by R. E. Butler
Keir ripped at his shirt with a furious roar that went from sounding like a man yelling to a beast. And then...he changed! Into a fucking polar bear!
Lori froze, not even daring to breathe. Had she just seen that?
What the hell?
“Atticus!” she screamed, worried for him.
Her boyfriend bellowed out a roar that sounded like something you’d hear in the jungle. And then he changed. His clothes shredding like they were made of paper, his body bulking and growing, dark fur sprouting everywhere.
A gorilla!
Atticus was a fucking gorilla!
He looked over his shoulder at her and then faced off against Keir the freaking polar bear. Atticus beat his chest with his fists and slapped the ground, while Keir roared.
“This can’t be happening,” she whispered.
“It is. I’m sorry you have to see it like this,” Zane said.
“Is this why Keir wouldn’t leave me alone? Because he’s an animal?”
“We’re called shifters, and yes. He probably feared you’d spill the truth of shifters.”
“I didn’t know,” she said. “I...thought he was different, but not like this.”
“It’s okay, I believe you.”
“Wait, you said we? Are you?”
“Yes, I’m a gorilla too. Caesar and Jupiter are lions, Joss is a wolf. And Cael is an elephant.”
Holy crap, her whole world was upside down right now. She swallowed hard. She’d been chased for two decades by a man who could turn into a bear. And she’d had sex with a guy who was a gorilla. Could things be any stranger?
“What’s going to happen now?” she asked.
“They’re going to fight for you. Only one of them is going to come out of it alive, and I know for a fact it’ll be my dad.”
She watched the two big animals circling each other. She couldn’t imagine anything crazier than what she was witnessing.
“How do you know?”
“Because you’re his soulmate and he’d lay waste to a city to keep you safe. Fortunately, he only has to take out one dumb bear.”
Focusing on the gorilla and the bear, she didn’t even pay attention to Zane as he cut her wrists free from the rope. She could only watch and hope that Atticus survived the fight.
He had to. She’d just found him and she didn’t want to let him go.
Blocking out everything else, she focused on her boyfriend—her soulmate?—and held onto the hope that he could kick Keir’s ass.
There was no other option.
* * *
Atticus glanced at his son and gave him a brief nod, trusting him to keep Lori safe while he took care of Keir once and for all. His shift ripped from his body with enough force to make his brain come out of his ears. He’d never shifted so fast before, but he was slapping the ground and bellowing his anger at the polar bear in seconds.
Atticus had never been around a polar bear and the male was enormous. He rose onto his back legs and towered over Atticus by several feet. His paws were like dinner plates. He swiped one of those huge paws at Atticus, who dodged and came up alongside the male, pounding his fists into his side. Keir roared and swiped, narrowly missing Atticus. He bet in the wild, a polar bear could destroy a gorilla, but this wasn’t nature—they were shifters, and Atticus was not going to lose his soulmate to this male.
They dodged and moved around the clearing, Keir swinging his paws and trying to smash his weight down on Atticus, and Atticus keeping his feet moving and getting in hits when he could. There was no way on earth he was going to lose. Lori’s life depended on it.
Atticus barreled past Keir and swiped his legs out from under him. He grabbed one paw and jerked hard with all his weight. He felt the bone separate, Keir’s shoulder coming out of the socket with a loud pop. Claws dug into his back, and Atticus bellowed in pain as he rolled off the bear. His back burned, but he pushed the pain away. Keir rose to his back legs, one arm dangling uselessly.
He was aware that no one was fighting anymore, and a quick glance told him that his friends had taken care of the males with Keir. Now it was up to him. He had to finish this so Lori would be safe. He had to kill for her, so he could keep her by his side forever.
Keir roared and charged. Atticus jumped for a nearby tree. He caught a low branch and swung himself up and over the bear. Keir toddled off-kilter as he tried to swing back around. Atticus landed on the bear’s back. He sank his fangs into Keir’s neck, piercing through the thick layer of fat and muscle.
Someone jumped on his back and fingers dug into his eyes. He didn’t give up his hold on Keir, who was swaying and howling in pain.
He heard a feminine war cry, and someone shouted for Lori to stop.
Then the weight was gone from him, and Atticus bit harder and deeper into Keir’s neck and pulled back with all his might, tearing the male’s throat. As Keir went down, Atticus broke his neck with a powerful twist of his hands, and then he climbed over the body to get to Lori. Where was she?
* * *
Lori watched Atticus, who was smaller than Keir in his animal form, dodging paws and getting in hits. He was surprisingly agile.
Something caught her eye and she saw what looked like someone lurking in the shadows.
She realized it was the missing goon.
Atticus sank his fangs into Keir’s neck, the big bear bellowing in pain but unable to shake Atticus’s hold no matter how hard he tried.
The goon raced from the woods and leaped onto Atticus, trying to pull him away.
Well that was not happening!
Lori shouted as she ran and grabbed hold of the goon’s shirt, jerking him away from Atticus and Keir. She stumbled and hit the ground as the men who’d been with Atticus shouted for her to stop.
The goon was on his feet before she was and hauled her over his shoulder and took off in the opposite direction.
