by J. K Harper
Now it was her turn to rescue him.
Excruciating pain crackled through her entire body as it suddenly seemed possessed. She shrieked and flung her head backward as bolts of pain and agony flashed over her. Bones cracked, broke, lengthened, shortened. Her entire body seemed to collapse and expand at once, sending white-hot shards of agony pulsing throughout her. Haley cracked and ripped open, and
She.
Became.
A.
Bear.
Her bear, a beautiful, huge golden-brown beast. Strong, enormous, powerful. Ready to defend what was hers from the enemy. Ready and more than able to stand up for herself and claim her place here, with her friends. Her new clan.
Haley opened her mouth and bellowed out her call, roaring the truth of her existence out to the wild battle going on around her. In almost instant response, other wild throats answered her, bellowing, roaring, howling in excited response. Her family.
She lunged toward Cortez and Justin, almost immediately falling on her face as limbs she didn't know how to use wouldn't obey her still halfway human thoughts. Bear, she ordered herself in a fury of anxiety. You are bear! She tried again, relaxing into this body and letting instinct take over. There it was. She could control her limbs now. Charging forward, she managed to grab Justin's long, skinny tail and sink her enormous teeth into it. He ripped his fangs out of Cortez's neck and shrieked. Reaching one huge paw up over him, she raked him across his ass, which seemed as scrawny in this form as it ever had been in his human form. He yowled in pain, his scream echoing over the woods. With a savage kick out at her, he dislodged another point of contact with Cortez's back.
It was all Cortez needed. He roared and bucked upward again, managing to get onto his hind legs and fling Justin off of him, even though Justin's fierce claws left enormous gouges, tearing out chunks of fur and flesh on the way. In a flash, Cortez rounded on Justin, snarls rattling out of his entire body. Haley instinctively knew what he was telling Justin.
She has chosen me. I have chosen her. My mate. You will never have her.
Justin rolled after he hit the base of the bridge, immediately launching himself back, his teeth and claws extended to kill. Haley rushed toward him at the same time as Cortez did, although her mate reached him first.
Swiftly, much too quickly and more mercifully than the insane monster deserved, Cortez broke Justin's neck.
At the other end of the bridge, by the woods, a female lion screamed, a keening yowl of grief.
It was over.
Pix's circling and calling out overhead had attracted the attention of every shifter in town, even if visiting humans couldn't see or hear her. But everyone who could, all the local shifters, had come flooding in to help. Haley, still half dazed with shock and excitement, looked around.
More grizzlies. More mountain lions, friends. Wolves, coyotes, foxes. Huge birds of prey, including giant golden eagles and bald eagles. Lynx, bobcats. She watched, stunned and thrilled, as a wave of shifters came to help subdue the remaining enemies. She noticed none of the attacking others were killed, but simply held down and forced to shift back to human shapes, in which they were essentially powerless against those still in their animal form. Although several got away, the twenty or so of them who were captured quickly gave up, including the female mountain lion who had screamed when Cortez killed Justin. Haley realized she must be the woman Justin had left her for. Now in her human form, huddled on the ground, sobbing, the woman seemed innocuous and harmless. Haley honestly felt sorry for her. She had probably been taken in by Justin's shit as well. He had used her just like he used everyone. Haley had no quarrel with her.
One of the bears shifted back into human. Shane, buck naked, who strode over to Jessie on the bank and grabbed her up in a giant hug. Haley harumphed a bear-sized snort at his nakedness. Seeing naked humans in bear form was pretty funny, actually.
“Babe,” Shane said to Jessie, turning to gesture at Haley. “What do you think? You ready to get turned into a bear too?”
Jessie didn't pause even for a moment. “Uh-huh. I'm in. Because that was seriously the most badass thing I've ever seen. I'm ready. Haley!” she called out, her voice shaking yet overjoyed. “You kicked some serious ass. You're amazing!”
Haley whoofed back at her friend, still pumped up by adrenaline. Hell yeah, it was amazing.
