Brave Bear

by K L King

  “Well, I decided to be practical,” May said with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. She had gone quite pale, even paler than usual. It was the first time Iris had seen her somewhat distressed.

  “Do you still paint?” Iris asked, “I mean for fun.”

  “Not really. I’m pretty busy with work. We don’t have that many officers on the force, and there’s a lot of shifts to fill,” May answered.

  Iris wanted to change the subject since May really seemed uncomfortable. She would ask her about it later when they were alone. “I have a couple more questions if that’s OK?” Iris asked Piper as she finished off her second glass of rosé.

  “Shoot.” Piper said.

  “Is it normal that my mate is a wolf, or do black bears usually mate with other bears?”

  “We can mate with anyone we like, humans or shifters of any type. It just depends who we fall in love with.”

  “I told her, but she didn’t believe me. I just might marry a grizzly bear to shake this wolf pack up a little,” May said with a smirk.

  “That reminds me. I had a weird encounter with a couple of cougars. It was pretty scary. They were extremely aggressive. Do they not like black bears? Are they like our natural enemies?” Iris asked.

  “Again, it just depends on the shifter. I try to get along with most everybody myself. You’re talking about the hardware store incident, right?” Piper giggled.

  “You heard about it, too?” Iris groaned.

  May chuckled. “I think everyone in town did.”

  “I don’t know what their problem is. They won’t leave me alone. They tried to break in my house and vandalized the bakery, too.” Iris said.

  “I know. May told me. They seem really creepy, well, some of them at least. I’m glad I live far away from them. Nobody really comes out this way until ski season starts up,” Piper said. “I can’t believe they risked pissing off Tessa by attacking the bakery. They must be really desperate for something. Most people know not to piss off a phoenix. You’re liable to wake up in some other universe or something.”

  “Those guys have a really messed up way of meeting women, stalking and attacking them. They should try speed dating or one of those dating apps,” May said.

  Iris giggled. “I didn’t really get the feeling they were after a mate, but who knows?”

  “Are there any other questions you have?” Piper asked.

  “Not unless you know any black bear shifters that are missing a branch of their family tree,” Iris said.

  “I’m sorry. I asked my dad if he had any ideas, and he didn’t seem to know anything.”

  Iris and May thanked Piper and took their leave after Iris had promised Piper she would check out the town library next week. Piper was very proud of the recent upgrades that had been performed on the historic building.

  “It’s just so frustrating,” May wailed while maneuvering her car down the windy mountain road.

  “What is?” Iris asked.

  “It’s frustrating we haven’t been able to help you shift, and we can’t figure out where your shifter relatives are from. I’m a cop. I get riled up when I don’t have answers.”

  “I feel like we’ll get some answers soon. I just need to focus on being present with Deacon and settling in with the pack,” Iris said.

  “I agree. That sounds like a great idea— Oh, crap!” May’s car slowed.

  “What?” Iris asked as May’s VW shuddered and made a terrible screech.

  “I think my car is having a little issue.”

  “It sounds like more than a little issue,” Iris said as the car sputtered, shook, and then stopped altogether.

  Smoke billowed out from under the hood. “This is no good,” May said.

  “We can just call Deacon or Heath to come get us, right?” Iris asked.

  “We could if there was any cell reception out here, but it’s spotty at best this far out of town,” May said as she popped the hood open.

  Iris looked at her phone. “No bars.”

  “None here either. We have two options—walk back to Piper’s or walk toward town. It’s probably equal distance, about eight miles or so. At least we don’t need a flashlight with our shifter eyesight.”

  “Speak for yourself. I can’t see in the dark like you, not yet at least. Well, you decide which way we should go. You know this town best,” Iris said.

  “Center of town it is. Grab your purse, and we’ll head out. We’ll take the road. I don’t feel like cutting through the bushes tonight.” May grabbed her huge bucket bag and locked up her car.

  They walked down the side of the road together in the fading light in companionable silence, May holding Iris’s hand since she couldn’t see as well. May grumbled, “Unfortunately, this is the one time I didn’t bring my police radio with me.”

