Authors: Anya Nowlan
Her scent and her presence became clearer with each step, Julian plowing through the forest like a man possessed. His breath rose in puffs, the air cold but the man and the bear within him paying it no heed. Suddenly, he heard a noise in the distance, and a cold chill struck through him. It was Susie’s voice, and she was cursing at someone, loudly. Julian ran faster than he had previously thought possible, and when Susie’s long blonde ponytail came into view over the bushes in the distance, his heart both leapt and sunk at the same time. Before he had a chance to come within range of them, the man holding Susie by her arm and dragging her after him had turned around, snarling at Julian. Susie looked both surprised and enraged at the predicament she had found herself in, and Julian wouldn’t have expected any less. He was sure that she would have clawed the guy’s eyes out already if given even the slightest chance.
“Julian!” she yelped as they all came to a stop in a small clearing in the middle of the woods.
“Susie, are you alright?” Julian asked, his voice low and hard as his eyes stayed transfixed on the man who had decided to rob his woman. She nodded, tugging her arm away from the man’s grip. He let go of her, but only because she was too far from Julian to make a break for it. She was shoved behind his back, and Julian could sense the anger that rose from Susie like a red aura.
“Yes, I am. My ass of an ex-boyfriend thought
this
is the best way to get me back. What the hell do you want, Drake?” she hissed, while the men stared at each other with all the animosity in the world. Drake grinned wickedly, showing his white teeth. Julian’s eyes shifted to a deep chestnut brown again, his bear dangerously close now.
I won’t let anything happen to her again.
“I thought we talked about this, Susie,” Drake said slyly, his hands balling into fists. “If I can’t have you, no one can have you. And Ryder doesn’t like you sniffing in your books too much. Besides, I hear your boy toy here doesn’t like to shift. What’s he going to do to stop me? Throw money at me?” The hairs on Julian’s neck stood up, rage almost blinding him now. He’d been young and dumb once and let his own foolishness take him away from the love of his life, but he wasn’t about to let that happen again.
“I wouldn’t even need to be a bear to kick your ass, punk,” Julian growled. The other man roared in anger, and within seconds the shift took them both. Julian’s bear was allowed control, and he knew he would revel in every blow he landed on the man who dared threaten his happiness.
It felt like his body was being torn apart and then put back together again as he shifted. His muscles expanded in every direction and thick brown hairs sprouted from his skin, covering him in an impressive hide. The hairs were slightly lighter at the ends, giving him a silver glow that resembled his blonde hair. A pained roar echoed from his throat as his skull turned from human to bear, long teeth ripping out of his jaw and giving him the ferocious maw of a huge grizzly. Julian hadn’t shifted since he was a teenager, and the change was both excruciatingly painful and so incredibly familiar and soothing at the same time. He had been a man desperately trying to keep his two sides apart for far too long. Now, he was allowing himself to become whole again, to accept his wild and his reasonable sides as one undeniable duality.
Terrifying dark nails clawed at the ground as Julian tried to quickly acclimate himself to the almost indefinable power that came with his bear form. He wasn’t given much time to get used to it though, Susie’s surprised yelp drawing all of his focus. Drake had tried to swipe at her again, making Susie back up quickly.
Never again,
Julian thought darkly, forcing himself to harness the power he had always had but never dared use. He charged at the equally large Kodiak, his teeth bared and a growl in his throat. The two bears collided against one another, jaws snapping in an attempt to catch flesh. They reared up on their back legs, towering like giants above Susie. She retreated out of harm’s way, Julian catching her worried gaze. It was obvious that Julian was rusty in his newfound body, but Susie was just the kind of motivation he needed to make him push through towards victory.
Drake’s teeth gnashed into Julian’s shoulder and he moaned in pain, a lightning bolt of agony shooting through him. It cleared his mind immediately, forcing his worry for Susie into the backdrop. If he split his attention between her and Drake, he’d lose for sure.
Focus.
