by T. S. Ryder
Determination filled Ricky, although he wasn’t sure what he’d be able to do if they were attacked. He reached for Diana’s hand. The least he could do was distract her from her fear of the situation.
“I thought that you were only in love with Bobby. I’m sorry for not talking to you.”
Diana ducked her head. “I don’t mean this as a criticism, but Bobby’s the only one who has allowed himself to be soft with me on a day-to-day basis. The rest of you . . . need to have a crisis before you open up. And I’m not saying you have to change. I need to accept who you are—”
“I want to change. I want to be able to ask for help. I don’t want to be such a hard-headed, stubborn fool.” Ricky took a deep breath. Admitting his own weaknesses wasn’t exactly something that he had much experience with. Being seeing as weak when he was a fifteen-year-old boy tasked with leading a clan would have weakened his ability to lead, but refusing help now when he was established? That was sheer lunacy. “I want to learn how to be more flexible with life. Not to be so focused on work. To actually have a life.”
Bobby returned with the blankets. Diana spread one over Ricky and another over Kurtis before allowing Bobby to wrap her in one. Ruby came into the room, shook her head, and perched on the couch.
“We’ll figure out something that you can enjoy doing that isn’t work,” Diana told Ricky, her hand in his. “Maybe, I don’t know, pottery. That way you’re still playing in the dirt, since you like it so much. Oh, and we can remake that Ghost scene. It’s hot.”
Even though her tone was light and playful, Ricky nodded seriously. He needed something outside of work and had never really done anything creative with his life before. Pottery wasn’t something he’d have come up with on his own, but what was the harm in it? He’d do everything that Diana suggested until they found something that they both enjoyed and could do together.
The landline rang. All of them looked at it and Ruby lunged. She answered. Her face went white. “Wait!” She flinched, then stared at the phone as though it was going to bite her. She trembled as she looked at the clock. They all watched her, anxious. Ricky couldn’t make himself ask her what the call had been about, too afraid of what the answer would be.
“He said he’s coming for Diana and he’ll take her at midnight.” Ruby shuddered. “We have ten minutes before he . . . ”
Ricky’s bear roared and he forced himself to sit. Ten minutes. “I’ll kill him if he tries to touch you, Diana. I’ll—”
A wave of nausea and pain washed over him. He collapsed back down. Panic beat in his chest. If he couldn’t even sit, how was he meant to protect her?
Chapter Twenty-Three – Kurtis
Kurtis hadn’t been sleeping. He wasn’t sure if Ricky would have opened up to Diana the way he had if he knew that the other alpha was awake. So, Kurtis had pretended to sleep. The painkillers and rest had helped him immensely. There was a hitch in his breath and his back throbbed, but it wasn’t so bad anymore. Furthermore, they’d dug the bullet out, so that had allowed him to start healing properly.
That meant that he could drag himself to his feet with some effort. It made sweat bead his forehead and he grunted with the effort, but he stood. They had ten minutes. Not long enough to come up with a full defense plan.
“We need to barricade the house,” he grunted.
“I’ll get Ricky to the bathroom upstairs.” Ruby pounced on the groaning alpha as Diana scrambled to her feet and took Kurtis’ arm.
“You need to stay down. You’ll hurt—”
“I figured out who’s after you,” Kurtis interrupted. He had been thinking about it ever since the attack. He paid close attention to what was going on in the mainland. He hadn’t thought that it would reach out this far, but the attack, the games . . . It made sense.
Bobby flicked the lights off, then charged out of the room. Moments later, the lights that they had installed outside the house came on. Ruby struggled to get Ricky up. Even just moving to sit on the couch made him look like he was about to pass out. As much as he tried to shove his weakness aside, Kurtis’ legs trembled. Diana propped him up, and he grimaced at his own weakness.
“It’s the Alphabet Killer,” he breathed out. “Diana, you need to get upstairs. Lock yourself in one of the rooms. He can’t get you.”
Ruby reached out and grabbed Diana’s arm. “Separating right now is the stupidest thing we can do. Bobby! Get your ass back in here. Haven’t any of you seen horror films?”