  It was a very dark road, surrounded on both sides by enormous evergreens. The trees were so tall that it was hard to see the star-filled sky above them. Sounds of birds, small animals and insects filled the air.

  “Is the road always this desolate?” Iris asked.

  “A lot of the time. That’s why you bears like it.” May chuckled.

  About ten minutes into their walk, they heard growling from the woods off the right side of the road. “Shit,” May cursed in a low voice and stopped moving.

  “What? Doesn’t sound like a wolf or bear, but I can’t tell anything else,” Iris whispered.

  “You’ll learn soon enough—cougars. Let’s hope they mind their own business. Stay close to me.” She squeezed Iris’s hand and pulled her forward.

  “Do you have your gun on you?” Iris whispered.

  “No, I didn’t think I’d need it to go meet Piper,” May replied in a loud whisper.

  “Ladies, fancy meeting you out here.” A deep voice rumbled out from a tall, heavily tattooed man walking out of the woods to their left. The man had long, stringy brown hair and wasn’t wearing a strip of clothes.

  Iris gasped. May cursed and backed up, pushing Iris behind her.

  “Well, if it isn’t the alpha’s baby sister. Nice to see you, May. It’s not usual to see you without your bodyguard cops.” Another taller, meaner-looking naked man, this one with short, blond hair, came out behind the first.

  “What’s going on Sean, Jesse?”

  “We were just out for a hunt. Didn’t know we’d be hunting wolf and”—he sniffed the air—“a little bear. How lucky for us.” Sean sneered at them.

  “I always wanted to know how wolf tastes.” A third naked man with darker hair cut short to his scalp came out next to the other two, leering at the two women.

  “Shit,” May said quietly to Iris. “We have a big problem.”

  “Hey, Pat, that one’s Clay’s mate. You know, the broken bear that can’t shift. “He smirked at her. “I think Deacon owes you after the thrashing he gave you last month. You could take it out on his woman,” Jesse goaded the third man.

  May growled.

  The dark-haired latecomer walked up to within five feet of the two women and sniffed. “Yeah, this one smells like him. Well, I can have some fun with her before I kill her. But who do we start with?” He looked between the two women.

  May tried to defuse the situation. “Why don’t you guys just go sleep it off? You don’t want to have the whole wolf pack against you now, do you?”

  “Well, you see, little wolf, we don’t care much about the dog pack in this town anymore. We have something bigger and more powerful on our side. So, no, I don’t think we’ll be sleeping anything off just yet.”

  Before Iris could think of a plan, May whispered to her, “Run and get help.” She then jumped forward and punched the one called Pat across the face, knocking him to the ground. She reared up and faced the one with the long hair, Sean, keeping an eye on a rising Pat at the same time. She was much smaller than the three men, but was extremely fast.

  “Well, that decides it. Wolf first,” Sean said. At the same time, the blond man-Jesse was it?—grabbed Iri
s from behind, trapping her arms against her body in a vice-grip.

  Pat recovered and knocked May to the ground with a left hook to her jaw. She jumped up and, with hands that had become claws, ripped along his torso, causing him to scream in agony. She backed away quickly, but then Sean hit the side of her head with a closed fist, causing her to sway.

  Iris was frozen with fear. She couldn’t move since her arms were being held tight against her body. She had to get help. May couldn’t hold off three cougars on her own.

  Sean began pummeling May’s head and upper body, but then backed away, giving her a chance to get up. She looked around, seeming confused. Iris shuddered. Just when she thought May was getting her bearings, the dark-haired Pat came at her lightning-fast with a right hook to the left side of her head. She flew up in the air, hitting her head against the trunk of a nearby tree, and fell unmoving to the dirt. He bent over her form and inhaled deeply. “That was really underwhelming. I expected more from the daughter of an alpha.” He sniffed May’s prone body. “Oh, well, we don’t need her awake for what we’re going to do to her anyway.”

