Flint whirled on Melinda. “What the hell are you trying to pull?” he roared, eyes blazing with rage.
“Nothing! I swear!” Tears filled her eyes and ran down her cheeks. “He’s wrong! We’re headed the right way – just follow me!”
“I trust his nose more than I trust you. I swear to God if I find out you had anything to do with what happened to Coral, I’ll kill you,” Flint said.
Melinda let out a strangled cry. How could he speak to her like that?
Flint ignored her misery, the way he’d ignored her love for him. That bastard. That stupid, ungrateful bastard.
“Let’s shift,” he growled to Clay, and in seconds he was in bear form, exploding out of his clothing. He was massive, at least eight feet of bristling brown fury. Clay followed suit, dropping to all fours and shifting into a huge gray wolf, and the two of them ran off, leaving Melinda doubled over and howling with hurt and fury.
Melinda fell to her knees, pounding the ground with her fists in rage and letting out a terrible, heartbroken roar. Her fists became paws. She shifted, the cloth of her shirt and pants splitting and falling from her body. Her rifle strap burst and her rifle fell to the ground.
She leaped to her feet and began running. She had to get there first, had to get to Coral and kill her if it was the last thing she did. Coral and Frederick. They both had to die. Nobody could ever know what she’d done.
Chapter Sixteen
Coral and all of the shifters in the room were alone. De Rossi had gotten a call from one of his mercenaries that had made him go pale, and he’d rushed from the room.
Again, Coral strained at the straps that pinned her down, but this time, something happened – just not what she expected.
Something moved over the open space where the ceiling had been. Tree branches. They were growing at an incredible pace, and at the same time, roots exploded up through the floor, rocking the tables that some of the shifters were on.
I’m doing that, Coral realized. She could feel a thrumming connection to the plants around her, as if they were part of her body.
She concentrated, focusing all of her energy, and roots shot through the floor and twirled up around the table she was on. They swirled around the straps that held her down, and she concentrated harder, sweat beading on her forehead. The roots began tearing at the straps, and she could feel the straps begin to loosen.
She heard roars of rage echo through the room, and looked around to see animal figures struggling on the tables. Marie was a huge, growling wolf, and a panther near her leaped up, tearing free of its bonds. The panther was far too big, at least twice the size of a normal panther.
They shouldn’t have been able to shift, not with copper restraints, and yet, they were, and they were all freeing themselves now, and the room was filled with howls and roars and snarls.
Coral’s wrists were free, and she sat up and concentrated on the tree roots that were tearing at the straps on her feet.
Several guards rushed in to the room, leveling their rifles, but before they could fire, freed shifters hurled themselves through the air. Shots cracked through the air, and she heard the yelps of injured shifters and the horrified, gurgling screams of guards.
The shifters who’d been shot were scrambling to their feet, and the smoking holes in their bodies were healing rapidly. They shouldn’t have been able to do that. The guards undoubtedly were using silver-coated bullets, which should have killed the shifters within minutes.
All of her straps were ripped to shreds now. Coral scrambled off the able and ran over to Frederick, who’d shifted into coyote form but was still normal size.
Frantically, she looked around for Blanche and Maybelle. The beds they’d been strapped on to were empty, turned on their sides, and two grizzled gray wolves roamed the room, snarling and snapping at the retreating guards.
The ley line flare up was affecting them all differently, she realized. It had turned the descendants of Original Shifters into gigantic shifter monsters. It had given Frederick the power to shift into animal form even though he was restrained by copper. And it had enhanced her formerly puny magic powers to an incredible degree.
In his animal form, the straps were too big to hold Frederick, and he leaped to the floor. More guards were rushing in to the room, and one of them paused and aimed his rifle right at Frederick.
Coral concentrated hard on the vines that were shooting over the walls, and one of them snaked around the guard’s neck. He let out a strangled scream and the shot went wide, missing Frederick by several feet as the vine hauled the guard up into the air, and left him dangling there.
* * *
She’s not dead, she’s not dead, she can’t be dead, Flint thought frantically, loping in to the grove.
Up ahead, he could see the other Enforcers, rushing towards an astonishing scene.
At first glance, it looked as if there were a hillside rising up in the forest, but it was clearly a camouflaged building covered with vegetation. No wonder the Enforcer’s flyovers hadn’t been able to locate Metamorph’s facility from the air.
Vines were swarming up over the side of the building like snakes. Tree roots were shooting up out of the ground, wrapping around men in camouflage. The front door of the building lay on the ground.
There were close to a hundred armed mercenaries there, and two choppers lay on the ground. Flint could see vines wrapped around them, pulling at them, as if the vines had risen from the Earth and grabbed the choppers from the sky.