Hell no! She wasn’t going to get abducted again!
She beat her fists on his back. “Let me go!”
He snarled but said nothing, whipping through the woods like he had wings on his feet. She jerked his shirt from his jeans and sank her nails into his skin and twisted sharply. He yelled out in pain and stumbled, and she rolled off his shoulder and landed hard on her back, knocking the wind out of her.
Her head swam and she inhaled, pain bracketing through her.
The goon was on top of her a second later, hands on her throat, squeezing. Squeezing.
She beat him with her fists and tried to get free, but her blows weren’t doing anything. Her lungs burned and her vision dotted. She slapped her palms on the ground and hoped to find something to hit him with, but all she found were thin sticks and grass.
Her vision went dark, and she slipped away.
Chapter Sixteen
Still in his shift, Atticus raced into the woods, following Lori’s scent as she was carried off by one of the bears. All but Caesar were with him, the lion staying with the bodies to ensure no one stumbled onto them.
He heard Lori scream and he redoubled his pace in her direction.
When he found her, the male was on top of her, his hands around her throat. Her face was bright red, and her struggles were weak and then they stopped.
Atticus bounded forward, grabbed the male and flung him away. He was aware that Joss went after the male on his behalf so he could focus on Lori.
“I’ve got her, hold on,” Zane said as he crashed next to her. He felt for her pulse and leaned over her.
Atticus roared in anger. She had to be okay!
Zane pinched her nose and tilted her jaw to open her airway. As he leaned down to give her mouth to mouth, she gasped and flung her hands out, her eyes wild as she came to.
“Hey, it’s okay, it’s me, it’s Zane. You’re safe now.”
Zane helped Lori sit up. She held a hand to her bruised throat and looked at him. Atticus squatted next to her, desperate to hold her, but unsure how she’d react to him. She’d thought he was human, but she’d w
atched him kill another male while he was a gorilla.
“Att—” She choked and coughed, her face screwing up in pain.
“You probably shouldn’t talk,” Zane said. “We’ll get you looked at by our park doc.”
She glanced at him and then turned her attention to Atticus.
Her eyes went luminous and she crawled to Atticus, sobbing and making pained sounds. He pulled her gently against him and held her while she cried. She clung to him, her fingers twisting in his fur like she was anchoring herself to him.
Joss cleared his throat, and Atticus looked at him. The dead male’s body was at Joss’s feet. “I’m going to head back to help Caesar. We need to figure out what to do about the bodies.”
Atticus nodded.
“Dad, I’m glad you’re okay,” Zane said.
He rumbled in agreement.
“I’ll call Paula and let her know we’ll be bringing Lori to see her. You’ve got some bad claw marks that need tending to, also.”
He didn’t care about that. He couldn’t even feel them right now because of the adrenaline. They’d heal quick in his shift, and whatever hadn’t healed by the time he was able to return to human would heal as he changed back.
“Thank you,” Lori whispered, her voice barely audible.
He grunted at her, hoping she knew he understood.
He rose to his feet and carried her carefully back to the clearing. She snuggled high on his chest with her face on his shoulder.
“We need another van,” Caesar said, when he saw Atticus. “We can take the bodies to the park and burn them in one of the far corners of the paddock. We’ll wait until nightfall.”
“I just called Javan to bring the big panel van,” Justus said. “He’s on the way with August, they’ll be here shortly.”
“You okay, Lori?” Joss asked.
She nodded but didn’t speak.
“Her voice is rough,” Zane said, “from the choking. Doc will help her out.”
“There’s much to discuss,” Joss said. “But it can wait until everyone feels better.”
An hour later, the bodies were in the back of the park van and covered with tarps. Atticus climbed into the back of one of the SUVs and lay down. Lori snuggled back up against him as they were covered with a blanket. She fell asleep in his arms.
He hoped that meant she wasn’t scared of what he’d done and that she knew she was free now.
The panel van was going to stay in the employee lot until the park was closed and then it would be driven through to the paddock and unloaded. They would use the gorilla paddock and close it for VIP tours until the remnants of the males were ash.
With no tours running at the time, the area was clear of park visitors and they were able to get into the wolf paddock easily and head down to their private area to meet up with the pack doctor, Paula.
She examined Lori, cleaned her wounds, and used steri-strips on her busted lip and a cut over her eye. She gave Lori some pain meds and an ice pack for her nose, which was bruised but not broken. “I’ll steep some special tea for you and give you some bags to take with you. It’s good for soothing the throat irritation. You may have trouble talking for a day or two because your throat is bruised, but the pain meds and tea will help.”
“Thanks,” Lori whispered.
“Now about you,” Paula said, turning to Atticus.
He shook his head.
It had been a couple hours since he’d shifted, and his adrenaline was wearing off. While his gorilla wanted to stick around and hold Lori some more, it was time to be back to human to talk to her.
“Stubborn males,” Paula said.
Atticus snorted and shifted back to human, feeling his cuts, claw marks, and bruises heal. He groaned as he finished shifting and sat down heavily on the hospital bed next to Lori.
