Page 67 of Bad Blood Bear

Chapter 29

During the deepest dark of the night, Tank came suddenly awake. Lissa was moving restlessly in her sleep, whining like her bear was in pain.

“Shh,” Tank whispered, rubbing her back, trying to soothe her. But she only grew more agitated.

“No,” she groaned. “No. I won’t do it.”

She was having a nightmare. Tank shook her, trying to wake her, but she was still thrashing and muttering, a continuous growl rumbling in her chest.

Oh, hell. This wasn’t a nightmare. It was Brother Damien, somewhere out there, calling her in.

Lissa sat straight up, her eyes wide and unseeing, red flames dancing in them.

She roared out in a deep, gravelly voice, “I hear. I obey.” Then, with a shout, “I come to you!”

With shocking suddenness her bear burst out of her skin, midnight black and furious, her body outlined lined with crimson. The force of her Change knocked Tank off the bed and halfway across the room. He landed on the floor, the wind knocked out of him.

“Lissa!” he wheezed. “Fight him!”

She turned and snarled at him, no recognition in her eyes. With one huge bound, she leaped off the bed and smashed through the big window onto the back porch, shards of glass raining down on the wooden floorboards.

Tank scrambled to his feet and jumped through the window after her. Jagged glass cut into his skin, but he ignored the pain. There was no way he would let that fucker Damien drag her into his sick web of magic and insanity. She’d survived his forced Turning and made a place for herself in this crew. She deserved to belong to no one but herself.

He took a running leap and tackled her just before she got to the woods, begging his bear to stay inside. Bear was raging with the need to kill Brother Damien, to make his crew and his mate safe, but he was too crazy to know what he was doing. He could easily go berserk and kill Lissa by mistake.

In bear form Lissa was bigger than Tank as a human, but not by much. She was sure as hell stronger, though, and had better weapons. Her claws raked down his back, and she snapped at him with her razor-sharp teeth.

He slapped her muzzle away. “Fight it, babe,” he panted. “Make him fuck off and leave you alone. You can do it.”

But she couldn’t. Those red flames still filled her eyes and she fought like a demon, desperate to follow the compulsion Brother Damien was sending to her through their magical bond. More deep, bleeding gashes raked his skin.

He hung on grimly, trying to talk her down, but he was losing too much blood. He felt his skin rippling as Bear tried to rip his way out.

Bones in his arms snapped, even as he fought the Change, and he lost his grip on Lissa’s bear. With a mighty roar, she squirmed out of his grasp and headed for the woods, leaving Tank stumbling after her, still bleeding.

There was no way to catch her in time.

Just as she reached the tree line, there was a soft hiss and a ‘thunk’ from off to his right, and then another. Lissa’s bear staggered, swayed, and went down.

Tank lifted his head and wiped blood out of his eyes. Flynn stood at the corner of the cabin, flanked by Xander and Sloan, a tranquilizer rifle in his hands.

Tank collapsed against a tree, blood running down his body from a dozen wounds. Flynn just shook his head. “Dude,” he said. “Would it have killed you to ask for a little help?”

Xander and Flynn picked up Lissa and carried her to the front of the house, Tank trying to stay within touching distance while at the same time mopping the blood from his quickly closing wounds. When he saw where they were taking her, though, his bear reared up in protest.

“You’re not fucking putting her in the crazy shed,” he snarled.

Flynn pushed his hair back and sighed. “What else are we going to do with her? If Damien can compel her from a distance—and call out her bear whenever he wants—then that lock is the only thing standing between them.”

“I’m standing between them,” Tank spat out.

Flynn shook his head. “I’m not going to make the obvious sarcastic comment about how well that’s worked out so far.”

“You’re not locking my mate up like a fucking zoo animal. Or a science experiment.” They all flinched at that. They’d all been locked up, and they knew the terror and the helplessness.

Flynn snarled, “That’s bullshit. It’s not like that, and you know it. This is for her own safety, and it’s my call, not yours. She’s a member of my crew, so I’m responsible for her. And I’m still alpha here.”

Any other time, Tank would have respected that. But right now, everything was all crazy in his head, and he could hardly hear Flynn over the roars of his bear. “You’re not my alpha,” he snarled back. “And you’re not hers either. Nobody’s pledged to you.”