Blayne pulled the blades out and stood. She only had a second to realize someone was standing behind her. She turned, but the hybrid slammed her hands into her, sending Blayne’s much smaller body flipping across the room.
Holy shit. The female hybrid was part grizzly, part canine. And really, really pissed off.
Blayne hit the wall and then the floor, but after breaking all her bones during the abduction, they’d healed up stronger than before. So she scrambled back to her feet, unharmed, with the hybrid advancing on her.
“Wait,” Blayne said, her hands up.
Christ, she was young. A sub-adult sow. What did they do to you? Even though she was still in human form, it was like she wasn’t human anymore. Like that part had been beaten and fought out of her. There were so many scars and so much pain she’d endured. It was all over her. “We just want to help you. I just want to help you.” The sow didn’t answer Blayne, just sort of huffed and snuffled a little. Not a good sign, but Blayne didn’t want to have to kill her. She didn’t deserve that. Yet Blayne was also trying to avoid death here. “Let me. Let me help you.” Blayne held her hand out. “Just take my hand.”
The sow stared at Blayne’s hand for several excruciatingly long seconds before she reached out and gripped it.
Blayne smiled. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”
The sow still watched her, as if she didn’t quite understand Blayne’s words. Behind the sow, Blayne could see Dee getting up. Blood poured from an open gash on her head and she had her .45 out. She had the weapon raised at the sow’s back, Blayne about to tell her not to do it, when the sow’s head came up. She sniffed the air once and before Blayne could do anything, the sow sent her flying right into Dee.
The two females hit the floor and rolled until they ran into the barn wall. At that point, Blayne was beginning to think she’d had more physical contact with Dee in the past hour than she’d had with Bo in the last week.
Dee scrambled up, her .45 raised again but Blayne bounced up and between the two females.
“Move, Blayne!”
“No. I won’t let you hurt her.”
“Blayne…”
“She’s young, Dee. A kid. We can help her. Really help her.”
“Help her? How?”
“By giving her a chance. Please?” Blayne placed her hand on Dee’s arm, pushing the weapon down. “Please, Dee?”
“This is stupid.”
“It’s the least you can do after what you did to me! Microchipping,” she hissed.
“Oh. That.” Dee’s eyes rolled to the ceiling. “You’re not going to let that go anytime soon, are ya?”
“If you protect her, take her back to the city and keep her alive all’s forgiven. I swear.”
“Huh.”
“No, really. I…I’ll tell everybody how great you are and”—she snapped her fingers—“I’ll even come up with a cheer just for you! Goooooooooo—”
“Stop!”
Both Blayne and Dee jumped, slowly facing the sow behind them.
“No cheering,” the sow said. “Just… no cheering.”
Blayne smiled at Dee. “You two should get along like a house on fire. You’re both surly.”
The sows head snapped up, her fangs unleashing. Dee caught Blayne’s arm and pulled her behind her. But the sow faced the open backdoors.
Knowing more full-humans were coming through that door, Blayne went around Dee. “Get her out of here, Dee.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Get her out,” Blayne said again then she took off running, right out the door and heading into the tree that was outside the building.
Bo was annoyed. Why? Because his uncle wouldn’t give up Bo’s toy. No matter how much Bo pulled one way, his uncle pulled the other, both of them snarling and growling at each other. So unfair! Ursus County bears didn’t know how to share, something his mother used to warn him about. And when the toy tore in half, neither of them wanted it anymore because it was no longer screaming and begging for mercy. Tossing his half aside, Bo looked over at the chopper landing by the beach. Armed, MacRyrie came out first and, with one look, Bo knew the grizzly had done this before. Bo had been around enough Marines to know one when he saw one.
After MacRyrie came Van Holtz and Blayne’s father. The older wolf carried a mechanic’s tool bag in one hand and a .380 in the other.
Wanting to make sure Blayne’s father remained safe, Bo headed toward the males but he saw the full-humans running out of the corner of his eye. He turned, lowering his head and ready to charge them. But Blayne came tearing out of the open barn, running right toward a nearby tree that stood tall and ancient in front of the men. When she was inches from it, she sprang up, one foot hitting the tree, and catapulting her into the center of the small group of full-human males. Once there, Blayne went to work, using blades to slice and dice every man there before they could get a shot off.