There were a dozen enormous shifters battling with the mercenaries. The shifters were impossibly huge, like something out of a movie. Gunfire cracked, and shifters fell and then staggered to their feet.
Flint and the other Enforcers dove into the fray, shooting mercenaries, shouting at them to surrender.
But where was Coral? Flint looked around frantically. He couldn’t see her anywhere.
“There!” Rory shouted, pointing.
Coral, stark naked, with a bandage on one leg and bleeding from her arm, stood in the middle of the fight. She held up her hand, and roots shot up from the ground, and wrapped around a mercenary who’d been aiming his rifle at an Enforcer. The mercenary let out a strangled scream and then the roots pulled him down into the ground and he disappeared into the Earth.
As Flint raced towards Coral, he saw a flash of brown burst through the bushes, heading straight for her. Melinda. That crazy bitch.
He knew now what had happened back in India. They’d never been able to figure out who’d betrayed them to the local bandits. Clearly, it had been Melinda – she’d set them up so she’d be able to rescue Flint. Enforcers had died because of her actions. She’d be going to prison for the rest of her life.
He shouted a warning and raced to intercept her, reaching her just before she closed in on Coral. She swung towards him, her eyes glowing a strange, crazy red. With mighty blows from his paws, he knocked her down and slammed the side of her head so hard that she slumped unconscious into the dirt.
Then, quickly, he shifted back to human form.
“Are you all right?” he cried out. Coral turned to look at him, dazed.
“Did you see what I can do now?” she asked. She turned back towards the fighting, which was dying down. A mercenary was running away, heading for the tree line, and she pointed her finger at him. A tree root shot up, tripped him, and then wrapped around his ankle. The root climbed higher and higher, and held him dangling upside like a piñata ten feet off the ground.
With a moan, she fell into Flint’s arms, and he hugged her, his heart pounding so hard that he thought it would explode. She was alive. She was in his arms, and he’d never let her go again.
“Am I a freak now?” she whispered, swaying, her knees ready to give out. He held her up easily.
“No, you’re a miracle. You’re my miracle. I love you, Coral. You stubborn wolf.”
“I love you too, you stupid bear.”
* * *
“Well, that’s going t
o leave a scar,” Coral said, looking down at her leg. She was in the emergency room, and a nurse practitioner had just stitched up her knife wound.
“It’ll be the sexiest scar ever,” Flint said, nuzzling her neck. He sat on the bed next to her, one arm wrapped around her neck.
“We’re in a hospital, you pervert,” Coral giggled, but she didn’t try to push him away. When Flint touched her, it was like eating chocolate and having an orgasm at the same time; it was always an amazing endorphin rush which flooded her with happiness and a sense of well-being.
“I know, right? There’s no damned privacy here. We’ll make up for lost time in my bedroom tonight,” Flint said confidently.
Marie’s parents were there at the emergency room as well, and David Bollinger’s teenaged kids. There were kidnapped shifters from around the world recovering in their hospital beds, eagerly talking on phones with their families. TV cameras were crowded outside the hospital. Phones were ringing off the hook in the newsroom.
Dr. De Rossi had been captured trying to escape. Melinda was in custody. Most of the mercenaries had been killed, and the rest were also in custody. Metamorph was being shut down.
Bettina had gone to the hospital to be with Frederick, who had half a dozen fractured ribs. Coral had been there when she walked in; Frederick had burst into tears of gratitude.
“I don’t deserve you,” he’d sobbed.
“You’re right,” Bettina had agreed, settling into a chair next to his bed. “I didn’t say I was taking you back. I’m here as a friend.”
Frederick had vowed that he would spend the rest of his life making it up to her, and that he would never look at another woman.
“We’ll see,” was all Bettina said, grabbing a cookie from a tray that a nurse had brought him.
Blanche limped in to Coral’s room.
“Are you all right? Why are you limping?” Coral asked, as Flint leaped up and grabbed a chair for her.
“One of those bastard guards nicked me with a bullet. It should have killed me, though. It’s the damnedest thing. I’m immune to silver now.”
“The power of the comet,” Coral marveled. “You know, legitimate scientists will be able to learn so much from all these shifters now.”
Maybelle turned to Blanche and, making a face, said “I guess it’s time for you to gloat now. You were right. That old bastard was just dating me so he could try to pump me for information. He kept asking me what we were working on at the paper, and wanting me to tell him all about the history of Shifters in town. And there I thought he was just interested in my work. I should have known better.”
“No, you shouldn’t have! He just wasn’t good enough for you,” Blanche said stoutly. “That’s why I didn’t like him. You deserve a man who appreciates you for what you are. You’re a foxy mama with a fascinating job and a wicked sense of humor.”
