by Kim Fox
Bryce spotted the skin shifter and jumped into action. He grimaced as he picked up a huge thick clay pot that had Mack’s tomato plants growing inside and smashed it over the skin shifter’s head.
He collapsed to the ground and Ryder’s lion shook out of the hold just in time to get punched in the face by Mack. He flew backward in an ugly somersault, shook off the punch, and then leapt onto the grizzly bear shifter, fighting on the right side once again.
Tempest was still holding the polar bear shifter with the wand, and without Ryder in front of her, the vicious blonde girl had a direct opening to Grant’s newest recruit. She sprinted at her and Grant flew forward to intercept her. He lowered his shoulder and plowed into her, knocking her off her feet, but the girl was fast and athletic and bounced back up, darting around him. She grabbed onto Tempest’s arm and the polar bear shifter was suddenly released from his hold. He phased immediately and suddenly Grant was busy fighting a furious polar bear.
It was chaos. A full blown brawl with shifters that didn’t quit.
Grant was busy trying to avoid the bear’s huge paws when he saw Bryce flying through the air. The skin shifter was slowly getting up on wobbly legs, and when he recovered, they’d be in even more trouble.
The polar bear swiped at Grant’s chest while he was distracted and he felt the warm stickiness of blood leaking down his skin a second before he felt the searing pain that followed.
He fell backward and instead of trying to finish him off, the polar bear turned and charged at Tempest.
Grant knew what they were after. The big grizzly bear shifter had somehow managed to shake Mack off him and was running at her as well while the blonde tried to fight through Ryder’s lion to get to her too.
“Tempest!” Grant yelled as they all converged on her. “Throw me the wand!”
She launched it through the air and all of their wide eyes followed it as it arced through the sky and landed in Grant’s hand.
He pushed himself up to his feet and gripped the wand as he stared the invading shifters down. If they wanted to come on his family’s land, attack his friends, and steal his crew’s property, then they would have to go through him.
“Come and earn your paychecks,” he grunted as he raised his fists in a fighting stance. He was so angry that he was pissed there were only five of them to beat up.
The grizzly bear shifter was the first to break out running, but Mack jumped back on him and the two giants were at it again.
Logan jumped on the Irishman once again and Bryce ran back over to where the skin shifter was recovering and started exchanging blows with him. Skin shifters didn’t heal as fast as regular shifters so he was still wobbly from getting his skull rung by Mack’s tomatoes.
Ryder’s lion leapt onto the polar bear and Tempest joined in to help him.
That left the young sexy blonde. She narrowed her eyes on the wand as she started to speak to herself in French. She had a crazed look in her eyes as she started running at him.
Grant threw a fierce right punch as she arrived, but she avoided it easily, sliding to the ground and landing a hard punch to his groin. “Oomph,” he gasped as she quickly got to her feet and leapt onto his back.
Grant tried to shake her off, but she was fighting too hard. It didn’t seem like this was just a job to her. This wasn’t the work of a hired soldier or a mercenary, this was the work of someone whose life was on the line.
“Fuck,” he grunted as he slammed her to the ground. He bent over to grab her, but her foot flew up and sent lighting bolts shooting through his head as it connected with his nose.
She rolled to the side and her body trembled for a few seconds before a black panther ripped out of her. The cat pulled its ears back and hissed at him. Her teeth were huge. Long white fangs that looked awfully sharp.
Grant stepped back as she lunged on him in kill mode. He raised his forearm for protection and she sunk her sharp teeth into it, making him cry out in pain.
They fought for what felt like hours, and Grant was covered in a hundred scrapes and scratches after only a few minutes. Every time he grabbed the black panther, she squirmed out of it. Every time he hit her, she swatted and bit him back.
Grant could tell that this chick was fighting to kill. The panther was going for his throat, going for the wand. Always pushing. Always attacking.
It was only when they all heard a rumbling in the distance that she backed off for a second.
