Tracking the Bear (Blue Ridge Bears Book 1) Page 9

  Hands, two pairs of them, wrenched me backward by my jacket and hair. I screamed as a fistful of my hair came out by the roots.

  “Shut her up!” A gravelly male voice hissed from behind me. “The bear has already scented us. We have to do it quickly!”

  I swung the mallet wildly and got lucky. It crunched on impact, and I would have bet good money that I’d broken someone’s nose. The hands that had been restraining me fell away, and I pushed myself into an upright position. I stumbled away from my attackers, catching sight of two hairy, misshapen men. The one whose nose I’d broken was still upright, but his partner continued to contort, accompanied by the disconcerting sound of grinding bone. It finally landed on all fours, and it had a distinctly lupine shape in the light of the full moon.

  Chance roared again, and I turned my head in time to see his massive grizzly form rear onto two legs and issue another bellow of challenge. Spittle flew from its mouth, and it bared razor sharp teeth at the men behind me. There was nothing human left in his eyes, no hint of the man I knew. This was a bear. A pissed off, predatory bear. I did the only thing I could think of, with a bear advancing toward me, and wolves waiting at my back.

  I ran.

  Chapter Ten

  Chance

  Protect or attack? My bear was torn and I, usually the more level-headed of us, wasn’t sure what to do either. I didn’t believe for one second that Frigg had only sent two Ulfhednar after Lucy. The smallest pack of werewolves I’d ever seen had been composed of five. She could have placed dozens of them in the surrounding woods.

  But I couldn’t guarantee her safety behind my back, either. They could creep up and flank me easily, and then Lucy would be lost. I needed to deal with the two in front of me quickly and locate Lucy. They were faster than I was, even in this form, and far faster than Lucy with her bad leg. They’d catch her easily, if she continued to crash through the woods noisily as she was.

  Attack it was, then.

  I charged the first wolf. He hadn’t fully transformed, and I exploited the vulnerable half-state. One swipe of my paw sent him flying back into the nearest pine tree. The force of the impact shook the pine and sent needles raining down on top of the dazed Ulfhednar. The second, which had been poised to run after Lucy into the woods scrabbled back, letting loose a howl. I slammed down on top of the wolf and rolled. It wasn’t a particularly graceful or smart move, but it was effective. Six hundred pounds of adult male grizzly bear was enough to crush the air temporarily from his lungs. If I was lucky, I might have snapped a few of his bones as well.

  I pelted into the woods after Lucy. Her panicked flight had sent her in the wrong direction. She was headed toward the base of the mountain. The pine trees would be difficult if not impossible for her to climb. Her limp had become even more pronounced after the last mountain we’d been forced to scale, and she was making a great deal of noise. The wolves would catch her soon, if they hadn’t already.

  Lucy shrieked in fear and I heard a wolf’s yelp of pain. Somewhere in the back of my mind that small fact surprised me. What was she doing? The rest of my body tensed in anticipation of the coming fight. There were wolves ahead, and blood in the air. Human blood.

  Lucy!

  I caught a flash of her hair, a splash of sunshine in the night. As I watched she pitched forward, a jutting tree root sending her sprawling into the bracken on the forest floor. The wind carried the musky scent of wolves and I whipped my head this way and that, trying to spot them.

  Four Ulfhednar slid from the shadows, darting quickly and silently toward Lucy’s prone body. She let out a whimper of pain, scrambling to her feet. Her knees and palms had been scraped raw, and I wondered just how many times she’d fallen already. This was bad. The blood would be a shining beacon for any predator in the area.

  The wolves circled her, snarling in warning any time she tried to run. Still more wolves entered from the periphery, and I let out a bellow of frustration, batting at the nearest. It skittered away with teeth bared. If the long gashes in its stomach troubled it, it didn’t show.

  Wolves almost never attacked grizzly bears. It was instinctual. Bears had superior strength and superior reach. The strength of the wolf was in its speed and agility, and that was what the Ulfhednar employed against me. The wolves took turns, darting in, biting at my ankles, my flank, my snout. No matter how many I injured, there was another there to take its place, biting, tearing at flesh and sinew.