  “It must be our lucky night,” Sean said, stooping over May’s prone body with Pat. Iris shivered. There was blood coming out of May’s left ear. She wasn’t moving. Iris couldn’t tell if she was even breathing.

  “It’s about freakin’ time we had a lucky night.” Jesse growled into Iris’s ear. “Stop fighting me, bitch. It’ll be a lot more fun if you’re awake.”

  “No. Stay away from her,” Iris growled out as she stared at May’s motionless body. Her whole body got hot, and she started to shake. She had to protect May.

  Pat bent closer to May and roughly rolled her onto her back. “I think we should start with this one, seeing as how she’s a cop. Once we’re through with her, that brother of hers won’t bother us again.” The three cougars cackled with depraved glee.

  “Are you crazy?” Iris yelled. “They’re all going to kill you.”

  “You shut the hell up unless you want to be first,” Sean yelled at Iris. He then yelled at Jesse “Keep her quiet.”

  Iris thought she heard Sean mutter “pathetic excuse for a shifter” under his breath as he turned back to May.

  Iris continued to shake. Her head pounded, and her vision dimmed. Her whole body started to itch. It was like she needed to jump out of her skin. There was a loud cracking and popping. May was really hurt! What was the cougar doing to her? An ear-splitting roar shook the ground, but she couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. She looked at the two men standing next to May. They had both stood up and were now staring at her with their mouths open. One of them started yelling to the one holding her, but she couldn’t hear what they were saying over the roar…the roar that was coming from her. She realized she was making the sound at the same time a huge black bear burst from her body.

  Iris stared at May on the ground unconscious, and her vision turned red. She needed help now! She swiftly turned and tore the head from the cougar that had been holding her still. Warm dark blood flew across her fur as she roared. She felt so strong, but so, so angry. She quickly moved toward the one called Pat. She was so fast. Before he had a chance to shift, Iris ripped his chest wide open with her now razor-sharp teeth. She then picked his body up like he weighed nothing and threw it against a tree with such force that she could hear his spine snap. She stopped to look down at her claws. She felt so different—there was so much power, so much energy in this body.

  Protect. There was a nudge in her mind, pulling her attention back to May. One more threat. Needed to help May. She glanced to her left and saw the last man, Sean, standing very close to May’s body. He was partially shifted and held a claw at the unmoving woman’s neck. Iris froze.

  Suddenly, an earsplitting growl shook the trees behind her. She looked over her shoulder. Teeth bared, the largest gray-brown bear she had ever seen in her life stalked toward them from the woods behind where she stood. Another different sounding growl came from the forest to Iris’s left, from a black bear that was a little smaller than she was. Somehow, Iris knew the bear was Piper. From the dense trees to the left of May, she saw four glowing yellow eyes staring at Sean with pure hatred. Thank god. It was Deacon’s gray wolf and a black wolf that her gut told her was Heath. They all stalked closer to May and the partially shifted man, closing in on three sides.

  The now hopelessly outnumbered man started to slowly back away from May and immediately completed his shift. Unfortunately for the cougar, he backed right into a large black wolf with streaks of gray along his coat. Somehow, Iris knew this was Ted. Sean turned just as the wolf bared his enormous fangs and growled. With inhuman speed, the former alpha swiftly broke the beast’s neck with a loud snap of his jaws. Iris then noticed Deacon, her mate, was back to his human form. He was calling her name, but he sounded far away. At that moment, her body shrank back down to her more familiar human form. Knowing May was safe, Iris let the darkness take her.

  Chapter 30

  Deacon had never been so scared. Tessa had called Heath in a panic less than ten minutes ago to warn him that Iris and May were in trouble. He was with his brother and father at the time down at the police station, ironically discussing how to deal with the cougars. He immediately shifted and raced through the woods toward her scent with the other two men following close behind. His wolf was in such a frenzy. He had never run so fast in his life. The three wolves found May along with a large black bear that he knew was his Iris. His beautiful mate had finally shifted. An enormous grizzly and a smaller black bear shifter were also on the dark road, helping corral a snarling, spitting partially-shifted Sean.

