by Danica Avet
With that thought in mind, Izzy ran straight at the nymph. She had to incapacitate the woman, but she had a feeling Avyn was a much better villain than her sisters had been.
Two feet away from the nymph, Izzy fell back as a wall of fire appeared between them. Shit. This was exactly what she worried about. Avyn was a cool customer who knew how to use her powers for offense and defense.
Izzy scrambled away from the ring of flame. She was a sitting duck out here. She didn’t know if Avyn could maintain the ring and shoot her fireballs, and she didn’t want to find out. As she watched, the ring of fire expanded until it covered a twenty-foot diameter. The flames shot up to varying heights between two feet to eight, scorching the floor, walls, and ceiling of the corridor.
The heat from the fire seeped through the tunnel and sweat broke out on Izzy’s face. The nymph looked as though she were taking a stroll through a breezy meadow. Of course the fire wouldn’t affect her, it was her element.
How to break the crazy bitch’s concentration?
As though some divine being heard her question, a large shadow loomed behind the nymph. It rose to terrifying heights with deadly claws and razor sharp teeth. The grizzly bear’s massive body slammed through the flames as though they were nonexistent.
Avyn must’ve seen Izzy’s eyes widen because the ring of fire faltered for a moment before she turned around to see the beast lumbering towards her. Her scream of fear echoed along with the feral roar of the bear.
* * * *
The group huddled at the foot of the ladder leading into the tunnels. They were in the center of a long hallway that stretched north and south from the ladder. There were no torches, no lanterns, nothing to lighten up the gloom which made the sense of evil and despair clouding the air stifling. It seemed to press down on Grant as he tried to get his bearings.
“Is this a spell?” Rosetta asked.
Fallon frowned, his silver eyes gleaming in the darkness. “It is something, yes.”
Saga, who stood next to Grant, didn’t move, didn’t speak. One look in her eyes and he wondered if the tough Amazon had a phobia about being underground. When she glanced back at him, he saw the wildness and panic growing in her eyes.
“You should go back up,” he told her in a low voice so the others wouldn’t hear.
She shook her head. “Izzy needs me.”
He admired her willingness to overcome her fear for a friend, but he didn’t want any weak links. If they were distracted because Saga freaked out, Isola would suffer for it.
“Someone needs to stay here to make sure we’re not followed down.”
The look she cast him was filled with disbelief and just a hint of relief. “Maybe you’re not a total asshole, minotaur,” she murmured as she took a step away from him.
“Saga’s staying here to guard our backs,” Grant announced to the group. Rosetta looked between him and Saga as though she knew what was going on, but surprisingly, she said nothing. “Ricky, you stay with her in case your deputies show up.”
Saga’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head at the last bit, but Grant didn’t give her time to protest. Nodding to his cousin, he led the rest of the group to the right of the ladder. There were scuff marks in the dirt that spoke of recent travel. He prayed it was the correct direction.
They reached the end of the corridor to see it took a sharp left turn. The air was thick with menace, the darkness lending a spooky feeling to the tunnel. Grant glanced back the direction they’d come from to see Ricky and Saga staring after them.
He waved to them before following the corridor. He couldn’t believe there was a system of tunnels like this near his home. It seemed more like the kind of thing you’d see in a Hollywood movie than in Eustis, Wyoming. The stone walls were smooth and worn as though they’d been there for generations. The floor was well-worn and dusty except for the large footprints the group followed.
A wall loomed before him before the tunnel jutted off in opposite directions. He didn’t know which way to go, left or right? If they went left again, they’d be closer to where they began. He frowned at the ground, trying to see the footprints, but they were mysteriously absent.
Grant froze his body tense as he heard a scream accompanied by the roar of a maddened bear ring through the tunnels. The scream was one of sheer terror. Isola. His heart quickened, pumping adrenaline through his veins. No, he couldn’t lose her. Not yet.
He was running down the right corridor before the scream died. The change came over him between one step and another, his hooves falling out of his boots and ringing on the flagstone floor.
