Come on, Ava.
There were too many big cats. They were pouring into the barn, and there wasn’t enough room. And above, crows were flying through an open window. Crows? Too big to be wild, and there were dozens of them. Allies of the mountain lions. This had been planned, and Colt and Trigger were gone. Kurt was gone. It was only Karis here. It was a horrible feeling being all alone.
A flash of brown sailed past her face and landed on a cougar that was mid-air, coming for Karis’s chest. Genie? The little beastie attacked that big-ass cougar, scrambled to its back, and sank her teeth in his neck. The cougar turned and hit the ground right by Karis’s feet.
Aw fuck! Now she was going to have to protect the little hellion, too!
Boom! Boom! Harley was going to town kicking his stall and, fuck it all, Karis wasn’t alone. She pulled a cougar off her back and chucked it at Harley’s stall. It went right through the wood at the bottom, and all hell broke loose in there. The stallion shrieked, but Harley didn’t sound scared. He sounded pissed. The cougar scream, though? That was full of terror.
Ava’s body jerked every time Karis knocked her while trying to keep the cats off. The crows were dive-bombing now, their sharp beaks and razor claws cutting past her thick fur. Scritch, scratch. Ava was motionless and white as a ghost. Fuck. Fuck!
Live, Ava!
There were too many, and Karis was in a furious frenzy trying to defend her, but inch by inch, the cougars are were pushing, herding and separating them. No, no, no.
Colt, where are you?
Come on, Ava. Let that rage out. Change. Help us out.
It was getting dark. Too many animals were piling onto her, and they were blocking her view of the light above them, All Karis could do was throw her body over Ava’s and close her eyes against the pain at her back and sides. Claws were now finding purchase in her thick, armorlike skin, and warmth was trickling from her cuts.
She could hear the booming rhythm of Harley’s hooves, trying desperately to escape his splintered stall. It sounded like a war drum. Boom, boom, boom.
Everything hurt.
I’m sorry, Ava.
Ava gasped a long inhalation under her. Her body jerked, and she snarled underneath Karis, but it was too late. Karis wouldn’t be able to hold on long enough for Ava to get through a first Change. They took time.
Boom, boom, boom, went Harley’s war drum. God, let Genie have gotten away.
It wasn’t fair. Pain. It wasn’t fair she found Colt but only got such a short amount of time to be happy. Pain. She was supposed to be grateful, right? Grateful that she’d found happiness before the end? Pain. But she was angry instead.
Suddenly, an earthquake shook the ground, and Karis blinked her eyes open. The entire world was shaking. It rattled her body, rattled her chest, overpowered her and Ava’s matching growls.
The world was ending.
Karis tried her best to keep her weight off Ava, but her arms were giving under the weight of the attack. The ground was shaking so hard that the sound now reached her ears. Something terrifying was letting off a roar that could fell the entire barn. Another followed too closely to be the same demon.
There was the real war drum. There was the Warmaker and Hairpin Trigger, and Heaven help the animals who had come here to take what was theirs.
The weight lifted instantly. One moment she felt the heaviness of the whole Darby Clan on her, and then there was nothing. The cats were scattering or being annihilated. In shock, she looked up at the two monster grizzlies, even bigger than her, one dark brown, and one…hers…her Colt, was blond and with the fury of a thousand burning suns in his eyes. He was beautiful destruction.
His massive claws slapped out so fast and with such power, it was breathtaking to watch. There were no more stalls. Wood and iron lay in piles of rubble and littered with bodies as the bruins wreaked absolute havoc. The crows were escaping through the loft windows like smoke from a burning house. Cats were on the run, but the Warmaker was catching them all. There was no surrender this time. No leniency. Every cat here met their claws.
Under her, Ava let off a yell and arched against the ground. When her eyes opened, they were pure black. And then her pupils grew smaller and smaller to reveal the light silver there.
