Page 43 of The Enforcers: NOAH

“They’ve split up,” he said. “They have us surrounded.”

His eyes met hers. They’d both use their guns if they had to, but the last thing either of them wanted was to have a gunfight with her little boy in the middle of it.

Her hand went to her trank gun. “I only have two darts.”

“I could take the third one down,” he said.

“Whatever I have to do for my son, I’ll do it,” she told him.

Brock gazed at his mother. “Are you going to hurt the men?”

“Not if we don’t have to,” Noah said. “But if they try to hurt us, we might have to fight. Like wolves.” Brock nodded slowly.

God. No child should be going through this. If Robbie stepped in front of her right now, she would have a hard time not killing him after all.

Noah whispered, “We’ll try to slip between them. Come on.”

They moved slowly and carefully this time, Noah scenting the air, seeming to hear sounds that Mina couldn’t. But she had that crawling sensation between her shoulder blades that screamed “danger.”

Suddenly, a man stepped out from behind a huge tree a few yards away, a shotgun trained on them. “Hold it right there,” he said.

It was the man she’d grazed with her bullet; she could see the bloodstain on his shirt.

They stopped, and Noah let Brock slide to the ground.

“Drop your weapon,” the man said, “or I’ll shoot the kid.” Noah stepped in front of Brock before Mina could do it herself.

The man shrugged. “Or the woman. Doesn’t matter to me.”

She could see Noah’s eyes moving, taking in the scene, assessing the possibilities. Finally he crouched and laid his gun on the ground.

At the man’s direction, Mina dropped hers too, and then the trank gun.

They were totally, completely screwed.

From behind him, Noah heard footsteps, and a small frightened squeak as Brock’s hands were pulled away from their clutch on his jeans. His nose told him both Robbie and Briscoe were back there. The cold feeling of a gun barrel at the back of his neck confirmed it.

“Don’t even twitch, Shifter,” Briscoe said.

“If you hurt that kid, I will fucking end you,” Noah replied.

There was no response except the gun barrel jabbing viciously into his skin.

He was calculating the odds, trying to figure who to go after first, when there was a blood-curdling snarl from the tree above the man with the shotgun. A spotted jaguar leaped out of nowhere and landed on top of the gunman, bowling him over. The weapon discharged into the air.

Noah swung his elbow up and knocked the gun away from his neck, and followed up with a sharp jab to Briscoe’s ribs. The man staggered but kicked out viciously at Noah’s legs, knocking him off-balance.

The jaguar was still shrieking, rolling over and over with the man on the ground. Briscoe shot at Noah point-blank and he dodged, the bullet grazing his side and taking a deep chunk of flesh. It stung like fire, but there was no major damage.

Briscoe was backing up, taking aim again, but this time at Mina. “One move and she’s dead, Shifter.” Robbie was also backing away, still holding Brock, who was starting to fight and scream.

Fuck it all to hell. Noah set himself to leap at Briscoe, praying he could get to him before he pulled the trigger.

Suddenly, there was a huge roar behind Briscoe, and a grizzly bear rose out of the dark. And rose, and rose. It was over ten feet tall, filling the sky. It slapped Briscoe with one enormous paw, sending him sailing through the air.

Robbie shot wildly at it with his own gun, and it staggered back, jerking as two bullets slammed into its body. It roared again, coming to all fours with a thud that shook the earth, and charged.

Thunk. A trank dart flowered in Robbie’s side, and he crumpled. Mina was already running, catching Brock as Robbie slid to the ground and dashing out of the bear’s path. Noah turned to the grizzly, prepared to shift, but it slid to a halt as soon as it saw Robbie fall, and stood, swaying from foot to foot.

All three men lay on the ground, unconscious. The jaguar paced back and forth next to the shotgun-wielding stranger, tapping him every now and then with its paw like a cat who can’t understand why the mouse won’t play anymore.

Holy hell on jacked-up tires, Noah thought. It looked like some of Alexander Grant’s rogue shifters had stuck around after all. And maybe they weren’t as batshit crazy as everybody thought.

A huge man with a tangle of black hair stepped out of the forest next to the grizzly. He was at least six-six, more heavily muscled than Noah, and stark staring naked.

Not only that, he had the unconscious white wolf slung over his shoulders like some kind of epic barbarian costume.

“Come on,” he said in a deep rumbling voice. “They’re not going to be out for long, and we need to get you the fuck out of here before all hell breaks loose again.”