by Lily Cahill
Were they talking about Hudson? Was she bait?
No. Please, please no.
Kay kicked and screamed and writhed against her captors. She broke free, and started to run blindly as cruel laughter erupted all around her.
Someone pushed her. Then another. She was in the middle of a crowd, all jostling her between them like a beach ball. Someone shoved her hard.
She fell and her blindfold came off.
She looked up and stared up at the faces of at least fifteen men. Each was blond and pale and bigger than the last. The sight was so jarring, she almost started to cry, but she drove the impulse down.
Make yourself human.
She couldn't let them see her as weak. She couldn't let them disregard her.
"That's enough boys," the awful voice said. She still couldn't see him. "Get to your patrols. You can have your fun later." Then he seemed to address someone specifically. "You. Lock her up."
Then someone was elbowing through the crowd toward her. The woman's face came into view, and it tugged at the corner of Kay's memory.
Without making eye contact, she yanked Kay up by her elbow and pulled her through the crowd.
Stay alert.
She was in a house. It was huge but empty. Camping chairs sufficed as the only furniture. Weapons were piled in the corners along with what appeared to be food stores. Black trash bags had been hung over all the windows. Nothing in her training had prepared her to interpret the meaning of all this.
Kay tried to count the men, and got up to seventeen before another face came into her line of vision. It was so awful, so ugly, that her breath caught in her throat.
The man was in his mid-sixties and fair like the rest of the people here. But where their hair was blond, his had gone white. It hung long and scraggly, which must have been to hide his face.
Four long scars tore across his face in a diagonal line. One eyelid was sewn shut and hollow where one of the scars intersected it. His top lip met the line of another scar, turning it into red track that ran all the way up to his nose.
She knew instantly that the face belonged to the awful voice. He looked her up and down.
"Scrawny," he said. "Won't be much fun later. You'd think he'd have better taste in mates."
Then man turned away from them. Kay instantly felt more at ease. She thought she could feel the woman relax at her side as well.
The woman brought her into a room and closed the door behind them both. This room too, was entirely empty. The only thing Kay could think of was that this was a rental house and these people were here temporarily.
Then she caught the woman's eye again. Looking at her straight on, the memory surfaced.
It was one of the women at the bar. One of the three sisters who were in the bathroom, and had been trying to get Hudson's attention.
"I know you," Kay said.
"No, you don't," the woman insisted.
"You're the third one. You're--you're Annika, right?"
"Quiet," Annika hissed. "Someone might be listening."
She pulled Kay into the corner of the room. "Look, I'm going to try to help you. Try. But you have to do exactly what I say, okay?"
Chapter Sixteen
Hudson
Hudson, Steve, and Ellen were in the chopper, scanning the road below with binoculars. They'd watched the security tapes at the hotel, had seen the van pull out and hook onto the onramp to the highway. They'd also discovered a tracking device on the helicopter, which must have been how the Zoltags had found them so fast. Hudson was pretty sure that had been the plan all along: scare them, then follow.
"There!" Steve shouted.
Hudson whirled around to Steve's vantage point. Sure enough, it was a black van, just like in the tapes. And it was going fast.
It took the next exit on the right hand side of the road.
"Larry, due East," Hudson said. "Keep your distance. I don't want them spooking and doing anything stupid."
They followed from above as the van navigated the back roads through a forest, then finally drew up at a large, isolated house.
"Find a place to land," Hudson commanded.
But there was nowhere nearby that was both enough far enough away to keep their presence a secret, and large enough to make a landing possible.
"I'm going to have to double back toward the highway," Larry said.
Hudson slammed his fist against his seat. This was all his fault. He should have been more careful. He should never have left her alone.
"Calm down, son," Steve said. "She needs us to stay level-headed right now."
Hudson knew his stepfather was right, but all he wanted to do was shift into his bear and attack. But he forced himself to focus. He forced himself to look down at the roads and memorize the route back to where they had taken her.
Finally, they found a place to land. Hudson didn't pay attention to his clothes. He didn't pay attention to whether or not Larry could see him. He shifted into his bear form and took off at a run.
Chapter Seventeen
Kay
"Don't make a sound. You must stay perfectly quiet. Do you understand?" Annika asked Kay in a whisper.
Kay nodded.
A few minutes ago, after a new guard was posted at Kay's door, Annika had crawled in a back window without anyone noticing. She'd led Kay back down the ladder with her before hiding the ladder away in an old shed. Then, Annika had sprayed both Kay and herself down with some sort of chemical to mask their smell. They were in the forest now, hidden under the thick canopy of a pine tree.
"Do you know about the bears?" Annika asked.
Kay furrowed her brow. What was she talking about?
Annika sighed, shook her head, then leaned in to whisper again. "Okay, I'm going to do something you may find frightening. But you cannot scream. If they hear you, we will both die. No matter what happens, no matter what you see, you cannot scream. Can you do that?"
Again, Kay nodded. If Annika was willing to help, she'd do whatever the woman asked.
"You need to ride on my back, okay?"
"Okay," Kay said. She moved to climb onto the taller woman's back, but Annika stopped her.