Bobby returned moments later and closed the door behind him. He dragged a heavy bookshelf in front of it and glanced at them. “Diana!”
Kurtis’ arm wrapped around her as her legs buckled. The extra weight brought him down and they landed on the couch next to Ricky. He grunted but grabbed Diana’s hand.
“I’m fine. I just—” Diana stopped. “We have to barricade the room. He doesn’t like clean kills. He—” She swayed on the spot, the blood draining from her face. It was him. Bile rose in her throat, and she wanted to scream but couldn’t make a noise.
“He won’t touch you,” Ricky snarled. “He won’t . . . ” His eyes rolled back and Kurtis grasped his shoulder.
Kurtis’ heart pounded. In his current state, there was very little he could do to help. Bobby and Ruby blocked all of the doors except the one that led upstairs. Diana helped him to his feet and the other two dragged the couch toward the staircase. The killer had probably waited so long to strike because he had been thrown off by the fact that they could turn into bears, but he had his plan now . . .
Bobby moved to help Ricky, then snarled. “We’re not going to run and hide. Even if we get upstairs safely, this Alphabet Killer can chase us out by setting the house on fire. He’s already proven that he can set fires in this storm; look what he did to the town.”
Kurtis had never seen Bobby look so determined before, his teeth bared and his shoulders bunched. His canines lengthened, and a fierce grin crossed his face. “We know he’s here and he’s given himself a deadline — one that already passed. He wants us running scared, but he’s cornered us.”
In a blink, Bobby had shifted. His bear seemed huge in the living room, and he touched Diana’s chest with his nose, urging her down. Ruby shifted as well.
Kurtis tried, but his bear refused to come forward. It circled, whining plaintively. Apparently, it had decided he was too injured to shift. But I need to protect Diana!
Ricky snarled, sounding as frustrated as Kurtis felt. Kurtis floundered for a moment. The thunder cracking overhead reminded him of the day that he lost his parents . . . They had gone to the mainland despite the warning signs and had been caught in a storm on the way back. The boat had run into rocks and then was tossed back into the ocean waves. He’d heard them scream, and then the stormy ocean swallowed them.
Not this time.
He grabbed the radio. “Noel, come in.”
Static. He tried the town. Nothing. The fire chief didn’t answer. Neither did the doctor or anybody else. The storm was interfering with the radio signals. He tried the landline and found that it didn’t even have a dial tone. His heart stopped. Even as he opened his mouth to tell the others, the lights outside went out. Power surge? Or lines cut?
He guessed that it was the latter.
Kurtis pushed Diana into Ricky’s arms as he stood. His heart slammed against his ribs over and over, adrenaline flooding him. It made it difficult to think clearly. What would the killer have to gain by making sure they couldn’t turn on lights — other than to frighten them? He glanced at the clock, sitting exactly at twelve, and a shiver ran down his spine.
Each of the killer’s former victims’ significant others had reported getting such a phone call, telling them that they would lose their loved one. Always too late to actually save them. This time was different for the Alphabet Killer. Going after a woman protected by four men must have been a delightful challenge to him.
Come on, he urged his bear. We can’t defend her like this.
His
bear pushed against his chest but wouldn’t come forward.
Both Bobby and Ruby’s heads swung up. Kurtis strained his ears as he sank next to Diana and wrapped his arms around her. His body would be a shield, if nothing else. Were those footsteps upstairs? Or was it just his imagination?
A flash of lightning was accompanied by thunder. A figure stood at the window, illuminated through the curtain. Diana screamed. Bobby roared. Kurtis tensed, tightening his grip on her. Even as he opened his mouth, Bobby threw himself forward. He broke through the glass, sending shards every which way. There was a muffled shout from outside, and then Bobby raced off into the darkness.
“No!” Kurtis shouted.
“Let him,” Ricky grunted. “He’ll catch him.”
Or he had just run himself off into a trap. Kurtis growled as he pushed himself to his feet again. In any case, they had to assume that the danger was still there. The broken window, curtains twisting in the wind as rain lashed them, left them vulnerable. He seized Ricky around the shoulders and pulled him up. Ricky let out a cry of pain, but Kurtis ignored it.