Bo glanced over at MacRyrie and Van Holtz. Their mouths open, they watched Blayne while Blayne’s father wandered off.
Bo followed after him, figuring he could use some protection. By the time he tracked the wolf down, he found him crouched by a small well. As Bo eased up behind him, Mr. Thorpe glanced at him over his shoulder. He snorted, shook his head. “I bet she loves those fangs. Trust me, at some point, if she hasn’t already, she’s gonna ask to hang from them.”
Blayne could hang from any part of Bo that she wanted to. He didn’t care.
“Although I’m guessing you won’t care, right?” The wolf stood, picked up his tool bag and had his gun tucked into the back of his jeans.
“Come on,” he said, walking off. “Couple more spots.”
With a shrug, Bo followed after the wolf, batting or ripping apart any full-humans who came near them.
It was a nice bonding moment between him and his future father-in-law.
Blayne cleaned blood off the blades before tucking them into the tops of her boots. By the time she stood, she had Lock and Ric standing in front of her… gaping.
“What?”
Ric pointed at the full-humans at her feet. “You…you killed them all.”
“I had to.”
“But you did it with some…uh…skill.”
“Uh-huh.”
Ric looked like he wanted to say more, but she saw her father waving at her. “We better move out. Daddy’s going to blow the place.”
“Wait… what?” Lock snapped out of his gawking. “He can’t blow Ursus County.”
She laughed. “Don’t be silly.” Blayne brought her fingers to her mouth and whistled, all the bears still entertaining themselves with the full-human remains focusing on her. “Get everyone out, Grigori!”
The polar nodded and went up on his hind legs, roaring a signal that had the bears scattering off the property. Blayne ran toward the chopper. Dee-Ann and the rest of her team, plus the hybrid sow long gone. She reached the chopper and a big hand reached out for her. She grabbed it and Bo pulled her inside. Ric and Lock came in after and her father signaled to the pilot to go.
The chopper lifted off, and Blayne leaned over Ric to see. Once they were clear, she saw a very small explosion, sand from the beach bursting up in a small ball. Then the ground shook and everything in that quarter-mile radius jerked hard once and crumbled in on itself, disappearing into the ocean.
She grinned at her father. “You still got it, Daddy.”
He shrugged. “Some skills you don’t lose.”
Blayne sat back and let out a breath.
“What a day, huh?” she said to them all, and Bo laughed.
CHAPTER 29
Gwen paced impatiently in front of the check-in desk at the private airport. The She-leopard watched her close until Gwen finally said, “Keep staring at me, I’ll tear your eyes out.”
The females hissed at each other until Gwen heard the doors leading to the tarmac open. She charged over, trying to see through the large males blocking her view.
“Blayne!”
The two females ran at each other, bodies colliding, arms wrapping around each other as they squealed and hugged.
Seeing Blayne, knowing she was safe, meant more to Gwen than anything else. It was hard in this vicious, cruel world to find someone you not only could trust as you could your own blood but who you actually liked to be around—unlike your own blood.
“Are you okay?” Gwen asked, pulling back so she could see Blayne’s face. She wiped Blayne’s tears with her thumbs.
“I’m fine. I’m great!”
Of course she was. She was Blayne.
“Don’t cry, Gwenie.” She didn’t realize she had been. “I’m really okay.”
“You better be. Or I’m going to hurt people.”
Blayne threw her arm over Gwen’s shoulder. “It won’t be necessary. Everything is okay.”
“If you say so. I’m just glad you’re…you’re…” Gwen studied her friend for a moment.
“What?”
Instead of answering, Gwen buried her nose against Blayne’s neck and sniffed. The scent of bear and cat hit strong and her back snapped straight, her gaze on a suddenly silent wolfdog.
Gwen looked over at the three males standing behind them. Lock looked resigned, Ric concerned, and Novikov amused.
