Ares went quiet, and Zeus studied her silently, those unnerving blue eyes pinned on her.
“She is a bear,” he said quietly.
“I know,” Ares said. “But can we risk it?”
“It’s not your choice,” she said, walking up to them to jab both hard in the chest. She was done being passive. She was done running away.
If she lost Hades, she had nothing else to lose.
“They’ll kill him if I don’t come with you. You know they won’t care if he dies. I’m your only shot,” she said.
Ares looked reluctant but convinced, and Zeus just folded his arms and nodded.
“We have to let her come. She’s right. But we won’t let anything happen,” Zeus said. “Besides, it’d be wrong to tell her she couldn’t. Not with what’s at stake. Not when she’s a bear like us.”
Right. A bear. She could regenerate, and she could fight, if not male bears, then definitely humans. She could help, and more than anything, she could make them think she was there to negotiate.
Rather than tear off their heads and take back her sexy mate.
“All right,” Ares said. “I guess we better make a plan, then.”
“Nah,” Cassie said, grabbing a bag and shoving a few things in it before heading for the door. She turned, looking at them over her shoulder. “I’ve already got one.”
Zeus shrugged at Ares, and the two men followed her out the front door.
12
Hades couldn’t believe he’d allowed himself to be hit by a tranquilizer dart.
He groaned as the headache from being drugged pounded through him. Then he pulled at his hands, testing the bonds there, trying to remember exactly what happened.
He recognized his surroundings immediately. The old compound where he’d helped Zeus free his mate from the Red Devils biker gang.
He struggled against his ties again and realized fairly sluggishly that he was wrapped in tight chains. Perhaps if he wasn’t so out of it, he could have tried shifting to break them. But as it was now, he was too weak. He sank fully down on his knees, his arms chained together behind him.
Damn, this was humiliating. He wasn’t sure exactly what they had planned, but if this was the doing of that stupid brother of the Red Devils, they were in for a nasty shock when Ares and Zeus showed up to end their asses.
Even if he’d never hear the end of it for letting himself get captured.
He still couldn’t figure out what had happened. One moment he’d been driving toward town. He’d stopped at a stop sign briefly, and the next moment, his window had shattered. After a sharp pain in his neck, everything had gone black.
Then he’d woken up here. He assumed by this point, Zeus and Ares had already dealt with the thugs in town and were probably out looking for him. That’s if the idiots that captured him hadn’t sent a ransom note.
There were two guards in front of the rusty old gate blocking him from the main area of the compound, and they moved aside as he heard the screech of old metal being moved so someone could come in.
He looked up to see Richard Morgan and an older man with graying hair that looked like a portlier version of Richard, which had to be his dad.
“Well, well, well,” the older man said, coming over to look down at Hades condescendingly. “So this is the Special Forces upstart who thought he could mess with my son.” He glared at Hades with dull blue eyes that were faded versions of his son’s and then kicked Hades hard in the stomach. “You’re going to learn your lesson about messing with the Morgans.”
“You’re the one who’s going to lose everything once I release the info I have on you,” Hades said.
“Ah, ah, ah,” the older Morgan said. “I don’t think so. Not since we’re going to kill you first.”
“Your choice,” Hades said calmly, already trying to think of a way out. “But I wouldn’t if I were you.”
The older man raised an eyebrow. “Well, fortunately for you, my son is rather taken with your mate. And I’m rather taken with the idea of having more bears for our line. So we’ve proposed a trade with your friends, if they take it.”
“No!” Hades snarled, jerking forward, making both of the smaller men step back in shock for a moment before they recovered their smirks.
Richard held his phone out for his dad. “Actually, the woman has already answered. They’re on their way to trade.”
“Ha,” the dad said. “I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them.”
“Just kill me now, you worm,” Hades growled desperately. She couldn’t be coming. If Zeus and Ares brought her into this, he’d kill them himself.
Her safety meant everything to him. Nothing else mattered. If he lost her through his own stupid miscalculation, he’d never forgive himself.
“Kill me and get it over with,” he begged.
Richard raised an eyebrow and smirked at him, pleased. “No. But maybe I’ll let you watch me claim her. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
Hades snarled and leapt at him, but the guards stepped forward, holding him back, even though the chains weren’t nearly enough to restrain him from hurting the people who were trying to take his mate.
He shouldn’t have gotten so cocky. He shouldn’t have thought it would be that easy.
Now Cassie was in danger. He could only hope they were lying and she wasn’t really on the way. It had to just be a trick, something Zeus and Ares had devised to throw the captors off base.
But soon enough, he heard familiar voices, and his blood ran cold. Richard and his father smirked over their shoulders at him. They were here.
He heard Zeus’s voice first, then Ares. Then he heard Richard ask for Cassie, and his heart stopped for a moment as he prayed not to hear her voice.
But then he heard it, speaking up clear as a bell, and he nearly cracked inside.
He’d been in a million dangerous situations, but none had ever scared him like this one. His mate was out there. In a compound with thugs and mobsters.
Damn, damn, double damn.
“Hades? You in there?” Zeus’s voice rang out.