  “Chance!” Lucy screamed, staggering forward, arms outstretched toward me. The dozen yards between us might as well have been miles. I drew bloody tracks across the nearest wolf’s snout and it fell back.

  The largest of the wolves surrounding Lucy stood on its hind legs and began to shift. The change rippled up his body, animal features ceding to his human form. It took maybe five seconds until the Ulfhednar stood fully human. It was the smoothest transition I’d seen in any were-animal, and something I could never accomplish even if I’d had centuries to practice it.

  He was tall, probably as tall as I was in human form. He was nude and very well-built with muscle everywhere from his calves to his bulging, barely there neck. He wasn’t attractive in any traditional sense. He had a heavy brow and a jutting, square jaw. He looked like he’d stepped out of an exhibit on the Cro-Magnon era.

  Lucy had paused in her latest bid for freedom, seeming nearly as taken aback by the cave-wolf as I was. No one had mentioned that the Ulfhednar predated the wheel. Or maybe she was distracted by the massive erection he was sporting. I swiped viciously at the wolf nearest me. It flew several feet before landing in a quivering heap.

  The Alpha wolf was scarred. Nearly every inch of tanned skin was covered in crisscrossed in faded white scar tissue. I almost expected him to grunt at Lucy, but when he opened his mouth, perfectly intelligible if slightly accented English poured out.

  “Do not be afraid, human female. I offer you a gift.”

  “A gift?” Lucy repeated uncertainly. She examined the ring of wolves that continued to circle her. Every so often her gaze would flicker up to me, and then she’d quickly avert her eyes with a wince. I must have looked worse than I thought.

  “Yes. A gift from Odin. He extends an offer of strength, of power.” The Alpha raised his beefy forearm to his mouth and bit into it deeply with his dull semi-human teeth. He left a bloody crescent in his wake. He held the arm out toward her. Blood streamed from his wound onto the earth below.

  “Allow my blood to flow through you,” he coaxed. “Don’t you wish to run again? I can help you reclaim all that you lost. Is it truly too high a price?”

  Lucy swallowed thickly, and I could see the thoughts clearly on her face. She wanted her life back. She wanted every experience she’d been denied because of her brother’s thoughtless mistakes. She wanted to be stronger. Her eyes flicked to me again. Her jaw set, and steely resolve flashed in her eyes.

  “No thanks,” she said, and her voice carried even over the snapping and snarling of the wolves nearest me. “I’m not really a dog person.”

  If I’d been human, I’d have cheered the brave stab of humor. But I wasn’t, and I couldn’t afford to be any time soon. I could detect the distant sound of paws hitting the ground. There must be more Ulfhednar on the way.

  The Alpha bared his teeth at Lucy in a fierce grin. “I thought you might say something to that effect. In that case, my brethren will tear your bear to pieces. And when he is dead, and the spirit of the wolf slides beneath your skin, I will take you on top of his bloody corpse.”

  I bellowed a warning when she rushed the wolf line, astonishingly kicking the nearest in the jaw. Its whine was probably more from shock than pain. She threw herself at Conan the Wolfman, clawing at his eyes. He caught her flailing arms with a chuckle and drew her flush with his body.

  “Such fire! You will make an excellent addition to the pack.”

  “You’ll never get away with this!” she shouted. “Chance will kill all of you. He won’t let you hurt me.”
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  “He cannot stop us.” He spun her quickly, so she faced out toward the assembled pack. The ring of wolves had stopped circling and stared at the Alpha solemnly. “This is but a small sample. We are over a thousand strong. I need only call, and more will come to our aid.”

  He buried his face in her neck, with a feral smile. “Not that we need it.”

  He bared his teeth, a flash of deadly white in the moonlight and sank his teeth into her throat. Lucy convulsed in his arms and she screamed, her face contorting in sudden agony.

  I stood on my hind legs and batted at every lupine head in reach. There were yelps of pain and surprise and it was enough to clear a few feet. I charged and plowed over the only wolf that was stupid enough to stand in my way.