“We got company! Let’s bounce!” the grizzly bear shifter shouted over the sound of the brawl. He cracked Mack in the jaw with a hard right hook that dropped the big guy down to a knee. Grant had seen Mack get in a lot of fights before, but he had never seen him get dropped like that.
Seeing that her time was nearly up, the panther lunged onto Grant, trying desperately to bite off the hand that was holding the wand. He grunted in pain as she sunk her teeth into his wrist and as she shook her head, he punched her hard in the ribs. She was thrashing around violently and her thick back claws sliced across Grant’s stomach, opening his skin up and making him fall to the ground.
The vicious panther reared back, about to lunge onto him for the finishing blow when the grizzly bear shifter came out of nowhere, wrapping his thick arms around her and plucking her out of the air.
The cat roared and thrashed around in his grasp, but he held on tight. “We got to bounce,” he grunted as he struggled to hold her to his chest.
The panther started shaking and then suddenly, the girl was back. Naked and fighting and angry and crying—all at the same time.
“Let me go!” she screamed as she flailed viciously in his arms. Angry tears started pouring down her face as she stared at the wand, trying to break his arms free. “No! Let me go! My family!”
“Your family will be killed if those bears get you,” the bear shifter said as he threw her back. “Now let’s go!”
He ran away without her, giving her one last look before he disappeared over the hill. The others broke free from their fights as well, and soon the polar bear, the Irishman, and the skin shifter were running after him.
But she wasn’t ready to quit. She held her ground, breathing heavily and bleeding from a cut over her right eye. She glared at Grant and then looked down at the wand as the rumbling got louder.
“Please give it to me,” she begged, looking desperate.
Grant squeezed the wand tighter. “Why do you want it?”
Her eyes darted over his shoulder as Grant’s friendly neighbors arrived. Six grizzly bears came charging onto the ranch, running at them in a line.
“Câlisse ostie mon tabarnak,” she cursed under her breath when she saw them. She made one last lunge at the wand, but when Grant pushed her away, she started running after her friends.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her. Even as the line of grizzly bears roared past him, kicking up dust and shaking the ground, he couldn’t take his eyes away from her.
Her family? Who was that girl?
When she disappeared over the hill he looked around the ranch. Everyone was beaten up, moving slow, and covered in scrapes and bruises, with blood dripping from cuts and gashes. They had gotten their asses kicked. So badly, that they didn’t even get up and follow the grizzly bear shifters over the hill.
The Grisly Grizzlies returned a few minutes later, walking in their human forms.
“They escaped in a helicopter,” Maximus said.
Bryce sighed as he looked up at the sky. “Man, we have to get one of those.”
“We can’t even afford a pickup truck,” Logan said as he touched his bloody lip, “let alone a helicopter.”
Grant finally got up to his feet as his hundreds of stinging cuts and gashes courtesy of the black panther slowly started to heal.
“Thanks for coming,” he said as he walked over to the guys.
“We heard a commotion,” Maximus said. “Thought it would be smart to come and check it out.”
“We had it under control,” Mack said. He was s
till breathing heavily and leaning against a tree for support.
“Your eye is swollen shut,” Tito said, pointing at his blue and purple face.
Mack shrugged. “I still have the other one.”
Ryder’s lion was still protectively pacing around in front of Tempest, sniffing the air angrily.
Sloth came slinking out from behind a tree and leapt onto the lion’s back, making Ryder’s lion roar out in surprise and anger as the fat cat attacked.
“At least Sloth is back,” Logan said with a tired laugh.
Yeah, Sloth was back.
And those guys would be back too.
Chapter Four
Amélie
The helicopter began to whine as the engine started up. Amélie ran toward it, but every cell in her body was screaming at her to turn around and run the other way.
She hadn’t retrieved the red stick. Elodie and her mother’s freedom had slipped out of her hands.
One chance and she blew it.
“Câlisse,” she cursed under her breath as she ran. The wind felt cool against her wet cheeks as her stomach twisted in panic.