Nearly mindless with the need to reach and protect his mate, Grant stormed down the tunnel, following the rose scent of Isola. In spite of his speed and single-minded focus, his eyes took in the various spots where someone had been dragged through the accumulated dust. At one point, he saw a streak of blood in the dirt and felt his heart stop. Gods, she had to be okay, or he’d go mad.
The sharp, metallic scent of blood hovered in the air the further down the tunnel they went. It took all of his strength not to gag at the stench of blood and singed fur.
“Shit!”
It was Isola’s voice, a hoarse shout followed by the thump of a body falling to the ground.
Grant rounded the corner of the tunnel and stopped, not sure what he was seeing. Isola was crumpled against the wall further along the corridor. Her legs were in an awkward sprawl, her head hanging to the side. She looked like a broken rag doll.
A grizzly bear faced her with the bloody remains of a female at his feet. The female had been mauled beyond recognition. Blood soaked the ground, spilling towards Grant’s shocked group. A charred circle blackened the stones beneath the body as though a great fire had burned.
The bear roared again, the sound feral and angry. It didn’t even notice Grant and his group, his entire focus on Isola’s limp form. She didn’t move, didn’t acknowledge the massive beast standing in front of her.
Grant prayed she was still alive, only unconscious. Not that it would save the bear either way. The bastard had dared to steal Isola, to hurt her.
Hands reached out to stop him, but the minotaur charged through them. His mate was in danger and the only thing that stood between them was a grizzly bear with a death wish.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Izzy felt more than heard Dov roaring at her. There was a ringing in her ears and she couldn’t breathe well. Her mind kept playing back the scene of Dov slaughtering Avyn. She needed to move, to get out of his way. He was in bloodlust, maddened by the burns the nymph had inflicted upon him and lost to his animal. Izzy really liked having her head and arms attached to her body, so she needed to move.
Except moving was not something her limbs could do at the moment. She’d tried to slip around Dov while he was busy with Avyn, but he’d slammed her back again and again until finally, he threw her into the wall. She’d cracked her head but good, which was probably why she saw about ten million ugly grizzly bears in front of her.
Staring into Dov’s beady brown eyes, Izzy knew this was it. She was looking death straight in the eye and that bullshit about your life passing before your eyes was just that, bullshit. She didn’t see the life she’d lived, she saw the life she could’ve had with Grant. The kids—little monsters with Grant’s smile and her sense of humor, the fights and makeup sex she’d miss out with her mate. The personality clashes with his mother, the budding friendship with his father. She saw it all and wanted it so badly, she dreamed that Grant was in the tunnel with her.
Izzy blinked, taking in Grant’s muscled torso, his massive horns, his muscled flanks. He was in his half-man, half-bull form, his fangs bared as he launched himself at the grizzly.
Wow, this is some hallucination. Because there was a loud crash as the bear and minotaur met in the center of the corridor. The grizzly outweighed the minotaur by a few hundred pounds, but Grant had opposable thumbs.
Izzy giggled. Her mate used his massive horns to keep Dov’s teeth away
from his face and neck, while he used powerful arms to hold Dov at bay. The two struggled in the center of the tunnel, their grunts and roars drowning out all other sounds.
When a masculine face appeared inches from hers, Izzy acted on instinct. Her knee connected with the man’s chin, snapping his head back.
Vicious curses in French singed her ears causing her to blink. “Fallon?”
“Yes,” he hissed at her, appearing back in her line of sight, though this time he was several feet away. He was bleeding from his lip and a bruise was already forming on his chin. “You will not kick me again?”
Izzy tried to shake her head, but her brains almost fell out of her ear. “No, won’t kick you again.” Her voice was slurred as though she’d had too many of Duffy’s Atomic Bombs.
“…concussion. Should we move her?”
