Chapter 3

Iride home at dusk, immediately sensing something is off. There's someone in my cabin and their scent has my bear stirring. It smells like her, but there's something else—chemical-laced fear and blood tainting her sweet honeysuckle scent.

Pushing open my door, I glance around and sniff the air but find nothing out of place. No dishes disturbed. No food eaten. Not even the bathroom has been used. I stop in the threshold of my bedroom and inhale deeply, noting my covers are off my bed and piled in the corner.

"Come on out," I say with a bite in my tone.

A sob comes from the blankets that shake with her trembling. I could rip them off of her—that's what my bear wants me to do—pull her into my arms and assure her she'll be okay, but I don't want to scare her more than she already is.

I soften my tone. "I see you huddled in the corner, so you might as well come out."

"I don't want to die!" she sobs.

The terror in her voice has me rounding the bed and dropping into a crouch. "I'm not going to hurt you. Come out so I can help you."

She shakes her head under the blanket. "They're coming. They hunted him. They killed him. I didn't find help fast enough, and they hunted and killed him. Now they're coming for me."

Her teeth chatter as she rambles.

I suspect she's in shock, but until she comes out and faces me, I can't help her. Scooting closer to her feet, I grab a corner of the blanket and pull it toward me. What comes into view sends my bear into a rampage, clawing against my chest to be set free. It takes everything within me to keep him at bay as I take in her current state. Dirt and blood streak her face and mat her hair, but it's her stark nakedness that has my bear roaring. She's huddled into a ball, and bloody scratches cover her limbs, as if she fell out of a tree and hit every branch on the way down.

I pull my phone out of my pocket and dial Erick.

"Yeah?" he says after one ring.

"Get here now and grab a few others. Nan too."

"What's going on?"

"I think Johnston is hunting humans on his land. I came home to find one hiding in my bedroom and she's in bad shape."

"Be right there."

Taking a deep breath, I reach my hand out to touch her ankle. She whimpers, pulling her legs tighter into her body. "I won't hurt you. Who did this to you?"

She peers up at me with wary eyes. "Men. At the ranch."

"You said they killed him. Who is him?"

"Jimmy."

"And what's your name?" I ask, even though I already know it.

"Dinah."

"Dinah and her bear," I say wistfully. Her scent is off right now, but being this close to her, I'm positive she's my mate—which is completely fucked considering she's married. "My name is Kade. I've called for help and my friends will be here shortly. Let's get you off the ground so I can assess your wounds. Is there anything broken?"

"You're not going to kill me?" Her bottom lip trembles.

"I will never hurt you, Dinah."

She stares at me with dark brown eyes, contemplating if she believes me or not. I can't hear humans' thoughts, but they're easy to figure out. She's scared, but desperate to trust me.

"Nothing is broken, but my feet…" She winces as she moves her legs.

I glance down at her bloody toes and can only imagine the cuts and blisters on the soles of her feet. Johnston will die tonight, damn any law enforcement investigations. "I'm going to pick you up and take you to the tub. Can you loop your arms around my neck?"

Dinah hesitates before reaching up and allowing me to lift her off the ground. She weighs nothing, her body too frail—too human—for someone like me. But having her scent in my nostrils causes my bear to go wild—his mind singularly focused. Kill the men who hurt her and then claim her, in that exact order.

I'll let him have the first thing, but the second one isn't meant to be. He's not going to like that, but a human doesn't have the same biological need to mate that shifters do. If she was a female shifter, married or not, it wouldn't matter. We would know we're mated—everyone would know—and whatever paper contracts signed at one time would become null and void when faced by a fated pairing. Of course, a shifter female would never be married to someone who wasn't their fated mate, so this wouldn't be a problem.

I set her in the tub as four motorcycles rumble up my drive. Yanking a towel off the rack, I cover her just as Erick stomps into my bathroom. One look at her and his bear growls out loud. "Are we sure this was Johnston?"

Nodding, I project my thoughts into Erick"s mind. "This is the woman I saw JoeJoe hand off to the suit from Johnston's ranch yesterday."

"What about the husband?"

I shake my head, thankful when our resident doctor, Nan, pushes past Erick into my small bathroom. "You boys go to the living room. I'll take care of her."

I'm hesitant to leave her, my need to protect my mate warring with my desire to tear the men who terrorized her limb from limb.

"You have to find Jimmy." Dinah's voice cracks, and she places her forehead on her knees.

"Did you see him die?" I ask.

"No." She sobs at my direct question, and I'm reminded to practice patience and empathy. "He ran north and sent me south to get away."

"How long ago was that?" Erick asks.

"This morning."

We exchange a knowing look. The chances of him surviving the day with multiple men hunting him are slim to none, but we have to check it out, and at the bare minimum, find his remains.

I follow Erick into my living room to find Wiley, Cricket, and Sly waiting.

"How is she?" Cricket asks.

"She's in rough shape, but right now we need to focus on finding the male. He's in his early twenties, but I didn't get a scent off him yesterday. She said he headed north of the ranch."

"How many hunters?" Wiley asks.

"She didn't say."

"There were four distinct male voices in the house last night around eleven," Sly offers. "Another couple sleeping in various rooms, if the snoring is anything to go by. We checked it out last night, but nothing seemed off to me."

Cricket strips off his shirt. "What are we waiting for?"

