But he didn’t want to change in front of Jillian. The little female had already had enough trauma for one day—she didn’t need to see him grow into a twelve-foot tall Ursus after she’d already been drugged, dumped in the Dark market, kidnapped, and nearly assaulted by a depraved Trollox. It would be too much for her to process.
Just admit why you don’t want her to see you change, whispered a little voice in his head. You’re afraid she’d have the same reaction Mistress Douchenbag had! You’re afraid you’ll drive her away forever if she sees you in your other form.
Kalis had to acknowledge that was true. His first love, the mate he had lost, had been a B’varren Kindred herself. And while female B’varrens didn’t have a second form, they grew up seeing their fathers and brothers change, so it wasn’t a shock to them. But almost every other female who had seen him become the beast he kept inside had been horrified and frightened to death.
Well, with the exception of his first Mistress. She had feared his other form, but used it to make him a champion of the Blood Circuit.
But the fact remained that he preferred to wait until he reached a safe, private place to take his other form and regrow his lost hand.
“It is done,” he heard the Master of the Market intone in his deep, creaking voice. “Trollox, take your payment and go,” he ordered.
“Yes, your Eminence,” the Trollox snarled. Though he scooped up Kalis’s severed left hand, he didn’t look very happy about how things had ended.
Too fucking bad, Kalis thought, with a burst of anger. He’d had to muster every bit of his self-control not to go into Rage when the fucking monster had been threatening Jillian. But he’d known that only by keeping a cool head, could he get his new Mistress away from the Trollox intact.
Speaking of his new Mistress, Jillian was standing beside him, sobbing as though her heart would break.
“Oh, K-kalis,” she sobbed, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I’m so s-sorry! I can’t believe he…you…” But she couldn’t get the words out.
Kalis got awkwardly to his feet and put his right arm around her. His left he held carefully out in front of him, glad that the tourniquet was doing its work.
“It’s all right, little Mistress,” he murmured, squeezing her shoulders gently. “I’ve had worse in the ring at the Blood Circuit. It will all turn out in the end, you’ll see.”
“But h-how?” she demanded. “This is just horrible!”
With concern, Kalis realized she was near a breaking point. Too much had happened to the little female today—he needed to get her back to the Kindred Mother Ship. Despite their rules about not bringing strangers aboard, he was certain he could bargain with whoever was head of the High Council and change his mind. The B’varren Kindred—while rare—were generally well-respected by the other branches of the Kindred family tree.
“Never mind,” he said soothingly. “We’ll talk about it later, little Mistress. Now come on—the Master of the Market has other matters to attend to.” He nodded at the huge Quinlow, who was still regarding them sternly.
“The Kindred is correct,” he creaked. “Leave me that I may recharge my energy for the next conflict I must settle.”
“Thank you, Master of the Market.” Kalis nodded at the Quinlow, who rustled his branches in return.
“Go in peace—this matter is settled,” he announced. “Guards, show them out.”
The two guards with their long necks and large, beady eyes, escorted the four of them out of the Master’s compound.
Kalis was relieved but also worried about his new Mistress. He still had a protective arm around Jillian—her sobs had stopped but she had a blank, shell-shocked look on her pretty face. He was glad he knew where her shuttle was parked so he could take her directly back to the Mother Ship and get her some medical attention—she seemed like she might need it.
But they hadn’t gone three paces from the Master of the Market’s compound before trouble started again.
“This ent fair,” Ripper’s yellow-eyed head snarled, as the solid wooden gates banged shut behind them. “Ent fair at all! We had already claimed the female for ourselves—the Master didn’t have cause to take her from us.” The huge Trollox rounded on Kalis and poked a dirty, sausage-sized finger at him. “You tricked us, Kindred! Fooled us into taking the matter to the Master of the Market instead of settling it in our shop!”
“There was no trickery involved,” Kalis said sharply, pulling Jillian closer to his side. “You agreed to see the Master of your accord, Trollox. And now the matter is settled.”