“…away from the…”
“…get his ass kicked…”
The words of various voices bombarded her brain. Three of her tribe sisters and Fallon blocked her view of the battle taking place behind them. She wasn’t sure if it was her eyesight or the darkness of the corridor, but all she saw were shadows. Grunts and roars were a steady backdrop to the higher-pitched tones of her sisters.
Rosetta’s face loomed in front of her eyes. “Baby girl, we’re gonna move you somewhere else so your minotaur doesn’t trample you, okay?”
Izzy moaned a denial. She had to be here for Grant. Yes, she was about as useless as a deflated balloon, but she was his spiritual cheerleader. Even if she wasn’t able to talk without sounding like she’d just come off a five-day drinking binge.
Hands gripped her arms and legs, lifting her off the ground. Her head lolled back, her neck seeming incapable of holding it up. Someone, bless their evil little heart, hurried to prop up her head. They’d taken no more than three steps away from the fight when a bellow startled her carriers so much they dropped her.
They were trying to finish her off. Izzy groaned, the pain in her head and chest multiplying by a thousand. Her ass landed on something pointy because apparently she hadn’t sustained enough injuries so far. Her mind spun away, wrapped in fog and pain and dreams of Grant fighting for her.
* * * *
Saga’s eyes narrowed down the corridor where Grant and the rest of the party had disappeared. She should be with them, should have had the strength to get over her phobia, but she hadn’t. Even now, as pissed off as she was at being stuck with Ricky the Randy Bear she could feel the weight of the soil above their heads.
Her palms were sweaty, her heart pounded, and she wanted nothing more than to run from the tunnel like a scared little girl. But that would mean exposing her fear to Ricky.
She glanced at him to find him staring at her. He hadn’t looked away the entire time the others had been gone and it was getting on her nerves.
“Do you have a problem, bear?”
He smiled. “Nope.”
Saga snarled.
“You sound just like my great-aunt Euphemie when she doesn’t get her honey.”
The bear’s hair should’ve caught on fire from the heat of her glare, but he just smiled at her. He was cute, she supposed. Even if his smile made her want to punch the dopey grin off his face. In spite of her violent feelings towards him, Saga couldn’t lie to herself. The bear pushed her buttons—buttons she’d forgotten she had. Which was why it was so important to keep him at arm’s length.
“Don’t talk to me, bear,” she growled, turning away from him to stare back down the tunnel.
Her worry for Izzy was like that of a mother for her child and dammit, she’d tried not to get so close to the brat for this very reason. How many times did she need to lose people close to her before she learned not to grow attached? She could’ve smacked herself in the forehead for her stupidity, but that would mean showing the bear her self-loathing.
“So your Amazon and my cousin…” he said as though he hadn’t even listened to her. “That’ll almost make us family.”
Holding back her snort was almost painful. As if she’d claim any kind of relationship with this burly shifter. Ha!
“Why, we’d be like…kissing cousins.”
Why did that make her nipples tighten? Saga glared down the corridor. The others needed to hurry up and come back before she committed murder.
At least she wasn’t freaking out over being in the tunnel anymore. The bear was good for something at least.
“So, you wanna?” he asked in that deep, gravelly voice she felt all the way to the depths of her soul.
She flicked him a quick glance over her shoulder only to see he’d crept up on her. He was close enough to touch. Damn him!
“Do I want to what?” She’d meant to sound impatient, but instead sounded more than a little breathless.
“Kiss.”
Her head reared back which put her face even closer to his. Oh, no, she did not mean to do that! But the damned bear seemed to take it as an invitation.
* * * *
With a toss of his horns, Grant sent the grizzly’s limp body flying across the tunnel. His chest heaved as he struggled to contain his Minotaur’s Rage.
He tried the deep breathing techniques he’d learned during his transition, but nothing helped ease the dangerous fury coursing through his body. He needed Isola, his mate. She was the only one who could bring him out of the rage.
Turning to the last place he’d seen her, Grant saw the Amazons and Fallon lifting Isola. Her body was limp, her head had to be supported, and he could see the splatter of blood where her skull had met the stone wall. He bellowed his fury and fear for his mate, causing the group to drop her.
