And so it went for the next few moments. With wordless coordination, Carl and Michelle's two gallant dogs worked in unison to harass the bear and to keep it away from the house.
Their campaign of quick, relentless attacks began to take a toll on Dooley. Carl noticed the bear beginning to pant, and its reaction times began to slow.
Dooley had also clearly not been trained to fight. He swung wildly at his attackers and didn't seem to plan countermoves at all.
I guess he was always the biggest, meanest, best-armed shifter on the block, Carl thought as he dove in to tear at Dooley's side. He never had to fight for real.
Whereas Carl had started training in pack hunting and fighting techniques as soon as he completed his first shift as a teenager. Wolf shifters were strong, fast, and smart by themselves. And as a pack, they were almost unbeatable.
But the dogs were beginning to tire, too. Carl wasn't sure how long they had been working to defend Michelle before he showed up. He was still relatively fresh, and he had excellent stamina, but without the dogs to assist him, he knew that he'd be no match for Dooley's shifted form.
We need to end this, and soon. Before someone other than Dooley gets hurt.
Chapter 21
Aftermath
As Carl worked side-by-side with the dogs to distract and tire Dooley out, he had been waiting for the right moment to try for his neck again.
When the moment finally came for his second attempt, Carl made his move. This time, he clamped his jaws around Dooley's neck higher up.
He was rewarded by the throb of Dooley's pulse beneath his jaws just before he bit down. Iron and salt filled his mouth as his fangs punctured the bear's thick skin.
The next moments passed in a blur as the bear roared and whipped its head around wildly.
Cookie and Biscuit rushed in right on cue, snarling and snapping at the bear's most vulnerable parts.
For his part, Carl set his jaws and hung on grimly, praying that he'd gotten it right this time.
Fire raked down Carl's side as Dooley clawed at him, trying vainly to dislodge him.
Carl only hoped he could accomplish his goal before the bear managed to eviscerate him with those dagger-like claws.
The gargantuan bear was weakening visibly now, lurching from side to side. The light fur on its legs and sides was stained with red from the many bites it had received from Carl and the dogs, and more blood stained its shaggy neck.
It had stopped roaring and snarling, and the only sounds it made now were loud whimpers of pain whenever it was forced to put weight on any of its injured limbs.
Carl bit down harder, trying to cut off the blood supply to Dooley's brain. Another raking pass of the bear's claws tore through his thick fur. The pain was like acid splashing across Carl's back.
Then, just as Carl was beginning to lose hope that his plan was working, Dooley froze, swayed, then collapsed.
Took you long enough, Carl thought wearily as he fought to maintain his grip as the huge bear crashed to its knees, then fell forward in an awkward sprawl.
He clamped down a few seconds more, until he was certain that Dooley was truly unconscious and not just faking it.
Cookie and Biscuit, their tan-and-black coats marred by long, bleeding gashes where the bear's claws had caught them, backed off and stood watching. They were both panting loudly, long tongues lolling, their sides heaving.
Then, just as Carl had after his own accident, Dooley's human half reasserted itself. The giant bulk of the bear began to dwindle down, fur reabsorbing into human skin as it shifted.
When the shift was complete, Dennis Dooley lay naked and face-down in the dirt. His right thigh had a huge, rapidly bruising welt, and so did his left arm.
Carl stood over him and realized that he had a dilemma. He needed to remain in wolf form, just in case Dooley tried shifting again.
But while he remained a wolf, he couldn't speak. There was no way to assure Michelle that she was safe now…and he didn't dare leave Dooley to find her, in case the man regained consciousness.
Cookie raised her head and gave him a long stare, as if asking him something. Carl put his forepaws firmly on Dooley's back, between the man's shoulders, and raised his upper lip to reveal his fangs.
The shepherd mix hesitated, then turned and ran up the porch steps. That's when Carl saw that the front door had been torn off its hinges. Cookie disappeared into the house, followed closely by her brother.
If I'd spent any longer in town, Dooley would have made it inside. The realization of how close a call this had been made him shiver.
Carl heard Cookie give a short, sharp bark somewhere inside the house. It sounded exactly like the "all clear" signal that it was.
Shortly thereafter, he heard movement inside the house—two pairs of human feet walking alongside canine paws.
And then, relief rushed over him as he heard Michelle make a phone call to 911. She was safe! She was alive!
To his relief, she also remembered to use the code phrase for requesting that a shifter sheriff's deputy be sent out to the ranch.
Carl had revealed the phrase to her a couple of nights ago, while telling her about his teammate Thor's misadventure last year, when the big bear shifter had ended up with amnesia, multiple broken bones…and a lovely sabertooth shifter mate.
Beneath his paws, Dooley stirred and groaned.
Carl bent his head and very deliberately closed his jaws around Dooley's very human neck in warning.
Dooley froze in place.
"Carl, don't kill him!" Michelle rushed out of the house and sprinted towards Carl. "Mother of God, you're bleeding!"
