Our serving wench, Ruby, popped up from her side of the bar. “I got her. Not to worry everyone.” She scooped me into her hands.
I only slightly spilled out of her palm. She looked so big from this angle. I wanted to ask her what the hells happened, but words were still stubborn behind my snake jaws. She scratched my head with a finger and I relaxed. Her smile said we were going to figure this out, and I totally believed her right until a gigantic bear crashed through the side of the bar. Wood and plaster flew as it roared its fury, eyes glowing amber. Dagger-sized claws tossed people like bowling pins through what remained of the bar.
“Ward, stop!” The blond guy yelled, holding up his hand.
The bear’s roar shattered the mirror behind us into a million pieces. Furniture followed as the bear plowed through the space, taking in great chuffs of air. Its gargantuan head turned in our direction—chocolate fur, black button nose and bladder-emptying teeth and all.
GIVE ME MY MATE!
His eyes blazed directly at me. I strangled on his last word. Mates were for people who deserved forever. My current relationships amounted to day-old pastries and now the Terminator. Love didn’t even make the list.
I didn’t know how his voice ripped through the bar just like his paws, but everyone cringed and covered their ears. This was it. Dead at the hands of a death-dealing shifter because I certainly wasn’t a mate.
“Give her to him, Ruby.” The blond guy wrestled for me and he made a sparkly barrier around us.
I was definitely going to puke. The woman, conversely, clutched me closer. I appreciated someone defending me, even if we were all about to be ripped apart like paper.
“Something’s wrong, Dane. No way I’m handing over a fellow human to a crazed bear,” Ruby said. “Not even Ward.”
“Does she look human?” Dane asked.
I had looked better, granted, but I was still me. I made my body wrap around her wrist and then it became a matter of will with Dane trying to pry me off and Ruby flailing her wrist out of the way until the bear’s rage shook the room and he charged. The resounding thud of him hitting the magic wall echoed across the room. People poured out of the bar into the town on the other side of the busted wall.
The bear swiped at the barrier, jaws frothing, shaking the entire building.
“Let go, Ruby. I won’t put you in danger.” The bar guy cupped her face, brushing her cheek, and she melted right in front of me, her grip loosening. Don’t fall for it, girl. Grip me tighter. Love is for losers.
“But…” Ruby’s voice turned into a whisper.
“No buts, Macushla.”
It was beautiful—the way she saw the Universe in his eyes—if he hadn’t been angling closer to me as well. My heart liquified a little just watching them. My ex never looked at me like that. The bar guy’s hand inched closer. They were almost kissing when Dane swiped me right off Ruby's wrist and flung me head over tail right at the bear. Ruby reached for me, but powerful arms held her back.
The bear’s shaggy maw opened wide. Every fear our parents had scared us with was coming true. This was the end—smashed between knife-sized teeth. I hit an oversized tongue and all my bones didn’t immediately break. I curled up in the tightest ball possible, hoping I would at least get lodged in his throat and choke him with my demise. A decided lack of death was replaced with paws pounding the ground as we ran. And by we, I meant the bear battered its way out of the bar and my very first kidnapping was underway.
Chapter2
Ward
The haze of madness slowly receded, leaching out of my brain like a fever. I found her. I had her. After all these years, I finally found my mate—one of the smallest shifters I encountered in my many years. If my mouth wasn't full of her, I would have roared in triumph. It was surreal. A veil smothering my life lifted and everything aligned. Over the centuries, I had only ever maintained the slightest romantic relationships with women, as shallow as would hold the loneliness at bay. Even those I ended up sabotaging when my bear grew too hard to control and made an appearance. Everyone only said they wanted an animal in their bed.
Paws pounding over the countryside, I took my mate through the sleepy town of Harrowood. Concerned shouts and calls followed me to the boundary of the village until the mystic wood swallowed them up. My bear pushed harder through the underbrush, over fallen trees—familiar territory to him. Still slightly crazed, our mate in our jaws only took the edge off a fever that burned our blood and gripped us for the past month.
The endless days were pure hells. The Goddess Veretis constantly called me to hunt, destroy—appearing to me in wild visions. I built Harrowood with might and measured, rational calm—King because I had enough magical ability to claim the land. People came here to shelter under my mystical protection, not because my beast ruled by fear. The need to tear out of my human skin threatened everything I established every time the call of the Goddess hit me.
I withdrew from court life, unable to understand if she was showing me a personal failing, or I was just going crazy. Luring me out of my safe stone keep into the forest, the foothills, beyond—I tried to hide my growing madness with excuses of checking on our quiet section of the realm. Every time the call was a little stronger, a bit more insistent, until I finally took refuge in my den, claiming I was recharging my powers in nature. It was only a white lie. I hadn’t actually used my magecraft since I established and became King of Harrowood. But the lie was safer for everyone when my bear awoke—edgy, angry, primed for war in a way that whispered of claws, teeth and all the things I had put away in favor of learning, magic and a peaceful life. Until the visions of the Goddess appeared, my bear had been content to observe, eat well and run around a few times a year. The terror of having him loose, angry and ready to fight made me desperate.
I still grappled with it when the beckoning layered with another problem—a deep-seated hunger that shoved my human side all the way to the back of the bear’s mind. I could barely remember what happened once I left to appease that hunger. Only the heady smell of whiskey and orange lingered in my mind as it cleared further. I think I may have destroyed something. Or a lot of somethings. I ran out of the forest, still more bear than a man.
That bear skidded to a halt as a long, lingering wolf cry ripped through the air.
Please pass out. Let me pass out.My mate’s voice whispered in my head - soft as a feather.I take it all back. Everyone was right.
I will keep you safe, mate,I responded, but she only continued her prayer.
A low growl accompanied the enormous black-tipped wolf that stepped out of the tall grass bordering the wood. My bear chuffed out a warning, too on edge to see my friend as anything other than a threat to us. I couldn’t convince him to be sensible with our mate in his mouth.
I spit her out and shifted, constructing clothes while cradling her in my hands. My magic was handy for that. Other shifters had to walk around naked until they found their supply caches or got home.
