She took a step forward, unsure what to say, then heard a scratching noise above them like something was on the roof. A second later, the ground trembled as something huge dropped down behind her. The window shattered, and she felt something grab her by the back of her shirt and haul her out of the cabin and onto the ground. She saw Zeus running toward her but was quickly grabbed again by the collar and thrown onto the back of a huge animal as it ran for the gate surrounding the home.
She saw Zeus climbing out of the window, yelling for Ares, as the bear scaled the gate and then dropped on the other side, letting her roll off its back just as men came out of the woods and grabbed her by the arms.
She screamed for Zeus as they forced her into an old Jeep and took off.
12
Zeus couldn’t believe it. This whole time, they’d had a bear hiding out on their damn roof. It could climbed up there before Ares had even turned on the perimeter alarm, long before Zeus and Ares had been forced to come back here after the attack at the cabin.
It was a great way to hide out without tripping any cameras, and since neither Zeus nor Ares had known the Devils had a bear shifter in their mix that could scale a roof like that, they’d never have guessed this could happen.
But Zeus didn’t have time to berate himself for all the things he didn’t plan for. He had to get Carly back and run the Red Devils out of town for good so this could never happen again.
He ran across the courtyard after the bear who’d taken Carly, transforming as he went. With a roar, he bounded over the gate just in time to see a Jeep taking off into the forest. He roared again when he saw a bear running behind it, nearly out of sight.
He’d follow that. And just hope Ares knew how and when to show up for support. He didn’t have time for fancy plans or military tactics. Right now he was just a rabid bear chasing the men who had taken his mate. And he was going to kill every last fucking one of them.
He tracked them through the forest, to the main part of town, and out of town, where the paved roads turned to dirt roads. He could see what must be their compound in the distance. Just outside it was the El Diablo bar, the notorious hangout for the Red Devils and their cronies. Beyond that lay a small warehouse surrounded by a sheet metal fence. The fence was closed, and in front of it stood two men, both holding shotguns.
Zeus’s bear didn’t need weapons or the upper hand. All he needed was four paws, a giant mouth lined with teeth, a thick hide that only the heaviest of bullets could pierce, and a burning rage that would not be quenched until his mate was safe.
Throwing precaution to the wind, Zeus charged up the hill. At first, the two men looked to each other, bewildered at the sight of a gigantic bear running toward them. But bewilderment turned quickly to fear, and both fumbled with the lock of the gate, trying to get inside before he could reach them.
But it was too late. With one swipe, both men went flying to the side. Then Zeus swung his great paw at the fence, ripping into the sheet metal that was little more than paper to his bear. A section of fence toppled to the ground in a cloud of dust, and Zeus ran inside the small compound.
It was little more than a large garage connected to an old office that had probably been the home of a repair shop for semi trucks or something like that long ago. Now, it was the hideout for the Red Devils. And even though yesterday’s fight had probably cut heavily into their numbers, he knew they were inside, waiting for him. He could scent them, each and every one, with his bear’s heightened sense of smell.
He could also scent his mate, her fear. It filled his bear with rage.
The garage had two heavy steel doors that were swung wide open, inviting him in. It was a trap; he knew one when he saw it. But he didn’t care. If it was the only way to save his mate, he’d face fire and death for her.
Zeus approached the garage but saw no one. He stepped inside, could feel eyes watching him, smell just how close they were by their filthy stench.
A door opened that led onto a high catwalk some twenty feet above the ground that ran around the edges of the interior. In stepped several armed thugs and a large man dressed in a worn vest and a red bandana bearing the Devils’s insignia. He was around the same age as Zeus, but his face was craggy and hardened, with dark, shaggy hair hanging around it.
The bear shifter. Zeus would bet his life on it.
Dragging behind him, held by one hand, was Carly. She looked terrified, and the sight of Zeus’s bear in the center of the room didn’t seem to bring her any additional peace. Right now, he hated that she didn’t know who he was, that he was here for her.
“So the bear returns for second helpings. Not today,” the man holding Carly called to Zeus, mocking him. From the obvious looks of it, he was the leader, which made sense. Even a weak bear shifter was several times stronger than the hardest of humans.
As much as Zeus wanted to call the bear shifter out with human words, it was forbidden to speak in shifter form around humans unless they were your mate. So instead of speaking, he let out a long roar that reverberated off the concrete and metal walls of the garage, filling the room. Some of the men cowered, looking shaken.
“I don’t know who you or your friends are, and I don’t care,” the leader said. “This town is mine, and just as soon as we take care of the little lady here,” he said, glaring down at Carly momentarily, “then nobody will be able to stop us.” He paused, then raised his hand and brought it down in a swift motion. “Attack!”
The men in the room fired upon him, and more started pouring in from a small entrance on the other side. Behind him, the large steel door swung closed, barring his escape.
Just as Zeus had suspected, it was a trap. And this time, the Devils were much better prepared to fight a bear. Instead of pistols, they were using military-grade weaponry, probably the kind of weapons they dealt illegally to criminals all around this region.