Julian backed up a few steps before plowing into Drake again, his nails dragging a long gash across Drake’s cheek. Blood splattered on the ground from the bear’s wound, but Julian didn’t notice that it wasn’t only Drake’s. His shoulder was bleeding as well, the dark red in stark contrast with the lush green and orange shrubs. Drake howled, more from rage than pain, and pushed back violently. They were caught in an endless spiral of lunging at one another and then backing away again, inflicting wound after wound on each other. Neither one of them had a clear advantage, but bit by bit Julian was coming into his own. His movements became more natural and he could focus his strength better, react faster with each minute that passed.
Adrenaline pumped in his veins, his vision becoming clearer and all his senses in full battle mode. It was all about that moment, that one incident in the woods that could make or break his future. He’d gone through too much to lose it all just because of his own carefulness now – he’d have to give the bear full control, relinquish command and just trust his wilder side. His frantic thoughts drifted out of his mind, and nothing could distract him from the immediate goal – to win the fight. Drake was forced to back up step by step. Even if he managed to land a blow or make Julian falter, Julian would only come back stronger. Their coats were matted with blood, turning darker from the wounds. Julian felt more alive than he had ever before, except for the night he had spent with Susie, and everything became clear to him. He was exactly where he was supposed to be, just
who
he was supposed to be. This was his kingdom and no Kodiak scum was allowed to take it or his woman from him.
With terrifying speed, Julian’s jaws locked around Drake’s neck, and he held on tight. The other bear thrashed in Julian’s grip, but the blows Drake kept landing on his chest and sides meant nothing to him now. He blocked out the pain and soon, he felt Drake’s body becoming limp in his grip.
“Julian! Don’t kill him!” Susie cried out, running towards them. The blur of vengeance cleared from his vision, and Julian let Drake go, the bear falling into a limp pile before him. Julian stood silently for a second, looking at Drake and then to Susie. She was standing right next to him. The bear let go of him. He shifted back and so did Drake, the bear losing control as his consciousness was taken. Julian stared at the broken man in front of him, all bruises and cuts, and kneeled down instinctively. He felt for a pulse. When he found it, he exhaled deeply. He was breathing shallowly, but he was still breathing.
“He’s alive,” Julian said flatly. Susie knelt down next to him, her delicate hands checking his own cuts. There were a few deep ones, and he knew they were going to hurt like hell for a while, but he’d be fine. She squeezed his arm, her green eyes full of worry. Her touch drove the darkness that threatened to loom over him, bringing him back to reality. She had become his anchor and he was more than grateful for it.
“I couldn’t let him hurt you,” Julian said, his bright blue eyes steely with resolve. She nodded, obviously as shaken as he was.
“Thank you, Julian. I can’t imagine what you must be going through right now.” Susie leant in and quickly pecked him on the cheek, before her gaze went back to Drake. “We need to get him to a doctor. I don’t think this is something a werebear can just heal through on his own.” He knew she wanted to say more, but it was not the time.
“You’re right.” Even if Drake would gladly have left Julian dying on the ground if their roles were reversed, Julian was not that kind of man, not that kind of bear.
There’s plenty of time to think about this later. I… we will deal with this later. With Susie.
Julian scooped Drake into his arms, throwing him into a fireman’s hold as gently as he could. He had to thank his enraged werebear for filling him to the brim with adrenaline; otherwise he would have crumpled like a wet tissue right along with Drake.
“Let’s go,” he said through gritted teeth. He was going to have a lot of explaining to do when he saw Jackson.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“When all this is over, we’re going to have to take a long vacation. How about Maui? Or New Zealand? I’ll even do France if you really wrangle me into it, but I hate the cuisine. Nothing worse than overpriced, dry coq au vin.” Julian had started bantering about random things about halfway to the car. Susie had thought it best to just humor him and go along with it. She could see the way he was grinding his teeth together, and every step he took with the heavy load on his shoulders had to be torture. Susie walked a few steps in front of Julian, trying to find the best path as they made their way back. She figured the less effort he had to put into thinking about where to step and how to get where he was going, the better.