“You want to tell me what’s going on?” she asked her friend.
“Not really.”
“Blayne.”
Both women jumped, her father’s booming military voice always managing to make them feel guilty when they had no reason to feel guilty. Usually.
“I’m heading home,” he said, marching around them. “I’ll expect you on Sunday. As planned.”
“Is that all you have to say to me?” Blayne demanded.
“Well, I could remind you to stay out of trouble—but that always seems to fall on deaf ears!” Ezra Thorpe raised a brow, immediately calm after his bellow. “Anything else?”
“No,” Blayne said with a very resigned sigh. “That was it.”
“Good.” He leaned in and kissed his daughter on the forehead.
“Sunday,” he reminded her, walking toward the parking lot. “Bring the freak with you.”
“Daddy!”
Funny thing was, Gwen knew old man Thorpe liked Novikov. He’d invited him to his and Blayne’s monthly Sunday dinners. If Ezra Thorpe didn’t like a man, he wasn’t inviting him anywhere. Especially if he didn’t like the man for his daughter.
But just because Blayne’s father seemed to have accepted Novikov—or at the very least was willing to give him a shot—didn’t mean Blayne’s collective brother system was about to accept him.
“Why don’t I give you a lift home?” Ric asked Blayne.
“Well—”
“I’ve got it,” Novikov cut in, standing behind Blayne.
“I’d like to hear Blayne say it.” Ric stepped closer. Now Blayne was trapped between two predators, and she didn’t look happy about it. But Gwen knew Blayne well enough to know it wasn’t fear or anger that had Blayne like this. It was something else. Something she was desperately trying to hide. “Unless you’re trying to keep her quiet,” Ric went on.
“We both know that’s not even possible.”
Lips pursed and eyes rolling, Blayne let out another sigh.
“You really wanna do this here, tiny little wolf boy?” Novikov asked. “Do I need to prove my point again with you?”
“You can try. If you’ve got the guts.”
“Or,” Lock said, grabbing Blayne’s hand and pulling her out from between the two males. “We can go to the hospital.”
“What?” Gwen knew what Lock had been heading into when he left, and knew it was dangerous. “Are you hurt?”
“It’s a girl.”
“Maybe he hit his head,” Blayne whispered.
Lock held his cell phone between the friends. “Just got a text from Phil. It’s a girl.”
Blayne squealed, bouncing up and down on her toes. “Jess had the baby! Jess had the baby!” She grabbed Lock’s arm and pulled before running off. “Come on! Jess had the baby!”
She cartwheeled toward the exit. “It’s a girl!” she cheered, ran out the door, and ran back in. “Let’s go!”
Laughing, probably as relieved as she was that Blayne was a-okay, Lock followed after her.
Gwen turned to Novikov, raising her head to try to see his face. Poor guy. He had no idea Blayne had just run out on him—again.
“Thank you,” Gwen said to him, and she meant it. Without even talking to Blayne yet, she knew that Novikov had protected her best friend—and that he loved her.
“Not a problem.”
She winked at him and followed after her friend, stopping long enough to say, “Come on, Ric. You can keep Lock and Blayne calm while I explain why I’m not going into that death trap.” When the wolf kept staring at Novikov, she whistled, catching his immediate attention and making Novikov laugh.
“Don’t make me get the choke chain, Ulrich.”
Bo stood in the middle of the private airport, alone. Blayne had left to check on her friend. Did she forget he was in the room? Very possible. This was Blayne after all. Or was she panicking and running on him again? No. No way. She’d call him soon. In the hour, he bet. Gushing over the baby and whatever. He’d hear from her. He was sure of it.
CHAPTER 30
Bo now understood that he couldn’t assume anything when it came to Blayne Thorpe. He couldn’t take for granted that she’d do what he expected her to do.
He expected her to go see her friend in the hospital and come back to his apartment later that night. When she didn’t, he figured she’d gone back to her apartment, but she hadn’t picked up any calls or answered her door when he knocked. A good sniff told him the apartment was empty—and that she hadn’t taken out her trash. Blayne didn’t have her cell because the Brooklyn bears had brought by all the personal stuff they’d left behind in his truck. The bears had also taken care of his truck, bringing it to a bear-run service station to be repaired, and had returned that as well. Bo would get a bill for all that great bear service, but who cared?