  The Alpha released his hold on Lucy and she slumped to the ground, clutching at her neck. A pitiful moan escaped her lips. In another fluid motion he’d dropped to all fours, rapidly morphing into the enormous shaggy grey wolf he’d been before.

  I was going to rip his throat out. I didn’t care that bites were the least effective vector for lycanthropy. If even a trace of his blood had seeped into her wound, she could change. She wouldn’t be my Lucy anymore. She’d be a lupa, a she-wolf. She’d be forever lost to me.

  It didn’t matter that he was the largest wolf there. There was a reason wolves never fucked with bears one on one. He was two hundred pounds of muscle, tops, and he had no weapons readily available but his teeth. I, on the other hand, was over twice his weight, had ten razor sharp claws that I was ready and willing to use, and I was fucking pissed.

  I rolled him, the same as I had in the clearing when Lucy and I had made camp. He was smart enough to avoid exposing his stomach, which was the only reason I wasn’t able to disembowel him for tearing into my mate.

  I gouged deep furrows into his flank and he writhed beneath me. I was beyond caring about the wolves that had launched themselves at me, tearing into my back. This wolf was going to die for what he’d done.

  “Get the fuck off him!” Lucy had apparently regained her feet, and the mallet she’d been using before the ambush whistled through the air, colliding with a wolf’s skull with a dull thunk.

  The Alpha tried to regain his feet, but with six hundred pounds of enraged grizzly on top of him he wasn’t having much luck. I lunged for his throat, and fresh pain exploded across my face when his claws raked at my snout.

  The heavy footfalls were close, and with an icy surge of realization, I knew I’d made a fatal miscalculation. The wolf managed to squirm out from beneath me and he and his fellows retreated into the woods.

  I turned toward Lucy, who still held her makeshift weapon aloft. Sweet, brave Lucy who stood alongside me facing almost certain death armed only with a small rubber mallet. Fragile, human Lucy, who would stand no chance against what was coming.

  I lumbered forward, putting myself between my mate and what was coming. I was injured, and some of the wounds were deep enough they would remain even after I shifted back to human. Her small, warm hands wound into my fur and she pressed her face into my side. I felt tears soak into my fur.

  “You’re hurt.” She sniffed. “It’s my fault. I should have been faster. I should have stayed in the tent…”

  A gigantic black bear crested the top of the nearest slope. Behind me, Lucy drew in a shuddering breath.

  “Luke. Oh God no…”

  There was nothing human in Luke Elmsong. His eyes were inky black in the moonlight, and filled with the sort of madness I normally saw in rabid animals. His fur bristled and his ears flattened to his skull as he took in the sight of me, crouched protectively over the only prey in the vicinity.

  He let out a bellow of challenge that shook the trees around us. The message was clear. Move away or die.

  Not fucking likely.

  He began to circle the ridge, attempting to get behind me and nearer to Lucy. I adjusted my position, shielding her from view. Luke’s lips pulled away from his teeth. They were already coated in a sheen of dark blood. I just hoped to God it wasn’t human.

  “Chance,” Lucy muttered. “Chance, you can’t kill him.”

  Now? She wanted me to show him mercy now, when every indication said he’d kill her, if he got the chance? I blew out a breath, ruffling her hair. She made a face.

  “I know, I know. But he’s important, Chance. Not just to me.”

  He was important to everyone, apparently. I had no idea why Frigg and the Aesir wanted him dead, but they’d made their point pretty damn clear. On the other side of things, the Vanir must want Luke alive. All the clues that I’d been unable to make sense of earlier suddenly clicked into place. Lucy’s lies about Freyr in the bathtub, her insistence in keeping her history with Luke quiet. She didn’t just want to save his life, she had to. She’d been compelled, the same as I had been.

  What consequences lay in store for her if she failed the Vanir? What more could they take from Lucy?

  Luke Elmsong made his way slowly down the slope, sizing me up. A low rumble began in his throat, as he approached me. I was bigger than he was, though not by much and the spirit of the berserker who possessed his body would not care about the pain. He had a singular focus. Kill the enemy and acquire the prey.