She grunted as she hit the ground, her face twisting into a grimace. Then her face went slack. Grant’s heart stopped beating for a split second. His roar scattered the Amazons, though Rosetta hovered over Isola protectively, her sword clutched in her hand.
“You need to calm that shit down, bull, or I will castrate you.” The threat would have been more effective if she hadn’t sounded like she was about to piss herself.
Grant sent her a look that spoke volumes and encouraged the Amazon to step away from Isola.
His mate was sprawled on her back, arms and legs splayed. She looked fragile in a way he’d never seen before. He approached her carefully, making sure not to go too near her with his hooves.
Once he was close enough to smell her musky rose scent, to feel the warmth of her skin, and hear the faint thud of her heartbeat, the tension and anger flowed from him. He shifted to his human form, unmindful of the free show he was giving the Amazons.
His hand trembled as he reached out to touch her face. The instant his fingers came into contact with her skin, a sizzle of electricity raced up his arm and through his body. He threw his head back at the rush of painful ecstasy. His nostrils burned at the smell of ozone in the air, his eyes shut as a field of bright blue surrounded him and Isola. The mating bond roared through him with all the subtlety of a typhoon. The mating dance was now over. They were bonded for eternity.
She mumbled something, but her words were so slurred, he couldn’t understand her. Hope surged through him for the first time since he found out she was gone. It was done, they were bonded. Relief and love and panic filled him. Relief that she was alive and aware of her surroundings. Love because she was the mate of his heart and soul. And panic because there was no telling how she’d react when she realized that she would soon be pregnant with his child.
“Just rest, Isola,” he told her in a soothing voice even as he ached to crush her against his chest. There would be plenty of time for that later, when she felt better. “You’re safe, the bear is dead. We’ll get out of here and back to the ranch just as soon as you’re feeling better.”
“No ranch. Can’t go.”
Grant stared at her. “Of course you can, you need to recover.”
“I’ll be outcast.”
The mutinous expression on her face told him she wouldn’t budge on this. He wondered if it mat
tered to her that they were now intertwined so deeply, he could feel the pain in her heart?
“Don’t worry about that right now, Izzy,” Rosetta said in a hushed voice. She sounded concerned. “You need to get better, and his ranch is closer than the Snow Blind Tribe.”
“Where’s Saga?” his mate demanded as she avoided his eyes.
“We left her and Ricky at the start of the tunnel to watch our backs.”
Her eyes drifted closed as though she didn’t have the strength to keep them open. “We need to move her,” he said to everyone and no one.
His mate was going to choose her tribe over him even after their bond had snapped into place. He wanted to howl, wanted to tear that damn grizzly up all over again, but instead, he gently lifted his mate into his arms. The limpness of her limbs worried him as did the fresh blood sliding down his arm from the back of her head.
“Should we go back the way we came?” Rosetta asked with a worried look at Isola.
“We can’t leave Saga with that bear for long,” one of the other Amazons stated. She nodded to Grant. “We weren’t introduced, minotaur. I’m Ocean, Saga’s sister, and this is Ravanna.” She nodded her head towards the other Amazon. “Saga doesn’t like your cousin much and if she’s with him for long, she might, um, put a little hurtin’ on him.”
Grant studied Ocean carefully. Now that he was looking at her, he saw she had the same clear blue eyes as Saga and similar facial features. She was a lot calmer and more open than her sister. A casual sniff in her direction told him she was mated to a werewolf.
“Okay, but if there’s a fight, someone needs to take Isola out of here.”
Fallon stepped up, his face creased with worry and tension. “I will take ma fouine out for you, taureau.”
He didn’t like it, but he knew if her life was in danger, he’d want to fight to protect her and he couldn’t do that with Isola in his arms. The incubus had shown himself to be a stalwart friend to Grant’s mate. There were no sexual looks exchanged between them, no scent of lust in the air when they spoke.