“Ruby. Get over here.” The other bear padded over and Kurtis slung Ricky over her back. “Get him upstairs. Diana, stay close to me.” Ruby was slowly making her way to the door with Ricky on her back.
Diana folded against Kurtis’ side. Her whole body trembled as he fought with his bear, trying to bring it forward. Pain exploded in his back as he started the shift, making him sag against her again. A frustrated growl reverberated from his throat. How could he help her when he was barred from his weapon? His bear?
Gunshots broke through the thunder, making them all whip toward the window. There was a cry of pain outside and Diana ripped away from him. She raced toward the window, a cry on her lips. Ricky shouted and lunged, slipping half-off Ruby. Kurtis seized Diana around the waist and hauled her toward the stairs.
“Bobby!” she screamed as more gunshots went off.
“Diana!” Kurtis grunted as her elbow connected with his chest. “Diana, stop! You won’t be able to help him. We need to stay safe until Noel gets back.”
Diana didn’t seem to be listening. Distress coated her face like sweat, and she let out a plaintive scream. “Don’t hurt them! Take me if you want, but don’t hurt them!”
Kurtis had started to haul her up the stairs when a scent hit his nose. Gunpowder, kerosene. It wafted down from above. His bear surged to the surface and he pushed Diana down, shielding her with his body. Something darker than the darkness surrounding it moved and his animal brain took over.
This time his bear needed no coaxing. He had shifted before he was fully aware of what he was doing. Ruby cried after him, but he charged up the stairs, roaring. The shadow moved and he rammed into it. The wall buckled and glass splintered. Pain exploded from his shoulder as he backed away to see the ruined remains of a mirror crash around him.
A mirror?
He turned back around to see another flash of light and a crack of thunder. Only, this light didn’t come from outside. Ricky shouted. Diana screamed. Gunpowder. Blood. Ruby collapsed. Kurtis charged back down the stairs, heart in his throat and mind utterly blank. A shadow seized Diana, yanked her away. Another flash of light, more thunder — not thunder, a gunshot.
Fiery pain bit into his shoulder. His leg instantly gave out and he collapsed, tumbling down the last few sets of stairs. Diana screamed from the window.
“Diana,” Ricky croaked.
There was no movement from Ruby.
Kurtis tried to push himself up, but his leg gave away again. Headlights flared outside, and all he could do was scream with the pain of knowing that he had failed.
Chapter Twenty-Four – Bobby
When Bobby charged out of the window at the shape standing there, he hadn’t been thinking. So, it was no wonder, really, that he hadn’t accomplished anything. It had been a trap, and he had lost the killer shortly after he had left the house. It was several minutes of chasing shadows before his brain kicked in and told him to go back. As he did so, gunshots rang out.
Diana. He wheeled about, headed toward the house. There was a roar of pain and more gunshots. Bobby saw with half a brain that there were several bears down; he didn’t stop to look at them as headlights flared to life.
He heard Diana’s scream. Adrenaline flooded his system. He leaped over a bear laying in the mud and charged straight for the car. A gunshot went off, then another one. He felt something burning in his chest, but there was no space in his brain to analyze it. A roar echoed from his mouth as he saw a gray face. Diana dove from the car and a man jumped on her. He hurled a gun away just as Bobby got to him. A knife flashed in his hand.
Bobby ran into the man, knocking him away from Diana. She scrambled to her feet and Bobby turned to her, nudging her back to the house. Fiery pain bit into his side. He roared and whipped around again. The killer was on his knees before him. Blood dripped from his knife as he stabbed at Bobby’s face. The blade cut through his cheek.
This was the man who had been terrorizing Diana. The man who wanted to kill her.
He deserved no mercy.
Bobby threw his full weight onto the killer. The man howled in pain as claws tore through him. Blood exploded on Bobby’s tongue and the knife went into his body again and again. Bobby felt it, the pain making it difficult to concentrate, but he found the killer’s throat and shook his whole body from side to side. Bobby felt the killer’s spine snap and dropped him. Then, he shifted into a human, grabbed the knife that had been plunging into his own body, and drew it across the man’s throat: hard, fast. Blood welled up.