She dropped to her knees and threw her arms around Carl, burying her face in his thick ruff. She was shaking.
"You saved us. Thank you. You saved us," she repeated over and over again.
Beto emerged out onto the porch. He stared at his sister, with her arms around a huge wolf. "That's Carl? What the hell is going on here?"
◆◆◆
Night fell.
Michelle and Carl sat at the dining room table, drinking mugs of hot cocoa and trying to gather enough energy to start making dinner. A dozen beautiful red roses stood on the table in a vase that had belonged to Abuela Consuelo.
Apparently suffering the pangs of his guilty conscience, Beto had listened to Carl explain about shapeshifters, given his word not to tell anyone, then slunk off to his cabin, muttering something about frozen chicken nuggets.
Cookie and Biscuit, whose injuries were thankfully restricted to a few scrapes and some minor gashes, had each been rewarded for their heroism with much praise and a generous slice of ham along with their regular dog food.
Michelle felt profoundly shaken by the revelation that she had been living practically next door to a prehistoric bear shifter and hadn't suspected a thing.
Worse yet, thanks to the combined efforts of Dennis Dooley and her little brother, Michelle's dream of succeeding at her ranching business had been squashed before it could become reality.
She would probably be very angry once all of today's events and revelations had a chance to sink in. Right now, though, she was just completely drained.
Shortly after Michelle had contacted 911, a big, red-headed officer with the La Plata County Sheriff's Office had arrived at the ranch. He introduced himself as Ian Lachlan, bear shifter.
Only then had Carl stopped guarding Dennis and shifted back to human so that he could give Lachlan his statement.
Michelle and Beto had given their statements as well, and then Lachlan had taken Dennis into custody.
The defeated-looking rancher hadn't tried to resist arrest. In fact, he appeared to be in a great deal of pain, and Lachlan had promised that a shifter doctor would be brought in to look at his injuries as soon as he'd been processed down at the county jail.
Based on the new information obtained about the culprit behind Michelle's broken fences, Lachlan had also requested a search warrant of Dooley's premises.
An hour la
ter, while she was still cleaning and bandaging the deep gashes along Carl's back and side, the Sheriff's Office had called with good news.
All of her missing goats and alpacas had been found, unharmed, locked in a barn on the far side of Dooley's ranch.
Dooley's ranch foreman Alastair, who was his nephew and also a prehistoric-type bear shifter, had confessed to helping his uncle destroy the pasture's fences and steal Michelle's livestock.
Alastair Dooley was currently sitting in jail alongside his uncle, both of them dosed with the same drugs to prevent them from shifting and escaping or hurting anyone.
Now, as Michelle drank her cocoa and watched her fiancé closely to make sure that he wasn't bleeding through his bandages, she came to a realization.
"You know," she said thoughtfully into the silence that had descended on the house in the wake of Beto's departure. "Dennis kept telling me that I was crazy to try ranching goats and alpacas and that my business plan would never succeed, but in the end, he had to sabotage me and even turn my own brother against me." She sipped at her cocoa. "So if Mr. Experienced Rancher actually took me seriously enough to bother sabotaging me, then I must have been doing something right…right?"
"That's a unique way of looking at what happened," Carl commented, with a wry lift of his brows. "But you're right. He was threatened by your success. I guess that's a weird kind of validation." He reached into his pocket and drew out a small box. "I can't believe I almost forgot this. It was supposed to accompany the roses. I had this part all planned out, but you know what they say about plans surviving the first encounter with the enemy."
"You saved me from a monster bear-thing, and you even brought me roses," Michelle said. "I think that's pretty darned romantic."
He smiled wearily at her, and Michelle fell in love with him all over again. "Give me your hand, Michelle."
She complied eagerly.
He slid something onto her finger, and she saw that it was the beautiful engagement ring that they'd chosen together an eternity ago this morning. "Are you ready to make a fresh start with me? I know that you'll kick ass, and I promise that no one will sabotage you this time."
"Yes. I feel like I can do anything, knowing that you've got my back," Michelle said, rising and walking around the table to kiss her wounded hero. "Though I might draw the line at jumping out of airplanes."
◆◆◆
"Ready?" asked Carl the next morning.
He'd slept deeply as his body began the process of healing his fresh set of wounds, and he’d woken up ravenously hungry.
Michelle continued to treat him like a hero, which embarrassed him. She also brought him breakfast in bed, which made him very happy.
Now they sat together on the sofa in her living room as Carl prepared to make a video call to his parents. He was still stiff and sore, but he knew from experience that he'd heal up in another day or two.
The call connected, and his parents appeared on the screen.
"Carl! And you must be Michelle!" Mom greeted them with friendly enthusiasm and a warm smile.
Michelle smiled, looking nervous. She sat ramrod-straight next to Carl, every muscle stiff and tight. "Um, hello, Mr. and Mrs. Jensen—" she began.
