The Right to Bear Arms: BBW Military Paranormal Romance (Wild Operatives, #1)

by Vivienne Savage

  A terrifying realization occurred, bringing with it a flash of cold understanding that struck me like ice water. A man only arrived at his ex-wife’s house with a gun for one reason, and one reason only. He’d kill me whether I fought or not.

  Two years ago, I would have cowered. I rushed him instead and shoved all of my weight behind my hand. The blunt end of the makeup brush sank into his shoulder. He punched me and screamed in pain, but my sudden attack gave me the upper hand. With my weight, I knocked him over and darted into the hall.

  “You bitch!”

  Get downstairs, get downstairs. The alarm Ian had installed included a panic button. I could activate it from the box beside the door or my phone — which I had left in my car with my purse. In my excitement over everything, I’d left the keys behind, figuring I wouldn’t need them.

  Unlike my old home in the suburbs on the postage-stamp-sized yard, I didn’t have neighbors for nearly a mile down the road. Screaming from inside my house wouldn’t do a thing but strain my vocal cords.

  Mike thundered down the stairs behind me. Something whizzed past my head and the front window shattered. It took my mind a second to register that Mike had actually fired a bullet. At me. It wasn’t about wanting to slap me around or intimidate me anymore. He’d come to finish me off for good.

  Abandoning my idea to reach the front door and the security system box, I immediately turned the corner to duck out of his line of sight. I ran toward the kitchen with tears streaming down my cheeks. My revolver was on the counter and I grabbed it without pausing.

  “No one gets to have you but me!” Another bullet zinged past and struck the cabinets.

  “You’re crazy!” I yelled back. Sunshine blinded me as I slammed the patio door open and darted outside. Distance was what I needed. Distance and Russell.

  “Help me!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Somebody help!”

  Another shot rang out, but this time I had no idea where it struck. Mike’s aim was lousy, much to my favor, but I didn’t dare to count on that fortune continuing.

  “Get back here, you fat whore. Gonna leave me and just spread your legs for the next man to come along?”

  I didn’t know how many bullets a Glock could hold, but the rounds in Mike’s handgun seemed never-ending.

  “Ungrateful bitch, you don’t get to leave me. Not after everything I gave you.”

  I spun on my heels and took off for the front lawn where my new car waited for me. With the revolver in my hands, I felt like a coward. Who ran from a man with a gun when they had a weapon of their own?

  “Get your fat ass back here!”

  Another shot rang out, and then wind rushed past me. An enormous jet black blur hurtled by my left side. My mind didn’t move quickly enough to register the things happening at that moment. Mike’s startled scream, the roar, and another gunshot made me stop cold in my tracks.

  I turned to see my bear upon Mike, shoving him into the grass and mauling him with unforgiving claws. Then my ex-husband fired point-blank into my bear’s belly. The sudden explosion of pain must have startled the animal who released his prey and reared back, allowing Michael to scurry to his feet. Blood streamed down my ex-husband’s chest as he raised the gun and shot my bear again.

  A few days before, I told Ian I didn’t think I could shoot a man. Given the choice between my bear and my ex, there was no competition. My mind had never been clearer. I raised the revolver, peered down its sight, prayed, and slowly pulled the trigger. Michael jerked back as the round struck his shoulder then I fired again. I fired until the last report echoed and the revolver was empty.

  I didn’t know how many times I hit him, and I didn’t care. I tossed the gun aside and rushed to my bear’s side. Blood pooled on the grass around his lush black fur.

  “No!” I shrieked. I threw myself to my knees beside him, feeling more helpless than ever. Michael’s glassy eyes stared up at the sky, but all of my concern was with my bear. My protector. “Don’t die. Please don’t die.”

  I could call for a veterinarian, couldn’t I? If a vet could operate on a horse or a cow in some pasture, couldn’t they save my bear? With his blood on my hands, I rushed into the house and dialed 911 from the kitchen. I had no idea what gibberish I screamed into the line, too distraught to make sense beyond yelling that ‘he’ was dying and to send someone please.

