Celeste tried to sit up, but she couldn’t. Shea was about to help get the girl up, when a sleek black panther charged out of the woods and into the fight between Nico and the bear. Then, a Grizzly bear lumbered from the other side of the woods. The bear took air into his lungs and got a fiery look in his eyes. Shea wasn’t sure who the panther and grizzly bear were, and it made her nervous. She looked back at the polar bear to see him run off into the woods. The panther followed, while Nico stayed.
Nico walked over to where Celeste and Shea sat.
“We need to get her inside. She needs a doctor, Nico.” Before Nico could shift and take Celeste into the house, a very pissed off grizzly bear was there. He shifted quickly, and it was a very naked Doctor Graham Young. Graham picked Celeste up as carefully as he could, but she still whimpered in pain. Graham growled, but Shea got the feeling it was because the woman was in pain, not directed toward her.
Shea walked behind the large strides of the man, and opened the door to the house so he could carry her in. He laid her on the kitchen table and started barking out orders.
“I need a pillow and a blanket. Also, some water and a cloth, so I can wipe the blood away and see the damage that has been done.” Shea quickly retrieved the blanket and pillow and handed them over. Then she got a small bowl of water and a washcloth to him. Shea stood next to the man while he tried to clean the wounds without hurting Celeste.
Graham turned to Shea, and the fury on his face worried her enough that she backed up a step. He noticed the action and immediately calmed his features.
“I’m sorry. I’m not mad at you, just what happened to her. I need to stitch up some of these wounds, because they aren’t healing on their own. Are there supplies in this house?” Graham growled the first part, clearly trying to control his bear, but by the end was speaking almost normally. She wasn’t sure where the medical supplies were, but before she could answer, there was a rush of people entering the house. The noise of everyone talking at once was overwhelming, even to Shea’s ears, so she couldn’t imagine how the shifters were taking it.
Suddenly, there was a couch floating in the air. Everyone turned to look at the piece of furniture, and they stopped taking altogether. Shea looked over at Indigo, who was holding her son close and had levitated the couch with her mind.
“Now, everyone needs to calm down and shut up, so we can all find out what happened and who we need to kill. My first question is, where in the holy hell is my mate?” Indigo was a sweet woman, but no one wanted to cross her, because Shea could see the predator inside her, even if her shifted form wasn’t especially ferocious.
“Nico went after the polar bear who attacked Celeste and Hudson,” Shea answered.
“All right. Graham, what do you need to help Celeste?” Indigo asked, and everyone remained calm. Shea looked down as she felt a tug on her pants, and looked down at Hudson still in his bear form. She bent down and ran her hand over his head, soothing him.
Eira got what Graham needed, as Owen and Caleb shifted and went after the bear and the beta wolf. Dahlia went to her sister’s side and held her hand, speaking soothingly. Shea stood next to Graham, prepared to help in any way she could. A roar so loud that it shook the windows and had every shifter getting into defense mode went through the air. Everyone turned to the front door, before it burst open.
Chapter 11
Logan was furious. He knew that he shouldn’t have left his mate at the clan house, but he had been finishing a surprise for her. When he had felt his mate’s fear through their bond, he had gone insane. He got to the house as quickly as possible, only to find shifters all over the place. He scented the blood of the bear who had been lurking around his property, and he cursed himself for not hunting the thing down. Logan released as much of his anger as possible with a roar before he entered the clan house.
As soon as the door opened and he stepped through, all of the females that had been facing the door, ready for a fight, eased. They knew he wasn’t there to hurt them, so they retracted their claws, in a manner of speaking. Logan walked further into the house and narrowed his eyes at the sight before him. Shea, his mate, was standing next to a very naked grizzly bear shifter. Logan’s bear didn’t like that one bit, and prowled beneath the surface, waiting to be unleashed so it could tear the other bear to shreds. Logan controlled his urge enough to walk over to his mate and pick her up. He noticed a shifted Hudson at her feet, and picked him up with the other arm.
“Mine!” He snarled in the other bear’s face and waited to be challenged. Graham surprised the hell out of Logan when he blocked the view of the girl on the table more, and growled back at Logan.
“Mine!” The doctor smiled, and Logan calmed. He nodded his head to Graham, who nodded back, and he walked to the other side of the room with his mate. His attention immediately went to his mate.
“Are you all right?” He asked, as he ran his hands over her body, checking for injuries. “What happened? Where are you hurt?” He couldn’t stop the questions pouring out of him.
“Logan. I’m fine. Really. That bear scared the crap out of me, but that’s all. He didn’t touch me.” Logan pulled her into his arms and drew in her scent, calming his bear.
