It was a relief, but it still left him in the dark.
Stephen and Rosa were the first to step out onto the plateau. They didn’t show anything, but Bruce could tell Stephen felt it too. He was twitchy and his eyes shifted all over, looking out for something.
Lori was next and she stomped onto the plateau looking like she didn’t feel a thing. Bruce didn’t doubt that. She was big enough and strong enough not to fear too many things. Anything other than the Assassins was an afterthought to her, either because she was too close to her animal to care, or because she was too tied up in the preternatural world to have to really fend for herself.
Bruce wondered for a second what it would be like to be like her – to have absolutely no attachments. The only people Lori really were bound to were the members of the pack, and even then it had nothing to do with affection. It was purely because that was how it worked. He doubted she’d ever really invested herself, and if she had it was so long ago she couldn’t remember what it was really like.
He couldn’t imagine a life like that. Everywhere he’d been, even before he’d come to Williamsburg, he’d known people and loved them on some level.
Williamsburg was the one place that felt the most like home, but still. He couldn’t imagine a life without people, ties, connections, bonds. He couldn’t imagine a life without Jenna.
The conversation earlier had bothered him. She was so open-minded about it. She could have run for the hills and decided never to see him again after she found out what he was. Instead she wanted to know more about his life, wanted to make peace with it.
That was all good and well if it wasn’t so dangerous for her to be a part of his word. Just knowing about his world was bad enough already. He was edgy about it, nervous to leave her down there alone when all of the pack hadn’t arrived yet. There had been too many times already where one of them had been down there trying to kill her while he thought they were up in the mountains for a meeting.
Dwayne and Cleveland appeared at the same time as if his strength of will that they be present had summoned them. Dwayne glanced at Bruce with a strange expression, his eyes telling Bruce that he knew things that the others didn’t. Maybe he felt it too. Maybe he knew what it was. After the meeting he would have a chat with the guy, see if he could find out what was going on.
The feeling was starting to give him the scratch and he couldn’t shake it no matter what he did.
He held his breath as they all marched to the circle and stood facing each other. They didn’t say anything and the shift in power was clear, the hierarchy settling so that he was at the top of the pyramid. The others felt it too, their auras submissive toward him. The power always rearranged itself that way, but it felt different than usual. It was more distinct, like it was important. More than before.
When Tara finally stepped out of the trees Bruce let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. He’d been anxious about her turning up. He hadn’t forgotten that she was the last one of the pack members that had tried to kill Jenna. And he was the one that had shot her in the shoulder.
It didn’t look like it now, with how she moved, but she’d struggled to recover, fought a battle to pull through at all. It was her power that had saved her.
She walked onto the plateau and her power rolled over the bare ground and pushed against them. It made it harder to breathe, and Bruce was sure that whatever she was throwing off was adding to the feeling he still couldn’t shake. She moved like she was on the hunt and when she came closer he dropped his eyes because no matter how he’d come to despise he, she was still above him in rank and way more powerful.
Even without the extra boost his power had given her in the short time they’d tried to do a relationship.
“Well, it’s nice to see you all here together,” she said in a sugary voice that did nothing to hide how lethal she was and how much she was obviously ready to go out on the hunt. Bruce could smell her bloodlust.
None of them answered. Whatever she needed to say, he wanted her to say it so that he could get away from there. The power in the ground was restless, uncomfortable.
“I want to talk about the Assassins,” she said and the group shuffled as if the topic was something no one wanted to talk about. “I hear they still haven’t moved on.”
She glanced at Dwayne who nodded in confirmation.
Tara’s voice was hard when she spoke again. Her eyes were glowing a greenish color, heading swiftly toward the blinding white light that it became when she was about to change. The change was close. Her usual eyes didn’t look the way they did now.
“I want to know why that is. They’re smelling something here. Someone knows something and they think they can pick up on it.”
Bruce was aware of her teeth as she spoke. They seemed even worse than before, deadly and animalistic. She was losing her humanity and it wasn’t happening slowly.
“If there’s any human down there—“
She stopped talking and her eyes shifted to the trees. The feeling in the air grew until Bruce felt like it was going to suffocate him. Tara’s eyes started changing, went all the way to the bright light and the thin pupils that made him think she should rather have been a snake than a leopard.
“There’s a human here,” she said under her breath and her voice was low like she was growling. Bruce lifted his head and smelled the air, but all he could pick up on was Tara’s sudden aggression.
“It’s impossible for a human to get up here,” he said. Tara glared at him and then moved toward the trees at a speed that was much too fast for a human, using muscles that a human shouldn’t even have had. She disappeared into the trees and a moment later Bruce hear a small yelp.
The sound tugged at him like there was something very important he should know what he didn’t. And then Tara came out of the trees again, dragging a woman by the arm.
Dragging Jenna by the arm.
Bruce’s blood went cold and for a moment he felt dizzy. The pack gasped for breath.
“Impossible, is it?” Tara said and her voice was thin with rage. She was on the verge of losing control. Bruce glanced down at Jenna. She didn’t look scared as he thought she would. Maybe a bit rattled, but there was anger in her eyes, too. They were a brilliant green, a human green, but the anger was unmistakable.