  Surveying the scene before him, the beautiful dark brown bear was roaring in anger at the now cowering Sean who was crouched over his sister’s unmoving body. There was blood coating Iris’s fur, but she appeared unharmed. The remains of two other men were littered around her. Deacon stared in stunned fascination. The grizzly—Deacon could tell it was Beau Shanley by scent—approached the scene before he and Heath could move. Beau’s teeth were bared as he prowled slowly, rattling the nearby trees with a ferocious roar. The smaller bear had come up beside Iris; Deacon believed this to be May’s friend Piper. It was at that point that the cougar shifter realized he was screwed. He backed away from May and completed his shift, intending to flee no doubt, but Ted took care of him swiftly.

  Deacon ran to Iris as Heath moved toward May. Beau had shifted back to his human form and was now cradling May in his enormous arms. The frantic man refused to put May down. “We have to get her to the hospital!” He looked scared out of his wits. Headlights shone through the trees as the sound of a large vehicle approached. Annie pulled up in her enormous pickup truck, parked and, with the engine still running, raced out of the door toward her daughter. “May!”

  Deacon reached Iris just as she shifted into her human form, her body going limp. He caught her just before her body fell to the ground. He held her in his arms, reassured that her breathing was steady.

  Piper, back in her human form, came up beside him. “Let’s take a quick look and make sure she’s not injured,” she said calmly.

  He sat down with Iris laid across his lap, and then he and Piper checked for any signs of damage.

  “She seems OK, but we should bring her to the hospital to be sure,” Piper said to him.

  He looked over at where his family was crowded around May and a panicking Beau. The enormous man was still cradling May in his arms, but he had allowed Annie to help check her over.

  “Ted, we need to get her to the hospital. Her breathing is uneven, and there’s blood coming from her ear,” Annie said over her shoulder where he and Heath were standing. A low-pitched, angry-sounding rumble came from Beau’s chest. Annie placed a hand on his enormous arm and stared the grizzly shifter down. “Beau, please help us bring my daughter to the hospital. She needs more medical care than we can give her here. She needs your help.” That seemed to do the trick. The naked behemoth shook his head a
few times, let out a deep breath, and nodded to the small human woman in front of him.

  Beau carried the still unconscious May into the bed of the pickup where he sat with her on his lap covered with a heavy blanket. Annie sat beside her, checking her pulse and speaking softly to her daughter. Deacon climbed into the back seat with Iris in his arms. Piper ended up driving since Ted remained in the bed of the truck to support his wife, and Heath sat in the passenger seat, giving orders on his cellphone. This was going to end very badly for the cougars, Deacon thought.

  Chapter 31

  Iris tossed and turned. She was dreaming, at least she thought she was. Frenzied cougars were chasing her through the woods, growling and snarling. She ran and ran and swiftly climbed up a large evergreen tree. How? She turned to look at her hands and saw brown-black fur-covered paws instead of hands. Her paws were tipped with long, black razor-sharp claws that grasped the tree bark. Dark red blood coated her fur, matting it. She opened her mouth and screamed, but a deep growl came from her throat.

  “Iris, wake up. It’s OK. You’re having a nightmare. Wake up. I have you. You’re safe.” Deacon’s insistent voice called, “Open your eyes, please.”

  She forced herself to open her eyes and glance toward his voice. Her eyes strained against the light of the afternoon sun pouring through the window.

  “There you are. You’re safe now.” He was standing in front of her, hovering over her body. She was sitting up in bed, wearing one of his old T-shirts. He sat down next to her, holding her shoulders with concern written all over his face. “I was so worried. You slept for almost twenty-four hours.”

  “We’re home?” Iris peered around the room in confusion.

  “Yes.” He kissed the top of her head. “What do you remember?” He shifted on the bed so he was now sitting facing her.

  “May. She was in danger. Cougars—or men—shifters—three of them. They came out of the woods.” She tried to clear her head of the cobwebs. “Is May OK?” Iris asked frantically.