Overhead, Pix screamed, a long, triumphant cry that rang through the dull sky, somehow making it seem vibrant and bright. She dipped her silver wings at Haley, who lifted her mighty snout and roared back a booming cry of acknowledgement and thank you.
Her friends. They were all her friends, her community, welcoming her into theirs.
Something big and warm and strong bumped up against her, firmly pressing into her side. She swung around to sniff. It was Cortez, bloody but alive. She whuffled with joy. He checked her everywhere, snuffling over her, assuring himself she wasn't hurt. She rumbled a funny huffing noise from her chest, rubbing her head against his, shoving her face into his huge shoulder.
She wasn't hurt. She was fine. Here, with him, her friends, her family, her clan. She was just completely fine.
In fact, she was pretty sure she was damned amazing. Just like her mate.
16
Cortez looked into Haley's eyes, their beautiful green now shot through with the bright gleam of the stunning bear she had inside her, as she blinked sleepily at him. Damn, she was so beautiful. Even when wearing her favorite purple T-shirt that she liked to sleep in. The one that said in big white letters, I wish I was a unicorn (so I could stab idiots with my head), with a simple drawing of a unicorn charging, head down, sharp horn pointed out apparently to stab all the idiots. Yeah, that was his woman. For sure. Haley was a keeper, wild hair, ratty orange bathrobe, glorious strong woman, and all.
She blinked at him again, then rubbed her eyes and yawned. “You're staring at me.”
“Because I still can hardly believe I get to wake up with you every day of my life from now on. Here's your coffee,” he added, gesturing toward where he'd put her mug on the beside table. She sat up and kissed him as a thank you. He'd been doing it for her every morning that he could, even though the woman got up at dark o'clock every day to write. Except today, because she hadn't needed to. She'd finally finished her book, sent it to the people who read it early and let her know whether or not it was good, and they'd gotten back to her last night. It was amazing, they'd gushed. A tearjerker that made them laugh and cry and wish they could be the characters in it. She'd been so ecstatic he thought she'd bounce right off the walls and float off into space.
He'd known she could do it. He didn't know shit about writing himself, and he barely ever read a book, but he knew she would knock it out of the park, because it was what she was born to do. Seeing her shine with elation when she finally really got it, finally understood, that she was good at it even without that fucking asshole ex-psycho of hers, that she was able to handle it all on her own, had made him so damned proud of her. His kickass bear shifter mate. God, how he loved her.
She sat up and cuddled the hot mug between her hands like it was the elixir of life. After a long sip, she sighed with pleasure. Then her face got serious. “So. How are they doing?”
Cortez knew who she meant. The enemy shifters who'd attacked. He took a deep breath before going into it. She didn't know the half of the realities of the shifter world yet. This was quite an introduction. “Some of them took off before we could get them. They're outcasts, have no legitimate clan or pack, so they just join up in these really messed up groups and basically make trouble. They're the criminals and thieves of our society, usually. They run drugs, operate the worst of the illegal underground fight rings, traffic women—”
She gasped at that, sloshing some of her coffee. He stroked her arm, soothing, and nodded grimly. “I know. It's despicable. Some of them are actually decent, end up finding a clan that will take them in, and they straighten out their lives. Some of them never belonged in that life,
but they were born to parents who lived that way so they never had a chance to know how things could be different. Better. But the ones who are decent, who just got caught up in it, sometimes find their way out. They join clans like ours, if they can prove they'll pull their weight and be loyal. Or at least just live in a town like Deep Hollow, even if they don't affiliate with a bear clan or wolf pack, and just be good residents and not cause trouble. But I'm betting,” he added grimly, “the ones who got away will never be good citizens anywhere.”
Her eyes troubled, Haley slowly said, “And the ones that were caught? What happens to them?”
He shrugged. “Unless they can prove they just got mixed up with a bad crowd and they don't want to run that way anymore, they're banned from Silvertip territory. The wolves with them, they call them rogue wolves, are also banned from the wolf pack territories near us. Mountain lions don't have tight bonds the way bears and wolves do, they tend to be more solitary, but we welcome them in town if they want to be here and won't cause trouble.”
“Unlike the ones who turned and took in him.” She didn't have to say the name of her ex for Cortez to know who she meant.