“Um, guys, there is one large polar bear coming back, and I don’t see any of the others.” Sade was watching through the back door. Graham snarled and met Logan’s eyes.
“I’m not done sewing her up. If I stop now, she’ll die.” Graham was desperate to go out there and have it out with the polar bear, Logan could tell, but he couldn’t let the girl die, either. Logan turned and kissed his mate.
“Stay in the house, all of you, and protect the cubs. This one’s mine.” Before anyone could protest, Logan walked to the back door, stripped, and shifted. Sade opened the door for him and immediately closed it after he walked through.
Logan watched the other bear’s movements as he walked down the porch to meet him. Darius snarled at him and showed his already bloody teeth. The girl had clearly gotten in some good hits, but the madness that was running through Darius was giving him strength.
Logan took two steps forward so Darius would step back and further from the house. Darius stepped back, and then stopped to roar at Logan. Logan didn’t move an inch. He wouldn’t be intimidated by this coward who attacked women and kids. Logan roared right back, and the other bear charged him.
Logan met Darius head on and stood up to push the bear back. Darius clawed at Logan’s side, barely making a scratch, but leaving himself open for Logan to dig his claws into Darius’s stomach. The bear roared in pain and tried to pull away. Logan wasn’t going to let him go, and dug his claws in deeper. The two bears wrestled to the ground, biting and clawing.
Logan knew Darius was done when the other bear frantically started thrashing under him to get away. Darius suddenly shifted. Logan growled at the bear’s cowardice and backed off of him. It wasn’t honorable to kill a shifter in human form while you were in animal form.
Out of the woods came a lion, two wolves, and a panther. Logan knew the lion was Caleb and the wolves were Nico and Owen, but he wasn’t sure who the panther was. They all began shifting so they could find out what was going on.
“Who the hell are you?” Caleb demanded of the panther. He had shifted into a man of about six feet, who wasn’t heavily muscled, but had the underlying strength of his animal. Black hair and green panther eyes met their stares.
“Liam McCoy. I have been on his trail for months.” Liam walked over and grabbed Darius by the hair, lifting him to his knees.
“Why?” Logan asked.
“He killed a young woman in our pack. Sweet girl. Only 19. I volunteered to go after him. Followed him to this town and wondered why exactly he came here.” Liam looked at Logan as he said this, and Logan figured the panther had probably scented there was a connection to Darius.
“He is Hudson’s biological father, isn’t he?” His mate’s soft question had him turning around to see all the women had come out
onto the porch, now that the situation was contained.
“Yes, love, he is.” Logan wasn’t going to lie to his mate. Shea began descending the steps, when Eira and Sade flanked her on both sides, assisting her with their arms. She reached the bottom and walked toward the kneeling man. He was bloody and beaten, but Logan didn’t want Shea anywhere near him.
Shea went to step closer to him, and Logan came up behind her and held tight to her shoulders.
“That’s far enough. I don’t trust him,” Logan grumbled, and Shea turned her head to look over her shoulder at him.
“Then trust me and you.” She reached up and grabbed his hand, taking him with her, and stopped in front of him.
“Your name is Darius.” Shea made a statement, not a question, but the man rolled his head back on his shoulders to look up at her and nodded. “Do you know who I am?” She asked, and once again he nodded. “You were trying to take Hudson, weren’t you?” He snarled when she said the name, and Logan pulled her back a couple steps.
“He is my son! And his name is Darius, not Hudson!” Darius snarled and fought, but Liam held him firmly.
“Wrong!” His mate yelled at the man over his snarling, causing Darius to stop and look at her. Shea took the two steps forward and again looked down at the crazed shifter.
“You tortured and killed my sister, and you tried to take my son. You came to my town and attacked a home with nothing but women and cubs in it, because you knew you wouldn’t win against us. That was your second mistake. Your first one was killing my sister.”
“This isn’t your town. You’re just a human whore birthing another shifter. You’re expendable, just like the rest of the human females here.” He sneered at the alpha female, and not only was Logan roaring at the man, but then so was Caleb.
Caleb and Logan stood over the man and looked down at him.
“These are the females of this pack! They are the heart and soul of this town. You tried to take a cub from one of them. That means you tried to take a cub from all of us.” Caleb’s voice was gravelly but deadly serious and Darius paled at his words.
“You know what that means, don’t you?” Eira asked, as she approached and stood next to Shea. Logan and Caleb turned and stood next to the man and let Eira speak. When Darius didn’t attempt to speak, Eira smiled coldly. “What that means is that we decide your fate. While I am sorry for the young woman’s family from your pack, Mr. McCoy, Darius will not be leaving here without our say so.”
“My pack merely wants justice. They do not have to take it themselves.” At Liam’s words, Eira nodded and turned to Shea.
