“Get out of my way before I unleash the beast,” Dumont growled. “Do you really want to die for that cunt?”
Tak leveled him with his eyes. “I will die for love, but you will die for nothing.” In a swift moment of magic, he shifted. His wolf rushed headlong and went for the jugular.
Dumont threw up his arm to block the attack. Tak’s wolf sank his fangs into the Shifter’s arm, and he thrashed wildly, hoping to tear it off. Blood filled his mouth, the sweet promise of death on his tongue. Dumont’s hard fist pounded him in the head, forcing him to let go before he suffered a skull fracture.
Dumont moved so fast he blurred, his body rippling as it exploded into an atrocious beast at least three times larger than Tak. The grizzly craned his massive head and roared, the spine-chilling battle cry terrifying enough to make the bravest of men flee.
Tak drew in the bear’s scent and searched for weaknesses. Dumont was colossal, his jaws wide and claws long. A lone wolf could easily take on a black bear. But a grizzly? Only if the bear was inexperienced or small, and Dumont was neither. Against a single wolf, odds were always tipped in favor of the bear.
Tak readied himself for what might be his last moments. All warriors wanted their story to be one of legend, and the only way to achieve that was to die a good death.
The bear lumbered forward and swiped with his paw. Tak’s wolf dodged his deadly claws and streaked behind him, getting in a bite whenever he could. His goal was to get the bear so agitated that he couldn’t think straight. Large predators tired easily.
“Move it! Move it!” a man bellowed.
Tak spotted Wheeler galvanizing the shopkeepers into action with a plan to extinguish the fire. They lined up with buckets of water and a hose.
“Help me pull the damn thing away from the building,” Wheeler ordered them. “Hurry up so you can put out the roof fire!”
Hope’s voice sounded like an angel amid chaos. “You’ll burn yourself! Let it go! It’s not worth dying for.”
But itwasworth dying for—shewas worth dying for. All of Tak’s tribulations had led to this one moment.
Despite his size, Dumont’s grizzly was surprisingly nimble. When Tak snarled and charged at him, the bear rose up on his hind legs to exaggerate his size. He must have stood eight feet tall. Tak circled around him and nipped at his hind leg so he’d drop down on all fours.
Each time the grizzly faced him, Tak bared his fangs. Sometimes bears got skittish at the sight of a wolf’s canines and the whites of his eyes.
Tak yelped when the bear’s claws ripped through his shoulder. Swallowing the pain, he lunged forward and locked his jaws around the grizzly’s neck. There was no time for mistakes. He angled his body so the bear couldn’t bite down, but those large paws battered him mercilessly.
Tak’s eyes and mouth filled with a burning stench that forced him to let go. The men finished dragging the trash bin to the center of the alley, and the wind was blowing smoke and charred embers in Tak’s face. The grizzly swiped his arm, knocking the wind out of Tak before he slammed against the building and crumpled to the ground.
Tak heaved a sigh, and the concrete became suffused with his blood as it left his body. His eyes burned, and his lungs tightened from smoke inhalation. Through the haze, Dutch appeared out of nowhere, spraying something at the grizzly.
Amid blood and fire, Dutch’s fine suit stood out. He held what appeared to be pepper spray on a key ring. Blinded from the mace, Dumont attacked thin air.
Tak watched in horror. Why wasn’t Dutch shifting? Was he trying to play hero or commit suicide?
The grizzly charged and threw him to the ground. He raked his claws over flesh, Dutch screaming beneath him. In those grim moments, Tak watched Dutch flop beneath the beast like a rag doll.
“No!” Hope cried, racing into view.
Tak’s heart jolted to life as she neared the bear, wielding a piece of lumber like a baseball bat. Her eyes flicked between Tak and Dutch before they sparked like two flames.
The bear lost interest in Dutch and turned around to face the lone woman. No one stood by her side. The men were distracted by the fire, which must have spread. They raced in and out of the shops with buckets of water, a fire alarm chirping from inside a building. Wheeler wasn’t anywhere in sight.
Despite searing pain and broken bones, Tak rose to his feet, barking and snarling to draw the grizzly’s attention away. Hope stumbled backward, facing a half-ton grizzly with nothing but a plank of wood. Her eyes told the story—that she accepted she was about to meet her death. And when those baby browns swung over to Tak, he knew she was doing it for love.
Fear doesn’t define a person; sacrifice does.
The bear’s eyes were closed and weeping from the mace. His sense of smell might have also been impaired, but not his hearing. He followed the sound of her voice, her breath, and her footsteps. Tak had once been helpless to save the woman he loved, but not this time.
Half-blind and bleeding, he channeled all his alpha power into a single blow as he crashed into the bear and unleashed his wrath.
Chapter 25
Dumont’s grizzly stalked toward me, and though he was blinded from Dutch’s heroic act, I couldn’t fight him alone. Shifting would get me killed, especially with the chaos, blood, and fire swarming around us. Maybe if I could shove the board down his throat, I’d have a fighting chance.
His jaws opened like a steel trap, saliva dripping in long streams as he craned his neck and roared. My hair stood on end, but thinking about Tak erased my fears. I wanted to go to him—protect him—but I couldn’t. The idea that we might never hold each other again filled me with anguish.