Besides, his biggest concern at the moment was Blayne.
Finally, he’d headed to the hospital, tracking down which shifter-run medical center the pregnant wild dog would have gone to. And the female wild dogs there with their Alpha were really nice but Blayne had already split… leaving him alone with really nice female wild dogs who thought he was just “adorable”!
And three hours later, when he was still at the hospital and holding the tiniest newborn in the world, a bunch of She-dogs grinning at him, and a bunch of She-wolves watching him like he was Satan—he knew he’d blame Blayne for this. He was blaming Blayne! But first he had to find her so he could blame her to her face!
The problem was, no one seemed to know where his wolfdog was.
“She was here for hours,” Jess Ward-Smith told him. She’d been the one to put the newborn in his arms, the kin of her mate looking downright horrified when she had. But one look at the newest hybrid to make it into the world and Bo knew he’d never let anything happen to her. “Then she said she had to go and that she’d talk to me later today.”
“Is Blayne going to do this a lot?” he asked, unable to take his eyes off the baby in his arms.
“She doesn’t stay in one place too long, but she doesn’t usually go far, either.” He hated to admit it, but he could kind of see why Dee Smith had microchipped Blayne. He still knew it was wrong—but he understood why. “You’re good with kids.”
“I am?” Maybe they were only saying that because he hadn’t accidentally crushed the baby in his big paws.
“Yeah. You are. Which is good because Blayne’s got breeder written all over her. While Gwen and Lock will probably stop at two, a certain amount of years apart, the whole event perfectly and logically planned and executed—Blayne will just be dropping kids around your house.”
Bo shuddered, even while he laughed. “Don’t say that.”
�
��Don’t worry. Blayne’s officially part of the Kuznetsov Pack now. You’ll always have babysitters available.”
“Thanks.”
Grudgingly, but feeling like he should before he became too attached, Bo handed the newborn back to her mother. “Do you have a name for her yet?”
“Nope. We’re still working on that. Personally, I like Galadriel.”
Bo asked, “From Lord of the Rings?”
The wild dog’s brown eyes lit up. “You know Lord of the Rings?”
“Doesn’t everybody?”
“Book or movie?”
“Well, I loved the movies, but the books were my favorites in grade—”
The wild dog gasped, her hand briefly covering her mouth. “She’s chosen so well!”
“Sorry?”
“No. Nothing. I’m just proud of my Blayne.” She snapped her fingers. “I forgot. When Blayne left, she left with Dee-Ann. Smitty’s cousin.”
Bo tried hard not to panic. “Why did she leave with her?” he asked, keeping his voice low and even. But Jess immediately seemed to understand his concern.
With her baby tucked into one arm, she placed her free hand over his and said, “Oh, don’t worry, sweetie. I don’t think Dee was planning to, you know, kill her or anything.” Jess gazed off. “I don’t think.”
Dee watched Blayne behind one-way mirror glass. “Sorry,” she said to the bear next to her. “About everything.”
“Thanks,” Lock said. He adjusted his stance, his arms folded over his chest. “It’s not me you really need to apologize to, though, is it?”
“Heifer broke my nose and nearly got me killed by a crazed sow. I think me and Blayne are beyond apologies, don’t you?”
“You’ve got a point.” He motioned toward the room. “Is she going to help you?”
“No. She’s going to help them. Got a whole speech about it, too.” Dee had asked Blayne to help with the hybrids because although they took the Group’s free food and clean beds, most of them weren’t much for doing anything else. But instead of giving up on them, Dee forced herself to remember that these pups, kits, and cubs hadn’t had an easy time of it. Chances were strong Dee was their last chance. They’d either end up dead, in prison, or on the wrong end of a pit fight. So Dee adjusted her perspective, something she was learning to do more and more these days. And that meant asking for some help when she could, even if she was asking for help from Blayne Thorpe.
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