And her brother probably did. Then she hit on an idea. “Noelle. You can talk to Noelle, right?”
“’Course. She’s my wife’s sister.”
“Then I’ll send her. Tonight.” She looked to the dark tunnel behind her. “I got people coming,” she lied. “You don’t want to be here when they show up.”
His eyes widened. “What people?”
“Cleanup crew.” She looked down at the cop. “We’ll take care of this.”
Brady shook his head. “I did it.” His gaze cut to Jayce. “I need to face the consequences.”
Well, that was decent of him especially since her father was going to skewer him—literally—for killing a pack mate.
“Don’t be an idiot,” she said. “Jayce was killed by the grizzly. You weren’t anywhere near.” Then she pretended to hear a noise behind her. “They’re coming,” she lied. “Go! I’ll finish him off.”
He wavered for a moment, then gave in. With a quick nod, he hurried over to the downed jug of goo, grabbed it, and then ran off into the dark tunnel. Which left her alone with the bear.
Finally! Now it was time to save the cop.
“Okay, Detective Kennedy—”
He attacked.
Chapter 3
Ryan surged forward, and the woman cried out in surprise as he tried to press his arm against her throat. His plan was to choke her until she was unconscious, then escape.
But he didn’t have the dexterity and pain ate at his control. Plus, she wasn’t just lying still. She fought him, her body slippery as she wriggled. Her knee came up hard between his thighs, but he barely noticed amid his other problems. His vision was going, which meant significant blood loss. Every breath was agony and his arms wouldn’t work right.
“Trying. To help!” Her words were sharp explosions of sound right by his ear.
He didn’t believe her, but it didn’t matter. He couldn’t incapacitate her, which meant his only hope was in running before her friends arrived.
“Shift!” she gasped, clearly struggling beneath his weight. “Human!”
It was the right move. If he shifted human, then his wounds would heal. That would stop the blood loss, but he’d be running around with two bullets in his chest. That was a recipe for disaster, but a later kind of problem. He’d also lose his fighting advantage, which was why she wanted him to do it. Much easier to kill a man than a grizzly.
“Hold. In between,” she gasped. “Bullets. Will fall.”
He didn’t want to hear her. His attention was on forcing his body to do what he wanted despite the pain. But her voice triggered a softness inside him. He didn’t have the time to understand the reason; he only knew that the notes of her voice became a kind of touchstone to safety. Some part of him knew this woman and admired her. So her words filtered in, and he chose to listen.
“Hold in between,” she repeated, and he tried.
Shifting to human was a skill learned on the first shift. Not every shifter managed it, and he’d had more than the usual difficulties given that he hadn’t had a clue what he was. But he had years of experience now, so this part was easy. He pictured in his mind exactly who he was. Well, more like an idealized version of who he wanted to be: strong, powerful, and a master of his fate. The physicality of that was clear. After all, he’d been studying bodybuilder magazines since he was ten.
He held that image now. Sculpted muscles, hard jaw, and power in every line of his body. Then he changed into exactly what he saw.
“Go slow!”
Her words caught him just at the moment of transition. Weird since he wasn’t even sure he had ears to hear, but he knew her meaning. He tried to reach for the in-between state, that place where his body was energy, neither bear nor man. Normally, the transition lasted a second at most, and he’d worked hard to shorten that time. But this time he stretched it out.
He held himself in the in-between as long as he could. A second? More? How long would it take gravity to pull the bullets out of him?
He solidified as a man. No longer buried in pain, his mind grabbed on to details. Sounds first. Her breath against his ear, his own heartbeat, then hers. A wave of weakness hit him, a sure sign that he’d been shifting too much lately. And then another nearly buried him, but he pushed it aside and focused on something else. A smell hit him, hard and nauseating. Blood. His blood on her body. She was covered in it.
His bear surged forward, dark and ugly. It was pure instinct and he didn’t have the energy to hold back the animal drive when it was set on survival. It believed she was a threat, and the most he could do was keep it from killing her. He had to subdue her so his bear would feel safe. And then he could figure out his next step.
He felt her move, shoving against him. His muscles contracted, breath flowed in, and then—finally—his vision solidified. He saw her clearly. Bright green eyes, light brown curls shorn short, and clear skin except for a mole high on her left cheek just to the outside of her eye. It looked like a brown teardrop on a face that otherwise would be deemed perfect. Damn it, he was sure he knew her!