  As I stepped onto the patio deck again, I saw my bear shambling to his feet and lumbering toward the tree line. Everything I knew about wild animals told me to keep my distance, but my love for him drove me forward across the grass.

  “No, don’t move. You can’t go like this. You’re hurt!”

  He proved me wrong and put on a burst of speed that took him through the brush and into the forest. For an injured animal, he moved quickly and disappeared beyond the tree line. Instinct made me give chase.

  Branches whipped at my face and slapped my skin, scraping my exposed skin with every step. I ran barefoot after him despite the difference in our speed. With his blood on the forest floor, it wasn’t too hard to track him. He left a trail that I followed with ease.

  It was like my dream, only this time, I ignored the burning in my calves and thighs to tear through wilderness. My chest heaved and my lungs burned for air. I wasn’t in shape and my body hated me for every step, but I knew in my soul that if I let him run this time, I’d never see him again.

  The bear rustled through the bushes ahead of me and escaped the overgrown woods into a manicured rear lawn. I knew this yard. This half-finished wooden fence. I knew those carrot tops and green tomatoes, as well as the bountiful number of white peaches dangling from the branches of an enormous tree.

  “Russ!” I called. “Russ! Help!” I screamed again for him. I found the bear sprawled in the middle of the garden, still bleeding from both injuries. The gunshot left a ragged exit hole and a smaller entry, both congealed with blood. With no other option, I fell to my knees beside him and slid my fingers over his dark coat. “I’m here. I’m here. Shh...”

  If he did die, I wanted him to go feeling loved. I’d known somehow since the first day he dined with me, that my words were understood. Gazing down at him now I saw the keen understanding in his pain-filled eyes.

  “Russ!” I called out again. Comforting the animal as he died became my top priority. If I could do nothing else but remain at his side, I’d do that at the very least. With tears streaking down my cheeks, I turned my face toward the log cabin and waited for my boyfriend to emerge. Where was he?

  The bear moved beneath my hand. The coarse sensation of thick bear fur receded away until bare skin and smooth muscle was in its place, confusing my perceptions of what I last saw with what I felt. I blinked down toward the animal and gaped.

  The creature under my hand was no longer a bear. A human male lay on his side, his body contorted with agony and pain. “Russ?” I jerked my hand back from my boyfriend’s brawny arm. He didn’t wear a scrap of clothing, but the most undeniable proof was the identical holes in his midsection. Two entries and one exit. I stared.

  “Dan... Daniela. I need you to... I need you to get my first aid kit. It’s on the...” He groaned and controlled his breathing. “Bottom kitchen drawer, below the microwave.”

  “You were a bear. You were a bear a moment ago. Russ, what’s happening? Why were you my bear?”

  “I’ll tell you everything. Fuck, this hurts.” Russ groaned and tried to sit up until I pressed a hand to his shoulder.

  “Don’t move!”

  I dashed into the cabin and retrieved the kit as directed. Once beside him again and on my knees, I used the only medical know-how I had to apply pressure to his bleeding wound. “You need a doctor. You’re losing so much blood, Russ.”

  “No.” He shook his head and grunted. “No hospitals. You need to go back to your place, Dani. Tell the police what happened and say the bear ran away. It’ll all be on camera.”

  “I’m not leaving you like this!”

  “You hav
e to. I’ll be fine here. I promise you, baby. Just do as I’m asking you to do, please.”

  “But—”

  “Darlin’, please. I know you don’t have much love for your ex, but... but you need to meet the police there. Tell them what happened.”

  I knew he was right. I’d shot Mike and there was no way to cover that up or deny it. If I fled the scene, I’d be looked on with suspicion.

  Terror had numbed me. The chase through my home, Mike’s attempt to kill me, and the shoot out on the lawn had made his transition from bear to man seem almost simple by comparison. Choking on my tears, I nodded and rose to my feet.

  When I returned to my yard, Mike’s motionless shape remained in the same place where I left him, or rather, where I shot him. I shuddered and couldn’t force myself to go see if he was still breathing. I’d leave that to the professionals.

