skin, tearing through my shoulder and sending me flying back against the wall.
My head is ringing as I slump to the floor. When my eyes focus again, terror compresses around me as I watch D take aim.
Ragnar won’t be able to survive much more. A shot to his head would take him down… God, how is this happening? The grief of losing my mother is just under the surface, and if I lose Ragnar?
If I lose Ragnar, I don’t want to live anymore…
I calculate the angle and tense, ready to leap forward, even as the pain in my shoulder makes me dizzy. If I can get my arm around D’s neck, maybe, just maybe—
Suddenly there’s more roars. Different now. Two. No, more, as I spin and see another grizzly lumbering through the door with two enormous wolves following behind.
There are shots firing, furniture breaking, men screaming and animal sounds coming from everywhere.
I back up again against the wall, slipping down and covering the back of my head with my hands as I scream until my throat feels like I’m breathing fire. I hear glass breaking around me and for a split second, I think of the look on Ragnar’s face just after he put his mark on my neck.
The way he looked at me, made me believe in forever, and rage fills me. I want my forever. It’s only just started and I’m not going to sit here and let it be taken away from me without joining the fight.
I push up, looking around as the two men and the animals spill out the back door. Blood is soaking the fabric of my shirt and I pull it away, looking under to see that the grizzly’s claws broke my skin, but it’s nothing life threatening.
One of the wolves is limping and I see blood coming from the other wolf’s side. I look down at Raymond’s mangled body and see his gun laying there.
The metal is cold, slippery in my hand, as his blood drips down my wrist and I lunge toward the back door.
The grizzlies and both wolves are darting and circling as Orwell and D take aim, backing toward their rusted SUV, screaming for them to stay back. All the shifters are shot, most more than once, and I can’t believe they would all give their lives for me.
I click off the safety, something I only know from watching movies, and I take aim on a stiff arm, my other hand holding the gun steady as a cold calm drenches me. I channel my inner action hero and take a long breath.
On the back porch, the six are caught in a tense standoff, all of them intent on attack, but knowing one more wound and it could mean their lives.
I think back to when I left, shaking and crying, driving away from my mother’s house in my VW van. How scared I was. Of everything. Of nothing.
And now? Standing here, watching wild animals and men with guns try to kill each other over me?
I’m not scared anymore.
I take aim. Lean in, and squeeze.
Before I pull the trigger, I yell… ”I told you, this isn’t Bowling Green!”
Bam. Bam.
My shots ring out as ten eyes dart my way, but Orwell’s go dark as he crumples to the ground.
For a second, the world is silent, then it’s Ragnar that roars, tearing forward on all fours before D can get off another shot, grabbing him by the leg and bashing him into the ground. I hear the snapping of bones and then the sound of an approaching siren, just as Ragnar’s grizzly drops the body onto the lawn and turns to rear up on his hind legs, looking at me as I drop the gun and start to run.
I run until I feel the blood soaked fur against my face.
Praying everything I’ve heard about shifter healing is true.
Because I can’t lose my mate. He’s my everything.
Chapter 12
Ragnar
Wayne, English, Howard and I all phase back to human form after it’s all over, panting and on all fours, trying to re-group. Wynter ran back inside the house, and I tried to tell her to stay, but through the pain, along with the exhaustion and my body’s effort to heal itself, all I could do was growl.
There’s red and blue lights flashing for a minute, along with a siren, but to my surprise they stop and the sheriff is there, looking around at the carnage. There’s the two humans out here, sure, but also each of