm not too far away and debated going in that direction. But then she’d have to shift, and how would she explain being naked in the middle of nowhere? No need to scare the locals. They could go back over the river and travel at night to get home. Bears moved faster than most people thought. They’d be home before morning.
Padding up beside her, Lucky nudged her shoulder. A few hours’ rest would do him good. Something to eat would be even better.
Ametta raised her muzzle and sniffed in their surroundings. Horses, cows, and chickens. Ah yes. Berries! She chuffed her delight and let her nose lead the way through the woods. By the way Lucky perked up half a minute later, he’d caught the scent too.
Salmonberries. Ripe and orange.
The bushes looked more a disaster than the big rig after they were done.
Time to find some place to hole up for a few hours. The sun moved to the west, but it wasn’t ready to set yet. Never before had she damned the long days of summer.
Were Kinley and Dad worried? Was Saskia back? Had the police come and found her car? They’d call her dad. Oh God. He’d freak. They had to get back to his cabin sooner rather than later.
Lucky rubbed himself against her and licked her cheek. Apparently he was feeling better. Another lick and a nip at her ear. And it seemed a full belly made him frisky.
Ametta barked at him and motioned with her head they needed to continue on. He groaned but followed. She entertained the thought of finding a spot for him and leaving him to rest. She could travel faster alone, but he wouldn’t go for it, and she wasn’t willing to fight about it.
So they walked, keeping the river to one side. Until she smelled something she knew. Black bear? A few more sniffs, maybe a grizzly, but definitely a bear.
As they walked toward it, it grew stronger. So the home of a bear. And deer. Wolf and lynx and birds. Lots of animals in this one area. Good for them, even though it was odd how the scents mingled together.
A game trail made their way easier, and then as the terrain grew rockier, she saw a cave. All the smells, so strong. Maybe the bear that lived there was a prolific hunter. No matter. It was no threat to her or Lucky. They could chase it off if it was at home.
Lucky patted her back end to stop her and trotted past to be the first into the cave. She gave her head a shake. Really? Still trying to be her bodyguard?
She loped in and shoved in front of him. Then stopped as the perfume of so many animals engulfed her. It was at once smothering and intoxicating. And good. Her body tingled. Lucky shivered beside her before leaning against her.
Or could it be something else? She glanced at him.
Move on, move on. This wasn’t the time to be thinking of such things.
Her eyes adjusted to the dark of the cave as she walked in to where it opened into a big room. Were those paintings on the walls? The shadows were too thick to tell.
The bear wasn’t home. No animals were, but it smelled as if they were in the middle of a zoo.
Ametta wandered slowly around the chamber. The drawings were old and tribal. Animals, every one of them. Seven. An archaeologist’s dream.
A depression in the center of the cave contained a carved stump. Maybe for a fire. No, not a hint of ashes. A table? She brushed her paw over it. More like a pedestal. Whatever had been on it left an indentation about an inch deep.
Another scent pricked her nostrils and drew her from her investigation. Her eyes went wide.
The hunter.
It was outside. No, inside. And outside. Footsteps approached the entrance of the cave.
How did he find them? There was no way, absolutely no way, he could track them.
Lucky bared his teeth and positioned himself on one side of the entrance. Ametta didn’t need him to tell her what to do. She took up a spot at the other side. They’d pinch him between them.
He’d have his gun. Would he get a shot off? Could he hear her heart pounding?
Lucky burst out too soon, and when he swiped at the hunter, he hit someone else instead. The dead woman with her head hanging oddly. What the hell was the hunter doing taking her back to this cave?
Oh no. It was their lair. Was that why it smelled like so many animals? They had slaughtered that many in here?
The hunter dropped his partner, rolled out of Lucky’s way, and pulled a gun out of a leg holster. He shot the Kodiak in the leg once, and in one smooth motion, twisted to shoot Ametta’s leg before she even moved.
Her yowl twined with Lucky’s. Her vision momentarily blurred. The bastard would slay them both. Lucky lunged for him. More shots were fired. How many bullets did that handgun hold?
Lucky rolled over onto his side, unmoving.
No. She whimpered and fell onto her backside. Not after everything they survived. She’d give up her dreams, give her own life, if only it would save Lucky’s.
Ametta shifted into her human form. If she was going to die, she was not going to let that prick have her pelt. She clutched her wounded thigh. Blood oozed from between her fingers. “You bastard!”
The hunter stood, putting distance between him and Lucky, and turned to grin at her. “I didn’t expect to find you here, but then I shouldn’t be too surprised. You can never trust a shifter.”
What the hell was he talking about? Their foul luck? Maybe she should’ve been like Saskia and never have broken taboo.