  Less than a minute later, the small-town cops swarmed into my yard. I stayed where I was with my hands out in the open and my gun lying on the ground.

  “Ma’am? Ma’am, are you hurt?”

  I shook my head and pressed my lips together in a failing effort to remain calm. My boyfriend was a bear, my ex almost murdered me in my own home, and I’d shot a man for the first time. The reality of gun ownership didn’t empower me; I felt terrified and waited for them to haul me away next.

  “I think she’s in shock. Ma’am, we need you to tell us what happened here.”

  “He... my ex-husband broke into my house and tried to kill me. I shot him.” I didn’t realize I was hyperventilating until the world dimmed and I was suddenly sitting on the damp grass. One of the EMS workers had lowered me to the ground. Another handed me a bag while speaking gentle instructions to breathe into it.

  “Hey, I remember this house. There’s an open vandalism case on her car,” one of the officers said.

  “Can you tell us what happened to your ex-husband?”

  “He’s shown up uninvited a few times, but this time he came into my house,” I told the two policemen. “He shot at me with his gun.”

  They introduced themselves as Officer Hunt and Officer Perry. I nodded a lot and answered their questions with short answers before directing one of them to the security console inside of the house. Surveillance ran 24 hours a day whether or not I armed the actual system itself. Hunt, the lanky and taller officer with a thick southern accent, headed over to review the tape while Perry remained near me with the paramedics. Drained and exhausted, I didn’t argue when the female EMT guided me to their van and onto the stretcher to rest.

  Hunt returned to the van. “Yup. Everything’s like she said. The bear came from the front of the home to intercept her husband and from there, she shot him after he fired into the animal. You say you were feeding him, ma’am?”

  “Ex-husband,” I stressed, “and, yes. I fed him almost every day. He was a good bear.” I shivered beneath the blanket the paramedic had draped over my body. It wasn’t enough to warm me.

  “Gotta say I agree. He may have saved your life,” Perry said.

  An hour later, Mike’s body had been removed from my lawn by the local examiner. The police had my report, but I promised to drive up to the department the following day to make an official statement.

  After they were gone, I paced the floor then washed my face in the kitchen sink. My glass window had been trashed and fixing it wasn’t my first priority. With no other alternative, I armed the security system and stepped outside into the cooling night air.

  Dreading the worst, that I would return to find him bled out in the grass, I made the long walk to Russ’ cabin only to step into the yard and find it empty. Russ wasn’t there. Trigger barked to announce my entrance into the otherwise quiet cabin, meeting me at the door and licking my fingers eagerly.

  “Where’s your daddy, boy?” He whined and turned tail to scramble out of the room. He led me to Russ, who sat in his recliner with a few square bandages on his abdomen. I had to presume more were on his back.

  “Oh, thank God!”

  “Daniella... You should be with the paramedics, darlin’. Are you okay?” He stood up from the chair to greet me, despite his pale features.

  “Forget me, Russ. What about you? He shot you so many times! You need a doctor... you need... you need help.” Watching Mike shoot him had been traumatizing enough. Now I fretted over the very real possibility that he could bleed out before my very eyes.

  “Shhh. Only twice, and it’s okay. I’m not gonna die over a couple bullets, I swear. An old Navy friend is on the way to help me out. I think there’s one lodged in me, so I’m not gonna have a happy evening here.”

  Tears brimmed over my eyes at the sight of him. So bold, courageous, and dumb! My ex fills him with holes and he has the nerve to worry about me? Assured that he wouldn’t die on the spot in front of me, my mind latched on to the next conflict.

  “Fine. Then you have to tell me what’s going on. I need to know what’s happening.” I needed to know why the animal I had loved, nurtured, and worried for turned out to be the man I adored. My hands trembled, and it was debatable whether the shake came from fear or rage.

  “All right,” Russ agreed without argument. “But I need you to understand this first, Daniela. I planned to tell you everything tonight. All of it.”

  “Tell me now.”

  He sighed. “I’m a werebear. Thousands more like me exist around the world.”

  I tried to moisten my lips with my tongue. “Like a werewolf?”

