Huntsman - Morgan Brice Page 0,62

head down, teeth bared, hackles raised, ready to fight.

Russ glimpsed a tall, muscular man with a shotgun swinging his weapon in their direction to fire at point-blank range. Before the man could pull the trigger, a red cloud of hissing fury appeared in a streak from somewhere, wrapping itself around the man’s face and head as it bit and scratched like something possessed.

Armel hurtled forward, hitting the man center mass and knocking him to the floor. Russ lunged for the hand that held the shotgun, staying away from the muzzle of the weapon as he chomped down hard on their attacker’s wrist, crunching bone and sinew with his powerful jaws and sharp teeth.

The little red rage demon wrapped around their attacker’s head continued to hiss, yip, claw, and bite, and the Huntsman bucked and fought, trying to throw off Russ and Liam until Armel settled the matter by sitting on his hips.

With a brown bear pinning his lower body, his right wrist a bloody ruin from Russ’s bite, and his face and scalp shredded from Liam’s manic attack, the Huntsman finally went slack beneath the combined assault, signaling surrender.

Russ didn’t like leaving anything to chance. He stepped to one side and shifted, then picked up the shotgun and checked to make sure it had a shell chambered.

“Move, and I shoot,” he growled. “Liam…it’s okay. We’re here. You can stop mauling him now.”

The fox slowly uncurled from around the Huntsman’s head. Russ let out a low whistle when he got a look at the damage. Deep bites left parts of the man’s scalp hanging loose, while long gashes ran down both sides of his face, and an ear had a bloody notch out of it.

Liam ducked back under the desk for a second, then padded up to Russ, still in his fox form, and sat at his feet, looking up at him with a mix of fear and desperation in his amber eyes. Blood matted Liam’s fur, and Russ couldn’t tell whether any of it belonged to Liam or if it was all from the Huntsman. Liam opened his mouth, and Russ thought he might be sick, but then a small black square landed on the floor—the tracker that helped to lead them here. Russ figured Liam had stashed it beneath the desk when he attacked the Huntsman and went back to retrieve it just now.

Outside, a chorus of barks, howls, yips, and screeches celebrated their victory. Three human deputies crowded into the room, weapons drawn, to find a bear pinning their quarry to the ground, a bloodstained fox, and a naked man holding a shotgun pointed at the Huntsman.

“You can lower your gun now, Russ,” Carter Franks, Armel’s deputy, said. “Both of them,” he added with a smirk and a glance that reminded Russ he wasn’t wearing any clothing.

The bear glowered at Carter, who immediately sobered. “Sorry, Sheriff.”

Russ snatched a faded blanket from the cot and wrapped it around his waist. He set the shotgun on the desk, then he knelt down to be as close as possible to eye-level with Liam.

“Are you alright?” he asked. Behind him, he heard Armel shuffle off, freeing their prisoner so the deputies could cuff the Huntsman and pat him down.

Liam managed a curt nod, but Russ saw how his body trembled. “I promise, I’ll get you out of here just as soon as I can,” Russ told him.

“Guess we found the missing hikers,” Carter said, drawing Russ’s attention to the other side of the cabin. He saw the lynx and the ocelot in their cages, where both had huddled as far away from the fight as possible.

Drew, still in his wolf form, and Ty, still a bobcat, milled around at the front of the crowd, clearly anxious to see that Russ and Liam were unharmed.

Carter hunkered down in front of the big cats’ cages. “We’re the good guys. We’re here to rescue you. I’d like to take you back to town and have a doctor look you over. So when I let you out, remember that, and don’t try to eat me, okay?”

He opened the cage doors, and the two kidnapped hikers slowly sauntered out. They looked tense until they got a good view of the Huntsman, bloodied and restrained, clearly in custody. Then both creatures began to purr, a deep rumbling sound that filled the cabin.

“Jackson,” Carter said, indicating one of the other deputies. “Take Russ, Drew, Liam, and Ty down to one of the SUVs along with the two hikers. Drew