MARS (BBW Bear Shifter MC Romance) (MC Bear Mates Book 1)

by Becca Fanning

  In front of her was an old auto garage. Weeds grew up next to the building and lamp light flickered through the shattered windows. Old cars on cinder blocks sat in front of the sliding garage doors. Standing to either side of the rusty door was a man, gun in his hands.

  So this is it.

  Kat took a few deep breaths, preparing to turn herself over to the HDF, and walked forward. Suddenly, there was a firm hand at her mouth and another wrapping around her chest, pulling her backwards around the shell of a car. “Shhh,” a voice whispered in her ear when she tried to scream. “It’s Cartwright.”

  Cartwright?

  The hands slowly left her and she turned quickly, looking at her assailant. When she saw the old man in the dim light of the moon, she reached out and hugged him, thankful not to be alone. She didn’t know how he was here, but she was glad.

  “Mr. Cartwright. What are you doing here?” she whispered, keeping her voice low. The two of them crouched down behind the car, keeping a low profile.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked her, repeating the question. “You’re not supposed to be here, Kat. Go home.”

  “No,” she told him, steel in her voice. “I’m not abandoning my brother or Briggs.”

  “I can see there’s no reasoning with you,” Cartwright said, reaching over and grabbing a rifle. “Briggs asked me for help.”

  “Briggs?” Kat said. He didn’t go it alone? “Not really his style.”

  “Well, he less asked me, and more forced me,” Cartwright told her. When Kat shot him a look, he decided to finish. “He came to me in the lab a few hours ago. Demanding to know what I knew about the HDF. Not sure how he knew – a Shifter sense, or something – but he could tell something was up from earlier.”

  “So that’s what you weren’t telling us. You knew what the HDF was up to?”

  “Your brother and Briggs aren’t the only two in there. Simon and the other test subject are in there, as well.”

  “What?” Kat asked, unbelieving. That made the situation that much worse.

  “They contacted me right before I came down to your lab. Demanding a ransom for the return of Simon. I was still deciding what to do when Briggs showed back up. Demanding my help rescuing them and demanding the Aegis..”

  “He has the Aegis?”

  Cartwright nodded. “He didn’t want to go in there with just one arm. I don’t blame him. He told me to hang back and see if they released your brother and the others when he went in. That was over half an hour ago, and they still haven’t come out. If you would have went in there, they would have had you, too.”

  “So, what do we do?” Kat asked, the cold starting to seep into her bones. She shivered. Whatever they were doing, they had to do it fast.

  “The instant those men catch sight of you, they’re going to come grab you and haul you in. I won’t let that happen, though. They’re expecting you to come alone. The second they rush you, I’ll move in and take them out.”

  Take them out? Oh.

  Kat looked at the rifle. “Everyone inside will hear.”

  “But they won’t hear this,” Cartwright said, pulling a huge knife from a pouch at his hip. “Distract them, and I’ll move in. Good thing I’m pretty spry for an old man.”

  Kat took another deep breath and walked from behind the car into the view of the two men. One raised his gun at her immediately, but the other said, “That’s her,” and started to come towards her.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Cartwright slide along the side of the building, sticking to the shadows. She tried to keep her eyes off of him, but it was almost impossible: even at 70 years old, he moved more fluidly than she could have. The man with the gun trained on her never saw him, or the knife, coming. He silently stabbed the man in the throat, then lowered him to ground, catching the gun before it fell.

  “Well, look at you,” the other man said, running a hand through her hair. Kat bit back an insult and put her eyes only on the man’s face. He never even knew Cartwright was closing in on him. Kat watched in silent horror as the blade slid across the man’s throat. His expression of satisfaction turned to confusion, then realization, then he was dead. Cartwright dropped him to the ground unceremoniously.

  “Let’s go,” Cartwright told her without a second glance at the men. “We don’t know how much time they have.”

  *

  Kat.

  I’m sorry.

  The thoughts were drowsy, sluggish. It was hard for Briggs to form single words in his head, let alone thoughts. He slowly came to. This time, he was smart enough not to struggle against his restraints and flood his system with the drug.

  Toby was next to him, bleeding from a cracked lip. Whatever had happened to him, Briggs hadn’t been awake for it. On the far side of the room, up against a wall out of the light, sat two other men. Briggs would have known the other for a Shifter even if the man hadn’t been hooked up to an IV. The other man was a small man with cracked glasses, who Briggs knew was Simon.

  The HDF had them all. It was up to Cartwright to rescue them. Briggs had a lot of respect for the old man, but he didn’t know if he would be able to pull this rescue off. There were too many men inside of the room, not even counting those who were undoubtedly outside.

