Jenny sighed. “We kill it.”
Annalise’s legs were moving before she fully registered what Jenny had uttered. Kill it? She’d seen bear shifters before on television. They were monstrous things, massive bruins twice the size of panthers. Three times, perhaps. But kill it? She didn’t even know why she was running through the woods right now. She didn’t understand her panther’s reaction, but now she could smell fur and blood, and the fighting was so loud it made her dizzy.
A tree root came out of nowhere, tripping her, and with a cry, she pitched forward. Before she hit the ground, something more terrifying than a grizzly in her new territory happened. Her panther exploded from her.
And now she was going to kill everyone.
She wanted to sob and scream, “No!” and tuck herself back into her human skin so she wouldn’t hurt anyone, but it was too late. She-Devil was out.
The Red Havoc Woods blurred by, and her stomach dipped with how fast she was in this body. She was a black-furred bullet headed straight into the heart of the fight. This was what She-Devil lived for—bleeding things. Ben and the crew were going to be so mad at her.
Through a break in the trees, she could make out the clearing around the single dirt lane that wound through the forest. Parked near the trees was a giant, jacked-up silver Dodge Ram that was a damn monster truck, and beside it was the battle she’d heard. The grizzly was bigger than any she’d seen in the news. It had reddish brown fur and black, six-inch claws that arched through the air as he swatted a panther across the ribs and sent it flying into a tree. It’s glowing green eyes sparked with intense fury as he swung around to the cat currently biting the muscular hump on his back. He reached over his shoulder and ripped it off with such violence, it should’ve stopped her in her tracks.
Kill the cats.
What? No, you are one of the cats. Defend the cats.
Protect the bear.
What the fuck was happening? She couldn’t stop or slow down, and she was only yards away. And for an instant, that horrifying, terrifying monster bear locked gazes with hers, and there was a spark of something she didn’t understand. She bunched her muscles, prepared to force this body to leap onto his back and rip into his exposed throat as he was busy with one of the panthers, but she put too much power into her jump and instead sailed over his back and slammed into Ben, who had been jumping for the bear at the same time. At least she thought it was Ben. It smelled like him as they hit the grown like a pair of missiles. The wind was nearly knocked from her, but that didn’t stop She-Devil, no. She went to war with her damn alpha, and he went to war right back.
Pain slashed against her shoulder as she sank her teeth into his neck. God, he was strong, and so fast he blurred. A good fighter, but he lacked the insane fury that She-Devil was fueled by. Claws raked down her back, and she was pulled hard. The other panthers were there, trying to separate her from their alpha.
Fuckers. Pulling her off a kill like this? They were gonna die too then. Annalise spun and slashed her claws across the face of a green-eyed panther—Barret probably.
The bear stood behind Barret and roared a long, deafening sound. It felt like he was calling to her. That wasn’t right…was it? She wanted to run to him. She wanted to place herself between him and the crew and dare these assholes to fight her. Nobody was killing the grizzly today. Not today…not ever. Ever? God, what was wrong with her?
Ben was going to kick her out of the crew for how damaged she was. This was the part she had been trying to hide for the last three days. Completely out of control of her body, Annalise swung to the side, bolted around a very surprised looking Barret, and charged the bear. He didn’t even move, didn’t back up a single step, just locked eyes on Annalise and watched her skid to a stop in front of him.
And then she did something unforgiveable.
She turned on her crew.
Yep, she, the biggest dumbass in the history of shifters, gave a murderous grizzly bear in the heat of battle her exposed back while she turned on the only people who would protect her.
She-Devil was clearly suicidal.
The crew didn’t attack. Two of them slunk back and forth in tight paces, and two of them, Ben included, looked like they would probably eat her if they were dragon shifters.
Ben approached slowly, his massive paws making prints the size of dinner plates in the mud. Annalise hissed. Close enough.
Ben’s gold eyes with the tiny pupils narrowed dangerously on her. He hunched into himself, and the alpha of the Red Havoc Crew Changed back into his human form. What was he doing? The grizzly could kill him so easily. But when she looked over her shoulder, the bear had backed himself across the road and was pacing the tree line, eyes on her. He shook his head as though dizzy, or perhaps confused. Welcome to the club, Griz. She confused the hell out of herself, too.
“Change back,” Ben demanded. Power pulsed through those two words and brushed against her skin, making her want to do…something.
The other panthers had an immediate response to Ben’s order, and their bodies broke in a painful-looking way. Anson pitched forward on his hands and knees and muttered, “Fuck, Ben. You could’ve just asked,” as pain washed across his features.
“I said Change back!” he yelled at Annalise.
She hunched down, but She-Devil liked this body and didn’t give it up easy. Sorry Ben.
The sound of something big approaching too fast from behind startled her, and she turned to see the bear charging the alpha. Oh, shit. It was a bluff, thank God, and he skidded to a stop right behind her. Grunting on every exhale, eyes full of fire and locked on Ben, the grizzly was promising a quick death. Tension roiled from him, and for the first time, Annalise was actually scared. He was a monster, and on closer inspection, she could see the mash-up of claw marks on his body and older scars that had kept his fur from growing back in places.
The click of metal on metal was deafening in that silent moment. In the woods stood Jenny, huge long-range rifle aimed right for the middle of the bear’s forehead. “Get the fuck out of here if you want to keep your brains from painting my goddamn woods.”
The moment was so charged, Annalise’s body seized with the tension, and in an instant, She-Devil was giving Annalise her body back. Her Change was painful, but fast. Annalise sat with her knees tucked under her, gasping for air as she waited for her body to make sense again. She hated the gun pointed at the bear, but for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why. He was a stranger and had brought violence to the crew. And if she was honest, she was pissed he’d made her betray Red Havoc. This was her shot at gaining a normal-ish life someday, and he’d just ruined it for her.