The cat inside of her was dead, the polar bear lived, and Karis wanted to cry from relief. Ava’s life had just gone to Hell, but it would’ve been worse if she’d kept Amos’s cougar. Trigger went straight through the wall, chasing down one of the Darby Clan. His eyes were dead, focused, full of bloodlust, and holy shit, Karis had never seen anything like Colt and Trigger before. They were weapons. Ava had warned her about this side of them, but it was impossible to imagine their power, speed, or deadly agility until she witnessed it for herself.
When a smattering of pops sounded, Karis backed off Ava until she hit the red door at the back.
Three seconds. Three seconds, and Ava ceased to exist. Three seconds and the pretty, weaponless, blunt-toothed, round-nailed little human wasn’t human anymore. Fur as white as snow, black nose, black, six-inch claws made for bleeding prey. Razor-sharp teeth behind those snarled-up lips, and eyes the color of the moon. She was massive, nearly as big as Trigger and Colt. Bigger than Karis. She was a fucking monster. If Karis could’ve smiled in this body, she would’ve.
Ava didn’t charge her. She didn’t lose her mind. Instead, she trusted Karis enough to expose her back, turned, and settled her attention on the bruin grizzlies.
The barn was littered in wreckage, and Colt’s blond fur was streaked with red. She didn’t even want to know what he saw as he studied her. He made the first move, meandered to his sister with long, powerful strides, sniffed her neck as she stood there frozen, then bumped her shoulder and made his way to Karis. But where he hadn’t hesitated with his sister, he did pause in front of her. His eyes were the color of fire as he searched hers. There wasn’t rage there anymore. War didn’t live in his eyes.
He wasn’t the Warmaker in this moment. He was just…hers.
So she closed the gap because she’d been scared and needed him. Needed to touch him and feel safe again. Letting a man in hadn’t made her weak like she’d thought it would. It gave her someone to lean on when she was tired of being strong.
Her whole body hurt. Thank god for the armor-like thickness of her skin or she wouldn’t be here, but every nerve was screaming.
Her Clan looked like they’d been dragged through Hell. Her Clan. Because that’s what had happened here, right? No breeder contract could mean more than this moment, right here, as she rested her face against her mate’s and watched Trigger circle Ava with worry swimming in his eyes. She wasn’t penning her signature to join her life with these people. She had chosen them.
Tonight, they’d gone to war together, and there was something about the tragedy that had linked them. She could practically feel Trigger’s agony, his worry. She could feel Ava’s fear, pain, and relief. She could feel Colt’s love.
Love.
He could lose his voice tomorrow and never utter “I love you” again and she would still know it to be true just by the way he looked at her.
This is how it had been for her parents, and for her brothers as, one-by-one, they’d paired up. It was that instant recognition of a soul that fit exactly with hers. It didn’t matter if Colt was damaged or had a past. It didn’t matter the bad things he’d done, because she saw the man, and the monster, he was.
She and Colt were different and the same in the best ways. A perfect match, and that was that.
He smelled so good, so familiar already, her heart having memorized his scent. And desperate to escape the carnage of the barn, she closed her eyes and buried her face against his neck. She could feel his claws as he pulled her closer and just…held her. They just were. Two beasts sharing relief that the other was still breathing.
The shaking had started from the adrenaline crash, and there was a high-pitched whining in her ears, rising and falling, rising and falling. I
t hurt her head. More pain, and she was growing irritable.
She eased her eyes open and realized it wasn’t in her head. Trigger was human again and striding out of the barn. He picked up a splintered two-by-four and chucked it at the partially standing wall so hard it stuck out like a spear.
“Fuck!” he yelled.
And just as he disappeared through the destroyed barn door, she saw them—red and blue lights. And now, the sirens made sense.
The cops were here.
Chapter Sixteen
How many nights had Colt spent down in the cage? How many meals had he eaten here? How many minutes had he spent lying on this bench, staring at the cement ceiling, wondering if this was his destiny, to repeat this pattern for the rest of his existence?
The only difference this time? Officer Markle had put him and Trigger in the same cage. Oh, he called it a jail cell, but it was down in the basement, below the normal cells, below the drunk tank that Wade probably spent in every other Friday for public intoxication.