Her leg was on fire. How deep did the bulle
t go? She hissed through her teeth.
“You know what I want. Shift.” The hunter gestured impatiently with his gun.
“No.” Ametta might be naked and bleeding, but she would not give in to him.
“You know, if you don’t shift, I’ll kill you anyway. And I’ll make it slow.” He stepped closer, breathing heavy. “Then I’ll go after your sisters. Or maybe your father. Yes, he’s such a big, impressive bear, isn’t he? I think I’ll kill him too.”
She screamed at him. It didn’t matter what she did now. She could see it in his eyes. He’d kill her and her dad. Her sisters too because one more would never be enough. She’d never hated anyone more in her life. Everything else melted away. Only her fury with this bastard remained.
The hunter flashed forward and jammed the muzzle of the gun to her temple. “Shift!”
Her heart beat so hard she couldn’t tell one beat from the other. Spittle flecked his lips. His breath churned her stomach. She was going to die with that putrid smell in her nose.
“Shift!” He screeched, shaking with the force of his demand.
Behind him, movement. Big, furry, and so not dead!
Ametta didn’t even have a second to give Lucky away. The Kodiak plowed into the hunter. They both bounced off the side of the cave.
Somehow the bastard kept hold of the gun. He pointed and fired. The empty click echoed, as final as the blade of a guillotine hitting the block at the bottom.
She shouted and bolted up to her feet as Lucky raised his paw. “No! Don’t kill him. I know you want to, and he definitely deserves it, but he needs to face the justice for all the shifters he murdered. We’ll tie him up and get Azarius—”
The hunter yanked a knife from his belt and drove it into his own neck. He sliced upwards, severing his artery. Blood sprayed up once before gushing out and covering his chest.
“Dammit!” Ametta fell to her knees beside him and tried to stop the bleeding. It was too late. Way too late. “Dammit, dammit, fuck, dammit!”
“Let him go, baby.” Lucky eased her away from the hunter and pulled her against his bare chest. His heart beat strong. Dirty, bloody, and trembling. He was alive. “Let him go. We won.”
Won what? No one was victorious here. There was only darkness and death.
Ametta hadn’t worn flannel pajamas in years, but wrapped in the old quilt, she snuggled in them. The warmth of her sisters on either side of her on the couch added to her would-be comfort. Comfort growing even further out of her reach as the conversation in Kunik’s cabin progressed.
“There was nothing in the cave? No artifacts or weapons?” Azarius’ dark gaze bore into Lucky.
“No, nothing.” Lucky paced and scratched at the sides of his bandage. Both his and her wounds healed with super speed in the cave. It was as if neither of them had been shot. Yet Lucky’s eyes had not fully healed. His right one was fine, but the left had gone milky. They’d patched it and hoped it needed only a little more time. “All the skins were in the back of the pickup. You saw them yourself. Wolf, moose, bull, cougar, seal, and even chipmunk.”
Another time under different circumstances, Ametta might’ve laughed at that. A chipmunk shifter? Why would anyone want to be that? But it was what allowed the hunter to get away at the farm. How he seemingly vanished into thin air. He slipped into the skin and hid until everyone was gone.
“Sick bastard.” Saskia spat, shaking her head.
“But what about this cave?” No matter what happened in there, there was something about it that called to her. “What is it?”
“A sacred place to the Inuit.” Azarius folded his arms and looked toward the door. Three seconds later, there was a knock.
Saskia stood and frowned as she approached the door. She hesitated, clenching and unclenching her hands, before opening it.
Ametta’s eyes widened. A man, easily six foot five and hair as white as her own, stared at Saskia. Bigger and wider than her father, this guy was definitely a polar bear shifter. And wow, he was GQ material.
The silence between Saskia and the shifter sparked a thousand wars before her sister turned to glare at their father. “You called him. I told you not to. Azarius and I can handle this.”
“You are not a Black Shaman. And Azarius cannot handle this on his own.” The stranger strode in and offered a hand to Kunik. Her dad rose from his chair and locked forearms with him before pulling him in for a man-hug. “Good to see you, old man.”
“You too, Sedge. You know you’re always welcome here.”
Ah, this was why Saskia left her training. Why on earth would any woman run away from that hunk?
Lucky moved to sit beside Ametta, close enough that their legs touched and his arm framed her shoulders. Right. Another good-looking shifter entered the room and he would get territorial. Surprising he couldn’t see Sedge had eyes only for Saskia.
“I’ve got stuff to do.” Saskia snatched her jacket from the coat rack and headed out of the door.