Hades lunged for the door, nearly knocking over the two burly human guards trying to hold him.
“We want to see our friend before we hand over the woman.”
Hades bit down on his cheek, drawing blood. He knew his friends had to be lying, but just the sound of it made him enraged. Richard nodded toward them, and the guards each grabbed one of his shoulders and shoved him out into the main area of the compound.
Cassie stood there, behind and between Zeus and Ares, sheltered by both.
“Get her out of here!” Hades shouted, desperate. “What the hell are you doing?”
“They’d kill you,” Cassie said, looking broken. “I can’t let them do that.”
His heart fell. Then he felt the cold press of a barrel to his head and let out a snarl. Richard was pleased with the situation as he held his gun on Hades. He could feel the smugness radiating from the other man.
“That’s right,” he said, stroking a hand mockingly through Hades’s hair while Hades thought of all the ways he was going to decapitate him.
“I couldn’t let them do that,” Cassie said, taking a step forward apologetically.
“I’m not letting them trade,” Hades said. “Not on my life. I’m not leaving here without you.”
“You won’t have a choice,” Richard said. “I’m leaving you in chains and delivering you to your friends, and they can decide what to do as long as I get to leave with her.”
“Then I’ll get you after.”
Richard grinned. “We both know I’ll have gotten what I want by then.” He gave Cassie a lewd grin, and Hades suddenly knew exactly what part of Richard he was going to cut off first.
“Don’t do this,” Hades said to her in a low voice. “It’s not worth it.”
She said nothing, just took another step forward. Richard extended a free hand.
“Come here,” he said. “When I have you, I’ll let h
im go. But I’ll be holding on to you to make sure they behave. If they leave, maybe I’ll even be gentle on you.”
Her lip curled in disgust, but she did as he said, taking another step forward.
Hades watched Zeus and Ares, standing still, hands behind them, faces impassive. He couldn’t read them, but then neither could the thugs.
When Cassie took another step forward, Richard decided it was a good time to brag.
“You know, it’s hilarious how easy it was to distract you with that motorcycle gang. The first thing I did when you left and took her back here to be with your friends was get in touch with one of my dad’s friends, who happens to know most of the motorcycle gangs in the area. All we had to do was mention that the bears who killed his brother had a pretty good bounty on their heads, and that got him in motion.”
Hades scowled but said nothing.
“I’m sure you thought it was some big conspiracy, but I just knew if you spent even a moment focused on the thugs, it would give me the chance I needed. The chance where you weren’t watching your back.”
“Yeah, well, you’re going to have to watch your back for the rest of your life,” Hades snarled. “So I guess we’re even.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Richard said. Then he waved his empty hand, growing impatient with Cassie. “Come on. I’m getting impatient to have you.”
“Oh, you’ll have me,” Cassie said, giving Richard a smile that made Hades’s insides twist up.
She should only smile at him. Ever.
But then she reached for her pocket, and Richard’s body tightened in shock as he moved to stop her. Hades heard the click of a pin being removed from a grenade, and when Richard jerked in shock, Hades took advantage of the moment to get in front of his hand and bump it backward, knocking the gun out of his hand and onto the ground.
Just as smoke from the grenade Cassie had just dropped began to fill the air around them rapidly, until even Hades couldn’t see.
He could vaguely make out Richard scrambling helplessly for his gun, and then he saw a large black shape rising in the smoke, headed for Richard.
“Oh, you’ll have me,” Cassie’s voice snarled. “You’ll have my teeth in your neck for taking my mate.” Then she lunged, taking Richard to the ground, ignoring his feeble shrieks as they fought.
He didn’t even have time to shift.
Hades heard the sound of Richard’s father shouting in anger and then gunfire and fighting and all hell breaking loose in the compound. But before he could figure out what to do about it, he felt Cassie nuzzle under him, lifting him onto her back.
As a human, he dwarfed her, but in bear form, she was much larger. She was petite for a bear shifter, but bear shifters were still much larger than regular bears, and she could carry Hades easily.
He grumbled at the ignominious pose he was in, spread across her back, but it was the best option, since he couldn’t do anything for anyone while unarmed and in chains.
They cleared the smoke and charged into the woods around the compound. Hades looked back, surprised when no one followed them.
“It’s okay,” she said, reassuring him. “This was all part of the plan. Zeus and Ares can handle them. We just didn’t trust them not to be trigger happy if I didn’t come.”
She set him down next to a tree and sighed in exhaustion, resting next to him. She looked him over in satisfaction, and he had to growl at how cute his little bear mate was, even fresh from exacting vengeance on her enemies.
“Not bad,” he said. “But you still shouldn’t have come.”
“Says the man whose butt I saved,” she said, wrinkling her wet bear nose at him. “Some gratitude I get.”
He shrugged, still in chains. “Not much I can do.”
She snickered. “True.” Her face grew more serious. “Perhaps I should go back there and look for the key.”
“No,” he said quickly. “Stay here with me.”
“Oh?” she asked, looking confused.