“Well, maybe we want to start a new matter,” Ripper’s one yellow eye was crafty. He dropped Kalis’s left hand in the dirt and pulled out his butcher’s cleaver instead. “We have a claim to that female, Kindred. We challenge you here and now to fight us for her—winner gets her as the prize.”
At Kalis’s side, Jillian suddenly came to life.
“You can’t do that!” she exclaimed, glaring up at the Trollox. “We just went to court and Kalis lost a hand because if it! You can’t say he won the case when he lost his freaking hand!”
“Yes, but he got to keep you, girly!” the yellow-eyed head hissed. “And we wants you! What’s more, we aims to have you!”
He rushed forward and Kalis pushed Jillian behind his back.
“Go, little Mistress,” he murmured. “Run to any booth or stall and claim Market Sanctuary—you’ll be safe and I’ll find you when I finish this.”
“But you’ve only got one hand!” Jillian exclaimed. “And he’s like four feet taller than you! This isn’t a fair fight at all. And you shouldn’t have to fight, either—I’m not a prize to be won—I’m a person, goddamnit!”
“Just go!” Kalis begged her. He could feel the Rage wanting to take over his body again and this time he wasn’t sure he could stop it. If the Rage came, so would his other form, and he didn’t need his new little Mistress to see him that way—not yet.
Jillian started to move away but before she could get to the nearest booth—which appeared to sell dried herbs—the three-headed Trollox called Thrasher grabbed her.
“She ent going anywhere until this fight is over,” he announced, grinning cruelly as Jillian struggled in his grip. “This little girly is going back to Ripper’s shop with him—just as soon as he finishes with you, Kindred.”
Kalis glared at him, feeling the hot curtain of Rage drop over his vision—it stained everything he saw blood-red and he could feel his other form—his Ursus—pushing to break free and take over. Still, he fought it, though seeing the bastard’s hands on her again woke every protective instinct and his other form roared within him.
“Let my Mistress go,” he growled at the three-headed Trollox. “Or you’ll get what your friend Ripper is about to get.”
“What’s that, Kindred?” Ripper’s yellow-eyed head taunted. “You think you’re going to take us both on one-handed? We’ll have your other hand for our shop window before you can take the first swing.” He tossed the huge cleaver from hand to hand, both his heads grinning tauntingly. “Then maybe we’ll take your legs as well and prop you up so you can watch while we fuck your Mistress.”
This last taunt was too much for Kalis to take. He could feel the Rage building within him, pushing against the dam inside his mind that separated his two forms. His Ursus was about to break free and there was nothing he could do about it, even though Jillian was watching him with wide, uncertain eyes.
“You fucking bastard,” he growled, his voice already being taken over by his beast. “I’ll kill you for daring to speak so of my female. Come for me then and see what you get!”
And then he began to change.
21
This day was just one long, never ending nightmare, Jillian had decided. She’d been drugged, left in the Dark Market, kidnapped by the disgusting Trollox who’d threatened to rape her and chop off her limbs. Then she’d gone to court where a huge, haunted tree was the judge and had to watch the man she was really b
eginning to care for get his hand chopped off for her. And now, despite having gone through all that, she was right back where she’d started with a Trollox holding her against her will, while Ripper looked poised to kill Kalis.
This is so unfair—how can he fight with only one hand? she thought wildly, struggling against the three-headed Trollox’s grip. Why don’t the stupid guards come help?
But the ostrich-necked guards just stood there, at the doors of the Master’s compound, watching with their stupid, googly eyes. Maybe their only job was to guard the gate and they didn’t get involved in conflicts. Or maybe they just didn’t give a damn. Jillian didn’t know, but she could tell there was going to be no help from that direction.
None of the stall and booth owners or market customers seemed inclined to help either. The closest stalls were closing down hurriedly, pulling long, flexible metal netting down over their outer perimeters to protect their wares and property.
