“Oh,” she exclaimed, “you’re Dietrich, aren’t you? Ben’s brother?”
Dietrich nodded, but as he did the jerk of the motion made him clutch his stomach in agony. There, Layla realized that what had looked like a small wound on a bear was much larger on the abdomen of a man.
“Can you get me to the clan?” Dietrich pleaded. “I can’t stay here. I’ll bleed out.”
Layla helped the injured shifter to his feet, and she felt his considerable weight leaning on her for support. She gave him the jacket of her black sweat-suit, and he tied it at his waist to try and stem his bleeding. With his massive arm over her slim shoulders, Layla did her best to guide Dietrich to safety. He was panting and unsure of himself, talking downright nonsense by the time they were on the path that approached Old Spring Lodge. And all that Layla could do was keep him calm and keep him going, that fierce determination back in her chest.
Ben was there when they arrived at the lodge, along with Anina and a woman that Layla had never seen before. It was immediately apparent that the pretty blonde was Dietrich’s girlfriend. From the moment she glanced Layla hefting him up the path, she burst into tears and rushed to help. Ben dashed in and took over on Layla’s side, which gave her a chance to heave out an exhausted sigh. Dietrich had been getting heavier and heavier with every step of the circuit, and now the blood from his wound was coating his bare legs and making Layla’s jacket sag with its weight.
“Get him inside, Hart’s waiting with first aid,” Anina urged.
At the door to the Old Spring, tourists peered from behind a makeshift blockade. To them, it must have looked as though poor Dietrich had been savaged by the animals in Anina’s warning. It was true, if you left out the other details of the situation. Kurt and Reinicke were at the door, and they lifted Dietrich clean into the air when he reached them. Soon he had vanished down the corridor of the luxury hotel, a dripping trail of blood in his wake.
“There, there, Elise,” Anina said, gathering the blonde girl into her arms. “Hart’s trained for this. He did three years at med school before he quit. It’s a decent wound, but not too deep. It’ll be all right.”
Anina’s pained look suggested that she might not believe her own words, but she cradled Dietrich’s girlfriend all the same. The two women slowly re-entered the lodge, and Layla found that she was clutching her aching heart from all the strain. She looked at Ben, who was staring at her in amazement.
“I came here to see if you were okay,” he explained, “but I sounded the alarm as soon as your friend told me you’d gone out. If we hadn’t all been here getting a search party together, Dietrich might’ve…”
Ben stopped himself, his voice verging on breaking. Then, without warning, he stepped up to Layla and kissed her. He held her shoulders, strong hands gripping her tightly, and his kiss was warm and firm where it pressed on her lips. The contact sent tingles rushing down her arms and straight through her body, like a bolt of lightning passing into the ground. But no sooner than she’d been struck, the moment was over. She’d barely had time to enjoy it before Ben broke it off.
“Thank you,” he said. Then, his gaze widened, as if he realized what he’d just done. “Oh God, I’m sorry. I’m just so grateful, I-”
Layla took her chance before he could make any excuses. She cupped Ben’s handsome face with her palms and kissed him back, more gently than he had kissed her. Her lips lingered on his hungrily, ghosting against them for a few extra seconds when the kiss had technically already ended. Ben’s hands had found her waist in the exchange, and he held her afterwards, looking at her in amazement.
“I panicked, and I went looking for you,” Layla confessed, “and now I guess it was lucky that I did.”
“So lucky,” Ben agreed with a relieved grin.
“Did you find them?” Layla urged as her fears came back to her. “Was it Clan Reed running wild out there?”
Ben gave a nod, but his expression soon turned grave. He let Layla go, and she felt the lack of contact painfully. She was exhausted and afraid, and she wanted nothing more than to fall into those powerful arms of his, but there was too much left to worry about.
“It was Si and his beasts all right,” Ben confirmed, “but we didn’t get ‘em. Dietrich chased them off into the deeper woods and we lost him. I know he put up a good fight, else he wouldn’t be here now.”
Ben cast a worried look to the lodge, and Layla understood that he wanted to be there for his big brother. She put a hand on his forearm gently.
“We should go in and see if Hart needs help,” she suggested. “I’m not much of a nurse, but I’ll bet he could use some spare hands if-”
“No,” Ben cut in. There was a pause, and Layla let her hand slide away from contact once again. “Dietrich was the eldest of us, the Alpha of the clan. Now the Reeds have put him out of action. Don’t you see what that means?”
Layla shook her head a little, engulfed by the fear and fury that had overtaken Ben’s face.
“I’m the Alpha’s only brother,” he explained. “It means I’m next to be taken out.”