“You human found us,” Tara said. Bruce’s stomach flipped. By saying your human it sounded like she knew about the mating. But she couldn’t know, could she? Not unless Dwayne had told her, because Bruce had no doubt the psychic knew.
When he glanced at Dwayne the man shook his head almost imperceptibly, as if he knew the question on Bruce’s mind. He hadn’t ratted him out. He liked the idea that there was another loyal in his pack, someone that had his back. But that took a backseat in his mind.
Tara had Jenna and she was beyond angry.
“We should have killed them all when we had the chance,” she sneered. “Taking out only the few humans that know leaves too many that can still find out.”
“Tara,” Dwayne said softly, trying to ease the situation. But she wouldn’t hear it. She threw Jenna down and Bruce went to run forward and check on his wife. Every muscle in his body was clenched tight and he had to bite on his jaw not to attack Tara for manhandling Jenna.
“Well, we’ll make this easy,” she said and her voice rolled out husky and on the verge of a growl. She was letting her animal go. All hell was going to break loose in about five seconds. “We’ll start with her and then work out way down the mountain.”
Tara brought on a part of the change. Her face pushed out, taking on a strange shape that was between her leopard and her human. Her fingers lengthened, her nails turning into black claws and her skin became hairy. But she kept her human shape, her ebony hair that trailed down her back like silk and her hips that swayed when she walked, so that she was rather a bi-pedal monster.
She turned and headed for Jenna, teeth bared and claws ready. Bruce lunged forward but he would be too slow. Jenna
screamed as the claws came down.
Instead of sinking her claws into Jenna’s cheek as Tara had planned, her hand bounced back as if there was a force around Jenna. She scrambled back, away from Tara, her eyes wide, her breathing too fast. If she didn’t focus on breathing slowly, she was going to hyperventilate.
“You have protection,” Tara said to Jenna, her eyes narrowed to thin slits. “A shifter’s protection.
She turned and her eyes found Bruce immediately.
“You’ve given her your protection,” she said.
“I’ve taken her as my mate,” Bruce answered, because it was better that Tara knew than that she thought there was some way around it. He wasn’t just Jenna’s bodyguard, he was her guardian. There was a very big difference.
Tara let out a sound that was something between a hiss and a low-throated growl, and launched toward Bruce, taking out her anger on him instead. This was what it was for. The bond that he’d forged with Jenna, the protection he’d given her by taking her as his mate. This was what it had been all about. Jenna could not be harmed, instead he would take her place.
He was ready for Tara, and by the time she reached him he was a bear. The shift came fast, the magic in the air making it easier, the fear for his wife making it less painful. It was like all sensation had left his body and all that was left was his quest to protect his own.
Tara was a leopard by the time she reached Bruce, having taken her shape, too and she attacked him with a scream that sounded eerily human coming out of her leopard throat.
How many times had they gone through this?
He was ready for her. He took her attack head on. Her claws scraped through the flesh on his chest and he roared but smacked her to the side with a sweep of his paw. She tumbled but regained her footing and launched again.
Bruce was aware of Dwayne moving toward Jenna and he wasn’t worried that the man would harm her. He crouched by her and Bruce knew that it was for peace. He didn’t know how he knew, he just did.
He didn’t have more time to think. Tara was on him again, her jaws cranked wide open, her eyes a bright white that had no feeling in them, nothing was a wish for death. She jumped on Bruce and he lost his balance, falling to the floor.
Tara latched onto his throat and tried to work through Bruce’s thick fur. He tried to peel her off but she clamped down so he started rolling.
He outweighed her by about two hundred pounds and his weight took its toll on her. Her animal made a strained sound as the air was forced out of her body. She squirmed underneath butch and he didn’t let up.
When her breathing was so shallow he could hardly hear it he let up. He wanted to drag her across the plateau and fling her off the cliff while she was too weak to survive the fall. He couldn’t look into her eyes and kill her without her rolling him with her mind, and every time he tried to get her face turned away from him she pulled it back to him.
She had other powers, mind powers that scared him.
From out of nowhere a wolf jumped on his back and he roared at the pain when it bit into his shoulder. It wasn’t as sore it was a surprise. The pack wasn’t supposed to get involved, the fight was between him and Tara.
By attacking Jenna, Tara had indirectly challenged Bruce. It was fight between the two of them. The pack wasn’t supposed to get involved. That didn’t stop them from getting in the mix though. Cleveland hung back and Dwayne was still crouched with Jenna who seemed to be frozen with her eyes glued to the fight.
But Stephen and Rosa had both shifted and he knew it was Stephen on his back. Rosa was crouched a few feet away with her lips curled back in a sneer, baring sharp teeth and glowing eyes that were downright scary.
Lori was in the throes of shifting to a bear. It was different than his change – she had less to fuel her and she was weaker. But the moment she was a bear Bruce would be in trouble. She matched him in size and weight and if she was against him, with two wolves and a wereleopard on her side he was outnumbered and overpowered by many.
