by Amelia Jade
***
Nina
The shaking intensified, becoming so violent it actually spilled several of the oncoming Fenris shifters to the ground.
Behind them, a giant stalactite ripped free of the ceiling and plunged down, shattering upon impact.
All through the cavern shifters stopped what they were doing and looked around. Combat ceased as the two sides pulled apart.
Nina squeezed Aksel’s hand as the earthquake allowed them to stave off death for a few more seconds.
“What the hell is that?” she asked, pointing to the wall almost directly opposite the shaft opening, where the Cadian forces had paused in their retreat.
The wall was starting to glow. Her eyes registered the change in heat as it became more and more intense.
All around, shifters on both sides swayed back and forth, muttering uneasily about what they were seeing.
The brown wall had become bright red now in the dim light afforded by the spotlights Fenris had set up before being attacked.
“It’s melting,” Aksel said in astonishment as the stone heated up and began to flow like water.
A second later a brilliant spear of light pierced the wall. It was such a brilliant blue-white color that she was forced to look away.
But not before she saw it continue on its path and hit the right flank of the Fenris lines. Two shifters caught in the beam simply ceased to exist, while a third spun away screaming as its arm and half its shoulder melted away. Others dove for cover as their skin began to blister and burn from the heat.
And just like that, the beam was gone, leaving a perfectly circular hole in the wall that glowed a bright cherry red.
“What the fuck was that?” she asked, throwing up her arm as the backwash of heat spread across the cavern, warming her face.
“I have no—” Aksel never finished his sentence, because before he could, a blast of air more frigid than the arctic swept down through the hole and into the cavern, chilling the air and dropping the temperature at least twenty degrees in the span of a few seconds.
Most of the Fenris shifters had moved out of the way by now, but at least one was too slow and was caught in the blast. As the fog cleared, Nina saw the frozen body of the shifter, still upright, but off-balance.
She watched in a mixture of shock and horror as it slowly tipped over and crashed against the floor, shattering what had once been a person into a thousand pieces as it blew apart in chunks of ice.
“Ah, I think I have an idea what it might be,” Aksel said, but the rest of his words were lost in the following roar.
***
Aksel
The cavern had stopped shaking, but as the two sides waited in stunned silence, a roar sounded from down the opening. It only grew louder, and Aksel suddenly thought he knew what it was.
He tried to speak, to tell Nina and his squad, but his voice was drowned out as the first figure emerged from the frost-clad tunnel. The opening was a good twelve feet in the air, but that didn’t matter. The figure simply walked off the edge, landing on the ground with an impact that could be felt throughout the cavern.
Behind him—no, behind her—he corrected himself as the figure walked through the icy mist, came another. And another.
A stream of shifters emerged from the newly bored hole, yelling challenges and insults at their enemies as they came on, a veritable horde of them.
The mist from the icy blast finally dissipated enough that Aksel could glimpse the person at their head.
It was Allix, he saw with burst of surprise, Captain Klein’s mate. She was in the Green Bearet training program he knew, but he was surprised to see her here. A figure stepped up next to her, and Aksel easily recognized Andrew Raskell, the gryphon shifter who had gone for help.
The tidal wave of shifters pouring into the cavern was made up of all kinds. Bears, wolves, tigers, lions, and more. Leopards and panthers as well. He recognized the faces of a few Guardians of Cadia, and some of the recruits from the Green Bearets Base Camp. But others were clearly not trained.
“They’re civilians,” he breathed in surprise.
The entire town of Cadia had come to their rescue, it would seem, as more and more of them dropped from the hole in the wall. Some landed easily, others stumbled. But the numbers were already even now, and there didn’t seem to be an end in sight.
Aksel snarled.
“AT THEM!” he bellowed, putting action to his words.
Beside him, his squad followed, running alongside him and Nina. From the mouth of the mineshaft the previously retreating Cadians from Cloud Lake burst forth once more, spilling out to engage their foes. And the newcomers, shouting their own battle cries, swept forward.
From three directions the forces of Cadia bore down upon their enemies. Fenris had come to the gates of their home and threatened their well-being.
But Aksel swore then and there that they would get no further. Cadia would hold.
Chapter Sixteen
Nina
“I can’t believe the changes you’ve wrought in such a short time,” Nina said as she, Aksel, and two civilians from Cloud Lake cut the ribbon.
