The cowboy pulled the gun away from my temple and aimed at the grizzly.Bang, bang, bang.Three shots made me jerk, but they didn’t seem to do anything except make Kane move faster. He broke into a run. Another three shots and Kane kept coming.
The cowboy emptied the gun, then shoved me away from him. I fell on my injured knees, crying out. My body wanted to shift, but the collar kept stopping me. Pain spiked into my stomach.
Another roar split the air.
The cowboy braced, then jumped, the sound of tearing clothes snapping a second later. He shifted into a cougar. They collided. The eerie sound of a cougar’s screech mixed with Kane’s roar.
I scrambled backwards away from the fight. The pair crashed toward me, and I rolled over, struggling to my feet. The cougar screeched again, and I turned in time to see Kane bite his hind leg. He held on, then swung the cougar away from him. The feline flew, then landed on his side and skidded across the rocks.
Before the cougar could regain his feet, Kane was on top of him. Another screech reverberated, this one ending in a gurgle.
Then nothing. Silence. No helicopter, no roaring, no sounds at all except my own breathing, a rapid and panicked rhythm, loud in my ears.
The cougar lay dead and bloody. The two tactical guys hadn’t moved. One of the helicopter’s rotor blades stuck out from the water. No one had come out. Everyone was dead. The scent of fresh blood hung over everything. My stomach rolled.
The grizzly huffed a breath and turned away from the dead cougar. My limbs froze in shock. I didn’t move as he ambled away from the body. I couldn’t look away. I waited for him to change back into Kane, to become human again. I didn’t trust this killer. I wanted Kane back.
But he didn’t immediately return to human form. The bear ambled to the water’s edge, slowly, and took a deep drink. Water splashed, washing the blood from his jaws and neck.
I couldn’t breathe for the fear coursing through me. I’d watched him kill four people and he didn’t change back into a human. He should change back. That’s what normal shifters did. This wasn’t normal.
Finished with his drink, he turned on me, his eyes filled with purpose.
“Oh, God.” The bottom of my stomach dropped into my toes.
None of the blood lust was gone from his eyes, the intensity instead morphing into something more predatory. And it was entirely focused on me. My body twitched with the need to flee.
I knew better. In my bobcat form, I was a predator too. I knew what it was like. If I saw a squirrel run, I wanted to chase after that squirrel. If a rabbit bounded across my path, I chased that rabbit. I knew I should stay put. But seeing Kane’s bear form look at me like that, my human self-preservation instincts took over.
I knew better.
But still, I turned and ran.
11
BROOKE
Trees and bushesscraped at me. I ran blindly, my ankle screaming in pain, but I wouldn’t stop.
I didn’t know what would happen if I stopped.
At first, the quiet around me made me think he wasn’t following. The birds weren’t chirping, the wind was calm. My heart pounded in my throat.
Crash.Branches broke behind me. It sounded like a whole tree shattered. He was following, and fast.
I pushed onward, the need to get away overwhelming every other thought. A grizzly bear chased me, and I was alone. Pine needles poked through my socks like tiny little knives. My ankle hurt so bad tears leaked from my eyes with each step.
Stupid, stupid.I should have run into the cabin and locked myself in. I should have thought this through. At least there was a shotgun there. Right now, I was defenseless, and I was having a hard time keeping the bulky sweatpants up around my waist. I was seconds away from running bare-assed through a forest.
Thud. A tree root tripped me. I went down on my knees and cried out.Get up. Get up. Get up.He was getting closer. Each branch he broke went off like a firecracker in my head.
I struggled to my feet and kept moving. He sounded so close, I was sure he could have pounced on me, but no matter how fast I ran, he kept pace.
He’s stalking me.
The rational part of my brain acknowledged this and tried to analyze it. If he’d wanted to attack me, he would have by now. I’d seen him take down three guys and a helicopter. He could overtake me right now if he wanted. Was he toying with me?
The thought gave me a shot of adrenaline. Instead of using the burst of energy to run faster, I slowed. I couldn’t outrun him. This was pointless and stupid, and my ankle burned like I’d stepped in lava. I stopped, gasping for breath, my heart pounding so hard it hurt.