Cortez sighed. “That lion shifter, Marisa or whatever, it sounds like she was just following her brother's orders. He's an asshat, according to her. He got away. But she might end up staying here. Abby got all mother hen with her when she realized the girl's pretty messed up and basically was a pawn for her brother and his cronies. As for your ex,” Cortez's lip curled again in anger, “he was already nuts. But he went totally ballistic because of how he was turned.”
Haley stared at him. He hadn't told her this part yet, since she'd had enough to deal with just being a new bear shifter along with everything else. He'd spent the last week with her since the battle just showing her how to control her bear. “They weren't mates. She was forced to turn him, even though she thought she loved him. But he was just using her too.”
His beautiful, kind mate made such a sound of compassion that his heart thumped. She was amazing.
“Humans that aren't turned by a shifter who's their mate,” he went on, “can have really bad reactions. He had no constraints on him, no inhibitions, and no ties to a mate to keep him grounded while he got used to having an animal side. It's very easy for someone turned like that to go totally mad, eventually turning completely feral. They can be extremely dangerous. Sounds like Marisa's brother wanted that. He's got some sort of group of crazy shifters who do a ton of really bad shit.”
Haley shuddered. “That's so awful,” she whispered. “I had no idea the shifter world could be this brutal. Pix never really mentioned this stuff.”
He shrugged. “Dragons are really different. They've got their own shit, but not like most other shifters. Anyway.” He kissed the top of her head. “That slave driver, Quentin, called me into the lodge. I gotta head up there and see what bee is in his bonnet now. You sleep in more. You deserve it.”
As if to punctuate his point, another huge yawn gripped her. He laughed, then so did she. “Love you, babe,” he whispered, leaning in for a proper kiss. “I'll be back soon.”
“Mm-kay,” she murmured, already settling back into the pillows. “Love you too.”
He held the image of her sleeping so securely in his bed as he left and drove up to the lodge. Once he got there, Cortez strode into Quentin's office like he was storming the castle. Despite his casual face about it to Haley, he wasn't sure why the hell his brother had called him up here early in the morning. He hadn't been back at work since the attack, spending his time with Haley. He was scheduled to go back to work tomorrow. Whatever this was about, he'd face it.
His brother sat at his desk, frowning at a computer screen. But he stood up when Cortez came in, walking around to the front of his desk and leaning on it. A long moment passed in silence as they each sized the other up. Finally, Quentin tossed something at Cortez. He reached out by reflex and caught it. Huh. One of the lodge's cell phones. He gave Quentin a questioning look.
“I know yours got destroyed in the snow during the fight,” Quentin said. “This one's temporary until you can get a new one.”
That was weird. Cortez had lost or destroyed phones before by being careless with them. Quentin sure as hell had never offered him a loaner before. But he nodded anyway. It had been a pain in the ass the last few days since the fight without a phone.
“People have been texting your phone, you know,” Quentin added. “Some of them finally got ahold of me instead and asked me to pass information on to you.”
“What kind of information?”
“The kind,” his brother said in an even tone, “that you want to hear. The kind you need to hear.”
Cortez narrowed his eyes. That didn't sound good.
“Tim woke up, Cortez. He came out of his coma, and he's going to be okay. Still has a really long road to recovery, but he will recover. And Scott is going triple-time on his exercises with his prosthetic leg. Says he's moving back here as soon as he has a better handle on it, and he might even try to join up with the SAR team again. They're going to be fine, Cortez.” Quentin's voice was firm. “They're going to be fine.”
Another silence. Cortez wrestled with the enormous feelings surging inside him. Shock. Joy. Relief. Then, resolve. His vulnerable human friends might have survived his carelessness, but he still had to face his own shortcomings. He looked Quentin right in the eye. "Okay. That's good. It's fantastic. But right now, you need to let me have it. I fucked up here at work, I know I did, and I own it. This is a business, not a charity program for family. Discipline me like you would any employee. That's why I'm here, right?"