But Zeus kept his cool. His bear knew what to do. Moving on instinct, he ducked behind a row of shelves and toolboxes, out of the line of fire. He then made for the entrance at the side where men were coming in, and charged a small Jeep parked at the corner of the garage, ramming it forward with a slam into the door, blocking the entrance.
The few men that had been able to come in on the first floor panicked, and he swiped at them, sending them into walls and crashing through windows.
But above him, the men on the raised second and third story walkways had repositioned and begun to fire on him. Even with their improper training, Zeus could feel the hail of bullets falling around him, several of them hitting him in the side.
Even with his thick hide and regenerative powers, that kind of firepower was more than he could handle. He ran and ducked behind a truck parked near the back, hoping to buy time.
Zeus was trapped. If he tried to move into the open, they’d have a clear shot at him. With his bear strength, he could easily knock out the support columns of the building and bring it down, but that would be far too dangerous for Carly. And with the main doors closed, there was no way out.
Besides, retreat was never an option anyway.
Zeus huffed and readied to charge at the men coming down onto the first floor just ahead of him, when his bear hearing picked up a sound in the distance, high-pitched and whirring, fast approaching their direction.
In an instant, the heavy steel doors exploded in an inferno of fire and metal, sending the men who were standing in the center of the garage flying backward from the force of it. Even behind the truck, Zeus felt the impact.
From years of combat, he knew what had hit the doors just now.
A rocket launcher.
As the flames cleared in a cloud of gray smoke, Zeus made out a large, black truck zooming up the hill toward them. It stopped abruptly at the entrance to the garage in a cloud of dust that intermingled with the lingering smoke, and Zeus saw Ares jump out of the cab, a gun in both hands and several more strapped on slings around his back.
But before Ares could even open fire, Zeus
heard a loud pop in the distance. Then a millisecond later, he watched as one of the thugs on a raised platform went limp and careened over the railing. It was the sound of a sniper rifle, probably several hundred meters off in the distance.
Ares had brought Hades to the fight as well.
“Yeah, fuckers, you picked the wrong town to mess with,” Ares called out as he fired on the men inside, many of them still dazed by the explosion. With incredible speed and accuracy, Ares emptied an entire magazine of ammunition, dropped the gun without reloading it, and pulled another from his back.
Zeus might have been their commander, but Ares was the pride of the battalion as far as marksmanship and weapons-handling was concerned. He’d been the one to fire the rocket launcher earlier, probably getting in the truck again right after.
With the goons inside taking cover behind crates and toolboxes and whatever they could use to shield themselves from the onslaught of fire, Zeus charged forward and tore through the unsuspecting thugs. In no time at all, they were retreating fully, jumping through windows and crawling for exits as fast as they could.
Outside, Zeus could hear the sound of motorcycles starting and, soon after, saw men driving away from the garage and heading for the highway that led out of town.
“You find Carly. I’ll call Hades and get his help chasing stragglers. We’ll make sure they get the going away party they deserve,” Ares said, tossing his guns into the back of the pickup and hopping in, making down the road after the fleeing motorcycles.
Zeus nodded and continued to run, knowing the Devils would be out of his way for good, but there was still one man here not ready to stand down, and he still held Zeus’s mate.
“Not a step farther, bear. I know what you’re here for,” Zeus heard the leader call above him, his voice clear in the large garage.
Zeus stopped and looked up to see them both standing on the raised metal walkway. Carly was held tightly by the bear shifter, one arm wrapped around her and the other holding a gun pointed at her.
There was only one man left between him and his mate.
With the fight over, the room was empty, with only the sound of far-off engines and a few lingering flames crackling and slowly dying out to be heard.
“You’ve taken everything from me. My men, my resources. Everything I’ve worked to build for over ten years,” he said, sounding angry and desperate. “So I’m going to take the one thing I know you care about more than anything else in the whole world.” When the man finished, he turned from Zeus to Carly, looking at her with an evil smile.
He was going to claim Carly before Zeus could. Zeus roared in anger at the man.
“Not so fast, bear. Make one move and I’ll kill the girl. I want you to change back so you don’t get any funny ideas about trying to save her,” the man yelled down at him.
Zeus quieted the raging bear inside him and focused. If he was going to get Carly out of this, it was going to take planning and precision, not brawn.
It took all of his mental fortitude to shift out of his bear and back into his human form, the bear inside still raging and roaring for the man’s blood. And as he shifted, Zeus could see shock and bewilderment in Carly’s eyes.
He hadn’t been planning to tell her this way. But he had no choice. This was his only chance to save her.
“That’s more like it,” the leader said with a sneer. “It’s too bad, really. When we picked her up off the street earlier, I could scent you on her. The same scent I picked up in the mountains when we were looking for you. You came so close to having her, didn’t you?” he mocked, looking smug and running a finger down the side of Carly’s face. She winced and cringed at the man’s touch but kept her eyes on Zeus.
Despite all of this, she still trusted him.