Bobby left him face-down in a puddle, just to be certain, and turned back to the house. Lightning flickered and thunder crashed. The lights came back on, flooding the scene. Noel and several other bears struggled to their feet, mud and blood mingled on their chests. From the pained expressions on their faces, they had arrived just in time to get shot. The killer must have used up most of his bullets on them.
Diana appeared at the window, but in the next second, she disappeared. Bobby and Noel both howled and flung themselves forward, collapsing next to the house.
“Get them in, quickly,” Diana shouted.
Everything pitched around Bobby, but before he knew it, he smelled her scent envelop him. Clean. Fresh. She helped him to his feet, and though he tried not to lean too heavily on her, he couldn’t stop himself. She brought him into the living room and laid him on the carpet next to Ruby. Her face was ashen, but her chest rose and fell gently.
Ricky was on the couch, but Kurtis helped Diana bring Noel and the rest of the bears in before collapsing again.
“Diana,” Noel growled. “Diana, get to safety . . . ”
“The killer is dead.” Her voice was strong, even as Bobby became aware of just how badly he himself was damaged. “Lie still, all of you. Try not to move too much.”
It felt like another few days that Bobby lay on the floor, everything spinning around him, but in reality, it was only a few hours. Diana taped a blanket over the broken window, lit a fire, and cut their wet, ruined clothing off of all of them. Then she set about trying to tend to their many, many wounds. Bobby’s brain faded in and out of focus until, eventually, the doctor leaned over him.
“You did pretty well for someone with no medical training,” the doctor said to Diana over her shoulder.
Diana replied, “There was still some styptic powder from when Noel brought the sea lion in. I thought . . . I needed to stop the bleeding, if nothing else. Are they going to be okay?”
Bobby took a deep breath and tried to sit, but the doctor held him down. He fought weakly, needing to go to Diana and assure him that she was okay, but he couldn’t get himself up.
“They’re going to be fine if they can stay put.” The doctor gave him a stern look. “Lie still, Mr. Frazier. Your mate is fine. She’s unharmed. Now, you need to get better for her, okay? So just lie still.”
Bobby sunk back into the carpet. Diana was unharmed
. . . That was enough for him to lose consciousness entirely and fade back into the blackness.
***
It took several weeks for the alphas to recover. They all moved into town, where the doctor could better look after them. At first, all they did was sleep. Once the petty arguments started, they knew they were ready to go back home. It turned out Noel and his posse had figured out that the killer had somehow been listening in on the radio, and so he had said they were further away than they were to try to ambush him.
It worked . . . Except that he managed to get the drop on them anyway and shoot them all. Ruby was also shot, and Kurtis had sustained more injuries. The stab wounds that Bobby suffered where all focused on the sides of his chest and shoulders, so in the end, he was the one least in danger from the attack.
Recovery was slow, though. Luckily, renovating the house wasn’t. When they got back, there was no evidence that a battle had gone on in the living room. All the furniture had been replaced and there was a new window in place of the one that had been broken. Anybody coming in from the outside would never have guessed what happened.
Bobby woke one morning after falling asleep on the couch to hear Diana and Kurtis talking to one another. From the sound of it, they were sitting on the stairs. He wondered sleepily if it was something he ought to listen in on, but he was so warm and cozy (and not in pain for once) that he didn’t want to move. He closed his eyes, trying to block it out.
“I’ve known and been comfortable with my sexuality since I was a kid,” Kurtis said softly. “And it might be cliché to say that I don’t like labels, but I don’t. But if I had to say, I’d call myself polysexual rather than bi. I knew when I was a teen that monogamy wasn’t for me. Not that I want to sleep with everything that has two legs,” he added, “just that my most stable relationships would be with more than one person. I’m just glad that I found two who are totes in love with each other, too.”
Diana laughed softly and Bobby’s heart warmed to hear it. “Totes, huh? You like to keep up with the jargon on the mainland?”