  Before I could stop her, or even process what she was doing, Lucy ran out in front of me, right into the path of the oncoming bear.

  No!

  Luke charged, and time seemed to slow to a crawl. In only a few loping steps, he’d be on her. In one savage strike of teeth, he could tear out her throat. And then, like Keith Page, she’d fall and her brain would have twenty seconds to process the pain, the fear, and the fact that she was dying.

  Luke skidded to a stop only a few feet away from Lucy, as an orb of silver-white light materialized in the air between them. Even I skidded to a halt, digging furrows in the ground beneath me. What was this? More Aesir interference? Was Frigg so set on Luke Elmsong’s death that she was prepared to do it herself?

  The light coalesced into a four-legged shape. It was huge, and easily dwarfed Lucy. Its fur was white, though it looked grey in the light of the full moon. It turned slowly to face her, its phantom back toward the suddenly cautious form of Luke’s bear. It lowered its ursine head to nudge Lucy’s shoulder.

  Lucy stretched out a shaking hand to touch the polar bear’s snout. To my surprise, her hand did not phase through the conjured beast, and she stroked shaking fingers over its face gently.

  “A gift,” she whispered. “This is your gift to me. Thank you, Freyr.”

  And she stepped forward, into her bear. The she-bear split into a dozen tiny stars that drifted slowly down over Lucy, landing in her hair, on her cute upturned nose, and her still outstretched hands. The soft silver glow seeped into her skin, and she seemed to radiate light.

  Then the glow dissipated and she collapsed, sprawling on the ground between us. Luke was still closer to her than I was, and I forced my frozen limbs to move forward.

  He still reached her first, and my heart constricted painfully, waiting for the blow that would end her life. The enormous black bear had been shaken by the sudden appearance of another, and didn’t seem to know what to make of the prone form on the ground before him. He nosed once at her hair, snuffling along her throat. It licked the injured flesh curiously and sneezed.

  Luke took his sister’s jacket hood between his teeth and began to drag her away, shuffling back up the slope the way he had come. I followed. Despite his sudden change in demeanor, I couldn’t risk leaving her alone with him. He was a killer, and nowhere close to having control of his bear.

  Another hot slash of pain caught my attention and I turned halfway around to see the cause. There was another damned wolf biting my ankle. I snarled and slashed at the air between us, hoping it would let me go. Every second I wasted, allowed Luke to drag his sister another few feet away from me.

  The first wolf was joined by another, and then another until I had to turn completely around to face them. Wolves were pests, cowar
ds who normally attacked from behind. They wouldn’t like their odds if they faced me head on.

  The Alpha wolf was in the clearing once again, and human. It took my human brain several crucial seconds to realize what my bear brain had not. The human shape was weaker, nearly useless in a fight, but it had several advantages over animal form. Opposable thumbs, for instance.

  In his hand, the Alpha wolf balanced a sizable slab of rock. He bared his teeth in a fierce grin of triumph.

  “Odin sends his regards.”

  The step backwards I managed before the rock hit me was the only thing that stopped the blow from caving in my skull. As it was, it clipped me hard on its way past and I stumbled onto my side. My vision swam. My pulse slammed through my veins, and I couldn’t hear the wolf’s approach.

  The wolf knelt by my head. “Your woman is as good as dead.”

  No. No, no, no. My thoughts were jumbled, tripping over one another in the chaos of my head. No. She’s gone. He has her. He has her and they’re going to hunt them both down. Get up! Get up, you worthless son of a bitch!

  But I couldn’t force my legs to move. The Alpha wolf drew a back a meaty fist and hit me hard on the opposite temple. The blackness stole over me, silencing even the screaming panic of my thoughts.

  Chapter Eleven

  Lucy

  The sky was empty above me, and the ground far, far below was barren. I hung somewhere between heaven and what lay at the bottom. The only thing I could see in the gloom was the impossibly huge tree. Its branches extended far above my head, disappearing into the inky blackness that was the night sky in this strange place.

  The tree might have been an enormous ash tree at one point. Rot had crept beneath the bark, and insects swarmed over its surface.