The distressed sound of the metal blades frantically cutting through the air increased as her one chance began to slip through her fingers for good. Hardy, DeMarcus, Irish, and Caelum were all boarded inside the chopper and as soon as she jumped in, the helicopter would be in the air and the wand would be out of her hands forever.
This was the chance she had been waiting for. A chance to free her family. A chance to return to her home and reclaim her life.
She stopped with her heart pounding only a few yards from the helicopter that was now hovering a foot or two off the ground. I can’t quit.
She could feel the vibrations of the charging bears rumbling through the ground against her heels. They were chasing her. Six huge grizzly bears, all fresh and looking for a fight. There was no way she could face them all on her own. Especially, that huge one who was overtaking the others. He had a crazed look in his eyes that she really didn’t want to see up close.
Amélie was barefoot with no weapons except for her panther who was pacing within. She had managed to grab a ripped t-shirt on her way out that covered her to her knees.
“Let’s go, Frenchie!” Caelum shouted, waving her in.
With her heart pounding, she looked down at her tattooed wrist.
Après moi, le déluge.
She had to be smart. If she stayed and those grizzly bears tore her to pieces, the General would finish off her family. She knew that for sure.
“Vamonos! Vamonos!” Hardy shouted, waving his arm at her.
“That’s Spanish, not French,” DeMarcus said, shaking his head.
Amélie sprang into action. She ran forward, but instead of jumping into the cabin with the guys, she leapt onto the passenger side of the helicopter where General Hunt was sitting. She held onto the open window as she stood on the tire. The second she arrived, the helicopter took off into the air, leaving the grizzly bears circling in frustration below.
“Where’s my red stick?” General Hunt snapped.
His face was right against hers and even with the swirling winds from the helicopter blades, she could still smell his vile breath assaulting her.
“I’m not done,” she said, glaring into his eyes.
He craned his head out the window and looked down at the circling grizzly bears. “Looks like you’re done to me.”
Amélie squeezed the metal door of the chopper. It would be so easy to grab his head and twist. A dozen scenarios flashed through her head. Grabbing him, throwing him down, and laughing as the bears ate him alive, or better yet, grabbing him by the neck and lifting him slowly into the spinning blades above her head, laughing at the terrified look on his face as he got closer and closer.
“Put me over that mountain,” she said in her French Canadian accent. “I’ll go back and get it tonight.”
The General tilted his head slightly as he watched her. She could tell he was considering it.
“I’ll be quiet,” she said. “I’ll sneak in, take it, and leave.”
He watched her closely for a few seconds and then turned to the pilot, telling him to put the chopper down in a meadow in the distance.
Amélie felt a jolt of hope rocket through her body. The breath that she had been bottling up since she left the ranch had rushed out of her with a smile. She had another chance!
General Hunt turned back to her with hard eyes. “All right,” he said in an irate voice. He grabbed a pen and paper out of his pocket and scribbled an address on it. “Your family is here,” he said, stuffing it into her hand. “You get here with my red stick and I let them walk out with you. Passports in hand.”
Her heart was thundering in her chest as she listened.
The General grabbed her arm hard and squeezed as he leaned in. “But if you decide to take-off or show up empty handed…” She held her breath in terror as he glared at her. “I’ll make what I did to your father a dream compared to the nightmare I’ll put your mother and sister through.”
He released her arm and sat back in his seat, looking relaxed and unworried as Amélie’s stomach churned. The helicopter lowered to a spot at the base of a mountain a ways away from the Bounty Hunters’ ranch.
“You have a week,” the General said as she hopped off, planting her bare feet on the dry crunchy grass. “Seven days until that little innocent sister of yours, Elodie, becomes a lot less innocent.”
A flash of heated rage surged through Amélie as she glared at him for the threat. She kept her feet planted as her body twitched with a pounding in her ears. Nothing good was going to come from acting on that anger. Maybe one day she would have her vengeance, but that day wasn’t today.
