“I did what you asked,” I said. “And I’m telling you now, if you don’t take the money and leave, it won’t be just me you’re answering to.”
Avery’s smile vanished. He lifted a hand and the guy lunged. But before I could so much as blink, the trees behind me exploded.
A massive roar shattered the morning silence. The shifter froze mid-step, his eyes going wide.
And then Rafael charged out of the woods like a nightmare made flesh, his bear form fully out, teeth bared, eyes wild. He didn’t hesitate.
Rafael slammed into the first guy, sending him flying into the gravel. The man screamed as bone cracked, his arm twisted at a wrong angle.
Another tried to draw a weapon, but Rafael swiped it from his hand and knocked him out cold with a roar that made the trees shudder.
Avery shouted something. I didn’t catch it. I was too busy falling back, heart hammering in my throat, as Rafael rounded on the last man.
The guy raised his hands and bolted into the woods, crashing through branches like the devil himself was on his heels.
Avery had backed up toward the SUV, breathing hard. “Your boyfriend’s a monster!”
I was about to answer when the backup arrived. From the tree line and down the road came more figures. Beau, Cass, Callum, Rowan, and even Leo.
Wolves. Bears. All of them ready to finish what Rafael started.
Avery looked around and seemed to realize for the first time that he was outnumbered.
Rafael shifted back, crouching near me. Blood smeared his mouth, his chest heaving. He was still in fight mode, his hands curled into claws, but his eyes locked on mine.
“You okay?” he rasped.
I couldn’t speak. I just nodded.
He stepped in front of me, his back straight even though I could see a bruise already blooming along his side.
He hadn’t come out of the shift clean, but he didn’t care. Not when it came to me.
Callum stepped forward, his voice calm but edged like a blade. “You got your answer, Avery. You don’t belong here. And you’re outnumbered.”
Avery glanced between us. Me, Rafael still half-shifted and snarling, and the circle of wolves and bears closing in like the walls of a trap. The confidence in his face began to fracture.
He went for the envelope, probably to shove it in his coat and make a break for it, but Beau was faster.
He lunged forward and snatched it out of Avery’s hand, slamming the man face-first into the hood of the SUV in one brutal, practiced motion.
“Try to move,” Beau said coolly, “and I’ll break more than your arm.”
Cyrus and Rowan flanked the others, grabbing the loan shark’s crew.
One man tried to bolt toward the trees, but Leo caught him by the back of the neck and hauled him to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
It was over in seconds. They didn’t stand a chance.
Avery struggled, snarling, but Beau had a knee between his shoulder blades and a hand twisted in the back of his jacket.
“You’re done,” Beau said flatly.
Callum turned to me, his expression grim. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, my voice caught somewhere in my throat. “Yeah. I think so.”
He gave me a curt nod, then pulled out his phone. “The sheriff’s on his way. He’ll keep them pinned until the Paranormal Police gets here.”