  A couple of the men were coming towards him, holding something in their hands. His vision was blurry, but he could tell one of the men was Jay, and the other was the leader. He didn’t know if he was the leader of the HDF or just the group that had captured him, but did it matter? He wasn’t sure.

  The man lowered himself in front of Briggs. Jay danced nervously behind him. “Hey, buddy. How ya’ doin’? Look, I don’t want to hurt you – it’s not in my nature. But you’re not human. You’re scum. I’ve gotta teach you a lesson,” he said to Briggs. He turned to Jay and commanded, “Here. Hook this up.”

  Briggs saw what the man had in his hand and shuddered. A welding torch. He was going to torture Briggs.

  “You don’t have to do this,” Briggs told the man. “If you do, you’ll regret it.”

  “We’ll see,” the man said, and the torch came to life in his hand. Jay returned, smiling, ready for the show. Briggs gritted his teeth. He wouldn’t give him one.

  The man brought the torch close to Briggs’ thigh, only for a split second, and Briggs flinched from the pain. He closed his eyes, trying to think of the only thing that would bring him happiness: Kat. Then the torched brushed against his arm, closer than the first, and he started to sweat, trying to hold the pain in.

  Then he felt the pain against the Aegis. “Does this hurt, buddy?” the man asked. Briggs flinched involuntarily. “Holy shit, it does! This is great!”

  And the man pressed the entire flame to the Aegis. Briggs let out a scream.

  *

  “Oh, my God,” Kat whispered. Briggs’ yells of pain were loud, even this far away from him. The pain in his screams made her heart clench in her chest. Tears started to well up in her eyes.

  From beside her, Cartwright told her, “He’s tough. He can hold out for a few more minutes while we figure this out.”

  “We don’t have time!” Kat shot back, yelling as quietly as she could. “We have to do something!”

  “We have to figure out how many men are in there, what kind of weapons they have, the best way to go about the attack–”

  But Kat wasn’t listening. She was moving towards the door.

  “Kat! We need a plan!”

  Her hand reached the door.

  *

  The pain was unbearable. Briggs looked down, expecting to see a mass of burnt and ruined flesh, but there was none. The Aegis sat unmarred, except for a small black spot where the HDF leader had been torching it.

  “Holy shit, this thing holds up great!” the man said, grinning. He clicked off the torch and sat it next to Briggs’ foot. Sweat was rolling down his face. The pain from the torch had pushed back the grogginess flooding his system, but the pain was threatening to overwhelm him, now.


  “Boss, we got company,” one of the men by the door said.

  The leader looked towards the door. He was blocking Briggs’ view. Briggs’ tried to smell who it was, but it was cloudy. He couldn’t tell.

  “Kat!” Toby yelled, tears welling up in his eyes. “No, Kat! Get out of here!”

  Kat? No! All of Briggs’ grogginess, all of the pain, faded away. His mind cleared. He pulled against his restraints. He needed to get out. What was she doing here? Things started to get groggy again.

  “Kat? Why?” he growled. The leader moved to the side, letting Briggs see her. Despite everything, he smiled. She looked at him, tears running down her face and managed a smile back.

  “Briggs. Toby,” she said, looking at each of them in turn. “I’m going to get you out of here.”

  The leader laughed. Kat took two steps towards him and Toby, and then Jay was there – wrapping his arms around her, whispering in her ear. Briggs strained to hear what he was saying to her, but he couldn’t make out the words. Her face was one of disgust.

  “Leave her alone,” he yelled. Jay didn’t even spare him a glance.

  “So this is it, Jay? Just you and eight other HDF guys?” Kat asked, spinning around and taking the room in. “What are you going to do when these Shifters break loose and kill you all?”

  “They’re not going anywhere, honey,” the leader said, coming close to her. Briggs growled, but said nothing.

  He watched as her eyes took in everything in the room: Simon and the other Shifter in the corner, guarded by one man, the two men standing at the door and guarding it, four sitting around a card table no longer playing cards, and the leader himself standing next to Jay.

  “You really think that one man guarding each Shifter is enough? That those four over there playing cards will get here in time to stop the Shifters from ripping out your throats? And what are the men at the door going to do? Two men can’t stop Shifters from leaving this place.”

  “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, bitch, but you don’t know shit about us. Everyone is exactly where I want them.”

  “Don’t call her that,” Jay whispered. Briggs saw a glint in his eye.

