Page 63 of Bad Blood Bear

Tank and Jasmin finally managed to herd everyone to the checkout line. Xander was complaining loudly about the Christmas carols already playing on the speakers. “It’s Thanksgiving, you morons. Where are the turkey carols?” Sloan was browsing celebrity gossip magazines, pretending he was there totally alone and was just standing near them by pure happenstance.

Normally Lissa would have joined him, but her bear felt oddly restless. Maybe it was all the people, bumping and jostling and getting in her way. It was claustrophobic. Hard to breathe, almost like Flynn’s alpha presence pressing down on her.

But Flynn was back in the compound.

“I need some air,” she said to Tank. He stopped her with a hand on her wrist and looked into her eyes. “I’m okay,” she said. “Really. I’ll wait right outside the door.”

She hated that he was getting that worried frown between his eyes, but she could tell he was debating the merits of letting her outside alone, or keeping her in here if her bear was reacting badly to being cooped up.

It was cold outside, but there was a bench in the sun, and Lissa had on her warm pink jacket and her bunny boots.

She headed for the bench, but halfway there she got a stabbing pain in her head, like someone had shoved a spike through her skull. Someone was calling her.

Lissa. Come here.

The voice was inside her head, but she could hear it as clear as day, and she knew she had to obey. Her feet started walking down the strip mall, past one store and then another, to an alley between the buildings.

Inside the alley was Brother Damien.

He was backed by three of the men from the People of Ursus. Edward, her former boyfriend, Elder Michael and Elder Joshua.

All three men looked harder and more dangerous than they’d ever looked before. The People of Ursus were gentle and peaceful, and these men had always been kind. Now they looked completely different.

And they smelled like bears.

Like shifters.

Brother Damien gazed at her, his eyes glowing red.

He looked just the same as he had the night she left, except for a white scar running down the side of his face.

I hope I did that,Lissa thought.

Brother Damien’s face was angry, his nose wrinkled in disgust. “You smell vile,” he said. “Like grizzly, and half a dozen other animals. Come before me, you whore.”

Whore? Oh hell no. She tried to walk away, but red fire lanced through her mind. Her body walked forward, toward Brother Damien.

In one smooth move he unzipped her jacket and yanked it back. Then he pulled her sweater down and bared her shoulder.

“At least my mark is still there,” he said. “If you had let yourself be defiled by another bear, I would have had to punish you severely.”

He yanked her sweater back up. “I still may,” he said. “I was not pleased by your behavior, nor by having to chase you across the state of Tennessee.”

He grabbed her neck in a painful grip and pressed his mouth to hers in a punishing kiss, hard enough to draw blood.

“Kneel before me,” he said.

Lissa tried her hardest to resist, but her knees buckled and she went down on the hard, wet pavement. She could feel muddy water soaking into her jeans.

Then she felt a shadow pass over her and suddenly Brother Damien was three feet in the air, with Tank holding his throat.

“I don’t fucking think so,” he said, and threw Brother Damien into the wall.

The other three men growled simultaneously. The sound was met by feral growls from behind Lissa. Her crew.

The pressure on Lissa’s mind retreated, and she clambered to her feet. Brother Damien raised his hand, red fire dancing around it.

“Don’t even think about it,” Tank said. “Because I’m a fucking grizzly, and I don’t need to Change to tear a little bear like you apart, Teddy.”