* * *
When the beauty and peace of Fairhaven settled into a balmy summer evening, all was not calm at Old Spring Lodge. Dietrich’s wound had been attended to, stitched and dressed, but he was spiking a huge fever from the shock and the blood loss. For want of a better place, the Best family had taken him into Layla’s suite, not daring to move him any further than that. Elise was by his side in Layla’s bedroom, the door closed, but everyone in the living area could still hear the Alpha’s delirious cries of pain and confusion. The clan was impossibly tense, and Ben would not come away from the window.
Layla watched his perfect face, distorted by worry. His shining eyes were trained on the far horizon, where dirt roads vanished into the dark, wooded hills. Anina was on his left and Layla stood to his right, but the comforts of neither woman could shake his unwavering gaze. Ben’s grandmother had hooked her frail arm over the crook of his elbow. She looked so delicate, hanging onto such a massive, muscular limb. Layla wanted to hold him too, but now wasn’t the time. When there did come a time for comfort, though, she knew she’d be waiting eagerly.
“They shouldn’t be out there patrolling alone,” Ben said in a low voice. “Look what happened to Dietrich.”
“Your cousins are on wheels,” Anina soothed gently. “Even a cat pack can’t do much damage to a Land Rover.”
“I just wish we knew where they were,” Ben replied.
Moments later, it seemed as though that wish had been granted. Ben’s cellphone began to buzz in his back pocket, and Layla watched as he hurriedly answered it. The voice on the other end of the line was muted and somber, and the more Ben listened, the more his brow furrowed with concern. By the time he hung up, he’d barely spoken, but grave news had sunk in and weighed him down with guilt.
“They’ve taken a few kids from the camp grounds,” Ben revealed. “That was Reinicke on the line. He said they’ve gone deep into the trees with hostages, so the cars can’t follow. They want to draw us all out into the open. Reinicke’s ready to go in, he’s raving. I told him to stay put, but I don’t think he’ll listen for long.”
“He can’t take them alone,” Anina said, her voice laden with fear. “You’ll have to go, Ben. If there’s four of you, and you stay together, it’ll be all right.”
And Ben simply nodded. He was already heading for the door, and Layla couldn’t contain the wild panic that exploded in her chest. She rushed to him at once.
“No!” she pleaded. “This is what they want. Gang versus gang. There has to be another way.”
Ben spun on his heel, and he was firm as he met Layla’s frightened gaze.
“I was prepared to wait it out and get some strategy together,” he began, “but now there’s hostages involved. Kids, Layla. Si Reed’s not messing around. He’ll kill them. Families will lose their children if I don’t get out there now.”
Brent had emerged from the bedroom dur
ing Ben’s speech, holding a bowl of warm water and a cloth. The door through which he’d come was still ajar, and Dietrich’s heaving, feverish breaths filled the air for a long moment. Layla grabbed Ben’s biceps, tears burning in her dark eyes.
“This is just how it happened with my dad,” she confessed. “He went out one night to try and stop the violence. He met a gang. Not shifters, just ordinary humans. They didn’t even have a reason to stab him. He bled out. He died alone on the street.”
“And you saved my brother from the very same fate,” Ben said. He reached up to stroke Layla’s cheek, and she felt the dampness of her tears as they streaked down her skin. “And now I’ve got to save those kids.”
He let her go, and walked straight out the door. Layla gulped, desperate to get her breath back, and when she looked to Brent for help, his face was more serious than she’d ever seen it.
“Those kids are going to be even more terrified if a group of bears turn up,” he reasoned. “They won’t understand that they’re going to rescue them. Someone human needs to be there to get them to safety.”
Slowly, Layla began to nod. She was still in her running gear. She hadn’t even taken her shoes off in the long day of worry and commotion. She kissed Brent on the cheek, and he nodded at her.
“Go. I’ll get the car and follow, as near as I can get.”
* * *
She found Ben running across a wide field of grass. Darkness had set in, and the world was lit only by the light of the moon. Layla could hear his sprinting footsteps ahead, but she knew his pace was no match for hers. Soon, she was streaking through the night, gaining inch by inch on the form in front of her. He was powerful, the way his arms and legs thundered forward, but Layla was light and lithe. She pushed herself to the limit, rocketing up to meet Ben and match his stride.
“Go back!” he demanded, not slowing for even a minute.
“Someone needs to get those kids away safe,” she told him. “Brent’s following in his car.”
Ben had no breath left to argue. Soon, the dark line of trees that was once the horizon had come into full focus. Layla’s fear and determination kept her strong as the forest grew closer. Beside her, however, she could hear the strain in Ben’s breathing. At first, she thought it was exhaustion setting in, but the moonlight soon revealed exactly what was happening.
As he ran, Ben was hunching down to the ground. By the time his hands hit the grass, his hind legs were gone, replaced by massive haunches covered in dark fur. Layla heard the rip of his clothes as they came away in scraps, and with every glance she managed, she saw more of the beast emerging from within the man. Soon he was growing in size, his weight shaking the ground beside her with every thump of his paws. Ben was as tall as Layla, even running on all fours, and his proud, strong form was faster than she was.