"Not yet. Just--oh, man--just remember to get on my back, okay? And hold on tight."
"Okay," Kay said.
Annika took off her clothes, folded them, and handed them to Kay. There were scars on Annika's body, deep pink gashes that made Kay want to look away. But then she raised her hands non-threateningly and stepped backward, maintaining eye contact with Kay.
No wonder she'd warned Kay not to be frightened. This was bizarre.
"I'm going to turn into a bear now," Annika said. "And then we're going to run."
"You're what?" Had she heard that right? Kay could have sworn the woman just said she was going to--
There was a rush of air and a flash of white.
Kay sucked in a sharp breath and slapped a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming.
An enormous polar bear now stood where Annika had been standing. It was pure white and lean. She looked into its eyes and swore they were the same sharp blue as Annika's.
Every instinct was screaming at her to run away. None of this could be true, could it?
But Annika had said ... she'd said she was going to turn into a bear. And now there was a bear standing in front of her. And a polar bear, no less. She didn't know a lot about bears, but she was fairly certain there shouldn't be any polar bears anywhere near Chicago.
Then she noticed the scars. Most were obscured by hair, but they were there, in the same pattern as what she'd seen on Annika's body.
Just as she was thinking this, the polar bear walked toward her slowly, maintaining eye-contact, then bowed low as though she was waiting for Kay to climb on.
Either Kay was going absolutely crazy, or she was about to ride out of here on the back of a bear-woman.
The words, stranger things have happened, popped into her mind. But she realized, with a laugh, that it wasn't tr
ue. It wasn't even close to true. This was, by far, the strangest thing that had ever happened to her.
The polar bear snarled at her when she laughed, and Kay bit her lip to keep quiet. Then she stuffed Annika's clothes down her shirt, climbed on Annika's shoulders, locked her legs around her middle, and held on tight.
Annika took off.
She was fast. Really fast.
Kay had ridden a motorcycle once in college and the feeling was similar, only there had been a seat, and a helmet, and a person to hold on to. This felt more like what it must feel like to ride a bull.
But somehow, she held on.
Together, they tore through the forest. Annika wasn't taking a straight line, but weaving in an odd pattern Kay couldn't identify. It felt like they were avoiding something--a lot of somethings. Could Annika's brothers do this too? Could they be out here roaming the forest, waiting to see them race past?
Kay couldn't stand to think of it. She closed her eyes and clutched Annika with all her strength as they barreled through the trees.
Chapter Eighteen
Hudson
Hudson heard something in the distance and shifted course away from the house. It was one of them, and it was moving fast, and he was going to kill them.
He felt Steve and Ellen change direction exactly as he did. They might be old, but they were still strong and fast. And from the smell of it, he would need all the help he could get.
The place reeked of bears--the same smell as what had been lurking outside his house, only stronger. Much, much stronger. Here, they were making no attempt to mask their odor. He wasn't sure how many, but it was more than ten. Possibly more than twenty. He would kill them all. Every last one. But first, he had to find Kay. He had to make sure she was safe.
Then he saw a flash of white racing toward him and smelled something inside the blur, faint but there. It was her. It was Kay. And that animal had her. He bounded toward the animal, teeth bared.
It was a polar bear. A big one. Pure white with a spattering of scars. And if he wasn't mistaken, Kay was riding on its back.
Instantly, Hudson backed off.
The polar bear stopped in front of him so abruptly that Kay tumbled to the ground. The bear--a female--raised on her hind legs and held up her paws. But the gesture wasn't menacing, it was friendly. Had this woman helped Kay?
He turned to look at Kay, who was staring right at him, wonder on her face. She stood up and looked at him, taking two slow steps forward.
"Hudson?" she asked.
Immediately, Hudson shifted into his human form and rushed toward her.
"Are you okay? I was so scared."
She was shivering in his arms, gripping him tight. He lifted her chin to look into her eyes.
"I'm so sorry, baby. I'm so, so sorry."
"You're a--? You can--?" she asked.
"Yes. And I have so much to tell you. But not here. We need to get you to safety. I need you to go with Ellen and Steve right now, okay? Can you do that for me?"
"Ellen and Steve?" Kay asked in a daze.
Just then, his stepparents loped through the trees. Steve as a brown bear and Ellen as a polar bear.
"Oh, okay," Kay said, noticing them. "Because that's normal."
"Go with them. Please," Hudson begged. He couldn't have her here for what came next. He needed to know she was safe. "I have some business to take care of."
The words snapped Kay out of her daze. "No. Hudson, you can't. There's at least twenty. I counted. Ask Annika." Kay pointed toward the polar bear. "She helped me escape."
The polar bear growled low and nosed Kay's stomach.
A look of understanding passed along Kay's face. She pulled a lump of clothing out of her shirt and threw it at the polar bear. The polar bear took them in her teeth, went behind a bush, and came back as a human woman.
"There are twenty-seven, including my father," Annika said.
Hudson's mind reeled at the number, but his shock paled in comparison to his rage. "And every one of them deserves to die," he growled.
"My brothers will kill you. They're waiting to kill you. You have one chance to survive--and to keep me alive too. And that's if you leave. Right now."