"Please, call us Mom and Dad. Or Evie and Bob. It's so lovely to meet you at last! Carl told us that you were his mate and that you were in on our little secret." Mom's eyes crinkled in a mischievous expression.
"Welcome to the family," Dad added, beaming at Michelle. He added, "And we're thrilled to hear that you're a fellow rancher. We'd love to show you around our place sometime soon."
The tension humming through his mate lessened at his parents' welcome.
"Thank you…Mom and Dad," she said, sounding unaccustomedly shy. "I'm really looking forward to visiting Alaska. The photos I've seen look amazing. And I've heard all about you and Angela and Cynthia from Carl. I can't wait to meet all of you in person."
"Will we be seeing the two of you for Thanksgiving?" Mom asked with a hopeful expression.
Carl smiled at her but let Michelle answer. "Actually, we're planning to fly up to Anchorage next week. I want to check out a property listed in your area that offers the same acreage as my ranch here in Colorado, but with a bigger house."
"That must be the Kramer place," Dad said instantly. "Alfonse passed away last winter. Heart attack. None of his kids wanted to take up ranching, so I guess they decided to put the place up for sale."
"So you think it might be a decent investment?" Michelle asked. "I wasn't sure, since the price seems too good to be true."
"It's a great property," Dad declared. "Especially for sheep or goats…or alpacas." His eyes twinkled.
"Oh, that's good to hear," Michelle said.
"Does that mean you and Carl are planning to move here soon?" Mom asked.
Michelle looked at Carl with a silent question. He smiled back at her. "You can go ahead and give them the news."
"Yes, I've listed my ranch here in Colorado for sale. We're planning to move up to Alaska in the spring." Michelle's smile turned wry. "I'll be taking my livestock with me. Carl thinks it will be a real live goat rodeo."
Mom laughed at that.
"And Carl will be applying to the Alaska Smokejumpers for the next fire season," Michelle added.
"Oh, Michelle, that's wonderful news. It will be so nice to have Carl close to home again, especially if you two are planning to start a family soon."
"We are," Michelle confirmed and leaned into Carl a little.
He breathed a sigh of relief. There was just one more loose end that he needed to tie up. "What happened with the marriage arrangement? Is the Canadian pack pissed off with us now?"
"Not at all, sweetie," Mom said. "We spoke to Chloe—who's a very sweet girl—and she agreed to meet with your cousin Lucas instead."
Dad added, "We got the feeling that she's eager to change packs, so we'll do everything we can to make that possible for her."
"And now, we want to hear all about your wedding plans," Mom said.
As he and Michelle began to describe the plans that they'd made so far, Carl thought about how lucky he was.
He had managed to get everything he ever wanted—his pack's support, the job he loved, and the perfect mate. He knew he would miss his team at Rocky Mountain Smokejumpers, but he also knew that their paths would cross again during the fire seasons ahead.
◆◆◆
Carl's parents had been unexpectedly warm and welcoming.
But when it was Michelle's turn to phone her mother with the news of her engagement, she had braced herself for a more difficult conversation, mostly because Mamá always made things about her.
But instead, Mamá shocked her with an unexpected confession as soon as they'd exchanged greetings.
"Mica, I didn't want to say anything sooner, because I wasn't sure I could do it," Mamá began. "But my life started falling apart after your abuela, God rest her, passed away. Then I drove you away, and Beto, too. I wrecked my car…"
"Oh my God!" exclaimed Michelle. "Are you okay? Was anyone hurt?"
"No, no, thank the Blessed Mother!" Mamá stopped talking, and sniffled. "I'm sorry. Anyhow, sitting in the emergency room, knowing that I could have hurt or killed someone…I took a long hard look at what I had been doing to myself and everyone around me. The judge was merciful and told me that if I went to rehab, I wouldn't have to go to prison. I've been sober for six months now, and I am so very sorry for all the harm I've caused you, cariño. Can you forgive me?"
Michelle's eyes filled with tears. "Of course, I forgive you! I know you've had a hard life, Mamá, and I'm so glad to hear that you're taking care of yourself now. But I actually called with some good news…I met someone, he's a firefighter, and he asked me to marry him!"
"I didn't even know you were dating anyone in your mountain hideaway," her mother said. "But I'm sure he's wonderful. I would love to meet him."
"Soon," Michelle promised. "He lives in Denver, and I'm here, so w
e have some logistics to work out, especially with all my animals. But I wanted to tell you my news as soon as possible." She swung the phone to include Carl in the photo. "Mamá, this is my fiancé, Carl."
"Hi, Mrs. Hernandez," he said politely. "I'm Carl Jensen. It's great to meet you at last."
Mamá beamed at him. "Such a handsome boy," she said, and Michelle was amused to see Carl flush. "Will you treat my daughter lovingly?"
"Always and forever," Carl promised.
"Then call me Mamá, and I'll make my special tamales for you when you come to visit," she said. "When is the wedding?"
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