Soon, Ben’s bear form left her in the darkness, and all she could do was follow the sound of broken branches ahead. He was smashing a path through the forest for her to follow, and she knew she couldn’t let him down. She had a chance to be part of something good, to not turn away from the violence at her window. To do what her dad had never quite managed. And though she was afraid, Layla knew that she had to keep running.
By the time she reached the clearing where Ben’s path of broken branches ended, the battle between Clan Best and Clan Reed was already in full swing. She saw the werecats for what they really were then, sleek beasts about half the size of lions. They were spotted and striped in varying patterns, gold and silver hues mixing with black fur. There was one, however, that was pure silver, right in the center of the pack. He had to be Si Reed, and he was the snarling creature who guarded three small children behind him. The children had not yet come to harm, but they were huddled and crying as they witnessed the battle before them.
Four huge bears growled and snapped at the wild cats. The cats outnumbered them almost three to one, but the size of the Best bears helped them to fend off the felines’ calculated attacks. Huge paws swept out to smack the cats down, and one had even been knocked out cold by the force of the blow. Layla felt her stomach shiver as she scanned the bears, looking for Ben. She thought he had to be the darkest one, with the fur that was almost black, and there was a moment among his defensive snapping when he looked up and found her eyes. She knew then that she was right.
Layla nodded towards the silver cat guarding the kids. Ben couldn’t not express any kind of agreement, but Layla saw him starting to push forward against the cats who were keeping him back. She was busy watching him, and that was her biggest mistake. No sooner than she had taken her eyes off Si Reed, the werecat had begun to prowl towards her. He screeched and howled, suddenly only six feet away, and Layla tried to retreat back into the trees at once.
But Si could leap. He leaped like he’d leaped from that restaurant straight into the lake, all grace and precision. Layla felt the deep sting of a claw stabbing into her shoulder, and a moment later his weight pushed her down to the ground. She looked into the cat’s eyes, into that predatory stare Si had given her when they met at the dinner table. He was present. He knew exactly what he was about to do.
As his claws retracted and then pushed in for another stab, there was a sickening crunch of bone and flesh. Layla’s eyes shut in shock, and she only opened them again when she felt the weight of the cat lifting off her body. As she lay on the ground, she looked up to the awesome sight of Ben on his hind legs. In his massive jaw, he held Si by the neck. Blood was running into his silver fur, and Ben ragged on him and suddenly flung him against a nearby tree. The silver cat’s body hit the trunk with a sickly thump, and there it was perfectly still.
Layla struggled to her feet, clutching her bleeding shoulder. She saw the children watching her, amazed and terrified, and she knew what she had to do. Ben had already surged back into the fight, teaching the rest of Clan Reed a great and terrible lesson. Layla rushed for the children, hoping that Brent was already nearing the forest’s edge with his car.
* * *
Two weeks later.
“Well, we finally had that date,” Ben said cheerily.
His warm grip clasped Layla’s hand as they entered her suite at the Old Spring Lodge. It was a sunny afternoon, and they had just been for lunch at the Lakeside Grill. Warm air filled the living room and there was a crisp azure sky outside the window. Layla walked to it at once, looking out into the forest. A moment later, she felt Ben’s breath on her neck. He kissed her ear very gently.
“Mmm,” Layla moaned. “It feels like the date’s not over.”
She turned and wrapped her arms around his neck, toying with the hairs at his nape. His golden eyes were shining with desire as Layla leaned in for a kiss. As always, she had to tease his lips with her tongue to get him to open them. Ben groaned as their tongues connected, his hands slipping down to caress the small of Layla’s back. She could feel the wave of heat and excitement coming off him, and this time, she wouldn’t let him go.
“Come on,” she urged in a whisper. “You’ve been a gentlemen for long enough. Stay now. My shoulder’s healed, and so are your bruises. Let’s be closer.”
Ben’s grin surfaced. He was wonderful when he grinned, and seeing it made Layla feel as though she had broken through the seriousness that he put up against the world.
“It’s the middle of the afternoon,” he protested, but not with any great persuasion.
He wanted her, and she knew that he was going to stay.
“Natural sunlight,” she mused with a silky voice. “I can’t think of a better way to see your gorgeous body.”
She began to undress him. Ben was nervous at first, but when Layla began to kiss every inch of his chest as she exposed it, he relaxed into her control. He twisted away from the window to lean against the wall, letting Layla remove his shirt and then his belt. When she crouched to begin unzipping his pants, Ben’s breathing hitched. She felt his powerful legs shaking as she pulled his trouser legs down, revealing a pair of black boxers that were already
straining to contain the erection inside.
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