“Help!” Jillian struggled as Ripper and Kalis squared off, exchanging insults. “Somebody help me—this Trollox won’t let me go!”
But she got no better results than she had when she screamed in the Dark Market. It seemed that nobody was brave enough to go up against a Trollox.
Well, except Kalis, but he only has one hand, she thought desperately. What is he going to do when—
And then the big Kindred began to change.
Jillian watched in disbelief as he began to sprout greenish-gray fur all over his muscular body. At the same time, he seemed to be growing—getting bigger and bigger.
Oh my God, she thought blankly. He’s going to be almost as big as Ripper if he doesn’t stop!
He didn’t stop. The big Kindred grew larger and larger until he towered over the two-headed Trollox by at least two or three feet.
But the change wasn’t just his size or the long, shaggy fur that had sprouted all over his body. His face elongated too, his mouth forming a predator’s jaws that parted showing teeth as long and sharp as steak knives.
Oh my God, Jillian thought, staring up at him. He’s…he looks like some kind of bear! A greenish grey Grizzly bear or something!
Which was pretty much true. Except, the bear-thing that Kalis had become didn’t drop to all fours like a regular Grizzly would. It seemed to be completely bipedal—firmly planted on two feet as it slashed at the surprised Trollox with its paws, tipped in long, sharp, curving talons.
Wait, paws plural? How is that possible? I saw his hand chopped off!
But of course, the fact that the big Kindred now had two hands again—or rather paws—instead of one, wasn’t nearly the strangest thing she was witnessing. Nor was it the most terrifying.
Kalis, as a person was extremely calm and even tempered—at least as far as she had seen during their short acquaintance. But Kalis as a giant green Grizzly bear was anything but calm. In fact, he seemed to be completely losing his shit.
She watched as Ripper swung his cleaver halfheartedly and then began backing away. Just like bullies everywhere, the Trollox was also a coward. Now that he was fighting a monster bigger than him, instead of a Kindred with only one hand, he wanted nothing to do with the altercation he had started.
But Kalis’s beast wasn’t going to let him get away so easily.
The monstrous creature—which must have stood twelve or thirteen feet high—charged forward, roaring so loudly it made Jillian’s eardrums bulge. She wanted to clap her hands over her ears, but the three-headed Trollox still had hold of her, so she couldn’t.
The ground seemed to tremble as the beast ran at Ripper. A stall across from her had stacks of heavy gourds piled on top of each other—they all fell down and splattered greenish-purple guts and pink seeds across the ground. Another stall owner made a grab for a delicate glass vase filled with some kind of bright blue liquor. But when he caught a look at the savage snarl on the beast’s face, he went pale and backed away, heedless as the vase toppled over, shattering and spilling its contents everywhere.
Jillian watched in awe and shock as the beast reached out with one huge paw and batted Ripper’s red-eyed head right off his shoulders. It was a seemingly casual move—the beast didn’t appear to put much effort into it. But a moment later, the head went rolling in the dust, its red eyes still opening and closing in apparent astonishment.
“Our head! Our second-best head!” Ripper’s yellow-eyed head howled. Beside it, the stump of the red-eyed head was pumping black, tarry goo which seemed to be the Trollox version of blood.
Kalis’s beast made no answer—probably because it couldn’t talk with that mouthful of steak knives, Jillian thought numbly. It simply charged forward again and caught the fleeing Trollox as Ripper tried to run. Lifting the struggling male in both paws, it leaned over, spread its jaws, and bit the yellow-eyed head off as neatly as a man might bite the end off a carrot.
It didn’t eat the head, though, Jillian saw, (because she couldn’t look away, even though she desperately wanted to.) Instead it spit out the yellow-eyed head and dropped the still-twitching carcass of the Trollox to the dirty ground where it lay there, leaking black tar onto the dusty road.
Then it turned towards Jillian.