They were assembled in front of a small crowd of shifters and inhabitants of Cloud Lake, on the steps of the townhouse Aksel and his men had been working on rebuilding. It was the first building to be finished, but there were numerous others that were nearing completion as well.
The town of Cloud Lake was recovering, and much of it was thanks to the newfound bond they had with the shifters from Cadia.
Shifters like her.
Nina was no longer an archivist for the town. Instead she was a full-blown citizen of Cadia, much to her surprise. She was also Aksel’s mate, a title that made her almost as happy as the fact that he was her mate. She’d heard wild stories about mating between shifters, but as it turned out, she’d already done that.
When Aksel had turned her, he’d given her his shifter DNA. All that had been needed in return was for her to repeat the process. It was much less dangerous for shifters to mate, and Aksel had barely flinched as she bit him.
But when they had embraced in bed, she’d felt a sort of…connection with him. Her bear and her mind were tied together. It wasn’t like the dragons, who could actually sense each other, as she was finding out. But whenever he was around, she felt complete, as if she’d only ever been half of herself, searching for him her entire life without knowing it.
“We’ve worked hard,” her mate said. “Because we regret what happened while we weren’t paying attention.”
She squeezed his hand. “You’ve more than paid us back for that,” she said. “All those men who died…” she trailed off, still not comfortable talking about the Battle of the Cavern, as it was becoming known.
They had almost died. Should have died. But just in the nick of time, the reinforcements they’d hoped for had arrived. After the fighting was over, she’d been told that what she’d seen was the breath weapon of two dragons. Asher Owens, and Zeke Hawthorn. The bright light had been the Fire Dragon’s breath, and the cold had been courtesy of Asher, the Frost Dragon.
She owed them their lives, and had made sure to pay her respects to the two magnificent creatures, though they’d tried to dismiss it as simply doing their duty.
“The thing that scares me,” Aksel said as they held hands tightly, walking away from the knot of people, “is that this is just the beginning. The opening phase.”
Nina shivered. “So you’re saying it’s going to get worse?”
He nodded. “Much worse, I think. This is going to be far more devastating than anything I’ve heard of.”
“How long has it been since the last war?” she asked.
Nina was still trying to get caught up on shifter history. There was just so much she didn’t know, and that was kept hidden from humans. She’d learned that in the past, shifters used to fight far more often than they did now. Huge battles between dragons and other fantastic beasts had once been a near common thi
ng.
“Over two hundred years,” he said. “Since before the creation of the official shifter strongholds. I have nightmares about the way this war might be waged, using modern weapons and technology.”
She squeezed his hand, to reassure him that no matter what, she’d be there with him.
They came to a halt, staring down the road as the sun came up over the horizon into the clear blue sky.
Nina wasn’t fooled though. The first day of spring may have been upon them, with weather that she would have loved before being a shifter made her immune to all but the coldest of climates, but all was not right in the world. Darkness was looming, and while they had won a reprieve for now, it was clear that this was but the first of many battles to be fought.
More shifters would die, and many mates would mourn the loss of their loved ones. Before this was over, she knew the populations of both strongholds would be devastated.
A single tear spilled from her eye, but it never made it down her cheek. A strong, warm finger caught it and lifted it away.
“Cry not, my love,” Aksel whispered. “We’ll confront this together.”
“I know,” she said softly, pulling him close to her tightly. “I know.”
THE END
This concludes Book 2 of the Base Camp Bears. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Although this story is over, there are more adventures to be had. To get access to my newest stories at the introductory price of just 99c, and for other exclusives, sign up for my newsletter!
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About the Author
Amelia Jade
Amelia Jade loves to write the stories of tall, growly shifter men and the women who come to love them. Living out in the backcountry near the mountains, she keeps her own alpha male close by to keep the bears away and keep her warm. In her downtime (which is rare), she loves to read science-fiction with a dash of fantasy. You can often find her curled up in front of the real wood-burning fireplace, her nose firmly buried in a book or her favorite e-reader. The cold can’t bother her there!
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Contents
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
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Base Camp Bears
Top Scale Academy
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Genesis Valley
Ridgeback Bears
Stone Bears (Genesis Valley Shifters)
Other Series by Amelia Jade
About the Author