Quentin looked at him for a long moment, hands shoved in his back pockets, his mouth scrunched one way and his eyebrows scrunched the other. Finally, he shook his head. "Cortez. Tell me why you think you fucked up. Why you think you need disciplinary action."
Cortez stood straight, unmoving. "Because some of those reviews and complaints were legitimate. I did have an attitude sometimes, even though I tried to cover up. Sometimes I was a little short with some of the guests. I didn't give the tours my all. I was," he paused for a moment. Shit, he hated having to go deep like this with his own brother. Then again, this was his own brother. If he didn't go deep with his family, who else? "I was stuck in my head ever since the avalanche. I was letting what happened hold me back. I didn't really take the guests out to have more than easy-peasy casual fun, because I was afraid I'd lead them into danger and they'd get hurt. I was distant with them because I didn't want to really get to know anyone else ever since the accident."
Then he admitted the hardest thing to say for a big bear shifter like him. "I was scared. I was scared of hurting someone else, then getting hurt myself. There you have it. That's it."
He punched out the last words fast, and folded his arms over his chest. He knew he was assuming a defensive pose, but dammit, he'd just given as much as he could. He could share things like this with Haley, but she was also the most welcoming, sweet, amazing, best thing that had ever happened to him. Getting all emotional with another guy, even family, went against the man code or something.
To his surprise, a slow smile unfolded on Quentin's face. His brother nodded, seeming satisfied. "Yeah, I know all that. And I knew you knew it too. But some of the complaints were total bullshit, Cortez. They admitted it, those dipshits we fought. Haley's ex and Marisa's brother were behind it. Haley's ex figured out she was here and that she was with you. So he got some of the cats to go on tours with you, then make fake complaints.” Quentin's eyes were dark with anger. “You know how some of the shifter outcasts are. They like to fuck with the rest of us if they can, because they're just like that. Outcasts, angry, hopeless, and probably jealous that we have real family when they don't.”
Cortez felt hot anger seep through him again. If he hadn't already killed that psycho prick ex of Haley's, he'd cheerfully kill him all over again right now.
Quentin shook his head. “We forced them
to remove their complaints from all the online sites. That's done. So.” He cleared his throat, his eyes suddenly gleaming. “I didn't call you up here for disciplinary action, you big lug."
Now it was Cortez's turn to give his brother the raised eyebrow look. "No? Then what the hell was so important that you made me come all the way up here early in the morning, dragging me out of bed with my girl?"
Quentin smiled again. "She is that, isn't she. Your girl?"
Cortez nodded. "Hell yeah. My girl, and my mate. Also the most fucking badass newly turned bear shifter I've ever seen."
"She is that too. Glad to have her. I watched her help you figure out your stuff and change, Cortez. She brought you back from that dark. And," Quentin eyed him with a shrewd look, "she helped you calm your bear just when you were starting to really struggle."
Cortez stared. "I didn't think anyone knew."
His brother snorted. "We knew. We were keeping an eye on you. And because I knew you were struggling, I was pushing you so much to do a better job.” He paused. “I was wrong about that."
Cortez unfolded his arms. "Wait a minute. Run that by me again? Let me turn on the record button on my phone so I can have proof that you just said you were wrong about something."
"Ah, shut it." But Quentin was still smiling. “The reason I dragged you out of bed with your new mate is because the Silvertip Lodge has a formal offer for you."
"A formal offer?" The way his brother said the Silvertip Lodge, Cortez immediately knew it was something cleared with the owners at the lodge. Their vacationing parents.
"Yeah. We want you to become the director of activities. You'll keep your Tooth 'n Claw tours. Money that comes in from it is yours. But we want you to set things up for lodge clients. Multi-day trips, specialty outings, whatever they want. The plan is to expand on what the lodge is offering, while still keeping the down-home feel that everyone likes so much. You're the best man for the job, Cortez." Quentin blew a breath out of the side of his mouth. "You would've been offered a position a long time ago, but you're always so damn independent. You didn't really want to be involved full-time. But this is your business too, brother. It's family. So.” Quentin gave him a querying look. “Full-time, benefits, salary. Everyone really wants you to be a bigger part of it. If that's what you want."