  “What?” the HDF leader said, turning towards Jay. He dwarfed the smaller man. “The only reason you’re here is to bait this bitch and her Shifter in. Keep your mouth shut, before I decide to shut it for you.”

  “Don’t call her that,” Jay repeated, louder this time.

  The leader walked closer, towering over Jay, looking down into his eyes.

  “I’ll say whatever the f–”

  There was a deafening bang and the man took a few steps back, clutching his throat. Blood was pouring out from between his fingers. He stumbled, dropping to his knees, blood covering the floor. Now Jay stood tall, a pistol clutched in his hand.

  The other HDF members leaped up, but they made no move besides aiming their guns at Jay. He spun in a circle, aiming the pistol at each one of them.

  “Put your guns down,” he said. None of the men complied. “I don’t want any more trouble. All I want is to take my woman home and make her boyfriend, and brother, suffer. Then you can do whatever you want to the others.”

  The men stood silently. Even in his groggy state, Briggs could smell the stench of fear and uncertainty permeating the room. These men were cowards – most of these men hadn’t expected to die for this cause, and they made no move to test their luck with Jay.

  “Do what you want, but then get the hell out of here,” one of the men at the table said. “We won’t forget this, Jay.”

  “I’m not afraid of you, or any of your little HDF buddies,” Jay said. Briggs could tell he meant it. He was unstable, crazy, and ready to snap at any minute. He didn’t care about himself. All he cared about was Kat.

  “Jay, you don’t have to do this,” she told him. He looked at her and smiled.

  “I have to, Kat. I can’t have you going back to this man. I can’t have there being any competition,” he said, and took two steps towards Briggs. He put the gun to his temple. “Do you have any last words, freak?”

  Briggs struggled against his restraints. It was futile. Still, he growled, jumping, spinning, pulling, anything he could do to get out, but nothing worked. His mind was growing cloudy again.

  He tried to say Kat, but the words wouldn’t come out. His lips moved, but they were silent.

  Kat.

  And then he heard the gunshot.

  *

  It seemed like everyone screamed at once. Kat heard herself screaming at the gunshot. Toby was yelling, “Briggs!” Even some of the HDF members looked stunned.

  And then she heard Jay screaming, “Nooo!”

  She looked over, everything going in slow motion. The gun was flying through the air. Jay was holding his right arm, blooding fountaining from it. She glanced backwards – Cartwright was in the window, rifle aimed, and realized what had happened.

  Jay dropped to his knees, clutching his arm. Briggs was mumbling under his breath, head down and sweat dripping off of him. Whatever they’d hooked him up to had messed him up. The gun landed with a loud clink, and all eyes turned towards it.

  The HDF members didn’t make a move towards it.

  Jay looked over at it, then looked at Kat, his eyes wide. Then back towards the gun, and then he lunged.

  Kat was farther away, but she was running, and she lunged, too.

  Only she wasn’t going for the gun. She was going for the IV.

  *

  Briggs felt a slap across his face, and heard someone saying, “Slap him again! It’ll bring him out of it!”

  And then he growled at the pain, lashing out, pulling against his restraints. His thoughts were cloudy, but they were clearing up slowly. Who had slapped him? Who was yelling? His eyes cleared, and he saw Kat in front of him.

  She grabbed his arms, coming close to his face, yelling, “Get up, Briggs!”

  The other voice was Toby, yelling to slap him again. She reached up, her hand high. Out of the corner of her eye, Jay was fumbling with the gun, trying to hold it in his damaged hand. The hand came down –

  *

  And Briggs lunged up, ripping through the restraints, grabbing it. Kat’s expression was of disbelief. “Get… them… out,” he mumbled.

  He dropped to his knees, fumbling to get back up. Kat was running towards Toby. He looked around, seeing all of the remaining HDF members aiming their guns at him, temporarily frozen by fear. Then there were more gunshots, one of the men screaming and clutching his chest. Cartwright.

  Briggs turned, head clearing, turning to face Jay. Jay held the pistol up, and fired.

  Briggs lifted the Aegis up, taking two of the bullets in the arm. Pain flooded his body, but he knew no damage was done. His mind was clear. He growled, then roared. He started to shift.

  *

  Kat rushed to Toby, undoing his restraints as fast as she could. Gunshots rang out. Next to her, she saw Briggs shifting. Her hands were shaking, but she managed to undo one of Toby’s arms. He started undoing his other arm and Kat moved to free his feet.

  One of the HDF members sprinted across the shop, tripping over the welding torch. Somehow, it kicked on, flames erupting across the floor and lighting the chair that Briggs had been in on fire.