22
Oh my God, I’m going to die. This is how I die, Jillian thought numbly as the enormous greenish-gray Grizzly bear rushed towards her. It was snarling as it came, its long white teeth streaked black with Trollox blood, its eyes blood-red with fury. The sight woke an old memory in her mind—a trauma she had long sought to bury came rushing to the surface.
It’s going to kill me—it’s going to rip my head off! Or maybe my arms and legs. I’m going to end up like cousin Lucy—or I’ll be dead.
She wanted desperately to run but she was frozen to the spot—as was the three-headed Trollox behind her. Jillian thought faintly of how huge and menacing she’d thought the Trolloxes were when she’d first encountered one. Anyone would feel that way about a ten-foot tall being who looked like an ogre from a fairytale. But the beast Kalis had turned into made the Trollox still holding her looked small and weak by comparison.
But not as small and weak as me, she thought, feeling sick with fright as images from her childhood rushed at her like a speeding train. Images she’d tried desperately hard to bury. I’m definitely the easiest prey in this situation. That thing could eat me in two bites—one if it’s especially hungry.
Of course, it had spit out the Trollox head, but maybe that was because Trollox meat tasted nasty. She was probably much more to its liking—tender and juicy, considering her overly generous curves. The enormous Grizzly would eat her like a strip of bacon and lick its lips for more. It would rip off her face, like poor Lucy…
Just as she thought this, the bear-thing reached her. It reared up, opened its mouth, and let out the most ear-splitting, terrifying roar Jillian had ever heard. But the roar seemed to have words in it somehow.
Don’t touch…Mine! Jillian heard—or thought she heard. Maybe she was just going crazy with fear. In fact, at this point she sank to her knees as her legs gave way from extreme fright. Earlier, she’d fought to get away from Ripper, but there was no getting away from this Apex predator. No surviving its bite—she was sure.
Gonna die now, she thought. Gonna die. Oh God…
The three-headed Trollox behind her must have thought the same thing because it suddenly released her wrist and ran.
It was the Trollox’s grip that had been holding Jillian upright at all. As it finally let her go, she sank all the way to the dirty ground and rolled into a fetal ball, her arms clutched around herself and her knees drawn up to her chest.
It was too much—too much. Part of her was screaming that she had to get up and run! Run as fast as she could and get way from here! But how could she run from a predator like that? Just one of its strides equaled five or six of hers! She couldn’t go far enough or fast enough to get away if it was tracking her.
Jillian could just see herself getting on the tram and making it all the way to her
shuttle, only to be pulled out of the cockpit by one swipe of the bear-thing’s enormous paw. It would be like the ending of a horror movie when you think the heroine is going to escape, only to see her killed by the monster at the last minute.
So she lay in the dirt shivering, waiting to hear it come back for her, waiting for her death…
Which was why it was such a surprise when, an unknowable length of time later, Kalis put a hand gently on her shoulder and murmured,
“Hey, little Mistress—you all right?”
Jillian nearly jumped out of her skin. She screamed…and then, though she wasn’t the fainting type, she fainted dead-away.
23
She woke up in the passenger seat of her shuttle with Kalis sitting beside her in the driver’s seat. Commander Sylvan, the head of the Kindred High Council, was on the viewscreen and Kalis was saying,
“Thank you, Commander—I appreciate your offer of hospitality aboard the Mother Ship.”
“It’s the least we can do since you rescued one of our own,” Commander Sylvan said formally. “And the B’varren Kindred have always been well-respected in our community. Though…” He cleared his throat. “I really must ask you not to change forms while aboard the ship. At least, not in public. We have many brides from Earth here and I’m afraid seeing your other form would frighten them and make them fear for their children.”
“I completely understand, Commander.” Kalis nodded gravely. “You have my word—I won’t change in front of any unsuspecting females.”
Like me, Jillian thought faintly. I was an unsuspecting female. I had no idea he could turn into that…that thing.
Though, to be fair, Kalis had mentioned his “other form” to her several times. But then he had evaded her questions about it, Jillian remembered. Probably because he was afraid she’d be scared out of her wits.
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