"Porch." I point to the back door and kick off my boots, directing the shifters outside. After all, we have a human inside, no matter how traumatized and out of her mind she is. Stopping in the bathroom doorway, I look down at my mate as Nan doctors the scratches on her back. Only, not all those scratches are fresh. There are old scars criss-crossing her tender flesh, proving physical abuse is a lifelong affliction.

Nan looks up at me and shakes her head, and a fresh wave of rage courses through my veins. Did Jimmy do this to her? If so, he better pray he's already dead.

In a quiet voice so as not to spook Dinah, I tell Nan, "We're leaving."

She nods. "We'll be here."

I yank my shirt over my head and unbuckle my belt, running out the back door to find Wiley, Sly, and Cricket already in their wolf and cougar forms. Erick is naked and ready to shift.

"Erick and Wiley, head east of the house and then north. Sly and I will head west. If you catch their scent, howl. Cricket, you head due north."

The cougar dips his head and sprints ahead as Erick and I shift into our bears. We follow as a pack, chasing after Cricket—who is faster than all of us—and cross over onto Johnston's land.

For the first two miles, all I can smell is her scent tainted by fear, adrenaline, and blood. It makes me want to turn back to my mate so I can protect her, heal her, claim her, but I push forward, satisfied she's in Nan's capable hands. Once I catch a whiff of adult males—four or five in their fifties or sixties, one sick with some kind of cancer—my focus becomes singular.

Track and kill.

"Did you catch that?"Sly says telepathically.

"Yeah. Maybe two hours old. I'm betting they're close."

"I smell fire."

"Jesus. I swear to fate if we come up on them eating him, I'm going to be very upset."

"Ewww. Barbequed human. Gross.Sly slows down, his snout in the air. I'll head to higher ground to look for the fire."

"Meet you on the other side of the cliffs."

Sly climbs the hill as I follow a small creek off the Missouri River. I don't get far when I hear Sly let out a low howl that is answered by Wiley not too far off in the distance, followed by Cricket's roar. I take off at a full run as gunfire rips through the air. Sly's warning barks mix with Wiley's as they echo off the cliff walls, the two of them dancing around and drawing the hunters' attention away from the two giant bears approaching. Erick breaks through the trees as I round a boulder to climb the side of the rocky terrain. The two of us bound up the path, shoulder to shoulder, to a clearing with a fire and three spooked hunters armed with rifles. One turns in time to let out a blood-curdling scream just as Erick rears up on his hind legs and breaks his neck with the swipe of his paw. I jump and pin Johnston to the ground at the same time Sly and Wiley attack the third hunter, one sinking his fangs into the femoral artery while the other rips out the poor bastard's throat.

Johnston trembles underneath me, his fat face pasty white with fear. Erick, Sly, and Wiley shift to their human forms and pick up the discarded rifles as I shift into mine and push off his bloated body.

"It's a fucking miracle." Wiley crouches down next to who I presume is Jimmy naked on the ground. "He's still breathing."

"What did they do to him?" Erick asks.

"Shot, stabbed, carved up, burned. It looks like they tortured him for a while."

I kick Johnston in the gut and kneel next to his face. "You're a piece of shit."

"You're, you're, you're… a bear!" he sputters.

"No shit. Don't worry, you won't live to talk about it. How long have you been hunting humans?"

"Fuck you, Barrington."

I partially shift, my hand transforming into a giant paw with six-inch claws. With one swipe, I rip his head clean off.

Cricket roars, jumping down from the cliff overhead, his muzzle covered in blood. He shakes his head, shifts, and wipes his face clean.

"Where were you?" Erick demands.

"I was taking care of hunter number four in the trees."

"What was he doing out there?" Wiley asks.

Cricket shakes his head, his eyes coming to me. "You don't want to know."

"What?" I bark, my gaze landing on Jimmy. Sweet Fates. If this is what they did to him, what would they have done to my mate if they'd gotten their hands on her?

"He was jerking off with her T-shirt."

I see nothing but red as rage takes over and I involuntarily shift back to my bear form. My pack members jump out of the way as I shred the hunters" remains, pouncing on their bones and slamming their body parts against the cliff walls until they're broken up into unrecognizable pieces.

"Kade!" Erick barks with an Alpha tone that snaps me out of my rampage.

"Get a grip on yourself, Sarge. We've got shit to take care of,"Sly projects into my mind.

Huffing and snorting, I pace until I regain control of my bear and feel my human side step forward. Shifting back, I'm surprised to see the fire nearly out and Cricket rolling up in a four-wheel-drive Gator owned by Johnston's Ranch.

Fates, how long have I been out of it?

Wiley picks up Jimmy's limp body and climbs into the back of the Gator. "We need to get him to the hospital. When you get back to the cabin, send Nan our way."

"Lead them out of here," Erick says to Sly. "We'll clean this up."

As soon as they're gone, Erick turns to face me, his brow arched high. "You want to explain that outburst."

It's an Alpha command, not a request.

My jaw clenches and I stare up at the nearly full moon. "She's my mate."

Erick shakes his head. "That's not possible."

"I didn't think so either when I scented her from afar yesterday, but today in my room there was no doubt. She's the one."

"Didn't you say this is her husband?" Erick waves toward the Gator.

"Yes."

"Fuck."

"Exactly." I close my eyes.

"You understand what this means," he says with an air of sympathy.

Sighing, I glance down at the dying fire. "It means I have one, maybe two more moons before I'll have to be put down or abandon my bear completely."