Steve shifted next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "She's right, Hudson. We have to go. You're outnumbered. We could take ten, maybe. But they've been training, preparing for this day their whole lives. We need reinforcements. We need your brothers."
Hudson turned to him slowly. "My what?" he asked.
"Your brothers. You'll have your chance for justice, son. But it can't happen without your brothers."
#
Within the hour, the four of them were boarding Hudson's private jet. They'd left Annika behind at her own insistence. She'd assured them she could make it back before Kay was discovered missing, and that it would be safer for her if she didn't run away.
On the jet, while Ellen and Steve slept on a couch on the opposite side of the cabin, Hudson explained everything to Kay--his abilities, what he'd just discovered about his mother and his own status as a prince.
"I hope you can forgive me, baby," he said. "I never meant to lie to you. It was just so early and I didn't want to scare you."
Kay looked up at him with wide, concerned eyes. "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I wouldn't have told me either. This is crazy, Hudson."
"I was going to tell you. I went to our room last night ready to tell you everything."
"I believe you," Kay said. "I do. But I don't know if I would have last night. I think I had to see it all with my own eyes."
"And now?" Hudson asked. "Are you still--? Do you still want to be with me?"
"Yes. But no more lies, okay? Shut the rest of the world out, fine. But I have to have access to you."
"I swear it. I want you to. I love you so much, Kay."
"I love you too," she said, her eyes tearing up.
"Really?" Hudson asked, his heart feeling a thousand times lighter.
"Yes," she said with a little laugh.
"Oh, Kay," he said. "You don't know how happy that makes me."
Hudson placed his hands on her face and pulled her in for a kiss. Feeling her lips on his felt like coming home. Finally, they parted, still grinning at each other.
"I do have a question, though," Kay said.
"Anything."
"Can you do anything else? Levitate? Read minds? Fly?"
Hudson laughed. "No. Just the bear thing."
"No sweat, then," Kay said jokingly. "I mean, I've seen stranger."
"Really?" Hudson asked with a laugh.
"No," Kay admitted with an even bigger laugh. "Big time no. I can say that with absolute certainty."
They laughed together at the absurdity of it all. Then Kay's face froze. She put her hand over her mouth.
"What's wrong?" he asked, suddenly worried.
"I just realized something," she said.
"What?"
"I think ... I think I might be ... pregnant," she said.
Hudson stared at her blankly, not quite sure he'd heard her correctly. "What did you say?"
"I tried to fake them out. Those other bears smelled me. It was just a ploy, but--they smelled me."
"You're not making any sense."
"I think I'm pregnant, Hudson."
"She is," Ellen said. Hudson looked up at her. Apparently, she had woken up and overheard them. She had moved from her position on the couch with Steve, and was now standing at his shoulder. "I smelled it too, when you both arrived at the lake house."
Stars whirled in front of his eyes.
He looked at Kay. "You're ...? I'm ... I'm going to be a dad?"
"Is that ... is it something you want?" Kay asked.
Was it something he wanted? Damn straight it was. He had never felt happier, more satisfied, more proud in his whole life. She was his, and she was carrying his child. There was no higher honor she could have bestowed upon him.
"Oh, Kay," he said, pulling her close.
"Yes. Of course it is."
"Really?" she asked, her eyes welling up with tears.
"If it was up to me," he growled, "I'd keep you pregnant for the next decade. I want a slew of cubs. And I want them all to have your eyes."
"Wait," Kay said, her face paling. "Did you just say cubs? Do they come out ...?"
Ellen placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry dear, it's a normal human birthing process. The cub part comes much, much later."
"Oh, thank God," Kay said.
Hudson hadn't considered her fear. In fact, he hadn't considered a lot of things. Realization suddenly dawned on him, and it twisted his gut. Those bastards had known she was pregnant. Those bastards had kidnapped his pregnant mate.
"How are you feeling?" he asked. "Are you okay?"
Kay looked at him, bewildered. "I'm fine," she said.
"What about the baby? Did those bastards--?"
"Calm down, son," Ellen said. "She's perfectly healthy. Everything's fine."
But her words didn't calm him one bit. He scooped Kay up in his arms.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"No more risks," he said. "From now on, you're taking it easy."
"Put me down," she said. "I'm not an invalid. I'm not even showing yet. I can walk."
"Doesn't matter. You need sleep and food before I'm letting you take another step on your own. Ellen? Can you please find her something to eat while I put her to bed?"
"Hudson," Kay sighed, rolling her eyes.
"Speaking of food, you're too small. You need to eat more. I insist on it."
"Hudson," Kay protested. "I'm fine. Put me down."
But this was not something he was willing to compromise on. He was taking her straight to the plane's master bedroom, and she was going to rest. Maybe after that they could discuss her walking on her own again.
"Do you remember what I told you the first night we were together? I told you that you deserved to be taken care of. And that goes double when you're carrying my child."
Kay sighed, looked over to Ellen. "I'm not going to win this fight, am I?" she asked.
"I don't think so, dear," Ellen laughed. "At least not tonight."