Sedge grabbed her upper arm. Ametta thought her sister might punch him.
“You’re going to want to hear this.” Sedge’s voice carried the hint of an accent. Russian? Native?
Saskia tore her arm free and marched to the other side of the room near Azarius. She leaned against the wall and attempted to look relaxed. Ametta had never seen her sister so worked up. She didn’t know whether to be amused or worried.
Kunik sat back in his chair. “You know Saskia and Azarius. And you haven’t seen Kinley and Ametta since they were babes. That’s Lucky there with them.”
Sedge was around when she was a baby? How old was the guy? It was difficult to tell with shifters sometimes.
Coming around to Kinley first, Sedge shook her hand. “Kinley.”
Kinley’s eyes grew huge, and a weird little sound escaped her. She flushed and swiftly extracted her hand.
Okay. Weirder and weirder. Next Sedge held out his hand to her. “Ametta.”
“Nice to meet you finally.” She clasped his hand and gasped. His power or aura or whatever the hell it was hit her hard and with the force of a ton of bricks. He wasn’t just a polar bear shifter, he was The Bear. Awe and terror surged through her. No wonder Saskia wanted nothing to do with him.
Sedge finally shook hands with Lucky. “Lucky. Your eye. It didn’t heal in the cave?”
“No.” It seemed Lucky had trouble getting that one word out. He let go of Sedge’s hand and flopped back against the couch with his mouth slightly open.
Sedge exchanged a look with Azarius before speaking. “The hunters have desecrated the cave. I do not know how they discovered it or why the Fates have allowed it—”
“What is the cave?” Saskia interrupted. “I felt it. It was an Extra Space.”
A what?
“It should not have been in our dimension. And only a powerful shifter could have called it here. These hunters were not shifters, but murderers and thieves. Justice has been served, but there is a greater danger.” Sedge’s jaw tightened. “The cave was a vault for a powerful artifact. It is gone.”
Ametta gripped Lucky’s hand with her left and Kinley’s with her right. “What’s the artifact? Can you find it and return it to where it belongs?”
“It’s a totem pole telling of the creation of shifters, created by the gods themselves.”
But wasn’t he a god? Couldn’t he just make another? Somehow Ametta couldn’t bring herself to ask these questions out loud.
Sedge’s lips thinned. “It’s gone. It has no song I can hear. I fear it has broken.”
“Broken because humans attempted to steal its power.” Azarius’ upper lip curled with his statement.
“How do we find it then?” Saskia stepped toward Sedge.
“Tokens. Each of the seven totem animals has a token in this land. We find them, and we can reassemble the pole.” The Bear took a step closer to Saskia too. Whether it be the weight of his words or the tension between the two of them, it thrummed throughout the room. “I know not the form t
hey will take, but each will have power of its own.”
“And what happens if we can’t find them? What can the pole do?” Lucky leaned forward. His one eye locked on Sedge.
“It has the power to create new shifters.” Sedge swept his gaze over all of them and stopped on Saskia. “And it has the power to unmake us all.”
“So we find the tokens, put the pole back together, and put it back where it belongs. Easy.” Saskia nodded once and walked out the front door.
Sedge’s jaw twitched before he turned and followed Saskia outside. The sound of the door shutting echoed ominously in the cabin.
Azarius stared at the door for about ten seconds before unfolding his arms. “I’m going to speak to some of my contacts. I’ll be back soon.”
He exited through the kitchen door. Was there something going on there with him, Sedge, and Saskia? Ametta realized she knew next to nothing about the years of her sister’s life when she was away. Black Shamans’ drama would rival any TV teen show, it seemed.
“I should make some calls too.” Kunik stood and sighed. “Foul omens all around.”
When her dad stumbled, everyone on the couch stood, ready to help. Kinley was the first around to take their father’s arm. “Let me help. I know a few people I can contact too.” She glanced at Ametta and Lucky. “You two rest. You haven’t slept in over twenty-four hours.”
Ametta opened her mouth to protest, but Lucky replied before she could. “Right. Thank you.”
When her dad and Kinley were gone to the master bedroom, Ametta shot Lucky a look. “I’m not going to be left out of this.”
“And neither am I. But our bodies need to rest to be of any use.” When she didn’t argue with him about that, he gave her a sly smile. “Let me tuck you in.”
She put her hands on her hips. “Just because everything happened and we nearly died and—”
Lucky cupped her face and kissed her. Hard and long.
Both of them were breathing heavily when their lips parted. She gripped his forearms, so tempted to drag him up to the loft, strip off the pajamas, and let him have his way with her before she had her way with him.
Dark Dawning (Totem Book 1) Page 8