Something draped his lap and he looked to see Lori pulling a blanket across him, covering his nudity.
“Shifters don’t worry about being naked,” he said. “But thanks.”
“I’ve got some scrub bottoms you can use to get home in,” Paula said. She leaned to the side and looked at his back. “All healed up. Lemme grab what I need for your mate, and you can get on your way. I’m sure your family is waiting to see you both.”
Atticus twisted to face Lori. She looked like she’d been beaten all to hell. “I’m so sorry sweetheart,” he said roughly. He cupped her face gently.
She opened her mouth, and he shook his head. “Don’t stress your voice. I’ll get you something to write with when we get home. For now, just know that you’re safe.”
She nodded.
Paula came back into the room and handed him a pair of green scrub pants, a handful of tea bags, and a paper sack of pills. She gave a travel mug to Lori filled with the steeped tea. “If you need more tea, give me a holler.”
“Thanks for everything, Doc.”
“You bet. Be well, you two.”
“Ready to go?” he asked Lori. “I’m sure Cael and Novi are anxious to see you.”
Even though it wasn’t normal for other shifters to be in private areas other than their own, he was going to make sure that Cael and Novi could come see her in his home—their home.
She nodded and took his hand, groaning as she stood. He knew she must still be sore and the pills hadn’t kicked in yet, so he lifted her into his arms and carried her out. Joss was waiting and led them to the exterior door leading to a long hall that connected the different private areas. “You got it from here?” Joss asked.
“Yep, thanks. I mean it. Thank you for coming with me, for helping me protect Lori.”
“It’s my honor.”
Atticus nodded, his chest tightening as he thought about how close he’d come to losing his soulmate. He was glad Keir was dead. He was glad the threat to her had been put down for good. But he was sorry she’d been hurt and had witnessed so much death.
He unlocked the door to the gorilla’s private area and carried her inside. When the door was shut, he turned and chuckled when he saw his people standing by his home. His two-bedroom house sat atop a steel structure that looked like a tree. It was covered with a hard substance that looked like bark and silk leaves. There were six other identical homes nearby for his people.
“We’re glad you’re okay, Lori,” Lexy said as she stood next to Win.
Lori nodded and smiled as much as she could with a cut lip.
“Welcome to the band,” August said.
Lori made a curious sound and Atticus said, “A group of gorillas is a band.”
“Glad you’re safe now,” Zane said.
“We’re really happy you’re here now and safe,” Adriana said.
Zane pulled down the steps so Atticus could carry Lori up to the house. Normally, he swung up through the branches, but that wasn’t something Lori would be able to do. He paused and turned to face his people.
“This has been a hellish time for my mate. Thank you for your support, I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to lead.”
“I stocked the fridge,” Adriana said.
“I talked to Novi,” Lexy said, “and she’s going to bring Lori’s clothes and toiletries over when she comes to see her.”
“Thank you,” Atticus said.
“We’ll let them in when they’re here,” Win said. “You guys just rest.”
Atticus was humbled by his people’s support. The young males and the mates were not just his people, they were his family. Even though Zane was his only biological child, the others were just as much his kids as Zane.
Once he was inside the house, he carried Lori to the master bedroom and set her on the bed. “Do you want to take a shower?”
She took a drink of the tea and grimaced as she swallowed. When she opened her mouth to speak, he said, “Hold on, let me grab a piece of paper.”
He rushed to the kitchen and dug through the junk drawer, finding a pad of paper. It took three tries to find a working pen, but he finally found one. Back in the bedroom, he
handed the two items to her. She wrote on the paper, and he sat next to her and watched.
“Thank you for saving me,” she wrote.
“Lori,” he said, “of course I was going to come for you. You’re my soulmate. You’re the other half of my heart.”
“I’m your soulmate because you’re a gorilla?”
“Yes,” he said. “A soulmate is what we call the one right person for us. I knew the moment I saw you that you were mine, but I didn’t want to claim you properly until you knew the truth.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? You don’t trust me?”
His heart ached sharply. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s that we have laws in place for this situation. Our secret has to stay that way, humans can’t know about us—it would be devastating. So when a shifter finds his soulmate and he or she is human, the shifter is unable to tell their mate the truth.”
“Then how the hell are they supposed to figure it out?” She made an exasperated sound.
“I know it’s frustrating, sweetheart, it is for everyone. But most humans, when they spend a lot of time with us, especially in a mating situation, figure it out on their own. Sometimes it happens quickly, sometimes it takes some time. When Win and Lexy first got together, he spent the night at her apartment and accidentally shifted while he slept. She totally freaked out, of course, but she realized it wasn’t anything to be scared of. It was imperative that this secret be kept.”
“Now that I know, what happens?”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Am I...do I have to stay in the park forever or something?”
“You’re not a prisoner, Lori. You’re my soulmate. The alphas are going to want to make sure you understand that you can’t tell anyone about our secret, but I know you wouldn’t betray anyone, not only because you’re honorable and trustworthy, but because you wouldn’t put Novi in danger.”
She made a sound of agreement. Then she wrote, “I wouldn’t put you in danger either.” She tapped the pen on the paper and looked at him.