Down here, beneath the Darby precinct, was reserved for the shifters. The big ones. The floor, like the ceiling, was made of cement, but no doubt reinforced by steel rebar that matched the steel bars of the surrounding cell. It was one of those 360-degree numbers where the officers could walk all the way around and taunt them whenever they got the hankering. Which they had fairly often over the last four days. There were two cages, both set up across the spacious room from each other. They might as well have put him and Trigger’s name plates above the door of each. They’d spent a lot of time down here over the years.
The cops in this town were cougar sympathizers, and the last Alpha of the Darby Clan, Chase, had been friends with the sheriff. He’d been very good at getting Trigger and Colt busted on every little thing.
Officer Markle jogged down the stairs, his keys jangling from his belt loop. His lips were thinned into a somber line. Colt reached over and slapped Trig on the side of the leg.
Trig pulled his hat off of his eyes and cleared his throat, leaned forward, and glared at the police officer. “We didn’t attack ourselves,” Trig said. There was zero remorse in his voice.
“Why can’t you just exist quietly?” Markle barked out. “Do you know how much shit I’ve covered for you over the years?”
“None of it,” Colt guessed sarcastically. “You arrest us all the fuckin’ time. You’re pretty good at covering up the cougars’ mess, though.” He smiled. “Or you did. Not many of them left to protect anymore.”
Markle shrugged and gripped his hips. “What the fuck am I supposed to do with this? There were two dozen bodies on your property, and your whole fuckin’ crew was covered in blood while you were making the statements. And none of you are sorry for it!”
Colt frowned. “What do you mean, none of us. The girls didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Colt! Killing en masse is wrong!”
“Markle!” he blasted, standing up. “Trespassing with intent to kill our mates is wrong! Amos tried to Turn Ava against her will, and the cats tried to kill Karis. What did you want us to do? Stand by and let it happen? I’ll carry that blood on my hands and not lose an ounce of sleep at night. I’ll go to Hell for that. If a Clan came after your wife and your kid in the night, what would you do, Markle? Would you exist quietly? Would you stand by and watch it happen?” He gripped the bars. “Ask us if we’d do it again.”
“Colt—”
“Ask!”
Markle huffed out a pissed-off sigh. “You have the right to remain silent, you know.”
“We would do it again,” Trig said in a monotone, emotionless voice. “We would take out the entire town to protect the girls. We didn’t start this one. My mate has a polar bear in her now. Her life is fucked because someone wanted to end us. Colt’s mate will be scarred because she defended Ava. It was self-defense. You know it was, and trying to keep us locked up is a waste of time and resources. What are you gonna do, Markle? Take us to trial? Remember last time you tried that? The world will whisper. They’ll get curious and dig into our lives. Into the lives of this town. How many humans live in Darby? Ten? Fifteen, maybe? This is shifter business, and you picked this job to protect the world from our secrets. Right? You took this precinct on so you could be heroic. You’re a good man, Markle. I mean you pick the wrong damn side all the time, and back the cougars when they don’t deserve it, but I can see you trying. Only problem is, we don’t live by human laws. Shifters live by fists and teeth. And when you cross the wrong Clan, there are severe consequences. Amos was wrong to try and Turn Ava against her will. He was wrong to drag my mate from our home and bleed her.” Trig’s eyes flashed brighter and his voice went gritty. “They started the fight and we finished it. We want to be quiet, like you said. Can’t you see that’s what we’re trying to do? We’re starting a business. I dissolved the MC. I avoid town. I just want to protect my people and save my ranch, but you have to deal with us, Markle. We ain’t goin’ anywhere.”
“Don’t I know it,” Markle ground out. His face was red with anger. “One of Karis’s brothers gave us a call.” He grimaced and looked away before he continued. “You’re free to go.”
As he pulled his keys to the cage door, Colt shook his head in confusion and asked, “What’s happening?”