“I am?” Maybelle blinked back tears.
“Of course you are. I tell you what we’ll do, we’ll sign you up for some of those internet dating sites. I meet lots of nice men online. Of course, I have to approve anyone that you go out with.” Blanche paused. “Remember when we were in high school, and that cheerleader called me a tramp because she thought I stole her boyfriend, and you punched her? Why did you do that?”
“Because I’m the only one who gets to call you names, you old skank.” Suddenly Maybelle and Blanche were hugging and crying.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, go away! I…I’m having an allergy attack,” Coral said, blinking hard and wiping at her eyes. “I am not crying,” she added defensively.
“We’ll see you back at the paper,” Maybelle said, pulling Blanche to her feet. “By the way, Mr. Brewster says that just because you were stabbed and kidnapped doesn’t mean you get to hand your story in late.”
The two old women walked out of the room, arm in arm.
Flint hugged Coral to him, and she leaned against him, grateful for his solid, muscular warmth.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you anything, but we couldn’t risk anyone from Metamorph finding out that we knew what they were planning,” Flint said.
“So the local police knew about it too? That’s why they were stonewalling me, and the missing people’s families?”
“Yes. They had no choice,” Flint nodded. “They knew what was at stake.”
“I understand. How did you find out about it in the first place?”
“Off the record?”
“Off the record.”
“Phone taps and informants. We’d been monitoring them for a while, because they were selling illegal performance enhancing medications to terrorists.”
“I didn’t see Adrian Friedman with the other shifters,” Coral said sadly. “He must be dead. How terrible for his mother.”
Flint smacked his forehead with his hand. “I completely forgot to tell you. He’s not dead. We have him. When he started investigating and risked exposing the Metamorph operation, we had to shut him down. We knew the only way that we’d be able to rescue all the kidnap victims was to bust their operation on the day of the meteor shower, but Adrian was about to blow it for us. We picked him up and we’ve been holding him in protective custody ever since. He’s been released now; he’s being put on a plane to reunite with his family.”
“You what?” Coral was outraged. “You held a reporter prisoner for weeks to prevent him from writing a story?”
“Coral, we had no choice. Dozens of lives were at stake, at a minimum. And if Metamorph had succeeded with their operation, and if they’d been able to develop a race of Supershifers, it would have caused devastation on a global scale. If Adrian had printed his story, Metamorph would have panicked, and relocated their operation to another part of the globe. There are other spots where ley lines cross, not as powerful as the local spot, but close. And we wouldn’t have been able to find them in time.”
Coral folded her arms and glared at him, stewing. “I don’t like it.”
“I understand that, but it is what it is. You’ll have to get past it. I didn’t used to like reporters, but now I’m in love with one.”
“Really? Who? I’ll beat her ass.”
Flint smiled. “That’s my smart-mouthed stubborn wolf.”
“But you’re going back to Seattle. Aren’t you?” Her heart skipped a beat waiting for his answer. He put his thumb under her chin and tipped her face up to look at him.
“My family wants me to stay here. And because of the fact that they’re Original Shifters, I still feel like there’s some potential danger to them. I’d feel safer if I moved my operations out here, and lived on the property. What about you? Have you given any thought to what you’ll do next?”
Before she could answer, her cell phone rang and she pulled it out of her purse. “Hold that thought,” she said to Flint. She answered her phone.
“Coral Colby?” a man inquired eagerly.
“Yes?”
“How’s my favorite superstar reporter? Still looking for a job, I hope?”
“Who is this?” she asked.
“It’s Mr. Espinosa! Remember me? We met at the journalism fair. Remember?”
She stared at the phone for a minute. She’d stumbled into the biggest story of the year; a Pulitzer wasn’t out of the question. Opportunity was calling. She could quit working at this tiny little newspaper and move back to New York. She would have her pick of journalism assignments now. She could work anywhere.
She glanced back at Flint, the man she was falling in love with, the man she couldn’t imagine living without. She looked over at Blanche and Maybelle, who were headed towards the door of the hospital, already arguing with each other. Her other line beeped, and she saw that Mr. Brewster was calling her, no doubt impatient for her to get back to the newspaper and start writing up her story.
“Who?” she said to Mr. Espinosa, and hung up the phone.
She turned to Flint, leaned in and brushed her lips against his.
“I am exactly where I want to be, and I
am with the man I’m meant to be with,” she said. “And now, take me back to the newspaper, you big stubborn bear. I’ve got a story to write.”
THE END
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Table of Contents
Copyright
License Statement
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
Hard To Bear Page 13