“He killed your sister and tried to take your son. I leave it up to you to decide his fate.” Eira put the power squarely with Shea, and she knew what the old Shea would have done. Before Logan and their kids and the unborn cub within her, she would have asked for him to be spared. But now, the mother and the predator that would kill for her children knew what had to be done. Shea looked down and saw one of Eira’s famous Glock 9mm handguns strapped to her thigh. She reached down, pulled it from her holster, and looked at Eira. Eira nodded her head in confirmation, and Shea stepped forward, directly in front of Darius, with Logan and Caleb still standing next to him and Liam at his back. Shea looked up at Logan.
“You don’t have to,” Logan confirmed for her, but Shea knew she had to. She turned and looked into Darius’s eyes.
“The last mistake you will ever make is assuming that we are weak. We do not tolerate anyone threatening our children. Now, you die.” Darius laughed, because Shea was sure he didn’t think she would pull the trigger. Liam stepped from behind him, and Shea lifted the gun and pulled the trigger.
Chapter 12
Shea sat on her back porch, rocking on the swing she had insisted on. The little bundle in her arms wiggled and attempted to eat, causing her to smile. Her daughter was hungry thing. But she was a polar bear, after all. Shea began feeding her and was stroking her hair, when she heard voices coming toward her from the house. The back door opened and out came Sasha and Hudson, followed by Logan.
“Mama, mama!” Hudson’s voice control was still not working, but the baby didn’t seem to notice. “Guess what, mama,” Hudson said, as he stood in front of her and looked down at his little sister.
“I want to tell her,” Sasha complained, and Shea smiled up at her mate and soon-to-be husband. Logan smiled back and got a stern look on his face for the children.
“No fighting. Why don’t we just show her?” Logan compromised, and the kids agreed. Logan took the baby from her arms and walked to the back door, holding it open for everyone. They led her upstairs to the room attached by a bathroom to Shea’s.
“Close your eyes,” Sasha insisted, and Shea did as she was asked. She was pulled a couple of steps into the room. “Okay, open them!” Sasha and Hudson cheered together.
Shea opened her eyes and caught her breath. The nursery was finished, and it was beautiful. The room had a sturdy crib and dresser, a plush light pink rug over the hardwood, and the walls were an off-white with murals of the arctic, as well as places in their very own backyard. It was perfect for their little girl. Shea turned to her mate and put her arms around him.
“It’s absolutely perfect for our girl. Thank you.” He leaned down to meet her lips, and everything was perfect.
“And what do you think of your room, our little Emily?” Logan rumbled at their daughter. Then Dahlia was there, popping into the room.
“What am I supposed to do with that man?” She asked in frustration, as she plopped down on the floor pillows in the nursery. Then, she looked at the room around her and back to Logan and Sasha. “This room is beautiful, by the way. But what am I supposed to do about him? He runs any time I get near him. I want a nursery and babies to put in it.” Shea and Dahlia had become really good friends while they helped Celeste get back on her feet, and Shea was very fond of the sisters.
“Well…” Shea began, only to be interrupted by her mate.
“And, on that note, I will leave you ladies to your plotting. Come on, kids, let’s go out back for a while.” Logan walked downstairs with the kids, and Shea called after them.
“I love you!”
“Love you, too! They’re upstairs.” Shea heard the last comment and looked downstairs to see Eira, Indigo, Sade, Nia and Celeste coming upstairs. All the women crowded into the nursery and sat on the floor. They all admired the room, and then they turned to Dahlia.
“So, how do we get your mate to stop being such an idiot?” Eira asked her, and Dahlia growled in frustration.
“I don’t know!” She said dramatically and flung herself back onto the pillows.
“I have an idea.” Celeste voiced, and they all began to plot. The men of Wild, Montana are most certainly going to have their hands full with all of these plotting women. Shea smiled to herself and started helping plot someone else’s happy ending, because hers was outside rolling around in the grass. Three polar bears and a lynx. She couldn’t help but smile. That man was never going to know what hit him.
THE END
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jasmine lives in the Southwestern United States with her children, grandmother and one very bad mannered Golden Retriever her children insist is a bench for them to sit on or a horsey to ride. She has been writing since she was a girl and decided to take a chance at writing herself after discovering romance novels.
She is now starting her publishing career and loving every minute of it. In her spare time she enjoys baking, teaching her kids how to cook and cuddling up with a good book.
Jasmine welcomes her reader’s questions and comments.
Email her at: [email protected]
For all titles by Jasmine Alexander, please visit
www.bookstrand.com/jasmine-alexander
Siren Publishing, Inc.
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smine Alexander, Polar Bear's Heart
Polar Bear's Heart Page 7