Her lips were pressed into a thin line, and she had long given up on trying to find the normalcy in her situation. Nothing was normal. Two werebears had almost killed each other because of her, and she didn’t really know what to do with it. Her heart felt like someone had tied a rope around it and kept pulling in two directions, making her chest tighten and ache. The night with Julian had been amazing. More than amazing, it had been perfection. He’d given her everything she’d dreamed of in one night of pure passion and made her body feel alive in the way she had always dreamed of but never expected to really happen. And, of course, then there was the fact that he was Julian Arder – not only the most sought-after man in the world, but also the only man who could read her like a book and touch the deepest parts of her. All the love she had felt for him and repressed since he had disappeared came flooding back to her in a tidal wave that threatened to consume her.
Is it too much? Too fast?
she asked herself, pushing a heavy branch out of the way.
But it’s Julian… How could it not be right?
“I hear New Zealand’s nice,” she said carefully, spotting a splash of color in the distance. They were almost to the cars, and Susie knew she could only breathe easier when they could get Drake some medical attention and probably Julian looked at as well. A thought kept hammering at her head, trying to make her pay more attention to it, but she kept brushing it aside. The way Drake had spoken about her ‘snooping around’ earlier had really struck a chord. Her mind’s eye kept wandering back to her paperwork from earlier, and slowly the pieces started falling into place. She’d known things weren’t really clean and that there was something amiss with the reports she had got lately. Now she was growing more and more certain that it was Ryder who was behind it all.
Ryder Hunt, you’re going to end up regretting all of this…
Her stomach dropped when she saw another car stalled on the road, right next to hers and facing the opposite direction of Julian’s. She could recognize it right away – the big, black, shiny truck that Ryder had been driving when he had come to the diner. Susie glanced over her shoulder, quietly assessing their situation. Julian was in no condition to throw himself into another fight, though she was more than certain that he would if he had to. They had nowhere to run either. If Ryder hadn’t caught their scent already, he would in a moment.
“Is that…?”
“Ryder, yeah. Just keep your calm, okay? Let me try and handle him.” Susie said, giving Julian a stern look. The billionaire bear was used to always calling the shots, but Susie knew how things worked in the mountains a bit better than he did those days. If they played it wrong, they could both end up in a lot of trouble, and Susie doubted that Ryder would appreciate Julian’s snappy humor when one of his men was brought to him mauled and desperately clinging to life.
Susie, Julian and the limp body of Drake made it up the small embankment to the road. Ryder was leaning on the front of his car, his arms crossed and his blue eyes twinkling with satisfaction. Troy, one of his lieutenants and a part of the trio who had attacked Jackson, stood by his side. Susie could see a shadow fall over Ryder’s cheery expression as he recognized the body of Drake on Julian’s shoulder, but he didn’t let the surprise waver his smirk.
Putting up appearances. Men,
Susie scoffed under her breath. She had had just about enough of big bear egos for the day, and it wasn’t even 10 AM yet.
“I see you’ve gone for a bit of a hike, Susie. And you’ve brought the run along. Want to tell me about it?” Ryder asked, his tone dropping with malice. Julian had stopped next to Susie, and the two Alphas shared a look between them. Susie had seen it before, and she knew that it was never safe to get between two Alphas at war. She was almost thankful that Julian was too tired to be scathing at the moment. Ryder took no time before going straight for the most painful wounds, and Susie would just have to hope that Julian wouldn’t bite back.
“We did, yup. Found one of your dogs near the mountains. We figured you’d want him back,” Susie said, hitching a thumb at Drake.
She exhaled deeply, feeling a shiver run down her spine. Ryder’s glare was dark and threatening, and it made her stomach freeze in trepidation. There was little left of the boy she once knew, and she found herself wondering how Jacqueline could have loved a man as troubled as he.