Vera dropped the rabbit and scampered out of reach of that awful man. Clayton. The vile name whispered across her mind.
Don’t let him catch you.
She bolted for safety, ran for the men who had been watching over her, but Tobias and Link were breaking apart. Misshapen forms with elongating snouts, curving teeth, claws ripping from their hands and fur sprouting across their skin. She watched in horror as Tobias’s shredded pants fell like snow around him as he stood on his hind legs, a massive grizzly bear with murder in his eyes. She bore her teeth, confused. Should she attack him? Should she attack the wolf behind him? No, they were animals now, too, but they were with her. A malformed little pack. She’d found the misfits again. Misfits. Confusion swirled around in her head as she dared a look behind her. Clayton was shaking off the last of his Change, dark fur trembling as he landed on all fours. A roar bellowed from him, frightening the birds from the trees behind him.
Terror kept her frozen into place as the two bruin bears charged each other and crashed hard enough to shake the earth beneath her paws.
The bears fought with such raw violence that, for a moment, she was awestruck. It wasn’t until Link attacked Clayton as a gray wolf with his jaws open and his eyes blazing almost white, that she realized what this was.
Clayton was here for her, and Link and Tobias were standing in between her and that devil of a man. When Link went sailing through the air and struck the trunk of a tree with a sharp whimper, crimson rage boiled her blood. Red sprayed the ground where the titan bears fought. Clayton was hurting them. With a snarl of fury, she bolted and latched onto the hump of muscle between Clayton’s shoulder blades. He roared and bucked, his attention caught between her and Tobias’s ripping, shredding attack.
She sank her teeth deeper, clawing just to bleed him. Clayton jerked to the side and slammed his side against a tree, pinning her leg and shocking her into letting go. The earth was unforgiving as she slammed into it with a yip. Tobias was pulling the fight away from her, drawing Clayton’s attention while she scrambled up. Link was on him again, biting and scratching with that constant growl. She’d been wrong about him. Link was good. Link was strong and loyal like her Tobias.
Digging her claws into the soil, she launched herself at Clayton again, this time latching on to the tender skin under his arm, only to be tossed a second later. He was streaming blood from where she’d gotten him, but was undeterred as he fought with the fury of a tornado. Tobias’s fur was matted and dark now, and pink slices crisscrossed his skin.
No, no, no. She wasn’t enough to help him. Couldn’t defend her mate from a damned grizzly.
Let me out. We can do this together.
A snarl rattled her chest. Fucking human.
Fox! You can’t save him alone. We need one of Link’s rifles. Change back! Let me out! We have to help him. Love him. Love him. Love our mate. Help him. Please.
Fuck.
With another second of hesitation behind her, she ran for a clear space between two pines and closed her eyes, then imagined that puny, weak, hairless human body she used to be trapped in.
Pain rippled up her spine, and she groaned at the agony of her bones snapping and her muscles reshaping. God, how could anything hurt this badly? The snarl in her throat turned to a scream of agony as her nails retracted and turned blunt.
“Oh, my God,” Vera whispered, her voice hoarse from disuse as she watched the battle of the brown bears in front of her. They were going to kill each other.
Off-balance, she scrambled upward and stumbled toward the house. She’d been in Link’s cabin the first day Tobias brought her here. She’d torn up his couch, and as Tobias had dragged her out of there, she’d noticed the rifles near the front door.
Walking upright felt strange after so long as a fox, and she fell on the stairs, slamming her bare shin against a porch stair. Biting her lip at the pain, she forced herself up and through the door. She stumbled inside and lurched for the trio of guns leaned against the wall. The .30-06 was the one she wanted.
Vera checked the load, slammed a bullet into the chamber, and staggered outside into the waning evening light. Pointing the gun into the air, she pulled the trigger. Boom!
She slammed another bullet in the chamber and continued her trek to the brawling bears. Link had pulled off and bolted at the sound of the gun, but Tobias and Clayton hadn’t paid attention.
Boom! Another round into the air and Clayton hesitated as she lowered the barrel to the vicinity of his face. “Back the fuck off my mate or I’ll blow a hole right through you, asshole.”
Clayton apparently thought she was playing because he sank his teeth into Tobias’s shoulder. Furious, she aimed the barrel at his leg, held her breath to hold the rifle steady, then pulled the trigger.
“Change back or you won’t live another day, Clayton. Do it now.”