He turned to Dwayne and for a moment he tried to read what was in the psychic’s eyes. And he found nothing comforting. He turned back to the pack that were suddenly all turned against him, and he knew that this fight was only going to end one way – in death. The only variable now was whose death it was going to be.
He launched at Tara again, the strongest of the pack but the leader. If he could kill her the others would have no choice but to submit. But the time Stephen had bought her by jumping on his back had given her enough time to recover from her lack of oxygen, and she was on her feet again, growling at Bruce.
He attacked her nevertheless, because as long as he was going for her, the pack would go for him instead of Jenna. He threw himself on her with teeth bared and claws slashing, trying to cause as much damage as he could. But the wolves were on him and Lori clapped him with a claw that left deep cuts into his skin. He started losing blood and the wolves managed to take chunks out of his fur, too. It was like once his skin was broken, his strength started leaking out those holes.
As if the others knew what was happening they eased off and it was easier for Tara alone to take Bruce on. She growled and at first Bruce thought it was aimed at him. But then he realized it was a command toward the others. A command that involved Jenna. He turned to her and roared as long and loud as he could.
Dwayne translated for Bruce.
“Run!” he shouted.
Jenna got up and headed for the trees, running like her life depended on it, because it did. Cleveland was a bird in less than a second and set off after her. He would guide her, Bruce knew. Cleveland was on his side.
The others set off into the trees after her. Bruce tried to stop them but they were faster, and finally he had to make do with knocking Tara down and trying to kill her. But the leopard got away from him, too, and he watched her white and yellow fur disappeared between the trees, after his wife.
He groaned and crumpled on the plateau, alone, hoping to god that Jenna was going to make it out. Because if she didn’t, he wouldn’t.
Chapter 1
Bruce watched the pack disappear between the trees and he died a little every second he had to wait for his body to repair itself. Jenna was in those woods, a human being chased by four shapeshifters who would think nothing of killing her. The only thing on his side was the fact that the moon was so far from full, just a thin sliver in the sky. The shifters wouldn’t lose control of the bit of humanity they had left as easily as if it were fuller.
Bruce’s body repaired itself quicker than a normal bear or human would – his immune system was strong and his wounds knit closed as he watched them. But time had slowed down and every second dragged by. It could be too late for Jenna. Any moment one of the shifters could catch up with her, and then she would be done for.
If Jenna died on Bruce’s watch he would never forgive himself. After all he had done to keep her safe, watched over her, mated her, that would be beyond ironic. It would be downright cruel.
It couldn’t have been more than a couple of minutes before Bruce was on his feet, but it had felt like hours. He ran into the trees, not caring for the smaller shrubs, just plundering his way through like the devil was after him. Or, more accurately, like the devil as after Jenna. The wounds were closed completely, but the skin on his shoulders and his back were tender and his muscles ached with every step. It didn’t matter.
What mattered was getting down the mountain as far as possible. He focused on himself as he ran through the trees, focused on the tug inside of him, the direct line that he knew he had with Jenna now. If he could find her he might be able to get to her. If he could find her, she was still alive.
Cleveland had gone with Jenna and there was no doubt in Bruce’s mind that it had been for him and not for the pack. The bird was flying with Jenna, showing her the right way, looking out for the shifters. He knew this as certainly as he knew Jenna was still alive. She wouldn’t be able to outrun them, and they would smell her if she hid, but Clev
eland would help her more than she would have been able to do for herself.
It took a while for Bruce to find Jenna. He was panicked and caught in the middle of the emotions that surged through him it was hard to be at peace enough to feel where she was. The animal was hovering on the verge of full control because Bruce was slowly losing his grip on his calm. He was panicking and it was going to go over into hysteria if he didn’t find her soon.
But somehow he managed to push everything to the back of his mind, to ignore the iron fist in his stomach, to ignore his heaving lungs and his hammering heart, and to focus on finding her.
The line was faint, like a phone line with too much static on it, but he found her. She was quite some distance down the mountain, and moving as fast as she could. She wasn’t on one of the pack’s natural paths and Bruce assumed that was because of Cleveland. When a shapeshifter knew the road he was traveling on he didn’t have to think. His body moved with the earth and that made it faster.
If it was unknown territory the trees didn’t seem to sway out of the way, the ground didn’t beg to reach out and meet your feet halfway so it felt like you were floating.
Bruce turned off the trail and into the trees. It was new territory for him, too, but he had a link with Jenna and he was going to find her, even if it meant he had to go straight through trees instead of around them. The way he took was straight down the mountain, the straightest path he could manage.
He would meet up with her. He just kept praying to whoever would listen that it wasn’t too late.
Somewhere he lost his footing and started falling. He hit the ground with his left shoulder and a sharp pain shot into his chest that made him grunt. He tumbled down hill, took out a tree that was young enough not to be rooted too deeply. It felt like everything that had just knitted itself together was tearing open again, and somewhere he felt warm thick liquid trickle into his eyes. It was his blood, he was sure of it.
BAD BOY ROMANCE: DIESEL: Contemporary Bad Boy Biker MC Romance (Box Set) (New Adult Sports Romance Short Stories Boxset) Page 89