“Apparently, Karis has a lawyer in the family. He’s threatening to expose the entire shifter race. Every animal. And from dealing with Karis, I get the feeling the polar bears don’t bluff. That, and he said if we didn’t let you out, he and all seven of his brothers, their mates, and all their cubs would move to Darby and we would get to deal with the biggest concentration of bear shifters in the known world. I have my hands full with the Two Claws Clan.”
Colt chuckled and ran his hands over his hair. He couldn’t believe it. Not only had Karis changed the path of Ava’s dark destiny at the expense of her safety, she was getting him and Trig off the hook.
“Fuckin’ lucky,” Markle muttered as Colt passed through the open door.
“It’s good to bang a bear,” he agreed. “There’s a lot of perks.”
“Your Clan makes my job miserable,” Markle grumbled.
“Whatever, we were actually well-behaved and innocent in this one.”
“There were mountain lion bodies all over your barn.”
Colt shrugged. “Shouldn’t have come in our barn. And if you hate your job so much, I hear there are a whole lot of positions open at the GutShot now.”
“It’s probably too soon to make those jokes,” Trigger said low, but there was a smile in his voice.
Colt followed Trig up the stairs and aimed for the exit, but Markle stopped them. “There were two crows in the wreckage.” His blue eyes looked troubled, and he fidgeted with his keys. “Was Red Dead Mayhem involved in the attack on your mates?”
Colt allowed a feral smile and shrugged. “We don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t remember any crows there.” He turned to Trig. “Do you?”
Trigger shook his head slowly, eyes locked on Markle’s. “Don’t recall any crows there.”
Markle narrowed his eyes. “Just tell me you aren’t planning on retaliation against Red Dead Mayhem.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Colt said cheerfully, tipping his hat before he smiled at the officer and made his way through the exit behind his Alpha.
And just before the door swung closed behind him, Markle muttered something under his breath, and Colt could’ve sworn it sounded suspiciously like, “Fuckin’ Warmaker,” but maybe he was wrong. It happened from time to time.
He didn’t really like eating crow, but someday, someway, he was going to shred the MC that backed the cougars in that attack. He’d watched those birds diving at his mate as she laid under a pile of mountain lions, protecting his sister’s body. Their days were numbered. He was calm with the knowledge that the crows had chosen the wrong side, and even if it took years, Colton was a patient hunter and would have his moment to exact that revenge. They’d cursed him with the
vision of his mate being mauled.
Sometimes he fought to be the Peacemaker again, but things were different now. He was letting that part of himself go. It was time to own the nickname he’d been given. Warmaker. He had Karis to protect. And his sister would struggle with a bear born in violence, just like he did. And he would bet his favorite Stetson that Trig was plotting revenge already, too.
Red Dead Mayhem’s time would come, but for now, all Colt wanted to do was hold Karis and remind himself again that she was still breathing, still warm, still alive, still his.
Because the night of the attack had scared him to his core. He had realized in the instant that Trina had told him Amos’s plan that he couldn’t live without her. The race back to the ranch was the worst of his life, wondering how he could go on if something happened to Karis.
She was ingrained in his heart, his soul, his life. She was everything, and now he had so much to lose. And he couldn’t. He just couldn’t.
Colton looked up from the icy asphalt of the parking lot, and was stunned into stillness. There she was—his Karis. She was sitting on the back of Trigger’s tailgate beside Ava, all bundled up in a black jacket and a pink beanie and mittens that he would bet his bones Ava had bought her to match her own.
The otherwise empty parking lot was lit by a single streetlight, but Karis’s greeting smile lit up the night. God, what she did to his heartrate. It pounded against his chest. The day she’d come off the plane, he’d been so surprised. She’d said in messages she was plain, but she’d blown him away. And after he’d seen her fight for his sister, fight for their Clan, his perception of her had changed. She wasn’t just stunning to look at anymore. She was warrior and it made her even sexier. Big, beautiful, badass polar bear…silver-eyed, white as snow, and striped with the red of battle. She’d been fearless, his mate. His. How the hell had a man like him gotten so lucky? He knew he didn’t deserve her, but he was going to spend the rest of his life making her happy. Making her feel safe. Making sure she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she belonged.