For a split second, the man’s finger left the trigger of the gun as he ominously touched Carly’s cheek, seemingly pleased with himself. Zeus sprang into action, more than a decade of hardened military experience and supernatural shifter reflexes working as one.
Everything happened in slow motion. He reached for a nearby rifle that had been left on the floor by a fleeing thug, and as he brought the gun to his shoulder, he chambered a round with a swift flick. Above him, he could see the man reacting and pointing the gun down at him. But no matter how fast he was, Zeus was faster. With trained precision and perfect accuracy, he glanced down the sights, took aim, and fired, putting a bullet right through the shifter’s head.
The lone sound of the shot echoed through the room, and a second later, the leader’s grip on Carly slackened for a moment. Then the gun dropped from his hand and he slumped over to the side. Carly fell to her knees, away from the dead body, and Zeus started for the stairs that led up to his mate.
But out of nowhere, Zeus heard the rusted metal grating that comprised the walkway groan and crack. A moment later, it gave way, dropping out from beneath Carly and sending her careening over the edge, screaming.
In an instant, Zeus was there beneath her. She fell into his arms with a thud, and for a moment, she just looked at him, eyes wide with confusion.
There was a lot to figure out between them. But for now, she was safe. That was all that mattered.
13
He picked her up in his arms and carried her out of the compound and into the brush where it was a little more private. He sat down on a large, overturned log with her in his lap, and she let out a long breath as she stared up wide-eyed at his face.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I wanted to tell you, I was just waiting for the right time.”
She nodded slowly, still stiff with shock. Whether it was from finding out he could shift into a bear or because she’d narrowly escaped a terrible fate at the hands of the Red Devils, he didn’t know.
“Thank you for rescuing me,” she said, taking her hands with his and pressing them to her face. “You’re always rescuing me.”
“Of course,” he said, brushing hair off her face. “I’ll always rescue you. Whenever you need it.”
She blinked and dropped his hands. “Right, I guess I don’t need it anymore.” She pushed against him, presumably trying to get out of his lap and stand.
What was this? Was this where she left him, because she couldn’t handle what he was?
He couldn’t let her.
He reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her back in against him. “Don’t go,” he said, holding her close as if he could keep her there by sheer force.
“What?” she said, looking up at him. “I mean, I heard you and Ares talking this morning. About, you know, ending it when this was over.”
His brow crinkled in confusion. “I didn’t say anything like that. What are you talking about?”
She looked stunned, then bit her lip in embarrassment. “I heard you two talking. Ares said you needed to tell me that men like you, men in the military, can’t do normal.”
“Right,” Zeus said, exhaling in relief at the misunderstanding. “But not because of the military, but because we are bears. I couldn’t just slip into a life with you without telling you who I was. That’s all he meant.” He realized how it must have sounded to someone who didn’t know about shifters. “Damn it, I’m sorry. I’ve messed everything up. But I swear I was only trying to protect you.”
She sighed in relief and relaxed against him, her entire body going limp. “You’ve definitely protected me,” she said weakly. “But I think you better tell me the rest right now. Because my heart can’t take any more secrets or misunderstandings.”
“Okay,” he said. “First off, Carly, you mean everything to me.”
“How can that be?” she asked. “You barely know me.”
“My bear knew from the moment he saw you. He’s my heart, deep inside me. My instinct, my strength. And he knew you were perfect for me, even if I was so taken off guard that I didn’t know what to do about it.”
She just listened, still looking dazed.
The forest was quiet around them, the perfect place for him to
tell her everything. He only wished they hadn’t had to go through the past few hours first.
“I’m sorry you got caught up in all of this, but I’m not sorry it gave me a chance to spend time with you. After the past couple days together, the man in me is positive of what the bear in me knew from the start.” He took her hand and tenderly kissed the top of it. “You’re it for me, Carly. You’re this lonely bear’s home.”
She was too touched to say anything, just watched him as he continued to kiss her hand, gently, over each knuckle. Then he sat back to talk again.
“When I got out of the military, I just wanted somewhere quiet. Ares convinced me to come back here to his hometown, and the moment I saw the beautiful woods, I knew I’d found a home.” He looked at the mountains rising up all around them. “I’ve found a lot of healing here, but I never knew I would find my mate.”
He brushed his thumb over her cheek and took her mouth in a deep kiss, trying to tell her with more than words just how he felt about her. She kissed him back, tongue entwining with his as the world seemed to freeze around them.
Then she pulled back and looked at him breathlessly. “So what does being a mate even mean?”
He stroked a hand over her back soothingly. “It means something like marriage, but stronger. It means I’m yours forever, and you’re mine, once we complete the ceremony and become mates.”
“Mates,” she said. “I like the sound of that. But Ares wasn’t kidding. None of this is normal. When I saw you turn from bear to human, I nearly had a heart attack.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I should have told you sooner, but I didn’t want you to run.”
“I wouldn’t have run,” she said. “I care about you too much. I guess I’m still having a hard time letting it all sink in. I mean, I get that your bear wants me, but why do you want me?”
Big Bad Bear Page 9