Getting the red stick had to be her only concern. Everything else—rage, vengeance, wrath, hate—had to wait.
“Wait a second!” DeMarcus shouted in a panic as the helicopter started to take off without her. “Why does she get to stay? I want another chance!”
General Hunt turned around with a fierceness in his voice. “You had your chance,” he snapped. “You leave that chopper and your son dies.”
Amélie watched in horror as DeMarcus slunk back into his seat, glaring at her with a dirty look as the helicopter flew away.
“I’m sorry,” she mouthed, but she wasn’t sure if DeMarcus had seen it or not.
She watched the chopper as it got smaller and quieter until it just seemed to vanish into the vast blue sky.
It was eerily quiet in the meadow after the deafening sound of the chopper blades and the roars and howls of the fighting animals that she had heard all morning.
The soft wind was swishing through the long grass and plants as the gentle drone of some busy bees buzzed from flower to flower.
The air was fresh and smelled like warm earth, sunlight and sweet flowers. Amélie inhaled deep, trying to calm herself and her panther after the tense morning. If she was going to sneak onto the Bounty Hunter’s ranch and somehow steal that wand, she was going to have to do it in a calm, calculated manner.
She started walking back toward the ranch, already planning what she was going to do. The warm sun was on her face as the breeze brushed through her hair and over her skin. The long grass was soft in the meadow, tickling her legs as she walked. It was such a beautiful spot, surrounded by stunning mountains, and she felt oddly out of place.
For the past few months, she had been surrounded by violence and carnage wherever she went, and this place, this sense of peace, felt like seeing an old distant friend that you’ve grown apart from.
“Concentrer,” she whispered when she caught herself smiling at a tiny bird darting around on top of the tall grass. Her sister was in danger and here she was smiling at a bird…
She decided to survey the area throughout the day, but only enter it after nightfall when the shifters were asleep. She would approach the ranch against the wind of course, so that their animals couldn’t smell her coming.
Back in her old life, Amélie was a gymnast so she was incredibly agile. She would use that agility, speed, and stealth to sneak into that man’s cabin and try to take the red stick without him waking. He was the last one to have it, so he was the first one she’d check. It would be tricky, but she didn’t have any other options. And if he woke up… well, she just had to make sure that wouldn’t happen. If he woke up, her and her family were all as good as dead.
Her thoughts kept returning to the man as she walked along the base of a mountain. What she must have looked like to him… A savage beast of a girl who was desperately trying to slice him to pieces. Screaming and crying at the same time. Thrashing around like she belonged in a mental institution. If only he knew…
Under different circumstances, she would have been attracted to the man. He was gorgeous with a shaved head and kind eyes that were a light golden color. She couldn’t stop thinking of the way he looked at her when she begged for the stick. His eyes were caring and empathetic. He looked like he wanted to give it to her, but couldn’t, even after she had bit and scratched him up.
She spotted a rabbit on the side of the mountain as she walked. It froze when it spotted her. “Ne t'inquiète pas. Je suis ton ami.” The rabbit took off running and Amélie laughed. “What’s the matter you don’t speak French? I said, don’t worry. I’m your friend.”
The smile faded from her face as the rabbit kept running. You don’t have any friends…not anymore.
She was on her own like she had been for the past year and a half. And the only way that was going to change was if she could find that red stick and escape with her life.
A few hours later, Amélie was lying in the tall grass in the field behind the ranch, watching everything. There was a strong wind that was constant against her face, which was a good thing. It would take her scent in the opposite direction of the tough lion shifters who were walking around the ranch.
Every time she spotted the sexy man with the shaved head, her heart would do a little flip. She couldn’t see the red stick in his hands, but she still couldn’t take her eyes off him. He was gorgeous. When she caught herself wondering what it would feel like to run her hand along his broad shoulders, she squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, trying to shake the tempting thought away.
