“Come back here, girl!”
Looking in the direction of the new voice, I growled at the man I saw. From last night’s dream, I knew exactly who that fucker was.
“That’s her foster father.”
“Oh, he’s a fucking dead man. Let’s do this. Axel, go check no one else is in his car. Close up the office, put the “back soon” sign in the window, and then come follow us.”
I didn’t complain as Ranger took control and gave out orders to the others. It meant I could leave him to it while I took off after the man chasing my mate. His reign of terror over Jolie was going to end today. My bear was slamming at me to let him out, but I pushed him down. The last thing I wanted was to scare the hell out of my mate by coming up on her as a bear, especially if that fucker beat me to her.
By the time I hit the tree line, Ranger and Darby had caught up to me. Following the scent of my mate, I led my brothers farther into the forest. The longer we ran, the more impressed with my mate I was. The woman was wearing heels and had run fast enough to not yet be caught.
After a few minutes, a flash of pain slammed through me. Since sleeping beside her last night and having the bonding dream, I was more attuned to her than before, which included being able to feel any intense emotions she had.
“Fuck, she’s hurt.”
It was about five minutes later when another flash of pain ran through me, and I caught the sound of her whimpering.
“Got you now, bitch. You thought you could run from me? You’ll pay for this chase you’ve led me on, especially considering how useless you proved to be as anything more than a whore. Trent already paid for the shit he pulled. Stupid bastard wanted his money back after you ran off. I guess at least with you sterile, I can save money on birth control.”
Every word he uttered raised my temper and brought my bear closer to the surface. We broke through to a small clearing and found the fucker had Jolie pinned up against a tree with his hand wrapped around her throat. Her feet weren’t touching the ground, and she was doing her best to kick out at him. She tugged at the hand at her throat as he used his spare hand to rip at her clothing. What the fuck was he trying to do? Make her pass out before he raped her? With that thought, my bear had had enough and demanded air time.
With a roar, I gave over, willingly ceding control to my inner beast. In a flash, I was no longer human but a large black bear. Standing on my hind legs, I towered over them both and roared once more before dropping down and charging toward them.
The fucker released my mate, and she fell to the ground gasping for breath.
Ranger, still in human form, raced to her and picked her up, taking her away from me.
I growled a warning to my brother that he better take good care of her, and he gave me a nod before moving behind me.
“Hey! What about me? You gonna save me from this animal?”
If bears could laugh, I would have.
“After all you’ve done to Jolie over the years, what he’s about to do to you is going to be over way faster than you deserve.”
“I wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire after what you’ve done.”
I loved my brothers. I couldn’t speak in my bear form, but Ranger and Darby covered my thoughts nicely between the two of them.
“Ranger, where’s Neo?” Her voice was hoarse from nearly being choked and had me wanting this bastard’s blood even more.
“He’s right in front of you, sweetheart. We’re shape shifters, and that big ol’ bear about to kill your foster father is your mate.”
“Oh.”
I knew she’d have a hell of a lot of questions after this, but thanks to what I was about to do, she’d be safe to do so. Her attacker had heard what Ranger told her too, and I bared my teeth at him as he looked at me with wide eyes and an open mouth. Then, with a curse, he turned and ran through the trees.Stupid idiot.No man could outrun a bear shifter, especially an enraged one.
I took off after him, pouncing when I got him in range. He hit the dirt with a grunt. Shifting my weight off him, I rolled him over so I could see his face. He was babbling some shit I didn’t care enough about to listen to, and he’d pissed himself.Coward.
Placing one paw on his chest to hold him down, I bared my teeth and ripped into his throat. My bear wasn’t happy with only delivering a killing blow. As the bastard bled out beneath me, I set about tearing up his body, mauling every inch of him so he’d suffer at least a fraction of what my mate had at his hands before he died. She deserved no less than to be avenged by her mate.
Once I was done, I moved off what was left of the body and took some deep breaths.
“Fucking hell, brother! Remind me never to piss you off!”
I threw a low growl over at Axel, who had finally caught up with us.
He backed up a step with his palms up. “Whoa, brother. It’s just me. How about you shift back so we can deal with this shit and you can go help out with your girl. She’s not doing so well.”