  A faint smile ghosted its way across his lips. “Sorta like that, except we’re born this way. None of that biting nonsense.”

  “I don’t... understand why you kept this from me so long. You’re my bear? You slept in my hammock. You ate the food I made for you. You did all of these things, but you couldn’t tell me you were a human being and able to understand every word I told you.”

  “Dani—”

  I held up a hand and cut him off. “I feel like the world’s biggest fool. I came back here afraid to find you a fucking cold corpse, but you’re moving better by the second. Were you even hurt at all? Are you faking that too?”

  “No!” he shouted.

  “How many lies have you told me?”

  “I’ve never lied to you,” Russ insisted as he took a step toward me. He reached with one hand and I quickly back peddled away. Fresh tears sprang to my eyes. The trauma of the day should have dried them completely, but with my rising anger, I found myself wiping my face with my wrists all over again. “Dani... Baby, please.”

  “Don’t baby me, Russ. How many lies have you told me?”

  “None.” He glanced at his abdomen and peeled off the corner of the bandage. The wound appeared raw and tender, but at least a few days old. I stared at him. “Shapeshifters heal faster than humans, Dani.” I gazed into his brown eyes and saw my furry guardian protector who watched over me. He was still the Russ I’d come to love so much.

  Together, we sat down on the sofa, close enough for our thighs to touch. This time when I shivered, the weight of his arm lowered around me instead of an impersonal blanket. Allowing Russ to pull me closer, I placed my cheek against his shoulder and closed my eyes.

  “My mother is a bear shifter like me. I inherited this from her when I was born. Ian inherited his gift from his father and grandfather.” I jerked my head up to stare at him. “Yeah. Ian and Taylor both.”

  “They’re bears like you?”

  “No, not bears,” Russ answered. “They’ll probably be a bit ruffled when they learn I told you this, but I don’t want any more secrets between us. Ian’s a bald eagle and Taylor’s a cougar. All the members of my old squad are shifters of some kind, including the doc coming to patch me up.”

  The words falling from his lips sounded preposterous but, at the same time, they were weighted with the absolute truth. His earnest and open expression told me he wasn’t making it all up. He wasn’t crazy and neither was I for the memory I had of him transforming.

  “You didn’t t
hink you should tell me this before?”

  “I wanted to. Dani, please. Just imagine if every time one of us dated a girl, we told her about all this. That’s not how you keep a secret.”

  The uneasy feeling in my gut diminished, leaving a cold ache in its place. He hadn’t trusted me, but we were still so new in our relationship that I couldn’t hold it against him completely. “What about the visits to my yard? You knew I was worried about my bear — about you.” The animal I had come to love was also the man I cared for, creating an overlap my heart couldn’t reconcile.

  “I, uh...” Russell blushed and hung his head. “I’m sorry, Daniela. That first night I never really meant to fall asleep. Then you came outside with food, so brave and kind, not even a little afraid that there was a bear in your yard.”

  “But why did you keep coming back?” Had he been watching me like some peeping Tom? I dismissed the absurd thought the moment it popped into my head. Russell wasn’t like that. “I just... I feel so stupid.”

  “There’s no other way to tell you how sorry I am for deceiving you, Dani. I guess... I knew right then from the start that you were the woman for me. I couldn’t get you off my mind. When one of my kind meets our mate, it forms a connection nothing can shake. I never thought I’d have another like that after Katie died... then I met you. You, Dani. You’re the most important thing in my world. It just took me a while to realize it was happening again. I understand until tonight that my bear recognized you.”

  I wanted to stay pissed, but his near brush with death smoothed the edge off my anger. Before I knew it, I was wrapping my arms around him tightly without regard to his healing injuries. I kissed his face and ran my fingers over his mussed waves.

  “You could have died, you dumb, dumb man.” I dragged in a deep breath, which shuddered out of my lungs. My mind’s eye replaced the events in my head, showing me a bleeding bear, and then minutes later, a bleeding man amidst the carrot tops, riddled with bullet wounds in his powerful torso.