“To, um… protect me,” he said, hoping to appeal to the badass side of her that was out right now. She’d done a good job with Richard, catching him by surprise, but the last thing he wanted was for her to charge back into danger. There were professional fighters and soldiers in there, and he didn’t want her anywhere near them.
Not while he couldn’t protect her.
“Do you think you could get out of those if you shifted?” she asked, studying the chains and sniffing them.
He nodded. “Maybe. The tranquilizer they used makes it hard to shift. I feel… not myself.”
“Damn,” she said. “What should we do? Just wait?”
A loud roar sounded, and a huge animal charged out of the smoke surrounding the compound. Richard’s dad must have shifted, and with his son dead, his gang in shambles, he came tearing toward them as a man, or bear, with nothing to lose.
Cassie braced herself and faced the charging bear, and Hades willed himself with everything in him to shift so he could take on the huge animal.
But when nothing happened, he lunged forward, running as fast as he could, before Cassie could react, making sure he was well ahead of his mate, right in the path of the raging bear.
He didn’t care if he got trampled. Not even if he could only slow the monster by making himself a speed bump in his way. The monster kept running, snarling, as Hades heard Cassie trying to catch up, trying to get in front of him. But Hades threw himself forward, onto his knees, looking up into the glowing eyes of the animal bearing down on him.
This last time at least, he would protect his mate.
The bear was still a hundred feet away when Hades heard a boom and a loud whistling noise and the bear paused in confusion for a second just before something hit it right in the side.
Then there was a tremendous boom, and a huge explosion engulfed the giant animal in smoke and flame as Hades ran to Cassie by instinct, shielding her animal as well as he could with his human body.
She looked away from the explosion, but as the flames started to die down, Hades squinted at the smoke surrounding the compound and saw Ares emerge, holding his one of his rocket-propelled weapons on his shoulder.
Dammit, if he’d waited any longer…
Ares walked gingerly around the smoldering heap that was Richard’s evil, murdering father and straight over to where Cassie stood with Hades. Ares held out a blanket for her and then turned away so she could change.
She shifted quickly and wrapped herself in the blanket, and Hades ached to go over to her.
“Unchain me,” Hades said tightly, as Ares studied him in amusement.
“Wow, you threw yourself in front of her, as a human,” Ares said, kneeling next to him and pulling a pin out of his vest to work on the locks on his chains.
Hades snarled. “What choice did I have?”
Ares scoffed. “Like we’d let anything happen to your mate.”
“You brought her here, didn’t you?” Hades said, scowling, still pissed that they hadn’t found a way around it. It didn’t matter that they were his friends. He’d never put their mates in this position, and they shouldn’t have done it to him.
But then he looked at Cassie, wrapped in a blanket, safe and sound and his, and he calmed slightly.
Ares was just finishing the first lock when Zeus walked out of the smoke and jogged over to them.
The compound was silent. Anyone after them had been suppressed, and that was just how Hades liked it.
Hopefully, it would be quiet in Bearstone Village for a while after this. After the rumors that would go out, someone would have to be extremely stupid to try anything in this particular vicinity, with the particular badasses who lived here.
“It’s over,” Zeus said in that low, serious voice he always used. “We wouldn’t have let anything happen to her.”
Hades bided his time until the final lock was undone, and then when he was free, he stumbled to his feet, rolled his shoulder, and then cocked back his arm and punched Zeus right through the face, se
nding him reeling.
For his part, Zeus didn’t look particularly surprised, but Cassie jumped forward with a squeak. “Don’t! I made them bring me.”
“Sure,” Hades said. “Just one more thing.”
Ares gave him a bored look just before Hades planted him a facer as well. Ares shook it off good-naturedly, despite what would certainly be a huge bruise around his eye in a few hours.
“That’s for bringing my mate into this mess,” Hades bit out.
The two men just stared at him, cool expressions on their faces as he strode over to them. When he got there, he threw his arms around them and drew them in for a three-way hug. “And that’s for saving my ass.”
The other two men laughed and clapped him on the shoulders, and then he pulled away so he could go back to his shocked mate and swoop her up in his arms, keeping the blanket carefully wrapped around her.
She shook her head and then rested it against him with a little smile. “Men. I’ll never understand you.”
“You only need to understand one,” he said. “And he’s right here, happy to help you.” He kissed the top of her head and carried her down the path to the car, hoping sincerely this was the last time he had to visit this compound.
He opened the back door of Ares’s truck and helped her in before sitting beside her. Up front, Zeus and Ares were talking about the fight and about what they’d do for dinner.
Everything seemed back to normal, and this time, he was the one going home with a cute little mate to cuddle.
Well… except after he saw her deal with Richard, he had a feeling he’d never see her as little or cuddly ever again.
No one should ever underestimate his mate, but that was just how he liked it.
“I can’t wait to take you to Bearstone Park,” he said, pulling her in against him, savoring her scent and her warmth.
She snuggled close. “Me too. Let’s go tomorrow.”
Epilogue
The next day, after lunch with their friends, Cassie and Hades headed up the canyon to Bearstone Park as promised. The resort itself was just like Ares had described, huge and built of rustic-looking wooden logs.
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